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Two wooden signs pointing opposite ways on a beach, one labeled "panic" and one labeled "calm."

The Panic Vaccine

It’s the 28th of the month. You don’t have enough for the rent. You just remembered your insurance is due. And this is a three-pay month … . Anxiety is your cardio now. You live in constant fear of “what’s going to happen next?” because you’re stuck in a meteor shower, and you know that any little hit could be your last. You’re overwhelmed, overworked, and just kinda over it. That’s panic. And data is the vaccine.   What Data Does   Data tells you, “Here’s how other gym owners got through this same situation.” Data tells you, “Next month will be better.” Data tells you, “Here’s how to stop this from ever happening again.” Data is the laser beam that blasts the falling rocks out of the sky before they get close to you. Data is clarity. Data is a look into the future. Data is absolutely critical to the success of your business. So why isn’t there any data in the fitness business? Because, until now, no one would collect it, analyze it and report on it.   Data and Duty   Big chain gyms collect tons of data about their customers’ spending habits. They know when they’re busy. They create budgets around peak seasons. They know when to boost their ad spend, when to hire and when a client is about to leave. But they don’t share. Franchisors collect data on their franchisees but don’t give that data back for analysis because it’s their intellectual property. Gathering data is very hard and very expensive, and they want to keep it in the mothership. And licensors, like CrossFit, don’t collect data at all because they charge too little to pay for that level of business support. When I visited CrossFit HQ last year, I asked the question over breakfast: “What if you tracked data for all of your gyms and just released it for anyone to analyze?” The ...
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In blue water, a goldfish wearing a shark mask comes face to face with a gray shark wearing a goldfish mask.

Impostor Syndrome

“Who am I to lead them?” As a business grows, it adds staff. Ironically, this can leave the Founder feeling even more isolated. By the time she reaches Tinker Phase, an entrepreneur can feel very alone even with a big team supporting her.Promoted beyond the point of her own expertise, the Tinker tries to wrap her head around larger challenges than she’s ever faced. Each decision takes on great importance because it affects a larger team. And she’s dealing with sums of money she’s never seen let alone controlled. It’s very common for a Tinker to feel as if she’s woken up in someone else’s job. “How did I get here?” she asks. “Why me? I’m no more qualified than they are.” That’s the impostor syndrome. (Not sure if you’re a Founder, Farmer, Tinker or Thief? Take the test here.) Beating Impostor Syndrome  Nearly every Tinker I’ve ever mentored has reported having impostor syndrome—even the alpha folks who own gyms.At some point, even the most self-confident owner has wondered, “How did this all fall into my hands?”Here’s how to beat it.  1. Realize You Don’t Have to Be Perfect You only have to be slightly ahead of those you lead—and not always on a technical level. Your job as Founder is to be well rounded. But good hiring means that you replace yourself with “pointy” people: those folks with a deep (but narrow) field of expertise. They’re specialists. You’re a generalist. If you know more than your tech-support team, they need more instruction. Your job isn’t to be the best shoemaker anymore. It’s to motivate and calm the team, tell them inspirational stories, and provide a vision for the future.  2. Fake It Till You Make It One of the benefits of joining higher-level mentoring groups is that you have to do the stuff they do. When everyone else in the room is a millionaire, you spend the weekend doing ...
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A colored flow chart showing how mentorship and planning create a trickle-down effect in a business.

Mentors and Consultants

Consultants solve problems in a vacuum. Mentors see the whole picture. I’ve hired consultants before. Whenever I have a small problem that exists in a vacuum, I’ll call in a consultant to help me with a quick fix. Consultants are good at coming up with ideas; some consultants do team exercises. Those are fun. But I call myself a mentor—and not a consultant—for a reason.   Saved by a Mentor   If you know my story, then you know that a mentor saved my business. A consultant wouldn’t have. See, I thought I needed marketing help. But Denis, my first mentor, knew that I actually needed to build the systems that would build the team that would sell my service before I even thought about marketing. That’s what a mentor does. A consultant would have said: “Spend your last $500 on newspaper ads.” And I’d have been out of business back in 2009 if I had. I’ve had three mentors since: Dan Martell, Marcy Swenson, and now Todd Herman. None of these people gave me silver bullets. But they all gave me clarity: Instead of piling new ideas on top of my overwhelm, they stripped everything away to find the one thing that would really move my business forward. And I’ve scaled 28 times since Two-Brain’s first year, largely due to the mentorship I receive. Consultants should cost up to $5,000, and your relationship with them will typically last a day or two. But I pay over $80,000 per year for mentorship, and our conversations last for years.   The Best Path   We are a mentorship practice for one reason: we care enough to give gym owners the best. And mentorship is the best: All the seminars, videos and masterminds are helpful, but only when built into a bigger plan. Our Incubator program is a 12-week sprint through the systems that will build and grow your business. Our Growth ...
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The black and gold Two-Brain Radio podcast logo.

Two-Brain Radio: Converting More Clients With John Franklin and Mateo Lopez

Greg: 00:00 – It’s Greg Strauch of Two-Brain Media and on this week’s episode we get to hear from John Franklin and Mateo Lopez. You guys have heard Mateo on here on Marketing Mondays, but this is talking about converting more clients. This was originally recorded at the Two-Brain Summit of 2019. They dive into topics of lifetime value of a client, true cost of getting a new client and the true secret to getting rich quick. Make sure to subscribe to Two-Brain Radio to hear the very best tips, ideas and topics to move you and your business closer to wealth. Two-Brain Radio is brought to you by Two-Brain Business. We make gyms profitable. We’re going to bring you the very best tips, tactics, interviews in the business world each week. To find out how we can help you create your Perfect Day, book a free call with a mentor at twobrainbusiness.com. Chris: 00:55 – One of my favorite finds has been foreverfierce.com. I linked up with Matt several months ago at Forever Fierce and he had some fantastic ideas, and so he and I have put together a couple of packages that we think are really going to help CrossFit affiliates everywhere. Two-Brain mentoring clients use Matt almost exclusively. He’s got fantastic designs and he takes all the work out of it. All that time that you spend searching the internet and Pinterest and junk like that for great CrossFit T-shirts? You don’t have to do that anymore. Matt has designs for you. You can put your logo on one of his templates, which are fantastic, and your clients will never know the difference. It saves you so much time that you could be using on other things like real marketing. He’ll also go so far as to remind you when it’s time to reorder. He’ll give you suggested order sizes, he’ll help you set up pre-orders so ...
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An illuminated dashboard panel of a vehicle with the Two-Brain Business logo at the center of the speedometer.

Can You Afford It? (Here’s How to Know for Sure)

Entrepreneurs can’t avoid risk, but they must mitigate it. When you leave your job to open a business, you take a big risk. Maybe you do some research, or maybe you just go with your gut. Every decision you make after that first one compounds your risk.When you make decisions without data or perspective, your business becomes shakier and shakier. And without a solid foundation, you won’t survive many bad guesses.  Removing the Guesswork Mentors provide perspective. Mentors provide experience. And with the new Two-Brain Dashboard, you can actually test out your decisions before you make them! You don’t have to guess anymore. For example, if you’re getting new clients but still feel overworked, you might decide it’s time to hire a general manager. But this is your first salaried hire—can you afford it? Will you exceed your salary cap? Here’s the exercise that will help you mitigate the risk: If you’re in the Two-Brain Family, open your Two-Brain Dashboard.First, add the cost of the new staff person into a future month. In this example, I added $2,000 to September 2019’s Staff Pay because the only change will be a new hire for $2,000. Next, add the revenues created by the new role. Be conservative, but remember this: Every staff person should create at least 2.5 times the revenue required to pay him or her. This rule even applies to the cleaner, because you’ll be working on sales and marketing while the cleaner mops.In this example, the new staff person will launch a Two-Brain Kids program, with expected revenues conservatively estimated at $600 per month. Add your other expenses as if they’ll be the same because we’re only measuring one variable (the new hire): Obviously, our Operating Profit is down by $1,400, and our Staff Percentage is out of whack, which brings our Profit Percentage down. But this sample company is still in the black, so it should take the next step: ...
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Two-Brain Radio: Steph Chung

Sean: 00:01 – Hi everybody and welcome to another edition of Two-Brain Radio with Sean Woodland. On today’s episode I speak with former CrossFit Games athlete and current coach at Invictus Fenway Steph Chung. First: Are you a stressed business owner who’s working too much and still struggling to make a profit? Do you want to grow your venture and reach the next level? Two-Brain business is here to help with a free 60-minute call. It’s not a sales pitch; it’s just an opportunity for you to get real, actionable advice from an expert who’s built a successful business. For one-on-one guidance on how to take your business to the next level, book your Free Help call today at twobrainbusiness.com. Steph Chung made her CrossFit Games debut in 2018 when she finished 35th overall. She’s also a three-time Meridian Regional athlete, and Steph has a pretty remarkable CrossFit journey that has taken her to the Middle East and now back home to Boston. We talk about her outstanding achievements attending Cornell University, how she taught pre-medical biology in Qatar and what the CrossFit community is like in the Middle East. Thanks for listening everyone. Steph, how you doing? Thank you so much for being here today. Steph: 01:16 – I’m so good. Thank you for having me. Sean: 01:18 – The first question I have for you before we get into anything is how is your dog doing? Steph: 01:23 – Oh, that’s a great question to open with. She is wonderful. I actually don’t know where she—she’s usually right by my side, but I think she’s sleeping somewhere. She’s doing really well. Sean: 01:30 – What kind of dog is she? Steph: 01:30 – She’s an Australian shepherd. Sean: 01:33 – How long have you had her? Steph: 01:34 – We got her in March, in the end of March. Yeah, so she is almost a year. Her birthday ...
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