Run a Profitable Gym

In this episode, you'll learn all about the four main personality types you'll see in your gym: 1. Fact-based extroverts 2. Fact-based introverts 3. Relationship-based extroverts 4. Relationship-based introverts Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper and mentor/gym owner Brian Bott discuss the defining characteristics of each personality type so you understand what members of each group need and...

Should you buy another business or replicate your existing business when expanding your gym empire? The answer is "it depends." Both paths can be successful. But they have unique pros and cons that will influence different kinds of entrepreneurs. To give you a roadmap to expansion, Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper sits down with Swedish gym owners Per Mattsson and partners Karl Solberg and...

How can you become a millionaire gym owner and build a lasting legacy? The key is using a four-stage approach to create an airtight business: systemize, optimize, grow and scale. If your business is a chaotic mess, your first step is systemizing everything so each client gets excellent service every single time. With basic systems in place, you can then audit and refine them so they're perfec...

How did Nate Muller's gym earn spots on three of our Top 10 leaderboards for sales in May 2023? Today, Nate shares his secrets for getting more leads, booking more free consultations, getting people to show for those meetings and closing sales. The best part: Green Lake Strength and Conditioning isn't using complex sales systems and gimmicks. Nate's got simple, clear systems in plac...

Want real sales stats from the world's top microgyms? Chris Cooper has them, and he'll give you three leaderboards in this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym." You'll hear the exact set, show and close rates for our Top 10 gyms in May 2023. Even better, Coop will tell you what these owners did to get these numbers, and he'll give you tips to help you improve your own st...

Can you use a gym business to become a millionaire? Yes! In fact, you can do it in three different ways. In this episode, Chris Cooper lays them out for you and answers all the common questions that pop up. Here are the paths: 1. Build and scale the gym business you have. 2. Reinvest your profit. 3. Leverage your audience and start another business. Coop will provide the pros and cons of each stra...

Gym owners make the best millionaires. Here's why: They dedicate their lives to helping others get fit and healthy. And when they achieve financial success, they use it to dramatically improve their communities. Yet so many hardworking gym owners can't see a feature that includes wealth—or they question why they should aspire to be wealthy at all. Isn't it more noble to serve and sa...

Events create "sticky stories" for your clients, and they can generate revenue and improve retention. But you'll burn a lot of hours planning and running an event, and many gym owners have discovered they're actually losing money if they factor in all the time. Worse, events can also lead to burnout for you and your staff. The solution: Partner with other event organizers. A pa...

If you're stressing over your group classes, stress no more. Chris Cooper is going to tell you how to ensure your sessions are generating revenue and retaining clients. He'll tell you exactly how many people should be in your classes to maximize length of engagement, and he'll give you the steps to calculating the value of each class. With that data in hand, you'll be able to s...

Two-Brain Business is capping mentorship clients at 1,000. Why? Founder & CEO Chris Cooper explains. Coop also has a member cap at his gym, Catalyst Fitness in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, so he's seen how it works for clients and businesses. In this episode, Chris explains how a client cap will help current and future Two-Brain clients, and he'll give you some tips on how a client cap...

It pays to be a winner—literally. In this episode, Chris Cooper explains what will happen to your gym business if you're the best in town. This isn't about warm fuzzies and "we're the best" marketing taglines that don't mean anything. Coop's all about the measurable effects of recognition as "the best steakhouse in the city." If you work hard to earn th...

Tommy Alfinito's gym is crushing it: Hygge Fitness earned a spot on our Top 10 leaderboard for revenue in April—and it's not spending any money on ads. Even better, Tommy only works about four hours a month at the gym. With a stable business under him, he can dedicate time to his next adventure: Wildfether Distilling in New Jersey. In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Tom...

How much revenue do the best gyms in the world generate each month—and how do they do it? Chris Cooper has the answers, and all will be revealed as he runs through the Top 10 leaderboard for gym revenue in April 2023. Every gym on the leaderboard earned more than US$53,000 in April, and the No. 1 score will blow your mind. But Coop's got more than just numbers. He actually asked the owners of...

Two-Brain mentorship is an investment with enormous ROI for gym owners. Here, Chris Cooper walks you through the complete process, from high-grade free help to upper-level mentorship for experienced entrepreneurs who are building legacies. If you're not ready for mentorship yet, join our Gym Owners United group for mountains of free resources that will help you grow your gym. When you're...

If you've got questions about Two-Brain mentorship, Chris Cooper's got answers. In this episode, Coop runs through the most common questions about business coaching for gym owners. What can you expect in terms of ROI? How do we match you up with a mentor? Can you change mentors? How fast can you turn a gym around? Can a mentor help even if things are going well right now? (Yes!) Does Two...

Semi-private training is a game changer for coaches and gym owners. The concept: One skilled trainer can deliver personalized programming to two to four clients during the same hour. They aren't doing versions of the same workout. They're doing workouts tailored to their exact goals. Semi-private training is a win for clients who might want more attention than they'd get in group cl...

The real key to long-term business success: keeping clients for years. Retention is even more important in the fitness business. You can’t save lives if clients quit after a few months. Long-term adoption of exercise and nutrition strategies requires at least two years of consistent attendance. Sadly, the industry average for retention is under eight months, even in coaching businesses. Then consi...

Can you launch a nutrition-coaching program that will generate about 10 percent of gross revenue at your gym in just six weeks? Yes—and we'll provide you with an exact plan to do it. Cynthia Fotti is a Two-Brain Business mentor and gym owner who has built a very successful nutrition-coaching program, and now she teaches other gym owners to do the same thing. In about 20 minutes, Cynthia lays...

The 2023 Two-Brain Summit is an investment for entrepreneurs. The annual event is designed to connect top gym owners and coaches with world-class speakers, expert business mentors and forward-thinking peers so they can grow their businesses fast. In this episode, Chris Cooper lays out the agenda at the summit and explains how attendees can use the knowledge they acquire to generate huge ROI. It&ap...

Dixie Burns made it onto the Two-Brain Top 10 Leaderboard for March 2023 with her stellar client count. So how did the owner of a 24/7 access gym do it? And how does she keep her clients when so many similar gyms regularly bleed members? In this episode of "Run a Profitable Gym," Dixie and host Mike Warkentin talk about the importance of client check-ins and strong connections—even in an...

Gyms with huge client counts—how do they do it? Many gym owners reach a certain number of clients—often 150—and then growth stalls. But other gyms go on to hit 300, 400 or even 700-plus clients. In this episode, Chris Cooper reveals the client counts of the Top 10 Two-Brain gyms in March 2023, then he explains exactly what the owners did to reach these levels. Some of the secrets: goal review sess...

Jason Khalipa has learned a lot of hard lessons in gyms. Getting his start in a traditional facility, Jason went on to become one of the most famous CrossFit affiliate owners after winning the 2008 CrossFit Games. In this interview with Chris Cooper, Khalipa describes how his fitness business evolved into NCFIT—a company with bricks-and-mortar locations, digital streams and corporate fitness progr...

Joe De Sena is the founder and CEO of Spartan and Death Race, as well as the author of books including "Spartan Up!" and "10 Rules for Resilience." An entrepreneur with a rich history, Joe created brands and events that give runners and fitness athletes a chance to experience exciting challenges.  In this interview, Joe and host Chris Cooper discuss Spartan's link to the g...

Gyms just don't generate enough revenue from nutrition coaching. Despite the fact that nutrition services naturally link up with fitness coaching, most gyms aren't seeing much movement at the bottom line. The stats: About 74 percent of gyms offer some sort of nutrition coaching, but these services only contribute about 4 percent to gross revenue, on average. That number is far too low, a...

In the gym business, a client's first 90 days are critical. Do a great job onboarding a new client and you'll likely have an opportunity to change a person's life over a period of years. Do a poor job and your new member might be gone in weeks or months, likely never to return to a gym. To help more people and build a great business, you must have a precise plan to set new clients u...