Mike Warkentin (00:00):
What can mentorship do for you as a gym owner? You’re going to find out today. This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” I’m your host, Mike Warkentin. As always, please subscribe so you don’t miss any interviews just like this. Now, Stephanie Fowler—she runs EMPOWERHOUSE Gym in Edmond, Oklahoma. She’s a recent graduate of Two-Brain’s RampUp program, and she did some amazing things, so we’re going to get right to it, so you can see what she’s done, so you can do the same stuff. Stephanie, welcome to the show.
Stephanie Fowler (00:22):
Thanks Mike. I’m glad to be here.
Mike Warkentin (00:24):
I am super fired up because your mentor, Taryn, said that you did great things, and now we’re going to talk about all of it. So, I want to know some of the great things that you did in RampUp. I know you have some numbers of some pretty cool client acquisition stuff. Tell me what you did and why are you here.
Stephanie Fowler (00:37):
Well, first of all, I do want to give a lot of credit to Taryn. She’s been amazing to work with. We really jive; we both love dogs, and that’s really what sold me in taking her as my mentor. Over the last 12 weeks, I’ve gained more members than I’ve had in the last four years—new members essentially—17 new members. I’ve been in business for eight years, but in the last 12 weeks, I have just kind of created this onboarding program. That was something I never did before. It was always just a free drop in and then join, which I thought was this low barrier to entry, but I’m finding that it was a huge barrier to entry. We’ve got an onboarding program, and then with that, I’ve also hired a client success manager, so I’ve got a CSM who is helping me on the backend and really doing a lot of things and taking things off of my plate, which has been just a great help.
Mike Warkentin (01:21):
That’s amazing. And you told me before the show when we were chatting—and let me know if I’ve got this right—as a result of the stuff you did in the last 12 weeks in RampUp, you were able to pay yourself a good salary for the first time in three years. Is that right?
Stephanie Fowler (01:32):
Yes. So post-pandemic, things were really hard as it was for most gyms, and I had ended up having to go back to work while simultaneously running the gym, which I do not recommend. It’s been very challenging. But for the first time in three years, I was able to comfortably pay myself a salary, and that hasn’t happened in a long time.
Mike Warkentin (01:49):
Wow. Okay. So that’s a lot of stuff—major accomplishments in 12 weeks. I want to know how you did it, but before we get to that, tell me just the short history of your business. How long have you been around? What do you do—what kind of training? What’s your other job? Give us the 411.
Stephanie Fowler (02:02):
Yeah, so eight years ago I was just a high school teacher and a coach, and I was a random bootcamp instructor, and I saw this barrier for people entering gyms and the gym space. And so, I created an event called Bootcamp to Brunch where we meet together in a park, I offer free workouts, and we all drink bubbly and have brunch together afterwards. And in doing that, the bootcamp instructor fired me. It was kind of a conflict of interest, and I had no idea that it was even a conflict, but when that happened, I had about 20 people come to me and say, “You have to have your own space.” I have no prior business ownership. I was a high school teacher, high school softball coach, and within two weeks I had an LLC. I had no idea what I was doing. But we started out more of that bootcamp style eight years ago on August 1st, 2015, and then slowly educating myself more in the strength world. We started incorporating strength training. I have two kettlebell certifications under my belt, and so we do a lot of kettlebell work, but I would just kind of classify us as a group strength training gym that does functional fitness.
Mike Warkentin (03:01):
Hey, we have similar histories. I started a bootcamp, same thing—it was a decade or more ago—and then it ended up into a gym, and all of sudden I owned a gym with a big space and a lease, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. So, our paths aren’t that different. Instead of Bootcamp to Brunch, mine was just called Bootcamp. You had a much more clever plan.
Stephanie Fowler (03:22):
I love that.
Mike Warkentin (03:23):
How much space have you got right now?
Stephanie Fowler (03:25):
I’m in my fourth space, so in the eight years, we are currently in our fourth location. It is my favorite, by far, location. But we’re in 1,600 square feet. We started in 3,000 square feet. And so, through some moves, and some forced moves, and some things of just “you don’t know what you don’t know,” and leases, and forced places to be. Our most recent location was really the most problematic because I had a lot of overhead, and the space was entirely too big. But in my mind, I thought I needed that. This past spring, I was able to get out of a lease just by the grace of good thoughts and trying to look for a way out and not shutting down. And so, I found this space; it’s half of what we were in, and we’re making it work.
Stephanie Fowler (04:07):
I’ve got class sizes capped at 15, and we have a more intimate setting, and it has become my favorite location. I really got to start from the ground up, and decorating, and kind of making it how I wanted. And then once you’ve done something for eight years, you kind of know how you want things if you can kind of recreate. So, I was able to do that, and that was this last May, so we’re in a newer location since May, which allowed me the freedom to invest into Two-Brain. Three years ago, I had a call with Two-Brain, and I was drowning, but I couldn’t see the way out to invest because I was drowning so badly. And so, getting into this position of “I know I need this, but I don’t how to do it.” Once I got myself in a position to move and bring my overhead down, I jumped into Two-Brain as soon as I moved.
Mike Warkentin (04:52):
Okay. It’s interesting because Chris has talked about this. Sometimes we talk to people, and they’ll say, “I’ll get a mentor when I get to a better spot.” And the joke is always, “Well, we can get you to that spot.” But you did a cool thing where you figured some stuff out on your own—got yourself into a place where then you were ready to make that commitment—then jumped in. So, I guess the question for me is: Why at that point did you make the decision to work with a mentor? What triggered that—to actually do it?
Stephanie Fowler (05:16):
One, I would say the call this time around felt different. Sometimes you jive differently with people. So, I think my introductory call this time did feel different, but also, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think we can still struggle; we can still be in hard places, but see the light, and three years ago I couldn’t. I was in a place where I was—I mean, I’m still working a lot right now—but I was just in a place that I couldn’t see a way out. And to get myself into possibly more credit card debt with the business and do all of those things—I didn’t have the capacity, I don’t think mentally or physically and financially, to do any of that and invest in the business and invest in that mentorship.
Mike Warkentin (05:56):
That makes sense. And it happens when it’s the right time for everyone. So, are you working full-time in the business? Well, I imagine you’re putting in full-time hours. Is this your sole focus, or do you have other stuff going on right now as well?
Stephanie Fowler (06:06):
I have other things as well. So after the pandemic—the pandemic was just really hard on so many gyms across the world essentially—I went back to teaching back in the public education system, which was its own weird thing during the pandemic. But I was doing that, and that became way too much. And so, I actually have a friend from the fitness industry who works for an entrepreneurial hybrid business, and I ended up accepting a position within this last summer, which does allow me some flexibility as far as my day. I’ve got an office set up at the gym, and so I’m there training; I’m also working. I will say it is challenging. I wish I had more time to pour into the gym. So, although Two-Brain has really provided me these steps to really start making things better, I’m not at the place yet to fully jump off of a salary that’s paying benefits and insurance and all of those comfortable things that sometimes gym owners don’t get the benefit of.
Mike Warkentin (06:59):
Well, you know, Chris has written about that where he’s talked about doing it that way, like hedging your bets a bit. Getting something that supports you and is stable. Getting something else set up. And then he actually wrote about—and we’ll put this link in the show notes—a transition to make that leap to full-time entrepreneurship less challenging. I think you’ve got it; if you’ve read that series, you’ve got it figured out, so that works out okay. I want to know about RampUp, and I want to know about your experience. So you start this thing up, and you’ve got some light at the end of the tunnel, but you’re probably still working too much, and you’re still struggling with stuff. What happens? How did you start making progress, and how did you make these changes so quickly over just 12 weeks?
Stephanie Fowler (07:34):
RampUp is exactly as it sounds. You are ramping up, and you’re going fast. And I’m not going to beat around the bush. It was very overwhelming. I felt at some times that I wasn’t making progress, but I actually was. But I was making all this progress, and I think, we as gym owners, sometimes we’re just extremely hard on ourselves. Even having the success that I’ve had, I’m still thinking, “Oh, it’s not good enough. I’m still not there yet. I’m still not there.” But it was just this intense 12 weeks of taking action. And that’s really what I like about Taryn is she does not coddle, and she doesn’t enable; she shoots it to you straight, and that’s exactly what I need. I want to be like, “Tell me what to do, or tell me how to do this, and I’m going to go and take action.” And so, it was just creating a free intro. I mean, before I actually officially met with Taryn, I created the free intro, and I got my very first No Sweat Intro before we had our first official call. It was just a matter of understanding Two-Brain and what they were telling you and kind of perusing through the Facebook group. And that was mid-July, and then we had our first call, and it’s just been action-oriented ever since.
Mike Warkentin (08:39):
So the Facebook group you’re talking about is Gym Owners United?
Stephanie Fowler (08:41):
Once I was accepted into Two-Brain, so the Two-Brain RampUp group.
Mike Warkentin (08:44):
Okay, so we have a private group, but we also have a public one, the Gym Owners United, and if you want to join that, go to gymownersunited.com. Chris Cooper puts all kinds of stuff in there, and you can literally take steps daily to fix and improve your business just with the free stuff. Mentorship, as Stephanie said, provides the action, the accountability, the guidance, and the targeted tactical stuff that helps you move even faster. Have you read “The Gap and The Gain” by any chance?
Stephanie Fowler (09:06):
I have not. I’ve not read it.
Mike Warkentin (09:07):
It’s an interesting concept that Chris has written about as well. You just kind of mentioned where you feel overwhelmed, and you look at this giant pile and say, “I should be here,” instead of looking back and saying, “Here’s where I actually was, and here’s where I got to.” So, you’re looking at how far you’ve come rather than how far you have to go, and it’s an interesting concept. And gym owners, if that happens to you, check out that book because I think we’re all victims of it. So, you got an intro in place, and you got a client. Were you able to go on the first mentorship call and say, “Hey, I got a client already.”
Stephanie Fowler (09:32):
I can’t quite remember how that all worked out. I may have at least said that I put the free intro up. She was giving me some first steps, and I was like, “Well, I’ve already done that. It might not be what it’s supposed to be, but I just decided to take a button and put it on the website.” But within that first even four weeks, I had my first call with Taryn, I signed up with Kilo and changed my website, I set up gym lead software, and then, most recently, I’m also transitioning over to their fully installed pack of gym software management. So, I just dove in with, “I’m going to do it. I’m all in. I’m all in.”
Mike Warkentin (10:08):
Now, and you saw results; you said over the 12 weeks of RampUp you got, I think it was 17 to 20 clients, correct?
Stephanie Fowler (10:13):
Yeah, 17. I just was looking at opportunities. Yeah. 17 people that have either done upsells—well actually 17 No Sweat Intros that have converted, so 17 that have converted. And then in addition to that, I’ve also taken current members who I had personal training—I used to always say that group training was my favorite; that’s what I told myself. But I have actually taken some of my current group training clients, and we’re doing personal training, and they’re doing packages and spending upwards of $600 a month that I, in my mind, would’ve never envisioned that they would do. It was almost the previous part of me—or the previous version of me—felt bad taking money. And I also created that story for myself, which is nuts. I started out the gym charging way too little, and I’ve had these incremental price increases, and I actually did a price increase before Two-Brain.
Stephanie Fowler (11:04):
I did my price increase when I got into the next space. And so, I kind of worked through that on my own, but it’s always one of the hardest things to do. But I’ve now told myself, “I run a business, and I’m good at what I do, and I’m a good coach. I deserve to make income here, and I deserve to make money, and this gym deserves to ask for it for providing that great service.” So, I’ve really shifted my mindset around that, and Taryn’s definitely helped with that.
Mike Warkentin (11:27):
So again, we’re not dissimilar. I did the exact same thing and felt bad taking money from people not realizing the value. Why not realize the value, right? And all of a sudden, my gym was in major trouble, and we needed to have a rate increase, and we worked through that with a Two-Brain mentor, and it went just fine. And it actually put the gym in a spot where it wasn’t going to fail, and then these people get to still get to train and get healthier and get the value of coaching. But I was the exact same as you. Do you know your ARM—average revenue per member per month? How has that changed?
Stephanie Fowler (11:55):
I don’t have it off the top of my head, but it has changed.
Mike Warkentin (11:57):
Yeah. If you’re on $600 packages, and you were charging too little before, it’s changed a lot, I imagine.
Stephanie Fowler (12:01):
Yeah, yeah. It’s gone up a slight bit. I mean my numbers are nowhere where we started. I mean, I’ve been anywhere from 120 members to—I started with Two-Brain right around the 58 mark. Just pandemic, maybe speaking loudly about civil justice things that were polarizing. There’s just been a lot there, and I’ve learned a lot in the last three years in so many ways. But I’m in that 60 range for members, and we’ve grown close to 80. And so, that’s substantial when you think about smaller numbers.
Mike Warkentin (12:35):
Huge, especially at a higher ARM.
Stephanie Fowler (12:37):
Yeah, so it’s definitely worked out in ways that—it almost feels like voodoo in a way, and I know that sounds crazy. I can’t believe I didn’t have an onboarding process before. And the people want to come in; they want to talk to you about their goals. You ask these simple questions, and these questions are so powerful. I’m a connector, and I think that I know my members very well, especially the ones—I mean, I’ve had people with me this entire time. I’ve had a group of people, I would say 15, that have been with me from the beginning. But the questions that you ask in these No Sweat Intros just instantly get them to be vulnerable. And so, I’ve connected in these No Sweat Intros in ways that may have taken me six months or eight months down the road in the previous way that I was doing things and getting people to become members. So, it’s pretty magical to kind of share that from the beginning and then hit the ground running with training.
Mike Warkentin (13:26):
Listeners, the short version: The No Sweat Intro is a free consultation that takes about 50 minutes or less where you ask a series of questions, and you prescribe a solution to their problems. And that is part of the prescriptive model. Chris Cooper’s written about that a ton. And it’s just that. You meet with someone, you ask them some questions, you find out what you need to know about them, and then you prescribe a solution to their problems. And the sales process is very easy because they kind of go, “Yeah, I need that.” And away you go. When you started adding these members—so you start RampUp, you’re in this process and all this—you said it kind of felt like voodoo. You’re starting to add members fast. Did that just kind of blow your mind that it’s working already?
Stephanie Fowler (14:03):
Yeah, every—we had this—we actually still do it. I have my girlfriend—every time I convert a No Sweat Intro, I text her, and I’m like, “Again!” But it is surprising, and I still am honored when I sit in front of someone and ask for this price point that I would’ve never asked for two years ago. And so, it still surprises me, still surprises me.
Mike Warkentin (14:26):
It feels good when you get that, right?
Stephanie Fowler (14:27):
Yeah, and I thought that doing an onboarding program was more work. What I didn’t realize is it’s less work because we’re getting these people in for these sessions, and I’m training them on how they need to operate in our gym so that when they do jump in, my coaches aren’t having to spend extra time with them. We’re not having to spend extra time with them. There’s not this lack of knowledge. They learn it after this onboarding program, and then they’re ready to jump in and excel with the group.
Mike Warkentin (14:54):
Yeah, onboarding programs become a lot of work when your retention sucks, right? If you’re honest about it because you’re like, “I’m constantly onboarding people, and they’re bleeding out the back, so I’m constantly onboarding people.” You know, just that vicious cycle, and then you’re marketing all the time spending money on that. It’s horrible. So, the longer you can retain people, and it sounds like your retention is pretty good because you’re obviously a great coach and have kept people for years. If you can get those people in the door, onboard them, and get them happy, away you go. Have you started with goal review sessions, or is that something that’s on your list?
Stephanie Fowler (15:20):
It is on the list. My client success manager sets them up, so after they finish their onboarding, we go ahead after they—basically, it’s after they do their first group class. So, they’ve graduated from our foundations, they jump in a group, and then we set that up for three months later. And so, we have our first one coming up. My very first—I’ll never forget my first onboarding; it’s just kind of the special one, like, “Oh, this is the first person that ever did this.” But hers, it will be at the end of October or beginning of November, so that’ll be our first one.
Mike Warkentin (15:46):
Okay, and goal review sessions, listeners, have been proven with Two-Brain data to increase average revenue per member and length of engagement because you’re talking to people, and you’re solving, “Hey, are there any problems I need to look at? Perfect, we’ll solve that. Are you having success? Okay, we’ll tweak this, so you are having success. Oh, you are having success? That’s great. Let’s celebrate that and set some new goals.” Right? This is a retention thing, but it also often raises average revenue per member because these people purchase additional services. I’d love to add some personal training to get this skill faster—stuff like that. I want to ask you about your client success manager. You mentioned that CSM, client or customer success manager—that’s a hire for you. What is that person doing, and what do you want to see from that position?
Stephanie Fowler (16:26):
So, in Two-Brain, kind of in the very beginning, I talked about it as being the joy girl or the joy person. And so, I had this member, her name was Addie, and she’s been with us through three pregnancies—strength training the whole time, just a light and energy as she walks into the room; she’s always so kind. And as I was learning more about the CSM position, she just instantly came to mind. And so, she stays at home with her kids, and so I was looking for something that was flexible. You know, this isn’t a job that requires a ton of time, but I reached out to her about it, and she was very interested. And so, she’s helping me on the backend with our gym lead software, and she reaches out to new leads. She reaches out once people have graduated from our onboarding, and she sets up those client goal reviews, and she’s just doing a lot. She’s also doing our “Bright Spot” Fridays. So, we have “Bright Spots” on Fridays, and we’ve done all of these things throughout the eight years. You can’t survive for eight years without having done some of these things. But now we have the process, and we’re organized about it, and we are more methodical. And so, Addie’s kind of behind that and the methods and making sure that we touch everybody a lot.
Mike Warkentin (17:33):
So, client success manager is a new hire; it’s a new position for you. Was that nerve-racking? Making that—hiring someone or adding something on when you just got the business to a place where you felt like you saw some light at the end of the tunnel?
Stephanie Fowler (17:44):
Not really. The client success manager position doesn’t work a lot of hours. They’re just really working in pivotal hours and doing pivotal things and taking things off of my plate. They’re—I’m working on bigger things, and so some of these action items are just the simpler things that are taking up too much space in my brain. And so, Addie’s really in charge of that, and Addie loves it. Addie loves connecting. She’s kind; she wants people to succeed, and that’s in her DNA. So, for me, this just felt like a natural progression. I was just happy to hand it off. I am a visionary when it comes to owning the business, and so I’m happy to let go of the vine and let people that do things better than me or more efficiently do it; take it so that I can be better at other things.
Mike Warkentin (18:28):
That’s a great skill to have. Did you do the value ladder exercise with Taryn?
Stephanie Fowler (18:32):
I don’t believe so.
Mike Warkentin (18:32):
Okay. That’s the one—and you might’ve done it by a different name or just done it without labeling it—that’s the one where you look at all the stuff you do, and you say, “What is taking up a ton of my time that I can offload for cheap and find—use that time to make more money?” Right.
Stephanie Fowler (18:46):
We did. Yeah, we definitely did that. We broke that down.
Mike Warkentin (18:48):
Yeah. So, the name that Chris has referred to is the value ladder. Listeners, you look at your whole list of stuff, and you’re like, “I spend this much time cleaning my gym every week.” It’s usually that one that goes first. You could hire a cleaner for $60 a week, you take those four hours that you would’ve spent scrubbing toilets, you make more than $60 by selling gym memberships, and your business grows. That principle can be applied all the way up to the CEO position, Stephanie, which is what you are talking about. I want to know what’s next. So, you’ve got RampUp, you had these incredible results, you started paying yourself a good salary, you had tons of clients coming in—fantastic results—and that’s just the first 12-week sprint—the quick wins that we want to get. What are you guys targeting now that you’ve graduated into the growth program?
Stephanie Fowler (19:24):
Well, Taryn tells me we’re trying to get to 100K, which is wild to me. And I know—I still know that I have more work to do. I’m still refining processes and still making things better. And I think that’s the point. We’re never done. It’s just keeping, refining, and putting things, and making changes as needed. But that’s what Taryn tells me, so that’s what we’re doing, which is mind blowing to me a little bit to think about being in that range and allowing myself to think that I can make 100K.
Mike Warkentin (19:55):
You doubled your revenue in RampUp, right? So, if you keep going, 100K probably—I mean, it sounds like it’s probably not that far. It’s probably not something that seems as far away as it once did. How about that?
Stephanie Fowler (20:07):
No, and Mike, I had months where I brought in substantial income, but I wasn’t using it correctly, and I didn’t know what I was doing with the business. It was just I was taking all the money, and whatever was left, that was my salary. I just didn’t have processes in place. And I’m starting to see numbers where I’ve taken in—gross profit—10,000, 11,000 a month. And for my small amount of people, that’s crazy to me. When, you know, five months ago, my overhead was eating into that big time, and so I just see lots of potential. So next—I love this extra position that I have; it allows me some freedom. But in the beginning, I really worked with Taryn to kind of refine it like, “Hey, maybe I could do both.” And she was like, “Do you really want to do both? Do you want to?” And so, I’m playing with those ideas of “Where do I want to spend my time?” And I know that’s with the gym, so I can spend more time doing that, and feeding that, and hiring more coaches, and having a general manager. I see those things as next steps down the road.
Mike Warkentin (21:05):
What’s the one tactical thing that you’re doing right now? What is your next step? You talk about—to me, 100K is long term; that’s the big goal or something you’re working toward. What are the things, now that you’ve just made the transition into the “growth” stage, what is the next thing on your list? What did Taryn give you to do?
Stephanie Fowler (21:20):
Well, the very next thing that I’m doing right now is I’m going to stop cleaning the gym myself. And I’m going to go—I’ve gone in phases where I’ve had someone clean, but to cut back on costs when I moved, I started cleaning the gym again. So, the very next thing I’m doing is I’m about to find someone to come and clean the gym for me. I’m tired of doing that. And then, I’m just digging deeper into the growth kit. I’m getting deeper into, you know, the Nutrition Challenge. Do we have our SOPs written for the—I want everything perfect when it comes to that. I want to just solidify all those processes and really just refine those as we—now I feel like there’s more breathing room and growth. I still know it’s moving fast, but I’ve been able to breathe and kind of see back—sit back—with some perspective and then see what I can go back and kind of refine after sprinting uphill for a while.
Mike Warkentin (22:07):
Yeah, listeners, that RampUp here—12-week sprint—you’re going to push hard. You’re going to work hard; you’re going to get major results. I believe the stat is 93% of our clients see an ROI on their investment—return on their investment—in 12 weeks. 93%—that’s a huge number.
Stephanie Fowler (22:24):
Can I jump in, Mike? I want to say that I still did not have the funds to pay for Two-Brain when I started. I was putting it on a credit card, and they knew. I was like, “I’m going to put this on a business credit card.” So, in addition to paying myself the salary, I pay for Two-Brain out of my gym account every month without having to put it on a credit card. And in addition to the salary, that’s huge to me that I was just taking a risk and putting on credit and hoping I could make those things paid. And now my gym pays for that, and that’s not something I have to stress about.
Mike Warkentin (22:50):
Is that ever cool? So that—so you’re seeing a return on your investment, obviously?
Stephanie Fowler (22:54):
Oh yeah. For sure; big time.
Mike Warkentin (22:56):
That’s—so that’s—listeners, there’s proof of the stat that I just kicked out. In “growth” stage—we talked about—she just mentioned the growth toolkit. What that is, is a giant pile of stuff about tactics and strategies that can be used to fix your business. You don’t just pick them all. Your mentor helps you pick the one that’s going to make the greatest difference right now for your unique business. And it could be anything from Nutrition Challenge, like Stephanie just mentioned. We’ve got plug and play resources for that where you just download them, tweak them a little bit, implement them as you see fit. Or it could be something else like targeting retention. What am I going to do to make retention? Or marketing—I need to get some clients. I’m going to run a “Bring a Friend” event. All this stuff is in there, and it’s all available—plug and play.
Mike Warkentin (23:34):
Your mentor tells you where it is, so that’s something to look for in the “growth” stage. And then the one that you mentioned—Taryn is always hinting at this—is once you get to $100,000 in net owner benefit, that is what we call the Tinker stage. And that’s where you start thinking about: What else can I do with my business? Do I want to open a second location? Do I want to open another location? Do I want to just offload this and sit back and go on vacation myself for a bit? All these options are available to you. And Taryn had hinted that maybe you’d be someone who would be on that track. Does that sound accurate?
Stephanie Fowler (24:00):
She is saying a lot of these things. We talk about them in our call. But I love that she has that faith in me, and I like that she sees that I’m taking action and sees the potential.
Mike Warkentin (24:11):
Do you think that’s the most important thing: taking action? Because a lot of people—like literally, you could look at Two-Brain resources for free, and you could fix your gym, but if you don’t take action, it’s not going to work. And so, a mentor helps you take action. Is that a key thing for you?
Stephanie Fowler (24:25):
Oh yeah. Accountability. I mean, our clients hire us because they want accountability. It’s the same thing. So, I always say action, but get to action. It’s just—sometimes it’s hard, and I get analysis paralysis. I think I’m an overthinker, and if it’s not perfect, then I don’t want to do it just yet until it’s perfect. And so, just taking action, jumping in, and then seeing that things will work, and you just have to take that first step.
Mike Warkentin (24:48):
Last thing I’m going to ask you before I let you go back to growing your gym is this: Someone is in the position that you were in just a little while ago. They’re like, “Man, I don’t see light at the end of the tunnel. I am struggling right now.” What do you tell them? What do they do?
Stephanie Fowler (25:00):
Jump in. I would not have envisioned that I would have grown by 17 members in 12 weeks. There’s no way I would’ve believed that. And it felt hard in the beginning, but creating the processes and having the handholding, and the mentorship, and the calls, and the accountability has just been life changing. Because six months ago, I thought I was going to be shutting my gym down, so it was either I jump in and invest or I just close the doors, and that’s not what I wanted.
Mike Warkentin (25:29):
And it’s not what your clients would’ve wanted.
Stephanie Fowler (25:30):
Yeah, yeah. And so, it’s really been life changing for me.
Mike Warkentin (25:35):
Oh, well that’s so great to hear, and you sound like someone we probably need to have back in about six months to see where—how far up there you are.
Stephanie Fowler (25:41):
I would love that. I would love that.
Mike Warkentin (25:44):
Alright. Thank you so much for your time, Stephanie. This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” That was Stephanie Fowler of Empower Fitness—oh, I’m sorry; I’ve got that wrong. EMPOWERHOUSE Gym. I love that name. I’ve got to ask you before we go: Where’d you come up with that name? It’s brilliant.
Stephanie Fowler (25:56):
I was a high school coach, and you talk about good programs or powerhouses, and so I’ve always wanted to make sure people feel empowered—so EMPOWERHOUSE. I just put it all together.
Mike Warkentin (26:06):
That is a brilliant name. As with the Bootcamp and Brunch. I like that one too. I think you should probably trademark that one. Anyways, as I said: Stephanie Fowler. This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” I’m your host, Mike Warkentin, and on your way out, please hit “Subscribe” wherever you’re watching or listening. I don’t want you to miss any stories like this and all the tips from the top gym owners in the world. They are here every month, along with Chris Cooper, our founder, who comes on here four times a month at least and gives you advice. And now here’s your Two-Brain founder, Chris Cooper, with a final word.
Chris Cooper (26:33):
Hey, it’s Two-Brain founder, Chris Cooper, with a quick note. We created the Gym Owners United Facebook Group to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners just like you have already joined the group. We share sound advice about the business of fitness every day. I answer questions, I run free webinars, and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym. I’d love to have you in that group. It’s Gym Owners United on Facebook or go to gymownersunited.com to join. Do it today.
