Run a Profitable Gym

Staffing a gym is tough.Some employees underperform. Others are highly qualified but underpaid. Both situations lead to churn and leave you, the owner, drowning in work and unable to move your business forward.But what if you could do things differently? By taking a mentorship approach to staffing and helping your team members become intrapreneurs in your business, you can give them sustainable, satisfying careers while simultaneously strengthening your business and moving toward your Perfect Day.Certified Two-Brain Mentor Jeff Burlingame has done it. Here's how you can, too.Links:Incite Tax: Profit First for MicrogymsDriven NutritionHow to Get the Right People in the Right Roles at Your GymFree ToolsTimeline:1:29 – The conventional and disappointing career arc of the fitness professional.6:54 – Why staff retention is critical. 8:58 – Overqualified, underpaid.11:39 – There’s another way: intrapreneurialism.14:59 – Career mapping intrapreneurial paths for your employees.19:24 – How intrapreneurialism benefits your staff and brings your business more value.23:59 – How Jeff elevated his staff and removed himself from the business.30:17 – How developing your staff members’ careers can give you more energy and momentum.37:50 – One easy thing you can do today to help push your staff members’ careers forward.

Do you avoid feedback like you avoid checking your bank account?Well, you shouldn't avoid either, but today, we're talking about client feedback—and the good kind requires more than an anonymous survey.Here, Chris Cooper explains exactly what you have to gain by picking up the phone and talking to your members.Links:Incite Tax: Profit First for MicrogymsArboxGym Owners UnitedTimeline:2:45 – Why you shouldn’t always listen to the squeakiest wheel.3:37 – What you should ask your clients.6:15 – Building relationships and improving your business: Two birds, one stone.9:00 – Why you shouldn’t fear feedback.10:30 – How you can use feedback to put your clients on a pedestal. 

Your staff can make or break your business—and that means your hiring process can, too.What's more important in a potential staff member: experience or personality? How can you tell if someone will gel with your team? What are the red flags to watch out for? Certified Two-Brain Mentor Laurie Drummond has been staffing Ultra CrossFit for seven years, and she's honed the hiring process to an art. In this episode, she answers the questions above and shares key interview tactics to help you make the right hiring decisions.Links:Ultra CrossFitIncite Tax: Profit First for MicrogymsGym Lead MachineWhen No One Sees Your Vision (And It's all Your Fault) with Kaleda ConnellDone-for-You Hiring Plan and Job DescriptionsRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Timeline:1:49 – How learning to hire well helped Laurie turn her gym from hobby to business.4:37 – Credentials or personality?5:17 – Engage in some light stalking.8:57 – Two-Brain’s done-for-you hiring plan.9:52 – Hiring for persona and mapping the staff journey.13:34 – Thoughts, feelings and potential barriers.18:09 – Red flags to avoid.22:40 – Staff as a representation of your business.26:39 – Matching new hires with your mission, vision and morals.29:13 – The casual coffee chat.31:32 – Reading vibes in the first interview.40:09 – The tough interview questions you need to ask.43:25 – Dealing with barriers.46:46 – Everyone is replaceable—including you.

It's a pattern you know well: A client starts at your gym, makes progress and is committed and enthusiastic. But after a while, the progress slows. The enthusiasm fizzles. So how do you keep clients engaged for the long haul?That's just one of the things Nathan Holiday designed the Level Method to accomplish. This systematic approach to assessment and goal setting incentivizes clients to stay the course by pairing quantifiable metrics of progress with goal setting and accountability.Here, Nathan joins Chris Cooper to talk about how the program can help clients get better results and help gym owners improve client retention.Links:Level MethodAGuardWodifyRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Timeline:1:06 – Why test skills if a client doesn’t care about them?2:23 – The value of regular assessments.6:01 – Connecting long-term goals to short-term achievements.10:50 – Systematizing ongoing assessment.15:18 – The bridge between assessment and results.19:04 – Structuring assessment: global vs. individual reviews.24:06 – How often should you test?28:07 – How to get clients to do goal reviews.

There are a million things you can do to make your gym business better, but all too often, paralysis by analysis means you do nothing at all—or do everything poorly.That's why we created the #unbreakable55 challenge: Do one thing per day, five days per week, for 55 weeks. The tasks are simple—but not easy—and at the end of the 55 days, your business will be stronger.Listen to Chris Cooper explain the challenge here, then join the #unbreakable55.Links:Incite Tax: Profit First for Microgyms#Unbreakable55AGuardJoin the Gym Owners United group on FacebookRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Contact:chris@twobrainbusiness.comTimeline:1:21 – What is the unbreakable55 challenge?3:55 – How to get clients to do a goal-review session.5:47 – Publishing content means more than an Instagram post.8:49 – How to implement a process improvement.11:14 – Ways to praise staff members.12:28 – How to talk to new people about your business.15:07 – Why the unbreakble55 challenge works.

You don't sell programming, community or access to equipment at your gym.Here's what you do sell: personalized exercise and nutrition plans. You're a coach.You also sell accountability and results to clients.  In this episode, Chris Cooper explains why this realization is key to success in the fitness business.Links:Free Retention GuideAGuardArboxRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Contact:chris@twobrainbusiness.comTimeline:00:38 – Is your gym already too big?3:45 – What you don’t sell.7:05 – What you should be selling.

Every client has unique goals and unique ways of achieving them. Group classes and the occasional nutrition challenge might work for Bob, but maybe Sarah would thrive better with a hybrid group-/personal-training membership and regular nutrition check-ins.That's what the Prescriptive Model is all about: finding the right path for each client. Your client will have more success and you'll generate more revenue—either by providing more services or increasing length of engagement. Here, Certified Two-Brain Mentor Brian Zimmerman breaks down how the Prescriptive Model can help both you and your clients and what it looks like in practice.Links:Incite TaxGym Lead MachineMake More Money for Years: Amazing Client OnboardingThe Prescriptive Model: Your Key to Survival as a MicrogymThe Surge: Why Some Gyms Are Thriving After COVIDRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Timeline:2:01 – What is the Prescriptive Model?6:55 – How the Prescriptive Model leads to increased revenue.15:55 – The Prescriptive Model in practice.21:27 – How the Prescriptive Model increases your value.28:10 – Role playing: The Prescriptive Model in action.36:40 – Accountability, metrics and carrots.38:23 – Making the sales process feel natural.40:54 – How to introduce the Prescriptive Model to current clients.45:42 – How the Prescriptive Model can help you stand apart.

You've seen the pictures on Instagram: Seven perfectly proportioned containers of identical servings of chicken, rice and broccoli, all weighed out to the gram. #mealprep!But what if you're not a competitive athlete? What if you're a busy parent barely managing to get your kids fed and a coffee in your hand each morning? You don't have the time or resources to meal prep each week—certainly not during a pandemic—right?Jen Broxterman is here to give you a different outlook on meal prep. The founder of Nutrition RX and Two-Brain Coaching's new nutrition course joined Tiffy Thompson to take the pressure off of meal prep and show how small habits can lead to big changes.Links:Two-Brain Coaching: Nutrition CoachingNutritionRxWodifyArboxGym Owners UnitedRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Timeline:2:01 – Why Jen doesn’t track macros.3:12 – Misconceptions about meal prep, or batch cooking.7:37 – How to get your clients to change their behaviors.11:19 – Managing logistics to promote success.14:33 – Good enough is good enough.

Sales goals. Bills. Staffing issues. Government restrictions. Angry members. Competition that doesn't play by the rules.There's no shortage of stressors for gym owners, and that will be true even after the COVID-19 pandemic. The key isn't to try to make it all go away—there is no one "next thing" that will make your life easy—but to learn to recognize and manage stressors in constructive ways. Certified Two-Brain Mentor Colm O'Reilly has spent decades learning to manage his emotions and reframe them in healthy ways—ever since he survived attempted suicide as a young adult. Here, he shares tactics for getting through tough times and coming out better for it.Links:The Mental Health Plan"Lost Connections"Conscious Leadership"The Mindful Athlete"ArboxRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Forever FierceFree ToolsTimeline:2:08 – Why Colm O’Reilly tried to take his own life.10:00 – Talking about mental health.12:57 – Why denying your emotions doesn’t work.15:58 – Learning to accept emotions.21:45 – Emotions and stress will never be static.23:53 – The story you’re telling yourself.26:38 – How to reframe negative thoughts and emotions.32:07 – The difference between acceptance and resignation.37:06 – How to process emotion in a healthy way.45:09 – Encouragement from the future.49:32 – Resources for developing good mental health.52:06 – The Mental Health Plan.53:29 – 21 days of mindfulness exercises.

Worried we're headed for another Great Recession? Mike Michalowicz says it's actually the Great Reinvention. At least, it can be—for small businesses. Mike is the entrepreneur behind three multimillion-dollar companies and the author of "Profit First," "Clockwork," "The Pumpkin Plan" and his newest book, "Fix This Next." He's seen businesses big and small sink and swim with every economic shift, and he knows what makes the difference. He joined Chris Cooper and a group of microgym owners to share the strategies gym owners need to make sure they come out of this era stronger than before.Links:Mike MichalowiczDriven NutritionArboxRegister for the Two-Brain Summit 2020Contact:mikee@mikemichalowicz.comTimeline:3:50 – What businesses do wrong when the economy is unstable.8:41 – The Surge opportunity.10:30 – The upstream look.13:53 – Education and the “know, like and trust” model.18:47 – How to test a new idea for free.23:34 – The one-step-back method.30:21 – How to get the “lost” content from “Fix This Next.”31:41 – Why you have to be successful.