Chris Cooper's Blog, page 21
January 23, 2025
“Revenue Went Up”: What Happened When He Left the Two-Brain Summit
To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.
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January 22, 2025
“It’ll Change Your Paradigm”—Our Summit for Gym Owners
Can you come to the Two-Brain Summit if you aren’t a client?
Yes!
I want to give you the tools to help more people and push your business forward whether you work with us right now or not.
The summit is specifically designed to help attendees generate huge ROI on the price of a ticket—they’re 50 percent off until Feb. 1, by the way.
I don’t want people to sit and listen while speakers drone on. I want attendees to take action right at the summit and leave knowing that they have momentum. To make that happen, I challenge our speakers to provide directives—“do exactly this”—and activities to help gym owners and trainers get real results.
An example: Last year, Kieran O’Dwyer flew in from Australia to help gym owners with sales and marketing. He literally gave people a simple, tried-and-tested email they could send to leads during the conference.
The next day, he walked around and asked people how many sales they made as a result—yes, people made sales.
That’s how we roll at the Two-Brain Summit.
Best Finds Best: Hang With Your People
Instant ROI aside, I also want to get passionate fitness professionals in the same room so we can push the industry forward together.
Back in the day, it was almost impossible to find kindred spirits to offer advice, perspective and support. I craved that as a young gym owner, and I made a ton of mistakes because I couldn’t find it.
After I started Two-Brain Business, we worked very hard to make it easy for the best gym owners in the world to connect with each other—our clients and fitness professionals in the greater community. We have super-high-value private groups for clients, but we also manage the Gym Owners United group on Facebook (you should join) so we can help every gym owner get a little better every day.
Here’s a very cool short story about that group from gym owner Vel Bates of 3D Fitness in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who came to the Two-Brain Summit in 2022.
Vel Bates’ Summit Story
“What got me to come was I was a part of the Gym Owners United group,” Vel said. “I kind of was looking for likeminded individuals that are doing what I’m doing. It was very hard to find locally for me. So I just kind of hopped on Facebook and I ran into the group.”
Vel found what he wanted: “So just finally feeling like, oh my gosh, I have a place that I can kind of get information on how to navigate this storm, how to put this fire out.”
We announced the 2022 summit in that group, and Vel was interested.
“It was nice to be like, ‘OK, that’s a massive community of people that are gym owners. So I’m new to this, kind of just came in winging it, so why not just come check it out and see if I can meet some good people and collect some information and knowledge so I can be better at what I’m doing?’”
That’s the attitude that changes a business fast.
Vel made friends quickly in Chicago and realized he was in the right spot: “These people are doing what I’m doing. They’re gym owners, they’ve been through this, they’ve hired employees—all these things.”
Then he talked with one of our mentors, Peter Brasovan.
“He gave me some tips and some advice right away,” Vel recalled. “It was a no-brainer for me. It was like, ‘This guy just answered questions that I haven’t been able to get answered anywhere.’ I don’t wanna just go to Reddit or Google to ask these things. I wanted to ask someone who was actually experienced.”
This stuff warms my heart better than the woodstove in my home gym.
Vel’s story gets better: He eventually signed up to work with us and started posting record numbers three to six months after getting one-on-one help from a mentor. He even cracked one of Two-Brain’s Top 10 sales leaderboards in November 2023.
He’s still crushing it in 2025. But it all started at the summit in Chicago.
I won’t tell you why you should come to the Two-Brain Summit this year. I’ll let Vel do that:
“The number one reason you should come to the summit is because of the mindset. I think that a lot of us have a limiting belief on what you can be as a gym owner. And when you get yourself around a massive group of people … that are doing what you are doing, that is going to show you like, ‘Wow, this is a massive community. All of these people took this leap of faith, and look at how it changed their entire life.’
“My life has changed tremendously with going through the summit. And had I not done that, I wouldn’t have the knowledge that I have, the experience that I have and the freedom that I have. … I highly encourage people to go. It’ll change your paradigm.”
Tickets to the 2025 Two-Brain Summit are $300 off for a few more days. Get them here.
The post “It’ll Change Your Paradigm”—Our Summit for Gym Owners appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 21, 2025
Help Best: Your 2025 Two-Brain Summit Preview
Here’s a secret: We run the Two-Brain Summit at a loss every year.
But that’s OK because this is how we change the fitness industry and help more people.
I’m investing in the summit because we’re at a critical point in history: People are living longer but not better.
And I know who can change that. It’s not doctors or pharmaceutical companies.
It’s coaches.
Coaches help people change lives—so we need more successful gyms where more skilled trainers can build great careers helping people.
Hosting 1,000 gym owners and coaches for a weekend on June 7 and 8 is the right thing to do if we want to push the fitness industry forward and change the world.
And it’s not just getting owners and coaches to watch lectures—I hate sit-and-listen stuff. The summit is an all-weekend workshop.
You’re going to do stuff with the speakers. They aren’t there just to inspire you (even though they will). They’re there to tell you exactly what to do and guide you through the work.
Beyond that, you’re going to meet and hang out with about 1,000 people who are just like you. We’ve got a social event Friday before the summit starts, plus workouts on Saturday and Sunday morning. Rogue supplies the gear and celebrity coaches get you moving.
A host of passionate vendors will be on hand as well to show you how their products and services can help you serve clients better.
And of course you can enjoy the best of Chicago while you’re at the summit—the nearby entertainment district is an amazing place to hang out with your team and your new friends.
In 2025, our summit is going to be incredible, and I want you there so badly that I’ve reduced the ticket price until Feb. 1.
Yes, you can absolutely come if you aren’t a Two-Brain client.
And yes, you can bring your staff members. We have speakers and activities just for them (see below).
Get your tickets here today!
Owners Side SpeakersDay 1
Chris Cooper
I’m going to lay out the concept that provides our theme for the 2025 Two-Brain Summit: Help Best. As coaches, we have six ways to know we are actually making a difference in clients’ lives. I’ll tell you exactly what they are so you can ensure you are helping your clients in the best way you possibly can.
Joey Coleman
The author of “Never Lose a Customer Again” and “Never Lose an Employee Again” has 90 minutes to present a new workshop he’s never done before. I can’t wait to see gym owners work through it with him before anyone else.
Russell Francis and Corey Lewis
You can do five things to measurably improve retention. In this data-backed presentation, two of our gym-owning mentors will help you keep clients long enough to change their lives. No gimmicks here or untested tactics. You’ll get “the big five” of retention—and you’ll learn how to get staff involved in the fight to hold members.
Joleen Bingham
Joleen is the leader of our Tinker program for the best 100 gyms in the world. These entrepreneurs are doing amazing things and impacting communities on a massive scale. Joleen is going to talk about how she got out of a tough spot, made a comeback and then ascended to the elite level of gym ownership. Find out what’s possible—especially if you feel like you’re struggling right now.
Oskar Johed and Karl Solberg
The fitness industry has never had a way for owners to say, “Here is what makes you a better coach and qualifies you to earn more.” So Oskar and Karl created a coach ascension model—a map to a successful career. This talk alone is worth the trip to Chicago. It will change your business. And while these Swedish gym owners are talking, you can build a model for your own business—complete with evaluations, pay increases, requirements for advancement and so on.
Dan Purington
Problem 1: Big groups have high churn and require lots of space, staff, equipment, etc. Problem 2: You only have so many hours for one-on-one coaching, so PT can be tough to scale. Dan Purington will show you the solution: He’ll help you build a small-group/semi-private model in your gym. You’ll work through numbers, think about which clients to partner up, and more.
Day 2
Jonathan Goodman
Jonathan Goodman’s book “The Obvious Choice” is so good that I bought 400 copies and shipped them to people. I can’t wait to watch the founder of the Personal Trainer Development Center teach you how to become the obvious choice in your local market.
Kieran O’Dwyer
Kieran O’Dwyer believes you are leaving $15,000 on the table every month because you don’t know how to nurture leads. He’ll run the numbers, show you the money and help you cash in by warming leads until they’re red hot.
Bonnie Skinner
Fear, doubt, stress, guilt, shame, perfectionism, impostor syndrome—all of them can destroy entrepreneurs. To overcome these challenges, you must learn to manage yourself. Bonnie Skinner is a great resource in my life, and I want to share her with you. She’s a hit every time we put her in front of gym owners.
Corey Lewis
I started my best local partnership with coffee and a lunch. It produced hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. I’ve written about referral chains many times—they’re a massive win for a gym. Corey Lewis is going to get tactical and show you exactly how to connect with local partners so everyone wins: you, the referring business and the clients of both businesses.
Rickard Björnnekärr
This one is massive: how to charge more. In 30 minutes, Rickard is going to help you become ready to finally charge what you’re worth.
Nick Habich
Fix the owner, fix the business—that’s a major theme for Two-Brain. Most leaders become barriers to growth, and the only way to raise the ceiling for the business is to improve the owner. Nick’s got you covered here.
Chris Cooper
I’ll slam the summit shut and send you out the door ready to improve yourself and your business so you can help more people.
Coaches Side SpeakersDay 1
Oskar Johed
Coaches have incredible potential to influence people and change lives. Some coaches take advantage of this, and some don’t. Oskar will help coaches understand the power they have and how they can use it to get resuts for clients.
Nick Habich
It’s the duty of a coach to sell people on fitness. That can happen in a sales meeting—but it should really happen in every single session, too. Think about it: If you don’t sell a client on training tomorrow, they might be gone forever. No one wants to feel like a car dealer in a loud sportcoat, so Nick will teach coaches to sell fitness the right way. When they have that info, they’ll want to sell.
Chris Cooper and Kenny Markwardt
“Help Best” is the title of my next book with several co-authors. We’ll talk about the concept and give coaches a framework to help every client in the best way possible—by using the Prescriptive Model.
Jason Khalipa and Coach Like a Pro
This is a hands-on workshop to help your staff members become better coaches. They’ll spend 2.5 hours moving and practicing instead of sitting and listening.
Day 2
Cynthia Fotti
Cynthia is one of our nutrition mentors, and she’s going to teach people that nutrition coaching is not about meal plans and diets and accountability. It’s all about habit formation. To help clients in the kitchen, you must coach them to create habits they can maintain for the rest of their lives.
Peter Brasovan
Affinity marketing is a key Two-Brain tactic—but many owners struggle to get staff on board. In this session, your staff will learn how to grow their influence in the community and help more people. Peter will show them how to make marketing a natural part of the conversation in every session.
Mayhem Nation
Mayhem’s superstars will have 60 minutes to make your coaches better and get them fired up to get results for clients.
Bill Parisi
The founder of Parisi Speed School is a world leader in producing faster athletes. Bill will give your coaches the tools they need to help clients build speed fast.
Matt Temby
Matt’s here to light a fire and get coaches excited about the mission. Coaches are the linchpin in our fight to increase lifespan and healthspan. When Matt walks offstage, your trainers will be primed to get back in the gym and expand its impact one client at a time.
Get Tickets Now!
This is the best lineup we’ve ever put onstage at the summit, and I can’t wait for you to see our 2025 speakers.
I’m also eager for all the networking and interaction—you’re going to feel the momentum of 1,000 passionate people moving in one direction. It’s a beautiful thing, and I want you to be part of it.
Get your tickets here today at $300 off. This promotion ends Jan. 31, so act now!
The post Help Best: Your 2025 Two-Brain Summit Preview appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 20, 2025
Why the 2025 Two-Brain Summit Is a Must-Attend for Owners & Coaches
To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.
The post Why the 2025 Two-Brain Summit Is a Must-Attend for Owners & Coaches appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 17, 2025
9 Gym Business Books That Will Change Your Life
Chris Cooper has published nine books—and counting.
If you haven’t seen them all, I’ve got the list, along with a key excerpt from each book.
Do you need to read all of them to run a great gym?
No. It would be better to read just one book and take action than to read all of them and do nothing.
Pick one and use it to improve your business.
And if you need a recommendation, start with No. 9, “The Golden Hour.” It’s Coop’s most directive book, and you can use it to ensure you move your business forward after reading any other book for the rest of your life.
1. Two-Brain Business
If I build a bigger gym, they’ll all come.
If I get better at coaching, I’ll be better at business.
If I produce a high-level athlete, I’ll get more clients.
If I get more clients, I’ll make a better living.
None of these are true. There are gaps and missing steps.
How do we cross those gaps? That’s the question this book will answer.
2. Two-Brain Business 2.0
You manage what you measure. It’s a common phrase in business and gyms alike.
Knowing your annual retention rate is important. Knowing your gross monthly revenue is important. Knowing your net is far more important. Knowing the difference is critical.
Failure to measure your business makes for a poor businessperson.
When you open a gym, you’re no longer an athlete/coach. You take on the responsibility for providing a rewarding job for others and a great place to train your clients.
Without measurement, you can’t do either for long.
3. Help First
You depend on your business, but you hate selling.
This is the biggest pain point of the entrepreneur.
And this book will solve that problem.
Ten percent of readers will only need the first chapter of this book.
When your clients know they need your help, you’ll never have to sell anything again.
4. Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief
Theory is nice. And ideas are fun. And the romantic notion of the entrepreneur is an easy sell: tired but happy, driven and passionate, and on track to a guaranteed million-dollar sell-off if they can just survive the grind for three years.
But theories and ideas don’t put food on the table.
What does put food on the table?
The answer to that question evolves with the four phases of entrepreneurship: founder, farmer, tinker and thief.
5. Gym Owners Handbook
Your business has two parts: your operations and your audience.
“Operations” refers to the service you provide. “Audience” refers to the people who trade their money for your service.
Each is a multiplier of the other: If your service is excellent, you’ll build a broader audience. And the bigger your audience, the more of your service you’ll sell. On the other hand, if your service isn’t as great as you think, your audience will shrink. And if no one’s heard about you, you don’t have a business.
In this book, I’m going to tell you how to maximize both sides of your business. First, we’re going to talk about delivering real excellence and measuring that excellence to ensure future growth. Then I’m going to tell you how to build an audience—the right kind, not just a bunch of cold leads from advertising.
6. Start a Gym
The decisions you make at startup—or even before—will affect the rest of your life. Your business can be the engine that feeds your family, pays for vacations and changes the lives of hundreds of people in your city. Or it can be the thing that ruins your life. The decisions you make now will echo for decades.
Every mistake you make at the start will take a year to fix. I made mistakes in my model: pricing, staffing, ideal clientele, location and equipment. It took me six years to fix all of these problems—six years that I could have spent making more money, spending more time with my kids and worrying a lot less.
Now that my gym is successful, my mission is to make 1 million fitness businesses successful so that we can change the world’s health together. I do that through mentorship and books like this.
7. The Simple Six
There are six ways to grow your business. But you can only use them if you learn to focus.
The magic of the Simple Six comes from focused work, and this book will teach you how to grow your business one step at a time while avoiding distraction and overwhelm.
This is not a “knowledge” book. This is a “results” book. It works because simplicity scales faster.
Cut through the overwhelm, the ideas, the distractions and the stress. Get clarity, make a plan quickly, and see results like you’ve never seen before.
8. Millionaire Gym Owner
Sustainability isn’t enough. You must make enough income to provide for your present needs—and enough to pay for your future, too.
To really be successful, you can’t expect to work until the day you die. You need to gather enough assets, investments and cash to pay for your lifestyle after your income stops.
This book will tell you exactly how to do that.
I want gym owners to be wealthy, and I want the good people to win.
Here are 12 who have.
9. The Golden Hour
Why do some gyms grow 32 times faster than most, and why do the top 12.5 percent of gym owners in Two-Brain Business outperform everyone else—even when every gym in Two-Brain is growing at triple the industry average?
The secret is shockingly simple: Every day, they do one thing to grow their business before they do anything else.
What’s that one thing? In this book, I’ll tell you exactly how to set up your Golden Hour and what to do every single day to grow your business.
“The Golden Hour” might be my favorite book I’ve ever published. And I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s their favorite or that it’s the best because it’s the most directive. I love to hear that because action—not just knowledge—produces better businesses.
Read and Act!
That’s the list—with more to come.
I hope you read and take action today!
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January 16, 2025
How to Increase Access Gym Revenue by Adding Coaching
Your club’s revenue is largely determined by the number of members you have. But there’s a smarter way to increase your income: adding coaching programs. Coaching not only increases your average revenue per member (ARM) but also builds client loyalty and retention. In this post, you’ll learn how to boost your revenue by offering personal training, small-group training, group fitness classes and nutrition coaching.
Why Coaching Services Drive More Revenue Than Access Gym Memberships
Your total revenue per month comes from multiplying two numbers: how many clients you have and how much those clients pay. Striking the balance between these elements determines success in the gym industry. But most clubs focus solely on member headcount.
The average price your members pay per month is your ARM—average revenue per member. Coaching drives up ARM by creating a higher-value offer for clients who want it.
Let’s say you have 300 members at your club, each paying $30 per month, and your total monthly revenue is $9,000. If 30 of those members (10 percent of your total) added a coaching option of one personal training session per week priced at $75, they’d be paying $330 per month instead of $30—11x everyone else.
These coaching clients would also drive your revenue to $18,000, pulling your ARM up to $60.
In this scenario, if just 10 percent of your members added a coaching program once per week, you’d double your revenue without raising your rates.
And these are conservative numbers: One session per week is also low across the industry, and many personal trainers charge much more than $75 per hour. Other options like small group training can add even more revenue at a lower cost of delivery.
Why Is Coaching More Important Than Other Add-Ons?
You might be thinking, “If I want to boost revenue, wouldn’t it be easier to just sell supplements and T-shirts?” The truth is retail margins are low—the average margin on a protein shake is 10 percent. Retail also requires an upfront investment to stock inventory that will sit on a shelf waiting to sell.
Coaching offers higher margins and no expiration date. Coaches can drive revenue by promoting and selling their services, such as personal training and small group coaching. And they “eat what they kill,” meaning they earn a percentage of the income they generate.
But what coaching programs should you offer? Coaching services can be structured as tiered offerings, ranging in value and price. Let’s break down these options so you can decide which ones would best benefit your members and your club’s revenue.
Types of Coaching Services
Group Fitness Classes: Community-Driven Retention Tool
Group fitness classes are the backbone of many gyms because they build a strong sense of community. These classes offer a fun, energetic environment that keeps clients coming back, even if they aren’t interested in one-on-one coaching.
Why Group Fitness Works: Group classes are simple to add and manage, and they require few staff. These classes help create a loyal community, which reduces churn and boosts retention.
Potential Challenges: Often, group classes hinge largely on the owner-operator, leaving no buffer for illness or holidays. Also, this model is not sustainable if rates are set too low.
Actionable Tip: The best group fitness classes for gym owners cater to a variety of fitness levels and can be easily adapted to different needs within a single class. Consider offering a mix of class types—such as HIIT, yoga or mobility—to appeal to a broader range of members.
Bonus Resource: Hear from a gym owner who specializes in group training.
Personal Training: High-Ticket Service With High Returns
Personal training (PT) is one of the most effective ways to add value to your members and increase your revenue. One-on-one coaching delivers personalized programs to clients who are willing to pay more for individual attention.
Why Personal Training Works: It’s a premium service that attracts clients willing to invest in faster, tailored results. Some clients prefer the privacy of a one-on-one session, and others appreciate the flexible scheduling compared to group classes.
Potential Challenges: Adding personal training to a gym requires having highly skilled coaches who can deliver exceptional value to members. Also keep in mind that it’s easier to sell personal training to new members than to existing ones. On average, 10 percent of PT sales will come from current clients, and 90 percent will come from new clients.
Actionable Tip: Offer goal-setting consultations to new and existing members to show how personal training can help them achieve their fitness goals.
Bonus Resource: Learn how to add personal training to a gym from Two-Brain CEO Chris Cooper.
Small Group Training: High Value for Clients, Big Returns for Your Gym
Small group training, usually capped at around four to six members, provides clients with more individualized coaching than regular group classes at a more affordable rate than personal training. In some gyms, each member in a small group is given their own individualized program—this is often called semi-private training. In other gyms, all members follow the same program but are able to receive more of the coach’s attention than they would in a big group.
Either way, this service allows coaches to train multiple clients at once, increasing revenue per hour. On average, small group training for gyms produces a higher retention rate than group training.
Why Small Group Training Works: Members get the same sense of community that comes with group classes while benefiting from more individualized attention at a lower price point than PT.
Potential Challenges: As with personal training, this is a more difficult service to sell to existing members than group training. Owners and coaches must be able to communicate the value of the service. And this model isn’t for everyone—owners have to know their market well to decide whether to add small group classes.
Actionable Tip: Pair together members who have similar goals, or run focused programs (e.g., strength building or fat loss) to attract clients interested in specific outcomes.
Bonus Resource: Listen to this podcast featuring a gym owner who’s got small group training down to a science.
On-Ramp Programs: Start New Clients Off the Right Way
An on-ramp or foundations program is a great way to introduce new members to your gym. A beginner program helps clients start safely, build confidence and increase their likelihood of sticking with your gym long term.
An on-ramp fitness program for new gym members typically involves four to six personal training sessions that focus on key exercises and integrate the new member into your community.
Why On-Ramp Works: It improves retention by building member confidence, setting clear expectations, and ensuring clients feel comfortable with your training style and methodology.
Potential Challenges: Almost none. Clients benefit from a good onboarding, and your gym benefits from the additional revenue.
Actionable Tip: Offer an on-ramp program to new coaching clients and use it as a gateway to introduce personal training or small-group training options.
Bonus Resource: Read this blog from Chris Cooper on how to add an on-ramp program to your club.
Nutrition Coaching: The Missing Piece to Complete Client Results
Nutrition coaching is an underutilized revenue stream that can greatly improve your clients’ results and your bottom line. By offering meal planning or habit-based coaching, you can enhance client outcomes while adding a consistent revenue stream.
Why Nutrition Coaching Works: Combining fitness and nutrition coaching results in better client outcomes, leading to increased client satisfaction and retention.
Potential Challenges: Many jurisdictions have legal restrictions on who can provide specific dietary guidance or create meal plans. Be sure to look into your local laws and licensure requirements before implementing a nutrition coaching program.
Actionable Tip: Start with simple habit-based coaching and expand into more detailed nutrition planning as demand grows.
Bonus Resource: Check out our full guide on how to add nutrition coaching to a gym.
How to Price Your Coaching Services
Pricing your services correctly is key to maximizing your revenue. Base your prices on clear business metrics rather than simply copying what your competitors are doing. Consider factors such as profit margin, fixed costs, staff costs and the value you provide.
You might also offer coaching services in a bundle with gym access. For example, you could offer a small discount on access to clients who add at least one personal training session per week.
Actionable Tip: Don’t underprice personal training. Your time and expertise are valuable—price accordingly to reflect the high-quality service you’re offering.
Bonus Resources: Learn the formula for setting prices here. See industry averages for gym metrics in our annual “State of the Industry” guide.
How to Sell to New and Existing Clients
Selling coaching services is about identifying client needs and offering solutions.
New Clients
Use free consultations—aka No Sweat Intros—during the intake process to uncover prospects’ fitness goals and prescribe the best coaching services to get them to their goals.
Existing Clients
Run quarterly progress check-ins—goal reviews—and recommend personal training or small group coaching if a client hits a plateau or wants to accelerate results.
Our data shows that Goal Review Sessions can have a huge impact on revenue. With 300 members, if just one out of 10 upgrades services by $50 per month, you’ll generate an additional $1,500 in monthly revenue—$18,000 per year.
Bonus Resource: Read this article to learn how to use the Prescriptive Model to close sales with high-value clients.
Staffing Your Coaching Program
What qualifications do my staff need?
Most trainers and coaches require only a basic certification.
Your first priority is to make sure their certification fulfills your insurance requirements. Your insurer will provide a list of options, but consider those certified by ISSA, Can-Fit-Pro (Canada), NASM, ACE, or NSCA. (Check out our review of the best certifications for personal trainers here.)
Next, branded programs, such as CrossFit and Les Mills, might require a certification in their methodology.
To run a CrossFit class, for example, you will need a CrossFit trainer with a CrossFit Level 1 credential. You will also need to pay affiliation fees to CrossFit Inc. to call the class “CrossFit,” and you’ll need a CrossFit Level 2-certified trainer to hold your affiliation license.
Licensure requirements for nutrition coaches vary by state, but many coaches navigate regulatory restrictions by focusing on coaching habits rather than providing detailed meal plans.
How much should I pay coaches?
Your coaches should be compensated well but sustainably. Two-Brain recommends paying coaches no more than 44 percent of the revenue they generate. This ensures they’re motivated to grow their client base, while you maintain a healthy profit margin.
Bonus Resource: Learn how coaches can help “grow the pie,” earning themselves and your gym more money here.
Should I just sublease to other trainers?
We suggest you build a coaching program instead of subletting space. Renting space to other trainers is like letting a hot-dog vendor push their cart through your restaurant.
The larger problem is that anyone coaches in your space will represent your brand, even if they’re not working for you. They’ll still require management whether working for you or for themselves, and most can’t get clients on their own anyway.
You didn’t sign a lease and buy equipment to turn over a quarter of your business to a tenant; you’re not a landlord.
Bonus Resource: Hear what Chris Cooper has to say on subleasing to other trainers in the video below.
How Coaching Services Reduce Gym Member Churn and Boost Retention
Coaching leads to stronger relationships with clients, which in turn reduces churn. Clients who have a personal trainer or are part of a group class—big or small—tend to stay longer than access-only clients because of the connection with their coach and better results. It’s a lot harder to break up with a coach than it is to cancel an access membership.
Members who add a coaching option also have increased adherence, meaning greater utilization of their membership. This makes it much more likely they’ll commit to improving their long-term health and fitness. Think about it: Would you be more likely to skip the gym if you were paying 30 bucks a month or $300?
A longer length of engagement (LEG) means more revenue. Take every month that someone stays extra and multiply it by your average revenue per member. Compare that to what it would cost you to bring in the same amount of money through marketing.
Increase Gym Revenue Today by Adding Personal Training, Small Group Training and Group Fitness Classes
The fastest way to increase gym revenue is to add coaching programs like personal training, small group training, group fitness classes and nutrition coaching. These services increase your average revenue per member (ARM), improve retention and set your gym apart from competitors who only offer access.
Coaching programs will also allow you to bring in new members who are interested in individualized programs. Then you can then upsell these clients on access as an add-on so they can get more time in the gym outside of training sessions.
The post How to Increase Access Gym Revenue by Adding Coaching appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
Top Books for Gym Owners: Chris Cooper’s Complete List
To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.
The post Top Books for Gym Owners: Chris Cooper’s Complete List appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 15, 2025
The One Skill Shared by Every Top Gym Owner
Here’s a tip: If you think you might have ADHD but you don’t have trouble getting your workouts in, you probably don’t have ADHD.
You probably just don’t have focus.
Focus is a skill. You have to practice it to get it—and to keep it.
The good news is that skills can be learned.
One of our insider mantras at Two-Brain is “fix the owner, fix the business.” Our mentors understand that if we help the business owner develop the right skills, we will help the business get better results.
More and more, our data set shows that clients with the ability to focus outperform everyone else, even when they’re given the same strategies and tactics as everyone else.
If you have the skill of focus, you can find the most important work and repeat it over and over, building your business.
Here’s one more place focus comes in: Lack of focus makes it hard to get started on the work that matters. But lack of focus also makes it easy to stop doing the work that matters.
Many gym owners have the motivation to start things: “Make a Facebook post? Got it!”
But many also don’t have the focus to keep doing the right things repeatedly.
It’s not hard to get someone started on their exercise program. It’s very hard to keep them from stopping. Right?
Well, it’s the same with improving your business. It’s not hard for a mentor to get you excited about a new idea. But it’s hard for anyone to keep you excited about business tasks.
Another of the key traits of our top-performing gym owners is this: When a mentor tells them to do something, they do it and keep doing it until the mentor tells them to stop.
They don’t stop writing blog posts when they get bored. They don’t stop running ads when their cost per lead goes up or down. They don’t stop asking for referrals after the first time.
As John Franklin, Two-Brain’s chief marketing officer, likes to say, “Find what works, then keep doing it until it stops working.”
Sometimes gym owners start something and stop before it even has a chance to start working! Sometimes they quit because it’s hard; sometimes they quit because they’re bored.
In fact, people who are quick to point out a lack of “discipline” in their gym clients are often guilty of the same problem in their businesses. It’s not laziness or ADHD; it’s lack of skill.
Skill comes from habits, and habits come from practice.
Make Your Choice
In “The Golden Hour,” I explain exactly how to create entrepreneurial habits that become skills you have for life.
I tell you what to do every single day to grow your business—it’s a seven-day plan you can repeat forever. I even provide a six-week challenge so you can build habits and build your gym.
You’ve got three options right now—and only two of them are good:
1. Do nothing and hope your business improves on its own (it won’t).
2. Get “The Golden Hour” and start doing the work that will put you in the top 12.5 percent of gym owners in the world.
3. Join Gym Owners United and work through the Golden Hour Challenge I led starting on Nov. 1, 2024. (You can find all the instructions in that group, day by day.)
I know that if you do the work, you’ll earn $100,000 a year (to start) and be well on your way to millionaire status. The sky is the limit if you can focus.
I also know your gym will struggle if you lose focus and fail to do the right things at the right time. Or if you get distracted and quit doing the right things.
There is no secret formula for success. Everything you need is freely available.
You only have to learn to focus.
Will you?
The post The One Skill Shared by Every Top Gym Owner appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 14, 2025
Chris Cooper’s Top Books for Gym Owners in 2025
One of my mentors, Dan Martell, told me that it’s better to read five books over and over and apply them than it is to read 50 books in a year.
I took that to heart, and so I have about 10 books that I reread every year, including the Jim Collins series and “Resilience” by Eric Greitens.
Beyond that, I read for two or three hours every day. I read about 20-30 business books a year, but I also read a lot of books that don’t apply to the gym—mostly fiction and books about writing.
To kick off 2025, I’ll share a list of books that are incredibly important for gym owners. I read everything on the list below two or three times in 2024, and I took action after I turned each final page. So I’ll tell you what I read and how I applied each book in my gym and my other businesses.
I’ve linked all the covers below to Amazon—click if you want to get any of these books.
Here we go!
“The Mountain Is You” by Brianna Wiest
What’s stopping most businesses from growing?
The owner.
I’m reminded of this every single day because I own a gym and I work with the top thousand gym owners in the world. When I look at everyone—from our very new mentees to our upper-level owners—it’s clear that gyms only rise to the level of the owner.
As I learn more about my limitations and overcome my internal roadblocks, I start to see them in other people, too.
When I talk to gym owners who are overwhelmed, confused, scared or stagnant, the limiting factor is almost always the entrepreneur. They might mention “the local market,” “the economy” or “bad luck,” but in almost every case they are the main thing that’s holding the gym back and limiting its growth.
When a business reaches the limit of an owner’s knowledge and understanding, it just stops growing—unless the owner is coachable. If you improve the owner, you improve the business.
When I read Weist’s book, it felt like a “greatest-hits album” for self-help books. You can find mountains of these books, but I’m recommending “The Mountain Is You” because it’s directive. The book is full of do-this-now directives instead of interesting facts and recommendations to meditate more often. Instead, it’s “you need to work through this and you need to process this. Here’s how to do it.”
That matches up with a key element of the Two-Brain Business mission: I try to publish only clear, simple and directive content every day. I don’t just throw info at you. I tell you what to do. This path is much harder but much more rewarding. I’m happy Weist treads it, too.
“The Courage to Be Disliked” by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
I first read this book about Adlerian psychology about three years ago on the recommendation of a business coach, and it was recently recommended again by my current business coach.
Both times, the recommendation came when I was working through tough challenges, and the book helped me successfully navigate each scenario. “The Courage to Be Disliked” is all about helping readers understand what’s preventing us from doing the things that we know we should do.
For example, what’s stopping us from telling a client “you need to change your diet”? Or why do we struggle to tell a prospective client “you need coaching. Here is the price”?
The reality: We tell ourselves things like “I’m an introvert” or “I’m not good at sales” because deep down we don’t understand or appreciate our own value.
This book is an examination of the biggest obstacle that’s in your way, which is you most of the time. I strongly recommend you read this one.
“High Road Leadership” by John Maxwell
John Maxwell comes out with a new leadership book every year, and sometimes it’s a rehash of past works. His most recent effort is very different.
Maxwell is obviously frustrated with the leadership on display in the world, especially in the political realm. To him, we’re being presented with a dichotomy—it’s this or that—instead of real leadership that will help as many people win as possible. Maxwell doesn’t take a political stance, so the book can help you improve your business no matter how you vote.
Maxwell’s best points:
1. Avoid dichotomies and dualities—this or that thinking. If you do, you can be far more creative when you try to solve problems.
2. Talk to your staff but don’t always bend the company to their desires. You must care for your staff but make the decisions that will benefit them long term even if they don’t see that right away.
The second point is critical: As the leader, you have the long-term vision. You’re sitting in the lifeguard chair, and staff members are standing on the beach. Because we get overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget that we see farther and must make choices that will benefit team members in the future even if they don’t understand how the choices will benefit them today.
It’s the same with gym clients. We need to do the things that will help them long term. That means we focus on coaching instead of selling access, we tell them what package they should buy, and we do Goal Review Sessions and prescribe the best path even if they say, “I don’t need that.”
We are the coaches, and we know what’s best, so we need to step up. “High Road Leadership” explains how to do that consistently and feel good about it. I think it’s the best book Maxwell’s written in at least six or seven years.
“Tribalnomics” by Justin Garcia
This book also has been around for a few years, but I still read it twice in 2024 because it presents such an interesting way to think about leading a team.
And I love this: The person who teaches Tribalnomics in Canada is Nick Castiglia, a world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has an incredibly successful martial-arts gyms in Ottawa, Canada, not because he’s a great fighter but because he is an amazing leader. And he said that this book is the key to all of it.
Nick is actually traveling to Atlanta, Georgia, in January to speak to our Tinkers about implementing the Tribalnomics concept.
“Be the Unicorn” by William Vanderbloemen
A Two-Brain client recommended this one, and the title made me hesitate. It felt like “pop business,” and I really wasn’t drawn to it, but I started reading it because I really trust the judgment of this client.
I was blown away.
“Be the Unicorn” is 12 chapters long, and every one has an amazing lesson that you can go out and apply right away.
William Vanderbloemen owns the Vanderbloemen Agency—a high-level recruiter for C-level positions in the range of $500,000 to $2 million a year. Vanderbloemen did a great job figuring out what makes some people “unicorns” and then explains how you can duplicate the talents, traits and skills of the very best people in the C-suite—the people who are running massive companies.
I was so impressed by this book that I contacted William Vanderbloemen and said, “I need to expose you to Two-Brain. Can I bring you in to do some speaking?”
“I’d love to do it. Gym owners are on the same mission as pastors and preachers,” he said.
So Vanderbloemen is going to be speaking to our Tinkers in 2025, too.
“10x Is Easier Than 2x” by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
These guys wrote “The Gap and the Gain,” but I didn’t get around to reading the 2023 book “10x Is Easier Than 2x” until this year.
I thought this would be a mindset book about thinking bigger, but it taught me that thinking about scaling 10x forces you to get way outside what you’re currently doing.
Most of us could double our businesses using the same strategies we’re using right now; you’ve got the systems you need (especially if you’re a Two-Brain client). But considering the 10x multiple requires a big leap that allows you to treat your business as a blank slate and ask, “If I were starting over with a goal of hitting 10x, what would I do differently?”
The book helps you apply what you learn when you do this exercise, so it’s enormously powerful. I think this book is actually even better than “The Gap and the Gain.”
“The Obvious Choice” by Jonathan Goodman.
I’ve read this book three times, and it’s amazing.
Goodman has a mountain of tips and tricks that make him the obvious choice and generate enormous client retention.
Are you going to be able to remember all 100 things that he’ll teach you in this book? No, but you’ll remember the main concept, and that’s what matters.
Here’s one tip: Whenever you’re going out for dinner, invite two other people, or whenever you’re going to a show, buy two extra tickets.
Another one: Remember your client’s birthdays. Don’t just send them a card or an automated text; call them. Get this: My birthday was in late December, and Jonathan sent me a video text message. It’s a small thing that’s huge, and it’s obvious that you should do this with your clients.
When I read a book, I immerse myself in the brain of that person for two or three weeks, and it makes me a better leader. It’s like I’m putting on a pair of their glasses to get a new perspective. Then I can “put those glasses on” again whenever I need to.
For example, whenever I’m busy and think “I’m too stressed to wish that client a happy birthday,” I slip on my Jonathan Goodman glasses back on and pick up the phone.
“The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham
This is an amazing book with a bad title.
I strongly recommend that you get the audio book. When I read “The Road Less Stupid” the first time, I said, “I really need to listen to this to hear this guy’s voice.” And I’m so glad I did because the audio makes the book hilarious—and memorable.
Cunningham has been in the background of a lot of massive businesses, so it’s amazing to hear his stories and learn from his mistakes.
A key theme: You must have “thinking time” every single day. Go to a private chair, sit in this chair, and think about X for an hour. What exactly should you think about? Cunningham presents 30-40 prompts. This process was incredibly helpful when I was writing “The Golden Hour” (see below).
The best thing about “The Road Less Stupid” is that he’s got these big business principles that apply to everybody, but at the end of every chapter he says “here it is on a bumper sticker” and explains the principle in 10 words or less. That makes his message really sticky.
I love this book, and I think you will, too.
“The Golden Hour” by Chris Cooper
“The Golden Hour” might be my favorite book I’ve ever published. And I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s their favorite or that it’s the best because it’s the most directive. I love to hear that because action—not just knowledge—produces better businesses.
In my early books, I used to collect blog posts and present good ideas, but now I want to be clear and directive: Here is the recipe, do this, copy this, paste this here, and so on.
In “The Golden Hour,” I took it a step further and issued a six-week challenge. I even shot videos of myself following the plan—watch them at goldenhourchallenge.com and do the challenge!
I also ran a version of the challenge in gymownersunited.com, our free Facebook group for gym owners, and we ran a version of the challenge for Two-Brain clients as well.
The bumper sticker for the book: Every day, set aside one hour to grow your business before you do anything else.
It’s all about focus—and I tell you exactly what to do in that hour so you don’t have to guess.
I’m going to run another Golden Hour Challenge for Two-Brain clients, and I’m considering doing it again publicly. If you did the first Golden Hour Challenge in 2024, shoot me a DM on Facebook and let me know how it went. I’ll let you know when I’m going to start the next challenge.
Take Action!
I say this at the end of every best-books list:
It’s not what you learn that matters. It’s not how many books you read.
Action matters.
You’re better off to read one chapter of one book this year and take action to grow your gym than to read 50 books without doing anything.
A lot of people get stuck there. Before I had my first mentor, that’s exactly what I was doing. I had an Audible subscription, I was listening for over an hour every single day, and my gym was still going downhill—until I got a mentor.
The mentor said, “Chris, read this book right now, and we’re gonna apply it together.”
Take these books, find the one that you like the best, read it three times this year, take notes and take action. That’s what’s important.
Action has power. Knowledge without action is nothing.
The post Chris Cooper’s Top Books for Gym Owners in 2025 appeared first on Two-Brain Business.
January 13, 2025
Essential Business Lessons: Jonathan Goodman on “The Obvious Choice”
To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.
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