Chris Cooper (00:02):
Mentors have a lot of skills. One of those skills is breaking problems down. So, you take a big, overwhelming problem like, “Oh my goodness. What do I do about this bad coach, or how do I get more leads?” and you break that problem down into smaller and more achievable steps. This is something that we train our mentors on that they do every single day with the 950 gyms in Two-Brain, and we’ve done with 3,000 gyms around the world. It’s an amazing skill. As a fitness coach, you might actually recognize this skill because you probably do it with the clients in your gym. So today, we’re going to walk through this process. I’m going to teach you how to do it so that you can help get some more traction and grow your gym.
(00:41):
I’m Chris Cooper. This is “Run a Profitable Gym,” and today we’re going to do this in three parts. First, I’m going to share the example of what to do if you have a bad coach or a coach who needs to be fixed or a staff member, and you’re not sure what to do there. Second, I’m going to help you break down the problem of “I’m not getting enough leads” because we hear that a ton. And third, I’m going to help you break down the problem of “My gym just isn’t paying me enough. I’m not making enough money at this.” So, these are going from simple to complex problems. Of course, there are a thousand different problems that you need to overcome when you’re building your gym, and if you want to access our free help, go to gymownersunited.com. There are 8,000 gym owners in that group, including me and our team of mentors, and we are there to help gyms for free because we want to see you succeed and change more lives. So, the first thing that we’re going to do is talk about why gyms struggle and fail, and the real reason is that most gym owners are just plagued by overwhelm. They’re like Barry—they’ve got so many problems to solve; they don’t know where to start, and so the first thing that our mentor team is trained to do is identify the lead domino. What is the biggest problem, which fixing will have a tremendous impact on all the problems downstream? And this involves some auditing, some cutting.
(01:56):
I’m going to walk through these examples with you today. I’m going to show you some of the tools that we use so that you can do this on your own. All right, so let’s start with this. Problem number one: I’ve got this bad coach. I’ve got this bad staff person, right. This coach might not be a bad person, but they’re not delivering at the level that you want. I know this is really, really common for gym owners, and we’re always tempted to just like jump in and do the thing ourselves. “Nobody can do it as well as I do.” Well, the reason that nobody can do it as well as you do is because you’ve got one of two problems: Either you’ve got a process problem, or you’ve got a people problem.
(02:34):
So, what I’ve done here is drawn two axes. The x-axis is the person: Are they the problem? And the y-axis is the process: Is the process the problem? Do they not know what to do? So, let’s talk about how to determine whether you have a process or a people problem.
(02:51):
So, I live by this adage: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance.” In most cases, it’s not that the person is doing a bad job, or they’re lazy, or they’re Gen Z, or whatever. It’s that they don’t actually know what to do. Right, all the instructions are up here, and they can’t read our mind. So, if you’re saying something like this, “My staff never cleans up before they go home. Our front office is a pigsty,” or “Nobody on my team returns calls or emails quickly enough,” or even “Nobody cares except for me.” If you struggle to get consistent action from your staff with excellence, then the first probable cause is your process. Let’s try and solve that first, and the second probable cause is your people. So, here’s some questions that I want you to ask because we’re going to break this problem down and identify the solution. So, if anybody on my staff is failing to perform at the highest level, then I first assume it’s my fault. Okay. The process isn’t clear enough, and so I ask myself: Have I told them exactly what to do and exactly how to do it?
(03:52):
So, as founders, we frequently assume that everybody knows what we do, right? We project knowledge onto them—but that’s not the case. Nobody knows how to write a good quote or do a good Instagram post until we tell them. They don’t have that experience, and often our instructions are just way too complex, or maybe they’re too vague, like, “Hey, clean up before you go home.” Well, nobody knows what that means because their definition of clean is different from your definition of clean. I once had this this cleaner named Sean, and his checklist said, “Mop the floors,” and so he did. But he didn’t use any soap to mop the floors because I didn’t write, “Pour a cup of soap in the mop bucket before you mop the floors.” He just didn’t know any better. So, the dirty floors were actually my fault. Right? Sean was just following my poor directions. So, you just have to understand: If you don’t write it down, it doesn’t exist. And you might think like, “Well, everybody knows that,” but you can’t assume that anybody knows anything.
(04:48):
Here’s the second question that might indicate to you that you’ve got a process problem and not a people problem. If I’ve told the staff clearly how to do the job, and they’re not meeting the expectations, then the question that I ask myself is: Have I shown them what perfect means? Do they know what a 10 out of 10 is? Is their definition of clean the same as mine? Do they know what a perfect class looks like? Do they know what a 10 out of 10 personal training session is? Do they know how often they need to be following up with a nutrition client to make this a 10 out of 10 experience and get the client results? Do they know how often a client should do a goal review, and why?
(05:25):
Okay, so my definition of clean is different from your definition. To my kids, clean means tidy, right? To my wife, clean usually involves bleach and rubber gloves. But to me, on time means 15 minutes early. That’s how I was raised. Maybe that’s how you were raised, but to a teenager, on time means two minutes after nine. And if my front desk staff arrives at two minutes after nine on the weekend, and I’ve told them to be on time, then I’m allowing my subjective experience into the process. So, I need to fix the process. You need to tell them be here by 8:45. So, you need to clearly spell out the gold standard in every prescription that you make to yourself, your staff.
(06:08):
Every piece of information, every instruction that you give them, you have to say, “Here’s what perfect looks like.” I’ll give you a tip here: This is where you can use like photo or video cues. So, when I’m doing an SOP like, “How to open the gym in the morning,” I give everybody the checklist, and then I take my camera and I walk into the gym in the morning. I’m flipping on the lights. Now, I’m turning on the radio. Here’s what the key is, etcetera. Okay? You need to show them what a 10 out of 10 looks like. Clearly spell out that gold standard.
(06:35):
Now if they know the gold standard and they have clear directions, and they’re still failing to achieve it, then I ask myself a third question, which is: Have I reviewed their performance with them? In other words, do they know how they’re actually doing? This is usually the weakest link for me. People think they’re doing a 10 out of 10 job, or at least a B+, but really they’re like a C- because I haven’t told them. So, if I haven’t told the staff person that their work is subpar, they probably think it’s just fine because “nobody’s telling me any different; nobody’s brought it up.”
(07:06):
Over 80% of the drivers that are out there on the road, for example, think that they are above average, and that’s because our egos don’t let us believe that we’re bad at anything. Your staff is the same way. If you don’t rate their performance and tell them how they’re doing, they’ll assume it’s good enough. So, you’ve got to schedule quarterly reviews for your staff. Do it before there’s a problem, and then give them the scorecard every time, and also give them a blank scorecard on the day they’re hired, so they’ll know how they’ll be evaluated, and they’ll know what a 10 out of 10 is. All right. So, here’s question four: If they know what to do, if they know how to do it—clearly they have a good picture of like 10 out of 10—they know what done means, and they’re being evaluated, and they’re still failing, then I’m going to ask myself question number four, and that is: Do they have an emotional reason to succeed?
(07:54):
So, if you tell a staff person to take out the garbage because it’s their job, then you can impose authority and threaten punishment. And with very low-level staff, that might be good enough, right? For somebody who works at KFC, “Do it, or else” is good enough. But you know, at 9 p.m., when you’re not watching and the cleaner is pretty tired, and they want to make it home in time to watch “Survivor,” they might skip a step or two; they might round off the corners. Right? It might not even be a conscious decision; they’re just rushing, or they’re tired. But if they know that you’re visiting tomorrow, and tomorrow is the day that you’re going to audit how clean the gym is, then they’re not going to forget. So, our job is to make them see the consequences of their action.
(08:35):
But more than that, when you have important, high-level, smart, caring staff, they need to know why. So, if your coaches are taking out your garbage, they need to know why it’s important that the garbage is taken out, so that tomorrow at 6 a.m. when Mary shows up to coach, everything is bright and clean, and she doesn’t have to worry about clients getting a wrong impression, and they can focus on their workout and get better results. Okay, so you need to ask your staff, “How will this affect the other staff if you don’t do your work?” or “What impression do you think our clients are going to have if the entryway—the lobby—is dirty?” or even, “What do you think that that person will think if you don’t spell their name correctly in Zen Planner?” Okay. Or “How are they going to feel if you don’t enter them in the workout tracking software right away, and you leave it for a few days, and they show up and they’re not entered, and everybody else is putting their scores?” They’re going to feel like an outsider. They’re not going to feel good. All right.
(09:29):
So, now the other option here is that you’ve got the wrong person doing the wrong job. All right? Now, if you’re trying to hurriedly write down these questions, don’t worry, I’m going to have them in a blog post for you later this week. So it could be that you’ve got the right person after all, right? And you just don’t have a good process for them, which means that, they’re going to fail, and it’s going to be your fault. So that’s this square. If you’ve got a tight process and you’ve got the right person, they’re going to be a 10 out of 10. There’s no problem to solve. Okay, they’re up here. However, what happens if you’ve got, like, the wrong person? And how do you know? Well, I’m going to ask myself another few questions.
(10:12):
So, first question is: Do they have a clear view of their future in the company? Is there a future for them? Have they run out of future? Do they think like, “Well, this is the highest level I’m ever going to achieve here.” Do they see how being good in their current role will affect their opportunities later? Do they even have opportunities later? Do they think that they’re going to be stuck mopping the floors for life and being the backup coach? Or do they know that eventually, you’re going to try and get them up to at least a part-time role or a full-time role as, like, a lead coach? Do they know that there’s a GM position available down the track or an admin? Or do they know that there might be a head coach? Or do they know that someday maybe you might even open a second gym? Now, I will caution you: Don’t make big promises until they’re imminent. Okay, like, “Hey, if you do a good job here, someday we’re going to open up our own gym,” and three years down the track, they’re going to feel misled if you don’t do that. Okay. So, the first question is: Do they have a clear view of their future in the company? Second question: Does their future position depend on success in this position?
(11:15):
So, you might hire somebody because they’re going to be a good manager, and they’ve got managerial skills, but the only work you’ve got for them right now is coaching, and they’re a crummy coach. Do they have to be a good coach to be promoted to manager later? I don’t know. Or maybe it’s the inverse: You hire them to be an admin because you don’t have any coaching work for them. They only want to coach. But does their skill as an admin reflect on their chances to be a coach later?
(11:41):
You know where this comes up a lot is you hire somebody for a specialty program. Like you hire them to be your kid’s coach, and really, they want to be a group class coach. So, at first they’re doing a good job being a kid’s coach, but then eventually they’re like, “Well, I don’t know; maybe I’ll get the class coach for adults job anyway.” Does this job that they’re doing reflect on their chances to get that higher level job later? You’ve got to ask yourself that, and you have to make it clear to them whether it does or does not. And so, here’s my third question—this is the highest one of all: Will this person be part of the team that takes us to the next level?
(12:17):
So, if I’ve got somebody and they’re kind of a C+ player, and I’m keeping them on staff anyway because, well, you know, they fill a hole, or they’ve got a few clients who really like them, or nobody else wants to coach at six a.m. The question that I ask myself is: Is this person part of the team that can take us to the next level or not? Right? Because the people who got you here to this level might not be the same people who get you to that level. That’s a very tough question to ask yourself. It’s true of your staff, but it’s also true of you: Are you the person that can take this company to the next level? Yet, in many cases, that’s the biggest holdup, and that’s where a mentor, in many cases, has to spend a lot of time. So, after they’ve broken down this problem and solved the staff problem, they might realize the biggest roadblock to the gym’s growth is the entrepreneur. And they might take the approach of “fix the entrepreneur, fix the business,” and that’s another topic.
(13:10):
But the reality here is that when you’re trying to grow, and you’ve got three coaches who are mediocre and three who are really good, and you’re pumping new people into your gym, and they choose the class that’s coached by the mediocre person, you’re going to lose that person. That person cannot be part of the team that takes you to the next level, and bad staff can hold you back. So, when your staff isn’t living up to your expectations, first you’ve got to assume that you’ve got a process problem. If you fix that process, you’re golden because that solves your people problem. But if you’ve got the wrong person and you’ve got a good process—everybody else is following the process; this person is not, or this person is following it poorly, or even with the process, they’re just not delivering well—then they’ve got to go because they’re going to hold your gym back. So where does the problem lie? If it’s a process problem and your processes are all in your heads, then you are the problem, and we need to get those processes out of your heads. If you’ve got clear processes and somebody’s not following them, or they’re not motivated—or, worse, they’re burnt out, sarcastic, angry—then they are the problem, and they’ve got to go.
(14:20):
So, this podcast is about identifying the problems, breaking them down. A mentor is really the person that’s going to help you solve these problems and take the next steps. There are obviously solutions to all these problems, no matter what they are, and the mentor’s job is to break them down into small, solvable steps. So now, I want to go back to the next big problem that we see from gyms: I’m not getting any leads. Right? Maybe this is you. And so, the first thing that we want to do as a mentor is we actually want to start by breaking down your funnel. Right? We want to audit things. We want to pick the question apart and break it down into smaller, solvable problems. When a lot of gym owners say, “I’m not getting enough leads,” what they mean is that they’re not getting enough people signed up, so we’re going to actually audit the entire funnel. Now, if you’re very familiar with marketing and you know that leads are the problem, then we can break that down even more, right? Like, where are the leads coming from? Why are they not converting? How do we ramp up leads? For today—because the vast majority of people who say that they’re not getting enough leads are confused about what a lead actually means—we’re going to break that down and audit your funnel, but I think this is going to be valuable, no matter who you are.
(15:32):
So, in Two-Brain Business, we help gym owners build four different funnels. One of those funnels is ads. Not everybody runs ads, but most gyms should be running some kind of ads in the background. The most important thing, though, is that you have marketing funnels in place, and you can use this same audit on any of your funnels and all of them. Okay. Because it’s important. The stages don’t really change; what changes is where your clients are coming from.
(15:55):
Okay, so four funnels. Ads are one funnel. Here’s how you audit your ads: First off, we have to know are you running ads, and are you running them at a minimum level? Okay, at least like five bucks a day. You have to be running them at a minimum level so that the algorithm can learn and keep getting better, and you’re getting enough leads coming into your funnel that the pixel sees who they are and can retarget. All right.
(16:22):
The other thing too is if you’re putting out one ad, trying it, putting 50 bucks behind it, you’re not really running ads. Ads are a science, not an art. Back in the old days, the marketing department was the art department. They would design a beautiful billboard, and they’d put it up, and it would work or not, and nobody could measure. Now, it’s a science. So now you build three ads, you run them all for 30 days, you take the one that’s performing best, and you double down on that one, and you keep that one running while you test different stuff off to the side. And you take a “bullets before cannonballs” approach. You spend a little bit on ads until they prove that they’re working, and then you fire the cannonball, and you go all in on those ads. So, the $5 a day minimum is a good level to test ads at. Once they’re working, though, you might want to invest more because then you’ve got a machine that really works.
(17:12):
So, the first thing that we want to know is: Are you generating leads through your ads funnel? This is, again, not the only way to generate leads, but this is how you would audit all of your marketing. The next thing that you want to see is: Down the funnel, what happens to those leads? Okay, so I’ve got a contact form here, but really the point is: Do you have a website that converts leads—like somebody coming from Facebook, or your content, or your email list, whatever—into appointments? Okay? Are they booking an NSI from your website?
(17:48):
A lot of people will say, “I’m not getting enough leads,” when really they’re getting leads from Facebook, but those leads don’t go anywhere. They can’t move down the funnel, so think about this as, like Facebook and this as your site. The lead hits your site, but they don’t know how to book an appointment, so they don’t go anywhere, or maybe your site just sucks. The point, though, is that—like I said—ads are a science. That site should have a pixel on it that knows who’s coming there, and then that pixel informs how you set up your next Facebook ads. If this is Greek to you, don’t worry, our mentors will teach you exactly how to do it in our program. So, the site needs to convert people from, “Hey, I’m interested. I click the link on Facebook,” to “I’m going to book an appointment now.” Okay, so that NSI is going to be the bottom of your funnel. That’s a No Sweat Intro. That’s your sales appointment.
(18:41):
What happens between them booking an appointment and then showing up for the appointment is called lead nurture. Okay, so they’re on your website, they click a link, book an appointment. They’re like, “Yeah, I’m interested.” Okay, click: They book the appointment. But then doubt starts to set in. So, you know, do they hear from you again? If they book the appointment more than two days away, they’re kind of like, “I don’t know. I’m nervous. I’m not sure this is for me.” Or maybe they’re looking through your other Instagram account and they’re like, “Wow, that that dude is not for me. You know, he’s not talking about fitness; he’s talking about politics for some reason, or like weird football references. I don’t know. This dude is not for me, I’m out.” Lead nurture is basically like you grabbing their hand after they book their appointment and then just holding their hand until they show up for their NSI. And then, finally, the last thing is we want to know: Are you actually signing people up after they come in for their NSI?
(19:35):
So, we measure these differently, and when we’re doing a funnel audit, we use a bunch of different metrics. So, the first metric that we’re going to use is just leads: How many leads are you actually generating? How many people are seeing your ad on Facebook, Instagram, whatever, and clicking it? That’s it. The next one we want to do is what we call set rate. So, how many of the people who click the link on Instagram, or Facebook, or whatever book an appointment with you? Okay, out of the people who book an appointment with you, how many of those show up? We call that show rate. And then, of those people who show up, how many buy? We call that a close rate. Okay, now here’s why this is important:
(20:18):
People will say, “I’m not getting enough leads,” but the reality is like they might actually be getting enough leads. So, let’s say they get 100 leads a month. That’s more than enough. But if none of those leads fill out a contact form and book an NSI, then your ad money is wasted. If none of the people who book an NSI actually show up, then your ad money is still wasted. And if none of those people who show up actually buy from you, then your ad money is still wasted.
(20:42):
So, the problem of “I’m not getting enough leads” might actually be one of four problems. It could be lead gen, it could be that you don’t have a website that converts, it could be that you’re not doing enough lead nurture or, worse, that you’re turning people off before they actually show up, and it could be that you can’t close the leads that you have. So, then, what we’re going to do as a mentor is we’re going to look at your metrics, and we’ve got industry averages. Here’s the average. We’ve got Two-Brain averages, which are even better. We want to find out where you are at each metric, and say, “Let’s improve that.” So, for example, if you’re getting good leads and you’ve got a website with a good contact form, and you’ve got a good show rate—most of the people who book an appointment actually show up—but your close rate is like one out of 10, then your mentor is going to help you improve that close rate first because everything else is working. It’s just, you know, you’ve got like a plugged funnel right here, so let’s fix that. If, though, your close rate is good, your lead nurture seems to be good—you know, 600 to 10 show up, 800 to 10 show up—you’ve got a good lead converting website—great, you know, there’s a certain metric for that—then we’re going to look at your ads.
(21:49):
And if we need to improve your ads, then we’re going to look at your ad copy. Maybe it needs a refresh. “Here’s what’s working in other markets.” Maybe we need to increase your ad spend. That happens sometimes, right? Maybe we need to narrow your parameters. Maybe we need to fix your pixels so that you’re retargeting the right people. Maybe you need a different type of ad.
(22:09):
But now you know what to do, and you’ve broken the problem down, and it’s not just this big messy morass of overwhelm anymore. So, you know, you could do this same test for referrals. That’s another funnel that we teach is referrals. Okay, so you could do a referral funnel. We have one for organic social media content. We have one for big content, like blog and YouTube and podcast, and you can audit all of those, and say, “Why am I not getting leads?” But you’re no longer just left in the dark or wondering, “Why am I not getting leads? Oh, my goodness.” And you’re no longer tempted to go out and hire that agency that’s promising you 100 free leads on Facebook or whatever. Because now you know how to solve your own problems and how to take the steps to resolve them. The specifics: How do I get more leads? What copy should I change to? We resolve that in our mentorship program. We’ve got a massive toolkit of plug and play tools that you would use for all those. Right now, you’re figuring out, like, what play should I call? Okay.
(23:08):
Now, the last question that I want to bring up today because we do get this a lot is: “I’m just not making enough money,” and this is the meta problem. Right? And you need to break that down too. So today, what we’re going to actually do is I’m going to show you an annual plan example. I’m going to show you what we do every single year. So, when people come into our mentorship program, my first goal, honestly, is to increase their client value and to make them some money. I want them to get a really quick ROI so that they’ve got a bright spot, and they’ve got some energy and some momentum. So, the first thing we’re going to do is give them a bit of a catalyst—a little boost.
(23:43):
The next thing that we’re going to do is remove roadblocks. Like, what is actually stopping you? And part of that plan is to actually set some goals and work backward from those goals to make a plan. So, the first thing that you need to do if you’re not making enough money is set a goal. Like, how much money do you need to make? Right? Let’s be really, really clear about that. So, what I’m going to do here is I’m going to share with you our goal-setting template. Now, this is something that we use inside Two-Brain. We don’t publish this publicly, but you’re going to get to see it, and you can either build your own, or when we do a goal-setting webinar in Gym Owners United, you can work through that with me. So, when we’re working through this, this is done step by step with a mentor because spreadsheets are daunting. A lot of people get overwhelmed. A few of us love spreadsheets, but most people do not want to spend hours figuring them out.
(24:34):
So, we’re going to do an exercise called “Your Perfect Day,” and I want you to close your eyes and imagine you’re having the best day of your life. Right? What time do you get up? What’s the first thing that you do? How much do you work at your gym, etcetera? Then we’re going to clearly think: What kind of income is necessary to support that lifestyle that you’re having on your perfect day? Every time you do this exercise, every year you’ll get better and better, and you’ll refine the numbers, but for most people they’ll say that $100,000 per year income will supply their perfect day. It might be more if you’re in Manhattan. It might be less if you’re in Sault Ste. Marie, where I am. Right? Like, the average household income here is now about $78,000. That’s an amazing income here. That’s not for everybody. We want you to set your goal, not my goal.
(25:21):
Then we want you to say, okay, like you’re living that perfect day, but there’s probably other things that you’re going to spend money on that you didn’t spend money on this year. Like, what are you going to invest in your education? What are you going to invest in travel? Do you have to upgrade your home next year? What will you buy for your family next year? Do you need to get a new car? Like, what is the total car payment on that new car? So, let’s say that we’re going to buy a minivan next year, and if I look at the monthly payments, those payments are going to be like $9,000 total for the year. All right. Then what we’re going to do—will I donate money? I do at my level. But if you’re not making $100,000 a year yet, focus on your income before you worry about donations and investments. All right.
(26:02):
Then what we’re going to do is say: Okay, what’s our staff pay at the gym? What are our recurring expenses? What are our one-time expenses? And what this is going to do is take your goal from a personal income goal to the revenue goal that the gym needs to make to pay you that much money. So, let’s say that I need to cover like $65,000 in staff expenses for a full-time coach, whatever that is. Then, I’ve got recurring expenses. I know what this is; this is about $132,000 a year, just using my gym numbers, and then one-time expenses—I do tend to buy toys. Boy, we could do a podcast on that, couldn’t we? And so now what we’ve got here is this total of: I need to do $316,000 in gross revenue per year. Now, these numbers are high. I’m going through this really quickly, but you can see that’s my revenue goal for the month: $26,333.
(26:51):
The next thing that I’m going to do is get really specific. Like, where’s that money coming from? So, what percentage of my revenue comes from group classes? For me, that’s only about 25%. You can say it’s more. What percentage of my revenue comes from private or semi-private? That’s a lot more. That’s actually like 55% of our rev. What percentage of our revenue comes from nutrition coaching? That’s pretty low. That’s about 10%—still better than the average. And what percentage comes from other—competitions, online training? There you go; it’s 100%. So now what I’ve got is I’ve got specific goals for each thing.
(27:27):
Group classes: I know that I need to make 6,500 in revenue from group classes. Ah, piece of cake—like, we’re way above that. Next, I need to make 14,000 from personal training. Okay, we need to bring that up a little bit, right? So, you can already see how working through this is getting me a lot of clarity. Oh, how are we going to make that much from personal training with the staff that we have? Maybe we need to look at semi-private, etcetera. All right.
(27:52):
Then I can say, “All right; we can break this down into monthly targets.” So, here’s the monthly targets, and this is just automatically carried forward from setting goals. So, if I need to sell 6,500 dollars in group class membership—so my average group class membership is 150 dollars—then I need to sell 44 group memberships. I’m already way above that—high five, okay. So how many people do I already have? I know it’s like way more than that. I’m just going to put a number in. Let’s say that I have 50. Boom, all right.
(28:24):
So now what I can say is: Here’s how many people I need to be paying that amount. And then I can say: How many new people, and how many current clients do I have? Well, if I’ve got 50 current clients, you know, I don’t need to get any new ones—it’s minus six. But if I change that goal—like I want 15,000 a month in revenue at 150,000—then I need 100. I currently have 50; I need 50 new, which means that I need to get about four new per month. Right? Maybe five if that rounds up, and I can do the same calculation for each thing. So now what I’m doing is I’m getting super-duper granular and, again, the point is not to guide you through this, it’s to demonstrate how you take an overwhelming goal like, “How do I make more money?” and you break that down into “I need to get four new clients per month.”
(29:10):
Okay, now what? Well, we know that we need to get four new clients per month. How are we going to do that? There’s lots of strategies. There’s advertising; there’s referrals. We teach all this stuff in Two-Brain, and this is the point where a mentor would say, “Okay, look. Here’s all the different ways that we can get four new people a month.”
(29:30):
Okay, I actually wasn’t planning on doing this, but I’m just going to show you just a big overview of our toolkit so you can see. All we’ve got to do is pick one of these tactics and just execute on it. So, what I’ve done here is just logged into the Two-Brain app really quickly to show you, like, if I need to get four group clients per month, I have a lot of options to do that. Right, I can audit my funnels and see which one’s going to be the easiest for me. I can follow any of the instructions in this toolkit. I can do affinity marketing. I can do social media. I can start a podcast if I want to. I can focus on Google Ads. I can use AI. You know, I can do referral partnerships. I can work on SEO.
(30:09):
You and your mentor should determine, like, exactly what that process is going to be, but then, when I open up any one of these tools, it’s going to give me this step by step by step “here’s exactly what you do.” And in most cases, like if you go to Facebook and Instagram advertising, it’s going to say here’s the ad copy to use, here’s the photos to use, here’s how to book a call with a mentor who’s a specialist in this. Like, the content vault has well over 2,000 blog posts, Instagram, Facebook posts, emails, swipe photos, graphics that you can use: Everything is right there.
(30:40):
But the key, though, is that we need to be breaking down the problems into very specific metrics first, so that we can see, “Okay, here’s our goal: four.” Right? I mean, if all I did was give you that goal, and say, “Hey, how would you get four new clients a month?” I mean, you can probably even take it from there with your own goals and experience and knowledge. The key, though, is to be breaking these problems down so that they become solvable. If I said, “How are you going to make more profit next year? Go,” you’d probably struggle to give me a good answer. But if I said, “How would you get four more clients next month?” you’d have a better answer. And if I said, “How would you ask clients for referrals next month?” you’d probably have an even better answer. Right? The key is breaking the big problems down into very specific things. Here’s the key points I want you to take away:
(31:25):
You can solve any problem in your business by breaking it down far enough. First, all you got to do is identify the problem. Then, if you can split the problem into its parts—by asking why or by asking what is halfway to the solution—you can find the first step that you should take toward getting that problem solved. You can identify when you’re being successful. Obviously, a mentor is great at this, and we do so much training on this, but what I really want to do here is just give you one more tool that maybe is going to help you, and this is our problem breakdown. So here we go. I’m going to share this with you.
(32:02):
This is called breaking down the problem. So, the first thing that you want to do is write down a goal. Okay so—and the bottom line here—you might say, “I want to do another $5,000 per month.” So, you would write down that goal. Then what you do is you break it down. So, what’s halfway to that goal? $2,500 a month. What’s halfway to that halfway point? $1,250 a month. What’s halfway to that? $615 a month. Okay, so you’re going to write down $615 a month. How are you going to make another $615 a month?
(32:33):
You’ve got a couple of different options, right? You could raise rates on people. You could run in one specialty group—like adding a kids’ group would do that, no problem. If your memberships are 150 bucks, then selling like four of those solves your problem. The key, though, is that we’re breaking this down to a level that’s tactical and actionable, so that you can feel like you’re getting some momentum instead of just feeling overwhelmed all the time, which is what most people feel.
(32:57):
So, this is “Run A Profitable Gym.” I’m Chris Cooper. Thanks for listening. If you want to talk about stuff like this more, join our Gym Owners United group today. Just go to gymownersunited.com. That’s where I answer questions, and we do free webinars, and we give you free tools like this all the time—just to grow your gym because that’s our mission. So, gymownersunited.com, join today. I hope this helps you solve problems and plan for the future and grow your gym and help more people.
