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My first book about the gym industry, Two-Brain Business, is now over six years old.  It just sold its 20,000th copy (thanks!) and its sequel, the more tactical Two-Brian Business 2.0, now finds its way to more than 10 gym owners every day. When I wrote the original, I included a list of 30 ideas for additional revenue streams. I had tested more than half myself, and seen the rest used successfully in different gyms. There were no wild guesses on that list. But the list was WAY too long–on purpose. When I wrote the book, gyms were increasingly narrowing their offerings to one: group classes. It was an obvious (and potentially fatal) mistake, and no one else was saying “this doesn’t work.” So I said the opposite: that diverse revenue streams not only increased revenue, but kept people around longer. It worked by giving people what they wanted instead of trying to cram the public through one little keyhole. Picture our service offerings on a spectrum. On the left side of the spectrum are the gyms selling group classes only. On the right side of the spectrum are gyms selling CrossFit, personal training, nutrition, HIIT, Zumba, spin, and 15 other things in 200 different combinations. In 2012, the left side was so heavy that it threatened to upset the whole table. So I took the opposite stance to pull people back to center. The “list of 30 ideas” did NOT mean “You should run 30 programs in your gym at one time.” It did mean, “You need novelty and diversity, and you should let your clients determine what you sell them.” Now that the majority of gym owners sell more than one service, it’s time to bring the balance back to center again. In the Founder Phase of gym ownership, you need to be really, really good at selling your core services. Your core service is fitness. Fitness is ...

by Oskar Johed Like everyone else that attended the TwoBrain Summit in Chicago a few weeks ago, my business partner Kalle’s and my mind were racing when we got home. The actionable ideas ready for implementation could definitely double any gym’s net profit. The participants’ wealth of wisdom, or knowledge by experience, was unprecedented.  But before implementing anything, we decided to pause, reflect and more importantly discuss with our mentor. “All great ideas are equal but some are more equal than others…” We now know where to start. However, the main thing I took away from the weekend was meeting all the caring, giving and passionate- with- a-purpose members of the TwoBrain family. The posts and discussions in our private Facebook group are pure gold, but conversations in real life tends to get more vivid and colorful.  One of the topics I have continued discussing online with a few “family members” relates to the brilliant presentation that John and Mateo gave. (Talk about caring, giving and passionate with a purpose!) They run TwoBrain Marketing, and in their presentation they showed two slides with the offerings of two burger restaurants. One had EVERYTHING on it while the other had about a handful of items, including sides and drinks. The latter is far more successful by most conventional standards.  John and Mateo offer personal training, nutrition and group CrossFit at their gyms. For marketing they pretty much run one continuous, successful offer. Their point is to “learn to crawl before you walk”. Master the basics first and do it really well. Master Affinity marketing before Facebook marketing.  Master FB marketing to women before FB marketing to everyone. Master FB marketing (of CrossFit) to everyone before FB marketing your other services. Being at Brian Alexander’s magnificent facility with his plethora of specialty programs, some saw their presentation as being in conflict with TwoBrain’s “The Stratified Model” and “The Prescriptive Model” or even building ...