April 24, 2025 • 27 mins
At just five months old, Emilie Towns’ gym is already averaging more than $450 per member per month.
Instead of offering big group classes, Emilie built Ardent Fitness on a high-value foundation by focusing on semi-private and small-group training.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Emilie shares how her mentor helped her launch with clarity and confidence, and she lays out the systems that drive her success.
She breaks down her onboarding process and pricing strategy, and she explains how the Prescriptive Model has helped her retain clients, reinforce value and consistently deliver results. She also shares how she overcame early sales fears to find high-value clients.
If you've ever wondered how some gyms can charge so much more than others, dig into this episode!
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"Help First"
The Prescriptive Model
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0:01 - $454 ARM in 5-month-old gym
3:32 - Small group vs. semi-private
11:24 - Running a semi-private program
14:27 - How to find high-value clients
22:18 - The Prescriptive Model
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
A gym owner opened her business about five months
ago and already has averagerevenue per member above $454 a
month. You're gonna find outhow that is possible today on
Run a Profitable Gym . I'm yourhost, Mike Workin . Please hit
like and subscribe whereveryou're watching or listing with
my thanks. Now, our averagerevenue per member leaderboard,
we call it a RM, it runs from 454 to $724. That's the number
(00:25):
one spot. Now , not everymember at these gyms pays that
price. Some pay more, some payless, but that's the average
and that's what gets you on theleaderboard. Do the math in
your head. Take the number ofclients you have at your gym,
multiply that by 200 or $205,multiply it by $300. Now, what
would that do for your businessand your life? We are gonna
tell , we're gonna tell youtoday exactly how you can get
to those numbers. Emily Townsof Ardent Fitness in Texas, she
(00:47):
landed on our leaderboard andthis is very cool, just a few
months after opening her gym.
So Emily, can I ask you ahundred questions about how
this, how you did this?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay. I'm so excited about this because as I said
before the show, it was sogreat to see someone have a
success early on in the journeybecause it took me a long time
to get even close to a $200 aRM. So you already blew that
outta the water. So I gotta askyou right off the bat, what did
you decide to sell that allowedyou to get above $400 right
after opening?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah. Um, I think I had an I , well I started , um,
wanting to sell semi-privatetraining, which was very new to
me. I did , I didn't know whatthat was, but I decided to
start with that. And then Ialso do small group personal
training. So I wanted to keepit very, very small and
personal. Um , which I thinkallowed me to charge a little
(01:37):
bit more because you can stillget that personalized feel from
a trainer, even in a groupsetting.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So small group and semi-private as opposed to
group training.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Correct. And personal training, but keep it
with semi-private and smallgroup. Were
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You originally gonna sell group training at first?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I think so. I'm trying to remember back. It's
been a long process of buildingout my model, but I think I
wanted to have group as well,because I love, my goal here
was to create a community. AndI know it's semi-private. It's
a little bit harder to do thatbecause the groups are so
small. So I wanted to providesomething for someone who
wanted the group setting, butdidn't really need that
(02:14):
personalized touch.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay. We'll get into the details of small group and
semi-private. But first, Emily,what is , what's the 62nd
summary of your gym ? Like,talk about, you know , who you
serve, what's your idealmarket, what do you sell? How
much space, how many coaches,what have you got going on at
Ardent in fit in Texas?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, absolutely. So , um, I'm about 1800 square
feet and we sell small grouppersonal, private, and personal
training. My target demographicfrom the beginning was we hit a
demographic of men, but reallywanted to focus on women about
45 plus. And our youngest is, Ithink she's 35, and then our
(02:51):
oldest is 69. So really, reallystaying within that
demographic. I have threetrainers I just brought another
one on and they're, I mean, I'mbiased. Whatever rockstar team,
like they're, they'reincredible. So . That's
good. That's good. Um , yeah,and you know, they do things
better than I can and I justwanted to keep it that way. So,
you know, we just run threeclasses a day and on Fridays we
(03:12):
run two and just wanted tobuild those up. And my goal was
to create a community and servepeople who kind of can't really
find where they fit in and, youknow, just build that up to
just create a space that iswelcoming and fun and, you
know, but we still get after ittoo.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay. So that's great. And let me ask you this,
if this is how you do it, smallgroup per , so you've got group
training, which everyone doesthe same workout more or less
with a little bit modification.
Mm-hmm . You'vegot small group where you have
like smaller groups where youknow , four or five, six
people, whatever, and they'redoing a similar workout, the
same workout essentially, butit's modified, but they get
more attention because it's asmaller group. In semi-private
(03:54):
training, what happens is thatthe gym owner will have maybe
four people in the class, two,three, whatever, but about four
is a kind of a good number.
They're not doing the sameworkout variations, they're
generally doing their ownprograms and it takes a very
skilled trainer to then coachfour different people through
four different programs. Isthat what you're doing with
your program?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes, sir. So what we do is we have the small group
personal training and thesemi-private. And with the
small group, I cap it at six,but on Saturdays I opened it up
to 10 just so we can kind ofhave a little fun Saturday and
make it a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Crank up the music and go
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah , yeah. Crank up the music. Got a good sound
system in here, so want to kindof change it and keep it,
honestly keep it as a vibe andeverybody can meet who they
don't meet throughout the week.
So a lot of the differentpeople come on Saturdays and
meet people that, you know,they're like, oh, well I'm
gonna work out with you nextweek. Like that sort of thing.
So, and that's what I'vewanted. And with a small group,
(04:48):
personal training, they stillget such a personalized touch,
even though they're doing thesame workout. And the feedback
we've got was, I'm learning somuch even though I'm not paying
for that personalized program.
So, and so it's been great.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And that's a key distinction because a lot of
people are asking thisquestion, what is small group?
What is semi-private smallgroup? People are doing
variations of the same workout,but they're getting more
attention than they would in abig group, semi-private,
they're doing their ownspecific workouts. And a highly
skilled coach is leading themthrough that and just shifting
attention between a smallernumber of people. So it's not
as much attention as pt, butit's way more than in a , in a
(05:28):
group setting, even that smallgroup setting. So mm-hmm
. You could havea small group, or pardon me,
you could have semi-privatetraining of two people. You
could have four. I've heard ofit as high as six, but that
takes like a very, very skilledcoach. But four is a nice sweet
spot. Is that, you said four iswhere you run Cap it ?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I do three for semi-private, just for right
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Now . Sweet . There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yep . Mm-hmm . Because we're
still, still , and
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's a good number because it gets hard.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It does, it gets hard. And it also, we're still
growing and so, I mean , somepeople are still getting the
one-on-one because not everyonecan fill that prime slot. Um,
but when we've had three, I'veseen how well my trainers do,
but I think that's gonna be, Ithink you're right, that is the
sweet spot with just three.
Mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (06:09):
.
People feel like they'regetting a ton of attention and
all of a sudden it feels waymore valuable and it comes at a
higher price point. So tell me,where did you find out about
semi-private training? This wassomething that would've changed
my gym back in the day. I soldgroup training for about a
decade and , I wish Ihad sold something else. How
did you find out about this,right, as your opening, what
did you do?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Courtney Brownlow, that's all I can say. She, I, I
was with you guys for a year, Ithink before I even, no, over a
year before I opened. So I was,I was like, what do I do? Like
I, all I knew was box gyms, allI knew was sports performance
and I mm-hmm . Iwanted to be, but in my area
that it's just box gyms. And soI was like , I was like, let's
(06:52):
be different. Let's stand out.
And Courtney was like, Hey,let's do semi-private. And I
was like, cool. What's that?
? So she explained it tome and then we kind of just
went with it and ran. And it ,it's been really, really cool.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So this is cool.
What , like, I , I , I've madeso many mistakes and Chris
Cooper's made so many mistakesand so many long-term gym
owners. We, we didn't have anoption to like learn at the
beginning. We just kind ofopened a warehouse and fumbled
through it and eventuallyenough of us talked to each
other and put our headstogether and figured a few
things out. And Chris took allthat and like, what he had
learned and put together thisgreat program that wasn't
(07:28):
available. And I made so manymistakes, lost so much money,
and it was, you know, at thepeak of my misery, I was losing
$5,000 a month and I had tocall Chris for help. Uh, you
worked with Two Brain beforeyou started, so how did this
set you up for long-termsuccess? Like, was it a good
feeling to like not have tofigure it out and rhyme your
head into the wall by yourself?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I, I don't like doing that at all. I, I
I wanna be as efficientas possible in pretty much
anything I do. And I thinkthat's my personality, just in
general. Like, I don't want torepeat the same problem over
and over and over. Yeah. Iwanna figure it out and get it
accomplished. And I was like,I've never done this before.
(08:05):
And if there's people out therewho have done it and have made
tons and tons of mistakes, likelet's go ahead and learn from
them and I'm gonna make my ownin general. So like, let's make
them , let's not try and makethe mistakes that other people
made and learn from peoplewho've done it and have been
successful. So it was honestlythe best thing, the best
decision I made , so.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh, that's so good to hear. Mm-hmm .
I wanna ask you this, did , didyou do a Founder's club
promotion to start?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I did and I, ooh , butchered it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
. Okay .
Let's talk about it .
Speaker 2 (08:39):
What'd you do ? So , yeah . Oh gosh. Uh , number
one, I didn't know what, Ididn't know how much sales was
gonna come into it. I thoughtit was, and I think a lot of
people think like you build itand they'll come and it was
like, yeah, why wouldn't youwanna work out here? Number
one, my gym wasn't built outyet, so I was trying to like
mm-hmm . And itwas a really, I mean, it was,
(08:59):
it was real rough lookingbefore it got built out. And so
, uh, even Courtney was like,Hey, let's not post gym
pictures on social media yet.
'cause it's , uh, it's notlooking too good. So I was
trying to sell, but number one,I, I hadn't opened , so I
didn't know my product yet. Andso I was just trying to sell a
theoretical product and it ,I'm sure it completely came
(09:24):
across as like, well, shedoesn't believe in her product
because I didn't know what itwas mm-hmm . So
how could I believe in it ? Youknow? And so it just, at my
price point was not great.
Like, it just wasn't. Nowlooking back, I laugh. I mean,
I just think it's funny becauseit's like I'm trying to sell
these ginormous packages withno rapport, no sales skills,
nothing. And so I got people, I, I mean people started when I
(09:50):
opened, but it was like my momand like my one other person.
So yeah . But now we've reallyhoned in on, on the prices and
I've seen results with theproduct and it's, so you just,
you feel convicted and likepeople see that. And so it's
easier to have the passion forit to know that it actually is
something that could changepeople's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And that's interesting 'cause I've heard ,
uh, some, some, we have a greatfounders club , club pro
program listeners. So what ,what happens is give you all
the stuff and mm-hmm . Teach you how
to hit the ground running onday one. Yeah . And I think the
record, if I'm not mistaken, isabove 75 members. Uh , yeah .
So that means you open on dayone with members. I opened with
like no members. The firstperson through my, my door was
the tax collector and Istruggled for a long time to
(10:34):
get any anybody in the door.
Right . That happened to me.
But other people have hadbetter success with it. And you
had an interesting situationwhere it sounds like you were
kind of hamstrung a little bitwhere you were trying to figure
out like, what am I selling?
And it's hard to sell when youdon't know that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure. Yeah. And it was , and I had, this was , it
was all on me. Like I justwasn't, I , I didn't know
enough. I was so novice, likeall of this, and I just didn't,
I think the main thing waslike, I didn't know what I was
selling. Like , uh, I hadn'topen , I didn't know what the
semi-private was gonna looklike. I didn't know what the
small group was gonna look likebecause everything was so
(11:09):
theoretical from the beginning.
Um,
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah. And it's a thing that's pro that's jumped
up now, it's becoming more andmore popular, but like even two
or three years ago we weren'ttalking about semi-private
training. We hadn't reallyfigured that one out yet. So
it's one of those things whereyou kind had to get up onto
speed on something that's verynew. So I'm gonna ask you to
bring other people up to speedon this. Like, talk to me about
the details of semi-privatetraining at your gym. Like, we
had talked clo , we talkedcoach client ratio already. So
(11:33):
you've got a max of threemm-hmm . Uh ,
what kind of package detailshave you got? How do you set
this thing up and run it?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, absolutely. So they come in for their, their
consultation. We talk, I feellike semi-private is probably
gonna be the best fit for them.
Okay . I have clients thatrange from one time a week to
three times a week, and myaverage is about two times a
week. And I break it down withby, with them by session so
they can see kind of whatthey're paying per session.
Because if I give them thewhole up sum upfront , it's a
(12:00):
little daunting, but Sure . Um,you break it down by session.
But I bill every four weeks. Sothey take the big payment up
front , we get them set up fortheir on-ramps the first two
sessions, and then we kind ofhit the ground running after
that.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Okay. Have you based your rates on your personal
training rates? Like are they areflection of that in the
semi-private program?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Mm-hmm
. They are , um, they're,
they're about $30 less than mypersonal training. Um, because
if I can get three people intoa semi-private session, that's
gonna equate my , um, or bereally, really close to one
hour of, of personal training.
So it just works a out a littlebit better for my trainers if I
(12:41):
price it like that. And it'sstill a little bit competitive
in the market and not just likeexponentially way too high.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Right. Okay. So you've done some market
research, you've done, likeprobably with Courtney, if I
know her well enough, I thinkshe probably had you sit down
with a spreadsheet and dig intothis whole thing. Oh
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah. Oh yeah. I got a gym right across the street,
so I, you know, had to staycompetitive, but I think I am
the highest price in the area.
But you know, we, I tell mytrainers all the time, I was
like, we're white gloveservice. Like this is high
ticket. Like we, we show themthe value and if we don't,
like, I don't feel comfortableenough selling that product.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And you said you wanted to stand out in the
market, right? Like that gymacross the street's probably
not doing what you're doing,I'm guessing?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Uh, they do small group, they do personal
training. Okay . Um , but theyalso do open gym.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Uh , so that's an interesting thing that you
don't do. Mm-hmm
Speaker 2 (13:28):
.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay. right
across the street. So you
literally look out your windowand like see them like, you
know, as you're training, yousee the , the gym across the
street.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And it was actually the, it was actually the initial
space that I looked at to openand then it just fell through
and we kind of, they got openbefore I did, but, and I call ,
I remember I called Courtneyand I was like , uh, there's a
gym going across the street.
And she was like, she likeimmediately deep dived on them.
We both were talking and justlike, she was like, you're,
(13:58):
you're just different. Mm-hmm. Plus I, the
confidence I had from havingyou guys on my side like that ,
I was just kinda like, okay,like let's go.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay. That's interesting. And that's another
thing where that's that mindsetof like, you know, I'm scared
of competition versus themindset of like, yeah , I'm
gonna be okay. I'm sellingsomething different, confident
in my product in a way I go,that would've helped me sleep
better at night. Back in theday I was very nervous about
gyms opening up like 10 milesaway. I had nothing to worry
about really, you know, but Ididn't have that backup for
something to say, you know ,say that to me. Talk to me
(14:27):
about finding these high valueclients for semi-private
training. So there's a lot ofpeople that are listening and
saying, you know, I could neverfind or sell, find someone to
buy a $450 package or whateverit is per month. How are you
finding these people? Is itadvertising? Is it referrals?
What are you
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Doing? It's very heavy advertising. Uh ,
Facebook, Instagram, that sortof thing. Um, but I also have
quite a few small businessowners in the area mm-hmm
. That areclients here, which is very,
very helpful because they're inthe wellness space too. So
referrals as well. Um, they areseen on my social media
recognize that sort of thing.
It builds a rapport in thecommunity when you have, you
(15:04):
know, other people who are wellknown in the community and that
that wasn't like a, like atarget. But you know, I, when
you find the higher end clientswho value and they have the
same values as you, and theyprovide a really good product
on their end, they've alreadybuilt the rapport on that side
. So it's like an extension ofyou people asking themselves,
how do I, how do I sell thatpackage? I didn't think I could
(15:28):
sell those packages either, tobe honest. And but you, but you
find the people who are, theysee the value and they want to
progressively make their lifebetter and they're willing to
be a little uncomfortable withthe investment and that makes
them very, very high valuebecause they see, they see what
they can get out of it. And Itell them all the time, like,
(15:49):
this is longevity. Like, Idon't want you for six weeks to
get that summer bod . Like, Iwant you here for 10 years to
when you're old and 80 and youneed to get down with your
grandkids. Like , that's whatwe're training for. And my
clients like, they're amazing , they really are. Like
, yeah , I, I'm, I'm extremelyblessed with the group that I
(16:11):
have. So,
Speaker 1 (16:13):
So advertising. Did Courtney help you set that
whole plan up?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Uh, I go through two brains . So calm , calm ,
O'Reilly does mine and I, Ijust did Two Brain initially
with like the first marketingcall and I just had them set
them up. But I wanted, I wantedmore leads per month. I started
getting a little bit moreconfident in my sales and
wanted to have some more leads.
So I hooked up with CALM twomonths ago. I think we're going
into our second month and myleads have been really, really
(16:38):
good and the size have beengood. So I , it's been a
really, really great decisionto, to go with someone who's
running the advertisements .
'cause again, like, I don'twanna do it. I don't have time
for it, and someone else isbetter at it than I am. So
let's just pass that off.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
. But you
understand the metrics,
correct? Like you're looking atthem and seeing like, okay,
it's costing this much money,but I'm getting this much in
return. Yes . Like, you see allthat stuff,
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right? Oh yeah. And even just as simple as like,
give me one client and that'sgonna cover my costs for the
month. So, and if I get oneclient from the advertising,
then I'm, I'm, I'm golden, sothat's fine with me.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So what that is, is we, you know, Jim knows if
you're listening, we teach gymowners how to ad how to , how
to advertise and how toevaluate their metrics so they
know whether they're wastingmoney or not. So it's like, if
I get X clients this return,this , you know, the front end
revenue covers the ad spend,everything's great. I'm getting
great return on my ad spend, mycost per lead is high
potentially, but I know thatI'm making this much money, so
(17:36):
it's not a big deal. We teachyou how to read these numbers
and spreadsheets that you canunderstand it. If you wanna
farm that marketing out, thenyou can do that and we'll teach
you how to do that so that youalways know that you're getting
a great return on things. Uh,and there are four funnels that
we teach team owners to makeads is one of them . You've got
social media and I also tiethat to the content funnel
because they're very closelyrelated. And then you've got
referrals, which Emily alsomentioned. I'm gonna ask you a
(17:57):
bit more about that. Localbusiness owners, they must be a
great source of referrals foryou because they're out in the
community. Is that happeningfor you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Uh, they are and they, I have, I can think off
the top of my head, three verywell established business
owners in the area that arevery close to me and in the
wellness space as well. So it ,it's not like someone who's in
construction who's like, oh, Iwork out here. It's someone
who's like, no , I do healthand wellness and all this stuff
and I, I choose to spend mytime at this place and not
(18:29):
anywhere else. So it's a , Iview it as very, very rapport
building through likesecondhand funnels or something
like that. Like they're , theybuild their rapport with their
audience, which if they trustme, then kind of , it
automatically makes them moreinclined to trust us over here.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Okay. I'm gonna ask you about you , you said no
sweat intro. So that's freeconsultation list is what we
call 'em . No sweat intro. It'sfree consultation. You sit down
and you're gonna talk to aclient, ask 'em about their
goals, tell them the best wayto accomplish their goals, show
'em the price, sign them up.
It's the very simple solutionto that. Emily, is that
something that you would'vecome up with on your own? And
how is it working for you?
Because a lot of people willsell different ways, but we
(19:09):
found that the freeconsultation works much better
for a RM revenue and retention.
How is it working for you?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's a game changer.
So it, it allows to, it allowsfor both sides. It allows for
the client to vet us and makesure that we know what we're
talking about, get them in thegym, let them see it, like I
said, we're different and thanany other gym in the area,
we're smaller. Um, some peopledon't want that and that's
okay. But this is sometimesthis is exactly what they're
(19:38):
looking for. And so it kind of, um, immediately, oh, this is
a nice space. Like it's notcrowded. I know it's not gonna
be an open box gym , anythinglike that. But it also allows
me to get to the nitty grittyof why they're actually there.
Give me your goals so that wecan, in six months, eight
months, whatever, we canreevaluate those to make sure
(19:59):
that the value that we'reproviding is matching your
goals. And otherwise, likewhat's the point? Like if
you're just coming into to workout and you're not seeing any
progress, like there's no pointin doing that. Um, but it also
allows me to vet people who I'mlike, I don't think this would
be a good fit for you. And Ihave a very, I have a, I'm, I'm
very, very stuck in my visionand my mission for the type of
(20:20):
clientele that I want in here.
Mm-hmm . In asense of, I want you to be here
and I want you to be able toput in the work and this, if
this is just a show up and Idon't, I just kind of wanna
dilly dilly , like that'stotally fine. This just isn't
gonna be a good fit for you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I don't think you're stuck in your ways. I think you
just have a rock solid visionof what you want to do in your
gym. And when you know that youcan then market it properly and
sell properly. Right . Becauseyou don't want everybody,
right. You want the rightpeople. And if you get
everybody, I did this early on.
I got all different people fromall different things and all of
a sudden we had a bunch ofhigh-end fitness competitors
(20:55):
who wanted to do this stuff anda bunch of grandma's and
grandpa's who wanna do thisstuff. And they just didn't mix
that well. And eventually I gotrid of the competitors and I
focused on, it was very similarto your market. Were like
professionals of like 32 to 65,maybe a little older. Yeah .
And that's who we served. Andonce we knew that our gym got
way better, I had fewerproblems, everyone was happier,
(21:16):
my retention improved. Right .
Everything was better. So Ithink what you're doing is, is
great. And the other thing, Idon't think that you could do
what you were doing withoutthat prescriptive model where
you sit down and talk to thesepeople and explain the value.
'cause they may not understand.
So prescriptive model is goingto be an essential part of this
service because I love what yousaid. You are taking people and
you're showing them how toaccomplish their goals. Then
(21:37):
you're meeting with them againto say, here's the progress
we've made towards your goals.
Here's the plan to get further.
And that is a huge retentionplay. It also allows you to
give them more services if thatwould help them, if they want
them. But the goal reviewsession becomes an ancest part
of that. And so now that you'vebeen open for, you know, a
little bit of time, have youstarted hitting some like first
goal review sessions withpeople and how are they going?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Uh, we do goal reviews every 30 days. Um ,
because yeah , it's 30 days .
Nice. Every 30 days. Um , oncewe hit the 90 day mark, I'll
probably spread it out just alittle bit longer, but mm-hmm
. Those, I meanthose first 30, 60, 90 days,
like they either want it orthey don't. And when you sit
there with them and the biggestpeople have their goals, that's
(22:19):
great. We do embody testing andall of that stuff too. But one
of the biggest retentionstrategies that I've kind of
noticed in those no sweat or inthose uh , client check-ins is
I have a , a portion of itwhere I have praise points
about the client . So like,these are, these are the things
that I have noticed. I got, Iget feedback from my trainers,
(22:40):
just little snippets just to belike, you're crushing it and
you even showed up. You weretired, you were mad, you were
whatever, but you, you showedup. You bring a vibe. You, you
bring excitement and we've justseen you get stronger over this
amount of time. Because that ,I , I just feel like that goes
further than , Hey cool, yousquatted 2 0 5. Like great job.
(23:00):
You know, it , it's more apersonal personal , right?
It's, it's showing them thatwhen you show up, like we see
you and you are , you're very,very important to us. And I
thank them for being herebecause they don't have to
mm-hmm . You know, so I think that's helped.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I, I agree with you and I, I can't think of a
better way to resell. 'causethat's essentially what you're
doing. Every time a membershipcomes up for renewal to resell
a high value service thansitting down and saying, look
at what you've accomplished. Ican't believe you did this. And
it could be a PR but it alsocould be you showed up and you
worked and you put the effortin and now we're seeing the
results. Here's the results,here's how we're gonna go
(23:36):
further . And people who havethat plan are less likely to
quit. Whereas someone whodoesn't have a plan, like the
early members of my gym wouldbe like, nah , I don't know
what's going on here. I'm justgonna , you know , switch. And
that was where I lost someclients . So that Right .
Prescriptive model. And I'llput a link in the show notes
list if you wanna check it outand see the cyclical nature of
it and how it works withrevenue retention. You'll have
a link there. Check the shownotes for that. Uh , Emily, I'm
gonna let you get let you getback to running your gym in
(23:57):
just a sec. Last thing. Gymowner out there is listing has
low a RM someone like me 10years ago was like $110 or
something like that . I couldnot have imagined getting to
$454 or more. What would yousay someone out there is
thinking about looking at thesenumbers, thinking they're crazy
and thinking about working witha mentor, what would you say to
them ?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Evaluate your product if the value is there.
Be confident in yourself tosell something that will get
results for people.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Cool . And is it, is it a , do you think it's a
stepwise thing? Like would youexpect someone, like did yours
kind of go up like a hockeystick right away or was it like
a staircase where there weresmall jumps? How did your a RM
progress?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Well, I was too scared to sell my senior
private , so I just sold groupfor like the first two months
and then decided that I didn'twanna keep selling group. And
so I started asking,essentially prescribing more
semi-private. 'cause it mademore sense too. And when you
already showed the value andthen you're like, oh, okay,
well this is what it's gonnacost. People started saying yes
(24:57):
, and then you were like, okay,which gives you more confidence
to sell, sell more, sellhigher. So it was, it was like
this for a long time. And thenI, I remember one day I was
like, I'm in the , in the nosweat drawer . I was like, I'm
gonna , this person would bebetter at semi-private. So I
was like, here, this is oursemi-private , um, just like
(25:18):
real me , like just kind of shyabout it. And then they're
like, okay, that sounds great.
And I was like, okay, so itactually works. And then you,
you sell it and then you getconfident and you keep, you
keep doing it and then you keepseeing results, which allows
you to, to build yourconfidence. So , um, anyone
who's worried about sellingthat, like you just gotta do it
and there's gonna be more nosthan yeses, but those yeses are
(25:38):
gonna be way more, they'regonna be way more invested and
see results really, reallyquick. So,
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And the nos can get help at a different gym that
serves what they want andthat's totally fine. Exactly.
And listeners, right ? Uh, I'llgive you, I'm holding up here.
Chris's , uh, help first Ithink it's backwards, but
that's okay. Help. First we'llput a link in the show notes to
that, that is the concept.
It'll lay out the idea thatexactly what Emily said, this
person would be served best bythis service. I'm not giving
them a crappy service that theydon't want. I'm giving them the
(26:06):
, the solution to theirproblem. So if you wanna learn
how to sell without being aslimy salesperson, help first
Chris Cooper's book, one of hismost popular link in the show
notes. You can check that out.
Emily, thanks so much for beinghere. I am so pumped to see
where you're at in a year. Willyou come back and tell us?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This
has been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah , it was my pleasure as well. I really
appreciate it . That was EmilyTowns. This is Run a profitable
gym every week we are here withthe top gym owners in the
world. We tell you exactly howthey're doing what they're
doing. So you can do the samething. Thanks for watching it
or , and listening. Pleasesubscribe for more shows. And
now here's Tub Brain founderChris Cooper with a final
message.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Hey, it's Tub Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a
quick note , we created the GymOwners United Facebook group to
help you run a profitable gym.
Thousands of gym owners, justlike you have already joined in
the group. We share soundadvice about the business of
fitness. Every day I answerquestions, I run free webinars
and I give away all kinds ofgreat resources to help you
grow your gym. I'd love to haveyou in that group. It's Gym
(27:02):
Owners United on Facebook, orgo to gym owners united.com to
join. Do it today.
A gym owner opened her business about five months
ago and already has averagerevenue per member above $454 a
month. You're gonna find outhow that is possible today on
Run a Profitable Gym . I'm yourhost, Mike Workin . Please hit
like and subscribe whereveryou're watching or listing with
my thanks. Now, our averagerevenue per member leaderboard,
we call it a RM, it runs from 454 to $724. That's the number
(00:25):
one spot. Now , not everymember at these gyms pays that
price. Some pay more, some payless, but that's the average
and that's what gets you on theleaderboard. Do the math in
your head. Take the number ofclients you have at your gym,
multiply that by 200 or $205,multiply it by $300. Now, what
would that do for your businessand your life? We are gonna
tell , we're gonna tell youtoday exactly how you can get
to those numbers. Emily Townsof Ardent Fitness in Texas, she
(00:47):
landed on our leaderboard andthis is very cool, just a few
months after opening her gym.
So Emily, can I ask you ahundred questions about how
this, how you did this?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay. I'm so excited about this because as I said
before the show, it was sogreat to see someone have a
success early on in the journeybecause it took me a long time
to get even close to a $200 aRM. So you already blew that
outta the water. So I gotta askyou right off the bat, what did
you decide to sell that allowedyou to get above $400 right
after opening?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah. Um, I think I had an I , well I started , um,
wanting to sell semi-privatetraining, which was very new to
me. I did , I didn't know whatthat was, but I decided to
start with that. And then Ialso do small group personal
training. So I wanted to keepit very, very small and
personal. Um , which I thinkallowed me to charge a little
(01:37):
bit more because you can stillget that personalized feel from
a trainer, even in a groupsetting.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So small group and semi-private as opposed to
group training.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Correct. And personal training, but keep it
with semi-private and smallgroup. Were
Speaker 1 (01:50):
You originally gonna sell group training at first?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I think so. I'm trying to remember back. It's
been a long process of buildingout my model, but I think I
wanted to have group as well,because I love, my goal here
was to create a community. AndI know it's semi-private. It's
a little bit harder to do thatbecause the groups are so
small. So I wanted to providesomething for someone who
wanted the group setting, butdidn't really need that
(02:14):
personalized touch.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay. We'll get into the details of small group and
semi-private. But first, Emily,what is , what's the 62nd
summary of your gym ? Like,talk about, you know , who you
serve, what's your idealmarket, what do you sell? How
much space, how many coaches,what have you got going on at
Ardent in fit in Texas?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, absolutely. So , um, I'm about 1800 square
feet and we sell small grouppersonal, private, and personal
training. My target demographicfrom the beginning was we hit a
demographic of men, but reallywanted to focus on women about
45 plus. And our youngest is, Ithink she's 35, and then our
(02:51):
oldest is 69. So really, reallystaying within that
demographic. I have threetrainers I just brought another
one on and they're, I mean, I'mbiased. Whatever rockstar team,
like they're, they'reincredible. So
good. That's good. Um , yeah,and you know, they do things
better than I can and I justwanted to keep it that way. So,
you know, we just run threeclasses a day and on Fridays we
(03:12):
run two and just wanted tobuild those up. And my goal was
to create a community and servepeople who kind of can't really
find where they fit in and, youknow, just build that up to
just create a space that iswelcoming and fun and, you
know, but we still get after ittoo.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay. So that's great. And let me ask you this,
if this is how you do it, smallgroup per , so you've got group
training, which everyone doesthe same workout more or less
with a little bit modification.
Mm-hmm
like smaller groups where youknow , four or five, six
people, whatever, and they'redoing a similar workout, the
same workout essentially, butit's modified, but they get
more attention because it's asmaller group. In semi-private
(03:54):
training, what happens is thatthe gym owner will have maybe
four people in the class, two,three, whatever, but about four
is a kind of a good number.
They're not doing the sameworkout variations, they're
generally doing their ownprograms and it takes a very
skilled trainer to then coachfour different people through
four different programs. Isthat what you're doing with
your program?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes, sir. So what we do is we have the small group
personal training and thesemi-private. And with the
small group, I cap it at six,but on Saturdays I opened it up
to 10 just so we can kind ofhave a little fun Saturday and
make it a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Crank up the music and go
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah , yeah. Crank up the music. Got a good sound
system in here, so want to kindof change it and keep it,
honestly keep it as a vibe andeverybody can meet who they
don't meet throughout the week.
So a lot of the differentpeople come on Saturdays and
meet people that, you know,they're like, oh, well I'm
gonna work out with you nextweek. Like that sort of thing.
So, and that's what I'vewanted. And with a small group,
(04:48):
personal training, they stillget such a personalized touch,
even though they're doing thesame workout. And the feedback
we've got was, I'm learning somuch even though I'm not paying
for that personalized program.
So, and so it's been great.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And that's a key distinction because a lot of
people are asking thisquestion, what is small group?
What is semi-private smallgroup? People are doing
variations of the same workout,but they're getting more
attention than they would in abig group, semi-private,
they're doing their ownspecific workouts. And a highly
skilled coach is leading themthrough that and just shifting
attention between a smallernumber of people. So it's not
as much attention as pt, butit's way more than in a , in a
(05:28):
group setting, even that smallgroup setting. So mm-hmm
you could have semi-privatetraining of two people. You
could have four. I've heard ofit as high as six, but that
takes like a very, very skilledcoach. But four is a nice sweet
spot. Is that, you said four iswhere you run Cap it ?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I do three for semi-private, just for right
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Now . Sweet . There you go.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yep . Mm-hmm
still, still , and
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's a good number because it gets hard.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It does, it gets hard. And it also, we're still
growing and so, I mean , somepeople are still getting the
one-on-one because not everyonecan fill that prime slot. Um,
but when we've had three, I'veseen how well my trainers do,
but I think that's gonna be, Ithink you're right, that is the
sweet spot with just three.
Mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (06:09):
People feel like they'regetting a ton of attention and
all of a sudden it feels waymore valuable and it comes at a
higher price point. So tell me,where did you find out about
semi-private training? This wassomething that would've changed
my gym back in the day. I soldgroup training for about a
decade and
did you find out about this,right, as your opening, what
did you do?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Courtney Brownlow, that's all I can say. She, I, I
was with you guys for a year, Ithink before I even, no, over a
year before I opened. So I was,I was like, what do I do? Like
I, all I knew was box gyms, allI knew was sports performance
and I mm-hmm
that it's just box gyms. And soI was like , I was like, let's
(06:52):
be different. Let's stand out.
And Courtney was like, Hey,let's do semi-private. And I
was like, cool. What's that?
went with it and ran. And it ,it's been really, really cool.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So this is cool.
What , like, I , I , I've madeso many mistakes and Chris
Cooper's made so many mistakesand so many long-term gym
owners. We, we didn't have anoption to like learn at the
beginning. We just kind ofopened a warehouse and fumbled
through it and eventuallyenough of us talked to each
other and put our headstogether and figured a few
things out. And Chris took allthat and like, what he had
learned and put together thisgreat program that wasn't
(07:28):
available. And I made so manymistakes, lost so much money,
and it was, you know, at thepeak of my misery, I was losing
$5,000 a month and I had tocall Chris for help. Uh, you
worked with Two Brain beforeyou started, so how did this
set you up for long-termsuccess? Like, was it a good
feeling to like not have tofigure it out and rhyme your
head into the wall by yourself?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I, I don't like doing that at all. I, I
anything I do. And I thinkthat's my personality, just in
general. Like, I don't want torepeat the same problem over
and over and over. Yeah. Iwanna figure it out and get it
accomplished. And I was like,I've never done this before.
(08:05):
And if there's people out therewho have done it and have made
tons and tons of mistakes, likelet's go ahead and learn from
them and I'm gonna make my ownin general. So like, let's make
them , let's not try and makethe mistakes that other people
made and learn from peoplewho've done it and have been
successful. So it was honestlythe best thing, the best
decision I made , so.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh, that's so good to hear. Mm-hmm
I wanna ask you this, did , didyou do a Founder's club
promotion to start?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I did and I, ooh , butchered it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Let's talk about it .
Speaker 2 (08:39):
What'd you do ? So , yeah . Oh gosh. Uh , number
one, I didn't know what, Ididn't know how much sales was
gonna come into it. I thoughtit was, and I think a lot of
people think like you build itand they'll come and it was
like, yeah, why wouldn't youwanna work out here? Number
one, my gym wasn't built outyet, so I was trying to like
mm-hmm
(08:59):
it was real rough lookingbefore it got built out. And so
, uh, even Courtney was like,Hey, let's not post gym
pictures on social media yet.
'cause it's , uh, it's notlooking too good. So I was
trying to sell, but number one,I, I hadn't opened , so I
didn't know my product yet. Andso I was just trying to sell a
theoretical product and it ,I'm sure it completely came
(09:24):
across as like, well, shedoesn't believe in her product
because I didn't know what itwas mm-hmm
how could I believe in it ? Youknow? And so it just, at my
price point was not great.
Like, it just wasn't. Nowlooking back, I laugh. I mean,
I just think it's funny becauseit's like I'm trying to sell
these ginormous packages withno rapport, no sales skills,
nothing. And so I got people, I, I mean people started when I
(09:50):
opened, but it was like my momand like my one other person.
So yeah . But now we've reallyhoned in on, on the prices and
I've seen results with theproduct and it's, so you just,
you feel convicted and likepeople see that. And so it's
easier to have the passion forit to know that it actually is
something that could changepeople's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And that's interesting 'cause I've heard ,
uh, some, some, we have a greatfounders club , club pro
program listeners. So what ,what happens is give you all
the stuff and mm-hmm
to hit the ground running onday one. Yeah . And I think the
record, if I'm not mistaken, isabove 75 members. Uh , yeah .
So that means you open on dayone with members. I opened with
like no members. The firstperson through my, my door was
the tax collector and Istruggled for a long time to
(10:34):
get any anybody in the door.
Right . That happened to me.
But other people have hadbetter success with it. And you
had an interesting situationwhere it sounds like you were
kind of hamstrung a little bitwhere you were trying to figure
out like, what am I selling?
And it's hard to sell when youdon't know that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure. Yeah. And it was , and I had, this was , it
was all on me. Like I justwasn't, I , I didn't know
enough. I was so novice, likeall of this, and I just didn't,
I think the main thing waslike, I didn't know what I was
selling. Like , uh, I hadn'topen , I didn't know what the
semi-private was gonna looklike. I didn't know what the
small group was gonna look likebecause everything was so
(11:09):
theoretical from the beginning.
Um,
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah. And it's a thing that's pro that's jumped
up now, it's becoming more andmore popular, but like even two
or three years ago we weren'ttalking about semi-private
training. We hadn't reallyfigured that one out yet. So
it's one of those things whereyou kind had to get up onto
speed on something that's verynew. So I'm gonna ask you to
bring other people up to speedon this. Like, talk to me about
the details of semi-privatetraining at your gym. Like, we
had talked clo , we talkedcoach client ratio already. So
(11:33):
you've got a max of threemm-hmm
what kind of package detailshave you got? How do you set
this thing up and run it?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, absolutely. So they come in for their, their
consultation. We talk, I feellike semi-private is probably
gonna be the best fit for them.
Okay . I have clients thatrange from one time a week to
three times a week, and myaverage is about two times a
week. And I break it down withby, with them by session so
they can see kind of whatthey're paying per session.
Because if I give them thewhole up sum upfront , it's a
(12:00):
little daunting, but Sure . Um,you break it down by session.
But I bill every four weeks. Sothey take the big payment up
front , we get them set up fortheir on-ramps the first two
sessions, and then we kind ofhit the ground running after
that.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Okay. Have you based your rates on your personal
training rates? Like are they areflection of that in the
semi-private program?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Mm-hmm
they're about $30 less than mypersonal training. Um, because
if I can get three people intoa semi-private session, that's
gonna equate my , um, or bereally, really close to one
hour of, of personal training.
So it just works a out a littlebit better for my trainers if I
(12:41):
price it like that. And it'sstill a little bit competitive
in the market and not just likeexponentially way too high.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Right. Okay. So you've done some market
research, you've done, likeprobably with Courtney, if I
know her well enough, I thinkshe probably had you sit down
with a spreadsheet and dig intothis whole thing. Oh
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah. Oh yeah. I got a gym right across the street,
so I, you know, had to staycompetitive, but I think I am
the highest price in the area.
But you know, we, I tell mytrainers all the time, I was
like, we're white gloveservice. Like this is high
ticket. Like we, we show themthe value and if we don't,
like, I don't feel comfortableenough selling that product.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And you said you wanted to stand out in the
market, right? Like that gymacross the street's probably
not doing what you're doing,I'm guessing?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Uh, they do small group, they do personal
training. Okay . Um , but theyalso do open gym.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Uh , so that's an interesting thing that you
don't do. Mm-hmm
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay.
literally look out your windowand like see them like, you
know, as you're training, yousee the , the gym across the
street.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
And it was actually the
space that I looked at to openand then it just fell through
and we kind of, they got openbefore I did, but, and I call ,
I remember I called Courtneyand I was like , uh, there's a
gym going across the street.
And she was like, she likeimmediately deep dived on them.
We both were talking and justlike, she was like, you're,
(13:58):
you're just different. Mm-hmm
confidence I had from havingyou guys on my side like that ,
I was just kinda like, okay,like let's go.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay. That's interesting. And that's another
thing where that's that mindsetof like, you know, I'm scared
of competition versus themindset of like, yeah , I'm
gonna be okay. I'm sellingsomething different, confident
in my product in a way I go,that would've helped me sleep
better at night. Back in theday I was very nervous about
gyms opening up like 10 milesaway. I had nothing to worry
about really, you know, but Ididn't have that backup for
something to say, you know ,say that to me. Talk to me
(14:27):
about finding these high valueclients for semi-private
training. So there's a lot ofpeople that are listening and
saying, you know, I could neverfind or sell, find someone to
buy a $450 package or whateverit is per month. How are you
finding these people? Is itadvertising? Is it referrals?
What are you
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Doing? It's very heavy advertising. Uh ,
Facebook, Instagram, that sortof thing. Um, but I also have
quite a few small businessowners in the area mm-hmm
very helpful because they're inthe wellness space too. So
referrals as well. Um, they areseen on my social media
recognize that sort of thing.
It builds a rapport in thecommunity when you have, you
(15:04):
know, other people who are wellknown in the community and that
that wasn't like a, like atarget. But you know, I, when
you find the higher end clientswho value and they have the
same values as you, and theyprovide a really good product
on their end, they've alreadybuilt the rapport on that side
. So it's like an extension ofyou people asking themselves,
how do I, how do I sell thatpackage? I didn't think I could
(15:28):
sell those packages either, tobe honest. And but you, but you
find the people who are, theysee the value and they want to
progressively make their lifebetter and they're willing to
be a little uncomfortable withthe investment and that makes
them very, very high valuebecause they see, they see what
they can get out of it. And Itell them all the time, like,
(15:49):
this is longevity. Like, Idon't want you for six weeks to
get that summer bod . Like, Iwant you here for 10 years to
when you're old and 80 and youneed to get down with your
grandkids. Like , that's whatwe're training for. And my
clients like, they're amazing
, yeah , I, I'm, I'm extremelyblessed with the group that I
(16:11):
have. So,
Speaker 1 (16:13):
So advertising. Did Courtney help you set that
whole plan up?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Uh, I go through two brains . So calm , calm ,
O'Reilly does mine and I, Ijust did Two Brain initially
with like the first marketingcall and I just had them set
them up. But I wanted, I wantedmore leads per month. I started
getting a little bit moreconfident in my sales and
wanted to have some more leads.
So I hooked up with CALM twomonths ago. I think we're going
into our second month and myleads have been really, really
(16:38):
good and the size have beengood. So I , it's been a
really, really great decisionto, to go with someone who's
running the advertisements .
'cause again, like, I don'twanna do it. I don't have time
for it, and someone else isbetter at it than I am. So
let's just pass that off.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
correct? Like you're looking atthem and seeing like, okay,
it's costing this much money,but I'm getting this much in
return. Yes . Like, you see allthat stuff,
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right? Oh yeah. And even just as simple as like,
give me one client and that'sgonna cover my costs for the
month. So, and if I get oneclient from the advertising,
then I'm, I'm, I'm golden, sothat's fine with me.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So what that is, is we, you know, Jim knows if
you're listening, we teach gymowners how to ad how to , how
to advertise and how toevaluate their metrics so they
know whether they're wastingmoney or not. So it's like, if
I get X clients this return,this , you know, the front end
revenue covers the ad spend,everything's great. I'm getting
great return on my ad spend, mycost per lead is high
potentially, but I know thatI'm making this much money, so
(17:36):
it's not a big deal. We teachyou how to read these numbers
and spreadsheets that you canunderstand it. If you wanna
farm that marketing out, thenyou can do that and we'll teach
you how to do that so that youalways know that you're getting
a great return on things. Uh,and there are four funnels that
we teach team owners to makeads is one of them . You've got
social media and I also tiethat to the content funnel
because they're very closelyrelated. And then you've got
referrals, which Emily alsomentioned. I'm gonna ask you a
(17:57):
bit more about that. Localbusiness owners, they must be a
great source of referrals foryou because they're out in the
community. Is that happeningfor you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Uh, they are and they, I have, I can think off
the top of my head, three verywell established business
owners in the area that arevery close to me and in the
wellness space as well. So it ,it's not like someone who's in
construction who's like, oh, Iwork out here. It's someone
who's like, no , I do healthand wellness and all this stuff
and I, I choose to spend mytime at this place and not
(18:29):
anywhere else. So it's a , Iview it as very, very rapport
building through likesecondhand funnels or something
like that. Like they're , theybuild their rapport with their
audience, which if they trustme, then kind of , it
automatically makes them moreinclined to trust us over here.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Okay. I'm gonna ask you about you , you said no
sweat intro. So that's freeconsultation list is what we
call 'em . No sweat intro. It'sfree consultation. You sit down
and you're gonna talk to aclient, ask 'em about their
goals, tell them the best wayto accomplish their goals, show
'em the price, sign them up.
It's the very simple solutionto that. Emily, is that
something that you would'vecome up with on your own? And
how is it working for you?
Because a lot of people willsell different ways, but we
(19:09):
found that the freeconsultation works much better
for a RM revenue and retention.
How is it working for you?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's a game changer.
So it, it allows to, it allowsfor both sides. It allows for
the client to vet us and makesure that we know what we're
talking about, get them in thegym, let them see it, like I
said, we're different and thanany other gym in the area,
we're smaller. Um, some peopledon't want that and that's
okay. But this is sometimesthis is exactly what they're
(19:38):
looking for. And so it kind of, um, immediately, oh, this is
a nice space. Like it's notcrowded. I know it's not gonna
be an open box gym , anythinglike that. But it also allows
me to get to the nitty grittyof why they're actually there.
Give me your goals so that wecan, in six months, eight
months, whatever, we canreevaluate those to make sure
(19:59):
that the value that we'reproviding is matching your
goals. And otherwise, likewhat's the point? Like if
you're just coming into to workout and you're not seeing any
progress, like there's no pointin doing that. Um, but it also
allows me to vet people who I'mlike, I don't think this would
be a good fit for you. And Ihave a very, I have a, I'm, I'm
very, very stuck in my visionand my mission for the type of
(20:20):
clientele that I want in here.
Mm-hmm
and I want you to be able toput in the work and this, if
this is just a show up and Idon't, I just kind of wanna
dilly dilly , like that'stotally fine. This just isn't
gonna be a good fit for you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I don't think you're stuck in your ways. I think you
just have a rock solid visionof what you want to do in your
gym. And when you know that youcan then market it properly and
sell properly. Right . Becauseyou don't want everybody,
right. You want the rightpeople. And if you get
everybody, I did this early on.
I got all different people fromall different things and all of
a sudden we had a bunch ofhigh-end fitness competitors
(20:55):
who wanted to do this stuff anda bunch of grandma's and
grandpa's who wanna do thisstuff. And they just didn't mix
that well. And eventually I gotrid of the competitors and I
focused on, it was very similarto your market. Were like
professionals of like 32 to 65,maybe a little older. Yeah .
And that's who we served. Andonce we knew that our gym got
way better, I had fewerproblems, everyone was happier,
(21:16):
my retention improved. Right .
Everything was better. So Ithink what you're doing is, is
great. And the other thing, Idon't think that you could do
what you were doing withoutthat prescriptive model where
you sit down and talk to thesepeople and explain the value.
'cause they may not understand.
So prescriptive model is goingto be an essential part of this
service because I love what yousaid. You are taking people and
you're showing them how toaccomplish their goals. Then
(21:37):
you're meeting with them againto say, here's the progress
we've made towards your goals.
Here's the plan to get further.
And that is a huge retentionplay. It also allows you to
give them more services if thatwould help them, if they want
them. But the goal reviewsession becomes an ancest part
of that. And so now that you'vebeen open for, you know, a
little bit of time, have youstarted hitting some like first
goal review sessions withpeople and how are they going?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Uh, we do goal reviews every 30 days. Um ,
because yeah , it's 30 days .
Nice. Every 30 days. Um , oncewe hit the 90 day mark, I'll
probably spread it out just alittle bit longer, but mm-hmm
like they either want it orthey don't. And when you sit
there with them and the biggestpeople have their goals, that's
(22:19):
great. We do embody testing andall of that stuff too. But one
of the biggest retentionstrategies that I've kind of
noticed in those no sweat or inthose uh , client check-ins is
I have a , a portion of itwhere I have praise points
about the client . So like,these are, these are the things
that I have noticed. I got, Iget feedback from my trainers,
(22:40):
just little snippets just to belike, you're crushing it and
you even showed up. You weretired, you were mad, you were
whatever, but you, you showedup. You bring a vibe. You, you
bring excitement and we've justseen you get stronger over this
amount of time. Because that ,I , I just feel like that goes
further than , Hey cool, yousquatted 2 0 5. Like great job.
(23:00):
You know, it , it's more apersonal personal , right?
It's, it's showing them thatwhen you show up, like we see
you and you are , you're very,very important to us. And I
thank them for being herebecause they don't have to
mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I, I agree with you and I, I can't think of a
better way to resell. 'causethat's essentially what you're
doing. Every time a membershipcomes up for renewal to resell
a high value service thansitting down and saying, look
at what you've accomplished. Ican't believe you did this. And
it could be a PR but it alsocould be you showed up and you
worked and you put the effortin and now we're seeing the
results. Here's the results,here's how we're gonna go
(23:36):
further . And people who havethat plan are less likely to
quit. Whereas someone whodoesn't have a plan, like the
early members of my gym wouldbe like, nah , I don't know
what's going on here. I'm justgonna , you know , switch. And
that was where I lost someclients . So that Right .
Prescriptive model. And I'llput a link in the show notes
list if you wanna check it outand see the cyclical nature of
it and how it works withrevenue retention. You'll have
a link there. Check the shownotes for that. Uh , Emily, I'm
gonna let you get let you getback to running your gym in
(23:57):
just a sec. Last thing. Gymowner out there is listing has
low a RM someone like me 10years ago was like $110 or
something like that . I couldnot have imagined getting to
$454 or more. What would yousay someone out there is
thinking about looking at thesenumbers, thinking they're crazy
and thinking about working witha mentor, what would you say to
them ?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Evaluate your product if the value is there.
Be confident in yourself tosell something that will get
results for people.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Cool . And is it, is it a , do you think it's a
stepwise thing? Like would youexpect someone, like did yours
kind of go up like a hockeystick right away or was it like
a staircase where there weresmall jumps? How did your a RM
progress?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Well, I was too scared to sell my senior
private , so I just sold groupfor like the first two months
and then decided that I didn'twanna keep selling group. And
so I started asking,essentially prescribing more
semi-private. 'cause it mademore sense too. And when you
already showed the value andthen you're like, oh, okay,
well this is what it's gonnacost. People started saying yes
(24:57):
, and then you were like, okay,which gives you more confidence
to sell, sell more, sellhigher. So it was, it was like
this for a long time. And thenI, I remember one day I was
like, I'm in the , in the nosweat drawer . I was like, I'm
gonna , this person would bebetter at semi-private. So I
was like, here, this is oursemi-private , um, just like
(25:18):
real me , like just kind of shyabout it. And then they're
like, okay, that sounds great.
And I was like, okay, so itactually works. And then you,
you sell it and then you getconfident and you keep, you
keep doing it and then you keepseeing results, which allows
you to, to build yourconfidence. So , um, anyone
who's worried about sellingthat, like you just gotta do it
and there's gonna be more nosthan yeses, but those yeses are
(25:38):
gonna be way more, they'regonna be way more invested and
see results really, reallyquick. So,
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And the nos can get help at a different gym that
serves what they want andthat's totally fine. Exactly.
And listeners, right ? Uh, I'llgive you, I'm holding up here.
Chris's , uh, help first Ithink it's backwards, but
that's okay. Help. First we'llput a link in the show notes to
that, that is the concept.
It'll lay out the idea thatexactly what Emily said, this
person would be served best bythis service. I'm not giving
them a crappy service that theydon't want. I'm giving them the
(26:06):
, the solution to theirproblem. So if you wanna learn
how to sell without being aslimy salesperson, help first
Chris Cooper's book, one of hismost popular link in the show
notes. You can check that out.
Emily, thanks so much for beinghere. I am so pumped to see
where you're at in a year. Willyou come back and tell us?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This
has been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah , it was my pleasure as well. I really
appreciate it . That was EmilyTowns. This is Run a profitable
gym every week we are here withthe top gym owners in the
world. We tell you exactly howthey're doing what they're
doing. So you can do the samething. Thanks for watching it
or , and listening. Pleasesubscribe for more shows. And
now here's Tub Brain founderChris Cooper with a final
message.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Hey, it's Tub Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a
quick note , we created the GymOwners United Facebook group to
help you run a profitable gym.
Thousands of gym owners, justlike you have already joined in
the group. We share soundadvice about the business of
fitness. Every day I answerquestions, I run free webinars
and I give away all kinds ofgreat resources to help you
grow your gym. I'd love to haveyou in that group. It's Gym
(27:02):
Owners United on Facebook, orgo to gym owners united.com to
join. Do it today.
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