Run a Profitable Gym

If you're a gym owner, you've likely found yourself suddenly thrust into a whole new way of doing business with no time to prepare. Your clients need your help now more than ever, but you know next to nothing about how to effectively move your business online. Here's someone who does. Brad Overstreet has been a trainer for decades. When his gym was unexpectedly forced to close due t...

Noah Ohlsen has been one of the most consistent CrossFit athletes in the field since he made his Games debut in 2014. Across six Games appearances, he has finished inside the top eight five times, taking second last year. Here, he and Sean Woodland talk about the bold prediction he once made to Dave Castro, his memorable first career Games event win in Mary last year, and how he has changed as an...

Whether you like it or not, the landscape of the fitness industry has changed—and if you want your business to survive, it needs to change, too. But how do you do it? Will people really pay for online training? What should that look like? How do you get new clients during this time? Sales expert and certified Two-Brain mentor Jeff Burlingame is here with the answers to all that and more. You'...

Eddie Lester is a personal trainer of more than a decade and the founder of Fitness Mentors, a certification and business education program for online personal trainers. Eddie's been refining the online training process and teaching trainers how to deliver digital training since well before the coronavirus pandemic. Today, he joins Chris Cooper on Two-Brain Radio to share some tricks of the t...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This episode was recorded before the widespread coronavirus outbreak. Cassidy Lance-McWherter is a five-time individual CrossFit Games competitor. Her best finish was 8th in 2014, and she also won the Worldwide Open in 2018 before finishing 10th in her final appearance as an individual in Madison. But her story is about much more than CrossFit competition. Here, Cassidy speaks...

EDITOR'S NOTE: All coronavirus information accurate as of time of recording on March 20, 2020. Many gyms across the world have been forced to shut their doors in response to the coronavirus pandemic. However, gym owners still need to make ends meet. So what should they do about advertising during this crisis? Digital-marketing expert Mateo Lopez is here to tell you what to consider before pul...

NOTE: ALL DATA ACCURATE AS OF TIME OF RECORDING ON MARCH 20, 2020. Gyms across the world have been forced to close their doors during the coronavirus pandemic, and business owners are scared. The good news is that we're in communication with Two-Brain gyms from all around the world, and we're getting data and experience live from the trenches to help gyms survive. In this live town hall...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This episode was recorded before the widespread coronavirus outbreak. What if the thing standing between you and that next PR isn't your muscles, but rather your brain? According to chiropractic neurologist Dr. Jonathan Arkin, it just might be. Chiropractic neurology examines the relationship between the nervous system and functional movement. The goal of treatment is to r...

This is a stressful time for gym owners. The coronavirus pandemic is forcing gyms to close their doors, and owners are worried about the bottom line. Here's the good news: You sell results, not programming, and you can keep selling results by pivoting to online training. Here, certified Two-Brain mentor Jeff Burlingame joins Mike Warkentin of Two-Brain Media to discuss the how, what and why o...

NOTE: ALL CORONAVIRUS DATA ACCURATE AS OF TIME OF RECORDING ON MARCH 13, 2020. The spread of the coronavirus is affecting our industry faster than any of us anticipated. The good news is that we're in communication with Two-Brain gyms from all around the world, and we're getting data and experience live from the trenches to help gyms prepare for and make it through this situation. This i...

Everything can change in an instant in the sport of fitness. A slip of the hand, a single no-rep—the story is not as linear as in other sports. Mike Roth is one of the guys who make it seem seamless. Mike—or "Rothy," as his crew calls him—has worked in sports television since 1984 and was the director of the CrossFit Games from 2011 through 2018. Nobody has directed more broadcasts of Cr...

Fast—and regular—communication is key for marketing and retention. Emails, text messages and calls at important steps in the lead-nurture process keep clients from falling through the cracks. But that takes a lot of time and energy. Plus, you have to remember to do it. So why not have the robots do it for you? This episode of Two-Brain Radio is all about automations. You'll learn what they ar...

The growth mindset is all about seeing failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and it's the mindset that entrepreneur Rebecca Boskovic credits for her success. Rebecca is the owner and head coach of The Fittest Me, a fitness studio in Suwanee, Georgia. She started her business after 15 years as a stay-at-home mom, and her goal is to help other women—5 million of them, to be exact—love th...

In 2012, Chandler Smith set a goal: to compete in the 2022 CrossFit Games. He made it in 2019 instead—and took 15th in his rookie year. But Chandler is more than an up-and-coming CrossFit Games athlete. He's also a West Point graduate and a captain in the United States Army. Here, he speaks with Sean Woodland about what it was like growing up the son of an NFL player, the challenges of attend...

Billboards and TV ads are no longer relevant; today, marketing is all about digital media—and if you're not producing it, you're missing out. The good news is it's easier now than ever before to produce great content in house. All you need is a smartphone and a willingness to learn. Here, marketing expert Mateo Lopez and media expert Mike Warkentin share some simple steps you can ta...

When was the last time you went to a gym that wasn't your own? And when was the last time you went to a gym that wasn't the same style of gym as your own? Certified Two-Brain mentor Brooks DiFiore spent an entire month doing just that. During this Month of Sweat, he went to Orangetheory. He went to Solidcore. Row House. Barry's Bootcamp. Brooks only visited one other CrossFit gym, a...

Joe Corvo spent 11 seasons in the National Hockey League. During his career, he played for the Los Angeles Kings, Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, and Boston Bruins. When he retired, he turned his focus to CrossFit and made the Games in 2018 in the 40-44-year-old division, where he took 7th overall. In this episode, he talks with Sean Woodland about his years in the NHL a...

What's the best picture for that ad? And the best copy? Which performs better, images or video? Marketers are constantly looking for ways to figure out what works best, and the latest hot trend is A/B testing. But what exactly does A/B testing entail, and should you be doing it? Digital-marketing expert Mateo Lopez puts it in plain English and gives his two cents on whether it's worth yo...

Many gym owners are so excited about helping their clients get fit that they forget one crucial thing: They need to actually sell those clients on fitness. They've heard the stereotype of the slimy salesman and that's not who they want to be. Or even if they're not afraid to sell, they don't know how to do it effectively. In this episode, you'll hear from one of Chris Coop...

Pat Sherwood has worn just about every hat you can wear in the world of CrossFit. He has been a member of the seminar staff, an analyst on the Update Show and is now the media manager for CrossFit Health—plus, he runs his own online affiliate, CrossFit Linchpin. Here, Pat talks about his experience going through BUD/S to become a Navy SEAL, how he got involved in CrossFit, what it was like being o...

Don't feed the trolls! Or wait. Should you? What about the troll that says your program sucks? Should you swoop in and argue back? Probably not, says digital-marketing expert Mateo Lopez. But that doesn't mean you should never respond to comments, either. Here, Mateo shares when and how to respond to comments, some tricks for filtering out spam ahead of time and what to do when the troll...

If you're struggling to find clarity and direction in your business, the issue is probably not a lack of information. There are thousands of business books, blogs and podcasts with the next great idea. The real problem is paralysis by analysis: You don't know what to do with all that information. You need a map—and a guide. In this episode of Two-Brain Radio, Chris Cooper explains the ne...

You've seen him scream and punch the air like a smaller, less-green version of the Hulk. You've watched him pay the man, roar at the sky and kiss some babies. He's Josh Bridges: former Navy SEAL, six-time CrossFit Games athlete and one of the most popular characters in Games history. But behind the muscles and handlebar mustache is a big heart and even bigger work ethic. Here, he sp...

Selling functional fitness to the retired Marine or the ex-college athlete? Easy. Selling your program to the lifelong office worker who's never exercised and who clicked on your ad in a brief moment of inspiration? Not as easy. Cold leads are hard to convert, and that means you've got to be on your A-game if you want to close the sale. Here, sales expert and certified Two-Brain Mentor J...

You know exercise is just part of the equation: Your clients won't reach their goals without good nutrition, too. But you're a business owner and a coach, not a nutritionist. And there are so many definitions of good nutrition out there—keto, paleo, Zone, intermittent fasting, macros—so what should you tell your clients to follow? None of them, says Mike Doehla, founder of Stronger U Nut...