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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.
Two Brain Mentor Series Jeff Burlingame
At Two Brain we have over 20 mentors from around the world. In this episode I interview mentor Jeff Burlingame to hear how he got started in the gym business, and his path to becoming a mentor.
Jeff knew he wanted to be mentor in his late teens after years of watching TV shows like Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell and Bar Rescue. As he started frequenting gyms he realised he wanted to mentor gym owners. Hear about his journey to get there, which includes, working in sales, becoming the owner of a gym and being fired. He talks about how he tuned his gym around and why action was the thing that got him through.
Discussion Points
Links
Two-Brain Business: Grow Your Gym by Chris Cooper
Jeff Smith is the owner of Cannon CrossFit, a real estate investor, and leader of the TwoBrain Tinker program.
In this episode, Jeff talks about his story, what it means to be a mentor, and what it means to help those in the Tinker Phase.
Contact Jeff:Jeff.smith@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
2:39 – Introduction with Jeff Smith
11:30 – Joining Two Brain as a mentor
13:09 – Joining the military, the motivation behind the decision
15:31 – Jeff’s other business, real estate.
17:14 – The importance of being a lifelong learner
21:27 – The benefits of splitting up your day with a workout
22:39 – How has a real estate investing led to becoming a better mentor
26:12 – The importance of learning while mentoring someone else
29:53 – How to contact Jeff
“For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting. They must believe in the plan they are asked to execute, and most important, they must believe in and trust the leader they are asked to follow.”
—Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win
Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief
In the Great Information Age, we all have access to more knowledge than we can absorb, let alone act upon. And action is the only thing that matters. So what knowledge should entrepreneurs have? What action should they take? When?
The modern problem for business owners isn’t lack of knowledge: it’s too much knowledge. It’s paralysis by analysis. It’s overwhelm.
Entrepreneurs pass through four distinct phases as they first grow their business, and then their leadership. These phases are Founder, Farmer, Tinker and Thief.
In the Founder Phase, the entrepreneur leaps off the cliff with his big idea. His goal is simple: to survive.
The Founder Phase takes a heavy toll — physically exhausting, financially terrifying, and the largest strain on every personal relationship the Founder has. My job as mentor is to get the Founder out of the Founder Phase as quickly as possible. Many never survive this phase.
The Farmer Phase starts when the entrepreneur begins the shift from self-employed to business owner. He’s hired his first employee, even if it’s a low-level role. He’s begun paying himself a little. But he’s probably still the face of the company. He’s probably still baking the donuts at 4am, then answering emails and making sales calls “when he can”. He’s still working in the business instead of working on the business. He’s busy being busy.
The Farmer Phase is where 90% of entrepreneurs spend the entirety of their careers. They call themselves “owner-operators”, and most will never even retire from their business, let alone become wealthy.
But some do. These are the Tinkers.
A Tinker has built a business that runs itself. Now she’s trying to build another; or to duplicate her first success; or to take her first idea to a new market; or to start over with a new idea. If she’s not given new challenges, the Tinker will probably stick her hands in the machine, constantly “tweaking” her original business until it’s broken.
My role as mentor to Tinkers is to help them identify the Next Big Project, and then keep them focused on it. I’ve never met a Tinker who didn’t have at least three Big Projects in mind. Free from their original business — and still making passive income from it — the Tinker’s greatest risk is killing the golden goose.
The Tinker’s attention must shift from developing their first business to developing themselves as a leader. That means a plan for physical activity, mental acuity, and mental training. It means peer support: “It’s lonely at the top” describes the Tinker to a capital T. It means mentorship from someone who has successfully navigated the “valley of death” created by hiring a management layer for the first time.
Two Brain Mentor Series: Jeff Smith
In this series we are diving into each mentor, finding out their journey and what makes them really great mentors.
Jeff Smith is the owner of CrossFit Cannon in Houston. Originally from Central Illinois, he played football in college before joining the military. After he left, he worked in IT and started investing in real estate and flipping house while working full time. Hear about his journey into fitness, how he discovered CrossFit and why he decided to open a gym.
Jeff talks about why he has always sought out mentors, the benefits of being a lifelong learner and his journey to structuring his gym so he is not involved in it’s day to day running.
Discussion Points
Links
Contact Jeff at jeff.smith@twobrainbusiness.com
Robert Kiyosaki: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Episode 151 – Two Brain For Clinics
This week we have a special episode introducing a new service being offered by Two-Brain Business called Two Brain For Clinics. Dr. Brian Strump, a practicing chiropractor joins us to discuss exactly what is Two Brain For Clinics and how this new service can be leveraged along with a CrossFit gym or simply on its own to help chiropractors push their practice to the next level.
Brian is the owner of Live Active Charlotte, home of both CrossFit Steele Creek and Premier Health and Rehab Solutions. Brian’s passion for health and fitness led him to Chiropractic School and later to become a certified CrossFit coach. Since diving into the world of CrossFit, Brian has combined these two services together and is doing better than ever. Join us as we discuss these two businesses and much more!
Don’t Forget! Find out what stage of entrepreneurship you are in by taking the exclusive Two Brain test here: https://twobrain.com/test/or schedule your free mentoring call by clicking here!
Contact Brian:
Brian.strump@twobrainbusiness.com
Timeline:
1:42 – Introduction to Two-Brain for Clinics
3:18 – What are the differences and similarities between a gym and a clinic?
5:40 – The unique problems faced by practicing chiropractors
9:05 – What is Two-Brain For Clinics
13:21 – Marketing for chiropractor clinics
14:20 – How it can be helpful for a chiropractor clinic to partner with a local gym
19:05 – Ways that a chiropractor can level up their business
22:10 – How to contact Brian
Episode 150 - The Wodify Affiliate Trend Report
A few months ago, Wodify released the results of its "CrossFit Industry Report" survey. The numbers caused a stir.
There are plenty of these surveys out there. Most are subjective: they ask gym owners what they think, or to self-report numbers. But this one is different: it's an objective look at data pulled directly from 4500 users' dashboards. And some of that data is downright scary.
Wodify has build their new Business Metrics Dashboard using TwoBrain metrics: ARM, LEG, and LTV. They're not an official TwoBrain partner, but TwoBrain gyms using Wodify do report a much easier time getting the metrics that matter every month.
So when the report showed an average LEG of 18 months, we were thrilled. Most of our data points to a lower number (around 13.4 months). While our data overlaps Wodify's, neither encompasses the entire affiliate spectrum. That data doesn't exist. The truth is probably a little higher than 13.4 months. While there are hundreds of very successful gyms in TwoBrain, gyms who start with us are often looking for help because they're in trouble. That means clients aren't sticking around long enough--a lower LEG score--and we work to fix that right away. So Wodify's LEG report was interesting. But it's ARM report was shocking.
According to the report, the Average Revenue per Member per Month is $84 at the gyms in the Wodify survey. That's extremely low. Most TwoBrain gyms are nearer the $200 mark, with some over $250. A gym with $84 would have to recruit and keep THREE TIMES as many clients as a gym with an ARM of $250...and do it with the same number of coaches. Obviously, that's a recipe for disaster.
So I indulged my curiosity and asked Olivia DiGiorgio about them. Olivia got her start by studying mathematics in college and began a career as a data scientist in the healthcare industry. After falling in love with CrossFit, Olivia has since shifted to a more action-oriented application of mathematics and is using these skills at Wodify to help CrossFit gym owners better their business, customers, and athletes.
Don’t Forget! Find out what stage of entrepreneurship you are in by taking the exclusive Two Brain test here: https://twobrainbusiness.com/test or schedule your free mentoring call by clicking here!
Links:
https://www.wodify.com/crossfit-industry-report-2018
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