September 11, 2025 • 20 mins
What’s stopping your gym from growing?
In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Chris Cooper explains how gym owners accidentally limit their business growth and presents a four-level framework for leadership mastery.
The progression moves from self-leadership (controlling your focus and energy) to team leadership (getting staff aligned without micromanaging), peer leadership (influencing equals without authority) and community leadership (expanding impact beyond your gym).
The key insight: Before you can lead others effectively, you must first master yourself.
Fix the owner, fix the business.
Links
Gym Owners United
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1:57 - Self-leadership
6:45 - Team leadership
10:30 - Peer leadership
14:23 - Community leadership
18:31 - How to grow as a leader
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:00):
What's stopping your gym from growing?
I know what's stopping mine.
Hi, it's me.
I'm the problem.
It's me.
Actually, I'm Chris Cooper, andI don't usually open this show
with a quote from Taylor Swift,but I thought it was pretty
appropriate.
This is Run a Profitable Gym,and I want to talk to you about
(00:23):
fixing the owner to fix thebusiness.
In my last episode, I talkedabout the four phases of
entrepreneurship, founder,farmer, tinker, and chief.
and how your business has toevolve through those four
phases.
No matter how long it takesyou, it could take you four
years, it could take you 40years.
Some people never get there.
But what actually stops thebusiness, what places a ceiling
(00:43):
effect and limits your growth isyou.
And if we can fix the owner ofyour gym, we can probably fix
the business.
Today, that's what I'm going totalk about.
The four levels of leadershipand how we have to evolve as
leaders so that we stop beingthe roadblock, the linchpin, the
thing that stops our gym fromgrowing.
Every day, I talk to gym ownersin the Two Brain Mentorship
(01:04):
Program and those who aren't inthe program yet.
And they'll often tell mewhat's stopping their gym from
growing.
But the number one barrier toyour gym's growth is not the
market.
It's not the clients.
It's not the competition.
It's not your staff.
It's you.
It's the owner.
And so today, we'll walkthrough the different levels of
leadership, the mistakes thatI've made at each one, or at
(01:24):
least one example becausethere's a hundred at each, and
how you can fix them to unlockgrowth.
We're First, I want to talkabout why leadership matters at
every phase of your business.
Your business grows fromfounder phase to farmer phase to
tinker phase to chief.
And every transition requires anew level of leadership skills.
If you stay the same, your gymis going to get stuck.
(01:47):
I've blown it thousands oftimes.
Don't worry.
I'm going to share some ofthose stories with you.
But before you can lead others,you need to lead yourself.
So we're going to start withthe base of the leadership
pyramid, which isself-leadership.
This is your ability to controlyour own focus, to control your
energy, control your mindset.
(02:08):
There are some tools that youcan use to help you.
And I want to start off withjust asking some questions so
that you know where you needhelp with self-leadership.
We all do.
First, can you dedicate onehour a day to working on your
business and nothing else withfull focus?
Can you stay calm before youhave hard conversations?
(02:28):
Can you bring energy to yourgroup classes and your personal
training clients, even whenyou're stressed and distracted
about money or something else?
Can you think long-term insteadof just, how am I going to pay
that bill next week?
Can you overcome the scarcitymindset when you see a new gym
opening up on the next block?
Can you confidently recommendwhat a client actually needs or
(02:51):
are you projecting your ownfinancial fears onto them?
I've got so many stories aboutall of these and I've documented
lots of them in my book, butthere are so many that I'll try
share a few with you right now.
First, lack of focus.
I ruminate on things.
If I don't get it out of myhead, it stays there.
And so, you know, many times,especially in the early stages
(03:12):
of my career, I would bethinking about a client that
owed me money or a staff personthat showed up late or out of
uniform while I was training aclient.
And I would think that I wascovering it up, but the client
would know, like he'spreoccupied about something.
And I would be mad.
And I couldn't wait for thesession to end so that I could
go over and say, that email orcheck that math or look at the
(03:32):
bank balance or like confrontthat staff person, right?
Are you able to block that out?
Are you able to come to thecalmness?
Or maybe sometimes it'scuriosity for me too, right?
Like you hear this rumor, hey,I heard there's another gym
opening up.
Anyway, how about those BlueJays?
You know, and it's like, whoa,whoa, whoa, I'm fixated on what
you just said.
(03:52):
Are you able to give your fullattention to your client?
These are some of the skills ofself-leadership that no Don't
just naturally happen.
You have to cultivate them.
You have to practice them.
You have to reflect on how youdid, and you have to keep trying
to do better.
It's not enough to read aleadership book and, you know,
okay, I should eat the frog anddo the hardest thing every
(04:13):
morning first, and I should makemy bed so that I start the day
off right, and I should startwith why.
I should know why I'm doingthis.
That's all great in theory, butthe reality is that if you're
not able to overcome distractionand rumination, you will never
last as an entrepreneur.
You actually have to changeyourself, not just learn more
about leadership.
(04:33):
And part of self-leadership isthe ability to focus.
Another part is showing up withenergy.
Do you show up to your gymdrained and hurting the client
experience?
I can remember one of myclients going to visit another
gym and the owner showed uplate.
They were at 6.05 and his hoodwas up.
He made no eye contact withanybody in the parking lot.
(04:55):
He unlocked the door, flippedon the lights, and started
writing the the warmup on thewhiteboard and then just
disappeared into the back.
And my client was like, when dohis class start?
And the other people were like,oh, just do the warmup that's
on the board.
He'll be back in a minute, youknow?
And it's easy to say like, oh,that's just a bad gym owner.
But the reality is there's areason that that gym owner
(05:17):
behaved that way.
They didn't start out that way.
They got to that point becausethey were drugged down.
Are you exhausted or are youenergized?
You know, yes, you can fake ittill you make it for a to take
time off and refresh yourself onthe weekends, are you dialed
with nutrition?
Are you dialed with your ownworkouts?
Or are you burned out andexhausted?
(05:37):
Like, are you doing the bestthing to put the best foot
forward for your clients?
Or are you training so hardthat you ignore them, right?
I've got lots of stories aboutcoaches training really hard for
themselves and starting theclient's class late or showing
up to an NSI with no shirt onand still sweaty from their own
workout.
I mean, are you able to havethe self-leadership to know I
(06:01):
need to do what's best for theclient here.
Another great one is projectingyour own budget onto your
clients.
Like, I need to give this guy adiscount.
They're a teacher.
I know what teachers make.
They can't afford this.
Until you masterself-leadership, every other
level of leadership is totallyshaky.
Think about trying to coach astaff to do a better job when
(06:22):
you're exhausted and you can'tmake eye contact.
Think about giving a staffperson an evaluation when you're
preoccupied.
That that's just not going towork.
And while we always have to beworking on self-leadership, you
have to have that base set upbefore you can lead anybody
else.
Before you can turn theleadership focus around onto
your staff, you have to be ableto lead yourself.
(06:44):
When you're able to focus, whenyou're able to control your
emotions and show up and growyour business every day, then
you can start improving yourteam leadership.
And this is really aboutgetting your staff aligned and
effective.
What does aligned and effectivemean?
It means That means you arehiring people to get your gym to
an outcome, okay?
(07:05):
That's what team leadershipmeans.
They're not robots.
And that means that you have touse influence and you have to
use empathy.
You also have to use clarityand give them freedom within a
framework, okay?
So let me ask you thesequestions to assess your team
leadership skills.
First, have you clearlyexplained what you want?
Is it written down somewhereoutside your head?
Do your staff understand thebusiness's goals and why it
(07:27):
needs to be profitable?
shy about talking about that.
Do your staff have step-by-stepplaybooks?
Do they know when they're beingevaluated and how often and
when the next evaluation comesup?
Do you know what they want fromyou?
Have you asked them why they'redoing this job or what they
want from it?
Okay.
I have made bad hires out ofdesperation.
(07:48):
I have assumed staff could readmy mind and I would say like,
why don't they clean up whenthey leave?
That's common sense.
God, these boomers, you know,but the reality is that clean
the gym was in my mind and theycan't read my mind.
The biggest one, oh, this isbrutal.
I would never evaluate theirperformance until they did
something wrong.
And so if they got an emailfrom me saying, hey, we need to
(08:12):
sit down and do evaluation, theyknew they'd screwed up.
And so, you know, two days fromnow, we're going to have an
evaluation.
They would stress for two days.
I would stress for two days.
And I was so afraid of what Isaw as confrontation that I
would literally get sick beforeI would sit down and do a staff
evaluation.
The cure, what I should havedone, was booked staff
(08:33):
evaluations every single quarterin advance on specific dates so
that when I was going into it,I would have good things to talk
about and things to improve on.
Instead of, I'm doing thisbecause I'm mad.
Now I'm emotional.
They're defensive.
I've got to break bad news,which I hate doing.
It's a confrontation.
They're going to argue backbecause they're all amped up and
(08:54):
so am I.
It just goes poorly.
So good staff leadership meanshaving the discipline to do the
things in advance and then doingthem well.
So you deliver the evaluation,you take a minute, reflect on
it.
How did that go?
You try and do better the nexttime and you reflect on it
again.
This is the cycle of buildingleadership skills.
You try something, you reflecton it, you know, use a mentor or
(09:16):
use your metrics if you want tobe objective, and then you try
to do it a little bit better.
That's how you build.
You don't just read one book,some Simon Sinek thing and
become a better leader.
That doesn't happen.
You have to try things reflecton them to improve them, and
then do a little bit better thenext time.
The key to team leadership isunderstanding that you're not
(09:37):
hiring mini-me's.
You're not hiring robots.
It's about clarity, systems,and consistent feedback.
It's not even really aboutempathy because a lot of people
will give, give, give to theirstaff thinking that that will
motivate them, and that's notthe case.
What your staff want and craveand have been trained for since
the age of three is freedom andresponsibility within a
framework.
The reason that your staff areused to frameworks is because
(10:01):
the school bell sounded at 9a.m., and then at exactly 12
they got lunch, and at exactly 1they were back in the
classroom, and they got recessat 2.15 when the bell rang, and
at 3 o'clock they left.
We've been trained since almostinfancy to live within a
system.
They love the part of schoolthat let them feel creative, but
they were still living withinthat system, the framework.
If you set the framework, theycan be creative within that
(10:24):
framework, and that is the bestway to create a healthy and
happy relationship with yourstaff.
The third level of leadershipis peer leadership.
Now your staff kind of have tolisten to what you say.
You can get away with it quitea bit because you're paying them
and they'll lose their job ifthey don't.
But influencing your peers isharder because they don't have
to listen to you.
The best example I have forthis is the Two Brain mentor
(10:48):
team.
There are 55 mentors on theteam.
They are not winging it.
They're not just people who'vehad one fluky gym model.
These are people who have risenthrough Two Brain.
They have very successful gyms,they are wealthy themselves,
and they've decided that theiract of public service is to
mentor other gym owners.
Yes, they're paid for it.
(11:08):
Yes, I'm paid for it.
Yes, the client is paying forit, the gym owner.
And that's all part of whatmakes it successful.
It's that accountability cycle,right?
The thing is that even thoughgym owners pay the mentor for
guidance and the return onmentorship is insane, it's like
unmeasurable over time,sometimes they don't do And so
(11:30):
the mentors have to have peerleadership skills.
They have to learn how toinfluence people, encourage
people, hold people accountable,break problems down into tiny
steps and check in and make surethat people are getting that
done.
That's an enormous skill.
If you are able to actuallycreate change without having the
(11:51):
leverage of you're fired or theleverage of fear or the
leverage of control, like you'regrounded, that's enormous.
And that, learning peerleadership, is how you influence
your entire town to exercise.
It's how you influence yourpolitical leadership to do
better.
It's how you influence all theother business owners in town to
(12:13):
band together and give tocharity.
Peer leadership is taken forgranted.
We think that people are justborn with a natural charisma.
It's not.
It's learned, at least in mycase.
And if I can learn to influenceother people, other gym owners,
you can learn to influenceanybody, trust me.
Peer leadership is the thirdtier of leadership.
Not everybody gets there, but Ithink everybody should try to.
(12:35):
So back to the mentor example,these mentors are not just
making it up as they go along.
They have the two brain programand they're coached on
delivering the two brainprogram.
We know that anybody thatfollows the two brain program is
going to build a bigger, moresuccessful gym.
It's proven itself thousands oftimes.
What it comes down to is theimplementation and the mentors
(12:55):
are trained to help the gymowner implement it and make sure
that they do Okay.
The program is great, but justlike in your gym, if the
programming is amazing and thecoaches can't get people to
follow it, it's not going towork.
It's not going to save theclient's life.
I have a horrible example ofthis one.
So I was coaching a client, youknow, and I would kind of call
(13:17):
this peer leadership becausethis person was an entrepreneur
and they were giving me as muchentrepreneurial advice as I was
giving them coaching.
Let's face it.
I probably should have beenpaying them.
And, you know, so I considerthem kind of a peer And I was
coaching them and she was like,oh, Chris, I just, I can't get
these workouts done.
Like the only time I work outall week is when I've got this
(13:37):
appointment with you.
I know you give me homework andstuff, but I just can't get it
done.
And I was distracted bysomething else.
I was thinking about somethingcompletely different.
And I said, well, that's not myjob.
I can't force you to do it.
She left and she never cameback.
She still had like seven oreight personal training
appointments prepaid.
I never heard from her again.
(13:57):
That's bad peer leadership.
What we have to do is thinkabout like, what is the best
thing for my peers?
And if it aligns with the bestthing for you or your cause or
your mission, then aligntogether, influence them to join
you.
And together, you're far morepowerful than the two of you
separately can be.
That's what peer leadership isall about.
Peer leadership is aboutcoaching.
It's guiding your equals tobetter outcomes without, you
(14:20):
know, authority cracking thewhip.
The fourth level of leadershipis what I would call community
leadership.
This is where you're leadingbeyond your gym and into your
community and even society.
Entrepreneurs are thefoundation of the economy.
And without our economy,without our wealth, we wouldn't
have things like democracy.
We wouldn't have freedom ofspeech.
(14:41):
We wouldn't have freedom ofenterprise and all those other
things that we take for granted.
We wouldn't have the money topay for healthcare.
We wouldn't have the jobs,right?
We wouldn't have wealth.
We wouldn't have incentivesbuilt into our system for other
people to create other jobs.
We wouldn't have money leftover to help people.
Politicians spend money onEntrepreneurs generate money.
And when you're successful as aleader, you have a
(15:03):
responsibility to strengthen thesystem that enabled you to
start.
And so that means, you know, atthis level of leadership,
you're joining boards, not forstatus, but to have impact.
You are trying to, if you're aCrossFit gym, you're trying to
influence CrossFit HQ becauseit's your duty to save the
movement, right?
You've probably seen posts fromme about here's what CrossFit
(15:26):
needs to do.
I'm not doing that for status,right?
I don't really care whatCrossFit HQ thinks about me.
I'll be honest.
What I care about is savingCrossFit for the affiliates and
making this better for everybodywho wants to do CrossFit and
making sure there is a CrossFitin the future.
And I've been doing this withthe rest of the fitness industry
now for 30 years, pointing outwhere there's rot or corruption
(15:50):
or sleaze in the industry,trying to fix that for the
entire industry.
When I was a brand new leaderand a no authority, no voice, no
influence.
Nobody would listen.
Now that I'm at a level wherewe have 1,000 gym owners in Two
Brain at any given time, we have2,000 alumni, Gym Owners
(16:10):
United, our free group has10,000 gym owners in it, and
I've got a bit of a platform,it's my duty to use that
platform to make the industrybetter.
It's your duty as a personaltrainer, a CrossFit coach, a F45
owner, a franchisee, anaffiliate, whatever It's your
duty to become successful enoughthat you have the time,
(16:32):
bandwidth, and influence tochange the industry for good.
Look, when I started infitness, it was 1996.
I've been doing this for almost30 years.
Most of fitness was a way forpersonal trainers to meet women
or men.
A lot of fitness turned intolike prostitution, craziness.
There was a lot of corruptionand overwhelm.
(16:55):
People were selling packagesand then just like disappearing.
Gyms were...
opening up, taking in a milliondollars in prepaid membership
revenue, and then never openingtheir doors again.
The industry was filthy.
And now that I have a platform,I'm doing everything I can to
fix it, including CrossFit, butalso including these franchises
(17:15):
that are just opening up, takingpeople's money, and then never
supporting them again, includingthe governing bodies who are
just certifying people with likea 10-word test, right?
Including people who are givingadvice that they shouldn't be
giving including even otherbusiness coaches who are not
even looking at data likethey're speaking from no
authority at all it's my duty atthis level as uncomfortable as
(17:39):
it makes me to speak up aboutthese things and try to make a
better fitness industry foreverybody because if the fitness
industry is better then thefitness of the world will be
better community leadership isthe highest expression of your
entrepreneurial journey and ihope you get that far when you
do it will be your duty to speakup you know another great
example one of the mentors onthe Two Brighton team is Joanne
(18:00):
Kogel.
Joanne is a successful gymowner.
She's a fantastic mentor.
She's a good peer leader.
And she's in politics.
She's running for the mayor ofher city because she sees it as
her duty as a successfulentrepreneur to protect the
rights of the entrepreneurs sothat she can protect the
foundation of our democracy.
And this is the level that Ihope all of you reach.
(18:22):
We need the best peoplereaching the highest levels if
we want to continue to have abetter, more progressive
healthier society.
Look, it doesn't matter whatlevel of leader you're at right
now.
I firmly believe that everybodycan make it to the highest
levels of leadership.
I don't say that I'm the bestleader in the world.
I do have an opportunity tolive kind of at that top chief
(18:44):
level, you know, the communityleadership level.
But I'm also working on myself-leadership every single
day.
I also have holes to fix on myteam leadership, a thousand
percent.
Ask anybody on my team.
I also can get a lot better atinfluencing my peers.
You know, why are my parentsnot working out?
I need to get better at that.
(19:04):
You need to start by askingyourself, what level is holding
you back right now?
What's stopping your businessgrowth and starting there?
Don't try to improve everysingle level at once.
You probably need someself-leadership.
If you want to talk more aboutthis, you can book a call with
my team to identify where yourleadership gap is and how Two
(19:26):
Brain can help.
My new book, Chief, is going tobe coming out at the end of
2025, probably early 2026.
And that book is not just moreinformation about eating the
frog and making your bed andstarting with why.
That book is an activity andit's a guided path from
self-leadership to teamleadership to peer leadership to
community leadership.
(19:46):
It's my best attempt so far totry and make our entire world
better for the fitness coaches,the gym owners, their families,
and everybody else in it.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
Thank you for your service sofar and here's to the future.
What's stopping your gym from growing?
I know what's stopping mine.
Hi, it's me.
I'm the problem.
It's me.
Actually, I'm Chris Cooper, andI don't usually open this show
with a quote from Taylor Swift,but I thought it was pretty
appropriate.
This is Run a Profitable Gym,and I want to talk to you about
(00:23):
fixing the owner to fix thebusiness.
In my last episode, I talkedabout the four phases of
entrepreneurship, founder,farmer, tinker, and chief.
and how your business has toevolve through those four
phases.
No matter how long it takesyou, it could take you four
years, it could take you 40years.
Some people never get there.
But what actually stops thebusiness, what places a ceiling
(00:43):
effect and limits your growth isyou.
And if we can fix the owner ofyour gym, we can probably fix
the business.
Today, that's what I'm going totalk about.
The four levels of leadershipand how we have to evolve as
leaders so that we stop beingthe roadblock, the linchpin, the
thing that stops our gym fromgrowing.
Every day, I talk to gym ownersin the Two Brain Mentorship
(01:04):
Program and those who aren't inthe program yet.
And they'll often tell mewhat's stopping their gym from
growing.
But the number one barrier toyour gym's growth is not the
market.
It's not the clients.
It's not the competition.
It's not your staff.
It's you.
It's the owner.
And so today, we'll walkthrough the different levels of
leadership, the mistakes thatI've made at each one, or at
(01:24):
least one example becausethere's a hundred at each, and
how you can fix them to unlockgrowth.
We're First, I want to talkabout why leadership matters at
every phase of your business.
Your business grows fromfounder phase to farmer phase to
tinker phase to chief.
And every transition requires anew level of leadership skills.
If you stay the same, your gymis going to get stuck.
(01:47):
I've blown it thousands oftimes.
Don't worry.
I'm going to share some ofthose stories with you.
But before you can lead others,you need to lead yourself.
So we're going to start withthe base of the leadership
pyramid, which isself-leadership.
This is your ability to controlyour own focus, to control your
energy, control your mindset.
(02:08):
There are some tools that youcan use to help you.
And I want to start off withjust asking some questions so
that you know where you needhelp with self-leadership.
We all do.
First, can you dedicate onehour a day to working on your
business and nothing else withfull focus?
Can you stay calm before youhave hard conversations?
(02:28):
Can you bring energy to yourgroup classes and your personal
training clients, even whenyou're stressed and distracted
about money or something else?
Can you think long-term insteadof just, how am I going to pay
that bill next week?
Can you overcome the scarcitymindset when you see a new gym
opening up on the next block?
Can you confidently recommendwhat a client actually needs or
(02:51):
are you projecting your ownfinancial fears onto them?
I've got so many stories aboutall of these and I've documented
lots of them in my book, butthere are so many that I'll try
share a few with you right now.
First, lack of focus.
I ruminate on things.
If I don't get it out of myhead, it stays there.
And so, you know, many times,especially in the early stages
(03:12):
of my career, I would bethinking about a client that
owed me money or a staff personthat showed up late or out of
uniform while I was training aclient.
And I would think that I wascovering it up, but the client
would know, like he'spreoccupied about something.
And I would be mad.
And I couldn't wait for thesession to end so that I could
go over and say, that email orcheck that math or look at the
(03:32):
bank balance or like confrontthat staff person, right?
Are you able to block that out?
Are you able to come to thecalmness?
Or maybe sometimes it'scuriosity for me too, right?
Like you hear this rumor, hey,I heard there's another gym
opening up.
Anyway, how about those BlueJays?
You know, and it's like, whoa,whoa, whoa, I'm fixated on what
you just said.
(03:52):
Are you able to give your fullattention to your client?
These are some of the skills ofself-leadership that no Don't
just naturally happen.
You have to cultivate them.
You have to practice them.
You have to reflect on how youdid, and you have to keep trying
to do better.
It's not enough to read aleadership book and, you know,
okay, I should eat the frog anddo the hardest thing every
(04:13):
morning first, and I should makemy bed so that I start the day
off right, and I should startwith why.
I should know why I'm doingthis.
That's all great in theory, butthe reality is that if you're
not able to overcome distractionand rumination, you will never
last as an entrepreneur.
You actually have to changeyourself, not just learn more
about leadership.
(04:33):
And part of self-leadership isthe ability to focus.
Another part is showing up withenergy.
Do you show up to your gymdrained and hurting the client
experience?
I can remember one of myclients going to visit another
gym and the owner showed uplate.
They were at 6.05 and his hoodwas up.
He made no eye contact withanybody in the parking lot.
(04:55):
He unlocked the door, flippedon the lights, and started
writing the the warmup on thewhiteboard and then just
disappeared into the back.
And my client was like, when dohis class start?
And the other people were like,oh, just do the warmup that's
on the board.
He'll be back in a minute, youknow?
And it's easy to say like, oh,that's just a bad gym owner.
But the reality is there's areason that that gym owner
(05:17):
behaved that way.
They didn't start out that way.
They got to that point becausethey were drugged down.
Are you exhausted or are youenergized?
You know, yes, you can fake ittill you make it for a to take
time off and refresh yourself onthe weekends, are you dialed
with nutrition?
Are you dialed with your ownworkouts?
Or are you burned out andexhausted?
(05:37):
Like, are you doing the bestthing to put the best foot
forward for your clients?
Or are you training so hardthat you ignore them, right?
I've got lots of stories aboutcoaches training really hard for
themselves and starting theclient's class late or showing
up to an NSI with no shirt onand still sweaty from their own
workout.
I mean, are you able to havethe self-leadership to know I
(06:01):
need to do what's best for theclient here.
Another great one is projectingyour own budget onto your
clients.
Like, I need to give this guy adiscount.
They're a teacher.
I know what teachers make.
They can't afford this.
Until you masterself-leadership, every other
level of leadership is totallyshaky.
Think about trying to coach astaff to do a better job when
(06:22):
you're exhausted and you can'tmake eye contact.
Think about giving a staffperson an evaluation when you're
preoccupied.
That that's just not going towork.
And while we always have to beworking on self-leadership, you
have to have that base set upbefore you can lead anybody
else.
Before you can turn theleadership focus around onto
your staff, you have to be ableto lead yourself.
(06:44):
When you're able to focus, whenyou're able to control your
emotions and show up and growyour business every day, then
you can start improving yourteam leadership.
And this is really aboutgetting your staff aligned and
effective.
What does aligned and effectivemean?
It means That means you arehiring people to get your gym to
an outcome, okay?
(07:05):
That's what team leadershipmeans.
They're not robots.
And that means that you have touse influence and you have to
use empathy.
You also have to use clarityand give them freedom within a
framework, okay?
So let me ask you thesequestions to assess your team
leadership skills.
First, have you clearlyexplained what you want?
Is it written down somewhereoutside your head?
Do your staff understand thebusiness's goals and why it
(07:27):
needs to be profitable?
shy about talking about that.
Do your staff have step-by-stepplaybooks?
Do they know when they're beingevaluated and how often and
when the next evaluation comesup?
Do you know what they want fromyou?
Have you asked them why they'redoing this job or what they
want from it?
Okay.
I have made bad hires out ofdesperation.
(07:48):
I have assumed staff could readmy mind and I would say like,
why don't they clean up whenthey leave?
That's common sense.
God, these boomers, you know,but the reality is that clean
the gym was in my mind and theycan't read my mind.
The biggest one, oh, this isbrutal.
I would never evaluate theirperformance until they did
something wrong.
And so if they got an emailfrom me saying, hey, we need to
(08:12):
sit down and do evaluation, theyknew they'd screwed up.
And so, you know, two days fromnow, we're going to have an
evaluation.
They would stress for two days.
I would stress for two days.
And I was so afraid of what Isaw as confrontation that I
would literally get sick beforeI would sit down and do a staff
evaluation.
The cure, what I should havedone, was booked staff
(08:33):
evaluations every single quarterin advance on specific dates so
that when I was going into it,I would have good things to talk
about and things to improve on.
Instead of, I'm doing thisbecause I'm mad.
Now I'm emotional.
They're defensive.
I've got to break bad news,which I hate doing.
It's a confrontation.
They're going to argue backbecause they're all amped up and
(08:54):
so am I.
It just goes poorly.
So good staff leadership meanshaving the discipline to do the
things in advance and then doingthem well.
So you deliver the evaluation,you take a minute, reflect on
it.
How did that go?
You try and do better the nexttime and you reflect on it
again.
This is the cycle of buildingleadership skills.
You try something, you reflecton it, you know, use a mentor or
(09:16):
use your metrics if you want tobe objective, and then you try
to do it a little bit better.
That's how you build.
You don't just read one book,some Simon Sinek thing and
become a better leader.
That doesn't happen.
You have to try things reflecton them to improve them, and
then do a little bit better thenext time.
The key to team leadership isunderstanding that you're not
(09:37):
hiring mini-me's.
You're not hiring robots.
It's about clarity, systems,and consistent feedback.
It's not even really aboutempathy because a lot of people
will give, give, give to theirstaff thinking that that will
motivate them, and that's notthe case.
What your staff want and craveand have been trained for since
the age of three is freedom andresponsibility within a
framework.
The reason that your staff areused to frameworks is because
(10:01):
the school bell sounded at 9a.m., and then at exactly 12
they got lunch, and at exactly 1they were back in the
classroom, and they got recessat 2.15 when the bell rang, and
at 3 o'clock they left.
We've been trained since almostinfancy to live within a
system.
They love the part of schoolthat let them feel creative, but
they were still living withinthat system, the framework.
If you set the framework, theycan be creative within that
(10:24):
framework, and that is the bestway to create a healthy and
happy relationship with yourstaff.
The third level of leadershipis peer leadership.
Now your staff kind of have tolisten to what you say.
You can get away with it quitea bit because you're paying them
and they'll lose their job ifthey don't.
But influencing your peers isharder because they don't have
to listen to you.
The best example I have forthis is the Two Brain mentor
(10:48):
team.
There are 55 mentors on theteam.
They are not winging it.
They're not just people who'vehad one fluky gym model.
These are people who have risenthrough Two Brain.
They have very successful gyms,they are wealthy themselves,
and they've decided that theiract of public service is to
mentor other gym owners.
Yes, they're paid for it.
(11:08):
Yes, I'm paid for it.
Yes, the client is paying forit, the gym owner.
And that's all part of whatmakes it successful.
It's that accountability cycle,right?
The thing is that even thoughgym owners pay the mentor for
guidance and the return onmentorship is insane, it's like
unmeasurable over time,sometimes they don't do And so
(11:30):
the mentors have to have peerleadership skills.
They have to learn how toinfluence people, encourage
people, hold people accountable,break problems down into tiny
steps and check in and make surethat people are getting that
done.
That's an enormous skill.
If you are able to actuallycreate change without having the
(11:51):
leverage of you're fired or theleverage of fear or the
leverage of control, like you'regrounded, that's enormous.
And that, learning peerleadership, is how you influence
your entire town to exercise.
It's how you influence yourpolitical leadership to do
better.
It's how you influence all theother business owners in town to
(12:13):
band together and give tocharity.
Peer leadership is taken forgranted.
We think that people are justborn with a natural charisma.
It's not.
It's learned, at least in mycase.
And if I can learn to influenceother people, other gym owners,
you can learn to influenceanybody, trust me.
Peer leadership is the thirdtier of leadership.
Not everybody gets there, but Ithink everybody should try to.
(12:35):
So back to the mentor example,these mentors are not just
making it up as they go along.
They have the two brain programand they're coached on
delivering the two brainprogram.
We know that anybody thatfollows the two brain program is
going to build a bigger, moresuccessful gym.
It's proven itself thousands oftimes.
What it comes down to is theimplementation and the mentors
(12:55):
are trained to help the gymowner implement it and make sure
that they do Okay.
The program is great, but justlike in your gym, if the
programming is amazing and thecoaches can't get people to
follow it, it's not going towork.
It's not going to save theclient's life.
I have a horrible example ofthis one.
So I was coaching a client, youknow, and I would kind of call
(13:17):
this peer leadership becausethis person was an entrepreneur
and they were giving me as muchentrepreneurial advice as I was
giving them coaching.
Let's face it.
I probably should have beenpaying them.
And, you know, so I considerthem kind of a peer And I was
coaching them and she was like,oh, Chris, I just, I can't get
these workouts done.
Like the only time I work outall week is when I've got this
(13:37):
appointment with you.
I know you give me homework andstuff, but I just can't get it
done.
And I was distracted bysomething else.
I was thinking about somethingcompletely different.
And I said, well, that's not myjob.
I can't force you to do it.
She left and she never cameback.
She still had like seven oreight personal training
appointments prepaid.
I never heard from her again.
(13:57):
That's bad peer leadership.
What we have to do is thinkabout like, what is the best
thing for my peers?
And if it aligns with the bestthing for you or your cause or
your mission, then aligntogether, influence them to join
you.
And together, you're far morepowerful than the two of you
separately can be.
That's what peer leadership isall about.
Peer leadership is aboutcoaching.
It's guiding your equals tobetter outcomes without, you
(14:20):
know, authority cracking thewhip.
The fourth level of leadershipis what I would call community
leadership.
This is where you're leadingbeyond your gym and into your
community and even society.
Entrepreneurs are thefoundation of the economy.
And without our economy,without our wealth, we wouldn't
have things like democracy.
We wouldn't have freedom ofspeech.
(14:41):
We wouldn't have freedom ofenterprise and all those other
things that we take for granted.
We wouldn't have the money topay for healthcare.
We wouldn't have the jobs,right?
We wouldn't have wealth.
We wouldn't have incentivesbuilt into our system for other
people to create other jobs.
We wouldn't have money leftover to help people.
Politicians spend money onEntrepreneurs generate money.
And when you're successful as aleader, you have a
(15:03):
responsibility to strengthen thesystem that enabled you to
start.
And so that means, you know, atthis level of leadership,
you're joining boards, not forstatus, but to have impact.
You are trying to, if you're aCrossFit gym, you're trying to
influence CrossFit HQ becauseit's your duty to save the
movement, right?
You've probably seen posts fromme about here's what CrossFit
(15:26):
needs to do.
I'm not doing that for status,right?
I don't really care whatCrossFit HQ thinks about me.
I'll be honest.
What I care about is savingCrossFit for the affiliates and
making this better for everybodywho wants to do CrossFit and
making sure there is a CrossFitin the future.
And I've been doing this withthe rest of the fitness industry
now for 30 years, pointing outwhere there's rot or corruption
(15:50):
or sleaze in the industry,trying to fix that for the
entire industry.
When I was a brand new leaderand a no authority, no voice, no
influence.
Nobody would listen.
Now that I'm at a level wherewe have 1,000 gym owners in Two
Brain at any given time, we have2,000 alumni, Gym Owners
(16:10):
United, our free group has10,000 gym owners in it, and
I've got a bit of a platform,it's my duty to use that
platform to make the industrybetter.
It's your duty as a personaltrainer, a CrossFit coach, a F45
owner, a franchisee, anaffiliate, whatever It's your
duty to become successful enoughthat you have the time,
(16:32):
bandwidth, and influence tochange the industry for good.
Look, when I started infitness, it was 1996.
I've been doing this for almost30 years.
Most of fitness was a way forpersonal trainers to meet women
or men.
A lot of fitness turned intolike prostitution, craziness.
There was a lot of corruptionand overwhelm.
(16:55):
People were selling packagesand then just like disappearing.
Gyms were...
opening up, taking in a milliondollars in prepaid membership
revenue, and then never openingtheir doors again.
The industry was filthy.
And now that I have a platform,I'm doing everything I can to
fix it, including CrossFit, butalso including these franchises
(17:15):
that are just opening up, takingpeople's money, and then never
supporting them again, includingthe governing bodies who are
just certifying people with likea 10-word test, right?
Including people who are givingadvice that they shouldn't be
giving including even otherbusiness coaches who are not
even looking at data likethey're speaking from no
authority at all it's my duty atthis level as uncomfortable as
(17:39):
it makes me to speak up aboutthese things and try to make a
better fitness industry foreverybody because if the fitness
industry is better then thefitness of the world will be
better community leadership isthe highest expression of your
entrepreneurial journey and ihope you get that far when you
do it will be your duty to speakup you know another great
example one of the mentors onthe Two Brighton team is Joanne
(18:00):
Kogel.
Joanne is a successful gymowner.
She's a fantastic mentor.
She's a good peer leader.
And she's in politics.
She's running for the mayor ofher city because she sees it as
her duty as a successfulentrepreneur to protect the
rights of the entrepreneurs sothat she can protect the
foundation of our democracy.
And this is the level that Ihope all of you reach.
(18:22):
We need the best peoplereaching the highest levels if
we want to continue to have abetter, more progressive
healthier society.
Look, it doesn't matter whatlevel of leader you're at right
now.
I firmly believe that everybodycan make it to the highest
levels of leadership.
I don't say that I'm the bestleader in the world.
I do have an opportunity tolive kind of at that top chief
(18:44):
level, you know, the communityleadership level.
But I'm also working on myself-leadership every single
day.
I also have holes to fix on myteam leadership, a thousand
percent.
Ask anybody on my team.
I also can get a lot better atinfluencing my peers.
You know, why are my parentsnot working out?
I need to get better at that.
(19:04):
You need to start by askingyourself, what level is holding
you back right now?
What's stopping your businessgrowth and starting there?
Don't try to improve everysingle level at once.
You probably need someself-leadership.
If you want to talk more aboutthis, you can book a call with
my team to identify where yourleadership gap is and how Two
(19:26):
Brain can help.
My new book, Chief, is going tobe coming out at the end of
2025, probably early 2026.
And that book is not just moreinformation about eating the
frog and making your bed andstarting with why.
That book is an activity andit's a guided path from
self-leadership to teamleadership to peer leadership to
community leadership.
(19:46):
It's my best attempt so far totry and make our entire world
better for the fitness coaches,the gym owners, their families,
and everybody else in it.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
Thank you for your service sofar and here's to the future.
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