Chris Cooper's Blog, page 11

5 Pics That Show Where You Need to Be on June 7

The 2025 Two-Brain Summit goes down June 7-8 in Chicago, and we have just a handful of tickets remaining.

I’ve got five reasons you should get one before we sell out.

This Guy (and His Friends)

Chris Cooper will be onstage, and he’ll be joined by the speakers gym owners need to see this year. The summit lineup was handpicked with one question in mind: Can this person help gym owners earn more in 2025?

The presenters you’ll see in the Windy City will help you acquire more high-value clients and keep them for years. If you listen and take action, your business will grow measurably in 2025.

2. These People

Few things are better than being in a room packed with people who have all dedicated themselves to improving fitness and health for their clients. If you’re in that room, you’re going to feel the momentum, and it’ll fire you up to build a better business.

You’ll also make new friends and create an invaluable support network.

Want to be one of the best gym owners in the world? Then hang out with the best.

3. These Workouts

Jason Khalipa brings the energy every year and gets a huge ballroom full of Rogue gear moving. This is your chance to be coached by a CrossFit Games champion in the company of people who love fitness just as much as you do.

4. Speakers Like This

Joey Coleman is the author of “Never Lose a Customer Again.”

What if you learn how to do that? And what if you don’t?

Joey is only one of the people you’ll see in Chicago, but if you pay attention, you’ll cover the price of your ticket before he’s done speaking.

5. Experts Like This

Our vendor lineup is spectacular. We’ve assembled the very best brands in the fitness space, and they all want to help you run a better business.

No snake-oil salespeople allowed. These are the real players in the fitness world. Connect with them and you’ll serve your clients better and earn more.

See You in Chicago?

We have fewer than 100 tickets remaining, and they are going fast.

Don’t hesitate. Get yours here.

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Double the Revenue: When More Members Stay Longer and Pay More

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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No Gym Left Behind

Two-Brain gives away a ton of free resources.

It’s literally a mountain of stuff that can save your gym.

You might wonder why we invest so much money in that.

The answer: No gym gets left behind.

We Want to Help

After years mentoring thousands of gym owners around the world, I know exactly how to save struggling businesses and get their owners to six-figure incomes and millionaire status.

If you’re deep in the muck right now, that might sound like oversimplification, but it’s not. We have a step-by-step plan that works, and our data backs that up.

But I know some gym owners aren’t ready to walk that path. Or they’re so far behind that they can’t see a way to pay for an expert’s help.

That’s where our free stuff comes in. I want to help gyms get to the point where they’re ready for a mentor’s help.

Our knowledge is free because that’s not what we’re selling. We sell coaching because coaching gets the best results.

If you’re currently taking in less than $10,000 a month, consider this my personal invitation to jump into our very best free resource package for gym owners. It’s here.

You’ll find stuff like this:

“The Ultimate 1-Hour-a-Day Marketing Plan for Gym Owners”“Rate Raising Starter Kit”“The Five Pillars of Retention”“5 Ways to Make $100K Per Year”“Profit and Loss Primer”“Hiring Plan and Job Descriptions”

That’s just a sampling of the stuff in our free-tools package. It’s organized to help you do six things:

Get more membersCharge moreKeep members longerPay yourself appropriatelyControl your costsHire the right staff

We also give away a ton of free stuff—including live training sessions—in the Gym Owners United group. (You should join if you haven’t done so.)

I want you to use this stuff to save your gym—no strings attached, no bait and switch. Just free help to get you a few quick wins. I want you on your feet and ready to fight.

But here’s the trap I need to point out: Overwhelm and inaction.

We’ve seen people collect our free resources for years. They collect the guides, watch our videos and read our emails. They build massive libraries of gym-growing resources.

But their gyms don’t grow.

Why?

They don’t know what to do when, and no one is holding them accountable for doing it.

That’s where a mentor comes in.

A mentor analyzes your business and gives you a personalized, step-by-step plan to help you accomplish your goals. And the mentor ensures you do the thing on time.

Then your business starts growing fast.

Proof: We can, on average, get a gym owner to $100,000 income in two years, one month and nine days regardless of starting point.

Like, if you’re making $1,000 a month from your gym right now, we can still get you to six figures in about 25 months. (Some owners reach $100K in fewer than 12 months.)

I’ll mentor you right now:

If you want to improve your business fast, book a call here to talk about mentorship.If you aren’t ready for that, I still want to help. Get our Free Tools package.If you aren’t ready for that, join Gym Owners United.

You must do something today. If you don’t, nothing will change.

So take the first step toward the life you want. We won’t leave a single gym behind.

Just remember that if you have a pile of knowledge but nothing is changing in your gym, you don’t need more knowledge.

You need a coach.

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My Very Best Save-Your-Gym Resources

If your gym isn’t paying you at least $100,000 a year, I have the life-saving resource package you need today.

This is the stuff I wish I’d had 15 years ago when I was alone and struggling to pay my rent as a gym owner.

I’ve collected my very best free resources to help you to solve these six gym-killing problems:

Problem 1: Inconsistent lead generationProblem 2: Charging less than you’re worthProblem 3: High churnProblem 4: Underpaying yourselfProblem 5: Flying blind on the numbersProblem 6: Finding and keeping great staff

A note for current Two-Brain clients: The tools I’ve collected here were created to help struggling gym owners who don’t have a mentor. Your Toolkit already contains the advanced, clients-only tools you need to solve any problem in your business. Your mentor can direct you to any resource you need and tell you exactly how to use it.

I know mentorship is the freeway to success as a gym owner:

In the last 9 years, we’ve helped over 2,700 gym owners take home 24.9 percent more than the industry average. We’ve helped 291 gym owners (and counting!) reach a six-figure income.We’ve minted almost 60 millionaire gym owners.

Nothing takes the place of one-on-one help from a business expert who can help you analyze your business and make a clear plan to fix it and supercharge it.

A mentor digs into your business and tells you exactly what to focus on right now so you don’t get overwhelmed—because all the knowledge in the world is useless without action.

But if you aren’t ready to work with a coach, I want to give you some quick wins today for free.

Why?

Because your family, your staff, your clients and your city need you to win.

And my resource package will help you do that.

I know many “business gurus” are offering snake oil, so I want you to know that everything in my resource package is backed by data and testing. It’s not based on a random hunch or my personal experience as gym owner.

These strategies cost Two-Brain a lot of money to test and validate, but I spent that money because I wanted to make sure our tactics work in every market. And they do.

These resources will help you score some quick wins and stabilize your gym if you take action.

My recommendation?

Get these resources. Implement them in your gym. Use the money you make to pay for a Two-Brain mentor.

That’s the path to $100,000 annual income and millionaire status.

You can access the resource package here.

And if you want to move much, much faster with a personalized plan for your gym delivered by an expert business coach, let’s talk about mentorship.

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The 6 Reasons Gym Owners Fail

To watch this episode on YouTube and see all the visuals, click here.

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Hyrox Data Dive: Exact Revenue and ROI Stats on Affiliation

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Is Gym Affiliation Worth It? How to Measure the ROI

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Measuring the Value of Affiliation

To measure the value of affiliation in the fitness world, we’ll break it down into steps.

Step 1: Check How Many People Are Searching for the Brand

Use Google Trends or the Keyword Planner tool in Google Ads to check the search term:

“CrossFit near me [your city]”“Hyrox gym [your city]”

How often do people search for the term monthly? If the brand is generating local searches, it has value.

Step 2: Track Your Leads

Manually ask every new client:

“How did you hear about us?”Record answers consistently during intake.

If your new clients found you because of an affiliated brand, it has value.

Example: One Two-Brain gym owner knows that 40 percent of his leads are coming to him because he offers Hyrox training. He’s happy to pay an affiliation fee of £120 (USD$160) a month just for those leads, to say nothing of the revenue he generates after he closes these leads.

Step 3: Calculate Marketing ROI From Affiliation

Use this formula:

Example:

5 leads per month from “CrossFit”On-ramp is $5005 x $500 x 12 = $30,000 per year brand value
Step 4: Calculate Additional Revenue from Affiliation

If you pay an affiliation fee for an add-on service (Hyrox, for example) you can measure the revenue generated from that affiliation versus the cost.

Use this formula:

Example:

15 people sign up for your Hyrox training program at $99 per monthYou run it 4 times a year15 x $99 x 4 = $5,940 per year

That’s a great ROI for something that costs $130 per month.

Example 2, from a real gym:

The gym offers a quarterly Hyrox simulation because official Hyrox races always sell out.The gym takes in £2,000 (USD$2,650) per event.Annual revenue from events: £8,000 (USD$10,600) balanced against an affiliation fee of £120 (USD$160) a month.
Step 5: Calculate Retention ROI From Affiliation

Make a list like this, adjusting for the brand you are affiliated with:

How many people signed up for the CrossFit Open through CrossFit LLC?How many people traveled to the CrossFit Games?How many talked about or used CrossFit.com workouts?

Multiply each by your monthly membership rate.

Example Calculation:

30 people pay $150 per month and joined the Open → $4,500 6 people went to the Games → $9004 people request CrossFit.com Hero workouts → $600

Total: $6,000 vs. $4,500 annual affiliation fee = positive ROI

Data for the Win

It can be very hard to measure the value of affiliation if:

You don’t track lead sources.You don’t sell an on-ramp or front-end program.You don’t charge extra for extras (you add more costs without revenue attached).You can’t retain people for 12-plus months.

If you can’t measure the value of affiliation, you can’t determine if it’s worth the cost.

There’s more: If you run your numbers and decide to deaffilate from a brand, you must also know the cost of doing so:

You will have to change all physical signage and branding, including your logo if it incorporated aspects of the brand.You will have to change email addresses and web properties, including URLs containing the brand you are removing.You will have to adjust social media and Google Business Profile accounts.You will likely see a decrease in web traffic if you prominently featured the affiliation on your website or if people find you by searching for “[brand] near me.”You will need to change class schedules and coach bios.You will need to change any logins that use an email address attached to the brand you are removing.You will need to start telling a new story without the assistance of the old brand.
Conclusion

Affiliation means you’re renting a brand. It’s up to you to leverage that brand and see a positive return.

In the old days, paying for a franchise was a virtual guarantee of success. Today, you can be just as profitable and maintain control of your business by leveraging licensing well.

That said, affiliation is not a silver bullet. If your operating systems, marketing and client results aren’t dialed in, no brand will save you.

Get the basics right first—then measure the brand’s contribution clearly.

The great part: If you’re not getting clear ROI from a licensor, you can decouple yourself, sometimes within a month and usually in less than a year. That’s a big deal: If you’re connected to a giant franchise, you’re probably locked into a lengthy contract.

As always, run your numbers and make smart decisions. To get expert help making the best choices for your business, work with an expert mentor.

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Where Branding Fits in Your Business

Before measuring the value of affiliation or branding, you need to understand where it fits into your business.

Think of your business like a pyramid, just like CrossFit’s fitness hierarchy.

1. Operating Systems (Base Layer)

Billing, scheduling, payroll, cleaning, session plans, staff training.If you disappear tomorrow, can someone run your gym just by reading your playbook?

2. Marketing Funnels

ReferralsOrganic Social MediaContent MarketingPaid AdsThese funnels bring clients in now. You must be able to track their effectiveness.

3. Brand

Your affiliation or license lives here.Your brand helps your other marketing work better, but it doesn’t replace marketing.Your brand makes you more predictable. Clients know what to expect.

4. Unmeasurables

Culture, relationships, community support.These elements drive retention but can’t be measured.

Important Note: Your method must get people results. That’s the non-negotiable element that trumps everything.

So before you ask “is affiliation worth it?” you must ask:

Are my operations solid?Are my marketing funnels built and working?Do I track leads?Does my brand (not the license) actually generate leads or build trust?

In the next post in this series, I’ll tell you how to measure whether affiliation is worth it for your gym.

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Is Affiliation Worth It: What Are You Really Buying?

In the fitness industry, affiliation is everywhere.

Many gym owners pay to use brand names in their business title or for specific programs. It’s a powerful move.

Putting “CrossFit” on your door tells the world exactly what you do—and often brings instant recognition.

The same goes for other brands: Putting up a Hyrox sign shows you train people for and host Hyrox-style competitions. These affiliations give immediate clarity to prospects.

Here are a few of the best affiliations for microgyms:

Hyrox —At US$130 a month, it’s very easy to make a great return by offering a special Hyrox program or running Hyrox events. CNU Stretch —After you make a minimal investment to train your coaches, the return on this affiliation is enormous—it’s similar to buying a StretchLab franchise, but you can bolt this right onto your existing gym. Parisi Speed School —If you want to train youth athletes, a Parisi affiliation is the gold standard—and these are very profitable gyms.

Larger gyms might also license one of these brands:

Zumba —Lets you run branded dance-fitness classes with licensed instructors. Les Mills —Known for Bodypump, Bodycombat and other choreographed group fitness formats. TRX —Functional fitness equipment and programming, often licensed to gyms for specialized classes.

I want to be clear: Nothing listed here is a franchise. These companies offer license agreements that let you use a brand in your gym. You can “bolt them on” to whatever you’re currently doing.

In some cases, the affiliation creates more revenue than the gym was generating on its own. But none of the agreements require you to name your gym a certain way or carry another brand over your own.

They also come without business support—that’s what Two-Brain is for.

Affiliates are different from franchises. Franchises are expensive to start, with ongoing royalties paid to the franchisor. And many aren’t the business-in-a-box that franchises used to be. In decades past, franchises offered:

A proven business model with a full playbook.A dedicated territory where competitors couldn’t open nearby.Access to a strong brand identity and national recognition.Equipment and marketing support.Training and certification in delivering the brand experience.

Fitness franchises such as F45, Fit Body Boot Camp and Orangetheory offer these promises—at a cost. Here are approximate franchise fees, which do not take into account ongoing royalties, brand or ad fund payments, buildout/set-up costs and other factors:

F45: $50,000.Fit Body Boot Camp: $49,000.Orangetheory: $60,000

These high prices once made sense: You were buying near-guaranteed success.

But today many of these franchises behave more like licensors. You pay to use the name, you pay ongoing royalties, and you follow their restrictions, but you don’t always receive the robust playbook or support that’s promised.

In contrast, affiliates are licensees. You pay to use the name but get minimal support or instruction. There’s no guarantee of success.

However, you’re not heavily restricted, either.

Let’s line these options up for a quick comparison:

Feature Affiliation: CrossFit Affiliation: Hyrox Affiliation: Zumba Franchise: F45 Franchise: Fit Body Boot Camp Franchise: OrangeTheory Monthly/Annual/Initial Cost $4,500 a year $130 a month Varies $50,000 franchise fee $49,000 franchise fee $60,000 franchise fee Brand Use Rights Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Business Playbook No No No Sometimes Limited Yes Marketing Support Minimal No No Limited Limited Yes Staff Training Included No Optional Yes Yes Yes Yes Territory Protection No No No Sometimes Sometimes Yes Flexibility in Operations High High Medium Low Low Very Low

As you can see, there’s a sliding scale from pure licensing to full franchise control.

So how do you decide what’s best?

In the next post in this series, I’ll go deeper on the value of paying for a brand.

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