Run a Profitable Gym

Two-Brain Radio: Success in a Saturated Market With Amy Milyard

Two-Brain Radio: Success in a Saturated Market With Amy Milyard Amy Milyard is the owner of Stoic CrossFit in Fruita, Colorado. Though five CrossFit gyms share the small market there, a combination of trust and communication has allowed all to co-exist in harmony. Stoic CrossFit isn't the first CrossFit gym Amy has owned. From 2010 to 2013, she and her husband owned what she called a hobby CrossFit gym in Fruita before selling and moving away. This time, gym ownership is a business, not a ...

Food for Thought Friday - Do You Have to Work for Your Business?

Food for Thought Friday - Do You Have to Work for Your Business? Just because you own a gym doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of your days running it. If that's what you want to do, great! But if your entrepreneurial spirit is urging you to try something new; if you want to travel the world and not have to worry about your business back home; if you just want to spend more time with family and less time in the gym—all it takes is getting the right systems and people in place. If you...

Two-Brain Radio: Meet the Dalai Lama, Open a CrossFit Gym—With Brandon Evans

Two-Brain Radio: Meet the Dalai Lama, Open a CrossFit Gym—With Brandon Evans Brandon Evans is the owner of Heart and Hustle Fitness in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, but that's not what he and Greg Strauch talk about on this episode of Two-Brain Radio. Rather, Brandon shares the strange and powerful journey that eventually led him to gym ownership. You'll learn about the three months he spent milking cows in New Zealand. You'll hear about his experience trekking through the jungle to illegal...

Two-Brain Radio: Meet the Dalai Lama, Open a CrossFit Gym—With Brandon Evans

Two-Brain Radio: Meet the Dalai Lama, Open a CrossFit Gym—With Brandon Evans Brandon Evans is the owner of Heart and Hustle Fitness in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, but that's not what he and Greg Strauch talk about on this episode of Two-Brain Radio. Rather, Brandon shares the strange and powerful journey that eventually led him to gym ownership. You'll learn about the three months he spent milking cows in New Zealand. You'll hear about his experience trekking through the jungle to illegal...

Two-Brain Radio: Training WWE Superstars With Josh Gallegos

Two-Brain Radio: Training WWE Superstars With Josh Gallegos Josh Gallegos has been involved in CrossFit for 10 years. You are probably most familiar with him as one of the floor announcers you hear at competitions like the CrossFit Games.  But Josh is also the coach for some of the biggest names in the WWE. He does programming for the likes of Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Cesaro and Bayley just to name a few. Josh talks about how he first got involved with training WWE Superstars, his passion...

Two-Brain Radio: Taking Control of Your Business With Natalie Marcom

Two-Brain Radio: Taking Control of Your Business With Natalie Marcom When Natalie Marcom opened Nakoma CrossFit in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, she knew fitness. She had lost a significant amount of weight with CrossFit herself and felt right at home coaching people. Running a business? Not so much. For a long time, she just "white-knuckled it." She knew she needed some guidance to grow her business and make it sustainable for the long haul, but she was skeptical about Two-Brain mentorship a...

Food For Thought Friday - Are Your Members Telling You What They Want?

Food For Thought Friday: Are Your Members Telling You What They Want? You wouldn't tell your doctor what to prescribe you or what kind of treatment you need. So why would you expect your clients to do the same? Listen to a prospective client's goals first, before assuming what they need. Then, simply prescribe them the next step. 

Two-Brain Radio: Launching a Podcast With Jared Byczko

Two-Brain Radio: Launching a Podcast With Jared Byczko Jared Byczko is the co-owner of NapTown Fitness in Indianapolis, Indiana. He's also the co-founder and host of the Drink Culture Podcast. At first just a side project and creative outlet for Jared, the podcast originally focused on the whiskey and craft beer industries. Today, the podcast tells the stories of local "entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and creators who are shaping the culture of Indianapolis." In this episode of Two-Brain...

Two-Brain Radio: Covering the Sport of Fitness With the Buttery Bros

Two-Brain Radio: Covering the Sport of Fitness With the Buttery Bros On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Sean Woodland talks with Heber Cannon and Marston Sawyers, better known collectively as the Buttery Bros. Heber and Martson have been involved in CrossFit and the Sport of Fitness for ten years, bringing you the action and taking you behind the scenes of the CrossFit Games, Regionals, Invitationals and more. They were instrumental in the creation of four of the top 100 best-selling docu...

Two-Brain Radio: From "Coasting Along" To Serious Growth With Teegan Webb

Two-Brain Radio: From "Coasting Along" to Serious Growth With Teegan Webb When Teegan Webb opened SkyBox boxing studio with her husband just over two years ago, her only goal was to have a cool job. They were making ends meet, but not growing or doing any real marketing. After they joined the Two-Brain family, they launched their first ad campaign, turning $380 in ad spend into $8,500 in front-end sales. In this episode, you'll learn how Teegan caters to both competitive boxers and everyda...

Food For Thought Friday: Are You Passionate About Being a Gym Owner or a Business Owner?

In this week's morsel, Greg Strauch encourages you to answer this question:  What are you more passionate about—being a gym owner or being a business owner?  Both answers are OK. The point is to think critically about the answer and decide if what you're doing is moving you closer to wealth—the freedom to choose how you spend your time. 

Two-Brain Radio: Paying Attention to Mental Health With Colm O'Reilly

Two-Brain Radio: Paying Attention to Mental Health With Colm O'Reilly Colm O'Reilly owns CrossFit Ireland in Dublin and recently celebrated the gym's 12th anniversary. But he's not here to talk business; he's here to talk mental health and entrepreneurship. When Colm was 17, he attempted to end his own life. Since then, he's dedicated years to understanding his own psyche and how his response to outside events affects his inner emotional state. In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Colm ex...

Two-Brain Radio: Getting Through Tough Times Using CrossFit With Carleen Mathews

Two-Brain Radio: Getting Through Tough Times Using CrossFit With Carleen Mathews On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Sean Woodland talks with four-time CrossFit Games athlete Carleen Mathews. She took second overall in the 35-39-year-old division at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games following a three-year career as an individual Games athlete. Carleen shares her experience being addicted to drugs and alcohol and how CrossFit helped her transform her life after she got sober, ultimately leadi...

Two-Brain Radio: Getting Through Tough Times Using CrossFit With Carleen Mathews

Two-Brain Radio: Getting Through Tough Times Using CrossFit With Carleen Mathews On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Sean Woodland talks with four-time CrossFit Games athlete Carleen Mathews. She took second overall in the 35-39-year-old division at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games following a three-year career as an individual Games athlete. Carleen shares her experience being addicted to drugs and alcohol and how CrossFit helped her transform her life after she got sober, ultimately leadi...

Two-Brain Radio: Partnerships With Ashkan Amirsoleymani

Two-Brain Radio: Partnerships With Ashkan Amirsoleymani In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, we hear from your host Mateo's business partner Ashkan Amirsoleymani. The pair co-own CrossFit Rittenhouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They'll take you down memory lane as they share how they got their start in a free park workout, eventually using that same concept to bring new members into the gym when they took over. Then, Ashkan discusses what it takes to present a unique offering in a comp...

Food for Thought Friday - Part 2 of Who Are You Listening To?

Food for Thought Friday - Part 2 of Who Are You Listening To? In this week's morsel, Greg Strauch explains the meaning behind the three questions you should be asking your top clients: 1. What do you like best about my business? 2. What do you dislike about the fitness industry in general? 3. What is the biggest challenge you face outside of the gym?

Two-Brain Radio: The Golden Goose With Jeff Burlingame

Two-Brain Radio: The Golden Goose With Jeff Burlingame In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, we're treating you to another prime talk from the 2019 Two-Brain Summit. Jeff Burlingame is a senior Two-Brain Business mentor and the owner of Friction CrossFit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A couple years ago, Jeff took a 30-day break from running his gym—and he never came back. How was that possible? He'd found his golden goose (or in this case, geese). After trusting the wrong person with his busine...

Two-Brain Radio: CrossFit Memes With John Wooley

Two-Brain Radio: CrossFit Memes With John Wooley You’re probably more familiar with his work than you are with him. John Wooley is the man behind the most popular CrossFit meme page on Instagram, "Make Wods Great Again." After finding CrossFit nine years ago, John decided to put his keen sense of humor to work on social media, and the rest is history. He and Sean talk about how the page got started, what makes a good CrossFit meme and what it’s like to meet the targets of some of his good-...

Two Brain Radio: How Jill Glasenapp Turned $650 Into $8,400 Through Advertising

Two Brain Radio: How Jill Glasenapp Turned $650 Into $8,400 Through Advertising Jill Glasenapp joined the Cobra Command CrossFit team as a coach at the gym's two-year mark and bought in as a partner six months later. Though she'd already put systems in place before joining the Two-Brain family, she knew she needed help growing the business. The lessons she learned in the Incubator, she said, helped her learn how to step out of low-value roles and start working on the business instead. N...

Food For Thought Friday- Who Are You Listening To?

Two-Brain Radio: Converting More Clients With John Franklin and Mateo Lopez

Two-Brain Radio: Converting More Clients With John Franklin and Mateo Lopez In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, we're taking you inside the 2019 Two-Brain Summit with a talk given by digital marketing mentors John Franklin and Mateo Lopez. The theme of the talk is this: Know your numbers. John and Mateo will walk you through how to calculate a marketing budget, what it costs to acquire a new member and what to do when you have that information. They discuss the concept of losing money to...

Two-Brain Radio: Steph Chung

Two-Brain Radio: Steph Chung On this episode, Sean speaks with former CrossFit Games athlete and current Invictus Fenway coach Steph Chung. Steph knows a thing or two about hard work. Before becoming a competitive CrossFit athlete, she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in biological sciences from the esteemed Cornell University. She also spent two years teaching pre-medical biology in Qatar. She originally started CrossFit to supplement her college gymnastics training but discovere...

Two-Brain Radio: Sasha Kone

Sasha Kone is a 38-year-old mom of two, a horse dentist and also the owner of Endless Mountains CrossFit in Towanda, Pennsylvania, a mountain town of less than 3,000. Sasha discovered CrossFit after six years of doing functional fitness training with a personal trainer, part of her chiropractor-mandated treatment for low-back pain caused by years of holding heavy horses' heads while she worked. She loved the CrossFit-style training so much that she trained in her barn with jury-rigged barbe...

Food For Thought Friday- Start Telling People What They Need, Not What They Can Afford

Two-Brain Radio: Your Duty to Succeed With Jeff Jucha

In today's episode of Two-Brain Radio, we're treating you to something special: an airing of the final motivational speech of the 2019 Two-Brain Summit, delivered by Two-Brain mentor and owner of West Little Rock CrossFit Jeff Jucha. In his speech, Jeff explains why you have a duty to succeed. He makes the distinction that duty is not drive, dreams or callings, but the thing inside you that tells you the world needs what you were designed to give it. He shares the stories of his childhood t...

Two-Brain Radio: Adrian Bozman

Two-Brain Radio: Adrian Bozman On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Sean Woodland talks with one of the OGs of CrossFit, Adrian Bozman. He is one of the few people in the world of CrossFit who is best known by his nickname: “Boz.” Boz has been around the sport and the training methodology for nearly 15 years. He's been a member of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff and currently serves as one of the head judges at the CrossFit Games. He and Sean talk about how he initially got involved wi...

Two-Brain Radio: Laying Down A Foundation For Your Business With Jeff Burlingame

Two-Brain Radio: Jeff Burlingame On this episode of the Two-Brain Marketing podcast, Mateo Lopez speaks with Jeff Burlingame, senior Two-Brain Business mentor and owner of Friction CrossFit in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Before opening Friction CrossFit five years ago, Jeff honed his skills through a longstanding career in sales, first as a personal trainer and then as a manager of multiple gyms and hundreds of trainers within a globo-gym franchise. Yet, when he first opened his affiliate, th...

Food For Thought Friday- How Is Your Sleep?

Two-Brain Radio: The Kolbe Index With Brian Alexander

Two-Brain Radio: The Kolbe Index With Brian Alexander Brian Alexander is a Two-Brain mentor and the owner CrossFit Illumine in Niles, Illinois. He's also a Kolbe-certified consultant who helps business owners, leaders and teams implement the Kolbe test and interpret its results to better structure and lead their teams for success. The Kolbe Index is a scientifically validated assessment that measures a person's conativ strengths, or his or her instinctive way of doing things. As Brain desc...

Two-Brain Radio: Rory Mckernan

Two-Brain Radio: Rory Mckernan On today’s episode, Sean Woodland talks with one of the original members of the CrossFit Games media team: Rory Mckernan. Rory is probably the most recognizable face when it comes to the media side of the sport of fitness. He played a key role in building the CrossFit Games media team over the years and is still covering the season and the athletes today. He and Sean talk about how he got started with CrossFit, some of his favorite memories from the early da...

Two-Brain Radio: Sara Carter

Two-Brain Radio: Sara Carter On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Mateo Lopez speaks with Sara Carter, owner of CrossFit PortSide in Gulfport, Mississippi. When Sara opened her gym six years ago, she was running a one-woman show. She coached all the classes on top of everything else that needs to be done to keep a gym running. Then, when she finally hired some help, she made the mistake of hiring friends instead of seeking out people who were committed to the business for the long haul. S...

Food For Thought Friday- When Was The Last Time You Bet On Yourself?

Two-Brain Radio: Good Debt vs. Bad Debt With Clay Ferrer

Two-Brain Radio: Good Debt vs. Bad Debt With Clay Ferrer On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Greg Strauch speaks with Clay Ferrer, Founder and CEO of Rigquipment Finance, a lender that specializes in boutique fitness facility financing. Clay—a passionate CrossFit coach in his own right—talks about the difference between good and bad debt, why you might take on debt for purchases and reserve cash on hand versus paying up front, and why the best time to take on debt is when your business is...

Two-Brain Radio: Matt O'Keefe

Two-Brain Radio: Matt O'Keefe On this edition of Two-Brain Radio, Sean Woodland talks with president of Loud and Live Sports Matt O’Keefe. Not only is Matt agent and manager to four-time CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser, but he also helps run one of the most high-profile sanctioned events of the Games season, Wodapalooza. Matt and Sean talk about how he got involved in the business of the CrossFit Games, why Loud and Live decided to expand from one to five sanctioned events in 2020 and ...

Two-Brain Radio: Jesse Topp

Two-Brain Radio: Jesse Topp Jesse Topp is the owner of Topp Performance, a multifaceted strength-and-conditioning center in Port Elgin, Ontario, focused on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, CrossFit and personal training. Topp Performance began as a simple personal-training service that paid the bills when Jesse was competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After Jesse discovered that CrossFit training significantly improved his explosiveness, endurance and recovery time in fights, he "totally bought in" and a...

Food For Thought Friday- What Are You Going To Regret When You're 90?

Two-Brain Radio: Incredible Client Success with Eden Watson

Two-Brain Radio: Incredible Client Success with Eden Watson In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper speaks with Two-Brain client success manager Eden Watson—aka "the right brain of Two-Brain." As client success manager for Two-Brain Business, Eden is responsible for maintaining Two-Brain client relationships and increasing client LEG, or length of engagement, and in this podcast, she explains exactly why gym owners need someone in that role and how to get started...

Two-Brain Radio: Chase Ingraham

Two-Brain Radio: Chase Ingraham On this edition of Two-Brain Radio, Sean talks with former Games athlete and current CrossFit broadcaster Chase Ingraham. Chase has been involved in CrossFit since 2008. He currently owns CrossFit Big D in Dallas, Texas. He competed at the Games in 2010 as an individual and has also been to the Regionals five times. Chase was a member of the CrossFit Games media team and most recently served as an analyst alongside yours truly on the Rogue Iron Game in Madis...

Two-Brain Radio: Darren Thornton

Season 3, Episode 2: Darren Thornton In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Mateo Lopez of Two-Brain Marketing speaks with Darren Thornton, owner of CrossFit Defy in Toronto, Ontario. Though Darren’s passion for CrossFit was born out of a love for competition, today, he runs CrossFit Defy for one purpose: to help people get better at life. He’s also a brand-new entrepreneur—CrossFit Defy is less than one year old. But that doesn’t mean he lacks experience to share. Darren learned quickly the...

Food For Thought Friday- Do You Have A Red Box?

Episode 179: Q & A With Coop

Episode 179: Q & A With Coop In today's episode, we turn the tables as Two-Brain Client Success Manager Eden Watson takes the mic to interview Two-Brain Business founder Chris Cooper. Eden presents Coop with a couple of the most common questions gym owners ask, and Chris shares some of his hard-won wisdom, earned over the course of more than 10 years of gym ownership. Chris breaks down the four phases of entrepreneurship, shares some of his own practices for focusing his thoughts and ene...

Two-Brain Radio With Sean Woodland, Episode 12: Stacie Tovar

Two-Brain Radio With Sean Woodland, Episode 12: Stacie Tovar On today’s episode, Sean speaks with 8-time CrossFit Games individual competitor Stacie Tovar and her husband Dustin. Stacie first competed at the CrossFit Games in 2009 in Aromas. Her final year was in 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. She and Dustin own CrossFit Omaha in Nebraska—a gym that has been around for nearly 12 years—and recently became parents with the birth of their first son, Gavin. Sean talks with Stacie about her care...

Two-Brain Marketing Episode 20: David Oquendo

Two-Brain Marketing Episode 20: David Oquendo On today's episode of the Two-Brain Marketing podcast, Mateo Lopez speaks with David Oquendo, owner of Rapid Fit KC in Kansas City, Missouri. Though many gyms sell personal training, few sell it as the primary offering. Though Rapid Fit does offer group-fitness classes, the first step to joining the gym is to go through the Rapid Fit KC 90 Day Transformation: 90 days of one-on-one training that gets a new client up to speed and seeing results f...

Food For Thought Friday- What Hard Things Are You Accomplishing?

Episode 178: Selling With Sherman Merricks

Episode 178: Selling With Sherman Merricks On this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Greg Strauch speaks with CrossFit Dynasty owner and Two-Brain mentor Sherman Merricks. Sherman is a sales guru helping our Growth clients overhaul and systemize their sales processes to get more clients and increase average revenue per member. Here, he shares some of his fundamental sales philosophies—such as selling the "vacation, not the travel"—and his strategies for overcoming objections or potential barrie...

Episode 172- Rhino Programming

Episode 172- Rhino Programming

Two-Brain Radio With Sean Woodland, Episode 11: Mekenzie Riley

Two-Brain Radio With Sean Woodland, Episode 11: Mekenzie Riley On today’s episode, Sean Woodland talks with four-time CrossFit Games athlete Mekenzie Riley. This week, Mekenzie will make her fourth career appearance at the CrossFit Games and her third as an individual, which she qualified for with an 11th-place finish in the worldwide CrossFit Open. She talks a lot about overcoming adversity. Mekenzie dealt with some pretty serious stuff when she was younger—including battling disordered ...

Two-Brain Marketing Episode 19: Mauricio Leal

Two-Brain Marketing Episode 19: Mauricio Leal On today's episode of the Two-Brain Marketing podcast, Mateo Lopez speaks with Mauricio Leal, head coach and co-owner of CrossFit Cypher in Richmond, California. Mauricio was one of Two-Brain Business' first clients and had been running CrossFit Cypher for four years by the time Two-Brain came along. Still, the gym was barely making ends meet and Mauricio was stretched to capacity—so he joined the family. Though he was apprehensive about the m...

Food For Thought Friday- Why Can't CrossFit Be PT?