One of my mentors, Dan Martell, told me that it’s better to read five books over and over and apply them than it is to read 50 books in a year.
I took that to heart, and so I have about 10 books that I reread every year, including the Jim Collins series and “Resilience” by Eric Greitens.
Beyond that, I read for two or three hours every day. I read about 20-30 business books a year, but I also read a lot of books that don’t apply to the gym—mostly fiction and books about writing.
To kick off 2025, I’ll share a list of books that are incredibly important for gym owners. I read everything on the list below two or three times in 2024, and I took action after I turned each final page. So I’ll tell you what I read and how I applied each book in my gym and my other businesses.
I’ve linked all the covers below to Amazon—click if you want to get any of these books.
Here we go!
“The Mountain Is You” by Brianna Wiest
What’s stopping most businesses from growing?
The owner.
I’m reminded of this every single day because I own a gym and I work with the top thousand gym owners in the world. When I look at everyone—from our very new mentees to our upper-level owners—it’s clear that gyms only rise to the level of the owner.
As I learn more about my limitations and overcome my internal roadblocks, I start to see them in other people, too.
When I talk to gym owners who are overwhelmed, confused, scared or stagnant, the limiting factor is almost always the entrepreneur. They might mention “the local market,” “the economy” or “bad luck,” but in almost every case they are the main thing that’s holding the gym back and limiting its growth.
When a business reaches the limit of an owner’s knowledge and understanding, it just stops growing—unless the owner is coachable. If you improve the owner, you improve the business.
When I read Weist’s book, it felt like a “greatest-hits album” for self-help books. You can find mountains of these books, but I’m recommending “The Mountain Is You” because it’s directive. The book is full of do-this-now directives instead of interesting facts and recommendations to meditate more often. Instead, it’s “you need to work through this and you need to process this. Here’s how to do it.”
That matches up with a key element of the Two-Brain Business mission: I try to publish only clear, simple and directive content every day. I don’t just throw info at you. I tell you what to do. This path is much harder but much more rewarding. I’m happy Weist treads it, too.
“The Courage to Be Disliked” by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
I first read this book about Adlerian psychology about three years ago on the recommendation of a business coach, and it was recently recommended again by my current business coach.
Both times, the recommendation came when I was working through tough challenges, and the book helped me successfully navigate each scenario. “The Courage to Be Disliked” is all about helping readers understand what’s preventing us from doing the things that we know we should do.
For example, what’s stopping us from telling a client “you need to change your diet”? Or why do we struggle to tell a prospective client “you need coaching. Here is the price”?
The reality: We tell ourselves things like “I’m an introvert” or “I’m not good at sales” because deep down we don’t understand or appreciate our own value.
This book is an examination of the biggest obstacle that’s in your way, which is you most of the time. I strongly recommend you read this one.
“High Road Leadership” by John Maxwell
John Maxwell comes out with a new leadership book every year, and sometimes it’s a rehash of past works. His most recent effort is very different.
Maxwell is obviously frustrated with the leadership on display in the world, especially in the political realm. To him, we’re being presented with a dichotomy—it’s this or that—instead of real leadership that will help as many people win as possible. Maxwell doesn’t take a political stance, so the book can help you improve your business no matter how you vote.
Maxwell’s best points:
1. Avoid dichotomies and dualities—this or that thinking. If you do, you can be far more creative when you try to solve problems.
2. Talk to your staff but don’t always bend the company to their desires. You must care for your staff but make the decisions that will benefit them long term even if they don’t see that right away.
The second point is critical: As the leader, you have the long-term vision. You’re sitting in the lifeguard chair, and staff members are standing on the beach. Because we get overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget that we see farther and must make choices that will benefit team members in the future even if they don’t understand how the choices will benefit them today.
It’s the same with gym clients. We need to do the things that will help them long term. That means we focus on coaching instead of selling access, we tell them what package they should buy, and we do Goal Review Sessions and prescribe the best path even if they say, “I don’t need that.”
We are the coaches, and we know what’s best, so we need to step up. “High Road Leadership” explains how to do that consistently and feel good about it. I think it’s the best book Maxwell’s written in at least six or seven years.
“Tribalnomics” by Justin Garcia
This book also has been around for a few years, but I still read it twice in 2024 because it presents such an interesting way to think about leading a team.
And I love this: The person who teaches Tribalnomics in Canada is Nick Castiglia, a world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has an incredibly successful martial-arts gyms in Ottawa, Canada, not because he’s a great fighter but because he is an amazing leader. And he said that this book is the key to all of it.
Nick is actually traveling to Atlanta, Georgia, in January to speak to our Tinkers about implementing the Tribalnomics concept.
“Be the Unicorn” by William Vanderbloemen
A Two-Brain client recommended this one, and the title made me hesitate. It felt like “pop business,” and I really wasn’t drawn to it, but I started reading it because I really trust the judgment of this client.
I was blown away.
“Be the Unicorn” is 12 chapters long, and every one has an amazing lesson that you can go out and apply right away.
William Vanderbloemen owns the Vanderbloemen Agency—a high-level recruiter for C-level positions in the range of $500,000 to $2 million a year. Vanderbloemen did a great job figuring out what makes some people “unicorns” and then explains how you can duplicate the talents, traits and skills of the very best people in the C-suite—the people who are running massive companies.
I was so impressed by this book that I contacted William Vanderbloemen and said, “I need to expose you to Two-Brain. Can I bring you in to do some speaking?”
“I’d love to do it. Gym owners are on the same mission as pastors and preachers,” he said.
So Vanderbloemen is going to be speaking to our Tinkers in 2025, too.
“10x Is Easier Than 2x” by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
These guys wrote “The Gap and the Gain,” but I didn’t get around to reading the 2023 book “10x Is Easier Than 2x” until this year.
I thought this would be a mindset book about thinking bigger, but it taught me that thinking about scaling 10x forces you to get way outside what you’re currently doing.
Most of us could double our businesses using the same strategies we’re using right now; you’ve got the systems you need (especially if you’re a Two-Brain client). But considering the 10x multiple requires a big leap that allows you to treat your business as a blank slate and ask, “If I were starting over with a goal of hitting 10x, what would I do differently?”
The book helps you apply what you learn when you do this exercise, so it’s enormously powerful. I think this book is actually even better than “The Gap and the Gain.”
“The Obvious Choice” by Jonathan Goodman.
I’ve read this book three times, and it’s amazing.
Goodman has a mountain of tips and tricks that make him the obvious choice and generate enormous client retention.
Are you going to be able to remember all 100 things that he’ll teach you in this book? No, but you’ll remember the main concept, and that’s what matters.
Here’s one tip: Whenever you’re going out for dinner, invite two other people, or whenever you’re going to a show, buy two extra tickets.
Another one: Remember your client’s birthdays. Don’t just send them a card or an automated text; call them. Get this: My birthday was in late December, and Jonathan sent me a video text message. It’s a small thing that’s huge, and it’s obvious that you should do this with your clients.
When I read a book, I immerse myself in the brain of that person for two or three weeks, and it makes me a better leader. It’s like I’m putting on a pair of their glasses to get a new perspective. Then I can “put those glasses on” again whenever I need to.
For example, whenever I’m busy and think “I’m too stressed to wish that client a happy birthday,” I slip on my Jonathan Goodman glasses back on and pick up the phone.
“The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham
This is an amazing book with a bad title.
I strongly recommend that you get the audio book. When I read “The Road Less Stupid” the first time, I said, “I really need to listen to this to hear this guy’s voice.” And I’m so glad I did because the audio makes the book hilarious—and memorable.
Cunningham has been in the background of a lot of massive businesses, so it’s amazing to hear his stories and learn from his mistakes.
A key theme: You must have “thinking time” every single day. Go to a private chair, sit in this chair, and think about X for an hour. What exactly should you think about? Cunningham presents 30-40 prompts. This process was incredibly helpful when I was writing “The Golden Hour” (see below).
The best thing about “The Road Less Stupid” is that he’s got these big business principles that apply to everybody, but at the end of every chapter he says “here it is on a bumper sticker” and explains the principle in 10 words or less. That makes his message really sticky.
I love this book, and I think you will, too.
“The Golden Hour” by Chris Cooper
“The Golden Hour” might be my favorite book I’ve ever published. And I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s their favorite or that it’s the best because it’s the most directive. I love to hear that because action—not just knowledge—produces better businesses.
In my early books, I used to collect blog posts and present good ideas, but now I want to be clear and directive: Here is the recipe, do this, copy this, paste this here, and so on.
In “The Golden Hour,” I took it a step further and issued a six-week challenge. I even shot videos of myself following the plan—watch them at goldenhourchallenge.com and do the challenge!
I also ran a version of the challenge in gymownersunited.com, our free Facebook group for gym owners, and we ran a version of the challenge for Two-Brain clients as well.
The bumper sticker for the book: Every day, set aside one hour to grow your business before you do anything else.
It’s all about focus—and I tell you exactly what to do in that hour so you don’t have to guess.
I’m going to run another Golden Hour Challenge for Two-Brain clients, and I’m considering doing it again publicly. If you did the first Golden Hour Challenge in 2024, shoot me a DM on Facebook and let me know how it went. I’ll let you know when I’m going to start the next challenge.
Take Action!
I say this at the end of every best-books list:
It’s not what you learn that matters. It’s not how many books you read.
Action matters.
You’re better off to read one chapter of one book this year and take action to grow your gym than to read 50 books without doing anything.
A lot of people get stuck there. Before I had my first mentor, that’s exactly what I was doing. I had an Audible subscription, I was listening for over an hour every single day, and my gym was still going downhill—until I got a mentor.
The mentor said, “Chris, read this book right now, and we’re gonna apply it together.”
Take these books, find the one that you like the best, read it three times this year, take notes and take action. That’s what’s important.
Action has power. Knowledge without action is nothing.
