Run a Profitable Gym

Sam 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 owns CrossFit London. Her "Healthy Meal Exchange Group" is described here. You can download instructions to run the program in YOUR box free here:Healthy-Meal-Exchange-GroupWhen Sam and her husband Kyle learned about the Stratified Model through Two-Brain Business: Grow Your Gym (Volume 1) and the mentoring program, they decided nutrition was their best path to increase ARM...but in Florida, legal hurdles stopped her from using her Precision Nutrition certification with her clients."I wanted a program that I could implement immediately that I couldn't mess up."Sam found Nicole Marchand, a CrossFit L1 trainer and owner of My Healthy Steps, when Nicole visited CrossFit Port Orange. Using Sam's understanding of behavior modification and Nicole's huge knowledge base, they built a program for the box.Read the rest of the show notes here: http://www.twobrainbusiness.com/episode-18-adding-nutrition/

I 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

Every 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. Some, like Wayne, will seek Personal Training; but others will be attracted to Alexander's model. And we go through the pricing, programming and marketing components in this episode.Tyler Belanger is cofounder of IgniteGym and co-author of Enrichment Through Exercise. His daily BrainWODs are being used in gyms around the world to help special populations and add cognitive enrichment to exercise classes. BrainWODs can be a differentiating element in your Seniors' program, and research shows it's the ONLY buttress against cognitive decline. IgniteGym's "101" course launches today (they only take 50 gyms at a time.)Full show notes at:http://www.twobrainbusiness.com/episode-16-the-legends-of-illumine/

Imagine 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 individual and Team athlete several times since 2008.Now he's Head of Coach Development for NorCal CrossFit, and founder of WarmupandWorkout.com with his wife, Taz.In "Coach's Confessional," I talk about trying to keep every client (mistake!) and how to fire the bad ones. Recorded on January 15, 2016.

Sean 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 refers to “rhyming positions”–positions that are identical across different exercises. “The second position of the deadlift is really close to the bottom of the KB swing, which is really close to the hang position of the clean…” he says. When he’s coaching, he can relate new cues to previous positions.We talked about “drawing the line” between intensity and sloppy movement. Sean says the line will depend on an individual coach’s “quality of mercy.” While he agrees a coach must take the long view on client training, he names different modes of training through which an athlete passes.See the full episode notes here: http://twobraincoaching.com/episode-14-sean-manseau-of-by-the-numbers/

Doug 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 ruin your business," he said. At the 1:09 mark, Nancy arrives. She's a retired lawyer and law professor, and she has a lot to say about training seniors with CrossFit. Doug steps aside for a few minutes and lets me talk to Nancy instead. As Doug moves more toward personal training and small group training (instead of teaching classes,) he talks about what makes a great trainer vs. a great coach and why many coaches should do more PT to improve their class coaching.

This 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 check the tide, position of the sun, and look for storm fronts.Luckily, I get to talk to hundreds of gym owners every week - a few dozen in person, a few hundred online, and thousands through blog posts and this podcast. There's some amazing stuff happening in gyms, through gyms and around gyms. There are ideas out there that are strange now, but could become the norm within three years.

Coach 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 created the Max Effort Black Box (MEBB) system, and later DBWOD.In "Critical Questions," I talk about automating tasks that aren't worth your time. Last week's big 8-Day Giveaway ended on a massive note, with a free email automation from RunYourGym.com. Almost 300 gyms signed up to get the gift (thanks again, Matt and Jake!) and I see "Couch to CrossFit" posts everywhere. Like many, I thought I'd just take the free gift and roll with it...and then realized just how MUCH content they were giving away. So I signed up to have them automate the program for me because my time is worth more than the $99 they were charging.How do you figure out the value of your time? I provide a simple calculation, and then links to other resources that can optimize your time, like 321GoProject's Momentum Program.

Jake 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 getting new members into the gym. The downloads you'll get free are over 8,000 words of free content including:14 pre-written emailsa facebook post4 handoutsan infographica complete 4-week training program.Show notes: http://twobraincoaching.com/episode-10-automated-marketing-and-huge-giveaway/Link to get the gift: www.runyourgym.com/chriscooper

Brian 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, every single day.Starting today and running for the next week, TwoBrainRadio is going to give you some really valuable FREE materials, starting with Brian Costello’s Fall 2014 programming (3 FULL MONTHS!) and a week's worth of daily lesson plans. Amazing stuff, and very valuable to any gym owner or coach.Full show notes and details here: http://twobraincoaching.com/episode-9-brian-costello-and-the-8-day-christmas-giveaway/