Gym Business Coach Podcast

Most coaches aren’t lazy. They’re not unmotivated. They’re just being managed like they’re business owners… And that’s where things start to break. In this episode, Randy and Zach discuss a mistake they see all the time: gym owners assigning responsibilities, pay structures, and incentives based on their mindset, not their team’s. When you expect a coach to care about sales metrics, revenue growth...

Many gym owners add new services with the best intentions. A couple of clients ask for something different… there’s a gap in the schedule… maybe a new trend looks like it could boost revenue… So they say yes – add a class here, a specialty program there… But over time, the business starts looking like the Cheesecake Factory: a little of everything, not great at any one thing. In this episode, Rand...

In this episode, Tim and Randy sit down with world-renowned coach and speaker Todd Durkin. He’s the founder of Fitness Quest 10 and the guy behind athletes like Drew Brees and LaDainian Tomlinson. While his professional track record is well known, the personal cost behind it isn’t. Most people don’t know he was nearly taken out of the game. This time, Todd talks about the last few years of his lif...

“You thought your customers were lazy on the gym floor. They’re even lazier with their brains.” That’s how Donald Miller explained the hidden reason most gym marketing doesn’t work: it makes people think too hard. Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. He’s the author of several books, including bestsellers Building a StoryBrand , Marketing Made Simple , and How to Grow Y...

Most gym owners open a second location and hit a wall. Devin Gage is building to 100. In just over two years, he’s grown from one gym in Pennsylvania to eight – all corporately owned, all self-funded, and all running on a lean, scalable model. Small footprint, low overhead, high-touch service, and centralized systems for everything else. Each location is under 2,000 square feet, costs about $75K t...

Some gym owners just keep pulling away – month after month, year after year – while others stall out, stuck at the same level no matter how hard they push. It’s not because they’ve got better software or some secret funnel. And it’s definitely not luck. It’s who they’re around. This is the final episode in the 7 Habits of Winning Gyms series – and this one’s the big domino. The habit that makes th...

Most gyms don’t realize they’re making business decisions in the dark. They’ll cut the agency.  Hire a new closer.  Pause the ads.  Raise prices.  Then lower prices.  Change offers…  All based on instinct – or worse, frustration – without knowing whether the actual problem is upstream, downstream, or even real. But there’s one voice in your business that doesn’t panic or sugarcoat anything. Number...

Have you noticed that most gyms look alike? The offers are recycled – “first week free” deals and other copy-and-paste promos. The ads all sound the same. The classes run at the same time. From the outside, it looks fine. But under the surface, that copycat approach is the reason so many owners end up just blending into the crowd: there’s no real edge. The truth is, a lot of the industry isn’t mov...

Some gyms run full speed just to stay in place.  Revenue jumps, then drops. Cash flows in, then disappears. And it’s not because anything looks broken on the surface. They’re selling packages, running challenges, hitting their numbers...  However, the model resets every 30 days – so they’re always one deal away from falling behind. But what if the gym didn’t have to reset?  What if revenue were pr...

Your campaign is good. And ads are working. And the leads are flowing.  And that’s exactly when most gym owners make the call that stalls their growth for the next six months.  They tell the agency to turn it off. Not because it’s broken. But because it’s working too well .  Because the systems downstream can’t keep up… Because onboarding’s a mess...  Because service delivery’s maxed out… So the t...

“We’re saving money on rent…” It’s something a lot of gym owners are proud to say. And it’s also one of the most expensive mistakes they make without realizing it. Because what looks smart on paper often creates a problem you can’t outspend your way out of. When the gym’s buried behind a warehouse, tucked in the back of a complex, or missing entirely from search results… that’s not just a location...

Most gyms don’t fail because the owners don’t care. In fact, they care too much. They pour time, money, and energy into anything they think might help them grow. But that’s where things start to break down. Instead of focusing on the one thing that drives revenue and builds reputation, they spread themselves thin chasing too many services and too many ideas. The business gets messy, hard to manage...

Too busy to run ads.  Too broke to hire help.  Too tired to fix the stuff that’s clearly not working. Most gym owners need to get honest about the resources they do have. It’s always one or the other: time or money. Paid ads aren’t optional. Organic posts reach no one. And waiting on referrals is not a growth plan. The tools, the tutorials, and the tech are all there. If money’s tight, the only op...

Most gym owners don’t realize how dangerous “average” really is. It’s predictable and it looks safe. Manageable. But average is actually a trap – and it’s holding more gyms hostage than failure ever will. Because once you land in the middle, you stop questioning it. The $25k months feel “normal.” The long hours feel “part of the job.” The slow grind becomes the expectation, and that ceiling harden...

It doesn’t hit at first. Not in year one. Not even in year five... But eventually, every gym owner has that moment.  When the day-to-day feels a little heavier than it used to... When the hours you’re pouring in don’t quite match what you’re getting out...  When the thing you built for freedom starts to look a lot more like a cage... And that’s when the questions start. In this episode, Tim and Ra...

Meta used to be the go-to for gym leads. Not anymore. Yes, leads are still coming in. But they’re not showing up. Or they don’t answer calls. Or ghost SMSs. Or… if you’re running Facebook ads now and you were running them 10 years ago, this probably sounds way too familiar. The platform got more expensive and less reliable. The bots took over, and the follow-up pipelines got clogged with dead weig...

Revenue swings of $20K, $30K from one month to the next – some gym owners think that’s just how it goes. One good month, then a drop. Then a spike. Then another dip. But that rollercoaster takes a toll. Big upfront deals might look good in the moment – $5K here, $7K there – but they don’t fix the core problem. The cash is coming in, sure, but it’s coming in the wrong way. That kind of model isn’t...

“How do I get more leads?” Gym owners keep asking this question, but it’s actually the wrong one. Leads aren’t the issue – and they never were. They’re coming in. What’s broken is what happens after that. This episode gets into the weeds of what actually moves people through the door and keeps them from bouncing. And it’s not just about marketing tactics – it’s about tightening up the entire chain...

The idea of finding someone to take tasks off the plate sounds great. But without knowing what to delegate, the whole strategy falls apart. Most gym owners hear “Who Not How” and immediately think about hiring help or outsourcing. But that advice skips a step. The What comes first. Without a clear vision of the outcome, finding the right person doesn’t move the needle – it just adds confusion. In...

Charging less doesn’t make a gym owner noble. It makes them broke. There’s a weird pride that’s still hanging around the fitness industry – this belief that keeping prices low and barely scraping by somehow means someone is doing it for the “right reasons.” That making money and helping people can’t live in the same business. This is the same pattern Tim and Randy keep seeing – trainers turned own...

Your gut says fire them – but your fear says, “Then who’s going to coach tomorrow?” It’s one of the toughest spots to be in as a gym owner. You know someone on your team isn’t right, but you keep making excuses – telling yourself it’ll get better, that you can’t afford the gap, or that starting over will take too long. This episode offers a way out. Randy and Zach walk through a mindset shift and...

You’ve got clients in sessions, your calendar’s packed, and on paper, things look solid. But behind the scenes, the team’s stretched thin, margins are tight, and the business still leans on you to hold it all together. The harder you push in one area, the more something else gives out. Most of the time, it’s not a marketing problem. It’s not a staffing problem. It’s the model. And when your model...

No gym owner expands or opens a second location thinking it’ll hurt the business. But for a lot of them, that’s exactly what happens. The logic sounds solid – more space means more clients, more sessions, more revenue. But when the rent goes up, the overhead stacks, and the extra square footage sits half-used, the math starts looking very different. In this episode, Tim and Randy share what happen...

A regrand opening is a huge opportunity to reset the brand, refresh the space, and inject new energy into the business. But when it’s not executed right, it becomes one of the most expensive marketing campaigns that never pays off. There’s a pattern here. Same mistakes, same outcomes. Owners burn cash, delay timelines, miss sales windows, and set themselves up with offers that create problems down...

Someone just paid $500 for a free T-shirt. Well… kind of. A gym client had the choice: take the free month, or take the points that would bump her name on the leaderboard. She chose the points. Actually, she chose status. That moment says everything about how people make decisions.  Clients don’t just want results – they want recognition. They want to feel like they belong, like they’re winning, l...