Hello, and welcome to two brain radio. I'm Tiffany Thompson . And today we're featuring the winners of this year's T awards gyms of the year and epic comebacks. I'll be chatting with Kyle Cato , David Allen , Charlie Banfield, and Richburg Gotti about what they've been through and where they're heading next. They'll share their top tips for excellence in gym ownership, as well as a personal message for other gym owners who may be going through a rough patch. Welcome to two brain radio. Today.
We're talking to the recipients of the two brain business awards. And I have with me Kyle Cato, he is the gym of the year culture based award winner. And he's speaking with me from his gym CrossFit 8 0 6 in Amarillo, Texas. And this award was given to clients who have the most success on the right side of the brain. So key metrics to demonstrate success here would include length of engagement or online engagement from their clients.
Um, his mentor wrote, there are a lot of gyms that I mentor that I would personally love to be a part of, but the energy that Kyle brings to his community is just second to none. His enthusiasm is infectious, and it's not just for his members and staff, but also his greater mission to bring clean water to places in Africa . Everything he does is done with a singular focus to make a difference in that part of the world. So it's no surprise that he and his wife adopted his son from Uganda.
He's a busy man that takes action, and isn't shy about staying true to why he's doing what he's doing. Kyle, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
So what is Jim culture? How would you define it and how do you, how did you develop it in your own gym?
When I , we opened the gym , uh, just short of 12 years ago , um, at the time , uh , it was me and a buddy and , uh, we wanted to have the gym with the strongest people and do the hardest workouts. And , uh, both of me and my, my business partner at the time had jobs. Um, uh, we knew that having a gym could operate if we , uh, paid the bills, you know, so we didn't really have a , have an idea of what we wanted. We just knew that working out was fun.
And we knew that , uh, it also helped people our age to stay fit. Um, when I realized , uh, that , uh, I wanted to grow this place , um, at the time I was a teacher , uh , I had a , a PE job, which in , uh , a , a guy like me who loves fitness, that's the ideal dream job, right? Well, I had a gym where we're at now and I also had a gym , uh , an hour north of here and , uh , a family with , uh , a pretty new family with us adopting Jeremiah.
I was at home the least , uh, of all the things I was doing and, and knowing that teacher had a summer off, had an easy, easy, hourly , uh , schedule. Um, but my gym is where I wanted to be . Um, I decided to, to quit my day job and to make this thing, my full job , um, when you have a family and you have , uh , two gyms in different towns, you're now focused on how to make this thing grow. So when I, when I burned the ships and, and I , I , I quit my, my teaching job.
I knew that if I didn't make this thing , uh , produce money and , and I , I was gonna regret my decision. So , uh , once we , uh , knew I was gonna this full time , I really just dialed in what I liked, what I like most about my gym , uh , me personally, and, and I wanted to grow , uh , grow it that way. So I, I I've , I've focused on three things. It was fun, family fitness.
Um, I had , uh , an opportunity to kind of just grow the gym and , uh, doing it with , uh , kids , uh, as one of the tears that, that we were gonna go after . Uh , my , my son was getting older, knowing that my dad was 67 , uh, hit that's a market. We were looking for. Um, I decided to take what two brain offered when it comes to infinity marketing. And I literally went to all of our members.
I went to , uh , businesses around town and, and if there was a member that I enjoyed being around, I ask them who their , uh , friends were . And so getting, getting started that way, really got us , uh , where we we're at now. And, and so getting a gym full of people that I like to hang out with , um , and their friends are not coming to the gym. And the cool part is I've now got most of their kids coming to the gym, too.
How would you describe that culture? Is it, is it like a family atmosphere? Like what's the vibe
A funny part , uh, that I like to compare us to it . I , I , I'm a Christian , uh , Jesus is, is a big part of my life. And, and knowing that not everybody in my gym goes to, goes to a church that I want my gym to be known as a safe place, whether you , uh , follow Jesus or not, but you coming to my gym for an hour, a day, four or five days a week, you're going to basically be doing what I do on Sunday is when I go to church and I want it to be , and I wanna be known for that.
So like a worship atmosphere almost,
You know, we, we play, we play Tupac, you know, we play guns and roses on the radio. We're not just listening to, you know, Christian music, but you come to my gym, the music censored, there's, there's kids in the background doing CrossFit kids. Um, it's just, it's a safe environment. And, and a lot of people these days don't have a, don't have a , a , a getaway to where they can be themselves.
Um, but when you come to my gym , um, you're gonna , you're gonna see the , the culture that we provide and, and you got two options. You , you can , you can , you can stay and be a part of that, or there's other gyms in town. And I , and that's something that I realize that we're not the only gym in town, but when people come in into my doors , they know it doesn't take long to see for what we offer
Culture might not be really measurable, but retention and marketing are. So how has having a strong culture helped you keep your members longer?
Um, mentioned my son, Jeremiah . Um, we have a coach that , uh, has a nonprofit here in town. Uh , my son, who, who , who was born in , in , uh , Africa, where there's a lot of , uh , you know, there's, there's the need for water. Uh , my coach that , uh , has a nonprofit here in town. We, we crossed paths with , uh , rich frowning a long time ago, nine years when he was still in the, in the, he was, he was rich phoning the , the , the CrossFit guide , right?
Well , the , the , the , the man we crossed path with him. Um, my wife and his wife talked about the adoptions. They happened later. So, so we got to meet them before , uh, before the adoptions actually happened. But rich Fring came and did a , he kind of just told his story one time to Amarillo Texans, to our gym, to a church here in town. Um, the next year he came back again and did a little competition that we put on. Um, and that was , uh, we're nine years deep now.
So we've been doing this for a while . So all the money that, that we make through this competition with the guys from mayhem goes towards a nonprofit Christian , uh , program here in town. Um, we also do what we call clean water. It's an event we've been doing for three years. The money that my gym, only my gym members , uh , raise , uh , goes to building water Wells in Uganda Africa .
So , um , where, where three years into this , um, we have raised a hundred thousand dollars and that's 10 water Wells that, that have the name CrossFit 8 0 6 on them. And, and we go back every year to kind of get footage and get videos and testimonies from the , the Ugandans that are using the water that we provided. So showing Jesus to people around my town, but also where my son was born out of our gym. You know, our four walls are way bigger , um, than what my building is. Mm-hmm
, if you could share one tip, you think would help other gym owners in , in building their culture and keeping it positive and energetic. What would that be?
I like to say where I would go pay to go workouts. That's where, that's what , that's, what I wanted . That's where I wanna be. So I , I would pay to come to my gym , um, and , and I would pay a lot of money to come to my gym because it's something that I consider fun, but I provide a service of , and that's , that's really valuable. So , um, if you want to grow your, a gym , your gym , your business, and you wouldn't go to it, you're wasting your time. So what's important to you.
What's important to me, that's what I wanna be known for. Um , my gym will be open for a long time, but, you know, whenever I'm not in the office, I'm not, I'm not , uh, on the floor as much, you know, I want people to know that, that this started with, with , uh, what was important to Cal
It's great advice. Thanks for coming on the show.
Hey , thanks for having me .
Hey, David, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
So David Allen was this year's recipient of the gym of the year metrics based award. And this is given to clients who have the most success with the left side of the brain. So nominations should focus on the overall change in gross profit and his mentor wrote David totally crushed metrics this year surpassed the $1 million revenue mark, while also working on a plan to open a second location and ninja warrior gym .
So, David, what were the main strategies that brought you over that million dollar revenue line?
Yeah, so a couple years ago, I , um, did a vivid vision, kinda a three year , um, vision exercise, kinda say , like , where did I wanna take my business ? And the target I set was three locations serving a thousand clients. And , uh , in order to reach that vision, I knew we were gonna have to really focus on what I call scaling. Awesome.
Meaning , um, a , a lot of what we've learned in two brain is how to deliver a , a truly exceptional experience, but that's kinda what , uh , makes a two brain gym unique from your typical gym , right. And, but we had to figure out, well, how can we do that at scale? Because , uh , at the hundred member mark, the hundred 50 member mark, you can kind of somewhat do it on a personnel relationship basis.
Um, and beyond that, we had to figure out how we can , um, really leverage software to make it so that you can still deliver a relationship to a broader group of clients. And so that's kind of a lot of what we , uh , worked on was how do we scale software and also scale software to handle a lot of the things that, that, that I don't want. My, my major , um, players, my , my , my main , uh , employees doing , uh, easy example was , uh, like inventory for retail.
It's , it's a piece of our business. It's important, it's a revenue stream, but it's not, what's gonna take us to, to a million dollar . Um , it's not gonna take us to million or, or a thousand clients , right ? So it was things like that, that we just kinda said, Hey , what is the low ROI task and how can we make this automated or pass it off to like virtual assistance ? And so a lot of what we worked on was kind of finding ways to scale all that.
Um, and then the other piece was , uh , really , um, developing staff. It was , um, from , from where I'm at , uh , with having multiple locations and multiple businesses , um, I just, wasn't gonna be able to be a day to day operations kind of person mm-hmm . And so it was develop teaching staff , um, uh , giving them a playbook, giving them a vision, guiding them, letting them make mistakes and be like, Hey , that's okay .
You know , and , uh , developing them into key players who feel comfortable running their particular operation , um , within our , our bigger framework . So that was kind two big pieces with staff development and scaling white call . Awesome .
What aspect did you focus most on improving when it came to the business?
Like between the two?
Yeah ,
It was more so , uh , really what it was kind of like one and then the other , so what happened was I had a GM who , uh , went on maternity leave.
Okay.
And she passed off a lot of her tasks to, to the rest of us. And in that I kinda had a trigger moment of going like, wait a minute. Like , if this is all the stuff you're doing , I'm, misutilized you because you are an exceptional person and I don't need you doing task stuff.
Yeah.
So it was kinda like, oh, okay . Let's, let's figure out how to scale all this stuff and take it off your plate. And now I can develop you into , um, your full potential. It kinda like scaling some of that stuff first , taking it off . So thateveryone bigger roles .
Gotcha . And it's , it sounds like you had the right people in the right seats. It was just a matter of taking stuff off their plate that wasn't serving them or your gym
Of . Yeah. I mean, some of it was , um , some of it was moving people around, so I kinda took one manager and a new business who was head coach , who , who had just kind come parttime, liked gym , all , everything needed to run another location. And I just approached them was like, Hey, you're the person for this job. You ready to take it? And they were like, yes. Cool . So it was, it was a little bit of both .
It was , uh , everyone was within the organization, but it was like just putting them in the right spots in the organization.
So if you have one tip that you'd like to give to other gym owners who are looking to improve their metrics, what would that be ?
Well , I think the , the very basic one is pay attention to your metrics. Um, I , I see our progress as a gym very much. Like I see the progress that you would see in training. And part of that is you have to know where you are first, and if you're not paying attention to your metrics, you have no idea where you are. And if you have no , uh , standard of metrics, you have no idea where you fit in , in , in the bigger scheme, you may be thinking you're killing it and not even coming close. Right.
Mm-hmm , the beautiful part about tube brain is they said like, Hey, here's how to look at metrics . And here are standards that kinda go by mm-hmm . Um , and then in doing so now you have kind a roadmap to follow , um, part of, I think , of our successes, you know, we've been a , we've been a gym for, well, I like to make the joke that I've owned a , I owned a gym for five years and I've owned a business for six . So , but we're , we're in our 11th year.
And so, and I , and understand I started my gym at 25 . I just think there's a reality that you're probably not gonna be good at many things at , um , and you're probably not gonna be really good at anything you haven't done for a decade . Uh , and so I would say right now, it just took 10 years. Just like it would take 10 years in the gym of knowing where you stand, knowing where you wanna go and just kinda chipping away at that . So, you know , every, we are very big on metrics.
We have KPIs that we look at where we , we go through these metrics on a weekly basis , whether that be sales , leg , gross revenue, these are all things we're constantly looking at. Mm-hmm and just being aware of it, and then having targets that we're , we're reaching towards. So when you have that goal , um, now you can start turning levers to kind of get there. Now, sometimes those levers don't result in us moving forward, but now we know mm-hmm .
So I think my biggest, my biggest advice would be , um, a know your metrics and where you're , where you are and where you're trying to go. And then just be patient like tr watch your trend lines over time. It's not gonna be this constant , just linear progression up. It's gonna be a trend line , but if you're going the right direction, you're going to get there . And as you do that, you'll be able to learn , Hey, when I do this, this happens when I do this, this happens.
And you'll be able to just slowly over time, develop that skill as a business owner who has , who has experience
And when it comes to, to getting the rest of your team on board , in improving those metrics, how did you go about doing that?
It's, it's a couple of pieces, one it's I think as a , as a leader, you need to be a bit of a good storyteller. Mm-hmm I can't just walk into a meeting and say, our goal make a million dollars guys. This is cool. Let's go do it . Right. You know , like , um, we have a bigger vision. That's just beyond revenue. So , uh , revenue is an easy way to track the impact that we're making . And so our vision is to impact people's lives. And we truly believe that, you know , fitness can save the world.
So that's , uh , we have a passion project behind this thing . Um, revenue goes up and we impact more people. So this is a good way for us to kinda track that impact . Um , so getting them on board is they've already got people who are passionate about helping people. Mm-hmm ,
Telling them that story, getting them fired up , um, giving them a game plan and say , Hey , here , here's where we are . Here's where we're wanting to go. This is why it's important . Here's how we're gonna get there . I get them involved in the planning . I get them involved in the , uh , in part of the process. And then I reward them along the way. Right. Um , so , you know , our goal is not to just make a million cause million it's let's .
We wanna make a million so we can impact people's lives . So they are getting healthy and fit so we can impact your lives. And you can have a career doing something that you love and are passionate about and make a good living, and you can do it for the rest of your life. And you don't feel like you have to go do some job. You hate just to pay your bills. And so let's say it's part of this bigger collective piece. So I think that's where that vision comes in being the storyteller.
And I think that's, you know , part of my process the last several years has been leveraging myself up . Like I can't do the day to day tasks. I don't really need to be delivering service . I can't really be doing sales . I can't really be doing , um , the day to day management of staff . I , my job is to drive that ship . And part of driving that ship is being a good storyteller, a vision , and driving the business in that way .
David that's really helpful. Thank you for coming on the show with me today .
Absolutely. Thank you for having ,
Hey Charlie, welcome to the show.
Hi , Tiffany Tiffany .
So Charlie is the recipient of this year's comeback of the year resilience award. And this was given to the client who had hard times, but turned it around and the client should have come through the challenge and now be stable and profitable as a result of actions they've taken. And his mentor wrote Charlie inherited a small struggling global type gym from his parents.
And through ramp up , he's made some big, tough decisions to revamp the whole business model towards a more CrossFit style coach program and raised prices significantly, which it created a lot of backlash. He came in for a lot of criticism, but he stuck to his guns and has reached his interim goal of 10,000 pounds, monthly revenue. So for you personally, over these past couple years, what's been the toughest part of Jim ownership.
Um , well, the , the cha changing, changing the business model was like, was huge. So I think we, we actually did , uh , we probably did about four months of , um , two brain business mentorship before we actually made any changes. Um okay . And that was, yeah, that was, that was huge. So we actually , um , removed all open access to , to the gym. Um, and yeah, we, we ran like group fundamentals and changed , changed to incorporate like the group and the , and the PT.
And that was like that , that was a huge, huge change. That was , that was like re well, that was like starting new business basically. Um , right . And yeah, that , that saw , um, we had , we had a little bit of recovery after the COVID, our COVID , um, shutdowns, and then , uh, and then, yeah, we sort of, we , we , we then like, then we changed our model and then we had to rebuild again. So that was, that was like quite challenging. Yeah.
Yeah. A lot of adjustments. Yeah . Did you ever struggle with imposter syndrome?
Yeah, so we, yeah, we , we basically changed everything we did. So like , um , uh , we , we we've been , um, like following, like the , the content you guys gave up for quite a while. And , um, like we sort of like knew we were capable of changing and we knew we could be good coaches, but the global global style of Jim that we had before was we were basically receptionists. Um, right .
So, yeah, actually actually figure out that we could help people , um, more than like more than just sitting behind reception. Um, yeah. That the imposter syndrome that come with that was, was huge. Yeah.
Um, what kind of boosted your confidence during that time?
Um, so like , um, well making the changes, it was like , it was a hu huge headache, but , um, just , just from taking people through as structured fundamentals of, of how, like, how we were gonna work, we did get a little bit of backlash, but like, just after a few months of, of this, this new method we were getting, we were getting some amazing feedback, like, oh , like, just from like, oh , I was bending over to clean my car , car wheels the other day, and I didn't get backache or like, I I've
been able to, like, I look quite get quite a lot of time, like, like breakfast , just getting up , like walking up the stairs. Um, so they're like, oh my God, I've been, I managed to walk upstairs and , and I felt, felt good doing it, or just like, just that the feedback that it was actually helping people's people in their day to day life. That was, that was like , that was huge win that sort of lifted, lifted those clouds.
Yeah . So you, you had , you went through that process of revamping your whole business model. Do you have any advice you would give to others who are looking at doing something similar with their gyms?
I think I, well , if they haven't got a mentor, then listen to their mentor, like that was like you haven't got a mentor, like , um, like , uh , we had , uh , Russell , Russell Francis . He was like in our corner the whole time. And , um, I , I don't think we could have made , made the changes about him to be fair and, and , and the support they gave. Um, yeah, it was a really, really big change.
So , um, I think also we were come , we were , we were coming off the back of COVID, so it's quite a , well , I suppose lots of people were coming off the back of COVID, but it was quite unique for us anyway, we'd , we'd already lost quite, quite a few members through that. So , um, it was, it was a good opportunity to change for us. Um, but, but really just, you we've just gotta do it
Yeah , yeah. Um ,
It's , it's like, it's been quite a , well it's , it's felt like quite a long recovery, but it's been far more enjoyable. Um, and it's like, it almost it's like as soon as done it, like REIT that reignited, that fire to be , um , to like come into the gym on the day's day. And yeah, you've just , you've just gotta like bite the bullet as such,
Get it done.
Yeah. Get it done. Yeah .
Charlie, thanks for , uh , coming on here with me today.
Amazing. Thank you .
And today I have with me rich Bo Gotti . Welcome to the show. Rich. Hi
TIFF . Thank
You very much. So rich was the recipient of the comeback of the year resilience award. And this was given to the client who had hard times, but turned it around and the client should have come through the challenge and be stable and profitable as a result of the actions that they took. And , um, his mentor wrote about him that he's a longtime TB client. He's been through it all during this time. But this year he saw some of his lowest numbers in a decade. He had coaches quit.
He had to fire someone on the spot and they were stuck in this small bubble where mask mandates lasted longer than the surrounding areas, but he faced adversity dead in the face. And he is prevailing. He is turning his finances around he's hiring new staff. He has reset his time and he's also near publishing his first book. Rich is a true leader and one whose story resonates with so many others.
So rich, was there a point during this last crazy period that you just wanted to give it up and, and what made you persevere?
Uh, yeah, actually there's, there was probably about three times that I can remember that I succinctly went, okay, why am I doing this anymore? Like, I should move on. Cause , um, during COVID my wife got pancreatic pancreatitis , uh , we were worried about pancreatitis cancer. Like we went through a battery of tests while the gym was shut down.
So like, at that point I was like, what's more important, like the health of my family or this business, like what , what , where do I need to put my time and energy? Um, so that was like the first time. And luckily she came through just fine and she had to have a surgery, but things worked out well, but, you know, going through major surgery where, you know, she was in the hospital for a week and the gym shut down , we don't know where our next paycheck was coming from.
That that's very stressful.
yeah.
You know , and we were homeschooling the kids at the time and , uh , everything seemed wrong or against us at every point at that time. So.
Wow.
Yeah. And then , uh ,
What kind of kept you going? Like what, what was the driving force?
Uh, well, the driving force at that point was survival. Like, you know, keeping food on the table, keeping a house, our house, our mortgage paid , um, you know, keeping my staff employed. Like there were more people than just me that were counting on whether this gym survives or not. Right. And , uh , so we had a , you know, I had to dig down and really look at our mission statement and our values and , and they seem corny when you write them.
But when you have a situation like that and you read the , the reason why you're doing it, it becomes very important and very apparent like that you need to keep moving forward, you know, cuz just more than the it's more than a business, it was, we always called it, you know, like, you know, our next, our second child or like, it was like, it was part of the family. My wife likes to call it, you know, our children's college fund, you know, like this is, this is how we are making our living.
Um, and so it , like, I didn't have anything else to really fall back on at the time. And so we, we just kept pushing forward. Mm-hmm uh , through all the challenges.
What , what was the biggest lesson you took away during this period?
Well, one of them was, we were very thankful that early on, we went through like our profit first, you know, for the business we had, you know, we had turned the business around , um, where we had money in the bank by the time this happened. And um, we had, you know , good support system and good resources at the time. And so like that was the biggest thing was like, oh, thank God we did all this work foundational work in the beginning.
Cuz if we didn't have the strong foundation that we learned through two brain business, it would've all just crumbled like a deck of cards, you know? Right . A house of cards, just bam gone. But it didn't. Um, so the community that we had spent building over years, you know, we had a good solid base of, you know, 50 to 60 clients that didn't go anywhere. And that kept us , uh , at least open maybe, maybe not profitable, but at least it paid the bills.
And um, and those were very strong relationships that we spent years building. And so all the things that we learned through two brain from financial to community, building to leadership really like came to the forefront, you know, when things are going well, you're like, oh, I've got this. Like you , you think that you're , you know, like everything's running smoothly, it's not until you hit these failure points that you really see how resilient your business is or isn't right .
And that's what we saw. We like, oh, well we built a resilient business that was able to survive. Um, we did have to get outside funding from our PPP loans to stay open when we were not allowed to keep our doors open. And um, luckily years, you know, a few years before this, I had started working on online training. So we had a good system to, to move to the whole gym, moved to an online virtual system.
Um, but that again, that's the foundational stuff that we were building a year or two before this happened that thankfully we had in place.
Mm-hmm so I guess the takeaway is sort of get your house in order before the hits the fan .
Yeah. You never, you don't wanna do it when it hits. Like you you've gotta know that's when you, you pressure test it. Right, right . But you've gotta have it in place to see if it's actually gonna work.
Yeah. What would you say to other gym owners who are currently struggling? Like we're probably heading into a recession now. Um, gym owners are wondering what they're gonna do. What would, what would be your advice to them?
Sure. So I started the gym in the recession of 2008. So that's, that was my starting point is like, and I got told a lot of times like, Hey, we're in a recession, you shouldn't start a business. You shouldn't be, you shouldn't quit your job. You shouldn't do all these , all this shouldn't right. But what I learned from then really helped us now and is going to help us going into a bit of a downturn of possibly a downturn is that you only figure out exactly what you need and don't get more.
Right. So a lot of times gym owners see shiny toys and it's like, oh, I want another bike. Or I want, you know, a new G D machine or I want, I want the newest thing. We built everything off of use gear. Like we go use, save your money, put your money in the bank, you know, use gear as just as good as new gear. Right, right. Really understand how much you need to spend. And that was one of the things in the beginning.
I didn't understand budgeting , um , that I do now, you know, so I know what kind of , uh, equipment we need. I know, you know, like for gym owners that are going into this, it's like, just figure out your model. Like if, if you're just used to craming people into a gym, guess what? Those people might not be there in a year if we hit a recession. So, you know, really understand your bottom line, like where is your cutoff point and and are you too top heavy ?
That was one of the things that we did have a bit of hubris going into the, into the pandemic cuz we were the biggest we've ever been, you know, 230 members. I had 13 coaches on staff. Uh, I didn't even have to go to the gym anymore at this point. Right . And I unfortunately thought that that was, I had made it at that point. Um , but unfortunately you get that much overhead. All of a sudden things are very fragile when something like the pandemic or recession hit .
So you really need to make sure that your foundation is stronger than, you know, the top end, you know ? Right . Don't don't get too far away from your community. Yeah . That was the big lesson I learned was like, oh thankfully I could step back into a head coach role. I could take care of the community cuz they did not wanna look to my other coaches. As soon as things started happening, they looked directly to me as the owner, as the head coach as what to do. And so did my staff .
Um, so a lot of times I would say don't lead by delegation right. Or deferring to people and just, or abdicating responsibility, really know your members don't get too far away from the basics and show up every day . Like that was a big lesson that I learned. Mm-hmm you know , so ,
And is your book out now?
Yes . So the book is out it's uh , it's on Amazon. It ships on June 28th, 22 .
And what's it called?
It's called epic training , uh , comprehensive guide to obstacle course racing.
Awesome. Yeah. Okay. So you can check that out on Amazon and um, thanks. Thanks a lot for your time today. Rich. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Excellent.
That's it for two brain radio gyms of the year in epic comebacks. Thanks for tuning in. And if you want more subscribe to two brain radio, wherever you get your podcasts.