The Starving Artist

Charging less doesn’t make a gym owner noble. It makes them broke.

There’s a weird pride that’s still hanging around the fitness industry – this belief that keeping prices low and barely scraping by somehow means someone is doing it for the “right reasons.” That making money and helping people can’t live in the same business.

This is the same pattern Tim and Randy keep seeing – trainers turned owners stuck undercharging and calling it a purpose.

Drawing from a real conversation inside the Iron Circle and hard numbers from PushPress, they break down where the “starving artist” mentality comes from, what it takes to land in the top 10% of gyms, and why most owners won’t even ask where they rank. The ones who did were already in the top 20%. The bottom half never raised a hand.

The gap isn’t about passion or values. It’s about mindset and business skills. Gym owners who stop treating their business like a hobby and start aiming higher get different results.

This episode is for anyone trying to run a business that lasts longer than a few good years.

Tune in and get clear on the cost of staying small.

Key Takeaways: 

• Intro (00:00)
• Starving artist mindset in fitness business (00:37)
• Fitness is a hard industry for profitability (06:09)
• Gen Z prioritizes health more than past generations (07:24)
• Big Pharma profits from an unhealthy population (09:45)
• Most gym owners don’t seek performance data (14:11)
• Comfort leads to stagnation in business growth (17:19)
• Hire or scale to move forward (18:00)

Additional Resources:

- Schedule your SpringBoard call

- Apply to join The Iron Circle

- Check out our Switch to Semi-Private course

- Get 30 days of Semi-Private Pro on us!

- A tool for deciding on new gym services – 5-Question Matrix

- Tim's new book – Built to Win by Tim Lyons 

- ProFit Accelerator: Helping Training Gyms Grow to 30K/month and Beyond Facebook group 

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