December 15, 2025 • 26 mins
You won’t build a successful gym by guessing what people want. You just can't read minds—but every entrepreneur tries to do that, and it's costly.
Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper provides the simple fix: Start using the “just ask method"—a proven way to boost every single metric in your gym.
Chris walks through exactly which questions you must ask to improve your gym’s marketing, sales, retention, pricing, ROI on expenses, staff development and net owner benefit.
The key insight: Don't guess; just ask.
For example, you might assume clients want a kettlebell class because you love kettlebells. If you meet with clients and ask what they want, you might discover 10 of them are training for running events, and you have a prime opportunity to boost average revenue per member with a race prep program.
Or perhaps you can't hold onto staff people. What if you ask what they want to earn and accomplish, then show them how to do it? They'll stay longer and allow you to focus on building the business as the CEO.
Watch to discover the questions top gym owners ask to improve every key performance indicator and build incredibly profitable businesses.
Get Coop’s “Exactly What to Say” guide in Gym Owners United, linked below.
Links
Gym Owners United
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0:01 - Stop guessing & just ask
5:17 - Improve your marketing & sales
13:25 - Boost client retention & value
17:53 - Cut expenses & pay yourself more
25:13 - Payoff of the “just ask” method
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:02):
You are not good at guessing what other people want.
Nobody is.
When I opened up my first gym,I had this huge pirate flag
hanging in the corner.
It was all cinder block.
I painted chalkboard withchalkboard paint right on top of
the cinder block.
We had loud music.
I think it was the MetallicaBlack album on repeat.
(00:23):
Kind of an angry vibe.
There was chalk bowls andstuff, but no other decoration.
And I thought that I wouldattract people like me.
That's what I wanted.
But, you know, I was this brokepower lifter.
And so I attracted broke powerlifters, angry people who scared
off the better clients.
Because I guessed at whatpeople would actually want by
(00:45):
thinking about what I want.
The reality is that mostbusinesses fail because the
owner never stops to ask whattheir clients or their staff or
anybody else actually wants.
They make projection problems.
And today I'm going to teachyou how to get around this
problem and save your businesswith the just ask method.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
(01:06):
And I'm going to be referringto some tools that we give away
for free in gymownersunited.com.
Throughout this podcast, I'llbe talking about specific
questions that you can get in myguide about what exactly to say
to leads, to current clients,to your staff that will help you
actually build a betterbusiness instead of just
(01:27):
whatever your first best guessis in your head.
I want to start with theprojection problem.
See, most gym owners projecttheir own mindset onto clients,
not just their own picture.
They project things like, oh,that person can't afford my
service without a discount,right?
They project their own wallet,a broke gym owner, onto
everybody they need.
(01:48):
But their clients are not otherbroke gym owners.
So they need to stop doingthat.
Or they project what attractsthem, like posting ripped hands
or posting about their PRs orposting shirt pictures of them
shirtless.
While their clients are notthinking about that.
Their clients are thinkingabout what do I get for dinner?
Or like, how am I going to getthese kids to do their damn
homework?
(02:08):
Or, you know, I got to rememberto get dog food at the grocery
store.
You know, here's a crazy story.
We used to offer people a freecatalyst hat if they threw up
during their first workoutbecause we thought that was
awesome.
We thought it was kind of funnyand it promoted intensity, but
that actually scared my clientsoff, right?
Don't worry, uh, all theseprojection mistakes that I'm
talking about, I've done worse,right?
(02:29):
So I hope you get a laugh outof my mistakes, but you also
learn from them too.
Uh, another thing that ownersdo is they obsess about like the
drama in their gym and theculture and they try to control
every little thing because thegym is their life, but it's not
their client's life and it's nottheir staff life.
So when a coach quits, the gymowner loses sleep.
Oh my God, the clients aregonna be talking about this.
(02:51):
No, they're not.
Like they're worried about thedrama in their own life or oh,
that person stinks in my class.
Whatever.
The clients are probably nottalking about that after class,
right?
A great quote on this that Ihad to learn early on was you
worry, you wouldn't worry aboutwhat other people think about
you if you realized howinfrequently they actually do.
(03:12):
That's right, when they leavethe gym, they're not thinking
about the gym.
Okay.
The next thing is I need totalk more about my method, about
my my CrossFit or mycertifications in Pilates or my
masters in yoga, or I need totalk about politics.
You know, clients don't careabout that.
You can't win clients talkingabout your method or your
politics or your certifications.
(03:33):
You can only lose them.
Why don't they care?
Because they got their ownproblems.
And so, you know, if you'retalking about your
certifications, what you'retrying to do is sell a drill bit
instead of selling a solutionto their problems, which is how
do I hang this picture on mywall?
Okay.
That's a common marketinganalogy.
If you don't get it, basicallyyou need to solve solutions to
(03:54):
people's problems instead of thefeatures that you care about,
the certifications, thetechnique, how many other
coaches you've mentored.
Nobody else cares about thatexcept for you.
It will not attract clients, itwill possibly turn them off.
And frankly, you're wastingtime and space and their
attention by talking about thatjunk.
So let's talk about how to talkabout what people actually care
(04:16):
about.
And that starts with justasking.
Look, I know you're surprisedwhen people can't read your
mind, because I'm surprised whennobody can read my mind.
But the reality is that whensomebody thinks, hey, I know
what people want, and they giveus bad service at their
restaurant or their cardealership, we're surprised
because can't they read ourminds?
Well, of course they can't,right?
(04:38):
We're doing the same thing inreverse.
We need to stop projecting whatwe think people want and just
ask.
And so what we're gonna do hereis we're gonna go metric by
metric in your business, and I'mgonna give you an example of
exactly what to say, whatquestion to ask to help you
grow.
Okay.
So we're gonna go through uhhow to use the just ask method
(05:00):
in marketing.
We're gonna use it for sales,we're gonna use it for staff,
we're gonna use it for ourcurrent clients to help with
retention.
We're gonna be using it forourselves too at the end.
So we're gonna go through thisstep by step.
I'm gonna share what questionto ask and how it helped me for
each individual metric.
Okay, let's actually start withmarketing.
To really market well, it's notlike doing art.
(05:23):
You're not guessing and justputting messages out there and
trying to figure out what'llland with people.
What you actually have to do isidentify who your best clients
are and then duplicate them.
So I'm gonna give you a quickexercise that we call the
pumpkin plan.
This comes from MikeMikalowitz.
I've talked about it before onthe show, but it's worth
repeating about once a year,once every two years at the
(05:43):
outside.
Take a blank sheet of paper,draw a vertical line down the
middle.
On the left hand side of theline, I want you to draw a
smiley face.
On the right hand side, I wantyou to draw a dollar sign.
And then I want you to pull upyour client list.
Okay, just hit pause while youdo that.
Grab your pen.
We're gonna work on this rightnow.
Once you've got your clientlist in front of you, what I
(06:04):
want you to do is look at theleft-hand side of your page.
It's got that smiley face onit.
I want you to go down yourclient list and say, who are the
clients who actually feed mewith energy?
They make me happy.
I'm not just like, okay,content coaching them.
They actually show up and I getenergy from them being in my
group or meeting them for anappointment or coaching them.
(06:26):
Okay.
They they have batteriesincluded and more than enough
energy, and it actuallyoverflows and feeds you with
energy too.
Okay.
Write these names down.
You might have three, you mighthave seven, you might have 10,
you might have five.
I usually get about six.
Okay.
Then you're gonna turn to theother column, the dollar sign
column, and look at your memberlist again and say, which of
these clients pay me the mostmoney?
(06:47):
So just go month by month.
Like, what are the what is thisperson paying per month?
You know, are they paying forthree other people?
Great.
Are they taking our highestvalue service?
Great.
Like write them down.
And again, you might get five,six, seven people on this list.
You can do your top 10 if youwant to, it doesn't matter.
When you've done that, I wantyou to compare your two lists,
okay?
Your happy list and yourdollars list, and look for the
(07:09):
names that appear on both.
So if Sally shows up on onlythe happy list, okay, that's
great, but we'll leave her offthis exercise.
If Billy shows up on the happylist and the dollars list, aha,
let's circle Billy's name.
We're gonna come back to himand then keep going down your
list and looking for othermatching names.
Here's what's magical aboutthis quite often you'll find
(07:31):
that the people who appear onone list appear on both, right?
And so you're gonna come upwith three to four names of
people who appear on both thehappy and the dollars list.
Let's go back to Billy.
What we want to do is takeBilly for a coffee.
Like get him out of the gym,get him out of that context,
just take him for a coffee, havea conversation for 20 minutes,
and work some questions into theconversation.
(07:53):
So the first question is whatbrought you to my gym in the
first place?
Okay.
And you're gonna write down hisanswer.
And the reason we're askingBilly this is we want to know
what method of our marketing isworking to attract people like
Billy.
We want to double down on that,right?
Stop wasting time on the otherstuff and just do what's working
to attract the billies outthere.
(08:13):
Okay.
Second, what else had you triedbefore you joined my gym?
We want to know where to lookfor more billies.
Well, I was at, you know, goodlife, the YMCA.
I was doing metabolic fit bodyboot camp.
Then I decided to try F-45, orI was doing CrossFit, and then I
decided to try Hyrux, whatever.
We want to know where to lookto find more billies because
(08:34):
that's where we're going totarget our advertising and our
marketing later.
And third, Billy, what is thebiggest challenge in your life
after you leave the gym?
And what we're really askinghere is how can we increase our
value to Billy?
So if he says something like,Well, you know, I work out
really, really hard, but I thinkI just have trouble like
staying on my diet.
(08:56):
Great.
You know, we can offer a habitschallenge or something.
We know that like Billy is allin on this stuff.
He's going to buy more stuff ifwe offer him better solutions
and we can change his lifefaster.
So then, you know, what we'vegot here is what attracted Billy
to our gym.
Let's do more of that.
But where did Billy come from?
Let's target our marketingthere.
(09:16):
And what else can we do toserve Billy better?
We can increase our ARM.
Now, the first time I did thisexercise in my gym, I was still
running with the, you know, thepirate flag in the corner and I
had the skull and crossbones onmy website, all of that.
And we were a big CrossFit gym.
And what I thought was if I askpeople these questions, I know
what they're gonna say.
(09:36):
They're gonna say, CrossFit isfun.
It feels like a game.
They're gonna say, I challengemyself to be better every single
day.
The gym is my family.
I love it here, and I willnever leave.
Uh, you know, and and also Iwant to go to the CrossFit
games.
I want to compete.
And when I sat down with mythree best clients, they didn't
say anything like that.
(09:57):
That was all in my head.
It was what I wanted, and I wasprojecting onto other people.
You want to know what theyreally said?
Um, this is the only time ofthe day when somebody says
you're doing it right.
Whoa, very different, right?
Um, this is the only placewhere people remember my name.
Record scratch.
What?
(10:17):
And then finally, hey, nomatter whether I have a good day
or a bad day in the gym, itmakes the rest of my day better.
Okay, you know, I candefinitely get behind that, but
none of these are what I waspredicting my clients would say.
And so none of them reflectedwhat I was doing for marketing.
I totally changed my website.
I changed everything that Ipossibly could do, and I started
(10:38):
to get more people just like mybest clients.
I turned those top three intomy top 30.
Gradually, you know, some ofthe lower value clients started
to fade away.
Hey, how come we're notcompeting anymore?
How come there's no more opengym?
How come the programmingdoesn't have muscle ups and, you
know, uh full snatches anymore?
Because my best clients don'tcare about that.
(10:59):
And so this helped me dial inmy marketing and it actually
changed my gym culture for thebetter, too.
But that was just a sidebenefit.
Now let's go to sales.
What to ask to improve yoursales instead of just guessing?
The method that we're going touse here is called the
prescriptive model.
But the prescriptive model isabout telling people what to do
and then following up with aquestion so that they feel like
(11:21):
they have some agency, somechoice, some control.
So here's what we're gonna do.
The person sits down, you askabout their goals.
What do you want to accomplish?
Or just even what brought youin?
Let them talk.
Most of this is listening,right?
The just ask model requires youto sit and listen and then say,
okay, well, based on yourgoals, here's what I would
(11:43):
recommend.
You make a prescription becauseyou're a professional.
You don't just try to sell themyour kettlebell class.
Okay.
They are not out theresearching the internet for ways
to kettlebell better.
They are searching the internetfor ways to lose weight, to
feel better, to loosen up theirtight back, to undo the damage
at work, whatever.
But they are not Googling bestkettlebell class for community.
(12:05):
That's just in your head.
So after you've made yourprescription, you say, okay,
based on what you like toaccomplish, I think we can help
you.
You need to be here four timesa week.
Okay, that's it.
You say, here's theprescription.
And I need you to follow ahealthy habits eating plan or
whatever your prescription is.
You're the coach.
Then you say, now, would youprefer to do this in a small
(12:27):
group setting, or would you bemore comfortable doing this
one-on-one with me?
Just because I like training ina group doesn't mean that's for
everybody.
And what you'll find is thatabout 10% of people will say,
let's start one-on-one.
The people who want to start inthe group, you know, you can
guide them toward your on-rampprogram to start and then ask
again at the end of on-rampbecause people change.
This is what's really importanthere.
(12:48):
You need to be giving peoplechoices within frameworks.
So here are three options,which one do you pick?
Not what do you want to do orwhat membership do you want to
sign up for?
Okay.
Solve their problems.
That determines the framework,right?
The scope of how you're goingto help them, and then give them
three options, no more.
Less is okay, two options isfine within that framework.
(13:10):
Okay.
You're giving them choices,you're giving them agency, but
you're still keeping them on thepath.
That's how you sell morevaluable services by selling
people what they actually needbased on your prescription first
and then a little bit ofchoice.
Now let's talk about retention.
How do you improve retentionwith the just ask model?
Well, you bring people in for agoal review.
(13:33):
And so every three to sixmonths, every single client, at
least in your group trainingprogram, should be coming in to
sit down in front of you.
You measure the thing that theycare about.
Okay.
Maybe that's like achievingblack belt status in the back
squat.
Maybe.
Maybe it's fat loss, right?
You need to know what they careabout first and measure that
thing over time.
Then you ask, are youcompletely happy with your
(13:56):
results?
Now they're going to answer oneof three ways.
The first answer is, yes, I'mcompletely happy.
And if they do, you say, Hifive, you're doing amazing.
Keep coming to class.
And by the way, I've got mycamera here.
Would you please share amessage for the next client to
help encourage them to do whatyou've done?
(14:17):
Okay.
If they say, kinda, I'm happy,but I wish it was coming faster.
I'm happy with my strengthgains, but I wish I was losing
weight.
I'm happy with my weight loss,but I'm not getting any
stronger.
If there's a maybe in there, wehave an opportunity to make
them a new prescription.
Okay, if I were in your shoesand I wanted to speed up my
results, here's what I would do.
(14:38):
How does that sound?
You make a new prescription.
You just update theirprescription a little bit.
This is gonna feel like anupsell, but remember the person
is happy.
They just want more.
And so you're gonna give themmore.
The third thing they might sayis, no, I am not happy with my
results.
And this is actually not a badanswer either, because they're
(14:59):
telling you they're unhappyinstead of leaving and letting
you guess.
So the just ask model works,even if it gives you an answer
that you don't really want tohear.
So what you'll say is like,okay, if I were in your shoes,
here's what I would dodifferently.
And you give them a newprescription.
Then you ask, how does thatsound to you?
And most of the time they willcontinue with their gym because
(15:22):
it's better than starting overwith a new coach or going out
there into the wilderness andtrying to figure it out on their
own again.
You know, despite what Men'sHealth magazine said in August
2025, people don't want to mixand match and go to five
different gyms and try to figureit out.
They want you to tell them theanswer.
But to tell them the rightanswer, you have to ask them the
(15:42):
question first.
The next metric that we canapply the just ask model to is
ARM, average revenue per member.
And in this method, we don'tguess what people want.
We don't guess at add-ons orperks or offers.
This is the big problem that alot of owner operator gyms have.
They think my people want moreopen gym time.
(16:06):
I'm just gonna add that.
But not everybody wants that.
And that means that noteverybody will value it.
Or, hey, my people want to domore gymnastics.
I'm gonna run a gymnasticsclass Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
And I'll get rid of like theCrossFit class or whatever at
that time, and I'll just runthat class.
And this was really, reallycommon, you know, 2015-ish.
But the problem is that noteverybody wants that gymnastics
(16:28):
class.
And the people who wanted theCrossFit class at seven, they
don't want to come to gymnasticsnow that they've lost a class.
You know, you can apply HYROCsin this example right now.
This is really common.
I got to take away my Saturdayclasses and just do high ROCs.
Cool.
But your 100 members didn'tsign up for that HIROCs class.
They signed up to do a regularkettlebell class or whatever it
(16:49):
is on Saturday mornings.
Um, so you're actually takingthings away.
What you're better to do isoffer that class for people who
want it at an increased price,at a separate price.
Okay.
You need to use goal reviewdata to identify what people
want more of, if that'sperformance like high rocks.
Or you can also do a handraising post uh to determine do
(17:12):
I need a specialty group forkids or for seniors, right?
So you could say, hey, who'slooking for something for their
kids this summer?
And if you get a lot of handsraised, you offer a kids program
for the summer.
Or you could say, who has aparent whose health they're kind
of concerned about?
And if you get a lot ofresponses, then you offer a
legends program for six weeks.
You don't commit long term toputting that on your schedule or
(17:32):
bumping anything else.
You do a one-time group, youfire a bullet before you fire
the big cannonball, you test it.
And then that will tell youwhat people actually want.
First, you ask them, and thenyou ask them to prove it by
offering this thing at aseparate price.
And if they want it, they'llanswer by proving it with their
wallets, by buying it.
(17:52):
The next place that you can usethe ask method is in your
expenses.
And we call this ROI.
See, every expense that youcommit to, your software, your
lease, your equipment loan, yourstaff pay, you did that for a
reason.
And you did that to giveyourself entrepreneurial
leverage.
You started a business to getsome leverage on your life.
So you're not just trading timefor money.
(18:13):
That's great.
You rented this locationbecause it would give you the
best leverage to get the bestpossible business for you and
your family.
You signed up for that softwarebecause you thought it would
give you some leverage onmarketing.
And you signed up for thatbookkeeper because you thought
she would give you the bestleverage on not going to jail
for not paying your taxes.
You're always buying leverageand you should get a good return
(18:35):
on that investment.
You signed up with Two Brain toget a good return on investment
from mentorship.
You can pay something up frontfor a year or two and get
results back for the next 30years that will pay off and
snowball and snowball to thepoint where you can't even count
the returns anymore.
Instead of cutting anyinvestments, oh man, this was a
(18:55):
bad month.
I'm gonna stop my marketing,cut my ad spend, I'm gonna, you
know, put my mentorship on hold.
That I'm gonna stop doing themarketing.
You stop doing the things thatactually grow you.
Instead of cutting things, justpause and ask, how can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
No, you don't even have tofigure that out for yourself.
You can go to your bookkeeperand say, How can I get a better
(19:17):
return on our time together?
You can go to your mentor andsay, How can I get a better
return on revenue this month, orhow can I focus on more clients
this month, or how can Iimprove my retention this month?
You can always ask.
And whoever the serviceprovider is would rather you
just ask that question than quitand leave them to guess.
(19:38):
Okay.
If you're uh talking to yourlandlord and you're saying,
like, hey, you know, it's been arough month, how can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
They will probably have betterideas than you do.
They might say something like,oh boy, I can't risk losing this
tenant.
Maybe we can cut off 300 squarefeet, or maybe you can sublet
300 square feet to a massagetherapist, or maybe I can let
(19:59):
you have access to the parkinglot on the weekends, or et
cetera.
They're not going to cut theprice for you, but they are
gonna help you get a betterreturn on that investment.
Okay.
So, you know, I do this everysingle year.
Now that I know this trick, Igo to my accountant every year.
How can I get a better returnon my investment?
Well, Chris, I can give you abetter dashboard to tell you how
you're doing day to day.
Wonderful.
(20:20):
This year, my accountant said,let's bring the bookkeeping
in-house.
That way it streamlines it andit'll save you a few bucks.
Perfect.
Great.
I went to my attorney.
How can I get a better returnon this investment?
He said, Stop using Chat GPTsto work out your lease
agreements in advance.
What I can do is set you up alease template and you can just
plug future names and dates intoit.
(20:40):
Great.
Like this cost me a little bitof money up front, but I can use
this 30 times in the nextdecade, right?
So these the service providershave better ideas than you do.
Oh, here's a great one.
I went to my software companyand I said, How can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
And they said, Chris, give us alist of all the software
platforms you're using.
Well, there was Zen Plan orBeyond the Whiteboard, uh,
(21:03):
there, you know, this wholelist, right?
I had a whole bunch.
You know, I'm using this for mywebsite.
And they said, Well, Chris, youknow, kilo can do all of that.
So wait a minute.
I got my website, I got my CRM,which I was paying for
separately.
I've got my booking andbilling, which I was paying for
separately.
And when they ever add wadtracking, I can put all that
(21:23):
into an all-in-one.
You know, this is why I lovekilo, by the way.
Usually when somebody isselling an all-in-one, it means
that they are best at none,right?
They they have wad tracking andthey have billing, but neither
is like the best.
And they're just kind of likecombining it and you're looking
at this to save money.
You actually have to say, isthis going to give me a better
return on my investment?
(21:44):
And when I started with kilo,they were still GLM, I said, How
can I get a better return onthis investment?
And they said, well, packagethe CRM with the website and
then just track leads, andthat'll tell you what your
return is.
And boom, in the first month,it was like a 3x return on
investment.
The more money I put into thesystem, the more money I got
back out.
And I said, This is a moneymachine.
(22:06):
Like, I'm gonna keep doingthis.
Now, I don't own kilo, by theway.
So this take this for what it'sworth.
Um, but you know, this is mytestimonial for them, I guess.
The next metric we want to talkabout is effectively effective
hourly rate.
Like, how can we use the justask method to improve our staff
retention and our staffperformance and our staff
ascension?
We want them to build careers.
(22:28):
Well, the question you're gonnaask your staff is what do you
want most now?
So when you hire them, theymight have wanted to trade their
membership against some time,right?
But maybe that's changed now.
Or maybe the work situationoutside that you don't even know
about has changed and they wantto go full-time in your gym.
Or maybe they are full-time inyour gym and they want to go
(22:48):
halftime so they can work onsocial media or something else.
The key is that just like youdo goal reviews with your
clients, you have to do a careerroadmap meeting with your staff
every three to six months andstart with what do you want from
life and how has that changed?
What do you want now?
Okay.
And just like your clients, youwant to know what's changing
for your staff so that you canhelp guide them to getting what
(23:12):
they want through your businessor help guide them out instead
of just, hey, I took a new jobacross the country, I'm leaving
Monday.
You need to be in control ofyour staff journey just like you
are of your client journey bycreating opportunities, not just
by giving them a raise, butshowing them how to earn more
money, guiding them, coachingthem, mentoring just like you're
(23:32):
coaching and mentoring yourclients.
All right.
Last question.
Use the just ask method onyourself.
And I want you to ask yourselfat least once a year, what does
my perfect day look like?
The reason you have to do this,just like you have to keep
asking your staff this, whileyou have to keep doing the
pumpkin plan on your clients, isbecause your perfect day will
(23:52):
change.
My perfect day as a 30-year-oldinvolved a two-hour workout in
the middle of the day.
It involved tracking my metricson, you know, the back squat,
the clean, how many doublehonors I could do, winning
workouts, uh, showing up andcompeting at different
throwdowns and stuff.
Now, as a 49-year-old, myperfect day looks nothing like
(24:14):
that.
My perfect day starts with mygolden hour now.
It uh progresses to taking mydog outside at 7 a.m.
It moves on to making contentto help other gym owners like
this.
It means training at 9 a.m.
on my bike, regardless of theweather, et cetera, and
finishing up usually around twoin the afternoon.
That evolves over time and youneed to constantly ask yourself,
(24:35):
what's my perfect day now?
Because once you have that, thenext logical question is
easier.
You can say, okay, how muchmoney do I need to earn to
provide that perfect day formyself and my family?
And that will give you a clearnet owner benefit target that
you can build your businessaround delivering.
If you don't know how to dothat, of course, your mentor
will help you.
All right.
(24:56):
These are the just ask methodquestions for improving every
single metric in your business,stopping the guessing, stopping
getting the wrong answers,stopping stubbing your toe on
your business and growing tohate it because it feels like
you're always wrong.
Stop being wrong by stoppingthe guesswork and just asking
people.
Here's the payoff.
None of us can read anybodyelse's mind.
(25:17):
And when we try to guess aboutmarketing, about what our
clients want, about retention,it creates wasted time, wasted
money, and wasted opportunities.
And this is so frustratingbecause it feels like you're
just wrong all the time, likeyou're stubbing your toe and
you're fighting your business,that it often leads people to
quit.
They feel like I'm just wrong.
I don't know, I don't get it.
And they throw their hands upin the air and they lose hope.
(25:38):
Guessing produces this wastedtime, wasted money, and wasted
opportunities.
The way around this is just toask.
Lower yourself, you know,humble yourself and just ask
people.
This will produce clarity,it'll produce better service,
happier clients and moreprofitable gyms.
The key is that you've got toget over yourself.
You've got to approach thiswith humility and just ask
(25:58):
people.
So if you want some help withthis, you can download my
exactly what to say guide atgymownersunited.com.
Just ask me for it and I'mhappy to give it to you.
Send me a DM, ask me advice.
What should I say in thissituation?
What should I say in thatsituation?
You'll be talking to a humanhere.
Hello, not a robot or some kindof chatbot.
And if you want a copy of thisguide, I'm happy to give it to
(26:20):
you.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
And hey, if you want more help,just ask.
You are not good at guessing what other people want.
Nobody is.
When I opened up my first gym,I had this huge pirate flag
hanging in the corner.
It was all cinder block.
I painted chalkboard withchalkboard paint right on top of
the cinder block.
We had loud music.
I think it was the MetallicaBlack album on repeat.
(00:23):
Kind of an angry vibe.
There was chalk bowls andstuff, but no other decoration.
And I thought that I wouldattract people like me.
That's what I wanted.
But, you know, I was this brokepower lifter.
And so I attracted broke powerlifters, angry people who scared
off the better clients.
Because I guessed at whatpeople would actually want by
(00:45):
thinking about what I want.
The reality is that mostbusinesses fail because the
owner never stops to ask whattheir clients or their staff or
anybody else actually wants.
They make projection problems.
And today I'm going to teachyou how to get around this
problem and save your businesswith the just ask method.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
(01:06):
And I'm going to be referringto some tools that we give away
for free in gymownersunited.com.
Throughout this podcast, I'llbe talking about specific
questions that you can get in myguide about what exactly to say
to leads, to current clients,to your staff that will help you
actually build a betterbusiness instead of just
(01:27):
whatever your first best guessis in your head.
I want to start with theprojection problem.
See, most gym owners projecttheir own mindset onto clients,
not just their own picture.
They project things like, oh,that person can't afford my
service without a discount,right?
They project their own wallet,a broke gym owner, onto
everybody they need.
(01:48):
But their clients are not otherbroke gym owners.
So they need to stop doingthat.
Or they project what attractsthem, like posting ripped hands
or posting about their PRs orposting shirt pictures of them
shirtless.
While their clients are notthinking about that.
Their clients are thinkingabout what do I get for dinner?
Or like, how am I going to getthese kids to do their damn
homework?
(02:08):
Or, you know, I got to rememberto get dog food at the grocery
store.
You know, here's a crazy story.
We used to offer people a freecatalyst hat if they threw up
during their first workoutbecause we thought that was
awesome.
We thought it was kind of funnyand it promoted intensity, but
that actually scared my clientsoff, right?
Don't worry, uh, all theseprojection mistakes that I'm
talking about, I've done worse,right?
(02:29):
So I hope you get a laugh outof my mistakes, but you also
learn from them too.
Uh, another thing that ownersdo is they obsess about like the
drama in their gym and theculture and they try to control
every little thing because thegym is their life, but it's not
their client's life and it's nottheir staff life.
So when a coach quits, the gymowner loses sleep.
Oh my God, the clients aregonna be talking about this.
(02:51):
No, they're not.
Like they're worried about thedrama in their own life or oh,
that person stinks in my class.
Whatever.
The clients are probably nottalking about that after class,
right?
A great quote on this that Ihad to learn early on was you
worry, you wouldn't worry aboutwhat other people think about
you if you realized howinfrequently they actually do.
(03:12):
That's right, when they leavethe gym, they're not thinking
about the gym.
Okay.
The next thing is I need totalk more about my method, about
my my CrossFit or mycertifications in Pilates or my
masters in yoga, or I need totalk about politics.
You know, clients don't careabout that.
You can't win clients talkingabout your method or your
politics or your certifications.
(03:33):
You can only lose them.
Why don't they care?
Because they got their ownproblems.
And so, you know, if you'retalking about your
certifications, what you'retrying to do is sell a drill bit
instead of selling a solutionto their problems, which is how
do I hang this picture on mywall?
Okay.
That's a common marketinganalogy.
If you don't get it, basicallyyou need to solve solutions to
(03:54):
people's problems instead of thefeatures that you care about,
the certifications, thetechnique, how many other
coaches you've mentored.
Nobody else cares about thatexcept for you.
It will not attract clients, itwill possibly turn them off.
And frankly, you're wastingtime and space and their
attention by talking about thatjunk.
So let's talk about how to talkabout what people actually care
(04:16):
about.
And that starts with justasking.
Look, I know you're surprisedwhen people can't read your
mind, because I'm surprised whennobody can read my mind.
But the reality is that whensomebody thinks, hey, I know
what people want, and they giveus bad service at their
restaurant or their cardealership, we're surprised
because can't they read ourminds?
Well, of course they can't,right?
(04:38):
We're doing the same thing inreverse.
We need to stop projecting whatwe think people want and just
ask.
And so what we're gonna do hereis we're gonna go metric by
metric in your business, and I'mgonna give you an example of
exactly what to say, whatquestion to ask to help you
grow.
Okay.
So we're gonna go through uhhow to use the just ask method
(05:00):
in marketing.
We're gonna use it for sales,we're gonna use it for staff,
we're gonna use it for ourcurrent clients to help with
retention.
We're gonna be using it forourselves too at the end.
So we're gonna go through thisstep by step.
I'm gonna share what questionto ask and how it helped me for
each individual metric.
Okay, let's actually start withmarketing.
To really market well, it's notlike doing art.
(05:23):
You're not guessing and justputting messages out there and
trying to figure out what'llland with people.
What you actually have to do isidentify who your best clients
are and then duplicate them.
So I'm gonna give you a quickexercise that we call the
pumpkin plan.
This comes from MikeMikalowitz.
I've talked about it before onthe show, but it's worth
repeating about once a year,once every two years at the
(05:43):
outside.
Take a blank sheet of paper,draw a vertical line down the
middle.
On the left hand side of theline, I want you to draw a
smiley face.
On the right hand side, I wantyou to draw a dollar sign.
And then I want you to pull upyour client list.
Okay, just hit pause while youdo that.
Grab your pen.
We're gonna work on this rightnow.
Once you've got your clientlist in front of you, what I
(06:04):
want you to do is look at theleft-hand side of your page.
It's got that smiley face onit.
I want you to go down yourclient list and say, who are the
clients who actually feed mewith energy?
They make me happy.
I'm not just like, okay,content coaching them.
They actually show up and I getenergy from them being in my
group or meeting them for anappointment or coaching them.
(06:26):
Okay.
They they have batteriesincluded and more than enough
energy, and it actuallyoverflows and feeds you with
energy too.
Okay.
Write these names down.
You might have three, you mighthave seven, you might have 10,
you might have five.
I usually get about six.
Okay.
Then you're gonna turn to theother column, the dollar sign
column, and look at your memberlist again and say, which of
these clients pay me the mostmoney?
(06:47):
So just go month by month.
Like, what are the what is thisperson paying per month?
You know, are they paying forthree other people?
Great.
Are they taking our highestvalue service?
Great.
Like write them down.
And again, you might get five,six, seven people on this list.
You can do your top 10 if youwant to, it doesn't matter.
When you've done that, I wantyou to compare your two lists,
okay?
Your happy list and yourdollars list, and look for the
(07:09):
names that appear on both.
So if Sally shows up on onlythe happy list, okay, that's
great, but we'll leave her offthis exercise.
If Billy shows up on the happylist and the dollars list, aha,
let's circle Billy's name.
We're gonna come back to himand then keep going down your
list and looking for othermatching names.
Here's what's magical aboutthis quite often you'll find
(07:31):
that the people who appear onone list appear on both, right?
And so you're gonna come upwith three to four names of
people who appear on both thehappy and the dollars list.
Let's go back to Billy.
What we want to do is takeBilly for a coffee.
Like get him out of the gym,get him out of that context,
just take him for a coffee, havea conversation for 20 minutes,
and work some questions into theconversation.
(07:53):
So the first question is whatbrought you to my gym in the
first place?
Okay.
And you're gonna write down hisanswer.
And the reason we're askingBilly this is we want to know
what method of our marketing isworking to attract people like
Billy.
We want to double down on that,right?
Stop wasting time on the otherstuff and just do what's working
to attract the billies outthere.
(08:13):
Okay.
Second, what else had you triedbefore you joined my gym?
We want to know where to lookfor more billies.
Well, I was at, you know, goodlife, the YMCA.
I was doing metabolic fit bodyboot camp.
Then I decided to try F-45, orI was doing CrossFit, and then I
decided to try Hyrux, whatever.
We want to know where to lookto find more billies because
(08:34):
that's where we're going totarget our advertising and our
marketing later.
And third, Billy, what is thebiggest challenge in your life
after you leave the gym?
And what we're really askinghere is how can we increase our
value to Billy?
So if he says something like,Well, you know, I work out
really, really hard, but I thinkI just have trouble like
staying on my diet.
(08:56):
Great.
You know, we can offer a habitschallenge or something.
We know that like Billy is allin on this stuff.
He's going to buy more stuff ifwe offer him better solutions
and we can change his lifefaster.
So then, you know, what we'vegot here is what attracted Billy
to our gym.
Let's do more of that.
But where did Billy come from?
Let's target our marketingthere.
(09:16):
And what else can we do toserve Billy better?
We can increase our ARM.
Now, the first time I did thisexercise in my gym, I was still
running with the, you know, thepirate flag in the corner and I
had the skull and crossbones onmy website, all of that.
And we were a big CrossFit gym.
And what I thought was if I askpeople these questions, I know
what they're gonna say.
(09:36):
They're gonna say, CrossFit isfun.
It feels like a game.
They're gonna say, I challengemyself to be better every single
day.
The gym is my family.
I love it here, and I willnever leave.
Uh, you know, and and also Iwant to go to the CrossFit
games.
I want to compete.
And when I sat down with mythree best clients, they didn't
say anything like that.
(09:57):
That was all in my head.
It was what I wanted, and I wasprojecting onto other people.
You want to know what theyreally said?
Um, this is the only time ofthe day when somebody says
you're doing it right.
Whoa, very different, right?
Um, this is the only placewhere people remember my name.
Record scratch.
What?
(10:17):
And then finally, hey, nomatter whether I have a good day
or a bad day in the gym, itmakes the rest of my day better.
Okay, you know, I candefinitely get behind that, but
none of these are what I waspredicting my clients would say.
And so none of them reflectedwhat I was doing for marketing.
I totally changed my website.
I changed everything that Ipossibly could do, and I started
(10:38):
to get more people just like mybest clients.
I turned those top three intomy top 30.
Gradually, you know, some ofthe lower value clients started
to fade away.
Hey, how come we're notcompeting anymore?
How come there's no more opengym?
How come the programmingdoesn't have muscle ups and, you
know, uh full snatches anymore?
Because my best clients don'tcare about that.
(10:59):
And so this helped me dial inmy marketing and it actually
changed my gym culture for thebetter, too.
But that was just a sidebenefit.
Now let's go to sales.
What to ask to improve yoursales instead of just guessing?
The method that we're going touse here is called the
prescriptive model.
But the prescriptive model isabout telling people what to do
and then following up with aquestion so that they feel like
(11:21):
they have some agency, somechoice, some control.
So here's what we're gonna do.
The person sits down, you askabout their goals.
What do you want to accomplish?
Or just even what brought youin?
Let them talk.
Most of this is listening,right?
The just ask model requires youto sit and listen and then say,
okay, well, based on yourgoals, here's what I would
(11:43):
recommend.
You make a prescription becauseyou're a professional.
You don't just try to sell themyour kettlebell class.
Okay.
They are not out theresearching the internet for ways
to kettlebell better.
They are searching the internetfor ways to lose weight, to
feel better, to loosen up theirtight back, to undo the damage
at work, whatever.
But they are not Googling bestkettlebell class for community.
(12:05):
That's just in your head.
So after you've made yourprescription, you say, okay,
based on what you like toaccomplish, I think we can help
you.
You need to be here four timesa week.
Okay, that's it.
You say, here's theprescription.
And I need you to follow ahealthy habits eating plan or
whatever your prescription is.
You're the coach.
Then you say, now, would youprefer to do this in a small
(12:27):
group setting, or would you bemore comfortable doing this
one-on-one with me?
Just because I like training ina group doesn't mean that's for
everybody.
And what you'll find is thatabout 10% of people will say,
let's start one-on-one.
The people who want to start inthe group, you know, you can
guide them toward your on-rampprogram to start and then ask
again at the end of on-rampbecause people change.
This is what's really importanthere.
(12:48):
You need to be giving peoplechoices within frameworks.
So here are three options,which one do you pick?
Not what do you want to do orwhat membership do you want to
sign up for?
Okay.
Solve their problems.
That determines the framework,right?
The scope of how you're goingto help them, and then give them
three options, no more.
Less is okay, two options isfine within that framework.
(13:10):
Okay.
You're giving them choices,you're giving them agency, but
you're still keeping them on thepath.
That's how you sell morevaluable services by selling
people what they actually needbased on your prescription first
and then a little bit ofchoice.
Now let's talk about retention.
How do you improve retentionwith the just ask model?
Well, you bring people in for agoal review.
(13:33):
And so every three to sixmonths, every single client, at
least in your group trainingprogram, should be coming in to
sit down in front of you.
You measure the thing that theycare about.
Okay.
Maybe that's like achievingblack belt status in the back
squat.
Maybe.
Maybe it's fat loss, right?
You need to know what they careabout first and measure that
thing over time.
Then you ask, are youcompletely happy with your
(13:56):
results?
Now they're going to answer oneof three ways.
The first answer is, yes, I'mcompletely happy.
And if they do, you say, Hifive, you're doing amazing.
Keep coming to class.
And by the way, I've got mycamera here.
Would you please share amessage for the next client to
help encourage them to do whatyou've done?
(14:17):
Okay.
If they say, kinda, I'm happy,but I wish it was coming faster.
I'm happy with my strengthgains, but I wish I was losing
weight.
I'm happy with my weight loss,but I'm not getting any
stronger.
If there's a maybe in there, wehave an opportunity to make
them a new prescription.
Okay, if I were in your shoesand I wanted to speed up my
results, here's what I would do.
(14:38):
How does that sound?
You make a new prescription.
You just update theirprescription a little bit.
This is gonna feel like anupsell, but remember the person
is happy.
They just want more.
And so you're gonna give themmore.
The third thing they might sayis, no, I am not happy with my
results.
And this is actually not a badanswer either, because they're
(14:59):
telling you they're unhappyinstead of leaving and letting
you guess.
So the just ask model works,even if it gives you an answer
that you don't really want tohear.
So what you'll say is like,okay, if I were in your shoes,
here's what I would dodifferently.
And you give them a newprescription.
Then you ask, how does thatsound to you?
And most of the time they willcontinue with their gym because
(15:22):
it's better than starting overwith a new coach or going out
there into the wilderness andtrying to figure it out on their
own again.
You know, despite what Men'sHealth magazine said in August
2025, people don't want to mixand match and go to five
different gyms and try to figureit out.
They want you to tell them theanswer.
But to tell them the rightanswer, you have to ask them the
(15:42):
question first.
The next metric that we canapply the just ask model to is
ARM, average revenue per member.
And in this method, we don'tguess what people want.
We don't guess at add-ons orperks or offers.
This is the big problem that alot of owner operator gyms have.
They think my people want moreopen gym time.
(16:06):
I'm just gonna add that.
But not everybody wants that.
And that means that noteverybody will value it.
Or, hey, my people want to domore gymnastics.
I'm gonna run a gymnasticsclass Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
And I'll get rid of like theCrossFit class or whatever at
that time, and I'll just runthat class.
And this was really, reallycommon, you know, 2015-ish.
But the problem is that noteverybody wants that gymnastics
(16:28):
class.
And the people who wanted theCrossFit class at seven, they
don't want to come to gymnasticsnow that they've lost a class.
You know, you can apply HYROCsin this example right now.
This is really common.
I got to take away my Saturdayclasses and just do high ROCs.
Cool.
But your 100 members didn'tsign up for that HIROCs class.
They signed up to do a regularkettlebell class or whatever it
(16:49):
is on Saturday mornings.
Um, so you're actually takingthings away.
What you're better to do isoffer that class for people who
want it at an increased price,at a separate price.
Okay.
You need to use goal reviewdata to identify what people
want more of, if that'sperformance like high rocks.
Or you can also do a handraising post uh to determine do
(17:12):
I need a specialty group forkids or for seniors, right?
So you could say, hey, who'slooking for something for their
kids this summer?
And if you get a lot of handsraised, you offer a kids program
for the summer.
Or you could say, who has aparent whose health they're kind
of concerned about?
And if you get a lot ofresponses, then you offer a
legends program for six weeks.
You don't commit long term toputting that on your schedule or
(17:32):
bumping anything else.
You do a one-time group, youfire a bullet before you fire
the big cannonball, you test it.
And then that will tell youwhat people actually want.
First, you ask them, and thenyou ask them to prove it by
offering this thing at aseparate price.
And if they want it, they'llanswer by proving it with their
wallets, by buying it.
(17:52):
The next place that you can usethe ask method is in your
expenses.
And we call this ROI.
See, every expense that youcommit to, your software, your
lease, your equipment loan, yourstaff pay, you did that for a
reason.
And you did that to giveyourself entrepreneurial
leverage.
You started a business to getsome leverage on your life.
So you're not just trading timefor money.
(18:13):
That's great.
You rented this locationbecause it would give you the
best leverage to get the bestpossible business for you and
your family.
You signed up for that softwarebecause you thought it would
give you some leverage onmarketing.
And you signed up for thatbookkeeper because you thought
she would give you the bestleverage on not going to jail
for not paying your taxes.
You're always buying leverageand you should get a good return
(18:35):
on that investment.
You signed up with Two Brain toget a good return on investment
from mentorship.
You can pay something up frontfor a year or two and get
results back for the next 30years that will pay off and
snowball and snowball to thepoint where you can't even count
the returns anymore.
Instead of cutting anyinvestments, oh man, this was a
(18:55):
bad month.
I'm gonna stop my marketing,cut my ad spend, I'm gonna, you
know, put my mentorship on hold.
That I'm gonna stop doing themarketing.
You stop doing the things thatactually grow you.
Instead of cutting things, justpause and ask, how can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
No, you don't even have tofigure that out for yourself.
You can go to your bookkeeperand say, How can I get a better
(19:17):
return on our time together?
You can go to your mentor andsay, How can I get a better
return on revenue this month, orhow can I focus on more clients
this month, or how can Iimprove my retention this month?
You can always ask.
And whoever the serviceprovider is would rather you
just ask that question than quitand leave them to guess.
(19:38):
Okay.
If you're uh talking to yourlandlord and you're saying,
like, hey, you know, it's been arough month, how can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
They will probably have betterideas than you do.
They might say something like,oh boy, I can't risk losing this
tenant.
Maybe we can cut off 300 squarefeet, or maybe you can sublet
300 square feet to a massagetherapist, or maybe I can let
(19:59):
you have access to the parkinglot on the weekends, or et
cetera.
They're not going to cut theprice for you, but they are
gonna help you get a betterreturn on that investment.
Okay.
So, you know, I do this everysingle year.
Now that I know this trick, Igo to my accountant every year.
How can I get a better returnon my investment?
Well, Chris, I can give you abetter dashboard to tell you how
you're doing day to day.
Wonderful.
(20:20):
This year, my accountant said,let's bring the bookkeeping
in-house.
That way it streamlines it andit'll save you a few bucks.
Perfect.
Great.
I went to my attorney.
How can I get a better returnon this investment?
He said, Stop using Chat GPTsto work out your lease
agreements in advance.
What I can do is set you up alease template and you can just
plug future names and dates intoit.
(20:40):
Great.
Like this cost me a little bitof money up front, but I can use
this 30 times in the nextdecade, right?
So these the service providershave better ideas than you do.
Oh, here's a great one.
I went to my software companyand I said, How can I get a
better return on thisinvestment?
And they said, Chris, give us alist of all the software
platforms you're using.
Well, there was Zen Plan orBeyond the Whiteboard, uh,
(21:03):
there, you know, this wholelist, right?
I had a whole bunch.
You know, I'm using this for mywebsite.
And they said, Well, Chris, youknow, kilo can do all of that.
So wait a minute.
I got my website, I got my CRM,which I was paying for
separately.
I've got my booking andbilling, which I was paying for
separately.
And when they ever add wadtracking, I can put all that
(21:23):
into an all-in-one.
You know, this is why I lovekilo, by the way.
Usually when somebody isselling an all-in-one, it means
that they are best at none,right?
They they have wad tracking andthey have billing, but neither
is like the best.
And they're just kind of likecombining it and you're looking
at this to save money.
You actually have to say, isthis going to give me a better
return on my investment?
(21:44):
And when I started with kilo,they were still GLM, I said, How
can I get a better return onthis investment?
And they said, well, packagethe CRM with the website and
then just track leads, andthat'll tell you what your
return is.
And boom, in the first month,it was like a 3x return on
investment.
The more money I put into thesystem, the more money I got
back out.
And I said, This is a moneymachine.
(22:06):
Like, I'm gonna keep doingthis.
Now, I don't own kilo, by theway.
So this take this for what it'sworth.
Um, but you know, this is mytestimonial for them, I guess.
The next metric we want to talkabout is effectively effective
hourly rate.
Like, how can we use the justask method to improve our staff
retention and our staffperformance and our staff
ascension?
We want them to build careers.
(22:28):
Well, the question you're gonnaask your staff is what do you
want most now?
So when you hire them, theymight have wanted to trade their
membership against some time,right?
But maybe that's changed now.
Or maybe the work situationoutside that you don't even know
about has changed and they wantto go full-time in your gym.
Or maybe they are full-time inyour gym and they want to go
(22:48):
halftime so they can work onsocial media or something else.
The key is that just like youdo goal reviews with your
clients, you have to do a careerroadmap meeting with your staff
every three to six months andstart with what do you want from
life and how has that changed?
What do you want now?
Okay.
And just like your clients, youwant to know what's changing
for your staff so that you canhelp guide them to getting what
(23:12):
they want through your businessor help guide them out instead
of just, hey, I took a new jobacross the country, I'm leaving
Monday.
You need to be in control ofyour staff journey just like you
are of your client journey bycreating opportunities, not just
by giving them a raise, butshowing them how to earn more
money, guiding them, coachingthem, mentoring just like you're
(23:32):
coaching and mentoring yourclients.
All right.
Last question.
Use the just ask method onyourself.
And I want you to ask yourselfat least once a year, what does
my perfect day look like?
The reason you have to do this,just like you have to keep
asking your staff this, whileyou have to keep doing the
pumpkin plan on your clients, isbecause your perfect day will
(23:52):
change.
My perfect day as a 30-year-oldinvolved a two-hour workout in
the middle of the day.
It involved tracking my metricson, you know, the back squat,
the clean, how many doublehonors I could do, winning
workouts, uh, showing up andcompeting at different
throwdowns and stuff.
Now, as a 49-year-old, myperfect day looks nothing like
(24:14):
that.
My perfect day starts with mygolden hour now.
It uh progresses to taking mydog outside at 7 a.m.
It moves on to making contentto help other gym owners like
this.
It means training at 9 a.m.
on my bike, regardless of theweather, et cetera, and
finishing up usually around twoin the afternoon.
That evolves over time and youneed to constantly ask yourself,
(24:35):
what's my perfect day now?
Because once you have that, thenext logical question is
easier.
You can say, okay, how muchmoney do I need to earn to
provide that perfect day formyself and my family?
And that will give you a clearnet owner benefit target that
you can build your businessaround delivering.
If you don't know how to dothat, of course, your mentor
will help you.
All right.
(24:56):
These are the just ask methodquestions for improving every
single metric in your business,stopping the guessing, stopping
getting the wrong answers,stopping stubbing your toe on
your business and growing tohate it because it feels like
you're always wrong.
Stop being wrong by stoppingthe guesswork and just asking
people.
Here's the payoff.
None of us can read anybodyelse's mind.
(25:17):
And when we try to guess aboutmarketing, about what our
clients want, about retention,it creates wasted time, wasted
money, and wasted opportunities.
And this is so frustratingbecause it feels like you're
just wrong all the time, likeyou're stubbing your toe and
you're fighting your business,that it often leads people to
quit.
They feel like I'm just wrong.
I don't know, I don't get it.
And they throw their hands upin the air and they lose hope.
(25:38):
Guessing produces this wastedtime, wasted money, and wasted
opportunities.
The way around this is just toask.
Lower yourself, you know,humble yourself and just ask
people.
This will produce clarity,it'll produce better service,
happier clients and moreprofitable gyms.
The key is that you've got toget over yourself.
You've got to approach thiswith humility and just ask
(25:58):
people.
So if you want some help withthis, you can download my
exactly what to say guide atgymownersunited.com.
Just ask me for it and I'mhappy to give it to you.
Send me a DM, ask me advice.
What should I say in thissituation?
What should I say in thatsituation?
You'll be talking to a humanhere.
Hello, not a robot or some kindof chatbot.
And if you want a copy of thisguide, I'm happy to give it to
(26:20):
you.
I'm Chris Cooper.
This is Run a Profitable Gym.
And hey, if you want more help,just ask.
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