Stay ConnectedWe’ve already helped 3,000 gym owners become more profitable, and we’re the #1 gym mentorship program in the world.
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.
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, how to get there if you're not, and what to pay them when you are.
Links:
Gym Owners Handbook
Women In Fitness Business podcast
Gym Owners United
Timeline:
00:54 – Climbing the value ladder before you hire a GM.
3:28 – A GM’s job is to keep things the same.
4:20 – The best coaches don’t necessarily make the best GMs.
5:21 – How to compensate a GM.
6:46 – When to hire a GM.
11:45 – The biggest mistake gym owners make when hiring a GM.
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 mentorship." —Chris Cooper
Links:
Gym Owners United
Timeline:
1:53 – Buying speed.
4:36 – What’s bugging you right now?
5:21 – Get focused on the most important thing.
9:50 – Mentors as connectors.
13:24 – Mentors get you out of your own head.
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 end in sight.
Here, Andrew joins Mike Warkentin to talk about why he took a chance on mentorship and how it's changed his business—and his life—for the better.
Links:
CrossFit Fairway Park
"Help First"
Free Tools
Book a Call
Gym Owners United
Timeline:
1:10 – Learning what he was actually selling.
2:40 – Mentorship: the final Hail Mary.
5:31 – The moment Andrew knew mentorship was working.
9:29 – Developing confidence in sales—and selling high-value services.
12:58 – Making a plan for growth.
14:22 – Setting higher prices with confidence.
18:41 – Tracking leads and laying a new operations foundation.
20:31 – The magic of mentorship.
23:45 – When it’s time to hit “go.”
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 profit margin between high-value, low-volume and high-volume, low-value models.
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 affinity marketing.
9:54 – How to get your clients to send referrals your way.
12:00 – Mapping the client journey and improving retention after on-boarding.
15:49 – Selling high-value packages.
19:18 – Balancing growth with providing high-value service.
21:40 – Talking profit margins.
24:59 – Climbing the value ladder.
26:34 – Ask your clients what they need.
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: Everything You Need to Start and Scale a Fitness Business"
Free Tools
Gym Owners United
Book a Free Call
Contact:
chris@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:07 – Why Two-Brain gives so much stuff away for free.
2:00 – Knowledge is not enough.
2:56 – Why one-on-one?
7:41 – The problem with group mentorship at the start-up level.
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
"Start A Gym: Everything You Need to Start and Scale a Fitness Business"
Free Tools
Gym Owners United
Timeline:
00:39 – Why buy a gym instead of starting one?
2:31 – Tyler’s multiple-gym mission.
4:08 – Staffing and management structure across the six gyms.
8:01 – How he scaled so quickly.
10:31 – Why Tyler prefers to buy unprofitable gyms.
11:56 – What happens to the existing staff members?
13:55 – Migrating his playbook and policies to the new gym.
15:27 – Bro deals, free memberships and other problems that come with purchase.
17:34 – Retention after the takeover.
18:39 – Making the gym profitable in Month 1.
20:24 – Looking to the long term.
22:09 – When is it the right time to buy?
24:21 – How Two-Brain helped.
26:24 – Lessons in negotiation.
31:52 – How to replicate processes in the new gym.
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 Tinker Phase.
8:51 – Making time in Thief Phase.
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.
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 audience.
Listen to this episode if you’re looking for new ways to market your services, don’t want to spend money on adds, want to learn more about content marketing or want to find out the best ways to connect with local people who might be perfect for your gym or nutrition programs.
Links:
Fitness Nutrition Mindset in Foxboro Area
Gym Owners United
Timeline:
1:13—Lead totals and creating a Facebook group.
9:35—How to start conversations.
20:20—How to use chats to book free consultations.
27:36—Weekly time commitment.
31:58—Tips for gym owners.
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