Run a Profitable Gym
992 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago - ★★★★★ - 61 ratingsRun a Profitable Gym is packed with business tools for gym owners and CrossFit affiliates. This is actionable, data-backed business advice for all gym owners, including those who own personal training studios, fitness franchises, and strength and conditioning gyms. Broke gym owner Chris Cooper turned a struggling gym into an asset, then built a multi-million-dollar mentoring company to help other fitness entrepreneurs do the same thing. Every week, Chris presents the top tactics for building a profitable gym, as well as real success stories from gym owners who have found incredible success through Two-Brain Business mentorship. Chris’s goal is to create millionaire gym owners. Subscribe to Run a Profitable Gym and you could be one of them.
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Episodes
Food For Thought Friday: What's Your Dunbar?
July 09, 2016 04:00 - 3 minutes - 1.51 MBFrom Wikipedia: Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.[
Food For Thought Friday #4
July 01, 2016 04:00 - 3 minutes - 1.57 MBWe think all the time, "How do I attract more people to me?" But the first question should be, "What's STOPPING people?"
Episode 35 - The Corporate Market
June 26, 2016 04:00 - 59 minutes - 27.1 MBKen Andrukow is a Two-Brain Mentor and owner of Reebok CrossFit Ramsay. Ken charges one of his clients over $2,000 per month. He's working on a deal with a major hotel chain. His secret? Ken asks his clients how he can help them. As I wrote in "Help First," it sounds almost too simple. But identifying opportunities doesn't come naturally to most first-time entrepreneurs. We teach and reinforce the practice in our mentoring program, but Ken's been doing it for a LONG time. In this two-part...
Food For Thought Friday #3
June 24, 2016 04:00 - 4 minutes - 1.92 MBEvery Friday, I give you a BIG-PICTURE question to chew on over the weekend. This week: turning Garbage into GOLD.
Episode 34: Acquisitions
June 20, 2016 04:00 - 58 minutes - 26.9 MBMichael Scott and Mike Collette are co-owners of CrossFit Prototype in MA. They’ve been open for three years, and now they’re expanding. Instead of opening a second location or adding space to their original box, Michael and Mike are starting to acquire other local boxes. I’m in a privileged position of trust: box owners are more willing to talk openly when I’m in the room as a “broker”. So at the beginning of May, I flew to Boston to hang out with them for a few days, visit other boxes, ea...
Food For Thought #2
June 17, 2016 04:00 - 2 minutes - 1.13 MBAnother HUGE question for you to ponder this weekend...are you projecting your OWN fears and biases onto your clients? What's that costing you?
Episode 33: War Stories With Vaughn Vernon
June 13, 2016 04:00 - 58 minutes - 27 MBVaughn Vernon is the guy behind Affiliate Guard. Vaughn insures over 2200 affiliate gyms, and we get together whenever possible to share “War Stories.” Some of these are funny, it’s true. But the point is to identify the potential tripping stones for gyms. This is NOT a boring episode about insurance. It’s a glimpse into the future. It’s a chance to analyze your defense. Vaughn is definitely not a boring guy, and we can leverage the hard lessons learned in the trenches to avoid gym-killing...
FoodForThought Friday #1 (MiniEpisode)
June 10, 2016 04:00 - 4 minutes - 2.17 MBThe purpose of this episode is to give you a "BIG PICTURE QUESTION" to ponder over your weekend. It's a doozy!Special bonus: a special signup rate for our TwoBrain Summit, July 15-17, 2016.
Episode 32: AJ Dwyer on Coaching Youth Athletes
June 06, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBAJ and Megan Dwyer own MAD Strength and Conditioning and CrossFit SwampFox. Since December 2015, they’ve affiliated and opened a second location. Their rapid growth is fueled by AJ’s focus on youth athletes, and sports teams. AJ brings a unique approach to intake, testing, prescription and training, and he’ll share his methods in this podcast. 00:5:00 – AJ’s story: MMA, bodybuilding, military deployment to Afghanistan and finding CrossFit 10:30 – AJ trains his first “sport-enhancement” cli...
Episode 31: Zach Even-Esh
May 30, 2016 04:00 - 59 minutes - 27.4 MBZach Even-Esh is the founder of UnderGround Strength. I first encountered Even-Esh's work in T-Nation in 2005. The "Old School Training" article was less an epiphany about training methods to me than a potential business model: suddenly, I could foresee a way to own a gym without investing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This guy - Even-Esh - was doing it. He didn't have a pec dec, or treadmills; he had a corner of his dad's garage, some big tires and sandbags. And his athletes were killi...
Episode 30: Q+A With Coop
May 23, 2016 04:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBSince I started this podcast six months ago, I've received an increasing amount of questions via email. Originally, I thought I'd answer one or two every few weeks. But as the volume - and quality - of questions increased, I realized the necessity of dedicating one full episode to answering them. These were asked via email, Twitter (@TwoBrainCoach) or on our Facebook page. 3:00 - "How Do I Get More Members?" 14:45 - "Why Podcasting?" 15:55 - "How Do I Break Into The Corporate Market?" 20:...
Episode 29 - The Unbeatable Mind of Mark Divine
May 16, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 34.4 MBThis episode is sponsored by InBody. Commander Mark Divine is the founder of SEALFit. He’s the author of Unbeatable Mind, The Way of the SEAL, 8 Weeks To SEALFIT and his new book, Kokoro Yoga. In this episode, Mark talks about using Yoga to develop a warrior’s mindset and improve athleticism. This isn’t the foo-foo stretchy-pants-and-fancy-mats yoga from a Lululemon poster: this is the battle-born practice of preparation. 0:00 – Commander Divine talks about his background and development: ...
Episode 28 - Jim Wendler
May 09, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBJim Wendler is one of the best-known names in modern powerlifting. Thanks to his association with Westside Barbell, EliteFTS and his book, you probably think you know a lot about him already. In this episode, we go deeper than the Wikipedia page to talk about Jim's mentors, his values, and his concept of "freedom." Full show notes here: http://twobrainbusiness.com/episode-28-jim-wendler/
Episode 28: Jim Wendler
May 09, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBJim Wendler is one of the best-known names in modern powerlifting. Thanks to his association with Westside Barbell, EliteFTS and his book, you probably think you know a lot about him already. In this episode, we go deeper than the Wikipedia page to talk about Jim's mentors, his values, and his concept of "freedom."
Episode 27: Meet The Browns
May 02, 2016 04:00 - 59 minutes - 27.2 MBOn August 12, 2011, Jason Brown and Danielle Bjorkman went for coffee. By September 19, they owned an affiliate together.The CrossFit gym was their first bond, but not their last. Within that first month, they started a relationship and moved in together."I don't like to gamble, but if there's one thing I'll bet on, it's myself."6:35: "No one outworks my husband. And I'm sure he'd say the same thing about me."8:39: Living on credit cards14:00: How the Browns spend a typical day doing the thin...
Episode 26: The Obstacle Racing Overlap
April 25, 2016 04:00 - 50 minutes - 23.2 MBPeople who do Obstacle Races want three things:1. Something new2. Something they can do with their friends3. Something that scares them a little.They can find all of those things in CrossFit, of course, but many don't know it yet. Rich Borgatti sits at the nexus between Obstacle Course Racing and CrossFit. In this episode, he talks about the overlap; how to train racers; and how to get them into your gym.
Episode 25: The Movement Fix with Dr. Ryan DeBell
April 18, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 28.5 MBDr. Ryan DeBell is founder of The Movement Fix.He's been doing CrossFit for 9 years. When he opened his clinic, Dr. DeBell began traveling around to CrossFit gyms with a little two-hour presentation to help lifters. After he published a watershed post, "The Best-Kept Secret: Why People Have to Squat Differently," he was invited to bring his paid seminar to over 20 boxes. That was two years ago; he's already booked for 30 weekends in 2016.This podcast presents a fresh perspective on some preva...
Episode 24: Affinity Marketing
April 11, 2016 04:00 - 42 minutes - 19.5 MBF your Funnel.Why start your marketing plan with the people LEAST likely to want your service, and then try to filter out 90% of your audience? It's like cutting down a whole tree to find the right twig.Instead, start from a seed. Build a tree on which EVERY branch bears fruit. That's Affinity Marketing.Affinity marketing starts with your SEED clients: those perfect members who are most tightly connected to your brand. Then we move outward from the center: helping those people who are most ti...
Episode 23: How To Raise Your Rates
March 28, 2016 04:00 - 38 minutes - 17.5 MBYou should be able to make a great living from 150 clients.The "low-rate, high-volume" approach doesn't work. Every week, I get on a phone call with a gym owner who sums up their failing business this way:"I just need more clients." Usually, they don't.As strong gyms begin to absorb weak ones, owners on the cusp of success are finding their way to our mentorship at an increasing rate. In many cases, one of the first orders of business is to increase rates and eliminate discounts.Usually, the ...
Episode 22: Tech Part II
March 21, 2016 04:00 - 56 minutes - 26.1 MBPieter-Jan Buysmans is the owner of CrossFit Hasselt in Belgium.He's also an innovator. When a back injury sidelined his career as a professional snowboarder, Pieter found CrossFit. Now he owns two gyms, and his systems are so dialed he ran both remotely for six weeks after a recent surgery.This time away from the day-to-day operation gave him weeks to pursue new ideas and growth--the things we call "CEO Time" in Two-Brain Business. But he's been pursuing the idea of Heart Rate Monitoring for...
Episode 21: Tech Part I
March 14, 2016 04:00 - 1 hour - 34.5 MBRay Gowlett is a professional MMA fighter, motocross racer and research skeptic.His lab contains almost 600 subjects (it's a high school) and Ray is constantly seeking new ways to teach and coach. Many of these kids are high-level athletes; just as many don't want to be in the class at all. He's always trying new things, but this cross-pollination of students means every innovation has to satisfy two standards:1. It has to make people fitter;2. It has to make people happier.Sound familiar?Ray...
Episode 20: Leadership, Loss and Larris Hutton
March 07, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 35.5 MBLarris Hutton is a Major in the US Army, a JAG lawyer, and a box owner. He has a unique model: fewer clients with higher value in a smaller space.CrossFit Prelude provides full-time careers for his coaches. Larris' box isn't one of the most expensive in the area, but his ARM is very high. And he does it all in 1100 square feet.How? He believes a box owner should behave like a LEADER instead of a COACH. In this interview, he'll tell us the difference.In "Critical Questions," I talk about the d...
Episode 19: How To Sell A Gym
February 29, 2016 05:00 - 41 minutes - 19.1 MBIn this episode, I talk with Jason Ackerman about selling two of his gyms and setting up his third. More and more, entrepreneurs are purchasing gyms from others, or buying out their partners, or selling their gyms. To help, I provide a Gym Valuation Tool (thanks to RigQuipment) and then answer the question, "Should I De-Affiliate?" (answer: no.)
Episode 18 - Adding Nutrition Services
February 22, 2016 05:00 - 46 minutes - 21.4 MBSam Brumenschenkel is a behavior therapist and co-owner of CrossFit Port Orange with her husband, Kyle. Nicole Marchand is a Registered Dietitian in Florida, where box owners can't legally prescribe a diet without the oversight of an RD.Before the conversation started, I mentioned two great ideas from other affiliate owners:Butch Santucci uses the Meijer grocery "curb" service in Michigan. Butch owns Wreck Room CrossFit.Jennifer Broxterman is the owner of NutritionRx, and her husband Dave own...
Episode 17: Tommy Hackenbruck and the "New You Challenge"
February 15, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 30.4 MBI do up to a dozen free calls every week. On 90% of them, I hear this comment:"I just need 10 more clients."It's usually not true.But if it IS true, this episode will present a new option for getting a ton of clients. Tommy Hackenbruck has acquired well over 100 after running the program three times; Ken Andrukow signed up 120 after running it ONCE.Full show notes at http://twobrainbusiness.com/episode-17-the-new-you-challenge-with-tommy-hackenbruck
Episode 16: The Legends of CrossFit Illumine
February 01, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 29.6 MBEvery gym owner is aware of the "Baby Boomer" market--that massive way of the newly-retired--but most aren't sure how to attract seniors into their program. The key, says Alexander, is to understand what THEY want--or what their kids want FOR them.Many of these 50-60-year-olds are watching their parents decline into decrepitude, physically and mentally, and think, "That's never going to happen to me." At the same time they might perceive a regular CrossFit class to be beyond their capacity. S...
Episode 15: Pat Barber
January 25, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 32.1 MBImagine it's 2003. Your high school volleyball coach decides weightlifting will help the team's jumping, so he Googles "clean and jerk Santa Cruz."The coach was Tony Budding, and Pat Barber was on the volleyball team. Over the last 13 years, Barber has "grown up" with CrossFit, first training in the original HQ gym and then becoming part of the early CrossFit Media staff. His first competition was filmed in "Every Second Counts" (Barber is the cover model) and he's made the Games as an indivi...
Episode 14: "By The Numbers" with Sean Manseau
January 18, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBSean Manseau is the author of “By The Numbers.”A former animator, Sean found CrossFit in 2005 and believed he was “the only person in New York who had ever heard of CrossFit.” As often happens, he was drawn to coaching after a few years as an athlete.In the animation world, a “master animator” draws the major positions of movement, and then an assistant draws all the joint angles between those positions. Sean teaches the major positions and assigns them a number–hence, “By the Numbers.”Sean r...
Episode 13 - Doug Chapman
January 11, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 47.3 MBDoug Chapman was the 13th CrossFit affiliate. At his peak, he had 400 members at HyperFit in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Though that number has declined in recent years, he's best known for his online programming for athletes such as Julie Foucher. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Lindsey Valenzuela, Jennifer Smith, Nick Urankar, Neil Maddox, Chyna Cho, Jacob Heppner—they're all coached remotely by Doug. But his gym doesn't focus on competition. "If you focus on competitive CrossFit, you're going to ru...
Episode 13 - Doug Chapman
January 11, 2016 05:00 - 1 hour - 47.3 MBDoug Chapman was the 13th CrossFit affiliate. At his peak, he had 400 members at HyperFit in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Though that number has declined in recent years, he's best known for his online programming for athletes such as Julie Foucher. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Lindsey Valenzuela, Jennifer Smith, Nick Urankar, Neil Maddox, Chyna Cho, Jacob Heppner—they're all coached remotely by Doug. But his gym doesn't focus on competition. "If you focus on competitive CrossFit, you're going to ru...
Episode 12: Ideas
January 04, 2016 05:00 - 57 minutes - 26.1 MBThis podcast is about ideas.Every week, I try to introduce a guest whose ideas aren't exactly the same as your own. Sometimes they're VERY different; sometimes they iterate an old idea differently. Sometimes I agree with the idea, and sometimes I don't. That doesn't matter: the ideas provide context.Too often, we all get caught in the "get 10 more clients!" mindset instead of looking at the bigger picture. We think more about spearing fish on our little reef than rising above the surface to c...
Episode 11: A Very Black Box Christmas
December 28, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 30.9 MBCoach Mike Rutherford did his "Level One" before there was a "Level One." The group was so small, Greg Glassman introduced each person. When Greg reached Rutherford, he reportedly said, "He is my Coach. I've been learning and copying what Rut does. It is essential to CrossFit now. Our athletes are getting so much better.He is my Coach." Two attendees of the same seminar (Michael Halbfish and Jeff Martin) confirmed that quote. The owner of Bootcamp Fitness KC (CrossFit Kansas City), Rut create...
Episode 10 - Automated Marketing and a HUGE GIVEAWAY!
December 21, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 32.1 MBJake Johnson served two tours in Iraq as a Marine. He returned home and pursued a career as a firefighter, where he now serves as a lieutenant. After one particular call to rescue an obese woman, Jake decided to open CrossFit Gettysburg to proactively help people.Now he's partnered with Matt Verlaque to create RunYourGym.com, an email marketing service specifically made for gyms. Today, he's GIVING you an amazing gift.The Couch to CrossFit strategy is a standalone program geared towards getti...
Episode 9: Brian Costello and the 8-Day FREE Giveaway!
December 14, 2015 05:00 - 46 minutes - 21.1 MBBrian Costello is the owner and Head Coach at CrossFit Long Island.Brian is also the former captain of Team USA Lifeguarding, a former State-level wrestler, a competitive weightlifter, and high-level finisher at Regionals (both individual and team.) He’s one of the few CrossFit Level 3 trainers on Long Island. BUT…as Brian will attest, none of those things are as important to his clients as the way he coaches them.Trained as a teacher, Brian writes “lesson plans” for every single workout, eve...
Episode 8: Brian Mulvaney, Strategist at CrossFit HQ
December 07, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 50.1 MB"If you can afford him, you need to go see Greg Glassman." In 1999, Brian Mulvaney found Greg in a dojo in Santa Cruz after his neighbor--a fitness trainer herself--described Greg as "the best in town." Fifteen years later, Mulvaney is the director of strategy for CrossFit HQ. The brand, which didn't have a name then, has become a worldwide phenomenon. But the exercise prescription hasn't changed. "A CrossFitter today would recognize the programming from 15 years ago," Mulvaney said. In this...
Episode 7: Dave Tate
November 30, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 43.1 MBI should have hit "record" before I dialed the phone. And I should have hung up before I hit "STOP."I first encountered Dave Tate over fifteen years ago on the Supertraining Forum, and I've read or watched something from him every week since. But I still wasn't prepared for the depths we reached in this conversation.Eleven minutes into the call, I had to say, "Stop, Dave. I have to start recording this stuff!" and we started over. But he didn't miss a beat, and I was laughing within 30 second...
Episode 6: How To Work With Chiropractors
November 23, 2015 05:00 - 58 minutes - 26.8 MBKnowing WHY you choose a given exercise can have a lot to do with its correction and instruction. In this episode, we run through a few common mistakes Dr. Phillip Carlyle teaches through his SpinalFit program.But MORE importantly, we talk about what CrossFit coaches are doing RIGHT. Phillip is a CrossFitter, a chiropractor and owner of SpinalFit.co, and he believes most chiropractors will want to work with you if you handle the relationship properly.To read the full episode notes and watch t...
Episode 5: Greg Everett on the Art of Coaching
November 15, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBGreg Everett of Catalyst Athletics is almost a household name. Anyone (especially in the USA) interested in weightlifting has heard of Everett—but why? Greg is an incredible coach. But he's an even better producer of content, and that's why he's able to make a great living as a nationally renowned coach. Get that? He's a great coach—and he knows how to tell you so. Greg spends almost as much time sharing his knowledge and building his audience as he does coaching. And that's a very, ve...
Episode 4: Jay Williams
November 09, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 30.3 MBJay is co-owner of CrossFit Thames -- arguably the best-known gym in Europe -- and CrossFit Hale in California. He believes gym owners can do just as well with a small gym as a large one IF they focus on individual coaching and retention instead of large class sizes.Jay has learned to be an entrepreneur through his CrossFit gyms, and believes "The Cat in the Hat" to be a great read for new business owners.
Episode 3: Deacon Andrews Takes His Coaching Online
November 02, 2015 05:00 - 1 hour - 29.1 MBSeveral months ago, Deacon Andrews sold his brick-and-mortar box, packed his family into a horse trailer and started driving toward California. He kept a squat rack, his dirt bikes and a love for coaching.Deacon moved all his programming online to SisuStrong.com. I was lucky enough to be included on the project as a mentor, and saw the idea go from concept to delivery.With any new technology, you're bound to try things that won't work. These aren't mistakes; they're just tests of the system. ...
Episode 2 - Jason Ackerman
October 26, 2015 04:00 - 1 hour - 31.4 MBEpisode 2 - Jason Ackerman I met Jason Ackerman at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in 2013. Over the next several months, Jay and I shared a weekly call to discuss business, but regularly digressed into training clients, diet and programming. After a few months, Jay accepted an offer for his affiliate (CrossFit Albany) that was the highest price I've ever seen paid for a gym of this type. Most "box"-style gyms really aren't worth more than the value of their used equipment. But Jason manage...
Episode 1: Greg Amundson
October 16, 2015 04:00 - 1 hour - 34.1 MBThe original CrossFit firebreather, Amundson is still coaching sixteen years after his first WOD. His coaching is self-described as "old school," but his spiritual approach to exercise is cutting-edge.