Chris Cooper's Blog, page 22

High-Octane Retention: Run a Fun Competition in March!

Can a fun competition dramatically improve retention in a gym?

Yes.

Here’s the proof:

At Activate in Ireland, if clients participate in the annual Intramural Open event, they are three times more likely to stick with the gym for another year.

Owner Brian Foley has been running the Intramural Open since 2017, and every year about 150 clients participate.

Because they register for one simple, feelgood event and smile constantly for about a month, these clients are 200 percent more likely to keep paying him for the next 12 months.

So why aren’t you running the Intramural Open at your gym?

If you want to run Two-Brain’s signature event at your gym in 2025, you can get Chris Cooper’s detailed guide here: intramuralopen.com.

The short summary:

The Intramural Open was created to give gym owners a chance to celebrate their clients in a multi-week “competition.” I’m using quotes here because this is not a cutthroat, blood-on-the-barbell test of fitness.

In the Intramural Open, participants join in-house teams and do workouts, but the focus is on participation, fun and celebration.

For example, Tim might score 3 points for his team because he posted the top workout score, but Tom might score 7 points for his team because he completed the workout and earned the weekly Spirit of the Open Award for cheering the loudest. Tammy might score 5 points by doing the workout, booking a Goal Review Session and wearing the best costume on “Super Hero Night.”

A wise gym owner celebrates all three clients—and everyone else—and boosts retention in the process.

Some gym owners choose to link this event to the CrossFit Games Open, but others run it independently. This year, Chris has programmed workouts to make it even easier to go your own way, market prep courses, run bring-a-friend events and produce PRs during the event.

A Massive Magnet for Clients

Why does the Intramural Open have such a dramatic effect on retention?

Here are the main reasons:

No one quits in the leadup to a major event.No one quits in the middle of a competition.The emphasis on participation and fun takes people out of the grind of daily workouts.The atmosphere is incredible: You will never see more smiles in your gym than during the Intramural Open.The team format helps members create new bonds in the gym.Team captains and teammates provide peer accountability the gym owner can’t.People who bring friends to participate in a workout want their guests to join, and non-members who join a buddy for a workout experience the very best of the gym.People who experience personal wins in the competition are very likely to want more.People who struggle with something during the competition will be highly motivated to improve.Members who book Goal Review Sessions as a result of the open get precise plans to help them accomplish goals, so they make swifter progress.Owners have endless opportunities to celebrate clients—especially valuable members who will never be at the top of any fitness leaderboard.

With all that in mind, Brian’s retention stat makes perfect sense. The Intramural Open is simply a client magnet in a gym when an owner runs it properly.

And as a bonus, gym owners have tons of opportunities to make some money from the event itself. That’s in addition to all the cash generated by greatly increased length of engagement for each client who does burpees in a costume as a member of The Fitness Avengers or Team Heavy Mëtal.

If you’re struggling with retention—or if you aren’t but still want to improve it—the Intramural Open is your best option for the first quarter of 2025.

And it’s easy to set up and run if you get Coop’s new guide.

To boost retention and revenue and fill your gym with smiles, get your guide to the Intramural Open here.

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The Event That Makes His Clients 3X More Likely To Stay Another Year

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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Build Your Gym in the Open? Here’s How!

Everything you do in your gym should have a purpose.

You invest time and energy in events and competitions, and the return on that investment should be:

Better retention.More revenue.More clients.

My Intramural Open plan checks all three boxes—and you can get the 2025 guide to the party here.

The guide lays out everything you need to get the Intramural Open on the rails right now—I even programmed workouts this year in case that helps you get ahead of the game.

Here, I’ll give you clear examples of how the Intramural Open creates retention, revenue and client-count wins for gym owners.

Retention

We all know “good feelz” produce better retention, but I’ll rely on data here instead.

Competitions—even friendly, fun events—always generate emotions in clients. Here are two:

Clients feel inspired by a PR or a win and badly want more.Clients feel disappointed by a result and want to make sure they feel different in the future.

Either way, it’s your duty to help.

While memories of the Intramural Open are fresh, have clients schedule a Goal Review Session (offer each a point during the competition for booking). At that session, help them set a goal and give them a prescription to get there (personal training, accessory plan, etc.).

Here’s the data: Our research shows about 30 percent of clients upgrade services by about 30 percent after a Goal Review Session, and these sessions have been proven to increase length of engagement.

After a Goal Review Session, clients are working toward something, they have a clear plan, and they know you will hold them accountable. They’re far less likely to quit.

So when you plan your Intramural Open, be sure you set aside time to book Goal Review Sessions with all participants.

Revenue

I programmed workouts for you this year just in case that reduces your stress and helps you generate some revenue in advance.

These are the movements I included: snatch, clean and jerk, press, deadlift, back squat, weighted pull-up, thruster, pull-up, rowing, farmer carry, burpee, lunge, wall ball, push press and front squat.

If you’re a coach, you can instantly see how a six-week prep program could get your clients ready to smash the Intramural Open.

Example: Run a six-week lifting program designed to help athletes hit PRs in the first week of the Intramural Open, when we hold a “supermeet” and max out six lifts. Charge 10 people $250 and boost your revenue by $2,500 while you help clients improve their fitness.

If you plan to link your in-house competition to the CrossFit Games Open, you can’t tailor your prep programs to the workouts, but you already know exactly what people always need to work on: double-unders, pull-ups, chest-to-bar pull-ups, butterfly vs. kipping pull-ups, handstand push-ups, etc.

These prep programs are a very easy sell. And the best part is that the people who buy them are very likely to produce PRs during the competition—and that’s great for retention, too.

Follow-up revenue win: Ask prep-program participants if they’d like another block of training—or one-on-one coaching—after the competition.

Clients

In 2025, I borrowed one workout that will allow you to run a kick-ass bring-a-friend event during the Intramural Open, when people are cheering and all the best aspects of your gym are on display.

The workout Haiti comes from Sweat for Impact, a 24-hour event that runs in early February to support Brace for Impact 46, a nonprofit that provides life-saving services to communities in Haiti. (You can find out more and make a donation here.)

The workout is as many reps as possible in 12 minutes of:

10 dumbbell push presses8 dumbbell front squats6 burpees over the dumbbells

Want to create a marketing opportunity? Tell your Intramural Open participants that they can bring a guest for this one. Be sure to have extra coaches on hand to welcome guests, ensure waivers are filled out, answer questions, provide instructions and organize heats.

You can group the guests in a heat or have them work out beside their friends. You could even make the workout a you-go-I-go challenge where Partner 1 does a round and Partner 2 rests.

Plan to serve refreshments after the workout and chat with all your guests. Ask them to sit down for a free consultation, then ask about their goals and provide a plan to accomplish them. You’ll make some sales.

At minimum, get each guest’s contact info into your system so you can stay in touch. Send a personal follow-up message after the event, and ensure all email addresses get added to your lead-nuture sequences.

Three Big Wins

I want you and your clients to have an awesome time in the competition season.

But I also want your gym to grow as a result of your investment in an event.

Back in the day, I worked about 42 days in a row during the Open, and while my clients all had a great time, I ran out of energy and didn’t generate any revenue at all.

Now, we have a clear plan to improve retention, boost your bottom line and add clients through competition.

To get that plan, head to Intramuralopen.com.

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The Intramural Open: A Huge Revenue and Retention Win

It’s almost competition season, and I’ve got an updated guide to Two-Brain’s signature event: the Intramural Open.

Our mission with this annual event is threefold:

Give your clients a party.Show them they’re winning.Ensure they stay excited to train with you.

Our mission is not to find the fittest on Earth, the fittest in your city or the fittest in your gym.

We want to make your clients smile and help you put them on podiums so they stick with your gym and keep improving their lives through fitness.

And we want you to add some revenue related to competition, too.

Like any Two-Brain tactic, the Intramural Open has been tested many, many times. It is a surefire winner.

Here’s proof from one of our mentors, Brian Foley, who has used the Intramural Open plan since 2017 at Activate in Ireland:

Brian sells gymnastics and weightlifting programs that run for six or eight weeks before the competition. Details: 10-12 people at about $200 a head, for a total of $2,000-$2,400 per program.Brian’s client success manager dug into his metrics and discovered that every client who participates in the Intramural Open at his gym is three times more likely to stay for another 12 months of membership.

The first part—revenue generated directly by the Intramural Open plan—is sweet.

But the second part is even better.

Think about it: The people who join a team and smile for the Intramural Open are far more likely to stay for the next 12 months.

Let’s say Brian’s gym has average revenue per member of $168, which is the mean for big-group gyms in our 2024 “State of the Industry” report. That would mean every client who does the Intramural Open is three times more likely to contribute another $2,016 to his business.

Brian has more than 150 members who join the party, so think what this one event does for his retention—to say nothing of all the other tactics he uses to hold onto clients.

And think about how industry-leading retention reduces marketing and intake costs. It’s far cheaper to serve existing clients than work to acquire and onboard new ones.

On the other hand, I and other gym owners approached competition all wrong back in the day.

We focused on our best athletes, accidentally made everyone else feel “less” and burned ourselves out filming hours of workouts for top competitors.

One gym owner I know lost about 30 members after the CrossFit Games Open even though his gym posted its best competition results of all time that year. His members were far more likely to leave because of the way he framed competition, and his mistake cost him tens of thousands of dollars.

So I’ll say it again:

This February-March, your mission as a gym owner is to put your members on podiums and celebrate them so they keep working toward their health and fitness goals.

Your Own Competition?

In 2025, I did something I’ve never done: I programmed workouts for the Intramural Open in case that helps you provide a better experience for your clients. I also want to make sure gyms that aren’t CrossFit affiliates can run an intramural event with ease.

You can still link the Intramural Open to the CrossFit Games Open if you like. Our sample timeline runs in lockstep with the Games.

But if you want to go your own way, you can use my workouts—or create your own!

I selected the four workouts in the Intramural Open guide for these reasons:

They require limited space and equipment.They are known well in advance so you can write lead-up workouts, plan your heats, manage your facility and organize your judges.They allow people at any level to participate.They provide many opportunities for wins.One of the workouts is perfect as a bring-a-friend marketing tactic.They allow you to market prep courses before the competition and skill sessions/personal training afterward.

In our annual plan for gym owners, we recommend you run the Intramural Open in late February or early March. It’s a great way to boost your revenue heading into spring, and it’s a key part of a gym’s retention plan.

People who are training for something don’t quit, and when they’ve finished the event, they already have something to look forward to next year.

I strongly recommend you get this event on your calendar, and I’ll offer my No. 1 tip for success:

The Intramural Open should feel like your gym’s birthday party—unbridled fun, full effort, maximum celebration. A successful Intramural Open will give your clients a story to tell for the rest of their lives.

If you follow the instructions in my 2025 “Intramural Open Guide,” you’ll flood your gym with smiles and good feelings without straining your staff.

And you’ll improve your bottom line as you do it.

To get my new guide, head to Intramuralopen.com.

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The 2025 Intramural Open: Build Community, Retention and Profitability

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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3 Things a CrossFit Gym Did to Triple Owner Earnings

In three years, the owners of a Texas CrossFit gym tripled their earnings without adding clients.

And we aren’t talking about moving from $1,000 to $3,000 in income.

The Tribe/3F CrossFit is owned by two couples, and the numbers are much larger.

A triple-up like this sounds too good to be true, but monster metrics improvements are increasingly common as gym owners take direct action to improve their businesses.

Here’s what Andi and Ed Conway and Chelsea and Nick Vera did.

I interview top gym owners weekly on “Run a Profitable Gym,” and I see gigantic improvements in metrics all the time.

Whenever numbers move dramatically, “the usual suspects” appear.

For example, if a gym owner says “I doubled my length of engagement,” it’s almost guaranteed that they hired a client success manager (CSM) and started doing Goal Review Sessions. Two-Brain data shows that both tactics have a huge positive effect on length of engagement (LEG).

When a gym dramatically increases revenue and profit without adding a ton of clients, it’s very clear that average revenue per member (ARM) has improved.

With The Tribe, here are the three things that boosted their ARM big time so both families could take home more money:

1. They eliminated discounts.
2. They raised rates.
3. They added a high-value introductory program (on-ramp).

These are the three pillars of a 3X improvement in owner earnings in a Texas gym that focuses on group classes. Below, I’ll give you quick notes on each pillar.

Tribe owners Nick and Chelsea Vera and Andi and Ed Conway (l-r).
1. “We Don’t Have Discounts”

If you are discounting your rates, you are literally giving away your profit. If you charge $200 a month and want to gross $300,000 a year, you need 125 clients.

If you give everyone 10 percent off for various reasons—spousal discounts, military/first-responder discounts, discounts associated with sales—you need 139 clients to earn the same amount, which means you need a marketing and sales plan to acquire those extra members. And you need a plan to retain them.

If you just stop offering discounts, your revenue and ARM will increase.

Start by eliminating discounts for new clients. When you’re ready to go further, a mentor can help you put together a plan to be rid of legacy discounts for existing members.

Resource: “Denying Discounts: A Short Guide for Gym Owners”

2. Raising Rates

Most gyms don’t charge enough because their rates were never set with value and owner income requirements in mind. They were set on a whim or by copycatting “the gym down the street.”

Again, start by raising rates for incoming clients. After you make some sales at the new rate, you’ll have the confidence to look at raising rates for current members.

The best plan there: Use a Two-Brain mentor to create a detailed plan to raise rates. We have spreadsheets, checklists, rollout plans, messaging scripts, tips, etc.

Will you lose a member or two? Probably. But if you follow Two-Brain’s battle-tested plan, you’ll more than compensate for a few departures, and your business will be stronger forever.

Resource: “Gym Rate Increases: 3 Essential Tips”

3. On-Ramps

Clients who are onboarded with a one-on-one on-ramp get better results and stay longer. This is not debatable. Two-Brain data confirms it.

So if you bring in a new client with one-on-one sessions, that client will accomplish goals faster. And they will work out longer, which means they develop a fitness habit and improve their health. All this is life changing. With that in mind, it’s your duty as a gym owner to improve your onboarding process.

Your reward for doing so is charging a rate that reflects the value you provide. Personal attention is a premium service, so charge accordingly.

Suddenly, instead of bringing in a confused, soon-to-be frustrated client who pays $150 a month, you are adding a fully supported client who might pay $500 for a first month in which they learn everything they need to know to succeed at your gym. That new client will receive a huge amount of personal attention and is far more likely to stay with your gym for years instead of months.

The client becomes healthier and you become wealthier.

Everyone wins.

Resource: “Your Gym Needs an On-Ramp Program. Here’s Why.”

The Next Step

The Veras and Conways aren’t done: They would like to improve their net owner benefit further. To do that, they want to add a few clients. But not 60 group clients.

Their plan is to add about 10 high-value PT clients with a step-by-step plan created with a mentor.

Will it work? I’d bet money that it will.

And you can imagine what happens when a gym that focuses on group training adds a strong PT revenue stream. When implemented properly, this secondary stream might add 25 or 30 percent to gross revenue—and it doesn’t require 100 new clients.

If a gym is grossing $25,000 per month and adds 10 PT clients who pay about $500 a month each, that’s $5,000 in new revenue and a 20 percent boost.

Now you know exactly how The Tribe’s owners tripled their owner earnings in about three years—and how they plan to push that multiple to 5x in 2025.

So why doesn’t every gym owner follow this plan? Because they don’t know exactly what steps to take when, and no one is pushing them to take action.

If you want to multiply your owner earnings in 2025, here’s how to solve those problems: Book a call to talk about mentorship.

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How The Tribe Tripled Owner Earnings Without Adding Clients

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Chris Cooper’s Top Tips for Success in 2025

It’s New Year’s Day, and I’m going to give you five recommendations to help you start 2025 off on the right foot.

1. Get a Mentor—or Rely on Your Mentor

This is a big one. I rely on mentors to help me grow my businesses, so I know the value of mentorship. I’ve also seen the data that shows what happens to key metrics when an expert helps an owner move forward. (Check out what top-earning gym owners take home here.)

No matter where you are, one little change or a bit of insight from someone objective can have an incredible effect. It can alter your trajectory from slow growth to rapid growth or from slow decline to growth. In some cases, it can change your course from “into the mountain” to “over the mountain.”

Beyond that, precise plans, sound tactics and year-round accountability ensure you’re doing the right things at the right time to build your business.

If you’re lost or struggling, or if you want to reach your goals faster, consider going all in on your business this year. Get help, stick to the plan and do the work. If you do, you’ll reap great rewards and get an impressive return on your investment.

If you already have a mentor, send a message and tell them you’re 100 percent committed to doing the work required to grow your business in 2025. If you have any questions or if you’re worried about anything, lay it out so your mentor can provide the clarity you need to confidently execute the annual plan you’ve created together.

2. Evaluate and Plan

Here’s how to do it: Get our 2024 “State of the Industry” report here. Check out all the red-yellow-green ratings systems we created this year and hold your metrics up to the numbers.

Here’s an example:

From there, make a plan to first address any metrics that put you in the red zone. Then work on your yellows. Do it systematically so you don’t lose focus. (Our mentors use the Two-Brain Dashboard and our Toolkit to analyze metrics and prescribe tactics to improve them at warp speed.)

Track your progress and double down on the things that had the greatest effect. Log your lessons and make notes so you don’t repeat mistakes.

If you need a simple annual plan as a starting point, I have one. DM me and ask for it in our Gym Owners United group.

It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: If you don’t have any metrics for your gym right now, 2025 is the year to start tracking.

3. Follow Us

We produce mountains of content to help you build a better business.

Here’s your list:

A. Subscribe to the “Run a Profitable Gym” show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.
B. Join Gym Owners United (if you haven’t already).
C. Follow us on Instagram.

4. Join My 2025 Challenge

In late 2024, I ran the Golden Hour Challenge for gym owners. You can see my full Day 1 post here.

From Nov. 1 to mid-December, 2024, I watched gym owners measurably improve their metrics by focusing on clearly defined tasks for just one hour a day. Together, we built entrepreneurial habits that will support our businesses for years.

I got so much positive feedback during the challenge that it’s clear we need another round. If you missed the first challenge—or if you want to go again to dig your habits in even deeper—watch the Gym Owners United group for updates and announcements.

If you want to start using the Golden Hour concept right now, you can get my latest book here.

5. Plan to Attend the Two-Brain Summit

Every year, we bring a thousand gym owners and coaches together for a weekend. I put the industry’s best speakers on stage, and they help you take action on the spot to build your business.

It’s an incredible experience. You’ll learn, build your team and grow your network, ​and you’ll leave fired up to push your gym forward.

I hope to see you in Chicago on June 7 and 8. Tickets are $300 off right now, and you can get them here.​

2025 Will Be What You Make it

So how’s your 2025 going to be?

Well, it’s really up to you. You can decide to grow every day or you can decide to do nothing.

You are what you consistently do, and every business rises to the level of its leadership. That means you are the ceiling. You can be the thing that’s stopping your business from growing or the thing that causes amazing growth.

To be “a builder,” you must do more than read a lot of books or listen to more podcasts. You need a mirror, an objective perspective to help you change. You need a goal, a plan and someone to hold you to the plan.

Change the owner, change the business. That’s your mantra for 2025.

I wish you all the best. Thank you for your service!

And if you want to talk about working together in 2025, book a call here.

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You’ll Supersize 2025 if You Do This

2025 is going to be your best year ever.

Not because I pump your tires today but because you do something to ensure it’s your best year yet.

At the end of December, I always like to offer some inspiration for the New Year.

This year, I’m going to go further. It’s not enough for me to tell you that “2024 was great.” I want to show you how great 2024 was for your own gym and tell you how to use 2024 to supersize 2025.

Plan for Success, Don’t Hope for It

Do this:

Open your calendar.Pull up your metrics using your Two-Brain Dashboard, QuickBooks file or P&L statements. (If you don’t have metrics, start tracking now so you have them at the end of 2025.)On a blank sheet of paper, write “wins” at the top of the left side and “lessons” at the top of the right side. Draw a vertical line to create two columns. Shortcut: Use my sheet.

Dig into the numbers first:

Evaluate your metrics month by month.Put good things like “profit PR” in the wins column and note the reason you won. For example, “New Year habits kickstart took in $3,500.”Write down things you learned in the other column. Example: “Run bring-a-friend event in June to compensate for slower client intake in July.”

Hit the calendar next:

Go through your calendar month by month, week by week.Enter brights spots and wins. Example: “Hired a new GM who is still crushing it!” (Two-Brain clients, you can hack this by reviewing your Bright Spots Friday posts from our private groups. Your big wins are all there! Hack No. 2: Ask your mentor to point out your biggest wins.)Enter lessons you learned. Example: “Schedule staff evaluations for February and August and let all coaches know they are coming one month in advance.”

You can probably see that the lessons will form the basis of your plan for 2025. If you put some thought into this exercise, you’ll spot easy ways to correct mistakes, get ahead and build momentum in your business.

When you get through all 12 months, review your wins and give yourself a pat on the back. I hope you see a long list and feel great!

Then look at your wins and lessons with your calendar for 2025 open. List the tasks you need to do to score repeat wins. Then make the additions and adjustments that are obvious from your lessons list.

Win example: “To generate an extra $2,500 in February revenue again, start marketing an Intramural Open prep course on Jan. 10.”

Lesson example: “Do not put habits kickstart around Thanksgiving. Run it four weeks prior to Thanksgiving so clients have more success sticking to the plan.”

If you fill 2025’s calendar with notes and tasks, you will have a very strong annual plan in front of you, and your business is sure to grow throughout the year.

Easy button: Get my done-for-you annual plan and use it as a template. Customize it as you see fit by doing the exercise I laid out above. To get my plan, go to gymownersunited.com and send me a DM to request it.

Learn and Grow

Don’t get me wrong: I want to high-five you for your successes in 2024. I’m proud of you, and I want nothing more than to light a fire under you for 2025.

But cheerleading doesn’t build businesses.

I’m a coach, so I want to coach you to do something to capitalize on your well-deserved wins and your hard-earned lessons.

Consider this my heartfelt New Year’s Eve toast to your success!

Now get out your metrics, your calendar and a sheet of paper and take quick steps to ensure 2025 is even better than 2024.

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Reflect, Plan and Win: Chris Cooper’s Year-End Message to Gym Owners

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

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