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.
"People like us do things like this." — Seth Godin
Most potential clients don't want to know about constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity. They want to know how to lose weight. Or build muscle. Or both.
So instead of telling them how great your program is, talk about the great things your clients have accomplished with it.
In this episode, lifelong wordsmith Chris Cooper will teach you to tell great stories and how they'll help you get more clients and keep them longer.
Links:
Storytelling Workbook
Two-Brain Summit
AGuard
Wodify
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
chris@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
00:00 – Chris’ first strip search.
3:48 – You can buy attention, but you can’t buy trust.
5:08 – Chris hits rock bottom—then climbs out by telling stories.
10:18 – What story are you telling?
12:51 – “People like us do things like this.”
17:38 – The time Chris (almost) bounced a check.
20:16 – The boat vs. the bait and what kind of media platforms you need.
25:01 – The technician’s curse and the answer to “What should I write about?”
30:01 – Good storytelling is sticky.
Jason Carroll's got his retirement plan all figured out: be a stunt double for Tom Hanks. But for now, he's focusing on fitness.
The Hollywood lookalike made his CrossFit Games debut in 2017 and finished in 28th place as a rookie. He returned two years later and took 39th.
He joined Sean Woodland to talk about how basketball led him to the weight room, which in turn led him to CrossFit, how he turned disappointment in 2016 to triumph the following year and just how many times he’s actually been mistaken for a movie star.
Links:
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
Instagram: @jasoncarroll89
Timeline:
2:19 – Playing basketball at “5 foot nothing.”
5:16 – Pursuing strength and conditioning, biomechanics and bioenergetics in college.
7:24 – How a layoff led to a passion for CrossFit.
12:14 – Becoming a CrossFit competitor.
14:04 – Jason’s first Regional.
16:58 – Missing the Games by a hair, then making it the next year.
20:07 – Making friends—or not—at the CrossFit Games.
22:41 – Lessons learned as a rookie Games athlete.
28:02 – Reacting to the Games season changes in 2018.
31:13 – Killing the 2019 Open.
34:17 – Getting inducted into the Trash-Talk Thursday tribe.
38:11 – Mai Tais and kalua pork.
40:32 – Coronavirus and the competition season.
44:01 – Rediscovering a love for the bike.
48:29 – On being a Hollywood doppelgänger.
Good gym owners know that exercise alone will only get clients so far. For real results, they've gotta practice good nutrition, too.
But what if you don't know how to teach it?
Jen Broxterman is a registered dietician of 10 years, a sports nutritionist, the founder of Nutrition Rx and the creator of the brand-new Two-Brain Nutrition Coaching Course. The self-paced course combines an arsenal of science and experience with one-on-one mentorship to get trainers client-ready in as little as a month.
She joined Certified Two-Brain Mentor Josh Martin to talk about the details of the course, why it works and how it can help gym owners add six figures or more in annual revenue.
Links:
The Two-Brain Coaching Nutrition Course
Nutrition Rx
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
nutrition@twobraincoaching.com
Instagram: @nutrition_rx
Timeline:
2:44 – Why Jen became a registered dietician.
8:13 – The method that gets the best results.
13:34 – What the course entails.
17:01 – Managing scope of practice.
22:36 – Who should take the course.
25:40 – The mentorship component.
27:58 – Course cost vs. return on investment.
Gym owners have faced unprecedented levels of stress over the last several weeks and months. But let's be real—as an entrepreneur, you're always stressed. Always checking your email, overthinking things and running yourself ragged.
But what you're actually doing is strengthening your amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response. And to keep it from getting out of control, you need to de-train it.
Here, Chris Cooper shares proven strategies for reducing stress, rewiring the brain and finding focus.
Links:
Two-Brain Radio Episode 48: What to Do When It All Goes Wrong
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
chris@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:50 – Getting to know the amygdala.
7:54 – Schedule screen-free time AND email time.
11:33 – Do LSD (long, slow-duration exercise).
14:40 – Immerse yourself.
16:42 – Keep a mental scoreboard.
18:49 – Subtract things from your life instead of adding more.
21:29 – Set up a personal board of directors.
27:39 – Break problems down into solvable parts.
28:58 – Remember: The mistakes you make now will help others in the future.
30:37 – Meditate.
33:08 – You are not your business.
34:41 – There is no ground.
Bob Jennings started CrossFit at 40 years old. Six years later, he became a CrossFit Games athlete, taking 9th in the 45-49-year-old division at the 2019 CrossFit Games.
He joined Sean Woodland to talk about what it's like to compete at a later stage in life, how just missing out on a trip to Madison in 2018 motivated him moving forward and why the masters community is so tightly knit.
He also shared how the Legends Masters Competition came to be and how he and his co-founders hope to make it the premier competition for masters athletes worldwide.
Links:
Legends Masters Competition
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
Instagram: @thebobjennings; @legendsmasterscomp
Timeline:
1:17 – Sports and fitness before CrossFit.
4:21 – Pursuing competition in his forties.
9:58 – Missing the 2018 Games by just a few spots.
13:45 – Building confidence at Wodapalooza.
15:12 – Shutting the brain off during competition.
18:12 – On making the Games—and almost declining the invitation.
20:58 – His first Games appearance.
24:49 – Cancelation on the horizon for 2020.
27:49 – The birth and growth of the Legends Competition.
36:38 – How to maximize training as a masters athlete.
38:18 – Why the masters community is so close.
When Rob Connors closed his gym due to COVID-19 this spring, he shut the doors for good—the physical doors, that is. Signum Fitness and Nutrition has been 100 percent digital since May, and Rob has no plans to go back to bricks and mortar.
Rob Connors is a Certified Two-Brain Mentor specializing in personal training and online personal training. When considering the jump to digital, he asked himself two questions: "What's best for me and my family?" and "What's best for my seed clients?"
The answer? A higher level of service delivered to a smaller number of niche clients. Rob joined Mike Warkentin of Two-Brain Media to talk about how and why he made the leap and what you need to do if you want to grow an online training business.
Links:
Signum Fitness and Nutrition
Signum Golf
Online Trainer Brad Overstreet on How to Deal With the New Fitness World
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
rob.connors@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:26 – Why go 100 percent digital?
6:42 – Client retention during the transition.
10:14 – The critical step you need to take before you go online.
12:50 – Selling to a niche market.
17:20 – Pricing: What not to do.
19:09 – Speaking your clients’ language.
21:24 – Advertising: Start with affinity marketing.
28:29 – Scaling up: How to hire online trainers.
31:56 – Building relationships when coaching digitally.
38:03 – The three questions Rob asks every new online client.
When was the last time you turned a potential client away?
Rob Connors, owner of Signum Fitness and Nutrition, does it on the regular—and he says his business is better for it.
Instead of trying to market to the masses, Rob "niched down" to focus on clients whose goals align with the gym's mission. He also created content strategically to improve his business' Google ranking. The result? More seed clients and a stronger business.
Listen to his conversation with Chris Cooper to learn how he niched down and why you might want to, also.
Links:
Signum Fitness and Nutrition
COVID-19 Resources
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Contact:
chris@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:02 – “When you market to everyone, you market to no one.”
5:50 – Speaking the audience’s language.
7:59 – Establishing authority and building good SEO with content.
12:08 – Building an audience for his gym.
14:32 – Turing potential clients away.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This episode was recorded before the early June events regarding CrossFit Inc. and the statements made by Greg Glassman.
Austin Malleolo is a CrossFit OG.
He competed at the CrossFit Games for the first time as an individual in 2010 and took 6th place overall. He made four more appearances as an individual before switching to the team competition in 2017.
Austin has also been a fixture on the CrossFit Seminar Staff. Here, he talks with Sean Woodland about how his career as a personal trainer led him to CrossFit, the time he got stranded in China and what possessed him to deadlift 600 lb. and run the Boston Marathon—on the same day.
Links:
The HAM Plan
COVID-19 Resources
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Free Tools
Book a Free Call
Timeline:
1:19 – On training and coaching during COVID.
5:32 – Growing up on the “B” team.
6:29 – The first personal trainer to show up for work in a suit.
10:40 – Austin’s first Fran.
15:24 – Cinch bags and cut-off tees: the 2010 CrossFit Games.
19:09 – Joining the Seminar Staff.
21:15 – Seminar Staff memories: stranded in China and food poisoning in Korea.
23:52 – Competing in the North East.
28:58 – Memories of Camp Pendleton.
31:38 – On going team.
35:40 – The Boston Marathon and the 600-lb. Deadlift.
39:20 – The HAM Plan.
41:54 – What makes good programming good.
43:47 – The perspective-altering effect of parenthood.
Every gym owner worth his or her salt knows you can't out-train a bad diet. So why are you expecting your clients to?
A nutrition program will help clients get better results while increasing average revenue per member and member retention. But starting such a program can be confusing—where do you get the expertise? Who should run it? What should you charge for it?
Lindsey VanSchoyck is Two-Brain's nutrition business expert, and she's here to unpack all that and more. She spoke with Mike Warkentin about how to launch a nutrition program, how to find the right people to staff it, what to charge, what resources you'll need and how to add revenue with corporate nutrition programs.
Links:
Precision Nutrition
Working Against Gravity
Free Tools
COVID-19 Resources
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Book a Free Call
Contact:
lindsey.vanschoyck@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
4:46 – How to start a nutrition program at your gym.
6:43 – Do you need a nutrition certification?
9:59 – Check your state laws.
11:32 – How to set prices for nutrition coaching.
16:02 – Assigning clients to staff.
19:33 – How much to pay nutrition coaches.
21:48 – How to find great nutrition coaches.
26:41 – Why you need a nutrition playbook and what should be in it.
28:11 – How to find corporate nutrition clients.
31:31 – The metrics corporate clients want to see.
32:54 – Pricing corporate nutrition programs.
35:34 – Converting corporate client employees into ongoing nutrition clients.
38:04 – Selling = helping.
Gym owners, you're getting blasted from all sides right now.
COVID-19 shuttered your doors. Your clients looked to you for a response to the killing of George Floyd. And just when things seemed like they couldn't get any more complicated, CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman sent hundreds of affiliate owners packing with his reprehensible comments on Twitter.
You feel the weight of a thousand decisions on your shoulders.
But you can't take them all on at once. Here's how to focus in the chaos and determine the right next step.
Links:
Derek Sivers' "Anything You Want"
Deaffiliating? Here's What You Need to Know
The True Costs of Changing Your Brand
COVID-19 Resources
Join the Gym Owners United group on Facebook
Book a Free Call
Contact:
chris@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:32 – Dealing with the stress of uncertainty.
3:40 – To increase your bandwidth, you need to cut some things out.
4:43 – When quitting is the right idea.
6:04 – The five filters.
12:29 – The hierarchy of information.
15:08 – Taking action with the right mentor.
18:28 – How to avoid the rabbit holes.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
