Run a Profitable Gym

In this episode, I'm going to help you figure out where your gym currently sits; who your target audience should be; how to zip ahead of your local competition; and what to do TODAY to focus your attention and grow your CrossFit family.

Episode 111 – Garner TullisYour business exists to serve you. And you, in turn, serve those closest to you first: your spouse, your kids, and your family.But too often, your family is asked to sacrifice for the good of the business. At startup, this might be necessary--for awhile. But many gyms are still in making the sacrifices of startup after YEARS in business.Today on the show I have invited Garner Tullis, of Our Greater Good, to talk about maintaining healthy family relationships, maintaining your values under stress, and just having a happy life. The balance between work and family is important and something we all need to continually be reminded of. 

Listen at www.twobrainbusiness.com/podcast ASK CHRIS A QUESTION: www.twobrainbusiness.com/podcast

The 2018 TwoBrain Summit is June 2-3 in Niles, IL! Book your spot here!I've always believed that CrossFit gyms have a higher proportion of female ownership than almost any other small business. HQ doesn't have the data to support or refute that claim, but my empirical experience, when compared to industry data held elsewhere, says that more women own CrossFit gyms than any other type, and the success rate for female entrepreneurs in CrossFit is higher than almost any other option.Today on the show we are joined by Danielle Brown and Anastasia Bennett. Both are longtime CrossFit box owners and mentors at Two-Brain. They both bring a wealth of business and CrossFit experience to the table as we discuss a range of topics on the show today. Be ready to take good notes and as always feel free to reach out to either mentor with any questions you may have!

Episode 109 – Greg StrauchToday on the show we are joined by Greg Strauch of CrossFit Unkown Elements in Clovis, New Mexico. Greg joins us to talk about how he got his start with CrossFit after the Air Force, What it takes to build a successful gym, and his transition into becoming a mentor with Two-Brain. 

One of the most common questions I get from gym owner on our free call is, "How do I get more leads?"The "magical" nature of online ads distracts many away from easier, more natural opportunitiesThe Affinity Marketing plan is made of concentric rings. Each ring or “loop” represents a new audience for your service.The center ring ("Axial Clients") has very high affinity, because they're already buying your service and loving it. But it's the smallest possible audience.As we radiate out from center, audience size increases but Affinity decreases. You'll have to do more work to "warm up" a potential client to get them to purchase, and even more work to keep them.In this episode, I walk through some simple strategies we teach in the Incubator to leverage your relationships with your clients and future clients.

The CrossFit Open starts this week!It's one of the largest opportunities for marketing and sales in 2018 for CrossFit gyms. But it's also one of the periods of greatest overwork: you're possibly adding class times to the schedule, amping up the hype, dealing with competitive stress, ordering equipment (fingers crossed), hosting parties and getting your coaches realigned around the rules every week.And how do you program workouts around Castro's Big Reveals? Jason Brown of BoxProgramming.com is here today to give you some tips to keep your clients energized, excited and injury-free during The Open.We'll also talk about what happens AFTER the Open. Even as the first gym to do the Intramural Open, Catalyst sees a lot of burnout immediately after the CrossFit Open ends. It's the end of winter here, and cabin fever mixes with coach fatigue. Clients are tired of cycling the barbell and doing pullup variations, and they want to just.get.outside! Jason has some good insights into programming novelty and specialty programs after the Open too.Jason Brown will be speaking at our 2018 Summit. This year's Summit is already filling FAST, and we haven't even announced our Keynote yet!The Summit is two days with two separate tracks of presenters: one for coaches, and one for owners. Senior TwoBrain mentors are speaking on high-level topics this year, and we're bringing in some of the top coaches in the industry to speak to YOUR coaches.We do lectures, yes. We do group breakouts, role-playing and goal-setting sessions. Sponsors provide awards for TwoBrain gyms, and the TOP reason most people give for attending is the opportunity to mix with the top gyms in the industry.Want to talk more with Jason?www.BoxProgramming.comjason@boxprogramming.com

Strong community. Strong clients. Strong staff.Weak business?An anti fragile business is one that grows while others are failing. Antifragility doesn't simply mean avoidance of problems; it means using problems to diversify and grow.One of the first questions I ask gym owners when they book their free call is, "What are your revenue streams?" The vast majority still make most of their money selling group fitness classes: the service with the highest turnover, lowest ARM and least predictability. When clients take a month off in the summer, the business suffers. When clients overspend at Christmas, the business suffers.The opposite of fragility isn't strength; it's robustness. It's diversification. In this talk from the 2017 Two-Brain Summit, I start by introducing the opportunity and necessity of giving clients a choice of how they train.

What if the BEST action...is no action at all?

Dr. Brian Strump is the owner of Live Active Charlotte, CrossFit Steele Creek, and a few other companies.  An early adopter of the prescriptive model, Brian was one of the first to offer hybrid memberships in a CrossFit gym. His current top membership rate is $919 per month.Part of my mission on this podcast is to change the perspective of scope for other CrossFit affiliates: to show where the high bars and gold standards sit and demonstrate to listeners what's possible. Just like seeing an athlete deadlift 600 lb. and then run a sub-six-minute mile, we all need models of what's possible at the top end. If you set your rates based on what other local affiliates are doing, or what you think "the market will bear," you're probably guessing. I did it too. And it's probably killing you, like it almost did me.Obviously, you can't jump from a $150 membership to a $1,000 membership overnight—at least, not with the same service, and not with the same mindset. What makes a difference? A larger view of your business. And mentorship.