May 26, 2025 • 24 mins
If your gym isn't paying you at least $100,000 a year, you need to listen to this podcast—or check it out on YouTube to see the visuals.
Chris Cooper shares the six reasons gym owners fail and provides the tools fitness entrepreneurs need to solve these problems.
Coop was a struggling gym owner, too, and this is the exact video that would have saved him 15 years ago when he was struggling to pay the rent as an overworked, underpaid gym owner.
The data-backed, battle-tested resources in this video have:
- Helped over 2,700 gym owners take home 24.9 percent more than the average gym owner.
- Produced almost 300 gym owners who earn six figures or more.
- Minted almost 60 new millionaires.
There’s no catch. Two-Brain leaves no gym behind. These resources are designed to give you a few quick wins and help you build momentum. Get our A+, gym-saving resource package today.
To move faster and accomplish your goals sooner, work with a mentor. A mentor analyzes your business and tells you exactly what to focus on right now so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Because all the knowledge in the world is useless without action.
Links
Free Tools Package for Gym Owners
1:11 - Problem 1: Inconsistent Lead Generation
4:27 - Problem 2: Charging Less Than You’re Worth
7:49 - Problem 3: High Churn
15:27 - Problem 4: Underpaying Yourself
16:49 - Problem 5: Flying Blind on the Numbers
21:43 - Problem 6: Finding and Keeping Great Staff
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Most gyms go out of business, and I don't want your
gym to be one that fails.
If you're a gym owner and you'restressed about money, we made
this video for you.
The truth is that running asuccessful gym is actually much
simpler than you think.
I know you might feel likeyou've got a thousand different
problems, but they all fit intoone of six buckets.
(00:22):
So today, I'm gonna help youfigure out which of these six
problems you have, and betteryet, I'm gonna show you how to
solve the problem fast.
One note, in this video, I'mgoing to be referencing a bunch
of different documents andspreadsheets and training
sessions that we have used tohelp thousands of gym owners get
to the next level in business.
You can download all of them forfree by clicking on the link
(00:44):
below this video.
Now, a quick intro for context.
I'm Chris Cooper, and I'm thefounder of Two Brain Business.
We are the world's largest gymmentorship practice.
We work one-on-one with gymowners to help them build
profitable businesses that theylove.
Last year, 288 gym owners in ourprogram earned a six-figure
income.
That's take-home.
(01:04):
You can check us out attwobrainbusiness.com if you're
curious.
Now, the first reason that gymsfail.
The first problem isinconsistent lead generation.
We know you can make six figureswith 150 clients, so we set that
as the first target for gymowners in our program.
To get that, you need a reliablestream of leads that are
(01:25):
interested in joining your gym.
The problem is that most gymowners do some marketing, but
the results are inconsistent.
So if you need help growing yourgym, I recommend starting with
our one hour a day marketingplan for gym owners.
In it, we break down the systemthat Two Brain Gyms use to get
more leads without spending adollar on paid ads.
(01:47):
The guide lays out how to do itstep by step and includes copy
and paste scripts.
The best part is that all thework can be done in just one
hour a day.
While I don't have time to gothrough the entire guide right
now, let's go over the marketingassignment for Thursdays.
When a gym owner struggles toget leads, we'll ask, how many
people did you talk to aboutyour gym today?
(02:09):
And the answer is usually zero.
At Two Brain, we say that moreconversations equals more
conversions.
And Thursday's marketing plan isall about starting new
conversations.
We do that with our five by fourplan.
Okay, here's the five by fourplan.
Every Thursday, what you'regoing to do is DM five social
(02:32):
media followers.
You're going to contact fiveformer clients.
You're going to start five sellby chat conversations.
And you're going to text fiveleads who came in and did a no
sweat intro with you, but didn'tconvert.
Okay, here's how to do that.
First, you're going to DM fiveof your social media followers.
Okay.
You're going to message yourfive newest followers this, hey,
thanks for the follow.
(02:52):
Are you currently hitting thegym now?
If they respond, follow thescript in our ultimate sell by
chat strategy for gym ownersguide.
So next you're going to contactfive former clients and you're
going to say, hey, are youinterested in improving your
fitness this season?
You know, spring 2025 orwhatever.
And if they say yes, invite themto the gym to make a plan with
you.
(03:13):
Next, you're going to start fivesell by chat conversations.
So you're going to do somethinglike this, make a post like this
on your Facebook page or yourInstagram profile or in a local
Facebook group.
Now, the bribe that you put inthis post should be valuable to
a prospective member, butshouldn't take too long for you
to put together.
The guide above can be made likein five minutes here.
(03:34):
Other ideas might include thetop five healthy lunch options
in town or the top best threeplaces to run in town or...
any other helpful video orresource that you've made in the
past.
The key here is not to overthinkthese just to get something
published.
Respond to every comment usingthe script from the ultimate
sell by chat strategy for gymowner's guide.
(03:56):
Next, you're going to text fivepeople who didn't convert.
So they came in, they did aconsultation and also an intro
and they didn't buy.
And you're going to say, hey,It's Coop here from the gym.
Are you making any progress onthe goal that you said earlier?
Okay.
So if there's not, then invitethem to your gym to revisit the
conversation.
Now, this is a numbers game, butif you follow this framework,
you'll add an additional 1,040conversations over the course of
(04:20):
one year.
Now, I can guarantee that yourgym will grow if you do just
this one thing consistently.
Now that we know how to attractmore members, let's discuss the
next problem that causes gyms tofail.
And that is that you're chargingless than you're worth.
Average revenue per member isone of the most important
metrics to track in a coachinggym.
To figure out yours, divide yourmonthly revenue by your client
(04:43):
count.
So for example, if you have$20,000 in monthly revenue and
150 members, then your ARM is$133 per member per month,
meaning that you make$133 permember in your gym each month.
So now what happens when youincrease the number by 30 and
multiply it by your currentclient count?
(05:03):
Well, wow, right?
It's quite a big difference.
We go from$20,000 in monthlyrevenue up to$24,000 and we
haven't gained a single clientyet.
A simple tweak in pricing...
or a small change in how youoffer your service can lead to a
massive increase in revenuewithout adding a single member.
Raising rates is the fastest wayto increase your ARM, but
(05:25):
raising rates the wrong way canbe catastrophic.
That's why we put out theEssential Rate Raising Starter
Kit for Gym Owners.
In it, you'll learn the sevenrules of rate increases.
This hard-earned knowledge wasdeveloped from coaching
thousands of gym owners throughsuccessful rate increases.
Additionally, we'll walk youthrough an exercise that will
(05:47):
help optimize your pricing whileminimizing cancellations.
If raising rates is too scaryfor you, we've put together a
playbook for adding$10,000 inpersonal training revenue
without adding a single memberto your gym.
The key to this process ismastering goal review sessions.
Here's how those work.
Every three to six months, youshould have a 15 to 20 minute
(06:09):
meeting with each client toreview their goals.
During those meetings, you'llwrite down the client's goal and
set up a plan for trackingprogress.
If a client could progressfaster toward a goal with
personal training, just say so.
That's our job as coaches.
Here's the exact line that Iuse.
The best way for you to speed upyour progress is to add a
(06:29):
one-on-one session with me everymonth where I give you a little
extra homework.
Okay, that's it.
You'll get one of these tworesponses after you suggest
adding a one-on-one session.
The client will ask for a priceand tell you to add the PT
session to their monthly bill.
That's a big win because youraverage revenue per member just
jumped.
Or the client will ask you forthe price and say, I can't do
(06:52):
that right now.
And you'll say, no problem.
you're still gonna make progresswith your current plan.
So let's meet again in threemonths, interview your progress,
and if you wanna speed it upthen, we'll sort that out.
What this is doing is laying thefoundation for a future win.
The client now knows where theaccelerator is, the thing that
will speed up their progress,and they can stomp on it anytime
(07:15):
they want.
In two brain gyms, Three out ofevery 10 clients will upgrade
their service by about 30% ingoal review sessions.
And if you don't want to raiserates or add personal training
to your gym, we put together aguide with the top 20
battle-tested tactics to raiseyour ARM, your average revenue
per member.
Just implementing one or two ofthe tactics in this guide could
(07:37):
increase your ARM by 20%, which,based on our data, would add an
additional$59,870 in revenue tothe average large group coaching
gym.
That's not bad.
The third problem is high churn.
Let me ask you a question.
If a gym has 150 members and 9%monthly churn, how many of those
(07:59):
members will remain in one year?
The answer is 48.
So if your gym has 9% monthlychurn, you will lose 68% of your
membership in one year.
That means you'll have to sell102 memberships just to break
even.
Churn is the killer of profits.
Lower churn makes it way easierto grow your business.
Most gym owners spend too muchtime thinking about getting more
(08:22):
customers and not enough timetrying to keep the customers
that they already have.
And while the exact figuresvary, studies suggest that
acquiring a new customer can beanywhere from five to 25 times
more expensive than retaining anold customer.
And that's why we obsess overretention and churn at Two
Brain.
And it's also why the averageTwo Brain gym retains its
(08:43):
members 13 months longer thanthe average gym.
Here's our secret.
Retention has five equallyimportant pillars.
If you're missing one, yourbuilding will be unstable.
If you're missing two, you won'tkeep a roof over your head.
I'll give you a simple strategythat you can use to shore up
each one of these pillars.
If you want the step-by-stepplaybook, download the never
(09:05):
lose a client again guide.
So first of all, if clientsaren't getting the results they
came in to get, they will quitand their right to quit.
The prescriptive model is reallyour solution to that.
In the prescriptive model,clients come in, through a sales
process that we call the nosweat intro.
And you ask them some questionsabout why they're at the gym.
(09:28):
Like, you know, what are yourgoals?
You measure their starting pointand then you make a
prescription.
You say, okay, well to get frompoint A to point B, here's the
best thing that you can do.
How does that sound?
When they agree with yourprescription, you present the
price.
If they don't like the price,then you can make a new
prescription.
You can downgrade it and justexplain it.
It'll take a little bit longeror you can start them.
(09:49):
Then from there, you're going tomake another appointment to meet
them in about three months whereyou're going to measure their
progress and update theirprescription.
Nobody gets the prescriptionright the first time.
It's impossible.
You have to dial it in.
But this keeps you ahead of thatclient engagement conversation.
And it means that yourprescription gets better and
better and better.
And the client has some sunkcosts.
They don't want to go start overwith somebody else.
(10:12):
The fame pillar...
is really, really important.
This is probably the only placein the world where your clients
will feel famous, like they'redoing things right, where they
feel important, where people aretalking about them and telling
their story.
And so you have to establish tworoutines.
First, you have to measure theirprogress.
And second, you have to havethem think about their progress
and acknowledge it.
Because if they're on theinside, they might not see the
(10:34):
progress happening.
So you have to take them out oftheir head, show them their
progress.
Here you are, congratulations.
The solution to this is calledBright Spots Friday.
And this is just kind of yoursafety net.
What you're going to do everyFriday is have your clients post
what their wins were for theweek.
This puts their brain on pause.
It stops that trap of comparisonto other clients.
(10:56):
And they have to stop and thinkback, like, what did I do right
this week or what went rightthis week?
That stops a mistake that wecall gap in the gain, where
instead of measuring the gapbetween where they wanna be and
where they are right now,they're actually looking
backward and measuring the gainsto see how far they've come.
This is a very simple strategyand you can do it way better
even in a goal review, but thisis a simple safety net that you
(11:19):
can use with all of yourclients.
And once you really get the ballrolling, It just comes natural
to people and you don't have tomaintain it anymore.
The third pillar of retention iscompatibility.
And if you're going to keep aclient for a long time, the
answer to the following fourquestions should be a yes.
Number one, can this personafford your service?
Number two, do they like you?
(11:40):
Number three, are they a goodfit with your other clients?
And number four, can you helpthem reach their goals?
If none of these are happeningor any of them aren't happening,
then this next exercise is foryou.
This is called the pumpkin plan.
What you're trying to do is growyour gym by replicating your
very best clients.
(12:00):
It's tempting to try and geteverybody and anybody when
you're desperate for clients.
But if you do that, you'll getsome incompatible people and
it's impossible to retain themlong-term.
They'll just churn out.
So then they leave and then youneed more clients and you're
back on that hamster wheelagain.
But if you identify andreplicate your best clients,
it's much easier to retain thembecause you already know that
(12:22):
they're a perfect fit for yourbusiness and they know it too.
They can afford your service.
They mix well with your currentmembers and your business is set
up to help them accomplish theirgoals.
And a bonus is they're highvalue clients too.
Here's how to find them.
First, take a piece of paper anddraw a line right down the
center.
On one side of that line, Listyour five to 10 highest paying
(12:44):
clients.
These are the people who wanteverything that you're selling
plus three t-shirts for theirfriends.
On the other side of that line,list your five to 10 favorite
clients.
These are the people who show upwith batteries included and they
always brighten your day.
They feed you with energy.
Now, identify the people whoappear on both lists and circle
those names.
These are your best clients.
(13:05):
And if you look at this list,you want to find more people
like Harris and Liam and Erica.
In our mentorship program, wehave an exact plan to help you
do that too.
The fourth pillar of retentionis consistency.
If your clients don't show upregularly, they soon won't show
up at all.
And so you have to measureadherence to make sure that
they're showing up.
But more than that, you have todo goal review sessions because
(13:27):
not only do they raise your ARM,but they also reduce churn.
They improve arm and leg lengthof engagement.
Along with goal review sessions,Ensure that you have a system
for tracking and reaching out tomissing members.
Adherence, the amount of timesthey show up, is also really
important for keeping them.
And the fifth pillar ofretention is referrals.
This is the one that a lot ofpeople don't think about, but
(13:48):
Cindy isn't going to quit yourgym if all of her best friends
are already members.
The people who refer you totheir friends stay longer.
They build their own supportnetwork, but within the gym.
Some great ideas for this arebring a friend day.
You can only do these about oncea quarter or it just becomes
this freebie that people start,it's like they're clipping
coupons.
They only come on Saturdaybecause it's the free day or
(14:10):
whatever.
Do a wine and wad so people cancome in and sample things.
Do a corporate challenge.
This is what I love.
You talk to your members who owna little business or they work
at an accounting firm or theywork at a dentist's office and
you invite their coworkers ortheir employees in.
You throw a fun little party forthem.
They do a couple of physicalchallenges.
(14:31):
You take their picture and thenyou talk to them about joining
the gym.
That's all, okay?
So now that you understand thefive pillars, you can identify
which one of these is yourweakest and start working on
fixing that one before movinginto the next pillar.
While this work might not be themost exciting work in the world
for you, it doesn't alwaysappear as sexy as marketing, you
(14:53):
have to remember that retentionis just sales over time.
Your job is to convince theperson to keep coming, to keep
coming back, to come againtomorrow, to come again next
week.
This pays well.
I mean, the longer you keepsomebody, the more profitable
your gym will be.
A study that we conducted at TwoBrain showed that an average gym
owner would take home an extra$45,000 a year by just
(15:15):
increasing their average memberretention by just two months.
If you kept every client in yourgym two months longer than you
normally would have, that shouldgive you an extra$45,000 in take
home.
The fourth problem isunderpaying yourself.
Most of us open gyms to changelives, not to chase riches.
That passion often puts membersand staff ahead of our own
(15:37):
paychecks, and it wrecks ourfinances.
Hey, I know, I did it.
Too many great owners andcoaches quit the industry simply
because they can't make a decentliving.
To keep helping people, you mustrun a profitable, secure
business.
And that's why Two Brain's firstrule is simple.
Pay yourself first.
From our experience, we knowthat many gym owners struggle to
(15:59):
pay themselves a fair wagebecause their business model is
broken.
And that's why we put togetherfive ways to make$100,000 a year
from your gym.
That's take home to you.
Inside that guide, you'll findtraining videos and step-by-step
guides that walk you throughfive proven business models that
Two Brain Gyms use to take home$100,000 per year with 150
(16:22):
members or less.
Each model has a sample profitand loss statement and a
staffing blueprint so you knowexactly what to do.
Once you've worked through yourmodel, check out the Give
Yourself a Raise guide andimplement one of the four
tactics in there.
I recommend starting with numberthree because it can save you
over$10,000 in taxes.
But here's the Most owners don'teven know what they actually pay
(16:46):
themselves because their booksare a blur.
And that leads straight toproblem number five, flying
blind on the numbers.
Hiring your staff, buyingequipment, and reinvesting in
your business are essential.
But if you're like most gymowners, you have probably found
yourself in a situation whereyou've overhired or overspent.
And when cash runs thin, theeasiest bill to skip is your own
(17:09):
pay, And over time, that justleads to burnout.
A clear P&L, a profit and loss,tells you whether you can hire
another coach and what you canafford to pay them, move into a
bigger space to expand yourbusiness, and invest in new
equipment without wiping outyour profit.
And that's why we built the P&LPrimer Guide.
This is a sample micro gymprofit and loss.
(17:31):
It's a basic financial documentthat's kind of like the steering
wheel of your business.
This is what you use to makedecisions instead of following
your gut or chasing ideas.
We give you a copy of this inthe mentorship program very
early for a couple of reasons.
Number one, we really want tohelp you fill it out.
(17:53):
Number two, we want you to becomfortable using it because if
you're comfortable using it,it's like being comfortable
driving your car.
This is how you take control.
If you don't know how to usethis, and I've been there, I was
like, I don't want to be anaccountant.
I want to run my gym.
I want to be a coach.
But if you don't know how to usethis, you're not really driving
(18:14):
the car.
You're always at the mercy ofexternal events or luck or good
marketing.
And you never really know whensomething is working and when
it's not.
You're making guesses instead ofmaking informed decisions.
UNKNOWN (18:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:29):
So we give you a sample of this and you can turn
right around and give this toyour bookkeeper.
They can set up your QuickBooksor whatever, your accounting
software to match this.
We can even feed it directlyinto our Two Brain dashboard
every month so that you don'thave to manually enter this
stuff.
But just like changing yourtires, even if you never plan on
changing your tires yourself,you should know how to do it so
(18:53):
that you're not stuck alone inthe dark somewhere.
Let me just run you through whata profit and loss statement is.
The profit and loss statement isbroken down to track your money,
where it comes from, where it'sgoing, and what's left over.
First, where it's coming from.
This is your revenue.
So this is where you want tobreak down how many members you
have, your average membershipprice.
You can calculate the totalrevenue that you're bringing in
(19:13):
each month, and you can see yourARM.
I'm going to come back and showyou a little trick with this in
a moment.
The next part is your expenses.
Where's your money going?
And I'm just going to hit alittle...
Little button here so you cansee something here.
Okay, so you can go line by linethrough your expenses and see
(19:38):
where your money's going.
If you're paying foraffiliation, maybe that's here.
You know, cleaning, what are youpaying?
What are you paying for yourinsurance?
Put it here.
What are you, you know, puttingtowards your marketing?
What's your actual rent?
You know, what's your merchantfees?
Change that here, okay?
so that you know exactly whereyour money is going.
Because if you're anything likeme, before I started looking at
(19:58):
this, I didn't have control ofmy business.
And so all I would see is mybusiness bank account.
And quite often I would be tooscared to even look at that for
fear there was nothing in there.
And so you want to know like,well, how come I've got all
these clients and money's comingin, but like there's nothing
left over at the end of themonth.
This will tell you exactly wherethat money is going.
And you should be looking atthis once a month so that you
(20:18):
know, not because you're makingmistakes, not because people are
stealing from you, but becauseyou need to know where the
money's coming from and whereit's going and why it's
different this month than last,okay?
So this is the part of the P&Lthat tells you where your money
is going, okay?
And this part too, this is yourstaff pay.
I said earlier, your biggestinvestment.
Now we've set this P&L up in2Brain so that it automatically
(20:40):
calculates how much you'repaying for classes, how much
you're paying your coaches forpersonal training or nutrition
coaching or whatever, how muchyou're paying coaches to do
other things like social mediaor admin or cleaning or the CSM
job or whatever that is, andwhat the total is here.
Then we want to know how much isgoing to you.
So this is, you know, you arethe best investment that your
(21:02):
gym can make.
You're the best investment thatyou can make in yourself.
But we want to know how muchyou're making from a salary and
how much you're making to coachclasses.
Because if you decide to coachless or coach more, you need to
adjust this to see what willhappen.
And then finally, owner pay.
Now, we built this out for a gymowner just like you to see them,
(21:23):
show them, like, if they want toearn 100K a year, how many
clients do they need at whatARM?
This is a skill that auniversity would charge you
probably about$60,000 to learn.
We want you to have this skillforever because you can't run a
great business without it.
And once you've mastered it,you're way ahead of everybody
else.
Now that we know how much we canafford to spend on our team,
(21:45):
let's move on to problem numbersix, which is finding and
keeping great staff.
Most of us open a gym to coach,and then we woke up to find out
that we were also the cleanerand the sales guy and the CFO
and the front desk person.
To grow, we need to hire andretain a great team, but most
entrepreneurs struggle todelegate.
And that's where the valueladder comes in.
(22:07):
This guide provides a 10-stepprocess for identifying when
you're ready to hire and whatyou can afford to pay.
Once you finish that, our hiringplan and job descriptions give
you copy and paste ads for everyrole from CEO down to cleaner,
pay ranges tied to profitmargins, and hiring tips for
each position.
(22:27):
Be sure to click the link belowthis video to get all of these
tools for free.
No strings attached.
If you're overwhelmed, don'tworry.
That's common.
Business is complicated, but Ican solve that problem for you
too.
Two Brain Business is amentorship practice.
A mentor reduces overwhelm andstress by keeping you focused on
the most important task rightnow.
(22:48):
Sometimes it's hard to see thepath when you're in the middle
of a storm, and that's why youneed a guide.
Our mentors evaluate businessesand prescribe clear, data-based
actions that get results.
Every resource that we discussin this video works, and 2Brain
has hundreds of additionalresources available to our
clients.
(23:08):
The stuff in the free toolkit isjust a small sample.
Our mentors help gym owners usethe right tool at the right
time, and the results areincredible.
And I'll show you some resultsin a second here.
If you want to book a strategysession with somebody on my
team, go to gymmentor.com orclick the link in the video
description.
And now, here are some real gymowners who will tell you what
(23:28):
can happen if you take action onwhat you've learned today.
SPEAKER_07 (23:31):
So over the course of the year, our revenue went
from about 32K a month to upover, we've been steady over
50,000 a month now.
SPEAKER_00 (23:42):
We have more than doubled our revenue.
I don't coach any classes.
I don't coach any PTs.
I don't coach any nutritionclients.
SPEAKER_01 (23:49):
The best part was my payroll doubled, which means I
created opportunities for all ofmy staff to earn more and do
exactly what they love.
And that was from all theprograms that I learned and all
the connections that I madethrough Two Brain in the last
year.
SPEAKER_03 (24:00):
Just having a mentor to help me stay focused on
something specific and how muchthat impacts my business is
priceless.
Almost tripled our revenue fromwhen we started.
SPEAKER_05 (24:09):
And starting with Two Brain from day minus 60
before I launched my gym.
was like the best investment Imade, hands down, hands down.
SPEAKER_08 (24:17):
I've tripled my net owner benefit, taking home and
providing for my family wellover six figures, changing my
lifestyle, changing my life.
SPEAKER_06 (24:24):
The biggest win is making the shift so that we
could actually be a profitablebusiness and actually not be
worried about closing down everytime that there's a little bit
of adversity.
SPEAKER_04 (24:34):
Now I'm home every night.
I have more time with my wifeand my kids, and I don't have to
worry that things are fallingapart at the gym.
SPEAKER_06 (24:41):
I earn back my investment in less than two
months and then ascended intolevels that I never could have
imagined.
Most gyms go out of business, and I don't want your
gym to be one that fails.
If you're a gym owner and you'restressed about money, we made
this video for you.
The truth is that running asuccessful gym is actually much
simpler than you think.
I know you might feel likeyou've got a thousand different
problems, but they all fit intoone of six buckets.
(00:22):
So today, I'm gonna help youfigure out which of these six
problems you have, and betteryet, I'm gonna show you how to
solve the problem fast.
One note, in this video, I'mgoing to be referencing a bunch
of different documents andspreadsheets and training
sessions that we have used tohelp thousands of gym owners get
to the next level in business.
You can download all of them forfree by clicking on the link
(00:44):
below this video.
Now, a quick intro for context.
I'm Chris Cooper, and I'm thefounder of Two Brain Business.
We are the world's largest gymmentorship practice.
We work one-on-one with gymowners to help them build
profitable businesses that theylove.
Last year, 288 gym owners in ourprogram earned a six-figure
income.
That's take-home.
(01:04):
You can check us out attwobrainbusiness.com if you're
curious.
Now, the first reason that gymsfail.
The first problem isinconsistent lead generation.
We know you can make six figureswith 150 clients, so we set that
as the first target for gymowners in our program.
To get that, you need a reliablestream of leads that are
(01:25):
interested in joining your gym.
The problem is that most gymowners do some marketing, but
the results are inconsistent.
So if you need help growing yourgym, I recommend starting with
our one hour a day marketingplan for gym owners.
In it, we break down the systemthat Two Brain Gyms use to get
more leads without spending adollar on paid ads.
(01:47):
The guide lays out how to do itstep by step and includes copy
and paste scripts.
The best part is that all thework can be done in just one
hour a day.
While I don't have time to gothrough the entire guide right
now, let's go over the marketingassignment for Thursdays.
When a gym owner struggles toget leads, we'll ask, how many
people did you talk to aboutyour gym today?
(02:09):
And the answer is usually zero.
At Two Brain, we say that moreconversations equals more
conversions.
And Thursday's marketing plan isall about starting new
conversations.
We do that with our five by fourplan.
Okay, here's the five by fourplan.
Every Thursday, what you'regoing to do is DM five social
(02:32):
media followers.
You're going to contact fiveformer clients.
You're going to start five sellby chat conversations.
And you're going to text fiveleads who came in and did a no
sweat intro with you, but didn'tconvert.
Okay, here's how to do that.
First, you're going to DM fiveof your social media followers.
Okay.
You're going to message yourfive newest followers this, hey,
thanks for the follow.
(02:52):
Are you currently hitting thegym now?
If they respond, follow thescript in our ultimate sell by
chat strategy for gym ownersguide.
So next you're going to contactfive former clients and you're
going to say, hey, are youinterested in improving your
fitness this season?
You know, spring 2025 orwhatever.
And if they say yes, invite themto the gym to make a plan with
you.
(03:13):
Next, you're going to start fivesell by chat conversations.
So you're going to do somethinglike this, make a post like this
on your Facebook page or yourInstagram profile or in a local
Facebook group.
Now, the bribe that you put inthis post should be valuable to
a prospective member, butshouldn't take too long for you
to put together.
The guide above can be made likein five minutes here.
(03:34):
Other ideas might include thetop five healthy lunch options
in town or the top best threeplaces to run in town or...
any other helpful video orresource that you've made in the
past.
The key here is not to overthinkthese just to get something
published.
Respond to every comment usingthe script from the ultimate
sell by chat strategy for gymowner's guide.
(03:56):
Next, you're going to text fivepeople who didn't convert.
So they came in, they did aconsultation and also an intro
and they didn't buy.
And you're going to say, hey,It's Coop here from the gym.
Are you making any progress onthe goal that you said earlier?
Okay.
So if there's not, then invitethem to your gym to revisit the
conversation.
Now, this is a numbers game, butif you follow this framework,
you'll add an additional 1,040conversations over the course of
(04:20):
one year.
Now, I can guarantee that yourgym will grow if you do just
this one thing consistently.
Now that we know how to attractmore members, let's discuss the
next problem that causes gyms tofail.
And that is that you're chargingless than you're worth.
Average revenue per member isone of the most important
metrics to track in a coachinggym.
To figure out yours, divide yourmonthly revenue by your client
(04:43):
count.
So for example, if you have$20,000 in monthly revenue and
150 members, then your ARM is$133 per member per month,
meaning that you make$133 permember in your gym each month.
So now what happens when youincrease the number by 30 and
multiply it by your currentclient count?
(05:03):
Well, wow, right?
It's quite a big difference.
We go from$20,000 in monthlyrevenue up to$24,000 and we
haven't gained a single clientyet.
A simple tweak in pricing...
or a small change in how youoffer your service can lead to a
massive increase in revenuewithout adding a single member.
Raising rates is the fastest wayto increase your ARM, but
(05:25):
raising rates the wrong way canbe catastrophic.
That's why we put out theEssential Rate Raising Starter
Kit for Gym Owners.
In it, you'll learn the sevenrules of rate increases.
This hard-earned knowledge wasdeveloped from coaching
thousands of gym owners throughsuccessful rate increases.
Additionally, we'll walk youthrough an exercise that will
(05:47):
help optimize your pricing whileminimizing cancellations.
If raising rates is too scaryfor you, we've put together a
playbook for adding$10,000 inpersonal training revenue
without adding a single memberto your gym.
The key to this process ismastering goal review sessions.
Here's how those work.
Every three to six months, youshould have a 15 to 20 minute
(06:09):
meeting with each client toreview their goals.
During those meetings, you'llwrite down the client's goal and
set up a plan for trackingprogress.
If a client could progressfaster toward a goal with
personal training, just say so.
That's our job as coaches.
Here's the exact line that Iuse.
The best way for you to speed upyour progress is to add a
(06:29):
one-on-one session with me everymonth where I give you a little
extra homework.
Okay, that's it.
You'll get one of these tworesponses after you suggest
adding a one-on-one session.
The client will ask for a priceand tell you to add the PT
session to their monthly bill.
That's a big win because youraverage revenue per member just
jumped.
Or the client will ask you forthe price and say, I can't do
(06:52):
that right now.
And you'll say, no problem.
you're still gonna make progresswith your current plan.
So let's meet again in threemonths, interview your progress,
and if you wanna speed it upthen, we'll sort that out.
What this is doing is laying thefoundation for a future win.
The client now knows where theaccelerator is, the thing that
will speed up their progress,and they can stomp on it anytime
(07:15):
they want.
In two brain gyms, Three out ofevery 10 clients will upgrade
their service by about 30% ingoal review sessions.
And if you don't want to raiserates or add personal training
to your gym, we put together aguide with the top 20
battle-tested tactics to raiseyour ARM, your average revenue
per member.
Just implementing one or two ofthe tactics in this guide could
(07:37):
increase your ARM by 20%, which,based on our data, would add an
additional$59,870 in revenue tothe average large group coaching
gym.
That's not bad.
The third problem is high churn.
Let me ask you a question.
If a gym has 150 members and 9%monthly churn, how many of those
(07:59):
members will remain in one year?
The answer is 48.
So if your gym has 9% monthlychurn, you will lose 68% of your
membership in one year.
That means you'll have to sell102 memberships just to break
even.
Churn is the killer of profits.
Lower churn makes it way easierto grow your business.
Most gym owners spend too muchtime thinking about getting more
(08:22):
customers and not enough timetrying to keep the customers
that they already have.
And while the exact figuresvary, studies suggest that
acquiring a new customer can beanywhere from five to 25 times
more expensive than retaining anold customer.
And that's why we obsess overretention and churn at Two
Brain.
And it's also why the averageTwo Brain gym retains its
(08:43):
members 13 months longer thanthe average gym.
Here's our secret.
Retention has five equallyimportant pillars.
If you're missing one, yourbuilding will be unstable.
If you're missing two, you won'tkeep a roof over your head.
I'll give you a simple strategythat you can use to shore up
each one of these pillars.
If you want the step-by-stepplaybook, download the never
(09:05):
lose a client again guide.
So first of all, if clientsaren't getting the results they
came in to get, they will quitand their right to quit.
The prescriptive model is reallyour solution to that.
In the prescriptive model,clients come in, through a sales
process that we call the nosweat intro.
And you ask them some questionsabout why they're at the gym.
(09:28):
Like, you know, what are yourgoals?
You measure their starting pointand then you make a
prescription.
You say, okay, well to get frompoint A to point B, here's the
best thing that you can do.
How does that sound?
When they agree with yourprescription, you present the
price.
If they don't like the price,then you can make a new
prescription.
You can downgrade it and justexplain it.
It'll take a little bit longeror you can start them.
(09:49):
Then from there, you're going tomake another appointment to meet
them in about three months whereyou're going to measure their
progress and update theirprescription.
Nobody gets the prescriptionright the first time.
It's impossible.
You have to dial it in.
But this keeps you ahead of thatclient engagement conversation.
And it means that yourprescription gets better and
better and better.
And the client has some sunkcosts.
They don't want to go start overwith somebody else.
(10:12):
The fame pillar...
is really, really important.
This is probably the only placein the world where your clients
will feel famous, like they'redoing things right, where they
feel important, where people aretalking about them and telling
their story.
And so you have to establish tworoutines.
First, you have to measure theirprogress.
And second, you have to havethem think about their progress
and acknowledge it.
Because if they're on theinside, they might not see the
(10:34):
progress happening.
So you have to take them out oftheir head, show them their
progress.
Here you are, congratulations.
The solution to this is calledBright Spots Friday.
And this is just kind of yoursafety net.
What you're going to do everyFriday is have your clients post
what their wins were for theweek.
This puts their brain on pause.
It stops that trap of comparisonto other clients.
(10:56):
And they have to stop and thinkback, like, what did I do right
this week or what went rightthis week?
That stops a mistake that wecall gap in the gain, where
instead of measuring the gapbetween where they wanna be and
where they are right now,they're actually looking
backward and measuring the gainsto see how far they've come.
This is a very simple strategyand you can do it way better
even in a goal review, but thisis a simple safety net that you
(11:19):
can use with all of yourclients.
And once you really get the ballrolling, It just comes natural
to people and you don't have tomaintain it anymore.
The third pillar of retention iscompatibility.
And if you're going to keep aclient for a long time, the
answer to the following fourquestions should be a yes.
Number one, can this personafford your service?
Number two, do they like you?
(11:40):
Number three, are they a goodfit with your other clients?
And number four, can you helpthem reach their goals?
If none of these are happeningor any of them aren't happening,
then this next exercise is foryou.
This is called the pumpkin plan.
What you're trying to do is growyour gym by replicating your
very best clients.
(12:00):
It's tempting to try and geteverybody and anybody when
you're desperate for clients.
But if you do that, you'll getsome incompatible people and
it's impossible to retain themlong-term.
They'll just churn out.
So then they leave and then youneed more clients and you're
back on that hamster wheelagain.
But if you identify andreplicate your best clients,
it's much easier to retain thembecause you already know that
(12:22):
they're a perfect fit for yourbusiness and they know it too.
They can afford your service.
They mix well with your currentmembers and your business is set
up to help them accomplish theirgoals.
And a bonus is they're highvalue clients too.
Here's how to find them.
First, take a piece of paper anddraw a line right down the
center.
On one side of that line, Listyour five to 10 highest paying
(12:44):
clients.
These are the people who wanteverything that you're selling
plus three t-shirts for theirfriends.
On the other side of that line,list your five to 10 favorite
clients.
These are the people who show upwith batteries included and they
always brighten your day.
They feed you with energy.
Now, identify the people whoappear on both lists and circle
those names.
These are your best clients.
(13:05):
And if you look at this list,you want to find more people
like Harris and Liam and Erica.
In our mentorship program, wehave an exact plan to help you
do that too.
The fourth pillar of retentionis consistency.
If your clients don't show upregularly, they soon won't show
up at all.
And so you have to measureadherence to make sure that
they're showing up.
But more than that, you have todo goal review sessions because
(13:27):
not only do they raise your ARM,but they also reduce churn.
They improve arm and leg lengthof engagement.
Along with goal review sessions,Ensure that you have a system
for tracking and reaching out tomissing members.
Adherence, the amount of timesthey show up, is also really
important for keeping them.
And the fifth pillar ofretention is referrals.
This is the one that a lot ofpeople don't think about, but
(13:48):
Cindy isn't going to quit yourgym if all of her best friends
are already members.
The people who refer you totheir friends stay longer.
They build their own supportnetwork, but within the gym.
Some great ideas for this arebring a friend day.
You can only do these about oncea quarter or it just becomes
this freebie that people start,it's like they're clipping
coupons.
They only come on Saturdaybecause it's the free day or
(14:10):
whatever.
Do a wine and wad so people cancome in and sample things.
Do a corporate challenge.
This is what I love.
You talk to your members who owna little business or they work
at an accounting firm or theywork at a dentist's office and
you invite their coworkers ortheir employees in.
You throw a fun little party forthem.
They do a couple of physicalchallenges.
(14:31):
You take their picture and thenyou talk to them about joining
the gym.
That's all, okay?
So now that you understand thefive pillars, you can identify
which one of these is yourweakest and start working on
fixing that one before movinginto the next pillar.
While this work might not be themost exciting work in the world
for you, it doesn't alwaysappear as sexy as marketing, you
(14:53):
have to remember that retentionis just sales over time.
Your job is to convince theperson to keep coming, to keep
coming back, to come againtomorrow, to come again next
week.
This pays well.
I mean, the longer you keepsomebody, the more profitable
your gym will be.
A study that we conducted at TwoBrain showed that an average gym
owner would take home an extra$45,000 a year by just
(15:15):
increasing their average memberretention by just two months.
If you kept every client in yourgym two months longer than you
normally would have, that shouldgive you an extra$45,000 in take
home.
The fourth problem isunderpaying yourself.
Most of us open gyms to changelives, not to chase riches.
That passion often puts membersand staff ahead of our own
(15:37):
paychecks, and it wrecks ourfinances.
Hey, I know, I did it.
Too many great owners andcoaches quit the industry simply
because they can't make a decentliving.
To keep helping people, you mustrun a profitable, secure
business.
And that's why Two Brain's firstrule is simple.
Pay yourself first.
From our experience, we knowthat many gym owners struggle to
(15:59):
pay themselves a fair wagebecause their business model is
broken.
And that's why we put togetherfive ways to make$100,000 a year
from your gym.
That's take home to you.
Inside that guide, you'll findtraining videos and step-by-step
guides that walk you throughfive proven business models that
Two Brain Gyms use to take home$100,000 per year with 150
(16:22):
members or less.
Each model has a sample profitand loss statement and a
staffing blueprint so you knowexactly what to do.
Once you've worked through yourmodel, check out the Give
Yourself a Raise guide andimplement one of the four
tactics in there.
I recommend starting with numberthree because it can save you
over$10,000 in taxes.
But here's the Most owners don'teven know what they actually pay
(16:46):
themselves because their booksare a blur.
And that leads straight toproblem number five, flying
blind on the numbers.
Hiring your staff, buyingequipment, and reinvesting in
your business are essential.
But if you're like most gymowners, you have probably found
yourself in a situation whereyou've overhired or overspent.
And when cash runs thin, theeasiest bill to skip is your own
(17:09):
pay, And over time, that justleads to burnout.
A clear P&L, a profit and loss,tells you whether you can hire
another coach and what you canafford to pay them, move into a
bigger space to expand yourbusiness, and invest in new
equipment without wiping outyour profit.
And that's why we built the P&LPrimer Guide.
This is a sample micro gymprofit and loss.
(17:31):
It's a basic financial documentthat's kind of like the steering
wheel of your business.
This is what you use to makedecisions instead of following
your gut or chasing ideas.
We give you a copy of this inthe mentorship program very
early for a couple of reasons.
Number one, we really want tohelp you fill it out.
(17:53):
Number two, we want you to becomfortable using it because if
you're comfortable using it,it's like being comfortable
driving your car.
This is how you take control.
If you don't know how to usethis, and I've been there, I was
like, I don't want to be anaccountant.
I want to run my gym.
I want to be a coach.
But if you don't know how to usethis, you're not really driving
(18:14):
the car.
You're always at the mercy ofexternal events or luck or good
marketing.
And you never really know whensomething is working and when
it's not.
You're making guesses instead ofmaking informed decisions.
UNKNOWN (18:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (18:29):
So we give you a sample of this and you can turn
right around and give this toyour bookkeeper.
They can set up your QuickBooksor whatever, your accounting
software to match this.
We can even feed it directlyinto our Two Brain dashboard
every month so that you don'thave to manually enter this
stuff.
But just like changing yourtires, even if you never plan on
changing your tires yourself,you should know how to do it so
(18:53):
that you're not stuck alone inthe dark somewhere.
Let me just run you through whata profit and loss statement is.
The profit and loss statement isbroken down to track your money,
where it comes from, where it'sgoing, and what's left over.
First, where it's coming from.
This is your revenue.
So this is where you want tobreak down how many members you
have, your average membershipprice.
You can calculate the totalrevenue that you're bringing in
(19:13):
each month, and you can see yourARM.
I'm going to come back and showyou a little trick with this in
a moment.
The next part is your expenses.
Where's your money going?
And I'm just going to hit alittle...
Little button here so you cansee something here.
Okay, so you can go line by linethrough your expenses and see
(19:38):
where your money's going.
If you're paying foraffiliation, maybe that's here.
You know, cleaning, what are youpaying?
What are you paying for yourinsurance?
Put it here.
What are you, you know, puttingtowards your marketing?
What's your actual rent?
You know, what's your merchantfees?
Change that here, okay?
so that you know exactly whereyour money is going.
Because if you're anything likeme, before I started looking at
(19:58):
this, I didn't have control ofmy business.
And so all I would see is mybusiness bank account.
And quite often I would be tooscared to even look at that for
fear there was nothing in there.
And so you want to know like,well, how come I've got all
these clients and money's comingin, but like there's nothing
left over at the end of themonth.
This will tell you exactly wherethat money is going.
And you should be looking atthis once a month so that you
(20:18):
know, not because you're makingmistakes, not because people are
stealing from you, but becauseyou need to know where the
money's coming from and whereit's going and why it's
different this month than last,okay?
So this is the part of the P&Lthat tells you where your money
is going, okay?
And this part too, this is yourstaff pay.
I said earlier, your biggestinvestment.
Now we've set this P&L up in2Brain so that it automatically
(20:40):
calculates how much you'repaying for classes, how much
you're paying your coaches forpersonal training or nutrition
coaching or whatever, how muchyou're paying coaches to do
other things like social mediaor admin or cleaning or the CSM
job or whatever that is, andwhat the total is here.
Then we want to know how much isgoing to you.
So this is, you know, you arethe best investment that your
(21:02):
gym can make.
You're the best investment thatyou can make in yourself.
But we want to know how muchyou're making from a salary and
how much you're making to coachclasses.
Because if you decide to coachless or coach more, you need to
adjust this to see what willhappen.
And then finally, owner pay.
Now, we built this out for a gymowner just like you to see them,
(21:23):
show them, like, if they want toearn 100K a year, how many
clients do they need at whatARM?
This is a skill that auniversity would charge you
probably about$60,000 to learn.
We want you to have this skillforever because you can't run a
great business without it.
And once you've mastered it,you're way ahead of everybody
else.
Now that we know how much we canafford to spend on our team,
(21:45):
let's move on to problem numbersix, which is finding and
keeping great staff.
Most of us open a gym to coach,and then we woke up to find out
that we were also the cleanerand the sales guy and the CFO
and the front desk person.
To grow, we need to hire andretain a great team, but most
entrepreneurs struggle todelegate.
And that's where the valueladder comes in.
(22:07):
This guide provides a 10-stepprocess for identifying when
you're ready to hire and whatyou can afford to pay.
Once you finish that, our hiringplan and job descriptions give
you copy and paste ads for everyrole from CEO down to cleaner,
pay ranges tied to profitmargins, and hiring tips for
each position.
(22:27):
Be sure to click the link belowthis video to get all of these
tools for free.
No strings attached.
If you're overwhelmed, don'tworry.
That's common.
Business is complicated, but Ican solve that problem for you
too.
Two Brain Business is amentorship practice.
A mentor reduces overwhelm andstress by keeping you focused on
the most important task rightnow.
(22:48):
Sometimes it's hard to see thepath when you're in the middle
of a storm, and that's why youneed a guide.
Our mentors evaluate businessesand prescribe clear, data-based
actions that get results.
Every resource that we discussin this video works, and 2Brain
has hundreds of additionalresources available to our
clients.
(23:08):
The stuff in the free toolkit isjust a small sample.
Our mentors help gym owners usethe right tool at the right
time, and the results areincredible.
And I'll show you some resultsin a second here.
If you want to book a strategysession with somebody on my
team, go to gymmentor.com orclick the link in the video
description.
And now, here are some real gymowners who will tell you what
(23:28):
can happen if you take action onwhat you've learned today.
SPEAKER_07 (23:31):
So over the course of the year, our revenue went
from about 32K a month to upover, we've been steady over
50,000 a month now.
SPEAKER_00 (23:42):
We have more than doubled our revenue.
I don't coach any classes.
I don't coach any PTs.
I don't coach any nutritionclients.
SPEAKER_01 (23:49):
The best part was my payroll doubled, which means I
created opportunities for all ofmy staff to earn more and do
exactly what they love.
And that was from all theprograms that I learned and all
the connections that I madethrough Two Brain in the last
year.
SPEAKER_03 (24:00):
Just having a mentor to help me stay focused on
something specific and how muchthat impacts my business is
priceless.
Almost tripled our revenue fromwhen we started.
SPEAKER_05 (24:09):
And starting with Two Brain from day minus 60
before I launched my gym.
was like the best investment Imade, hands down, hands down.
SPEAKER_08 (24:17):
I've tripled my net owner benefit, taking home and
providing for my family wellover six figures, changing my
lifestyle, changing my life.
SPEAKER_06 (24:24):
The biggest win is making the shift so that we
could actually be a profitablebusiness and actually not be
worried about closing down everytime that there's a little bit
of adversity.
SPEAKER_04 (24:34):
Now I'm home every night.
I have more time with my wifeand my kids, and I don't have to
worry that things are fallingapart at the gym.
SPEAKER_06 (24:41):
I earn back my investment in less than two
months and then ascended intolevels that I never could have
imagined.
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