Run a Profitable Gym

Some gyms are struggling to break even on their HYROX affiliation. Others are generating 15X or even 89X return on their affiliation fees. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” John Franklin sits down with Lisa Palmer, a Two-Brain mentor and HYROX affiliate in London. The U.K. is one of the most mature HYROX markets in the world, roughly three years ahead of North America. Lisa walks through...

HYROX is everywhere right now, and your gym doesn’t necessarily have to become an affiliate to cash in on the trend. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain Business CEO John Franklin breaks down the “mini sim,” a scaled-down HYROX-style competition any gym can run without paying affiliation fees or buying new equipment. John walks through the exact blueprint: cutting the running volu...

Summer hits gym owners hard. Revenue drops, leads dry up and members cancel. In this episode, Chris Cooper shares five strategies gym owners can use to generate revenue during the slow summer months. Coop knows the pain firsthand. In 2009, he was juggling two locations and the summer slump almost put him out of business. He swore he’d never let that happen again. Now, after working with over 3,000...

Braeden Cordts bought a struggling gym with $300,000 in debt, no marketing knowledge and everyone telling him it wouldn’t work. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin sits down with Braeden, who was just certified as a net-worth millionaire. They talk about Braeden’s five-year journey from a 28-member gym losing money to a 230-member gym generating over $55,000 every month. B...

Learn how to build all four marketing funnels with our Never-Ending Leads training for gym owners, linked below.    Nearly 15% of gym owners don’t contact their leads at all. The interest is there. The hands are raised. But nobody sends the message. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper explains why your DMs might be the most underused sales channel your gym has...

This episode contains several visual examples. For the best experience, head to our YouTube channel "Run a Profitable Gym." Get a comprehensive, AI-powered audit of your gym’s Instagram at GymIG.com . Joe Strada just won Two-Brain Business Gym of the Year. Here’s exactly how he built one of the best content strategies in the gym industry. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Br...

Before you spend another dollar on ads, listen to this episode. Chris Cooper is getting more leads from free Facebook posts than almost any other marketing channel. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Coop shares how he writes Facebook posts that start real conversations, bring back lapsed members and attract new clients. The core idea is simple: Start capturing what’s already happening in your gym....

This episode contains several visual examples. For the best experience, head to our YouTube channel "Run a Profitable Gym." Is your gym’s Instagram converting members? Audit it with our custom AI tool: https://GymIG.com/ If you stripped your gym’s name and logo from your website and social media, would anyone know what makes you different? For most gym owners, the honest answer is no. In...

Big news: CrossFit is not for sale. Bruce Edwards, the new CEO made that a condition of taking the job. At the 2026 Two-Brain Summit in Chicago, Chris Cooper sat down live on stage with Bruce for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of CrossFit. Bruce isn’t a newcomer to CrossFit. He was an original client of Greg Glassman in the late 1990s, one of the early guinea pigs who helped shape th...

This episode contains several visual examples. For the best experience, head to our YouTube channel "Run a Profitable Gym." Get a free audit of your gym’s Instagram with our custom GPT tool: GymIG.com If you’re a gym owner who wants to post more content but doesn’t know where to start, this episode is for you. Many gym owners have the misconception that they simply need to post more. But...

HYROX just crossed 4,500 affiliates in North America. A year ago, that number was under 1,500. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin sits down with Eric O'Neil, Head of Affiliates for HYROX (Americas), to talk about what’s driving that growth, what the best training clubs are doing differently and what’s coming next for gym owners who want to capitalize on the...

This episode contains several visual examples. For the best experience, head to our YouTube channel "Run a Profitable Gym." Is your gym’s Instagram actually getting you members? Or just likes? In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin reveals the five Instagram mistakes gym owners make that silently kill their lead flow. Then he shows you exactly how to fix t...

Struggling with paid ads for your gym? Here's what's actually working in 2026. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin sits down with Colm O'Reilly, Two-Brain's paid ads specialist, for a tactical breakdown of everything gym owners need to know about Facebook and Instagram ads right now. In this episode, Colm covers the real numbers behind paid gym ads: wha...

Paid ads have changed. Here’s what gym owners need to know to make them work in 2026. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper close out Marketing May with the paid ads funnel. You build this funnel last because it’s the one that amplifies everything else. John explains why the old ads playbook is dead—Meta’s Andromeda update changed how ads a...

No time to make content for your gym? Not anymore. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper walks you through the exact system he uses to turn one idea into a full week of content in 30 minutes with AI. Chris demos the entire workflow live, starting with a brain dump audio recording answering a question that came up naturally in his gym. Then he uploads the audio a...

Chris Cooper has been publishing content since 1998. It got him fired from one job—but it also built all of his businesses. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper give gym owners a step-by-step content system that builds trust, brings in leads and keeps working long after you hit publish. Chris shares his personal content creation process: h...

The average gym gets 28.9% of its leads from social media. Most gym owners leave them on the table by posting the wrong things—or worse, nothing at all. Today, Two-Brain CEO John Franklin walks through a simple social media system gym owners can use to get more prospects onto their page and convert them into paying members. He gives you side-by-side comparisons of real gyms’ pages, showing you wha...

Tune in to get the exact plan for what to post on social media to grow your gym. Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper walk through the social media system that turns lurkers into paying members. They lay out the big three content types every gym owner should be posting: - Conversion content that moves prospects closer to buying. - Connection content...

Does your gym really need more clients? What if you just kept current members longer? In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," host Mike Warkentin sits down with Two-Brain mentor Brian Foley, whose gym Activate has over 360 clients and 27-month average length of engagement. Brian walks through the full retention system that makes his client count possible, starting with marketing to th...

Your best clients already know your next best clients. Here’s how to find them. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper kick off Marketing May with the most underused growth tool in the fitness business: referrals. Referrals are free, they get results faster than any ad campaign, and most gym owners are leaving them on the table every single...

Bruce Edwards just became CEO of CrossFit. Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper thinks it’s the right call, and he has a very personal reason for saying so: Bruce fired him. Personally. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin sits down with Chris for an unfiltered reaction to the April 28, 2026, appointment, following Don Faul’s resignation in March. In 2018, when Bruce tr...

How do the best gyms in the world scale to 300, 400 or even 450 clients without burning out or sacrificing quality? In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper presents the leaderboard for client headcount in coaching gyms and reveals what separates these businesses from the ones stuck at 100-150 clients. The Top 10 gyms in Two-Brain have cracked the code: strong syst...

Gym owner Lauren DiSessa’s weekly HYROX class has generated $6,000 in revenue in just two months, and she’s not even charging members extra for it. How’d she do it? Two-Brain CEO John Franklin gets the full scoop from Lauren today on “Run a Profitable Gym.” Lauren walks through her V1 mistakes—treating HYROX as an afterthought with no real launch strategy—and explains what she did differently the...

Are you sleeping on HYROX? That's a mistake. In this episode, Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper discuss the hottest thing in fitness right now: HYROX. John, fresh off a race in Miami Beach, had nothing but praise for the event, and Chris Cooper suggests the races give your members a reason to keep training and way to find success and smiles outside the gym. The best part? H...

Most gyms treat old members as if they’re gone forever—but Xtra Mile Fitness brought back 36 departed clients in one year. In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Corey Lewis (owner of Xtra Mile Fitness) reveals how he reactivated 36 alumni—comprising nearly 40% of his “new” members—last year. Corey’s philosophy: The client journey doesn’t end when someone leaves your gym. To help you reacquire...