Chris Cooper's Blog, page 129

Personal Training: When to Give a Freebie

Dr. Brian Strump, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

I’ve made just about every mistake you can imagine with “free” since opening our gym in 2010. 

Free intro.Free week. Bring a friend for free for a day.Buy this, get that free. 

I’m sure my mistakes got some people in the door, but the people they brought were not our ideal long-term clients for the most part. 

Without a proper introduction to certain movements, people who came without paying created more stress for the group coach and took coaching time from paying members. These free sessions often ended in frustration for drop-ins because they felt unsure of what to do and self-conscious within the established group. 

Still, in the last 24 months, offering something for free has been one of the most effective things we have done to grow our personal training revenue.

The Right Offer With the Right People

In the past, we’d give a “referral card” of sorts to our personal training clients and ask for referrals. It was a waste of paper and yielded few results. Most of those referral cards ended up lost or in the trash, I imagine. 

Then one day a personal training client asked about bringing a friend to join a session. No one had ever asked about that with regard to PT, and we said “yes.” The two came and had fun—and we earned a new personal training client at a rate of more than $600 per month!

After that, I instructed coaches to ask their best PT clients if they had friends who might also enjoy personal training, and I asked our coaches to pay attention to the people their clients talked about often. When a client brought someone up regularly, the coach could ask if the client wanted to bring the friend in to train together for an hour at no charge to either person.

The key word is “together.”

We’ll regularly get clients who say, “I’ve been trying to get my friend to sign up for your intro but he hasn’t yet.” Or they’ll tell us “my friend is busy” or provide some other reason why a friend hasn’t contacted us. We now use this approach 100 percent of the time: “Why don’t you bring the friend to a free personal training session and you can work out together?”

“Together” dramatically increases the likelihood that the person will show up to the session, and he or she is always more comfortable with a well-known workout partner. Sometimes, the new person will purchase one-on-one training sessions, but we’ve also sold two-on-one sessions because the friends enjoyed the free session together and wanted more.

In addition, we’ve found that a free personal training session with a friend feels more exclusive than a “bring a friend to class” offer. The cost of a group class in a gym can vary tremendously, so people don’t have a lot of context for rates. While PT rates vary, I believe most people understand that personal training is a premium service. This pre-qualifies the prospective new client. 

Investing in Warm Leads

When we offer a free “buddy session,” the coach doing the training will get paid the gym’s regular one-on-one personal training rate. He or she gets the same rate for the hour and views it as a great opportunity to add another PT client.

On the business side, paying the coach makes sense. It’s a one-time “discount” that costs us only the staff pay for the session, and I’ve found it’s a low price to pay for a very warm personal training lead.

You can definitely make mistakes with freebies. But you can make mistakes with ads, too, and you might end up paying a lot for a small number of cold leads. With our free PT sessions, we’re acquiring hot leads who are closely connected to our best clients and likely to make purchases.

So I wouldn’t offer a “free class” anymore, but I wouldn’t hesitate to set up a free session for a high-value contact and his or her best friend.

Two-Brain gyms use Affinity Marketing tactics like this to replicate their best clients. Download a complete guide to Affinity Marketing from our Free Tools page.

The post Personal Training: When to Give a Freebie appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

From Drugs to Double-Unders: The Chris Doster Story

Mike (00:00):

From drug addiction to gym ownership: Chris Doster of CrossFit TYL tells his incredible story, right after this.

Chris Cooper (00:09):

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 (02:08):

It’s Two-Brain Radio, and I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. Today’s guest has a wild tale and we’re going to get right into it. Chris, welcome to Two-Brain Radio.

Chris (02:16):

Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much. Looking forward to this.

Mike (02:19):

I am too, and I’m just going to get right into it because I’m excited about your story. So you’ve run CrossFit TYL in Iowa since 2014 and you help people become healthy, but your life was once really different. When and why did you start using drugs? Can you tell me that story?

Chris (02:33): 

Well, sure, absolutely. That’s quite a question. Put me right on the spot. I’m gonna just do my best to speak from the heart. And so, I mean, drugs and alcohol became part of my life at a fairly young age, probably by the senior year, my senior year of high school, I was drinking and using drugs too more than I needed to and using them as a coping mechanism, I guess you could say, but I often look back and think, you know, the old chicken and the egg question, what came first, the chicken or the egg. And for me, I was always like, did my drug addiction create my thinking problem? Or did I have a thinking problem before I used drugs and alcohol? And that led me to drinking and drugging, but either way. I got into that lifestyle at a pretty young age and had some fun, you know, partying back in the days and went to college, but probably by my mid twenties or so, you know, it was really starting to cause problems in my life. And I started looking at, you know, or I was getting in trouble at times, you know, legal problems and I was able to hold a job and whatnot, but it just was really limiting my potential in life and deep down, you know, I know I didn’t feel good about myself about it. I was hiding things from my family and, but so yeah, it took a while until I really reached a turning point. And do you want me to get into the part where, you know, where I had my son came along?

Mike (04:22):

Yeah. Like, you know, the reason I ask this question is there are listeners out there right now who are probably struggling with some of the same things that you struggled with. And I want them to kind of understand, you know, where you’re coming from. And like, you know, the question I’ll ask you first is like, you know, how bad did it get for you? Like, because there’s a lot of that, you know, they don’t understand how far you’ve come and recovered from what you recover from. So how bad did your life get? And then what was the moment that made you turn it around?

Chris (04:49):

Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah. I mean, like I said, through my twenties, I kind of just looked at it as partying and having a good time, but you know, I was still using it to deal with any of life’s problems. And, but then, you know, it just kept getting worse and worse. And I kept, I started crossing off my list of nevers, right. Like I would never go to work drinking or high. And I crossed that list. I started doing that. I got a DUI and totaled my car at one point. I said, I’ll never drink and drive again. Well, I did again and got another DUI later. And then, you know, I said, I would never use drugs intravenously, and I seriously thought I would never do that. But somehow I crossed that off my never list and started doing that.

Chris (05:42):

And that’s when it really got bad. And I just got physically addicted to opiates. And I couldn’t, you know, there were days I couldn’t get out of bed unless I got it in my body and I got to point where I was getting dope sick, and then, but so really what came around into my life and it was an accident, but I met a woman and got her pregnant and I didn’t know what to think about it. And we talked about abortion, but we went ahead and had the child and that son of mine, Zachary, ended up really becoming a miracle in my life because yeah, I mean, I was at the point I just remember having thoughts, Mike, of, you know, I just wanted to live the rest of my life high, or just somehow stumble upon a bunch of money and drugs and just be able to just be high because I didn’t know any other way to live life at that point.

Chris (06:47):

Yeah. I mean, it was a very low spot, but after Zach was born, I wasn’t able to get clean right away. But I just remember thinking my dad struggled with drugs and alcohol too. And rest in peace. He passed away from the disease of addiction and alcoholism. But, I just remember thinking, you know, and my mom would say this to me, she’s like somebody needs to break the cycle in our family, Chris, because my grandfather had died from alcoholism basically too. And I just was like, you know, I could give up on myself right now, but I have got to give this boy a chance in life. I’ve gotta be there somehow. I’ve gotta be there for him. And his mother was struggling with a lot of the same problems and we split ways. And I ended up with Zachary.

Chris (07:39):

I ended up with Zachary and I was, you know, he was one to two years old and I was still struggling to get clean at times I would get off it. And then I went to treatment an, I was introduced to 12 step groups and those have been so powerful and meaningful in my life in meeting people that showed me hope that there was a way out and that I could live a life without drugs and alcohol, and I could have fun without them. And I could, you know, there were other ways of coping with life and that’s when I really, the day I really finally got clean for good was I think 2004. And I just remember waking up in my apartment, my son was asleep. He, I think he was three at that point, maybe just under three, but his mom was gone and I just remember cleaning up a bunch of empty beer bottles and drug paraphernalia and just throwing it all away.

Chris (08:37):

Before I kinda always saved something or saved phone numbers of drug connections. And I just was like, I’m done, I’m done feeling miserable. And I found my neighbor had a boy about Zach’s age and I took Zach over there. And I went for a jog. I always prided myself on the health and fitness, but damn, when I was that sick on drugs and alcohol, I was not exercising and I was not taking care of myself, but that morning I went for like a mild jog, it about killed me, and I did some push-ups and sit-ups, and every day after that, I just started slowly, you know, doing a little bit more for my health and I’ll stop there and let you ask any more questions, but from there it’s been amazing.

Mike (09:24):

It’s fascinating. And the thing that’s really important that you mentioned is that you found some people in those 12 step programs that showed you what was possible. And then the interesting part now is that you’re kind of that person for other people and, you know, people who are listening, maybe they’re struggling with their own problems. They’re going to benefit by hearing your story. And the interesting part for me is that, you know, it wasn’t, like you said, that birth of your son was a key moment, but it wasn’t like all of a sudden I’m sober and clean, right. You have a struggle, you had to work through it. And the really cool part is that, you know, when you had that day and you throw out all the stuff you found, you kind of got back into fitness at that point, you know this is probably the right point to ask you, like, how did that first jog that first horrible one mile jog, how did that lead into 2014 opening a gym? Like what happened in those periods?

Chris (10:13):

Yeah. OK. So, well, I think what it was is I really started regularly attending 12 step groups and I got a mentor or they call it a sponsor in there. And he really helped guide me and, because like I said, I had some issues before I started using drugs and alcohol and I had to work on those. Right? Like, there’s lots of things that people struggle with in life beyond drugs and alcohol, even people that don’t have problems with those, we end up forming unhealthy coping mechanisms because we have issues usually dealing with emotions.

Mike (10:45):

There’s something underlying, right?

Chris (10:45):

Yes. So I had to really start working on that. And that really was a catalyst. I look at it as there were people in my life that loved me until I could love myself. And I really try to put that into practice when I, you know, help people with their fitness and health too, if they’ve let themselves slide to that point to where, you know, they just don’t like themselves.

Chris (11:12):

Then we gotta start with that. Some small victories to start liking ourselves again. And building that confidence. Like I always tell people, even in my no sweat intros, when I sit down with them, everything you do that is good for your health, everything we do, whether it’s just, you know, adding a vegetable to a meal or just going for a walk once a day, or, you know, three times a week or anything, that is sending ourselves a positive message that we care about ourselves. And we need that. Everybody needs that. And then of course our gym, we want to add that we have a lot of cheerleaders for you too, along the way. Cause we all need a cheerleader. But so anyway, those early months and years of my sobriety, I just started adding up those little wins. Just those little wins, get 30 days clean and sober. You know, that was the first big one. That took me forever to get that first 30 days. And I was so just, I was like, OK, I can do this. And I went back to school. What’s that?

Mike (12:17):

It’s like a first pull-up or a first muscle-up.

Chris (12:17):

Yeah, absolutely great. And they celebrated it in the meetings, right? Like they ask you to stand up and acknowledge that and be proud of yourself because it is huge. Drug addiction and alcoholism, like you said, it is no small matter getting off that. There is many people dying all over the world all the time from it.

Mike (12:38):

It’s physical and mental too. People don’t realize that like there are physical and mental aspects of that. That it’s not just like snap your fingers and make a choice.

Chris (12:45):

Yes. So that was why it was huge that I started working, doing some self-work and working the steps they call it with a mentor, just like Chris Cooper’s big on having mentors in all our different areas. I have that like with my spiritual, in my spiritual area, I still have mentors. And now I have a business mentor with Two-Brain Business. And I totally believe in that, that we need that mentor in our different areas of life and a coach to help us see the things that we don’t see that are holding us back. And so that started that process. But as far as the fitness, I just really early on started feeling this high from working out and it was endorphins. I mean, there’s a physical, you know, there’s a science explanation behind it too.

Chris (13:35):

But I replaced that high that I was getting from the drugs, with this exercise high. And I started pushing myself more and more jogging farther. That was really all I did in the beginning. It was mainly running, maybe a few push-ups and sit-ups, and pull-ups if I found a tree branch, but I was not, that was like 2005. I hadn’t heard of CrossFit. I don’t even know if it really started yet. But so then I got into triathlons and I, like I said, I went back to school. Zach was really young and he started school and he’d go to school with me sometimes to college classes, it was a beautiful time in my life because my son and I were growing up together. Right. And I was in school, working part time. So I had actually a schedule of a student to where I could spend more time with him.

Chris (14:20):

We’d go on vacations in the summer. But fast forward to about 2010, I moved back to southwest Iowa, which is where I opened CrossFit TYL.

Mike (14:31):

Just south of Des Moines? Correct?

Chris (14:31):

Yeah. Yep. South and West of Des Moines, Iowa, which is the capital of Iowa. And so, I started working for a public health agency after I got my degree from Iowa state and I was working in an office. I was working in health, but it just wasn’t my jam. It was too much just having a boss isn’t always the best thing for me, going through the red tape of working for government. It just, and I didn’t get to work one-on-one with people. And so like maybe you and just so many people’s stories I hear in CrossFit, I just started doing some of these CrossFit workouts online and I loved them. And then we went on a trip, a training trip for my public health job.

Chris (15:15):

And I looked out the hotel room and there was, they said CrossFit Decatur in Atlanta, Georgia was where the trip was. And I was like, I’m going to go there and try this CrossFit out. That was 2012, maybe 2013. And I went there and they did Helen for a workout and I was hooked, hook line and sinker. I just was running kettlebell swings and pull-ups, and the people there were so welcoming. And I just, when I came home, Zach at that point was like 10 years old, my son and I had sole custody of him by that point, we just went through a lot together, but I made him get up at 6:00 AM in the morning and do CrossFit workouts,

Mike (15:58):

And I’ll use the old analogy. Now they say like, marijuana is the gateway drug is like, Helen is the gateway workout for you and all of a sudden you are right in there.

Chris (16:07):

I love it

Mike (16:09):

Because so many people have done that. Right. It’s just, they try it once. It’s like, I’m in.

Chris (16:13):

So literally I came home and I was like, I rode my bike to work. And I rarely used my car. We just lived in a small town and I had a one car garage and it was full of junk. And I’m like, I’m getting all this crap out of here and turn this into a gym, into my little CrossFit gym. And I started telling some friends around town. And before you knew it, you know that January, I’m like, we’re going to be doing CrossFit here in the morning. Who wants to join me. And few people join me. And then all of a sudden there’s a bunch of people coming. I was like, OK, I guess we’ll do night classes. And I remember you talking about this is on a podcast or maybe reading it from somewhere that you had people working out in your yard. And that brought back such good memories because I started in January in my one car garage and it was just frigid, but we kept the garage door closed, no heat out there. But you know, we were jammed in there about seven or eight of us. Most we could fit. But by that summer, there were times I had 15 or 20 people out in my yard doing lifts, throwing the barbell down in my front yard, making all these big dents in my yard.

Mike (17:22):

I can imagine what your front yard looks like.

Chris (17:24):

My neighbors were just like, what in the hell is going on over there. And it grew so quickly that I’m like, I need to get a space. And then within a few months, I’m like, these people are looking to me as their coach. I need to go get certified. So I found the closest L1 in St. Louis, Missouri. I literally had, I didn’t have enough money to pay the thousand dollars. But I got a tax return that year. I got some money back for my taxes and that’s what I used. But I drove to St. Louis and slept in my car the Friday night before the training. Not in a hotel I slept in a hotel parking lot next to where the training was and slept in my car there that night. And then I got a really cheap motel Saturday night, so I could study for the test and I passed.

Chris (18:13):

And that really that getting that L1 really did give me the confidence to really start coaching people. And then probably about a year after that was when I decided to open an affiliate because I’d been doing this garage gym and these classes with Mount Air Iowa, which is kind of my hometown. It’s a really small town, 30 miles away from Preston. It’s only like 1500. So I had this garage gym going there. Preston was, it has a community college. It’s a little bit bigger. And I’m like, if I’m going to make a living doing this. Cause at this point I was coaching classes in the morning, in the evening and then working in my eight to 4:30 job at public health. And just realizing that all I looked forward to was coaching CrossFit, doing CrossFit before and after work.

Chris (19:02):

And I was wasting my time. I hope my old boss doesn’t listen to this, but dang, I was, most of the time during the day I was researching CrossFit and you know, learning CrossFit videos and learning to be a better coach. But luckily for my son, I let him stop doing CrossFit. Although he kept doing CrossFit between sports, but he got into sports. And but yeah, then that led to me. I mean that dream, getting that letter from CrossFit, that they accepted my affiliate in 2014. I just remember thinking this is a dream come true. I can’t even believe this is happening.

Chris Cooper (19:41):

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Mike (20:14):

So CrossFit, TYL, what does it stand for?

Chris (20:16):

Yeah. Great. Yeah. TYL stands for transcend your limits. You know, I tried a few different names, but a lot of the words that I felt were cool to use an affiliate name were taken. My garage gym was called misfit CrossFit. And that’s the first one I tried, but misfit athletics, which is a pretty popular name, or obviously they’ve been around and they know what they’re doing. That was too close to that. So, but yeah, TLY has ended up being a great name for us because we use it as a verb now, like when somebody gets their first pull-up or their first toe-to-bar, you TYL’d, you transcended your limits. And TYL tough. It’s kind of a hashtag to use all these things, but yes.

Mike (21:07):

We talk a lot Two-Brain about your vision, about, you know, getting members to repeat your vision. And that’s actually interesting thing where you’ve now got, you know, you’re using the name of your gym as a word for them to use as they train. And that’s kind of an interesting way to have your members, you know, know and embrace your vision. That’s really cool.

Chris (21:23):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was interesting because I had a friend from Boston, Massachusetts who kind of was in marketing and I had submitted maybe three or four names that got turned down from CrossFit. And I reached out to him, I’m like, Hey, you know, l’m trying to come up with a name and he was into CrossFit and he sent me, I think he sent me that phrase transcend your limits. And so I went, I was like, yep, that’ll work. Let’s do it. I’m just kind of tired of looking for a name but it has ended up working out well for sure.

Mike (21:56):

Well, let’s talk the business end of it now. So, you know, it’s very common, your story and my story are very similar and it’s not that rare in the community to find someone who got hooked on a workout, started training, found themselves surrounded by 10 20, 30 people started a gym and it kind of worked, but then the business end of it kind of comes back. And after the, you know, after Cindy and Fran and Helen are gone, you’re kind of like, OK, I gotta make some money here and I gotta figure this thing out. I struggled with that for a long time. I did it like you were, I had a full-time job. And that was kind of my fallback plan obviously, was to keep that full-time job. But the business was tough and it wasn’t until I hooked up with Two-Brain that I kind of started to figure things out with their help. So tell me about how did the business go for you when you started and where’s it at now?

Chris (22:42):

Yeah. Well, I’m just gonna start by saying I’m grateful. I found Coop and his blogs online and Two-Brain Business. And I used to read your stuff too. Didn’t you write for the CrossFit Journal?

Mike (22:54):

Yeah, it was my day job.

Chris (22:58):

So my day job like kept that as long as I could, but when I opened that affiliate, I just took that leap of faith and thought, well, with this many people in Creston, I should be able to get to a hundred members and that’ll, you know, get my equipment note paid off and this and that within a year. But did I severely underestimated like how much money it was going to cost basically and how, you know, just how things would go. Maybe I was being a little more optimistic or more accurately. My mom always says, I just wanted somebody to play with when I opened that gym, it was just about, I just wanted to do CrossFit with a bunch of people and coach people.

Chris (23:42):

I loved coaching of course, but I was into the competitive side of it and it did grow fairly quick. I already, I had a few people from Creston that I knew that knew a lot of people and it grew, and I had a cushion built up so I could pay the bills a year or two, even if I wasn’t, you know, making great money. But as it went on, it was, you know, probably three or four years into coaching every single class, pretty much, you know, from Dawn till dusk and then trying to wear all the other hats that I didn’t even know there were other hats really. I just thought there was coaching and owning and coaching and doing CrossFit as an athlete to make sure you had credibility, I guess, but then, you know, of course you have to start having customer service and you had, I didn’t even think about marketing for the first few years.

Chris (24:37):

I just posted stuff on social media, got enough response from that, usually in word of mouth, but it got to be a grind. And there were times that, you know, it just got to be tough that, you know, you can’t always be liked by everybody. That weighed on me at times. And, I don’t know. I guess it just started reading Coop’s blog posts. And I even had a call with him a few years ago. I wish I would’ve pulled the trigger, then but I said, no, that’s too much money for me right now. I can’t do that. But it got to be a grind of just, and I went to my level two training. I remember, and I told them how many classes I was coaching a week. And they were like, that’s not sustainable. You’ve got to, you know, you have to coach less so you can do some other things.

Chris (25:28):

They didn’t really, they weren’t using the Two-Brain Business lens as far as like, you need to get into higher value roles and start training your staff and evaluating your staff and having a system for retention. And that’s the other thing, like, I just did a horrible job of keeping track of any numbers. My only metrics of whether my business was working was do I have enough money at the end of the month to pay rent and pay the other, pay my bills? And usually I did, but sometimes I didn’t and there were times I had to figure out, you know, I didn’t usually borrow money, but it just seemed like something came up, you know, I’d get taxes back and stuff. And every dime I got, I would put back into the business, but it wasn’t ever really turning a profit.

Mike (26:11):

You were probably getting crushed at that point just by how much work it is to break even.

Chris (26:14):

And it really took Coop’s blogs about, I just remember things like, if you’re doing your customer service and your marketing and your, you know, whatever else, all these different hats we wear, coaching, then you’re doing it at like 20% capacity because you just don’t—I remember maybe it was even one of your blogs, but there was a blog about just, you know, talking about like after a long day of coaching and you come home and you got messages for members, you don’t even feel like responding to them. Or at best you respond to them just quickly and abruptly or even resent it sometimes. And I was just like, that’s not productive. All right. This has to be their best hour of their day. And when I was getting burned out on coaching, there were times that I started realizing I wasn’t the best coach for that class. If I’m burnt out. I need somebody in there that’s smiling. And so it just, yeah, just reading more and more. I was like, I need somebody to help me with this business because I’m not seeing my blind spots or I’m not, I need somebody to tell me what to do.

Mike (27:32):

So you went the path, you took the path of like the mentorship, which you know, you said you’ve taken before. So for you to get a mentor, wasn’t really that weird, right? Like you’ve done that path before to get out of addiction. And you said that that’s been an important part of your life, but what made—you said that when you first talked to Cooper, you didn’t pull the trigger. What made you pull the trigger this time? Was it just that like a growing sense of like, I’m kind of spinning my wheels or was there a specific incident that made you do it?

Chris (27:55):

Yeah, there was, I mean, so first of all, when you said I I’ve had a mentor before yes, I have, but I still had to fight the urge of not wanting to ask for help. I think that’s why I put it off. Like, you know, I just didn’t want to admit that I had no clue what I was doing. And I was afraid to look at my metrics and admit to a mentor that, you know, I don’t know why these numbers are, where they’re at with my expenses or my staff and whatnot. But so the thing, honestly, I didn’t actually hire Two-Brain Business until I got closed down for COVID for two months, you know, we were mandated closure and I actually qualified for this small business loan at the time. And I just knew that I needed Two-Brain Business’ leadership and mentorship at that point to help me get through the closure.

Chris (28:54):

And I mean, honestly, I kind of had that extra money. I mean, it was supposed to be used for payroll, which I did. I used it for expenses, but I also used that cushion to be like, OK. And I just, I also did not want to give up on this business. I had reached the point that it was just like, if I don’t start turning a profit here, I can’t help. You know, like you say, if you can’t keep your gym open, you can’t help anybody. And my mission is to help people, just my journey led me to creating this mission. My mission statement, my personal mission statement is I devote time on a daily basis to my physical, emotional, and spiritual health, thereby allowing me to help others do the same and that’s my compass in life. Right. Even if I’m struggling really hard with personal issues or whatever, right in the morning, I can just write that in my journal and say, Hey, if you strive to accomplish this mission today, you’ve done your job, Chris. But I just had reached the point. Well, I mean, the prospect of having to go back to working eight to four, nine to five or whatever in an office scares the hell out of me Mike, I don’t want that.

Mike (30:06):

Yeah. I know. I don’t like it either. I like where I’m at right now, doing podcasts with guys like you, but, you know, this was nine months ago. I understand. When you got shut down, if I’m not mistaken. And I know you said that you’ve made more progress in the last nine months than you did the six years prior. So I wonder, like what changed once you started during a COVID lockdown, working with a business mentor?

Chris (30:27):

Yeah. Great. So, well, I think the very first task I remember, Matt and I deciding on was for me, I had to start delegating because I was still just—Matt VanSchoyck. And they paired me up with another mentor at first, but I looked at the profiles and Matt’s gyms. They have two gyms, him and his wife, but they’re in the exact same demographic as me, small Midwestern town. And I’m like, Hey, if they can be successful in that market, then I can be successful in Creston, Iowa. So I chose him, but yeah, the main thing was right in the beginning. OK. You got to start offloading some group classes. So you can devote some time to CEO work and building the business instead of working in the business. And that took a little bit of time, but I had some people that came forward on my team and we had some newly certified coaches and we found a client success manager.

Chris (31:28):

She’s been great. And so slowly I was able to, you know, like I say slowly, I mean, it’s only been nine. Well, it’s been over, it’s been almost a year now since we closed last March. But as far as Two-Brain Business, probably nine to 10 months, but yeah, I had to just start trusting people to do things and realizing they wouldn’t do things exactly the same as me, but then like my client success manager, her being able to just work on that, she’s doing it to a hundred percent of her abilities, you know? And whereas I was doing it to like the 30% capacity cause I was doing everything else. And plus that’s not my forte. I mean, I’m nice to people. Sure. But cause like she’s the joy girl, like Coop calls it, she’s nice to everybody and she’s got a smile on her face.

Chris (32:20):

I can tell her bad news and she finds a good way to look at it. She’s become, you know, just we’ve developed a good relationship, right. To be able to help build the business with what she does. And then I started noticing as I delegated more, just little victories here and there of, OK, now I can breathe a little bit and I can, you know, do this for the business and really focus on the marketing or really, and even things like, you know, I just remember last May or June, my son Zach is now 19. I have another son who just turned 10, but I’m able to be more present for them. What more could we ask for my, you know, TYL we’re still trying to turn the corner financially, but we’re doing better there, but I was able to go watch my son Zachary’s golf meet, a couple of his golf meets last year, you know, for his freshman year of golf. And I swear to goodness, Mike, I would not have been able to do that before Two-Brain Business, because I would have just thought that I had to be at the gym and nobody else could coach. And I just Two-Brain Business helped me move out of my stuck mindset, basically.

Mike (33:39):

So what’s next? So you said like, obviously we’ve come through, probably what I’ve said many times is the most difficult year in the history of fitness where many gyms have been closed more than they’ve been open. It’s just been kind of, you know, a disaster for a lot of service businesses and so forth. And it’s just, it’s a tough time. On the positive side though, we’ve seen a ton of Two-Brain gyms, you know, grow and thrive and figure this thing out and actually, you know, start turning a profit, even getting, you know, more profitable because they’ve really focused on serving their clients and doing the things that we know they need to do to be profitable. So what is your arc look like now as you’re coming? I’m not sure where Iowa’s at in the COVID lockdown so forth, but what is your arc look like from now until, you know, a year from now?

Chris (34:20):

Yeah. Good question. Well, the way I see it for TYL is we have built a good foundation and added new services. So we have nutrition coaching now. We’re doing a lot more personal training. We are, you know, I’m focusing a lot on goal reviews and marketing and no sweat intros, you know, where I thrive and just really fully integrating every staff meeting we have, we’re talking about integrating this prescriptive model. And I always go back to saying, what’s the prescriptive model? In essence, it’s building a one-on-one relationship with everybody we have coming here. And so just really continuing to build on that. But then also my staff is doing more and more of the nutrition coaching and our fundamentals, which is our version of the on-ramp, you know, and onboarding new members, they’re building their skills. So they’re, you know, climbing towards having a career in this.

Chris (35:21):

And I’ve a couple staff members I’m really working with to try to build that career for them. And so, yeah, we’re really just, I mean, now we did have our best months since, before we closed COVID last month, but it’s been a really slow uphill climb back up there and I’m paying more staff now. So the business still isn’t necessarily turning a profit. We’re paying our bills. I guess you could say we’re turning a profit cause I’m paying myself too. That’s the way my mentor puts it. So I’ll go with that. But yes, it’s just.

Mike (36:00):

I’m gonna stop you for a sec there because that’s actually a huge thing. Like there are so many of us who started gyms and we didn’t pay ourselves. Right. We just, maybe there was something like leftover at the end of the month or whatever, but you know, paying yourself is a huge, huge win. And that’s like, you’re going, you know, if you look at the language that Chris has used in his book “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief,” you’ve gone from that founder stage where you just started the thing, you’re wearing all the hats, doing all the stuff, you’ve graduated to, where you’re now trying to create careers for people you’re trying to help people and you’re paying yourself. So now you’re actually a business owner rather than just doing the grind yourself. So like, I don’t want you to minimize that, that what you’re doing, maybe you’re not at that profitability stage, but that is a huge transition from doing everything to now leading a team. So, you know, I just want to point that out because it’s such a big thing that I went through as well. And it’s huge.

Chris (36:52):

Thank you so much, Mike. I appreciate it. Yep. You’re right. And I mean, along with that too, is that another one, a blog I read from Coop I believe is, you know, when we free up more time for CEO time, as in building the business to also consider CEO time, like when I’m doing self-growth work on myself to be a better leader and I’m able to do more of that and I see that paying off, right? Like when you say where’s our focus on the future, I still have to continue to focus on, you know, that part of me that wasn’t doing well, that led me to my addiction in the first place, which is, you know, not loving myself or not thinking I’m enough or not thinking I deserve to have a successful business. And so I’m able to work on those self limiting beliefs, through reading and podcasts and journaling and all these things that I just didn’t really have time for before.

Chris (37:52):

And those are super important. I mean, especially any business owner faces this, but dang it can be rough at times, especially when you change your system at your gym to where it’s different than it has been for a long time for our old members that have been there forever. And they don’t always like changes. And so I have to protect myself from taking on, you know, their complaints or, you know, that I have to make sure that I don’t take it personal and maintain this vision that what I’m doing is what is right for TYL in the long run. And those that want to stay and see TYL grow into this thriving temple of wellness in Southwest Iowa, which is that is our vision. They will stay, they will stay, everything will be OK.

Mike (38:47):

Thriving temple of wellness. You’ve got to write that down on your wall. If you haven’t it already,

Chris (38:51):

It’s written down. Yeah, you’re right. I should probably put it on a wall big and bold.

Mike (38:56):

Guys, if you’re listening and you’re interested in topics like this, back at our archives, we’ll get this in the show notes for you, Colm O’Reilly, a Two-Brain Business mentor. He actually had a suicide attempt and he talked a lot about what he went through and how he got through that and how we built a successful business over at CrossFit Ireland. So if this is a topic that’s interesting for you, because again, Chris, what you were talking about about that constant work on yourself and self-improvement, you know, again, referencing Chris’s whole plan. When you, as you grow as a business owner, it’s less about working on the business and more about working on yourself. And a lot of people figure that out as they get to this certain limit, they need to spend more time on themselves. So there is that reference. I’ll give you guys, if you want to listen to Colm talk about his experience coming back from depression and so forth. As we close this out.

Mike (39:42):

Yeah. It really is like, and I’m just so fascinated by that. And interestingly enough, we’re talking a lot at Two-Brain about mindset coaching now, you know, and again, we’re not treating clinical depression, things like that, but we are helping people maintain a positive mindset because we are coaches and we can coach squats. We can also coach habits and nutrition and all the other stuff. So the mindset key part is so important as we close this out. I just want to ask you this. For anyone who’s in a dark place right now, whether it’s financial, business, addiction, anything like that, what advice would you give them, help someone change right now? Because you’ve been there too. What would you say to that person?

Chris (40:16):

Well, I guess I would say, first of all, don’t give up. No matter what, don’t give up. But also reach out to someone that, you know, loves you. I hope you all have someone that, you know loves you no matter what. And be honest, be honest with where you’re at. Don’t hold that all inside. You gotta find somebody to be honest with. And boy, if you don’t have some family or somebody that you know loves you, there’s the spiritual side of it. It’s praying about it. But also there is help out there. There is help out there to find, whether it’s mental, emotional, or addiction wise, there is help. Don’t give up. You’re worth it. Your life is worth it, guys.

Mike (41:06):

Chris, thank you so much for sharing your story. And I wish you all the best at CrossFit TYL. Would like to talk, you know, in a year or so and see where you’re at.

Chris (41:14):

Thank you so much, Mike. I know you can’t see me right now, but I have a really big smile on my face talking to you, and you letting me share my story. So take care brother.

Mike (41:24):

Thank you so much. That was Chris Doster and this is Two-Brain Radio. If you have not done so, you need to join Gym Owners United group on Facebook. Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper regularly posts articles, instructional videos and advice in there. And it’s the only public group he’s in. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook. Join today.

 

The post From Drugs to Double-Unders: The Chris Doster Story appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Stop Losing Clients Before They Start

When do your clients quit?

Mapping the client journey means finding out where clients “wash out” and then creating processes to keep them.

In this post, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor Brian Zimmerman tells you when many clients cancel their memberships and explains what you can do about it.

Let’s set the table: Imagine you’re meeting a stranger for a blind date. You don’t know what the person looks like or what you’ll talk about. You do know that you’re going to have to exercise in front of the person—and you’re way out of shape.

Anxiety? You bet.

Here’s Brian with some actionable advice.

Drop-Off Point No. 1

If you want to keep clients for years, you can’t lose them before they even start.

Implementing these tactics and improving your onboarding process will help you keep the sales you’ve made and put clients on the path to long-term success. When they stay longer, you make people healthier and you profit more.

The period after the sale but before the first session can be a challenging time.

Signing up for something new is a huge emotional strain, and your clients’ excitement is sometimes followed by doubt. If there is doubt, your clients can begin to feel “buyer’s remorse” and call you to ask for a refund.

Reassurance is the best way to ensure buyer’s remorse doesn’t take hold. To bridge the gap between registration and on-ramp, we can simply deliver something we didn’t promise—something special the client isn’t expecting.

Client Experience: A client has just signed up for a $1,000 package. You say “welcome to CrossFit Jungle Gym!” and hand over a T-shirt. The T-shirt adds to the excitement the client already has from signing up! The next day, when the person is questioning the decision to sign up to train with you, a handwritten note from you arrives in the mail. It reassures the new client that you’re taking his or her decision seriously.

Another example: Your new client might be perfectly satisfied with the purchase and in no danger of succumbing to buyer’s remorse. But maybe the thought of meeting a coach for the first time is causing anxiety. We want to ease that anxiety as much as we can or the client might never show up.

Client Experience: At the intro consultation, you do a great job of building rapport. You pick up on one of the client’s hobbies (golf), and you know that one of your coaches is also a golfer. You match the client with that coach and tell the new client a little golf story about the coach. Then an appointment reminder gets sent out that has the coach’s picture in it. The client is put at ease and knows he or she shares at least one point of interest with the coach. This simple action starts to break down barriers, reduce anxiety and create bonds.

Take Action

Read this article: “The New Client Journey: Design and Deliver.”

Now answer these two questions:

1. What “welcome” gifts, messages or information can help reassure your new clients and remind them that they’ve made the right decision?

2. How are you currently making the client-coach introduction, and how could you improve this process?

The post Stop Losing Clients Before They Start appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Leading a Larger Team

By Per Mattsson, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

As your business grows, you need to grow your team. As you grow your team, you need to grow as a leader and spend more time actually leading.

The challenges in leading a larger team are more complex than leading a small team, but the rewards are also bigger. When you grow your team, and when your team members grow, you as an owner will have more freedom.

But if you don’t learn how to delegate and coach your team, you might end up working more than before because you will have more people to “control” and help all the time.

In one of my gyms, CrossFit 162 West, we are currently at 275 members and 175 kids and teens. We have a lot of sport-specific training, a “Mama CrossFit” program, a physio center, a nutrition coaching service and a bootcamp. It goes without saying: We need a large team. At the moment, we have 22 staff members excluding owners.

Here is how we coach our staff in their specific roles.

Group Training Coaches

Group coaches make up around half of our team. They coach kids classes or adult classes or both. 

Here are the regular touch points:

Performance reviews three times a year.Career Roadmap meetings twice a year.Staff meetings every month.

We make sure they know what’s expected, and we ensure follow-up on everything. These coaches don’t have to take an active part in audience building—such as making social media posts or creating content—but we encourage it. 

4/9ths Coaches

This is what we call coaches who are are paid using the 4/9ths Model or “provision model,” as we call it in our gym. We use this model for nutrition coaching, personal training, manual therapy, sports-specific training, online coaching and more.

Here are the regular touch points:

Performance reviews three times a year.Career Roadmap meetings twice a year.Staff meetings every month.Individual meetings every other week.

In the individual meetings, I coach my staff members to succeed in their specific roles. Four-ninths coaches must learn about audience building, intrapreneurialism and leadership. Besides all that, they must follow all our standard operating procedures and deliver service according to standards—just like everyone else. 

To get the most out of people in these roles, I step up my coaching and my leadership, and we meet more regularly. Accountability is key. My job is to challenge these staff members and help them grow, to make sure they find structure and learn how to be efficient. I help them in every possible way because they are our key players.

The 4/9ths coaches are the ones who have said they want to do this for a living. The stakes are higher and so are the rewards, so I give them as much as I can!

Mastermind Group

Some individuals always want more. Perhaps they dream of running their own gym one day or perhaps they want to become managers and take on more responsibility.

Here are the regular touch points:

Individual meetings every other week.Monthly group meetings.

We have a couple of these people, and I coach them in our “Mastermind Group.” They are 4/9ths coaches who have expressed an interest in running their own gyms or learning more about running a business. This is a perfect opportunity for me to really find “the best of the best” and coach them to growth in key roles in our business. One of these people might be our next GM, our next partner in our next gym or just a very bright star in a current gym. It makes perfect sense for me to spend lots of time and energy on helping them develop as leaders.  

These people still have individual meetings with me, but we also meet as a group once a month. Our meetings are focused on growing their personal brands, building our shared audience, developing leadership skills and learning more about every part of running a business. They might already be responsible for different revenue streams in our gym, such as Mama CrossFit, the physio center, nutrition or Mini Kids. 

Every meeting is also based on some sort of previously assigned homework that is often connected to a book we are both reading. 

Rewarding Interest and Initiative

This is just a high-level overview of our basic structure, but you can imagine how detailed our processes are to ensure we always get great results.

The main point I want to drive home: With more than 20 staff members, I can’t coach everyone the same way. The more they want to do and the more they want to learn, the more time and effort they get from me.

The post Leading a Larger Team appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

The Gift of Crisis

By Andrea Savard, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

The COVID Crisis is one of the greatest gifts we’ve been given as gym owners—if we choose to see the forest through the trees.

Despite the hardships of the past year, I’m incredibly grateful. Here’s why.  

Lockdowns in March shut many of us down without warning—some for two to four months and others for six to eight months or longer. Once we were allowed to reopen, we had a chance to start over—this time with a wealth of experience supporting every move.  

At FirePower, my gym, we took full advantage of the phrase “due to COVID.” We changed almost everything: membership structure, pricing strategy, access and sign-in procedures, class sizes, schedule, coaching strategy and programming. We even revised our branding. We cut useless programs and launched two new revenue streams more aligned with our vision (that changed, too).  

We were forced to slash expenses and return to lean spending. We eliminated useless software subscriptions, sold old equipment, removed items from retail, consolidated our staff roles and eliminated redundant work—all while increasing our customer service to levels not seen since we first opened a decade ago.

As a gym community, we relied on each other for support, validation and courage. We leaned on our mentors, found specialty mentors and learned to ask for help. We rediscovered the importance of work-life boundaries and the value of being away from work. Some found clarity and realized they didn’t want to be in this line of work anymore. This realization was good for all parties.

In hindsight, none of this would have happened without a major business disruption like COVID. My gym is down a quarter of a million in revenue over 2020. But despite that, I’m excited to start fresh and eager to rise again.  

The post The Gift of Crisis appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Clarity for Gym Owners: 6 Things to Do Right Now

Chris (00:02):

You’re working way too much for way too little.

Andrew (00:04):

This is Two-Brain Radio. Here’s your host, Chris Cooper.

Chris (00:08):

Chris Cooper here to talk about Level Method. 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. It’s a total game changer that creates powerful moments that you’ll never forget. I use it at Catalyst, it improved my conversion and my retention. Go to levelmethod.com to find out more.

Chris (00:42):

My name is Chris Cooper. Ask me how I know this is true: You are working from 5:00 AM till about nine at night. The money that you take home is still too little, especially for the work that you’re putting out. I know this because I’ve been a gym owner for well over 20 years, and I’ve been a mentor to gym owners for about eight years now. We’ve worked with thousands of gyms around the world, and this is what it all boils down to. You’re working way too hard for what you’re getting back in return. Now I’m not talking about the amazing feeling that you’re getting from changing people’s lives and bringing them to health and fitness.

Chris (01:17):

I’m not talking about the impact that you’re having on the world. Those are amazing things. I’m talking about the grocery bill, I’m talking about not fighting with your spouse because you’re not making enough money. I’m talking about feeling kind of deflated, or even at odds with your business. Like you have to go to war every morning because you’re not getting out the same amount that you’re putting in. That’s what I’m talking about here. Now here’s the solution, because I want to give you some clarity. There’s lots of books in the fitness business now. I’ve written about five of them. And there’s a lot of information out there for free. Even on our site, twobrainbusiness.com, you can get free tools. And even in our program, sometimes there’s so much information available that you can actually get overwhelmed. And I’ll talk about how you solve that in a moment

Chris (02:07):

If you’re listening and you’re within the Two-Brain family already. Our problem is not access to information. It’s not the acquisition of education. Our problem is clarity. It’s focus. You’re probably doing way too many things. Instead of doing the six things that you need to do to have a successful business, most business owners in the fitness industry or not spend way too much time doing stuff that has no impact on them and way too little time doing the six core things that they need to do to grow their business. So today I’m going to break down your business into its six parts. We call those the six areas of excellence. And I’m going to tell you the number one strategy that we use to grow your business at each of those parts. In many of these cases, I’m going to give you a free resource that you can just copy and download from our site for free and just use it.

Chris (03:00):

If you’re in the Two-Brain family already, I’m going to tell you how to get more from your mentorship by seeking clarity instead of acquiring knowledge. All right, so here we are the six areas of your business. And if you’ve already purchased my book, “Gym Owners Handbook,” you know what these are. There are six things that you can do to grow your business. You can keep the clients that you have longer. You can sell more to the clients that you currently have by practicing help first. You can get more clients through your doors. On the operation side, you can make more money for the time that you’re working by improving your operations, making them streamlined, replacing yourself by teaching the vision to the rest of your team and getting everybody pulling the sleigh in the same direction. And then by upgrading your team by constantly improving the people that you have working for you.

Chris (03:53):

So the six areas of excellence again, are keep your clients longer, sell more to the clients that you have, get more clients to sign up, improve your operations, teach your vision and upgrade your team. These are the six areas of excellence, and I break them all down in “Gym Owners Handbook.” But today I want to tell you one strategy for each of these six areas. And if you just keep doing these strategies, instead of chasing new ideas all the time, you will be successful. Here it is. This might be the shortest podcast I’ve ever done. First. How do you keep your clients longer? The number one thing that you can do is to have a clear onboarding process that’s done one-on-one. Way back years ago, 2008, I think we found the on-ramp process from Nikki Vialetti and she does not get enough credit for setting this thing up, but she had this 21 day on ramp process and she was delivering it sometimes in group, I think sometimes in one-on-one and it helped people get up to speed on CrossFit faster.

Chris (04:59):

But what we found over time was that our one-on-one personal training clients actually stuck around way longer. And in the cases where they did integrate into a group training, they actually did way better in those groups, not just performance wise, but also longevity wise. They had fewer injuries. They were willing to pay more for the groups. They sought more help. They progressed way faster. And so when we started tracking data in my gym, the first thing that we noticed was that people who had a one-on-one on-ramp process integrated into the groups better and stuck around far longer, like four times longer than people who just came in, did a free trial, signed up for a group and then, you know, kind of did group workouts with us. When we took that finding to other gyms, first dozens of other gyms then hundreds and now thousands.

Chris (05:49):

What we found is that clients who have a one-on-one on-ramp process stick around about 3.2 times as long as clients who don’t. This is critical. There are a thousands ways used to do on-ramp. You should do it one on one. You can make on-ramp be too short. You know, three half-hour sessions. We’re going to teach you the hinge, the press, and the squat. You could also make it too long. If I have to take six months to get up to speed to your product, then maybe I’m not going to wait that long. So the number one thing that you can do to keep clients longer is a one-on-one on-ramp. Set that up now if you don’t have it. If you do have it, you can dig deeper and set up a client journey map. OK? But today we’re just talking about the things that will actually improve your business.

Chris (06:38):

Then the thing that you can do to make your business grow is to sell this on-ramp over and over and over, do not be distracted by 30 different options. Do not be distracted by what gifts should I send? When should I send a handwritten card? Just execute on this. Don’t worry about, should I do a workout? Should I do a trial workout? Should I have a test out? No, just focus on setting up your on-ramp and delivering that consistently with excellence. The number two thing that you have to focus on is sell more to your current clients. That means you have to set up a prescriptive model. This is important for retention, but it’s also where the gyms that are most successful set up their clients for long-term client value. This is the thing that’s pulling gyms’ average revenue per member up, and it’s not a sales process.

Chris (07:33):

It’s a coaching process. A prescriptive model starts with a consultation. You can charge for the consultation or do it for free. We do it for free and we call it a no sweat intro. During that consultation, you’re going to have a motivational interviewing process where you ask the person to get really deep into the reasons they want to get coached by you. Then you’re going to prescribe them some combination of nutrition and exercise. You might choose a nutrition plan like the zone. You might choose habits-based nutrition coaching, which is what we recommend. You might choose an exercise plan like CrossFit. You might choose a different method like Pilates or barre or best case you might combine everything. The key though is that after about three months, you’re meeting with that client again, you’re measuring the process and you’re changing the prescription because everybody makes gains in the first three months, no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing CrossFit or bodybuilding or sprinting, whatever.

Chris (08:32):

Everybody will make some progress. And everybody’s progress will taper off after three months. And so you have to change the prescription depending on how they’re doing. That’s the key and setting these goal reviews, which is the revisiting of the prescription really sets you up for long-term client success, which sets you up for long-term client retention, which sets you up for very long-term client value. And that is how you sell more, is through goal reviews and a prescriptive model. The third thing is to get more leads. This is where most people get lost because when we sign up for this job, we sign up because of the delivery side, we want to coach. We don’t sign up because we want to market or sell or build an audience. And so we get paralyzed. And at the same time, there’s more information on this area of our business than any other, because this is attractive and sexy and novel.

Chris (09:26):

And it fires off those little synopsis in our brain that say, Oh, I got to do that. And it triggers things like FOMO. I gotta be on Clubhouse because I think everybody is. And I can’t neglect my Twitter account. The key though is to identify what’s working really well for you and execute on that consistently. The foundation of your marketing plan is referrals. Every new client that comes in your door should generate at least one or two more clients, if you’re doing a good job, but they won’t automatically do that because your clients are not salespeople. And so you have to set up a referral process. This process has to be consistent, which means it has to feel natural and good to you. Nobody likes feeling like a salesman. Nobody likes asking for referrals. And so we dodge the problem by putting the onus on our clients.

Chris (10:20):

Well, they should be referring to me because I helped them lose weight, but they don’t. Well, they should be referring to me because I offered them 50 bucks off next month. But they don’t. Who wants to sell out their best friend for 50 bucks? The way that you get client referrals in a consistent way is affinity marketing. And you can download our free affinity marketing cheat sheet from our website. I’ll post the link in the show notes. Basically, the way it works is this. You pick out your top five clients. You say, I want to help these people more than I’m currently helping them. I get to see them for four hours a week. And every other hour of their day, they are surrounded by people who are not building them up and who might be pulling them backward into negative health and fitness habits.

Chris (11:08):

How do I change this person’s life by changing their environment when they’re outside of the gym? Step one, change their life when they’re inside the gym. Step two, change the environment that surrounds them when they’re not. And how do I do that? By changing the lives of the people in those environments, by changing the lives and habits of the people they live with, the people they work with and the people that they hang around with on the weekend, because if you’ve got a client who’s training hard three days a week, but on the weekend, they’re in the pizza tasting subcommittee of the lion’s club. And they go drinking at their bowling league twice a week, too. You’re not going to make meaningful progress. And so you don’t need to change their friends. Maybe you don’t need to change the bowling habit maybe, but maybe by changing any little part of that, the training that you provide for that client will be multiplied exponentially in final results.

Chris (12:07):

So affinity marketing says, sit down with the client, but before you do think about who they live with, work with, and play with and offer to help those people. And that’s how referral marketing can be done in a way that doesn’t feel sleazy, in a way that follows the philosophy of help first. So the third thing that you need to be doing consistently with excellence is affinity marketing.

Chris (12:32):

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.

Chris (13:42):

So of the three areas of excellence that we’ve covered so far, you need to have an on-ramp plan. You need to set up a prescriptive model and you need to practice affinity marketing. Affinity marketing the first couple of times you try it makes you feel uncomfortable. It feels like you’re asking somebody out for a first date.

Chris (13:59):

Granted, you need to have courage until you’ve done it a few times and gotten some reps and then you’ll have confidence instead. Confidence will replace that courage. But this is one thing where you can’t just learn about it. And that’s enough. You have to actually do it. You have to get reps and reps and reps. And when you do, you won’t need to do anything else probably. Now we teach Facebook advertising. We teach Instagram tactics. We even teach Clubhouse tactics. Even though I took a shot at Clubhouse earlier. And these all layer on top of affinity marketing, if you want them to. But just like you need to have solid nutrition to build your exercise on, you need to have a solid referral strategy to build your advertising and your other marketing on. OK. The fourth area of excellence is to improve your operations. The number one thing you can do here is build a staff playbook. Tell people what you want them to do in advance.

Chris (14:54):

Instead of just thinking, they’re going to figure it out or correcting them when they screw up. If all you’re doing is saying, well, you did that wrong, or here’s how you can improve next time. Then you’re not giving people an opportunity to ever do it, right? Because nobody can read your mind. The very first thing that my very first mentor had me do is to write a staff playbook. It ruined my weekend. I’ve been building on it for 15 years now. And that’s why we give like a really clear template to people because I don’t want you wasting a week on this, but I want you to have it. If you don’t tell people what to do, they have to guess. And every time they have to guess, there’s a very good chance they’re going to guess wrong, which creates all kinds of friction.

Chris (15:37):

It costs you clients. It costs you staff. It costs you money and it costs you time to fix it, which means you just can’t scale. The fifth area of operations is to teach the vision. You have to know what you’re trying to achieve locally. And you have to teach that to your staff. And you have to teach that to your clients. This is the sixth area of excellence and the one that few people take seriously. But if you look at like the most successful gyms in Two-Brain, the people who are in our tinker level program, they have dialed this vision in. This creates alignment. It reduces resistance and friction because everybody’s working toward the same goal. For example, my vision is to have 7,000 people meaningfully change their health and fitness and Sault St. Marie at my gym Catalyst. My strategy is to work with 150 high-value clients at a time providing nutrition and exercise coaching.

Chris (16:39):

My tactics were CrossFit for a while. That’s how I was running my groups. I have personal training, customized programs. I have online coaching for people who can’t make it to the gym. We have pivoted from coaching macros to coaching habits now for our nutrition program. Those are my tactics. That’s what I use as a coach. And my coaching has evolved over the last 25 years. It’s evolved many, many, many times, and it will evolve again, but those are my tactics. That’s not my product. My vision is not sell CrossFit to 5,000 people in Sault St. Marie, it’s to meaningfully change the health and fitness of 7,000 people over the next 30 years that my gym is around. And by the way, I just realized, as I’ve said this, that my gym has been around for 16 years now. So we’re halfway there. The sixth area of excellence, I’m sorry. I need to go back here. The way that you set up that vision is by following a process that we call the vivid vision. This comes to us from Cameron Herold, who spoke at last year’s summit. He’s got a great book called “The Vivid Vision.” You can follow that exercise. We also help you do it step by step in our mentorship programs. The sixth area of is to upgrade your team. Now, this is often mistaken as get team more certs. If they get their L 2 or their black belt, or like their alpha dog yoga certificate,

Chris (18:01):

then that’s upgrading my team, but that’s not actually the case. Most people are good already at the technical components, they’ve taken their L1. They’ve taken their Pilates reformer certification. They’ve taken their precision nutrition and that’s awesome. That’s their toolkit. That is not enough to make them a great coach. To be a great coach, they need to learn empathy. They need to learn how to make a long-term plan for a client and deliver on that plan with consistency with that client over time, they need to know how to coach people one-on-one even in a group setting, they need to know how to deliver nutrition coaching based on habits instead of counting macros, they need to consider what’s legal to do. And also like what’s effective for this client right now, but most importantly of all, they need to know what does this client need right now? You need to provide them that training if you want to have a solid business. All right. So tools. I’ll recap. The six areas of excellence, keep your clients longer. Sell more to your current clients, get more clients, improve your operations, teach your vision, upgrade your team. Top strategies in each for keeping your clients longer is an on-ramp. Map your client journey. We do that with you in the mentorship program, but whatever you do, start an on-ramp process one on one right now. Sell more to your current clients, set up a prescriptive model. We teach you that step-by-step in our program. Get more clients, start with referral marketing, layer media on top of that, layer social media on top of that, layer advertising at the peak. Those are your priorities. I don’t have to do advertising at Catalyst because I’m very, very good at the foundational level of referral marketing. Improve operations, build a staff playbook, do it.

Chris (19:51):

Teach the vision, write your vivid vision and teach it to your staff at regular staff meetings, and then upgrade your team. Evaluate your coaches, do a career roadmap with them frequently, and then teach them what they need to do to make money. The simpler you keep things, the more results you’ll get. Now, obviously these are just the tip of the iceberg, or are they? These are actually the foundation for everything else. If I said to you, all you need to do to get fit is to learn how to squat, hinge and press, that would tell you what you need to be doing consistently, but it would not give you the exact details. The problem is there are so many options for the details that we get overwhelmed and do nothing. And the people who aren’t starting at your gym are the same way.

Chris (20:41):

But today we’re talking about you. We have over 430 masterclasses in Two-Brain Business. That’s way too many. Most of our clients will never tap more than about a quarter of those. The key though is knowing which one you need to do right now. The key is not knowledge. The key is clarity, and that’s why we’re a mentorship program. If you’re anything like me, or if your Facebook feed looks anything like mine, you’re now seeing a ton of business coaches in the fitness space. There are what I would call like coaching mills set up now where you pay $10,000 to this guru and they will like train you to sell a fitness business course to fitness business owners. Right? And this is true in every niche. It’s not just fitness, but these are the ones that I see. These are people who generally sell the course before they even build it.

Chris (21:38):

They’ll sell you on like join our paid Facebook group first. And then like, here’s the course. And then we’re going to, you know, offer you support through this Facebook group. And that’s cool. And sometimes they help. My problem is that they don’t provide any kind of clarity. In fact, what they’re doing is they’re selling knowledge. And as I’ve said before, knowledge is not your problem, the knowledge is out there. The key is doing the reps. It’s getting clarity on what are the things that I need to be doing today and what are the things that I need to keep doing over and over and over to the exclusion of all these other options. And that’s really what mentorship is all about. When I talk to my mentor, he is used to talking to other gurus in other spaces. God, I think I just called myself a guru there.

Chris (22:26):

I hate that. And what he’s used to seeing is one person selling a course with very, very low overhead and just trading in knowledge, making a quick million and then getting the hell out. He’s used to seeing people who have about a three-year arc. That’s not what we do. Instead, what we do is provide a very personalized one-on-one mentorship program. Our mentors are not your virtual assistants. They are not your administrators. These are people who have actually been where you are and have been successful by putting our strategies into play. And so while our courses are there and they’re beautiful, and they’ll tell you exactly what you need to do, it’s really the mentors job to decide here’s what you need to know right now, and then guide you through it. Here’s what it all boils down to. It’s not just the knowledge. Knowing how Facebook ads work doesn’t make you any money.

Chris (23:26):

Knowing that affinity marketing exists. It’s simple. It’s a thing. That doesn’t make you any money. Doing the reps makes you money. What’s stopping you from doing the reps? It’s the acquisition of knowledge. It’s like, Oh, I’m going to tune into this podcast, go on Clubhouse at this time, read this article, watch this video. And while you do need to acquire knowledge, you need a lot less than you think, but you need to execute a lot more than you are. I hope this helps. “Gym Owners Handbook” tries to make this a lot clearer, but there’s really no substitute for mentorship. As my friend John Franklin said to me a couple of years ago, the top strategy that mentors can provide is do this thing that we know works until it works. Simple yet profound. Execution of the basics with excellence will always get you farther than trying to do everything or even too many things.

Andrew (24:24):

For more from Chris Cooper, 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.

 

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The Real Cost of Doing Everything Yourself

By Brooks DiFiore, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

What does it cost to not hire a cleaner?

At Two-Brain Business, we talk to our clients daily about removing themselves from “low-value roles.”

“Low value” doesn’t mean the role we are looking to unload isn’t essential to our business. It means that we can replace ourselves and free up time without breaking the bank, and we will get a return on our investment as we move to roles that generate more revenue—”higher-value roles.” We call this “climbing the value ladder.”

For most gym owners, some lower-value roles are easy to hand off: bookkeeper, cleaner, admin person and social media manager. Other roles can be more difficult because we either love them (coach, programmer, etc.) or we don’t have the right person to fill that role. 

One of the lowest-value roles in a gym is programmer. Here’s a summary of the role:

Supervisor: Generally the owner or head coach.Task: Design a program to provide clients with their desired results. Time to Complete Task: Five hours per week. 

Before we go into how much it would cost to remove yourself from the role, let’s estimate how much revenue you could create with the freed time if you dedicated it to only three tasks:

Goal setting and coffee with current clients.Nurturing leads and creating content to attract new clients.Reaching out to past clients.

Your goal each week is to have five conversations. That means one hour to initiate contact and have a meaningful dialogue with someone. For easy math, let’s assume you successfully contact three of five people, and of those three, one buys something from you—either a new membership or an add-on service. If you do this every week for a month, you will make four new sales. If each of those sales is worth $150 a month, you have successfully generated $600 a month in new cash flow. 

That $600 puts your effective hourly rate (EHR) for those 20 hours at $30 an hour for the month. But we need to take it a step further. 

Let’s say you keep clients for 12 months on average, and you repeat the process each week, using five hours to have conversations with current, potential or past clients: If you add four memberships each month, your ROI from outsourcing that time over 12 months is $43,200. Retention is a multiplier!

Your EHR for the time you reclaimed by outsourcing programming is $180 an hour. 

Replacement Cost

Now that we know what you can earn, let’s talk about what it would cost to replace yourself as programmer. 

Well, if you’re a Growth client with Two-Brain, you can replace yourself for free. It’s why we created Two-Brain Programming. Each month—for free—we give our Growth members programming proven to boost adherence and retention. With this service, you will save money and time whether you currently purchase outside programming or program yourself and want to offload the task.

If you’re not a Growth client, outsourcing programming to a third party generally costs between $100 and $200 a month. If you consider the 20 hours a month it takes to write a good program, outsourcing is like paying someone $5-10 an hour. That’s pretty good. 

Taking the average of $150 a month for third-party programming over a year, you are adding an expense of $1,800 to free up the time you need to generate $43,200 in gross revenue. 

That’s a 24x return on investment. 

Programming is just one example. You could perform the same exercise and calculate what it would cost to replace yourself in other areas of your business. 

So is it really too expensive to replace yourself? And can you really afford to do everything yourself? Or would your business grow if you calculated the true costs of replacement and moved into higher-value roles?

The post The Real Cost of Doing Everything Yourself appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Don’t Push: Light the Way With Vision

By Ashley Haun, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

In January 2020, my gym was humming along.

We had two full-time staff members: one general manager and one head coach, along with five part-time coaches and one nutrition coach. We had done our annual plan and settled into working to increase revenue by 25 percent per month. 

I was pushing my team. I was pushing the revenue. I was pushing every aspect of the business too fast and too hard. It felt like I was standing behind each staff member and forcing him or her uphill. They were willing to climb the hill but unsure where the top was, and everyone was getting tired. 

In March 2020, COVID-19 had reached our state, and we were to shut down. I knew then that my staff members were going to need to rest and shelter in place, and they would only be able to give minimally of themselves. 

So I had to pivot quickly. I had to give them a workload they felt they could handle—a load that would allow them to thrive. 

I also had to save my gym. So I dug deep and went back to the Farmer Phase—the first stage of entrepreneurship. I went to work serving my members and delivering an experience they would never forget during a pandemic and global lockdown.

In July 2020, we were allowed to reopen, and my staff and I went into survival mode. Over the next few months, my vision for the gym began to come into focus. 

I started to meet with my team weekly, I wrote about the gym being a light in a dark world, and I began to act like the light I wanted them to be to our gym members. I led them with a vision they could see, feel, touch and witness. 

With that vision in place, my team members found small flames within themselves. I was no longer pushing them or trying to light them up. They had their own flames.

Now, my job is to always help them see the destination at the end of the path we are all walking down. We are no longer marching uphill, and I am no longer constantly pushing everyone. Instead, I am lighting the way for others to follow. It’s so much better this way.

My advice: Live your vision and state it loudly and repeatedly until you light your staff and team from within. 

Do you need help finding your vision? Try this: Stand in front of your gym tomorrow. Close your eyes and imagine everything you want happening inside and outside your gym. Who are the people who come? What are they doing? What’s the feeling you get when you see their actions? This could be the start of your vision. Do this exercise daily until you receive clarity. 

If you need more help. I am here for you. 

Additional Resource: “Two Brain Radio: When No One Sees Your Vision (and It’s All Your Fault)”

The post Don’t Push: Light the Way With Vision appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Your Clients Want You to Make a Profit

By Kenny Markwardt, Certified Two-Brain Fitness Business Mentor

Your clients want you to make a profit.  

How do you feel about it?  

If you’re anything like I was for the first few years of my career, you probably have some guilt about making any money at all. Heck, you’re just thrilled people want to trade their hard-earned cash for your coaching. Even if you’re running every class, cleaning the floors, bartending on weekends and relying on your spouse’s job to keep everything afloat, you’re just excited that you get to change the world one air squat at a time.  

But your clients don’t want that life for you. They want you to make money.  In fact, they need you to make money.  

In every stage of your business, your ability to make money improves their experience, increases your ability to professionalize your operation and allows you the freedom to enhance your community.

Let’s examine what that looks like through all phases of business ownership, as outlined by Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper in his book “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief.”

Founder Phase

In the Founder Phase of business ownership, where you’re getting started and mostly going it alone, your clients need you to make a profit so you can be a professional, so you can take your new venture seriously and so they can believe in your ability to change their lives.  

Your clients need you energized, refreshed and eager to serve them. If you’re working two (or more) jobs to support your new business, everyone loses. Think about how much better you’d be if you could spend all your time focusing on being the best instead of just surviving. This is especially important in the microgym industry. Clients are investing their money, entrusting their health and putting their confidence in your ability to help them chase their dreams.  

Your value to your clients skyrockets when people open up to you about their real reasons for training. Think about the breakthrough you’ve made when someone admits to you that it’s not about the 10 pounds on the scale but about not crying every morning in fear of following the path of their prematurely deceased parents. That breakthrough can change a life. 

Now think about how unlikely someone would be to share something like that with a coach who is clearly struggling to make enough money to survive into the next month.

Your success will create the trust and confidence that are needed to build long-term relationships.

Farmer Phase

As you gain traction and move into the Farmer Phase of business ownership, profit becomes even more important.

You’re growing, you’re starting to replicate yourself with staff members, and you’re looking to hire more people to do the tasks that keep you from focusing on your best work. In this phase of ownership, you’re building a team, and you need to make enough money to confidently lead them and pay them enough to take it seriously. 

If you’re making a comfortable living, you’ll be a calm, steadfast leader. If you’re barely getting by, you’re not going to be able to look staff in the eye and say, “Help me build a better tomorrow.”

Just as your clients looked to you for stability and confidence in Founder Phase, your staff will look to you for those same things now. If you’re not making enough money, it’s going to show, and your staff people will feel insecure. How can they do their best work?

Your clients need and want people they can trust as much as they trust you. You need to profit to make this happen by providing confident, thriving staff people!

Tinker Phase  

When you move into the Tinker Phase of business ownership, profit is a tool for you to make your business even better. Your clients need you to profit so you generate even more dedication from your staff and so your business becomes even more stable.

In this stage, you’ll aim for at least one full-time employee, and this person will rely on you and your vision to an even greater degree. The person is probably supporting a family, hoping for vacations and planning for the future. These dreams and plans are predicated on the success of your business, and your profit is the glue that holds the future together—both for you and the staff member.  

If you’ve made it to Tinker Phase, you’ve probably been in the game for a while. This is where your initial investment and sleepless nights begin to pay you an actual return. 

You started a business because of the risk-reward relationship. You took a giant leap, made hundreds of mistakes, lost sleep, cried, bled and nearly got divorced for this business. You should be proud of your work and the return you’re receiving on your initial investment. Whether you believe it or not, you deserve it! 

Perhaps more importantly, you must understand that your clients want this for you! They’ve wanted it for you all along. Without the light of reward at the end of the tunnel, you wouldn’t have worked so hard to change their lives. You’d have done something far easier. Now, you’ve built something sustainable that will be able to change lives for generations to come. Your clients want their children and their children’s children to be able to benefit from your dreams and hard work. Businesses that aren’t profitable aren’t around for decades. They fizzle out and die. So, for your clients’ sake, don’t let that happen!

Thief Phase

In the Thief Phase of business ownership, you’ve built a great business that runs without your direct oversight and will survive you. Now you, the entrepreneur, are looking to build a legacy. In this phase of entrepreneurship, your clients want you to make a profit so you can use it as a tool to change the world in an even bigger way through philanthropy. 

Think of all of the good philanthropy does for the world. Imagine a world without all that has been possible because of the generosity of people who have generated great wealth. In the Thief stage, you’ve proven your business acumen and have an opportunity to channel your resources into the things that will make an impact for generations. If you don’t think your clients want this for you, you’re crazy!  

Profit: Good for Everyone

It can be hard to remember that your clients actually want you to make a profit in return for following your passion and changing the world, but they do. Profit enhances your ability to serve at the highest level through all phases of your entrepreneurial journey. The sooner you embrace that as fact, the better you’ll be as a business owners and the more successful your clients will be.

The post Your Clients Want You to Make a Profit appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Retention Trumps Marketing in Gyms—Every Damn Time

Andrew (00:02):

Chris Cooper is back in front of a roaring fire to talk retention and marketing on Two-Brain Radio. Do you need marketing? Absolutely. But it’s not more important than retention of current clients. Here’s Coop with the scoop.

Chris (00:15):

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

Chris (00:47):

Today, I want to talk about marketing. We haven’t run a Facebook ad at my gym in five years. Why? One simple reason: We haven’t needed to. In a moment, I’m going to be back to talk about marketing, advertising and why you might not need to do it forever. When you want to make a living as a trainer, as a studio owner or a micro gym owner, your focus should be on retention more than on marketing. Now, marketing isn’t bad. So before I get any hate mail, I just want to make that clear. Advertising isn’t bad. Facebook, Instagram, Tik ToK, Twitter, Clubhouse. None of these are bad. They’re just not the thing that most of us signed up to do all day. If you’re like me, you entered the coaching field to share your passion with other people. I was kind of a nerdy kid in high school until 12th grade when a friend drug me into the weight room. He and I were the only two that had this weird lunch hour together. And the only thing to do was to go into the weight room in the gym. And so we didn’t know what we were doing. We just tried out every machine on the old weeder globo gym 3000, including the shoulder press and the leg press. And after a few months of this, I started to feel better about myself. I had a lot more confidence. I could talk to people.

Chris (02:06):

I could look them in the eye. You know, riding the school bus even was, you know, not a problem to start up a conversation with somebody that I barely knew. And by the time I got to college, I knew that I wanted to share this same feeling with other kids who had been in my shoes that maybe they were kind of nerdy. They didn’t really fit in, or they hadn’t found their niche and they really needed some confidence. And so I started taking courses to become a personal trainer, even while I was going to college. And I eventually switched my major to exercise science so that I could help more people. And then when I graduated, I had this four-year degree in exercise science. I felt like I knew everything, like the local expert in town. And it took me a year to get a client because I didn’t know anything about marketing or sales. Like me,

Chris (02:55):

you became a coach, probably because you wanted to share a similar story or some major transformation that you underwent with other people, you cared enough to share it with them. And somewhere along the line, like me, maybe you decided to open a gym. Now, nobody told you that running a gym is a completely different job than being a coach. It requires a different skillset. Hell, it requires 10 different skill sets. You’ve gone from this job that you love to 10 jobs that you well, I’m sure you love some of them, and marketing is one of those jobs. Now it might be one of the jobs that you love. It might not be, but it’s not the real job is it? I think we’re all past the point where we believe if you get people good results, that’s all the marketing you need, right? If you’re not past that point yet, then there’s a blog post that I want you to read about called Microgym Myths.

Chris (03:49):

And I’ll link to that in the show notes. Getting your clients great results is a necessity whether you’re a coach or a studio owner or a microgym owner. It’s your job. But it’s also insufficient to grow your gym. You have to market. You don’t necessarily have to market forever. So here’s how to do marketing depending on size of your business. We break this down by audience size. If you have zero to five clients and you’re just starting out and you’re trying to get the first ones, market through your personal connections. Get your relatives, get your friends, invite your organic connections on Facebook to sign up for your program. This isn’t hard. And we teach this in our startup or our ramp-up program. If you’re trying to go from five to 15 clients, the best thing that you can do is referral marketing. You want to get the people who already know you like you and trust you to refer their friends.

Chris (04:47):

And this strategy is very simple. You have to build up an atmosphere of referral. And so at your intake process with a new client, you say, if this is working for you in three months, I’m going to ask you to guide me to another person, just like you, who can use my help so that I’m not spending all of my time marketing. And instead I can focus all of my time, focus and energy on working with you. If you’re trying to go from 15 to 50 clients, then you have to expand that referral marketing into a process that we call affinity marketing. And that’s just basically you taking the lead on these conversations, lifting the referral process out of your client’s hands and saying, how can I help that person closest to you? So we have a brand new affinity marketing cheat sheet that we work through in our mentorship program, you can download our full affinity marketing guide

Chris (05:38):

if you go to TwoBrainbusiness.com and that will talk about affinity loops. We actually make this easier now. So you book a goal review session with one of your best clients. And before you sit down with them, you fill out the new affinity marketing cheat sheet, which is also in my book, “Gym Owners Handbook”. And you think about that client and who they’re connected to in real life. So who do they live with? Who do they work with? Who do they play with? What group do they also have something else in common? And you write down a name or two in each of those columns before you sit down with the client. So when you’re sitting down with the client, first, you talk about their goals. And then you say, are you happy with your progress? And if the client says yes, as most of them will, then you will say that is wonderful.

Chris (06:24):

Now to best support you, I want to create a caring environment of progress around you. That means I would love to talk to your spouse. You might also say, I know that the biggest threat to your health and fitness right now is the stress that you’re facing at work. I would love to help create a caring environment of support around you at work. Is there a coworker I can speak to who might give you some backup? Who’s your wing man at the accounting office? That’s affinity marketing, and you can go further down that road to, you know, who do you play golf with? Who do you work out with? Who do you go to the other Pilates studio with? You know, that’s a great lead. If you’re trying to go from 50 to 150 clients, we call that a micro gym and you need to do a couple of things.

Chris (07:13):

You need to establish a media presence. You need to start an email list that you email to every day. You need to get at least two social amplifiers. So this would be like Facebook, Instagram, you can use Tik Tok, you can use Twitter. If your clients are on Clubhouse already, then you can use that, whatever, but basically you need to create content. And for Two-Brain clients, we have a blog bank with over 300 blog posts that you can just swipe, copy, set up in your email and send. You don’t have to write a single word. We also have over 400 social media amplifier posts right now that you can, again, just copy, download, send to your list. It’s all included in our growth program. You don’t have to create a single picture if you don’t want to.

Chris (07:54):

Chris Cooper here to talk about Incite Tax. 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.

Chris (08:35):

So to get from 50 to 150 clients, you need to own your media. You need to tell your clients’ stories. You need to tell your own story. You need to publish at least three or four times a week, and you need to amplify each of those publications on at least two social platforms.

Chris (08:53):

You also need though affinity marketing, and you also need referral marketing because these things build. They don’t replace the one before them. And if you start learning referral marketing and you start practicing affinity marketing when you’re small, you will be very, very good at it when you get bigger. Every new client that you bring in your door, whether it’s through referral, affinity, marketing, or even paid ads should lead to at least one more new client that has a close connection to them. Also, when you’re trying to get 250 members, you can turn to things like Facebook ads, Facebook ads work, Instagram ads work, even though there’s highs and lows and pricing and efficacy and Facebook changes the rules all the time. They are more effective than any other advertising ever in the history of advertising. So you can use them. But the key is every new client that comes in, you’ve got to keep them. Retention is the key or else you’ll be a marketing machine forever. Because here’s what happens

Chris (09:59):

if you aren’t keeping your clients. Let’s say that you have even a 95% monthly retention rate. That sounds pretty good, right? But to replace the clients that who are leaving, in other words, just to break even, to tread water, to keep the same number of clients and the same amount of revenue, if you have zero to five clients and a 95% retention rate, then you need to get a new client every six months. Not bad. If you have 15 clients, then you need to get a new client every two months. At 50 clients, a studio, you need to get two new clients every month to replace the clients who are leaving with 95% retention. At 150 clients and 95% monthly retention, then you need to get six new clients every month. And at 500 clients at 95% monthly retention, then you need to get 18 new clients every single month.

Chris (10:50):

What happens if you have 10% churn? Then all of those needs double. Imagine needing to get a new client every single day. Is that what you signed up for in this industry? It’s not what I signed up for. When that happens, you become a marketing machine and because you need a lot more clients, you quickly run out of these warm connections that you have with referral and affinity marketing, and you quickly run out of the high affinity audiences who drove past your sign, went to your website, signed up for your email list and you have to talk to strangers. And as these leads get colder, your close rate goes down and you have to do more and more consultations. And then your retention gets worse and you spend more and more time marketing, marketing, marketing, selling, selling, selling, doing the stuff you hate, like cold calling and debating on Facebook over whether you should post your prices on your website or not, which shouldn’t even matter.

Chris (11:49):

Eventually it all becomes too much. Usually around the three-year mark for micro gymowners, you ask yourself, is this what I really signed up for? And then someday you start to ask yourself, is it ever going to get better? And then boom, a great coach, a passionate person about helping other people is out of the industry forever. If you’re a personal trainer, this actually happens sooner than the three-year mark. We lose over 50,000 trainers in this industry every two years. Not because they’ve lost their passion, partially because they don’t have enough clients to feed themselves. But mostly because they can’t keep those clients once they get them. So what keeps these clients long term? It’s one-on-one communication with your coach. It doesn’t mean a high five in a group class. It means a text to say, how’s it going text to say, where have you been is better than nothing but a text to say, what did you have for breakfast is a lot better.

Chris (12:50):

What else keeps clients long term? A smooth, longer phase onboarding period if the client is going to train in the group. The longer the onboarding period, the more likely you are to keep them long-term after they start the group. Habits-based coaching for nutrition, regular check-ins to talk about their goals, these should be scheduled in advance and should happen about every four months or so. Leaderboards, novelty, and progression. You knew that part already. The community. If they’re in a group, the community does help with retention. If the group has at least seven people in it, and not more than 13 people in it. Groups with less than seven don’t show higher retention rates than one-on-one personal training does. And groups over 13 actually have a negative effect on retention because people tend to feel lost. The community helps for sure. If somebody is a personal training client then helping them make a triad connection in the gym will help with their retention too.

Chris (13:54):

So introducing them to one other client, one other coach, somebody else who’s going to check in on them once in a while, that will help with retention. But in general, personal training clients already have retention that’s about five times longer than a group training client does. What else helps? Happy smiling coaches who know enough to help, not necessarily experts who will get down on their hands and knees and draw spreadsheets on your floor in chalk. I did that. That’s why I’ve got such a vivid picture of that. And finally, cross referrals with other practitioners. What doesn’t help retention is when you’re at war with the local physiotherapists and you spout stuff about how bad doctors are in your community and then your client eventually has to go see a doctor. And the doctor says, I don’t trust that guy. And why should they? Because you’ve been bad mouthing them.

Chris (14:43):

What helps retention is when you have the trust of other caring experts. And you can say to your client, I’m sorry this happened. I think you should go see my chiropractor Mike for a month. Let him get you back on board. We’ll meet up here then. I’m going to put your membership on hold or maybe go talk to Mike. And then we’ll talk about the next step from there. If you have a network of knowledgeable caring experts in your community, not only will you benefit from cross-referrals from each other and the trust necessary to do those things, but you’ll also benefit from longer client retention because they’ll usually work with you when they have to, even when a client is sick and especially right now, do you know how many potential clients are going to see a psychotherapist because they have depression and anxiety.

Chris (15:36):

And when these people know enough to seek help, they also know that they need to work on their fitness. If I was starting out as a trainer today, the first person I would contact in February of 2021 would be all of the local psychotherapists and ask, how can I help your clients? Because they’re overworked too. All right. The most important piece of retention though, is starting with the right clients in the first place. The right clients are your seed clients. And you’ll see an exercise in the affinity marketing handbook, twobrainbusiness.com/affinity. If you’re in the Two-Brain program and you go to the roadmap, there’s an entire course on retention. It’s actually 10 little courses on retention. And it starts with identifying who your best clients are. The first right clients for you are your seed clients, but the next right clients are those personal connections of your seed clients.

Chris (16:31):

It’s the people that they live with. The people that they work with, their friends, the people that they do hobbies with. Start at the bottom of the funnel, the people who are already in your business, and work up. You can see a graphic in the show notes for your audience priorities. Don’t start with advertising and try to work down the funnel. It’s not really even a funnel. Sometimes it’s a death spiral. It’s hard to get new clients. So grab onto every single one that you can for dear life instead of letting them flow through your business, because retention isn’t just a lagging metric. Poor retention actually causes worse retention. When people see their friends leave, they’ll generally realize there’s a reason and they will leave too. If all of your attention and all of your focus goes into getting new clients, your current clients will know that they are not your priority. People are smart. Keep them around.

Andrew (17:28):

For more from Chris Cooper, 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.

 

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