You've made it. Your business has survived a handful of years, you're not worried about the rent and you're making a comfortable living. What's next? It's time to level up again—it's time to become a Tinker. Two-Brain's Tinker mastermind program brings together successful gym owners who are taking that next step: making investments, expanding their assets, and growing their personal wealth. It's a non-competitive environment of learning and sharing that makes everyone better—faster. Two-Brain me...
Feb 28, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 332
Today's the day you're gonna finally dig into Facebook ads manager. Definitely. So you sit down and log in—but look! You've got five notifications! Better check those out. A few clicks later and you're lost in a sea of half-written messages, 11 new tabs, and a video about puppies. How on Earth do you get focused and actually DO all the things on your to-do list? Chris Cooper will tell you. Links: Gym Owners United Free Tools Timeline: 00:24 – You don’t have ADD. 1:10 – Pick your daily focus hour...
Feb 24, 2022•6 min•Season 3Ep. 331
Your gym's been growing and the business is stable—and you're sick of wearing all the hats. That means it's time to hire a GM, right? Possibly. But probably not. If you're not strategic about when and how you hire a GM, you'll end up right back where you started: doing all the things anyway. But just because it's not time to roll out the red carpet for a GM quite yet doesn't mean you have to keep doing everything yourself. Here's Chris Cooper on exactly how to tell if you're ready to hire a GM, ...
Feb 21, 2022•14 min•Season 3Ep. 330
It's easy to see the value of a coach or mentor when you're neck-deep in problems. But mentorship is just as valuable—maybe even more—when you're further along your entrepreneurship journey. Once you've solved the critical emergency problems of your business, what a mentor provides is speed and clarity. A mentor connects you with the resources you need and helps you capitalize on opportunities faster without trial and error or mistakes. "When the mistakes are done, that's when you need more ment...
Feb 17, 2022•17 min•Season 3Ep. 329
Andrew Alvarado was tired. He was ready to sell his gym to the bigger, flashier gym down the street and get a job in construction. But he decided to give one last Hail Mary and sign up for mentorship with Two-Brain Business—even though he couldn't afford it at the time. Within two months, he'd added $2,000 per month to his gym's bottom line. Today, he's selling high-value packages he'd never dreamed people would pay for, and even better—he no longer feels like he's slaving away at job with no en...
Feb 14, 2022•26 min•Season 3Ep. 328
Boutique downtown space or giant rustic warehouse—where should you set up shop? The answer depends on more than your aesthetic or even your marketing plan. It all depends on who your audience is and what you're selling them. Links: Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:57 – High-traffic, expensive retail locations: You’re selling convenience. 3:59 – Pull up a chair for an old-fashioned stakeout. 6:57 – Think about price per square foot—and how much that square foot can generate. 9:17 – Difference in pro...
Feb 10, 2022•13 min•Season 3Ep. 327
Anders Gatti owns Gatti Training with his wife in Stockholm, Sweden. The gym has just 140 members, and in January, they pulled in nearly 50 grand in revenue — and that's without any paid advertising. Tune in to learn how Anders climbed the value ladder, slashed his work hours and made even more money. Links: Gatti Training Free Tools Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:26 – The who and what of Gatti Training. 3:45 – Gatti Training’s revenue growth over time. 8:26 – Finding high-value clients through a...
Feb 07, 2022•32 min•Season 3Ep. 326
If you're familiar with Two-Brain Business but aren't yet part of the family, you might have some questions. "Why do you give away so much stuff for free—what's the catch?" "I've heard of other business-coaching and mastermind programs; they usually work in groups. Why is your program one-on-one?" Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper's here with the answers to both those questions. Preview: It all comes down to helping gym owners solve more problems and make more money faster. Links: "Start A Gym: Eve...
Feb 03, 2022•12 min•Season 3Ep. 325
Tyler Welch owns six gyms (four of which he bought in the last six months). Not all were profitable when he bought them—in fact, he prefers them not to be—but all were profitable within the first month. By his own admission, he's sort of a Tinker-Founder hybrid. Yes, he's collecting more and more businesses and expanding across multiple cities, but he's got his hands deep in each of them. Tune in to learn why—and how he replicates a successful model from one business to the next. Links: RxFit "S...
Jan 31, 2022•38 min•Season 3Ep. 324
To move closer to wealth, you need to work on your business, not just in it. But who has time for that? You do. Or you will—after you listen to this podcast. Here's Coop on how to make the time to take your business to the next level, regardless of which phase of entrepreneurship you're in. Links: "Start A Gym: Everything You Need to Start and Scale a Fitness Business" Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:42 – Making time in Founder Phase. 4:57 – Making time in Farmer Phase. 6:23 – Making time in Tinke...
Jan 27, 2022•12 min•Season 3Ep. 323
Clients leave. They move away. Circumstances change. Maybe they're just bored. But that doesn't mean they're gone forever. Here's Coop on how to prime them to come back without gimmicks or giveaways. Links: Gym Owners United Timeline: 00:14 – It’s not personal. 1:02 – Make sure they know they’re always welcome back. 1:39 – Maintain a constant line of communication. 3:47 – Be the best. 5:09 – Offer something new. 7:38 – What to NEVER do....
Jan 24, 2022•12 min•Season 3Ep. 322
Late in 2021, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper issued a challenge to gym owners: get 100 leads ASAP. He provided an exact plan to help them start conversations with prospective clients, then said “go!” Amanda Chace of CrossFit Torque had great results with the sell-by-chat strategy and joins host Mike Warkentin to talk about them. Amanda shares how many leads she got and how many sales she made, and she offers other gym owners tips for success when using a public Facebook group to build an audienc...
Jan 20, 2022•38 min•Ep. 321
If you don't post pictures of torn, bloody hands like you did in the old days, is it really your gym? If there isn't a shirtless athlete vomiting in the corner, is it really your gym? If you aren't the one unlocking the doors at 5 a.m. and locking them again at 9 p.m., is it really your gym? Things change, and so will your business if it's to survive the test of time. Here's Coop on which changes matter—and which don't. P.S. Coop's new book is out! For everything you need to start and scale a fi...
Jan 17, 2022•6 min
You get a scary-looking letter in the mail. The gist: "Pay us now or stop playing music in your gym!" Is it legit? Are they watching you? The truth is that's the smallest of mines gym owners must navigate on the legal battleground of gym ownership. Matt Becker knows firsthand. He's a gym owner, laywer and founder of gymlawyers.com, and here, he joins Chris Cooper to answer your top questions about the legalities of gym ownership. P.S. Coop's new book is out! For everything you need to start and ...
Jan 13, 2022•56 min
Aspiring gym owners: What if you had the solutions to all the newbie gym-owner mistakes BEFORE you made them? Current gym owners: What if you could get the answers to the problems that have been plaguing you since you opened your doors? Sit tight — all that and more is coming your way in Chris Cooper's latest book, "Start a Gym" (both the book and its namesake course will be available on Jan. 24, 2022). Here, Coop shares a preview of what the new book and course contain and how they can help new...
Jan 10, 2022•23 min•Ep. 318
The client/member journey. Helping people lead better lives. Leadership and relationship-building. All of the above and more are key for building a healthy community with healthy community members — and Tres Kennedy is doing just that in two places: Move Church, where he serves as a pastor, and CrossFit Wotown, the gym he owns with his wife Erin. Here, he shares some of the lessons he's learned apply to both his flocks. Links: CrossFit Wotown Move Church Gym Owners United Timeline: 00:48 – Plant...
Jan 06, 2022•32 min•Ep. 317
Chris Cooper sits down with CrossFit Home Office reps Gary Gaines, Austin Malleolo and Daniel Chaffey to talk about CrossFit affiliation and more. First question from Chris: What is the value proposition for CrossFit affiliation now with Eric Roza at the helm? The four also discuss CrossFit's mission, new and upcoming CrossFit products, lobbying efforts, CrossFit in the era after Greg Glassman, and what people can expect in the future from HQ. If you're a current CrossFit affiliate or if you're ...
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 316
When you were new to your sport or discipline, you probably made a lot of mistakes. But what was the key to getting better? More reps, yes — but more importantly, better reps. To improve, you had to acknowledge what you were doing incorrectly and do something different. The same goes for entrepreneurship. You're gonna make mistakes. The key is to learn from them and do better — and not get stuck doing something that doesn't work just because you've already invested time and money in it. Chris Co...
Dec 30, 2021•19 min
Your business will never grow if you spend all your time coaching classes and mopping floors. So unless you want to do that for the rest of your life, you've got to make time to work on your business instead of in it. Chris Cooper explains how. Links: The 10-Hour CEO How To Optimize Your Day Driven Nutrition Gym Lead Machine Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:00 – How Coop turned a crazy job into a great business. 7:04 – Start with one hour per day. 8:00 – Creating time, space, and capital. 9:57 – Th...
Dec 27, 2021•13 min
Nyan Cat. Doge. Charlie Bit My Finger. If all you think of when you hear "NFT" are funny internet things that inexplicably sell for tens of thousands of dollars, you need to listen to this podcast. Web 3.0 — in which creators license and sell their work on their own on the blockchain — is on the horizon, says Two-Brain Business founder Chris Cooper. And with it comes some great potential opportunities for gym owners. Links: Forever Fierce Arbox Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:10 – The dawn of Web ...
Dec 23, 2021•15 min
In the fitness industry, voices will always say, “This worked for me, and it will definitely work for everyone!” Those are the “n = 1 experts.” And maybe their ideas will work for you. But their advice carries risk: What if they’re over-reporting results? What if they’re under-reporting downside? What if their idea only worked once? What if their idea only worked in their gym? What if their idea only worked with their clients? What if their idea will stop working over time? What if they’re incen...
Dec 20, 2021•40 min•Ep. 312
What do you tell your clients about the last few weeks of the year? Do you tell them "Eh, forget it; eat all the trash you want and start fresh next year"? No! You teach them to take advantage of those last few weeks to keep working on their fitness and start the New Year on a roll. The same concept applies to revenue. Just because the holidays are upon us and the end of the year looms near doesn't mean your 2021 earning potential is capped. Try one—or all!—of Coop's top-five tactics to bring in...
Dec 16, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 311
This episode of Two-Brain Radio is short but powerful—just like the tactics it's about. Tune in and learn how to make more money and improve retention with 12 simple text messages. Links: FOMO Alert: Three Minutes for Marketing (and Retention) "Building $86,000 Monthly Revenue Through Retention (and Sales)" with John Heringer How to Fix the Weak Links in Your Marketing Chain Two-Brain Programming Incite Tax Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:32 – You’re gonna want to hit “pause.” 4:13 – Why it’s more...
Dec 13, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 310
The gym down the road from you isn't doing so hot. One day, you get a call from the owner: "Do you wanna buy my gym?" There's a lot to consider—more than just gross revenue and client headcount. How profitable is it? What mistakes and liabilities would you be acquiring? Do you actually need to buy that gym to get its clients? Two-Brain Business founder Chris Cooper breaks it down step-by-step with exactly what to consider and how to crunch the numbers before you buy—or sell—a gym. Links: Driven ...
Dec 09, 2021•25 min•Ep. 309
Ever seen an ad promising "exponential growth" with one easy trick? "Buy this lead program and grow your gym exponentially!" It's a catchy buzzphrase, but true exponential growth—growth that continues to grow and expand on itself—requires intention. Here, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper shares how to make referral marketing an active process to achieve truly exponential growth. Links: Level Method Drink O2 Affinity Marketing Cheat Sheet "Help First" Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:01 – Defining “ex...
Dec 06, 2021•23 min•Ep. 308
The three most important stats when it comes to marketing are these: Set rates (how many appointments you book), show rates (how many people actually show up to those appointments) and close rates (how many of those people actually buy something in those appointments). In October, Kyle McGough of D1 Training Columbus led Two-Brain Business clients in all three. Here's how he did it. Links: D1 Training Columbus Gym Lead Machine Forever Fierce Gym Owners United Timeline: 2:22 – The challenges of b...
Dec 02, 2021•42 min•Ep. 307
You're an entrepreneur: You've got ideas, you're creative, and you want to do things your own way. We get that. But don't let your independent spirit cost you time and money. Instead, ask yourself the same three questions Chris Cooper asks himself before he tackles any new business venture—and watch as you save gobs of resources. Links: Chalk It Pro Arbox Gym Owners United Free Tools Timeline: 1:51 – “Who has solved this before me?” 5:41 – “Who has solved this better than anyone else?” 7:50 – “W...
Nov 29, 2021•12 min•Ep. 306
What's better than a free trial? Providing value. Free knowledge won't get you long-term clients. Providing something of value will — and value isn't free. Here's Chris Cooper on the difference between value and price, and why you're doing yourself a disservice by offering free trials. Links: AGuard Beyond the Whiteboard Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:08 – Value vs. price. 6:14 – Value is better than free. 9:54 – Knowledge doesn’t create value. Action does....
Nov 25, 2021•14 min•Ep. 305
You want your coaches to make a good living at your gym. But how can you pay them more without hurting your bottom line? It's not about giving staff a bigger piece of the pie, Chris Cooper says. It's about baking a bigger pie. Here's how to do it. Links: Two-Brain Coaching Two-Brain Programming Gym Management: The Case for Part-Time Coaches Intrapreneurialism 101 Go With Them Timeline: 2:31 – You earn more money by creating more value for more people. 3:28 – Pay coaches more by helping them buil...
Nov 22, 2021•16 min•Ep. 304
If there's a business book out there, chances are Chris Cooper's read it. That's good news for you, because it means you don't have to guess which ones are worth your while. Here are Chris Cooper's top reads — books that actually made a measurable difference in his business — from 2021, as well as which ones you can stand to skip. Links: Incite Tax Driven Nutrition Gym Owners United Timeline: 1:49 – “$100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No” by Alex Hormozi. 3:06 – “...
Nov 18, 2021•20 min•Ep. 303
