July 3, 2025 • 25 mins
John Bartholomeo, one of Two-Brain’s Top 10 leaders, added $15,000 in monthly revenue through annual planning and smart gamification of challenges at Mohawk Valley Wellness.
Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” he shares how his gym uses simple, repeatable systems to run revenue-generating nutrition challenges and events that clients love.
These events aren’t last-minute attempts to fill revenue gaps. They're part of a clearly defined annual plan that's created each year in collaboration with a mentor to drive engagement, retention and profitability.
John reveals how he turns nutrition into a competitive game, using streaks and point systems to boost client results, consistency and fun. He also explains how challenges help onboard new clients and support long-term retention.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring in more revenue. Tune in to find out how predictable planning and mentorship can improve your gym’s bottom line.
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1:08 - $15K per month in additional revenue
3:44 - Planning events and challenges
6:60 - Gamifying nutrition challenges
15:47 - Converting to ongoing programs
18:51 - Where mentorship fits in
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
I'll see you next time.
(00:30):
and talk about big grouptraining, small group training,
semi-private training, personaltraining.
We don't step outside that veryoften, but John's found a way to
put some great stuff together toboost his revenue, and we're
going to talk about that today.
John, welcome.
How is it today?
SPEAKER_02 (00:43):
Outstanding, Mike.
Super excited to be here anddive into all things events and
nutrition challenges and share.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Yeah, because we talk about training a lot.
And I'll tell you, back in theday when I looked at my books
and something was looking reallybad on the revenue line, I'm
like, I need a challenge.
I need to do a competition.
And you put something like thatin there.
But you're doing somethingcompletely different.
And I'm going to get ourlisteners on your page so that
they can understand how this canbecome a big boost to revenue.
So let's do the numbers first.
What are your main revenuestreams?
(01:10):
Do you have an approximatebreakdown of what goes into your
gross?
What are we looking at here?
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Yep.
So the numbers that we're goingto reference are May's numbers
and a breakdown of that$74 80%of that is from what you would
look as generally accepted gymrevenue, right?
Group class, small grouptraining, personal training,
things along those lines.
But then about 20% of that, soalmost another 15K came from two
(01:35):
sources, one being an event andthe other being a nutrition
challenge.
So like you hit the nail on thehead, the bedrock is the
recurring, a general gymmembership, but a nice 20% chunk
is above and beyond.
And we found a pretty cool wayto do it in a systematic way.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Yeah.
And that's the important part,because again, I often would
throw in six week challenges orsome other stuff when I saw a
hole coming or like my summerwas looking bad or something
like that.
And these things wereunpredictable.
And I, you know, you justlaunched something.
You don't know if it's going tobe a good thing or a bad thing.
You're not sure what it's goingto bring in.
It was not predictable revenue,but when you have something tied
to an annual plan, you'veestablished it, you know how to
run it.
(02:10):
It becomes a different storyaltogether.
We're going to dig into thatlistener.
So you can understand how Johnmakes this money with some very
clever tactics.
So like I said, many gyms dothis desperation tactic.
Why did you decide to startrunning events and did you see
them at the time as a long-termrevenue stream?
SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
The honest answer is no, we didn't see them as a
long-term revenue stream.
It started much like thefacility itself because I like
doing events.
I like competing.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
We
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
went out to some local competitions and I said,
hey, we got a facility.
I'm a smart guy.
We can absolutely do this.
We started them over 10 yearsago as this is fun and exciting
and it might bring in a littlebit of extra revenue.
A number I wish I had was whatwe made on the first
competition.
I don't have that right now.
But looking at it over the10-year evolution and the growth
(02:56):
It has become, like we haddiscussed, a predictable thing
that we have on the calendar,and we can usually say, hey,
this is going to net us aftereverything's done, three, five,
a great competition, 7K.
So it came from just purelyliking to compete, going and
doing them, and saying, hey, Ithink we could probably do this,
and we could probably do it evena little bit better.
SPEAKER_01 (03:17):
Yeah, and that's really the key is you start
these things, but then youfigure out how to make them
really great, and then you makethem part of that plan.
And again, listeners, if youdon't have an annual plan, you
should DM Chris Cooper and askfor his annual plan.
It's a great starting point.
Send him a DM right now onFacebook.
He will give you an annual plan.
That's a great starting point.
You can tailor it as you seefit, but there are some
essential things on there.
John's got an annual plan andwe're going to dig into that
(03:39):
one.
So you're not running stuffrandomly.
You know where these things aregoing to go.
Like you did the first one.
Now it's a great thing.
So where do your special eventsfall and how far in advance do
you plan?
When does this happen?
SPEAKER_02 (03:49):
So in the fall, we'd like to lay out what we're going
to do for the next year, andthat's something that we've done
for the last couple yearsworking with Two Brain.
They've been super helpful withthat.
But going back to what you hadsaid, Mike, is we started to
look at our calendar year ofwhere are the predictable low
revenue spots, and rather thantrying to just come up with some
wild idea, we said, well, whatif we started to shift our
(04:09):
competition or the nutritionchallenge around those
predictable low revenue areas sothat way we can almost balance
off the revenue and we can thensee systematically say, okay, in
fall we have a competition, andsummer we're going to do a
nutrition challenge.
And it comes a really nicecyclical pattern where you can
help offset those slow monthswith the nutrition challenges
(04:31):
and competitions done right,again, planning them.
So short answer, we plan themout in the fall for the year
prior, and then we just look tobasically do one a quarter.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Yeah, so listeners, if you are sitting here and you
do not know what's going on inthe next six months, you need an
annual plan.
It's a huge deal and it caninclude everything from staff
evaluations to special events.
You need something though.
If you don't have it, you'realways going to be reactive.
And as Chris Cooper has said,the business will be driving
you.
You will not be driving yourbusiness.
John sits down in November,works with his mentor, makes an
(04:59):
annual plan for the year.
How much better would yourbusiness go if you had that plan
in place?
DM Chris for his plan.
Do you find that these thingsthat you've built up, do your
members look forward to them?
Does it become almost aretention tool where people are
like, I want to train for thiscompetition?
SPEAKER_02 (05:13):
Absolutely.
So we've seen it where a commonquestion, I'll get it from other
gym owners, is the participantpool.
Is it all external or is itinternal?
What's that split?
And it's usually a predictable,probably 50-50.
So our members will look at it.
And we've had members that havedone the competition with us for
almost 10 years.
And we've created, obviouslywith that, we've had to create
(05:35):
master's divisions.
10
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
years,
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
yeah.
Right?
They've been with us.
So yes, we do look at it as aretention tool.
And we can all We've also foundways to monetize.
Hey, we could do a little skillsession, a little competitor's
thing before the competitionshows up.
But we also see that individualsthat sign up for the
competitions will start to traina little bit more frequently,
(05:59):
right?
It's very similar to if you weregoing to sign up for a 5K road
race, you'd probably starthitting, running a little bit
more.
So when you sign up for ourcompetition, you start training
a little bit more.
And when people train a littlebit more, they generally stay
with us a little bit longer.
So it almost feeds back into,like you said, retention and
keeping our members longer.
SPEAKER_01 (06:17):
Yeah, one of Chris Cooper's tips is if you have
slow summers, put a competitiontogether in fall.
And it doesn't have to be anelite level.
thing it can just be like Ithink he called his the catalyst
games and it was just a chanceto celebrate his members it
wasn't designed to be the ultratest of fitness or anything like
that but something that no onewas going to quit if they
register for this thing becausethey've got a goal they're
training for something Johnmentioned two things that are
(06:37):
really important he's got 50%participation inside the gym and
then he's got people outside thegym the other 50% that boosts
his average revenue per memberwhen someone signs up but it
also gets in some new revenuefrom other people other people
maybe they get exposed to Johnand his business and maybe they
want to take part in that sothat's a really interesting But
again, it all comes down toplanning and doing a good job
repeatedly over and over againand building momentum.
(06:59):
I want to talk specificallyabout your nutrition challenge
because this is very cool.
You've got some reallyinteresting features that I
think listeners need to knowabout.
How do you run this thing andhow do you make it fun for
clients?
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
So the backstory on it, Mike, is that we've been
doing nutrition challengeslonger than we've been doing
competitions.
Within the first year or two, sowe've been, we're coming up in
year 16, been doing them atleast two a year, sometimes
three a year.
And what we'd realize is, asmost gym owners realize, like,
hey, the bedrock of getting ourclients results is we've got to
get them eating better.
(07:30):
We've got to get them sleepingbetter.
We've got to get them drinkingless often, right?
So the We call it nutritionhealthy habits.
We've got to get that dialed inbecause unfortunately, a
thousand burpees a day isn'tgoing to undo two hours of sleep
and a six pack a night and justpoor nutrition.
SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
I wish it would.
SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
We've been thinking about this for a long time and
we've run a lot of nutritionchallenges for a long time.
But in the last year, what westarted to do was gamify it.
We started to put a points valueto the behaviors that lead to
the outcomes that we want.
The outcome that we want from anutrition challenge challenges
for our clients, ourparticipants to be healthier,
(08:08):
more fit, feel better.
And a lot of times that includeslosing weight.
But we'd always see like 50people sign up, 80 people sign
up, 100 people sign up.
And then by like week two, noteven week two, like day 10, like
Nobody's participating anymore.
What's going on?
We started to say, what can wedo?
How do we make this better?
(08:28):
The idea of making, I call it,making a healthy competition out
of being healthier has gonereally well.
The shortest way to explain itis you get a point for eating
really well.
We just call it the go-no-golist.
Simple foods.
You get a point for hitting yourprotein.
We got away from weighing andmeasuring because that was very
intimidating.
For a lot of people, it was toomuch.
(08:50):
We just said, if you followthese guidelines, yes or no, you
get a point.
Did you move your body for 45minutes?
You get a point.
Did you get a good night'ssleep?
So there's binary, there's yesor no questions you answer and
you gain points.
And then we also made big, big,big points if you would come in
on a Monday and be lighter thanyou were the Monday prior.
So you get these bonus points,these mega bonus points for
(09:10):
doing the behavior that mostpeople want when they do a
nutrition challenge.
And we got bonus points for mealprepping.
So what we did was we created aleaderboard So each night you
could literally plug in yournumbers and you could see in
real time, hey, where am I inthis challenge against my peers?
And what happened is you wouldnow in hindsight, I'm not really
(09:32):
surprised by that.
People became very competitivewhen you're running your classes
and you say, hey, guys, we'regoing to go for an 800 meter
warm up jog.
Everybody tries to win the800-meter warm-up.
Well, guess what happened?
People got very, verycompetitive, but they were
competitive in one of the bestthings ever.
Getting more sleep, getting tothe gym more often, eating more
(09:53):
protein, all the things thatmade them feel healthier.
So we have found that to bevery, very effective in our
nutrition challenges because ittook what was very engaging for
the first seven days and then amassive drop-off to the last one
we ran internally We had 137participants.
We charged$70, so you can lookat the revenue there.
(10:15):
And we had, I wanna say,probably 70% go all the way to
the end, which historicallylooking like we'd be lucky if we
had like 30, maybe 40% make itto the end.
And feedback, we gathered,right?
We did a quick Google survey atthe end to say, what did you
like?
How do we make it better?
And again, and again, and again,and again, it was the point
(10:35):
system, the point system, thescoreboard, the point system.
And this is from longstandingmembers that have done 20 of
these with us.
Like, John, the point system wasso fun.
And there's two ways.
People said, I'd like the pointsystem for myself because I was
trying to beat my points.
And then a lot of them alsosaid, I just like the healthy
competition.
So that has worked really,really well for us to gamify the
(10:56):
nutrition challenges.
And that's the second one, thirdone that we've done that way.
And it's gone very well.
SPEAKER_01 (11:02):
Wow.
So basically 40% greateradherence.
just because you're puttingtogether a point system and
encouraging people to compete.
And as you're rattling thisstuff off in my head, I'm
thinking, okay, I would get apoint.
I went to bed last night at agood hour.
I didn't have any alcohol.
I had breakfast and protein.
So I'm like adding up points inmy head already.
You can see, listeners, how thisworks.
And if you have a garment oranything like that, you know, my
(11:23):
wife looks at these things andthere's badges she wants.
This stuff all has an effect onpeople and it really is
motivating.
Do you do this, like is this anapp or what system do you use
here to make this happen?
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
So we have been using, so it came from
internally, hey, wild idea.
We run a gym.
We're trying to get peoplehealthier and have just built it
over time.
And it's been archaic, paper andpen.
So we use this with our personaltraining clients.
We use this with our nutritionand lifestyle coaching clients.
And we say, hey, Mike, here'syour sheet.
Fill in the sheet and earn yourpoints.
(11:55):
So over the last three, fourmonths, we've been building it
into an app because now what wecan do is we can see the results
in real time.
So again, if I'm working withyou one-on-one, personal
training, nutrition, lifestylecoaching, I can just hop on the
back end and I can look to see,oh, look, Mike's got 26 points
this week.
He's got a streak.
He's doing amazing.
And it simplifies it becauseit's 2025, giving people a green
(12:19):
highlighter and a three-ringbinder.
It feels like we're steppingback into 1984.
So it's a little archaic.
Now, it worked, but steppinginto current times and
leveraging technology, it'sgoing into an app.
And the goal was to make it Veryaccessible and very simple for
individuals.
Because we tried macros andweighing and measuring.
(12:39):
And again, I think if you are anelite level athlete, absolutely.
If you want to be on stage beinga figure model, absolutely.
But if you're John, if you'reMike, and you're like, hey, I
just want to be fit.
I want to be healthy.
I've got 5, 10, 15 pounds I wantto lose.
Getting rid of the having toweigh and measure and just
saying, did you eat these foods?
And making it very, very easy totrack.
And then the point system hasbeen super beneficial.
(13:01):
So short story, we are...
probably about more than halfwayof building out the app.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Ooh, so that's cool because, you know, what happens
here, you get this, you get apack mentality too, where if
people see each, you know, youlog into the app and someone's
got 10,000 steps and you've got9,980 or something like that,
you're probably going for awalk.
And so that real-time aspect isreally, really cool, that pack
mentality.
And then the other thing is thestreaks you mentioned.
So once you start hittingnumbers, and again, I'll
(13:25):
reference Chris Cooper, he has astreak going of like 750 words a
day, I think blogging orsomething like that.
He's going for like an endlessamount of time and he has
dragged himself out of bed tokeep that streak going.
Streaks are super powerful.
And if you can encourage yourmembers to do it with healthy
stuff, how much better is thatgoing to be?
And here's the upshot of this.
Let's talk business.
If your members do this stuffthat John's laying out, like
eating protein and preppingmeals, getting to bed on time,
(13:47):
they're going to get betterresults in the gym.
If they get better results inthe gym, they're going to stay
training with you longer.
They're going to pay you moremoney.
Everyone is going to win here.
Your coaches make more.
Your gym makes more.
You make more.
The clients are happy.
It's a win across the board.
And it's just because you'regetting them to do the stuff
that gets results because yourjob as a get clients' results.
It doesn't matter what programyou use.
(14:07):
Nothing of that matters.
It matters that they getresults.
You said it again, but remindme, how often do you run a
nutrition challenge like this?
SPEAKER_02 (14:18):
competitions we talked about we try to basically
alternate right we've got acompetition then we do a
nutrition challenge competitionso we're not you know beating
the same drum every single timethere's a there's a nice
predictable rhythm to it andwhat we have found and actually
going to talk about the app aswell too is doing this for a
long time as many individuals doso so so well during the actual
(14:39):
challenge they're they'refocused they're going they're
going they're going and then itends and they're like now what
all right so the nice thingabout the app is that the app is
just going it's So yes, you canhave that focus and tension and
you can be hammering, hammering,hammering and say, okay, the
challenge ended.
But I'm still going to keepgoing.
I want to keep my streak going.
I want to keep this going.
And they don't have to stop andbe like, all right, I have to
(15:00):
wait six more months until thespring challenge starts.
So we run two, we call them28-day challenges a year.
And then actually we're doingone right now is I'll throw them
out there just kind of off thecuff.
They're free.
I don't charge for the shortones.
Then we call them sprints andthey're 10 days.
And I'm in one, right?
Going back to exactly what yousaid.
I'm in it right now with themembers and there's like six of
(15:22):
us tied for first and I I'mgoing to make sure that I have
to get my workout in.
I'm going to make sure that I'mgetting my seven hours of sleep
tonight.
So I will adjust and move thingsaround in my personal schedule
to make sure that I don't getknocked out of the top spot
because I want to compete withthese guys.
And like I said, the best partabout it is it's a healthy
competition.
Like, oh, I got extra sleep.
(15:43):
Like, I'm competing to behealthier.
SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
Do you find that you get some carryover into ongoing
programs as a result of this,we'll call it a kickstart or
something like that with achallenge?
SPEAKER_02 (15:53):
Yes, we actually have just started using this
with our new members right whenthey joined, because going back
to what you said, talkingbusiness, the best time to get
somebody results is as fast ashumanly possible when they come
through the door.
So to say, hey, Mike, awesome,welcome to our facility.
We've still got to give you thearcade paper right now because
(16:14):
the app's not done.
But this is our system, this isour protocol, and if you can
score 200 points in the next 30days, you're going to be on
fire, my
SPEAKER_01 (16:21):
friend.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
We're using it right, literally, from the
second they say, cool, I want toget going, the NoSwa intro ends,
we say, awesome, hey, let's chatabout how we're going to get you
to where you want to be as fastas humanly possible.
And then it also gives us sharedlanguage, right?
Because then we can talk aboutpoints, right?
I can say, hey, Mike, you're 10days in.
How are we doing with thepoints?
Do we have, at this point, youshould have around 70 points.
(16:42):
Are you understanding thepoints?
So we use our general manager,and she's reaching out to our
new clients and saying, hey,Mike, she's doing exactly that.
Hey, Mike, how are we doing withthe points?
Any questions on the points?
And it gives them a quantifiableway to see that they're making
progress.
Are they getting into classes?
Are they eating right?
Because again, going back to it,we want to help that person do
(17:06):
what they said they wanted todo.
And if we just go thetraditional route of like, yeah,
eat better and get into class,they might.
We're like, no, here, do thesethings specifically.
And it's also the holisticpicture of like sleep is on
there.
Alcohol intake is on there.
Hydration is on there.
What time did you stop eatingbefore bed?
All of these things that play apart into getting the client
(17:27):
what they want, which is themost common thing we hear is, I
want more energy.
I want to drop 10, 20, 30pounds.
I want to feel better.
I want to look better.
Well, you could crush yournutrition.
You could maybe use a differentapp and crush your nutrition.
But if you don't sleep well andyou're drinking too often,
you're going to have a reallyhard time doing that.
And then again, pull it alltogether and put a score to it
has worked really well.
SPEAKER_01 (17:49):
Listeners could do this with just an Excel
spreadsheet if they so desired.
SPEAKER_02 (17:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's literally where this camefrom.
We said, what are the thingsthat will make somebody healthy?
Okay, how do we just...
It's paper and pen.
It's nothing.
I wish I could say, oh, we...
We came up with the idea and putthe scoring together, but you
could absolutely just come upwith this, put it into a
spreadsheet, a Google Doc, printit off, and give it to the
(18:14):
clients.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (18:15):
Yeah, and I like the simplicity of the whole thing
because I've done the same thingwith the weighing and measuring
and food and eating and soforth.
Some people just hate thatstuff.
Or if they sign up for it, theyrealize right away it's not for
them.
It becomes complicated.
But tick seven boxes, score sixpoints or whatever it is, that
sounds very easy, verymanageable on both the client
side and the coach side you canuse this very quickly to make
(18:37):
something really really kind ofsexy in your gym where people
are like i want to try this iwant to track i want to be
competitive i want to get thatmomentum so listeners that is a
very interesting thing that youguys can pick up if you're going
to do something like this butagain it comes down to that
annual plan so talk to me againjohn about how does mentorship
fit into this and the annualplanning cycle with you
SPEAKER_02 (18:56):
So my mentor is David, and he's been over the
moon phenomenal because I have alot of ideas, trying lots of new
stuff.
Every time we chat, he's like,okay, here's the next three new
ideas.
And he does a very good job ofjust listening at first and
saying, that's a good idea.
John, that's a bad idea.
John, that's a bad idea, butmaybe if we polish it this way
(19:18):
and we try something different.
Or the nice thing is, I'vementioned before that I like to
mentor because Where I live, Idon't have a lot of business
owners that I can talk to aboutbusiness.
And there's definitely not anythat I can talk to about
business that is gym and healthrelated specific.
So by having that mentor that Ican bounce the ideas off of and
have them say, oh yeah, we'vedone something like that before.
(19:39):
Hey, this is how we've done ourchallenges.
I can listen, listen to someother experience in the same
industry.
and really get some fine tuning,right?
Obviously, we start the callsoff with, hey, how's the head
count going?
What's arm look like?
What's leg look like?
Metrics, yeah.
The bedrock, right?
Because these challenges alonearen't going to pay your bills,
(20:00):
right?
A competition alone isn't goingto pay your bills.
But they can be nice littleauxiliary things that can create
some extra revenue.
So we chat about, hey, is thefoundation strong?
Okay, cool.
What are we doing for theselittle projects?
And he's just had...
Really good sage wisdom.
Sometimes probably tell me notto do something that probably
would have been a mistake thatwould have cost lots of money.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
On the other end of it, though, I'm sure he told
you, OK, we look at the numbersfor this nutrition challenge,
this competition.
Let's keep doing that.
And we're going to put that inyour annual plan.
We're going to screw it in deepbecause that thing's not coming
out because it's working great.
And that's something as a mentorwill tell you that, too.
Don't chase that shiny thing.
Keep doing what you're doingbecause it is working really,
really well.
This is the other thing you getout of this plan is the
(20:42):
accountability of someonesaying, hey, did you do your
annual plan?
Because left to your owndevices, you might be like, I
will get to it.
And then all of a sudden, Janone rolls around, you've got
nothing.
And that's when you startsaying, Oh my God, February
sucks.
I need to put together a crappychallenge.
I don't know how to do that.
And it's a really rough way torun a business.
You're not steering the boat.
The boat is just going incircles with the motor running.
It's not a good thing foranything.
(21:03):
As we close this out.
So Jim is looking to dosomething with either a special
event or a challenge.
They want to generate morerevenue.
So like you, you said, you know,let's say they're out there.
They could tack on, let's saywith a couple of events, 10, 20,
30,$40,000 to their gross.
These are not insignificantnumbers.
What are your tips?
If someone's thinking aboutdoing something like this?
SPEAKER_02 (21:21):
First one would be obviously start small with it.
It doesn't have to be, our firstcompetition, I think we had 80
athletes, right?
Set a goal.
Hey, I want to have 50, 60athletes.
Start small and then build fromthere.
And the second thing is look atyour existing ecosystem of other
businesses around you that youcan work with.
So a prime example of that is wehave a restaurant.
(21:44):
It's my brother-in-law that ownsa healthy restaurant locally.
So we talk about, hey, when werun this big nutrition
challenge, I want you to sponsorit and I'm going to talk about
you left and right.
We can do the prizes can be toyou.
So it's mutual beneficial andthen what we're learning is like
if we can get enough sponsorshipthat covers almost any expense
(22:05):
that we had so the revenuecollected from the actual
registration the your profit onthe project goes higher so who
do you have in your ecosystemmaybe their existing members
maybe they're not maybe it'sjust a local supplement store
chiropractor massage therapistwho has the same members that
you do that you could offer themsomething that would be
(22:26):
beneficial, maybe it's theexposure, maybe it's word of
mouth, that they would want toengage as a sponsor or be
somehow involved with yourcompetition or your nutrition
challenge, or both, becausewe've done that with both, where
we've said, hey, our lastcompetition we did very, very
well because we had so manydifferent sponsors that wanted
to be part of it.
Now, you also have to take intoconsideration we've done this
(22:48):
for 10 plus years, so we'vebuilt it up over time.
So year one, you want to say,hey, let me go...
ask for$5,000 sponsors for mycompetition with 30 people in
it.
That might be a stretch.
Maybe.
But you could talk to a massagetherapist and say, hey, you
know, would you want to sponsorfor$500?
And, you know, we can get yousome signage.
And I think start small, butalways leverage and build the
relationships that you have.
(23:09):
Again, especially when you haveoverlapping clientele, that's
been something that has beenhelpful for us.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Yeah, the best, the analogy of best day to plant a
tree was yesterday.
The second best day is today,right?
So like start doing some stuffand I'll talk on what John said,
put an annual plan together,right?
Don't think about this stuff forlike next month.
Put this in a document thatlives and breathes and evolves
and put this stuff in there andthen plan to do it and do a
great job and crush it.
(23:34):
The second thing I'll give you,John mentioned, I'm going to
reiterate it.
Profit.
These things should not existjust to like, be there they
should generate profit and imade a mistake i started with
competitions and i spent all themoney on prizes and new
equipment i made no money or ieven lost money if you figure in
the time run these things that aprofit and a mentor can show you
exactly how to set them up towith a profit margin make sure
you're not overworking yourcoaches and destroying your
(23:55):
business that these things areactually kicking in money and if
you do it right your arm goes upyour revenue goes up your
retention goes up john said allthat stuff happened and again he
was on our leaderboard which ranfrom 61 000 to 114 000 a month
these are our incrediblerecurring revenue numbers for
gyms.
John, I want to thank you forsharing, opening up the books
and sharing your secrets withus, especially the gamification
(24:17):
of nutrition stuff.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
My pleasure, Mike.
Absolute thrill to be here.
SPEAKER_01 (24:21):
Listeners, if you want to find out more about how
you might move in the directionof our revenue leaders, you
should book a call with amentor.
Through the link in the shownotes.
That was John Bartholomew.
I'm Mike Workinen.
He was one of our top revenuegenerators and our last
leaderboard.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
Please hit subscribe on your wayout the door.
And now here's TrueBrain founderChris Cooper with a final
message.
SPEAKER_00 (24:41):
Hey, it's Two Brain founder Chris Cooper with a
quick note.
We created the Gym Owners UnitedFacebook 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 answer questions, I run freewebinars, and I give away all
kinds of great resources to helpyou grow your gym.
(25:03):
I'd love to have you in thatgroup.
It's Gym Owners United onFacebook or go to
GymOwnersUnited.com to join.
Do it today.
I'll see you next time.
(00:30):
and talk about big grouptraining, small group training,
semi-private training, personaltraining.
We don't step outside that veryoften, but John's found a way to
put some great stuff together toboost his revenue, and we're
going to talk about that today.
John, welcome.
How is it today?
SPEAKER_02 (00:43):
Outstanding, Mike.
Super excited to be here anddive into all things events and
nutrition challenges and share.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Yeah, because we talk about training a lot.
And I'll tell you, back in theday when I looked at my books
and something was looking reallybad on the revenue line, I'm
like, I need a challenge.
I need to do a competition.
And you put something like thatin there.
But you're doing somethingcompletely different.
And I'm going to get ourlisteners on your page so that
they can understand how this canbecome a big boost to revenue.
So let's do the numbers first.
What are your main revenuestreams?
(01:10):
Do you have an approximatebreakdown of what goes into your
gross?
What are we looking at here?
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Yep.
So the numbers that we're goingto reference are May's numbers
and a breakdown of that$74 80%of that is from what you would
look as generally accepted gymrevenue, right?
Group class, small grouptraining, personal training,
things along those lines.
But then about 20% of that, soalmost another 15K came from two
(01:35):
sources, one being an event andthe other being a nutrition
challenge.
So like you hit the nail on thehead, the bedrock is the
recurring, a general gymmembership, but a nice 20% chunk
is above and beyond.
And we found a pretty cool wayto do it in a systematic way.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Yeah.
And that's the important part,because again, I often would
throw in six week challenges orsome other stuff when I saw a
hole coming or like my summerwas looking bad or something
like that.
And these things wereunpredictable.
And I, you know, you justlaunched something.
You don't know if it's going tobe a good thing or a bad thing.
You're not sure what it's goingto bring in.
It was not predictable revenue,but when you have something tied
to an annual plan, you'veestablished it, you know how to
run it.
(02:10):
It becomes a different storyaltogether.
We're going to dig into thatlistener.
So you can understand how Johnmakes this money with some very
clever tactics.
So like I said, many gyms dothis desperation tactic.
Why did you decide to startrunning events and did you see
them at the time as a long-termrevenue stream?
SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
The honest answer is no, we didn't see them as a
long-term revenue stream.
It started much like thefacility itself because I like
doing events.
I like competing.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
We
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
went out to some local competitions and I said,
hey, we got a facility.
I'm a smart guy.
We can absolutely do this.
We started them over 10 yearsago as this is fun and exciting
and it might bring in a littlebit of extra revenue.
A number I wish I had was whatwe made on the first
competition.
I don't have that right now.
But looking at it over the10-year evolution and the growth
(02:56):
It has become, like we haddiscussed, a predictable thing
that we have on the calendar,and we can usually say, hey,
this is going to net us aftereverything's done, three, five,
a great competition, 7K.
So it came from just purelyliking to compete, going and
doing them, and saying, hey, Ithink we could probably do this,
and we could probably do it evena little bit better.
SPEAKER_01 (03:17):
Yeah, and that's really the key is you start
these things, but then youfigure out how to make them
really great, and then you makethem part of that plan.
And again, listeners, if youdon't have an annual plan, you
should DM Chris Cooper and askfor his annual plan.
It's a great starting point.
Send him a DM right now onFacebook.
He will give you an annual plan.
That's a great starting point.
You can tailor it as you seefit, but there are some
essential things on there.
John's got an annual plan andwe're going to dig into that
(03:39):
one.
So you're not running stuffrandomly.
You know where these things aregoing to go.
Like you did the first one.
Now it's a great thing.
So where do your special eventsfall and how far in advance do
you plan?
When does this happen?
SPEAKER_02 (03:49):
So in the fall, we'd like to lay out what we're going
to do for the next year, andthat's something that we've done
for the last couple yearsworking with Two Brain.
They've been super helpful withthat.
But going back to what you hadsaid, Mike, is we started to
look at our calendar year ofwhere are the predictable low
revenue spots, and rather thantrying to just come up with some
wild idea, we said, well, whatif we started to shift our
(04:09):
competition or the nutritionchallenge around those
predictable low revenue areas sothat way we can almost balance
off the revenue and we can thensee systematically say, okay, in
fall we have a competition, andsummer we're going to do a
nutrition challenge.
And it comes a really nicecyclical pattern where you can
help offset those slow monthswith the nutrition challenges
(04:31):
and competitions done right,again, planning them.
So short answer, we plan themout in the fall for the year
prior, and then we just look tobasically do one a quarter.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Yeah, so listeners, if you are sitting here and you
do not know what's going on inthe next six months, you need an
annual plan.
It's a huge deal and it caninclude everything from staff
evaluations to special events.
You need something though.
If you don't have it, you'realways going to be reactive.
And as Chris Cooper has said,the business will be driving
you.
You will not be driving yourbusiness.
John sits down in November,works with his mentor, makes an
(04:59):
annual plan for the year.
How much better would yourbusiness go if you had that plan
in place?
DM Chris for his plan.
Do you find that these thingsthat you've built up, do your
members look forward to them?
Does it become almost aretention tool where people are
like, I want to train for thiscompetition?
SPEAKER_02 (05:13):
Absolutely.
So we've seen it where a commonquestion, I'll get it from other
gym owners, is the participantpool.
Is it all external or is itinternal?
What's that split?
And it's usually a predictable,probably 50-50.
So our members will look at it.
And we've had members that havedone the competition with us for
almost 10 years.
And we've created, obviouslywith that, we've had to create
(05:35):
master's divisions.
10
SPEAKER_01 (05:38):
years,
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
yeah.
Right?
They've been with us.
So yes, we do look at it as aretention tool.
And we can all We've also foundways to monetize.
Hey, we could do a little skillsession, a little competitor's
thing before the competitionshows up.
But we also see that individualsthat sign up for the
competitions will start to traina little bit more frequently,
(05:59):
right?
It's very similar to if you weregoing to sign up for a 5K road
race, you'd probably starthitting, running a little bit
more.
So when you sign up for ourcompetition, you start training
a little bit more.
And when people train a littlebit more, they generally stay
with us a little bit longer.
So it almost feeds back into,like you said, retention and
keeping our members longer.
SPEAKER_01 (06:17):
Yeah, one of Chris Cooper's tips is if you have
slow summers, put a competitiontogether in fall.
And it doesn't have to be anelite level.
thing it can just be like Ithink he called his the catalyst
games and it was just a chanceto celebrate his members it
wasn't designed to be the ultratest of fitness or anything like
that but something that no onewas going to quit if they
register for this thing becausethey've got a goal they're
training for something Johnmentioned two things that are
(06:37):
really important he's got 50%participation inside the gym and
then he's got people outside thegym the other 50% that boosts
his average revenue per memberwhen someone signs up but it
also gets in some new revenuefrom other people other people
maybe they get exposed to Johnand his business and maybe they
want to take part in that sothat's a really interesting But
again, it all comes down toplanning and doing a good job
repeatedly over and over againand building momentum.
(06:59):
I want to talk specificallyabout your nutrition challenge
because this is very cool.
You've got some reallyinteresting features that I
think listeners need to knowabout.
How do you run this thing andhow do you make it fun for
clients?
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
So the backstory on it, Mike, is that we've been
doing nutrition challengeslonger than we've been doing
competitions.
Within the first year or two, sowe've been, we're coming up in
year 16, been doing them atleast two a year, sometimes
three a year.
And what we'd realize is, asmost gym owners realize, like,
hey, the bedrock of getting ourclients results is we've got to
get them eating better.
(07:30):
We've got to get them sleepingbetter.
We've got to get them drinkingless often, right?
So the We call it nutritionhealthy habits.
We've got to get that dialed inbecause unfortunately, a
thousand burpees a day isn'tgoing to undo two hours of sleep
and a six pack a night and justpoor nutrition.
SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
I wish it would.
SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
We've been thinking about this for a long time and
we've run a lot of nutritionchallenges for a long time.
But in the last year, what westarted to do was gamify it.
We started to put a points valueto the behaviors that lead to
the outcomes that we want.
The outcome that we want from anutrition challenge challenges
for our clients, ourparticipants to be healthier,
(08:08):
more fit, feel better.
And a lot of times that includeslosing weight.
But we'd always see like 50people sign up, 80 people sign
up, 100 people sign up.
And then by like week two, noteven week two, like day 10, like
Nobody's participating anymore.
What's going on?
We started to say, what can wedo?
How do we make this better?
(08:28):
The idea of making, I call it,making a healthy competition out
of being healthier has gonereally well.
The shortest way to explain itis you get a point for eating
really well.
We just call it the go-no-golist.
Simple foods.
You get a point for hitting yourprotein.
We got away from weighing andmeasuring because that was very
intimidating.
For a lot of people, it was toomuch.
(08:50):
We just said, if you followthese guidelines, yes or no, you
get a point.
Did you move your body for 45minutes?
You get a point.
Did you get a good night'ssleep?
So there's binary, there's yesor no questions you answer and
you gain points.
And then we also made big, big,big points if you would come in
on a Monday and be lighter thanyou were the Monday prior.
So you get these bonus points,these mega bonus points for
(09:10):
doing the behavior that mostpeople want when they do a
nutrition challenge.
And we got bonus points for mealprepping.
So what we did was we created aleaderboard So each night you
could literally plug in yournumbers and you could see in
real time, hey, where am I inthis challenge against my peers?
And what happened is you wouldnow in hindsight, I'm not really
(09:32):
surprised by that.
People became very competitivewhen you're running your classes
and you say, hey, guys, we'regoing to go for an 800 meter
warm up jog.
Everybody tries to win the800-meter warm-up.
Well, guess what happened?
People got very, verycompetitive, but they were
competitive in one of the bestthings ever.
Getting more sleep, getting tothe gym more often, eating more
(09:53):
protein, all the things thatmade them feel healthier.
So we have found that to bevery, very effective in our
nutrition challenges because ittook what was very engaging for
the first seven days and then amassive drop-off to the last one
we ran internally We had 137participants.
We charged$70, so you can lookat the revenue there.
(10:15):
And we had, I wanna say,probably 70% go all the way to
the end, which historicallylooking like we'd be lucky if we
had like 30, maybe 40% make itto the end.
And feedback, we gathered,right?
We did a quick Google survey atthe end to say, what did you
like?
How do we make it better?
And again, and again, and again,and again, it was the point
(10:35):
system, the point system, thescoreboard, the point system.
And this is from longstandingmembers that have done 20 of
these with us.
Like, John, the point system wasso fun.
And there's two ways.
People said, I'd like the pointsystem for myself because I was
trying to beat my points.
And then a lot of them alsosaid, I just like the healthy
competition.
So that has worked really,really well for us to gamify the
(10:56):
nutrition challenges.
And that's the second one, thirdone that we've done that way.
And it's gone very well.
SPEAKER_01 (11:02):
Wow.
So basically 40% greateradherence.
just because you're puttingtogether a point system and
encouraging people to compete.
And as you're rattling thisstuff off in my head, I'm
thinking, okay, I would get apoint.
I went to bed last night at agood hour.
I didn't have any alcohol.
I had breakfast and protein.
So I'm like adding up points inmy head already.
You can see, listeners, how thisworks.
And if you have a garment oranything like that, you know, my
(11:23):
wife looks at these things andthere's badges she wants.
This stuff all has an effect onpeople and it really is
motivating.
Do you do this, like is this anapp or what system do you use
here to make this happen?
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
So we have been using, so it came from
internally, hey, wild idea.
We run a gym.
We're trying to get peoplehealthier and have just built it
over time.
And it's been archaic, paper andpen.
So we use this with our personaltraining clients.
We use this with our nutritionand lifestyle coaching clients.
And we say, hey, Mike, here'syour sheet.
Fill in the sheet and earn yourpoints.
(11:55):
So over the last three, fourmonths, we've been building it
into an app because now what wecan do is we can see the results
in real time.
So again, if I'm working withyou one-on-one, personal
training, nutrition, lifestylecoaching, I can just hop on the
back end and I can look to see,oh, look, Mike's got 26 points
this week.
He's got a streak.
He's doing amazing.
And it simplifies it becauseit's 2025, giving people a green
(12:19):
highlighter and a three-ringbinder.
It feels like we're steppingback into 1984.
So it's a little archaic.
Now, it worked, but steppinginto current times and
leveraging technology, it'sgoing into an app.
And the goal was to make it Veryaccessible and very simple for
individuals.
Because we tried macros andweighing and measuring.
(12:39):
And again, I think if you are anelite level athlete, absolutely.
If you want to be on stage beinga figure model, absolutely.
But if you're John, if you'reMike, and you're like, hey, I
just want to be fit.
I want to be healthy.
I've got 5, 10, 15 pounds I wantto lose.
Getting rid of the having toweigh and measure and just
saying, did you eat these foods?
And making it very, very easy totrack.
And then the point system hasbeen super beneficial.
(13:01):
So short story, we are...
probably about more than halfwayof building out the app.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Ooh, so that's cool because, you know, what happens
here, you get this, you get apack mentality too, where if
people see each, you know, youlog into the app and someone's
got 10,000 steps and you've got9,980 or something like that,
you're probably going for awalk.
And so that real-time aspect isreally, really cool, that pack
mentality.
And then the other thing is thestreaks you mentioned.
So once you start hittingnumbers, and again, I'll
(13:25):
reference Chris Cooper, he has astreak going of like 750 words a
day, I think blogging orsomething like that.
He's going for like an endlessamount of time and he has
dragged himself out of bed tokeep that streak going.
Streaks are super powerful.
And if you can encourage yourmembers to do it with healthy
stuff, how much better is thatgoing to be?
And here's the upshot of this.
Let's talk business.
If your members do this stuffthat John's laying out, like
eating protein and preppingmeals, getting to bed on time,
(13:47):
they're going to get betterresults in the gym.
If they get better results inthe gym, they're going to stay
training with you longer.
They're going to pay you moremoney.
Everyone is going to win here.
Your coaches make more.
Your gym makes more.
You make more.
The clients are happy.
It's a win across the board.
And it's just because you'regetting them to do the stuff
that gets results because yourjob as a get clients' results.
It doesn't matter what programyou use.
(14:07):
Nothing of that matters.
It matters that they getresults.
You said it again, but remindme, how often do you run a
nutrition challenge like this?
SPEAKER_02 (14:18):
competitions we talked about we try to basically
alternate right we've got acompetition then we do a
nutrition challenge competitionso we're not you know beating
the same drum every single timethere's a there's a nice
predictable rhythm to it andwhat we have found and actually
going to talk about the app aswell too is doing this for a
long time as many individuals doso so so well during the actual
(14:39):
challenge they're they'refocused they're going they're
going they're going and then itends and they're like now what
all right so the nice thingabout the app is that the app is
just going it's So yes, you canhave that focus and tension and
you can be hammering, hammering,hammering and say, okay, the
challenge ended.
But I'm still going to keepgoing.
I want to keep my streak going.
I want to keep this going.
And they don't have to stop andbe like, all right, I have to
(15:00):
wait six more months until thespring challenge starts.
So we run two, we call them28-day challenges a year.
And then actually we're doingone right now is I'll throw them
out there just kind of off thecuff.
They're free.
I don't charge for the shortones.
Then we call them sprints andthey're 10 days.
And I'm in one, right?
Going back to exactly what yousaid.
I'm in it right now with themembers and there's like six of
(15:22):
us tied for first and I I'mgoing to make sure that I have
to get my workout in.
I'm going to make sure that I'mgetting my seven hours of sleep
tonight.
So I will adjust and move thingsaround in my personal schedule
to make sure that I don't getknocked out of the top spot
because I want to compete withthese guys.
And like I said, the best partabout it is it's a healthy
competition.
Like, oh, I got extra sleep.
(15:43):
Like, I'm competing to behealthier.
SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
Do you find that you get some carryover into ongoing
programs as a result of this,we'll call it a kickstart or
something like that with achallenge?
SPEAKER_02 (15:53):
Yes, we actually have just started using this
with our new members right whenthey joined, because going back
to what you said, talkingbusiness, the best time to get
somebody results is as fast ashumanly possible when they come
through the door.
So to say, hey, Mike, awesome,welcome to our facility.
We've still got to give you thearcade paper right now because
(16:14):
the app's not done.
But this is our system, this isour protocol, and if you can
score 200 points in the next 30days, you're going to be on
fire, my
SPEAKER_01 (16:21):
friend.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
We're using it right, literally, from the
second they say, cool, I want toget going, the NoSwa intro ends,
we say, awesome, hey, let's chatabout how we're going to get you
to where you want to be as fastas humanly possible.
And then it also gives us sharedlanguage, right?
Because then we can talk aboutpoints, right?
I can say, hey, Mike, you're 10days in.
How are we doing with thepoints?
Do we have, at this point, youshould have around 70 points.
(16:42):
Are you understanding thepoints?
So we use our general manager,and she's reaching out to our
new clients and saying, hey,Mike, she's doing exactly that.
Hey, Mike, how are we doing withthe points?
Any questions on the points?
And it gives them a quantifiableway to see that they're making
progress.
Are they getting into classes?
Are they eating right?
Because again, going back to it,we want to help that person do
(17:06):
what they said they wanted todo.
And if we just go thetraditional route of like, yeah,
eat better and get into class,they might.
We're like, no, here, do thesethings specifically.
And it's also the holisticpicture of like sleep is on
there.
Alcohol intake is on there.
Hydration is on there.
What time did you stop eatingbefore bed?
All of these things that play apart into getting the client
(17:27):
what they want, which is themost common thing we hear is, I
want more energy.
I want to drop 10, 20, 30pounds.
I want to feel better.
I want to look better.
Well, you could crush yournutrition.
You could maybe use a differentapp and crush your nutrition.
But if you don't sleep well andyou're drinking too often,
you're going to have a reallyhard time doing that.
And then again, pull it alltogether and put a score to it
has worked really well.
SPEAKER_01 (17:49):
Listeners could do this with just an Excel
spreadsheet if they so desired.
SPEAKER_02 (17:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's literally where this camefrom.
We said, what are the thingsthat will make somebody healthy?
Okay, how do we just...
It's paper and pen.
It's nothing.
I wish I could say, oh, we...
We came up with the idea and putthe scoring together, but you
could absolutely just come upwith this, put it into a
spreadsheet, a Google Doc, printit off, and give it to the
(18:14):
clients.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (18:15):
Yeah, and I like the simplicity of the whole thing
because I've done the same thingwith the weighing and measuring
and food and eating and soforth.
Some people just hate thatstuff.
Or if they sign up for it, theyrealize right away it's not for
them.
It becomes complicated.
But tick seven boxes, score sixpoints or whatever it is, that
sounds very easy, verymanageable on both the client
side and the coach side you canuse this very quickly to make
(18:37):
something really really kind ofsexy in your gym where people
are like i want to try this iwant to track i want to be
competitive i want to get thatmomentum so listeners that is a
very interesting thing that youguys can pick up if you're going
to do something like this butagain it comes down to that
annual plan so talk to me againjohn about how does mentorship
fit into this and the annualplanning cycle with you
SPEAKER_02 (18:56):
So my mentor is David, and he's been over the
moon phenomenal because I have alot of ideas, trying lots of new
stuff.
Every time we chat, he's like,okay, here's the next three new
ideas.
And he does a very good job ofjust listening at first and
saying, that's a good idea.
John, that's a bad idea.
John, that's a bad idea, butmaybe if we polish it this way
(19:18):
and we try something different.
Or the nice thing is, I'vementioned before that I like to
mentor because Where I live, Idon't have a lot of business
owners that I can talk to aboutbusiness.
And there's definitely not anythat I can talk to about
business that is gym and healthrelated specific.
So by having that mentor that Ican bounce the ideas off of and
have them say, oh yeah, we'vedone something like that before.
(19:39):
Hey, this is how we've done ourchallenges.
I can listen, listen to someother experience in the same
industry.
and really get some fine tuning,right?
Obviously, we start the callsoff with, hey, how's the head
count going?
What's arm look like?
What's leg look like?
Metrics, yeah.
The bedrock, right?
Because these challenges alonearen't going to pay your bills,
(20:00):
right?
A competition alone isn't goingto pay your bills.
But they can be nice littleauxiliary things that can create
some extra revenue.
So we chat about, hey, is thefoundation strong?
Okay, cool.
What are we doing for theselittle projects?
And he's just had...
Really good sage wisdom.
Sometimes probably tell me notto do something that probably
would have been a mistake thatwould have cost lots of money.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
On the other end of it, though, I'm sure he told
you, OK, we look at the numbersfor this nutrition challenge,
this competition.
Let's keep doing that.
And we're going to put that inyour annual plan.
We're going to screw it in deepbecause that thing's not coming
out because it's working great.
And that's something as a mentorwill tell you that, too.
Don't chase that shiny thing.
Keep doing what you're doingbecause it is working really,
really well.
This is the other thing you getout of this plan is the
(20:42):
accountability of someonesaying, hey, did you do your
annual plan?
Because left to your owndevices, you might be like, I
will get to it.
And then all of a sudden, Janone rolls around, you've got
nothing.
And that's when you startsaying, Oh my God, February
sucks.
I need to put together a crappychallenge.
I don't know how to do that.
And it's a really rough way torun a business.
You're not steering the boat.
The boat is just going incircles with the motor running.
It's not a good thing foranything.
(21:03):
As we close this out.
So Jim is looking to dosomething with either a special
event or a challenge.
They want to generate morerevenue.
So like you, you said, you know,let's say they're out there.
They could tack on, let's saywith a couple of events, 10, 20,
30,$40,000 to their gross.
These are not insignificantnumbers.
What are your tips?
If someone's thinking aboutdoing something like this?
SPEAKER_02 (21:21):
First one would be obviously start small with it.
It doesn't have to be, our firstcompetition, I think we had 80
athletes, right?
Set a goal.
Hey, I want to have 50, 60athletes.
Start small and then build fromthere.
And the second thing is look atyour existing ecosystem of other
businesses around you that youcan work with.
So a prime example of that is wehave a restaurant.
(21:44):
It's my brother-in-law that ownsa healthy restaurant locally.
So we talk about, hey, when werun this big nutrition
challenge, I want you to sponsorit and I'm going to talk about
you left and right.
We can do the prizes can be toyou.
So it's mutual beneficial andthen what we're learning is like
if we can get enough sponsorshipthat covers almost any expense
(22:05):
that we had so the revenuecollected from the actual
registration the your profit onthe project goes higher so who
do you have in your ecosystemmaybe their existing members
maybe they're not maybe it'sjust a local supplement store
chiropractor massage therapistwho has the same members that
you do that you could offer themsomething that would be
(22:26):
beneficial, maybe it's theexposure, maybe it's word of
mouth, that they would want toengage as a sponsor or be
somehow involved with yourcompetition or your nutrition
challenge, or both, becausewe've done that with both, where
we've said, hey, our lastcompetition we did very, very
well because we had so manydifferent sponsors that wanted
to be part of it.
Now, you also have to take intoconsideration we've done this
(22:48):
for 10 plus years, so we'vebuilt it up over time.
So year one, you want to say,hey, let me go...
ask for$5,000 sponsors for mycompetition with 30 people in
it.
That might be a stretch.
Maybe.
But you could talk to a massagetherapist and say, hey, you
know, would you want to sponsorfor$500?
And, you know, we can get yousome signage.
And I think start small, butalways leverage and build the
relationships that you have.
(23:09):
Again, especially when you haveoverlapping clientele, that's
been something that has beenhelpful for us.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Yeah, the best, the analogy of best day to plant a
tree was yesterday.
The second best day is today,right?
So like start doing some stuffand I'll talk on what John said,
put an annual plan together,right?
Don't think about this stuff forlike next month.
Put this in a document thatlives and breathes and evolves
and put this stuff in there andthen plan to do it and do a
great job and crush it.
(23:34):
The second thing I'll give you,John mentioned, I'm going to
reiterate it.
Profit.
These things should not existjust to like, be there they
should generate profit and imade a mistake i started with
competitions and i spent all themoney on prizes and new
equipment i made no money or ieven lost money if you figure in
the time run these things that aprofit and a mentor can show you
exactly how to set them up towith a profit margin make sure
you're not overworking yourcoaches and destroying your
(23:55):
business that these things areactually kicking in money and if
you do it right your arm goes upyour revenue goes up your
retention goes up john said allthat stuff happened and again he
was on our leaderboard which ranfrom 61 000 to 114 000 a month
these are our incrediblerecurring revenue numbers for
gyms.
John, I want to thank you forsharing, opening up the books
and sharing your secrets withus, especially the gamification
(24:17):
of nutrition stuff.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
My pleasure, Mike.
Absolute thrill to be here.
SPEAKER_01 (24:21):
Listeners, if you want to find out more about how
you might move in the directionof our revenue leaders, you
should book a call with amentor.
Through the link in the shownotes.
That was John Bartholomew.
I'm Mike Workinen.
He was one of our top revenuegenerators and our last
leaderboard.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
Please hit subscribe on your wayout the door.
And now here's TrueBrain founderChris Cooper with a final
message.
SPEAKER_00 (24:41):
Hey, it's Two Brain founder Chris Cooper with a
quick note.
We created the Gym Owners UnitedFacebook 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 answer questions, I run freewebinars, and I give away all
kinds of great resources to helpyou grow your gym.
(25:03):
I'd love to have you in thatgroup.
It's Gym Owners United onFacebook or go to
GymOwnersUnited.com to join.
Do it today.
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