The Small Group Gym Pod

JC Vacassin returns to the podcast to share some of the biggest lessons he's learning from running and evolving Foundry. We talk about why Foundry is deliberately simplifying its product and messaging, why SGPT should be the vehicle rather than the thing you sell, and the question JC thinks every gym owner should ask themselves: if you opened your gym again tomorrow, what would you build? JC also...

What actually makes a gym a good business? It isn't necessarily the one with the most members or the biggest monthly turnover. In this episode, I'm joined again by Gareth from Coach Accounts to talk about the numbers gym owners should actually be paying attention to. We get into profit margins, how much you should be spending on ads, when hiring another member of staff makes financial sense, and w...

Jan Westrik went from running a 200-member CrossFit gym to building a premium small-group personal training facility — losing around two-thirds of his existing members during the transition. In this episode, we talk about why a busy gym isn't necessarily a successful business, making difficult decisions that upset members, charging enough to build a great team, and why Jan believes gym owners need...

James Pratt has built one of the most unusual small-group PT models I've come across. His 7,200 sq ft headquarters has around 950 members, can coach 30 people an hour and still gives every member individualised programming. We get into the systems that make it possible, why Pratt Personal Training only offers ONE service, how they generate around 50 referrals a month, why their free trials convert...

Nick Winkleman's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar Details (4 spots left) Most gyms barely use email. And the ones that do often send stuff nobody particularly wants to read. In this episode, copywriter and marketer Mike Samuels explains how gym owners can use better stories, stronger messaging and simple emails to build relationships and ultimately bring in more members. We get into: Why your message m...

Nick Winkleman's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar Details (8 spots left) Tom Buckle thinks about his gym a little differently from most gym owners. Within a year of opening TBH, he'd fired himself from coaching. Now, he tries to fire himself from another role every three months. The result is a 183-member group training gym that can run without him - and Tom has just secured funding to open another thr...

Nick's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar Details Nick Winkelman is one of the world's leading experts on coaching communication and the author of The Language of Coaching . In this episode, we explore his work through a very specific lens: How can group training gym owners help their coaches become better at the actual craft of coaching? We talk about why coaching quality isn't separate from retention a...

Most gym owners think getting from 100 members to 200 is about finding a better marketing strategy. Sean McKirdy disagrees. In this episode, Sean breaks down the lessons he's learned from growing Elevate 98 in Edinburgh from a one-man PT business into a 220-member small group personal training gym with seven staff. We discuss why every gym seems to hit "sticky points" at certain membership numbers...

How does a gym survive, and thrive, for more than 25 years? Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California, has been one of the most respected gyms in the world since 2000. In this episode, I sit down with Alwyn Cosgrove to unpack what has allowed Results to keep growing while so many gyms have come and gone. We discuss the three pillars every successful gym needs, the KPIs every owner should know,...

This week I'm joined by Krista Scott-Dixon, one of the most respected coaching educators in the world and author of Applied Nutrition and Coaching: Counselling . Rather than talking about programming or nutrition, we explore something that's arguably far more important: the coaching relationship. We discuss what PTs & in-person coaches can learn from counselling, why remembering the little thi...

This week I'm joined once again by Lisa Jarratt from Downham Ladies Fitness, just weeks after opening the doors to her brand-new facility. We discuss why she decided to move gyms, how she generated 70 new trial members before the doors even opened, the systems she's put in place to protect the coaching experience as the business grows, and why she's chosen retention over squeezing every last penny...

This week I'm joined once again by George Branford from Intent 91 to discuss what's working inside one of the UK's fastest-growing gym businesses. We dive into the marketing strategies bringing in members today, how George uses AI and sales-call transcripts to create better content, the retention systems keeping clients for nearly two years on average, and the hiring process that's helped build a...

In this episode, Stuart sits down with Michael Keeler from Business for Unicorns to discuss what separates thriving gyms from struggling ones in 2026. The conversation centres around a simple idea: successful gyms aren't usually doing magical things... they're doing the basics consistently. Michael explains that the best-performing gyms have: Reliable lead generation systems instead of hoping refe...

In this episode, Stuart interviews Emma Storey-Gordon (@esgfitness & @afmentors) about personal finance, investing, pensions, and financial freedom for PTs and gym owners. Emma's core message is simple: Financial freedom isn't about getting rich quickly. It's about creating security, options, and peace of mind through consistent, boring financial habits. She explains why coaches should stop ig...

In this short episode, Stuart details some key things that help turn a new client into a long-term member of your gym. Stuart's email: stuart@theptroadmap.com Stuart's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuart__aitken/

This week on the Small Group Gym Podcast, I sit down with Greg Mikolap from ICON to unpack nearly a decade of gym ownership, the realities of scaling small group personal training, and why the model he originally built nearly broke the business. Greg shares: Why he moved from a 4:1 model to sessions as large as 16:1 The financial mistakes that cost him almost £300,000 What he learned from visiting...

In this episode, Fionn MacCullagh shares how Tailormade Coaching scaled to 8 locations and more than 850 clients by simplifying its offer, raising prices, systemising referrals and obsessing over retention. You’ll learn: Why Tailormade sells one simple membership instead of multiple packages How the “Committed Club” improves attendance and reduces churn The pricing mistake that cost years of profi...

In this episode, Stuart sits down with Mike Bouranis, owner of Stoked Athletics in Long Island, to unpack how he grew to around 200 members by becoming “Three Mile Famous.” Mike shares why he moved away from paid ads, how he builds powerful local business partnerships, and how events with run clubs, coffee shops, doctors and youth sports teams have helped Stoked generate leads, referrals and long-...

In this short episode, Stuart shares some lessons he's picked up since being a customer of an SGPT gym.

In this roundtable-style conversation, Stuart speaks to three gym owners (Stuart MacDonald from True Fitness, Chris Travis from Seattle Strength & Performance and Tim Reid from ETC) who have successfully built youth coaching programs inside their facilities—ranging from sports performance models in the US to general fitness programs in the UK. They break down: How they actually got started Wha...

What should gym owners actually know about VAT, expenses, business structure, and becoming more tax-efficient? In this episode, Stuart sits down with Gareth from Coach Accounts to break down the money side of running a gym in plain English. They cover why many gym owners should think seriously about operating as a limited company, the VAT mistakes that can cost you thousands, what counts as a genu...

I visited Foundry in London and took part in a small-group session. Here are some of the things I learned!

In this episode, I sit down with James and Callan from Scope Health and Fitness in Bathgate — a small-group personal training gym based in Bathgate, Scotland that has grown to more than 200 active members while building a seriously strong reputation for coaching, care, and community. We get into how they split roles across the business, how they’ve built a team they can trust, why they track far m...

Dan Moore didn’t build his gyms the way most people expect. In fact, at one point, he had 250 members… with no booking system at all. In this episode, Dan breaks down how he grew DM Elite to 3 locations and 500+ members—and what he’d do differently if he started again. We get into: Why scaling creates problems you can’t outwork The real reason most onboarding processes fail Why session ratios matt...

What does it really take to grow from one successful training studio to four locations... with more on the way? In this episode, Stuart sits down with John Farkas, owner of Blue Ocean Fitness and multiple Alloy Personal Training franchises, to talk about the real work behind scaling a gym business. John shares why he stepped away from coaching clients himself, how his role has changed from trainer...