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Are You Listening!

November 19, 2016 Gym Operations
by Ken Andrukow, TwoBrain Mentor I am an introvert by nature. I prefer solitude and quiet. Those who have spent time around me know that I am not particularly talkative. I’d much rather listen. Large groups overwhelm me, and being the centre of attention is way outside my comfort zone. The idea of standing in front of a group of people used to be enough to make me physically ill. All of this seems as though it runs contrary to what it takes to be a good coach, speaker, business leader or mentor. What I have discovered throughout years of serving others is that people like being listened to. It makes them feel important. So I take it upon myself to try and make sure that each person I interact with is left feeling important and heard. It is simple to do, but not always easy to execute. Making someone feel important cannot be accomplished by a cursory “What’s up” as you stroll by, or a distracted high five. I have to make the effort to get someone to get to the point where they say more than “fine” when I ask them how they are. For a long time I thought I was a boring person. I remember telling someone this once, and their reply was “Well do you want to learn how to be perceived as interesting?” I was so excited to learn this epic secret to becoming a fascinating person, that when the lesson came I was slightly disappointed: Ask questions. That was it. If you want to be perceived as being a more interesting person, ask others questions about themselves. To be an engaging coach, I take the time and make the effort to get to know people. Let them talk about themselves and dig deeper. It’s easy to say that we don’t have time. We have an hour to get things done, there is no ...
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The Only Constant in Life is Change

November 18, 2016 Personal Development
By Brian Alexander owner of CrossFit Illumine and TwoBrain Mentor It is our ability to adapt that defines us, and exposes our true character. Truly successful people are confident that they could be thrown into any situation and end up right side up every time. It is that confidence that radiates through certain individuals. Those are the resilient.  They are never victims because they believe they have the power to take control and adapt. Life doesn’t simply just happen to us.  We have a complex relationship with the circumstances and outcomes of our lives and experiences. Things will never be perfect and people will always view the world through different lenses. When difficult realities arise you must adapt, you must embrace change and you must be resilient. Be very weary of giving up.  For it is the things that we do frequently that we become very good at.  It becomes a part of you, a part of your character.  Never quit when things don’t go exactly your way. You are better than that. We are better than that. Those who do not embrace change must then embrace mediocrity. Our ability to adapt and roll with the punches is what defines us. Keep moving forward.
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Episode 52: Millions or Myths?

November 14, 2016 Gym Operations Podcast
Where are all the millionaires? After five weekends on the road, Chris reflects on conversations with box owners; the need for models of business success; and how Two-Brain is helping.
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Are You the Best Gym in Town?

November 14, 2016 Gym Marketing
By Jay Williams, TwoBrain Mentor If I asked you to describe your gym, you’d tell me one of the following things: “We’ve got the best coaches, the most equipment, the biggest space, the best ‘community’.” “Nobody does it like us!” “We are the BEST!” No doubt, you WANT to feel this way about your box. But is it true? Is your opinion based on: Random member feedback? Online website/facebook stalking? That one time you visited another gym two years ago? Another gym’s Yelp review score compared to yours? <– ugh! I did all that stuff and concluded that MY gym was the best in town. But thinking you are the best doesn’t bring people in the door. Nor does it put food on your table. So we gave our coaches a homework assignment last week: Go to another gym and take a class. Don’t tell them who you are (if you can avoid it), just try a class and report back to us how it goes. Those reports gave us some real insight. The truth is, we aren’t the best at everything. One of the gyms had more space and more equipment. One had a much more technical coach, one had a great warm up. But we were better than the others at a LOT of things…cleanliness, friendliness, starting/ending on time. That homework gave our staff a sense of pride, but also a list of things we could do better; which was the entire point. It doesn’t do you any good to be the best gym in town. When you are convinced you’re the best, you leave yourself no room to improve, grow, and evolve. The truly great business are always improving.   Borrowing any ideas they think will help them move forward. Doubling down on the things they do well. And checking the pulse of their market, their industry, and their competition. Here’s an exercise for you… Go out and ...
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What leads to your decisions?

November 12, 2016 Personal Development
Why do things always seem to go wrong in your business? When looking at how you make decisions do you consider what has lead to the place that you are making the decision? Do you have the option of making this decision or are you forced to make it because you see no other options? I remember a time where I was coaching a minimum of 6 hours a day. I was burnt out and was, over time, providing less and less value in every class. I wished that someone would walk through the door and put their hand up to say that they would like to coach. I had no plan to find a qualified coach nor did I have a system that would prevent me from making a mistake when hiring a new coach. My wish came true and someone came to me to say that they would like to coach! Fantastic I thought! “You are in, you can have all my morning classes”.  I walked away with a sigh of relief; this was going to solve all my problems. Remember, my problem was simply that I didn’t want to coach so much any more. So having a new “coach” was everything I needed, right? Nope. This person turned out to not have the qualifications or people skills I required, and had a different approach to how I wanted the class to be run.  The decision turned out to be a complete disaster and I had no one to blame but myself. The decision to hire came from pure desperation to solve my perceived problem.  I should have first developed systems and procedures for hiring, firing, contracts, how to run a class, coaches responsibilities, and a code of ethics.  Had I done this, I would not have lost clients and it would have prevented the negative impact on my reputation.The importance of mitigating bad decisions cannot be over ...
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The 5 mile radius of opportunity

November 11, 2016 Gym Marketing
By Brian Alexander owner of CrossFit Illumine and TwoBrain Mentor Let’s assume that there are 5 CrossFit gyms within a 5 mile radius.  Let’s generously assume that each of those CrossFit gyms have 100 members.  Simple math here.  500 “CrossFitters” within a 5 mile radius. Sure that is decent opportunity, but affiliate owners generally fight over the same 500 CrossFitters by racing to the bottom with discounts and pricing and undercutting each other all in the name of competition. Tearing something good down in an attempt to pull from the same small group of active CrossFitters. In this scenario actually, nobody wins.  The affiliate owners lose and the customer loses.  We see it happen far too often.  Gym A discounts rates and charges incredibly cheap rates.  Gym A thinks 300 members will solve all of his/her problems.  Gym A realizes he is on the hamster wheel of death and can’t keep people in the gym.  Gym A has a retention problem.  Gym A then repeats the cycle over and over again until he/she is fed-up, burned out and realized he or she just bought themselves a $30k/yr job working 60-80 hours a week. You can fight over those existing CrossFitters in the race to the bottom.  Instead we focus on the real opportunity.  We focus on the people sitting on the couch. While everyone fights over the .001% (500 existing CrossFitters), We are working on building a resilient business around the 99.99% who aren’t doing CrossFit, also known as the 409,000 population within my 5 mile radius. Any rational person would like their odds on any bet at 99.99% over .001% right? Instead of racing to the bottom, you will find us racing to the top.   You will find us adding tremendous value in coaching, community, and our facility. We attract people with our same mindset. Our culture is predicated on people who get it. You will find us changing ...
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