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This channel (presented by Two-Brain Business) is packed with business tools for gym owners and CrossFit affiliates. We provide actionable, data-backed business advice for all gym owners, including those who own personal training studios, fitness franchises, and strength and conditioning gyms.
What sets the best gyms apart from the rest?
In this episode, we talk to the recipients of this year's Two-Brain Awards for Gyms of the Year (Culture and Metrics) and Comebacks (Resilience).
Kyle Cato, David Allen, Charlie Banfield and Rich Borgatti have weathered the past year with grace and fortitude, and they've come out even stronger. Cato and Allen were recognized as the top Two-Brain gym owners when it comes to culture and key performance indicators, and Banfield and Borgatti faced down huge challenges to earn special recognition.
We get into what worked for them, what didn't, and how you can use what they've learned in your own situation.
Links
"Epic Training: A Comprehensive Guide to Obstacle Course Racing" by Rich Borgatti
1:48 - Kyle Cato on what gym culture is and how he developed it
3:57 - Fun, Family, Fitness
5:05 - Creating a safe haven
7:45 - Raising funds to build wells in Africa
10:08 - David Allen on getting over the $1 million revenue line
11:49 - Reorganizing staff according to strengths
15:14 - Paying attention to your metrics
18:34 - Telling the story of your business
21:03 - Charlie Banfield on changing his business model
22:11 - Impostor syndrome and taking charge
23:45 - Charlie's advice for other gym owners
26:48 - Rich Borgatti on not giving up
27:59 - Survival as the driving force
29:12 - Profit First
30:28 - The pressure test
35:37 - Rich's advice for recession-proofing your gym
Developing your coaches won't grow your business.
It can be hard to hear this, but simply investing in coach education might actually harm your gym instead.
In this episode, Chris Cooper cites some examples of coach development gone wrong, but he also shows you the coach-development systems you can implement to benefit your coaches—and your gym and its members.
When it comes to coach development, more knowledge is not the problem. If you want great career coaches, don't just send them away to get more training or upgrade their certifications.
Instead, build a business with a large platform that will support coaches long enough that they can stick around for 10 years, make it a career and take the time to get really good at their craft.
Links
Coach Evaluation Form
Business Evaluation Form and Instructions
1:00 - Technician's curse
3:34 - Chris's story: hiring staff
5:16 - Hire for personality, train for skill
7:17 - An example of bad coaching
11:16 - Coaching development
13:47 - Lessons learned
15:42 - What "coach development" really means
16:49 - Building a better platform
If you want to have a successful service-based business, you have to build around the needs of your clients.
In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Chris Cooper gives you a framework to build a "client-centric business" using your mission, model and method.
First you must clearly define your mission. Second, identify the strategy to achieve that mission—that's your model. Third, your method is your mechanism of delivery, which evolves over time to include new and more effective elements.
Clearly mapping out your mission, model and method will get you closer to realizing that mission. You'll be happier, your clients will be healthier, and your business will grow faster,
1:00 - Chris's story - client-centric vs. coach-centric gyms
2:19 - What's your mission?
3:00 - Catalyst's mission.
3:36 - Which model should you use?
4:42 - What's your method? The method evolves.
6:18 - How a method unfolds.
7:39 - Catalyst's new method using the Prescriptive Model.
Thinking about buying a gym?
While it's easy to get distracted by all the bells and whistles, you really need to ask three major questions first:
1. Is the space the gym is in leased or owned?
2. What are the assets and debts of the current business?
3. What contracts are currently in play and what exactly do they say?
Gym Lawyers founder Matthew Becker takes you through these questions and explains how the answers can affect the sale of a business.
Are there more legal issues that can have an impact on a big transaction in the fitness world? Absolutely. The best plan: Bring an attorney into the process in the early stages so you don't have to untangle a huge mess down the line when you're just about to shake hands on a deal.
2:13 - Leasing vs. Owning
6:41 - Pitfalls of not carefully reviewing lease terms
11:17 - Establishing LLC, operating agreement and business account when buying
14:32 - Asset purchase agreement vs. buying company outright
19:30 - Legal fees for purchase
21:12 - Contracts
24:45 - Contractual red-flags
29:34 - How to limit risk
Every business scales through four distinct stages.
Chris Cooper talks a lot about the four phases of entrepreneurship: Founder, Farmer, Tinker and Thief. To move from one phase to the next, you need to do the following: systemize, optimize, grow and scale.
If you do these things out of order, you can break your business or go bankrupt yourself. The best way to proceed is to seek guidance from someone who has done it before: a mentor.
Links
"Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief"
0:55 - Stage 1: Systemize
1:35 - Playbooks and SOPs
2:47 - Checklists and contracts
3:00 - Stage 2: Optimize
3:29 - Marketing funnels and organic growth
7:00 - Stage 3: Grow
7:30 - Stage 4: Scale
10:00 - Dangers of skipping stages
11:15 - Why rapid growth can be the death knell for your business
14:10 - Bullets before cannonballs, testing strategies
15:24 - Mapping the client journey
As a gym owner, you'll likely face some issues when it comes to your lease. Three of the most important elements: rent (including CAM expenses), use of premises, and additional costs you're responsible for through "triple net" leases (insurance, maintenance, etc.).
How do you negotiate a better lease for your gym business? Is your rent increase justified? What happens when your use of the premises—dropping plates, loud music—becomes a problem for other tenants?
We pose these questions and more to Gym Lawyers founder Matthew Becker. Matthew—a gym owner himself—gives you tips for covering your bases and protecting yourself as you navigate the tricky terrain of gym leases.
Links
"Breaking the Sound Barrier" by Chris Cooper
2:15 - The "big 3": rent, use of premises, and what you're responsible for
3:07 - What comprises rent
9:08 - Base rent plus fees
12:52 - Recourse if base rent goes up
14:55 - Use of premises
18:06 - Noise issues
23:39 - "Everything is negotiable"
27:07 - Protecting yourself
32:27 - Cost of legal fees
Every successful entrepreneur needs to master four habits in order to make $1 million, $10 million or more: discipline, respect, influence and behavior.
You need to do one thing each day to grow your business before you do anything else.
You need to respect others and teach everyone around you to behave the same way.
You need to share your mission every single day with people inside and outside your business.
You need to identify your heroes and take the actions they would take.
These four habits put together—discipline, respect, influence and behavior—will create the impact you want to have on the world.
1:06 - Habit 1: discipline
2:56 - Habit 2: respect
3:43 - Habit 3: influence
6:45 - Habit 4: behavior
As a gym owner, your method and your model will likely evolve over time. Your method should be "client centric": It should be based on what your clients need. Your model is there to give clients your service in the way they want to buy it.
At Chris Cooper's gym, Catalyst, the Prescriptive Model guides the business. The prescription changes over time to serve the exact needs of clients, and the model reflects that.
Your method might be Pilates or yoga or CrossFit—but the "meta" model should always be prescriptive: tailored to the needs of the client.
The Prescriptive Model helps you provide clients with 10-out-of-10 service now and evolve to keep doing that forever.
2:10 - Focused strength story: parking lot barbells
4:19 - Reaching the limits of the model
7:37 - The method and the model
11:47 - Adapting your method and your model
13:38 - Maintaining a client-centered approach
16:58 - Striking a balance
What's holding you back from reaching the next level with your gym business? Check your bias.
In this episode, Chris Cooper goes over the common biases that interfere with our growth. In identifying these blind spots, you can make a plan to keep them in check and take positive action with the things that count.
3:14 - Confirmation bias and novelty bias
4:45 - Busy-ness bias
6:27 - Multi-tasking bias
7:00 - Blame
9:35 - Ego
Acquiring more knowledge is not going to solve your problems; it's actually a trap that stops you from taking action. Knowledge is not the solution; getting a mentor is.
As a gym owner, you might be furiously studying as much as you can when it comes to business. But how much of the information are you actually acting on?
A great mentor works because they give you a clear focus: Do this one thing right now. Mentorship brings 10x the value of your initial investment. Top performers in every field will not waste their time trying to figure it out when they don't have to. For most gym owners, the solution you need is focus, not more knowledge.
Talk to us about mentorship: https://twobrainbusiness.com/book-a-call/
3:36 - The trap of more info, less action
5:33 - The ROI on mentorship
8:25 - The importance of 1-1 mentorship from people who've been there before
10:16 - Why you need to book a call with our Two-Brain team now
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