Chris Cooper's Blog, page 123

What Is “Functional Retirement”?

By Ashley Haun and Brian Strump, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentors

It’s Sunday morning at 10:14 a.m. I’m sitting drinking coffee and planning my day. My staff has a meeting at 11 a.m. to discuss goals, clients, events and more. I will not be attending this meeting. I think we are going to eat breakfast, do a workout and then go for a bike ride. We will also be making the last payment on a vacation we planned to Mexico. 

This is functional retirement: the choice to work—or not—without sacrificing your income. It’s a fun and rewarding stage to be in. 

How did I get to this place? 

I came through the stages of entrepreneurship—Founder, Farmer and Tinker.

Take our quiz to find out what stage of entrepreneurship you’re in.

Although I reached the Tinker Phase, I continue to work for financial independence, and the final phase of entrepreneurship—the Thief Phase—looks like a beautiful stage to be in someday.

How did I develop a staff that allows me to choose when to work in the gym and go on vacation while the gym grows in my absence? 

Time and systems. I spent time developing my staff slowly and mentoring them in careers they love, and I created systems that ensure everything happens the way I want it to happen all the time—whether I’m at the gym or not.

If I had not been mentored to develop my business like this, I would not be sitting at home drinking coffee and dreaming of a trip to Mexico. 

More on Functional Retirement

Most new business owners start in the Founder Phase. Here, it’s common for the owner to work the majority of the hours to keep the business moving forward. The owner is wearing a number of hats, from CEO to cleaner. At this point, the business costs the owner money to run it. There is little to no profit.

The goal in Founder Phase is to break even as quickly as possible—to get your accounts “into the black.” 

After the business owner makes it through Founder Phase, Farmer Phase is next. It’s in this stage that entrepreneurs start to grow as business owners. They’ll begin to “ascend the value ladder” by hiring staff and delegating many of the repetitive tasks in the business. They might still find themselves doing a little bit of everything in the business, but they’ll also find the time to begin working on the business.

One of the main problems in this stage is the owner’s unwillingness to give up some control—but doing so is essential for the growth of the business. Most business owners stay in Farmer Phase forever and always act as owner/operators. 

The measurable goal of Farmer Phase is “functional retirement.” This is the halfway point between startup and wealth, and it comes just before the third phase of entrepreneurship: Tinker.

To achieve functional retirement, the owner must greatly decrease the hours spent working in the business and maximize the time spent working on the business. The business must pay 150 percent of the owner’s living expenses and grow and run without the owner’s constant oversight. The owner no longer cleans, answers phones or deals with many client needs on a daily basis.

Overall, the business is making money and offering freedom to the business owner: freedom of time and freedom of choice. The owner can choose to work or not work. Functional retirement means that your business is able to pay you whether you decide to work in the business or on something else.

At this point, your business becomes a true asset, and you can begin to view it almost as real estate for its ability to produce income with minimal work.

Functional retirement isn’t necessarily the “retirement” your parents had. You can relax on the swing and read in the yard or you can travel. Or you can work as you like to expand the business. Eventually, you might decide to use some of your income to start something new and begin your entrepreneurial journey all over again.

Functional retirement means you have options and get to choose exactly what you want to do.

Two-Brain Business offers mentorship in all phases of entrepreneurship and helps business owners move toward their goals quickly. To hear more about our roadmap to wealth and see if mentorship is right for you, book a free call.

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When They Leave to Start Their Own Gym: What to Do

By Kenny Markwardt, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

One of the things we fear most as gym owners is a coach or member leaving to start a gym down the street. It’s right up there with heart attacks, lawsuits and kids accidentally getting hit with kettlebells.

We wonder how many people will leave, what people will say, how the new gym might beat us and if our business will survive. 

I’m here to tell you not to worry about it. In fact, if you’re really in this business to change lives and serve the people you love, you should be happy about another gym opening up. After all, the more lives we save through fitness, the better.

So here’s what to do when someone leaves your gym to start a new one nearby.

Vent in Private and Move On

When someone leaves to start a new gym, don’t do anything crazy.  

You’re going to be hurt. You’re going to feel betrayed. You’re going to have resentment, and you’re probably going to have some emotions to sort through. Don’t make this stuff public. 

Write the email you want to send but don’t send it. Make the video you want to make but don’t post it. Say the things you want to say but say them to yourself. Public reaction might feel good for a split second, but your venting won’t age well.  

The best thing you can do is look ahead confidently, wish the new entrepreneur well and focus on the path forward.

Think about every breakup you’ve ever witnessed or been part of. The person who puts on a smile and focuses on self-improvement always ends up a heck of a lot better off than the person who seeks revenge and wallows in the transgressions of a former mate.

Remember the Good Things

After you’ve moved on from the initial shock, focus on your best clients and the people you love.  

Through research and data analysis, Two-Brain Business has found that the ideal microgym has about 150 members. This knowledge is really important when some one leaves to open a facility. You really don’t want everyone. You just want 150 people you love and who love you for what you provide. If you focus on your Seed Clients and your ideal client avatar, you will attract those 150 clients. And you should help the new gym owner find 150 ideal clients, too!

So make a list of the clients you love and have conversations with them. Find out what they love about your gym and what their biggest challenges are. Cherish the things that thrill them, then focus on how you can help them with their challenges. Make your ideal clients happy and more will come into the gym because like attracts like.

Communicate and Help

While giving a new competitor the cold treatment might seem like the right approach, you should have open and honest conversations instead.  

It might be hard to do so at first, but having an amicable relationship will be so much better in the long run. Help the owner clarify whom he or she is trying to serve and let the new entrepreneur know exactly whom you are trying to serve. Help the person understand life and decisions as an owner. Recommend Chris Cooper’s “Gym Owner’s Handbook” or any of the other books he’s written. Try and get the owner started on the right foot.

Doing all this will save you both a ton of headaches: The new business owner will understand it’s unwise to open up charging $80 a month, coach 28 classes a week and have FITAID running from the drinking fountain. Give the owner the resources that have helped you so the local fitness community isn’t affected by a new gym that offers unsustainable rates and terrible service.

Don’t Sweat Departures

When people want to leave and go to the new gym, let them go.  

Provide them with a safe place to have an honest conversation with you about why they are leaving. Confidently assure them that you’ll welcome them back with open arms when they return.

If you’ve done everything I’ve recommended above, you don’t have anything to fear. Sure, you might lose a client, but if the other gym truly is a better fit, you’ll just open up a space for someone who is a better fit for you. Some clients might go over there for a month, recognize that you’re really a better place for them and come right back. They’re definitely not going to come back if you make a big deal of their departure.  

Stay the Course

So don’t worry: Someone who leaves to open up another gym down the street isn’t actually your competition. It’s another opportunity for a set of seed clients to be served by an ideal leader, and it’s a way for you to fit more of the people you love into your facility. 

Take the actions I’ve recommended and focus on being the best you can be for the people you love.

If you do that, you’ll have nothing to fear.

The post When They Leave to Start Their Own Gym: What to Do appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Negative Feedback to Positive Result

By Jeff Jucha, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

Not all feedback is positive, but all feedback can lead to positive outcomes. Positive feedback simply cannot improve every situation, and sometimes negative feedback is most effective in creating changes for the better.

Let’s say, for example, your job description states coaches should be on site with the doors open 15 minutes before the class start time. But a coach shows up late, and it isn’t the first time. This time, the coach arrives four minutes before the start of class, leaving you to check in attendees as a prospective client sits waiting for a free consultation with you. 

We need the power of negative feedback here. We must identify the standards that are being missed, address the issue candidly and realign the staff person’s behavior. Here’s how to do it. 

Negative Feedback in Three Steps

First, ask to meet away from other staff and clients. No one wants to feel ambushed or publicly shamed. Be yourself and keep it simple: “I’d like to talk with you for a couple of minutes after tonight’s class. Can you meet me in the office after closing duties?” Be sure to meet away from distractions when the team member can fully listen to you.

Next, communicate by following the standards-experience-resolve framework.

1. Standards: Talk about what you want for your clients. If you have this info in a staff agreement or roles-and-tasks sheet for the team member, it’s even simpler: “I’d like to talk about the standard we both feel like our clients deserve. One standard is making sure we respect their time.” The goal is to make sure you’re both clear on the standard and why it matters. 

2. Experience: Next, talk about the experience you or your clients had: “I want to talk about the last two times we’ve missed that standard for our clients. It’s happening more than it should.” 

3. Resolve: Talking about the experience should lead into checking on the person: “… It’s happening more than it should. Are things OK outside here? Are you all right?” While the coach is responsible for being on time, it’s the owner’s responsibility to ask questions and learn how to help. 

At this point, the team member might take responsibility and outline changes he or she will make to honor the standard. Or you might have to provide some clarification.

If the coach says everything is OK, don’t take it as as complete lack of care. Instead, ask another question: “We need to show up for our members, but I want to do my part to make sure I’ve put you in a role where you feel you can do that and be successful. Is there something I can do to help?” 

This question will likely resolve the issue. For example, you and the coach might agree to adjust the schedule to allow him or her to get to the gym on time and meet the standards. 

Follow Up

In this system, support matters. Set a reminder to check in two weeks later with a quick chat or text message: “It looks like you’ve been on the ball with the new class schedule. I wanted to check in. Has it been a better fit for you so far?” 

Follow-up does two things:

1. It lets you know if the change stuck. We want the solution to be permanent.

2. It lets the coach know you care and respect him or her enough to address a real issue, offer to help and follow through. Follow-up shows character and creates strong bonds between professionals. 

If you’re putting off a conversation because you don’t know how to present negative feedback in a positive way, you now have another tool to use with your staff. And if you want help providing feedback or having difficult conversations that create change, email jeff.jucha@twobrainbusiness.com.

The post Negative Feedback to Positive Result appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Is Your Programming Disheartening Your Members?

Mike (00:01):

Time to train. Let’s just open up my app for the WOD. OK. 10 rounds of six muscle-ups and six snatches at 185, a then freestanding handstand push-ups and overhead squat weighted pistols, then a max lift and accessory work? Who am I? And Mat freaking Froning? Like, I just want to stay fit and then get on with my life.? Who has time for all this? I better talk to Brooks DiFiore from Two-Brain programming. I’ll do that right after this.

Chris (00:28):

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Mike (01:09):

We’re back on Two-Brain Radio. It’s Mike Warkentin and I’m not doing the ridiculous workout I talked about in the intro. I wouldn’t even do half of it or a third. Yet. A lot of programming streams offer super elite workouts that discourage many people at best and overtrain them at worst. Brooks DiFiore owns Arsenal Strength in Pittsburgh and runs Two-Brain Programming. He’s with me today to talk about programming for the 99%, not for the elite. So Brooks, welcome to the show. Here’s my story for you. I used to program the hardest version of the workout and scale down. Maybe 10 of 200 people in our gym could do the workout as it was written. One day a client comes up to me and says, it’s super disheartening that I can never do what’s ever on the board. How common is this problem? And what does it do to the morale of your clients?

Brooks (01:53):

I think it’s a problem that’s becoming less common, but is still very apparent in many gyms. You know, if I look back at when I first started CrossFit, which was in 2009, 2000. I’ve been around for a little bit. You know, the workouts that you saw that you were like, how am I going to do this? Like, to me, that was something that really motivated me to go into the gym and trt to attempt it. But I was a college athlete at the time I was competitive and like there, wasn’t going to be a lot that they could put up there that would discourage me from coming in. I think that where CrossFit is now or where functional fitness is now, you know, it’s becoming so mainstream that those sentiments are becoming less and less common among your general clients.

Mike (02:43):

Now, you know, I get what you’re saying ’cause back in the day, like when I kind of started CrossFit around the same time as you, you could look at, say a workout like Fran, and you’re like, huh, that’s a tough workout. But like, you could probably do it in like, you know, 10, 15 minutes to start or something like that. Like you could still do it, and then you’d be astounded at like Josh Everett or Greg Amundsen putting up a five minute Fran or something like that. And now it’s down in the two minute range, so things are even more extreme. But then when you look at some of the workouts that are being programmed from time to time, now, they’re like, they’re super extreme where it’s like, you know, deadlifts are now three fifteens. We’re starting at things like that, or snatches at 200 pounds for reps and things. It’s just things, as fitness has evolved, like a five minute Fran time down to a two minute Fran time, has the perception changed of what people need to program? Like, why are some people going a little bit too far in one direction here?

Brooks (03:34):

I think partially it is because of the Games and the competitive side of CrossFit, because you see workouts like that and they are fun. And you see people in the Games, you know, competing with those types of workouts. But again, is that really what is best for the general population of our gym on a daily basis? I think it comes down to really two sides, like over programming for skill and strength, like you mentioned. But also setting too high of expectations for either how fast to do a workout or how many rounds and reps you should complete in workout.

Mike (04:18):

Yeah. And that’s interesting too, because you know, one of the things that at certain competitions and Games level and so forth, the timing and the setup and the coaching and the warmup, isn’t really a concern for the programmers. Like Dave Castro never has to be like, oh, I wonder how long Mat Fraser needs to warm up, you know, whereas in a gym setting, the pace of a class and you know, all of that is really tough on a coach to manage. And you guys teach that at Two-Brrain Programming, but it’s not always something that comes naturally. And I’ve certainly made mistakes as a programmer where my coach has come back and say, dude, like we had no time for anything. How are they supposed to get warmed up to this level of whatever, you know, in the time you allotted, you know, that’s such a common mistake that’s out there. I think. So you’re right. Like it’s not just about the programming and, you know, the skills and the morale and so forth. It’s also about the pacing of the class. So if you don’t give people the right workout, it can really destroy an athletes experience, right?

Brooks (05:07):

Yeah, absolutely. And when people come in and they have an hour and they want to get this workout in, like we need to be teaching people basics and things like that. But at what point does their fitness level get diluted down because you’re trying to teach this high level skill that really might not be that important for them to ever perform in the long run.

Mike (05:28):

I ran into that a lot where it was like, muscle-ups is a great example, where there were a number of people in any gym that can get muscle-ups male, female, the whole deal. Like we had tons of women get their first muscle-ups in our gym. However, there were some people that we do like muscle transition drills with, and these people didn’t have a single strict or kipping pull up without like a huge band or something like that. So they were so far away, was that muscle-up transition drill, really needed for them? You could argue that like skill development is good, but at the same time, did it really help them get closer to their goals of first pull-up? Debatable. Right. So I totally get what you’re saying. And we always struggle with that. There’s always that struggle in a group situation to figure out how do you please everyone from your top high-end fire breather to like the person who just walks in and wants a quick workout and then to go home and play with the kids. Right?

Brooks (06:15):

Yeah. And, you know, even if I look at my gym and we have great athletes who can bang out a high volume of muscle-ups. I still look at them and I say, OK, well, if we want to get you better at muscle-ups, like, we should probably just continue to drill the basics. Right. A really good kipping pull-up, of a really good chest to bar pull-up. Like let’s continue to develop that skill rather than just muscle muscle up yourself to death. And I think that’s when we as coaches really missed the boat on like the mindset of like scaling for certain athletes, like only scaling down and never scaling up. Like one, it would be super beneficial for an athlete who can say string together, you know, five to 10 bar muscle ups to continue to develop that foundational technique of a kip. Right. And during that time, you never have to worry about what the other eight, nine people in the class are doing, because they’re still working that same foundational movement with you.

Mike (07:16):

So let me ask you this. CrossFit back in the day, when it was originally conceived, what was built basically on, you know, on a program that would challenge the best athletes. And it was basically programming built for Navy SEALs. And then, you know, Greg Glassman talked about back-filling for grandparents, right? So the idea was like, you present the hardest thing because it’s going to inspire these fire-breathing early adopters, and then you’re going to do it the other way. It starts scaling back. And he had the whole thing where he had, you know, very average normal athletes in his gym and older clients and so forth. And he used the same principles. He just didn’t have them do the same crazy workouts. And he was convinced that, you know, by talking to the tip of the spear, you would inspire them. And it would trickle down in various levels and it worked, and there was a, you know, a gigantic, you know, multinational, a hundred million dollar company built out of this. The plan worked for CrossFit. Why doesn’t it work perfectly for gym owners?

Brooks (08:08):

So I think that his theory of sharpen the tip of the spear, everyone else will eventually catch up, like that’s a hundred percent correct. Right. Especially in like a competitive environment, like if you’re in a competitive environment or a competitive gym, like your coach better be programming for the best person there. And then that is going to raise your level of performance as well. Right. There’s absolutely no argument there. But when we start to, you know, when we look at, you know, CrossFit and what it was, like back then, there was maybe only one place for you to do CrossFit in a city or the town. Right. So it’s like, yes, you needed to or else you never would’ve gotten to the level that it’s at now. Now you have so many different options, right. As far as what CrossFit can be and you know, what kind of gym you’re running, that if you’re dealing with that general population, like just the idea of getting a pull-up could be motivational enough to make them come in and work. Right. I think there’s the fine line between finding like inspiration of something that you cannot do yet, but seems achievable. And then something that is just so far out of the realm of possibility in a client’s current state of mind that they say, well, what the heck am I doing here?

Mike (09:25):

And it makes sense from a marketing perspective, like when you’re trying to inspire fitness people and acquire new clients, you can’t really do it with like, here’s a sexy banded pull-up right. You have to show like the, kind of the hardcore thing, just to attract people. I’m talking in the very early stages of like, you know, a brand new fitness program. People want to see, the early adopters want to see new challenges they haven’t seen, hard things, intensity, all this different stuff, but that doesn’t, that, you know, that changes over time. So when you and I opened our gyms, like, I’ll tell you my early clients, by and large, when we started in 2009, 10, they were police firefighters, military, ex college athletes, ex bodybuilders. And then we had a lot of like competitive athletes who were pretty good at recreational sports or, you know, been very good athletes.

Mike (10:11):

So that was the essential clientele. Five, eight years later, it was changing where we got all those people already. They were either still in our program or they had moved on to other challenges. Now we were starting to talk to their mothers and their sons and their daughters and their, you know, relatives and coworkers and things like that. So that market changed a lot. And we were still at the time putting up like super hard workouts on the website, bloody pictures and things like that. And that wasn’t what people wanted to see. And of course we had an issue. Then we realized we would market it to a very different group of people. And we took, you know, tried to hide our workouts. Not because they’re bad workouts, but because if people don’t understand the scaling that goes into them, did you have that same experience at your gym?

Brooks (10:49):

I opened my gym six years ago. So I think we were on the tail end of that. Right. We really started to realize that they needed to change the perception around what CrossFit could be in the sense of, like, it doesn’t have to be like hands bleeding, you laying on the floor, you know, doing these crazy things. Right. And in the past six years, I think that many affiliates have done a great job of making the idea of CrossFit much more accessible to a general population.

Mike (11:25):

It’s really cool how when we look, especially at Two-Brain gyms and we look at the things that they’re doing now, in terms of marketing, how they present themselves, it’s so neat to see the evolution of things. Right. And like, I’m thinking specifically here of Billy Gorham’s gym. And I talked to him on Two-Brain Radio just a little while ago. And when you go to his website and search for it, the tagline that comes up is where beginners start their journey. And I think that’s just so great, right? Where he’s talking to a specific audience there and he’s showing them what they need to see, happiness, fun, excitement, support, coaching, all those things. Whereas, you know, eight years ago, my gym was like, you go there and like, wow, there’s blood all over that guy’s shins. Talk to me a little bit about the influence of the Games. We touched on a little bit, but how did the CrossFit Games influence programming at the gym level? What happens there?

Brooks (12:11):

Again, I think we see these Games athletes doing these absolutely spectacular things. And we’re like, OK, this is how they train all the time. Right. And Games workouts, like they’re so visually appealing and well-designed that they just look like fun. Right? And I think as coaches, as programmers, like we want to introduce fun all the time into our program. So I think that we can just get a little bit carried away and forget that like Games athletes, 99% of the time they’re doing really boring work regularly.

Mike (12:42):

And they’re doing a lot of it. And that’s all they’re doing. Like a lot of Games athletes, not all of them, but many of them it’s like their full-time job. They train five, six hours a day. It’s all they do. They don’t have full-time jobs. They train, eat, recover. That’s basically what they do. And they’re trying to get to the Games. It’s a huge amount of work. And it’s funny, the Games, you know, the programming at the Games has always kind of trickled down a little bit. If you remember 2009, that was the year where Mikko Salo won. And it was a huge volume. Like there was tons of workouts, big chipper at the end, like the whole deal. All of a sudden, everyone thought there had to be more volume. And then there was the year, I think it was 2012 when Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet won, there was more gymnastics.

Mike (13:19):

And all of a sudden everyone was doing more gymnastics. Right. And things have kind of changed where you see things always kind of trickled down. And it is, I think that curse of novelty because the Games are so far away from almost everyone and they’re growing further and further away. Back in the day, like 2009, a really good athlete had a chance to get to the Games. That’s not the case anymore. You have to be a super elite athlete. And I had a conversation with Rob Orlando, the CrossFit strongman hybrid guy, and we were talking about strongman stuff. And then we got off topic, started ranting about Games stuff. And he said, my job literally as a coach is to tell people you’re not going to the CrossFit Games, which I thought was incredible because he realized at that point that, and he had been a Games competitor.

Mike (13:59):

Most of his clients had these, or not most, many clients have these aspirations, but they weren’t realistic. And they were setting themselves up for failure. And of course he got into fights with clients just as I did, but you know, it’s because you’ve had that issue and we had at a Games athlete at our gym for a couple of years and it really put a strain on things where we’re trying to figure out how do we accommodate someone like that and someone who has no interest whatsoever, you know? So I think you’re exactly right. The Games are very, very far away from where the average programming is. So talk to me about like the programming streams that are out there are. Are some of them overprogramming?

Brooks (14:30):

They might be. The only people that can answer that other people who are running it in their gyms and the feedback they’re getting from their clients, right. If you’re in a super competitive gym, like it’s probably going to be hard to program for them. But if you’re doing something that is either, you’re either setting expectations too high or you’re regularly programming movements that are going to discourage the everyday person from potentially coming into class that day, then yes, you’re over programming.

Mike (15:06):

And the only way you’re going to figure that out then is by talking to your clients and evaluating, right. You have to have that relationship where you can’t just sit at the top and say, I love this programming. It’s amazing. It doesn’t really matter what you like. It matters what your clients, right. Am I correct?

Brooks (15:18):

Sure. You know, even like going in with the idea of setting expectations, right. I think that we’re always like, OK, what would the high bar be, right. Let’s just say there’s 10 minute AMRAP. And you’re like, OK, a Games athlete or regionals athlete would get like four to five rounds of that. Like, is that what you should be putting into your notes for your coaches to tell your general population? Like sure. If they scale it correctly, you know, but what if you have people that it’s achievable for, but like they get two rounds of it, right. And you just totally overshot your estimate of what they should get, because you have someone who is very fit, right. Just from like an overall general population level. And they’re trying to compare themselves to a regionals, Games level athlete. So I think that at times, like dialing back our expectations and letting athletes exceed them will go a long way into making them feel like they’re getting what they need to get accomplished.

Mike (16:18):

Yeah. Nobody likes to fail, you know? And that’s always a challenge when I was programming, which I don’t do anymore. My wife takes care of that, but it was always a challenge because you want to set up something hard, but you never wanted to set something up where people would feel utterly defeated. You know, where let’s say you put a chipper together and half the athletes only get into the second movement and don’t get to have any fun on the third and fourth and fifth one, that’s bad programming, you know? And it might work for like, you know, if I programmed for Jason Khalipa, it might’ve worked if I programmed for Mat Fraser, but it’s not going to work if my average accountant who comes in just wanting to work out, leaves saying, I didn’t even finish half the workout, man. This sucks. Right? Like it can really hurt your clients’ morale. And it’s all about the presentation. I love what you said there. If you say, oh, well, you know, you should be able to get three or four rounds of this and you make a mistake. And all of a sudden clients get two, they feel like they failed. Right?

Brooks (17:06):

Yeah. They feel like they haven’t, that they’re not the level that maybe they thought they were, or that maybe that the work they’re putting in hasn’t been paying off and you need to change.

Mike (17:16):

Another point. You’re exactly right. They’re actually subverting your own chain of success. They’re like, well, obviously the program is not working for me.

Brooks (17:23):

Exactly. How many times does the coach hear that? And just, you know, almost lose their minds. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike (17:29):

And this syncs up exactly with what Chris Cooper has talked about in bringing clients into programs, he wants you to find in your gym, wins for your clients, right from the first day, like, what are they doing right? Even if it’s just like you showed up, put your shoes on and did a workout, or it’s like, you’re good at deadlifting or whatever it is, finding wins in every single spot. If you don’t find wins for your clients, and if you don’t highlight those wins, you’re going to have problems. So your programming is a huge part of that because it can definitely eliminate wins. So Brooks, how do we fix all this? You mentioned a few things, but let’s really dig in. How do you address these issues? Make sure that you’re programming for the clients and helping them find wins and success.

Brooks (18:08):

One of the biggest things we can do is get away from that program for the best, scale for the rest and say, Hey, I’m going to program for the bulk of my gym. And then I’m going to scale up for the people who need it or down for those who need it. Right. So it takes the pressure off coaches. You maybe go and like now you have to find a scaling, 12 people in class and two can do bar muscle ups. Now you have to find 10 scaling variations, right? I’m sure there’ll be people in there who are, you know, doing just chest to bar pull-ups you might have to do three or four, but you still have to have that conversation with everyone. Right. If you just choose and then you can even go down to like doing, you know, ring rows or bent over rows.

Brooks (18:50):

So you have this thing, that’s all the way, you know, at level 10, and you’re asking somebody to do something at level one, and that’s great. Like that’s why CrossFit is, you know, so accessible to everyone. But as a coach, I’d rather my coaches say like, OK, Hey, we’re going to do pull ups, right? Pull ups are how the workout is written. Also, athletes who need a little bit more, they have the opportunity to scale up to bar muscle ups. And if you can’t do pull ups, then you can scale down to ring rows. Now you’re taking this bulk of a class, right. And said, Hey, you’re doing exactly what you need to do. And now you’re maybe having these scaling conversations with one or two people, and you can spend that time actually developing a personal relationship with your clients rather than just trying to find a scaling variation for them.

Mike (19:37):

I wouldn’t have a clue on the ratio, but I would guess that I’ll say 85% of gyms scale down more than they scale up. And I think you’ve hit on something there because really like we had back in the early days, we had some really good athletes and we would often scale up for them specifically because you look at a workout. It was just so far below what they were capable of. But I think in scaling up, there’s also this tendency sometimes to think you’re further ahead than you are. And like, let’s talk about like Fran, as a simple example, scaling up Fran makes it a different workout. Right? Like sometimes there’s workouts that people will look at, oh, those are too easy. But if you do them faster, they’re horrific and super effective. Right?

Brooks (20:17):

Right. Like, yeah, absolutely go faster. I think like we, so I do want to make a distinction between like, like your everyday programming and like, benchmarks. Like, so even like, in the context of this conversation, like my mind has been like on your everyday program, now we introduced something like benchmarks, right? Where yes. Things like muscle ups, handstand push-ups, handstand walks, super heavy weightlifting, those things like are absolutely appropriate because we’re testing, right. We’re trying to achieve something that we’ve never achieved in the past. And I think that, you know, we talked about that novelty thing. It makes those movements a lot more fun for people if we save them primarily for benchmarks and testing pieces.

Mike (21:07):

I really like that because what it does is it gives people an opportunity to, you know, exceed their previous scores or to even like, let’s say I can all of a sudden I can do Fran and I can do pull-ups. Whereas I had to use a band before, that’s a huge win that shows up. And it only shows up when you program those benchmarks from time to time. I remember our gym specifically the two days that always had the best atmosphere of all time were Helen, which is, you know, running and again, barring injury, anyone can do these things. There’s running, kettlebell swings that are fairly light and pull-ups and pull-ups some people that can’t do, but they do bands and that’s fine, but everyone could almost complete that workout exactly the way it was written. People loved it. The other one was deadlift day when we would do, you know, max out a deadlift or hit a heavy five deadlift or something because almost everyone can deadlift. And the benefit of that is these clients feel these huge wins and a sense of accomplishment.

Chris (21:58):

Cooper here with a word about Arbox. This business management platform is designed to take you from a fitness expert to a successful gym owner. Arbox offers a full suite of tools, including a dashboard and report with the top metrics that we prioritize at Two-Brain Business. With a glance, you can see length of engagement, average monthly revenue, new versus lost members and more. Arbox will also help you drive engagement with a members app that allows clients to interact with their friends. So here’s the special deal for Two-Brain Radio listeners. Save up to 50% for the first year using Arbox. Visit arboxapp.com/tbb to register to a free 10 day trial and schedule a demo with one of Arbox’s experts.

Mike (22:43):

So talk to me here a little bit more about these expectations and how you set them with your programming. You know, how your coaches deliver the programming at the whiteboard.

Brooks (22:51):

Yeah. So again, let’s set expectations. We always dial back our expectations a little bit for what we think is achievable here, because at the end of the day, just for my general population of people, I’d much rather have them leaving the gym thinking that they accomplished something above and beyond what they went in expecting to complete. The other thing we do, the other thing we do is we program for what is our general population, right? We look and we say, OK, again, you know, like pull ups, muscle ups. Handstand pushups, you know, pushups, ring dips, like those are, you know, but we always take the middle variation, right? What is the one that the bulk of the athletes or clients are going to be able to do? And then let’s make sure that we have an option for the athletes who need to scale up. And another option for the athletes who need to scale down.

Mike (23:45):

What’s your client avatar?

Brooks (23:47):

Our client avatar?

Mike (23:48):

Yeah.

Brooks (23:51):

We serve a general population who wants to be able to live their best life by improving their health and fitness. Like that is what we’re going for. And then within that, there are people who fall in love with doing CrossFit.

Mike (24:06):

I’m throwing this at you out of the blue and the reason why I asked it, because I knew you would know your avatar, but I think a lot of gym owners, I was guilty of this, won’t know that, the answer to that question. And when you don’t know your avatar or your ideal client or your general population and the people you’re trying to bring into that population, it’s really difficult to figure out how to program for them, right? Like if you think that you’re a super competitive gym, but we also serve grandmothers and grandfathers. I mean, it can be done, but it doesn’t give you that you can’t—there’s kind of a gap in the middle there. So by asking you, I just want to see, like, because you know who your clients are, that makes it a lot easier to program, do you agree?

Brooks (24:41):

Yeah, it does. And you know, especially when we look at that and say, OK, like we want to help people live their best lives possible through improving their fitness, right? And along the way, they’re going to fall in love with CrossFit or functional fitness and stay for the long term. Now with that, like everybody who comes in, they need a different element of fitness to improve their life. Right? Some people need to lose weight. Some people might need to build muscle and get stronger. Others just might need to improve their general fitness. So within that, it’s why we built Two-Brain Programming, we want to have a framework where we can make sure that we are talking to these people in their language about how that workout is going to specifically help them with their goal on that day.

Mike (25:24):

So talk to me more about Two-Brain Programming, its philosophy, and like, how is it going to help gym owners retain and please their clients?

Brooks (25:28):

Their clients. It’s going to help gym owners retain their clients because again, it’s going to give you a lens in which you can frame any workout of the day, right into multiple client avatars, depending on their goal. So take one workout. What you do is relate it to the weight loss client. You take the same workout and you relate it to the client who’s trying to build strength. You don’t necessarily have to change the programming or like change your Rx or make something scaled. It’s just about talking to them in a way that’s making them understand why this is benefiting them today.

Mike (26:03):

What are the three most common avatars within a general client group? Like the goals that they have, you mentioned two there.

Brooks (26:10):

Yes. Weight loss, general fitness and then increase strength or build muscle.

Mike (26:14):

And that’s going to cover like what, 80, 90% of clients that are out there, their goals?

Brooks (26:18):

Yeah. You know, the other, I mean, I would argue that it would cover 100% of the clients out there. Yeah. But what you get is, the more you get to know your clients, you’ll start to understand the things in their lives that they do that will make their goals more specific. So for example, if I have a general fitness client who is a golfer, well, I can start to talk to them about the general fitness track, right. Or through the general fitness avatar every day. And then maybe give them some variations that’ll help them with some rotational strength to improve their golf swing, or have a weight loss client. Right. And their primary focus is weight loss, but they want to run a 5k or a marathon. Well, then I can just go even further within that avatar that we provided in related to not only weight loss, but their goal of running a 5k or a marathon or whatever it might be.

Mike (27:12):

So can I put you on the spot here and ask you for just a general simple workout Two-Brain Programming would create and how you would present it to those three different clients?

Brooks (27:21):

Yeah, sure. So let’s say you have a workout that’s a hundred double unders, 20 hang power snatches, 75 double unders, 15 hang power snatches, 50 double unders, 10 hang power snatches. Twenty-five double unders, five hang power snatches. Rx.

Mike (27:38):

We got weightlifting and we got some conditioning stuff and we’re dropping the numbers all the way down.

Brooks (27:42):

Yeah, absolutely. So you might say that general fitness athletes should approach this with the goal to finish or basically go down sweating, right. We want you to go really hard. So like this avatar group should be encouraged to perform double unders wherever possible to work on this skill under pressure where necessary, you know, up the number of reps or decrease them right. To scale this WOD. And the snatch should be a moderate weight that athletes can perform five to six times unbroken when fresh. Right. That’s a pretty traditional way of like briefing any sort of CrossFit workout.

Mike (28:14):

I’m going to ask you a specific question about double unders. What would you say to an athlete who has like occasional spurts of two to three, but you know, in that a hundred round, they’re not going to, you know, they’re not going to get a hundred,unless they go for like two hours, what would you say to that athlete about the skipping?

Brooks (28:28):

I would tell them, OK. You can do as many double under attempts as you want to in about 75 to 90 seconds, right. That should not take you more than 75 to 90 seconds. So go ahead and you know, whip yourself to death with that rope, two or three, but then at the 75, 90-second mark, you got to get onto the snatches.

Mike (28:48):

What that’s going to do is prevent a really stubborn athlete from literally trying to do those hundred double unders for the entire workout.

Brooks (28:55):

Exactly right. And you just like look over and you’re like, you know, time cap is up and they just, you know, they’re on 50 double unders.

Mike (29:01):

And they’re covered in red streaks.

Brooks (29:04):

And then you get a call from their spouse, wondering what’s going on.

Mike (29:06):

Hit me with the next one.

Brooks (29:07):

So let’s say we take that same workout and we talk to a strength athlete about it, right? So we can say like strength athletes will be challenged by the volume of the hang power snatches mixed with the additional demands of the jump rope, right. This avatar group should be encouraged to perform double unders whenever possible, same deal. It’s like to work on that skill under pressure. And the snatches should probably be a little bit heavier. OK.

Mike (29:33):

So would you still want them to go that’s how many unbroken would you want them to get?

Brooks (29:37):

We might have them go in that three to four row. Right. A little bit lower if they wanted to go heavier, but they could also kind of go the opposite way. Right. So a lot of times, especially in the movement, like a hang power clean, like, so with this specific workout? No, I would not actually want them to do that. Right. If they’re snatches from the ground, I would say, yes, let’s go heavier. Maybe let’s do some fast things. Knowing that it’s a hang power snatch, I would actually just want them to hang on to the bar for longer. So they get more muscle breakdown, right. More hypertrophy, which is going to lead to them building more muscle down the line.

Mike (30:11):

And see the great part about that as you just explained to me as if I was a strength athlete interested in building strength, why am I working in sevens and eights and higher rep numbers? It’s like, literally, because that’s going to help you grow more muscle fibers. And we all know, at least anyone who’s done this kind of thing. If you get to seven, fairly heavy hang snatches in a row, it’s brutal.

Brooks (30:30):

It’s so brutal. Right. And you’re even making sure that like, you know, an athlete really understands, like I would, you know, I want to be clear that like, I don’t want you to do 15 or 20 of these unbroken. Like, I want you to pick a weight that’s going to be tough to do for, you know, a set of 12 and then a set of eight, right? So you get into that rep range where you know is ideal for building muscle.

Mike (30:55):

The hardest thing in workouts is when you get high reps and you have to pick loads that are so close to your limit, it’s super rough. So you’re definitely going to build some strength there. Give me your final brief.

Brooks (31:04):

So we’d say like lots of reps, a lot of technique, and like a really short time cap. Make this a challenging workout, especially for many athletes who might be newer and and like wanting to lose weight. Right? So this avatar group should be encouraged to pick a version or a scale number on the jump rope that lets them keep moving with minimal trips. Right? So like if this group right here, I would say, OK, let’s just scale to either scale it down. The number of reps that we’re doing in double unders, or let’s go to single unders, right? Cause I want you to keep moving. I need your heart rate to get elevated. The higher your heart rate is over the course of this nine minutes, the more calories you’re going to inevitably burn, which is going to help you lose pounds.

Mike (31:48):

Same workout, three different ways to present it. And it makes sense, like, let’s be clear, we’re not slimy selling this right. To like say, you know, cause I’ve seen it in the past where a bunch of bodybuilding clients all check their programming and it was all literally the same stuff. And they were all like, we’re eating the same things, the same amounts, doing the same movements on the same days. And he even forgot to change the name at the top of the sheet when he handed it to me. Right. We’re not talking about that. What we’re talking about is tailoring these workouts and that’s where the onus is on the coach to really figure it out, tailor the same workout to each client and explain how that workout is going to help that client accomplish their goals. Correct?

Brooks (32:22):

Yeah, exactly. And I mean it’s providing a better service, right? I mean, especially in a group setting, like they know they’re all getting the same workout, it’s a group setting. Like your like level of coaching and your level of service will really start to shine if you know your clients well enough and you’re confident enough to go up to them and have these conversations about their specific goals, you know? Sure, you might have athletes in class who are just, they just want to work out and that’s fine. Right. That’s exactly what that general fitness brief is for. Again, you will have outliers who want to lose weight specifically will tell you that they want to lose weight, or you will have athletes that want to get stronger. And tell you that you want to get stronger. Like if you want to keep them around for the long term and like truly help them reach their goals, like these are conversations that you should be having with them on a daily basis.

Mike (33:10):

It’s not a snake oil thing. And then the other thing is that exactly what you said, like group programming is your discount option, right? So people expect, like they’re not getting a completely 100% personalized program. They’re getting a general thing that’s customized to them. But this also leads to a high value conversation. Where if someone says, I want more, you can say, let’s talk about your goals and let’s maybe get into some personalized individual one-on-one programming, right?

Brooks (33:37):

Yeah. You know, and I can even take that same mindset and relate it back to, we said like scaling for earth, program for the general population, then scaling up and scaling down, you know, for a lot of our athletes who were like very close to getting handstand pushups or getting bar muscle ups or your PR-ing a snatch or clean and jerk. Like the minimum, like the coaching that they get in class will be minimal compared to personal training. Right. I’d much rather take that client who I’ve see is very close to getting bar muscles and rather than drilling it with them in class, right, when there’s 11 other people who have no interest or aren’t even close to possibly getting bar muscle ups, I’d rather them take them in a one-on-one setting for a half hour and work with them.

Mike (34:22):

Really, that is an opportunity to help a client. It’s also sales opportunity to help your gym’s revenue, right? Like again, we’re not trying to sell things we’re trying to help, but selling through, you know, after helping is the way we run our businesses. Talk to me about how can people find out more about Two-Brain Programming, maybe see what you guys are all about and see what the workouts and briefs are.

Brooks (34:40):

Yeah. So you can go to twobrainprogramming.com. We have a 30-day free trial. We release each month of programming of a week before it’s scheduled to go live. You can go in, you can download it all in a spreadsheet, edit it. You can make it your own. All the avatar briefs are written there for every single workout. So if you really want to get a better sense of what we’re talking about, I’d encourage you to head over to the website, sign up for your free trial.

Mike (35:06):

People will just see when they sign up for this, they’ll actually see the workouts and they’ll be able to see what you just did, where they have the workout,and the three different avatar brief sso that they could learn how to present them.

Brooks (35:15):

Correct. So if you’re a Two-Brain growth client, you get tier one for free, just reach out to your mentor and they should be able to tell you the coupon code for that, to get access to it. If they don’t, they can just email me, Brooks@twobrainprogramming.com and I’ll make sure you get set up. For everybody else, sign up for a 30 day free trial.

Mike (35:38):

And what’s tier one versus tier two?

Brooks (35:40):

Tier one would just be the full programming breakdown without any, session plans, coach’s notes. It doesn’t include our daily SEM content, our move, manage, sleep, eat, move, manage, our daily accessory tracks. So we have accessory tracks for functional bodybuilding, weightlifting, and gymnastics to go along with the programming.

Mike (36:04):

So all that stuff comes in tier two.

Brooks (36:06):

All that stuff comes in tier two.

Mike (36:09):

Excellent. Listeners. If you’re out there and you feel like you want to learn a bit more about the Two-Brain Programming system, head over there. And it’s really cool because the sleep, eat, move, manage thing that Brooks just talked about, it takes your coaching from just coaching the squat to coaching people as total people. And the cool part about that is that, you know, Brooks and I were talking before the show, there are some gyms that are locked down. There’s some people that are working online, or even if you’re not locked down, it gives you some extra things that you can do to help your clients and help your gym. Brooks. Thank you so much for being here today, talking programming, I’m not going to do well. I’m going to do the hang snatch workout, but I’m going to scale it down a little bit. Is that cool with you?

Brooks (36:43):

That’s cool with me. I’ll be scaling it too.

Mike (36:46):

It’s Friday and I’m a little tired today and I just kind of want to work and then maybe have a beer.

Brooks (36:49):

I’ll join you for the beer.

Mike (36:52):

All right, my friend, we will do that soon in person whenever these lockdowns end. Thanks again, Brooks. I’m Mike Warkentin and this is Two-Brain Radio. We solve gym problems here twice a week, every week. Subscribe for more episodes. To solve problems in between those episodes, join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. You know how some gym owners’ groups are full of complaining and arguing? Gym Owners United is full of helpful people just like. You join for peer support and advice from Two-Brain mentors, including Chris Cooper. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today, and I’ll see you in there.

 

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Who Should You Hire First?

By Ashley Haun, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

What are the first five roles you might hire for when owning a microgym? 

1. Cleaner

Why a cleaner? A cleaning position pays somewhere from US$8 to $15 per hour. Depending on your gym’s size, you can allot two to four hours per week for the job. For less than $60 a week, you can buy back four hours of your time. Freed from scrubbing toilets, you’ll have the time and energy to focus on higher-value tasks such as client retention. 

2. Coach

A coach is the person who might free up the greatest amount of your bandwidth and allow you to truly work on the business instead of in the business. You will instantly feel relief when the burden of coaching every class is gone. When you hire a coach, you must be sure to prioritize important tasks that will grow the business and justify this investment.

3. Bookkeeper

Why a bookkeeper in the first five roles? I vividly recall the feeling that numbers gave me. They felt like a tornado inside my head, and I had no idea what to do with those numbers or how to organize them. I was privileged to go to San Francisco a few years ago with some high-level Two-Brain gym owners to listen to other successful businesspeople. The first gentleman who spoke was an executive for a bank. His first task every day was to read reports on the bank’s numbers. The lightbulb went on for me. You must know your numbers, and a bookkeeper is an expert who can help you do that.

4. Nutrition Coach

This role is essential for three reasons. 

First, every person in your gym needs nutrition coaching and accountability to reach his or her goals. I want you to think of your Seed Clients (they make you smile the most and they spend the most money at your gym). Would a nutrition coach help them? The answer, most likely, is yes.

Second, a nutrition coach will bring additional income for the gym through the addition of a core service. If you pay the coach a maximum of 44 percent of program revenue—this is the 4/9ths Model we recommend—this staff member won’t be an expense. He or she will be a revenue-generating asset.

Third, if nutrition coaching just doesn’t feel like “your seat on the bus,” then find another seat and put someone in the one you left. Nothing will drain you and burn you out faster than trying to be a nutrition coach when you do not have a passion for it. Hire someone who loves nutrition and shift your focus to important tasks you enjoy.

5. General Manager

This will most likely be the fifth role you hire to fill. The general manager handles all day-to-day tasks related to the business and might even manage the team you have built. It’s an important position, and getting the right person in place will allow you to move out of the details and into the high-value roles that will grow the business.

Take Action

Start today: Look for a cleaner. A high-school student or even a professional will help you take the first step in creating your Perfect Day. Then work down the list to fill more roles. As you do, make sure you always use your new free time to do the things that will grow your business.

We call this “climbing the value ladder,” and you can read more about this important concept here.

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CrossFit Games Debate: Regionals Vs. Semifinals

The CrossFit Games Semifinals have started, and it’s time to decide whether the brand new format is better than the old Regionals system.

The quick lowdown:

Regionals around the world used to test athletes with the exact same workouts in selecting competitors for the CrossFit Games Finals.The new Semifinals format has athletes doing very different workouts at each qualifying event (some of which have been forced online by the pandemic).
I Miss the Old Format

Tracking event records across Regionals was one of the coolest parts of the previous style of qualification. It was like having a prop bet at the Super Bowl, and it generated a lot of excitement—for the athletes, too.

Almost all the top competitors knew about the world records and wanted to set them in events in their wheelhouses. That would add a lot of excitement to the proceedings even if the certain winner on site was well ahead of the rest of the field.

I remember specifically talking to Noah Ohlsen before Event 3 at the 2018 Atlantic Regional, and he had his sights set on a record in a test with muscle-ups, handstand walks and single-leg squats. He missed it due to a few no-reps, but the heat he utterly dominated was all the more fun because he was racing for a world record.

Here’s a Mat Fraser event record made all the more exciting by the fact that Scott and Saxon Panchik were also ahead of the event record pace at times:

The Old Format Had Some Flaws (and So Does the New Deal)

The other interesting aspect of uniform Regionals: They ensured everyone generally had the skills and work capacity required to compete at the next level. Because Dave Castro and CrossFit staff oversaw programming of Regionals and the Games, they could “screen out” athletes who lacked certain skills they knew would be essential at the next level—like handstand walking.

Nevertheless, the strange and wonderful tests of the CrossFit Games Finals often made that fact irrelevant: Many strong Regionals athletes couldn’t swim well; others were poor long-distance runners or cyclists; and some were completely unable to adapt to odd challenges involving sledgehammers, pegboards and other gear not seen at the Regional level.

Programming Flaws and Bandwidth Problems

The same problem shows up at Semifinals now in a different way: Certain events can favour certain athletes—a fact not lost on viewers.

For example, @alli_eramo had this to say about a recent Granite Games event announcement: “If you aren’t a high power/sprint athlete … I bet they are regretting picking GG as their sanctional … all these workouts seem to favor that type of athlete.”

If a programming bias happens to show up at a Semifinal—or if it’s forced upon organizers by venue features, equipment availability, time constraints or other limitations—you could end up with a few very lucky athletes on the podium.

It’s just a fact of life that any qualifying event won’t have the bandwidth to test all aspects of fitness as well as the Games themselves. That was true in 2018, and it’s true now.

For data nerds, it will be fascinating to see if some 2021 Semifinals select better Games athletes than others. Or if some eliminate competitors who might have dominated had they reached the Finals.

And then there’s the wild card: about half the Semifinals events are online this year due to COVID restrictions.

That means athletes will have to earn their spots without being able to race a competitor in the next lane, and we all know judging controversies will appear without doubt. I wouldn’t want to be the person who has to review sketchy event footage and count reps—but I have a ton of respect for organizers who are making the best of a bad hand during a pandemic.

I Like the New Format

It’s worth noting that some Regional events got incredibly tedious for fans by the final weekend of competition. Not that they were bad tests of fitness. But you can only watch so many burpees and wall balls, for example, before your thumbs start itching to search for then-and-now celebrity photos or fail videos on Kookslams. Some workouts just didn’t age well for viewers over several weekends of competition.

The new format definitely keeps things fresh with fresh tests at every competition, and it allows event organizers to get creative with the space, gear and resources at their disposal.

For example, the first event of the Torian Pro competition Down Under featured 14 km of running, biking and rowing. I love it. The Echo Bike shows up in Event 4 in Australia, the Granite Games will use a ski erg and a Torque sled, and the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge will feature a TrueForm Runner and Torque sled. I’m sure more regional wrinkles will show up. The weirder, the better as far as I’m concerned.

I also hope regional organizers are able to use the features of their venue and city to create cool tests. I’d love to see more outside and off-site events, even though I know they’re incredibly tough to organize.

The Verdict

I’ll go out on a limb and say the Semifinal format is an improvement on Regionals simply for the variety it allows.

I like seeing what creative minds around the world can come up with to challenge athletes. That’s no sleight to CrossFit’s programming back in the day. I loved coaching athletes at Regionals, covering competitions from San Diego to Madrid, and being part of a uniform worldwide test.

In 2021, I just think it’s really cool to allow different regional “Hunger Games” Gamemakers the chance to offer tribute to the CrossFit Games Finals through their own selection gauntlets.

The post CrossFit Games Debate: Regionals Vs. Semifinals appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

“If This Didn’t Work, I Was Out”—Owner’s Fly-or-Die Decision

Mike (00:02):

How do you hit an all-time revenue record during a pandemic? The owner of CrossFit Rome will tell us right after this.

Chris (00:08):

Hey, it’s Chris Cooper here. Programming is the service that you deliver to your clients. So I partnered with Brooks DiFiore, who had one of the highest adherence rates for his group classes in the world to build TwoBrainprogramming.com. Now we built this for Two-Brain gyms and we give them free access in our mentorship program, but I’m now making this available to the public. Programming that’s proven to improve retention and cash flow in your gym. Visit TwoBrainprogramming.com to get it. Your gym’s programming won’t attract new clients, but it can help you keep your clients longer. Good programming includes the stuff you know, like your benchmarks, novelty, skills, progressions, leaderboards, but great programming contains something more. It’s a link between each client’s fitness goals and the workout of the day. Your coaches need to tell the clients more than what they’re going to do every day. They need to explain why they’re doing it and how it will help them achieve their specific goals. Gyms whose coaches could explain the why connection had a 25% better retention rate during lockdowns. Imagine how that translates into better retention when things get back to normal and a better bottom line at the end of every month. That’s TwoBrainprogramming.com. Take a look.

Mike (01:22):

We’re back on Two-Brain Radio. It’s Mike Warkentin. Jeff Holloway owns CrossFit Rome in Rome, Georgia, and he’s a recent graduate of our high octane sprint through gym biz fundamentals. It’s called RampUp. He’s here to give us the before and after story of his business, which is now hitting records for revenue in a year with a pandemic. Jeff, welcome to Two-Brain Radio. And thank you for being here today.

Jeff (01:42):

Thank you for having me.

Mike (01:43):

It’s my pleasure. And I’m very excited to ask you a couple of questions because your mentor, Andrea Sevard, has told me some great things about you. So can you contrast your business before and after RampUp? Like where were you before the program and what were the major challenges that you were dealing with before you started RampUp?

Jeff (01:57):

Yeah, so I am one of those classic cases, went to school to be a coach. And it’s a far different business when you make the jump, the leap, the transition, whatever you would like to call it from a coach to running a business. And I really struggled there. I went to school to be a PE teacher, so loving people and progress through sports and progress through athletics is kind of what I knew. But it was a really hard pill to swallow when I got to the point that I was like, I don’t know how to run a business because nobody’s ever shown me to do that. And the things that we were doing was what we knew at the time. Which unfortunately now we’re like that didn’t work. That’s kind of painting a simple picture and then unfortunately having all of that and then COVID hit, not ideal.

Mike (02:50):

So was the business kind of just like going along or was it kind of thriving and stopping or starts and fits or like, what was the picture like for you just from like a financial perspective, was it a thriving business or was it something that was like, you were having to push really hard without the results that you wanted?

Jeff (03:03):

It was sustainable. It was one dimensional. We had group classes and that was about it. We had a team of coaches that just coach group classes. And that was our story. And it seemed like whenever I felt like things were starting to go really well, that’s when I would lose a coach or that’s when a stressful situation would come along or scheduling would be an issue. And it felt like I could never get ahead.

Mike (03:35):

Sustainable, but not thriving.

Jeff (03:38):

That’s exactly where I put it. We had a real gym. We had a real business, but it was not, I vividly remember my wife who works outside the home in a different industry. She was saying, Jeff, you just can’t keep doing this. Like, I love the gym, but the amount of stress that I had constantly trying to figure it out, like you just can’t. I have two little kids and it just was not a good place to think, I can’t do this for 10 more years.

Mike (04:11):

Were you working crazy hours?

Jeff (04:14):

Well, I’d say 50, 60. So unfortunately in the gym industry was not, I wouldn’t say those are crazy, but it was, it was always working like you were always, I was at home. I was still working.

Mike (04:28):

Yeah. I understand. I’ve been there too. Tell me, so when and why did you choose to sign up for RampUp?

Jeff (04:34):

Oh gosh, that’s a hard one. So COVID hit, it was a Friday afternoon. It was March, a Friday afternoon.

Mike (04:47):

Wow. You remember the date? This must be a good story. Yeah.

Jeff (04:50):

You know, those are never good when there’s a lot of details wrapped around them. And I remember leaving the gym on a Friday afternoon going, I got a funny feeling about this one. Like, I don’t think this is going to be OK, if that makes sense, because nobody really knew what COVID was yet. I don’t think we’re going to open on Monday. And I remember thinking how in the world are we going to save the business? So, the person who handles all the administration stuff, like we work really closely together and I was like, I was prepped on Sunday afternoon to send an email that said I’m stopping everybody’s payment. We’re just going to try to, I don’t know what my plan was. It was a terrible plan, right. In hindsight, but we’re just going to stop everybody’s payment. And you can borrow equipment if you want it to, like, it was embarrassing to know that I really didn’t have a plan, but I don’t think anybody did.

Mike (05:51):

Unprecedented times. You know, you can be forgiven for that.

Jeff (05:53):

Yeah. And Laura calls me Sunday goes, wait, wait, wait, don’t stop everybody’s payment. Don’t cancel the gym. I want you to read this article and this article that Wodify sent out from Chris Cooper about how to like transition to online coaching. I’m like, what? OK, what’s this? So we read it, read it again, read it a third time. I called Laura. I’m like, like, do you think we can do this? And this is Sunday afternoon with us having to respond to the pandemic. Like the members wanted an email. And at that point we, I call all my coaches, zoom meeting said, we’re doing what this piece of paper said. So I had 10 coaches. We divvied up all the members. And at that point we went to one-on-one coaching to get through our shutdown. And it saved the gym. I remember about two weeks into it going. We’re still like, we’re still running a business. And I said, OK, what’s this all about? So that’s when I called about a free consultation. And then they linked me with Andrea, which I could not be more grateful for. And then that’s where the process started.

Jeff (07:14):

If it wasn’t for that email, our gym wouldn’t be here.

Mike (07:17):

Wow. Now, was that, do you remember, was that the, how to move online in 24 hours guide from Chris Cooper?

Jeff (07:21):

Yes.

Mike (07:21):

Yeah. And you know what, the funny story about that is that, I remember early March, Chris was in touch with gyms in like, you know, Asia and Australia, New Zealand and Europe and places where the wave was kind of coming this way toward north America. And I remember him emailing me and he’s like, I think we’re in trouble here. I think we’ve got to do something fast to help some gyms. And I said, yeah, what do you got? And he said, I’ve got this idea for this, you know, how to move online program. Can we crank this thing out as fast as possible? And so that guide, we just destroyed, you know, hours getting that thing out as fast as possible. And we got it. And Chris is like, I think this is going to help some people. And it’s so cool to hear the other end of that for you to say that that guide did help you. That’s just incredible.

Jeff (08:03):

Yeah. That document saved our gym. That one piece of paper.

Mike (08:06):

That’s awesome. And I’m so happy about that, because that was really the hope of that document was to make sure, like I was in the same boat where we had no idea. We were a little bit late. We were about 10 days later than you, where we got our shutdown.Bbut the same thing when it happened, because I had done that thing with Chris, we were able to immediately move people online. And we, you know, seamlessly at least on the surface, as you know, underneath there was that just chaotic day of trying to figure what the heck to do. But to all intents and purposes, our membership, nothing changed aside from the fact that they couldn’t work out at our gym. They still got all the coaching that they needed. So it was just like, was that your experience as well with the membership receiving?

Jeff (08:44):

Yeah. So the personal, I will tell you one thing that we busted our tail for we’ve been open for about six years was the emotional bank account deposits that you take over the six years to get you into a pandemic. Those relationships is where you carry over to one-on-one coaching. And that pairing together, that was the magic of people were really kind, people were very patient, were going OK, one-on-one, let’s do it. And I was really surprised how quickly people mindset shifted to this is OK. Let’s keep moving. So it was an easier transition on the members’ part. It’s like a duck. It was terrible under the surface, but on the top, I’m like, we’re actually doing this. Like we’re weathering the storm kind of deal.

Mike (09:44):

The cool part, at least from what I found was that, you know, for years we thought that coaching had to happen in a gym. And a lot of people want that and need that and it does have to happen at a gym, but in extreme circumstances, you can still provide an absolutely incredible service through nutrition and fitness online that will help your members get through a period. And you can even acquire new members that just want online coaching. But if you want to go back to a physical space, it’s just a transitional thing, but people still got fit and you know, and it’s just great to see what gyms were able to do with that. Sweeping back to RampUp here. What was the like right away, what were the big things that you made changes on? Because every gym owner is a little bit different. Like some when they go through and they put the foundations in place, some people are like, yeah. OK. I’ve got this sort of figured out, wow. This thing is just, you know, a black hole. Like what was for you the biggest area that RampUp helped you fix?

Jeff (10:34):

I had somebody once to tell me a long time, if it’s not written down, does it exist? And I was like, OK. And it wasn’t until I got to the on-ramp section, that Andrea would be like, Hey, what’s the process for this? And I’d tell her kind of what we did. And she’s like, who else knows that? And then she’d ask me another question. Like, what’s the process for this? I tell her. And she’s like, who else knows that? Like, nobody, nobody, we had no systems. It’s embarrassing saying all this stuff.

Mike (11:04):

I was in the same boat.

Jeff (11:06):

But it was, we had nothing written down, no like process or system for anything, no position for back up. There wasn’t—she said very first meeting, very first meeting I had with her. Her first thing to me was I want you to be super organized with saving your documents.

Jeff (11:30):

I’m like, why is that my first homework assignment? Little did I know how many documents I was about to create, to get structure and process, cause we were sustainable, but we were fragile and building the framework behind the scenes is what made us anti-fragile, a little bit more robust of an organization means that we actually have stuff on paper. What’s the opening procedure. What’s the closing procedure. How do you hire a new person? What do you tell the new person? What is a class supposed to be run like? What are your core values? Why do you do what we do? We had a mission and vision statement, but mission and vision statement without any like direction to put that actually into place, you don’t have much. So it was the first two or three months. It was that summer, we developed everything.

Mike (12:25):

It’s funny. Cause I asked Andrea before this call and I asked her about, just tell me a little about you. And she said that she was most impressed, by the way you quickly dove in and started making all your operations documents. And she said that they were so professional, clean and clear that she ended up taking the format and redoing her own documents because you impressed her so much. Has she told you that?

Jeff (12:45):

No.

Mike (12:45):

So that’s what she said, it’s incredible. That she was like, so impressed by the stuff you cranked out that she used, she was inspired by it to kind of redo her stuff. So if you were saying you were embarrassed by not having these systems, know that you did them so well that you inspired, like one of the old-school Canadian gym owners who’s been running that thing forever to ven upgrade her documents. How do you feel about that?

Jeff (13:03):

She’s super kind. But yeah, so it was her, it’s like that constant gentle pressure. We talked about that a lot, constant gentle pressure and that constant gentle pressure of the mentorship or her to keep pressing. You’re not done. Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. But the other piece is when you’re behind the eight ball and you feel the pressure of a pandemic, it’s crazy the amount of work that you can get done because you’re afraid that it’s going to fail. So I don’t wish that upon anybody, but it sure does help you move. And it’s like a whole concept of being hungry. It’s like, well, I’m just, I didn’t know what else to do.

Mike (13:42):

And that’s just it like gym owners know how to work. I don’t think I’ve met a lazy gym owner, but I’ve certainly met some gym owners, I was one of them for sure, who are working hard in the wrong ways. And that’s why kind of the beauty of the mentorship is that it tells you the right thing to do. And I wasted a lot of hours doing some stuff that just didn’t matter. And one of them just, the shortest story was key broke off in the front lock. And I tried to fix it myself for like four or five hours instead of just calling someone and moving on to more important stuff. A mentor would have fixed that for me. And that’s kind of the cool part is watching what gym owners can accomplish when someone points them at the right pile of work, not just this gigantic pile of hours that you’re just chipping away. Let me ask you this. Were there any scary moments in RampUp where you’re like, well, this is a big change. I’m really nervous about this or anything like that. And if there was something like that, how did your mentor help you through it?

Jeff (14:30):

The biggest one is so we’re still, we’re on the back end of it now, but it’s still pretty fresh is so you ready for real talk?

Mike (14:40):

I am. Hit me.

Jeff (14:42):

So it’s interesting how much self doubt you have as a person that you can hide, even from yourself. You get into a mentorship style program where they’re asking you to do sound business things and you’re terrified to do them because you don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your product and you don’t believe in your ability to come through classic case, ARM, average revenue per member. Well, when you were so nervous about how it’s going to be received to charge a fair market value for your services, that’s a terrifying place to be. So we recently sent the email, price changes, and that’s terrifying. Is when you are trying to serve your members, when you want members to be happy to a certain extent, like you want them to be happy being there, but getting to the point of believing in yourself that this is a fair value for what members are getting.

Jeff (15:52):

And then being able to have the really the mentor has the courage when you don’t have the courage to do what you know needs to be done, even though you don’t want to do it. That was the biggest thing during this process is Andrea’s like, you can do this. And looking around and seeing what we were doing going, this is OK, you can raise your prices, but until you raise your prices, you’re going to be working your tail off. And your revenue is never really going to increase, your ARM’s not really going to increase. You’re not going to grow new programs. So that was really, that was a real big, unfortunately you can only grow in the organization as much as you’re willing to grow personally, as a leader, which is really hard when you’re not growing, because who’s the finger point of that? You.

Mike (16:38):

I had the exact same experience and we, the short version, I’ve told this story on the show a few times, but we set our rates back in I think 2011 and I knew by 2013 that they were not sustainable and I didn’t change them until I think we did our rate increase, I want to say 2018 or 19 maybe. And literally a six-figure mistake. If I had pulled the trigger back then a whole different story, but we didn’t do it till we started working with Two-Brain. And when we did it, we had members say, thank you for doing this. This is like, we’re happy to support you. The value is there, you know, and really good news for anyone who’s listening, we have an exact process to help you raise your rates. It’s been tried and tested. Jeff is proof that it works, so are hundreds of other gym owners. And we are currently working right now on a new guide, Chris Cooper and I, about exactly step-by-step the easiest, quickest path to do it. So there will be a new guide for Two-Brain clients coming up very shortly that’ll guide you through this process even better.

Chris (17:32):

Chris Cooper here to talk about Chalk It Pro. Chalk It Pro is a fitness app designed and built by gym owners for gym owners to solve annoying problems that make running a gym hard. It’s an all-in-one app that manages your members, including remote members. It also takes care of programming and it will help you keep clients engaged for longer. Use Chalk It Pro to increase value and build your bottom line. Add more personal training and remote coaching clients. Build a thriving community through social engagement and save loads of time on the backend. Do all this with one app, not three or four. Get your free trial at Chalkitpro.co

Mike (18:09):

Did your members receive this rate increase the way mine did, where they were like, understanding maybe you had a few go, but by and large, everyone was cool with it?

Jeff (18:16):

So only had one person get angry. We had a few people comment and everybody else was like, it’s about dang time. I’m like, really? I was like, I did not expect that to be your answer. They’re like, everybody else changes. Everybody else changes. And you’ve been the same for six years. It was like, it’s interesting how much fear or the lack of addressing fear can get in the way. And there’s a huge value to somebody standing alongside you when it’s only you managing your fear.

Mike (18:49):

So did the playbook that we had, did that work for you? Did you guys make any alterations or how’d that go?

Jeff (18:56):

Yeah, that’s what we implemented is a set of that staggered change. And sending out ahead of time and also sending out not an explanation. I wouldn’t call it an explanation, but kind of the framework for how you do it in a way that doesn’t make people mad. Because a lot of times it’s not what you say. It’s how you say it. And having a framework to use is really helpful.

Mike (19:23):

Oh, that’s so good. I’m so glad that you found that part of the roadmap helpful and you know, the cool part about it is that your clients immediately bounce back at least by 98%, whatever. We always have a couple of people that just leave and that’s cool, but we manage that, but it was just so cool that you said that your clients saw the value that you were almost afraid to see in yourself, right? That’s just so neat. So tell me a little bit, do you have any like growth metrics you wouldn’t mind sharing? Like how is your business doing from where it was before RampUp to right now? Andrea has said that you’ve been doing some PRs and so forth in revenue, tell me a little bit about all this.

Jeff (19:57):

So the biggest thing that changed is revenue. Overall revenue. Our revenue came from different programs. Being able to find talent, get that talent to do a program. And then award them from that growth of that program also allows for that coach to maks so much more money than just coaching a group class. So it does a lot of different things. So nutrition took off. So we have a nutrition coach now and she handles only nutrition. And we have a physical therapist came in and she handles only the masters class. She also does a group class, but she only does two of them. But her main responsibility is the master’s program. We have a kids program. We have, which we had, but it’s growing now, we now have a teen sports performance guy who’s come in and only handling with like the sports performance. We didn’t have any of that last year. None of it, all of that has been in the last year year. But part of that is being able to give people a platform to grow in their areas of strength. And it’s interesting because some of the talent, you don’t know is talent until you start digging. And then there are some, like in a gym, there are people in a gym that you don’t know how good they are until you give them a platform to shine.

Mike (21:20):

So you’ve created careers for staff. Is that what I’m hearing?

Jeff (21:22):

Yep.

Mike (21:22):

And last year that wasn’t a thing?

Jeff (21:25):

That’s where our revenue jump we’ve jumped. We jumped about 30% in three months after just starting the program.

Mike (21:34):

Wow. That’s a huge number.

New Speaker (21:36):

Yeah. It was a PR for us. Lifetime. And that was in July. That was the month of July. And so we’re still in COVID at that point. And that was a PR for our gym ever for revenue.

Mike (21:52):

Wow. So the ROI on your RampUp investment was coming back at you like within months.

Jeff (21:57):

Already. Yeah. Cause I was like, yeah, that’s what Allison, my wife was talking about is where’s the return on the investment? I said, for us, it wasn’t a return on investment. For us, if this didn’t work, I was out. So it was one of those things. I’m like, this is my last shot. I love the gym. I love coaching, but I could not appropriately handle the amount of stress that I was putting on myself, which in due to my family. So for me, this was a one and done like one year, see how this thing goes. And now I have this, like the skills, the framework, the foundation put in place. So like, now I love it. Now it’s like, I have so many more goals way outside that now I’m really enjoying progressing on.

Mike (22:47):

It’s so cool to hear you say that because I, you know, I’ve had the privilege of talking to Chris, you know, a lot about, you know, his vision and mission at Two-Brain. And it really is to keep more passionate, talented people like you in the fitness business. And if we don’t understand the business and I was one of these people too, you don’t want to be there anymore, or you can’t be there anymore because you can’t provide for your family. And Chris was in the exact same position, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, trying to figure out how to provide for his family and be a fitness coach. And he figured it out through a bunch of mistakes and now he’s teaching other people. So it’s so neat to hear that like exactly what we want to do is happening where you, you know, you were gone if this didn’t work out and now you’re at the point where you’re thriving, creating careers for people. And like you said, you were trained as a coach. Does this give you a chance now to enjoy the business more?

Jeff (23:31):

Yeah. It’s this false narrative that you start to believe as a coach. When you look at your business based on how much effort you put into it, you’re like, man, do I just suck? It’s not that, it’s you have the resources and the knowledge to do the right things. So now on the back end, it was like, I don’t suck. I’m just new. So now when I look at my business and going, oh, this is actually way more rewarding because you watch your coaches thrive. You watch your athletes thrive, you watch the business get better. So now it’s like this whole new experience. It’s still challenging. If you’re doing anything worthwhile, it’s going to be challenging. But it’s a good, like I wake up in the morning and go, all right, what’s the challenge today, versus a year ago, little over a year ago, you wake up and you’re like, kind of let’s get through the day.

Mike (24:28):

I bet that stuff, that confidence carries over into every aspect of your life. Like I bet you’re a better dad. Better husband. Just better.

Jeff (24:35):

Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Nothing operates in a silo.

Mike (24:39):

I got you on that. And it’s cool to hear you explain, you know, how the idea like no one knows how to do this stuff. There is no school for business owners who run gyms until, you know, until now where we can actually teach people how to avoid mistakes. And this allows you to thrive rather than just bang your head against the wall until it’s so bloody, you stagger out of the fitness industry. And we’ve seen that just way too many times before the Two-Brain program existed. So tell me this, now that you’ve got a foundation, you’ve got your operations documents and staff, and you’ve got everything going in the right direction. What’s the plan for the business going forward? How does mentorship figure into that? Like what do you want this thing to be?

Jeff (25:13):

Yeah. So what I really like about Two-Brain is I like goals. I’m a goal oriented person. Most people that run gyms are goal oriented people and they have these categories and then they have the metrics inside the categories. And that’s super motivating to me because I’ll ask Andrea, I’m like, where am I at in that category?

Mike (25:30):

That’s our roadmap.

Jeff (25:32):

Yeah. You’re way down here. And I’m like, and that’s OK for me now. I was like, OK, what’s my next step to progress in that one specific area. So that is me as a leader, running the gym. I really liked that. And then for me now, this is the first time ever that I’m stepping out of being the main head coach and getting to the point now that I get to spend my time and energy, helping the other coaches be the main coaches. And that’s a big transition for me, but it’s a good one. I feel like it’s needed. But you change roles and change hats going from head coach that ran the gym to, I’m no longer the head coach. Like next week I coach three classes. Like that’s it, and after that I get to work on the business and support everybody else.

Mike (26:24):

Wow. That’s such a huge change from 50 to 60 hours of grinding and being just a little ways away from having to call it day.

Jeff (26:31):

Yep. I’m really excited about where our current stage is. Content, but not satisfied, like I’m content with where it’s at. I’m never satisfied ever for anything. So it’s that continuing to progress in those areas is really the big focus for me right now is supporting the staff, supporting the coaches, and then also working on the foundation of the what we built in past year.

Mike (27:04):

So someone’s listening right now and they’re at the stage where you were at a year ago, and they’re thinking about packing it in, what do you say to that person?

Jeff (27:11):

Same thing I told myself is what do you have to lose? Like at the point in which is your current reality was my current reality. Is this what I want? Like at the end of the day, is this what I want? I’m like, no, it’s not what I wanted. So for me, the risk of jumping was less than the risk of staying the same for the next 10 years.

Mike (27:34):

Fantastic. I got to ask you one final question before I let you go. Do you guys use the phrase when in Rome, at your gym all the time?

Jeff (27:41):

No, we do some, what I think is the funniest thing is I get emails, a fair amount of people that want to drop in and they use words like on holiday. I’m like, I think you’re meaning Europe. So I get a fair amount of emails from people that are in Rome, Italy, that want to drop into a box there. And I’m like, I’m sorry, we’re in Northwest Georgia. You’re going to be super disappointed.

Mike (28:11):

Not the same?

Jeff (28:11):

Not the same.

Mike (28:15):

Have you got a referral system set up with a gym in actual Rome?

Jeff (28:20):

I think that’d be funny. No, I do need to reach out to them.

Mike (28:24):

We’ll have to find out if we’ve got a Two-Brain gym in Rome. I know we have some Italians, but I’m not sure about Rome, we’ll have to figure something out for you.

Jeff (28:29):

That’s pretty funny. No, I can just tell their disappointment. They’re like, Oh, no, I don’t want to go to Georgia. I’m like, it’s hot in summer.

Mike (28:38):

That’s funny. But you got a good football team, so, you know, try and at least sell it that way. Maybe you don’t have like the Coliseum, but you have a football team.

Jeff (28:45):

That’s right.

Mike (28:46):

Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your story. And I’m so glad that CrossFit Rome is still in the fitness industry and thriving. I really appreciate it. I wish you all the best for the coming months and years of business.

Jeff (28:57):

I really appreciate the time. Thank you.

Mike (28:59):

I’m Mike Warkentin and this is Two-Brain Radio. 93% of gym owners recoup their investment in RampUp in less than 12 weeks. If you want to learn more about the program, book a call with a certified mentor via the link in the show notes. And now, join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. You can literally ask your gym business questions in there and get answers from other gym owners, certified Two-Brain mentors and founder Chris Cooper himself. It’s the only public forum where Coop offers his insight. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join it today and I’ll see you in there.

 

The post “If This Didn’t Work, I Was Out”—Owner’s Fly-or-Die Decision appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers: High Speed, Low Drag (Big Revenue, Small Expenses)

In this series, I shared data from the gyms with the top revenue in Two-Brain—at a single location (many had more revenue because they had multiple locations, but we only reported revenue for one). I also shared data from the gyms with the lowest expenses.

As a math nerd, I wanted to know who had the best ratio of revenue to expenses. In other words, who’s doing the most with the least? Who has the highest speed and the lowest drag?

Who can stretch a small space or low headcount the furthest? Who’s crushing it in a tiny space or shooting the moon and obliterating expenses with a larger gym?

Were any gym owners on our Top 10 leaderboards for both high revenue and low expenses?

The answer: no. But a few were very close:

One was 12th in revenue and 10th in expenses.One was 6th in revenue and 20th in expenses.One was 10th in revenue and 32nd in expenses.One was 8th in revenue and 42nd in expenses.One was 10th in revenue and 45th in expenses.

These rankings are out of the 850 gyms in the Two-Brain family.

We don’t share the actual numbers in public, but I can tell you the data is very impressive. Here’s what these owners have in common:

They all started small and upgraded space later—or the owner started in a larger space but subleased a portion to cut expenses until the gym could afford to use all the space.They have good locations but none are paying retail-area rent.They have some revenue diversity, with 10-20 percent of revenue coming from personal training, nutrition coaching or some kind of specialty program.All spend time coaching or mentoring staff. All give their staff members opportunities to grow the pie for everyone (intrapreneurship).All are either in the Tinker phase of entrepreneurship or just about to make that leap.All are either in our Top 10 for net owner benefit (how much they pay themselves) or very close. Here’s our video on how to improve NOB:

What can you learn from the people with high revenue and low overhead?

That this combination is possible. That you don’t absolutely need a 30-station rig or 20,000 square feet of space or many of the “toys” you want to buy.

Those things don’t attract clients, and they won’t make you more successful. Grow after you’re successful instead of building and hoping.

The post By the Numbers: High Speed, Low Drag (Big Revenue, Small Expenses) appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers: Make More Money by Controlling Expenses

Here are several closely guarded industry secrets:

Some of the largest CrossFit gyms don’t actually make any money.Some of the old-schoolers don’t make any money.Some of the 300-member gyms don’t make any money.Some of the Games-winning gyms don’t make any money.And a bunch of the bigger gyms that were famous in the CrossFit world disappeared when things got tough.

I love the CrossFit community. I’ve met many of the founders of these gyms and absolutely love most of them. I appreciate their service and their willingness to risk everything for an ideal. They should all be millionaires. None are.

Why not?

Are You Spending All the Profit?

You can use six strategies to grow your gym. But failing with any of these strategies—even the unsexy ones—can kill your gym.

One great example? High expenses.

Many microgym owners—in the worlds of CrossFit, yoga, personal training and more—build beautiful facilities in high-rent areas of expensive cities. They count on their great locations or amazing spaces to attract the huge numbers of clients they’ll need to cover their costs.

Their overhead expenses require hundreds of members just to break even—and, from the outside, a 250-member gym can appear to be pretty damn successful. But, meanwhile, the owner is broke, exhausted and looking for a way out.

One of the six strategies you can use to make your gym more successful is to control your expenses.

Here’s how to do it:

Here’s what the top Two-Brain gyms paid in expenses in April 2021 as a percentage of gross revenue (not including payroll):

Here’s what some of the leaders said:

“We don’t use any gym-management software. We use a low-cost version of Acuity, free Mailchimp, and don’t have Wodify or SugarWOD or any other services like that.”

“We started small and slowly built our space into what it is now.”

“We traded leasehold improvements for less rent and did some of the work ourselves.”

I did a lot of that stuff, too. I actually still have a homemade plyo box that I used to carry from house to house back in 2001! You can see it in this video:

Can you be successful with a big gym and high overhead? Absolutely. Our “State of the Industry” guide showed that the gyms with the most profit were slightly larger than average.

But many owners confuse cause and effect. They believe that the high-rent space, full-time trainers and mountains of kettlebells create the successful gym. But the inverse is actually true: The best gyms got great clients who paid a high value and stuck around for a long time. Eventually, the gym owner was forced to get more space, equipment and help—but that owner remained profitable while acquiring these things.

There are dozens of examples of big gyms with lots of clients. Some make money. Some actually don’t make money.

The question isn’t “how much money does your gym make each month?” but “how much money do you keep each month?”

It’s not enough to have a lot of clients—or even a lot of revenue. While useful, these are primarily vanity metrics. What matters is what you—the owner—can keep after the bills are paid.

The post By the Numbers: Make More Money by Controlling Expenses appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

“Google My Business” Tips for Gym Owners

Mike (00:00):

Google is the key to the internet. So if you want to unlock web traffic, you need to pay attention to your Google My Business listing. Marketing expert Mateo Lopez will tell you what to do right after this.

Chris (00:11):

Back to Two-Brain Radio in just a minute. Beyond the Whiteboard is the world’s premier workout tracking platform. Beyond the Whiteboard empowers gym owners with tools designed to retain and motivate members. We all know clients need to accomplish their goals if they’re going to stick around long term, and Beyond the Whiteboard will help your members chart their progress. They can earn badges view, leaderboards, track their macros, assess their fitness levels, and a lot more. Your job is to get great results for your members. Beyond the Whiteboard’s job is to make sure your members see those results and celebrate them. For a free 30-day trial, visit BTwb.com today.

Mike (00:50):

This is Two-Brain Radio I’m Mike Warkentin here with marketing expert Mateo Lopez of Gym Lead Machine. Mateo. I’m going to read you something from Google itself, and I want your opinion. Here it is. You may find that your business doesn’t show up for relevant searches in your area. To maximize how often users find your business in local search results, ensure that your business information in Google My Business is accurate, complete, and engaging. So the question, how much of a hint is that that Google really wants you to pay attention to Google My Business?

Mateo (01:19):

That’s pretty, they’re not hiding anything. They’re pretty up front.

Mike (01:29):

Just like wink, wink.

Mateo (01:30):

And I think y’all who are listening should listen to that little piece of advice from Google, because it’s true. It’s not fake news. It’s true.

Mike (01:46):

The blunt description is that Google wants people to find stuff. And if you help Google make it easy, they’re going to show you more. Is that accurate?

Mateo (01:56):

Yeah. I mean, we’ll get into this for sure. But yeah, basically Google wants to keep its users on Google. And so when you’re talking about the search engine, people are using Google to find stuff. And if you make it easy for them, for the Google users to find you or to find what they’re looking for, you make it easier on the algorithm to show people what they want in terms of when they’re searching. Then you’ll get rewarded for that. And the one way that makes it easier for Google and its algorithm to sort through all of the different businesses or all the different sites or all of the different businesses that have a presence on Google, one way to make it easier for the algorithm to sort through those and figure it out is with Google My Business. We’re going to talk about that in a second. Google wants to make life easier for Google and for its users. And if you can help in that process, then that makes the mighty algorithm happy.

Mike (03:07):

Scratch my back I scratch yours kind of situation. So for people who are kind of, haven’t really looked into this yet, let’s just get, what is Google My Business? How can listeners set it up? Like just give them a quick overview of what this thing is and how difficult is it?

Mateo (03:19):

Yeah, basically, it’s an online listing for your business or a business. iIt’s like a Facebook business page, but Google’s version of that, I guess, is the easiest way to, if you know what that is. But yeah, I guess there are, we’ve talked about SEO here before. There’s basically two types, there’s on page SEO and that’s basically anything that has to do with your website or your page that you have online about your business or your gym. And then there’s offsite or off page SEO and that refers to anything that’s not your website, but that also contributes to where you rank in the search engine results pages. And so, you know, with off page SEO, your goal is to basically prove to search engines and the people using search engines or typing in search queries, you basically want to send signals to the search engine that your website is popular, that it’s relevant for the search terms that people are using. And that you’re trustworthy, that you have authority in what you’re talking about, you’re not some kind of like pirate website. Those are all of the signals and the things you’re trying to send to the search engine and the algorithm.

Mike (04:38):

Unless you are a pirate website, in which case you want to use a lot of like booty and Buccaneer terms and so forth.

Mateo (04:44):

Exactly, exactly, exactly. If you are Jack Sparrow on the internet, then yeah. Then ignore everything I’m saying, but there are many ways to signal to the search engines and to Google that your site, that your website is safe and that you’re trustworthy and that, you know, you’re not a pirate. There’s many ways to send those signals, one way is to get other reputable places to link back to your website, to talk about your website, to comment to your website. You know, if you had, for example, crossfit.com, right, write a post about your gym and it links to your gym. That’s a reputable source saying that you are a trustworthy authoritative, you know, business in the space. So basically you’re getting other third parties to vouch for the quality of your website.

Mateo (05:44):

Exactly, exactly. And so one of these third parties is Google itself and basically, Google My Business is the platform that beads that let’s try that again. Google My Business is the platform that feeds Google’s business listings. And so these listings are basically used to populate results in the local pack or the map pack, which will, I guess I can define in a second. And also when you’re using Google maps, basically if you type in like, you know, restaurant near me, when you see a list of Italian restaurants that are near you or whatever it is, Google My Business is what is feeding those listings and those results.

Mike (06:32):

So what I’m looking at here, I’ve just pulled up, you know, my wife’s business page and I did a direct search on it for Google. And what I’ve got here is what is referred to as the knowledge panel on Google. And I’ll just read off a couple of things that you see right away. And this is the thing, if you search for just, you know, think of like local plumber or whatever you would Google and it’ll come up and if you get the exact one, it’s going to have the name, it’s got a map it’s got, see photos, see outside, website directions, call. And then it’s got a list of reviews with our rating. It’s got a description of who we are, what we do, nutritionist in Winnipeg. Then it’s got address, hours of operation, phone, appointments, province or state. And then it’s got some questions and answers, reviews from the web. It’s got Facebook, you know, links to Facebook there. It’s got the popular times. And then it’s got a bunch of reviews, plus a bunch of other stuff, if you keep scrolling. So it’s like, it’s like the about section on your Facebook profile, you know, and it’s like relationship status, open for business. Right? What do you think that’s the knowledge panel. Anything you want to add about what people need to have in there?

Mateo (07:35):

So basically, yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there, Mike. Basically the Google knowledge panel is the informational box that appears basically after a search result, giving the searcher a preview or a snapshot of the most important directory type information. So you’ll see this box at the right hand corner of the search results. If you’re searching on a computer obviously, or basically the top of the page if you’re on your phone and the knowledge panel will appear when someone runs a search specifically for a business. So for example, if I were to actually type in the search box, CrossFit San Francisco, that business specifically, most likely if they have an active online presence on Google, that will show up and the knowledge panel will show up as well.

Mateo (08:27):

And it’ll give me a preview or snapshot of what to expect at CrossFit San Francisco photos, hours of operation, link to their website, things like that. So again, the knowledge panel, you should see key directory info, address, hours of operation, a phone number, website, directions, all the important info about a specific business. That’s what you would sew in the knowledge panel.

Mateo (08:50):

It’s the 4 1 1, so to speak.

Mateo (08:53):

A hundred percent. The other place that’s important, and basically where managing your Google My Business page comes into play is the local map pack or the snack pack. We’ve mentioned this a couple of times already today. And basically if you were to type in not a specific business, but just a type of business. So CrossFit near me, for example, basically when you type that into the search bar, you’ll get a list of three local business listings that will appear as a response to your search or your query, and it’ll show up next to a map as well, most likely.

Mateo (09:30):

And, it will give you those three top options that are one close to you, two relevant to your search, three authoritative, meaning they’re trustworthy. They have a lot of reviews. So yeah, like I said, if you type in best CrossFit gym in Miami, you would see a map and then three businesses and where those businesses rank, like one, two, three will depend on a lot of different factors. A lot of them have to do with off page SEO factors. Some of them are just proximity. And the big one, which we’re talking about today is your Google My Business page and how well it’s optimized, all of those come into play in determining which businesses rank in the top one to three spots when you’re running a search.

Mike (10:16):

So I’ve got three right here. I just Googled, as you were talking, I Googled best CrossFit gym in Miami, and I’ve got CrossFit 305 of Miami, CrossFit Yellow Falcon Miami, and CrossFit Downtown Miami. And it’s got, that’s my map pack. So you could certainly dig more. I guarantee if I click on this, there’s going to be more, but those are the top three that it selected for me.

Mateo (10:36):

Yeah. And your Google My Business page is a big contributing factor on who ranks where in that list. The other, place where you’ll be able to see Google My Business information when someone is on the Google platform is with the Google maps app itself. So when, you know, while it’s true that, you know, you usually use Google maps when you’re trying to go somewhere right. For directions, so that’s true, but you can also use it to discover new businesses and services that are close to you as well. So if you were to just open up the maps app and you just type in restaurants near me, or just, you know, gyms, it’ll give you a list of results and your Google My Business profile will feed into and determine where you rank in that search on the maps app.

Mike (11:31):

So I just hammered in gyms, New York for fun, and I’m getting two ads paid, paid to be there up top. And then it’s got a list of a, you know, I’ve got Gym NYC, Tone House, New York Underground Fitness, Ludlow fitness, and they’re all here. It looks like I’m in right along the river, close to where you are near Yonkers, I think is what it’s got. But anyways, that’s what the map pack, sorry, the map search the app is giving me. So it’s really interesting because you can see, like, if you searched for some of this stuff, like best CrossFit gym in Miami, or best gym near me, or whatever, it would really behoove you to be in the results for that, like right at the top, would it not?

Mateo (12:06):

A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

Mike (12:08):

That’s like money maker right there.

Mateo (12:08):

Oh yeah, definitely. The higher you can rank in those searches, you know, the better. Some things are out of your control. So for example, you know, if the person who’s actually doing the search is closer physically to one gym versus the other. And if all things are equal, you know, in terms of your ranking, your website, your Google My Business profile, but the person is just physically closer to one versus the other, the one that they’re closer to is going to get the higher spot. And then if they were to move, you know, my point there is proximity of the searcher is a big factor. So that’s kind of out of your control, but there are definitely other things that you can control, such as, you know, your Google My Business page and how well it’s filled out, if it’s optimized for certain keyword terms. And if you have reviews, if it’s fleshed out with photos, things like that.

Mike (13:04):

The good example of that is when I Googled the best CrossFit gym in Miami, and I read you the three, it gave me when I clicked on the map, there were a ton of CrossFit gyms around those three. So I’m not in Miami. Right. But for whatever reason, it selected those three, even though there were a ton of other ones all around it. So whatever’s going on there, whether it’s Google My Business or a good website or whatever it is, those three were the ones that I looked at, despite the fact that they have competitors all over close to them. I would be very inclined to just pick one of those three.

Mateo (13:32):

Yep. Yep. Especially if they have good reviews, there’s no reason to keep scrolling down the list. If it’s close to you, if it has good reviews, you’re probably going to go to the ones that pop up at the top. One of those three, for sure.

Mike (13:46):

So the setup on this thing, you can set up a Facebook profile. It’s not that hard, right? You’re just going through and basically just filling in information like hours of operation, you can upload pictures of staff. You can create like posts, you know, offers and so forth, but you’re putting in as much info as you can. And you want to obviously get your clients and so forth to get reviews and all this, it’s not that hard to set it up. Are there any tips that you have for what people need to set up or what’s essential in there, or even how, like some specific things that would help people do it fast?

Mateo (14:13):

Yeah, totally. One thing, the first thing is that I wanted to mention a little nugget here is just your name, the name of your business that you have to put in the title section, basically in the business name section, is a big contributing factor to basically what searches you populate for. So for example, if you were a CrossFit affiliate CrossFit 123 and then you disaffiliated and became Fitness 123 and then, you know, you changed your name in the Google My Business listing accordingly, that’s going to have a big impact on what searches you populate for and where you rank.

Mateo (15:10):

It depends. In that example, let’s say you’re in a small town and there’s only three or four CrossFit gyms, and you were one of them. You’re probably gonna rank pretty high for that search term for CrossFit. But if you disaffiliate and then now your town also has, you know, a few globo gyms, a few personal training studios, a few yoga studios, and now people are typing in gym or fitness near me. You’re going to have a lot more competition. Right. And so your title, that kind of competitive advantage you had in the business name, you know, you don’t have that anymore. If you’re disaffiliating, that’s just, you know, one example, I’m not saying, yeah, I’m not saying you should be an affiliate or not. That’s not kinda my point of that example, but just to illustrate the impact.

Mike (15:59):

I’ll take it one step further. And just say, like, when everything happened and a lot of gyms deaffiliated because of Greg Glassman’s comments last year, we won’t get into the political aspects of any of it, because that’s a whole huge other discussion. We’ll just say that racism is bad. But the idea of just completely dropping a name with no plan to replace that SEO can be very troublesome, right? Like if everything funneled to your site through your CrossFit affiliate name, and all of a sudden you get rid of that and you don’t have that other name branded and properly, you know, the SEO setup and everything that gets you traffic, your traffic could just disappear. Could it not?

Mateo (16:33):

Yeah, definitely can have a big negative impact on your organic traffic, for sure. Just to illustrate this, the importance of your name here. I go over this example in the course that I created for SEO and in the section about GMB, and it’s probably easier to see it when you watch the course visually, but I’ll try and describe it basically, there’s this example of this like construction or think it was like a Realty or a property management company. And they had all of the words that they wanted to rank for in their Google My Business name. So it was like Texas Realty, office construction, long-term lease contract office, building construction, building office, like all of those words just crammed into their title. And, you know, it made a big impact, a positive impact on populating for those search terms, every search term they wanted to populate for, basically they put it in their name.

Mike (17:46):

Doesn’t roll off the tongue, but it works.

Mateo (17:46):

Yeah. But it works. I mean, an example for us would be like, you know, CrossFit Winnepeg best yoga in Winnipeg, personal training Winnepeg, fitness Winnepeg, best place to work out as like your official name. Right? So if you were to put that in your Google My Business name, you might see a lot more traffic for those search terms. Like it has a big impact. Having said that if that’s not actually the name of your business, you’re going to get flagged by Google and shut down pretty quickly there. So my advice there is if you want to show up for the search terms, best personal trainer in Miami, you can do that by putting that in your Google My Business name, you just might have to legally change your business name to best personal trainer in Miami.

Mike (18:44):

If you’re starting out a business right now, you know, thinking up your mystical in joke name, which was cool for a lot of us back in the day, don’t do that. You know, like it sounds really good to have this whole business card graphic theme that works into your secret esoteric concept, but no one Googles that, it would be better to just call yourself Mateo’s weight loss center, or, you know, something like that, where it’s just, maybe it’s not the most sexy name in the world, but it’s blunt and it gets the point across. And if I’m not mistaken, I’ll just say Gym Lead Machine has a description of what it does in the name of the company. Am I right?

Mateo (19:18):

Yep. It sure does. We get leads for gyms, so, yeah. That was on purpose. Going off your example, Mateo’s personal training in Jupiter, Florida, it’s the best. I can make that my LLC, and then I can put that in my GMB business name. And then I would have a much better chance of showing up for those search terms. Your name is a big factor, I guess it’s a long, long way of saying what you type into Google My Business name field is a big contributing factor for what terms you show up for in the search results. Having said that only put what your actual name is. Don’t try this sneaky Google hack unless your name is actually what you’re putting into the GMB.

Mike (20:12):

Google is like a casino. They always win in the end.

Mateo (20:15):

They do. That’s true.

Chris (20:17):

Hi, this is Chris Cooper, and I founded Two-Brain Business to make gyms profitable. Over the last years, as we’ve compiled more and more data, more and more tools, gotten better and better at mentorship, we’ve really made a lot of gyms, hundreds around the world, thousands over the years, profitable, doing better. What hasn’t kept pace is the quality of coaching in a lot of gyms worldwide. There are great programs out there that will introduce you to a method like bootcamp, kettlebells, Olympic lifting, powerlifting, CrossFit, running, whatever that is. And so we can make coaches who know the subject matter, but that doesn’t make them a great coach. To be a great coach, you have to be able to change somebody’s habits. You have to be able to change their behavior and to do that requires deep understanding of their motivations to do that means amazing adherence by the client. And it means amazing retention because as gym owners, we know it’s harder and harder and more expensive than ever to get a new client. Retention is more important than ever. Referrals are more important than ever. Peer to peer marketing, word of mouth is more important than it’s ever been. How do you get those things? Through client results. So I founded Two-Brain Coaching with Josh Martin to get coaches the skills they actually need to make a career in fitness instead of just familiarity with a methodology. Twobraincoaching.com has courses to help you start a career with personal training, to scale up with group training, both in person and online, and to diversify with nutrition, coaching, and mindset coaching. We have the best programs in the industry that will prepare you and your coaches to deliver any method that you love now or you might love 10 years from now. Twobraincoaching is really a project of love for me. And if you visit twobraincoaching.com, you’ll get a ton of free resources, just like we produce every day on twobrainbusiness.com.

Mateo (22:16):

Um, so we’re talking about setting it up, right? So your name is a big focus. The next one would be categories. So when you’re setting up your GMB page, and even if you’ve already set it up, you can go in and review, your primary category has a big impact on what you show up for in the search results. So, you know, I would choose, I guess, gym as a primary category, but let’s say your money-making service is actually personal training. Like you offer classes, you offer nutrition, but let’s say your money-making service is personal training. You may want to have personal training as your primary category instead because you’ll have a better chance of showing up or for search terms that are related to personal training. If that’s your primary business category.

Mike (23:03):

So it could be as specific, as like, as opposed to Mateo’s plumbing, you’d be like Mateo’s residential toilet unplugging service, right? Like something very specific as opposed to a giant thing. If you maybe wanted to niche down a little bit.

Mateo (23:15):

Right. And this is more if you’re choosing, once after you do your name it asks you, you know, what category are you, what business category, what’s your primary category? It gives you a dropdown. And they’re adding categories every day. By the way, I should say that if you don’t see the thing that actually speaks to you, pick the one that’s most accurate or most closely related to you and go with that and then keep checking on it because Google is adding categories as more and more businesses, you know, sign up for GMB.

Mike (23:45):

Instead of like professional services, you might be able to niche down to like accounting or something like that.

Mateo (23:51):

Yes, yes. One day. One day nutrition coaching might be on there, but it’s not right now. But so yeah, when you’re choosing basically a thing you want to think about is, you know, does gym, is that really what, you know, you want to show up for? Or do you want to show up for personal training? Or do you want to show up for nutritionist? You know, those are the three categories that you’re probably going to want to choose between. And so whatever your money maker is, that’s the one you want to choose. And then after that set up your secondary.

Mike (24:24):

I just did a Google on that and I just found this thing on pixelcutlabs.com and has updated Google categories. And like, I’ll just read you like seven of them here so that, you know, you can understand how niche it can be. It’s like Acura dealer, as opposed to car dealer, you’ve got addiction treatment center, administrative attorney, adoption agency, adult daycare center, adult DVD store, adult education school. So like, you’ve got a ton of different things. The best example there is probably Acura dealer as opposed to auto dealer or car dealer.

Mateo (24:51):

Right? Yeah. So they’re creating new categories all the time. Right now for our industry, for our niche, I think the big ones are gym, nutritionist and personal training, but, you know, keep checking back. But they’re adding more every day. So whatever you choose that is a big contributing factor to what you populate for in the search results.

Mike (25:15):

That’s a good tip.

Mateo (25:15):

So the next, after you pick your primary category, you know, you’re going to want to pick your secondary categories. So, you know, if you picked gym on the first one, you can obviously add personal training as a secondary category and things like that. You’ll notice CrossFit is not going to be on there, but you know, that’s all right. Like I said, Google’s adding categories all the time, so maybe one day they will.

Mateo (25:45):

So, nutritionist is a category on there as of now. But nutrition or nutrition coach. I don’t think those are on there. And that’s because, you know, people still to this day really aren’t—when they’re thinking of nutrition coaching, they’re thinking nutritionists or dietician. They’re not thinking nutrition coaching the way we are with like macros or like, you know, signing up with like, someone’s going to help you with, you know, paleo or whole 30 or whatever it is, you know, people still search when they’re searching for those words are looking for a nutritionist most of the time. If you have a nutritionist on staff, take advantage of that category. For sure.

Mike (26:26):

Life coach is on there.

Mateo (26:26):

You could probably add that, but again, what is the intention behind that search? People usually aren’t thinking gym, right? When they think life coach.

Mike (26:37):

Eventually like life coach, probably I’m going to guess it’s a slightly more recent addition than like sports coach. So if they’re niching down there, you might find nutrition coach at some point. So your advice to check back regularly is really good.

Mateo (26:48):

Yeah. And like other tricky ones, when it comes to categories like weight loss or weight loss specialists, obviously as a gym, you y’all probably help with weight loss solutions. But, typically when someone is searching for weight loss, most of the time they’re looking for more like, you know, laparoscopy or, you know, like actual doctor weight loss solutions, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Mike (27:17):

Like I see the category here is weight loss service, which is very broad and general. It could be a whole lot of different stuff, interestingly, for our audience right below that I see weightlifting area. Kind of an odd one.

Mateo (27:27):

Oh, that’s interesting. But yeah, like if you do add weight loss services as a category, obviously that makes sense. But just keep in mind, you may get a couple of strange phone calls. Like you may get a call for someone asking for lap bands or something like that. So categories is a big one. Make sure you flesh those out when you’re setting up your profile. Another one is obviously hours of operation is important, but they should be accurate. So that’s the one takeaway I want you to have for this section is let’s say you have, I’ve heard of gyms who have a separate kind of room that’s key card access only. And they like to say that a 24 hour open gym access. That’s cool. However, if someone calls your gym through the GMB pages, like a little call button, if they call your gym through the Google My Business listing, and it’s 10 at night because they think, oh, they’re open 24 seven. I can call. And then no one picks up the phone because no one’s actually manning the desk at 10 o’clock at night. And if that happens enough times, you might get dinged by the algorithm say, Hey, this says you’re open 24 seven but people who have called at various hours and no one picked up. So my advice there would be to list the hours where, you know, someone will pick up the phone. That’s where you want to have, uyou know, your hours of operation listed on GMB.

Mike (28:58):

Because people can give feedback on this stuff to Google. Correct?

Mateo (29:00):

Totally.

Mike (29:00):

It’s interesting, we actually got, someone recommended, we shut down our physical location, moved to an office next door, forgot to update our Google My Business listing. And people were saying that we had been permanently closed and that was an oversight on our part. And we had to like go through the process to switch that over. So definitely keep your stuff updated on that site.

Mateo (29:19):

Yeah. A hundred percent. Keeping updated, accuracy while we’re on that topic, your phone number should match what’s on your website. That’s important. You know, you’ll be surprised how many times I’ve seen cell phones, the owner’s cell phone at one place and then a different number on the other. So just, you want to keep that stuff consistent. Other things to flesh out, you can add additional services. So this is where you can add things yourself that are custom. So, if you want to add like a women’s only bootcamp class, and you offer that service, there’s a place where you can add in your own kind of categories of services that you offer. You know, if you offer yoga classes, you can add those things in personal training. And I would add in as much of the additional kind of categories as you can, you know, you offer one-on-one personal training, two on one personal training, small group classes, large group classes, like all those things, feel free to flesh those out as much as possible. Same with the product section. Obviously we sell services, but if you sell t-shirts, if you sell water bottles, meal services, you know, protein powder list that stuff out, make your page as robust with as many things that you can as possible. InBody scans is another one that I think is really cool to add as one of the additional products or services in your GMB page. OK.

Mike (30:44):

So that is a huge list of tips. And this is just again, filling out fields, generally. It’s not that hard to do. And then you can certainly like you can go a little further and you can put up posts, which I think is kind of cool. And you’ll get some looks on that. Photos, I think is a really good one. We got a ton of views on some of our photos that we put up for our gym when we had the physical location and that’s just free advertising, right. It works really well. We actually put up a facility tour, like you could take some 360 degree stuff. If you want to get technical a little bit and, you know, use some of these apps to create 360 degree photos, people can actually tour through your facilities and so forth. You might not want to do that if your facility looks really scary and people are vomiting in the background, but you might want to showcase your front, you know, awesome consultation area with, you know, smiling staff members and so forth, lot of cool stuff that you can do in there.

Mateo (31:29):

Yeah. Photos is really important. I think we mentioned this last time, but, one study, I think this came from Google itself, but one study found that 60% of consumers said that local search results with good images captured their attention and push them towards a decision. And then the folks over at Google HQ, they reported that businesses with photos on a Google My Business page received 42% more requests for driving directions and 35% more click through rates on their website than those that don’t have a ton of photos. So it’s kind of a straight from the horse’s mouth.

Mike (32:09):

If you’re shopping for a house online, looking at real estate listings, and you’ve got this great description with no pictures, you’re not going to look at it as closely as something that has a ton of great pictures. Like it’s just a thing. So it would be really wise to get some pictures up there and then just keep chucking them up. Every time you update Facebook, chuck another picture up or whatever, or update your staff or whatever. But the pictures are a huge deal. And like, when I look at businesses, I’m just Googling in the background here. As you’re talking Mateo, when I see great pictures pop up, I’m immediately more inclined to scroll down on that business and see what they’re all about.

Mateo (32:40):

Yeah. And no stock photos, please. From your actual gym. Actual people from your actual gym.

Mike (32:47):

We don’t want to see the general, the bearded, tattooed weightlifting guy doing the front squat that everyone uses on their site. Don’t do that.

Mateo (32:53):

Yes, no. And really what you’re trying to do is give people a what to expect when they actually show up to your facility. So, you know, show them, you know, the parking lot and where they can park, show them, you know, the entrance, show them pictures of your staff and their uniforms so that when someone shows up to your gym for the first time they saw the picture on GMB, they say, oh, I know who to look for. I’m looking for the people in the red shirts. Those are people who work there. I can ask them questions. So things like that. Right. Amenities that you want to show off, if you have a sauna or, or cryo chamber or whatever, like definitely show that stuff off. That stuff’s cool if you have it. But yeah, images is a big part. Yeah.

Mike (33:36):

And like, you know, even now talking in the COVID times and so forth, you might want to showcase your hand sanitizer station and your entrance area and so forth and your protocols, there’s just a ton of stuff that you can do to really help people understand. And let’s think about this. Like fitness has long had a barrier to entry where it’s quote unquote scary for people, right. Especially gyms that are like micro gyms often look kind of weird because they don’t have the traditional machines. I come at it from a spot whenever I go somewhere. I like to know what’s going on in there. I like to look inside the business. I like to know where I’m going. It’s like, I don’t like walking into places and not knowing where to go, like walking into a movie theater and in the dark and not know where to sit.

Mike (34:10):

I cannot stand that, I’d rather leave. Right. So I’d love to look at a business and say, OK, this is the entrance area. This is the waiting room. This is where, you know, like, just check it out. You can do a lot to set your people at ease with smiling faces and directions and so forth before the fact. So I’d encourage you to put up those photos and update them regularly. What else? Google My Business do’s and don’ts, are there any like major don’ts that you’ve got up there that you haven’t already mentioned or any do’s that we need to talk about for sure?

Mateo (34:33):

As you mentioned, COVID, there’s a section for highlights and attributes when you’re setting up your GMB page, flesh that out for sure. That’s a place where you can add things like we have free Wi-Fi wheelchair access, advanced COVID cleaning, online classes, especially now, you know, when, you know, we’re still kind of getting out of the COVID sphere. So if you want to add additional things of that nature, that’s where you would put it. I think, yeah, especially COVID cleaning things, online classes. Those are important things to add nowadays.

Mike (35:09):

You could do all sorts of stuff on the app. And it’s just like, I’ve got it open on my cell phone here and it’s great. Like you can post, and I don’t think a lot of people take advantage of this, but you can post like offers and you can post events. And then of course you can like, you know, get more reviews and so forth, like share your profile and ask for reviews. There’s all sorts of stuff that you can do. You can manage and respond to reviews. It’s really a great system. And if Google is the king or queen of all search engines, spending some time here is going to payback. I will guarantee that.

Mateo (35:35):

Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned posts. You’ve said it a couple of times, and I think we should definitely highlight that Google posts are basically posts that they’ll display within the knowledge pane section of like a Google search or Google maps, and think of posts like blog posts. They’re very similar. You can add an image, a description. You can even add a call to action. Posts typically I think they’re supposed to be for like recent things or upcoming things, they don’t last forever. So kind of have to, yeah, they have an expiration dates, but an easy way to just start taking advantage of those posts and just start getting content up there is just duplicate whatever you’re putting on Instagram or Facebook, and just put that same content in a Google post. And you can use, you know, the applications are endless, but you can promote an event. You can make an announcement, share seasonal messages, all kinds of stuff.

Mike (36:32):

When it expires, it’ll often tell me your post is expiring, give you some stats and ask you for another one. Go put up another one.

Mateo (36:39):

Exactly, exactly. And you can gain some, glean some valuable insights from here as well. You can see how well your posts perform. You can see people clicked on your pictures, how long they viewed them for, all kinds of stuff. And the more activity you have on your GMB page with posts, you know, the more that Google is going to reward you for using the platform.

Mike (37:03):

You could even acquire followers, right? Like it’s, you know, there’s so much that is untapped on this for gym owners. And especially in an area, like if you look around, every gym owner around you has a crappy Google My Business, spend like, spend an hour on yours and you will see some results on that.

Mateo (37:21):

You also mentioned reviews. Reviews is huge. Obviously anything that you can do to consistently gain positive reviews from your clients and have them added to your GMB page is gonna pay dividends.

Mike (37:39):

Like the app is so good that I can, like, it says reviews and it says, share your profile. So I could pull this up right now, hit share my profile and I could send you right now, a text message with a couple of taps that would say, 204 lifestyle would love your feedback, post a review to our profile. So think about that. If you’re talking to leads or clients, and like, let’s say you’ve had, you know, a goal review session or you, or something like that, hit this thing, text that the client when they’re feeling great about your business. Could you post review us? If you put like a very simple system and like, I’m literally telling you how simple it is. You’ll get more reviews out of it, right? And you need that, the more, if you have a hundred five star reviews, that’s gonna be better than two two-star reviews.

Mateo (38:17):

Yeah. And if you need help with that. You need a system or an app that can make that a little bit easier, Gym Lead Machine integrates beautifully and seamlessly with Google My Business. You can manage reviews and respond to reviews on both Facebook and Google all from one platform. Another thing that you can manage is conversations through the GMB chat function, which we didn’t even get to, but this is something that you have the option to turn on or off. And basically, when someone finds your GMB page on mobile, if you have messaging switched to on, they’ll actually see an option that says chat. So someone could start chatting with the business right away. And I think this is going to be the future of all consumer to business, local business communication is with this chat function here.

Mateo (39:14):

So I would advise if you have the staff to man the chat inbox, to switch that chat function on your GMB page to on. It will allow a prospect to start talking to you and getting the conversation moving, it’ll make it that much easier for them. And all of those messages can be funneled through, into one conversation’s inbox, with our Gym Lead Machine app as well. So we have all the conversations going into one place, it’s easy to manage, easy to see. But yeah, the GMB chat function is huge. You want to make it easier for prospects to contact you and to start talking to them, inquiring about your gym, and with GMB chat, that’s a easy way to do that.

Mike (39:55):

The world is instand. And you’ve told me many times on this show that the sooner you respond to a lead, the better, if you could be instantaneous through a chat, you’re going to make more sales.

Mateo (40:03):

Yep. A hundred percent.

Mike (40:06):

What else? Anything else you want to talk about Google My Business before we shut this down and send people off to update their profiles?

Mateo (40:11):

Well, you asked about don’ts. The only don’t would be to, you know, not pay attention to GMP page. The only don’t would be to ignore your GMB page, would be to have two pictures on there would be to have, no reviews on there would be to have nothing in the description section, you know. Fill out your GMB page as much as you can. It should only take, you know, an hour. And then it requires a little maintenance moving forward. You know, you’re going to put a post up once in a while. You’re going to add some new photos once in a while, you’ll respond to reviews and that’s really it.

Mateo (40:51):

Yeah, exactly. As long as it’s accurate and up to date, you’re going to see some really positive results just to emphasize, you know, the importance of this thing. White spark, which is one of the largest SEO companies in the world, they ran this huge study where they surveyed 50 of the world’s top SEO consultants. And they asked the survey group to list the most important ranking factors for local SEO. And the study then presented the top 15 most important factors that determine your rankings in the local pack, in the search results and of those 15 factors, of the top 10 of those were tied to information that’s found in your business’s GMB page. So all that’s to say is that Google wants to use your GMB page. It helps them better serve their users who are running local searches for businesses and local search inquiries. And then it rewards businesses you know, that have robust GMB pages by ranking them higher in the search results. So it’s important. It’s a major factor in local search and local SEO when it comes to off page SEO, it’s a big factor. So I would pay attention to it.

Mike (42:10):

So many people and I was one of them for a period obsessing over what their website looks like. And you know, what photos are on there and fonts and this and that. And what plugin. Honestly, if no one gets to your website first, no one’s going to see any of that stuff. You need to update this page. It takes like less than an hour to do that. And then the other thing is obviously Gym Lead Machine takes care of a lot of the other elements. So I don’t have to worry about all the other things that I used to worry about too, because you guys have the backend SEO covered for me at our business. So you can simplify your life with one hour of work on Google My Business. And if you are so inclined contact Gym Lead Machine, to see what they can do for you and take your web troubles away as well.

Mike (42:47):

Mateo, thank you so much for this lesson. I sincerely hope that Mateo’s weight loss center takes off if you so desire to trademark that name, but in any case, thank you again for your insight and knowledge on this topic. I’m Mike Warkentin on Two-Brain Radio. That was Mateo Lopez, the takeaway, fill out your Google My Business profile now. But before you do, head to Facebook and join the Gym Owners United Facebook group. You can literally ask your gym business questions in there and get answers from other gym owners, certified Two-Brain Business mentors and Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper himself. Chris does not participate in any other public Facebook groups. If you want to talk to him, that is the place to go. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook, join today, and then fill out your Google My Business page.

 

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