April 4, 2025 • 30 mins
Struggling to pay yourself enough as a gym owner? James Harris of Brentwood Barbell went from barely scraping by to generating $30,000 a month in revenue—and today, he’s sharing exactly how he did it.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host Mike Warkentin sits down with James to unpack his journey from burnout to six-figure success.
A former physical therapist turned gym owner, James reveals how Two-Brain Business helped him triple his revenue in less than three years.
He also shares how ego nearly cost him his business and explains why “going out of business isn't the worst thing—staying in business and not making money is.”
James breaks down the key tactics that transformed his business, including tracking his metrics, planning his year, raising rates and building “gap strategies” to overcome revenue shortfalls.
Tune in to hear how to systemize your gym and boost your income, just like James did. Then, shoot Chris Cooper a DM to get free copies of his sample profit-and-loss statement (P&L) and annual plan.
You can find Chris—and thousands more supportive gym owners—in Gym Owners United, linked below.
Links
Gym Owners United
Book a Call
02:17 - Journey with Two-Brain
05:26 - Overview of James’ gym
09:37 - Low points to $100k NOB
13:28 - Paying yourself more
21:21 - What’s next for James?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You can earn a hundred grand from your gym.
And I have proof. His name isJames Harris, and he's here to
tell you how he did it. He runsBrentwood Barbell in Missouri,
and his story is next. This isRun a Profitable Gym. I'm your
host, Mike Kinin . Please don'tsubscribe wherever you're
watching or listing. And nowlet's get into Jim Ownership,
Brent Wood Barbell in Missouri.
James Harris. How are youtoday?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm good, Mike. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I am fired up. We were talking before the show
and I almost asked you to shareyour secrets before we hit
record. We're recording now, . I wanna know the
story. And , uh, you weretalking a little bit about
struggles , uh, before youfound success. So put this in
perspective for people whomight be struggling out there
right now. I was one of them atone point. What was your lowest
point as a gym owner?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, so a little bit of background. When I came
in , uh, to , uh, owning a gym,I , uh, by trade I was a
physical therapist. And , um,and so I was already used to
working with folks and I knewthat I wanted to do something
in sort of health and fitnessin , in that space. And so I
sort of , I took the leapthinking, this'll be easy. No
. And , um, it turnsout it's not easy. And so about
(01:06):
five years or so into thatprocess, it was somewhere
around 2020 I kind of came to aa point where I had this
revelation and , um, I wasstruggling. We were paying our
bills, but there really wasn'tanything. Uh, there was, there
was more month than money tomake, you know, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It sure does. I've been there
Speaker 2 (01:23):
. Yeah. And
so I, I kind of just, I, I just
was sick of it. And so Idecided then I had this
epiphany that like, going outof business isn't the worst
thing. Staying in business andnot making money is the worst
thing.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, you're right.
Right,
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Right. Because if you go out of business, you
have time, you have time tobuild something new, you have
time to start over. If you'rejust sort of in the middle and
working your tail off and notmaking a profit, you don't have
time or money,
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You can't see daylight at all . You're
spinning plates and it's just,it's a horrible feeling. You
feel like you're trapped.
Honestly,
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's pretty brutal.
Uh, you're working all the timeand your boss is a tyrant , uh,
, you know? Yep . And ,uh, you know, it's like there's
no insight . So I got to thatpoint and I realized that
something had to change. And itwas probably within the year,
somewhere around 20, maybe late21, where I decided , uh, it's
time to, it's time to findsomebody who's done this
(02:14):
already. And let me justexpedite the process.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay. So that's when you hooked up with two Brainin
?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's when I connected with two Brainin .
And , and to be fullytransparent, it wasn't the
first time I had done a callbefore. And you know, like in
typical sort of like no sweatintro fashion, I was like,
let's do this. And then Ibacked out.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay. So I gotta ask, why did you back out and
then what made you come back toit?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah . Well, I think it was a combination of things.
Uh , at first I sort of thoughtthat I, this is what I do. I
know what I'm doing, or I sortof felt like I should be able
to do this. And so I , I guessI would summarize that as ego
to some extent. I found it verydifficult to ask for help. And
then, you know, to be fullyhonest with you, I didn't have
any money. Like, I just didn'thave any money to pay for a
(02:58):
coach, and I thought, I canbarely pay myself now, how do I
pay someone else? And so it ,it was really just a very
shortsighted or short, youknow, narrow view of like the
situation I was only thinkingabout tomorrow. Right. And so,
you know, that was when Idecided that either A, I had to
figure out how to make thisthing work or just go be a
(03:19):
physical therapist, like , you know, which is,
you know, a lot of peopledidn't have that in their, in
their back pocket, so to speak.
So I, at any point I could havejust said, you know what, I'm
out, you know, and I could havewent and worked somewhere and,
you know, I , I wouldn't havehad a lot of what I love about
owning a gym in terms offreedom and terms and , and
that, but I, I could have atleast put more money in my
pocket. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And there are a lot of people that were in that
same spot, you know, and that'sthe thing about gym owners who
need help often don't have alot of money coming along. And
that's the really hard part.
And the cool part about thementorship program is that it's
set up in the first stage tohelp you get quick wins and
build momentum so that you canactually see like, okay, I'm
not drowning in debt by pilingmore debt on as I'm paying for
mentorship. I'm actuallyearning some money. Was that
your experience? Did you findthat once you started up,
(04:02):
things started to move quick?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
They moved very quickly financially, I would
say within, you know, a year wehad already, the program had
more than paid for itself,maybe a year and a half . But
it was, it was quick in termsof, and I'm, I'm basing that
off of what our revenue sort ofjumped when we started making
these changes in the business.
And so it was no time at allbefore it was like, wow,
(04:24):
coaching turns out, you know, Icoach for a living, turns out
this coaching thing works. Um,and so I think as a side
benefit, it gave me a trtremendous amount of insight
into now, like, talking tosomebody who's sort of sweating
a little bit about coming onand they're looking at the
investment and, and I get it.
It's like, look, man, I've beenin that chair too. I, I totally
understand where you're comingfrom. But it was, it was a very
(04:46):
quick turnaround.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Okay. So that's good to hear. And you know, it ,
it's interesting 'cause youtalk about the ego thing. I had
the same thing where I shouldbe able to figure it out. I
imagine you're probably areally great physical therapist
and you're probably a greatcoach, but no one taught us
entrepreneurial entrepreneurialskills. You know, that was my
thing too, where I think I wasan okay trainer, absolutely
decent at media and so forth,but like, I had not a clue
about running a business. Andall of a sudden I'm trying to
run my business by teachingsquats better, and the things
(05:09):
just don't match up, you know,and that's where I need help.
And at my , my lowest point, Iwas losing $5,000 a month, and
that's what I called ChrisCooper and said like, he was a
personal friend I'd worked with, uh, in another job, and I
actually , I'm screwed. I needhelp. And that's where we
connected and it worked out ,uh, really well. Eventually I
had to put in the work thoughand swallow the egos the same
as you did. So let me ask youthis absolutely 62nd summary.
What's your business? Tell mewhat you do. Like who do you
(05:30):
sell to? Uh, what's your spacelike staff , all the stuff?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, for sure. So we we're serving mostly folks
that are, you know, 40 to 60years old. We've got younger,
we've got older. Uh , butthat's kind of like our, our
primary demographic. It's aboutequal male female split, maybe
maybe 55% female, 45 male, butpretty down the middle. And
we're mostly working with folksthat have in some way , shape
or form come to understand theimportance of strength
(05:55):
training. But they don't knowlike where to start. They don't
know how to do it. They'retypically completely new or
maybe they had a previousexperience that didn't go so
well for them. They know it'simportant. They know it's part
of healthy aging and, and, youknow, maintaining all the
things they want to do in life,but they just don't know where
to start. And so that'spredominantly who we're
(06:15):
serving. Uh, and we work withthem through three primary
programs. We have a , um, ofcourse, personal training or
private coaching. We have groupcoaching, and then we have what
we call hybrid, which is acombination of the two or , or
someone will get like apersonal training session a
week, and then they'll backfilltheir program with group group
training. And so that's kind ofhow we work with them. And then
(06:36):
as far as our staff, we havethree full-time coaches, and
that's including me. Uh, andthen we have three part-time
coaches, and we just brought onan intern this week. And so our
goal is by the end of May tohave her up and running and put
it , you know, put her in theclass rotation. And so as far
as the space goes, we sort ofgot pushed into the space that
(06:58):
we're in. Um, we , uh, we werein a building that we liked
when I first started, but thecity was rezoning and
restructuring. They built thisbeautiful park, and so they
were like, you guys gotta go.
So we, we kind of got pushedinto space , pushed
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Up to local businesses. Yeah. .
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I know, right? And so we kind of got pushed into a
space , uh, it's 6,000 squarefeet and , and frankly we did
not need 6,000, but I wanted tobe in this community. And, and
so I said, you know, I'm gonnatake the leap. And so that's,
that's our space. Uh , it'sabout 6,000 square feet and
it's, it's, it's actuallyperfect now because we've grown
so much. Um, and we have itbroken down. Basically half of
(07:35):
the space is all power racks,barbells , uh, super cool folks
get their own space to lift.
And then , um, the other halfis kind of, it's our turf area.
There's like some generalaccessory type stuff, dumbbell
stuff, that kind of stuff. And,and so the layout just works
perfectly for us.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay. So that's, that's a really great summary
of what you're all about. Notuncommon, like you're doing a ,
you have your market dialed in,you've got a nice open space
warehouse concept, I'massuming, and then you've got
like free weights and you'redoing personal training, some
group stuff, and then thehybrid plan, which I love
between the two of them,because who, which, which group
client couldn't benefit fromone extra personal training
session a month, literally allof them. That's a great, great
(08:13):
thing that I wish I had done.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's actually really funny because we only have ,
have that program at therequest of a client, ,
and I , and I , at the time, Isaid, I don't know. And , uh,
now there's like, we have 15people in that program, and
that's a a , that's a $350 amonth program, right? And it's
like, are you kidding me? LikeI, so it was , it's just kind
of funny how it , it took offlike that, but it's a great
(08:36):
program and people love it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Someone needed to smack me over the face with a
sandbag back in the day. Andtell me about that one. I wish
I had started that because Iwould've been just our a RM at
my gym was , uh, when we werestruggling, was in like the 1
18, 1 20 range, something likethat. If I had just sold, you
know, a $50 PT session, which Ithink is too low of a price,
but if I had sold $50, all of asudden, sudden I'm up to 1 60,
1 70, my group prep classeswere priced properly, all of a
(08:58):
sudden I'm over 200. And thenlife is beautiful. And gym
owners, if you're listing outthere a $205 average revenue
per member with 150 members,that can equal a hundred
thousand dollars take home , wehave the spreadsheets. You can
literally see that it workslike a charm. So those are some
numbers that you can target.
Can you go higher ? Yeah. Someof our top a RM gyms are like
$500. It's insane. Absolutely.
(09:20):
You're able to do, but startwith 2 0 5 and one 50, and then
you have the world at your , atyour feet, and you can decide
how you wanna scale. So let'stalk about what you've done.
I'm very curious to see. So youtalked , talked about
struggling. Obviously that wasin the 2020 to 2022 period
where things were not easy ongyms and service businesses.
Let's talk about low pointsgoing to a hundred grand a year
or more. What are some of thekey moments that happened? Was
(09:41):
it like, you know, a hockeystick where it just shot up? Or
was it like a staircase foryou? How did revenue and growth
and income go for you? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's, that's a great question. And I kind of,
in order to get ready this forthis , uh, I kind of outlined a
couple of things that I thinknow looking back on were
particularly instrumental. Thefirst one was, we've already
talked about asking for help.
Like, and I like that soundssort of cliche, or maybe we
talk about it a lot, you know,in this group, but like, be
willing to ask for help. And sothat was hard for me. I'm kind
(10:11):
of a do it yourself kind ofguy. And so I did that and I
got into the on-ramp program,and then a few things were
particularly impactful during,on-ramp. The first thing was
get organized, right? So like,I had some version of a
playbook, but it was kind ofsloppy. So I really took that
exercise very seriously. I wentback and I wrote down all of
(10:31):
the things, and I literallywrote out the gold standard for
each hat or for each role. AndI was, I mean, I , our playbook
is like 50 pages long. It's,it's, I look at it now and I'm
like, oh , I was, I , I like tohear myself talk, but .
But at the time, that was veryimportant to me. And so , um, I
really wanted to create allthose expectations, all those
roles. And then the next thingthat I think was pretty
(10:53):
important in terms of justgetting organized was outlining
those three services that wejust talked about and really
sort of defining what each oneis and, and the price points
and the expectations from usand from the client and, and
just really writing that downand getting clear with it. Um,
and then probably the biggestthing, and I'm ashamed to admit
that I didn't do this, so ifsomeone's listening and they're
(11:15):
not writing an annual plan,like that was enormous. Like,
everything that we were doingup to 2021 or 22 was reactive.
Like it was chasing our tails.
Like every single thing we didwas in reaction to something.
And , um, you know, when, whenI started OnRamp and I'm
working with my coach, andlike, I'm like, oh my gosh,
(11:37):
like, we're looking ahead.
Like, and so that just changedmy whole perspective. And I ,
again, I know that sounds likelike a well duh moment, but
like for me, that was brand newstuff. So the annual plan was
big. Um, and then I , the lastpiece I think that was, you
know, particularly importantwas , um, I was the guy, you
know, before that used to say ,uh, we've got money in the
(11:58):
account, it's fine. Like, thatwas my monthly metrics. Yeah ,
yeah . Like, it , it's, so nowI'm like, oh my gosh, like, I
can't believe we've made itfour or five years. But , um,
that was a big deal because itgives you, you know, context on
like, okay, here's my plan bythe first quarter of the month
or whatever, here's where Iwant to be, and I can now look
at that and go, yeah, smoothsailing, or we're behind and
(12:21):
how can we change that? Ormaybe we're ahead. And I just
didn't have any of that insightbefore I had a coach. And so I
was terrified all the time,like, you know, and so now when
you have data, you're like,things are far more logical and
rational and less reactive,which I cannot overstate the
significance of that.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Listeners, I'm gonna give you two gifts right now
that will help you out. If youare listening to JA James and
saying , uh, that kind of feelslike me. First thing, you can
get a sample p and l statement,go on Facebook, find Chris
Cooper and send him a DM andask for a sample p and l. He
will send it to you and you canstart working on the metrics.
If you don't have one of these,use his and just plug in your
own numbers and you'll start tosee, this is the first step
(13:02):
toward financial literacy. It'sa huge deal. You can also send
him a thank you and then afollow up message that says, by
the way, can I have your annualplan? He will literally send
you a 12 month annual plan withkey stuff already on it. You
can add to it or subtract asyou see fit, but there are
tried and tested tactics onthere that will help you make
more money. So if your summersare crappy, send him a message
right now and figure out whatshould I do now so that my
(13:24):
summer revenue doesn't drop. Sothose are two gifts that you
can have right away. I wannaask you this, paying yourself,
was it difficult to do? BecauseI talked to Jim Otter
yesterday. She started gettingsome success. She started $0
income, she got a mentor before, uh, as she opened her gym,
and she went from zero. Andthen she realized she was
making money, but she didn'twanna pay herself. And it took
(13:45):
a measure to say, you need tostart paying yourself. How did
that go for you? I was the sameway. I was very crabby about
keeping money in the businessand not rewarding myself. What
did you do?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, I , that's a man, that's a great point. I
think a lot of us get intocoaching and we have this
attitude that we would do itfor free , uh, which is great
and terrible, right? Um ,didn't
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Get burned out and cranky
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Ab absolutely, it's not a long-term strategy. It's
great to have the passion tolove it that much, but you've
got to reward yourself forputting in the work. And so
that was hard for me. Um, andI, you know, what I did was ,
um, working with my coach, shemade me increase it. Like she
just literally said, by thetime I talk to you next week,
(14:25):
you have to have increased your, the way you're paying
yourself. And so I, I paymyself currently a , a few
different ways. One way is, isI'm actually on the payroll.
And so I have kind of a, Iguess you'd call it a base.
Then I also do a profitdistribution each month. And
then the third way that I paymyself is the gym pays for some
of the things I enjoy in life,right? You know, whether it's
(14:45):
my truck payment or I go toanother gym and practice
jujitsu, my gym pays me to do,you know, that kind of stuff.
And so those are kind of thethree ways that I pay myself.
But , uh, it was hard. I'm notgonna lie to you. And I think ,
uh, I think it's a combinationof a, the , the fact that we
just are so passionate abouthelping people , uh, that you
kind of have this weird feelingabout getting rewarded for it
(15:07):
because you were like mehistorically, you didn't get
much reward. Um, and then alsoI think it's a confidence
thing. You know, like I said,when I was sort of in that
reaction mode and I didn't knowwhat was coming up and I didn't
know what the plan was, I waskind of prepared for the worst
at all times. Like, it's okayif the , if the account is this
at this time of the month,because I know that the total
(15:28):
month looks like this and Idon't need to freak out and not
pay myself this week becausewe're in a certain place, it's,
and so it just gives you kindof the 10,000 foot view, if you
will. And I, I just can't, youknow, I can't say how, how life
changing that that was for me.
So
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, you need someone sometimes to tell you
to pay yourself. And it , it'salmost, it sounds silly because
there's other people like wantmore money, obviously, but I do
is the same way. I, I heldstuff in the business and I
didn't pay myself for anything.
And it was, it was justdemoralizing after a while.
There was no reward for it. And, and the reward was helping
people obviously, but like,that didn't put groceries in
in the fridge, youknow? So that was the thing
(16:06):
where , what we'll do now, andthe , the mentorship program
has evolved a little bit overthe last few years since you
joined, where now when peoplecome on, they're gonna find
ways to sell some stuff andprice and create service
packages, exactly like youtalked about right away. You're
gonna get some new members,you're gonna drive up your a RM
and you're gonna take thepressure off by generating some
revenue. At that point, onceyou know the fires are out,
(16:27):
you're going to systemize yourbusiness. And that's exactly
what you talked about, James,where you're like, you're, now,
you're making sure thateverything runs properly. What
is my intake? What is myretention? How are clients
coming in? How long are theystaying? What am I doing? How
am I staffing, playbooks, allthat stuff. And then from
there, and this is the stagewhere I think you're at now, is
like you've hit some of yourmajor targets. You're no longer
putting out fires every day .
(16:48):
Your business runs pretty well.
You can then decide what elseyou want to do. And that's our
stage three where you're likethinking, what is my perfect
day? Is it like sitting on thebeach and working for an hour
and checking in? Or is it likeopening a second business,
replicating my original gym?
What is it? And that's thewhole progression now. But the
whole goal is if you're outthere and you're struggling
right now, the first stage isdesigned to put you on the
launchpad and give you somebreathing room by generating
(17:10):
some momentum very quickly, andthen systemize things so that
you can like really start toscale up. So talk to me what
the, how is a mentor , we've ,we've hit on this a couple
times, brushing, but obviouslythe direct question, how
important was a mentor to makeyou do this stuff? Would you
have done it even with theinfo? Like if you, all this
stuff is out there for free,would you have done this
yourself without a mentor totell you to do it?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Well, I can, I can answer that. The answer is no,
because I had been followingtwo brain the whole time I
owned my business.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Oh, so you saw the stuff but didn't do
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It? Oh, yeah. Well, and I would even download the,
I would do all the stuff,right? I was checking in, I was
reading the articles, I wouldgo to the web , you know, I , I
was, I was plugged in for sure.
But a, it's really easy to missa deadline with yourself,
right? And then b, I just, Ididn't really understand how it
all fit together, right? Like,you know, it's like I can tell
somebody, well, in order to getyou stronger, we need to get
(17:59):
your squat, your deadlift andyour overhead press up how you
specifically do that. Like,that's where the sauce is ,
right? Like, that's the magic.
It's like, okay, we know thethings like, okay, increasing
revenue, okay, but what doesthat mean? Like, and so it just
having somebody to sort of seeit from the top down and
explain, well, here's why we dothe playbook. Here's why we
(18:20):
define the services. Here's whyyou must raise your rates. By
the way, that was terrifying.
Here's, you know, like,
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Did you , did you lose all your clients? I gotta
ask, did you lose all yourclients when
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You did ? We didn't lose any , uh, well actually
take that , but we did loselike three or four. But, but
our revenue shot updramatically. We did that. Um,
uh, it's been a couple yearsnow, and we did a big increase.
And I als not only did Iincrease the dollar amount, I
increased the unit of time. Sowe went from month to month to
28 day cycles. Oh yeah. Okay.
So it, so all of that combinedwas like that year we grew like
(18:52):
20%.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And so your income grows right, as a result of
that
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Right away, right? I mean, and not only that, you,
you end up, or it , let's sayyou did lose a few people. They
were probably on the way outanyways.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They were looking for a reason. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
They were waiting.
And the people that stuckaround have a vested interest
in you succeeding. They're,they're there, they're , they
want you to win so they canwin. And so you end up with a
little bit tighter group, youknow, and , and people that are
a little more sort of , uh,going in the same direction
that you're going. And , andwhat I've learned is that, you
know, every so often there'llbe a little bit of like a two ,
(19:28):
or like, we just had like agroup of people leave, like it
was , and , and , and it's likewe're just kind of heading in a
different direction. And, andthat like couple years ago,
that would've put me in atailspin. And , um, and when I
talked to my mentor just lastweek, I said, you know what? I
said, I'm not nervous at allabout this. And I was like,
should I be nervous about this?
And she's like, no. She's like,they were just going in a
(19:49):
different direction than you.
And that's okay. Like, it's,it's all good. You know,
they'll find what they needand, and we'll find who's on,
on our mission and it's allgood. Um, but that's, again,
that all comes back to justhaving a plan, having a vision,
having a mission, and thenunderstanding all those little
pieces fit into that.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Now , listeners know that we have a specific plan
for rate increases. So whenit's time to do that, there are
figure out how many, whatpercent are we going up, how
are we rolling it out, what'sthe timeline? And then if
someone's gonna be account ,hold you accountable and say,
we're doing this this week andI've done it myself, it is very
scary. But with the help ofsomeone who has a plan, totally
fine. And we've had, I , wehave one mentor, one of our
team members has done, I thinkit's 85 rate increases so far.
(20:28):
Oh my gosh . And not one gym isshut down. Oh my , yeah. Isn't
that crazy? Greg Strauss's name85 . Yeah , 85. It's , that's ,
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's,
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And I did the math and it , he's made millions of
dollars for gyms. If youactually think about how much,
you know, you bet increased , Ibet . And it's, this gym
increased over, like spinningup now five years now, seven
years, and like millions ofdollars. Not one of those gyms
lost all their clients. Not oneof those gyms went out of
business because there's aplan. And that's what I'm
getting, is that there is aplan for this stuff. And this,
(20:54):
when you increase rates and,you know, reflect the value
that you're provid to clients,that drops to your bottom line,
and you can make more as anowner. It's scary to do on your
own. I would not recommend youdo this with the help of a
mentor, but I'll tell you this,the first thing you can do
right now, today, the nextperson you sell to do not offer
a discount. They don't evenknow their discounts exist. So
you just stop giving discountsright away. That's a step in
(21:15):
the right direction. You canpay yourself more. So that's a
huge one. Uh, I won't dwell onthat. Facts , other shows about
that. And I wanna get back toJane . So I'll ask you this,
your next goals for thisbusiness, now that you've got
some stability, you've like,you're, you're going forward
with confidence, you've got amentor, what are you looking to
do next? What's the big job ?
Jobs ?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I mean, I have, I have some revenue goals
of course, that I wannacontinue to work towards , uh,
for the gym as a whole, the waythat we've operated , uh, as
far as my mentor and I, we willset like a target revenue, pr,
Hey, let's shoot for X and thenX will kind of happen two or
three times, maybe not in arow, maybe in a row sometimes.
(21:52):
And then once we've kind of hitthat, then it's like, let's
make that the new normal,right? So what we've been doing
, uh, recently is like 30 KAmonth is the new normal. Like,
let's just make that the,that's the baseline, right? And
so, so we're, we're kind of inthat phase. And so that
process, I, you know, I plan oncontinuing that process up, you
(22:12):
know, a few more cycles. Sofinancially that's kind of what
we're doing in terms of justsort of the bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can I ask you one thing before you go on to that
one ? Yeah. What was yourbaseline back when you were
like, in the 20, 20, 21 range,do you know?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah. Uh, ,
I can give you a range. So a
typical month would've beenmore like 18.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah. So we're talking almost double over the
last five years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
. Yeah .
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Congratulations on that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And so, and , and honestly, a lot of it , uh, I
mean, I started working withtwo Brain , it would've been
July, I looked this up, it wasJuly of 22. So this has all
really happened in less thanthree years.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Three years even.
Whoa. So that's incredible.
Yeah. Wow. So , yeah .
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So, yeah. So I mean, we've, you know, we've, we've
done so much in the last threeand a half years. Yeah, it was
18, we might see a 20, youknow, 21. But that was like,
you know, how did we do that?
You know, it's like, let's dothat again. Well ,
Speaker 1 (23:05):
When you, when you work with your mentor now, so
you set these goals, it's onething to say, I wanna make 30 K
in revenue, or whatever it is,or whatever your number is. Did
you get tactics and a plan forhow to do that?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah. So yeah , great question . Yeah . So
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's the part that people miss,
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right? So one of the things I mentioned a couple
times now is the metrics. Andso the way I have it set up is
each month , uh, I, I do ourmonthly metrics from the
previous month, right? So Ilook at all the things, I look
at our revenue expenses, allthe stuff, and then, so I kind
of make my piece with that. Andwhere we landed and what we
did. And then another documentthat I have that's very closely
(23:40):
related to the metrics documentis a projections document. So
our payments coming in are acombination of manual payments
and automated, and typicallyour group and hybrid stuff is
the automated stuff. And thenPT is a little more volatile.
And so we typically invoicethose clients directly, you
know, for the upcoming month.
And so there's a combinationthere. But what we do is we
(24:00):
have a process for gettingprojections in the first seven
days of the month, right? So Iknow, okay, in April we're
projected to make X Well, if,if X is less than the goal,
then I, I put together what wejust , my mentor and I just
call 'em gap strategies. And solike, I did a quick little
example. So like, let's say Ineed an extra 5K to hit my
(24:22):
goal. So I know for us, that'sfive new client intro programs
that's turning those fiveclients over into their monthly
rx, which is group or privateor hybrid. And then , uh,
typically there's a specialtyprogram going on. So this month
specifically, we had rightunder, I think it was 13 kids
sign up for an eight weekprogram, and that's $2,500. And
(24:43):
so when we, when we put thefive intros together, we do the
five turnovers, we do the kidsspecialty, that's like $5,500.
So that was my gap strategiesfor this month.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
This is like dark wizardry to me if you told me
the stuff back in 2010, right?
Or it's like Exactly . You havea plan to make revenue next
month other than just like sitand wait and hope
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Ex . Exactly . So like, you know, my, my mentor
would be like, okay, so I said, well, here's, here's the
projection. Here's here's whatwe're, here's what , here's the
goal. And then she would say,well , what are you gonna do
about it? And like, at first, Ididn't know the answers,
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Right ? Don't put up some ,
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Please tell me like
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah , yeah. You know , that's when the tool ,
their toolkit comes in. Right?
Now you can go in there and saylike , absolutely , this is,
you know, you , I need thisthing. Oh, here's how I'm gonna
add revenue. I have a plug andplay kids program. I have a
plug and play older adults ,barbell program, nutrition
habits, coaching, whatever.
Right? Yeah. It's,
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's a game changer, right? And, and , you know ,
I'm not gonna, there are monthswhere we just, you know, we
didn't hit it, you know,whatever, most of the time we
do. But it happens. But thepoint is, you're not just
sitting, waiting to see what'sgonna happen. The you're,
you're actively participating.
And that , like, that is thebiggest single thing that has
changed between or since notbeing with Two Brain and being
(25:55):
with Two Brain is the abilityto control my future to some
extent, right? To the degreethat any of us can. Uh, I feel
like I can. And I did not havethat before. Like that was just
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Oh, I happy to hear that. Yeah. And that's the
accountability factor ofsomeone saying, did you do the
thing that I told you to dothat's battle tested , that's
worked 500 times in other gymsaround the world? And you're
like , uh, yeah, I did that.
Oh, and it's working and itworks.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I know.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah. Well, I cut you off before, 'cause I wanted
to hit this, but what were yousaying ? You had some big
picture stuff that you wantedto get into , uh, for the
business. What else have yougot going on?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, the big picture stuff is,
is a little murky to be honestwith you. Uh, what I've come to
realize is the gym ultimatelywill be , uh, I want the gym to
be a springboard into otherthings. And I, but I'm not sure
specifically what those thingsare. I'm sort of interested in
some real estate stuff. I'msort of interested maybe in
owning another small localbusiness, like that's kind of ,
(26:49):
uh, uh, maybe enticing a littlebit. So I , I don't know
exactly, but I'm at a point nowwhere I can start to see that
it's possible to at least startlooking or at least start
thinking, right? I don't, I'mnot consumed every single
minute of every single day bykeeping the lights on anymore.
And so that really frees you upto do a little bit of like
(27:10):
planning and dreaming and, youknow, that kind of stuff. Uh,
which is, which is fun.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And it's neat to see what
some of our, we call them thetinkers, that's the tinker
level , uh, Jim Miller , that'sour, our , you know, call 'em
stage three essentially, wherethey're, they have this
security, they're making abouta hundred grand, and their
businesses are running prettymuch by themselves, and they do
certainly incredible stuff.
We're talking like Airbnbscrypto commercial properties,
buying their buildings. So oneguy started a , a distillery,
(27:34):
another guy started a , a , asports beverage company. Like,
there's incredible stuff thathappens in that group. And so
when you have the time and youknow, money to do that, away
you go. And then you startthinking about retirement,
legacy building for kids,families, the whole thing. Some
people just straight up retireand like, there's all sorts of
options, but that's where itgets to. So we've taken like
the arc from you startingstruggling here, you're up at
(27:54):
the other end. There are peopleout there that are at the
beginning. And what would yousay to someone out there who's
thinking like, Ugh , I amnervous about this. I'd love,
you know, to do better with mybusiness, but I don't know how,
and I'm scared. What do you sayto that person?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Ask for help.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah ,
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Seriously. I, I know we've said that now a couple
times, you don't have to dothis on your own right now.
There's a very small percentageof human beings that just for
whatever reason can do thatkind of stuff. That's just not
most of us
Speaker 1 (28:20):
What cost too, you know?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Well, absolutely not. Right? Even if, even if
you were able to get it, youknow, like I, I basically
flailed about for like fouryears. Yeah. And that's
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Four years of time .
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I'm , I'm four years behind where I could be. Me
too. Yeah , right . We , wecould be doing this meeting
about some stuff, like you'retalking about
Speaker 1 (28:38):
In Florida, person over cocktails,
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Ab absolutely. But yeah, so time, time is the, is
is really what's valuable. Andso if you can find a way to
save the time, my advice wouldbe to do that. 100%. Invest in
that. Um, and that'sfundamentally that has changed
for me where I, again, I said Iwas the DIY guy. I'm not so
much the DIY guy. If, if I'mcomfortable with something,
(29:02):
great, I'll do it. If I don'tknow, man, I can't wait to ask
somebody like, let me find outwho knows more about this than
me do . And I'll be the studentlike, right away, what's the
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Shortcut? I'll pay you for the shortcut. And it's
worth it in the end becauselike I , I figured out a few
things in gym ownership and ittook me too long and I waste a
lot of money. And I was veryfrustrated when I got the
answer given to me and someonesaid, do this. And I did it
like, raise your rates, forexample, and do it on this the
third of the month. Do it now.
All of a sudden things change .
Whereas I didn't have to beatmy head against the wall to try
and figure things out and getscared. So it reduced my
(29:31):
anxiety and it also just mademe take action and move. And
the time saving was enormous,but I had wasted too much time
at that point. So if you'relistening out there , uh, book
a call link in the show notes.
You can definitely talk tosomeone. They're gonna do a
deep dive in your business,find out your greatest areas of
opportunity and give you somesuggestions. If you like the
plan, jump in and you , uh,could one day be where James
is. James, congrats on yoursuccess and thanks for sharing
(29:52):
your story. I really appreciateit. Thanks,
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Mike. I really appreciate being on. It's , uh,
been a lot of fun talking about
Speaker 1 (29:57):
It. Yeah. We'll check in with you again and see
what you decide to do when youdecide to take the next step
and grow even further. Maybe ina second business or something
like that, you'll come back.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Absolutely can't wait.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
All right . That was James Harris. He might be back.
This is Run a Profitable Gym ,and I'm your host, Mike Warton
. And now here's Chris Cooperto bring founder with a final
message.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Hey, it's two Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a
quick note, we created the GymOwners United Facebook group to
help you run a profitable gym.
Thousands of gym owners, justlike you have already joined in
the group. We share soundadvice about the business of
fitness. Every day I answerquestions, I run free webinars,
and I give away all kinds ofgreat resources to help you
(30:34):
grow your gym. I'd love to haveyou in that group. It's Gym
Owners United on Facebook, orgo to gym owners united.com to
join. Do it today.
You can earn a hundred grand from your gym.
And I have proof. His name isJames Harris, and he's here to
tell you how he did it. He runsBrentwood Barbell in Missouri,
and his story is next. This isRun a Profitable Gym. I'm your
host, Mike Kinin . Please don'tsubscribe wherever you're
watching or listing. And nowlet's get into Jim Ownership,
Brent Wood Barbell in Missouri.
James Harris. How are youtoday?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm good, Mike. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I am fired up. We were talking before the show
and I almost asked you to shareyour secrets before we hit
record. We're recording now,
story. And , uh, you weretalking a little bit about
struggles , uh, before youfound success. So put this in
perspective for people whomight be struggling out there
right now. I was one of them atone point. What was your lowest
point as a gym owner?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, so a little bit of background. When I came
in , uh, to , uh, owning a gym,I , uh, by trade I was a
physical therapist. And , um,and so I was already used to
working with folks and I knewthat I wanted to do something
in sort of health and fitnessin , in that space. And so I
sort of , I took the leapthinking, this'll be easy. No
(01:06):
five years or so into thatprocess, it was somewhere
around 2020 I kind of came to aa point where I had this
revelation and , um, I wasstruggling. We were paying our
bills, but there really wasn'tanything. Uh, there was, there
was more month than money tomake, you know, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It sure does. I've been there
Speaker 2 (01:23):
was sick of it. And so Idecided then I had this
epiphany that like, going outof business isn't the worst
thing. Staying in business andnot making money is the worst
thing.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, you're right.
Right,
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Right. Because if you go out of business, you
have time, you have time tobuild something new, you have
time to start over. If you'rejust sort of in the middle and
working your tail off and notmaking a profit, you don't have
time or money,
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You can't see daylight at all . You're
spinning plates and it's just,it's a horrible feeling. You
feel like you're trapped.
Honestly,
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's pretty brutal.
Uh, you're working all the timeand your boss is a tyrant , uh,
no insight . So I got to thatpoint and I realized that
something had to change. And itwas probably within the year,
somewhere around 20, maybe late21, where I decided , uh, it's
time to, it's time to findsomebody who's done this
(02:14):
already. And let me justexpedite the process.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Okay. So that's when you hooked up with two Brainin
?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's when I connected with two Brainin .
And , and to be fullytransparent, it wasn't the
first time I had done a callbefore. And you know, like in
typical sort of like no sweatintro fashion, I was like,
let's do this. And then Ibacked out.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay. So I gotta ask, why did you back out and
then what made you come back toit?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah . Well, I think it was a combination of things.
Uh , at first I sort of thoughtthat I, this is what I do. I
know what I'm doing, or I sortof felt like I should be able
to do this. And so I , I guessI would summarize that as ego
to some extent. I found it verydifficult to ask for help. And
then, you know, to be fullyhonest with you, I didn't have
any money. Like, I just didn'thave any money to pay for a
(02:58):
coach, and I thought, I canbarely pay myself now, how do I
pay someone else? And so it ,it was really just a very
shortsighted or short, youknow, narrow view of like the
situation I was only thinkingabout tomorrow. Right. And so,
you know, that was when Idecided that either A, I had to
figure out how to make thisthing work or just go be a
(03:19):
physical therapist, like
you know, a lot of peopledidn't have that in their, in
their back pocket, so to speak.
So I, at any point I could havejust said, you know what, I'm
out, you know, and I could havewent and worked somewhere and,
you know, I , I wouldn't havehad a lot of what I love about
owning a gym in terms offreedom and terms and , and
that, but I, I could have atleast put more money in my
pocket. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And there are a lot of people that were in that
same spot, you know, and that'sthe thing about gym owners who
need help often don't have alot of money coming along. And
that's the really hard part.
And the cool part about thementorship program is that it's
set up in the first stage tohelp you get quick wins and
build momentum so that you canactually see like, okay, I'm
not drowning in debt by pilingmore debt on as I'm paying for
mentorship. I'm actuallyearning some money. Was that
your experience? Did you findthat once you started up,
(04:02):
things started to move quick?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
They moved very quickly financially, I would
say within, you know, a year wehad already, the program had
more than paid for itself,maybe a year and a half . But
it was, it was quick in termsof, and I'm, I'm basing that
off of what our revenue sort ofjumped when we started making
these changes in the business.
And so it was no time at allbefore it was like, wow,
(04:24):
coaching turns out, you know, Icoach for a living, turns out
this coaching thing works. Um,and so I think as a side
benefit, it gave me a trtremendous amount of insight
into now, like, talking tosomebody who's sort of sweating
a little bit about coming onand they're looking at the
investment and, and I get it.
It's like, look, man, I've beenin that chair too. I, I totally
understand where you're comingfrom. But it was, it was a very
(04:46):
quick turnaround.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Okay. So that's good to hear. And you know, it ,
it's interesting 'cause youtalk about the ego thing. I had
the same thing where I shouldbe able to figure it out. I
imagine you're probably areally great physical therapist
and you're probably a greatcoach, but no one taught us
entrepreneurial entrepreneurialskills. You know, that was my
thing too, where I think I wasan okay trainer, absolutely
decent at media and so forth,but like, I had not a clue
about running a business. Andall of a sudden I'm trying to
run my business by teachingsquats better, and the things
(05:09):
just don't match up, you know,and that's where I need help.
And at my , my lowest point, Iwas losing $5,000 a month, and
that's what I called ChrisCooper and said like, he was a
personal friend I'd worked with, uh, in another job, and I
actually , I'm screwed. I needhelp. And that's where we
connected and it worked out ,uh, really well. Eventually I
had to put in the work thoughand swallow the egos the same
as you did. So let me ask youthis absolutely 62nd summary.
What's your business? Tell mewhat you do. Like who do you
(05:30):
sell to? Uh, what's your spacelike staff , all the stuff?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, for sure. So we we're serving mostly folks
that are, you know, 40 to 60years old. We've got younger,
we've got older. Uh , butthat's kind of like our, our
primary demographic. It's aboutequal male female split, maybe
maybe 55% female, 45 male, butpretty down the middle. And
we're mostly working with folksthat have in some way , shape
or form come to understand theimportance of strength
(05:55):
training. But they don't knowlike where to start. They don't
know how to do it. They'retypically completely new or
maybe they had a previousexperience that didn't go so
well for them. They know it'simportant. They know it's part
of healthy aging and, and, youknow, maintaining all the
things they want to do in life,but they just don't know where
to start. And so that'spredominantly who we're
(06:15):
serving. Uh, and we work withthem through three primary
programs. We have a , um, ofcourse, personal training or
private coaching. We have groupcoaching, and then we have what
we call hybrid, which is acombination of the two or , or
someone will get like apersonal training session a
week, and then they'll backfilltheir program with group group
training. And so that's kind ofhow we work with them. And then
(06:36):
as far as our staff, we havethree full-time coaches, and
that's including me. Uh, andthen we have three part-time
coaches, and we just brought onan intern this week. And so our
goal is by the end of May tohave her up and running and put
it , you know, put her in theclass rotation. And so as far
as the space goes, we sort ofgot pushed into the space that
(06:58):
we're in. Um, we , uh, we werein a building that we liked
when I first started, but thecity was rezoning and
restructuring. They built thisbeautiful park, and so they
were like, you guys gotta go.
So we, we kind of got pushedinto space , pushed
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Up to local businesses. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I know, right? And so we kind of got pushed into a
space , uh, it's 6,000 squarefeet and , and frankly we did
not need 6,000, but I wanted tobe in this community. And, and
so I said, you know, I'm gonnatake the leap. And so that's,
that's our space. Uh , it'sabout 6,000 square feet and
it's, it's, it's actuallyperfect now because we've grown
so much. Um, and we have itbroken down. Basically half of
(07:35):
the space is all power racks,barbells , uh, super cool folks
get their own space to lift.
And then , um, the other halfis kind of, it's our turf area.
There's like some generalaccessory type stuff, dumbbell
stuff, that kind of stuff. And,and so the layout just works
perfectly for us.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay. So that's, that's a really great summary
of what you're all about. Notuncommon, like you're doing a ,
you have your market dialed in,you've got a nice open space
warehouse concept, I'massuming, and then you've got
like free weights and you'redoing personal training, some
group stuff, and then thehybrid plan, which I love
between the two of them,because who, which, which group
client couldn't benefit fromone extra personal training
session a month, literally allof them. That's a great, great
(08:13):
thing that I wish I had done.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's actually really funny because we only have ,
have that program at therequest of a client,
and I , and I , at the time, Isaid, I don't know. And , uh,
now there's like, we have 15people in that program, and
that's a a , that's a $350 amonth program, right? And it's
like, are you kidding me? LikeI, so it was , it's just kind
of funny how it , it took offlike that, but it's a great
(08:36):
program and people love it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Someone needed to smack me over the face with a
sandbag back in the day. Andtell me about that one. I wish
I had started that because Iwould've been just our a RM at
my gym was , uh, when we werestruggling, was in like the 1
18, 1 20 range, something likethat. If I had just sold, you
know, a $50 PT session, which Ithink is too low of a price,
but if I had sold $50, all of asudden, sudden I'm up to 1 60,
1 70, my group prep classeswere priced properly, all of a
(08:58):
sudden I'm over 200. And thenlife is beautiful. And gym
owners, if you're listing outthere a $205 average revenue
per member with 150 members,that can equal a hundred
thousand dollars take home , wehave the spreadsheets. You can
literally see that it workslike a charm. So those are some
numbers that you can target.
Can you go higher ? Yeah. Someof our top a RM gyms are like
$500. It's insane. Absolutely.
(09:20):
You're able to do, but startwith 2 0 5 and one 50, and then
you have the world at your , atyour feet, and you can decide
how you wanna scale. So let'stalk about what you've done.
I'm very curious to see. So youtalked , talked about
struggling. Obviously that wasin the 2020 to 2022 period
where things were not easy ongyms and service businesses.
Let's talk about low pointsgoing to a hundred grand a year
or more. What are some of thekey moments that happened? Was
(09:41):
it like, you know, a hockeystick where it just shot up? Or
was it like a staircase foryou? How did revenue and growth
and income go for you? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's, that's a great question. And I kind of,
in order to get ready this forthis , uh, I kind of outlined a
couple of things that I thinknow looking back on were
particularly instrumental. Thefirst one was, we've already
talked about asking for help.
Like, and I like that soundssort of cliche, or maybe we
talk about it a lot, you know,in this group, but like, be
willing to ask for help. And sothat was hard for me. I'm kind
(10:11):
of a do it yourself kind ofguy. And so I did that and I
got into the on-ramp program,and then a few things were
particularly impactful during,on-ramp. The first thing was
get organized, right? So like,I had some version of a
playbook, but it was kind ofsloppy. So I really took that
exercise very seriously. I wentback and I wrote down all of
(10:31):
the things, and I literallywrote out the gold standard for
each hat or for each role. AndI was, I mean, I , our playbook
is like 50 pages long. It's,it's, I look at it now and I'm
like, oh , I was, I , I like tohear myself talk, but
But at the time, that was veryimportant to me. And so , um, I
really wanted to create allthose expectations, all those
roles. And then the next thingthat I think was pretty
(10:53):
important in terms of justgetting organized was outlining
those three services that wejust talked about and really
sort of defining what each oneis and, and the price points
and the expectations from usand from the client and, and
just really writing that downand getting clear with it. Um,
and then probably the biggestthing, and I'm ashamed to admit
that I didn't do this, so ifsomeone's listening and they're
(11:15):
not writing an annual plan,like that was enormous. Like,
everything that we were doingup to 2021 or 22 was reactive.
Like it was chasing our tails.
Like every single thing we didwas in reaction to something.
And , um, you know, when, whenI started OnRamp and I'm
working with my coach, andlike, I'm like, oh my gosh,
(11:37):
like, we're looking ahead.
Like, and so that just changedmy whole perspective. And I ,
again, I know that sounds likelike a well duh moment, but
like for me, that was brand newstuff. So the annual plan was
big. Um, and then I , the lastpiece I think that was, you
know, particularly importantwas , um, I was the guy, you
know, before that used to say ,uh, we've got money in the
(11:58):
account, it's fine. Like, thatwas my monthly metrics. Yeah ,
yeah . Like, it , it's, so nowI'm like, oh my gosh, like, I
can't believe we've made itfour or five years. But , um,
that was a big deal because itgives you, you know, context on
like, okay, here's my plan bythe first quarter of the month
or whatever, here's where Iwant to be, and I can now look
at that and go, yeah, smoothsailing, or we're behind and
(12:21):
how can we change that? Ormaybe we're ahead. And I just
didn't have any of that insightbefore I had a coach. And so I
was terrified all the time,like, you know, and so now when
you have data, you're like,things are far more logical and
rational and less reactive,which I cannot overstate the
significance of that.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Listeners, I'm gonna give you two gifts right now
that will help you out. If youare listening to JA James and
saying , uh, that kind of feelslike me. First thing, you can
get a sample p and l statement,go on Facebook, find Chris
Cooper and send him a DM andask for a sample p and l. He
will send it to you and you canstart working on the metrics.
If you don't have one of these,use his and just plug in your
own numbers and you'll start tosee, this is the first step
(13:02):
toward financial literacy. It'sa huge deal. You can also send
him a thank you and then afollow up message that says, by
the way, can I have your annualplan? He will literally send
you a 12 month annual plan withkey stuff already on it. You
can add to it or subtract asyou see fit, but there are
tried and tested tactics onthere that will help you make
more money. So if your summersare crappy, send him a message
right now and figure out whatshould I do now so that my
(13:24):
summer revenue doesn't drop. Sothose are two gifts that you
can have right away. I wannaask you this, paying yourself,
was it difficult to do? BecauseI talked to Jim Otter
yesterday. She started gettingsome success. She started $0
income, she got a mentor before, uh, as she opened her gym,
and she went from zero. Andthen she realized she was
making money, but she didn'twanna pay herself. And it took
(13:45):
a measure to say, you need tostart paying yourself. How did
that go for you? I was the sameway. I was very crabby about
keeping money in the businessand not rewarding myself. What
did you do?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, I , that's a man, that's a great point. I
think a lot of us get intocoaching and we have this
attitude that we would do itfor free , uh, which is great
and terrible, right? Um ,didn't
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Get burned out and cranky
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Ab absolutely, it's not a long-term strategy. It's
great to have the passion tolove it that much, but you've
got to reward yourself forputting in the work. And so
that was hard for me. Um, andI, you know, what I did was ,
um, working with my coach, shemade me increase it. Like she
just literally said, by thetime I talk to you next week,
(14:25):
you have to have increased your, the way you're paying
yourself. And so I, I paymyself currently a , a few
different ways. One way is, isI'm actually on the payroll.
And so I have kind of a, Iguess you'd call it a base.
Then I also do a profitdistribution each month. And
then the third way that I paymyself is the gym pays for some
of the things I enjoy in life,right? You know, whether it's
(14:45):
my truck payment or I go toanother gym and practice
jujitsu, my gym pays me to do,you know, that kind of stuff.
And so those are kind of thethree ways that I pay myself.
But , uh, it was hard. I'm notgonna lie to you. And I think ,
uh, I think it's a combinationof a, the , the fact that we
just are so passionate abouthelping people , uh, that you
kind of have this weird feelingabout getting rewarded for it
(15:07):
because you were like mehistorically, you didn't get
much reward. Um, and then alsoI think it's a confidence
thing. You know, like I said,when I was sort of in that
reaction mode and I didn't knowwhat was coming up and I didn't
know what the plan was, I waskind of prepared for the worst
at all times. Like, it's okayif the , if the account is this
at this time of the month,because I know that the total
(15:28):
month looks like this and Idon't need to freak out and not
pay myself this week becausewe're in a certain place, it's,
and so it just gives you kindof the 10,000 foot view, if you
will. And I, I just can't, youknow, I can't say how, how life
changing that that was for me.
So
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, you need someone sometimes to tell you
to pay yourself. And it , it'salmost, it sounds silly because
there's other people like wantmore money, obviously, but I do
is the same way. I, I heldstuff in the business and I
didn't pay myself for anything.
And it was, it was justdemoralizing after a while.
There was no reward for it. And, and the reward was helping
people obviously, but like,that didn't put groceries in
(16:06):
where , what we'll do now, andthe , the mentorship program
has evolved a little bit overthe last few years since you
joined, where now when peoplecome on, they're gonna find
ways to sell some stuff andprice and create service
packages, exactly like youtalked about right away. You're
gonna get some new members,you're gonna drive up your a RM
and you're gonna take thepressure off by generating some
revenue. At that point, onceyou know the fires are out,
(16:27):
you're going to systemize yourbusiness. And that's exactly
what you talked about, James,where you're like, you're, now,
you're making sure thateverything runs properly. What
is my intake? What is myretention? How are clients
coming in? How long are theystaying? What am I doing? How
am I staffing, playbooks, allthat stuff. And then from
there, and this is the stagewhere I think you're at now, is
like you've hit some of yourmajor targets. You're no longer
putting out fires every day .
(16:48):
Your business runs pretty well.
You can then decide what elseyou want to do. And that's our
stage three where you're likethinking, what is my perfect
day? Is it like sitting on thebeach and working for an hour
and checking in? Or is it likeopening a second business,
replicating my original gym?
What is it? And that's thewhole progression now. But the
whole goal is if you're outthere and you're struggling
right now, the first stage isdesigned to put you on the
launchpad and give you somebreathing room by generating
(17:10):
some momentum very quickly, andthen systemize things so that
you can like really start toscale up. So talk to me what
the, how is a mentor , we've ,we've hit on this a couple
times, brushing, but obviouslythe direct question, how
important was a mentor to makeyou do this stuff? Would you
have done it even with theinfo? Like if you, all this
stuff is out there for free,would you have done this
yourself without a mentor totell you to do it?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Well, I can, I can answer that. The answer is no,
because I had been followingtwo brain the whole time I
owned my business.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Oh, so you saw the stuff but didn't do
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It? Oh, yeah. Well, and I would even download the,
I would do all the stuff,right? I was checking in, I was
reading the articles, I wouldgo to the web , you know, I , I
was, I was plugged in for sure.
But a, it's really easy to missa deadline with yourself,
right? And then b, I just, Ididn't really understand how it
all fit together, right? Like,you know, it's like I can tell
somebody, well, in order to getyou stronger, we need to get
(17:59):
your squat, your deadlift andyour overhead press up how you
specifically do that. Like,that's where the sauce is ,
right? Like, that's the magic.
It's like, okay, we know thethings like, okay, increasing
revenue, okay, but what doesthat mean? Like, and so it just
having somebody to sort of seeit from the top down and
explain, well, here's why we dothe playbook. Here's why we
(18:20):
define the services. Here's whyyou must raise your rates. By
the way, that was terrifying.
Here's, you know, like,
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Did you , did you lose all your clients? I gotta
ask, did you lose all yourclients when
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You did ? We didn't lose any , uh, well actually
take that , but we did loselike three or four. But, but
our revenue shot updramatically. We did that. Um,
uh, it's been a couple yearsnow, and we did a big increase.
And I als not only did Iincrease the dollar amount, I
increased the unit of time. Sowe went from month to month to
28 day cycles. Oh yeah. Okay.
So it, so all of that combinedwas like that year we grew like
(18:52):
20%.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And so your income grows right, as a result of
that
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Right away, right? I mean, and not only that, you,
you end up, or it , let's sayyou did lose a few people. They
were probably on the way outanyways.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They were looking for a reason. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
They were waiting.
And the people that stuckaround have a vested interest
in you succeeding. They're,they're there, they're , they
want you to win so they canwin. And so you end up with a
little bit tighter group, youknow, and , and people that are
a little more sort of , uh,going in the same direction
that you're going. And , andwhat I've learned is that, you
know, every so often there'llbe a little bit of like a two ,
(19:28):
or like, we just had like agroup of people leave, like it
was , and , and , and it's likewe're just kind of heading in a
different direction. And, andthat like couple years ago,
that would've put me in atailspin. And , um, and when I
talked to my mentor just lastweek, I said, you know what? I
said, I'm not nervous at allabout this. And I was like,
should I be nervous about this?
And she's like, no. She's like,they were just going in a
(19:49):
different direction than you.
And that's okay. Like, it's,it's all good. You know,
they'll find what they needand, and we'll find who's on,
on our mission and it's allgood. Um, but that's, again,
that all comes back to justhaving a plan, having a vision,
having a mission, and thenunderstanding all those little
pieces fit into that.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Now , listeners know that we have a specific plan
for rate increases. So whenit's time to do that, there are
figure out how many, whatpercent are we going up, how
are we rolling it out, what'sthe timeline? And then if
someone's gonna be account ,hold you accountable and say,
we're doing this this week andI've done it myself, it is very
scary. But with the help ofsomeone who has a plan, totally
fine. And we've had, I , wehave one mentor, one of our
team members has done, I thinkit's 85 rate increases so far.
(20:28):
Oh my gosh . And not one gym isshut down. Oh my , yeah. Isn't
that crazy? Greg Strauss's name85 . Yeah , 85. It's , that's ,
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's,
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And I did the math and it , he's made millions of
dollars for gyms. If youactually think about how much,
you know, you bet increased , Ibet . And it's, this gym
increased over, like spinningup now five years now, seven
years, and like millions ofdollars. Not one of those gyms
lost all their clients. Not oneof those gyms went out of
business because there's aplan. And that's what I'm
getting, is that there is aplan for this stuff. And this,
(20:54):
when you increase rates and,you know, reflect the value
that you're provid to clients,that drops to your bottom line,
and you can make more as anowner. It's scary to do on your
own. I would not recommend youdo this with the help of a
mentor, but I'll tell you this,the first thing you can do
right now, today, the nextperson you sell to do not offer
a discount. They don't evenknow their discounts exist. So
you just stop giving discountsright away. That's a step in
(21:15):
the right direction. You canpay yourself more. So that's a
huge one. Uh, I won't dwell onthat. Facts , other shows about
that. And I wanna get back toJane . So I'll ask you this,
your next goals for thisbusiness, now that you've got
some stability, you've like,you're, you're going forward
with confidence, you've got amentor, what are you looking to
do next? What's the big job ?
Jobs ?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I mean, I have, I have some revenue goals
of course, that I wannacontinue to work towards , uh,
for the gym as a whole, the waythat we've operated , uh, as
far as my mentor and I, we willset like a target revenue, pr,
Hey, let's shoot for X and thenX will kind of happen two or
three times, maybe not in arow, maybe in a row sometimes.
(21:52):
And then once we've kind of hitthat, then it's like, let's
make that the new normal,right? So what we've been doing
, uh, recently is like 30 KAmonth is the new normal. Like,
let's just make that the,that's the baseline, right? And
so, so we're, we're kind of inthat phase. And so that
process, I, you know, I plan oncontinuing that process up, you
(22:12):
know, a few more cycles. Sofinancially that's kind of what
we're doing in terms of justsort of the bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Can I ask you one thing before you go on to that
one ? Yeah. What was yourbaseline back when you were
like, in the 20, 20, 21 range,do you know?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah. Uh,
typical month would've beenmore like 18.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah. So we're talking almost double over the
last five years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Congratulations on that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And so, and , and honestly, a lot of it , uh, I
mean, I started working withtwo Brain , it would've been
July, I looked this up, it wasJuly of 22. So this has all
really happened in less thanthree years.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Three years even.
Whoa. So that's incredible.
Yeah. Wow. So , yeah .
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So, yeah. So I mean, we've, you know, we've, we've
done so much in the last threeand a half years. Yeah, it was
18, we might see a 20, youknow, 21. But that was like,
you know, how did we do that?
You know, it's like, let's dothat again. Well ,
Speaker 1 (23:05):
When you, when you work with your mentor now, so
you set these goals, it's onething to say, I wanna make 30 K
in revenue, or whatever it is,or whatever your number is. Did
you get tactics and a plan forhow to do that?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah. So yeah , great question . Yeah . So
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's the part that people miss,
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right? So one of the things I mentioned a couple
times now is the metrics. Andso the way I have it set up is
each month , uh, I, I do ourmonthly metrics from the
previous month, right? So Ilook at all the things, I look
at our revenue expenses, allthe stuff, and then, so I kind
of make my piece with that. Andwhere we landed and what we
did. And then another documentthat I have that's very closely
(23:40):
related to the metrics documentis a projections document. So
our payments coming in are acombination of manual payments
and automated, and typicallyour group and hybrid stuff is
the automated stuff. And thenPT is a little more volatile.
And so we typically invoicethose clients directly, you
know, for the upcoming month.
And so there's a combinationthere. But what we do is we
(24:00):
have a process for gettingprojections in the first seven
days of the month, right? So Iknow, okay, in April we're
projected to make X Well, if,if X is less than the goal,
then I, I put together what wejust , my mentor and I just
call 'em gap strategies. And solike, I did a quick little
example. So like, let's say Ineed an extra 5K to hit my
(24:22):
goal. So I know for us, that'sfive new client intro programs
that's turning those fiveclients over into their monthly
rx, which is group or privateor hybrid. And then , uh,
typically there's a specialtyprogram going on. So this month
specifically, we had rightunder, I think it was 13 kids
sign up for an eight weekprogram, and that's $2,500. And
(24:43):
so when we, when we put thefive intros together, we do the
five turnovers, we do the kidsspecialty, that's like $5,500.
So that was my gap strategiesfor this month.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
This is like dark wizardry to me if you told me
the stuff back in 2010, right?
Or it's like Exactly . You havea plan to make revenue next
month other than just like sitand wait and hope
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Ex . Exactly . So like, you know, my, my mentor
would be like, okay, so I said, well, here's, here's the
projection. Here's here's whatwe're, here's what , here's the
goal. And then she would say,well , what are you gonna do
about it? And like, at first, Ididn't know the answers,
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Right ? Don't put up some ,
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Please tell me like
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah , yeah. You know , that's when the tool ,
their toolkit comes in. Right?
Now you can go in there and saylike , absolutely , this is,
you know, you , I need thisthing. Oh, here's how I'm gonna
add revenue. I have a plug andplay kids program. I have a
plug and play older adults ,barbell program, nutrition
habits, coaching, whatever.
Right? Yeah. It's,
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's a game changer, right? And, and , you know ,
I'm not gonna, there are monthswhere we just, you know, we
didn't hit it, you know,whatever, most of the time we
do. But it happens. But thepoint is, you're not just
sitting, waiting to see what'sgonna happen. The you're,
you're actively participating.
And that , like, that is thebiggest single thing that has
changed between or since notbeing with Two Brain and being
(25:55):
with Two Brain is the abilityto control my future to some
extent, right? To the degreethat any of us can. Uh, I feel
like I can. And I did not havethat before. Like that was just
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Oh, I happy to hear that. Yeah. And that's the
accountability factor ofsomeone saying, did you do the
thing that I told you to dothat's battle tested , that's
worked 500 times in other gymsaround the world? And you're
like , uh, yeah, I did that.
Oh, and it's working and itworks.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I know.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah. Well, I cut you off before, 'cause I wanted
to hit this, but what were yousaying ? You had some big
picture stuff that you wantedto get into , uh, for the
business. What else have yougot going on?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, the big picture stuff is,
is a little murky to be honestwith you. Uh, what I've come to
realize is the gym ultimatelywill be , uh, I want the gym to
be a springboard into otherthings. And I, but I'm not sure
specifically what those thingsare. I'm sort of interested in
some real estate stuff. I'msort of interested maybe in
owning another small localbusiness, like that's kind of ,
(26:49):
uh, uh, maybe enticing a littlebit. So I , I don't know
exactly, but I'm at a point nowwhere I can start to see that
it's possible to at least startlooking or at least start
thinking, right? I don't, I'mnot consumed every single
minute of every single day bykeeping the lights on anymore.
And so that really frees you upto do a little bit of like
(27:10):
planning and dreaming and, youknow, that kind of stuff. Uh,
which is, which is fun.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And it's neat to see what
some of our, we call them thetinkers, that's the tinker
level , uh, Jim Miller , that'sour, our , you know, call 'em
stage three essentially, wherethey're, they have this
security, they're making abouta hundred grand, and their
businesses are running prettymuch by themselves, and they do
certainly incredible stuff.
We're talking like Airbnbscrypto commercial properties,
buying their buildings. So oneguy started a , a distillery,
(27:34):
another guy started a , a , asports beverage company. Like,
there's incredible stuff thathappens in that group. And so
when you have the time and youknow, money to do that, away
you go. And then you startthinking about retirement,
legacy building for kids,families, the whole thing. Some
people just straight up retireand like, there's all sorts of
options, but that's where itgets to. So we've taken like
the arc from you startingstruggling here, you're up at
(27:54):
the other end. There are peopleout there that are at the
beginning. And what would yousay to someone out there who's
thinking like, Ugh , I amnervous about this. I'd love,
you know, to do better with mybusiness, but I don't know how,
and I'm scared. What do you sayto that person?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Ask for help.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah ,
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Seriously. I, I know we've said that now a couple
times, you don't have to dothis on your own right now.
There's a very small percentageof human beings that just for
whatever reason can do thatkind of stuff. That's just not
most of us
Speaker 1 (28:20):
What cost too, you know?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Well, absolutely not. Right? Even if, even if
you were able to get it, youknow, like I, I basically
flailed about for like fouryears. Yeah. And that's
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Four years of time .
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I'm , I'm four years behind where I could be. Me
too. Yeah , right . We , wecould be doing this meeting
about some stuff, like you'retalking about
Speaker 1 (28:38):
In Florida, person over cocktails,
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Ab absolutely. But yeah, so time, time is the, is
is really what's valuable. Andso if you can find a way to
save the time, my advice wouldbe to do that. 100%. Invest in
that. Um, and that'sfundamentally that has changed
for me where I, again, I said Iwas the DIY guy. I'm not so
much the DIY guy. If, if I'mcomfortable with something,
(29:02):
great, I'll do it. If I don'tknow, man, I can't wait to ask
somebody like, let me find outwho knows more about this than
me do . And I'll be the studentlike, right away, what's the
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Shortcut? I'll pay you for the shortcut. And it's
worth it in the end becauselike I , I figured out a few
things in gym ownership and ittook me too long and I waste a
lot of money. And I was veryfrustrated when I got the
answer given to me and someonesaid, do this. And I did it
like, raise your rates, forexample, and do it on this the
third of the month. Do it now.
All of a sudden things change .
Whereas I didn't have to beatmy head against the wall to try
and figure things out and getscared. So it reduced my
(29:31):
anxiety and it also just mademe take action and move. And
the time saving was enormous,but I had wasted too much time
at that point. So if you'relistening out there , uh, book
a call link in the show notes.
You can definitely talk tosomeone. They're gonna do a
deep dive in your business,find out your greatest areas of
opportunity and give you somesuggestions. If you like the
plan, jump in and you , uh,could one day be where James
is. James, congrats on yoursuccess and thanks for sharing
(29:52):
your story. I really appreciateit. Thanks,
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Mike. I really appreciate being on. It's , uh,
been a lot of fun talking about
Speaker 1 (29:57):
It. Yeah. We'll check in with you again and see
what you decide to do when youdecide to take the next step
and grow even further. Maybe ina second business or something
like that, you'll come back.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Absolutely can't wait.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
All right . That was James Harris. He might be back.
This is Run a Profitable Gym ,and I'm your host, Mike Warton
. And now here's Chris Cooperto bring founder with a final
message.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Hey, it's two Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a
quick note, we created the GymOwners United Facebook group to
help you run a profitable gym.
Thousands of gym owners, justlike you have already joined in
the group. We share soundadvice about the business of
fitness. Every day I answerquestions, I run free webinars,
and I give away all kinds ofgreat resources to help you
(30:34):
grow your gym. I'd love to haveyou in that group. It's Gym
Owners United on Facebook, orgo to gym owners united.com to
join. Do it today.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!