Run a Profitable Gym

Today we are joined by Michele Letendre of Deka CrossFit. Michele was the most successful coach at the 2018 CrossFit Games. Michele is a six-time CrossFit Games veteran herself and finished fourth in 2014. She is a former collegiate swimmer and national-level water polo player. Michele decided to retire from competition after the 2016 season to focus on her coaching career, and she now works with top CrossFit athletes across the world. Join us today as we discuss training methodology as well as what it was like to retire at the pinnacle of the sport!

How you do anything is how you do everything.In other words, consistency > everything else.We can talk ourselves into anything. We're masters of justification. We tell ourselves, "I can live with it" when we encounter small problems in our lives, and in our business. We avoid hard conversations because we fear the downside. We allow people to take advantage of our goodwill because, on balance, the relationship is slightly more positive than negative. But sooner or later, these little "pebbles" cause us to walk with a limp. We compensate for the bad habits of others. We shift our schedule around to cover. We stay at the gym to "make sure" a coach shows up on time instead of making sure they always show up on time.After awhile, we just become accustomed to the limp. But others notice, and the more we compensate the more long-term damage we do to ourselves, until eventually we need surgical action to repair our problem.Worse, in the service industry, we think no one notices our limp; that it's our own private sacrifice. But they do. We think, "Clients won't care if I jump into class and exercise with them instead of coaching them." But they do. We tell ourselves, "My staff will know that they should take the garbage out when they leave tonight." But they don't. We're willfully blind to the service we're offering, and believe our clients will see past the overfilled garbage cans, past the never-answered phone, past the bad language of our 7pm coach...they won't. They see our limp.When problems grow to become crises, are they too late to fix? No. Pricing errors, even carried for ten years, can be corrected. We have the best surgeons in the world at TwoBrain. But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy, or painless. You'll still probably require some rehabilitation, and we'll be there for you when you do. But it's SO much simpler to remove the pebbles in your shoe instead of waiting for a hip replacement.In this episode, I share a half-dozen pebbles that I've removed at Catalyst over the years. Then I give you a few tips on taking action to identify and remove your own.

This week I again ask you the same question as last week: I have two affiliates in front of me, one with 40 clients and one with 400. Who has the better business? The answer is that you can’t possibly know because what matters is profit!At Two-Brain, we measure only a few metrics which include Profit, Average Revenue per Member (ARM), and Length of Engagement (LEG). This week we dive into LEG by talking with Anastasia Bennett about peak moments, bright spots, firing the wrong clients, and smashing cliques.

Last week I gave you a pop quiz. I asked: between two affiliate owners, one with 40 clients and one with 400 which was more successful? The truth is, you really can’t tell unless you have additional metrics such as length of engagement, average revenue per member (ARM), and profit. The average CrossFit gym is only going to maintain around 150 members at any one time. This means that each client must be paying enough to cover the fixed costs associated with your gym, pay the coaches, and allow the owner to make a profit. If a business does not generate a profit, it is not a successful business! In this episode, we talk to Josh Price about what it takes to increase ARM. Once you begin to create a meaningful career with your business, it is time to diversify your revenue streams and to create a less fragile business. These are the beginning steps to increasing your ARM.

Jay Williams is a senior mentor at TwoBrain. He owns two CrossFit gyms (one in California, one in the UK) and his mentoring style is different than mine.Jay is a problem-solver. He's direct and transparent. He's never rude or abrasive--I don't think I've heard him say the F-word more than three times in four years--but he gets right to the point. He's huge on accountability. He doesn't believe in wasting time.Every year at the TwoBrain Summit, I like to put Jay onstage as the last speaker. It's too easy to attend a seminar and get educated, or even motivated...but then go home and take no action at all. That is NOT what TwoBrain is all about. That's not what mentorship is all about.Mentorship means mapping a path, and then leading you down it step by step. TwoBrain has done that for over 500 entrepreneurs now (not including the kids on last week's show!) and we're now attracting entrepreneurs outside the gym industry: from body shops to bakeries.What kind of mentorship do you need right NOW?