If I could go back 20 years and open my first gym again, I wouldn’t ask for more money. I wouldn’t ask for better equipment. I’d ask for the right lesson at the right time.
Most gym owners struggle because they’re trying to solve the wrong problem for the stage of business they’re in. The lesson you need as a brand-new gym owner is completely different from the lesson you need when you’re building a team or trying to step into the CEO role.
I’ve written nearly a dozen books at this point, and it’s not because I enjoy writing. I wrote each one because I kept watching gym owners struggle with the same problems, over and over, at the same stages. So here’s which book I’d hand you, depending on where you are right now.
If You’re Stuck Sifting Through Endless Advice
If you don’t know what to do next, read “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Chief.”
Information isn’t the problem anymore. Gym owners have more content available to them than at any point in the history of the industry: podcasts, YouTube, forums, Instagram experts. And none of it tells you what to do on Monday morning. Without a clear next step, you burn months chasing the wrong priority.
This book maps the four stages every gym owner moves through, from startup to CEO, and tells you exactly what to work on at each one.
This week only, “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Chief” is free on Amazon. Grab a copy before the promotion ends.
If You’re About to Open a Gym (Or You’re Still in Year One)
Read “Start a Gym.”
Most gym owners are first-time entrepreneurs. You plan to be the best coach in town, then day one hits and you’re suddenly signing a lease, pricing your services, hiring humans and reading legal contracts you’ve never seen before. A bad lease locks you in for years. A bad hire drags your business down until they’re gone. The wrong price bleeds you slowly, month after month, without you ever pinpointing why.
This book gives you a step-by-step process to follow at startup, built to save you tens of thousands of dollars and the mistakes I made myself the first time around.
It’s also free on Amazon this week.
If You’re a Great Coach Living Groundhog Day
Read the “Gym Owners Handbook.”
At some point, most owners realize ownership isn’t coaching. Every day starts to feel identical. You didn’t set out to buy yourself a job with worse hours than employment. You want to make an impact, make a profit and make it home for dinner—but that only happens when the gym can run without you standing in the middle of it every hour.
This is the handbook for systemizing your business: building a platform your staff can grow careers on, streamlining marketing, sales and retention, and deciding what to fix next based on proof instead of guesswork.
If Your Sales and Marketing Feels Like Guesswork
Read “Help First.”
If growing your gym means turning into a “salesperson” you don’t want to be, or you’re just guessing at what to try next, this book lays out more than 50 proven ways to grow without either.
Only about 25% of marketing changes year to year. That’s the paid-algorithm chase everyone’s exhausted by. The other 75% never changes—human connection, conversations, referrals, content.
Every tactic in “Help First” has been tested and proven across thousands of gyms. You can grow your gym while staying true to your values, and this book pairs with any of the others on this list.
This one is free this week, too.
If Your Gym Is Finally Making Money and You Don’t Know What to Do With It
Read “Millionaire Gym Owner.”
Profit without a plan gets wasted—or worse, it gets reinvested badly and wrecks what’s already working.
This book is built on interviews with gym owners who actually became wealthy. It teaches the barbell investment strategy, how to decide whether to open or buy another location, how to build real long-term careers for your staff, and how to make sure your gym survives without depending on you for everything.
Grab a free copy this week on Amazon.
If You Know What Your Business Needs But Can’t Get Out of Reaction Mode
Read “The Golden Hour.”
Some Two-Brain gym owners hit millionaire status with great staff and a great lifestyle. Others take years longer, or quit before they get there. The difference isn’t knowledge. It’s whether they do one thing to grow the business before anything else pulls their attention that day.
“The Golden Hour” is one focused hour a day, done first, before the day turns into Groundhog Day again. That’s the difference between steady growth and staying stuck—between a business that owns you and one you actually own.
Get your free copy here, this week only.
The Shortcut
Twenty years ago, nobody could have handed me this list. I had to learn every one of these lessons the hard way, usually right after the mistake had already cost me money, time or a good coach.
You don’t have to. The stage you’re in right now has a lesson attached to it, and that lesson is already written down.
But books only take you so far. If you want someone to look at your business, tell you exactly which stage you’re in and build the plan to get you to the next one faster, that’s what a mentor is for. Book a call, and let’s figure out your next step together.
