Chris Cooper's Blog, page 41

Is It Time to Sell Your Gym? (Do This First)

“It’s too late. I’m done.”

I’ve heard this statement from gym owners more than a few times.

Some entrepreneurs are completely wrung out, with absolutely nothing to give.

When that’s the case, they should sell their businesses and move on.

At that point, you actually have a spectacular opportunity: You’ve never been in a better position to make big moves than when you’re at rock bottom and on the way out.

Maximize Sale Value Fast

I’ve spoken to many frustrated, burned-out gym owners whose No. 1 problem is that they have refused to do the very hard things required to fix their businesses.

Here are a few common “very hard things”:

Raising rates.Firing staff members.Cutting unprofitable programs.Getting rid of weed clients.

When you’re at the end of your rope and you’re just about to let go, you might as well do the hard things and put the business in a better place before you sell.

You’re a hard-driving entrepreneur, and even if you’re worn out, can you push through one final workout?

What if you take just six months and commit to doing all the stuff you’ve been avoiding to improve the business?

Think about it: Even if everything you do is a total bust, you’re not going to be in a worse position. You’re miserable now, right?

But the upside is huge. Addressing the hard stuff almost always produces spectacular results quickly.

For example, many gym owners put off much-needed rate increases because they’re afraid of losing members. If you’re going to pull the pin anyway, raise your rates to a level that will actually support your business (you won’t lose all your clients if you do it right).

Or that horrible staff member who needs to go? Fire the person. This alone will brighten every day just a little.

That money-losing program that’s bleeding you out? Cut it. That’s another leak patched.

Do the hard stuff fast—and do it with expert help so you maximize sale value. A mentor can show you the exact steps to take quickly, and they really add up.

For example, if your rate increase boosts revenue by just $1,700 a month, that’s $20,000 a year—so your business might be worth an extra $60,000 at sale. That windfall would pay for the cost of mentorship many times over.

Wouldn’t the business look better to a prospective buyer if it didn’t have a kids program that was costing the gym $500 a month to staff empty classes? Or what if a prospective buyer walked in and that awful staff member wasn’t eating lunch on the reverse hyper and scowling at clients?

I understand if you want out, but I want you to leave with something for all your effort.

So get help and do the very hard things.

“Maybe I Won’t Sell…”

Here’s what often happens when we help a frustrated gym owner ready a business for sale:

They do the hard stuff fast, and suddenly the business doesn’t look so bad. In some cases, the current owner decides to keep the much-improved business. This is a big win.

I want to make something clear: I hope you don’t sell.

You entered this business with the intent to serve others. When you sell, you’re giving up on that noble dream. I don’t want you to have to do that.

There’s an old joke in the gym business: The two happiest days in a gym owner’s life are the day they open and the day they sell. Our industry is full of people who claim to have “retired” from the gym business when, really, they couldn’t make a living and had to give up. None of these people would have quit the industry if their gyms were successful.

A well-run gym doesn’t need to be offloaded, and—at least in my case—it doesn’t require much oversight from the owner. I take home a healthy net owner benefit but don’t put in a lot of time. To me, that’s retirement. If you can live with that, you don’t ever have to sell.

I hope you choose to fight for your gym. If you want an expert in your corner with you, book a call here.

The post Is It Time to Sell Your Gym? (Do This First) appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Social Media Sins of the Small Fitness Business

You can’t mic-drop on social and succeed.

I’ll qualify that.

If you’re Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Tesla or Coca-Cola, you can do whatever you want.

But for the rest of us—and especially gym business owners—social success hinges on interaction.

Sadly, a lot of us don’t interact on social media. At all.

I get it: Social media can be a chore. It’s just one more thing on a huge to-do list for a gym owner. And some people truly hate content creation.

But social media isn’t going away, and if you’re going to set aside a little time to post—which is most certainly “marketing time”—you should also set aside some time to interact.

If you just post and leave, you’re missing out on critical aspects of audience building, lead generation and lead nurturing.

Giant, dominant companies like Nike and Apple can get away with a lot because of the status they’ve built over decades by spending billions on advertising.

Stated: “Behold Scottie Scheffler.” Implied: “Buy our stuff.”

Nike doesn’t bother to respond to comments below posts because of Tier 1 status few brands can hope to achieve.

At the small-business level, where you’re looking for about 150 wonderful, high-value clients, you can’t let the world come to you. Because it probably won’t.

It’s essential to do this stuff:

Respond to each and every comment—comments on your posts represent huge wins.Follow your followers back—and leave your mark on their accounts in return.Take initiative and follow people who don’t follow you back (I know: This is super scary on social media, but do it anyway).Hammer likes and comments on content you see—especially great stuff posted by other local people and businesses.DM people. Chris Cooper’s talking about selling by chat this week, but why not send messages to other people/companies just to build relationships? (“Hey, from another local biz owner, that’s a great pic of your veggie stand! I’m stopping by Saturday morning for tomatoes!”)

I’ll regularly check out gym’s social media accounts and see comments that are neither liked nor responded to. Or I’ll leave comments on small-business accounts and see them ignored even though the page is starving for engagement.

I know many people do nothing but post to an account and click out—which means they definitely miss non-member Jo Smith’s repeated liking of their posts. (Insight: Jo is interested in joining the gym but isn’t going to take the step without help.)

Do 3 Things Daily in 5 Minutes

I’m not saying you need to devote hours to social engagement. That’s not a good use of your time. So I’ll give you three things you can do to build your business in minutes:

1. Like and respond to every comment left on your account.

2. DM one follower a day to thank them for following and ask how they’re doing. (Conversations will follow.)

3. Follow one local account each day, like of few of its posts and leave a comment. Don’t be afraid to go first.

Bonus: If you have a social media manager, put these duties on their tasks list.

I’d suggest you can check all three boxes in 5 minutes a day.

Maybe you aren’t ready for selling by chat on social. That’s OK—Coop created a free guide to help you when you want to go further. Get it here.

Until then, build your audience. That can be accomplished by posting engaging content and then interacting online for a few minutes before you move on to another task.

The post Social Media Sins of the Small Fitness Business appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What to Say to Move Social Leads Down the Funnel

If you’re committed to nurturing leads in 2024, you’re going to need to use social media to do it.

That’s not to say you should abandon email and text nurturing. That’s still important. But don’t sleep on social leads.

I’ll give you a stat: A Sprout Social survey found that 64 percent of consumers want brands to link up with them.

And here’s a line from a Forbes article: “ Not only are your customers more likely than not on social media despite your industry, but they are also using social media to make decisions online to buy. Not building a brand on social media is hindering your potential customers from being able to find you.”

One more piece of advice, from Hootsuite: “Social media is an essential way to reach your customers, gain valuable insights, and grow your brand. If you’re avoiding this powerful communication tool, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity to connect with an audience.”

So how do you use social media to connect with prospective clients and win them over?

I’ve got a precise plan laid out for you in my new guide, including exactly what to say at each stage of the conversation: Get it here (you can also just DM me on Facebook and request it).

I’ll give you a quick overview so you understand the concept.

Engagement = Leads

You must post content that will appeal to your audience. I wrote about that in the previous post in this series. Whenever someone follows/likes/comments, treat the person as a lead and get in contact ASAP.

Ask Questions

You want to find out more about the person and get the conversation going. So ask questions and gather info. For example, where does the person live, and what are they doing for fitness now?

Reflect and Confirm

Make sure that you understand what the person is saying. This is a great place to say things such as “I get it!” and “that makes sense!” and “so you’re looking to improve your strength?”

Help

If you’ve asked the correct questions above, you’ll have all the info you need to suggest a general solution to the person’s problems. You should not write a novel by DM, but this is a good place to establish yourself as an experienced pro.

Make It Personal and Sell

This is when you offer a personalized plan to solve the problem and ask for permission to take things up a level with a call or meeting.

Get on It!

Offer to call right away or book an appointment as soon as possible. Strike while the iron is hot. The best time is right now.

Stay in Contact

If the person isn’t ready to chat, you should send them a link or free resource so they have your “calling card” and can research you further. Circle back to these people. They might be ready to take the next step after digging into your gift.

Passive No More

The key to everything: You don’t just post on social media and walk if you want to grow your business.

You must take initiative and start conversations, and you must warm leads by DM the same way you’d warm them in person or with an email sequence.

Like it or not, social media is where many connections are made now—especially with younger consumers. The good news is that most social media consumers expect and even welcome these connections.

I’ll close with an example: Kieran O’Dwyer is a gym owner, mentor and social-media expert. One of his best current clients had followed Kieran online for some time but didn’t engage at all until Kieran made a post about helping runners. It was very specific.

When the guy responded, Kieran reached out fast to keep the conversation going. The runner is now a mainstay at Kieran’s gym, but he would have remained an “online fan” if Kieran hadn’t messaged him and nurtured the relationship.

So rest assured, great clients are out there on social media.

But you won’t get them if you sit back and wait. You have to make engaging posts, then take the lead to start conversations.

If you do that, you’ll add more clients fast.  

To get “The Ultimate Sell-by-Chat Strategy for Gym Owners,” click here.

The post What to Say to Move Social Leads Down the Funnel appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

What to Post to Generate Social-Media Engagement

People who like or comment on your social posts are leads.

Same deal with people who follow/friend you or your business.

I’ve long said that likes on posts and follower counts are “glory metrics” that don’t really move the needle in a business.

And that’s still true—if you don’t nurture these leads.

For example, you can probably post a thirst trap to your feed and get some new followers who are scattered all over the world and will never, ever buy any sort of service from your coaching business. If that’s your plan, you might have posts with 1,000 likes, an empty gym and a bank account that includes a minus symbol before the balance.

But focusing on raw follower and like counts isn’t the same as building an audience of prospective clients.

When your audience is made up of people who are interested in you—at least a little—and willing to learn more, follower counts, likes and comments matter.

And when you engage with followers, likers and commenters, you can use on-platform direct messages to sell by chat. (I have a brand new guide that will teach you how to do this. Get it here: Gym Owners United.)

So what do you post to get people to follow, like and comment? A hundred thousand gurus will sell you their “algorithm hacking secrets,” but the reality is that organic exposure on social media is harder and harder to get.

The best plan is very simple: Regularly post interesting, thoughtful, authentic content that triggers a response when someone sees it.

Here are some examples.

What to Post

You can use all sorts of gimmicks on social media—trending audio, GIFs, hashtags, transitions, reels, carousels, captions, and so on.

I won’t tell you how to master any social platform, but I will say that you should learn how to use the features available on the platform where your prospective clients spend the most time.

From there, the principles of engagement are no different than they are in person: You must ask questions, start conversations, solve problems, tell stories and create emotional connections.

This was true around the campfire 200 years ago and on Instagram today.

Ask Questions and Start Conversations

If you wanted to get someone to talk to you in a coffee store, would you:

A. Do a series of sick dance moves?

B. Introduce yourself and ask a question.

A might work once in a while. B works every time.

In person, I’ll do this: Take coffee to a neighboring business and say, “Hi, I’m Chris from the gym next door. I brought coffee. How’s business?”

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve earned this way. Simple meet and greets like this have generated steady streams of clients for years at my gym.

On social, you have to be slightly more creative, but asking questions is a great way to generate a response.

“What’s your No. 1 fitness question today?”“Do you prefer weights or cardio?”“What’s your favorite piece of fitness equipment?”

Simple stuff like this will get a response. Then you keep the conversation going.

Another technique: Make a statement and ask for a response.

“I’ve never seen anyone maximize results in the gym without addressing nutrition. What do you think?”“Squats are the best lower-body movement for athletic training. When’s the last time you did some?”“This triceps pull-down variation gets real results. What’s your favorite cable attachment?”
Solve Problems

Some of the best social media accounts just solve problems.

If you want to learn the approach, head to your favorite platform and search for “home repair tips” or anything similar. You’ll find all kinds of accounts that show simple tricks pros know but amateurs don’t, as well as new tools, cool techniques and clever hacks.

For example, how do pros remove a stripped screw? Or measure angles quickly? Or patch a hole in drywall?

Check out these accounts and make notes. Which ones make you want to hit “like” or “follow” or leave a comment? Which ones don’t? And why?

Now apply what you’ve learned to fitness coaching, and start making content that solves problems.

For example, “The ‘plate model’ is a quick hack that will help you eat better today without forcing you to weigh everything. Here’s how it works.”

Another one: “Ever seen this implement in a gym? Here’s how to use it properly.”

With posts like this, you are establishing expertise. You win if a person thinks “this person knows their stuff!” but you can invite engagement, too.

Example: “Seen any other gym stuff you don’t know how to use? Shoot me a DM!”

Tell Stories and Create Emotional Connections

Sticky stories sell. That’s been the case for millennia.

I like to write, and so I’ll often write very short social-media stories for my gym. I’ve actually collected the ones that generate the most engagement in a document Two-Brain clients can download. They’re free to customize, edit and reuse my words.

I’ll give you one here:

Your vet just called. Your dog needs 30 more minutes of exercise every day.

He needs to drink three more cups of water. He needs to cut back to one treat per day.

He needs to go to bed before 10. He needs to see his friends at least 3 times every week. And he needs a bit more fibre in his diet.

You’d do it for him, right? No question.

Will you do it for yourself?

I posted this and got 208 likes—and I know a chunk of them came from other gym owners who aren’t going to move to Sault Ste. Marie to train with me, but my audience is gym owners and prospective gym clients.

When another gym owner used this post, he got 44 likes and six comments. So it’s sticky, and it provides a starting point for a conversation.

What story could you tell today to get people in your audience to react? Post it! (And if you’re a Two-Brain client, use my battle-tested “greatest hits” collection.)

Interaction: The Same as It Ever Was

The rules of human interaction don’t change even if the medium has changed a lot.

To engage people, you must ask questions, start conversations, solve problems, tell stories and create emotional connections.

Then—and here’s the important part—you must take steps to nurture these relationships. It’s an active process, and it goes beyond just posting more stuff. You must connect with your leads and nurture them until they’re ready to use your services to change their lives.

Post something today and message someone who likes or comments. That’s your starting point.

And if you don’t know what to say, get my new guide here.

The post What to Post to Generate Social-Media Engagement appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Get More Gym Members Without Paid Ads

John Franklin (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of “Run a Profitable Gym.” I am your host, John Franklin, the CMO here at Two-Brain, and I put together a quick video for you guys on how to get more members without paid ads. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart because literally every week I have a gym owner who messages me and will say something along the lines of, “I’ve tried doing Facebook ads, I’ve been blogging, I’ve been posting on Instagram, but nothing seems to bring up my member count.” And I know this can be really frustrating. You’re doing all the stuff that you think you’re supposed to be doing, you’re following all the guru best practices, but you don’t really get a ton of traction. And the reality is that can be incredibly frustrating. But when I get this question, I always ask the same question back to the gym owner, and that is, “Well, how many potential clients did you speak with today?”

John Franklin (01:03):
And for most, that number’s going to be zero. And while blogging can get you more members, ads are a great way to get more members, having a strong social strategy is important—those things can fuel a fire, but it really isn’t going to work if the fire isn’t burning. If your gym is struggling and you’re really having a hard time getting new members in the door, you don’t have to make this super scalable strategy. You don’t have to have thousands of people reading your blog, and you don’t need ads that push out and get millions of impressions. The best thing you can do to get clients today is to go out and figure out a way to talk to potential clients in your market. If you are unhappy with how your gym is going and you want to get more members, the only number you need to be tracking is the number of conversations you are having with potential prospects.

John Franklin (01:56):
I am known within Two-Brain for saying more conversations equals more conversions. I say it all the time. If I had a tagline, it would be this. And it sounds simple, but it’s true. Think about it. If you have a gym and I have a gym in the same market, and I’m talking to 10 people a month about my gym, and you’re talking to a hundred people in the area about your gym, over time, your gym is going to be a lot larger than mine because marketing is a numbers game. And so, if you don’t have a goal for yourself on potential conversations with prospects each day, that would be where I would start as a very simple marketing goal. So, for most gym owners, I say, “Hey, if you just talk to five new people about your gym every day and do that consistently for 90 days, I guarantee at the end of the 90-day period, you will not have a marketing problem.”

John Franklin (02:54):
Inevitably what I hear back is, “Sure, that sounds great. I would love to talk to five new people about my gym every day, but how do I do that? That’s hard to do.” And the reality is, yeah, it is hard, and it involves going outside of your comfort zone and initiating conversations in ways that don’t feel natural. It’s a lot easier to hide behind an Instagram account or social media or post blogs and give yourself the impression of being busy when being a little more direct and doing some more brute force marketing may be more effective. And so today, I’m going to share with you six ways that you can actually have more conversations. These are six different strategies that are direct ways to start talking to people quicker about your gym and not necessarily waiting for them to fill out a form on your site or call or physically walk in.

John Franklin (03:47):
So these are going to be people who are a little higher up in your funnel, right? Typically, when someone fills out a form for your website or literally walks in your gym wants to buy, you don’t really have to sell them that hard. They’ve already discovered your gym, they figured out that it works for them, and they’ve already decided that they’re in a position to take that step or else they wouldn’t have called the gym or booked a consultation. So, just note that these conversations don’t have to be salesy, but you do need to start the conversations, and you will be working with colder traffic in a lot of these scenarios. So, let’s get into it now that I’ve given you my official warning there. The first one—and this is an easy one, and some of you may be doing this already—is utilizing Facebook messaging and Instagram DMs.

John Franklin (04:34):
So, all of you have a personal Facebook account and a personal Instagram account. And I would imagine you have the same for your gym. If you’re not active on there, this strategy isn’t going to be super effective, but it is a good starting point, right? So, I’m assuming you get new followers on a weekly basis. So, here’s one that came in 19 minutes ago for me. And if I’m a gym owner, I should treat this person as if they’re a lead. If they followed my personal account and I post about gym specific content, or if they followed my gym account, that’s even better because they saw that I was a local gym in the area and resonated with the content I was putting out. That person is interested. And so just reach out to them—like reach out to them and reach out to them quickly.

John Franklin (05:21):
So here’s an example from Two-Brain Mentor Tres Kennedy. You don’t have to be creepy and be like, “Come into my gym now.” He literally just says, “Hey, thanks for following us. We really appreciate it. We hope we can motivate and encourage you with our page. Are you currently active in your fitness?” So just a simple question to the prospect to try and get the conversation going. There are a bunch of different variations you can use for this, a bunch of different scripts. We have a full sell-by-chat cheat sheet that you can use that we’ll link to down below. But this person responded; they said, “Hey, I’m sort of active these days. I used to be a lot more active.” And so, Tres went on to ask, “Well, what are you doing?” And then that got into a conversation about what his motivation was, and then he invited him in to try a class and he did.

John Franklin (06:09):
And then he signed up for a membership. And so that was an example where he took someone who was a lead 19 minutes ago and probably would’ve passively followed the Instagram account for months before deciding to take the leap into the gym or maybe never would’ve done that and got them into a position where they could come in and try the gym a lot faster. And so doing something like this isn’t particularly salesy. It shows that you’re being attentive to people who follow the page, and it makes it less intimidating. Like joining a gym is a very scary thing for a lot of people. And this is an easy way to move people down the funnel and to build trust. So, if you’re not talking to new followers, that is the easiest source of leads for your business.

John Franklin (06:55):
Now, some of you may run ads as well for a six-week challenge or a free trial class or some type of a low barrier offer. And all that’s great. I hope your lead costs are low and that is bringing sufficient leads for your business. But we hear from gym owners all the time that lead costs are going up and some markets are north of $100 a lead, and there are gym owners still making it work at that price point, but you need to get a little more juice out of that lemon if you’re spending that type of money on leads. And an easy way you can take people who engage with the ad and move them down the funnel is simply reaching out to them. So, here’s one where somebody liked an ad that they put out and on Instagram, that gym owner DMed them and said, “Hey, we saw you liked our ad for the four-week program.”

John Franklin (07:44):
“I see you also know a few of our clients.” So, they did a little stalking on that person’s Instagram profile, and then they said, “Hey, do you want to come in and try out a free class?” And the person responded, literally said, “Heck yeah. I would be honored.” And so, they were taking somebody who passively engaged with an ad—didn’t even opt in, right? They just liked it. And that person looked at their profile, saw that they had mutual friends at the gym. So, it was probably, uh, the reason the ad was served to them and just invited them in to come for a class. And so, while the ad didn’t work the first time around, the added element of personalization and professionalization of reaching out to that person got that lead into the gym and resulted in a sale. So again, more conversations equals more conversions.

John Franklin (08:28):
So, some of you don’t have Facebook, don’t have Instagram, aren’t active on there, aren’t getting new followers—that’s fine. Another source that you can look for is local Facebook groups. Every single city has these. So, I live in Jupiter, Florida. This is not a particularly large town, but you can see here there’s two groups. One’s called “Moms of Jupiter.” There’s almost 9,000 members in that group, gets five posts a day. And another one called “Jupiter Locals” with 30,000 members, and stuff’s just going off in there all the time. And so, this is a great place to look for potential clients and to start conversations about your business. The easiest way to get a little bit of a presence on there is to go into the group and then just do a search for keywords. So like “gym,” “personal training,” if you’re CrossFit, search “CrossFit,” and then posts will inevitably come up.

John Franklin (09:27):
So here are two: “I’m looking for the best personal trainer in Jupiter.” “Looking for a personal trainer. Thanks in advance.” And there’s 85 comments on here from people who are recommending other people. And you can see these posts are old, but I recommend commenting on them anyway because people go into these groups looking for providers all the time. I know my business partner, Mateo Lopez, recently looked for an auto mechanic and found someone through a Facebook group. We hired a nanny off of that “Moms of Jupiter” group. And the way my wife found that person is looking at a post recommending a nanny from three years ago, and this person just kept coming up, and she reached out to them. And so, while these posts are old, I guarantee people go back and look for them. Recommendation posts are incredibly powerful, and I wouldn’t necessarily go in there and say, “Hey, I’m the best personal trainer in Jupiter or Tequesta.”

John Franklin (10:20):
But what you can do is you can copy the link to the post and then send it to maybe one or two of your best clients and say, “Hey, I’m looking to grow my business, would you mind recommending me on this post?” And you know, if they like you and you’ve helped them in their life, they’ll be happy to go out of their way to help you in return. And so, they can comment on there, you can get a couple likes on it, and that puts you on the map for these posts. So, anything like that, you want to be showing up there. And then people who are commenting on the posting that they are looking for a personal trainer, there’s no problem friending them and reaching out and saying, “Hey, I saw you were looking for a personal trainer. I’m a local gym owner in the area.”

John Franklin (11:02):
“I’ve been looking for a couple people to try out a new class offering that I’ve got going on. Are you still looking for someone to help you out with your fitness?” So, a simple message like that, you can reach out to them, and it opens up conversations, OK? Because these are people in your market, they’re looking for health services—an easy way to get the ball rolling. Now, this is a little more passive. DMing people who comment on the post is a little more active and will be a little more immediate, but you can also go hunting yourself. So, here is Two-Brain mentor Ashley Haun. She lives in DeLand, Florida, and there’s a DeLand Florida community page. And it looks like she posted a photo of herself looking fit and says, “I’m looking for three people who are interested in personal or semi-private training.”

John Franklin (11:50):
“If you’re a busy professional, if you have decision making fatigue and you want real change, raise your hand.” So, she’s just qualifying what she’s looking for, and she posted that in the group, and she ended up getting 21 leads from that post. So, 21 people raised their hands and said, “Hey, I’m interested; tell me more.” And she just reached out to all of them and explained the offering and started a conversation, and she ended up getting three sales just from that one post. And that’s something that you can do relatively frequently. So, every group will have its own set of rules. Some people go with the “ask for forgiveness” route where they’ll just post, and until they get slapped on the hand by an admin, they continue to post. Or you can contact the admin and just explain your situation and say, “Hey, I own a new gym or an established gym in the area.”

John Franklin (12:40):
“I’m launching this new service. I want to post about it in the group. Is there a specific day I can do that?” And most of the time the admins will get back to you about the rules. Like sometimes they won’t let you post an outbound link but will allow you to post something like this in the group. So again, I’m not an expert on every city Facebook group, but I know that there are hundreds of people in Two-Brain running this exact strategy successfully. So, if one group tells you no, go find another one because every city’s going to have a mom group, a locals’ group, and various groups like that where a bunch of your potential members are congregated. And again, if you’re afraid no one’s going to like or comment, you can take the link to your post and send it out to a couple of your favorite clients who love you, maybe a few friends as well to just ask, “Hey, can you like this post and comment on it to give it a little more boost?” Right?

John Franklin (13:31):
Because posts that get a lot of engagement like this perform better in the group. More people will see it. So, there’s nothing wrong with saying, “Hey Susie, I know I don’t ask for much, but if you got value out of coming to the gym, can you just like and comment on this post and tell people the results you got working with me?” So, you know, having someone who’s within the community saying, “Hey, I worked with Ashley. She did great work for me,” that’s just going to add an element of trust and get more people to reach out. So again, an easy way to have prospects raise their hand so you can start more conversations. Now, maybe you don’t want to go hunting in Facebook groups. That’s fine. You have friends and followers now, and we talked about how to reach out to new followers and use that as a way to start more conversations.

John Franklin (14:17):
But you can also get your existing friends and followers to raise their hand. And the best way to do that is by offering them something of value. So, here’s Two-Brain client Ashley Sell, and she runs a couple successful gyms, and she posted this on her Facebook profile, and I love this. So, she said, “I created a list of my top four Costco finds for busy professionals looking for healthy meals in less than 10 minutes. Comment ‘busy,’ and I will send you my free guide.” So again, busy professional, so that’s who she’s targeting. Healthy meals in 10 minutes or less, so that is very clear what the value prop is. And then Costco, she’s just like piggybacking off of the love and brand recognition for Costco. And you don’t need to overcomplicate something like this. A lot of people think, “If I’m going to put together some type of guide or note or something that I’m going to send to prospects, it needs to be this big complex thing.”

John Franklin (15:15):
But the reality is a lot of people go to Costco, a lot of people have trouble identifying what’s healthy and what’s not healthy. And you can literally type up something in an Apple note—as simple as just a plain text note. Like “here are the things,” a sentence or two on why you like each thing, and maybe a link to it on the Costco site or a photo of the actual product. And something like that should take you no more than half an hour. And for Ashley, this post resulted in six sales. So, that’s six people signing up for her gym and something that took under 45 minutes. So, in terms of ROI, stuff like this is insane. And if you need a system for coming up with ideas—because you can do a post like this every single week. I know a lot of Two-Brain gym owners who actually do, and there’s a strategy for that.

John Franklin (16:04):
So to get inspiration for these kinds of value posts you can put together, go to your favorite fitness or nutrition YouTube channel, go to their videos and then sort them by popularity, and you can personalize those videos for your market. So, if you’re listening to this, I have three thumbnails from popular people in the fitness space. One of them is like “Top 10 Cleanest Fast Food Keto Options.” And it’s a video with 1.8 million views. And so, you’re probably not going to make as good of a video as someone who is a professional YouTuber, but you don’t need to. You just need to make the best video or the best guide for your market. Again, if I’m in Jupiter, I can put together a Google note that says, like, “The Top 10 Cleanest Quick Lunch Options” or “Lunch on the Go Options for Jupiter Residents.”

John Franklin (16:55):
And I can just put the name of the restaurant and the thing that I would order, and something like that wouldn’t take very long to put together, and it would be a very high value for someone who is looking to lose weight. Here’s another one under here that’s like “The Only Five Stretches You Need for Good Flexibility.” So again, it’s like—golf is very popular where I live in Jupiter—it’s like I would put together like, “Here are the five stretches I use to not hurt your back playing golf.” And then you can list those all out, and you can put that together as a guide. You can post that on your profile, and you can get people to raise their hand and say, “Hey, I want that,” which allows you to start the conversation about the services you offer.

John Franklin (17:32):
Now, if you want to go a step further, you can create a public Facebook group of your own. And so, there is a Two-Brain client by the name of Kieran O’Dwyer who lives in Bathurst. And he has a Facebook group called “Bathurst and Orange Free Fitness Tips.” So, it is a group of people in his community who are looking to improve their health and fitness, and he creates guides like the ones I just mentioned every single week. And he has a whole elaborate system he uses to create these guides. And I did a full hour video where he breaks down that system. We’ll link to it below so you can go watch that because it’s packed with value. You can literally just copy his entire method. It’s so great. But I’ll just show you—I’ll give you a quick idea of what goes on here.

John Franklin (18:27):
So someone joins the group, there’s a welcome post, and he talks about the purpose of the group, which is to help people on their health and fitness journey and to provide a space where they can interact with others who are going through the same journey. And he says, “I’m here to offer you my knowledge and help any in any way I can. And we give eBooks, guides, workout programs, nutrition tips and recipes in this group, free of charge.” And that’s the whole thing. And then he says, “If you want to begin your journey, comment ‘habits,’ and I’ll send you my free four-week healthy habit challenge.” So, he put together this challenge, and you can see he had 192 people comment on it. So that’s literally hundreds of leads from this one post, which is going to be a business changing amount of leads for most gym owners.

John Franklin (19:17):
And again, every single week he adds a new one in there to just really help the community out. So, here’s one called “Get Your First Chin Up,” 73 comments on it. Here’s another one called “Six High Protein Dinner Recipes,” 52 comments on it. So again, he’s consistently generating a ton of leads for his gym, repurposing information that he already has. And he’s built a system where this takes him—he told me it was under two hours a week all in to keep this machine going. So again, go watch that video if you want to see how he gets people to join the group, how he makes these guides, and the actual conversations he has with those people. But again, this is a great opportunity for those of you who are good at building communities. You absolutely should have a general health and fitness group for your city on top of the one you have for your members.

John Franklin (20:06):
Now, if social media isn’t your thing, one of the quickest and easiest ways to start conversations with people is to go out into the real world. And this is the method that is most uncomfortable for most gym owners, and that’s why people don’t do it. But it’s also the most effective if you can do it correctly. And someone I look up to who does this really well is Mike Doehla. And if you don’t know Mike Doehla, he built a $10-million-a-year nutrition business without using any paid ads. So, it was all just in Facebook groups, it was all posting helpful stuff to Instagram, and it was all going out to real life events and community building and having conversations. And one of the tips that he shared with me is—he says, “If you work at coffee shops, so if you go to coffee shops to do some of your admin work, you absolutely should get a sticker for the back of your laptop.”

John Franklin (21:03):
So if you’re listening to this, there’s a photo on the screen now that has Mike’s company, which was Stronger U, and it takes up the entire back of his laptop. And it says in big letters it says, “Hi, I’m Mike, ask me nutrition questions even if I look busy.” And he meant it. And then under that it says, “And if you’re shy, go to strongeru.com.” So he sold macro nutrition coaching, but if you’re a gym owner, you can be like, “Hi, I’m Mike. I’m a personal trainer. Ask me questions about looking better naked”—however you want to position it. Whatever your thing is, make sure you put it on there. And that’s like free advertising. He said people would literally ask him questions. And one of the things that he would do, as he got more comfortable with this process to get people to talk to him more, is he would go to the coffee shop that he posted up in every single day, and he’d give the cashier like 20 to 100 bucks.

John Franklin (21:58):
He said depending on how he was feeling that day, and it would just pay for the people’s coffees behind him, and he’d tell the cashier—who he had a relationship with at that point in time—if anyone asks, I’m the person who did it and just point them my way. And he’d sit near the register with his laptop open doing his work. And when someone would say, “Thank you,” he’d just start a quick conversation with him. Didn’t have to be salesy, but that reciprocity kicks in, and these are all people who have coffee near your business, and people like coffee. One in every 10 is probably going to be looking for a gym. So, it creates an easy and cheap way to build personal relationships with actual people in your community. And I can’t stress it enough:

John Franklin (22:42):
This stuff works; it’s just uncomfortable, so you’ve got to push yourself to do it. And there are hundreds of fun other ways you can get involved in the community. You can kind of brute force your way into starting conversations. Again, Mike was nutrition specific, but he said he would go to Barnes and Nobles and put his card in nutrition books. So like people who were looking, he’s like, “I didn’t want them to get bad nutrition advice, so I just put my card in there.” Or like, during Halloween, he would go into the grocery store and tape his card onto bags of candy or stuff like that with a message like, “You can eat this on my diet program.” But just fun stuff that doesn’t really scale but is effective if you do it over and over and over again. And again, your competitors won’t be doing this, so it’s an easy way for you to stand out.

John Franklin (23:30):
Now the sixth way to start more conversations is through events. So, you have a gym, you have this space that you can entertain people, and you likely have relationships within your local market. So, I know a lot of people who collab with other people who collab with other businesses to throw events and share customers. But if you don’t want to do that, the simplest way to get some bodies in the door is to do a bring-a-friend day. And a classic spin on a bring-a-friend day is a “wine and workout.” And so, this is really simple. Just go get some wine, ask members to bring a friend to class on a Friday, and then hang out after class, drink the wine and talk about how great the gym is. It really doesn’t need to be that complicated.

John Franklin (24:16):
So this is the actual post that Two-Brain client Shae Pomeroy used, and the last time she ran this, she got 20 leads. So, people brought 20 friends into her gym. That’s 20 conversations she could have to grow her business. Another gym owner I know, Mike Brogue, he partners with a brewery, and once a quarter he’ll do a 0.5k around the brewery. So, they’ll run around the brewery once and go in and have a beer, and it costs like 20 bucks, and he promotes it to his members, and the brewery promotes it to their list, and he gets to have conversations with the brewery’s list. And then his members have this super fun experience, and it’s an easy way to bring—to get people indoctrinated into what you do in a very non-intimidating way.

John Franklin (25:04):
And the sky’s the limit here. The idea is to just do events consistently if that is a strategy you are going to run with. And again, like the guides, don’t overcomplicate it. You just want to do something because it will allow you to have more conversations than if you did nothing or if you were paralyzed with indecision. So that’s it: six simple methods for you to start more conversations. And again, if you are not tracking how many conversations you are having with prospects on any given day, that is the only marketing metric you should be tracking when you are struggling to grow your gym. I hope this was valuable to you. If it is, be sure to like and comment and tune back later this week for the next episode of “Run of Profitable Gym.” Thanks.

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Always Be Conversing: Lead Nurture in 2024

Do you really need more leads?

Or do you need to work harder with the leads you’re getting?

I’d wager it’s the latter.

But here’s a secret: You’re almost certainly getting more leads than you realize.

This isn’t “Glengarry Glen Ross,” where you get an index card with the name of a lead on it. 

Leads are everywhere, and they aren’t that hard to find. But some people don’t know what a lead is in 2024.

Leads are:

Anyone who likes a post you or your business made on social media.Anyone who comments on a social-media post.Anyone who follows you or your business on social media.Anyone who is a member of a social-media group you run or are part of.Anyone who visits your website.Anyone you speak to in the course of your day.

You might think I’m trying to be cute. I’m not. In the digital era, “a lead” is anyone who is connected to you or your business in any way. You have their contact info and a way to reach out to them in seconds, right? The Glengarry sales team would have killed for that.

You’re right: Some of these leads are very cold, but they are still leads. And with proper nurturing, some will become clients.

The real secret to marketing is lead nurture, not lead generation. Getting attention is easy now. Getting a client to take steps toward purchase—nurturing them, in other words—is the hard part.

Back in 2021, I set up a 100-Lead Challenge for Two-Brain clients: I told them to start conversations by offering a valuable free resource in a Facebook group. When they followed the plan, the leads poured in. The winner got 100 leads in just 18 days.

Now, I’m telling you that you can start conversations even more quickly by reaching out to people who simply follow you on social media or like your posts.

I’m going to tell you exactly how to do that in my new guide, “The Ultimate Sell-by-Chat Strategy for Gym Owners,” which comes out tomorrow. (I’ll make sure you know how to get it!)

Nurturing Tips

Here, I’ll give you Two-Brain clients’ top tips for nurturing relationships by DM so people trust you enough to buy. These tips come from participants in our 2021 100-Lead Challenge:

1. “Pretend they’re literally sitting right in front of you. Just talk to them like a human.”

2. “I followed the Two-Brain Business script until I was comfortable. Then I just started asking questions in my own voice.”

3. “I get myself in the right frame of mind: These people need me, and if I don’t ask them to talk about my gym, they’ll probably waste money on crap that will make them less healthy.”

4. “I didn’t feel comfortable asking people to get on a call at first. But then I started telling them how I could help and asking if they’d like to talk more. I even said ‘I promise you don’t have to buy anything’ and still got over 30 No Sweat Intros.”

5. “It’s OK if they’re not ready to sign up yet. The longer they stay in your (social media) group, the more they’ll like you!”

6. “My old lead-nurture sequence took months or weeks. This takes hours or days.”

7. “Respond to texts when you’re in the right headspace. Don’t do it mid-workout or when you’re hangry.”

Remember this:

1. If someone follows your business or likes a post, you’re just a step away from a chat.

2. If someone chats with you, you’re just a step away from a phone call or in-person meeting.

3. If someone talks with you, they’re just a step away from signing up to work with you.

Some leads will take the steps quickly, but others will need more time. That’s OK. Start as many conversations as you can, then keep them going with messages and content and help.

Eventually, some cold leads will move from paying attention to paying you money.

The post Always Be Conversing: Lead Nurture in 2024 appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

How to Confuse Clients and Lose Focus Fast

I thought more revenue streams were better.

I had a group fitness program, so why not add open gym, programming for competitive athletes, nutrition services, kids programs, older adult programs, yoga classes, physiotherapy services, and weightlifting and gymnastics specialty sessions?

I was certain more options would give me access to more people and the revenue would pour into the building like floodwater.

Except it didn’t work like that at all.

Here’s what actually happened: When I started adding more options to my service package, my clients got confused and I lost focus.

Was my gym all about competitive athletes or kids? Should people buy coaching or just access to equipment so they could do their own special workouts?

Was the customized weightlifting program for a competitor better or worse than a six-week specialty program focused on the Olympic lifts? Did we even offer personal training? (Yes, but no one knew that.)

Instead of presenting clear paths, I had far too many options for people. And then I had options within options, such as the “1x per week group membership” that all but ensured clients would get no results and leave.

It was confusing as hell, even for our coaches. I was constantly stressed out as I tried to come up with new revenue-generating plans, and I became increasingly frustrated as my efforts failed to move the needle on our profit-and-loss statement.

Overall, my business “plan” was only marginally acceptable in that break-even, don’t-go-under, can’t-pay-myself, gym-as-hobby kind of way.

The better plan would have been to focus on a very small number of very clear options.

PT and nutrition coaching would have been a perfect combo. That’s it.

Here’s what I missed: Simplicity scales faster than complexity. It took a mentor—Chris Cooper—to teach me that.

Had I focused only on PT and nutrition, I could have dialed in my message and marketing, then presented the right prospective clients with a very simple prescription to accomplish goals quickly.

I could have avoided buying 2-lb. dumbbells that ate all the profit from my kids program, and I could have prevented upper-mediocre athletes from leaving my group classes to repeatedly do Isabel every day in open gym.

I could have left my lobby arranged as it was instead of pushing everything aside for the few people who trickled into our slowly dying yoga classes.

In fact, I could have gotten rid of the lobby altogether and moved to a smaller space. I might have cut expenses by about 80 percent and generated almost the same amount of revenue.

More Isn’t Better

Back then, I thought more options would bring more money, but my plan only reduced focus and increased confusion. It never produced the giant revenue totals I was hoping for.

I made all these mistakes even though my father once wisely told me “you don’t get chicken from a pizza place or pizza from a chicken place.”

Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Get really good at selling a select number of premium services that solve almost every problem for almost every client. Then focus on finding more of those clients, not trying to lure in different people with new options.

It’s counterintuitive to focus on a smaller share of the market—especially when novelty is so tempting and the gym down the street just started offering kids classes—but focus is always the smart play.

Do This Today

Here’s your task for today’s CEO time: Look at your service options. Can you increase focus and simplicity by getting rid of something? I bet you can.

And if you can’t peel anything back, review your “idea list.” Be ruthless. If the things on your “maybe” list aren’t surefire, no-doubt, grand-slam home runs for your client avatar, pass on them. Instead, invest your time learning to market and sell your core offerings to new people who are just like your very best clients.

Increasing focus is harder than it sounds. So if you’re having trouble with these tasks, you can hit the easy button. Two-Brain mentors help gym owners create, market and sell clear offers that generate revenue and profit, and they help entrepreneurs stay focused.

To find out more about that, book a call.

The post How to Confuse Clients and Lose Focus Fast appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Exactly How to Boost Revenue With a 55+ Program

Mike Warkentin (00:02):
Could you add a niche program to your gym and generate more revenue? The answer is yes, but only if you do it properly. We’re going to talk about that today. This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” I’m your host, Mike Warkentin, and today, we’re talking about 55+ programs that are also called Masters or Legends programs. In some parts of the world, an older adult program can be a huge win for a gym. Great clients get fitter and healthier. Trainers make more. Gym owners make more, but you have to do it right. My guest today is Brian Foley. He runs Activate in Kerry, Ireland. He’s got the largest 55+ program on the Emerald Isle, and he’ll be speaking of the Two-Brain Summit; that’s coming up June 8th and 9th in Chicago. His topic? “Growing a 55+ Program in Your Gym.” This can generate revenue for you. It can also fracture your offer if you don’t do it properly. So, we’re going to talk about that today. Brian, welcome. How are you today?

Brian Foley (00:50):
Great, Mike. Thanks so much for having me on.

Mike Warkentin (00:52):
I am excited. This was an area of passion for me when I was running a bigger gym. We had an older adults’ program, and they were some of the best clients in there. And so, I’m going to dig into it right away with you. Are you ready to go?

Brian Foley (01:03):
Absolutely. Let’s do it.

Mike Warkentin (01:04):
Alright. Alright, so let’s talk first—I want to get to some numbers because people want to hear this stuff. It’s important for them to get some metrics. So, what’s possible? Do you have any metrics that can show the value of a program for older adults? Like what’s average revenue per member or revenue or any numbers that you’re willing to share with us?

Brian Foley (01:19):
Yeah, absolutely. So, our average revenue per member for our Masters program is the same as our group, our general population program. So, it’s 140 euros per member. The revenue we make from our Masters program is around 10% of our gross.

Mike Warkentin (01:34):
OK, that’s good.

Brian Foley (01:35):
Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s a significant portion of our business. We have between 50 and 60 clients in the program. Really the only reason that it’s not expanding more than that is just capacity, which is a great problem to have. And then you mentioned how long those clients stay around for, and absolutely, our length of engagement with this particular group is higher than all the other groups in our gym.

Mike Warkentin (01:58):
Oh, that’s good. That’s really good. So, listeners, just to put in perspective, in our “State of the Industry” survey in 2023, gyms will run nutrition programs, get about maybe 4% of their revenue on average. It’s not a great number. Some gyms will get up in the 10, 20% range. That’s where you start seeing some money. So, to put in perspective here, Brian’s got a program that’s kicking in 10% of his gross at the exact same average revenue per member as his normal classes. When I ran a Legends program, I charged below my average revenue per member. That was a bit of an issue. And he’s got people who are staying longer than his normal members. So, this is a huge win across the board that shows you what’s possible. And if you look at your revenue and say, “What’s 10%? Could I add that in?” Yeah, you probably could with a great population. So, we’re going to dig into the details of this so that you can take action and add something like this in. Brian, how long has it been since you put this program in place, and how did you market it given that, at least in North America, older adults tend to just sit on the couch and watch TV? How did you get these people in here?

Brian Foley (02:55):
Yeah, so that’s a question we often get. And we’ve had the program going since we’ve had the gym going more or less. So, it’s seven years in place now. Yeah. Yeah. So, we love it. They’re a great group, great bunch. I’ll have to say that because my own parents are part of it. Awesome. So, we started with one group, and we’ve built it to four, and we’ve got plans to expand to eight separate groups. Our marketing funnels are a little different to what we use traditionally. We still operate four funnels, and it’s really important to make sure that we do this right because you can’t treat a 55+ program like everyone else.

Mike Warkentin (03:34):
Oh, so we’re going to get some good details here.

Brian Foley (03:36):
Yeah, I’m not going to give away everything because you’re going to have to come to the Summit to get it all. But you need to approach this particular cohort and understand that you can’t really target them with paid ads. So, what we found was two referral funnels, two really strong referral funnels, is what built this program from the ground up. So, what we had were clinical referrals. So, they were our main go-to at the start. So, we linked in with local physiotherapists, local general practitioners, orthopedic surgeons and rheumatologists were kind of main go-tos who work with this particular demographic. So, we made sure that we made a lot of referral links with these particular clinicians. So, that was funnel number one. Funnel number two was member referrals, so affinity marketing—making sure that we had mavens within our program who were telling all their golf buddies and their paddle buddies that they were getting fitter, stronger for their chosen pursuits and making sure that when we were doing member check-ins with our Masters members, that we were asking them, “Hey, have you got anyone else that you played bridge with at the weekend?”

Brian Foley (04:49):
Just getting them to refer friends. So, there are our two referral funnels. And then we’ve got two more funnels, and that’s the content funnel and a social media funnel. So, the content funnel, again, we didn’t really go down what people would traditionally think when they’re talking content. We went to old school; we went to print media, which is a bit almost taboo nowadays. We took out an article every week in our local newspaper, and we made sure that we built trust by writing in that every week. And we knew that the readership was really high amongst 50+ for this particular newspaper. So, we spoke about the reasons for strength training and why it was so beneficial as we age. And that was a regular topic, so we kept beating that drum. And then the last one is the social media funnel.

Brian Foley (05:38):
Again, we don’t really rely on that that much. Our clinical referrals and member referrals are really where we get the most bang for buck. But the social media funnel, what we do is that we post about our Masters program. What we most—we show them what we do, but more importantly we show them why we do it. And I think that’s what’s key. And I guess when we looked at this originally, we looked at what gym culture was like for 55+ when they were growing up. And you know, in the 70s, jazzercise was the big thing. And Arnold Schwarzenegger was what symbolized gym culture. And we wanted to make sure that we were showing that that’s not really what it’s about anymore. So that’s what our social media really speaks to.

Mike Warkentin (06:21):
OK, so gym owners, if you are listening, Brian has laid out a number of funnels. He knows exactly how these people are getting into his business. He’s identified some special aspects of this niche. Some of them, like print advertising—in most places in the world for younger athletes and clients, you’re probably not going to take out an ad in the local newspaper, if it even exists anymore. You’re probably going to do social media advertising or something like that. That’s just different for this generation. Some of them are tied to newspapers. My parents still get a physical printed paper delivered to their door every day. They read it cover to cover. Other older adults are like that. They often are on Facebook, but not Instagram. There’s a whole bunch of different varieties that you’ll have to figure out in your market. The point though is you need to know how to connect with these people.

Mike Warkentin (07:04):
My funnel was exactly what you said, Brian. I got people, I said to them, “Hey, do you have a parent who needs our help?” And they said, “Oh my god, I do.” And they just started funneling them in. Their friends started coming in from there, and it spiraled. Then we had this group of amazing people. COVID hit, and we shut the whole gym down at that point. But before that, we had plans to expand into like connecting with local fitness groups for older adults and things like that. And senior centers. You need to figure out how to get to these people. And the biggest one, I agree with you Brian, is trust. A lot of older adults don’t want to be injured. They don’t necessarily understand fitness. They’re a little bit scared of it. They’ve seen a lot of different stuff like Arnold back in the day, weird things that maybe they don’t understand.

Mike Warkentin (07:43):
They need to understand what you do, why you do it, and how it solves their problems. And for us, it was strong enough to lift your grandkids, fit enough to carry your groceries, you can move around without injuring yourself. It actually prevents injury, helps you stay independent. And all those things went into social media and every other aspect. So, Brian, this is really good stuff, and I want to ask you before I go to the next question, something you said at the beginning: You had four programs for these guys. Is that by age cohort, or is it just like time slots, or what do you mean by four programs?

Brian Foley (08:11):
Yeah, so, time slots. So, I guess this is kind of going to another portion of what I was going to speak to today. But our intake process is quite similar to what we do with our general population clients. We do an intake process, they do a No Sweat Intro, and they do an on-ramp program. So, their on-ramp program determines what level they start at, so that we make sure that it’s appropriate for them and that the coach knows them and that they’re comfortable within their cohort. So, we split it by ability, but not really make it that obvious. You know, it’s more for the coach and more for actually the programming of the entire thing.

Mike Warkentin (08:47):
OK, that’s great. See in my gym, we didn’t have enough people to do that, but that’s a brilliant idea. And I’ll suggest, listeners, No Sweat Intros are more important for this population than any other because they’re not just going to sign up for some weird fitness program. They want to talk to you face to face. They want to hear what you have to say. They want to learn about you; they want to trust you. They want to ask questions: Will I get injured? You know, how can you help me? That process, and it’s laid out in Two-Brain’s media everywhere. That No Sweat Intro, prescriptive model, will work for this population almost better than any other, I’ll suggest. It’s essential for a gym. It’s ultra-essential for a gym with a 55+ program. How did you identify this niche? It’s not common. A lot of us, when we were looking back in the day, like you talked seven, eight years ago, “I want to do CrossFit workouts,” or “I want to do functional fitness stuff for tattooed Navy Seals, and we’re going to crush it. Do a Fran, as a big group.” How did you ID this group seven years ago and say, “Hey, older adults is a good market”?

Brian Foley (09:38):
Some of it was by chance, if I’m going to be honest with you, because when we opened the gym, it wasn’t, “OK, we’re going to open a gym for 55+.” We did a lot of market research before we opened Activate. So, we did a lot of—we looked at the census data for our town. So, we’re in a beautiful little town in the southwest of Ireland called Killarney. Some listeners might know it. It’s a very popular tourist destination, but with that tourism comes a lot of retirees who like to move here when they get to the age where they’re not working anymore. And what the census data was telling us is that Killarney has a very large 55+ population, and that is growing. And that’s actually something that’s growing everywhere in the world really because the world’s population is getting older.

Brian Foley (10:23):
But particularly in Ireland, within the EU, we are getting older faster, which is funny. We’re getting older faster than every other country in the EU. So, we’ve got a very rapidly aging population. So, we identified that, and it wasn’t something that we were like, “Yeah, this is something we’ve got to do.” Because I had spent the bones of 20 years trying to convince my parents that strength training was for them, and they just would not convert. Mike, I cannot tell you the amount of conversations I had with my mom, and I’m going to tell—I’m going to tell a story about that at the Summit so people can listen in for that one. But there was no guarantee that this program was going to work really with that kind of trying to convince people and not understanding. But we had seen that doing a little bit of research, less than 10% of people aged 50 years plus were not partaking in any strength training. Yet, all the research has shown that there’s a strong correlation with bone density, fall prevention, independent living, and we knew that that had to be part of our mission. When we rolled our mission, we wanted to prolong the lives of people living locally. And you don’t just stop once someone hits the age of 50. So, we knew this had to be part of what we were doing.

Mike Warkentin (11:32):
OK. So, market research, and that’s a thing that most gym owners don’t do. We’re just like, “We’re opening a gym because we like to coach.” Where are the clients? Market research maybe didn’t happen 10 years ago. It must happen now. So, if you’re thinking about starting a gym or putting one of these programs in place, research your market. Is there a local population? And Brian’s right, most populations in the world are aging right now. You’ll probably find these people. I’ll ask you a demographic thing, Brian. Are older adults or 50+ retirees in Ireland, are they generally affluent, or do they have the money to spend on this? Or how does that go?

Brian Foley (12:02):
Yeah, it’s an interesting question. Like it’s also very hard to measure because the census data will show income levels in employed populations because they’re paying their taxes more frequently. So, it’s a bit more, I guess, pertinent for the government to know that data. But we made a, a mistake initially. We undercharged for our Masters program.

Mike Warkentin (12:24):
OK. By how much?

Brian Foley (12:25):
Too much. We under—I think we definitely undercut our regular prices, and we did the same thing with our youth’s program because we projected what we thought, foolishly enough, people 55+ could afford, as opposed to putting the value in the program and then pricing it appropriately. And we’ve done that, and there was no data to tell us what people were—were they affluent or not—but we found out that they are. And when you give them a strong enough why and a strong enough reason to train, it’s part of an investment for them. And it’s an investment into further living and prolonging the years in their life.

Mike Warkentin (13:00):
We made the same mistake. We undercharged for our kid’s programs by at least $50. We undercharged for our older adult program by at least $50. And when you say it out loud, like what is the value of being able to live independently for another 10 years? It’s like millions of dollars, right? So, 150 euros or whatever a month, it’s worth it. It’s a great investment, but you have to lay that value out for people and tell them how your program actually makes that happen. Right, they won’t understand that. They won’t see that value. And they’ll say, “I could go to whatever the local gym is for $20 a month access. Why wouldn’t I do that?” Well, you are not going to get personalized coaching. You’re not going to get the exact plan that’s going to help you stay independent later in life. You’re not going to get check-ins; you’re not going to get community. You’re not going to get all these benefits that will help you accomplish your goals. That’s where that prescriptive model, No Sweat Intro, that Brian mentioned is essential. So, you said you made a couple of mistakes. Did you—how many times did you have to raise prices on this program? Was it just that one time?

Brian Foley (13:53):
One and done. Yeah, we fixed it fast. So yeah, we worked with our mentor, and we figured out that, look, this thing was underpriced. And we knew it. We knew it, I think, almost immediately because the coaching required in this program, it’s at a higher level. The delivery of it is at a higher level. There is quite a bit of work. And that’s not to put anyone off, but you just need to be very mindful of who you’re coaching. So, a coach needs to be pretty strong to make adaptations on the fly. People at 55+ typically can come to you with more flashing red lights on the dashboard than everyone else. And you’ve got to be able to make those adjustments. So, there is a little bit more coaching involved, so there’s more time involved, more programming involved. So that all has to be imputed into the value of the program.

Mike Warkentin (14:43):
Yep. And I can tell you from experience, you’re dealing with more hip injuries, knee injuries, anything. “This hurts.” “I literally cannot do this because my shoulder does not go above my ear anymore.” All that stuff. Your coach has to be really clever to figure this stuff out. But when you figure it out for these clients, they are thrilled to be able to keep moving, and they’re some of the most rewarding to work with. I can tell you that from experience. So, when you raised rates, how did that go? Did you lose a bunch of people, or were you able to communicate value and retain them?

Brian Foley (15:10):
Absolutely. So, we actually lost nobody. And we’ve done that recently, and we’ve lost nobody from that cohort. And again, it’s because of what you said: We showed the value. And it’s interesting; only recently, we had feedback from—initially when we met with orthopedic surgeons on this, those guys saw us as a threat to their kids’ college fund, potentially. Less hip replacements, less knee replacements means less trust fund, potentially. But sorry to all the surgeons out there. But what they’ve actually found now, and a lot of what the research is telling us is that the outcomes post-surgery—because even if surgery is inevitable and which it is in some people; there’s no way that like squats and deadlifts are going to get rid of everyone’s surgery needs.

Brian Foley (15:58):
But what it is showing us is that the outcomes post-operation and even pre-operation are far better if the person has been involved in some resistance training. So, we’ve gotten a lot of the surgeons on board, and then you look at this, and you display the value to a member, and you tell them, “Well, look, yes, you are going to do a hip replacement in five years. If you strength train and get really robust up to that five years, you can save yourself all these healthcare issues: stair lifts, bath aids, all these things, carrying assistance.” All this stuff that you can actually impute into the price. That’s thousands and thousands of euros every year for 150 euros a week or a month is—it’s very hard to argue with that.

Mike Warkentin (16:41):
Wow. And yeah, listeners, Chris Cooper has written about this local referral funnel that Brian’s talking about where you talk to local care providers, you explain to them how you’re not a threat; you are a complement. And some of these relationships—I think Chris had one, I believe it was a chiropractor in his city, I think that relationship alone was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last decade. This person and Chris had this great relationship. Chris would send clients that way, clients would come this way, and they both made money off of it, and it became complementary. Building up those referral networks. I know there are other gyms that have done this with medical. There’s another gym owner who I spoke to on the show who talked about how she took baked goods to local clinics and so forth and doctors and had them refer clients to her. If you can build up these relationships, especially in this population, you’re going to succeed. If a client trusts their doctor and the doctor says, “Go see Brian at Activate,” what do you think’s going to happen? Right? And that client’s going to bounce back from all the medical stuff better. So, those are no-brainers. Brian, you’ve actually, like—I’m glad you’re speaking on Summit about this because people are going to take the information you give them there, and they’re going to make money off of it probably in the next month.

Brian Foley (17:44):
Guaranteed. Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Warkentin (17:45):
Yeah. So let me talk about this. What other mistakes did you make with that program? Was there anything else that—like major learning experiences that you could share with people right now to help them out when they start thinking about this?

Brian Foley (17:55):
Funnily enough, naming the program. It’s a touchy subject, and it’s not something that we expected to be quite as touchy. So, we called ours Activate Masters. Great and all as that is because you more or less know what it is when you look at the brand and you look at the name. But there is a little bit of stigma around—what we found is that our members that are 55+ in this program, and we are actually rebranding the program, what they loved about what we do was we weren’t wrapping them in cotton wool. We weren’t treating them any differently. They were part of the gym culture. They were part of the community. They didn’t like to be referred to as our Masters crew or our Legends crew. Or I know some people call them like Silver Barbells, and you know, there’s a little bit of stigma around it.

Brian Foley (18:40):
So I would say we’d rename it. I know someone that called theirs Prime; I think that’s excellent. But possibly not making it very obvious that, “These are older people. We wrap them in cotton wool here.” Make sure that you’re very appropriate in how you brand it and how you market it. Apart from that and the pricing, I wouldn’t say anything else. I mean, we’re really lucky, Mike. We’ve got a physiotherapist who we work very closely with who rents the space from us in the gym. And he’s an amazing part of the program. He manages the program, and he’s got a lot of the clinical referrals that we use. But you don’t necessarily have to have a physio in your gym. You just have to start with one connection and then start building those networks. So they were the only mistakes really that I can earmark.

Mike Warkentin (19:26):
Yeah. And the people in these programs, they don’t tend to be your classic old broken-down person who’s cranky and doesn’t want to do anything. These are vibrant people. They might be like 70, but they’re still doing things. Everyone in our program did other things. They had other hobbies, whether it was fishing or hunting or just walking with their friends or pickleball or whatever it was. There’s all sorts of different things. These are vibrant people, so I get it. Like name your program something that appeals to them and makes them feel like active, vibrant people rather than old broken-down cars sitting in the corner of the driveway. I agree with you on that. So those are two big things you can think about. Get your pricing right; name your program right. Two-Brain mentors help people figure out exactly how to price programs.

Mike Warkentin (20:04):
They have exact formulas to figure out the value that you’re delivering and the profit margin that you need to make and all the other things that go into that. There is an exact system. If you don’t know about that system or want some help, book a call; you can do it in the links below, and our mentors will be able to tell you exactly how these things work and work you through the process because you can save a ton of time. And Brian, I underpriced this by $50 for eight years, so do the math on that. You did it for a while too. We lost a lot of money if we had just worked with the mentors, started sooner.

Brian Foley (20:34):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Exactly.

Mike Warkentin (20:37):
Talk to me about this.

Brian Foley (20:38):
It’s a common issue with bolt-on programs. We don’t—why we don’t value them the same or not more than our regular programs.

Mike Warkentin (20:47):
They’re specialty programs. Specialty programs and other stuff are more expensive generally. Right. If you want to do a general thing, it’s this. If you want to do the specialty, it’s usually more, except I did it backwards. So did you, so did many gyms, and we’re fixing that now. Some other essentials: What are other must-haves when you start this program? And I know you already listed out you’ve got your marketing funnels. What are other must haves?

Brian Foley (21:07):
Yeah, so I took a few notes on this, and the main one for me, the number one is build trust. So, you mentioned it as well at the start of the show. This particular demographic, they need to trust the person who they’re talking to. So, ways of building trust, like you build it with the public who are not yet members, and you build it with local clinicians. So, that might be bringing them baked goods, but it’s also showing them how the program—what’s in it for them? How the program can improve their referrals clinically, and how they can improve outcomes for their patients. With the public, it’s things like, you know, you’ve got to treat everyone like your own parents essentially and show the public that you’ve got that level of care for these people and for your members.

Brian Foley (21:50):
So it’s just building that trust with content, building that trust by being consistent with your message, building the trust with your members as well. And to do that you have to have a very robust intake process. So, to give you a little bit of an insight into ours, it’s a No Sweat Intro, and then it’s straight to a physiotherapy assessment. And that varies in length, depending on the person. So, it’s not like our regular on-ramp program. It’s essentially the same. They go through one-to-one coaching to learn everything, to feel comfortable with movements. But we don’t designate it’s got to be four or six sessions. It’s: Let’s take it at your pace. You know, it’s: We’ll make the referral to the class and to the group when you are ready.

Brian Foley (22:38):
So that builds the trust. It doesn’t rush anybody, and it just makes the member feel really comfortable when they get welcomed into the community. Another thing is to create mavens within your program. So, the early adopters typically are those people. Meet with them. You know, take them for a coffee. Find out who they hang out with, what they do in their spare time, and ask them for referrals essentially. And get them to bring their friends. Run social events like a bring-a-friend day, bring-a-parent day. Get them to come into the gym, build that trust within your community so that people bring their parents, and they trust you enough to bring their parents. Then the members carry other members who are 55+ with them. And then, that’s pretty much it.

Brian Foley (23:24):
Just make them feel welcome, make them feel part of it, and just make sure that everyone’s involved. That we don’t do a social occasion, and we don’t invite our 55+ athletes. Our Christmas party, we invite our 55+ athletes. Some of them decided they’d go and do their own Christmas party because we’re clearly boring under 55 year olds. But you’ve just got to integrate everyone into the same thing really into the community and make sure that they’re trusted, and they’re a welcome part of the community.

Mike Warkentin (23:53):
I have a couple of detailed questions about what you just said. How often do you create content to build trust? Is it like a daily thing, twice a week? Or what do you do?

Brian Foley (24:01):
So, our written content in the local newspaper was weekly. So that was a weekly article. So that was put into the local paper, and in all honesty, that got us so much trust and so many people coming in. Now, it’s harder. You can’t like put a pixel on your local newspaper and figure out how many people are clicking the link in your bio, but you do know that when they come into the No Sweat Intro, you ask, “Oh, how did you find out about us?” And they’ll tell you, “Oh, I read Brian’s article. I read Sam’s article at the weekend.” So, we were able to measure it that way and just making sure that we were showing people what we do at all stages of their journey and that it wasn’t their perception. We were breaking down those barriers for people.

Mike Warkentin (24:49):
OK. So regular content creation is essential on this. And you’ll have to determine at your gym the exact cadence of that. But do that, and if you can get into some of these local seniors’ publications, and there are some in just about every area, including seniors’ Facebook groups or Legends or older adults, retirees, whatever they’re called. Find them. See if you can get in and help people. Another question that I was going to ask you was, do you do just personal training with older adults? Is that a thing that happens there as well?

Brian Foley (25:14):
So we don’t actually market it as like personal training for just older adults. So, we just do personal training for anybody. So, if a 55+ member walks in the door and they say, “I don’t really fancy being part of a larger group. I’d like to work one-to-one,” because that’s the one of the very first questions we’ll ask them in a No Sweat Intro. It’s not like a specific 55+ No Sweat Intro. And they say, “I’d like to work one-to-one.” Well that’s fine. We’ve got coaches who are dedicated to your progress, whatever that may be.

Mike Warkentin (25:44):
Perfect. And we had that too. We had some older adults—we didn’t market it specifically, but some would come in and they’d say, “I would like to do training, but I want to do it just with you.” And some of them, they obviously have the time and the money because they’re retired and they have some cash saved up, but they really want that personal attention, and they didn’t even want to share with one other person. Like one guy was like, “I don’t want to bring my spouse. I want all your attention on me to make sure that I’m doing this right and getting the exact results.” It was a great long-term, high-value client. So, I think that personal training option, you don’t have to market it as Masters personal training, but having it is essential. Chris Cooper has said, “If you do not have a personal training option, some of your best clients are going to go find personal training somewhere else.” So, consider putting that in, especially for this population. Your intro doesn’t have to be a funnel to group. It might be an intro to fitness one-on-one with Brian. Right? That works just fine.

Brian Foley (26:34):
Exactly, and you’re never going to know unless you ask them what they want. And that’s the biggest mistake that some people will make. We’ll open a program, and we’ll just assume because you’re 55+, you are going into our Masters program rather than actually, “Would you prefer to work in a group or work one-to-one?” Because you have to ask the question to know.

Mike Warkentin (26:52):
John Franklin, our Chief Marketing Officer, said that that statement alone right there made him a million dollars. If I had used that statement in 2011 when I opened my gym, I probably would be retired right now, and I’d be working out with Brian in Ireland. It works.

Brian Foley (27:05):
You are welcome, Mike. You’re welcome.

Mike Warkentin (27:06):
Right. But it works. That statement will get you clients in a one-on-one setting, and they’re higher value. Try it, literally word for word what Brian just said, try saying that in a No Sweat Intro next time you do it. Brian, we touched on this a little bit, and I don’t want to give away any of the secrets, but what are people going to learn from you at Summit? And listeners, we only have a very few Summit tickets left at the time that I’m recording this. So, if you want to come see this, you better get them quick. Link will be in the bio. Brian, what are they going to learn from you?

Brian Foley (27:30):
From visiting other Coaches Congress and Summit, the key thing that I want people to take away is actionable steps. So, I’m going to teach coaches and owners a step-by-step system to establish, first of all, and then grow their 55+ program. So, it’s really just going to be—you’re going to walk away from that chat. It’s on the Sunday, so it’s the end of the weekend. You’ve got no excuses. You’re straight to work on Monday, and you’ve got steps laid out in front of you, what you need to do on Monday to grow a Masters program.

Mike Warkentin (28:02):
So if they leave and they do what you say on Monday, how quickly do you think that they can get a Masters program started?

Brian Foley (28:08):
I reckon they could start it that week. They can start building their referral network that week. There’s nothing to stop them.

Mike Warkentin (28:15):
So there you go. If you come to Summit, learn this program within a week, you could start a program that will eventually, hopefully, build you 10% of gross or add 10% to your gross revenue. And who knows? You could even go even further with that. Like I said, there are gyms out there that’ll do 10 to 20% with nutrition. You could do this with a Masters program like that. Brian, is there anything else that gym owners essentially need to know about Masters training before we sign off here? I think we’ve covered just about everything.

Brian Foley (28:40):
I think we covered everything. You did mention it there. We’ve got quite a few Masters who work with our nutrition coaches as well because they do a lot of the add-on programs. Because the strength training and bone density, you need specific nutritional habits for those things, and they’re willing to spend to have someone to hold them accountable. So, there’s a lot of extra benefit and extra value that can be given to this demographic as well. So, it’s not just a Masters program.

Mike Warkentin (29:06):
Yeah, and honestly, when we started, I originally wanted to work with athletes who could crush Fran in three minutes and deadlift 600 pounds. And I quickly realized that that wasn’t the market that stimulated me. When we started training older adults, our coaches literally asked to coach the classes because they’re so fun. They’re happy, they’re vibrant, they’re invested. They’re seeing the results. They’re like losing canes. Like they’ll walk in with canes, learn how to squat, and they don’t need the cane anymore. Like, it’s such a rewarding group. I would wager to say, Brian, that this is the most rewarding group of people, of cohort, that I’ve ever worked with in a gym. What’s your—do you think that’s accurate?

Brian Foley (29:41):
Hands down. So much fun. Just so open to coaching. Definitely good to have a good laugh every day. And sometimes it’s hard to get them to stop talking. But yeah, it’s so rewarding just seeing the change in this group every week, week on week. It’s an amazing group to coach. So, if you don’t have a Masters program in your gym, you’re definitely missing out.

Mike Warkentin (30:02):
It’s a win across the board for the clients, the coaches and the gym owner. You should definitely put something like this in. As we close, I’ll remind you guys, what Brian said can be applied to just about any specialty program. How do you find these people? What do you offer them? How do you get them into your business? What do you charge them? How do you retain them and make sure they’re getting results? Take that to kids, athletes, soccer players, NFL Combine people, whatever you want. Apply that knowledge. Brian, thanks so much for sharing all this stuff. This is super helpful on its own. People can also learn more from you at the Summit June 8th and 9th. Thank you.

Brian Foley (30:34):
Thanks, Mike.

Mike Warkentin (30:36):
This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. Please hit “subscribe” on the way out so you don’t miss anything like this because you can make money just by listening to this show every week. And now here’s Chris Cooper with a final message.

Chris Cooper (30:47):
Hey, it’s Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper with a quick note. We created the gym owners United Facebook groups to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners, just like you, have already joined. In the group, we share sound advice about the business of fitness every day. I answer questions, I run free webinars and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym. I’d love to have you in that group. It’s Gym Owners United on Facebook, or go to gymownersunited.com to join. Do it today.

The post Exactly How to Boost Revenue With a 55+ Program appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

Simplicity Scales: Dial in Your Offer!

In one of my first books, I listed more than 30 different programs you can run at a gym.

The problem: Some people thought it was a checklist.

The truth: Our data shows that the top gyms in the world sell one or two things really, really well.

It’s often group coaching and one-on-one coaching, but some Two-Brain gyms are having great success with other options, like just selling semi-private training (which is essentially personal training delivered by one coach to up to four clients at once).

Whatever you decide on, you must have a cohesive offer you can sell. It must be something people want, and it can’t overwhelm them.

Compare these two approaches:

1. “You can do group classes one to seven times a week, plus open gym if you want to train more. On top of that, we have special competitors programming you can buy, as well as nutrition services you can add on. If you like yoga, we offer that sometimes, and your kids might really enjoy youth programs—we have three streams. So what do you want to buy?”

2. “The fastest way to lose 10 lb. is to train with me one-on-one three times a week and add nutrition coaching. Not in your budget? No problem. Let’s start with group classes three times a week and one PT session per month.”

Which one do you think will result in more closed sales? And which one will generate more revenue?

We both know it’s No. 2 in both cases.

Options and Evolution

Don’t get me wrong. You need different options for people who have different fitness levels, budgets, schedules, preferences, personalities and so on.

Example: a “hybrid membership” with group 12 classes and an additional one-on-one session every month. That’s just two services, clearly presented.

But if you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll confuse everyone.

Similarly, I understand that novelty is addictive. I’ve said “we’ve gotta add that program” many times. I love creating new things and being on the leading edge of the fitness market.

But I love proven business practices more than I love cool new programs.

You must balance sound offers that get results with novelty.

And as your business evolves and matures, your offers might change. You’re going to go through iterations. Sometimes you’ll employ “addition by subtraction,” and it’s all part of serving your clients.

For example, we had a strong kids program at Catalyst for more than a decade. After the COVID lockdowns ended, I didn’t have a passionate kids coach to drive the program, so we dropped it.

We would have added it back into the service package if people were clamoring for it or saw a gaping hole in our plan. But that didn’t happen. Instead, we added an older adults program at a higher price point. It sold out.

So how do you know what to offer?

Your Offers

Your core services should get the best results for the clients you want to serve. What are the absolute best tools to get swift results for your ideal client?

Our mentors help clients create avatars, map the client journey, evaluate service options and determine their strongest play. Which option is the foundation? What, if anything, is complementary? What’s confusing or irrelevant?

Our mentors create customized models for each gym, but I’ll give you some general notes.

Our data suggests one-on-one services are essential in any gym, especially for new clients. We know clients who start with PT buy more and stay longer, and some will continue using the high-value service forever. If you don’t offer PT, some great clients will leave to buy it elsewhere.

Group programs are usually the next focus, but you must ensure you are actually serving groups and not “accidentally providing PT” in money-losing classes with two attendees.

Other key options are nutrition coaching, semi-private training and guided access.

Remember, you don’t need all of them. You only need the things that are most beneficial for your clients. (If you want to see five different business models that allow the owner to earn $100,000 a year, request my guide here.)

When considering additions or alterations, use Goal Review Sessions to determine exactly what will help people accomplish goals faster. Evaluate their needs and find ways to solve their problems.

Ask yourself, “Is there a tool I wish I could give people?”

After that, test on a term. Don’t just build, add and market a full sports-performance class for teens, for example. Test your plan with a six-week block and see if interest is good. Get feedback, then run another six-week block. Repeat one more time.

If your three tests reveal great interest each and every time, add a full program and stomp the accelerator. But if you find that Session 1 was a hit and Session 3 was a dud, add one six-week special program to your annual calendar—or just move on and refocus on your core offerings.

Double Down on the Best Offers

Your goal as a service provider is to iterate to find the best services for your perfect clients—usually just one or two.

As you do that, work hard to become skilled at helping clients solve problems (this is actually selling). Improve your client journey to increase length of engagement, and fine-tune your marketing to target only the best clients.

And this above all: Stay focused and keep it simple.

The best gym owners know this: Simplicity scales faster and confusion is never good for sales.

A mentor can help you dial in your avatar and offer fast. To find out more, book a call.

The post Simplicity Scales: Dial in Your Offer! appeared first on Two-Brain Business.

When You Know Your Avatar Client’s Hair Color

“Her name is Amy.”

Gym owner Ashley Kates has a name for her client avatar. In fact, she knows everything about Amy.

“I know how old she is, how many kids she has, where she shops, where she vacations, how often she purchased stuff from Amazon. Does she decorate for holidays? What is her hair like? It’s very, very, very specific,” Kates said.

Ashley runs a women’s-only gym in Lexington, South Carolina. StrongHER’s core services are PT, group coaching and nutrition coaching.

Kates doesn’t want every single client in the gym. She wants the right clients, and she’s done everything she can to set her business up to acquire them.

Some gym owners are scared to niche down like this.

I was.

When you’re desperate for clients and revenue, it’s common to try to appeal to everyone by offering everything. But it’s a trap. Vague, unfocused gyms attract fickle, flighty clients who are quick to leave. And they struggle with sales because they have way too many confusing options.

But here’s the reality:  If you know the exact person you want to serve, you’ll be able to serve that person better and longer.

“What Does Amy Need?”

Ashley Kates (not pictured: Amy)

For Ashley, finding her niche helped her improve on a business that lacked structure a few years back.

“There was no member journey,” she recalled. “There was no starting point, no check-in point. There was no direction. It was as if you went on a hiking trip and you didn’t know where you were starting, where you were going to end up and how to tell if you were along the right path. It was very mish-mash.”

That changed when she got to know Amy—who came into focus during an Office Hours avatar workshop Kilo CEO Kaleda Connell presented to Two-Brain clients in 2023.

Amy gets a say on just about every aspect of the business; if Amy approves of something and it falls in line with StrongHER’s core values, it’s a go.

Creating an avatar “gave me a more clear direction of ‘who am I speaking to?’” Ashley said.

She continued: “Once I’d done the hard work of establishing the very nitpick details of my client avatar and then changing my branding to reflect that—even the words that I use, the images that I use on social media—my leads come to me already knowing who I am, what I do, and that I fit what they’re looking for.”

Here’s what extreme focus looks like in StrongHER’s data: a doubling of client count and average revenue per member.

Our larger data set confirms gyms that focus on a very specific niche are more likely to become great:

They can charge more per client.They care deeply about their specialty and get clients results faster than anyone else.They keep clients longer.They have less competition.
Ignoring Distractions

Amy is also around to help Ashley screen out mistakes and stay on track—something that’s incredibly important for entrepreneurs who can generate 10 new ideas before lunch.

When a friend’s son wanted to join the gym, Ashley was tempted to offer something new. She had a meeting with Amy, so to speak, and reviewed the StrongHER mission.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I should let boys come because I have a skill,’” Ashley recalled. “And then I thought, ‘No, that doesn’t go with my core values, doesn’t go with my Amy, doesn’t go with my brand at all. That’s not who I am.’”

I wish I could have focused like that as a younger gym owner.

It took me years to learn how to stick to the path. But now that I’m focused, decisions are much easier, marketing and sales are smoother, retention is better, staff are happier, and clients are getting better results at my gym.

And that’s why Two-Brain mentors help clients determine exactly what to offer to whom—and we do this in the first six weeks of mentorship.

Presenting a clear, concise, valuable solution to a problem will result in wins. Vague blasts of options will result in confused prospective clients who bolt quickly if they even sign up at all.

Two-Brain mentors guide gym owners to create avatars and offers that reflect each unique fitness business, and they build entire client journeys that increase revenue and retention. These are custom models, but I’ll give you this quick exercise to get you started.

1. Imagine your perfect client—this could and probably should be a blend of your best members right now. Give the person a name and write down everything you can to describe this person. This is your avatar.

2. Write down the fitness problems this person has. Example: “Phil can’t get here after work. He’s got one hour at lunch including travel time to improve his cardio so he can keep up with his kid.”

3. Review your current service offerings. Are they the best solutions for your avatar’s problems? Do they help your avatar accomplish goals fast? If you answered “no” to either question, consider some changes to your offer.

Know Your Niche!

You don’t sell fitness programs. You sell results.

And you can’t produce the best results if you don’t know your perfect client like your best friend.

If you want to help more, charge more, sell more and keep members longer, figure out what group of clients you can serve better than anyone else. Then find those clients.

And if you need help doing all that very quickly, let’s talk: book a call.

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