August 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Overwhelmed by business advice and the mountains of fix-your-gym resources?
That's common, and overwhelm kills action.
To help, Chris Cooper walks through six of his books for gym owners and helps you choose the one that will help you get big-time results today.
👉 You can even get the book you need for free between Aug. 4 and 8, 2025.
Maybe you need “Gym Owners Handbook” to help you systemize operations or “The Golden Hour” to build the daily habits that grow your business.
If your business is already operating at top speed, it might be time to focus on your coaching with Coop’s newest book, “Help Best.” Or maybe you want to build wealth—your resource is "Millionaire Gym Owner."
Don’t read dozens of books and sit on your knowledge. Instead, read the one book you need right now and turn that knowledge into gym growth.
Pick your book and download it for free Aug. 4-8, 2025.
Links
“Start a Gym”
“Gym Owners Handbook”
“Millionaire Gym Owner”
“Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief”
“The Golden Hour”
“Help Best”
Gym Owners United
Book a Call Â
0:01 - What book do you need right now?
2:13 - Books on running a gym
9:22 - A book to help you take action
16:29 - A new book for coaches
23:59 - How to get these free books
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Chris Cooper, and this is Run a
Profitable Gym.
Over the last many years ofworking with GMOs to help
improve their businesses, I'vewritten a lot of books.
And this week, we're going togive them away to you for free.
Today on Run a Profitable Gym,I'm going to walk through how to
get your free book and how topick which one you should be
(00:20):
reading right now.
After all, we've been publishingblog posts on 2brainbusiness.com
for almost exactly a decade.
And even before that, I waswriting a free blog for GMO
Thank you so much for joiningus.
(00:59):
Now, before we get going, andI'm going to go through these
books one by one.
And so if I'm describing one andyou're like, that one's not for
me, that's actually a goodthing.
Because what I want to do is getyou off this point of overwhelm
that you're probably sitting on.
We all read a lot of books.
We all listen to a lot ofpodcasts, just like this one.
And the reality is that werarely take action on any of it
(01:21):
because there's just so much.
And every time you learnsomething new, you think, oh,
that's a great idea.
And then you go straight on tothe next thing and you're
listening to the next book.
And sooner or later, it's theend of the year and you can look
back at all of your books inyour Audible library or whatever
and say, wow, I finished 30books this year.
And if I went book by book andsaid, what did you do from this
(01:41):
one that grew your business?
You might even struggle toremember.
And so I want to help you bygiving you the exact book that
you need right now.
Look, you can be a collector ifyou want to.
You can download all of these.
I'm not going to stop you, but Iwill tell you that Anytime you
buy a new book, you should acton it right away.
Don't just let your knowledgelead to learning.
(02:02):
Let your knowledge lead toaction.
That's what's going to make yourgym better.
You don't get a price forreading the most books.
You don't get a price forlistening to the most podcasts.
You get a price for growing yourgym.
So let's start with starting agym, square one.
And this is the first book Iwant to highlight.
It's right here over myshoulder.
It's the white one.
Start a gym.
If you are within the first yearof opening a gym and you're you
(02:24):
aren't really sure how to setyour prices, or maybe you're six
months out from opening a gym,or maybe it's years away and
you're just kind of dreamingabout it.
This book was written to helpyou get off on the right foot.
But a lot of people read Start aGym and they say, I decided to
wait, or I made some massivedecisions that I wouldn't have
made otherwise.
I'm going to tell you how tofind the right location and what
(02:48):
you should be looking for in alease.
I'm going to tell you how towrite a business plan.
And I'm going to tell you how tobe profitable from day one.
When somebody starts a newbusiness, cashflow is king.
And most of us don't open upwith months and months of
savings to fall back on.
And even if we do, we know thatwe need to make money right out
of the gate.
And so start a gym is if nothingelse, it's a great check.
(03:11):
You can check to make sure thatyou've got all of your boxes
ticked, all your bases covered,that you've got a good plan and
that you are about to make theright decision.
Because let's face it, a lot ofus act through our gut.
A lot of us guess when we openup and every mistake that you
make when you open your businesswill take you at least six
months to fix.
(03:32):
And many times it costs about$100,000 in mistakes before we
finally realize like, oh, geez,my prices should have been X
instead of Y.
And I shouldn't have hired thatperson so quickly.
And oh boy, maybe I didn't need12,000 square feet for my micro
gym.
This book will save you a lot oftime and money.
But even if you've opened in thelast three years, it's great to
read this book just as a doublecheck and say, oh man, if I
(03:55):
don't fix this right now, it'sgoing to really cost me.
Now, Start a Gym is for peoplewho are in the founder phase of
business.
And I'll explain what that phasemeans in a moment.
The next phase of business iswhat we call the farmer phase.
This is where things are up andrunning, but they're not perfect
yet.
You're not earning what you wantto earn yet.
You're working with some staff.
You're trying to systemize youroperations.
(04:18):
You're trying to get thingsmoving like a business should.
You're trying to make it worklike a machine or like an active
farm.
And that book that I wrote forfarmers is called the Gym
Owner's Handbook.
Now, if your gym has been openfor more than six months and
you're wondering why you'reworking hard but it's not
growing or you're not gettingenough clients or you keep
(04:38):
churning through staff or youdon't know how to manage staff
or you don't know how to writesystems.
You don't know how to make it abusiness.
You feel like you're working forthe business instead of the
business working for you.
Jim Orr's handbook, the blackone right behind me right here,
that book is for you.
It's for people who are in themix or maybe in the mess.
It's going to tell you exactlylike how to build a marketing
(04:59):
plan, how to sell your service,how to hire, how to evaluate
your staff, how to write SOPsand systems that everybody can
follow without always coming toyou and saying, how do I do this
thing again?
Without constantly turningthrough clients.
It talks about retention.
It talks about acquisition ofclients.
And basically, if you want toget one book as a gym owner,
(05:20):
that is the book.
It covers everything.
It's extremely tactical.
I don't write books that aremeant to inspire you to keep
with it as a gym owner, I writeyou tactical books that you can
follow step-by-step, that youcan use as a checklist.
And that's what Gym Owner'sHandbook basically is.
This third tier of gym ownershipis what we call the tinker
phase.
And that is what happens whenyou've got a single gym and it's
(05:43):
doing pretty well.
And now you're going toduplicate your success by
opening another gym.
or buying another business.
Or maybe you just love your onegym so much that you're going to
keep it and reinvest in otherthings.
That's what I did too.
Now, this book that I wrote foryou is called Millionaire Gym
Owner, and it's right up at thetop here.
There we go.
(06:04):
And its job is to take you fromincome to investment.
So to go from zero to earning anincome, breaking even, that's
start a gym.
To go from breaking even toearning$100,000 a year from your
gym take home, that's GymOwner's Handbook.
To go from earning$100,000 ayear to becoming a millionaire
(06:25):
by investing in other gyms orother places or buying your
building or whatever, that'sMillionaire Gym Owner.
That's the third phase ofbusiness.
And we work with all thesephases in Two Brain.
The cool thing about MillionaireGym Owner that I love so much is
that I wrote this book withabout 25 millionaires who became
millionaires through ourprogram.
They're all doing it slightlydifferently.
(06:47):
They all have good gyms to startfrom, but then they reinvested
their time and their effort andtheir money into different
places.
And this book is all about theirstories.
But it's not just a story.
It's a tactical checklist ofwhat you can do.
There are a lot of differentways, but there are not an
infinite number of ways.
And so if you are thinking aboutbuying your building, for
(07:07):
example, and you own a gym, thisbook will tell you exactly how
to do it.
If you're thinking about takingmoney from the gym and investing
in other things or people, thisbook will tell you how to do it.
It will tell you what businessesyou should buy that will
complement your gym and whatbusinesses will just steer your
attention away and possibly harmyour gym.
That's what Millionaire GymOwner is all about.
It's one of my best-sellingbooks and for good reason.
(07:31):
Okay, so you've got Start a Gymfor people in the founder phase.
You've got Gym Owner's Handbookfor people in the farmer phase.
You've got Millionaire Gym Ownerfor people in the tinker phase.
If you're not sure what thosephases are or where you fit or
what information is best foryou, the book that you want is
called Founder, Farmer, Tinker,Thief.
And what this does is itdescribes the four phases of an
(07:53):
entrepreneur's journey.
When I wrote this book back in2018, and by the way, this book
became an instant bestsellerwith thousands and thousands and
thousands of copies sold.
This is the book that got me thebig plaque on the wall for
having an Amazon bestseller.
When I wrote the Founder ForeverTinker Thief book, I said, boy,
there's so much good informationout there.
Where would somebody even begin?
(08:14):
How would they know what appliesto them?
What thing they need to do rightnow?
And so I broke the phases downto say, when you're in the
founder phase, you need this.
And then I wrote, start a gym.
And then I said, if you're inthe farmer phase, you need this.
And then I wrote gym ownershandbook.
And if you're in the tinkerphase, you need this millionaire
gym owner.
But if you're not sure where youfall, if it's not really clear
(08:36):
to you, you don't know where tostart.
You've been listening to thispodcast, but you're not taking
action.
You're not getting results fromit.
You're reading my blog, butyou're not getting results from
it yet.
Start with founder, farmer,tinker thief.
We'll be right back.
(09:15):
And you really need a book thattells you what you need to focus
on.
And you can start with Founder,Farmer, Tinker, Thief.
Now, I want to move to TheGolden Hour.
Now, The Golden Hour is the bookthat I published last year.
And I was writing this bookabout habits because, let's face
it, most of the problems that wehave as gym owners are not
(09:37):
problems of lack of knowledge.
It's certainly not problems oflack of passion.
And it's not problems...
We have a lack of work capacity.
Every gym owner I know is smart.
They're hardworking to the pointof being an inspiration.
They can grind.
They're doing it for all theright reasons.
Nobody got into this business toget rich.
Everybody got into the businessto help people.
(09:57):
But you get so much advice andso much knowledge and our day is
so long and we care so muchabout our clients that it's easy
to get overwhelmed andparalyzed.
And it's very, very easy to tostart your day at 5.30 in the
morning, to finish your day atseven or eight at night and look
back and somebody says, what'dyou accomplish today?
(10:18):
And you think, man, nothing.
I got there.
I turned on the lights.
I started coaching.
I got some emails.
I thought about postingsomething on social media.
I got sucked into that web.
The phone rang.
A staff person came in late.
Something bad happened.
A client wanted to quit.
I had to talk to them.
Like your whole day just goes byand you realize you've done
nothing to actually grow yourbusiness.
(10:39):
And tomorrow is just going to bethe same.
And you're facing down this longroad that feels like Groundhog
Day.
And you're just doing the samething over and over and hoping
your business grows.
But really, if somebody said,how is your business growing?
You don't know how to answerthem because there is no plan.
There's no strategy.
And even when I started workingwith a mentor, I was getting
tasks to do, but I was likereally struggling to prioritize
(11:02):
them I felt like I need to bedoing this stuff.
What do I do?
And I didn't know how to get thework done.
And that's when I learned theconcept of the golden hour.
The golden hour is a simplerule.
That is every day I will do onething to grow my business before
I do anything else.
That's it.
And when my CMO, John Franklinsaid, Chris, you need to write a
book about like what youactually do.
(11:24):
I was writing this book abouthabits and how habits build
skills and how the best gymowners in the world, all the gym
owners in our millionaire gymowner book, had these same
habits and you know what thishabit was and he's like yeah but
what do you do and i said ohwell what i do is something
nobody wants to read about i getup every day at 5 a.m and i come
(11:44):
down into my basement i sit onthe couch with a cup of coffee
and i do one thing to grow mybusiness before i do anything
else and he said i don't thinkyou realize it but like That has
compounded over time from abankrupt gym to a gym that was
breaking even to a gym that wasabsolutely crushing it with five
full-time staff to a couple oflocations.
(12:06):
And then, you know, back to oneinto two brain business and nine
books and, you know, a thousandgym owners in our mentorship
program and 65 of the best gymowners in the world on our
mentorship staff.
All of that came from that.
Every day, do one thing to growmy business before I do anything
else.
And that simple rule has servedme well for 15 years now.
And that's what I wanted toshare with you.
(12:27):
But the big question, if you'renot in the Two Brain Mentorship
program, especially, is like,what do I actually do to grow my
business in that time?
And so while the concept of thebook, Golden Hour, is super
duper simple, every day you getup, you, you know, there's a
golden acronym.
You go to a place where the doorthat closes, you open your brain
with some written meditation.
(12:48):
You lead with a little bit ofmarketing.
You do the big project that's onyour plate.
You end at the hour and youwrite down your next steps on a
checklist.
That process is enormouslypowerful, but it's not specific
enough for a lot of people.
A lot of people reading thatwould say, okay, but what do I
actually do?
And so I came up with a six weekgolden hour challenge.
(13:09):
And If you go togoldenhourchallenge.com, you can
follow along.
I've got videos of exactly whatto do and exactly how to do it
every single day for 42 days.
It'll grow your gym.
You can get this book now forfree this week on Amazon.
I'll post the link to the Kindlebook right below this video.
And you can read the book.
You can follow the challenge inthe book.
(13:31):
You can do the challenge on yourown.
We do this challenge once aquarter inside the Two Brain
family, and it is enormouslypowerful.
Every time people do it, theyget better and better results
because they quickly get intofocus.
And that means every single daythey're doing something to grow
their gym.
They're creating content.
They're publishing content.
They're sharing content onsocial media platforms.
(13:52):
I mean, that alone is more thanmost of us can remember to do in
the average week.
And then they're following upwith their leads consistently.
Most people know that theyshould be following up with
their leads consistency, butthey don't have time blocked out
in their week to do it.
They're getting goal reviewsbooked with at least five
clients every single week.
I mean, imagine if you sat downwith five clients a week, looked
(14:16):
at their progress, looked attheir prescription, and either
worked on getting a testimonialor upgrading their prescription
to make faster progress.
I mean, think how that compoundsif you do that once a week for a
year.
That's 250 appointments.
That's amazing.
And then you're also planningout your social media.
You're developing pictures andstories on Saturdays.
(14:37):
And if you do nothing else, butjust follow the golden hour for
an entire year, your businesswill grow.
I guarantee it.
It's not just the habit of doingexercise to grow your business
every day, but it's thesespecific things that will grow
your business that often getoverlooked because, well, I know
all about that.
It doesn't seem novel enough,right?
(14:58):
It's these little things thatdone over time that produce
virtuosity and excellence inyour business.
If you do nothing else, startdoing the golden hour.
If you start getting sometraction.
The people who have read thegolden hour and done the golden
hour challenge have told methings like, Coop, I felt like I
was just kind of like in freefall.
I was tumbling through the air.
I had nothing to grab onto.
(15:19):
I did this challenge and I feltlike, okay, I've got some ground
under my feet or okay, I canbuild on this.
A lot of other people said thatthey were just paralyzed by
overwhelm.
They made themselves shut outeverything else.
And for one hour a day, theyjust did exactly what the book
told them to do.
And their business started togrow.
And every time we run thischallenge, every quarter in the
Two Brain family, we start tosee people say, oh yeah, I've
(15:42):
been meaning to do this.
Or my mentor told me to do thissix months ago and I'm just
actually doing the work.
That's what the book, The GoldenHour is all about.
It's about doing the work andgetting the work done.
It's simple habit.
It doesn't sound like a lot.
Every day I do one thing to growmy business before I do anything
else.
But when you do it and you knowwhat to do, you get way further
(16:02):
ahead because most of us comeinto our business day with lots
of energy.
We know what we should be doing.
We listen to a great podcast andwe're ready to eat the frog and
like make our bed and get 1%better, but we don't actually
know what that means inpractice.
And so we can't do it.
So if that's you, the goldenhour book is maybe the best bet
(16:24):
for you.
Now, I do want to share one morerecommendation before I sign
off.
I have a new book.
My newest book is called HelpBest.
And I wrote this with fourcollaborators.
Some of the longest standing,most successful coaches in the
fitness industry were alsomentors for Two Brain on the
business side.
And the reason we wrote HelpBest is because years ago, I
(16:44):
wrote this book that is kind ofa cult favorite and that's
called Help First.
So if I shift aside, you can seeit.
I wrote Help First back in 2018because a lot of gym owners at
that point, didn't even want todo marketing.
They thought that marketing feltslimy.
Like, oh God, I've got to trickpeople.
I've got to convince people togive me their money.
And I wanted to show them thatmarketing wasn't about tricking
(17:07):
people or taking their money.
Marketing is the first act ofcoaching.
And marketing is coaching peopleto come to your gym, coaching
them to sign up, and thencoaching them to push their
knees out in the air squat.
That marketing should feel goodbecause you're saving a person's
life, but it should also feelgood while you're doing it.
And the way that you do that isby helping them first.
(17:29):
So I'm helping you first rightnow.
I'm helping you by giving youbooks.
I'm helping you by every singleday for the last decade, giving
you content, checklists, toolsto grow your gym.
That alone will not usuallysolve your problem.
But hundreds of people havewritten me and said, Coop, I
read this book and I feel somuch better.
I read this book.
I followed this tactic.
I made some money.
Long-term, your clients and thepeople in your communities, they
(17:52):
still need a coach.
And long-term, I still believethat every entrepreneur should
have a coach.
Entrepreneurship is the hardestsport there is.
You need to have a coach.
You need to have somebody byyour side with you on the bench
telling you get in there,telling you get out of there,
take a break or swingdifferently.
That's what a coach does.
And I believe that everyentrepreneur needs one.
(18:15):
But our coaches also needcoaching.
People who want to be coaches atour gyms need help.
They need help getting clientsresults.
So years ago, when somebodywould come into Two Brain,
they'd be a gym owner and they'dhave like, a coaching staff that
was seven, eight, nine out of10, like amazing coaches.
(18:35):
And their business couldn'tsupport them because the
business was like a one out of10 or a two out of 10.
And so they would churn throughthese excellent coaches and they
would themselves like lose theirpassion for coaching because
they just couldn't feed theirfamily.
There was this mismatch betweenthe business and their coaching
excellence.
And a lot of us want to believethat being an excellent coach
(18:56):
will just like Fix the business,right?
If I get better, if I get thecertification, if I take that
course, that's going to pull thebusiness up to my level of
coaching.
It's not true.
This has a name.
It's common in every industry.
It's called the technician'scurse.
What will save your business isbeing good at business.
But now that we've produced somany successful gym owners, like
(19:17):
we've had 2,500 gyms through ourprogram worldwide on every
continent in almost everycountry.
What we see now is that we'vegot these businesses that are
like a nine or a 10 out of 10.
And they have opportunities forcoaches to make a full-time
living.
And they don't have people whocan live up to that role.
(19:38):
They need to bring their coachesfrom a seven to a nine.
Or maybe like their pricing isgreat.
Their marketing is amazing.
Their retention is pretty good.
But now it's actually theproduct that's their weakest
link.
Even though their product hasn'tchanged, it's still like an
eight out of 10.
Everything else is a nine now.
Things are great.
And now it's time to improvetheir coaching.
(19:58):
So what they wanted to do washelp their coaches become as
good as they are as gym owners.
And so we wrote Help Best tohelp coaches help people best.
Look, for too long, the fitnessindustry has been selling stuff
that it didn't really deliveron.
And saying things like, wechange people's lives, or we
save you from the hospital, orwe save you from decrepitude, or
(20:21):
we give you back your autonomy,your physical freedom.
And nobody's been measuringthat.
So it's not really true.
And that's why it feels falsewhen we say it.
And when we do post up on socialmedia, like, when you work out,
your whole life works out.
What does that actually mean?
And so I wanted to write a bookabout what it actually takes to
change somebody's life, how youcan actually make the claim that
(20:44):
You've extended their lifespanor their health span and how to
tie new science into yourcoaching.
It walks you through a processthat's called the prescriptive
model about programming betterand better and better for each
individual client in the gym andhow to do that if you've got a
group coaching gym, how to dothat if you've got a one-on-one
or a semi-private or a smallgroup gym, how to measure client
(21:05):
outcomes.
How do you actually know thatyou're getting them results?
Because I'll tell you, it's morethan just the client saying, I
love this place or I We've gotsuch a great community.
When a client can come to youand say, hey, I'm off metformin.
Hey, my doctor wants to know howyou did that.
Hey, I was never supposed to getpregnant.
And guess what, coach?
I'm pregnant.
When somebody comes to you andsays, I've never felt this good
(21:28):
in years, or I feel like I didwhen I was 30, or hey, this
Christmas, I did stuff that Icouldn't do with my grandkids
three years ago.
That is how you know.
That is the potential that weall have.
to really change these lives inmeasurable and meaningful ways.
And we can do that, but we needto be specific about it.
We need to be intentional aboutit.
And we can't just hope that wecan be the best CrossFit coach
(21:51):
ever and hope that will savethem.
It's not enough.
It is necessary, butinsufficient to be a great coach
at your method.
You also need to know, here'swhat my client wants and prove
that you're getting them there.
You can be the best coach onpaper.
Absolutely.
You can have the mostcertifications.
You can have a black belt incoaching, whatever that means.
(22:12):
But if your clients are notgetting the results that they
signed up to get, we're failingthem.
And that's what Help Best isabout, is helping them get the
results that they want in ameasurable and repeatable way so
that you can build a system ofexcellence in your gym.
Look, if you're the only gym intown that's getting people
results, that might not beenough to guarantee your
(22:35):
success.
But it is still necessary forsuccess.
On top of that, you're stillgoing to have to market.
You're still going to have tosell.
You're still going to have to bea good gym owner.
You can't just be a good coach,but you must be a good coach.
It is necessary but insufficientfor having a successful gym.
And when you become a good gymowner, you need to make good
(22:56):
coaches in your gym.
You can't just invest indifferent certifications that
they want to take and put themthrough the Kids Cert and put
them through the Speed Cert.
You have to create...
an opportunity for them to exceland they have to excel.
And that's what Help Best is allabout.
Now you can get that Help Bestbook free.
You can tell all your coaches toget it for free this week too,
(23:17):
if you want to.
We're giving them away for freebecause I am here to help you
first and help you best.
Look, there's a lot of businesscoaches and gurus, and there's
still some ad agencies around inthe fitness world too.
They come and go.
But the reality is that once youread these books, you'll know
how to tell when something islegit and true and helpful
(23:38):
because you can just hold themup and say, which metric does
this improve?
You'll know that.
You can hold it up and say,where does this fit into my
golden hour?
You'll be able to determinethat.
You can hold it up and say like,will this actually help me get
my clients better results?
Or is it just like hype andhyperbole and excitement?
You'll be able to know that.
That's really what I'm trying toget out in my books.
(23:59):
Now, I don't make money frombooks.
So I'm not giving away a milliondollars here.
What we do is we sell books andmy wife and I donate all of the
royalties to charity.
This week though, instead ofpaying full price for a book and
having me donate the royalties,do this.
Go get the book.
If it helps you, talk to usabout mentorship.
(24:20):
If it helps you only a littlebit and you make 10 bucks,
donate that money to charity ifyou want to, or donate it to
taking your wife for coffee.
That's worthwhile too.
But this week, I want to makesure that you've got at least
the knowledge to make your gymgrow.
Because I know that you've gotthe motivation.
I know that you've got theintention.
You just need the action.
(24:41):
The books will give youeverything you need except the
clear call to action to actuallydo the work.
And it's my hope that afterreading one of these books,
you're going to send me amessage on Facebook, Coop.
I read the book.
I did the thing.
That to me will be worth waymore than the royalties that we
make from the books.
I'm going to ask you what yournext best step is.
(25:04):
And hopefully you can tell methat too.
But the place to get started iswith these books.
So go on Amazon.
I've got some links.
This week, the Kindle version ofthese books are free to you
between the 4th and the 8th.
Download them all if you wantto.
Save them for a rainy day.
Just promise me you'll takeaction and promise me you'll
keep growing your gym.
because that is what we're gonnaneed to turn the tide on
(25:24):
healthcare and save more lives.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
If you can't find the books onAmazon or something, Just type
in my name.
There's another actor that likesto call himself Chris Cooper,
just to feel good about himself.
But you can just go intogymownersunited.com.
That's our free Facebook group.
You can discuss which book isbest for me.
You can send me a message onFacebook and I'll respond
personally and tell you whichbook I recommend for you.
(25:47):
Or if you just want to pop inand say, hey, Coop, I got your
book and this is the action thatI took.
I would love it.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for saving people.
Hey, I'm Chris Cooper, and this is Run a
Profitable Gym.
Over the last many years ofworking with GMOs to help
improve their businesses, I'vewritten a lot of books.
And this week, we're going togive them away to you for free.
Today on Run a Profitable Gym,I'm going to walk through how to
get your free book and how topick which one you should be
(00:20):
reading right now.
After all, we've been publishingblog posts on 2brainbusiness.com
for almost exactly a decade.
And even before that, I waswriting a free blog for GMO
Thank you so much for joiningus.
(00:59):
Now, before we get going, andI'm going to go through these
books one by one.
And so if I'm describing one andyou're like, that one's not for
me, that's actually a goodthing.
Because what I want to do is getyou off this point of overwhelm
that you're probably sitting on.
We all read a lot of books.
We all listen to a lot ofpodcasts, just like this one.
And the reality is that werarely take action on any of it
(01:21):
because there's just so much.
And every time you learnsomething new, you think, oh,
that's a great idea.
And then you go straight on tothe next thing and you're
listening to the next book.
And sooner or later, it's theend of the year and you can look
back at all of your books inyour Audible library or whatever
and say, wow, I finished 30books this year.
And if I went book by book andsaid, what did you do from this
(01:41):
one that grew your business?
You might even struggle toremember.
And so I want to help you bygiving you the exact book that
you need right now.
Look, you can be a collector ifyou want to.
You can download all of these.
I'm not going to stop you, but Iwill tell you that Anytime you
buy a new book, you should acton it right away.
Don't just let your knowledgelead to learning.
(02:02):
Let your knowledge lead toaction.
That's what's going to make yourgym better.
You don't get a price forreading the most books.
You don't get a price forlistening to the most podcasts.
You get a price for growing yourgym.
So let's start with starting agym, square one.
And this is the first book Iwant to highlight.
It's right here over myshoulder.
It's the white one.
Start a gym.
If you are within the first yearof opening a gym and you're you
(02:24):
aren't really sure how to setyour prices, or maybe you're six
months out from opening a gym,or maybe it's years away and
you're just kind of dreamingabout it.
This book was written to helpyou get off on the right foot.
But a lot of people read Start aGym and they say, I decided to
wait, or I made some massivedecisions that I wouldn't have
made otherwise.
I'm going to tell you how tofind the right location and what
(02:48):
you should be looking for in alease.
I'm going to tell you how towrite a business plan.
And I'm going to tell you how tobe profitable from day one.
When somebody starts a newbusiness, cashflow is king.
And most of us don't open upwith months and months of
savings to fall back on.
And even if we do, we know thatwe need to make money right out
of the gate.
And so start a gym is if nothingelse, it's a great check.
(03:11):
You can check to make sure thatyou've got all of your boxes
ticked, all your bases covered,that you've got a good plan and
that you are about to make theright decision.
Because let's face it, a lot ofus act through our gut.
A lot of us guess when we openup and every mistake that you
make when you open your businesswill take you at least six
months to fix.
(03:32):
And many times it costs about$100,000 in mistakes before we
finally realize like, oh, geez,my prices should have been X
instead of Y.
And I shouldn't have hired thatperson so quickly.
And oh boy, maybe I didn't need12,000 square feet for my micro
gym.
This book will save you a lot oftime and money.
But even if you've opened in thelast three years, it's great to
read this book just as a doublecheck and say, oh man, if I
(03:55):
don't fix this right now, it'sgoing to really cost me.
Now, Start a Gym is for peoplewho are in the founder phase of
business.
And I'll explain what that phasemeans in a moment.
The next phase of business iswhat we call the farmer phase.
This is where things are up andrunning, but they're not perfect
yet.
You're not earning what you wantto earn yet.
You're working with some staff.
You're trying to systemize youroperations.
(04:18):
You're trying to get thingsmoving like a business should.
You're trying to make it worklike a machine or like an active
farm.
And that book that I wrote forfarmers is called the Gym
Owner's Handbook.
Now, if your gym has been openfor more than six months and
you're wondering why you'reworking hard but it's not
growing or you're not gettingenough clients or you keep
(04:38):
churning through staff or youdon't know how to manage staff
or you don't know how to writesystems.
You don't know how to make it abusiness.
You feel like you're working forthe business instead of the
business working for you.
Jim Orr's handbook, the blackone right behind me right here,
that book is for you.
It's for people who are in themix or maybe in the mess.
It's going to tell you exactlylike how to build a marketing
(04:59):
plan, how to sell your service,how to hire, how to evaluate
your staff, how to write SOPsand systems that everybody can
follow without always coming toyou and saying, how do I do this
thing again?
Without constantly turningthrough clients.
It talks about retention.
It talks about acquisition ofclients.
And basically, if you want toget one book as a gym owner,
(05:20):
that is the book.
It covers everything.
It's extremely tactical.
I don't write books that aremeant to inspire you to keep
with it as a gym owner, I writeyou tactical books that you can
follow step-by-step, that youcan use as a checklist.
And that's what Gym Owner'sHandbook basically is.
This third tier of gym ownershipis what we call the tinker
phase.
And that is what happens whenyou've got a single gym and it's
(05:43):
doing pretty well.
And now you're going toduplicate your success by
opening another gym.
or buying another business.
Or maybe you just love your onegym so much that you're going to
keep it and reinvest in otherthings.
That's what I did too.
Now, this book that I wrote foryou is called Millionaire Gym
Owner, and it's right up at thetop here.
There we go.
(06:04):
And its job is to take you fromincome to investment.
So to go from zero to earning anincome, breaking even, that's
start a gym.
To go from breaking even toearning$100,000 a year from your
gym take home, that's GymOwner's Handbook.
To go from earning$100,000 ayear to becoming a millionaire
(06:25):
by investing in other gyms orother places or buying your
building or whatever, that'sMillionaire Gym Owner.
That's the third phase ofbusiness.
And we work with all thesephases in Two Brain.
The cool thing about MillionaireGym Owner that I love so much is
that I wrote this book withabout 25 millionaires who became
millionaires through ourprogram.
They're all doing it slightlydifferently.
(06:47):
They all have good gyms to startfrom, but then they reinvested
their time and their effort andtheir money into different
places.
And this book is all about theirstories.
But it's not just a story.
It's a tactical checklist ofwhat you can do.
There are a lot of differentways, but there are not an
infinite number of ways.
And so if you are thinking aboutbuying your building, for
(07:07):
example, and you own a gym, thisbook will tell you exactly how
to do it.
If you're thinking about takingmoney from the gym and investing
in other things or people, thisbook will tell you how to do it.
It will tell you what businessesyou should buy that will
complement your gym and whatbusinesses will just steer your
attention away and possibly harmyour gym.
That's what Millionaire GymOwner is all about.
It's one of my best-sellingbooks and for good reason.
(07:31):
Okay, so you've got Start a Gymfor people in the founder phase.
You've got Gym Owner's Handbookfor people in the farmer phase.
You've got Millionaire Gym Ownerfor people in the tinker phase.
If you're not sure what thosephases are or where you fit or
what information is best foryou, the book that you want is
called Founder, Farmer, Tinker,Thief.
And what this does is itdescribes the four phases of an
(07:53):
entrepreneur's journey.
When I wrote this book back in2018, and by the way, this book
became an instant bestsellerwith thousands and thousands and
thousands of copies sold.
This is the book that got me thebig plaque on the wall for
having an Amazon bestseller.
When I wrote the Founder ForeverTinker Thief book, I said, boy,
there's so much good informationout there.
Where would somebody even begin?
(08:14):
How would they know what appliesto them?
What thing they need to do rightnow?
And so I broke the phases downto say, when you're in the
founder phase, you need this.
And then I wrote, start a gym.
And then I said, if you're inthe farmer phase, you need this.
And then I wrote gym ownershandbook.
And if you're in the tinkerphase, you need this millionaire
gym owner.
But if you're not sure where youfall, if it's not really clear
(08:36):
to you, you don't know where tostart.
You've been listening to thispodcast, but you're not taking
action.
You're not getting results fromit.
You're reading my blog, butyou're not getting results from
it yet.
Start with founder, farmer,tinker thief.
We'll be right back.
(09:15):
And you really need a book thattells you what you need to focus
on.
And you can start with Founder,Farmer, Tinker, Thief.
Now, I want to move to TheGolden Hour.
Now, The Golden Hour is the bookthat I published last year.
And I was writing this bookabout habits because, let's face
it, most of the problems that wehave as gym owners are not
(09:37):
problems of lack of knowledge.
It's certainly not problems oflack of passion.
And it's not problems...
We have a lack of work capacity.
Every gym owner I know is smart.
They're hardworking to the pointof being an inspiration.
They can grind.
They're doing it for all theright reasons.
Nobody got into this business toget rich.
Everybody got into the businessto help people.
(09:57):
But you get so much advice andso much knowledge and our day is
so long and we care so muchabout our clients that it's easy
to get overwhelmed andparalyzed.
And it's very, very easy to tostart your day at 5.30 in the
morning, to finish your day atseven or eight at night and look
back and somebody says, what'dyou accomplish today?
(10:18):
And you think, man, nothing.
I got there.
I turned on the lights.
I started coaching.
I got some emails.
I thought about postingsomething on social media.
I got sucked into that web.
The phone rang.
A staff person came in late.
Something bad happened.
A client wanted to quit.
I had to talk to them.
Like your whole day just goes byand you realize you've done
nothing to actually grow yourbusiness.
(10:39):
And tomorrow is just going to bethe same.
And you're facing down this longroad that feels like Groundhog
Day.
And you're just doing the samething over and over and hoping
your business grows.
But really, if somebody said,how is your business growing?
You don't know how to answerthem because there is no plan.
There's no strategy.
And even when I started workingwith a mentor, I was getting
tasks to do, but I was likereally struggling to prioritize
(11:02):
them I felt like I need to bedoing this stuff.
What do I do?
And I didn't know how to get thework done.
And that's when I learned theconcept of the golden hour.
The golden hour is a simplerule.
That is every day I will do onething to grow my business before
I do anything else.
That's it.
And when my CMO, John Franklinsaid, Chris, you need to write a
book about like what youactually do.
(11:24):
I was writing this book abouthabits and how habits build
skills and how the best gymowners in the world, all the gym
owners in our millionaire gymowner book, had these same
habits and you know what thishabit was and he's like yeah but
what do you do and i said ohwell what i do is something
nobody wants to read about i getup every day at 5 a.m and i come
(11:44):
down into my basement i sit onthe couch with a cup of coffee
and i do one thing to grow mybusiness before i do anything
else and he said i don't thinkyou realize it but like That has
compounded over time from abankrupt gym to a gym that was
breaking even to a gym that wasabsolutely crushing it with five
full-time staff to a couple oflocations.
(12:06):
And then, you know, back to oneinto two brain business and nine
books and, you know, a thousandgym owners in our mentorship
program and 65 of the best gymowners in the world on our
mentorship staff.
All of that came from that.
Every day, do one thing to growmy business before I do anything
else.
And that simple rule has servedme well for 15 years now.
And that's what I wanted toshare with you.
(12:27):
But the big question, if you'renot in the Two Brain Mentorship
program, especially, is like,what do I actually do to grow my
business in that time?
And so while the concept of thebook, Golden Hour, is super
duper simple, every day you getup, you, you know, there's a
golden acronym.
You go to a place where the doorthat closes, you open your brain
with some written meditation.
(12:48):
You lead with a little bit ofmarketing.
You do the big project that's onyour plate.
You end at the hour and youwrite down your next steps on a
checklist.
That process is enormouslypowerful, but it's not specific
enough for a lot of people.
A lot of people reading thatwould say, okay, but what do I
actually do?
And so I came up with a six weekgolden hour challenge.
(13:09):
And If you go togoldenhourchallenge.com, you can
follow along.
I've got videos of exactly whatto do and exactly how to do it
every single day for 42 days.
It'll grow your gym.
You can get this book now forfree this week on Amazon.
I'll post the link to the Kindlebook right below this video.
And you can read the book.
You can follow the challenge inthe book.
(13:31):
You can do the challenge on yourown.
We do this challenge once aquarter inside the Two Brain
family, and it is enormouslypowerful.
Every time people do it, theyget better and better results
because they quickly get intofocus.
And that means every single daythey're doing something to grow
their gym.
They're creating content.
They're publishing content.
They're sharing content onsocial media platforms.
(13:52):
I mean, that alone is more thanmost of us can remember to do in
the average week.
And then they're following upwith their leads consistently.
Most people know that theyshould be following up with
their leads consistency, butthey don't have time blocked out
in their week to do it.
They're getting goal reviewsbooked with at least five
clients every single week.
I mean, imagine if you sat downwith five clients a week, looked
(14:16):
at their progress, looked attheir prescription, and either
worked on getting a testimonialor upgrading their prescription
to make faster progress.
I mean, think how that compoundsif you do that once a week for a
year.
That's 250 appointments.
That's amazing.
And then you're also planningout your social media.
You're developing pictures andstories on Saturdays.
(14:37):
And if you do nothing else, butjust follow the golden hour for
an entire year, your businesswill grow.
I guarantee it.
It's not just the habit of doingexercise to grow your business
every day, but it's thesespecific things that will grow
your business that often getoverlooked because, well, I know
all about that.
It doesn't seem novel enough,right?
(14:58):
It's these little things thatdone over time that produce
virtuosity and excellence inyour business.
If you do nothing else, startdoing the golden hour.
If you start getting sometraction.
The people who have read thegolden hour and done the golden
hour challenge have told methings like, Coop, I felt like I
was just kind of like in freefall.
I was tumbling through the air.
I had nothing to grab onto.
(15:19):
I did this challenge and I feltlike, okay, I've got some ground
under my feet or okay, I canbuild on this.
A lot of other people said thatthey were just paralyzed by
overwhelm.
They made themselves shut outeverything else.
And for one hour a day, theyjust did exactly what the book
told them to do.
And their business started togrow.
And every time we run thischallenge, every quarter in the
Two Brain family, we start tosee people say, oh yeah, I've
(15:42):
been meaning to do this.
Or my mentor told me to do thissix months ago and I'm just
actually doing the work.
That's what the book, The GoldenHour is all about.
It's about doing the work andgetting the work done.
It's simple habit.
It doesn't sound like a lot.
Every day I do one thing to growmy business before I do anything
else.
But when you do it and you knowwhat to do, you get way further
(16:02):
ahead because most of us comeinto our business day with lots
of energy.
We know what we should be doing.
We listen to a great podcast andwe're ready to eat the frog and
like make our bed and get 1%better, but we don't actually
know what that means inpractice.
And so we can't do it.
So if that's you, the goldenhour book is maybe the best bet
(16:24):
for you.
Now, I do want to share one morerecommendation before I sign
off.
I have a new book.
My newest book is called HelpBest.
And I wrote this with fourcollaborators.
Some of the longest standing,most successful coaches in the
fitness industry were alsomentors for Two Brain on the
business side.
And the reason we wrote HelpBest is because years ago, I
(16:44):
wrote this book that is kind ofa cult favorite and that's
called Help First.
So if I shift aside, you can seeit.
I wrote Help First back in 2018because a lot of gym owners at
that point, didn't even want todo marketing.
They thought that marketing feltslimy.
Like, oh God, I've got to trickpeople.
I've got to convince people togive me their money.
And I wanted to show them thatmarketing wasn't about tricking
(17:07):
people or taking their money.
Marketing is the first act ofcoaching.
And marketing is coaching peopleto come to your gym, coaching
them to sign up, and thencoaching them to push their
knees out in the air squat.
That marketing should feel goodbecause you're saving a person's
life, but it should also feelgood while you're doing it.
And the way that you do that isby helping them first.
(17:29):
So I'm helping you first rightnow.
I'm helping you by giving youbooks.
I'm helping you by every singleday for the last decade, giving
you content, checklists, toolsto grow your gym.
That alone will not usuallysolve your problem.
But hundreds of people havewritten me and said, Coop, I
read this book and I feel somuch better.
I read this book.
I followed this tactic.
I made some money.
Long-term, your clients and thepeople in your communities, they
(17:52):
still need a coach.
And long-term, I still believethat every entrepreneur should
have a coach.
Entrepreneurship is the hardestsport there is.
You need to have a coach.
You need to have somebody byyour side with you on the bench
telling you get in there,telling you get out of there,
take a break or swingdifferently.
That's what a coach does.
And I believe that everyentrepreneur needs one.
(18:15):
But our coaches also needcoaching.
People who want to be coaches atour gyms need help.
They need help getting clientsresults.
So years ago, when somebodywould come into Two Brain,
they'd be a gym owner and they'dhave like, a coaching staff that
was seven, eight, nine out of10, like amazing coaches.
(18:35):
And their business couldn'tsupport them because the
business was like a one out of10 or a two out of 10.
And so they would churn throughthese excellent coaches and they
would themselves like lose theirpassion for coaching because
they just couldn't feed theirfamily.
There was this mismatch betweenthe business and their coaching
excellence.
And a lot of us want to believethat being an excellent coach
(18:56):
will just like Fix the business,right?
If I get better, if I get thecertification, if I take that
course, that's going to pull thebusiness up to my level of
coaching.
It's not true.
This has a name.
It's common in every industry.
It's called the technician'scurse.
What will save your business isbeing good at business.
But now that we've produced somany successful gym owners, like
(19:17):
we've had 2,500 gyms through ourprogram worldwide on every
continent in almost everycountry.
What we see now is that we'vegot these businesses that are
like a nine or a 10 out of 10.
And they have opportunities forcoaches to make a full-time
living.
And they don't have people whocan live up to that role.
(19:38):
They need to bring their coachesfrom a seven to a nine.
Or maybe like their pricing isgreat.
Their marketing is amazing.
Their retention is pretty good.
But now it's actually theproduct that's their weakest
link.
Even though their product hasn'tchanged, it's still like an
eight out of 10.
Everything else is a nine now.
Things are great.
And now it's time to improvetheir coaching.
(19:58):
So what they wanted to do washelp their coaches become as
good as they are as gym owners.
And so we wrote Help Best tohelp coaches help people best.
Look, for too long, the fitnessindustry has been selling stuff
that it didn't really deliveron.
And saying things like, wechange people's lives, or we
save you from the hospital, orwe save you from decrepitude, or
(20:21):
we give you back your autonomy,your physical freedom.
And nobody's been measuringthat.
So it's not really true.
And that's why it feels falsewhen we say it.
And when we do post up on socialmedia, like, when you work out,
your whole life works out.
What does that actually mean?
And so I wanted to write a bookabout what it actually takes to
change somebody's life, how youcan actually make the claim that
(20:44):
You've extended their lifespanor their health span and how to
tie new science into yourcoaching.
It walks you through a processthat's called the prescriptive
model about programming betterand better and better for each
individual client in the gym andhow to do that if you've got a
group coaching gym, how to dothat if you've got a one-on-one
or a semi-private or a smallgroup gym, how to measure client
(21:05):
outcomes.
How do you actually know thatyou're getting them results?
Because I'll tell you, it's morethan just the client saying, I
love this place or I We've gotsuch a great community.
When a client can come to youand say, hey, I'm off metformin.
Hey, my doctor wants to know howyou did that.
Hey, I was never supposed to getpregnant.
And guess what, coach?
I'm pregnant.
When somebody comes to you andsays, I've never felt this good
(21:28):
in years, or I feel like I didwhen I was 30, or hey, this
Christmas, I did stuff that Icouldn't do with my grandkids
three years ago.
That is how you know.
That is the potential that weall have.
to really change these lives inmeasurable and meaningful ways.
And we can do that, but we needto be specific about it.
We need to be intentional aboutit.
And we can't just hope that wecan be the best CrossFit coach
(21:51):
ever and hope that will savethem.
It's not enough.
It is necessary, butinsufficient to be a great coach
at your method.
You also need to know, here'swhat my client wants and prove
that you're getting them there.
You can be the best coach onpaper.
Absolutely.
You can have the mostcertifications.
You can have a black belt incoaching, whatever that means.
(22:12):
But if your clients are notgetting the results that they
signed up to get, we're failingthem.
And that's what Help Best isabout, is helping them get the
results that they want in ameasurable and repeatable way so
that you can build a system ofexcellence in your gym.
Look, if you're the only gym intown that's getting people
results, that might not beenough to guarantee your
(22:35):
success.
But it is still necessary forsuccess.
On top of that, you're stillgoing to have to market.
You're still going to have tosell.
You're still going to have to bea good gym owner.
You can't just be a good coach,but you must be a good coach.
It is necessary but insufficientfor having a successful gym.
And when you become a good gymowner, you need to make good
(22:56):
coaches in your gym.
You can't just invest indifferent certifications that
they want to take and put themthrough the Kids Cert and put
them through the Speed Cert.
You have to create...
an opportunity for them to exceland they have to excel.
And that's what Help Best is allabout.
Now you can get that Help Bestbook free.
You can tell all your coaches toget it for free this week too,
(23:17):
if you want to.
We're giving them away for freebecause I am here to help you
first and help you best.
Look, there's a lot of businesscoaches and gurus, and there's
still some ad agencies around inthe fitness world too.
They come and go.
But the reality is that once youread these books, you'll know
how to tell when something islegit and true and helpful
(23:38):
because you can just hold themup and say, which metric does
this improve?
You'll know that.
You can hold it up and say,where does this fit into my
golden hour?
You'll be able to determinethat.
You can hold it up and say like,will this actually help me get
my clients better results?
Or is it just like hype andhyperbole and excitement?
You'll be able to know that.
That's really what I'm trying toget out in my books.
(23:59):
Now, I don't make money frombooks.
So I'm not giving away a milliondollars here.
What we do is we sell books andmy wife and I donate all of the
royalties to charity.
This week though, instead ofpaying full price for a book and
having me donate the royalties,do this.
Go get the book.
If it helps you, talk to usabout mentorship.
(24:20):
If it helps you only a littlebit and you make 10 bucks,
donate that money to charity ifyou want to, or donate it to
taking your wife for coffee.
That's worthwhile too.
But this week, I want to makesure that you've got at least
the knowledge to make your gymgrow.
Because I know that you've gotthe motivation.
I know that you've got theintention.
You just need the action.
(24:41):
The books will give youeverything you need except the
clear call to action to actuallydo the work.
And it's my hope that afterreading one of these books,
you're going to send me amessage on Facebook, Coop.
I read the book.
I did the thing.
That to me will be worth waymore than the royalties that we
make from the books.
I'm going to ask you what yournext best step is.
(25:04):
And hopefully you can tell methat too.
But the place to get started iswith these books.
So go on Amazon.
I've got some links.
This week, the Kindle version ofthese books are free to you
between the 4th and the 8th.
Download them all if you wantto.
Save them for a rainy day.
Just promise me you'll takeaction and promise me you'll
keep growing your gym.
because that is what we're gonnaneed to turn the tide on
(25:24):
healthcare and save more lives.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
If you can't find the books onAmazon or something, Just type
in my name.
There's another actor that likesto call himself Chris Cooper,
just to feel good about himself.
But you can just go intogymownersunited.com.
That's our free Facebook group.
You can discuss which book isbest for me.
You can send me a message onFacebook and I'll respond
personally and tell you whichbook I recommend for you.
(25:47):
Or if you just want to pop inand say, hey, Coop, I got your
book and this is the action thatI took.
I would love it.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for saving people.
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