Blog

Last night, the TwoBrain family reached a new milestone. Tate Stewart and Jeff Burlingame graduated from our Mentor Training Program! For years, I’ve been watching our little corner of the fitness industry and its evolution. I recorded my thoughts in three books, tracked every scrap of data I could find, and built the plan that we now call The Incubator. After watching the successes (and, sadly, failures) of thousands of gyms, I know that mentorship is the only path to success. You can read books, ask questions in Facebook Groups, watch videos, even take online courses…but without external guidance, you won’t take action. Neither will I: my mentors change as my businesses evolve, but their collective presence remains constant. In fact, I’ve tried to do this every other way: I’ve sold books, seminars and online programs. NONE will work without an excellent mentor to say, “Do this one thing today. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Obviously, I take this very seriously. One of the first blog posts I wrote when I founded Two-Brain Business was Consultants vs Mentors. I was already asking myself, “What qualifies anyone to become a mentor?” and “How can I make a mentor even MORE effective?” These questions come from the rising crop of consultants in the CrossFit world…and also from the constant “Impostor Syndrome” that many founders experience. I took those questions to Jay Williams, who has also had many mentors over his lifetime, and we started framing in the first stages of training. I invited two members of the TwoBrain Family to form our first class: Jeff Burlingame and Tate Stewart. Six months later, they’re more ready than any mentor has ever been. (The requirements for our training process are outlined here.) It’s been a very challenging six months for each of them. But today, they stand before us as the best mentors ever trained in the fitness industry. They’re certainly far more prepared than I was when I ...

(originally published on DontBuyAds.com, Oct. 28 2010.) Cash Flow Trumps Revenue The worst 30 minutes I’ve ever experienced in this industry wasn’t in a gym. It was on a comfortable couch in a shareholder’s office. I was there to ask for money. Three years in. Beyond the original investment – only $16,000 – I’d never asked for money from these guys.  My goal, only a few months before, had been to buy their shares back, and take 100% control of the company where I was spending 80 hours every week. And here I was, hat in hand, asking for a cash contribution to make payroll. Even worse, the share structure meant a leveraged short-term loan: for every $250 contributed by the shareholders, I’d have to come up with $750 myself.  All I could pry from my partners was $500, because I didn’t have the cash to match their piece of the pie. “How are sales?” they asked, sympathetic.  “Strong,” I said, “but we have huge accounts receivable.” To the tune of around $12,000, I didn’t add. In fact, if even one or two of the larger accounts paid their bill, I wouldn’t have had a problem at all. “Have you been paid this week?” one asked. “No.” I quickly replied. They knew they were unlikely to make their commission that month, too. An hour later, after discussing a few ideas that I didn’t want to pursue – calling clients to demand payment, offering a discount for immediate payment, adding an interest charge to accounts, selling the debt for 20% of its actual value – they gave me $500 between them, and I left, broke and doubting my future in business. A week later, I was sitting at a buddy’s kitchen table. Nick owns an auto body. He’s fifty-five, had two heart attacks, and put two daughters through school. I was bemoaning my credit problems. “Yeah, I know a guy who had ...