Chris Cooper's Blog, page 124

By the Numbers: The Gross Revenue Top 10 From April

Growing top-line revenue—the money coming into your business—isn’t really complicated.

You can get more members, keep your members longer or make more from your current members. The best revenue-producing gyms do all three really well.

Many gyms focus solely on getting more clients and absolutely miss the easier, higher-return opportunities. Top earners this month did get more clients but also provided huge value (and charged high rates). Only a few had gyms larger than 5,000 square feet, and even fewer had more than 200 clients.

Here are the top Two-Brain gyms for revenue in April:

Here’s what our top revenue performers said this month:

“We ran multiple programs and saw a significant increase in personal training—as Chris says, it’s more legs on the stool.”

“Now that we have on-ramp, we are slowing people down and getting the right people in the gym.”

“The surge, baby!”

Above, I said you can use three strategies to grow your revenue. One of those strategies is to grow your overall membership: the number of clients who pay you on a recurring basis.

Here’s a video on how that’s done:

You can actually employ six strategies to make a better living from your gym. Three involve growing your revenue—but the others don’t. In the next post in this series, I’ll share a strategy to make more money even without generating more revenue.

You can watch my training on the six strategies in our free public Facebook Group and download the free guide, too!

Your business isn’t a charity—it exists to serve your family first, your clients second and your staff third. If you’re not making a good living, your gym won’t last. Growing your revenue is a key step in earning a good living over the long term.

The post By the Numbers: The Gross Revenue Top 10 From April appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Sick of Bad News? Read This.

This week:

Good news from the business community.A Granite Games workout breakdown.

The pandemic is destroying a lot of businesses in Canada.

You don’t have to look very far for proof. You’ll likely see vacant storefronts or “for lease” signs when passing through your local business district.

I know several gym owners who are trying to decide if the they should pull the pin now, and I suspect more closures are coming if restrictions are added or extended.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 70 percent of small businesses have taken on debt because of the pandemic. The average debt level: CDN$170,000.

These are troubling numbers, and the web is full of them. I generally hate reading the news for that exact reason. You’ll always get about 20 negative stories for every positive tale—pandemic or no pandemic. The old saying “if it bleeds, it leads” exists for a reason. Reporters generally only write about good things on very slow days.

But good things are happening, and if you’re feeling down, here’s a little hope—whether you’re working through a lockdown or already on the other side and looking to start growing again.

Success Stories

Over at Coca CrossFit, Kate Spinner (Rawlings) has been adding members and revenue. She’s actually more than doubled her gross—and we’re not talking about a $2,000 to $4,000 “easy double.” She went from about $7,000 to between $18,000 and $20,000 per month. She tells her tale on Two-Brain Radio.

Billy Gorham is crushing it over at CrossFit Jax. Check this out: He’s doubled his membership and his average revenue per member (ARM). He went from 55 to 130 members and from $94 ARM to $190. The significance of that achievement can’t be understated: He added lots of members at much-improved monthly rate. That’s a double win. Five months into 2021, he’s already beaten his 2020 revenue total. Listen to Billy’s story here. (As an aside, check out this great tagline for the gym: “Where beginners start their journey!”)

Ruth Cheng’s Brilliant Idea

Finally, Ruth Cheng at CrossFit PTBO is doing good things even in the midst of a seemingly endless stay-at-home order in the province of Ontario. She’s had to work hard to stay positive, and she shared some strategies for that on Two-Brain Radio as her business entered its third lockdown. We actually had to delay our call because Ruth’s business was preparing to close due to government order on the day of the original interview.

Despite the tough times, Ruth is going out of her way to support other local businesses by promoting them on her social media channels—and I was thrilled that Global News reported on it.

Check out PTBO’s Instagram account here. Cheng has profiled over 40 companies as part of her Small Business Sunday campaign.

The stay-at-home order has been extended twice and is still in place at press time. It will continue “until at least June 2,” according to the Ontario government.

What Ruth is doing during a stressful period is both heart warming and brilliant. It’s heart warming because Ruth’s not walking an easy path right now with a shuttered business. But instead of moping, she’s still trying to help others. The brilliant part: She’s creating an ever-growing web of more than 40 local business owners who know who she is and what she’s all about. Even better, these owners will no doubt view Ruth as a friend, ally and community leader.

Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper has long advised gym owners to take coffee to the other businesses around them and create relationships, but Ruth can’t do that right now. So she found a way to build those local relationships online.

Later, when these businesses are open and serving patrons, where do you think they’ll send any clients who mention they might like to get fit or learn to eat better? And Ruth will be able to offer her members referrals to trusted local businesses that will treat her clients like gold.

Get Two-Brain’s free guide to Affinity Marketing.

Nerding Out on CrossFit Seminal Workouts

The Granite Games is trickling workout announcements on social media in advance of the June 4-6 event that will serve as a CrossFit Games Semifinal. I found this test particularly interesting:

Thruster Run 3.0

18 dumbbell thrusters (50/70 lb.)
200-m run
15 dumbbell thrusters
200-m run
12 dumbbell thrusters
200-m run
9 dumbbell thrusters
200-m run
6 dumbbell thrusters
200-m run
3 dumbbell thrusters

Thruster Race?

I’ll assume all the top athletes will do the dumbbell reps unbroken, so it will be very interesting to see if this workout becomes a simple thruster race. It’s hard to make up or lose a lot of ground on a 200-m run, especially when athletes’ top running speed is affected by a high-power-output movement like moderately heavy thrusters.

Competition couplets and triplets are always interesting. A perfect pairing—like thrusters and pull-ups—creates an amazing test. A small programming mistake often makes one or two workout elements irrelevant. Take, for example, Individual Event 1 at the 2011 CrossFit Games Regionals:

Run 1,000 m
30 handstand push-ups
Row 1,000 m

This test—especially on the women’s side—was essentially 30 handstand push-ups for time. The run and the row were almost completely irrelevant. Rest an extra 30 seconds between sets of HSPU and even the fastest runner would lose a 30-second lead. (Those who were at the Canada West event will recall the run was actually much shorter for some when a course marshal left a post and a host of athletes missed a turn and headed back to the hockey arena too soon.)

The Granite Games might have gotten this thruster-run pairing just right in creating a situation where athletes are forced to run hard between fast sets of thrusters. And the descending rep requirements increase the value of the sprints in the late stages of the test.

If all goes as planned, fans will be treated to a high-speed thriller that will utterly destroy competitors. On the other hand, if the athletes all choose to jog the 200-m runs at more or less the same pace, 63 thrusters for time—or thrusters and some different movement—might have been the better challenge.

I hope it’s a thriller.

Either way, it’s fascinating to see how incredible athletes challenge programmers each year.

The post Sick of Bad News? Read This. appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

From Jail to $4,800 in Monthly Revenue to Over $20,000

Back in 2011, a night of poor judgment resulted in a three-year stint in military prison for Lucas Allen.

“I messed around with an enlisted member as a maintenance officer at my apartment. I was 22, she was 19. I didn’t know she worked for me, but that doesn’t excuse what happened,” Lucas said.

He was put in solitary confinement for the first few months. 

“You get an hour of sunlight. You never leave a 4-foot-by-8-foot area. It was pretty depressing. My weight ballooned.”

Despite that, incarceration was also an opportunity for growth: “You get a lot of reflection time.”

A fellow inmate introduced Lucas to CrossFit, and things improved.

“I started getting healthier. I lost almost 100 pounds,” Lucas said.

As a felon, he knew he would have trouble getting a job when he was released. So he started training people as a side hustle.

“There weren’t a lot of options. I couldn’t even work at McDonald’s,” he said. 

Lucas continued: “I was a welder, so I welded up a rig. I didn’t have much money—in the back of a garage, just do what you can. It was nitty-gritty CrossFit.”

When he saved $30,000, Lucas set out to open a gym. But his business partner backed out when it was time to sign the lease. 

“It was a blessing, though, because having to do it on my own meant I was the sole decision maker.”

Within a couple of years, membership exploded at Jurassic CrossFit. But when Lucas departed for his honeymoon, a few of his coaches left for a cheaper gym 2 miles down the road—taking 20 members with them.

“At that time I was a full-time coach. I was reaching the point where I didn’t know where the gym was going. Clearly, we’re not doing something right if a bunch of people just left. Something’s gotta change or this gym isn’t going to make it.

“Then, I found Two-Brain.”

Mentorship and a Mindset Switch

With the guidance of his mentor, Joleen Bingham, Lucas worked on sales, and he shifted his mindset to recognize the value of personal training for his clients. 

“I’ve seen him step up and take responsibility for training his team and for recognizing when he had to make hard decisions,” Joleen explained. “He is much more confident in his ability to grow the gym—and with Affinity Marketing and gathering referrals, also.”

The personal improvement has resulted in measurable financial success.

“We might break $23,000 this month, gross income,” Lucas said. “The same time last year, it was $4,800.” 

He’s also improved his service and client journey to provide more value, which is reflected in his rates.

“We’re over twice what our membership was—and it’s $160 a month. No family discounts,” Lucas explained. “And people have to pay $350 to get started with my PT package to do on-ramp.” 

After just a year with Two-Brain, Lucas has improved his home life, too: His wife was able to leave an unfulfilling job at a mortgage company to work at the gym full time. 

“Now we’re at the point where we are building. And we’re having a baby daughter. I only have to coach three hours a week,” Lucas said. “And I have blocked out my schedule for two weeks of not even setting foot in the gym. … Having someone like Joleen walk me through these steps, it’s helped a lot. We’ve come so far we don’t even recognize where the gym’s at.”

Redemption

It’s a far cry from being locked in a cell. Now, Lucas is able to help others accomplish their health and fitness goals, and he’s rebuilt his life.

“The gym is able to support both of us,” Lucas said. “And we’re worried about things like a new building, and who our general contractor is going to be, … instead of ‘how are we going to make ends meet?’ The life that we’ve got now—a house with a giant yard, an amazing wife and a baby coming—if you’d asked me six years ago, that’s not even in the realm of possibility. We’re in our Perfect Day. 

“We’ve been super blessed to be on this journey, in spite of my past and what’s happened. We’ve overcome that to create something that truly helps people, and that’s what I wanted.”

The post From Jail to $4,800 in Monthly Revenue to Over $20,000 appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What I Learned at a Live Event: Making Connections

I have tremendous “who luck.”

The right people tend to show up in my life at the right time. Staff, mentors, partners—I usually find the best right when I need them most. But it’s not serendipity. I believe in producing luck, not waiting for chance.

I find the right people at the right time by spending a lot of time with the right people. If I want to hire, befriend or partner with driven, positive people, then the best way to meet these people is to go where they are.

“Chance” means waiting for the right people to find you. “Luck” means going where they are and meeting as many as possible.

The top value of a live or online summit event? The connections you make.

Peers

First, you can connect with the others in the audience. Lean on them for ideas, support and context.

At the 2019 Two-Brain Summit, Jay Williams had everyone in the audience find a partner. Then we pledged to hold each other accountable to an important task. My partner’s job was to hold me accountable for stretching. Every night for the next month, she texted me at 8 p.m. to ask, “Did you stretch today?”

Guess what? I did!

When you attend a live event—even when it’s virtual—you’re going to meet some collaborators. You’re going to talk about your gyms. You’re going to get some ideas, some tips and some support. Not all the knowledge gained at these events is delivered from the stage.

Leaders

Second, you can connect with the speakers and leaders. Turn to them for mentorship or to help your team.

I met Dan Martell at the Archangel event in 2016. Two-Brain was a small business with revenues under $500,000 per year. His talk had me totally engaged, and when I found out he was a CrossFitter, we got in touch. Over the next two years, Two-Brain grew 600 percent with Dan’s help.

When I’m at an online event now, I always try to find two or three speakers for our Tinker program or future Summit events. I met Lisa Nichols at a live event in 2019 and knew she’d be perfect for our 2021 Summit. At an online event in March 2021, I was introduced to three amazing speakers and hired two to speak to our Tinker group immediately.

Teams

Third, you can connect with your own team members. Use events to strengthen your bonds.

It’s hard to build your team or your culture when you’re just working all the time. Taking your staff away for a weekend, showing them your vision and working together on a common goal—all of that is priceless. Exposing them to famous people is a gift they’ll never get anywhere else.

Have you ever had a boss sign you up for a Jocko Willink workshop? No way. But you can do that for them: Your entire team can watch our keynote speakers and view special content for coaches online with your Summit ticket purchase.

As great as you are, you’re only one person. Imagine if the collective power of your team were focused in one direction. Attending an event together is the best way to do it.

What did the COVID lockdowns take away from us? It was more than revenue. It was the ability to gather together—the very reason many of us opened our gyms in the first place. I want to give that back to you through the Two-Brain Summit. Come and gather with us.

The Two-Brain Summit will be online and broadcast to select locations.
Click here to register for the June 19 and 20 event.

Other Media in This Series

“What I Learned at a Live Event: ROI on Ticket Price”
“What I Learned at a Live Event: The Secret Lessons”

The post What I Learned at a Live Event: Making Connections appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What I Learned at a Live Event: The Secret Lessons

At a live event, some of the best stuff is between the messages.

When you’re around amazing people, you learn from their mannerisms and you learn from their presenting styles. Sometimes their unrehearsed comments—the “throwaway lines,” the unscripted answers to questions, the little jokes—can change your life.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve picked up at live events that I couldn’t get from books or courses or YouTube videos.

Colin Powell: Find a Solution

Years before the Iraq war, I was watching Colin Powell onstage in Chicago. I don’t even remember his topic. I didn’t own a business yet. But he said something that I’ve shared with every employee I’ve ever hired since:

“Never present a problem without proposing a solution.”

As a staff person, it’s really easy to make reports to your boss. It’s sometimes even rewarding to be the first person to say “something is wrong.” But if you take the time to think of a solution yourself, you will become far more valuable to your boss. You’ll also discipline yourself to think through problems and force yourself to take ownership.

Lesson: This was an early version of “extreme ownership,” which Jocko Willink will talk about at our 2021 Summit (see below).

Seth Godin: The Storyteller

I’ve seen Seth Godin speak live three times (including at the 2020 Two-Brain Summit). I remember his lessons better than anyone else’s. Why? Because he uses stories to make his point.

Stories stick in your memory. You grow your audience by teaching sticky lessons, not by teaching the most lessons or even the most accurate ones. Of course, this is a skill that can be used for evil. But we can use it for good.

Lesson: Tell good stories instead of just spouting facts (or, worse, opinions).

Henry Rollins: Undercover Influencer

When Henry Rollins showed up at the Rainmaker Summit, he walked right through the crowd in the lobby and no one noticed him. I didn’t have to stand in line to shake his hand; I just walked right up to him. He wore black jeans and a black T-shirt, didn’t have an entourage, and just said, “Hi, Chris. I’m Henry.”

Until he took the stage as the headliner of the marketing conference, almost no one knew who he was. When he finished his story, he had to fight his way to the door.

Lesson: You don’t need a strong “personal brand” to be great.

Gary Vaynerchuk: Songs in F Major

Gary Vaynerchuk taught me to use language with intent. Vaynerchuk swears a lot. In my personal life, I also swear a lot. But I don’t do it in my media because I don’t need to. Data and good stories are powerful enough, and throwing a few F-bombs into these posts would actually distract from the important core message.

So five minutes into Vaynerchuk’s speech in Toronto a few years ago, I was so bored that I left for lunch. Not because I was offended by the language but because I wasn’t getting anything new from his message. His language was camouflage for his wisdom.

But because I don’t use swearing in my media often, I can use it to much greater impact occasionally. When I titled my talk at the 2020 Summit “Swallow the Shit,” people were surprised—and they paid close attention. I dropped two F-bombs mid-speech, and people still remember it.

Lesson: Language is a powerful tool, but overuse takes away its power.

Lisa Nichols: Yes! Yes!

Lisa Nichols was featured in “The Secret,” a book that I thought pandered to the “wish upon a star” crowd. I believe in hard work, not “putting your dreams out into the universe” and hoping for the best. So I was pretty skeptical when she took the stage.

An hour later, I was absolutely overwhelmed. I was standing and yelling with everyone else. The energy in the audience was so strong that I really believed: “These 300 people can change the whole world!” And my next thought: It doesn’t matter what inspires you to chase your dreams. All that matters is that you go out and chase them.

Lesson: My motivations don’t matter. Your motivation is all that matters.

Todd Herman: Simple Superman

Genius makes things simpler, not more complex.

Todd Herman has been a student of motivation and high performance for decades. He can cite studies on psychology and give you personal examples of high-performing clients in sport and business. But his gift is making all of that knowledge simple. The “Alter Ego Effect” can be immediately learned and leveraged to make you a better leader.

Lesson: Complicated tools aren’t as useful as simple tools.

The 2021 Two-Brain Summit

Two of the speakers I talked about above will be at the Two-Brain Summit this year. Here’s what they and the four others are going to talk about.

Jocko Willink

What does “extreme ownership” mean in the gym business? What do you actually “own” here? What are your responsibilities? What does your staff “own”? This topic is so huge that I hope you bring your staff with you (their tickets are included free with yours).

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Todd Herman

How do you get massive traction and momentum in your business? By using Herman’s 90-day Year strategy. Todd’s going to walk you through his $5,000 program and get you set up to sprint!

Lisa Nichols

You need a dose of joy. Your staff does, too. Lisa will provide it. That’s why she’ll speak at the Summit. She’ll make you believe that you can do it.

Bonnie Skinner

Bonnie is my psychotherapist. At the Summit, she’s going to teach you how to get confidence as a leader and guide your team to accomplish your mission.

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Laurie Drummond

Laurie is going to unlock the power of your team by allowing the person beneath the role to shine through.

Chris Cooper

I’m going to tell some stories.

Take Action!

Best of all, you’re going to act on the knowledge you acquire. That’s really important to me. Most events are all about inspiration and maybe some fire-walking. My events are about results. I want you to see the results before you even leave the event.

I know you learn more through immersion than you do in a book. If you want to be great, you have to surround yourself with great people. You can’t do that in a library or your car. Join us online or at one of 17 regional locations worldwide!

The post What I Learned at a Live Event: The Secret Lessons appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Tremendous Touchpoints: Adding Value all Along the Client Journey

Mike (00:02):

Client lifetime value. If you don’t track this key gym metric, I’ll tell you why you should. And gym owner Debbie Rosslan will tell you how to improve it. Welcome to Two-Brain Radio. We’re back right after this.

Chris (00:12):

Chris Cooper here, have you got a website designer, a marketer, a landing page software, a calendar, a CRM, and a form builder, communication platform and connecting software? You can get rid of all of it by switching to Gym Lead Machine. I use this platform along with 60% of the Two-Brain mentorship team. The average gym owner saves over 300 bucks a month with Gym Lead Machine and they’ll waive the thousand dollars set-up fee for Two-Brain Radio listeners. Switching is easy and you can go live in a week, visit gymleadmachine.com to watch a demo and book a sales call.

Mike (00:45):

This is another edition of Two-Brain Radio. I’m Mike Warkentin, your host. Lifetime value. I never calculated this number once for my gym, but I wish I had. LTV is the total amount of personal spend from the first day of membership to the last. Obviously you want to keep that member for as long as possible. Knowing this number can help you make smart decisions in your business and tracking it will help you figure out if you’re always offering more value to clients. LTV has two key parts, average revenue per member per month, and length of engagement or ARM and LEG as we refer to them. At the best gyms, both numbers are high. We know this because we track tons of data Two-Brain Business. On our March, 2021 leaderboard, we learned that the top 12 gyms in the world for LTV have numbers ranging from $8,200 to 14,000.

Mike (01:30):

Debbie Rosslan of CrossFit Unstoppable was on that top 12 list. And she’s here to tell us how she earned her spot. All right, Debbie, welcome to the show. I’m going to ask you right off the bat. Do you track lifetime value or was this a number that was new to you when you heard you were a leader at Two-Brain?

Debbie (01:44):

So when I got the email from Eden, I was kind of shocked. I look at the numbers, but I don’t really focus on that. So, I’m mostly focused on the LEG. But when she sent me the email, I was pleasantly surprised.

Mike (02:00):

So that’s length of engagement and we know that LTV lifetime value, pardon me, is a function of average revenue per member and length of engagement. Those two things create lifetime value. I’m curious for you, which one of those metrics did you focus on first at your gym? And if you focused on one first, when did you start really addressing the second one?

Debbie (02:21):

I’m mostly focused on the length of engagement. Just when they get in there, I want to develop that personal relationship with them. And just recently I’ve been trying to work on the ARM and for probably like the last two or three months focusing on that.

Mike (02:42):

So let me get a little history from you then. How long has your gym been around?

Debbie (02:45):

We opened at the end of November in 2011. So we’re going on 10 years now.

Mike (02:51):

So this is an interesting one because one of the things that I’ve discovered as I’m chatting with gym owners about this subject, that gyms with high lifetime value have to be around for a long time. So business success, like just outlasting every other small business that fails, you know, in two or three years and being around for a long time is a huge part of lifetime value.

Mike (03:14):

But then the second part is that you have to be good at your job. It’s not just enough to just survive. You actually have to please your clients. Right. So tell me a little bit about, I’m going to ask you the, about the one you just focused on first. Tell me a little bit about average revenue per member. Where were your rates if you remember back in 2011 and I can tell you that mine were way too low. When we had our gym. We opened at about the same time, and then we did a rate increase with Two-Brain and so forth. Have you done something like that? Do you remember what your rates were and what they are now?

Debbie (03:40):

I actually, we were one of the first gyms in central Missouri. So I was basing mine upon like the Kansas City St. Louis and the one in Columbia on what we paid there. So I raised it a little bit, but then I lowered it because I needed more members. And so as we gradually went up, I increased. I think I’ve increased twice and since Two-Brain I’ve done one increase.

Mike (04:12):

So what was it back in 2011? Do you remember the number?

Debbie (04:14):

We were probably, I believe it was 105.

Mike (04:18):

Whereabouts are you now for an average membership and then you can tell me what package that would be.

Debbie (04:23):

Average membership is 149 a month.

Mike (04:27):

About a 33% increase in general there, we kind of did the same thing where we did the pricing of like, I think we just chose 150 out of the blue, cause it kind of looked about right. And it was kind of what gym’s were charging at the time. And then I knew in 2013 that it was too low and I actually entered my changes that I was going to make it to Zen planner and they’re still there and I didn’t implement them for like another seven or eight years until I actually started working with Two-Brain. And we went through that process of raising it. But man, we left a lot of money on the table back then because we were delivering the value.

Debbie (05:00):

I totally understand that. I think a lot of that, it depends on where you live and your economic situation with the members, but I know I’m not supposed to predict what they will pay, but we’re there.

Mike (05:16):

So let’s dig in to the other side of it now. So I know you do a lot of really cool things for your members along the client journey. Can you tell me about some of the retention features that show up from the time someone becomes a member to the time that they leave and of course we try and hold them forever.

Debbie (05:34):

Right. So I always like to be like the first contact. I know some gym owners don’t like to do that, but I like to develop that relationship right from the get-go, you know, talking to them, asking how their first workout or training session went. We check in with them on their first week, their second week, very active on SugarWOD, fist bumps, whatever, and making sure that they are taken care of. And so for the new members, that’s what we do. We have that client journey, but I also want to make them feel like this is not your ordinary gym. This gym is you’re going to do fun things every month. So we schedule social outings every month or like a Friday night lights type thing to where they can come in. They can look forward to that. So if they know on the calendar, we’re going to be doing, you know, a winery 5k in a couple of weeks, then they might stick around for that. We schedule those kinds of things. Also looking at numbers and Anastasia can attest to this. I am not good at numbers. So, but when I was actually working on my LEG one month, this is several months ago, I saw that some of my members were coming upon a hundred months. I’m like, wouldn’t it be cool to make some kind of club too? Oh, these guys have been around for 100 months.

Mike (07:11):

That’s like eight years. That’s more than eight years.

Debbie (07:13):

Exactly. So, we have right now, we’ve got 15 members in that club. And what we do is, or what I do, I write them a thank you card, give them a gift card and then put their picture on our members page. And then also we got a little board with their pictures and the hundred month clubs. So I think a lot of people, even when I started that I had several members reach out to me and say, how many months have I been in? You know, that kind of thing. So they’re looking forward to that.

Mike (07:48):

Gym members are competitive, who knew.

Debbie (07:51):

Exactly. Yeah. So that’s been a big thing. And we also, I’ve been starting like, the committed club to where, you know, if they make at least 12 classes in a month, I keep track of that through our push press check-ins and I post that. So they want to be on that board. So we’ll focus on that. And I think a big thing with our gym is, and I’m sure a lot of gyms around the world do this, but you know, being social with the members and showing them that you’re not just a trainer, you’re not just an owner, you’re a person too. And you care about what is going on in their life. So, that’s what I like to do with the members. We also do thankful Thursday where I have my trainers or myself. We write out little thank you notes or whatever. And we post them up there and have the coaches highlight members every time they coach on our members page. And it makes them feel more important that they are noticed and they want to come to the gym.

Mike (09:00):

So it sounds like you’ve got just a host of touch points. Like I understand that you do t-shirts and retentions and water bottles and so forth in your on-ramp process. Is that correct?

Debbie (09:12):

We don’t do t-shirts, we do the water bottle, that kind of thing. And a sticker, just to say, Hey, welcome to the CFU. We’re glad to have you that.

Mike (09:25):

Yeah. So you just have like, right from the beginning all the way through, you have just a huge amount of touch points with, you know, every member, and some of them or even most of them you said are like, you personally take care of some of this. Is that right?

Debbie (09:37):

Right. I mean, I have somebody who helps me. I’ve got a joy girl who does part of the things like we send out birthday cards and we actually had one in March. He stuck his head in my office door and he goes, thanks for the birthday card. It’s the only birthday card I got. And that made me feel good because, you know, us reaching out to them and, you know, putting their name out there, you know, sending them a card and most people don’t get cards in the mail anymore. So I think that’s a good thing to do.

Mike (10:09):

Yeah. And the reason why I kind of asked about what you do yourself as that joy person role, you know, client success manager role that can be offloaded for sure. But I have talked to some gym owners like yourself who take that role themselves because they love it. And they think that they can do an excellent job. And it’s something that they want to do. Not necessarily something they have to do. Like if you’re the only person in your gym, you of course have to do that. But it’s interesting to me when certain gym owners say, you know, one of the most valuable roles for me is going to be building those personal relationships with clients. Whereas there are other gym owners like Chris Cooper’s and example where people in his gym don’t know who he is sometimes, which is kind of funny because he’s like this gym guru for lack of a better term, even though I know he hates that one, but people in his gym may not know who he is because he has a wonderful staff that he’s developed.

Mike (10:56):

And his value is in the things that they don’t see necessarily because he’s got people placed, but then there’s other gym owners, like you who take a different approach and you know, you certainly have staff, but one of your things is you want that relationship with each member. I’ll ask you a question about how many members do you have?

Debbie (11:12):

I think we’re around a 100, well with our bootcamp, it’s about 120.

Mike (11:18):

Yeah. The reason I ask is because I imagine please correct me if I’m wrong here. I imagine it would be really hard to maintain a personal relationship if you got into that 200 member range, do you think that would be tough?

Debbie (11:28):

That would be tough. That’d be tough. But I was a PE teacher for over 20 years. So I’m good at names and faces and that kind of thing. It would be hard to develop an individual relationship with all of them, but I’m not really looking to build and grow to 200 members. I like that 150 ange. We’re almost back to our numbers pre COVID.

Mike (11:56):

So that was really cool to hear. And the 150 number is interesting because Chris has talked about this so many times in his writing about how it’s kind of a magic number in that you can kind of maintain about 150 personal relationships. It’s called Dunbar’s number in the terms and so forth, but it does seem to be a thing in the gym industry and when Dunbar created it wasn’t related to gyms, it was related to just general human society. But the cool part is that what we found in a lot of cases of the gyms are really struggled to get past 150, because when you get larger, some of those connections go away and you’ll lose members and so forth. And unless you have really amazing systems. So I was curious, I wanted to hear your answer to that because if you had said, OK, I maintain a personal relationship with 250 people, I’d be like, wow, how do you do that?

Debbie (12:41):

No, that’d be crazy.

Mike (12:44):

I think it would too. And at that point that, you know, there’s systems that you have to develop and staff to make that happen because you personally just can’t do it. I love the idea of what you’re talking about, the hundred month club. And it just, it seems so intuitive when you mentioned it. I wouldn’t have thought of it though, but it seems so intuitive because we have, you know, leaderboards and, you know, we’re all competitive fitness people and I’m not, but many people are in gyms. So just by putting this thing up and celebrating these members who had been there for a hundred months, you’ve kind of by default set some goals for other members, is that right?

Debbie (13:16):

Yes. So, you know, like I said, a few members reached out and said, I should be at like 92, I’m almost there. Right. And, so, you know, I’ve got some coming up on, so this is our third location, so I can kind of remember who went through their on-ramp and stuff in our, you know, first and second building. So, you know, people, when they started here in our current building in 2013, they are, Oh, I started in January 13, so I should almost be there. Right. So they’re kind of keeping track in the back of their head. And, it’s kind of cool to see them talking about that.

Mike (13:54):

So the interesting thing, you know, from a business perspective is like, if someone says to you, I’m at 93 months, I can’t wait to get to a hundred. You kind of almost guaranteed another seven months of membership. Right. That’s, that’s so cool. And so, you know, guys, if you’re listening out there, what I would suggest is if you don’t have a club like that, start something and it doesn’t have to be a hundred, maybe you haven’t been around long enough to have a hundred months of business, but start something. And I almost, you know, just based on what Debbie said here, you would probably think that some of your members are going to want to hit those numbers. And that’s going to increase your retention. Interesting too that is you could certainly give out some sort of like, you know, special t-shirt or something like that, or just anything small because people love that kind of stuff. And the cool part about it is that it’s like one of those things you have to earn it, you can’t buy it, you know, and if you try something like that, you might find that all of a sudden, you’ve got some people competing to be your most senior members and that’s going to help your lifetime value for sure.

Debbie (14:52):

I got it from an idea someone had like branded their name on something and my husband is very creative on things. And I had asked him about it, but his time is precious too. So we never did get around to that. So I just, OK, I’m just going to do this for now. So when hunting season is over, I’m going to have him make up like a little plaque or something to where their names are on it. So it’d be more uniform, with their pictures above it.

Mike (15:24):

And it’s kinda like, it’s a point of pride for sure. And, you know, one of the things that I remember seeing, it was a little cafe in Scotts Valley, California, where CrossFit was headquartered at one point and they had this rack of mugs behind the coffee station and it was, it had their long-term clients names were on them. So when they walked in, you know, Phil or, or Cindy or whatever, would get their branded mug with their coffee. And like that becomes a point of pride. Right. It’s just one of those special things that makes it your quote, unquote, third place, right. Where you’ve got home and you’ve got work and you’ve got these third places which can be churches and they can be gyms or bars for some people. And it really, you know, I’m sure your members must feel like that these people who’ve been here for 10 years, I’m sure they probably feel like they’re a huge part of CrossFit Unstoppable. Can you tell me about one of your longterm members and what, like what kind of client avatar that person represents?

Debbie (16:15):

So, I will talk about one of my members, she’s been with me since, the summer of 2012, I guess, or the spring. And, she’s actually 60 years old and her daughter and her mom had done CrossFit too. She stuck with me. Her mom, you know, she talked to her mom into doing my masters class and, that helped out. So using her as a seed client, you know, we branched out and she’s had, you know, talked to people to come to our like WOD and wine nights or our free workouts, or bring a friend day, those kinds of things. So, I know 60 sounds really old, but it’s, I’m 53, but I don’t feel like I’m 53, but our average age is around 40, 35 to 40. So that’s pretty much our avatar people who are wanting to find another place like that third home and come in and feel welcome and still get a good workout in and just feel better about themselves.

Chris (17:29):

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Mike (17:50):

Yeah. And it’s interesting that every gym owner that I’ve interviewed about lifetime value, all of our, you know, the leaders who have done a great job in the last month, they all know their client avatar. I haven’t met one yet who like, nah, we just kind of advertise to everyone. Every single one so far has told me, I know exactly who my client avatar is. And so I talked to different people, you know, someone the other day had a different version than what you had just described, but it was no less concise. They knew exactly who they were looking for, which I thought was so neat. And so you have that same thing too. I think, you know, I’m going to go on a limb. Chris Cooper will run data and figure these things out with actual numbers. But just from what I’m hearing, I feel like if you know your client, your perfect client and you work hard to find those clients, you’re going to know how to retain them. And they’re going to want to be a part of your gym for a long time. Whereas if, for example, if I threw a client at you, that’s not your avatar say, you know, a 22 year old university student who wants to be a competitive CrossFit Games athlete. I don’t doubt that you could make that client fit, but do you think that client would stay at your gym for 10 years?

Debbie (18:55):

Not for 10 years no.

Mike (18:58):

And it’s not because you’re bad gym owner, it’s just not the client you’re going for.

Debbie (19:01):

Right. And we have, you know, every gym has that turnover. And, you can kind of see, you know, as a volleyball coach, I can kind of see in fifth and sixth grade or seventh grade, you know, are you going to make it in high school? And it’s kind of the same way I can see unless these people are nurtured and taken care of, there’s some people that aren’t going to stick around because they’re not going to make it. They don’t feel welcome that kind of thing. So, yeah, we’ve got to take care of them from the get go and keep developing those relationships with them throughout their time.

Mike (19:37):

So Two-Brain listeners, I’ll throw this one at you. If you do not have a client avatar, like your ideal client, the exact people that you want to speak to in your marketing and acquire and serve, put that together. And I bet just by doing that, you’re going to start to find more people like that. And that’s going to probably drive up your lifetime value because you’re going to find the exact best fit for your business. So do that. And if you need help doing that, Two-Brain mentors can help you. So, Debbie, what insight does knowing your LTV score, give you, I know it’s something that you haven’t focused on a ton, but now that you know it and you know that you’re one of our leaders, does it give you anything that you think about?

Debbie (20:11):

I think the insight I have is just making sure, you know, I do have those seed clients. I have those 15 people right now in my a hundred month club. I can go to them and say, OK, what kind of programs would you like to see? What kind of things do you think that have worked in the past that could help us in the future, those kinds of things. And then that would, you know, maybe help get other people to stick around those kinds of things.

Mike (20:40):

Yeah. So for you, it’s more of a, we’ll call it a downstream metric where you’re looking more at the length of engagement and the lifetime value just kind of happens as a function of that. The reason I ask is that some gym owners and it’s more common perhaps than other industries. Some gym owners will be able to say though, OK, I know that my client, my average lifetime value is going to be $12,000. That means if I spend even a thousand dollars to acquire a client, which is a huge number gym owners generally don’t spend, they know that they’re going to make that money back. And I think that gym owners maybe don’t necessarily focus on that metric all the time because our cost to acquire clients, isn’t like a Netflix kind of cost. It’s generally lower, at least in most areas. But I’m very, I was just curious to see if it is something that does make you think, and like, you know, when you get a lead now and you think, OK, this lead is, if I sign this person up, this person is likely to spend $9,000 over the course of the next two years. Does that affect any of the way that you would look at leads or handle new members?

Debbie (21:34):

Well, I look at the number now because it’s out there. But I don’t think it would really change much with how our client journey is. Just because I’m not, like I said, I’m not a numbers person. Yes. I want to make money, but I’m going to care about that person’s health and wellness first and foremost, before the dollar sign. So I think we would just stay focused on, you know, how is that person feeling and get them to the next step and then everything will just fall into place.

Mike (22:10):

So let me flip the question for you and ask you this one, this is a hypothetical. So I’ll put you on the spot trying to figure this one out. If, for example, you were reading and you saw Two-Brain metrics saying, OK, these top gyms have a lifetime value of, you know, 8,000 to $14,000. And you looked at yours or your mentor said, you, Hey, your lifetime value is 1200. What would that make you think? What would you maybe look at first there?

Debbie (22:32):

What’s going on? Why are they quitting so early?

Mike (22:37):

And that, you know, would you dig into, like, would you dig into the client journey right away? Or would you start like talking to your seed clients or what would be your first steps to try and drive that number up?

Debbie (22:48):

Well probably the first thing would be, you know, looking at the client journey, making sure my coaches are on board doing what they need to do. And we do evaluations. Those kinds of things. Do some goal reviews with my seed clients or see if they are hearing, you know, because sometimes people won’t come to me directly because they just don’t, they just like to gossip. So probably talking to the seed clients and see if there’s any problems going on.

Mike (23:21):

An important one. Goal review sessions. And the reason why this is so important is in these sessions, which a lot of us didn’t do for years and years. But in these goal review sessions, you have a chance to ask clients if they’re happy, celebrate if they are and make changes if they aren’t and also add some value to your program, meaning someone says, Oh, you know, I’m just, I can’t get double unders well, would you like a personal training session? And we can work on that and then you make a sale, they get double unders and everyone’s happy. So you see what I’m getting at here. That whole thing, that cycle of success, and some sales in there has a huge effect on lifetime value. So how long have you been doing goal review sessions for, and how often do you do them during the year?

Debbie (23:59):

So right before we got shut down last March, we were starting them. So we got like a week, a week’s worth and then shit hit the fan. Sorry. And then we reopened six weeks later and I just focused on the members that I had just trying to get people back in the groove, that kind of thing. So we started back on goal reviews in January of this year. So we’ll do another set this summer. Well, I guess next month, next month or July, we’ll do another set. So probably twice a year.

Mike (24:43):

What have you found since you started doing them? Like in those, in those January, and again, we were talking a little bit of COVID damage control right now. Every gym owner has to respond to the whole crisis differently. So it’s maybe not, you know, you haven’t been doing it for five years and have nailed, but what are you finding in these sessions, are they helpful in helping clients focus on their next months of training? Are they helpful in adding value and giving them some additional programs or anything like that? What are you finding in these sessions?

Debbie (25:08):

For ours it’s more of, wow, they really care about where we’re going.

Mike (25:14):

That’s retention right there.

Debbie (25:16):

Yes. So showing them that you care about their goals or their next step, and we can follow up with that. That’s what stands out to me. And we can also see what kind of programs. So like from our January one, a lot of people wanted to work on the toes to bar or something like that. So in February we had a toes to bar clinic. So seeing those kinds of things that will help, but the most important thing I think is just showing them that you care about where they’re going.

Mike (25:53):

So you’ve got touch points in there. You’ve got like a personal conversation with a staff member about their deepest goals. Right. So that’s super important, but then you’ve also got a revenue opportunity. Like I’m guessing you charged for the toes to bar clinic, correct?

Debbie (26:05):

Yes.

Mike (26:05):

There you go. So then you’re making some money off that by helping a large group of people who have a common interest or common goat, you know, something like that. So that’s exactly. Do you do these sessions yourself, or do you have a staff member do them?

Debbie (26:17):

We, I actually took our list of members and we had a spreadsheet and I sent it out to my coaches and they picked at least five people that they had a relationship, like based on who they coached, like I have my dark or like early class coaches. And so they picked at least five, and then I took the rest. So I probably did maybe 15 of them, but everybody else was taken care of.

Mike (26:45):

And that’s interesting too, because again, I wanted to kind of see, like you have a personal relationship, but I wanted to see if you had coaches that were also creating those personal relationships. And it’s really cool to see, because obviously you have that one coach is there every morning class, he or she is probably gonna have a really good insight into that client’s desires, even though you have a personal relationship as the owner. So I think that I’m going to go out on a limb here again and again, this is stuff that we’ll collect data on, but goal review sessions. I’m going to guess that by doing that, your retention and average revenue per member is going to go up. And so listeners, if you’re not doing these sessions, start doing them and it can be difficult to start. And I’ll ask you this question because after I tell my story here, Debbie, is that when we tried to start doing it at my gym with our current members, there was a little bit hesitation because it was something we hadn’t done in 10 years. Hard to get them started. But when we started doing them with new members coming in and made it part of the client journey, it wasn’t so hard to keep it going. What was your experience with starting goal review sessions.

Debbie (27:43):

Organization. Just, you know, keeping track of who is aware. You know, we try to get them done within two weeks. So then that way, we’re on that pattern and then checking in with them, you know, the last couple months I’ve, you know, maybe sent out a message or whatever, Hey, how’s the pull-up progression going on some of them, because I know that’s a big thing for the ladies. So we do that, but I think it’s the scheduling and organization and staying on top of that is that’s our biggest hiccup.

Mike (28:20):

Did you get good buy-in from the members, like where they, like, you know, were people like quickly booking or was it a bit more push to get them in or how was the response?

Debbie (28:27):

So sometimes I have to bribe my members. So everybody who did a goal review session got their name in a drawing for a $50 CrossFit Unstoppable gift card. So they could use it towards drinks, apparel, that kind of thing. So I think we did 80, 80 to 90 goal reviews. So we had 80 or however many names and I drew for it and somebody won $50.

Mike (29:01):

So, and I’m going to guess that you made more than $50 on your toes to bar clinic, correct? Yes,

Debbie (29:07):

We did another clinic too. So, I made it back. So bribing helps sometimes.

Mike (29:13):

And that’s just a no brainer. Exactly what you’re saying. And the other cool part is that that gift certificate comes back into your business. So it’s, again, it’s a bit of a retention tool as well. So I mean, that’s a very clever way to do it. We, at one point we tacked on, in the intramural open, Chris Cooper’s pla, to make the CrossFit games open a whole lot of fun. We tacked on a large number of points for booking a goal review session. So when we had teams competing, we just said, OK, you know, you get 15 points or whatever the scale was, if they booked a session and we had some do that, which, you know, I think when we did it, we didn’t have a ton of people book. I don’t think we made any necessarily sales, but what we did get was a number of really deep conversations with long-term members who were very invested in our gym and helping the teams. And so that was a huge win no matter what. So, I mean, that’s another thing that you might consider trying when the open rolls around again, but I really liked the idea of a little bit of bribery.

Debbie (30:05):

I kind of did the same thing with the open, they got points if they left a Google or Facebook review. So I think I got 40 reviews out of that. So that was good.

Mike (30:18):

This is off topic, but I’m going to ask anyway, cause it’s important. Do you have a system set up to generate those reviews when it’s not a push during the open or something like that? The Google reviews or Facebook reviews?

Debbie (30:30):

We are with Gym Lead Machine. So there’s about a month in it sends them an email. Will you do us a favor and leave a Facebook review or a Google review? So we’ve got that one month in with the new members that come across. And then sometimes just out of the blue, I’ll have like a little contest with the members. That kind of thing.

Mike (30:56):

The reason I ask is because a lot of gym owners do not have a system for that. And they’re so important, those reviews for generating interest in outside. So the Gym Lead Machine automation is generating reviews for you?

Debbie (31:07):

It’ll ask them, the new member to, will you do this for me? And I’ve gotten several out of that.

Mike (31:15):

That is a huge win. And that’s just an automation, just so like you don’t even have to do it. I love it.

Mike (31:21):

Debbie. You’re checking all the boxes for me today on Two-Brain Radio. I appreciate it. I know this isn’t the most common metric in the world, so I really appreciate your thoughts on it because I love getting gym owners who are in the lead in these things to kind of talk about the numbers and the things they do that support them, because it’s going to give a lot of people out there, some insights. So if you’re listening guys, see what Debbie’s done, see how you could implement some of this stuff in your gym and get to ten-year members or beyond. Thank you so much for being here today. I hope we’ll come back. We’ll talk to you when you get to like, you know, 15 years, maybe 150 month club.

Debbie (31:56):

Hey, there we go. Thanks for having me.

Mike (31:59):

I’m Mike Warkentin, I was here with Debbie Rosslan onTwo-Brain Radio. Be sure to subscribe for more episodes of the show. And now before you go, open the Facebook app and join the Gym Owners United 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. It’s the only public forum where Coop offers his insight for free. And you can just talk to him there. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Please join today and I’ll see you in there.

 

The post Tremendous Touchpoints: Adding Value all Along the Client Journey appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What I Learned at a Live Event: ROI on Ticket Price

I love going to summits, workshops and live events.

I love meeting the people seated nearby, and I love harvesting the energy of a passionate group.

More than anything, I love feeling like I’m not alone out there.

We host our Two-Brain Summit for one reason: to give gym owners the chance to be inspired by people they could never meet otherwise. For example, Jocko Willink events usually cost around $1,200 per person to attend; Lisa Nichols tickets generally run around $900 per day. You really can’t hire Seth Godin. But these are the people gym owners need right now.

In this series, I’m going to tell you about the top lessons I’ve learned by attending big summit events—in person or online. The point of these events isn’t really education but inspiration, motivation and action. No speaker can give you the step-by-step guidance a mentor can. But the right speakers will get you excited, energize you and get you rolling.

Do One Thing

Here’s the first lesson: One new action pays for the seminar.

Most people show up to events with a blank notebook and scribble down everything they can. Then they leave with a full notebook and too many bullet points that don’t make much sense. They don’t know where to start when they get home.

You don’t need to learn everything from every speaker. All you have to do is take one action after the event. That one action will usually pay for the event—our 2021 Summit is US$399, including tickets for your whole team, because I want it to pay for itself immediately and many times over.

Here’s what to do at our Summit or any event:

Bring a notepad.Keep the notepad closed and just listen. Instead of being a secretary, be a participant. Do the clapping and the arm-waving and the cheering.As soon as you’re inspired to do one actionable thing, leave the room. Take your notepad. Write down the exact thing you know you need to do and exactly how you’ll do it. Then you have a choice: Go back to your hotel room or your office and get to work or go back into the session without your notebook.

I know, I know—FOMO means you want to harvest all the ideas. And it’s hard to skip the next speaker. But trust me: It’s more important to act on one thing than to learn a lot but do nothing. You’re not being impolite when you follow this plan; you’re just getting better ROI.

If you want, listen to the rest of the speakers. Any resounding ideas will stick with you. But if you plan to do two things, you’re less likely to do either. And if you try to do everything, you’ll probably do nothing.

It’s really, really easy to get a positive ROI on a summit event. But most people don’t because they try to learn as much as possible and then fail to take any action.

If you’re worried this might be you, bring your team (they can attend on your ticket for free!) and assign action to them as the Two-Brain Summit goes on.

The Two-Brain Summit will be online and broadcast to select locations.
Click here to register for the June 19 and 20 event.

The post What I Learned at a Live Event: ROI on Ticket Price appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Peloton Treadmills and Injuries: How to Keep Everyone Safe

Treadmills have always carried an element of risk—even before the recent developments with Peloton’s Tread and Tread+ models.

Before we get into the recent Peloton recall, let me be very clear:

We should do everything to prevent deaths and injuries—especially to children. Any negligent manufacturer should bear responsibility for products that injure people and work to ensure all products are as safe as possible.

With that said, I’m not certain the current backlash against Peloton treadmills is totally warranted.

A Short History of Treadmill Injuries

I’ve worked in a gym with a fleet of treadmills, and I can tell you that incidents on treadmills of all kinds—and step mills—are not particularly rare. Any gym employee or owner can verify my statement.

With treadmills, you have all sorts of stumbles, falls and injuries—24,400 in 2014, according to the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission. The commission also reported 30 treadmill-related deaths between 2003 and 2012. That’s about three per year. From 2018 to 2020, the number is 17 deaths, according to the same agency.

Think about the physics for a moment: A person is ambulating atop a motor-driven belt that can go very fast—faster than many people can run.

Worse, treadmills are fascinating and tend to tempt people to do silly things. Proof: This clever video from the band OK Go.

Conveyor belts and moving sidewalks have been fuel for cartoon escapades for generations, and there’s a reason treadmills are generally equipped with kill switches or safety keys that stop the machine when a user trips—if the key used properly, which is rare. And there’s also a reason treadmills have warnings to ensure children and pets are not at risk during use.

It’s clear that treadmills are not 100 percent safe.

If you don’t believe me, Google “treadmill fails” and you will find a huge number of videos. Some are funny, and others are sickening. Many feature behavior you might call “irresponsible” if not “stupid.” Few show people using the devices with safety features engaged or in the manner recommended by manufacturers.

Risk is clearly involved, but it is relatively low when treadmills are used correctly. For my part, I believe the dangers of inactivity—heart disease, obesity-related afflictions—outweigh the risks of activity.

Peloton Treadmills: Are Injuries Preventable?

With Peloton, there’s an issue with the large screens loosening or falling off one model of treadmill. That’s a problem for sure.

But when it comes to other injuries, I’m not sure the manufacturer is totally at fault or that the injuries would not have occurred with a different product design.

In the two most famous videos that are always shown in news reports, a ball of some sort is involved in both.

This video shows an exercise ball getting sucked under a treadmill and bucking the user off. Luckily, there were no injuries. The video footage seems to suggest the safety key was not being used:

I’m thrilled that the user, the unattended pet and the unsupervised child are OK, and I’d suggest that the hybrid gym/romper room would benefit from a layout adjustment that allows treadmill users to monitor kids and pets—especially kids and pets near exercise balls. You’ll also note the doll house and trampoline are very close to the back of the treadmill. I’d relocate both.

This very disturbing video shows another ball being sucked under a treadmill, this time taking a child with it. This is tragic. It’s clear that parental supervision was absent, and the room is cluttered with a host of other toys that could have been sucked under the treadmill. Thankfully, the young one escaped and walked away.

Be warned: This one is tough to watch.

YouTube: Lessons From the Past

But before we blame Peloton, it should be recalled that the treadmill-ball combination is a known hazard, and it’s even been a source of entertainment for some.

I’ve long considered exercise balls the most dangerous objects in any gym, and if you combine treadmills and balls, bad things will happen—to property, people or both.

Dangerous ball-treadmill incidents are not unique to Peloton, and I’d suggest the height of the treadmill deck and the slat construction some have criticized have little to do with the current issues.

Check it out: This 2015 video shows a standard belted treadmill that’s very low to the ground. It’s being used by children who should not be allowed to use it.

This video shows a disaster waiting to happen, in my opinion, and thankfully no one was hurt.

This is dumb and dangerous.

This appears to be a science project gone wrong.

Here’s a ridiculous consumer report video that suggests it’s the slats in the Peloton treadmill that cause the danger.

The reviewer actually says “the slat-belt design kind of sucks things up underneath.  … We didn’t even really know what was going to happen.”

Really? A treadmill expert had no idea that a high-speed belt would have a dramatic effect on an object? These two backyard scientists weren’t surprised at all:

I’m not making light of the situation, just showing that many members of the general public are very aware that things can be sucked under a treadmill—whether its belt has slats or not.

Treadmill Physics

One child has reportedly been killed in an incident with a Peloton treadmill. This is incredibly sad. We’ve been given few details, but I’d have to guess the child was pulled underneath the machine. I can’t imagine what the family is going through, and I wish the death hadn’t happened.

But I’m not sure treadmill height or construction has much to do with recent incidents. An object of any size that is inserted between an immobile surface and a sticky high-speed belt will either be sucked under or very badly burned. The height or construction of the belt doesn’t really change that. This is not my opinion. It’s physics, and it applies whether the object is a ball, a person or something else.

Peloton needs to fix its screens—that’s certain. And the company will likely do something to try to prevent injuries related to other issues. But my guess is that the recent injuries are part of a perfect pandemic storm: Many people are using home fitness equipment with a coach and without following the manufacturer’s instructions, and they’re using it while trying to care for children who can’t go to daycare or school because of lockdowns. And some aren’t using the safety features.

Remember, I’m all about safety here, not defending Peloton. I’m just not sure design changes can prevent injuries. For example, any sort of guard on the back of the treadmill could seriously injure users who fall and get shot off the back—which is not rare.

You Can Prevent Injuries

To help prevent more tragedies, I’ll offer some common sense acquired over 14 years as a gym employee or owner, and my advice applies to every single model of treadmill in existence.

This simple advice can save lives and prevent needless injuries. It applies to every single model of treadmill.

Use treadmills with great caution and only according to the manufacturer’s instructions.Use all safety features—including the safety keys that attach to clothing (almost no one does this).Ensure all children and pets are in a safe area and cannot ever make contact with any part of the machine while it’s in use.Ensure that all objects—especially balls of any kind—are clear of the treadmill and cannot roll underneath without warning.Do not allow young athletes to use treadmills without close adult supervision.Do not ever allow children to play on a treadmill or turn it on.Set up your treadmill so a misstep will not shoot you into a wall or trap you between a wall and the belt.

In short, treat the treadmill like a blender or lawn mower: a useful tool that’s very safe when used properly and kept out of the reach of children and pets.

Treadmills can help you get fit. But they’re not without risk. That was true before Peloton’s products were on the market.

Please take all steps to keep yourself, your clients, your family and your pets safe when exercising at home. If you have a treadmill, the best thing you can do is ensure children, pets and objects never have a chance to get pulled underneath.

The post Peloton Treadmills and Injuries: How to Keep Everyone Safe appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Two-Brain RampUp: 10x ROI for Gym Owner

Mike (00:02):

Ever wondered what Two-Brain’s ramp-up program could do for your gym business? Florida gym owner Billy Gorham will tell you right after this on Two-Brain Radio.

Chris (00:09):

Back to Two-Brain Radio in just a minute. 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 (00:45):

We’re back on Two-Brain Radio. It’s Mike Warkentin here broadcasting through an antenna mounted to a squat rack. We bring you the best of the fitness biz every week. And we always max out on biz tips. So please subscribe for more episodes of Two-Brain Radio. Today we’re talking RampUp. Here’s an incredible stat. 93% of gym owners recoup their investment in this mentorship program in less than 12 weeks. RampUp is Two-Brain’s 12- weeks sprint that will help you master the fundamentals of the gym business one-on-one with a mentor who runs or has run a successful gym. It’s designed for owners who want to improve their gyms or entrepreneurs who are less than three months from opening. I did this program about four or five years ago and it turned my fitness business around. The program has only improved since then as Two-Brain’s acquired more data and constantly upgraded the content. Today, a gym owner who recently completed RampUp will give you his thoughts on the program. Billy Gorham of CrossFit North Jax is on the line from Jacksonville, FLA, the sunshine state. All right, Billy. Welcome to the show. The first question is super important. Are you a Gators or Seminoles fan?

Billy (01:43):

Neither.

Mike (01:43):

Really? You’re the only guy in Florida.

Billy (01:45):

I’m a Boston college fan.

Mike (01:48):

Are you from Boston originally?

Billy (01:50):

Yes, sir.

Mike (01:51):

So then it doesn’t really matter that much. So Boston college is your team so no Gators, no Seminoles.

Billy (01:58):

Yeah. I don’t care one way or the other.

Mike (02:00):

I didn’t know that was possible in Florida, but you are the guy. So we’re going to get to business here. Talk to me broad strokes right off the top. How dramatically did your business change over the course of the Two-Brain RampUp?

Billy (02:12):

Pretty dramatically. I mean, we went from, you might as well say we were like a garage style gym to actually being a premium health and fitness center. I mean, it was that type of a leap.

Mike (02:23):

Wow. That that’s, you know, that’s dramatic and like, my gym, we made that transition over a period of years, but certainly not over, you know, the RampUp period. How long did it take you to get through?

Billy (02:34):

I didn’t go through terribly fast. I really focused on the systems. So I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know off the top of my head. I’d say a couple months.

Mike (02:50):

Some people do it in 12 weeks. Some people just go through it, kind of depends on the pace that works for the owner. But in general, it’s not like a year-long thing where people grind through it. Some people of course take a lot longer, but it’s a pretty dramatic, fast sprint. It’s set up to be a sprint. Right. And you did it in a couple of months and saw a dramatic change. So tell me a little bit about, you know, what your business was when it started. I understand it wasn’t something that you, you set up as an income generator, but then you wanted to change it into a business. So tell me a little bit about what your original conception for the gym was and what it turned into.

Billy (03:22):

Well, my original conception for the gym, I didn’t start this gym. I actually became a partner of this gym. So when I became a partner with the gym, I wanted to, you know, improve the processes and it just, I didn’t feel right. As far as what we were doing, as far as a business, again, it felt like a hobby. It was like, you know, friends over. We just happen to charge them for using our facility. It’s really, that’s what it felt like. It didn’t feel like we had a direction. We didn’t have a plan. We didn’t have a vision. I mean, basically we just existed and it didn’t feel like a business. When I bought my partner out last year, right before COVID went down, you know, I really wanted, the whole reason I bought my partner out is cause I wanted direction for the business. I felt like we were in a pretty good place to be able to help a lot of people. And I didn’t think we were going to do that with our current dynamic. So, yeah, Two-Brain’s been a big part and is going to be a big part in the future of us being able to provide those types of services to people in our area.

Mike (04:17):

You know, you buy a gym right before COVID and then COVID hits. Did you feel like that was like a mistake all of a sudden, or how did that kind of wash over you as that happened?

Billy (04:27):

I’m pretty good with finance. So I did the numbers really quick and I was like, all right. Even if I don’t have any members for the next nine months, we can keep the doors open as it were. I could pay the rent, I could pay all the minimum things. We didn’t have a huge overhead. So, I didn’t have a lot of coaches or anything else like that. So it kind of sucked, to be honest with you. But sitting down and looking at it, I was like, all right, what can I do with this time? And that’s actually when I got involved with Two-Brain, we were all shut down and I was like, I don’t have any systems in place and I don’t even know where to start. So let’s start looking around and I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea how I even ended up with Two-Brain. I’m very thankful that I did. Because just as soon as I saw the roadmap, I was like, yep, this is it. This is what I want right here,

Mike (05:14):

I’ll take credit then. And I’ll just say you must’ve listened to an episode of Two-Brain Radio and couldn’t resist and signed up. So let’s just go with that. Is that cool?

Billy (05:20):

That sounds good.

Mike (05:21):

And the reason I asked you that question is that I’ve talked to a lot of different gym owners or former gym owners, some who had purchased gyms be right before COVID and were like, Whoa, you know, this is a crazy time to buy a gym. And then I talked to other ones who had sold right before COVID and saw it like as a stroke of luck in some ways. But it’s just interesting because it’s kind of what you make of it. And we’ve also seen gyms over the COVID period do really incredible things despite the fact that there’s a lot of government restrictions in a lot of places. If you don’t mind, tell me a little bit about what’s what’s your background. Like you said, you had a good financial situation going on. How did you get into business in the first place and how did you have things set up to some degree so that you’d be sustainable even during COVID?

Billy (06:01):

Well, that’s gonna be a long question. So I retired from the Navy in 2012. My background is actually electrical engineering. So I worked as an engineer for about four years. Got involved with CrossFit because I was too fat. I really fell in love with the science behind movement and kinematics. So I got my level one. I actually quit my job as an engineer. Went back to school for physical therapy and through all this time, I’ve always been a big believer in finance. So I’ve always been smart, relatively conservative with my money. I invest a lot, in the stock market mostly. And it’s just, you know, periodic things that I did over time that allowed me to have opportunities when they presented themselves, and that’s what I preach to a lot of people. So when the opportunity presented itself to be able to be part owner with the gym, I jumped on it. And then when the opportunity came to buy my partner out, I didn’t hesitate because I didn’t feel like we were going to move forward, but that’s kind of like the abbreviated version of how we got to where we’re at.

Mike (07:03):

So we’ll have you back for a second show. We’re going to talk about Ethereum and Bitcoin and you can give us all your tips, right? So tell me about this. You’re doing the RampUp program. You say, you’re not sure why you signed up, or you don’t recall the exact thing that made you do it, but what was the first moment when you were in the program and you knew that it was working and you hadn’t wasted your money.

Billy (07:24):

To be honest with you, I knew as soon as I saw the roadmap, I mean, I had no doubt. We hadn’t even made an extra sale or anything else like that. But as soon as I saw the roadmap, I was like, yeah, this is exactly. And then just going through all the processes and actually have a lead nurture and what that actually meant and having metrics, within the first month of actually having metrics and being able to grade myself, I knew it was well worth the money. It was well worth the time, well worth the money, even in the first month, even though I really hadn’t in that first month, hadn’t made, we were still in the lockdown. So I hadn’t made any big changes or anything. The biggest change came in June when we hit our third highest grossing revenue ever, just coming out of COVID. And I’ll be honest with you. If I had my system set up now, them set up last June, we would have doubled our revenue just because our front end was really low. So, we’ve improved systems since then, but definitely the first month coming out of COVID, it was like just, you know, big aha moment, like, yep, this is it.

Mike (08:23):

I’m gonna ask you this. And I often jump in and I give our listeners the explanation of what the roadmap is. I’d love to hear you describe it because you came into it and took a look at it and saw this new system. Could you describe what the roadmap is to listeners?

Billy (08:35):

Just like it sounds if you’re going to have a map to get from point A to point B, and I’m going to outline specifically every thing that is going to take you to get from this destination to another, it’s that way of looking at it. And I like that because here you have this metric, all right, meet this metric. These are the things you have to do to meet it. That’s another cool thing. When you click on certain aspects and it brings up the education aspect of it, you can work with your mentor about the specifics for your particular situation, but you have metrics. And when you meet that metric, all right, cool. I’ve met this line. Now I move up to the next. So it gives you these constant goals to shoot for, very similar to what we do in a the gym when we’re working with clients, we give them achievable goals, the small little nuggets that you can hit each time. And I really, really fell in love with that because it’s just, it was really easy to see progress.

Mike (09:24):

And so the roadmap is divided into six broad categories, but within them, they’re all sorts of different highways, we call them and it can be something like, you know, membership retention is one of the big ones or getting more members, but then within that, there’s all different ways that we’ll teach people to do stuff. Tell me, what was your biggest area of focus on the roadmap? Was there one section, like you maybe mentioned that it was like kind of your, your systems and operations? Was that the main area of focus when you started RampUp? Or was it something else?

Billy (09:50):

My main area of focus was one, just making sure I wasn’t wasting my time doing things that I don’t need to be doing. Two, really developing a member experience that is truly unique in the industry. And then three, which led into the client journey, the initial client journey, writing that out. And then our client journey for our two, three, four, five, plus-year members and really focused. That still is my focus. I’m still refining that, but those are the two things that I had big gaping holes. And I had no way to know if what we were doing was working. The sales part of it. I guess a lot of people struggle with that. I was actually pretty good with it. I just didn’t have a good system in place. So once we put a good system in place, Oh, wow. I got this follow-up, I got this, I got this. And you know, next thing I know my set show and close rates go through the roof.

Mike (10:42):

Yeah. And the reason I kind of asked about that is the roadmap is gigantic, like it’s something like 480 or 600 squares. And each square that you click on has specific instructions to grow an aspect, like a very specific aspect of your business. And that can be overwhelming. But the idea is that you’re not supposed to go through just every single thing. You’re supposed to work with a mentor to target the things that are holding your business back the greatest, you know, like it’s the worst parts of your squat, so to speak, and then we’re gonna push the knees out. And after that, we’re going to get the chest up. And after that, we’re going to get weight in the heels and it’s going to give you very specific stuff. And Chris Cooper, Two-Brain founder, referred to it as a toolbox in a lot of cases.

Mike (11:19):

And it is that where you might not have to go through every single part of the roadmap, but you can definitely pick and choose with your mentor, the ones that are going to make the biggest difference. You mentioned client journey, and that is such a huge one. We’ve done so many shows about this on Two-Brain Radio, gym owners finding that the more they focus on their client journey, that’s from like, from the very first day that a client signs up to the day that that client leaves. And hopefully it’s like a 10 year window or more. They find that when they focus on that, the client stay around longer and they get better results. Had you heard of a client journey before this? Or was it something brand new?

Billy (11:51):

I kind of had a vague concept of it, but nothing definitive like it is laid out for us with the roadmap.

Mike (11:59):

Yeah. And I didn’t either. You know, like for me it was like, well, you sign up because you want to do Fran and hard workouts and then you just stay forever. And that was my fairly brutal client journey. And it worked for a few people like for a few early adopters, you know, maybe some of your Navy SEAL buddies in the service, that probably was the concept. But for some of us, or some other people, it’s not the same thing by any means because they have different goals. They’re not necessarily there for CrossFit and Fran. They’re there for, you know, weight loss, things that we never even thought about. So give me a little snapshot of your client journey, like who is your avatar that you’re speaking to for the most part.

Billy (12:38):

For the most part, our avatar is female, married between 30 and 50 years old, looking to lose weight, stay healthy. Most of them are looking to lose weight. But most of them are just trying to add a little bit something to their lives because they can’t keep up with their kids or they can’t keep up with their grandkids is typically so that kind of fits the niche. 70% of our members are female. So we really had to change our onboarding process to account for the fact that these were our typical members in our particular area.

Chris (13:12):

Hey guys, it’s Chris Cooper. Your members are buying supplements somewhere, so they should buy them from the person who cares about them the most: You. And you should work with my friends at Driven Nutrition. Jason Rule and the Driven team put customers first, every time they’ve got a ton of products with high margins and they’ll even train you so your retail program adds revenue to your business. Kirk Hendrickson from Iron Jungle CrossFit says Driven Nutrition has some of the best support I have seen from any company we’ve partnered with. To make more money with supplements and retail sales, visit drivennutrition.net.

Mike (13:45):

I love that you know that right off the top of your head, and you can just rattle off who your exact client is. And again, that doesn’t mean that every single person is exactly the same, but in general, if you’re speaking in marketing or whatever, that’s kind of who you’re looking for. And it’s really cool that you can do that because a lot of people don’t have a clue and still to this day, can’t figure out who they’re speaking to, which means you’re not speaking to anyone. You’re just kind of yelling in the parking lot. So you know exactly who you’re talking to. Talk to me a little bit about growth metrics, and you shared some of those already, but do you have any that you wouldn’t mind sharing about how your business is doing from before RampUp to now?

Billy (14:20):

Sure. We can do this a couple of different ways. I have a few different numbers written down. I think the biggest things to show people is just gross revenue. So my 2019 prior to COVID and everything else like that, it took me nine months to reach 84,000 in gross revenue. In 2020, it took me nine months again, mind you, we were shut down for two months. So it took us nine months, but four months of those was with Two-Brain and we probably wouldn’t have hit, it probably would have taken us all year. We wouldn’t have hit 80,000. This year we’re already surpassed 85,000, four months in. So that’s probably the biggest as far as gross revenue goes. I sat down with Russell and I asked him, I seriously was asking this question. I was like, I really think we can hit 200, but I feel like I’m being greedy.

Billy (15:05):

We’ve never hit more than 122. Is that even reasonable? You know, is that something we can really shoot for? And he, you know, told me to do it and set it up and we made a plan for it. So that’s the biggest thing. Went from 55 members. Now this was last year, right around COVID time to about 130 members now. The biggest change is our ARM was 94, roughly 94.50, our ARM last month was 190. So those are some numbers to just kinda throw by you and everything that the live shows that Chris does or the mentors do and stuff like that, I got a lot of good information. The roadmap is great and it’s well worth the time and effort put into it, but equally as great is those live shows I’ve learned. So I got to stop watching them cause I come up with new ideas every time I watch it, I’m like, I can’t do everything at once. I gotta prioritize.

Mike (16:00):

Yeah. And these are our office hours that we have for Two-Brain clients in our private Facebook group. And then sometimes Chris also does public webinars that help everyone and our clients usually have that info already. But they’re certainly welcome to join in. I want to point out a couple of things in your metrics that I thought were really cool. First of all, you mentioned a huge member increase, which is awesome, but it’s not awesome if you know, you’re just focused on increasing members and they’re all paying you too little. And I mean, you could get to 300 members or 500 members, and we’ve seen the data that supports this. You have these huge member totals, but you’re not making any money because their membership rates are too low. There’s too many discounts and things like that. So you had an increase in members and an increase in average revenue per member, which means that everything is going well at that point. So that’s a really cool one because if you have one and not the other, it doesn’t always work. I mean, I think if I was, if I was going to do it again, I would target increased ARM firs, average revenue per member, and then more members. And if you do both, it’s like a force multiplier, right? Like you probably saw your revenue, like you said, just skyrocket because you were increasing members at a higher rate. Is that right?

Billy (17:05):

Yeah. Yes. To answer your question is yes, that is very correct. It just, it ballooned, it went from, Hey, we’re trying to hit 15K, we were close. We were close. Next thing I know we hit 24, like, OK. Wow. And that was really kind of going on one of the live event or the live things, the office hours where they talked about doing the hybrid and really kind of got a good idea of what that actually meant. So I started during my consults, I’m the only one that does the NSIs right now, unfortunately, but during that, I give people three options for whatever it is. Two of those oftens options offer personal training, almost always, 75% of the time, I should say, people are taking the middle option, which always has at least one personal training session. And that was probably the big caveat to really jump us forward.

Mike (17:53):

And I’ve heard this from so many members or sorry, from so many gym owners, now that the thing that’s helping them drive up their average revenue is a hybrid program that has some personal training and some group fitness, because it’s the best of both worlds. You get the camaraderie of working in a group with your peers and cranking the music and sweating. But you also get that personal connection and personal attention that’s going to tailor things exactly to what you need in your goals. And then of course you can tack on as many personal training sessions as you want. Some people just prefer personal training, but that is a higher value service. So the concept, I mean, let me ask you this. Before you worked with Two-Brain, did you only run or predominantly run group classes?

Billy (18:28):

Oh yeah. We had no personal training. I had one personal training client in the last five years up until the last 12 months.

Mike (18:37):

Isn’t that incredible? What percentage do you think your business is in personal training now?

Billy (18:41):

Right now it’s 10.8%.

Mike (18:43):

So that’s like a whole new revenue stream and the best part is it’s a high end revenue stream.

Billy (18:48):

Our goal is to get to 20% that’s our next goal and really, I need another coach to be able to do it because my head coach, his schedule is so filled up and it’s interesting. It’s a snowballing type of thing. People see his schedule is booked up. So they’re like, Oh, let me get in when I can. And so it just, it’s blown up. I really need to create another person just like him so I can accommodate. And we just finished an internship with another coach and hopefully I can fill her schedule up too.

Mike (19:13):

And that’s another square on the roadmap. We’ll teach you how to hire and fire people if needed, or promote them to other roles. I’m going to ask you one other question related to your metrics that you talked about. You talked about gross revenue. How did profit margin change, or did it stay the same as you added gross revenue?

Billy (19:29):

My profit margin here recently has gone up too. I had the numbers in my head. I don’t have them specifically. They’re well over 33% right now.

Mike (19:38):

That’s the big one. That’s what I was curious about.

Billy (19:41):

My monthly expenses had gone up too obviously, but the biggest change is the amount I’m able to pay my coaches so that I needed to get closer to 40. And I’m still trying to get closer to 44% on that. Believe it or not. My goal for this year were to provide the best membership experience possible to my members and provide a place and opportunity for people, for coaches to actually make a real wage. That didn’t exist in our gym prior to meeting with Two-Brain. So I have a head coach now that’s making, you know, on average about $4,000 a month. So now I want to duplicate him and do another one and have somebody making about that, which in Florida 48 grand a year is pretty decent. Unless you live in Miami.

Mike (20:25):

Next to LeBron, right? The reason I ask is we never throw gross revenue numbers at people without putting them in context, because it’s very easy to say our business grosses a million, but if your expenses are a million too, you’re losing money. And that means nothing. So I love to ask gym owners, you know, what’s your profit like in there? Because a lot of us, I was guilty of this back in the day of running a business that, you know, broke even, and driving up your gross, but it’s not actually paying you any more money and it’s not creating careers for people because there is no extra money. So I love that you’ve got those numbers in your head and guys, if you’re listening out there and you find that, you know, your revenue is growing, but you’re not making any more money, there is an issue and we can help you figure out what that issue is so that you can pay yourself more. What’s the plan for the business going forward? Now you mentioned a few things specifically increasing PT to 20, about 20%, and creating careers. So would I be right to say that, you know, your main focus right now is to find some more staff members, maybe replace yourself in a few roles, or is it something else that you’re focusing on?

Billy (21:27):

It’s exactly that, it’s looking for pulling myself away from the daily operations. I coach very little, I coach probably about five to seven hours a week right now, to get that down to even probably three coaching. I do enjoy coaching still, so I probably won’t remove myself totally. I want to hire a GM to take over all the other little tasks that I’ve been accumulating and that I know needs to be done by a GM now. And then I want to actually help other business, you know, if people want to open up other gyms elsewhere to get other gyms open, to have a possibility of opening one up in Panama City, which is quite a distance away, but I think it might work out really well. If the person I’m gonna have a meeting with wants to do the work. So it’s going to be fun.

Mike (22:13):

So you work with Russell Francis, he’s your mentor, correct?

Billy (22:15):

Yes, sir.

Mike (22:15):

So talk to me about how mentorship has changed for you after—like when you were in RampUp versus now, when you’ve graduated from that program, what’s the difference or is there any difference between them?

Billy (22:26):

The biggest difference now is like, I probably didn’t use my mentor as much as possible. I’m very hard-headed and I like to figure out things on my own. And it took me a while, probably about six months before I actually started emailing Russell with problems, instead of trying to figure it all out by myself, you know, here I have this mentor who gives me great advice, but I’m going to try to figure, you know, waste time, figuring out myself that was something that I had to get better at doing. But once I got better at doing that, I would put really specific questions. Hey, I’m having this issue. You know, what have you seen this before? What are some other options, do you think? I mean, even looking at it, even having somebody just look at it with a different set of eyes, you know, he might say, yeah, you’re on the right track or no, you’re totally off track. I would suggest going this route for the goals that you have. So that’s the biggest thing is having somebody that can look at it from a different set of standpoints, a different set of eyes and give you the direction that you need to go, or at least work with you on a direction that is correct.

Mike (23:23):

You mentioned a little bit of this earlier, but do you find that your mentor helps you focus on certain ideas as opposed to every great idea you come up with? Is that part of it?

Billy (23:34):

Exactly. I mean, part of a mentor should be to throttle you back a little bit too. Hey man, I know you’re really excited about this, but we still got these other issues that we need to be able to take care of and focus.

Mike (23:42):

And that’s so important because as entrepreneurs, we up with lots of great ideas, but not every one’s a home run and you need someone who can give you that perspective. Let me ask you this. How about accountability? What does a mentor do for someone, you know, who like some of our clients don’t necessarily need accountability in the sense that like they’re very motivated, they’ll crush things. Other clients really appreciate it, but a mentor is there to provide the level of accountability you need. What did you need and how does that keep you moving forward?

Billy (24:08):

What I needed is to have somebody I can throw stuff against and like have that response, like, Hey, I have these ideas because I wasn’t the type of person that I needed to check in with. It definitely helps. But I was always, like you said, I’d go 10 different directions and I’m like, I’m not accomplishing anything. Where do I need my focus to be? So mentor for me is really narrowing the focus on these are the areas that I should be working on. Not that the other things aren’t important. They’re just not as important right now. That was the most value for me, since I didn’t really need that, OK, did you do this last week? I didn’t need that to the degree that I think some people need it. So I think really laser focus is what I needed and that’s what Russell provided for me.

Mike (24:58):

Nice. Cause I know that there are other people out there who, like, they need someone to check in and say, did you do this? And you know, we’re not going further until you do this thing. And that works for them, right. Because some people really that’s kind of the coach equivalent of like, did you show up to class today? There is that level of accountability, but then there’s also, you know, I almost use the baseball diamond analogy with kind of the way Russell’s working with you, where you can hit the ball anywhere in here, but we’re going to put these foul lines up and we’re going to say that stuff is out of bounds because we’re not focusing on it right now. But if you want to swing anywhere in here, we’ve decided that’s the right plan. You know? So it’s a really cool tailoring system. So it’s so much like fitness coaching, right? Where you’re tailoring your programs so your clients get results. Two-Brain’s doing the same thing. Last thing I’ll ask you, someone’s out there listening right now and is just kind of on the fence about Two-Brain RampUp. What would you say to that person?

Billy (25:42):

Don’t hesitate. Just do it. You won’t regret it. It’s by and far the best thing that you can do for your business. I know there’s other systems out there and people, you know, I get inundated with them. I seriously doubt that there’s anything better to help your business than what Two-Brain has to offer. The amount of information, the amount of mentorship, the amount of just accumulated knowledge is just beyond what you’re going to find anywhere else. So just, make the commitment just like you did when you first stepped into the gym that first time, and I guarantee you’ll have the results. If you put in the work.

Mike (26:16):

What do you think ROI? Will they make their money back?

Billy (26:20):

Let me put it this way. My ROI, if you actually went straight up ROI, my ROI is well over. I’m gonna make a hundred thousand dollars extra this year, so yeah. Figure out the total cost. So I’m gonna make 10 times what I invested. So I’d say that’s a pretty good ROI in one year.

Mike (26:40):

Again, tell me if you find a stock, that’s going to get me 10 times ROI, you send me an email after the show. I’d appreciate that. Billy, thank you so much for sharing. I hope to talk to you in about a year and see where you’re at because it kind of looks like you’re on a pretty cool trajectory and will you come back and talk to us again?

Billy (26:57):

Definitely, love to anytime.

Mike (26:57):

Thank you so much and all the best and go Boston College.

Billy (27:02):

Thanks sir.

Mike (27:04):

I’m Mike Warkentin, that was Billy Gorham on Two-Brain Radio. If you want to learn more about how our RampUp program can help you, book a call with a certified mentor via link in the show notes. Do it today. And now open the Facebook app and join the Gym Owners United. You can literally ask your gym business questions in there and get answers from other gym owners, certified Two-Brain mentors and Two-Brain 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.

 

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Building Your PT Business: Always Have a Solution

By Joleen Bingham, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

Your clients need you to help them solve their problems. It’s your job as a fitness professional to have the solutions they need. 

In “Building Your Personal Training Business: The Critical First Step,” we talked about identifying the ideal clients you want to serve and understanding their problems. Now that you’ve discovered these problems, you must create the solutions. 

Do you have middle-aged professionals who always seem to have nagging aches and pains? Maybe create a program to help people return to fitness or hire a personal trainer who is qualified to identify and correct movement imbalances and weaknesses. 

Do you have competitive athletes who want to get to the next skill level? Perhaps offer sessions designed to assess where they are and provide skills and drills that will help them level up. 

Do you have several group-class clients who have recently asked to put their memberships on hold or have cancelled due to busy schedules? One solution might be to offer them personal training sessions, perhaps shorter than 60 minutes, that can be scheduled when they have time. 

Do you have clients who are scared to return to the gym due to COVID-19? Why not give them the option of training one on one when no one else is in the gym?

Focus on the Client’s Needs

The best solution is the one that helps the client most. Many of your clients might be best served in a group setting, and for those members, that path will lead to success. 

But for those who have problems that can’t be solved in a group class, you need to have creative solutions or you’ll risk losing the clients to a gym owner who does.

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