Chris Cooper's Blog, page 100

How a Business Mentor Helped Andrew Alvarado Improve His Gym

Mike (00:02):

A mentor can help you run your gym. Don’t take my word for it. I could be completely full of it. So today we’ve got a real gym owner who’s gonna explain why he signed up for mentorship, even though he couldn’t afford it at the time. It’s Two-Brain Radio and I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. Please subscribe and hit like wherever you’re watching or listening. Now onto my guest. Andrew Alvarado. He runs CrossFit Fairway Park in Hayward, California. That’s in NorCal. Andrew was also a pitcher who was drafted by the Houston Astros in 2004. So I’m gonna pepper this show with baseball references. Andrew. Welcome here.

Andrew (00:33):

Hey, thank you guys for having me.

Mike (00:35):

Before we get into the serious stuff. I gotta know. It’s bottom of the ninth bases loaded three, two count. What’s your strikeout pitch?

Andrew (00:41):

I threw a spike curve ball that would get ’em every time.

Mike (00:47):

I was gonna expect a fastball, but I had a whole major league reference going there, but you got a curve ball. I like it. All right, we’ll get right on to business. Now, I got a lot of questions for you as a recent graduate of onramp into the growth stage. So you completed the ramp up program at Two-Brain in December. Give me some broad strokes here, like right off the top. How dramatically did your business change over the course of the ramp up?

Andrew (01:10):

So, OK. During ramp up, it really taught me what I’m selling because before I used to think that I was trying to sell the CrossFit class, right. Like a good time, a good vibe. And it really got me to understand that I’m selling results and coaching, and that changed like my whole perspective on everything. They also got me to really dive into like individual relationships, which made me a lot more excited to come to the gym in recent time, because like, I feel like now, we’re actually moving towards something right. At some goals. Know what I offer. And then also too, like they helped me really figure out like what I’m worth and how much I need to charge.

Mike (01:54):

That’s a big one. That was huge for me too.

Andrew (01:57):

Huge because, the whole time, like when I first started, you want people to sign up, so then you just keep cutting yourself down and pretty soon you’re left with just a gym full of people that aren’t paying what you’re worth. So they really helped me,with that and, figuring out like what I’m offering too. Like, that’s the big thing, like I’m offering now personal training group training and then nutrition coaching. And I’m able to like really dial those in. So yeah, it’s been, it went by fast, but it went really well for me, for sure.

Mike (02:30):

We’re gonna dig into some of the details of that, but let me know, how long were you in business before ramp up and why did you choose to sign up, especially you didn’t have the cash at the time. Why did you do that?

Andrew (02:40):

I’ve been in business seven years. When I started I didn’t to know what CrossFit was. Right. So it was an opportunity and I filled this spot and I tried to make it my own, but I never knew what it was. And so for years I just kept doing the same thing over and over again. And then until finally I really got some help with the coaching side, the class side. I definitely figured that out first, but then finally, like, it was last year, I took a vacation and I just was like, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t afford to do this. And when I came back, I started some changes on my own. But I never felt like I knew if I was starting in the right spot.

Andrew (03:25):

And so, you know, I didn’t have the money at the time, but I just, I told myself that I was gonna do it. Like I was gonna make enough, I was gonna follow everything that they told me to do. I don’t care what it was. I was gonna change it. And, I was gonna earn it back. And that feeling that you get when you sign up for something that you don’t have the money for is nothing, I’ve ever—I’ve had good parents. My wife makes good money, never had that feeling of like being starving. And that’s what it gave me. It gave me that feeling of having to really to do this. And, otherwise I was gonna fail and it was between failing or doing it. And now, you know, I just keep going.

Andrew (04:05):

It’s like every day, since then, it’s just been so fresh. And now I can see, like before I couldn’t see the end, I just, I’ve never seen what it looked like. Like, I’ve never thought it was gonna end. It was just always something to do. And it just never felt like it was gonna end. I was so tired. And then now I’m still tired. Don’t get me wrong. But I see like, I see what the end looks like now. Like I can see it and I’m going now.

Mike (04:31):

It’s hard to see the horizon when your nose is to the grindstone. Right. You know, when you’re down there pushing, and I was the same way, like I could work those long days, teach those classes and just push. But when I looked up, I didn’t have a clue where I was going at times, you know? And that was important. Have you heard the Chris Cooper story about his park bench moment when he went and got a mentor and he, you know, spent his last $500 and wrote a check would bounce?

Andrew (04:52):

So that, yes. I heard that after I did it. And I was like, yes, that’s what happened. It’s the same.

Mike (05:00):

And, but that’ss the entrepreneurial thing where, you know, you commit to figuring it out. And that’s what Chris did, you know, it changed his life. That was his big moment where he made the change, asked for some help, got it. And then went on to everything else. You’re kind of doing the same thing. So I’m fascinated to see kind of how this goes. So let me ask you this. What was the first moment in the ramp up program where you knew that it was working for your business? As I imagine you were skeptical to start, you had just gambled like the money and you were maybe worried that this wasn’t gonna work. When did you know that it was working.

Andrew (05:31):

For me when I started to do the no sweats. And then I started to learn, they taught me that being a salesman isn’t what I used to think it was because I’m selling something that my clients want and it’s just a faster way to get there. And so I sat down with some seed clients and I really got know them. And then, I asked to do personal training and, you know, the first time I sold it, I was like, man, this is way too expensive, they’re gonna say no, but they didn’t. And, yeah, they did it. And then I started working with them and then they started getting better, faster, so fast. I never did personal training before this. I only focused on group.

Mike (06:08):

Me too.

Andrew (06:09):

I used to see people just like fade away because they’re, you know, people have been here two years. Can’t even do a pull-up like, oh my God. And I helped guy in two weeks and now he’s doing strict pull-ups. And, uh it’s yeah. So I noticed then, with obviously, that I can do it. Once I figured out how to like really the basics of selling, what you’re selling. They helped me with the pricing binder and really put that in order and then give me the confidence to sell. That’s when I knew that I can do this. And then I was thinking like, well, once I get it down, then it’s gonna be time for me to train someone else to do it. And I can eventually see how I’m gonna step away, but right now it’s definitely me right now. I’m learning how to do everything myself. I’m learning to be a salesman. I’m learning everything. And then I’m hopefully gonna pass that on, you know, that’s the goal.

Mike (07:02):

So it sounds like, you know, you really, you first figured out what you were selling and it sounds almost silly, but I was in the exact same boat where I didn’t know what I was selling. I was selling group classes, group CrossFit, some hand tears and some muscle-ups and that kind of stuff. Right. And that’s what I was selling by default, without making a choice. I didn’t even realize at the time that you could sell CrossFit in a personal training setting. Right. I didn’t do any of that stuff. I didn’t have a nutrition program, none of that stuff. So I hadn’t even made a decision about what I was selling. And now that when I did, then you could actually start offering those programs that would help people. The thing that you mentioned, sort of the help first sales, you get Chris Cooper’s book on Amazon that will tell you exactly about that. It’s the idea that I’m not forcing something on someone that they, you know, something they don’t want, they want it right. They actually want it. And I did the same as you where I thought all the time, like, oh, this is expensive. I wouldn’t pay this, but my clients were only too happy. Did you have that experience where like your clients just said like, oh my God, this is so worth it.

Andrew (07:55):

Yes. Yeah. And it’s mind blowing and every time that happens, then it makes the old feeling go away a little bit. And, you know, it’s yeah. It’s just worked out really good. For sure.

Mike (08:08):

Yeah. So then you’ve also got your sales and that’s one thing that, you know, working hard and ramp up is to figure out what you’re selling, figure out how to sell it. Right. So we want some quick wins in the ramp up program. So you can earn that money back and start seeing those results. You learn the sales process, and now you’ve got what we call climbing the value ladder, where you’re looking to now replace yourself in that role. So you can go on to building other things. I’m gonna get slightly ahead of myself and ask you if you do replace yourself, what are you gonna do next?

Andrew (08:33):

Yeah. Well, I don’t think I’ve got to that point.

Mike (08:36):

It’s not a fair question cuz I have thrown it at you outta the blue, but I was just curious if you had a big plan.

Andrew (08:41):

No. I really like coaching. My goal here is 75 members. I’m a really small gym. And I really like being here with them. I do wanna be here less and focus on the things like maybe doing the introduction classes. Like I really like helping the people when they’re just starting out, getting them to kinda fall in love with fitness. You know, so I can see myself going there. I definitely have a plan though for like, in terms of my metrics, but what I’m gonna do after, I mean, I’ll probably go fishing or something like that.

Mike (09:16):

Like, I’ll join you for some fishing. That’d be great. Although I dunno about NorCal fishing. There might be some sharks down there, but you mentioned metrics. Do you have any key growth metrics that you wouldn’t mind sharing or, you know, how is your business doing post ramp up? And now that you’re working in our growth stage.

Andrew (09:29):

So I started having conversations with people because the one thing that Two-Brain gave me was confidence in what I’m selling. And it became really hard for me to see people that were paying a lot less in with other people that are now paying my rate. And so I started having conversations with people and then people started to leave a little bit. So, but before that happened, because I’m actually getting ready to raise my rates. Before that happened I had seen it was an easy two grand, per month for two months, just right off the top, because I started adding personal training.

Mike (10:03):

So you added two grand to your bottom line right off the top.

Andrew (10:05):

Yep. Because of personal training and because I started doing fundamentals, which is now $400 when they come in. It’s eight 30-minute sessions. And so every new person coming in has to do that. So then I got, yeah, there was one day where I made it was like almost $1,100 in one day. And the most I’ve ever made in one day was like 350 bucks. And yeah, I know I took a picture of it, sent it to my mentor and he was like, well, he was like, oh, he’s like, let’s get you every day like that. And I was like, ha ha. But he was being serious. And that’s when I knew, I was like, holy, let’s do this.

Mike (10:40):

Who’s your mentor?

Andrew (10:41):

Russ Francis. He’s from Jersey.

Mike (10:46):

Very cool. Yeah. I just wanted make sure that I knew who was giving you the right advice there. That’s fascinating. So right away, you’re seeing some results on these things. Before, were you just dropping people into group classes or what was the entry to your business before you had a ramp up or a fundamentals program?

Andrew (11:01):

Come take a free class. Yeah. And just try to impress ’em that day. And then I would spend the whole time trying to help them cause they didn’t know how to squat correct. And then my other members would be left behind for sure.

Mike (11:14):

Yeah. We led the same life. Like I did the exact same thing and it wasn’t until I started doing the consult, you know, the prescriptive model that it really started to change. And in that model, I imagine now when you’re getting new clients in the door, instead of, you know, doing that thing where you’re, you know, I gotta fix your squat in the middle of class, you can actually find out what they actually want and then say, Hey, you need nutrition and personal training. You would do better in group classes. And then it makes the sales process easier. Is that what you’re finding?

Andrew (11:39):

It’s way easier. And it’s better for them to come in and do personal training right off the bat because then some of them decide to stay or definitely will add it, like the whole thing I’m pushing now is to do your membership and then at least one per month, personal training.

Mike (11:58):

Yeah. Have you seen your average revenue per member rise significantly as a result of these changes?

Andrew (12:05):

Yeah, I never kept track of any metrics before this. Now it’s cool, I know what to keep track of. I know what’s important. It doesn’t feel like every day is just like a cluster, you know what. And it’s never gonna end. So, you know, the metrics, are going well and it’s nice to actually see it, you know?

Mike (12:27):

Yeah. The hybrid model that you mentioned and for listeners, that’s that like personal training and nutrition plus group classes or some combination of stuff, it’s a really cool way to add value. And if you think about, let’s just throw out the number of like, you know, $175 for a group class or whatever it might be. Add on one personal training session a month. And let’s say that that 30 minute session is, I don’t know, 50 bucks or whatever you wanna call it. All of a sudden you’ve got yourself a $225 member, 225, or you add those up by the number of members you want. All of a sudden you can make a pretty good living on that.

Andrew (12:58):

So my end goal is, cause I’m a small gym. My gym is I can fit eight people with squat racks. And so when we get busier, we share bars and so it’s small. So my goal is 75 members. Once everybody, we do rates, 225 is the full time. And then we do 175 for three days a week. But I can see like once things fill up and then I get to the point where I can’t fill anymore, we’re gonna move everybody to full-time members. You know, we’ll probably lose some, but then, you know, eventually once they become full, then I’m gonna start requiring, Hey, you know, let’s sign up for four personal trainings per year and then that’ll turn to eight and then 12. So my, my eventual goal is like, is gonna be, yeah, this is gonna be probably $335 per member.

Mike (13:43):

And you know, there are gym owners out there when you say that who’ll be like, it’s impossible. I’ve literally talked to Two-Brain gym owners all over the place who have hit $300 and above. And there are shows in our archives where I’ve interviewed them. It is possible. And it’s often the model exactly what you’re talking about, getting those service packages together. Some of them of course do with some high ticket coaching where they’re selling like super high touch, $1,500 a month packages and things like that. But then there’s other people that are doing it rates of like 335 a month. Something like that based on personal training and group or just personal training and nutrition. So when you say that number, you know, if listeners are out there saying, whoa, that’s crazy. It is possible.

Andrew (14:22):

I used to think it was crazy. First I went to a gym, CrossFit Hale with Jason Williams.

Mike (14:28):

I know Jason. Yeah.

Andrew (14:29):

So I went there, just cause I had a member who said, Hey, this guy’s got his shit together. And he gave me Coop’s book, but he told me it was like about personal training. He told me how much he charges at his gym. It was like 275, and I was like nobody’s gonna pay that. But now four years after and seeing the changes, I can see it’s just about finding the right people. Right? And then once you find the right people it’ll be slow like right now, you know, but we have the right people here that value it. And then the value of the personal training and have the money. And that kinda will lead to more people like that. I’m noticing that that’s happening.

Mike (15:09):

Yeah. And the cool part of about your model is you’ve got a small space, which is, you know, I know real estate is expensive in Silicon Valley area and so forth in NorCal, but you’ve got a smaller space. So your overhead is gonna be lower than a gym that says, oh, I got 12,000 square feet or whatever it is, that’s very difficult. Then you’re looking, you have to have super high rates or high volume or some combination of that. So you’re able now, and especially in an area, I don’t know much about Hayward. I’ve driven past it on the way to Santa Cruz a bunch of times, but you are in an area in the San Francisco bay area where there’s some, there are some good jobs and some money floating around. You can find those clients. Right.

Andrew (15:43):

You can, but you project what you grew up with. Right. And, you know, I wasn’t always super poor, but I definitely didn’t like when I first started, I couldn’t afford my service. And they’ll come, they just, yeah. I don’t know. Maybe the power of positive thinking. Right. Put the vibe out there, but it does happen.

Mike (16:03):

It’s hard to get over that. I was the same way.

Mike (16:07):

You know, when you think about it, like, you know,when I was a struggling student or when I started working handing out towels at a globo gym, and then you go to say, having someone pay you $175 a month, that’s a tough one. Cause I wouldn’t have paid that. I was like, I was paying 29.99 to do bench press in the corner. Right?

Andrew (16:23):

Yep. No for sure. Yeah. No, I’m really happy with everything. And then I’m actually, I’ve been shooting videos of myself, like how things have been going, because I really believe that in like two or three years, I’m gonna look back and be like, that was the moment that you decided to like really do it. And, you know, cuz I could have quit. I came to the point where I was gonna sell my gym to the gym down the street and I just was gonna do construction, but my wife and I were like, Nope, let’s really try.

Mike (16:57):

I’d put major league comeback in between there, before you go to construction, get back on the mound.

Andrew (17:04):

I was gonna say too, cause like my neighbor gym, we’ve been friends now seven years and they have like 270 members. I think they charge ike 185. I used to wanna compete with that. And they’re bigger. They got more stuff, more coaches and it’s just not, I talked to ’em the other day and it’s just like, it’s not where I’m going. Like I’m not competing with you anymore. My gym is totally different than yours, you know, like what we’re offering and how we’re doing it.

Mike (17:27):

And that’s great. And like you said, you know what you sell now. And I realized that too, I sell coaching, which is worth way more than just access to a gym that has barbells and a bunch of other cool stuff. It’s completely different thing. But that mindset, you know, if listeners are out there and they’re saying, wow, this, I don’t get it. That’s the mindset shift is that you are actually selling coaching as opposed to access or just, you know, random group classes. You are selling life coaching. And we’ve noticed that with a lot of gym owners coaching now extends, yes, you’re doing fitness, but it might be one on one. It might be group. You’re doing probably some nutrition coaching in there. You’re probably doing some like mindset coaching, even like habits, coaching, all that stuff. Like the skillset of a coach. If you can get someone to squat and do burpees and do these horrible CrossFit workouts, you can get them do some other stuff. Right? Oh

Andrew (18:11):

Yeah. I’m finding now though that I have my seed clients that I’m spending more time too like just with them outside the gym and going to functions. And it’s just, yeah, it’s really changed everything it’s made me, like, I don’t feel like I work. I used to feel like I had a job and I’m now it’s not like that.

Mike (18:31):

Ah, that’s music to my ears. Do you have any other metrics that we didn’t cover? And if you don’t let me ask you about the metric that you would be targeting to improve next.

Andrew (18:41):

So I keep track of leads now. And so for me, I did last month, only 10. So like I said, I don’t do a whole ton of volume, but I’m keeping track of the closes now. So I do pretty good. I’m about 50% of whenever I book something, they come in. and I would say my goal is as to get 10 new members per month, that’s always like a goal of mine. But I’m not also not doing any advertising right now, my mentor and I just decided that we wanna focus on trying to change the important stuff first. And then when I can handle it, I’ll try to get, you know, some ads out there.

Mike (19:22):

Yeah. Cause the last thing you wanna do is acquire people when you’re not ready for it and then lose them right away. Cause you made some mistakes. So what are the things, I guess we’ll call ’em the fundamentals of the foundational stuff that you’re working on. What is the big stuff you’re doing right now with your mentor?

Andrew (19:34):

The roles and tasks, separating that and then coming up with the playbook. Yeah. And then he wants me, I have two, the way I had to do it, I had to let go of some people for coaching, you know, cause I’m doing the four ninths model and and yeah, so we have members that are becoming coaches and we’re in the process of training them right now. And so that’s really big. And then also, getting them to like fill out evaluation sheets and the contract, basically the terms of agreement things. So I’m meeting with him next week and we’ll have that done. And then he’ll give me another focus.

Mike (20:16):

So going forward, how does mentorship figure into your plan? Like, are you seeing, like when you talk to Russell, does he give you like a clear, OK, hit this, hit this, hit this, talk to me, message me when it’s done and let’s go forward. Like, how is mentorship gonna guide you for the next, let’s say three to six months.

Andrew (20:31):

So for me I thought about that question when you wrote it in the email. And so with me, I wanna make him proud because I see him, I follow him and I see his gyms and I see his members the other day. He had a birthday and his members just wrote this awesome little thing for him. And it’s like, he has people that love him that wanna work for him. And that’s like, what I want. So for more than anything, I wanna make him proud. And my goal is to be able to afford to be able to take a trip out there. And so that’s just on me, like, but in terms of, he just holds you accountable. OK. Like when you have somebody that is, you tell that you’re gonna do something, you do it. And I just, it’s as simple as that’s just like accountability coaching with nutrition, you know, it’s not about the diet, it’s about them following through. And so, I just, yeah, I don’t see it ending. I would love to keep going and I don’t to stop for sure.

Mike (21:28):

And that’s really what it’s set up for is that when Chris originally set up his program, he had like a video course kind of thing people could do on their own. And you know, it had great content, but people weren’t doing the work and weren’t getting the results. Chris ripped the whole thing apart, put it back together and focused on mentorship because that one-on-one relationship makes you wanna do something. So, like if I told you I’m going to do this thing and I’m gonna email you when I’m done, I need to do it or I’m letting you down, you know? And that’s the whole principle is that you need to find ways to take action. So sometimes our mentors, they know all this business stuff, but it’s not necessarily about the business stuff. It’s about helping someone take a step and it might be overcoming fear or not knowing what to do or any of that different stuff because they just give you motivation. So, you know, for you, is it like, do they, is it the accountability or is it the knowledge that you find more important? Which one would you prioritize?

Andrew (22:16):

Right now knowledge for sure. Cause I didn’t have any. And we’re using a software for social media. He’s helped me like figure out how to use that stuff. That’s made my time so much easier. And then it’s just nice to know that, like I have, if I have questions, I ask them, so that in the beginning, but now that you know, we’re moving on. It’s more about the accountability and like having him there if I need it, because that’s the thing we, I think we often doubt ourselves. And then we just don’t do anything. So I would just be frozen in fear and then just keep doing the same thing every day. But now it’s like, oh, OK, let’s talk to him. And then let’s see how he feels. And he always gives me a choice, you know, it’s my choice. But he lets me know, you know, what he would do basically. Yeah.

Mike (23:02):

Yeah. And it’s easy. I remember when I was overwhelmed in the gym, it was easy to just say, I’m gonna fix those barbells or I’m gonna change these lights or I’m gonna do this, you know, grunt work that like, basically it was me avoiding the big thing. Right. Like I didn’t wanna raise my rates. So I thought, well, I’ll just work harder and make the facility cleaner. And that didn’t fix anything. I, you know, things were OK, but it didn’t fix the problem. It wasn’t until we had a mentor, we did that. We did that rate increase that you’re planning, things like that made a huge difference far more than, you know, how clean the squat rack was and things like that. So it was really for me, it was taking those big steps. I’ll ask you this as we close this out, people out there who are thinking about mentorship or are nervous about it, or like look at the price, like, ah, what would you say to those people who are thinking about it?

Andrew (23:45):

Well, I mean, since I did it my way I would say, well, here’s the thing. You have to be ready. And if you’re ready, you’ll know it. But if you’re really like, eh, you know, like, I don’t think you’re ready. You’ll know. If you’re ready, you’re ready. And I would go for it. A hundred percent do it.

Mike (24:10):

Yeah. If you’re not ready and we actually, like, we understand like as a team of mentors that some people aren’t ready, ’cause if you’re not ready to do the work and it is work, right. Like the ramp up was not, you know, easy quote unquote, you had a lot of stuff you had to rip your business apart. Think of your vision, like put things back together. And it’s like, you really had some long nights where you had to sit there and do some work and think, and really plan, not easy. If you’re not ready to make those changes or listen to someone, you shouldn’t sign up for mentorship. For those guys.

Andrew (24:37):

But if you are and you you don’t know like where to start, like this is your answer. This is it.

Mike (24:48):

And if you’re at that point where you aren’t ready to start out there, I’ll tell you go to the free tools section on twobrainbusiness.com, get those free tools, subscribe to our YouTube channel, subscribe to this podcast because we crank out tons and tons of free information that will get you ready. And honestly, Chris has decided to put out this much info because he wants you to make the money that you could then use to pay for mentorship. And the final part of that, join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. We give out free guides out there every week on important topics. So tons and tons of options. And then when you’re ready, give us a call. Andrew. I can’t wait to see what you accomplish. I wanna see you get to 75 members with like 200, $300, you know, $300, average revenue per member. And then we’ll talk again. How does that sound?

Andrew (25:28):

That sounds great. I appreciate you guys having me.

Mike (25:30):

I really appreciate your time and advice. That was Andrew Alvarado on Two-Brain Radio, I’m your host, Mike Wartkentin, and I’m all about telling the stories of amazing gym owners. Please subscribe more episodes. And if you’re on YouTube, hammer that like button too. Now here’s Two-Brain founder, Chris Cooper with a final word.

Chris (25:47):

Thanks for listening to Two-Brain Radio. If you aren’t in the Gym Owners United group on Facebook, this is my personal invitation to join. It’s the only public Facebook group that I participate in. And I’m there all the time with tips, tactics, and free resources. I’d love to network with you and help you grow your business. Join Gym Owners United on Facebook.

 

The post How a Business Mentor Helped Andrew Alvarado Improve His Gym appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Snackable Content: The Media Hack for Pleasing Busy People

People have short attention spans. But that can be a good thing for content creators—especially busy gym entrepreneurs who struggle to hit “publish.”

In the 2020’s, you just don’t have to post a fitness or nutrition thesis to gain credibility. In fact, doing that all the time might actually make some busy people tune out.

Instead, use the concept of “minimum effective dose” in your media.

Here’s how to do it.

Media overwhelm is real, and TLDR is a thing (that’s “too long, didn’t read”).

Get this: In February of 2020, Statista estimated that over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every single minute. If you wanted to watch all the content posted in just 60 seconds, you’d need 21 days without sleep to do it. When you got to the end, you’d then have 15.1 million more hours of video to catch up on.

You get the point. People upload incredible amounts of content every second to a host of platforms. So more and longer aren’t necessarily better.

Think about it: You’re a busy entrepreneur whose time is always short. You’ve got 100 things on your to-do list. So which headline would you be more likely to click on?

“The History of Content Marketing and How It Can Help Your Business”“The 30-Second Media Hack to Double Blog Output Instantly”

Some of you would choose the first one, but I bet many of you would hit the second. (In case you’re wondering, the hack is to break posts up into two parts and publish on consecutive days.)

In a sea of content, the second post stands out because it offers something simple and fast. It’s easy to consume, sharable and doesn’t require a lot of investment. There’s actually a term for this stuff: snackable content.

Snackable content is the beef jerky of the media world—and it’s delicious.

Got 10 Minutes for Content?

I’ll take my own advice and be brief:

If you’re struggling to create media for your audience, keep it short and sweet. Snackable content is the key.

Here are 5 things you can create in about 10 minutes:

1. Post a quote graphic to social media. Just use any app or program to put words on a large background. State something very simple. If you can’t think of anything, use this: “The first step to fitness is a step. Get up and move for 5 minutes right now!”

2. Write this mini-blog: “The King of Condiments for Weight Loss.” Just take 150 words to explain how mustard has a ton of flavor and almost no calories.

3. Create this video: “The Quick-Relief Upper-Back Stretch for Desk Workers.” In less than a minute, demonstrate any stretch that will help someone who’s hunched over all day.

4. The next time you make a solid lunch, take a picture of it and quickly explain what’s on your plate—and why. Post it with this headline: “What a Fitness Coach Ate for Lunch Today (It’s So Simple!)”

5. Quickly describe a glute movement and explain why it’s effective for the butt. Here’s your hook: “The Glute Movement You Should Be Doing TODAY.”

(When it’s time to serve a slightly larger snack, here’s a precise five-blog plan.)

Snackable Content: “These Chips Are so Good”

If you’re struggling to create content, resist the urge to go long.

Start serving snackable content to gain momentum—and to please busy people who just want a quick nibble, not a five-course sit-down meal.

The post Snackable Content: The Media Hack for Pleasing Busy People appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Should You Rent a High-End Location for Your Gym?

Mike (00:02):

That sweet but expensive retail space. Is it right for your gym? Chris Cooper will help you decide on this edition of Two-Brain Radio.

Chris (00:10):

Should you rent a high-traffic, highly priced retail location for your micro gym? This is a really important question no matter what stage of gym ownership that you’re in, because the lease decision will come up probably five or six times at least over the course of your journey and the lease location that you select can make you by just being really available to clients, setting a very high standard for value and a high price point, or it can break you by burdening you with term expensive debt. I’d say that out of a hundred gym owners that I talk to, probably 60 regret the lease decision that they made, 20 are trying to make the best of it. And 20 actually love their location. Even those who love their location are often thinking, what else is out there what’s better? Or how can I buy a building and move into that?

Chris (01:03):

And so today I’m gonna talk to you about how to make the decision based on numbers and data on where you should put your gym. Should you put it in a high-traffic, expensive retail location downtown, or should you go back to the industrial park just because it’s cheaper. The answer of course with everything is it depends. So today I’m gonna talk to you about your goals and what you should do before you make this decision. So, first off, if you are choosing a high-traffic retail, expensive location, you need to understand that your business model will be different from the person who is putting a micro gym in their garage or in a kind of out of the way place or like an industrial park where people have to travel. OK? Your business model is going to be higher value and higher value is synonymous with higher price.

Chris (01:57):

What you’re really selling here is convenience. There’s a reason that you pay twice as much to buy a milk from a convenience store, as you would from the grocery store. The reasons are it’s close, like it’s nearby, right? You can go to the convenience store in 30 seconds. It’s open at 1:00 AM when you need milk for your baby’s bottle or whatever. And you’re not gonna be able to buy everything at that store, right? You’re gonna sacrifice breadth for just the very few things that you actually need. And that’s why you pay more at a convenience store. Convenience is worth something. If you’re selling to busy professionals, what they’re really buying is speed. They don’t have time to waste. They’re not going to drive 20 minutes to cross town to come to your gym, especially on their lunch hour. So if your primary audience is busy, working higher income professionals, then yeah, you should put your gym near where they work so that they can attend on their lunch hour and get back to work.

Chris (02:54):

You should also be using up some of your floor space for things like showers, maybe even a lunch counter, because what you’re selling these people is a convenient and fast way to fit fitness into their daily plan. The mistake that you would make is to rent a highly visible downtown location, retail location, that’s very expensive and charge the exact same rate, sell only the exact same group classes and provide the same level of service that somebody else is paying far less in rent to deliver. You cannot win the high rent retail location game on volume because adding more space, exponentially increases your expenses. If you wanna go with a high volume model, then yeah, you should rent a garage somewhere to get as much space as you possibly can. So you can put 30 people in a class, but if you’re looking for a higher value audience, then you have to provide a higher value service using less space, but more amenities.

Chris (03:59):

OK? The next thing that you wanna do is you wanna ask yourself, when do I need to be open or before we even get to how much space you need, let’s think about when you’re going to be delivering your service. If your goal is to work with high value individuals and provide more of a private service one-on-one or small group, then you need to offer that service early in the morning, before they go to work, or when they’re on their way to work. At lunchtime super important. And immediately after work. You probably don’t need an 8:00 PM class if your gym is downtown or close to a mall or deals with a lot of corporate. Here’s how you tell. You look at the potential location for the gym. OK. And before you sign a lease or even maybe take a tour, you wanna look at traffic patterns.

Chris (04:51):

So you take a lawn chair or you sit on a bench and you show up at 6:00 AM, who is walking past your gym, OK. Or, who is like driving past your gym. Now, if there’s a freeway beside your gym, that doesn’t count because they’re not, you know, they’re not actually driving past, they’re just zooming on by. You wanna sit at that gym until about 9:00 AM. OK. Who goes past? Is it mostly busy working professionals? Is it people with kids? How old are they? What would you guess their income to be based on like their dress. OK. And what they’re driving or whatever, where do they park their car? How far do they have to walk to get to the office? Then you wanna come back at lunchtime and you unfold your folding chair and you sit there again. And you say, who is walking past right now?

Chris (05:35):

Where do these people go for lunch? Or is it a ghost town? Do people stay in their offices and work through lunch? What do people generally do? Is it more of a market atmosphere where people are out just wandering the streets, looking for things to do? That will reflect in your business model. And then you wanna come back at around 3:30 and you wanna set up your lawn chair again, and you wanna say, what time are people leaving? Do they leave the office early at two? What happens on a Friday? Are they staying late till 6:00 PM and then rushing home? Or are people just kind of meandering out whenever they can? And that will also determine who your target audience is and when you should be offering your service. Now you can do the exact same thing if you’re thinking about renting like a low priced garage space in an industrial park somewhere, that’s fine, but you should still go and observe traffic patterns because convenience really is more important than ever.

Chris (06:31):

There was a time when people would drive 20 minutes to go to the only CrossFit gym, the only yoga studio, you only have 4-5 in town. That time is mostly gone. Now there are so many options available, doesn’t even matter what your brand is, that people will not travel more than about 11 minutes to get to your gym, especially on their lunch break. So you need to identify what your traffic patterns are. The next thing you need to look at is what you’re going to be paying per square foot. So if you’re looking at like, you know, $18 per square foot per month, like a retail type rate or above, then you probably want the smallest possible footprint that you can get away with. Do not rent extra space for a smoothie bar. OK? Because every single square foot of that space has to pay for itself several times over.

Chris (07:23):

So if it costs me 30 bucks to rent this one square foot of space per month, then that square foot has to generate at least $75 back. How is it going to do that? Is having couches going to help you? No, all that does is adds more revenue burden to every other square foot in the gym. You know, I once visited this gym in Manhattan and the owner was telling me like, oh yeah, we’re doing so great. And half of their space was being used for fitness. And so they could fit about 13 or 14 people in a class safely. The rest of their space was a smoothie bar that didn’t make any money. It was couches that just kind of cost them to look good. It was showers and saunas that didn’t add anything to the bottom line, but were nonetheless essential. And so what happened was very quickly, this gym got into serious trouble because they simply could not sell enough memberships to cover their costs because they couldn’t even fit enough people in a class because their rates were so low that they were confusing this high volume model with this high value model.

Chris (08:28):

So of course, they’re gone now. And you know, there were also a bunch of lawsuits about noise and stuff like that. What you need to understand is that a gym with low rent can charge low rates. A gym with high rent cannot charge low rates, or even the same rates as all the other gyms in town. If I’m in a small town, 60,000 people, and there are three gyms that look exactly the same. Let’s say that they’re all like CrossFit gyms and one gym is downtown. And two are in the outskirts. The gym that’s downtown is going to struggle because they are going to be paying way more in expenses. They’re probably not gonna have as much space, which means the high volume model is not going to work for them. And that margin is just going to shrink. Now, often the owner put that gym because they thought, well, marketing’s gonna be easy.

Chris (09:17):

I just hang a sign. There’s lots of people walking by. It’s convenient to their home or their work or whatever, but they’re not running a high volume model. And so they struggle. Instead, what they need to do is run a high value model, which requires less space, requires more one on one attention for the client and is worth paying more for, because of convenience, speed, and attention. So what we see in the data set is this, if you’re renting a retail space and you’re running a high volume model, you’re just running group classes, you’re trying to fit 15 people in or to 30 people in, or whatever. And you’re renting that retail space because you’re close to a lot of people. You’re going to have a very small profit margin. If at all. You might even struggle. If you’re running retail area fitness and you’re running a high value model, one-on-one training or small group training priced much higher, you’re probably going to do well.

Chris (10:21):

And there’s a number of examples of this even within Two-Brain where you’ve got a personal training studio with several trainers going coaching, you know, small groups of two to three people in a highly retail area, they don’t need more than 150 clients. They don’t need to run big classes. They don’t need, you know, seven bench coaches. These people are doing really, really well in the high end retail areas. If your goal is to run big classes of 30 people and have 300 clients, your best margin is actually in a lower rent area. That’s going to make marketing harder of course. Everything about the high volume model is tougher because you’ve got more churn. You’ve got more bench coaches who are always going in and out. You’ve gotta constantly be marketing to get more and more clients. And because you can’t really afford high end rent, you know, you’ve gotta be kind of outta the way.

Chris (11:16):

So you’re not as convenient either. If it sounds like I’m advocating more for a high value model, I usually am anyway. So take that with a grain of salt. The people who are at one end of the spectrum or the other generally do the best. So if you are running a high volume model of classes, but paying cheap rent, you could probably get away with a pretty good profit margin. If you’re running a low volume, you high value model, but paying more expensive rent, you can probably do well in a higher end retail location. But if you’re in the middle, meaning that you don’t understand your model, or you’re trying to reverse the models and run high volume business in a high value location or a high value business in a low value location, that’s when you’re gonna struggle. And the key is to understand who your best clients are and what your model should be.

Mike (12:09):

Two-Brain Radio airs twice a week and features all info you need to run a successful fitness business. Subscribe so you don’t miss a show. Now here’s Coop one more time.

Chris (12:19):

Thanks for listening to Two-Brain Radio. If you aren’t in the Gym Owners United group on Facebook, this is my personal invitation to join. It’s the only public Facebook group that I participate in. And I’m there all the time with tips, tactics, and free resources. I’d love to network with you and help you grow your business. Join Gym Owners United on Facebook.

 

The post Should You Rent a High-End Location for Your Gym? appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

$48,000 Monthly Revenue With 140 Members

Mike (00:01):

Are you generating the revenue you want at your gym? What would happen if you cranked out 40 to 70 grand a month in gross revenue? If that sounds like a huge number, I’m here to tell you it’s possible. And my guest today is the proof. What does it take to be one of Two-Brain’s, top revenue generating gyms? Anders Gatti will tell you on this edition of Two-Brain Radio. Welcome to the show. I’m Mike Warkentin, whether you’re listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube, remember to like subscribe, and ring the notifications bell, I really appreciate it Now. Onto dollars or more specifically, krona. Gatti Training is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and it’s run by Anders and Yamina Gotti. Anders taught me how to say that. And I’m making sure I get it as close to correct as possible. In January, the pair, they cracked a tough Two-Brain leaderboard, monthly revenue. This is a huge one. The top 10 ranges from 43,000 to over 71 grand US. Anders and Yamina almost hit 50 grand. So we’re gonna talk about his secrets. Anders. Welcome to the show all the way from the afternoon in Stockholm, Sweden. How are you?

Anders (01:05):

I’m fine. Thank you, Mike.

Mike (01:06):

Yeah, I’m very excited to talk to you about this because it’s a huge one. And I know that it’s tied when you tie it like a giant revenue total to a profit margin. Really amazing things happen in business. So before we get into the details, tell me about your business. What are your main offerings? What’s your target? How much space do you have kinda gimme the lego blocks of your business.

Anders (01:26):

Right. We started out, 11 years ago, first we started as a small time personal training studio, and almost five and a half years ago we started this gym. We have 530 square meters. I don’t know how much that is in feet, but.

Mike (01:46):

It’s decent size.

Anders (01:47):

Yeah, it’s decent size. Yeah, we have about, 140 members. OK. And, the most common member is a middle-aged man or woman, more commonly woman. For every, every new man we get three or four new women these days. That’s interesting. The most common people you see is, either business owner or someone that, works in a more high position in the company. Yeah. And we run personal training and we run a kids program and nutrition program also. But, personal training is the main thing we do.

Mike (02:29):

Do you run any group classes?

Anders (02:32):

Yes, group classes also.

Mike (02:33):

But personal training is the big focus.

Anders (02:35):

Yeah. Group classes not as many. We run about three classes a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening.

Mike (02:44):

So I’m gonna ask you a question. I’m gonna jump ahead because this one really stands out for me. You’re getting close to 50 grand US in revenue from 140 members. So the average revenue per member there has to be pretty high. Am I right? Yeah.

Anders (02:58):

Yeah. It’s really high.

Mike (02:59):

We’re gonna ask you some questions. I need to dig into that in a moment, but I first wanna ask you, we touched a little bit. Do you have an approximate revenue breakdown as in like what percentage of revenue does your group training provide versus your personal training versus your kids or anything like that? Do you have some approximate numbers?

Anders (03:15):

Yes. personal trainer stands for almost the half of the revenue.

Mike (03:20):

50%. Yeah. Yeah.

Anders (03:22):

The group classes is around 40 to 45 and the kids and the other revenues is the rest.

Mike (03:29):

So that’s interesting. So three main, three main legs of your table, so to speak. Yeah. do you have programs that see your personal training clients also doing group classes, like a hybrid program at all?

Anders (03:41):

Yes. Yes. Most of our clients do some kind of hybrid program.

Mike (03:45):

So now we’re gonna dig into some of this other stuff here, but, how has this revenue grown over time? Like when you started just as personal training and then you grew to this gym, what, you know, what were the major changes that caused this revenue to increase? And do you remember what it was when you first started?

Anders (04:01):

Yes. The biggest change was when we joined Two-Brain Business. That was the biggest one. And we did have the courage to all new members start with our on ramp programs. So all new members have to start with three months of personal training. Yep. And, that’s was the biggest difference.

Mike (04:21):

What was your revenue before you did that? Do you remember?

Anders (04:26):

It was around half what it today.

Mike (04:28):

About half. And what does it cost to do your intro program?

Anders (04:34):

In the Swedish, it would be for the first three months, it would be around five to 10,000 Swedish kronas a month.

Mike (04:46):

So I’m just typing this in.

Anders (04:49):

Probably about, yeah, one Swedish crown is like, eight Swedish crowns is like, one us dollar.

Mike (04:56):

So that gives you some perspective on that. OK. So I find it interesting because a lot of the time back in the day, like when I started my gym, I think in 2010 or something like that, and it was a CrossFit gym, we would just chuck people into group classes. There was no personal training. We even know it was a thing that you could do CrossFit and personal training or functional fitness and personal training. Eventually we actually started doing an eight session personal training intro. And that changed a lot for us. Did the same thing happened to you when you put that program in, you’ve got like, is it hard for people to sign up for that and say, OK, I might wanna do group training, but I’m still gonna do three months of personal training right off the bat. Is that a tough sell?

Anders (05:33):

No, not a tough sell. Yeah. I thin, it’s easier to make the sell nowadays. Before we did on ramp, some people would request our price. Why do we have to pay more at your place than the neighbor gym? But now they see the difference we make with people. And we tell them that you have to qualify for group class.

Mike (05:55):

Tell me about that qualification process. How does that work?

Anders (05:58):

Yeah. We look at your weaknesses. we look at your mobility and strength. If you have any injuries, something like that, we don’t want to let you in a group class, you might hurt yourself. Or when you don’t have the technique to do the movements we do in the group class. So we’re not gonna stop you from doing group class, but we’re gonna tell you, we don’t want you to do group class until you’re and people listen to us.

Mike (06:24):

They should. You’re the fitness expert. So I like that. How many trainers and people do you have on staff?

Anders (06:30):

We have, three full-time trainers and, one kid coach and, one more trainer and one more group trainer, the full-time trainers work, mostly PT, but do a few group sessions every week.

Mike (06:48):

Also. How much of the training do you do or do you just have a management role where you’re organizing things?

Anders (06:54):

No, I do training, I love doing training, but before Two-Brain I did so much, I did like 35 to 40 PT session each week. A and also did, like 10 classes a week. And I was the janitor. I was the cleaner, I was the marketing guy, you know, and nowadays I do, I do like 15 PT and group plus sessions a week. So 15 hours a week. And the other hours, I work in my business nowadays.

Mike (07:26):

And I’ll ask you this one, because it sounds a funny answer. How many hours a week do you work in general? Total.

Anders (07:33):

Nowadays I work like 35 to 40.

Mike (07:37):

I wasn’t sure. Maybe you had the 15 hours of training attached on 60 hours of other studd.

Anders (07:41):

No, no, no, no. And the goal for this year is for me and Yamina to work 30 to maximum 35 a week is the goal. Decreasing the number of hours.

Mike (07:54):

So talk to me a little bit about getting these high value clients. So an interesting part of your revenue structure, and I’ve seen gyms where it’s a little bit different. Let’s say there’s a gym that has 300 members and a high average rate, and they’ll get up around 70,000 a month or something like that. You’re getting 50,000 with 140 members. Talk to me about how you find those high value clients. Like some people be like, literally they’ll look at our Facebook’s ads and say, there’s no way you can do this. There’s no way you can generate that much revenue. And there’s no way that you can make that much money off one person. How do you find these guys?

Anders (08:26):

We do it with affinity market. We’ve been doing affinity market since before Two-Brain Business. Yeah, but we didn’t call it affinity marketing. We have learned a lot about affinity marketing since joining Two-Brain Business. Also. The big secret is caring about people and really caring about them. You know, knowing the people and get them th results they deserve and the results they want. And, always show them what’s around the next corner. When you can do this, you can do this thing and this thing. So there’s no end to it, show them the path forward and they will be holding your hand forever.

Mike (09:07):

There’s a lot of stuff you just said there. That is super important. So the first thing I’m gonna tell listeners, it’s affinity marketing is basically using your current clients to find more people just like them. It is a formalized documented process where you actively ask them for contacts, friends, family, coworkers. Then you start moving outward to people who may be a little bit more distant, that you can find the exact guide to this at free tools. That’s the free tools button. The top of Two-Brain business.com. Do check that out. This process doesn’t just happened. I’ve learned this from experience. If you just sit there and expect your clients to give you referrals, you’ll get a few, but you won’t get as many as if you actually say, Hey, you had great results. Is there anyone else that I can help? Tell me a little bit, Anders, about your affinity marketing process. When do you ask your clients for these contacts and how do you do it?

Anders (09:54):

Sometimes you ask them during coaching hours, but then you sit down and chat with them with a coffee. And also when we do a goal session, yeah, we always, we always ask them if they have any other kind of people like them that wants to join us.

Mike (10:10):

These goal review sessions are so important because you sit down, with your clients and you go over what’s happened. And if they’ve accomplished their goals, you highlight their successes, their bright spots. You show them that they’re succeeding. Then you ask them what else they want to do. And you keep the progression going, giving them a new plan. So for example, if someone says, I wish I was losing weight faster, you would then say, Hey, you could do that if you add a nutrition services and personal training or something like that. So there’s some very good upsell. Generally what happens people have told me is that in these meetings, clients are so happy with their progress. They’re generally overjoyed to send you referrals. Is that what happens in your process?

Anders (10:47):

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Mike (10:49):

Yeah. It’s the exact right time to do it also a good time. I’ll give you a pro tip is to ask them for a Google review right there. They’re super happy. Ask them for a review of your business when they are more than happy to do so. In that referral process, then when you contact these people, how do you do it? Do you just say, you know, Tom gave me your info. I’m, you know, Anders from this gym, how do you contact them and make that conversation happen?

Anders (11:13):

First, I ask the client to tell their friend, the family, or coworker if it’s OK that I call. Yeah. If they tell me it’s OK, then it’s a really, it’s a warm referral. Then I call ’em up and introduce myself. And maybe I heard that you had a knee issue and I talk about them about the knee issue. I try to find something, to talk about them, to learn about them and then ask them to, would you join for a coffee, sit down, have a chat and see what it ends. OK. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s not hard.

Mike (11:48):

Oh, it’s funny because it’s such a simple process, but so many of us, including me missed it for years and years and years. How often do do you do goal review sessions?

Anders (11:58):

Every three months. Yeah.

Mike (12:00):

Every three months. So what I’m kind of getting at here is that you have a really concise idea of your client journey, right? Like, you know, how most of your clients are coming to you, you know, where they’re coming from, you know exactly who you are. You told me in the intro exactly who your market is for the most part, you’ll get some outliers, I’m sure. But you know, it’s predominantly women professionals and so forth. And then, you know, in the three month blocks, you’re gonna progress them through your business. You have a three month intro personal training session, and then you have the rest of your options. Did you have that client journey in place before? Or was this something that you’ve just developed over the last few years? Or when did that get in place?

Anders (12:37):

We had kind of a client journey, but not written down. A couple years ago it was me and my wife, but now we have a lot of people working at our place. So we had to write it down so everyone else can follow it and do this same thing. But it’s been an evolving process, we evaluate it every now and then, and try to do improvements all the time. So, yeah. It’s big difference of the last two years.

Mike (13:09):

And it’s funny because when I talk to successful gym owners, like you guys who are running really good gyms, every single one always knows their client journey. And it’s funny because again, I didn’t do this back in the day. I just thought you come to the gym, you work out, we work out forever and that’s the end, you know, but it’s not like that. There’s a lot of things that happen where it’s like, you know, as a for instance, when I would lose members, a lot of times it was like someone had a baby, someone maybe moved to a different city, someone got married, those were often life events or job change that really altered my client journey. And I didn’t even know about it. Some of the things that would’ve fixed that would’ve been like online training, online programming, online nutrition programs that would continue, even if people weren’t in the gym.

Mike (13:51):

But I didn’t, I wasn’t really equipped to figure out how to do that at the time. Now that we’re getting better sense of the client journey, you can really figure out what people need when, why people are more apt to leave and then you can solve those problems. So I’ll ask you this retention is obviously a huge part of your revenue. You have to keep these high value clients. Do you see spots in your client journey where they’re more likely to leave and how do you plug those holes? So to speak, fix those problems.

Anders (14:16):

If you don’t get them on board the first 90 days, if you don’t get them to come into your community and, feel a difference in your gym and get the social thing with other members and with the trainers, I think most of the time you lose them.

Mike (14:34):

That first 90 days. Yeah.

Anders (14:37):

It’s yeah. It’s really critical. If you get them to love your brand during those days, then it’s much, much easier to keep them after that.

Mike (14:43):

I’ve heard from other gym owners that say the same thing. And some of them have even told me that the longer and more involved your intro program is, the better the retention is. Have you found that to be the case?

Anders (14:58):

Yes. Yes, of course. The longer you can have on board it’s easier to have them time and hopefully stay with you forever.

Mike (15:07):

It’s funny because that’s the opposite of what I did. Right. Where I was in a rush to get people into group classes because I thought that’s what they were coming for. So I thought, OK, if I give ’em these eight personal training sessions, but I gotta get them through there. And then I gotta get ’em into group classes that was maybe the wrong approach, you know? And I think what I could have done better was space things out longer and offered more personal training and more customization and so forth at the time, rather than just focusing on funneling into group classes. You, it sounds like in your history, you didn’t have a huge focus on group classes because you came from a personal training background first, is that right?

Anders (15:39):

That’s right. That’s right. Personal training has always been the biggest leg for us to stand on.

Mike (15:49):

Best part about that is that personal training clients tend to be higher revenue clients and they tend to see the value in training. Right. And what I didn’t realize was that group classes are a discount option, right. That you don’t get as much attention you don’t pay as much. Is that how you present them in your, like when you’re selling a package to a client, do you present the, I mean, not as a discount, like a cheap option, but as if you don’t have the money for personal training group classes are your next option? Is that how you do it?

Anders (16:17):

Yeah. That’s how I do it. But if you don’t have the money for personal training, they can still pay for individualized programming. I do your own programs. You can train by yourself and do group classes a couple of times a week. And that would be the next best option. And the last option is to fly with the classes. Yeah.

Mike (16:37):

Yeah. Let me ask you about the other leg of your business, the kids program, is that generally the children of your members, or are these kids from outside?

Anders (16:48):

Twp thirds are from gym members. The other third is outside. We started a kids program last year and it’s started to grow now. This week starts this season and we have all the classes are fully booked. So either our kids coach will have to step up and work a few more days or we have to hire another coach again.

Mike (17:13):

Now are these group classes, or is it personal training with kids?

Anders (17:16):

It’s, small team, personal trainer with kids.

Mike (17:21):

Yeah. And so you’re filling that essentially through affinity marketing, right. You’re using the children of your current clients, which is, it’s a home run for gyms, really? Like if your clients love your gym, how easy is it to get their kids into your business?

Anders (17:35):

It’s easy. It’s really easy. And the kids that come from outside, after a while they bring the parents, so we get new members from the kids also.

Mike (17:44):

Yeah, it’s right. Yeah. And that’s a really cool thing about the children’s thing is like once and that’s why affinity marketing works because rather than having to market and dump ads into like, you know, the internet and try and find random people, you’re now using someone who loves your service to find someone else who’s going to love your service. I’ll ask you this. Do you market, do you do ads and paid advertising? Things like that?

Anders (18:04):

No paid advertising.

Mike (18:04):

Nothing at all? Really. Have you ever in the past?

Anders (18:10):

Little tiny bits of it.

Mike (18:12):

So it wasn’t something you needed to do?

Anders (18:14):

No. No. our mentor Per Mattsson, he told us that you don’t have to do marketing right now. If you do marketing, probably you will be overwhelmed with the work. So we’re growing at a steady state and we can handle it at this pace. But if we would do to paid marketing right now, probably too much work.

Mike (18:35):

Yeah. And that’s interesting. That’s a lot what, like what Chris Cooper, Two-Brain founder does at his gym Catalyst Fitness in, Ontario, Canada, he runs ads very infrequently, once in a while, maybe three months or something like that. But in general, the gym survives on referral marketing or affinity marketing. So do go to free tools if you’re listing and get that guide, it’s costs you nothing but time. And you can make some crazy money just by finding, you know, following the step by step plan that’s in there. So do get that guide. I’m gonna ask you a little bit about growth. What are your goals like? You’re at, you know, 140 members, 50 K revenue, US. What are your goals for the future? How high do you wanna get? Do you wanna expand your business and get even more space or stay tight and small like this?

Anders (19:18):

I would like to stay tight and small like this. I think, the gym could handle top 200 people, with a high quality service that we deliver today. So 200 people is the goal for the future. We’ll see what the future bears, if we open another facility, but it’s not necessary right now. Right now. I just want to sit down and savor the moment a bit. It’s a couple of rough years before the gym started to fly. So

Mike (19:55):

Now in those rough years, what was the main problem?

Anders (19:58):

It was, me and my wife doing all the work all by myself and not, taking in other people, taking in new coaches.

Mike (20:10):

Yeah. I imagine you were probably a great trainer, but probably ran out of time and energy to do some of the things that would grow your business. Am I right? Yes. Yes.

Anders (20:16):

yeah. I’m a great trainer but I was a terrible business owner

Mike (20:21):

But that’s something you can change because it’s funny when like a lot of us, like, I thought of myself as a trainer first. Right. And that was why I got into it. And then all of a sudden I realized I can teach a squat really well, but I haven’t a clue how to run this business, you know, and that’s where Two-Brain came in to like, educate me on all the stuff that I missed. Here’s a question for you. Chris Cooper often talks about 150 clients being a number where you can maintain really, really tight relationships with each member. So you I’m sure, you know the names of every single person in your gym. Once you get up to 200, that kinda changes a little bit, because 150 is often that mark where it starts to get hard to maintain your relationship. So if you were to grow to 200, how would you make sure that each client had the same really tight relationship with you and your business? What would you need to do?

Anders (21:05):

Really consistent client journey. We have to coach the coaches and the staff really, really well to make that happen. And that’s the big challenge in the future to maintain this kind of service, this kind of high quality service that we do today and, have a lot more people to handle. See if it works, if it doesn’t work, I will cut down to 150. Yeah. I’ll stay there.

Mike (21:33):

Yeah. And talk about profit margins. So we talked about revenue, we’ve said like you have a great number. How does your profit margin figure into that revenue number?

Anders (21:40):

Yeah. Our profit margin is increasing. Yeah. The goal is to hit the magic 30%. Yeah. Yeah. So we’re getting to it.

Mike (21:51):

That’s good. Cause often, you know, one of the things that we often talk about is like fake numbers is like, if, if someone’s got a hundred thousand dollars in revenue and their profit margin is like 1%, it’s not a great business, you know? So you have to tie it to that profit margin. Yeah.

Anders (22:08):

This year we will be debt free. We have paid all loans for the gym since we build the gym and all equipment we’ll own everything. So that will be a game changer for us.

Mike (22:18):

Yeah. So that frees up some monthly payments right on debt servicing. So that’s cool. And you said this month?

Anders (22:29):

This year in, September, October.

Mike (22:33):

So what are your plans once, you know, you celebrate that that debt is gone. What are your plans for that extra cash flow?

Anders (22:39):

Somewhat we be to increase our salaries, me and my wife’s.

Mike (22:44):

There you go.

Anders (22:46):

And then we will be, we invest it. So the money works for us. So we’ll see what we invest it in.

Mike (22:56):

When you spent the money originally, did you, what was it mostly spent on? Was it equipment and gear and things like that? Or what was it directed to?

Anders (23:04):

Equipment, gear. And we build a gym from the ourselves. We build the facility. Yeah.

Mike (23:12):

Oh, so I didn’t even know that one. Soyou actually built, do you own the building?

Anders (23:17):

Not the building, the inside.

Mike (23:19):

Oh, OK. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anders (23:21):

But the inside was a dump.

Mike (23:23):

Yeah. So you had to spend a lot of money to make it nice and get the stuff. Bathrooms and showers probably. Yeah. Yeah.

Anders (23:29):

Around $150,000, something like that.

Mike (23:33):

So now paid off, looking for the future. That that’s pretty, that’s pretty interesting. If I were to ask you this, so a gym owner right now is out there and there’s so many of them who say they look at these totals and I was certainly one of ’em back in the day and say, I could never imagine taking in $50,000 a month, let’s say they’re in that 12 to $15,000 range. What would you advise them? How would they take some steps today to start moving from a lower revenue total in the direction of where you’re at.

Anders (24:04):

To try to replace yourself in the lower value roles. All the cleaning, all this small stuff, get someone else to do it. And the time that you free up do some higher value roles, do PT instead of cleaning. And, if you don’t have some personal training coaches, try to hire some coaches to work for you and that will be a big change also.

Mike (24:31):

So here’s a question that I, this is an interesting one because this is, we call this climbing the value ladder. And there’s actually a process that Chris has written about on the Two-Brain business blog. You basically value your time. You look at the roles that are beneath your value. So let’s say my, I basically am worth $50 an hour and cleaning is $12 an hour. I need to get rid of those cleaning hours then use those hours to reinvest into more valuable activities. So, but the thing that a lot of people do is they offload those roles and then they don’t do anything or they don’t focus on the right things. How hard was it for you to get rid of cleaning or some low value rules and then actually generate money in those three hours? Were you able to do right away?

Anders (25:08):

Yeah, I did right away.

Mike (25:09):

How’d you do it?

Mike (25:10):

I took a paper, and draw a line and, write down the stuff that I wanted to do. And on the other side I wrote the stuff that didn’t wanna do. And, then I calculated, how much does this cost? What can I do in the time that is available for me now instead, and then start to hire people.

Mike (25:30):

And so I’m guessing an easy one for you being who you are. It would be pretty easy to hire a cleaner and then spend the hours that you normally spend cleaning doing personal training. Was that something you did?

Anders (25:40):

Yeah.

Mike (25:40):

What other stuff did you do? Were there other high value roles that you hit on that you needed to do that would grow the business?

Anders (25:46):

Yeah, I would do all the no sweat intros, I started to do. And we hired a client success manager to help with the reception and to manage clients also. And that was also a big game changer for us.

Mike (26:02):

Yeah. So that’s the first step gy, owners, if you’re out there, if you are looking to increase your revenue, you need to look at where you are spending time in your business, do a time audit, figure out all the hats you’re wearing, what are you doing? Then start looking at, which are the lowest value roles. Can I hire someone in these roles to free up some of my time to do more important stuff? And again, these aren’t low value people you’re cleaner as a very important person, but it’s not as valuable as doing personal training or something like that. Any other tips that you would offer gym owners? Is there anything else that you would tell them to do to generate more revenue?

Anders (26:34):

Ask your clients, what do they need? What do they want? Yeah. Yeah. Ask them, sit down and ask them. If you don’t have an nutrition program, maybe you should try and run the nutrition program. If you can’t run nutrition program, bring someone else in who can.

Mike (26:51):

So I made a mistake and what I did was I would often think I know what my clients need. And so I would create programs that I thought filled their needs. I didn’t ask them what they actually needed. It was a mistake. If I had actually asked them, I would’ve done better sooner. Did you ever make that mistake or have you always been really good at talking to clients and asking ’em what they want.

Anders (27:13):

No, I did that mistake for a lot of yeras.

Mike (27:15):

I don’t feel so bad then.

Anders (27:20):

I also thought I knew what they wanted. When I started asking, I get more answers and different answers than I thought.

Mike (27:26):

What kinda answers did you get? Was your kids program? Did that come from that?

Anders (27:30):

Yes. That’s one of them. Nutrition program and more high value service at all.

Mike (27:38):

It’s interesting because basically, you’re saying that when you talk to your clients they essentially told you how they wanted to spend more money.

Mike (27:48):

And then all you have to do at that point is create the services, which is not that hard in the sense that like you have coaches, you have a gym, putting in a kids program, not that hard.

Anders (27:56):

Not at all. Yeah. And the sale is easy. You don’t feel like a salesperson and you don’t push to them new services. You,

Mike (28:04):

Yeah. So again, that’s that step two, listeners, go out and ask your clients what they want and what they need and what other services they might like, what do they like about your gym? Again, we have an exact plan for this, for Two-Brain clients of exactly what you should ask and the order of the questions, but do have those conversations. And I’ll give you the pro tip here is ask your very best clients. These are the people that bring you the most joy. And they’re the people that also spend the most money in your facility. We call them seed clients, or sometimes apple clients identify them, take ’em up for coffee and find out what they need. Do you know, Anders, I’m guessing you do. Do you know who your top 10 clients are right off the top of your head? You’ve done that exercise.

Anders (28:42):

Yeah. I’ve done it a few times. It’s so important. I can’t tell you how much, how important it’s really, really important

Mike (28:55):

When one of these clients tells you something that they want, how fast do you react?

Anders (29:00):

Try to react as fast as I can. Yeah. To try to make a plan and then, and bring the service as can, if they want it now you should give them to now. If you wait then maybe they’re not interested in a week.

Mike (29:13):

If someone else creates it for them, right? I’ve got two huge tips already. Is there anything else you would advise to gyms owners? No pressure. Cause that’s two big ones already.

Anders (29:26):

Take care with your health. Sleep well, eat well, train, do all the things that you love, better go see your friends, see your family, and you have to live your life. Can’t always be in the gym. I love my gym, but my gym almost killed me a couple years ago. Cause yeah. Working like 250 hours every month. Yeah.

Mike (29:50):

Yeah. That’s really tied to that value ladder though. Right? Because if you start to offload some of your low value roles, you can start to reduce your total hours and actually make more money. So it’s like you pay the cleaner, but you don’t have to clean anymore and that’s free time. And then you could eventually, as you start to get this momentum, then you can start getting to that what Chris is called, the tinker level, which is that third stage of entrepreneurship at that point, you’re working more on yourself than you are in your business. And the cool part about that is that you have to be mentally fit, physically fit. You have to do the things that keep you in quote, unquote, tiptop shape as an entrepreneur, or your business fails. So I think that’s really, really important advice and not to overwork yourself because it’s so easy as gym owners to just like work 250 hours a month.

Anders (30:30):

Yeah. Yeah. It’s so easy. Cause you tell yourself that you love it so you can do it in anyway, but no one can work that much for a long time.

Mike (30:38):

I loved it too for a bunch of years. And then all of I was working way too much and I was burning out and I didn’t love it anymore. And that was a shame, you know? And it took me a while to like circle back, Two-Brain helped me do that. And now I feel much happier about everything.

Anders (30:50):

Yeah. Same for me. Exactly.

Mike (30:53):

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with me. I really appreciate all the insight. will you come back on the show, later on when you get that debt paid off, and you get, into the realm of like 150, 200 members?

Anders (31:06):

I love to. I love to

Mike (31:07):

I appreciate it. That was Anders Gatti on Two-Brain Radio. I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. I’m all about telling these stories of amazing gym owners. Please subscribe for more episodes. And if you’re on YouTube, please hit the like button too.

Chris (31:21):

Thanks for listening to Two-Brain Radio. If you aren’t in the Gym Owners United group on Facebook, this is my personal invitation to join. It’s the only public Facebook group that I participate in. And I’m there all the time with tips, tactics, and free resources. I’d love to network with you and help you grow your business. Join Gym Owners United on Facebook.

 

The post $48,000 Monthly Revenue With 140 Members appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Everything a Gym Owner Should Know About Member Retention

In the gym business, the word “success” should contain an “R” for “retention”: Gym member retention is absolutely vital to your success.

This article will explain every aspect of gym retention and how to improve gym membership retention statistics so you can profit from your fitness business.

Retention in Dollars and Cents

It costs five times as much to acquire a new client than to keep one, and it’s much easier to convince a current member to stay longer than persuade a potential member to join.

Improving your gym’s retention rate maximizes your marketing return on investment (ROI) while saving you the cost and hard labor required to replace departing members.

Existing members—especially long-term members—are more likely to stay than brand new clients. As an added bonus, these loyal long-term members generally have high brand affinity and see value in your business, so they’re much more likely to buy additional products and services from you. That increases average revenue per member per month (ARM). Some Two-Brain gyms have ARM scores over $300—think about how important it is to retain these high-value clients.

Retention measured in years is the gold standard, and some of the top gyms in the world have average length of engagement (LEG) scores from three years to over five years.

Even increasing your gym retention by a few months can be highly profitable. In Two-Brain’s 2018 Gym Check-Up, the average respondent would have earned an extra $45,000 that year just by increasing average retention by two months. That boost would come without additional advertising expenses, price increases or intake costs.

It should be clear that retention is a driving force in running a successful gym. 

Improving Gym Member Retention Makes Sense in Other Ways

Some gym owners think supercharged marketing machines can keep up with attrition or “churn.” But poor gym retention rates create incredible marketing challenges.

For example, a gym with 374 members and a 95 percent retention rate would have to gain 19 members per month just to stay even. That’s more than one new member every two days all year, including holidays and weekends.

Further, a dominant marketing strategy operates on the premise that market conditions will stay constant. So, it doesn’t account for things that disrupt member acquisition, such as:

A price war with the competition.Unfortunate bad publicity.A sudden shift in the marketplace that affects demand.Changes in federal or local laws.Pandemics.

A current member has already bought into your program. Gym member retention statistics show that it is much easier to resell to a happy existing customer than to sell your gym to a new one, so simply auto-renewing an existing membership puts far less stress on your sales and marketing systems.

Happy current members are also walking advertisers for your gym. Imagine the added value a current member gives by referring two people to your gym. Most likely, the referred people will be easy sales. They’re what marketers refer to as “warm leads”: They already know about you because the referring friend has endorsed your gym.

So your initial marketing spend to acquire the original client has created three clients. Let’s say each one pays $205 a month and they all stay for 14 months. That’s $8,610 in total revenue. Keep them all for 20 months and it’s $12,300. If you retain them for 30 months, you’ll collect $18,450. In each scenario, the cost to acquire first client was the same.

Retention is a multiplier in the fitness industry.

When your gym retention systems are perfected, your revenue will improve significantly. Gym Retention Goals     14-Month Gym Member Retention

Your first gym retention goal should be 14 months. Any number below that will force you to direct most of your resources toward marketing because members will leave faster than you can replace them.

In the beginning, a 14-month gym member retention rate might seem high. However, Two-Brain’s RampUp program can help you learn how to increase your score and get from 50 clients to 150 clients—or more, if needed.

As you continue reading, you will get many of the tips and principles included in the program. What you won’t get here is the guidance and accountability provided by a certified mentor who’s actually run a successful gym with impressive retention metrics.

Why 150 Clients First?

According to our research, maintaining 150 clients gives you the potential to earn $100,000 annually.

For example, if your monthly average revenue per member is $175 and you have 150 clients, your annual gross income would be $315,000. This scenario would leave you with a 33 percent profit of about $103,950 after deducting 44 percent for staff pay (about $138,600) and 22 percent for fixed expenses (about $69,300). (This system is referred to as the “4/9ths Model.”)

More isn’t always better when it comes to clients in a coaching gym—for several reasons. One of the most common reasons is it is tough to maintain solid, nurturing relationships with clients when you have more than 150. When a gym moves past 150 without impressive retention systems, relationships start to crumble and members leave.

The best plan: Target 150 members first and develop a sound business with impressive retention and length of engagement metrics.

To push past this level, you’ll need to create a management team, optimize profit and build the systems needed to keep your business running smoothly. And you’ll need a retention plan based on your client journey, as well as a staff member who’s responsible for retention (see below).

Analyzing Your Gym for a Better Retention Rate

Critically evaluating your gym’s performance is vital to its success. But it can be challenging to leave personal bias out of your assessments. This tendency is one of the reasons why a data-driven analysis can help you accurately assess and improve your gym member retention rate. 

It’s common for gym owners to think “my retention is fine.” But if you don’t run the numbers, you won’t know for sure—and you won’t know if you’re improving or when members are most likely to leave.

It’s a mistake to pour more members into a leaky bucket. Fix your retention, then focus on marketing and acquisition.Finding the Leaks

Several years ago, CrossFit Moncton owner Kevin Wood sat down with host Mike Warkentin for an interview on Two Brain Radio. This session was special because Kevin’s gym has a fantastic gym retention record.

While most gyms keep members for an average of 7.8 months, CrossFit Moncton had a 4.5-year (54-month) length of engagement score at the time of recording in October 2020. That represents incredible retention. Some of Kevin’s clients have been training in his gym for more than a decade!

During the interview, Kevin said this:

“Find the leaking point. … You must find your specific leaks before starting an effective gym member retention strategy.”

If you analyze your retention, you’ll find critical periods when people are likely to leave. For Kevin, it was between 30 and 50 days. Other gym owners often find people drop off when their intro period ends—usually about three months. And so on.

If you know exactly when clients are most likely to leave, you can take steps to stop them. Some gyms use Goal Review Sessions to create face time and an opportunity to energize clients, and others will send cards or award badges at key intervals to ensure clients feel appreciated and see progress. The best gyms combine all these tactics to keep clients in the business.

The Important Metrics of Gym Retention

The length-of-engagement (LEG) metric is the most accurate way to evaluate and track your gym retention performance. It measures the average length of time a member spends in your gym business. When you use this powerful tool to identify critical departure times, you can confidently put a plan in place to boost your gym member retention statistics. 

Many gym owners use their monthly churn rate to evaluate their gym retention status. But this practice is lacking because it suggests all gym members are equally likely to leave at any time, and it doesn’t reflect the length of time each member stays. This lack of depth can also give gym owners a false sense of prosperity.

For example, a gym with a 3 percent monthly churn rate might seem to operate successfully. However, it will actually go from 100 to 69 members in 12 months because churn erodes the member base each month. This gym would start Month 2 with 97 members, then lose another 3 percent—and so on.

This means the gym owner must commit money, time and person-hours to replace 31 members each year just to stay at 100. Churn rate’s lack of predictive value makes it a poor retention analysis tool. 

On the other hand, the LEG metric provides great predictive value by giving you exact time frames to take action. For example, if analysis of departing members reveals an average LEG of 2.8 months, you know you’re doing something wrong in the intake and introductory periods of membership.

Also, LEG calculations can help you meet benchmark goals for long-term success. For example, our studies show that clients who make it past the eight-month mark are likely to make it to the 14-month mark. If you know that, you’re going to want to take steps to make sure clients have a reason to keep going after eight months of membership. 

Calculating Gym Retention Statistics

Although most gym software platforms don’t offer easy ways to track LEG, some do. Still, many gym owners use a spreadsheet to do it (Two-Brain provides one for clients). You can calculate your LEG metric by dividing the total sum of all months (or days) of engagement by the total number of members.

For example:

Member 1: 3 months
Member 2: 6 months
Member 3: 12 months

21 months / 3 members = average LEG of 7 months

To get a completely accurate overall LEG number, you must include both active and departed members because using only active members could falsely inflate the LEG. Some gym owners choose to track three LEG variations:

Current client LEGDeparted client LEGOverall LEG (most important)Members who train regularly are likely to accomplish their goals—and keep paying you to help them succeed.Adherence Rates

Lack of progress is a common reason why many clients lose enthusiasm for your gym and its services. For this reason, adherence rate is a support metric that can help you determine whether a member is at a high risk of leaving.

Adherence rate measures the number of times a client completes workouts in a given period, usually a week. Because clients who consistently exercise are more likely to reach their goals, adherence rate is a valuable indicator to track while developing and implementing your retention strategy.

In 2006, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper determined his average client participated in 2.3 training sessions per week. He pushed the numbers further and realized that he would increase his revenue by about 40 percent if he added just one session per week for each client. This huge revenue increase wouldn’t require him to find a single new member; he just had to find ways to serve his current clients even better.

(This data comes from our free retention guide: “Never Lose a Member Again.” Get it here.)

Talking to Your Members

Current members are an excellent source of information that’s useful to your gym retention strategy because they have firsthand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your current operations. Clients will also tell you how you can serve them more, and if you ask the right questions, they’ll even tell you exactly how to retain them.

During your periodic one-on-one assessment interviews or Goal Review Sessions, you can ask such questions as:

What keeps you motivated?What would increase your motivation?Are you happy with the progress you’ve made so far?What needs to happen over the next three months for you to feel completely satisfied with your progress?What frustrates you most about the fitness industry?What is your biggest struggle outside the gym?

While doing your research, it’s essential to compile demographic data on your longtime clients, including age, gender and occupation. This step will help you establish the characteristics of long-term clients, which will influence your marketing and client-acquisition strategies.

Putting Together Your Retention Implementation Plan

The average revenue per member (ARM) and length of engagement (LEG) metrics are the most critical for your gym’s success, and their tandem performance has a huge influence on your total outcomes. If you multiply ARM by LEG, you will get the average lifetime value (LTV) of clients. As a result, a lopsided ratio between ARM and LEG can put your gym in peril. 

ARM measures your sales and marketing performance, and LEG measures your gym’s operations. However, about 44 percent of businesses in an econsultancy.com report focus on acquisition, while only about 16 percent focus on retention.

The truth is both metrics are crucial to the stability and growth of your gym. But retention offers a much higher return of investment (ROI) by extending the ARM over a longer period. This benefit is the reason we emphasize retention over marketing. It would be silly to focus on acquiring more clients when your business can’t retain them.

Higher gym member retention rate results rely on system improvements. To this end, your gym business has many actionable areas you can focus on. Here are potent moves you can make to increase your gym member retention rate.

In your business, someone must be responsible for retention. In the beginning, it’s the owner. Eventually, the responsibility will go to a client success manager.Hire a Client Success Manager

By helping members reach their goals, a client success manager (CSM) can be a vital component in your gym member retention plan. A good CSM can do the job part time. If your gym is in the start-up phase, you might fill this role for a few hours a week until your client base expands and you can hire someone.

What’s important is always ensuring one person is focused on and responsible for retention. If it’s “everyone’s job,” no one will do it well. You must do the tasks or assign them to someone, set time aside for this work, budget for CSM wages, set the metrics for success, and review those metrics.

CSMs help clients stay engaged and achieve their goals by:

Being a cheerleader and motivational coach wrapped in one.Making the experience fun for the members.Helping solve clients’ problems before they become relationship-ending issues.Tracking adherence and contacting absentees quickly.Acting as a liaison between the clients and staff.Sending congrats on accomplishments, birthdays and life events. Answering questions and offering prompt customer support.Helping new members get acclimated.Booking Goal Review Sessions at regular intervals.Organizing fun events both inside and outside the gym.

You and your CMS must find ways to celebrate your clients! For example, you can start “accomplishment clubs,” such as a 15- or 20-lb. weight-loss club or a first pull-up club. You can also post an honor roll of members who have reached a particular length of active participation—like 500 classes or three years of membership. In this area, your imagination is an asset. 

The person in this role must have exceptional listening skills, an upbeat personality, keen interpersonal skills and a penchant for time management.

Former Two-Brain client success manager Eden Watson commented that the CSM “can be thought of as the ‘Bright Spot.’ They make sure your clients feel like they’re doing a great job all the time, they feel good about themselves, and they know what’s coming up next.” 

Improve Communications

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.” Most people join gyms because they seek the guidance necessary to reach their goals. If you can demonstrate your concern for your clients’ ambitions, you’ll have more long-term members. 

Constructive communication serves as a bridge between you and your clients. It provides you with the information you need to keep your clients engaged, on track with their goals and connected to your brand.

This conversational approach is different from the one you use in the analysis phase because you want to bond with your clients and demonstrate your overall investment in their growth. So, in addition to asking them about their likes and dislikes, you should encourage them to share their life stories, their fitness journeys and their aspirations. Then, highlight the people and their stories on your website, bulletin board and social media platforms. 

Overall, this practice will help your members feel more connected to your gym and more confident that you and your staff genuinely care about them and their success. It might sound odd to recommend you “talk to your clients,” but many gym owners get caught up in operations and spreadsheets and programming. You must remember that retention is about relationships.

More effective communication practices should extend to every aspect of client relations, including and perhaps especially onboarding. A study conducted by Dr. Paul Bedford revealed that 87 percent of clients who received more involved onboarding were still active in six months, vs. 60 percent of clients whose onboarding was less involved.

In addition, many successful gym owners are finding that longer onboarding processes (including Two-Brain’s No Sweat Intro consultation sessions) assist in higher conversion and gym member retention rates. (Check out Two-Brain Radio for details from a real gym owner.)

Reaching Out to Former Clients

Former clients share several attributes with your current clients. For instance, they bought your membership, experienced your services and have a relationship with you (even if it’s not “current”). These are good reasons to reach out to them and have a conversation. In addition, you may find that many former clients might be pleasantly surprised to hear from you. 

You could take two or three occasions out of the month to reconnect with former clients. When you make the call, avoid the appearance of being self-serving: Don’t coordinate the call with a membership drive or some special promotional event. Instead, simply have a casual conversation that includes questions concerning present fitness levels, exercise routines and goals.

In the course of the conversation, you can share any new developments at the gym, offer free exercise tips or general healthy habits advice, or help them clear any obstacles to their return. The two primary purposes of the conversation are to show your interest in them and provide an easy gateway for them to re-engage with your brand. Then, if they seem ready to start again, you can schedule a one-on-one appointment with you or one of your coaches. 

Many Two-Brain clients have had impressive results simply by sending this email message to former clients, then continuing the conversation it starts: “Do you still want to improve your fitness this year?”

Make no mistake: Retention involves contacting former clients. They paid you money before, so they’re highly likely to pay you again. Consider departed clients “absent for now” and take steps to get them back—then ensure they don’t leave again.

Clients don’t always notice success. Showing them their wins is critical to strong retention stats.Three-Month Check-Ins

Two-Brain data has revealed that regularly scheduled check-ins and goal-setting sessions boost retention and adherence rates for several reasons. They help you:

Thoroughly assess clients’ progress and adjust the plan to ensure success (sometimes with services that increase ARM).Tailor your service package to the client’s ever-changing needs.Provide more accountability for clients to reach their goals.Nurture a one-to-one relationship with your client.Celebrate successes and highlight milestones the clients might not have noticed.Discover any “pain points” that can be removed to ensure retention.

In top Two-Brain gyms, all clients generally meet with coaches every 90 days for an in-depth discussion according to a plan that’s documented in the staff playbook. But for high-touch services like personal training and customized nutrition coaching, client meetings occur much more often—certainly monthly but often weekly or biweekly.

If done correctly, the regular check-ins will deepen your bond with your clients, keep them engaged longer and help them reach their goals faster. Be sure all incoming members know these check-ins are part of the service package, and be sure to book 90-day reviews as part of your intake process.

Goal setting is a critical part of retention, and many gym owners forget about it. If clients don’t have goals, why should they keep coming? And what if they aren’t moving toward their goals?

Your clients’ goals are the foundation for improving your adherence and LEG metrics. These goals become the focal point for their motivation to adhere to the program. For this reason, you should establish short-, medium- and long-term goals because clients who accomplish goals regularly are more likely to stay engaged. 

Goal setting helps people accept their current state while striving to achieve their ideal selves, which boosts self-confidence and creates a feeling of well-being. You can capitalize on this dynamic by celebrating all your clients’ achievements, big or small. These celebrations can be in the form of a physical bulletin board, an in-person high five, a social media post, a blog article or a gift from the CMS.

Maximizing Operations

Solid operations ensure a stable, consistent environment that benefits your clients and staff and encourages everyone to stick around. You must have specific retention systems, but don’t neglect the day-to-day elements that stimulate optimal performance and generate long-term engagement.

For most people, the ideal gym would:

Be clean and safe and meet current hygiene standards.Be upbeat, fun and accommodating, with encouraging staff.Have consistency in equipment function, facilities, pricing and coaches (low staff turnover).Make you feel like part of the gym family through a one-on-one relationship—even if clients participate only in group classes.Provide a stress-free experience with a variety of group and personal exercise options.

When dealing with the fundamental elements of gym operation, list-making is a powerful tool to get things done. A study done by the Dominican University found that people are 33 percent more likely to achieve a goal if they commit on paper (or digitally). A task list provides you and your staff with a systematic way to ensure that you stay on top of routine and periodic jobs like cleaning, equipment maintenance and supply management. 

For Two-Brain’s “Done-for-You Hiring Plan and Detailed Job Descriptions,” click here.

Empty gyms aren’t good for people or entrepreneurs. Improve your retention to create healthier members and a more profitable business.When Your Gym Retention Improves

A rising gym member retention rate is a vital part of your gym’s profitability. It also serves as validation for everything you strive to do with your gym.

When a client has stuck with you for 14 months or more, it shows they have bought into your system, achieved results and committed to more. It’s great for their health and your balance sheet. Everyone wins.

Imagine having 10-year clients like Kevin Woods does at CrossFit Moncton. What would that do for their lives and your business? Ten-year engagement is possible if you make gym member retention a priority now!

About the Author: John Burson successfully ran a personal training business for over 20 years, and he has written volumes of published articles on business entrepreneurship, finance and the fitness industry.

The post Everything a Gym Owner Should Know About Member Retention appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Your Gym’s Blog Isn’t for You: Content Marketing Mistakes

Here’s a question you should never ask yourself when it comes to content marketing:

“What do I want to write about?”

It’s not relevant with regard to your business.

Ask it off the clock—on Saturday morning when you have free time to pursue your personal interests. Then go ahead and write “Harry Squatter and the Barbell of Destiny” or “A Discovery of Wall Balls.”

Here’s the question you should be asking:

“What does my ideal client want to read about?”

The answer is the key to your content-marketing efforts.

When You Blog for Yourself

Here’s a too-common scenario: A gym owner evolves through experience and education. She’s also battling a touch of impostor syndrome—as we all do—and feels pressure to convince people she’s a top coach.

In short order, the gym’s blog is full of detailed posts about hormones, metabolism and powerlifting training progressions influenced by Westside Barbell.

The posts are well written and informative, but they’re well beyond the gym’s clients and even further beyond the prospective clients who are currently trolling the website and looking for a reason to book a free consultation.

Imagine this: Soccer Dad wants to lose 15 lb. before summer at a gym. When he clicks through the blog, he doesn’t see any simple strategies for healthy eating or posts about the effectiveness of diet and exercise.

Instead, he sees a post about the role of adiponectin in the regulation of energy metabolism, then another about the percentage of band tension needed for bench-press speed-strength training in three-week waves.

Soccer Dad thinks “this isn’t for me” and clicks the X on the browser tab. He’s off to search for “lose this gut” and “dad bod workouts.”

The Content You Need to Create

Here’s the key to effective content for a gym business:

Even as your own interests evolve, blog for your clients and prospective clients.

That means you might have to write “Can I Do CrossFit in Basketball Shoes?” instead of “3 Tips for Cycling Weighted Bar Muscle-Ups Faster.”

Here are the two questions to ask yourself before you start writing:

1. Will this post interest and help current clients?
2. Will this post solve problems for prospective clients?

If you get one “yes,” start writing. If you get “no” and “no,” write something else.

The only exception to this rule: carefully targeted SEO posts, but we’ll leave them out of the content-marketing equation for now. My goal is to help you solve a basic content problem today, not learn how to go toe to toe with Google’s algorithms.

To answer the two questions above, you must know your “client avatar”—the fictional representation of you perfect client. If you don’t have an avatar yet, create one, and fill in as many details as possible. When you have all the traits in place, you’ll know what to write about.

Sample avatar: Busy urban professional between 30 and 50 who has children and a goal of reaching or maintaining a healthy weight in personal or group sessions of no more than 30 minutes.

If you’re still lost, here are your hacks:

1. Ask your current best clients what they’d like to read about.
2. Ask your newest clients what questions they had before they joined.

Write one post for your current clients, then another based on the responses from your newest clients. Repeat to infinity.

Know—and Please—Your Audience

If you’re looking to acquire and retain clients, don’t turn your blog into a collection of posts for other trainers and gym owners—unless those people are likely to purchase your services.

In my case, that’s my audience, and this post was written to solve a problem common to fitness entrepreneurs.

Your audience will be different. Get to know its members, then create the content that will engage them.

Remember: Your business’s blog isn’t the place for your interests. It’s the place your clients go to read about theirs.

The post Your Gym’s Blog Isn’t for You: Content Marketing Mistakes appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Two-Brain Q&A: Free Stuff and One-on-One Mentorship

Mike (00:02):

Two-Brain gives away incredible amounts of free knowledge, but why share all the secrets? And instead of chucking entrepreneurs into groups, we work one on one with each client in the first stages of mentorship. What’s the deal with that? Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper answers those questions today on Two-Brain Radio.

Chris (00:19):

Hey guys, today, I’m going to try and answer two great questions that I got in my email last week. The first question was how do you possibly make money when you give away so much knowledge for free? And the second question was, why do you do mentorship one on one instead of in a group. And that one came from somebody who’s in a group coaching program in the fitness business somewhere else. And she was wondering like, how is it possible that we match every single client in the Two-Brain ramp up and growth programs with a mentor that they’ll work with one on one in private instead of doing a group coaching program. So what I wanna start with is why we publish so much stuff for free. And my goal here, I’m gonna be completely candid with you is that I want you to take the free stuff.

Chris (01:07):

I want you to act on it. I want you to make money from it. And then I want you to take the next step, which is to seek mentorship to guide you through the learning and the knowledge acquisition and the mistakes and the growth way faster. What we’ve learned over the years is that we can’t publish enough free stuff. You know, we really don’t hold a lot of stuff back. Sometimes if we have a new tactic that’s working really, really well, we’ll tell people generally what the tactic is, but we won’t get really specific in how it’s done. So for example, we’ll tell people, you know, we’re advocating for free public Facebook groups. You can convert people to a no sweat intro by doing sell by chat, or by getting them onto your email list or whatever. What we won’t do is give you the actual chat templates or the actual emails to use, or the other conversion calls that you need to do, or the texting that you need to send. Those specific tactics

Chris (02:00):

We keep within Two-Brain, but I want you to have the knowledge. I’m doing this with the knowledge myself that knowledge is not enough. Knowledge is enough to get you started, but knowledge alone takes way too much time to practice, to iterate, to act on, to screw up and to get right before you see a ton of results. And so somebody could read my book, they could pay 20 bucks for it. I might make 2.50 out of that, maybe at the most. And they could get access to all the knowledge that they need to make their business successful. And that’s great because that’s my mission. The Two-Brain Business mentorship program is still growing every year. We’ve now worked with over 2000 gym owners worldwide, and they are about 850 currently in the program because these are the people who understand the value of action and knowledge by itself does not create enough action to get where

Chris (02:56):

You want to go as fast as possible. The next question is, why do we do it one on one? You know, I’m in a lot of mastermind programs. Every year I spend about a quarter million dollars on mentorship because I understand that mentorship is an investment that returns an exponential result, right? It’s it’s not an expense. It’s not a cost I put money in and I get more money out when I buy mentorship. That said a lot of the programs that I’m in are group mentorship. So you might talk to the head of the group once, but usually what happens is the head of a group coaching practice will lead a monthly seminar. They might produce a monthly exercise, and then they’ll host these monthly group calls and they’ll get you on the call. And you’ll talk with other people who are trying to overcome the same challenges that you are.

Chris (03:44):

And you’ll break up into small groups and you’ll work through things. And there’s a lot of value in that. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably a group coach. And so you already understand the value of collaboration and even a little bit of competition, right? There is value in that, but when it comes to solving your specific problems, you need one on one mentorship from somebody who has already solved those problems and can give you more than a worksheet. They need to give you their experience and all the challenges that they overcame with it. They also need to be able to point you to the best practices or data or knowledge that you need right now. So instead of waiting for your topic or your problem to come up in the rotation, your mentor should be able to say, here’s what you’re dealing with, here is the best way to solve it right now.

Chris (04:38):

OK? So we don’t do group mentorship in our ramp up, our startup, or our growth programs, because one on one is that streamlined approach that will get you from A to B fastest. In our tinker program, it’s slightly different. In the tinker phase, there is no one expert who has done everything like there’s no expert on Bitcoin who is also an expert on buying commercial real estate. There is no expert on leadership who is also an expert on franchising. There are so many different ways to go once your gym has a baseline of success that you need access and connection more than you need one person with all the answers. And this is a actually a problem with higher level mentorship programs. So our tinker program is around 15,000 a year, but most of these higher level programs that I’m talking about would be well over a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Chris (05:33):

There’s still group mentoring programs, or maybe you’re dealing one on one with somebody, but the problem is that that person can’t be an expert on just everything that you need at once. They can be an expert on prioritization or leadership. They could be an expert in investments. They could be an expert in buying Airbnbs or acquiring other companies, or, you know, starting new businesses, but they can’t be expert to all things. So what usually happens is you sign up with somebody at that level, you’re paying a hundred thousand to even a million dollars a year. You’ve got lots of access to them one on one, but you have to only solve one problem at a time. And then go look for the next expert. Our tinker program’s goal is to bring all the experts into one place and then have coaches who connect you to those experts, to the people who’ve already solved your problems.

Chris (06:21):

And those might be other people in the group. So at the tinker level, we do use a group mentorship program so that we can leverage the expertise and connection within the group. In our earlier programs, we do everything one on one, because I want you to have that strong bond with somebody who understands what you’re going through, who knows your numbers, who knows what you did last month. And they know what you’re about to do next month. That one-on-one mentorship is super duper important up until the point where either you’re making a hundred thousand dollars a year from your gym or your net worth of all your assets is around a million. We’ve tried this other ways. Absolutely. If you’re listening to this podcast, you know, that I’m big on data. And when I started coaching gym owners back in 2012, I was doing everything one on one.

Chris (07:09):

And so I would do seven or eight calls with seven or eight gym owners a week. And we would talk through their specific problems and we’d give them resources and templates and tools to help them. And then we would build on that. And eventually my schedule just got full. I had, I think about 55 clients. And I said, I’ve gotta do this another way. What if we sold a course that would just give you access to the knowledge. And then you could do one-on-one calls after that, if you wanted to, but you’d have the baseline, you would already be leveled up. And I could work with higher level gym owners. And so we tried selling this course, this wasn’t through Two-Brain Business. It was a different company at the time. And I worked for them. I didn’t own it. And in the first weekend we sold, I don’t know, 50 of these courses.

Chris (07:51):

And that was a lot of money. And I thought, oh my goodness, this is awesome. This is how we scale. This is how we help people. And I lived on that cloud for quite a while. And then about three weeks later, I started picking up the phone and calling the people who had bought the course. And what I found was a lot of didn’t start it yet. I logged in didn’t do much work, but it looks great. Yeah. It looks really good. I can’t wait to dig in. People weren’t taking action. They weren’t getting results. And so I waited. And then after eight weeks I called them all again. How’s it going? Oh, good, good, good. Yeah, man, I’m just so busy. I haven’t gotten to it yet or, yep. I’ve set aside time next week to start. Nobody was getting results because nobody was taking action on the knowledge.

Chris (08:36):

I didn’t yet understand 10 years ago that knowledge is not enough, that you have to have action. And so I went back to the way that I had been mentored, which was one on one. And we started hiring other mentors at Two-Brain to join me. Now that team has gone through some evolutions, but we’re right at 50 mentors worldwide because we work one on one with the gym owners in our ramp up, startup and growth programs. That’s how important it is to me. Why do other people use group coaching? Well, group coaching is effective. Sometimes it’s more effective when you are more successful because you need less help, definitely, but also group coaching is better for the coach that’s delivering it. Like they make more money. They probably have to work less. And you know, they don’t have to really do anything except for come up with a topic.

Chris (09:31):

They can share their opinion, but they don’t have to track data. Don’t have to know the real answer every time, they don’t have to prove anything. So most business coaches that you see in the world right now do group coaching. And in fact, if you’re in a mastermind of other busines, coaches, you’ll find that they will tell you to get out of one-on-one coaching. However, most of them don’t track success. They don’t track how long a gym owner loves their program enough to stay with them. They don’t track the gym’s actual growth. They don’t go back and tweak their curriculum to optimize growth. They don’t say this new thing is working or let’s prove that this thing has stopped working. Right. They can’t do that without one on one, because it’s just too hard. You’re not having those relationships. And so the reason that gyms that join Two-Brain tend to stick around for about three or four years, is that one-on-one relationship that can carry you all the way through startup or your deepest, darkest struggle days, all the way to tinker phase when you’re making, you’ve got a net worth of well over a million dollars.

Chris (10:38):

So I believe in one-on-one, I believe in it especially as you’re going through it, you know, converting your gym into something that’s more successful, especially when you’re in the startup phase. You’re trying to get a good running start that’s gonna pay off over the next 30 years. I believe in one-on-one mentorship. In the tinker phase, at higher levels, I don’t believe there’s such a thing as one mentor who has all of the answers. And so I believe in the connective collaborative power of group coaching, which still has some one-on-one mentorship in it, by the way. But things change as you grow. More than ever, we need people who are familiar with our particular case. And this is why personal training is more valuable and costs more than group training does. This is why group training is like the budget option in gyms. And this is why group training is kind of the budget option when it comes to business coaching too. Knowledge is not enough. Action is the name of the game here. For most people, a one-on-one relationship will result in the best action fastest. And if that’s you, then we’d love to talk to you about it. Thanks for asking me these questions. If you have questions about any of our stuff, you can always just email chris@twobrainbusiness.com or post a question in Gym Owners United, our public-facing Facebook group that you can join for free and get free tools every couple of weeks.

Mike (11:53):

Two-Brain Radio airs twice a week, and features all the info you need to run a successful fitness business. Subscribe so you don’t miss a show.

 

The post Two-Brain Q&A: Free Stuff and One-on-One Mentorship appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Guy Who Bought 4 Gyms in 6 Months

Mike (00:02):

Tyler Welch owns six gyms and he’s purchased four of them in the last six months. I’m Mike Warkentin. I’m gonna dig into the why and how of gym buying in this episode of Two-Brain Radio, please don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you happen to be listening or watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe, hit like and ring the notifications bell so you don’t miss a thing. Now, RXFit That is Tyler Welch’s brand. It’s based in Utah. Over the last six months Tyler has the group from two gyms to six. Tyler. Welcome to Two-Brain Radio. Are you ready for a host of questions?

Tyler (00:31):

Ready.

Mike (00:31):

All right. I’m gonna ask you a big one first. Why buy a gym instead of start one. That’s a huge question.

Tyler (00:39):

Yeah, and it’s my preference. I know Cooper would rather start it from scratch, but you’re buying an audience and depending on how organized the previous gym owner is, or was, you have plus or minus a thousand contacts to immediately start having conversations with, and the best part about the purchase price is it’s not factored into the purchase price. That audience is invaluable and it’s $0.

Mike (01:05):

That’s a really interesting response because Chris has talked about that. He said he would buy it for an audience. That’s what he would do because often when you buy a gym, it comes with all sorts of other issues. We’ll get into that a little bit later in the show. Yeah. But the thing that you said there is kind of neatly stated where audience isn’t one of those intangibles where it doesn’t show up in a balance sheet, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that’s an interesting one, because again, tell me, first of all, RxFit, are you looking at like functional fitness kinda model CrossFit model? Or what kinda stuff do you do there?

Tyler (01:35):

Yeah, so we’re unaffiliated, well, one of the six gyms is affiliated. And there’s a few advantages to that, but the other five aren’t. We don’t market CrossFit. Right. But we require that our group class coaches are certified through CrossFit, at least their level one. And in most staff development meetings, the CrossFit level one level two methodology is taught and retaught and retaught. So for all intents and purposes, we are a CrossFit gym without marketing the word CrossFit.

Mike (02:07):

The reason I ask is to give people perspective on what you would, you know, the price of starting a gym, like a CrossFit gym would be very different in terms of price to start as opposed to like a globo gym where you’ve got 7,000 machines that are all $10,000 a piece and so forth. So yeah, that’s interesting. I’m gonna give people perspective on that. So I’m gonna ask you the second question now is you buy one gym. I know why. Why buy three more? Is it the same answer or something else?

Tyler (02:31):

I hit this point last year where my motive is I feel an immense pressure on my shoulders to provide meaningful careers for my staff members. And I hit this point where I thought, you know, I’ve grown one gym and now two gyms, and I’ve provided two additional careers for people I really care about. But these other part-time coaches, there’s no ascension. And even for those head coaches or GMs, depending on what you would call ’em, there’s no ascension after that, I’m in their way. And so I started thinking, how do I create this fitness career where there’s no ceiling for my staff? And I started thinking, OK, they need to fill my position. And I need to send myself up the ladder. And I didn’t wanna remove myself. Most of the tinkerers I know a lot of the tinkerers kind of have their gyms on autopilot, but I am so just in love with fitness and the gym industry and gym management that I wanted to be involved with it 60, 70 hours a week.

Mike (03:36):

And that makes sense. Like, I don’t for sure, but I don’t think there’s another tinker that owns six gyms. I think some of them have like one thing and maybe they branched out into a second thing and it might be a gym where it might be a different thing completely like real estate or something. But I dunno of another tinker maybe you do who owns six.

Tyler (03:51):

I dunno. But maybe there is, yeah.

Mike (03:56):

Tell me a little bit about the staffing situation, you’ve created careers for people. So do you operate kinda as the CEO of all six gyms and then delegate like management positions to each one? How do you do that?

Tyler (04:08):

Yeah, so yes and no. I’m trying to fill that CEO position. OK. But I’m also the GM of one location. OK. And there’s a few reasons for that. One of the reasons is at this point, right now, we’ve grown so fast in such a short period of time. I need to lead, I at least feel the need to lead by example. So that’s in NSI, booked sales, closed, goal reviews. And I even coach my classes at that location. Which requires, I mean, a lot of hours, but I’m trying to be like, this is the model GM I’m gonna demonstrate for you. So it’s longer hours right now, but you know, I’m under the age of 30 and I’m just full of energy. And I think I’ll continue to run hard like this for a couple more years before I really start to slow down.

Mike (04:59):

I can see that you have a plan, right? Like I see that your plan is not to do this forever. Your plan is clearly to do something where you’re setting an ideal example and then you’re going to offload some stuff. And you may always keep your hand on the tiller to some degree, and maybe even more than some gym owners would, but you’re clearly, you know, you are setting an example with the idea of follow what we call, you know, climbing the value ladder and offloading some stuff.

Tyler (05:21):

Yeah. Yeah.

Mike (05:22):

Do you mind telling me, like in the compensation structure, whatever, how do your gym owners operate? Do they get a full package kind of thing as their, as they run their show? How does that work?

Tyler (05:34):

Yeah, so I learned quickly I can’t salary the GMs. OK. Complacency sets in some areas. Yeah. So we follow the four ninths model. Well, almost. It’s 40%. And the GM for each location is the gym owner without ownership. And they manage, I only say that because some GMs don’t do certain things. But the GM is responsible for 40% of the gross revenue. If they wanna delegate the cleaning that comes out of their paycheck, if they wanna delegate the coaching that comes out of their paycheck, but they have to run their location as if they’re the gym owner and they take 40%. So as their gym grosses more, they can kind of climb their own value ladder within their gym and hire additional staff.

Mike (06:18):

So do you have five of these people now, or is it you plus some number or what’s the number of full-time people?

Tyler (06:24):

Yeah, we have five there’s five of us. One of the GMs is doing two gyms at one time right now.

Mike (06:34):

How did you up with this model?

Tyler (06:37):

The thing that really saved my life was John Briggs book Profit First for Microgyms.

Mike (06:41):

JAnd he’s a Utah guy, if I’m not mistaken, correct. Yeah.

Tyler (06:44):

Yeah. And, so I actually bought his gym. OK. And I try to work out there regularly with him at the 7:30 class, just to pick his brain,

Mike (06:52):

Say hi to him for me.

Tyler (06:54):

I will. But, yeah, he has a unique perspective where he has hundreds of other gyms that work with Incite Tax and he’s kind of helpe mentor me in a way to kind of realize like I can’t exceed this salary cap in order for all margins to be protected.

Mike (07:12):

So you’re yeah. So you’ve got a, obviously with you, you know, buying a gym from an accountant who works with, you know, many other fitness facilities. You’ve got your hand into the accounting to a high degree, especially as you scale up, it would be a mistake to do that without having a clue about balance sheets and all that. So I would guess that you’re focused on some financial metrics.

Tyler (07:32):

Yeah. Hyper focused.

Mike (07:34):

That’s interesting. Cuz like again, when I started running a gym 10 years ago, I made the mistake of following me if you build it, they’ll come. And I wasn’t hyper focused on financial metrics. That got me into trouble. Two-Brain got me out, but you can see how that middle part of that story goes. Along those lines, I struggled to run one gym. Like I found it very overwhelming, all the different aspects of stuff. So how did you scale up to six so quickly? Like I was overwhelmed. You’ve got six. So tell me about that.

Tyler (08:01):

Well there’s an opportunity with COVID and its shed light on the industry, especially around in Utah where these part-time gym owners or hobbyists have made this decision. Like, do I really want this part-time hobby or do I wanna sell it? And so I’ve started cold calling for the past year and cold emailing, just like, Hey, I don’t wanna step on your toes, but I’m interested in buying a gym or starting a gym in area.

Mike (08:29):

That’s interesting.

Tyler (08:30):

So I’ve been very assertive. I’ve been careful not to be, I don’t think I am, but maybe sometimes I am. I try to be as humble as I can, but assertive and we can dive into this too, but I’d rather buy an unprofitable gym than a profitable gym. There’s a few reasons for that.

Mike (08:46):

So I got two questions right off the bat. I gotta just jump in and ask. I can’t even hold myself back here, but did you just start, like calling the phone book or did you target specific gyms like or how did you decide who you’re gonna call to talk about potential buyouts?

Tyler (09:00):

So within the next year, I there’s a city from Spanish fork to salt lake city. Those are cities in Utah about maybe an hour, 15 hour and a half from each other. And my, my vision for this next 18 months is to have a gym in each location within 15 minutes of each other, because my first gym is in a college town. And what I started to realize, as I thought, all my cancellations are graduates, well, not all of them, but a high percentage of them are graduating students, but they’re moving to these other cities within that area. And so I started thinking, man, wouldn’t it be nice if these people that come to Utah to school, I get ’em when they come. And then I keep ’em when they graduate, because I have gyms along the interstate.

Mike (09:46):

So this is the client journey. Like you figured this one out.

Tyler (09:50):

I wouldn’t say I figured it out, but it is the strategy I’m pursuing. Maybe it’s not the right strategy yet, but it’s the one I’m pursuing. I want gyms in 15 minutes within all of ’em and then it also allows staff to be used interchangeably between locations. Staff can be picked up. They can pick up additional hours at other gyms if need be. And because the driving distances are closer, we can have not just a single location staff meeting, but we can have multi-location staff meetings.

Mike (10:21):

Does membership transfer between locations?

Tyler (10:23):

Yeah.

Mike (10:23):

So this is interesting. Now I gotta get to that second question. That’s why do you prefer unprofitable ones?

Tyler (10:31):

They’re cheaper on the dollar. Yeah. And the members, they have this intense loyal to the community, but they have some things that are frustrating to ’em. And so when you come in, you come in with this fresh breath of air and this incredible amount of excitement and they just, I mean, I won’t lie. I sell my soul for a couple of weeks to that location back to founder phase where it’s like 16, 17 hours, but just to gain the respect of that location. And then there’s just this affinity or attachment to like, Hey, this guy’s really trying to do something special. And we finally have someone who’s full-time bought in trying to make this thing awesome. So, we’ve bought one of the four gyms recently we bought was profitable and I love that location. That’s the one I’m managing now.Bbut the members are, it’s a little bit harder. I have found they’re a little bit more skeptical of change. OK. And so I’ve had to be a little more creative around that cause they’re already running the location’s nice. The facility’s nice, the programming’s nice. The coaching’s good. You know, so I’m just thinking like, how do I provide this, this like big value add because they already have valuable value offerings.

Mike (11:49):

So when you do this purchase, do you have to get rid of the current staff or do you kind of put them in places new places or how do you do that?

Tyler (11:56):

That’s the hardest thing and it kills me. Yeah. It depends on the financials of the gym. There was one gym in particular where I had to let go of everybody. Even the cleaner. So I had to clean and coach everything for three months. Just because I couldn’t, I have an intense focus on no gym ever is unprofitable. And so I had one on one conversations with the six or seven coaches that gym had and I said, I think you’re great. Here is the financial, here’s the P and L. I can’t pay you without going into the red. Yeah. And I refuse to have you coach for free. So most of them understood. I know some of ’em, were a little bothered, not necessarily at me, but just at the situation. I’ve at least attempted to be careful to maintain quality relationships and the reputation that if I did buy an existing gym, it’s not that I’m gonna rip out the staff.

Mike (12:58):

It’s interesting. You really have your foot in like one foot firmly in the tinker thing where you’re like, you know, upper level entrepreneur growing replicating businesses, but then you also, at times have your foot in the founder spot where you’re jumping back in and literally firing the cleaner and doing the cleaning yourself for a period. And that’s, you know, and the goal of founder phase in Chris Cooper’s book, which, version two of founder farmer thinker thief is coming out very shortly. Your focus is on profitability, breaking even as soon as possible. Does that ever feel like you’re just torn in two directions?

Tyler (13:27):

Yeah. I don’t even think I’m a tinker. I mean, I like to think I am, but my life and my workflow is the founder.

Mike (13:35):

That’s interesting. You have elements of both that we’ll call it that. When you come into a gym that you purchased, regardless of whether you have to get rid of the staff or keep some, do you then drop your existing framework and playbook and procedures and policies on that location or is anything you retain?

Tyler (13:55):

Oh man, that’s a great question. It’s gradual. OK. Yeah, I do it when it’s right. And I do it incrementally step one is to on-ramp everyone to the level method. So we go two weeks strong of the level method testing, and then I get ’em in the ChalkIt Pro, I show ’em how we’re trying to have this custom focus in the group classes to their programming. And then I, after that two week period, I start having goal reviews, talking to individuals, trying to get some on personal training. But yeah, it’s not until I feel. And then after that, then equipment purchases come in. So I sell off some of the broken or the really used equipment. I buy new ones. And usually that, and the coaching, I try as hard as I can to just be like a five star coach. So usually with those three things, like really, really good coaching, a new approach to programming with like levels and then new equipment coming in, then we equalize pricing. And then and then we start to introduce some of our accessory programs.

Mike (15:04):

I got the dogs here, barking their faces off. Two-Brain Radio mascots. It’s really interesting how you’ve kind of got that stuff. So it’s kind of a process for everything, right? So you’re starting with evaluating each gym as it goes. What kinda problems do you get into, like, I’m sure there’s some stuff like where, you know, retention, clients, maybe leave, staff problems. What are the main problems of buying a gym?

Tyler (15:27):

Well, you inherit all the quote, I’ll say quote problems. You run into the bro deals and the free memberships and the trades. And, you run into this member bought this piece of equipment and therefore has this much left on their membership. And it’s just navigating who has an entitlement where. Trying to figure out all that, and then having conversations with those indiviudals to say like, thank you for all you’ve done. How can I make this right? Because moving forward, we’re trying to professionalize this business. And I won’t be a part of it.

Mike (15:59):

What’s the response to a conversation like that. I know it varies, but what’s the general response.

Tyler (16:04):

You know, Mike I spend hours in these conversations to the point where I make sure the individual knows how much I care about the gym. And for the most part people, there’s a win-win, there’s like a meeting of the minds, but there have been cases where it has been better for the individual to move to another place. And that’s sad, but I can’t have these exceptions. I can’t make exceptions in certain locations or certain individuals.

Mike (16:39):

You wanna accommodate people as best you can, but it has to be consistent service. And that’s a principle of business that we kind of, at least gym owners in Two-Brain understand that everyone can’t have a discount or varying levels of discounts. And, you know, this thing, that thing, because all of a sudden you get people who are very upset with the whole situation. So those must be some interesting things. And I remember this is like, you know, 15 years ago I worked at a weird company where a new HR person came in and her mind was blown by what she saw and some of the things that were going on with all the, so I imagine it’s kinda like that sometimes where you open up this new box that you purchased and you look inside, you’re like, that’s an interesting membership agreement.

Tyler (17:17):

Yeah. So, and then there’s always like sublets, some of them have been subletting tenants that I wasn’t in, like entirely in the know about. So there’s always interesting things like that.

Mike (17:29):

What kinda retention do you generally get when you take over a gym? Do you have an idea of that?

Tyler (17:34):

You know, Mike, I’ve been really, uthe thing I’ve been most proud of our team is for two of the gyms, the most recent gyms where we had to equalize pricing, we had zero members leave.

Mike (17:46):

Really. That’s a huge accomplishment.

Tyler (17:49):

That hasn’t been true for all of ’em, but for the two most recent, um, wait, did that answer your question? I think I forget your question.

Mike (17:57):

No, that did. I was asking about retention rates when you take over a gym and like, so you basically added a hundred at two of them. The last two.

Tyler (18:04):

I mean, one of ’em wasn’t very great, and well, um, there’s no way you save the free membership people.

Mike (18:13):

That’s a tough one because free is free is free, you know, I dunno what exactly you could do to make that, to make that go. Tell me a little bit about, you don’t have to get into the exact mechanics of it or the numbers, but I’m curious, when you go into one of these buyouts, do you like, keep, you must have a war chest you’re like, OK, I’ve got this allotted to making this gym profitable as fast as possible. Like, is that how you go into it? Or how do you make sure that you like, do the other gyms support the current gym for a brief period? How do you do it

Tyler (18:39):

Financially? Month one has to be profitable.

Mike (18:44):

So you’re gonna come in and you’re gonna make it happen.

Tyler (18:47):

Yeah. I should say it’ll be profitable at the expense of my time. So if I have a thousand dollars to allocate for team member expense or whatever it is, then I’m doing everything else until we break even.

Mike (19:03):

What’s the worst or the longest day you’ve worked in one of these situations, like, have you pulled like a 16 hour kinda thing?

Tyler (19:11):

Oh, more than that.

Mike (19:14):

Yeah. So you’re all in, like you’re willing to do what it takes, how long, so you take over a gym. How long are you willing to make that commitment? Say, you know, 16 hour days, at what point, or is there a point where you’re like, OK, this is a little bit rough or when you start to worry or have you never had to do that because you’ve been able to scale up fast enough?

Tyler (19:34):

It hasn’t been an issue yet. There was a time in our location where I was going four months strong of long, long days, like, yeah, yeah. Four to 9 30, 10 o’clock. And, that one was hard, but I knew every week sales were coming in and we’re getting better, but it was long. OK.

Mike (19:59):

I’m trying to get my head around that, which is, I’ve done that myself 10 years ago. I’m older than you now, but I, back then, I was all in for that now I’m like, I dunno. So what’s your long term timeline on that? Like, are you gonna keep kind of going like this or is your goal to like stop at some number and then kind of devolve into a different role or not devolve evolve into a different role where maybe you work, you know, 10 hours a month or a week or something that, or what is your long-term plan?

Tyler (20:24):

Mike, I love this stuff. I’m gonna work a lot. And I have a family, I have two kids. I need to be more disciplined, making sure I’m there when they go to bed and things and I’m home for family dinner, that has been the thing I haven’t been proud of. So big focus for this year is replicating myself. So when we buy more gyms or even start more gyms, I need someone just like me to go and just send it.

Mike (20:53):

You’ll have to gimme this number as part of the secret plan, but like, do you have a goal number or how many gyms you wanna acquire?

Tyler (21:00):

By the end of this year, we’ll be at 10. That’s the goal. OK. I don’t have like a 3 year or 10 year certain number. I just wanna make meaningful, create meaningful careers for my friends. Not like my college friends per se, but my staff. Yeah.

Mike (21:20):

And as long as there’s sorry, I’m interrupt you. Go ahead. Pardon me?

Tyler (21:24):

Well, as long as I have individuals coming in that are excited and hungry for more opportunities, I’m gonna keep my foot on the pedal and providing those opportunities.

Mike (21:36):

So is your expansion somewhat dependent on staff? Like if you don’t have a good staff person, can you not expand or how do you manage that growth?

Tyler (21:44):

I’m trying to figure that out. Yeah, frankly. I think if I gave an answer now my answer might change next month.

Mike (21:52):

Sure. So then I’ll follow that up with a question. So how do you decide when it’s right to buy another one? Is it that you’ve got the current location in the stage where you can then jump to the new one? Or is it something like the opportunity comes up or how do you manage the pace of expansion? I’m throwing you hard ones.

Tyler (22:09):

I don’t think I have a good answer for that either. If an opportunity is there, I’m gonna take it and I’m gonna figure out a way, or at least attempt to figure out a way. I have some phenomenal individuals right now that when incentivized , I think we can make things work.

Mike (22:27):

Yeah. And you know, Chris has written about this and it’s even in his books now about there never will be a perfect time. So your answer is not, you know, it’s not a flaw as an entrepreneur. Like there never is a perfect time for everything. If you’re waiting for the perfect time to open a business, all the ducks are in a row. It won’t happen. You’re gonna have to take some chances, take some risks, fight through some stuff. So like, I don’t look at your answer as flip and saying, I don’t have that answer. I look at it as like, well, that’s the reality of business and you’re willing to adapt on the fly. Would that be accurate?

Tyler (22:55):

Yeah. So for example, like a detailed answer, we have three gyms within 15 minutes of each other in Utah county and three gyms within relatively 15 minutes of each other in salt lake county. But there’s two cities that separate those three gyms. And I wanna close that gap. I’m not ready for that yet. But if the opportunity came where one of those gyms in those areas was selling, I would take it. OK. I wouldn’t, however, start a gym in those areas because I’m not ready for it. That being said, if I pulled myself out of the management of the location I’m in, then I would start a gym in one of those two cities.

Mike (23:34):

If you started a new gym in one of those cities, and let’s say, you know, you start tomorrow, how long do you think it would take you to get it set up the way you want it? So you could move on. And I ask this question because it took me 10 years to get my gym set up properly. And I still didn’t have it set up properly. How long would it take you starting tomorrow?

Tyler (23:50):

It’s tough. I think my answer is a little skewed because I would probably draw some members from an existing location. OK.

Mike (24:00):

But you’ve earned that. Sothat’s not a freebie, you know, .

Tyler (24:04):

I don’t know. I would say, before I’m out of the management of it, I work in 90 day sprints. So I would try to be outta there in 90 days. But, I don’t know. I don’t have, my second gym was the only gym I started from scratch and that took me a lot longer.

Mike (24:21):

But that’s still interesting because I you’re talking in days and months here, weeks, not years. Which for me, like, again, trying to figure out back in the day, this was like 2009, 2010. How do I do this? And I didn’t have an answer by 2014. I was still adjusting things again. I think, I can’t remember when I started with Two-Brain, but that’s when I started really making some progress quickly. Did Two-Brain help you with systemizing the things or what was the main stuff that Two-Brain supplied to help you do this?

Tyler (24:49):

Oh, so Two-Brain and John Briggs, those two saved my career. Honestly, I was looking as I was graduating college, I was planning on selling the gym and taking another job. And then I found Two-Brain within like my going into my second to last semester at school and things turned around and I fell in love with the gym business again, I finally felt like I know how to do this now. So what specifically? I mean, yeah, they helped me with playbooks. They helped me realize there’s no exception of pricing. So my parents even have to pay a membership. They helped me see, I mean, I think everything , they helped me see the value of an audience and how you write love letters and how you communicate with that audience. And, yeah, just a lot of great examples that just the community in Two-Brain itself has just been invaluable.

Mike (25:43):

Honestly, that’s the goal. And Chris has talked about this so many times is to be, is to give an entrepreneur the ability to scale up faster, avoid all the mistakes that all the old school people made, myself included, Chris included, and skip some of those things. And there still will be mistakes that you make and so forth, but being able to blow past some of that, like the idea of a staff playbook and cohesive pricing and packaging and structuring and audiences and schedules for love letters and all that stuff, none of that existed when I started and man, I messed it up, you know, so we can thank Chris for paving the way on that one and and then setting some of that up. So it’s great to hear that that’s giving you an opportunity. I’ll ask you this, buying out. Are you getting better at doing it each time you do it? Is that, does that negotiation situation become easier?

Tyler (26:24):

Yeah, but I will say Mike, what I’m learning through negotiation is it’s not a money grab. If someone wants $300,000, I’ll say yes to it if it makes sense, it just has to make sense to me. If they want $30,000, I’ll say yes, but I just need to know logically why that number’s making sense. So the negotiation, the price has really been, like the price never matters to me. It’s just, is it a win-win for both sides and is it fair? So I think I’m getting better at that on seeing both ends. And I’m very careful. I always have been of not taking advantage of another party. You know, one of the gyms was John’s gym and at one point he said, it almost feels like you’re trying to take advantage of me and that hurt. And so I tried to restructure some things to make sure there was an ongoing relationship. I will say this cause I haven’t said it, it is super super important for me to keep that previous gym owner working out in the gym, which might be surprising.

Mike (27:30):

That is interesting. That is very interesting. And I imagine it’s challenging at some points. Like if I sold my gym, I wouldn’t wanna be there anymore. So that’s an interesting thing for you.

Tyler (27:39):

So that is one of like the negotiating points for me is how do I keep that individual at least temporarily a part of the gym.

Mike (27:46):

I won’t make you say this, but I’ll say it myself though, but I know a lot of gym owners, myself included would tend to overvalue gyms, especially negotiations. It’s like, it’s a labor of love. This is the thing you built with your own hands, the whole deal. Like you, you know, you think it’s worth more than it is. The balance sheet of CrossFit gyms and micro gyms often doesn’t reflect what the owner perceives. So again, I won’t make you say that because you’ve got, had to go through those negotiations with people. But I do know that, especially from the stuff that Chris has written about, the many gyms that he’s evaluated, uyou know, sales that he’s helped broker and so forth and our how to buy a gym, how to sell a gym playbooks, which you can find on Two-Brain’s free tools page.

Mike (28:23):

But the idea you now though, is that some gyms when they’re run properly and they have a profit margin of 30% potentially, and all these other things, some of these gyms, their valuation would go up quite a bit. It’s not like one of those buy yourself a job. Like as a for instance, if I was an outside investor and I looked at your gyms and I said, OK, you know, gym number three does not have you involved. It’s just this manager, this system, this playbook, this profit margin, it’s got the P and L sheet, the whole deal. I’d look at that. And that would have a higher price than if I was looking at a gym over here, a different one that you don’t run that has an owner operators working 16 hours a day, tons of discounts, crazy, you know, rates, all these other different things that I’ve gotta fix. There is a clear difference in that. And I imagine you’ve run into some of that stuff in, in your, you know, the levels that you’re willing to go.

Tyler (29:12):

So if someone is looking to buy a gym, I think step one, when starting negotiation is you have to agree on the equation.

Mike (29:23):

Ahuh. Yes. I was gonna ask you about this. Tell me more your tips here, but get into that one.

Tyler (29:28):

So before any numbers are thrown around there has to be an understanding of what are we actually valuing and how are we gonna value it because then numbers start getting thrown around and emotions start getting involved. Yeah. And if you can keep those things out of it, then it’s a smoother negotiation.

Mike (29:47):

Well, and that, it makes a lot of sense because I remember reviewing, this was like, you know, a couple of, you know, distant friends we’ll call them. I saw how they were gonna try and sell their gym and it wasn’t super profitable. It wasn’t profitable at all to be honest. And so they decided that it would just be sold on the basis of equipment valuation and so forth. And it didn’t go super well because one thought that was unfair. One thought that was fair. They had to revise everything and go back to it. So it’s interesting. I love what you’re saying there is that before you start, get the, like, get lay of the land, the terms of engagement in place, then start playing because the emotions will come involved. Yeah.

Tyler (30:25):

And I will say the equation changes most of the time. It’s like, so for instance, one of the gyms we agreed on the equation, the number came out. I put it together, sent it over and the gym owner said no way. And we didn’t talk for like two weeks. OK. And I was to trying to talk, I’m like, help me understand this is what we agreed on the equation of how to value it. What am I missing? Because I wanna buy your gym, you wanna sell your gym. What am I missing? Because I don’t wanna just buy an inflated gym, like right. Have an inflated price. And so then we factored in some other things that as part of that original equation, he thought was fair and I agreed with 90% of it. And so we added that on.

Mike (31:08):

You’re negotiating and you know, all is fair in that I get, and the dogs are going crazy again here. Of course we almost, we almost made it. But so my next question is, you know, I won’t even ask that one just to tell me your tip two, what would tip two be?

Tyler (31:25):

Be fair. Honestly.

Mike (31:27):

Is it hard to do that?

Tyler (31:28):

I think I’m in a position now, honestly, Mike, where I think I probably could persuade the individual for my own benefit. And I’m really, really trying not to ever do that because my reputation and the gym’s reputation is important to me for a longer term vision. And I don’t want, at any point for gym owner to feel like they got the shorter end of the stick.

Mike (31:52):

Give me one more tip. And this tip, I would like it to be something about how would you, how do you replicate? I mean, I’m gonna lead you by the hand here, but like, I wanna know how, what would you advise someone who’s trying to replicate one system into another gym? Cause you’re kinda a master at that. It looks like, how would you do that? Because for me, that’s baffling, I’ve got new staff, new clients, new layouts, new lease, new profits, losses, expenses. How do you do that? What’s a tip.

Tyler (32:16):

Well, I’m not great at it, but I’m working really hard at being great at it. SO you’re asked me, how do you replicate this.

Mike (32:26):

Imagine this here’s the scenario, I’ll clarify this. So I’m coming in and I know that you’ve done this. You’ve got six gyms and I’m gonna buy a second one. And I’m like, Tyler. Like, I don’t have a clue how to make my successful gym influence my unsuccessful gym. What do I do here? How do I get this one to look like this one?

Tyler (32:46):

So I guess my tip would be maybe my answer changes next week. My tip would be lay out a 12 week plan for yourself, like week one and two for me, are method on ramping, nothing else. That’s the only thing. And I’m coaching it all. I can’t have someone else come in and coach it because I need to sell the community on me and the brand. Week three is goal reviews and introducing potentially another staff member. Included in that is getting started if there isn’t one, a private Facebook group and getting chatter outside of the gym. Week four week five, you know, that’s what I would do.

Mike (33:27):

So I’ll, you know, cause every situation is gonna be different. I’m putting you in a theoretical spot, but I’ll just summarize that. And you tell me this is accurate as just have a plan and have like an implementation plan that goes piece by piece, depending on your unique situation. Would that be accurate? Cause like, for me, I’d be like, I would probably get too unfocused and see, I look, I’m gonna try and just ram everything into place right now, right off the bat. Not gonna work like that. You probably got a Lego block your foundation and then start building the walls of the castle.

Tyler (33:55):

Yeah. You know, it’s tough Mike, like the cleaner in one of the gyms we’ve recently bought, came to me yesterday. There’s six cleaners on trade memberships. They don’t get paid to clean, but they don’t pay for a membership. And the girl came to me and said, rumor has it, Tyler, you’re gonna make me pay a membership now. And I said, um, no, I’m not changing anything yet. I’ll change some things when the timing’s right. But,in our other locations I’ll pay you a fair wage to clean the gym and you pay us a fair wage to participate in the workouts and the coaching. And she said, oh, then it sounds like I’m gonna actually make more money. Cuz a membership is one 50 and I’ll start making three hundreds and then I’ll actually make, you know, and then she said, well, that’s nice to know, cuz I’ve always felt like I’ve been doing a service to the gym.

Mike (34:44):

So you’re really professionalizing is what you’re doing.

Tyler (34:47):

Yeah. But yeah, I would have a plan. I would agree with what you said in your words. But be very carefully, like I know I have a pretty good playbook, but I can’t just put that playbook on another location because it offends people. And so it has to be gradual and Mike, I’ve learned some things in certain locations that I really like that we end up changing across the board for everyone. One of those things, for instance, that I really like that, I didn’t know I would like, we haven’t done this with all the gyms yet is a 15 minute gap between classes.

Mike (35:20):

I wouldn’t have thought of that.

Tyler (35:23):

That was in place at the Draper gym. And I thought, I don’t wanna pay the coach for the, like if they’re coaching four classes in a row, that’s an extra hour of labor.

Mike (35:32):

That’s what I would’ve thought right off the bat too.

Tyler (35:34):

Yeah. But it is so nice for the community.

Mike (35:37):

So it’s retention play almost. Yeah.

Tyler (35:41):

Yeah. And so playing with the idea of how do we roll that out, across all the gyms, there’s some pushback with the existing managers and coaches. And I try to give the managers 98% autonomy. There are a few things that I have to put my foot on. And one of those, I don’t feel strong enough yet to say like this has to happen, but I learned that in a location that I didn’t like originally, but I’m starting to really love.

Mike (36:05):

I think, you know, I have more questions, but I’m gonna let you go. Cause I know you’re probably working a 16 hour day, but I think we need to talk about this in like 6, 7, 8 months. Will you come back and give us an update? I literally could sit here and ask you another 90 minutes worth of questions on this stuff. So I’m gonna put a cap on this episode, but I think we’re gonna reconnect on this and go maybe deeper into like some of the stuff you’ve learned. You know, I’d love to dig into learning from a gym you buy and then rolling those changes and back filling stuff to existing gyms. That would be fascinating. Is it fair now? Uh, as I close this one out to call you a gym tycoon?

Tyler (36:41):

I don’t think I deserve that yet, but maybe, I’m careful never to receive any individual nicknames or every time a staff member says Tyler’s gym. It’s a immediate correction. Cause we’re building something I think really special in Utah and it’s a team effort even though I’m probably working the most hours.

Mike (37:00):

I won’t call you a gym tycoon, but I’ll call you you know, the head of RxFit, building, you know, building a chain of communities and jobs for your crew. Is that accurate?

Tyler (37:15):

Maybe we talk financing.

Mike (37:19):

So we’re gonna bring you back on the show. We’re gonna dig into more of this, Tyler Welch will be back on Two-Brain Radio. Tyler. Thank you for being here today. I really appreciate it. I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. I’m all about telling the stories of amazing gym owners. Please subscribe for more episodes. Now here’s Two-Brain founder, Chris Cooper with a final word.

Chris (37:37):

Thanks for listening to Two-Brain Radio. If you aren’t in the Gym Owners United group on Facebook, this is my personal invitation to join. It’s the only public Facebook group that I participate in. And I’m there all the time with tips, tactics, and free resources. I’d love to network with you and help you grow your business. Join Gym Owners United on Facebook.

 

The post The Guy Who Bought 4 Gyms in 6 Months appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers—December 2021: More Revenue

Every month, we track the metrics of Two-Brain gyms.

We publish leaderboards to inspire—but also to learn.

Then we interview the top performers and ask, “What are you doing better than anyone else?”

We publish one category publicly each month. This month, we’re featuring revenue.

Above, you can see our revenue leaders for December 2021.

Here’s their top advice to help you:

“We adjusted the rates and structure of our youth program—it was drop in. Now it’s been revamped to be semi-private, 4-5 kids max with one coach. It was $12-13 and now it’s $25-$30 (per) person.”

“We developed the team-training side of our business: an academy for hockey and soccer teams. Partnerships were always in the works, and we had time to dig into them during lockdowns.”

“We converted some cancellations to online training (people who were moving or travelling to a warmer climate) instead of cancelling them.”

“We added an accountability-only program. I show up on Zoom and give them a workout to do, then check in later to see if they’ve done it. That’s really all they need from me.”

“We have a pretty ‘high-ticket’ intro program. In the No Sweat Intro, we say: ‘I know this is high ticket, and it would be easy for me to sell you a membership and throw you in the gym, but that’s not going to get you to your goals.’ I like those conversations, and they need to hear it, not be sold a dream. I ask them: ‘Are you not sick and tired of not being where you want to be?'”

“The biggest difference since August is that we have hired another PT and filled his schedule with new clients.”

“We brought Gym Lead Machine into the mix, (which) created the ease of being able to click through and book PT. That system, the ease with which it works, funnels everything in so we don’t lose those pieces. All the PT that has come in has been from external … . GLM provided a direct avenue for that to come into the gym.”

“We offer a members-only holiday gift card that … members can gift: Members can buy four one-on-one sessions called Virtuosity for $99 (heavily discounted) to give to their close contacts. Historically, we converted 70 percent. We lose money (invest in loss) in the beginning, but we are hedging the bet based on our ability to convert and retain. We won’t know this year’s data until after March (they have until March to redeem).”

Focus on the Basics

There are many ways to generate revenue, but they all come back to the basics: Offer people what they want, charge what you’re worth, and put the right people in place to do it.

CORRECTION—Jan. 31, 2022, 9:55 a.m.: A previous version of this post reported that the stats were from January 2022. They are from December 2021.

The post By the Numbers—December 2021: More Revenue appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers—January 2022: More Revenue

Every month, we track the metrics of Two-Brain gyms.

We publish leaderboards to inspire—but also to learn.

Then we interview the top performers and ask, “What are you doing better than anyone else?”

We publish one category publicly each month. This month, we’re featuring revenue.

Above, you can see our revenue leaders for January 2022.

Here’s their top advice to help you:

“We adjusted the rates and structure of our youth program—it was drop in. Now it’s been revamped to be semi-private, 4-5 kids max with one coach. It was $12-13 and now it’s $25-$30 (per) person.”

“We developed the team-training side of our business: an academy for hockey and soccer teams. Partnerships were always in the works, and we had time to dig into them during lockdowns.”

“We converted some cancellations to online training (people who were moving or travelling to a warmer climate) instead of cancelling them.”

“We added an accountability-only program. I show up on Zoom and give them a workout to do, then check in later to see if they’ve done it. That’s really all they need from me.”

“We have a pretty ‘high-ticket’ intro program. In the No Sweat Intro, we say: ‘I know this is high ticket, and it would be easy for me to sell you a membership and throw you in the gym, but that’s not going to get you to your goals.’ I like those conversations, and they need to hear it, not be sold a dream. I ask them: ‘Are you not sick and tired of not being where you want to be?'”

“The biggest difference since August is that we have hired another PT and filled his schedule with new clients.”

“We brought Gym Lead Machine into the mix, (which) created the ease of being able to click through and book PT. That system, the ease with which it works, funnels everything in so we don’t lose those pieces. All the PT that has come in has been from external … . GLM provided a direct avenue for that to come into the gym.”

“We offer a members-only holiday gift card that … members can gift: Members can buy four one-on-one sessions called Virtuosity for $99 (heavily discounted) to give to their close contacts. Historically, we converted 70 percent. We lose money (invest in loss) in the beginning, but we are hedging the bet based on our ability to convert and retain. We won’t know this year’s data until after March (they have until March to redeem).”

Focus on the Basics

There are many ways to generate revenue, but they all come back to the basics: Offer people what they want, charge what you’re worth, and put the right people in place to do it.

The post By the Numbers—January 2022: More Revenue appeared first on Two-Brain Business.