How can you make your gym run like a finely tuned self-driving car? By systemizing and optimizing before automating. If you just hit the "autopilot" button without getting solid systems in place, you should prepare for a crash. Every aspect of a gym—from cleaning to marketing to sales to coaching—must be governed by a process. You need to carefully document your processes, then test and optimize them. When they're perfect, you can automate them, either by delegating or outsourcing. If your get t...
Aug 07, 2023•9 min•Season 3Ep. 482
Growing a booming kids program is easier than you think—you just have to know how to do it. Chris Cooper has the exact steps, and he lays them out for you in this short episode. In 15 minutes, Coop explains how to set up a kids program, market it and run it successfully. Follow the steps and you'll have everything you need to change lives, please parents, create a career for a coach and generate more revenue at your gym. Links Book a Call Gym Owners United 1:35 - Why it's easier to grow a kids p...
Aug 03, 2023•15 min•Season 3Ep. 481
Building a great fitness program for kids requires a very specific approach tailored to young people—and their parents. For example, you can't scream like a drill sergeant and hope pre-teens will develop a lifelong love of movement. You also can't just promote a "super-fun program" to parents who want more than balloon and parachute games for their young ones. Remember: The parents are the actual clients, and you must solve their problems and help them accomplish their goals with your program. I...
Jul 31, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 480
How much do gym owners make each month? Chris Cooper has the exact figures. In this edition of "Run a Profitable Gym," he serves up the Top 10 leaderboard for net owner benefit in June 2023. It runs from US$17,000 to $45,000! And this isn't gross revenue for the business. It's exactly what each gym owner took home. The numbers are actually three-month rolling averages that ensure huge year-end disbursements and other anomalies don't cloud the stats. These are consistent, sustainable levels of in...
Jul 27, 2023•22 min•Season 3Ep. 479
In his speech at the 2022 Two-Brain Summit in Chicago, Chris Cooper highlighted the power of entrepreneurial impact. Passionate fitness entrepreneurs have the ability to change lives on a one-to-one basis in the gym, but they can also expand their influence to affect the communities around them. To help the gym owners in the room increase their impact, Chris led them through an exercise to help them identify the people they need around them, then make a precise plan to guide their actions over t...
Jul 24, 2023•52 min•Season 3Ep. 478
To move from owner-operator to CEO, you'll have to develop staff, and gym owner Chris Williams of CFT Fitness has cracked the code. In fact, Williams earned an award for Coach Education and Opportunity at this year's Two-Brain Summit for fitness entrepreneurs. In this episode, Chris explains how he built up his staff and prepared them to take over gym operations, coaching, customer service, client retention and other aspects of the business. By developing a system and delegating to team members,...
Jul 20, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 477
If you want to move into the CEO role, you must offload lower-value tasks to staff. As each task comes off your plate, you'll have more time to grow the business. So how do you start buying back your time? Chris Cooper has the answer. In this episode, he explains how he offloaded tasks at his gym, and he provides a plan to help you create standard operating procedures and a priority list for hiring. Once you have people in place, you've got to keep them—so Coop's got details on a Career Roadmap ...
Jul 17, 2023•15 min•Season 3Ep. 476
When should I switch mentors? How do I buy my building? How can I get more out of mentorship? Is it even possible to become a millionaire as a gym owner? Chris Cooper answers these and other burning questions about mentorship with Two-Brain Business. If you've ever wondered what mentorship is all about, this is the show for you. If you have a question Coop didn't answer, leave a comment or ask in it our industry forum, Gym Owners United . Links Book a Call 1:56 - When to switch mentors 7:13 - Ho...
Jul 13, 2023•30 min•Season 3Ep. 475
In this episode, you'll learn all about the four main personality types you'll see in your gym: 1. Fact-based extroverts 2. Fact-based introverts 3. Relationship-based extroverts 4. Relationship-based introverts Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper and mentor/gym owner Brian Bott discuss the defining characteristics of each personality type so you understand what members of each group need and want. First, Chris and Brian will give you everything you need to know to make more sales. For example, fact-...
Jul 10, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 474
Should you buy another business or replicate your existing business when expanding your gym empire? The answer is "it depends." Both paths can be successful. But they have unique pros and cons that will influence different kinds of entrepreneurs. To give you a roadmap to expansion, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper sits down with Swedish gym owners Per Mattsson and partners Karl Solberg and Oskar Johed to discuss the bright spots and challenges found on each route to a multi-gym empire. Karl and Os...
Jul 06, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 473
How can you become a millionaire gym owner and build a lasting legacy? The key is using a four-stage approach to create an airtight business: systemize, optimize, grow and scale. If your business is a chaotic mess, your first step is systemizing everything so each client gets excellent service every single time. With basic systems in place, you can then audit and refine them so they're perfect. At that point, you add fuel to the well-oiled machine and move faster. The growth phase is less about ...
Jul 03, 2023•21 min•Season 3Ep. 472
How did Nate Muller's gym earn spots on three of our Top 10 leaderboards for sales in May 2023? Today, Nate shares his secrets for getting more leads, booking more free consultations, getting people to show for those meetings and closing sales. The best part: Green Lake Strength and Conditioning isn't using complex sales systems and gimmicks. Nate's got simple, clear systems in place, and they work like a charm. They're so simple that you can easily replicate them at your fitness business. Gener...
Jun 29, 2023•27 min•Season 3Ep. 471
Want real sales stats from the world's top microgyms? Chris Cooper has them, and he'll give you three leaderboards in this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym." You'll hear the exact set, show and close rates for our Top 10 gyms in May 2023. Even better, Coop will tell you what these owners did to get these numbers, and he'll give you tips to help you improve your own stats. For example, if people are booking consultations but not showing up, you can send video confirmation messages to boost your s...
Jun 26, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 470
Can you use a gym business to become a millionaire? Yes! In fact, you can do it in three different ways. In this episode, Chris Cooper lays them out for you and answers all the common questions that pop up. Here are the paths: 1. Build and scale the gym business you have. 2. Reinvest your profit. 3. Leverage your audience and start another business. Coop will provide the pros and cons of each strategy and explain which ones are best for different kinds of entrepreneurs. He'll also give you tips ...
Jun 22, 2023•54 min•Season 3Ep. 469
Gym owners make the best millionaires. Here's why: They dedicate their lives to helping others get fit and healthy. And when they achieve financial success, they use it to dramatically improve their communities. Yet so many hardworking gym owners can't see a feature that includes wealth—or they question why they should aspire to be wealthy at all. Isn't it more noble to serve and sacrifice? The reality: If gym owners don't generate profit and create businesses that support their families, they'l...
Jun 19, 2023•21 min•Season 3Ep. 468
Events create "sticky stories" for your clients, and they can generate revenue and improve retention. But you'll burn a lot of hours planning and running an event, and many gym owners have discovered they're actually losing money if they factor in all the time. Worse, events can also lead to burnout for you and your staff. The solution: Partner with other event organizers. A partner handles the actual event and all the work associated with it. You simply provide prizes and create training progra...
Jun 15, 2023•14 min•Season 3Ep. 467
If you're stressing over your group classes, stress no more. Chris Cooper is going to tell you how to ensure your sessions are generating revenue and retaining clients. He'll tell you exactly how many people should be in your classes to maximize length of engagement, and he'll give you the steps to calculating the value of each class. With that data in hand, you'll be able to see which classes add to your bottom line and which ones actually cost you money. From there, Chris will tell you what yo...
Jun 12, 2023•17 min•Season 3Ep. 466
Two-Brain Business is capping mentorship clients at 1,000. Why? Founder & CEO Chris Cooper explains. Coop also has a member cap at his gym, Catalyst Fitness in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, so he's seen how it works for clients and businesses. In this episode, Chris explains how a client cap will help current and future Two-Brain clients, and he'll give you some tips on how a client cap can help a fitness business. If you're already a mentorship client, expect even more speed as you work to impr...
Jun 08, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 465
It pays to be a winner—literally. In this episode, Chris Cooper explains what will happen to your gym business if you're the best in town. This isn't about warm fuzzies and "we're the best" marketing taglines that don't mean anything. Coop's all about the measurable effects of recognition as "the best steakhouse in the city." If you work hard to earn that title, you can expect better retention, easier client acquisition and more profit. In fact, the effects of being the best gym or fitness studi...
Jun 05, 2023•9 min•Season 3Ep. 464
Tommy Alfinito's gym is crushing it: Hygge Fitness earned a spot on our Top 10 leaderboard for revenue in April—and it's not spending any money on ads. Even better, Tommy only works about four hours a month at the gym. With a stable business under him, he can dedicate time to his next adventure: Wildfether Distilling in New Jersey. In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Tommy shares his secrets of gym ownership. He explains how focusing on the right things at the right time boosted revenue, ...
Jun 01, 2023•30 min•Season 3Ep. 463
How much revenue do the best gyms in the world generate each month—and how do they do it? Chris Cooper has the answers, and all will be revealed as he runs through the Top 10 leaderboard for gym revenue in April 2023. Every gym on the leaderboard earned more than US$53,000 in April, and the No. 1 score will blow your mind. But Coop's got more than just numbers. He actually asked the owners of the top gyms how they earned so much, and he'll tell you exactly what they said. You might be surprised:...
May 29, 2023•17 min•Season 3Ep. 462
Two-Brain mentorship is an investment with enormous ROI for gym owners. Here, Chris Cooper walks you through the complete process, from high-grade free help to upper-level mentorship for experienced entrepreneurs who are building legacies. If you're not ready for mentorship yet, join our Gym Owners United group for mountains of free resources that will help you grow your gym. When you're ready to take the next step, Two-Brain has three levels of mentorship designed to help you earn $100,000 a ye...
May 25, 2023•7 min•Season 3Ep. 461
If you've got questions about Two-Brain mentorship, Chris Cooper's got answers. In this episode, Coop runs through the most common questions about business coaching for gym owners. What can you expect in terms of ROI? How do we match you up with a mentor? Can you change mentors? How fast can you turn a gym around? Can a mentor help even if things are going well right now? (Yes!) Does Two-Brain work with gyms that aren't affiliated with CrossFit? Why should you work with Two-Brain and not another...
May 22, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 460
Semi-private training is a game changer for coaches and gym owners. The concept: One skilled trainer can deliver personalized programming to two to four clients during the same hour. They aren't doing versions of the same workout. They're doing workouts tailored to their exact goals. Semi-private training is a win for clients who might want more attention than they'd get in group classes but can't afford to do one-on-one PT three times a week. Coaches win, too: If a trainer has four semi-private...
May 18, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 459
The real key to long-term business success: keeping clients for years. Retention is even more important in the fitness business. You can’t save lives if clients quit after a few months. Long-term adoption of exercise and nutrition strategies requires at least two years of consistent attendance. Sadly, the industry average for retention is under eight months, even in coaching businesses. Then consider economics: You can’t build a sustainable gym business with high churn. If you’re constantly losi...
May 15, 2023•12 min•Season 3Ep. 458
Can you launch a nutrition-coaching program that will generate about 10 percent of gross revenue at your gym in just six weeks? Yes—and we'll provide you with an exact plan to do it. Cynthia Fotti is a Two-Brain Business mentor and gym owner who has built a very successful nutrition-coaching program, and now she teaches other gym owners to do the same thing. In about 20 minutes, Cynthia lays out a step-by-step plan a gym owner can use to get a simple but very effective nutrition-coaching program...
May 11, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 457
The 2023 Two-Brain Summit is an investment for entrepreneurs. The annual event is designed to connect top gym owners and coaches with world-class speakers, expert business mentors and forward-thinking peers so they can grow their businesses fast. In this episode, Chris Cooper lays out the agenda at the summit and explains how attendees can use the knowledge they acquire to generate huge ROI. It's all about growing gyms and coaching practices. Chris also goes over some new features for 2023, incl...
May 08, 2023•24 min•Season 3Ep. 456
Dixie Burns made it onto the Two-Brain Top 10 Leaderboard for March 2023 with her stellar client count. So how did the owner of a 24/7 access gym do it? And how does she keep her clients when so many similar gyms regularly bleed members? In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Dixie and host Mike Warkentin talk about the importance of client check-ins and strong connections—even in an access gym. According to Dixie, it's key to link up with her clients to make them feel valued. If you run an ...
May 04, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 455
Gyms with huge client counts—how do they do it? Many gym owners reach a certain number of clients—often 150—and then growth stalls. But other gyms go on to hit 300, 400 or even 700-plus clients. In this episode, Chris Cooper reveals the client counts of the Top 10 Two-Brain gyms in March 2023, then he explains exactly what the owners did to reach these levels. Some of the secrets: goal review sessions, affinity marketing, airtight retention, reacquisition campaigns, special events and guidance f...
May 01, 2023•13 min•Season 3Ep. 454
Jason Khalipa has learned a lot of hard lessons in gyms. Getting his start in a traditional facility, Jason went on to become one of the most famous CrossFit affiliate owners after winning the 2008 CrossFit Games. In this interview with Chris Cooper, Khalipa describes how his fitness business evolved into NCFIT—a company with bricks-and-mortar locations, digital streams and corporate fitness programs that served the likes of Western Digital, Twitter, GoPro and Lucasfilm. The 2020 pandemic shutdo...
Apr 27, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 453
