Chris Cooper's Blog, page 128

Batting a Thousand in the Sales Office: Gym Owner Shares Secrets

Mike (00:02):

You work hard to get your leads to come to your gym for free consultations, but people just don’t buy. Today, we talked to Joanne Cogle, who knows how to close the deal. She shares her secrets after this.

Chris (00:14):

Back to the show in just a minute. When it comes to owning a gym, it can be really tough to show your members their progress and keep them engaged long term. Level Method provides experienced gym owners with a visual step-by-step fitness progression system that’s fun, engaging and easy to use. With Level Method, your clients can reach their fitness goals faster and safer than ever before and become raving fans of your gym. Go to levelmethod.com to find out more. I use this product at my gym, it helped with my conversion from my on-ramp program into ongoing group coaching, and it’s also boosted my retention over time.

Mike (00:50):

Every month, Two-Brain tracks metrics from hundreds of gyms around the world. Then we find out how the owners produce the incredible numbers. This month, we’re looking at set show and close rates. If you’re new to marketing, set rate is the percentage of leads who book an appointment with you, show rate is the percentage of people who actually come to those appointments and close rate is the percentage of attendees who actually buy something. Joanne Cogle of CrossFit CSG in Georgia was one of our close leaders and she’s here today. All right, Joanne. Welcome to Two-Brain Radio. And thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on being one of our leaders for February.

Joanne (01:24):

Oh, thank you. I’m happy to be here.

Mike (01:27):

I can’t wait to ask you some of these questions because a lot of people, you know, it’s not like it was 10 years ago where every lead who shows up to your gym just buys. And that’s what it was like 10 years ago when you were the only CrossFit gym in town or whatever it was, it’s much harder to sell now. But your close rate was outstanding. You sold to everyone in February. How has your rate changed over time and what got it to this amazing 100% number?

Joanne (01:50):

I mean, I can assure you, it has not always been a hundred percent. Don’t think I’m a super person, we’re watching super girl, my daughter and I, I’m not Super Girl. But we’ve done a lot of hard work and I have finally listened to my mentor and follow the instructions and jumped when she said jump. And it’s working. And so we, statistically speaking February is actually one of our bigger months anyway. It’s kind of the month when everyone figures out that their globo gym January didn’t really work and their new year’s resolution goals are terrible.

Joanne (02:39):

Everything’s kind of falling apart and they’ve paid all their bills. Now they kind of moved on. We’re in actually a big army town here in Columbus. We have Fort Benning right outside of our door, almost quite literally right outside of our door. We’re one of the closest gyms to the base over here. So in February is also what we call PCS or permanent change of station season, and it happens twice a year, once in February. And usually once in July and August, where we have a bunch of people move. And, we actually probably have about two thirds of our gym move and then two thirds of our gym reappear. So yeah, it’s really a strange, and if you’re not used to it, it’s very stressful as a gym owner. So a couple of years ago it was very stressful in my life now just throw it out to the universe and they all reappear. So, but with COVID, it’s been a little bit strange. So, February it’s been not as big of a influx as normal. So we have had some of those people that come in are not associated with Fort Benning, so they do come in looking for a gym and we’re able to close them.

Mike (04:01):

You said back in the day, you weren’t as good at closing as you are now?

Joanne (04:05):

No. I don’t think so. I think, I mean, personally as a business owner myself, I’ve grown and my confidence in believing in the product that I have has grown. And so I think if you believe in what you’re selling, I can talk people into doing a lot of things a lot of the time. So, because I do believe in my product and I do believe that we’re the best. And there’s no comparison to us whatsoever.

Mike (04:42):

I talked to a different gym owner about this. And confidence is such a huge thing, right? Where, and it was actually Jeff Burlingame, our sales expert. Pardon me, confidence in selling is everything right? Because if you don’t believe in the product and you feel kind of wishy-washy, you’re not sure if you can deliver, that shows through. So your confidence, I would guarantee is a big part of your close percentage.

Joanne (05:03):

Oh yeah. And I think, you know, it’s kind of, I was actually just reading a statistic about how many pounds people gain over quarantine and, you know, and I think all of our coaches walk the walk. And so we’re able to, what’s the phrase, you know, you talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. So I mean, you know, they all follow the programming. They all believe in our product. And I mean, I’m not the only one that’s selling, by far because I’m doing other gym owner things, like all other things. So, but so like our coaches and the people who are setting the no sweat intros, I mean they heavily, heavily believe in our product then. And some of them have coached at other gyms around the area. And some of them have not. But I mean, we’re by far the best gym in the area, I can say that with a hundred percent unbiased opinion.

Mike (06:07):

And you make me want to think so, too. So I love, I love that confidence. You hit on something really interesting and you had a great close rate and yet you don’t do all the sales, which is really cool because, when you start at a gym, you are going to be the sales person by default. There is no avoiding that, but eventually you’re going to want to replace yourself in that role. And the standard that Two-Brain talks about is if the owner replaces himself or herself in that role, the replacement has to at least equal the closing percentage or do better. So you hit a hundred percent with some staff members, I want to talk about that a little bit, because it’s very important for people who are looking to change things up in their gym, maybe not do it all themselves. Well, let’s walk through your process. So first, can you tell me how you get the right leads to show up for appointments? Because I understand you have a bit of a pre-screening process.

Joanne (06:55):

Yeah. So, I heavily drink the Chris Cooper Kool-Aid.

Mike (06:59):

it’s a sweet beverage.

Joanne (07:02):

It’s a sweet beverage. And, so I am probably Gym Lead Machine’s number one ambassador as well. Yeah. So we switched to Gym Lead Machine in August of this year. I by former trade am a web designer. So it was a little bit hard to give up. But it has been the best thing in the world that has ever happened to me. And so we do use Gym Lead Machine kind of as a pre-screen process where we, you know, all of our social media drives people towards our website. And a lot of our no-sweat intros book off of Gym Lead Machine, or if they click the link that’s in our link tree, on our social media, it dumps them into Gym Lead Machine, which has that nurture process as well.

Joanne (08:03):

And so we massage that nurture process quite a bit. I actually, again, back to Mr. Cooper, Kool-Aid, I actually use his lead nurture that, I don’t know if it’s free and it’s been a while now, I don’t know if it’s pre-installed or if I re-installed it. But I think that he wrote all of the things in there. So, I mean, I’ve edited a few of them to make them sound less Chris Cooper and more Joanne Cogle, but, you know, and so it drops them into those pipelines and it starts the conversation. And then my CSM massages the conversation a little bit, and we’ve edited a little bit of the Gym Lead Machine where, you know, it won’t automatically send them certain things after we start talking to them. Just because then it becomes a little bit more scripted, but communication is probably our number one selling point or reason that we’re able to set those no sweat intros is that it doesn’t matter. I mean, isometimes it’s a little annoying. It goes to my phone and in the morning, like, I mean, I wake up pretty early and if I see somebody sent me a no sweat intro at like 2:00 AM, you know, I’m going to respond to them probably by eight or somebody is going to respond to them. So communication is super, super important to us and starting that conversation. And that usually, in February it created some no sweat intros. So that’s generally our thought process.

Mike (09:39):

Mateo Lopez, of Gym Lead Machine and also Two-Brain Business has talked about lead nurturing is just such an important part of it. And he said, that is just the secret is anybody can get a lead, but not everyone can get that lead to show up. And it’s that nurturing. It’s the time to response, the nurturing, the emails, the texts, the video messages, all that stuff that actually does a ton of work getting people in the door. And I think you just hit on it exactly what he said. If you really want leads to show up, you need to pick up the phone.

Joanne (10:08):

Yeah. We do a lot through, we don’t do a ton through phone. We do a lot through text and I just find that my, and I used to do it through my personal phone, which is like a Hawaii area code, which I got zero responses because everybody thought I was like, you know, a spam call. So I mean, and Gym Lead Machine provides you with a local number. So, but we just find that a lot of people respond to text messages over phone calls. Nobody really, and we’ll call occasionally if we don’t get a response from text messages, but we get more responses from text messages than we do from phone calls.

Mike (11:04):

It’s great that you know that, so the idea pick up not, maybe not for you pick up the phone, pick up a mobile phone. And that works just fine. The best part though, is that because if you don’t know that you don’t even know what your clients prefer, you want to use the client’s preferred means of communication. For me, I’m the same way I hate answering the phone. I like text. I would love to see a text from your response to my entry onto your website, as opposed to a phone call, which I just don’t want to talk to you right away. I’d like to see a text.

Joanne (11:30):

Right. Right. And I think being upfront like, I know Brian Strump, I think he touched on it. In the growth group in one of forums, somebody had asked, you know, do you put your pricing on your website? And I mean, our price, our beginning pricing is on our website, but just being upfront about it. And, so people know what you’re getting into. And then, just being honest about it, like people will ask what our pricing is, and this is what our pricing is. And if we’re kind of at, I told Eden this last week, we are at a point in our gym growth that we don’t have to chase after every single person. And so if you want to be there, this is our pricing and this is what it is. And that’s it.

Mike (12:30):

That’s great. That’s the confidence showing through. And again, Chris Cooper has written a blog on when you should put prices on your website, because the answer is not the same for everyone at every stage. Right? So we’re going to put that link in the show notes for you to take a look at, I’d encourage you to take a look because some people will succeed and some people will succeed with a different strategy. And Chris will tell you exactly which one to use. And when I want to ask you this question.

Joanne (12:53):

We haven’t always been like that. Yeah, we’ve evolved.

Mike (12:58):

So here’s a question for you. You said that you’re at a point where you can kind of pick and choose who you want, who do you not want at your gym and why?

Joanne (13:06):

I think it’s in some of our notes that we talked about before, our gym thrives on beginners and people who are not YouTube CrossFitters. We are not the scary CrossFit gym we are. If I could have affiliated with the gym named average joes, which was already taken, I would have. We are a normal people CrossFit. And that’s a lot of time when I’m talking to somebody in no sweat intro, that’s almost a direct quote what I’ll tell them, I’ll ask them, what do you know about CrossFit? And they say, I’ve Googled it. And I say, Oh dear. Oh, no, we are not that. So, and then that is almost an immediate icebreaker and it is, we are normal CrossFit. We are for everybody.

Joanne (14:04):

And the more beginner you are the better. So, we thrive on the people who are new to the sport, who just want to be better. And, I really love our guys who are coming in from Fort Benning, you know, who are going to ranger school and who are, you know, training for their next, I don’t know, best ranger competition. I mean, I really love having those guys around, because I do think that it provides a rounded gym atmosphere. But I do really think that being able to watch people’s successes is rewarding for the coaches. It’s rewarding for me. And it’s rewarding for everybody else, for our community.

Mike (14:56):

You know, I’m glad you mentioned the military. Cause I was going to ask you that when you said you catered to beginners, but I, you know, the military generally has this, you wouldn’t expect, I mean, there is a fitness component to the military and you’ve got ranger school there and special forces the whole deal. So I was curious to see how that beginner mindset would apply when you’re, like you said, literally right out the front door of Fort Benning. That’s really interesting,

Joanne (15:19):

Right? Yeah. Well, it is really interesting because we have, the Army has the new ACFT test, which is the new Army PT test, which is very CrossFitty, and so we have, rather than just the standard push-ups, sit-ups and two mile run and other like Rangers have different tests, but the new PT test is very, you know, there’s a ball throwsled drag there’s arm pulls, there’s a deadlift, shuttle run. Yeah. So there’s all different components. And we have seen an influx of Army people or military people come in and want to hone their skills for the new PT test, because they’re doing it incorrectly from untrained people in the Army.

Mike (16:12):

Sorry to interrupt you. This is fascinating. Is that PT test standard across the military now?

Joanne (16:18):

It kind of changes every day. I think, my husband’s active duty, so I should probably know more. I’m not a very good army wife.

Mike (16:31):

Yeah. But the point that I want to get at is that if gyms are near army bases and this new test is happening, that’s someplace where they might want to look at, you know, marketing. That’s interesting.

Joanne (16:42):

Yeah. Yeah. We actually did pre COVID. We, the ACFT test was, it was kind of, they were doing some prelim stuff and then it was supposed to take into effect October 2020, I think. And then obviously COVID happened and they shut down the gyms and, you know, no one can have those expectations of passing that with no gyms. So they’ve kind of pushed it back a little bit, but pre COVID, we ran up a bunch of train up clinics that we opened up and they’re pretty popular, especially because it was just skill-based. So we just took the six movements, divided them into two weekends and then had a pre-test and post-test, and basically ran it as a practice for them. So if you are with a military base, it is for the Army anyway, that’s the new PT test that is pending.

Mike (17:38):

That means when we get a great idea on Two-Brain Radio, we bring in the revenue riff. Here it is. That is a very cool idea. And that might not relate exactly to close rate, but again, it might, if you are near a military base, you can get these people to come and talk to you and you can solve their problems with your program.

Chris (18:02):

We know that getting clients results isn’t enough to make a great business or a great career, but it is the foundation. If you’re not getting your clients results, none of the other stuff matters. Your marketing plan, your operations plan, your retention plan, your systems, how much you care about the clients. You need to get them results. What does it take to get a client results? Long-term behavior change, short-term habit change. It means learning skills like motivational interviewing, peer-to-peer programming. It means focusing on things like adherence and retention instead of novelty. And I built twobraincoaching.com with my partner, Josh Martin, to teach coaches how to do this. More than ever before it is critical to get results for your clients. You need to charge a premium fee. You need to provide high value to warrant that fee. And what is most valuable to the client? What do they care about the most? The results on the goal that they choose. Twobraincoaching.com has programs set up to help your clients achieve those goals. We will train you and your coaches to deliver personal training, group training, online training, nutrition coaching, and coming soon, mindset coaching, in a way that’s simple for you to adopt, it’s legal everywhere. And it’s super effective. These courses were built by experts with years of experience getting clients results. Twobraincoaching.com is a labor of love for me, and I know you’re going to love it too.

Mike (19:29):

So let’s talk about your consultation process. Walk me through this thing, starting from the time the client arrives, like, how does this, how does this work? Because I know it starts right from the second they, you know, get into your parking lot.

Joanne (19:40):

And again, it comes back to communication where our signage is kind of funky and the sign is actually on the wrong side, away from our parking lot. So it starts from Gym Lead Machine, letting them know that they have an appointment tomorrow and then that they have an appointment in an hour, and most often people will confirm that, which is great, we know that they’re coming. And then, and then we communicate, Hey, look, you know, you can park in this great parking lot. Just ignore the signs that say don’t park there.

Joanne (20:23):

And that’s super, super helpful for them because then they know what they’re looking for. And they do feel a little bit more comfortable. We meet them at the door.

New Speaker (20:30):

Oh, I got to stop you there. And I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve heard this now from so many people meeting clients at the door for sales meetings. And again, this isn’t an official Two-Brain policy, but I’ve heard enough people talk about it that if I, as a gym owner was going to have a sales meeting, I would be standing at the door waiting because I’ve heard this from a number. I think you’re the third one that’s told me about this. Who’s had great numbers. Tell me more about that.

Joanne (20:55):

We are the Walmart greeters of, I mean, if you just follow the people who are doing it right. Walmart does it right. So follow the people who are making the most money in the world. So Walmart has a greeter. So why shouldn’t I have a greeter? Yeah. I mean, and sometimes if I know that they’re coming, they’ll say they’re on their way. I’ll actually walk out to the parking lot. Because our signage is a little weird. So, and then I’ll walk them into, I’ll physically walk them into the gyms because we have a big space. And I think even if you don’t have a big space, we’ve gone from 1500 square feet to 8,900 square feet over the last couple of years. And even when you went from, even when you came in to 1500 square feet, it looks like a torture chamber.

Joanne (21:52):

If you’ve never been to a CrossFit, it looks like there’s like, yeah, there’s like metal tires, you know, ropes hanging from the ceiling, you know, people lying on the floor, you know, it’s like, it looks terrible. I mean, I’ve been there. Super intimidating to some people. So especially if they’re new and they’ve never been in a gym before. And so, meeting them at the door and even saying look, I know this is kind of an intimidating situation, but it’s going to be great. I use that a lot. It’s gonna be great. It’s all going to be fine. It’s going to be great. And, you know, we walk in and we kind of talk, depending on the time of day, talk about what’s going on, ask them if they’ve, you know, if they’ve gone to CrossFit before, usually I know a little bit of background, cause I’ve chatted with them on Gym Lead Machine text a little bit back and forth.

Joanne (22:51):

And then I actually, we have two spots in our gym. We have my office, which serves as like the intro area as well. And then we have a member lounge, which has a giant fish tank in it. But it is on the main floor. And so a lot of the times it’s too noisy to sit there. And so, if it’s between classes, we’ll hang out on the couches. But a lot of the times we’ll just say, Hey, look, it’s going to get kind of loud out here. Let’s just go into the office. It’s a little weird with COVID, but most people are fine with it. So we head into the office and then chat about what their goals are and where they want to be and what their background is. You know, there’s always the be personable and happy and nice.

Mike (23:37):

So what you’re doing here is you’re controlling this person’s perceptions and providing context right from the get-go and think, you know, I think back back when we ran a gym, we don’t have a physical space anymore, but when we had people arrive, I couldn’t stand it when I was supposed to meet someone. And I was occupied in the gym when that person was arriving and that person would come in and get to look around before I got to talk to him or her, because it was exactly like you said, they look around, and there’s someone like lying on the floor. There’s, you know, it’s a horrible thing for a brand new person to see, despite the fact that it’s actually magical in application. Right. And so I did not like that. And eventually when we had people, like dedicated salespeople doing this, it was, we didn’t have as good a system as you do, but wow. Did it ever help just to have someone who is able to explain like, OK, this is normal, you’ll understand shortly, let’s talk first. Right. And that was so important. So you’ve done an amazing job of that. Talk to me about your prescriptive process. You said you ask questions, you’re obviously finding about goals and things like that. How do you present stuff? Like when it’s time, when you hear about their goals, you find about their motivations, why they want what they want, what’s the conversation look like? How do you present the price? How do you close these things?

Joanne (24:49):

I think it really depends on, and maybe this kind of goes against some of the conversations, but it works for us. We’re not a huge hybrid selling gym in membership wise. So we don’t do a lot of hybrid sales of, I mean, I do so that I can get past the little thing on the roadmap, because I need to be goal-driven and I need to get to the end. But we don’t do a whole lot of hybrid sales. And so we usually present it as, you know, you, we have these two membership options, and we usually start them with the membership and not with the nutrition. And the reason that we do that and we’ve had a lot more personal training people coming in.

Joanne (25:44):

And I think that’s just kind of the CEO thing that somebody put in the growth group the other day about flipping your SEO to personal training. So we’ve had a lot more personal training people coming in and we’ll start them with, you know, a couple 30 minute personal trainings and then flip them over and do a class. So we usually just give them the two class options and the foundation, because we’re so close to Fort Benning, our on ramp, we don’t require it because we would be doing on-ramps all day long every day forever. Because we have so many people with CrossFit backgrounds that are coming in and out all the time, but it is the easiest sell that for a new person in the history of selling to do an on-ramp, if they’re brand new.

Joanne (26:35):

And, so we just say, look, we, I think that you should do these two on-ramps, it’s not required, but it’s going to make you feel much more comfortable. It’s going to keep our classes safer. It’s going to help our classes run better. And you’re not going to feel like the person in the back of the aerobics class, who’s doing three moves behind and everyone relates to that. So they all relate to being the person in the back of the class, not knowing what’s going on and knowing that we’re able to take care of them and make them feel the most comfortable possible that on-ramp is the easiest thing ever. And then we put them into either our punch card option, which everyone has their opinions on that or our unlimited membership, which we only have one it’s just it’s either this or that. So, yeah, I think it’s stripping out those choices makes it a little bit easier for people to make that decision and just go for it. And I mean, and obviously in February, everyone, I mean, that’s just those are your choices and it’s worked very well for us.

Mike (27:40):

So just to give listeners a little bit of perspective, you referred to hybrid memberships, which we talk about, those are generally like personal training and nutrition group classes and personal training it’s combination stuff. And when you refer to the Two-Brain roadmap, you know, these hybrid memberships can really be tied to high average revenue per member because you’ve got a group class plus nutrition. It often equals in the range of 250, $300. So one of the things that we have on our roadmap is using that to drive up average revenue per member. You’ve chosen a different strategy based on your exact market and a real understanding of who you’re working with. So let me ask you this question. You don’t have to answer that exact number, but I’m curious about your average revenue per member with this strategy that you have. Are you looking to drive it up or how do you look at that?

Joanne (28:23):

Yeah, so like our ARM rate is, it’s gone up an, because we know that our client is our main person who we’re going after is going to be the beginner, or it’s going to be the person who’s never done CrossFit before, for us to offer them CrossFit, nutrition, and personal training all at one time is going to blow their mind. And they’re not especially adding the nutrition in there with the CrossFit. Most of the time they will flip over, they will add nutrition in three or four months. Yeah. And we know, I mean, we’ve got some, you know, we run a couple of kickstart, we used to call them nutrition challenges, but we call them kickstarts now. We’ll say challenges a couple of times a year, just to kind of move people in that direction.

Joanne (29:21):

And we talk about nutrition and we put our nutrition on our, I send out a blog post or a love letter every Sunday. And it alternates between gym driven and nutrition driven. So it’s four a month, and so that they know about nutrition and nutrition is in their faces. And so they’re gonna likely flip over to a new, like a hybrid membership. We just don’t sell it right off the bat, just because it’s overwhelming, because they’re already trying to learn what, you know, OHS means on the board. Already trying to figure out all of the acronyms, which, you know, it’s frustrating to the new person.

Mike (30:12):

So that’s cool. Like, I’m really glad I asked that question, because what it shows is that you have a real understanding of your client journey. And that’s something that Chris has been talking about so regularly is understanding who your clients are and what their process is going to be through your gym. And for some gyms, and I’ve talked to some owners, some like they’re attracting members, and they only want to sell these hybrid packages and they are doing that, and they’re having great success. And that works for their client journey. For your client journey, which you’ve clearly taken a look at, you’re finding that if you start them with something smaller and more focused, eventually in that client journey, they’re probably going to add something on when they’re ready. And I’m going to guess, correct me if I’m wrong here, that you probably have, you know, you’ve got this process of marketing and, you know, alerting people to the different things that you have. Do you do 90 day goal reviews?

Joanne (31:00):

Oh yeah, we do now. So it’s actually, you know, we’re going to talk about nutrition in our goal-setting sessions. Also, because this is again, my Gym Lead Machine plug, you know, once we move our athletes, our members, over to a different pipeline in Gym Lead Machine, then they now get a different lead nurture, which I guess they’re not lead nurture, I guess it’s client nurture. But it’s also going to talk about nutrition. So it’s going to send them emails about nutrition and we’re going to bring it back up. And it sends them about personal training too. So, and about all of our, all of our different programs that we have. And so, I mean, it’s in their face quite a bit. I mean, that’s when you’re doing their goal, your goal setting sessions, you know, we’re gonna be talking about personal training and we’re going to be talking about nutrition and sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not.

Mike (32:07):

Let be clear that that 90 day goal review session, that’s a sales meeting, right? It’s either a sales meeting in terms of retention where you have to sell this, like resell this current client on your service. And there’s a whole script in Two-Brain with how to do that. It’s, you know, alerting them to the bright spots that they’ve had, asking them about their new goals, setting out new prescriptions. And that’s where the upselling comes in in terms of, OK, you want to make faster progress on weight loss. I’m going to recommend that you keep training at the rate that you are, maybe add one personal training session, but really you need our nutrition program in addition. And then you’re obviously supplying them with a solution to their problem. So the whole thing is fascinating. And I love that, you know, I’m going to guess that in those 90 day goal review sessions, you probably have a pretty good number of upgrades. Is that right?

Joanne (32:52):

I mean, we have a fair amount. I think it’s kind of important to know that like, even if they don’t choose your, and this is just client retention, kind of 101, I think it’s, even if they don’t choose your nutrition and they want to go do keto, or they want to go do, I don’t know, Bulletproof coffee or something like that. You know, I think it’s super important to support their choice. So regardless of whether they choose you, they’re likely always going to come back to you. But, I have a couple of people who have had really great success in weight loss who are doing their own program, but I mean, it happens to be keto. So, but I know in probably 90 days, they’re probably gonna come back to me, but they’re going to come back to me because I’ve already supported them through their current choice. So even if they shut you down and don’t want to follow that, as long as you do support them, they’re going to stick around.

Mike (33:58):

Chris talked about that, you know, back in the day, he said he used to slam like insanity and at-home fitness stuff people were doing, and he’d say why his program was so much better. He said that he stopped doing that because he realized that these people were, it was like the gateway drug, they were starting intense fitness. They’re your on-ramp, essentially.

Joanne (34:18):

I am Orangetheory’s number one fan. I mean, it’s a direct feeder for me. So I mean, they get bored over there and then they come to our constantly very functional fitness.

Mike (34:44):

I love that. And that’s that abundance mindset. And that’s knowing, you know, where you fit in a client’s life. So I, you know, you have more than most of the gym owners that I’ve spoken to on the podcast, you have a really good idea of like what your business is, who you serve and how you serve them. And I think that’s, if you know, again, going back to that confidence thing that you were talking about just from talking to you here, I can feel that confidence and I guarantee that your clients can. I’m going to ask you one specific question here about staffing. How do you make your staff close as well as you do? Is there anything specific in terms of training that you’ve done to make that happen?

Joanne (35:17):

My staff is better than I am. So, I was standing on the floor yesterday and I had somebody, I had a coach who was a little bit late for traffic reasons. And I had stepped in to warm up the class and I thought to myself, I am a terrible coach and these people are so much better than I am. And I sat back and watched some more classes warm up yesterday. And I was like, man, I am the weak link in my staff. My staff is awesome. If they ever listen to this, they are what makes the gym go round. Without them, there would be no gym, and members obviously.

Joanne (36:16):

They’ve all been with me probably for at least four or five, six years, before I was even with Two-Brain, before we even affiliated, I’ve had a couple that have moved away and come back. I probably learned more from them than they learned from me at this point. So, they just believe in our products so much and believe in health and fitness being like a necessity for life that they are better closers than I am.

Mike (36:58):

That’s awesome. Do you have, like, do you have an SOP, like a set of standard operating procedures or a sales training binder or something like that?

Joanne (37:05):

Of course we do, Mike.

Mike (37:07):

So there it is.

Joanne (37:10):

We went through the incubator. Of course we do. We do have an SOP. And I’ve got actually, we’re onboarding a new coach and so to go back and go through that and teach her how to onboard and sell a new client, it’s good practice for us. And so, I mean, I know that she’s going to be just fine, just following the instructions. And, I mean, it just comes down to confidence in your product and knowing that you’re the best. And cause I mean, Two-Brain Businesses are among the best in the world. So, and you’re doing, you’re learning from the best. So knowing that your product is better than average joe down the street because you have the policies and you have the procedures. You’re always going to be on top.

Mike (38:12):

So I’m going to ask you for a final piece of advice, but I’m going to steal your two best things right off the bat. The first one is confidence. Like I’ve said this a number of times throughout the show and you reiterated it with your staff, confidence in your product is huge. So that means you need to show value to your clients, justify your prices. You need to show value to your staff, help them understand that they are valuable. The service is valuable. You are the best in town. You are doing the best thing ever for your clients. Confidence is number one. Number two is having that book and binder of standard operating procedures so that when you bring a new coach in, that coach can eventually become as good as the current employees, or if you’re the only person selling a gym, you can then offload that role to someone else who will either meet your standards or surpass them, which you’ve done, which is a really, really cool thing. Because as an entrepreneur, you don’t want to be the best in everything you want to hire the best people for everything. So do you have any other tips if you were going to give a gym owner, just one other tip on closing, what would it be now that I’ve stolen your two best ones?

Joanne (39:12):

Be nice. Just be nice and I mean a fun fact, I actually also grew up in Canada, in Ontario. I can say as a Canadian, I feel like being nice is very important. And be empathetic to people’s situations, not sympathetic, just be empathetic to their situation and listen. I guess that’s two in one be kind and be empathetic and listen. So I guess that’s three. And let them do the talking, they’re there for a reason and they just need some help, so help them. You have you have the tools to help them. So, I mean, and that’s what Two-Brain’s all about, you know, help first. So we’re there for you. We just need to give them the tools to help.

Mike (40:17):

We’re just two Canadians being nice to each other on Two-Brain Radio. Joanne, thanks so much for being here. That was Joanne Cogle from Georgia. And I’m Mike Warkentin. This is Two-Brain Radio. If you have not done so, you need to join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Chris regularly post articles, instructional videos, and advice in there. It’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today and be sure to tune into Two-Brain Radio for all the great episodes coming up.

 

The post Batting a Thousand in the Sales Office: Gym Owner Shares Secrets appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Microgym Model: How to Make $100,000 (Or More)

You can earn $100,000 per year in your microgym—or more.

To do it, start from a model. Copy what works, then tailor the plan to your preference. Don’t try to make it up as you go.

In the next post in this series, I’ll give you the exact numbers you need to build a successful model for your gym.

And on April 13 at noon EST, I’ll walk you through this model step by step, show you the math and answer your questions. This webinar is absolutely free—I just want to make gym owners successful.

Register for the webinar here.

If you’re already in Two-Brain, you’ll get a step-by-step guide with your own customizable spreadsheets on our Roadmap. Your mentor is ready to work through it with you 1:1.

The Data Behind the Digits

Before I give you the numbers in the next post in this series, I’ll tell you where they came from and why I’m so confident in the model.

First and foremost, we have data. It’s taken years, but we’ve built the most comprehensive data set in the fitness industry so we can help gym owners. You can get our first report, and see our methods, here (it’s free).

Second, we have experience. I’ve worked with hundreds of gym owners 1:1; and my team has worked with thousands worldwide. We collect data from every one of these gyms every single month. The data is used to create leaderboards in a host of categories (number of clients, owner pay, staff pay, etc.). Like this:

We interview the top performers every month to find out what they’re doing. Then we put those lessons into our courses, and we mentor gym owners to make changes based on those lessons.

Third, we have context. Our partners (from gym management software providers to insurers and accountants) share their data with us. We can see industry trends and compare them against the best gyms.

This is some of the most valuable intellectual property in the fitness business. And we give it away for free every single day. But there’s a lot of it. What does it all boil down to? Clear targets and goals. I’ll share them in the next post.

And in the April 13 webinar, I’ll share the strategies you need to reach those targets.

Click to register for the free webinar.

The post The Microgym Model: How to Make $100,000 (Or More) appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Why You Feel Like an Impostor—and What You Can Do About It

Mike (00:02):

I’m freaking out. Full disclosure. I am having an off day and I’m feeling panicked because I don’t want you to think that I’m a total fraud who doesn’t know what he’s doing in front of the microphone. This feeling is all too common and you might know it too. Luckily today’s guest is going to help us deal with imposter syndrome.

Chris (00:20):

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

Mike (01:28):

Oh, OK. Our producer fixed almost all the mistakes in the intro and I’m feeling a little calmer. I sound like a true pro who has everything—(sneezes)—almost everything together. That’s a perfect time to welcome Bonnie Skinner to the show. She runs B Skinner Coaching and Psychotherapy in Sioux St. Marie, Ontario. She’s a registered psychotherapist and certified Canadian counselor who will be a featured speaker at the Two-Brain Summit on June 19th and 20th. This’ll be an online event with regional in-person options at locations to be announced. Bonnie, thank you so much for joining us today. I feel like I’m going to take a therapy session on behalf of the gym community. Welcome to Two-Brain Radio.

Bonnie (02:06):

No problem. Thanks so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Mike (02:09):

I’m so excited about this. I know at the Two-Brain summit, you’re going to be speaking on the enemy within and how the subconscious mind can derail us. Today, we’re going to talk about imposter syndrome, which is incredibly common in the gym business. So why does so many of us, even the most competent among us, why do we feel like we’re fooling everyone all the time?

Bonnie (02:26):

That’s a good question. You know what, I think when we look at the imposter syndrome, the struggle that we have is we automatically assume it shouldn’t be. And I think what you have to understand is that typically when we are doing something new or we’re outside of our comfort zone, or we’re in that growth zone that, you know, as entrepreneurs, we love to be in, there is a very natural part of us that says, Hey, this feels super uncomfortable. I don’t know if I’m going to be OK. And that little voice, that tiny little voice inside that can sometimes feel like a massive voice, that’s really what we refer to as the imposter. Right? And so in the beginning it doesn’t sound like, Oh my God, I don’t belong here. In the beginning, it sounds like, Oh, what if this? What if that? And then as we keep moving forward and we get further and further outside of our comfort zone, it kind of ramps things up for us because we’re not necessarily paying attention. And so it goes, you know what? I don’t know if I belong here, maybe I should go. And it starts dealing excuses as to why we need to leave. But in reality, it’s just a self-protection mechanism. It’s part of our subconscious programming.

Mike (03:30):

Tell me more about what is it protecting us from?

Bonnie (03:34):

So our brain really kind of has like one goal. OK. And its goal is survival. And so we have the same threat detection systems that we had, you know, eons ago when we were hunting and gathering. And so when that system gets activated, the biggest concern is that we’re not going to be OK, which to our brain means, you know, maybe we’ll die. Now, you know, starting a business is not the equivalent of walking off a plank somewhere. But when that system is activated, the concern, the threat level becomes the same. So a remnant of that is a lesser version of, Hey, maybe we should pay attention. Right. So if you think of, for example, anxiety as being like the threat detection system, right? Or it’s the alarm system essentially that says, I don’t know about this, this is pretty new.

Bonnie (04:22):

It’s very normal to have a sense of heightened awareness. But over time, as we keep, like I mentioned, as we keep staying outside of our comfort zone, it takes more and more for that alarm to really get our attention. And that’s when you start to see that ramping up going from, Hey, this is uncomfortable to no, you don’t belong here. You need to go back. You need to stop this. You need to go get a real job. All that kind of inner dialogue. The dialogue is really paired with the increasing alarm inside.

Mike (04:54):

And so I want to ask you, what is the threat? And I’m going to give you a quick story that relates to our mutual friend, Chris Cooper. But I want to know what threat the voice in our heads is trying to protect us from when there’s no saber tooth tiger hunting us or anything like that. And then my story is this very quickly. We, Chris and I were in, Santa Cruz, California, and a mutual friend of ours taught us how to ride a motorcycle. And Chris went first and Chris is kind of fearless about this stuff where he just tried some stuff, made a few mistakes, got the hang of it. It was fine. As I was watching, I was scared because I didn’t want to make a mistake. I didn’t want to, like, I almost didn’t want to try because I didn’t want to be perceived as not being able to do it. Chris took the exact opposite approach and just was not afraid to make any mistakes, made a few mistakes, got corrections, figured it out immediately. So what is our anxiety in situations like that? What is it protecting us from? Or what is it trying to protect us from?

Bonnie (05:48):

That’s a fantastic question. So think about how heavily wired are a species to stay connected to one another. One of the things that you mentioned was, you know, I was afraid like, you know, what if I don’t get it right? And so if you were on my couch in my therapy practice, I would ask you, what does it mean to not get it right? And when you start to dig at that question, typically what you find is that there’s a fear. One of the fears can be for example, of separation, right? It’s funny. Cause I was just having this conversation with Chris yesterday. And you know, when we talk about separation from the group or from the tribe, things like, the feeling of rejection or the feeling of embarrassment, right? The reason that those emotions can be so intense is because we have a very natural inclination to want to remain connected with our social group.

Mike (06:41):

And that’s, you know, that’s fascinating from a gym perspective because, you know, we’re talking more to gym owners here, but the idea of clients want to feel connected to a group. And so when you bring a new client into a tribe or a group or anything like that, wow, can they ever experienced imposter syndrome. Like I’m not supposed to be here. I’m five pounds overweight. And that guy just did 30 pull-ups like, how am I supposed to fit in?

Bonnie (07:02):

Absolutely a hundred percent. I remember having that very same feeling walking into Catalyst here. Right. It’s like, wow, I am clearly out of my league.

Mike (07:10):

That’s despite the fact that catalyst is probably one of the most welcoming places on earth, you know, just like many of the gyms that we work with, we go out of our way to make it welcoming. But it doesn’t feel welcoming to a quote unquote outsider.

Bonnie (07:21):

Yeah. Yeah. Because typically—the struggle with imposter syndrome is that we don’t see it as a projection. OK. And by projection, I mean, if we have a fear or if we have assumptions or biases, what we tend to do is we look at the world and assume that the same things we see would be the same thing that the world sees. So when I walk into, you know, Catalyst for the first time, I was like, Oh my God, I don’t know what those letters on the board mean. I don’t know if I could do that. I don’t know if I can lift that. And I’m automatically assuming that everybody that’s looking at me, standing in the doorway, is thinking what I’m thinking. And that becomes the fear. The fear is, Oh my God, they’re going to reject me because I don’t fit because I’ve told myself I don’t fit.

Mike (08:07):

That’s that enemy within. That’s that voice.

Bonnie (08:10):

That’s exactly what it is. Right. And so what we do is is the projection is everybody must be thinking this way. And so then what we do is sometimes because when we have a belief that has a lot of emotion around it, we tend to hold it as true. We don’t even question it. And so that’s why so many people are more likely to just say, OK, well, I’m just not going to, I’ll leave or I’ll find another gym or, Oh, I’ll come back at another time. But what you actually have to do is stay. And if you think about, you know, I know one of the reasons why they called Catalyst the happy gym is because people are so fantastic there. So the first thing is to not listen to that voice. It’s to understand that that voice has a very natural place, right? It’s also the same one that keeps you from playing in traffic. OK. It says, Hey, don’t do things that are uncomfortable. So it has a place, but it doesn’t mean that it always needs to be listened to. And then once you stay, you recognize, OK, well there is no fear of being rejected because people come over and they’re like, Hey, how are you, great that you’re here. Just keep coming. You’ll grow. You know? And those are the kinds of things that keep members.

Mike (09:11):

And that voice, like you said, it definitely helps you stay out of trouble in certain important cases. But in other cases, that voice really speaks with distortions. And I know in psychotherapy, there’s all sorts of thought patterns that you can identify, you know, black and white thinking, something like that, or, you know, misperceptions where your voice in your head says, everyone knows this except for you when in actuality, many people don’t. So there’s all these different, you know, thought patterns that are in place that in some cases protect you from say falling through the ice, but in other cases really don’t do you a service because they’re not correct.

Bonnie (09:45):

That’s right. Absolutely. And it’s funny, you know, because when our inner voice, our subconscious is kind of giving us good information or information that we feel OK about, we call it intuition. We don’t call it an imposter. Right. But it is essentially the same voice, it’s that guiding bit of us that says, Hey, let’s just pay attention to our surroundings and make sure that we kind of have what we need or can access it in case we get into trouble.

Mike (10:08):

So Chris talked about imposter syndrome and one of his cures for it was asking other peers if they’ve suffered from it. And he says he guaranteed 80% of them would admit that they had, and others would probably not admit it, but probably had anyways. So how common is imposter syndrome in the world in general? Is it worse for entrepreneurs specifically, maybe even gym owners?

Bonnie (10:29):

I would be shocked that it wasn’t more around a hundred percent to be honest. Now, if the question is how disruptive is imposter syndrome? That’s a different story, but we all have an inner voice that says, Hey, I don’t think this is a good idea. And if you don’t, there’s, you know, there’s lots of psychological labels that can take care of that because it’s, you know, it’s never to say that, you know, everybody’s going to be stopped by imposter syndrome. Right. I have imposter syndrome all the time. And then it’s just like, OK, yeah, I know what that is. And you move on with your day. But the prevalence of it, I would say is a hundred percent. How disruptive it is, is where you actually get the variation. And it’s a skill to be developed over time, right? Managing that voice, managing the emotions that go with that is the skill that gets developed over time.

Mike (11:17):

So I read a blog on your site, we’re going to link to it in the show notes, and it’s called crushing imposter syndrome: How to sit with giants. And you just alluded to one of the strategies that can help people. And I’m going to ask you to talk a bit more about it. Now, you said you just admit that it’s there and move on. Talk to me about that strategy and how that helps people cope.

Bonnie (11:35):

Absolutely. One of the things that generates anxiety that we don’t realize is that anxiety is really the acknowledgement of a discrepancy. OK. There’s a difference between what I’m doing or what I have outside and what I need inside. OK. So when we have an internal voice that says something, the first thing we want to typically do is argue, right? Oh yeah, no, I belong here. If you ask other people, they’ll say, no, no, you’re great. You’re wonderful. You’re fantastic. But this voice is kind of, it’s got good reasoning. OK. Its job is to protect you. So if you can just understand and say, OK, yes, I see it. Yes. I know the risks. Then you accept that that voice is there and you go, OK. I understand what the worry is, but I’m going to move forward anyways. And it’s in making that decision that you acknowledge the voice to say, yeah, you’re right. I might not belong here, but I’m here anyways. So it’s always an acknowledgement and then a decision, and then you move forward and that frees you from having to avoid the imposter or shut down the imposter or worry that the imposter is going to show up. Right. Because, you know it’s a very natural part of your growth.

Mike (12:42):

That’s a really interesting distinction because there are ways when I’ve talked to some psychotherapists before you can definitely, you know, identify the distortions in your thought patterns, right? So I’ve seen exercises where you write something down and then you identify the five different ways that, you know, it’s incorrect, whether it’s black or white thinking or all or nothing, or any of those things or fortune telling. But then on the other side of it, there’s sort of that mindfulness approach to saying, OK, I don’t necessarily need to fight this thing and counteract it. I just need to acknowledge that it’s there, but not let it limit my actions. Is that kind of what you’re getting at with that strategy?

Bonnie (13:13):

That’s exactly it.

Mike (13:15):

And that’s very different because sometimes it’s so hard to fight that demon. Instead of having to fight it, you just wave to it. Maybe keep going about your business.

Bonnie (13:23):

Exactly. Right. And we don’t want you to do that. Like there will be times remember, there will be times when that questioning voice will have a point, right? Like one of the activities, you know, that we’re going to look at it during the summit is really walking you through what your biggest fears are. And the voice of the imposter is coming from is rooted in the biggest fears that you have. Right. What if I don’t belong? What if this, what if that, and if you take those a level down, it might sound like, what if I fail? What if everybody rejects me? What if I end up broken and destitute or whatever the case may be, but there’s always a level of fear under the fears.

Mike (14:01):

And I think that some of the stuff you just said gets to kind of the heart of it, what it is for gym owners and entrepreneurs, where first of all, you’re dealing with health and fitness. These are hugely important goals for people. And they’re related all kinds of psychological issues. Like it could be, I just want to be stronger, but it also could be something very deep seated. Like I want to have greater self esteem by being able to lift that weight and is rooted to childhood problems and so forth. Like these huge, huge issues. So gym owners are connected, you know, in positions of expertise, in health and fitness nutrition, that whole thing. But then they’ve also got the stress of business and you identified some of the rabbit hole things or daisy chain things. What if I fail? What if I don’t have clients? What if my clients think I’m a fraud? What if my clients won’t come back? Can I pay my lease in? And it becomes this whole just string of terror. So, Chris wrote about a strategy, you know, fake it till you make it is that common one. It’s great advice. But how do you deal with the fear and negative self-talk that appear as you’re quote unquote faking it? Because a lot of people it’s so tough to step up and just go forth with that confidence. Like, how do you address that dialogue?

Bonnie (15:06):

Yeah. If you’re looking at, and this is a very, very common response to the imposter syndrome is fake it till you make it. Here’s the struggle with that. When remember earlier I talked about anxiety being the response to that dissonance or that disharmony inside. Right? So now what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to intentionally pretend something, and that doesn’t fit you. It doesn’t—your own psyche has said like, Hey, I don’t know about this persona. It’s not a good fit for me. So essentially what you do when you try to fake it till you make it is you add another layer of an angst on, because while you’re out there trying to, you know, show the world that you’re this confident, wonderful, awesome human being, you’re trying to have that very same conversation with yourself, but it’s not landing well, right.

Bonnie (15:52):

There is an argument. As long as you ignore the argument, the anxiety will stay there. That’s why I say it’s much better to stand back and just go, you know what? Yeah. Maybe I’m not a million dollar earner, right. Or I’m not 10 years in with, you know, 600,000 in revenue per year, whatever, but I’m here. And I think when we allow ourselves to not need to be somewhere down the road where somebody else is or somewhere where we could be in 10 years, if we just say like, I’m here and I’m going to do the best with wherever I am in the moment, then that is something that our psyche can grab onto because it’s true.

Mike (16:31):

Yeah. And that, it makes so much sense when you lay it out like that, and the fake it till you make it advice that Chris gave really makes sense where you have to, at some point, like, you can’t let these things hold you back, you have to go forward. So you have to tell yourself, like, you know, use all the things that you talked about there and go forward and do some stuff. But I do like what you said there, where if you’re totally trying to trick yourself, like, that’s not what Chris was advising, of course. But if you’re trying to sort of trick yourself, you create this sort of almost web of lies and the example that I’ll give you is, in the past, I’ve been in situations where, you know, you’re in a group or something and someone turns to you and someone’s important.

Mike (17:06):

And they say, Oh, have you read this book by so-and-so and you haven’t and you say, Oh yes, I have. And then you automatically, your anxiety ramps up because then, you know, the next question would be, what did you think of, you know, chapter three or whatever it was. And you’re like, I’m screwed. You know, I quote unquote, tried to fake it in that sense. Now I’ve created this web of lies and I’m kind of screwed. Right? And it would’ve been better just to say exactly what you said and you know, what it would be in this sense that you’re faking it by just being who you are and saying, no, I haven’t read that. Tell me about it. And that’s such a better response to that. It gives you an opportunity to learn as opposed to sit there in terror, waiting to be found out

Bonnie (17:42):

So much better. And I think the thing is too, you know, like it’s a lot of work. In entrepreneurship and owning your own business, I don’t know how people made their decision on their own business, but really there’s, it’s only ever kind of glamorized, right? It’s the glamour of the hustle and grind and this kind of thing. And they don’t talk about the psychological aspects and they don’t talk about the late nights, the lack sleep, the stress, the overwhelm, the wondering whether or not it’s a good idea, the having to come up against your own internal stuff and your own subconscious cause that’s really what the fear and stress is about. Right? And so without that, business owners start to think there’s something wrong with me, right? This isn’t normal. Why do I feel this way? Others don’t feel this way.

Bonnie (18:24):

Cause nobody talks about it, right? Because it’s not the thing. Everybody’s talking about oh, where are you going to get to or what you’re going to buy? But this is a very natural path to growth. There has to be some distance. There has to be some push. And I think that is really what the impostor lets us know is happening. Right. For, I mean, for mine, one of the things we talk about and we’ll talk within the summit is alignment, right? You become super powerful when you align yourself in multiple different ways so that you are able to recognize when you’re having different responses and what each of those different responses is about. So I know that when I, you know, the imposter comes up, says, Hey, Bonnie, I don’t know about sitting at this table. Like these are some pretty heavy hitters.

Bonnie (19:08):

I just go. Yeah, I know. And I know that there’s a fear and I know there’s a fear I’m going to say something that’s stupid, but I’m not qualified right now to tell myself what other people think. And so I go, I’m going to go in anyway. And it sounds super silly, but I have that conversation sometimes where it’s like, yeah, I get it. I see you. I know it’s scary, but I’m going to do it anyways. So when you make that choice and you have that alignment, then there’s not a continuous discussion. Think if you had your best friend with you at all times, right? And most of us tell our best friends every day, Hey, I want to do this today. I’m going to do that day. Well, what if that best friend was a scaredy-cat right? They loved you. They thought you were fantastic, but they are scared of everything.

Bonnie (19:47):

And so every time we try to do something, they’re like, Hey, listen, I don’t know about that. And so if you can think about it that way, then it’s not something that needs to be fought against. It’s not something that needs to be, you know, ignored. It’s just something that says, Hey, I see you. You want me to do well, but this is a different path for me to do well. So I’m OK with making this discussion and it doesn’t always need to be that drawn out a conversation, but it does need to be that intentional.

Chris (20:10):

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

Mike (20:54):

And that’s so interesting. The thing you mentioned a little bit earlier on kind of connecting with other people in the pure idea of things and somewhat like back say 10 years ago, when I was a beginning gym owner, we would go to a regional events or competitions and things like that. And you’d sit in the crowd and inevitably talk to some of the other gym owners at the time and you would say, Oh man, I’m having this problem. And they’d say I did too. And then we’d solve it. Or we talk about, Oh man, I’m so scared about this or that or my lease. And they would have the exact same issues. All of a sudden, you start to find this community and you would realize that some of the people that you really looked up to had the same issues and same problems fast forward, 10 years later Two-Brain has got this incredible mentorship group that now takes the place of all these, you know, happenstance conversations in the stands. Now you’ve got this group of entrepreneurs who can get together in private Facebook groups and working with their mentors who have been in the same roles to talk about this stuff, get their fears out there, understand that they’re not alone, they’re not on an island and then work their way through stuff. Have you seen in say other disciplines outside of entrepreneurship in gyms, have you seen support groups like that just do wonders for people who suffer from like anxiety related to imposter syndrome?

Bonnie (22:03):

Absolutely. I see them everywhere. I’m a part of multiple different business groups and even groups that just have therapists where the imposter syndrome is everywhere, right? Like it is not a business condition. It’s not a response to being an entrepreneur. It is a human condition. And so you have these mastermind groups or whatever you want to call them. These, you know, common interest groups where people can actually share what their experiences are. And that’s the benefit of our ability to connect socially, right? As we go, Oh, wait a second. You’re experiencing that too. And all of a sudden, now a layer of shame comes off. A layer of fear comes off because when I know it’s a common thing that it’s something everybody is going to experience as long as you’re trying to push your limits, now I could ask, well, what did you do, right?

Bonnie (22:49):

Well, were you scared here too? And all of a sudden it becomes easier. And that’s the power of being able to connect with others. But it’s when, whether it’s because of COVID-19, we’re all working from home or whether we’re just in a, you know, for example, a lot of private practitioners, they’ll start and their work will be on their own. I know as gym owners, when you start a business, you’re on your own, it’s just you. So if you don’t have that network, one of the first things you’ve got to do is find one, right? And that’s the wonderful thing that Two-Brain’s done so very well is they’ve created this place where you don’t have to build alone. Right. And that’s the important part, when I’m working with somebody individually, you know, I’m talking about, OK, well, who’s your network. Who do you have around you? And if the answer is nobody, that’s one of the first things that we start working on.

Mike (23:33):

Yeah. And that makes so much sense because I really struggled when I was a beginning gym owner, because we invested, my wife and I so heavily of our time in the gym, all our friends were at the gym. Our staff members were our best friends, our clients were our friends and you don’t really have anyone to talk to because you can’t, you know, you can’t really open up to your clients about your financial problems or a problem client or all the other stuff. So we were very locked up. We had no outlet for this stuff. And so we didn’t know what to do, and then of course the fears start to overwhelm you because you’re locked in your own little room with your demons, right. So it gets very challenging. But then once we got involved with Two-Brain, obviously we had a talented mentor, a string of mentors actually, cause we worked with worked with a number of them, but they all had the experience and were able to give us perspective.

Mike (24:14):

But even more than that was this incredible network of hundreds of gym owners. So in the private growth Facebook group that we’re apart of now that we’ve been through the ramp up stage, we see people talk about this stuff all the time. And the really cool part is we work with our mentor obviously, but then we step back sometimes just have these back channel Facebook communications with other gym owners, where we have these little, almost private support groups where someone will say, Oh, I read your blog. And I’m dealing with the same thing. How can we talk? And we do. And that’s just such a magnificent way to do that. And that happens at the tinker level with Two-Brain clients at an upper level as well. They have even greater problems than I have, but they can sit around. I believe you’re in that group, are you not?

Bonnie (24:51):

I am, I am. Yeah. And it’s fantastic.

Mike (24:53):

So tinker level problems, which are greater than the problems I have, where you guys can all sit together and then share some stuff. And here’s a question for you, in the tinker group, these are the best gym owners in the world and the best entrepreneurs that are out there, there still is an imposter syndrome. Is that still around?

Bonnie (25:08):

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, the wonderful thing is, you know, we’ve got some incredible, incredible personalities in that group that are open to sharing their experiences and opening to letting other people know what they struggled with. And so there’s this openness where you can ask a question, get a question answered or share a worry, or even even say something just to kind of have somebody who cares about your growth support you and keep you accountable. Right? And it’s that openness, it’s that sharing that allows us to look at our fear differently.

Mike (25:40):

I’m going to ask you as we leave and finish this off, I want to ask you for some strategies on dealing with imposter syndrome. But before we do talk to me just a bit about the Two-Brain summit and how is this going to be an interactive thing that you’re going to present and what can people expect and what can they take away from your speech at that summit?

Bonnie (25:57):

Absolutely going to be interactive. I am so excited about this. This is something I kind of crafted specifically for this group. We’re going to talk about a little bit of a shift away from mental health, more into mental fitness. We’re going to talk about the impact of your subconscious mind. So imagine that you have a competitor who knows everything there is to know about you. They know every move you’ve made. They know every move you want to make. They know everything that scares you. They know every button that shuts you down. Imagine a competitor who has that much power.

Mike (26:28):

You’re making me sweat already.

Bonnie (26:29):

Absolutely. Right. And we’re going to talk about the fact that you had that competitor already and they are incredibly resourced and they have the ability to hijack you. And we’re going to talk about, you know, the impact of your subconscious and how you actually take control of that. Not only to build your sense of self, but to also do what you need to do for your business and your family. And we’re going to talk about the imposter syndrome. We’re going to talk about what it is to face your fears and build confidence. So I’m actually going to take you through an activity where you’re going to face the biggest fears you have and it’s going to be pretty awesome.

Mike (27:03):

That sounds sounds intense, but therapeutic, if I dare say. So guys, if you’re listening and you want to learn more about this, we have a link to get tickets for the Two-Brain summit coming up in June in the show notes. That is going to be online. If you so choose, there will also be regional locations where you can go live if you want to, again, COVID restrictions are up in the air at times, but you can watch this thing online and there will be some in-person options if you can make it to those. Check that link. And you’ll see more of Bonnie. Plus we’ve also got some amazing speakers. Jocko Willink is going to be here, a retired Navy SEAL, and Lisa Nichols among others. And these are great speakers. Bonnie, on the way out here, someone right now out there, I guarantee it is sitting here thinking about imposter syndrome. And probably has something to do later today that is going to be quite stressful and trigger some anxiety. How does this person going forward, take a small step forward right now to start addressing this and succeeding more?

Bonnie (27:59):

First step, take five deep breaths, right? So you’re just going to stop. You’re going to start over. You’re going to ground yourself. And then the second thing, I really want you, this is going to sound counter-intuitive, stop reaching for magnificent, right? The first thing you’re going to allow yourself to do for the next little while is just be average. When we allow ourselves to be average, we stop arguing with the imposter. We open ourselves up to learning whatever we can. And we just go, you know what, today I’m just going to do the best I can in this state. I don’t need to be anything else. Right. And the second piece that, or the third piece that you can look at doing that we’ll also do together in the summit is asking, have a conversation with the imposter. What are you scared of? Right?

Bonnie (28:40):

Like if it ends with, you know, OK, well, what if I fail then? OK. The next question is, what if you fail? What does that look like? What do you do? So you take every single one of those questions out to the end, and then you ask yourself, and what will I do about that? Because the ultimate fear is that you won’t be able to respond. That’s the thing the imposter is trying to keep you away from. So you walk that conversation out to the end and you say, well, if that happens, maybe I’ll go bankrupt and have to work at McDonald’s. But whatever it is, I will be able to do it and it’ll be fine. So I can take this risk. I’m choosing to move forward. And that helps you start to build alignment with the imposter.

Mike (29:17):

I love it. You know, you hit on something that I think might actually give you some insight into, I think maybe why gym owners struggle with this so much. And part of it, I think is because many gym owners are often very fit and very strong and very powerful. And they’ve obviously invested in fitness and so forth. So they’re often type A, driven, competent people. And it’s often in their eyes not OK to be average because they link in terms of the fitness realm. Maybe they probably never have been. And I can’t use myself as an example because I’m not the fittest person in my gym by any means, but I know there are people out there who have, they’re just incredibly fit and strong and powerful, and yet they have to then go to the world of business and maybe say, I don’t have a clue. And it’s really interesting for you to tell someone who is one of these, like, very, like I’m thinking about, say like a former Navy SEAL gym owner who’s just been this hyper competent person for their entire life has to say, it’s OK for me to be average today, to get further ahead in the long term, like, that’s an amazing mind trip. How do you, how does someone get past that?

Bonnie (30:19):

You know what it’s, I think it can be difficult, but what makes it difficult is we choose to hold onto that belief, right? That we’re supposed to be. I mean, in fairness, we get this from like grade school, right? Gotta be the best. You don’t get 97, get a hundred. Like there’s so much pressure that comes from our, you know, our families, our society, the way that we live, that we don’t even sometimes consider the possibility that we can just be average. And that can be magnificent. That can do everything that we want to do for our families. It doesn’t mean that, you know, you stay average, but you know, for your whole life, but it’s like, OK, well, if I just allow myself to be where I am and then identify what is the next place I want to get to? And not over-glorify as this, you know, this quest for, to be in the number one spot. Yes. Number one is important. But if you can’t be where you are right now, how can you be somewhere else later? So it’s really about getting good at learning how to ground yourself, wherever you are, let that be OK. And then decide where you want to go next and do that instead of, Oh, well, I need to catch up with so-and-so or I need to do this. There’s always going to be somebody ahead of you.

Mike (31:30):

What do you think of this as a a tagline for this show. Be average today so you can be magnificent tomorrow.

Bonnie (31:36):

Love it, love it, love it. I think it’s really important, right? Because so many are holding onto the, you know, the fake it till you make it, which listen, like if you’re sitting at a table, board room table about to make a deal like you did, that is not the time for you to be like, Oh wow. Like, I really don’t feel like I belong here. So yeah, that is the place to fake it till you make it, right. But otherwise you just turn around and you make friends with that part of yourself that is afraid, acknowledge that it’s OK. It’s normal to be afraid. That is what the entrepreneurship journey looks like. It looks like afraid. So share your fears, talk about your fears. Stop beating yourself up because you’re afraid, right?

Mike (32:15):

That’s where mentorship comes in, whether it’s in any field, whether it’s in gym business or not, finding a mentor can be a life-changing experience because you realize that you’re not alone and you can actually have someone to talk to, you know, I’ll take it one step further. That’s even where a therapist like you comes in because there’s a lot of people out there that could really use that insight that someone like you has, because, you know, I’ve learned this, a therapist, point out the distortions in your thoughts so quickly, whereas you might struggle with them for five years. So like a mentor and a therapist can be a huge shortcut to be average for a little bit and then be great.

Bonnie (32:49):

Absolutely. It’s such an important thing. And I think, you know, in my work with business owners, I’ve actually just developed a coaching product around this, but it’s really to understand that as much as you have to create processes and be aware of some of the risks and the struggles that you’re going to have in business, you have to do the same thing for your mind, right? Like there are going to be things, the reason we can point out, different distortions or whatever the case may be in your thinking is because we’re not in your brain. And just by the nature of being in our own heads, there are things that we can’t see because our subconscious is always working to protect us from stuff that makes us feel yucky. And so that’s why it might be hard to turn inward sometimes.

Bonnie (33:29):

And so there’s always, you know, yes, have your group, but find an individual, whether it’s an individual coach like myself or therapist so that you can actually get to learn how you think, right? How, what gets in your way, what are your very natural obstacles? These are all important things. And there’s, you know, there’s not the, I can’t say there’s not the support, but there’s not the curriculum out there for business owners. And so that’s why, you know, I’ve added it to my business because I think it’s so very important.

Mike (33:56):

Where can people find this product?

Bonnie (33:58):

They can go to my website at B Skinner coaching and psychotherapy, or they can flip me an email directly. I’m always, always happy to respond to folks. And that’s at bonnie@skinnerpsychotherapy.com.

Mike (34:12):

Thank you so much for walking us through this. I can’t wait to hear you talk about this at the Two-Brain summit. Thank you so much for sharing your time and insight with us.

Bonnie (34:20):

My pleasure, Mike, any time.

Mike (34:22):

That was Bonnie Skinner on Two-Brain Radio, and I feel a whole lot better about myself. I hope you do as well. If you have not done so and if you want some community and some perspective, you need to join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Facebook. Chris regularly post articles, instructional videos, and advice in there. It’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today. I’ll see you next time on Two-Brain Radio.

 

The post Why You Feel Like an Impostor—and What You Can Do About It appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Close Rate

Remember when you opened your gym and every person who came through the door was already sold on your service?

In fact, if those early adopters didn’t sign up, it was because you basically turned them away, right?

Yeah, those days are gone.

When you run ads on any platform, you attract strangers to your gym. That’s great—you wouldn’t have met these people without your ads. On the other hand, they don’t know much about you yet. So many won’t sign up—unless you’re good at selling them on your coaching.

Your close rate is the percentage of prospects who sign up for your service when they show up to appointments.

Below, you’ll see the numbers for the top gyms in the world. These are impressive stats: five gyms batted a thousand. Here’s another great piece of data: The No. 6 gym closed sales in 22 of 23 free consultations!

Top Lessons From the Leaders

Here’s how these gym owners do it:

“I’m in a foreign country. We have true beginners and we have language barriers. I don’t show them a sales binder. I just make the decision for them and tell them the price.”

“We had a 100 percent close rate in February because we ran a ‘bring a friend week’ with easy workouts. No discounts, just a high-affinity audience.”

“We just do the NSI (No Sweat Intro) exactly as (Two-Brain Business) teaches it. Some clients have told me they were shopping around and this was way different than the other places. … They were overwhelmed at the other places and say that I care and give thought to their path. I try to empathize with where they’re at in their journey, then follow through with a prescription.”

“I spent time teaching my staff to sell NSIs.”

“Our close rate has been getting better as we got more quality leads. I keep a spreadsheet of where the leads are coming from—mostly (from) affinity, and (they) come in pre-qualified by the members.”

“We do a deep dive into motivation. Clients who have done intros or trials at other gyms sign up right away. They all say, ‘None of the others asked me these questions.'”

“We are way more expensive than the other gyms five mins. away. Our fundamentals program sets (us) apart.”

“We hand over the clipboard for them to write down their own goals during (the) NSI. Then I take a photo of the goals and they keep the sheet to put it up on their fridge.”

Closing Secrets

The keys to getting people to sign up? Care and clarity.

Care enough to go deep: Ask what they really want and ask why.

Be clear: Tell them exactly what they need to achieve their specific goals. Remove complexity. You don’t have to explain CrossFit to them or show them your equipment. You don’t have to worry about their reaction to your pricing. Just tell them the solution and what it will cost.

It will take courage at first. But you’ll build confidence. And when you do—well, we’ll see you on the leaderboard!

The post By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Close Rate appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Show Rate

If you want to get people into your program, you need to get them through the door first.

Especially with cold traffic from advertising, up to 50 percent of the people who book free intro consultations at your gym might not show up. Though it’s hard to believe, more and more people book appointments they don’t keep. That’s aggravating, but you can improve your numbers.

Below, I’m going to tell you how the top gyms in the world get people to show up for their appointments. Your “show rate” is the percentage of people who book and keep their appointments. Top gyms this month scored above 90 percent!

Below are the 10 gyms that had the most clients show up for appointments in February. The No. 1 gym had a show rate of 92 percent—34 of 37 people with appointments showed up.

Top Lessons From the Leaders

“Our show rate has improved with less dependency on automations. In the past quarter, I’ve been sending video messages personally, and these have gotten a higher response and show rate than automated emails did. I held back on personally reaching out and used the automations for fear of being rejected—but I’m over that now. I know and believe in what I’m offering to them.”

“We have a front desk person who doesn’t sit idle; they own the sales process, calling leads, following up.”

“Texts get read more than email. We Increased the use of appt. reminders through text.”

“We ask them a lot of questions to keep the conversation going between when they set their appointment and when they actually show up.”

“We really hold their hand through every step of the process—from booking an appointment to showing up until their first training session.”

“When a client books an appointment with you, it’s not an automatic sale. They’re really just raising their hand and saying, ‘I want help.’ Consider them a warm lead. Take them by the hand, guide them step by step through your door, and then begin the process that will change their life.”

Podcast: “Why Everyone Shows up for Free Intros With Pep Leppers.”

The post By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Show Rate appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Gym Owner: “I’m Bad at Sales. Change My Mind!”

Mike (00:02):

I’ve got an objection to confronting objections and I’d struggled to sell water in a desert, but Jeff Burlingame thinks he can help me. I’m skeptical. So he’ll confront my objections after a word from Chris Cooper.

Chris (00:14):

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Mike (00:38):

I’m Mike Warkentin. This is Two-Brain Radio. I got into the fitness business because I liked coaching. But five years in, I realized I was really in sales, and I hated that part of the job. On April 24th, sales experts Jeff Burlingame and Joe Marcoux are going to help people like me improve their sales skills. The all-day seminar costs $999, and Jeff says participants can recoup the value seven days after leaving the seminar. Jeff, I am terrible at sales and I think spending 999 on a sales seminar is like burning money. Change my mind. How could someone like me recoup that investment, and in a week no less.

Jeff (01:13):

I love it. I love the challenge of it, actually. It’s fantastic. So yeah, the way that we see you recouping those funds within the first seven days is that you’re going into the seminar looking to improve your own confidence and skills like you’re coming out of this seminar though with hopefully some sort of a mind explosion of things where you’re really fighting to figure out what one thing you’re going to take action on. But what we can guarantee is that you do feel more confident about what you are doing when you’re actually selling which the reality of sales is that it’s actually problem-solving. And a lot of the time, once I see a salesperson or I work with them long enough, and that one thing clicks where now they realize, Oh, my main purpose in life is just to discover this person sitting across from me, discover what their problem is, and then show them how we can help them solve that.

Jeff (02:08):

And just by connecting those dots, it makes sales easy because sales is really a relationships thing. It’s about developing a relationship with somebody and then showing them through that relationship that you can actually help them solve these dire problems that they actually have. And you can also help them understand that the problems that they have, they’re not taking seriously enough, for example, your health. So how valuable is your health, one’s personal health and well-being versus a new HDTV or, you know, these added accessories to your car that you don’t need, or those five things you’ve had in your wishlist on Amazon for the past one year, right? And yet we see people spending more money than ever on things right now, even amidst a pandemic, which is insane. But you think about how much they actually spend on their own personal well-being, because you know, we’re building this seminar mostly for gym owners for the fitness industry, and we’re not seeing them invest in themselves.

Jeff (03:07):

Like this is probably the most unhealthy year that most people have had. So I have no doubt in my mind that you can walk away from the seminar with that added confidence, with a better understanding of what selling actually is, and then turn around and sell probably the most expensive packages you’ve ever sold in your life that you never thought anybody would ever even consider. And the funny thing is we already see people doing this successfully. I’m already working with gym owners and other mentors on our team Two-Brain Business are already working with gym owners who are doing this. And they’re surprising themselves every single day. When, out of nowhere, they sell a $1,200, a $2,000 package. And before going into a call with me or a call with another mentor, or in this example, this seminar, with myself and Joe Marcoux, they never would have thought that that was possible.

Mike (03:59):

Were any of them like me, admittedly bad at sales and hated it?

Jeff (04:04):

Absolutely. You know, oftentimes what we see is we’ll see gym owners who are under-valuing their own services because they feel like they have to. They’re charging $80 a month for their membership because the other gyms down the street are doing that. They’re not selling personal training because they don’t feel that anybody would really want to spend that kind of money on their own health or well-being, their fitness. But after considering the fact that that might actually be the better way to solve this person’s problem and that they value the solution of this problem more than the amount of money that you’re charging them for it, it’s easy to sell. When you just talk about solving that problem for them, all of a sudden things start to click. You’re not selling in the way that we think with the used-car salesman analogy. For example, it’s not persuasion, it’s not trickery.

Jeff (04:53):

We’re not going to give you 26 one-liners that are going to land you the sale guaranteed every single time, because that’s just not true. And that’s not the way that people should be selling any more. It is a way that worked maybe in the past, but we have educated consumers now. You cannot sell high-value products or services without being able to strategically develop a relationship and structure the sales process in a way that is obviously problem-solving to the consumer. They know what you’re doing, so we’re not trying to trick them. And we’re not going to tell you that spending 999 on this seminar is going to lead to you having the most killer one-liner for a close that has ever existed, because that’s just not true and it doesn’t exist. And it does not work in the year 2021. I promise you that.

Mike (05:40):

See, that was my real problem. Like my greatest problem in sales is that I was kind of raised to not ask people for stuff. Right. I was raised that, you know, you carry your own water, you do your own thing. So if I’ve got this 43-year-old objection to asking people for something and in a sales meeting, I feel like I’m asking someone for something. I feel like it’s almost like they’re giving me charity or pity or something like that. And so there’s an issue there where I’m not seeing the value of my service. And I feel like I’m asking, but what you’re telling me is that instead of me asking them for something, I’m actually solving their problems and the response in there, it should be, Oh my God, I’m so thankful that you’ve solved this problem because I don’t know how to solve it.

Jeff (06:19):

Exactly. And you’re highlighting the biggest problem in sales for people that are new to it or adverse to it. And that is the ask, right? So asking for the close, asking for the sale, that’s the thing that people shy away from. In fact, I’ve met many gym owners and salespeople in my time in the sales industry, which is well over a decade. Uh, Joe Marcoux has one-upped me with over 30 years in the industry. So he knows what he’s talking about as well, which is why he’s an amazing co-host for us for this seminar. But you know, the ask is extremely difficult because we overinflate the problem. Like I’ve met many gym owners and salespeople as I’ve worked to develop them over time where they’re amazing. They’re stellar at the interviewing process, the beginning part of what we call the no sweat intro at Two-Brain Business or your sales process.

Jeff (07:09):

And they get to know people really well. They develop that relationship. They discover some really good goals. They discover the why behind those goals, that emotional tie down for the consumer. And then they get to the close and they just freeze on the spot and they just don’t know what to do. They can’t proceed. They might say something like, well, how does that sound? And it’s like the most non-confident, ridiculous thing they’ve ever said. And they’re embarrassed. And you see the color drain from their face. And they’re just very frustrated in where they are right now. And the consumer’s frustrated too, because now you’re the non-confident salesperson, which is arguably worse than not trying to sell at all because they don’t trust you anymore. You’re losing that trust you worked so hard to develop because now they’re like, why is he concerned about asking me for this sale?

Jeff (07:57):

They want you to ask for the sale. They want you to finalize the appointment. They want you to close the deal with them. They want to sign up because they like you. But now you have no confidence in what it is that you’re selling. Now they’re concerned. Like, does he not believe in the product? Does he not think that this will help me? Because he doesn’t sound very confident about it. Put yourself in the shoes of buying a new car or house. Right. And your realtor is walking into your house and walk up at the end of the deal. They’re just saying like, Hey, so you know, what do you think? We say, Yeah, it looks pretty good. They’re like, Hey, would you, uh, would you like to maybe live here? Possibly?

Mike (08:34):

Where are the corpses, Jeff?

Jeff (08:36):

You’re like, OK. So the foundation is going to collapse on us day one. Got it. Cool. Not going to buy this house. No, they should deliver that with extreme confidence. So I would argue this, like, if you’re not confident in the close, then you’re not confident in the service or the product that you’re selling.

Mike (08:52):

So I’m going to ask you this, I’m going to jump in and I got to ask you this. If you’re not feeling confident, like, let’s say, you’re either a new gym owner or you’re just someone who’s not just, you know, you just struggle with this. And for whatever reason you undervalue yourself, how can you then find that confidence or even like, do you fake that confidence when you don’t have at the beginning? How do you get that?

Jeff (09:11):

I think it’s a combination of both of those things, because I also believe that a lot of people have anxiety tied to money. So you’re anxious about asking for money because it’s money. Like we all have that anxiety and that’s fine. That’s something that you’re going to have to fake. You’re just going to have to overcome that and say like, think of it this way. Don’t project on others your own feelings. So just try to—and this is a mantra. You just have to tell yourself, like, don’t do that. So talk to yourself about, you know, your own personal feelings with money and understand that those are your personal feelings. And I’ll give you an example. I had an amazing sales experience with a person at a gym I was working at, this would have been about seven or eight years ago.

Jeff (09:55):

But he came into the gym and I was projecting. I was fairly new to that gig at the time, selling high value, you know, one and two year contract, personal training programs that could be valued up to like six to $8,000. And you know, this guy comes in, he’s wearing beat-up shoes, you know, raggedy clothes, saw the car he drove up in and it wasn’t that great. And I’m projecting now. I’m like this guy doesn’t really have money. I’m selling these like expensive PT packages. There’s no way this is going to work out. But I had been listening to some really good audio books, on my way to and from work for a couple of months at this point. So I decided just to channel one of the things I had learned, which is not projecting.

Jeff (10:37):

So I did exactly what I’m saying. I told myself like, look, man, how you feel about money is different from how other people feel about money and don’t judge a book by its cover. I mean, I think that’s something all of our moms told us at some point, right? So I decided just to roll with it, just do the appointment as if he drove a Mercedes Benz. Like, I don’t know any Mercedes class cars, but dude rolled up in a Mercedes. So I’m like, all right, he’s fine. This is going to go great. And what I tell myself, every single sales appointment, regardless of what I’m selling is that I’m going to A, like this person or find a way to like this person, B, I’m going to discover this person’s problem and C, I’m going to show them how what I sell or what I’m offering is going to help them solve that problem.

Jeff (11:23):

Like no matter what, A, B and C are going to be completed, every single sales appointment I have, whether or not, you know, it’s a person that rolls up like that. Like not looking the quote unquote part that I’m looking for, of having money, et cetera. Or if it’s a person who’s like hard to like, right. If they’re absolutely not a good fit for my service or product, I’ll let them know. And that’s fine. Like that does happen. But it happens so much more rarely than I feel, especially gym owners let on to, like, I feel a lot of us, we let ourselves off easy. We’re like, they weren’t a good fit. That wasn’t a qualified lead. Like that’s the easy cop-out answer. Or you could be more introspective and say, Oh, I missed that sale. What could I learn from that sale?

Jeff (12:08):

Or from that sales process that I went through just now that I could improve my sales process for the future. And for example, at the seminar that we have coming up, April 24th, and me and Joe Marcoux, we are offering up a worksheet, it’s called a sales debrief. And it’s for exactly this purpose. It is objective. It is something you would do every single sales appointment immediately following the appointment, you sit down, you answer the questions, what happened? It’s black and white. There’s no gray areas. And then get a takeaway from that. Learn from that. I don’t care if the person rolled in and you know, they were starting the exact opposite political views as you and causing a ruckus. Like you still learn from that appointment. Maybe that’s something in your lead generation side of things where you, you let them, you know, believe that, you were of the opposite view. I don’t know. But the whole point is that you just take something away from every single appointment, rather than just saying, Oh, well, that’s done now. And moving on to say the next appointment or jumping into coach a class or whatever it is that you have coming up next.

Mike (13:16):

I really like that because I know that I’m, you know, you can make so much progress with me in this weekend seminar, but in reality, it’s going to take more reps and practice for me to really get good at sales. So this tool is going to help me learn from being bad at sales and incrementally get better over time. Have I got that right?

Jeff (13:33):

Yeah. Except nobody’s bad at sales. That is something I like to highlight right off the bat. Everybody says they’re bad at sales. And it’s really just something that you kind of build up in your own mind where you’re like, Oh, I didn’t make that sale. Didn’t make that sale. I must be bad at sales. No, you just have a bad sales process. You just have an off mindset. Like there’s one thing you need to tweak, which is again, like why we know, like I’m not even going to say that I believe, like, I know you would walk out of this seminar and make your 999 back just because you just have to find that and identify that one thing that you’re using as like this cop-out excuse to say that you’re bad at sales. You’re not bad at sales.

Mike (14:11):

Now you sound so confident, Jeff, that I’m getting a little excited here and I kind of want to sign up right away. You sound confident in your product.

Jeff (14:17):

I mean, you should. You gotta be confident and deliver. Right. And but that’s exactly it, like, there’s one thing you’re missing. I promise you. It’s just one thing. And once you figure that out.

Chris (14:27):

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

Mike (16:26):

You know, for me, I’ll just, you know, to give some insight for people maybe who are listening, for me, it’s not about building the relationship, like on a podcast, I can literally talk to anyone, speak to them, find out all about them. And that whole thing. It’s the closing, it’s the asking for the stuff, right? So it’s not finding out problems. It’s not even solving problems. It’s giving them that tool and saying it’s $1,200, buy it. Right. And so for me, you know, when you lead that through that, it’s probably, I’m not bad at sales, I’m bad at closing sales or asking.

Jeff (16:52):

Exactly. And you got to figure out why that is, whether it’s the just asking for the money part and which is just muscle memory, by the way. So if you guys are bad at just asking a question or asking for a thing or money, then I would challenge you to one, ask yourself in a mirror for $10,000, 150 times, and then to ask a partner, spouse, significant other, for the same thing, 150 times, and then three, ask a stranger if you can borrow $2.

Mike (17:23):

I like it. I get squidgy inside just thinking about it, but I see how it would help.

Jeff (17:29):

But it’s muscle memory, right? So if you just do that, if you just practice that, it becomes second nature, it becomes something that you don’t fear any more. Now, put yourself into a sales situation where somebody is actually seeking you out. They came to you, planning to buy. Don’t ever believe that somebody showed up window shopping and they didn’t intend buy. If they’re there for especially a no sweat intro in the gym industry, they are serious about buying. That is an invested, interested buyer. They want to hear the numbers. They want you to close them. And if it’s a good fit, they’ll say yes. So not asking for the sale is you just throwing that money away.

Mike (18:08):

Yeah. Now, because you got me to think about asking someone for two bucks, I’ve got the anxiety sweats. So let’s just quickly change the subject here. What if someone is really good at sales, someone has, you know, limited problems does pretty good, but it’s still as interested in your seminar. How will you and Joe help a more advanced salesperson who’s already pretty decent at sealing the deal.

Jeff (18:31):

Absolutely. I love it. So, the one thing that we see most often in the gym industry for example, is that you can’t replace yourself. So if you, and one of the hardest roles to replace yourself in any business is going to be sales and then possibly marketing. So if you’re the best seller in the gym, the way I do that is if you want to move on to other projects, to grow yourself as an entrepreneur, to just take a vacation, if you leave that gym, does anything get sold? And if the answer is no or not nearly as much as if you were there, that’s a problem. So one thing you can take away is how to develop other salespeople. There’s going to be a lot of discussion about the sales debrief, about learning about your sales rhythm, your sales personality, like how you sell and how to discuss that with others.

Jeff (19:22):

So as you’re developing a sales staff and then how to role play is going to be a huge part of this, and there will be a lot of role-play that goes on because this is an active seminar, we’re not going to sit there and talk to you on a TV screen for five to six hours, it’s going to be participatory. So if you show up, plan to role-play, everybody will talk and it’s not one-on-one role-play, the way we’re going to do it is more dynamic. So you’ll actually see like myself or Joe be the center point or the buyer, while everybody else, and currently we have like 35 people signed up for this thing, everybody else is attempting to sell us, right? So everybody gets a shot. You get one line to say to us, and then we’ll give you feedback on that. And it goes on like that the entire time.

Jeff (20:07):

And you can do that with your team. We’re going to teach you how to do that as well, it’s extremely effective. It’s a lot of fun. It’s very active and there’s never that time where if you guys have ever done one-on-one role play where it’s me versus you and everybody else watches, it’s extremely awkward, right? Nobody wants to do it. Cause really awkward feels weird. Like we all have a relationship. As in we’re like friends, coworkers, whatever. And that makes it even more awkward than doing it with a stranger for whatever reason. But this type of role play is just, it’s fast paced. It’s fun. It’s active. So that would be one huge thing I would say. The other thing is obviously you need to keep sharpening the ax. So myself, I still get nervous when I go into a sales appointment.

Jeff (20:51):

I still need to say that same mantra.

Mike (20:53):

Even after a decade and more.

Jeff (20:54):

Oh yeah, absolutely. And Joe will say the same thing. He’s three decades in. No salesperson, unless they’re lying goes into a sales process or appointment with 110% confidence through the roof. Like they’re not worried about anything. They might put that persona on and that’s part of the character and that’s part of what they’re doing. And that’s part of what helps them sell. And that’s great.

Mike (21:15):

Giving away the secrets, Jeff.

Jeff (21:17):

Well, I mean, it’s true and that’s what, I’ll do that too. If I go into a sales appointment, if you saw me go into it, I would look extremely confident. Like I’m not worried at all. Inside. I still have those, you mentioned the cold sweats earlier. Like I still get those. I still have to hype myself up.

Jeff (21:33):

I still have to get pumped up. Everybody does. And you know, again, if they say they don’t, they’re lying. But part of it is, you know, how do you further sharpen that ax? You continue to learn. You continue to hear from other people, other experts in the industry, people like Joe Marcoux, right. And you’re going to have a really good takeaway just for yourself alone. But then also, like I mentioned, developing a team, which means that you buy yourself freedom and you can get other people to sell. Like Joe and I have developed hundreds and hundreds of salespeople. We’ve been doing this for a long time. We know what we’re talking about and we can definitely help you and your team.

Mike (22:12):

So that’s the benefit. You can fix yourself, learn how to improve your own sales skills. Then you can fix your team, develop salespeople, allow you to offload roles and tasks. And you know, I’ve got that problem solved because people at my gym, when I had staff and I had a physical location, they sold better than I did. So I already solved that problem by replacing myself. Right? So I’m way ahead of the game. But that shows you how, you know, the sales seminar is going to help two different kinds of gym owner. I want to ask you this because sales to me seems like a huge overwhelming concept. In a recent YouTube video, you talked about how it’s an all day seminar, but it’s not going to be overwhelming, like drinking from a fire hose. So how are you and Joe going to make things easy and actionable when this is just this gigantic thing that’s so intimidating for so many people.

Jeff (22:57):

Yeah, absolutely. So we have four main topics that we’re going to be covering, between two talks by Joe, which covered more of his proprietary systems. So you’re getting an insight into a program that he offers for well over 599 a week right now. So yeah, like you’re getting a really good deal off of Joe’s program just from those two talks alone. And then I’ll be covering two topics. One is going to be all about mindset. The other is all about role play and how to further develop yourself and/or your team and our goal for you going into the seminar is to, you’ll get the recordings afterwards. So hear me out here. Take one thing, just one thing and go attack that. Like if you—it’s a virtual seminar. So if you hop on in the beginning, I would encourage you to participate the whole day.

Jeff (23:43):

But if you hop on in the beginning, that first talk I do about the sales debrief and about your mindset is what hits you. And you’re like, that’s what I’m going to take action on. Then basically tune out the rest of the time, just participate in the like breakout sessions that we’re going to do via zoom. So you can meet with other people. You can network, you can practice some sales role play, that’s all good stuff. And just go through the motions for the rest of it and watch the recordings later because you just need that one thing to take action on for that week. So yeah, if you try to take notes on every single thing and ingest every single thing and then go attack every single thing, you’re probably going to accomplish almost nothing, because it will be like drinking from a fire hose, but you just need that one big action step to go after for that week.

Jeff (24:27):

And then I honestly, I would say tune out for the rest, like just participate or the way that we’re running this right now, by the way I need to mention the 999 covers yourself and one staff member. So if you have like a business partner or a staff member that you want to bring with you, it covers both of you for that price.

Mike (24:42):

So it’s like 498, really.

Jeff (24:45):

Pretty much. Yeah. So you bring that one person with you. So you take one big thing and they take one big thing. There you go. You’re doubling up right there.

Mike (24:54):

No, it’s interesting because Chris Cooper, Two-Brain founder, has written about this and talked about how going to a seminar or a weekend seminar or conference or whatever, you just get so overwhelmed. One of the best techniques he said was just when you find that action item, just go up to your hotel room and spend the rest of the weekend doing that thing and taking action rather than sitting through the rest of the speakers and then, or even like reading a book, right? You read the book, you find the one thing that you need, throw the book down and just start doing it. So that’s something that you’re saying we can do at this seminar because our recording. So then you can come back to the quote unquote book that you enjoy writing and just take action on the next thing, right? So you’re going to be there for the whole time.

Mike (25:31):

Cause if everyone followed your advice, you’d have, you and Joe would just be talking about sales and everyone else would be upstairs working already. But the idea would be take action, like make a note, the first big bullet that you find, make a huge note on a single sheet of paper, whatever, and do that next, but then sit there, absorb as much as you can without getting overwhelmed. Then take action on that big thing afterward. Is that the plan?

Jeff (25:51):

Absolutely.

Mike (25:51):

Quickly tell me who is Joe Marcoux? I’ll preface it by saying if someone has been in sales for 30 years, he or she is obviously a good salesperson because you don’t live long in the industry if you’re not good at it. So just tell me a quick bit about Joe, as we close out here, who is he and what can you do for you?

Jeff (26:08):

Yeah, so Joe’s been, as I said, in the sales industry for a long time. Currently he works with a really wide variety of different salespersons. So, what he offers right now is a weekly program where you hop on a call with him and as a group, I believe he has no more than six in each of these groups. Just so it’s more active. Then you’re doing active role-play and he walks you from, basically through like all the different objections or the tougher part of the sales process that I think most of us experience and like works you through, like exactly to handle those things. Again, it’s not direct one-liners, but it’s more thinking outside the box and like how to solve those problems. And the funny thing about it is that the people that he works with, and I’ve been on a few of these calls with him just to observe, but they come from so many different sales industries.

Jeff (26:59):

There’s like people who are selling bicycles, like in the bicycle industry. We have people who are selling like online coaching. We have people that are selling, you know, consultant and mentorship programs, just all over the place from products to services. But sales is a universal language, which is, you know, I’ve mentioned on this podcast a few times so far that we’re mostly making this for the gym industry. However, because of the fact that sales is a universal language, this could apply to anyone. So if you’re like, if you’re listening to this, I don’t know how you happen across a gym podcast, but if you’re listening to this and you’re not in the gym industry, and you’re still looking to do, you want to develop your sales team, you want to develop yourself as a salesperson. This could actually apply to you as well.

Jeff (27:43):

But yeah, so Joe’s been doing this for a long time. He calls it the sales dojo, because his name’s Joe and, you know, we’re all kind of like facing off in this little role-play session, which is a ton of fun. And like I said, it’s, everybody goes—Joe is playing the role of the buyer, everybody else is the seller. He presents an objection. Everybody gets a chance to respond to that objection. It’s super cool, dynamic and fun to watch and listen to. And people develop over time. And you know, other than that, you can go check out Joemarcoux.com. He has his own website, talks a lot about his sales training programs. He’s also got another program called Army of One, but the guy does awesome stuff and he’s been doing it for a long time and he’s really developing this program. So, you know, again, going to this seminar is kind of like getting a, you know, a bite sized sample of that, which is highly valuable in and of itself.

Mike (28:33):

Final question. How many times will you guys refer to Glen Gary, Glen Ross during the seminar?

Jeff (28:39):

I mean, coffee is for closers, but probably only one time. Right at the beginning.

Mike (28:44):

So the over-under is one, so if you’re a betting person out there, you can pick that and we’ll see what it comes down to. Jeff, thank you so much for sharing this. It really gives a ton of clarity, especially in the, you know, like I said to you before we started recording here, I’m not acting, I am legitimately, I don’t have good sales skills. So this is a really interesting thing. So for you’re out there listening, and you’re someone like me, or if you’re someone who’s far better than I am, and you’re looking to sharpen your pencil, so to speak or give that pencil to one of your staff people, definitely take a look at this seminar and we’ll get that link in the show notes for you. Jeff, thanks for selling me on the seminar. And we’ll talk to you again soon.

Jeff (29:20):

Thanks for having me.

Mike (29:20):

That was Jeff Burlingame, our sales expert here on Two-Brain Radio. I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. I’m also one of the admins in the private Facebook group, Gym Owners United, and I need you in that group. We’re assembling the best gym owners in the world so we can help each other through tough times. If you have not joined the group yet, please do so today via the link in the show notes. Be sure to answer all the intake questions and enjoy the company of helpful entrepreneurs just like you. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook.

 

The post Gym Owner: “I’m Bad at Sales. Change My Mind!” appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Set Rate

If you want to get people into your program, you need to get them through the door first.

There are three critical stages to transforming prospects into clients:

First, they have to set appointments to meet you.Second, they have to show up for those appointments.Third, they have to sign up for your program.

This sounds like a simple path, but most gyms lose potential clients at every stage. The gym owner spends time and lots of money on Facebook ads or media content or other advertising. They drive clients to their website:

And then the potential client doesn’t book an appointment.Or the lead doesn’t show up for the booked appointment.Or the lead shows up but doesn’t sign up.

Every month, we measure metrics in the world’s best gyms. We produce leaderboards in each category, and we share a couple of those categories publicly. Even better, we share the top tips from the leaders to help you build your gym.

This month, I’m going to tell you how to improve your set rate (how many prospects book appointments from your website), your show rate (how many of those prospects show up) and your close rate (how many of those prospects become clients).

These tactics aren’t just my opinions: They are the best tactics, as proven by data from thousands of gyms. Stop whatever you’re doing and do this stuff instead.

Here are this month’s leaders for set rate:

Top Lessons From the Leaders

Here’s what the owners behind the numbers had to say:

“There’s a natural ‘surge’ of clients waiting to come back post-COVID. Start there. Text everyone who put their memberships on hold. Ask how they’re doing. Book them for an NSI.”

“Don’t rely on your automations to interact with people. When anyone inquires about your rates, text them within three minutes. Automated emails are your safety net, but when you’re really ready to book a lot of appointments, answer their pleas for help fast.”

“Ramp up your social media now. People are tired of hearing about COVID. They want to hear about wins. Tell a ton of members’ stories.”

“Don’t be afraid that your onboarding process can’t hold up to a lot of signups at once. Get people in right now, even if it means you have to work a bit more. You can always turn off your ads next month or wait for the surge to subside.”

“We use Gym Lead Machine—it’s like a central hub we use to communicate with future clients.”

“Answer the phone!”

“If they don’t respond to our appointment booking, I’ll text from my personal phone. Just, ‘Hey, it’s Bryan. What are your goals, by the way?'”

“We find that the appointment no-shows are the people that are booking five to seven days out, so we only allow them to book within a short window—three days to book, max.”

“We even check in with former members who have gone elsewhere: ‘Let me know if the new place isn’t checking in on you.'”

“I send a caring video message with a gym walk-through to calm their nerves before the NSI.”

“On the day of the appointment, one to two hours before the appointment, I text them: ‘I’m driving to the gym now. Looking forward to seeing you at X p.m.'”

“I learned to do my marketing myself. I was paying double what I do now for an outside agency to run my (Facebook) ads. Then (Two-Brain Business) taught me how to do it myself, and it’s way better.”

“I’ve been running goal reviews and reaching out to old members who might be embarrassed to come back (due to weight re-gain).”

“Blog posts do work!”

Set Rate: This Above All

The key to getting more people to book free consultations with you?

It’s not jumping to new social media platforms like Clubhouse or TikTok. It’s not running short-term challenges. It’s sticking to the basics and doing them consistently well:

Answer the phone.When someone asks for help, respond like it’s your mom or dad (fast and thoughtfully).Hold their hands until they walk through the door.Be a human.

The post By the Numbers: Getting More Clients—Set Rate appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

COVID, Roof Collapses and a Competitor Crisis: Tina Ferringer’s Story

Tiffy (00:02):

From earthquakes to roof collapse and getting COVID, Tina Ferringer has weathered her share of challenges over the past few years. With two fitness studios in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, Tina had a full plate. Then she was devastated when 30% of her clientele left to join a competing studio, less than a mile away. In today’s episode of Two-Brain Radio, we talked to Tina about what went down, what she learned and how focusing on her own leadership pulled her out of a crisis.

Chris (00:34):

Back to the show in just a minute. The people at Incite Tax know you’re working long hours to improve health for the world, but it can still be hard to turn a profit. You just can’t focus on your mission without money in your account. So Incite founder John Briggs wrote “Profit First for Mirogyms” and created a system that increases your cashflow so you can be home for dinner with a thriving fitness business. Bookkeeping, profit first, cash flow consulting, taxes, whatever your financial needs, Incite can help. Join their free five-day challenge at profitfirstformicrogyms/five days to get a snapshot of the financial health of your gym. That’s profitfirstformicrogyms/five days.

Tiffy (01:14):

Tina. Welcome.

Tina (01:15):

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here today.

Tiffy (01:19):

So take me back to a little over a year ago, where were things kind of at, with your fitness facility?

Tina (01:28):

Yeah, so we were in a huge transition. Like you said, we have two locations and we expanded really quickly. I would say we expanded too quick. So, you know, start small dream big. I ran with it and started real big, you know, just kept going. And so in those moments, you know, I put people in positions of leadership that weren’t a good fit for our business. So about a year ago I had a manager that pretty much copycatted our exact business plan. Our pricing, everything, and just undercut us. And in that moment, I was in Anchorage building a studio by myself, teaching all the classes, training all the clients. So I wasn’t able to really be at our Fairbanks location, which was extremely detrimental, because I really feel like our clients didn’t have that connection with me personally anymore.

Tina (02:25):

And so it created opportunity for this person to come in and have a lot of power in the business and just the intentions weren’t loyal. So that’s what happened. And it was extremely devastating because my business is my baby. You know, just like all of you out there. I mean, you put your heart and soul into it and I’ve sacrificed a lot for the business and family time and all the things. So it was the hardest thing that I’ve dealt with so far being in business. What I can say from it though is just amazing things occurred from it. But I would say, you know, I don’t want to whitewash the feelings that occurred. I mean, it was devastating, but I’m so thankful for the opportunity in those moments for growth.

Tiffy (03:11):

So what was your sort of first reaction and then what were the next steps you took after learning this information? Like what was the sort of catalyst to call Two-Brain after that?

Tina (03:22):

So the first reaction was I was like, you know what? It is what it is. I’ve always been really confident in who I am as a person, but also my intentions behind why I have a business. My mission and my vision is to help people, it’s very people centered. And so I just thought, you know, initial reaction was like, man, it was really hard because I thought of this person like family. So that was extremely devastating. But I was like, I’m just going to keep it moving. And then, you know, I really started doing work. And a big goal of mine was to become the best leader I could be. And Trent Sheldon said something and I follow him and he’s pretty phenomenal. And he said, you know, you got to protect your business like you protect your family. And I’ve been always the type to like, just move on.

Tina (04:11):

You know, it is what it is, keep on moving. But I decided, you know, there was a non-compete signed, non-disclosure signed. And our studio is very unique in the fact that we have a cycling class that I designed and I created and that’s what was taken. And that’s the reason why we’re so successful. Right. So I decided to go to court and we did go that route and I’m really proud of us. And I’m proud of myself in those moments because I fought for my business and I fought for my clients and I fought for the leadership team that I have. And we did win and got an emergency injunction in place. So that was the first like initial few months was, you know, going that route. I never thought that I’d have to, as a business owner, you know, but I felt it really important to fight for what I’ve built over the last, you know, seven and a half years.

Tina (05:05):

So that’s what it started with. And then kind of a full circle moment. I was talking to my friend, Matt, who owns a strongman gym here in Fairbanks called North Side. And he said, hey, Tina, you know I use Two-Brain. He’s like, you’re a lot farther in business than me, but you know, maybe you should reach out. Cause I had called him and said, Hey, I’m looking for a coach. And it’s hard in Alaska to find a coach in this business because I’m one of the frontrunners, right? So there’s not really somebody that I could go and say, Hey, this is what happened to me. What do I do? You know, there was nobody I could talk to at that time. And so that’s when I called Two-Brain.

Tiffy (05:47):

And what stood out to you in those initial calls with Two-Brain?

Tina (05:53):

I don’t remember the guy’s name that I first talked to, but I’ll tell you, he amazing. And he sold me. So, we were just chatting and he’s like, Hey, well, why are you here today? And I told him about what had happened to the business. And, we were in a really hard time at that point. And I said, you know, this is what happened. What do I do? And he goes, well, you raise your prices because not only was our exact like pricing options stolen, but they were also undercut. Right. So it was copycat and then it was undercut. And in that moment he goes, it’s the fastest way to the bottom. So who’s going to get there first. Like, that’s going to be the cycle. And I said in that moment, I just knew, I was like, I need somebody that’s been here. Somebody that’s gone through this before, to give me that leadership and that mentorship. And so that first call, it was a paradigm shift in the fact that like, I was ready to have help.

Tiffy (06:55):

Yeah. Yeah. And that mindset shift from, well, maybe we have to undercut her to—

Tina (07:04):

Right. You know, and that’s fear based. And I never ran my business out of fear, truly. I’ve never—I’ve always ran my business out of purpose and how can I help the community and how can I help the world in this work? Because I feel like the work that we do is so profound. And I see what we do as healing and helping people. So I didn’t want to go that route. You know, I don’t want to live my life in fear. I know what I’m capable of. I know what our leadership team is capable of. And I knew we were worthy of more and I didn’t want to accept any less than what we’re worth.

Tiffy (07:43):

Yeah. And then you had another kind of pitfall, major pitfall, COVID hits. Right. What happens then? How were your gyms affected?

Tina (07:53):

Yeah, we were shut down for about two months and I would say that I definitely am a visionary, so I can pivot very quickly. We’ve had multiple crisis living in Alaska, in our business, you know, like you said, our roof fell down. And we had class that night at another location, you know, we just don’t stop. And for me, it’s like, it’s never been about the money. It’s about showing up for our community. And here in Alaska, I think it’s just so important to have exercise. You know, it’s dark, it’s cold. There’s not a lot to do. And so when COVID hit, my team already knew, like get ready because we’re going, you know, and within two days of being shut down, we had already delivered 110 bikes all around Alaska to go right into virtual. And our community just stepped up.

Tina (08:48):

You know, even when our roof fell down, I mean, we had 50, a hundred of our clients pulling dumbbells out of the wreckage. I think when you do this work really to help, other people just show up in our community and Alaska is phenomenal and they just show up for us. And so, I rented a U-Haul in Fairbanks and my husband and I took over Anchorage. So my husband, Sean, and I delivered all the bikes in the Anchorage area. And then our leadership team in Fairbanks in that U-Haul, I’m telling you, they were getting stuck up mountains. I’m not even kidding people were pulling them out of the ditch. And I mean, it was just crazy, but you know what, we did the damn thing and I’m proud of us for always being willing to put in the effort, you know, we are willing to hustle. And I think that’s what really separates us is just the hustle and the grind and the intention behind it.

Tiffy (09:46):

During that time you were a mix of virtual and in real life classes?

Tina (09:56):

It was just virtual for, we were shut down, I think for, you know, it’s really hard. It was a time warp, but probably like a month and a half or two months. And I remember the first class I taught, you know, I had never really done anything on zoom. And I just remember, OK, I’m going to figure this out. And the first class I taught, I turned our little garage because, you know, we weren’t allowed to leave the house. We were in lockdown and I turned our little garage into a cycling studio and I had my daughter and my husband ride or dying for me. And I was teaching on zoom, no PV mixer, the sound was trash. We had 80 people on the other side getting with it, and people will show you grace so that you can figure it out. They will only show you grace for a while.

Tina (10:44):

I mean, you better figure it out quick, but they did. And then I just decided, like, I want to have a quality product here. People had been asking me for virtual for years, because we offer a class called culture ride and it’s the cycling class that I designed and people, a lot of military leave Alaska and they can’t find anything like it. So they’ve always, Tina please, you know, do something virtual. We want to join you in Portland or, you know, in Kentucky, like we want this in our lives. So it was something that I had been wanting to do for a very long time. Maybe just not pushed outside of that comfort zone yet to take the leap. And so it made me really step up and figure it out. So I got in contact with the local music store here and they taught me how to stream the music. So it came through clear through zoom. I got us mic’d up all the things. And so now, we’ve continued with that. We’re back in studio, but we still have bikes rented and we still do virtual classes every class that we teach. So we’re still offering that and I don’t foresee that going away anytime soon,

Chris (11:57):

We’ll get back to the show right after this. Two-Brain Radio is brought to you by Forever Fierce. Reach out to them to sell more apparel or retail items. Matt Albrizio and his team will save you time with templates. They’ll provide ideas and tell you what’s selling best. And they’ll supply marketing material and preorder sheets. If you want to get serious about apparel and retail, visit foreverfierce.com.

Tiffy (12:18):

And during this time, how did your mentor kind of help you through?

Tina (12:22):

Yeah, so Peter is my mentor and, you know, I have to say like at first, when crisis hit, I didn’t even think to reach out. I mean, I think that’s where I’m trying to really grow is like, I’ll just do, I’ll do and do, and then I’ll be like, Oh, wait, you know, I have a coach. I should probably reach out, see what the heck they’re doing. Because I didn’t even think to reach out in the beginning. I just, we were in survival mode. Like, let’s go, let’s hustle. We gotta figure this out. And then I reached out to Peter and he really helped me design pricing. I had to restructure all of my pricing when we went virtual. You know, he gave me a great idea to go weekly pricing because it was so unsure and the times were hard.

Tina (13:09):

So he helped me really focus on—he’s great at giving me like structure because I am very visionary and, but I do have ADD, and that’s a great thing, but also it’s a struggle in business, you know? And so he kind of grounds me and helps me prioritize what’s important right now. So just in those things, like he truly was pivotal in our success through pandemic because I can tell you, we were doing just fine financially throughout the pandemic.

Tiffy (13:43):

Wow. Yeah. You mentioned it in one of your bright spots in your Facebook group that you were hitting $66,000 in revenue in the month of January, despite being at half capacity. Were you surprised by that?

Tina (14:01):

Yeah, we’re half capacity and 10 foot apart in one of our studios. So, that’s an obstacle in itself, right. Because we don’t have a huge space there, but, you know, I have to say, like, I wasn’t surprised, because I don’t think any type of success like that is surprising, because I know how hard of work we’ve been doing. So I wasn’t surprised. Proud, yes, extremely proud of our leadership team, because without our team, there is no way that we could have done it. Without Peter, and I think of our team too, as the Two-Brain team, without all the support, it wouldn’t have been possible. And so, definitely not surprising because I feel like finances is a manifestation of your thought, your mindset. And I worked really hard and I wake up every day wanting to grow and learn. So, I’m proud, but I only foresee it growing.

Tiffy (15:10):

You mentioned also in that bright spot, how some members in private revealed to you how your community had saved their lives, Can you tell me a bit more about that?

Tina (15:24):

Yeah. I’m sorry. It makes me a little emotional. Yeah. So, you know, the financial part is awesome. Right. And we’ve gone through a lot of heartache to get where we’re at and we’ve worked really hard and I love having financial goals. Since I’ve opened, that’s been a huge part of the business because I know the more income we’re earning, the more people we can help. And that’s what it’s always been about. I can say in that, I have a hard time with being able to step back and just celebrate, right? Like I’m always like, I want to do more. I always feel like we need to be doing more. So what I learned in January, you know, yes, we had this great month where we’ve earned more than we ever have, but in that same month, you know, I had three separate occasions of people coming and just sharing, you know, Tina without F and H you know, I could have died by suicide.

Tina (16:26):

And in Alaska, it’s just such an epidemic here. And you know, seasonal depression in the winters here, we see darkness, you know, six, seven, eight months a year. And so it’s near and dear to my heart because my husband struggles with depression and he has shared his story with our community. And so that’s why I’m in business. And, you know, it’s so much deeper than like a $66,000 a month or a million dollar business or whatever. It’s those stories that get me up in the morning and, you know, push our leadership team to just be the best we can. So that to me is everything. And that’s why I do this work. And that’s why we need more people doing this work. There’s always enough to go around. And I think people need to remember that. We get so worried about competition and other gyms opening up, but the amount of people that need us, it’s overwhelming, you know? And so just remembering, like, there are people that need you out there, so don’t ever feel like, Oh, you know, don’t get so wrapped up in what other people are doing, focus on what you’re doing, focus on the people that you’re helping. And that’s what January taught is just stay focused, Tina, keep going, keep building your leadership team. And it will happen. So I’m just proud of what we’ve done.

Tiffy (17:59):

Yeah. It’s really powerful. Tina, thanks for sharing your story with us today. That’s all for today’s episode of Two-Brain Radio. Thanks for listening. If you haven’t done so, you need to join Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Chris regularly post articles, instructional videos, and advice in there. It’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today.

 

The post COVID, Roof Collapses and a Competitor Crisis: Tina Ferringer’s Story appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Customizing Your Gym’s On-Ramp for Better Retention and More Sales

By Brooks DiFiore, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

What’s the goal of a gym’s on-ramp?

Is it to teach clients to move safely or familiarize them with terminology? Is it to show them how to scale specific movements and where to find equipment? 

Or is it to show clients the best past path forward and tie everything they will be doing directly to their goals through an individualized experience built specifically for each client? 

Most gym owners I talk to tell me their on-ramp is just this thing that’s meant to take new clients from not knowing anything to knowing just enough to be ready for classes. Yes, your on-ramp program should absolutely prepare your clients and let them know what to expect in group classes. But if that’s the only thing it’s doing, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to increase retention and staff opportunity. 

People aren’t coming to us for group classes or personal training. They’re coming to us to achieve their goals, and helping them do that requires individualization from Day 1. By making two simple tweaks to the beginning and end of your on-ramp sessions, you can transform a one-size-fits-all program into a customized experience that improves retention and creates more opportunities for coaches to help clients achieve goals faster.

Step 1: Talk to Each Client Differently

The first thing you need to do is tell your clients exactly why they are doing what they are doing. It’s not enough to say, “Today, you are going to learn to squat because squatting is the foundation of nearly everything we do.” 

You need to tell a weight-loss client that squatting will help him reduce fat by building more lean muscle. You need to tell a general fitness client that squatting will help her increase bone density. And you need to tell a client who wants to increase strength that squatting will help her build muscle because of increased hormone production.

To us, these “whys” might seem obvious, but I promise they are not obvious to your clients.

At Two-Brain Programming, we use avatar briefs to make every group workout relative to the individual. We also use them for on-ramp sessions to show new clients why teaching them X, Y, and Z will help them achieve their goals. 

Here are three examples of how to present squatting to different avatars:

Using avatar briefs helps your clients understand why they need to come in when they see squats in a workout. These briefs also allow your coaches to create stronger connections and better understand why clients are really there. The deeper those connections become and the more coaches know about clients’ goals, the more opportunities will be available for trainers to help through additional services such as nutrition, extra one-on-one sessions or mindset coaching. 

Step 2: Diagnose and Prescribe

Once your team has mastered delivering avatar briefs during the on-ramp, the next step is to finish each session with personalized accessory and mobility work.

We use the Prescriptive Model in our sales process to give clients exactly what they need. Your coaches must do the same thing and personalize each on-ramp session by diagnosing a client’s shortcomings and prescribing fixes. 

We often see coaches identify a fault or weakness that needs to be fixed with additional exercise by telling the client to scale to a certain level or modify a workout by using a substitute movement. These adjustments are important and have a place, but they don’t do much to personalize the client’s experience, and they don’t create a path to long-term success. They are equivalent to providing the client with a bandage; they don’t address the root cause.

By carving out time at the end of each session to deliver customized accessory and mobility exercises, coaches can begin building a roadmap to success clients can use over the next months. By using a “choose your own adventure” system like the one below, your coaches can quickly identify the most significant areas of weakness and begin addressing them after the first session. 

Ideally, your team members should use this system after every session to create a personalized template for each client. By the end of on-ramp, your coach will have a fully customized plan built for the individual, and that plan can continue through 1:1 training even as the client transitions to classes. 

Instead of knowing “I use the green band for pull-ups,” the client knows exactly what to do move to a smaller band and eventually be rid of the band altogether. Even more important, the client knows that the assigned work will help her achieve the long-term goal of an unassisted pull-up, and more personal help is available at any time if needed.

Know Their Goals!

Showing clients that we know and understand their goals is the key to increasing adherence and retention. By making these small changes, you can transform your on-ramp from a simple prerequisite for group classes into a unique client experience that sets them up for long-term success and creates new opportunities for your staff. 

The post Customizing Your Gym’s On-Ramp for Better Retention and More Sales appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Stop Losing Clients After the First Session

By Brian Zimmerman, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

If you’re going to keep a client for years, the client can’t cancel after the first session, after a couple of weeks or at the end of three months.

If long-term retention is the goal—and it must be—you simply can’t lose clients during your onboarding package. So creating an amazing onboarding package is absolutely critical to the success of your business and your clients.

Common Drop Off Point: After the First Session

Having clients show up for one day and never return is gut wrenching, but it also provides a valuable lesson. The main reason a client might not come back after the first session? He or she had the wrong expectations.

Here are several common reasons for leaving a program after the first session, along with some questions that will help you find and fix the problem.

“I didn’t hit it off with my coach”

Did we learn enough about the client to match the person with the best coach?Did we communicate the name, goals and interests of the new client to the coach?

“The workout was too hard/easy.”

Did we give this person enough attention?Did we have the tools to scale this workout?Did we have too many other clients to attend to?

“I’m so sore.”

Did we have the tools to scale this workout?Did we tell the client he or she will likely be sore and that it’s going to be OK?

“I didn’t think the session would be like that.”

Did we explain what a session would entail?Did we provide a basic understanding of what kinds of workouts the new client would be doing?Did we describe the differences between our service and other services the client has tried?

Each of the comments above is a sign that expectations were not set or set but not met.

Positive Client Experience Example

Your new client walks in the door for the first session. His or her one-on-one coach is standing at the front door and offers a warm welcome by name. The coach offers a handshake—if COVID restrictions allow, of course—and hands the client a cold water bottle with the client’s name on it.

“I’m Coach Brian. I’ll be your trainer for your first 60 days! Are you ready to get started? Let me show you where to put your things. Jim told me you play soccer—I used to play myself! What position do you play?”

The coach adjusts the session to be sure the client stays within his or her limits and doesn’t end up destroyed. At the end of the session, the coach briefs the client: “Expect to be sore—it’s OK. We adjusted the session to your current fitness level, but some soreness is very normal when starting a program. If you’re concerned, message me and I’ll send you some drills to help.”

After the session, the new client receives an email that explains exactly what to expect in the second session.

How likely is that client to return for the next session? Very likely.

Your Actions

Below, you’ll find the questions to ask about your current intake process. As you answer them, you’ll be able to identify holes in your program and then take action to set clients up for years of success in your gym.

Can we control more factors in a group setting or one on one? Will doing so create a consistent environment for us to set, meet and exceed expectations?

Are we failing to set expectations before the first session? What does the new client need to know? How will we communicate this information?

What communication can we add to the end of or after the first session to set expectations for the second session and encourage attendance?

Podcast: “Make More Money for Years: Amazing Client Onboarding”

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