Announcer (00:00):
How can you make the greatest impact as a gym owner? Chris Cooper answered that question at the 2022 Two-Brain Summit and inspired a host of gym owners. To light your fire, that speech is presented here on “Run a Profitable Gym.” Subscribe right now so you don’t miss any shows. Now, Chris Cooper’s here to tell you how to change the community around you. To get the worksheet Cooper references, click the link in the show notes.
Chris Cooper (00:22):
When my wife and I were dating, we found that we would be attending a lot of sports events or be in the audience at a lot of shows, and every single weekend we were out somewhere, and we would spend all weekend doing this and it got old. And so we came up with this little game as maybe a lot of you did when you were dating your spouse. And the game was called One Clap. And the goal was you could only clap once, but you had to do it loud enough that everybody around you stopped clapping and said, “What the hell is that guy doing?” Okay, so I’m not gonna share mine yet ’cause I’ve been practicing this for about 20 years. I’d like to hear your loudest single clap. Ready? 1, 2, 3, go. That wasn’t pretty. That was pretty good. You know, for a bunch of CrossFitters. I mean, that’s good. It’s not like you guys applaud people for a living or anything, right? So here I’m gonna tell you how to do it even better. I want you to cup this hand a little bit and then I want you to press these fingers together and leave this hand kind of loose like a whip. And what you’re gonna do is smack right in the pocket like you’re catching a line drive. Okay, ready?
Chris Cooper (01:28):
Not, not bad. We can do better though. I think you guys actually did better than I did. Ready? Let’s try it again. Okay, awesome. Today I’m gonna talk to you about impact, and I wanna know if what I’m saying is having an impact on you. If you’re feeling it, if it’s resonating, if it’s sticky. And so when I say “impact,” if you feel like “yeah, he’s having an impact,” I want you to do one clap—but better than that. Are you ready? Impact. Oh, pretty good. That’s better than I thought you were gonna do. Let’s do it one more time anyway. Impact. Awesome. Let’s get to work. I wanna start with a question. Why did you start a gym? For a lot of us, it was because fitness made a meaningful change in our life and we wanted to share that with others.
Chris Cooper (02:21):
For some of the rest of us, we thought early on, “I love this, I love working out, I love exercising. Imagine if I could do this for a living.” And we thought the best way to do this is to start a gym. I was in that boat, too. Others thought “this is the best way for me to change a life.” And some of us even left careers in research or health care to start a gym because we realized we’d rather be in front of one person changing one life than in the lab doing math. And for others we thought “fitness is what we need to change the health of my town. There are no gyms in my town and we want to do the service of adding a gym to our town.” Anybody do that? Start a gym in a town with no gym. Yeah. Lucas, right on, brother.
Chris Cooper (03:12):
But some of us thought, ‘Hey, maybe this little gym, this little idea that I have could be the seat of the revolution. Maybe this could be the start of something. Maybe this is the last stone before we can start climbing the mountain. Maybe this little gym is what starts change. We want it to have a real meaningful impact.” Maybe we hoped even though we were alone out there, that one day we’d be part of a chorus of voices shouting from the mountaintop. We know the answer, and this is it. It’s fitness and it’s nutrition. It’s not pills, it’s not visiting the doctor, it’s not having our life saved at the very last moment in a deathbed recanting of 40 years of bad habits and regret. But then we got going and we realized “this is harder than I thought. This is actually pretty hard.” Maybe, if you’re like me, you thought, “Holy crap, I’m not sure if I can do this. And maybe you even thought about giving up once or twice, or a couple of times maybe or a hundred. But maybe, if you were like me, you found one person who gave you a new perspective on success, who changed the way that you thought about being successful in the fitness industry, who maybe gave you a way to change the question from “ug, how can I do this to how CAN I do this?” You can do this. You can make a living changing lives. You can make a difference with one gym. You can change the lives of hundreds of people. You can change the outcome of your town. You can change the way that the world perceives health. And then today I’m gonna tell you how you can have an impact.
Chris Cooper (05:27):
I’m gonna tell you how you can leave a legacy. I’m gonna tell you how you can tell a story that’s worth sharing, how you can write your name on the wall before you go so that people remember that you were here. That’s where we’re going today. How are we going to do this? Well, it sounds like a great big, giant, complicated plan, but we’re gonna make a plan for you, and we’re gonna do it on on one piece of paper. Okay? You should have a piece of paper with a rocket on it. It looks like this. We are gonna build a plan for impact today.
Chris Cooper (06:10):
Because I want you to be able to leave here and start taking action right away. I shared one of these little strategies with the Tinkers on Friday, and today I was really proud to have people stopping me at the elevator saying, “Yep, I did my Pareto plan today, did my thing.” Okay, I’ll get to that in a moment. To build a plan for impact, we’re gonna start from the top. And we’re gonna work our way down. The first thing that you’re going to see on this sheet is a star. Okay? This is your North Star. This is your vision, this is your mission, this is the impact that you wanna create. And so I want you to fill in these three lines for me. The first line is what kind of impact do you wanna have? On every client who comes through your door, what is the impact that you wanna have on them?
Chris Cooper (07:02):
Write it down. Two to three words is enough. Second line, what kind of wealth do you wanna create for your family? Just write down whatever you think they deserve. The kind of wealth you want to create for your family. Third line, when it’s all said and done, 30 years from now, you’re driving away from the gym for the last time. What kind of impact do you want to have had on your town? How are you gonna change your town? Two to three words. Our mission at Catalyst is to meaningfully extend and improve the lives of 7,000 people in Sault Ste. Marie. Why 7,000? Because that’s 10% of the population. And if I can change one in 10, they can change the next one in 10 and then they can change the third one. That’s the kind of impact that we’re having at Catalyst.
Chris Cooper (07:57):
And I’ll tell you something that’s funny. We just won business of the year for Sault Ste. Marie because we published that impact on Facebook, on Instagram and YouTube. We only wanted to tell people “here’s what we’re trying to do,” and people are attracted to that. The next thing that you’re going to see is the cockpit. Now to be successful, to create the kind of impact that you’re trying to create in your life, you’re going to need four people in your cockpit. The first person that you need is the captain. That’s you. Are you ready to lead? You don’t have to answer me. You can just ask yourself that. Are you confident in your command of the vessel?
Chris Cooper (08:41):
Some of you are nodding, some of you are not. Take a note. Are you fluent in how your ship operates? Do you know how to fix anything that goes wrong in your ship? Are you excited for the journey ahead? You need to be confident in your command, fluent in the workings of your ship and excited for the journey ahead. Are you? Yeah. Yeah. If you are, check. If you’re not, make a note and we’re gonna work on that. Okay? The second person that you need in the cockpit with you is your first mate. This is your partner, this is your ride-or-die, bail-you-outta-jail-in-time-to-go-coach-the-6-a.m.- class. The person that you lean on, the person that would open the gym if you were hit by a bus tomorrow. Who is that for you? Write their name right beside first mate on this sheet. Is that person here with you today? What’s their name? Say their name. Louder. Good. They deserve to hear it, and I’m glad to know that you have this first mate.
Chris Cooper (09:48):
The third person that you need in the cockpit with you is a navigator. This is the person who has flown a ship of their own, who has seen the galaxy that knows how to outrun the galaxy police like Han Solo. These are the people who have fought through the same challenges that you’re going to face. They know the map, they know the terrain. And this is your mentor. Is your mentor here today? What is their name? Brooks. Let’s hear. All I heard was Joleen. Let’s hear it again. Brooks. Brooks Ash. Yes. Yay. Awesome. Jeff. Right on. The fourth person that you need in the cockpit is a hero.
Chris Cooper (10:36):
This is the person that you will look to and model yourself after. This is the person you wanna be when you grow up. This is the person who, when time get times get tough, you look at and say, “It’s okay. Chris, what would Karl do?” Or, “It’s okay Chris. Just be like Ana.” This is the person that you act like until you are like. Does everybody here have a hero to look up to? Are they here today? Write down their name. If they are here today, if they’re sitting with you, if they flew in with you on the plane, shout out their name. That didn’t sound like you, Corey, but they did say Molly, so good for you.
Chris Cooper (11:24):
When my son was very young, he was playing hockey for a team called the North Channel Lightning. And if you’ve ever coached kids who are about five or six years old, you’ll know that they’re all pretty indistinguishable out there, right? They all get out there, and they all kind of flop around on the ice or they fall down on the field or they chase the butterflies. But there’s always one kid isn’t there? There’s always one kid who knows the game. One kid who could probably beat you, the coach, if they had to. One kid who skates really fast and stick-handles and shoots the puck and scores goals. There’s always one. And the kid on my son’s team who did that was named Mika. Mika Chung. And Mika was a good hockey player. At six years old, Mika could skate really fast and he could dangle and he could snipe, right?
Chris Cooper (12:11):
He could celly. Every six-year-old can celly. And when I was playing hockey with my son on our outdoor rink, I would watch him, and I would think back to when I was his age and the stuff that I would think. And when I had the puck at age six, I would tell myself, “Here comes Wayne Gretzky in overtime. Here comes Mario Lemieux on a penalty shot.” Or “Steve Yzerman drops the puck back to Chris Chelios.” And I watched Orry, my son, and I’d listen to him, and he would say, “Here comes Mika. Mika’s got the puck. Now Mika’s shooting on goal.” His hero was the kid on his own hockey team, and he wanted to be just like him. And so as luck would have it toward the end of the season, we were in a tournament, and we were in a semifinal game, and we were down four to three and Mika had scored every goal, and there was about 35 seconds left in the game. And I was leaning on the boards, and Mika’s right here, and he’s getting ready to go on the ice. And I said, “What do you think, Meeks?” And he said, “Four goals is a lot, coach.” Six-year-old wisdom: four goals is a lot. And I said, “Mika, I’ve gotta tell you something. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter because you are a hero to at least one other kid on this team.”
Chris Cooper (13:33):
And he said, “Okay, coach.” And he went out. Orry went out, and he said, “Orry, go stand in front of the net. Go like this. Put your stick on the ice.” And the ref dropped the puck, and Mika lost the draw and it went into the corner, and he chased it, but he didn’t have time to skate all the way out in front of the net and shoot. And so what did he do? He threw it out to Orry, and Orry thought, “What would Mika do?” And he kind of went like this, and the puck went in the net, and we tied it up and won the tournament.
Chris Cooper (14:05):
The reason I want you to name your mentor or name your hero is because I want you to tell them that they are your hero. ‘Cause I promise you this: If they know that they are your hero, they will look for ways to pass you the puck. And then it’s your job to be open to receiving from your hero. So I’m gonna ask you again, do you have a hero in this room? Yep. What is their name? Tell them. Make sure that they know because they will start looking for ways to pass you the puck. Okay? The four people that you need in your cockpit: a captain, that’s you, a ride-or-die first mate, a hero and a mentor. Now I wanna talk about your crew. These are the stabilizers on your ship. These are the things that keep you flying straight toward your mission.
Chris Cooper (14:57):
So what I want you to do is write down the names of your crew, and then I want you to write down their primary job. What are they responsible for in your business? That’s their role. To keep the rocket flying straight, you need to help your team keep it aligned. You need to align the fins, and you need to stabilize things. Have you written a staff playbook that tells your staff exactly “here is how stuff should be done”? Have you done that? Fantastic. Have you given them targets to hit and evaluated their ability to hit those targets?
Chris Cooper (15:34):
I didn’t hear a single yes that time. Have you done staff evaluations? Fantastic. Have you given your team targets? All right, write that down. Give your team some targets. Have you identified the best staff and removed the worst staff? Are you charging enough money to be able to pay your staff what they want to earn to do the best job? Yes. All right, glad to hear some yesses there. Are you ready to do the hard stuff that has to be done with your staff? The correction, the course alteration—whatever it takes to get you back on track. Are you the captain ready and willing to do that? Yes. If the answer is yes, you can check that off. If the answer is no, make a note. If the answer is “I’m willing but I need more practice,” write that down, too. The next part of the rocket that we need is fuel to make an impact to fly all the way to your North Star. You will need to be well fed, you will need to be well rested, you’ll probably need to be well dressed, you’ll need to be fit, you’ll need to be calm, you’ll need to be energized, and you’ll need to be excited. That is why you charge for your service. That’s why you charge an appropriate value. That is why you make money. And I am not scared to talk about making money. Are you guys okay with talking about money for a minute? Yeah. Okay, that was a good one. The reason I’m good with talking about money with gym owners is that sometimes to change the world, you gotta write the check.
Chris Cooper (17:20):
People who picket can lend their voice to a cause, but the people who pay can get done. The reason I want you all to have money is because I know that money will create an impact. Right on. We’re not above making gym owners wealthy. I learned this lesson about impact and wealth from this guy named Greg Glassman. Who’s heard of him? Him. So around the end of 2013Greg was wrapping up this project that he called CrossFit for Hope. Did anybody do the CrossFit for Hope workouts? I’m just curious. Yeah, cool. About 52% of the gym owners in Two-Brain are CrossFit affiliates. And so if you haven’t heard this story, indulge me. Crossfit for Hope was a fundraising initiative that we used to make money and fund schools in Kenya to fund research at St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and a few other initiatives. And things were going pretty well. We had just run a big campaign, and we’d raised about $1.6 million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. And I had gone down there and met a bunch of the kids and told their stories, and we were fired up. And then we came back to Santa Cruz, and we got in this room with Greg and he said, “We’re not gonna do this anymore.” And what had happened was that he was funding all of the fundraising himself. And so he had put in about $3 million to raise $1.6 million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. And he said, “This isn’t working.” But about that time, he had been in Cleveland, and he had visited this gym owned by Bill and Stacy Russell called CrossFit Cleveland. And while he was there, he met this woman who was cleaning their bathrooms. And he said to her, “Why are you cleaning these bathrooms?” And she said, “Well, I’m trading the cleaning for my CrossFit membership.” And he said, “I can’t believe you like CrossFit this much, that you’re willing to clean these bathrooms for your CrossFit membership.” And she said, “I don’t have any money, and I’ve got a son at home who’s paralyzed. He can’t get himself outta bed. I have to carry him.”
Chris Cooper (19:41):
And the kid was big, you know. He is like a full-grown man. And so this woman would like—he comes to the side of the bed, and kind of roll him and carry him to the bathtub because that’s the only place he could even sit upright. Leave him in the bathtub for an hour and then carry him back to bed. And she said, “I gotta be strong to do that, but I can’t afford my membership, and that’s why I’m cleaning this gym.” And Greg said, “Well, why don’t you just get him like a really good chair?” And she said, “Well, a chair costs $10,000.” And so Greg went out and of course you know what happened. He got the kid the chair. He got the kid a proper bed, and the woman kept doing CrossFit. But what he learned from that was it’s better to spend $10,000 where it will have an immediate and profound impact than to contribute to a larger pool where you can’t see the results of the impact that you’re trying to have.
Chris Cooper (20:36):
Does that make sense to you guys? It’s better to spend $10,000 where it will have an immediate and profound impact. And that’s what I want you to do. And that’s why I want you to make money at this. What creates that fuel for you? Your revenue does. Your profit does. Your clients do. Your net owner benefit does. Okay? And so what I want you to do is just take a moment. You can cover your sheet if you need to, and I want you to write down how much revenue you need to make to create the kind of impact that you want to have. Write it down on that line. Then I want you to write down how much profit you gotta have, how much of that has to come to you so that you can give it to other people or spend it any way you want to on your cause. How many clients will that take? Write that down. Let’s set yourself some goals here. I’m not gonna audit, I’m not even gonna hold them to it, hold you to them, but your mentor might—so beware. Now I’ve got on there, I’ve got revenue from your gym, I’ve got clients, but there are other things that create fuel for you, too. And these are your assets. These are your real estate, these are your investments. If Sean Rider was here, he would already be talking about overfunded whole life and you know, we’d have to like mute him.
Chris Cooper (21:58):
What creates this fuel for you? All the Tinkers are laughing. That’s right. You know it. What creates this fuel for you is the cash that’s coming to you so that you can give it away. My mission is to give away a million dollars a year for the rest of my life. And I’m gonna share with you later on how we’re going to make that happen. Okay? But this isn’t about me. This is about you. And so building your business, creating assets, having investments and investing in yourself is the best way to add fuel to the rocket. And so I wanna talk briefly here about investing in yourself. If you took a dollar 12 months ago and you put it in the stock market, okay, just the most conservative index fund you could find, what would that dollar be worth today? Anybody know? I don’t know where you’re getting a dollar 10, brother, but I’m coming to you for investment advice.
Chris Cooper (22:52):
For most of us it’s about 60 cents. Okay? Investing in the average 500 big businesses in the U.S. Right now is losing you money. But an investment into your gym, an investment into yourself has been yielding a return between $2 and 40 cents for every dollar that you put in and $8. That’s an 800X ROI. And there’s somebody in this room today who is getting an eight times return on their investment in themselves. The average Two-Brain gym is getting $2 and 40 cents back for every dollar that they invest in mentorship. The best people to invest in on the planet right now are you guys. Are you ready to invest in yourself? Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
Chris Cooper (23:47):
I’m not asking you for money from the stage, by the way. I just wanna know that you’re ready. How will you invest in yourself next year? I want you to write that down. Write that down under your impact goal. You are the captain, you are the best investment out there, you’re the safest investment. Invest in yourself. Now, underneath this rocket, to really launch it appropriately, to give it the best possible boost, to really kick us off so that we can get all the way to that mission, the foundation of all of this, the cornerstones, are habits. There are four entrepreneurial habits that you need. And they might not be the ones you think. The first habit that you need is discipline. Not the discipline to food-prep on Sunday night. Okay? Not the discipline to work out five times a week. Not the discipline to do your Zone 2 work even though it’s boring. Not the discipline to work on your mobility to improve your overhead squat.
Chris Cooper (24:46):
The discipline that you need is the discipline to do one thing every day that grows your business before you do anything else. Let’s repeat that again together. You must do one thing every day to grow your business before you do anything else. Ready? Let’s do it. You must do one thing every day to grow your business before you do anything else. Are you guys ready to promise me you’re going to do that? Good. That means before you have breakfast, it means before your kids wake up, it means before you coach the 6-a.m. Class, before you coordinate your outfit, as I know you all do, you will do one thing to grow your business. And if you’re not sure what that thing is, ask who your mentor. They know the answer. The second habit that you need is respect. Leaders don’t criticize, condemn or complain. You guys have heard that before, right? That’s right from Dale Carnegie. Leaders don’t criticize, condemn or complain. And that means respect. That means that you don’t run down one staff to the other staff person. It means that you don’t gossip about your clients. It means you don’t make fun of your customers to other gym owners on Facebook.
Chris Cooper (26:06):
You create this respect by teaching it to your staff, by telling it to your clients and by modeling it for all of the other gyms around you. One of my favorite posts in the Two-Brain Facebook group in the last month was Tres Kennedy sitting down with a new gym owner, one block away from his gym and saying, “Let me tell you how to run a good business.” That’s respect. And that is one of the habits that you need. The third habit that you need is influence. If you wanna change a person’s health, first you gotta change their mind. You must build your influence. And that means you have to tell a sticky story. It means you have to have a compelling why. It means you have to have an attractive mission. And more than any of that, you have to tell us. You have to tell us what is your mission. Why are you doing this? You have to tell your staff why it’s important to start every group on time. You have to tell your clients why it’s important to show up five days a week and get protein at every meal. If you don’t tell them nobody else will.
Chris Cooper (27:19):
Or, worse, if you don’t tell them the right way, somebody will tell them the wrong way. You are a media company like it or not. Follow Mike Warkentin on Instagram for more tips. And the fourth habit that you need is your behavior. This is how you act whether anybody’s watching you or not. And for this, you look to your hero and you ask yourself, “What would Nick do? What would Brian do? How would he behave? How would he react? How would he act today? What is he doing right now? Does he know that I’m thinking about him? Should I text him?” Your behavior ultimately determines how people see you. It’s not what you say as much as what you do. That determines success, discipline, respect, influence and behavior. Create impact. The pieces to all this, they sound simple, don’t they? Like most of the answers here are one word: yes or no. I know what I need to work on, but they’re not easy. And I know as fitness professionals you get that, but I know that you are going to do it. You are going to build a gym that pays you well. You’re going to build a platform that supports your staff. You’re going to build a method that changes lives, and you’re gonna build a following that changes your town. I know you’re gonna do it because I know you have all of the pieces. Most of the pieces are here for you right now. So let’s start. Let’s start with your crew and your cockpit one more time. How many people already have a great crew, a great mentor, a great hero and a great first mate? Let me hear a “hell, yeah.” How many people have three outta those four? Hell, yeah. How many people have two? Hell, yeah.
Chris Cooper (29:19):
How many people have at least one of those four in their cockpit right now? How many people have at least one of those people here with them right now? Hell, yeah. All right. I know that some of you have your crew here. How many people have everybody they need already in their crew? How many people need to maybe add one more person, two more people to that crew? Let me hear a hell, yeah. How many people need to add five more people to that crew? Good. You’re only one or two people away. Fantastic. Here’s my last question. How many people believe in themself as a captain? Hell, yeah. Let’s hear it again. Thank you. For those of you who had to force that a little bit, I just want to take a minute here and and reassure you: You’re enough. Let’s look at who’s in this room. Everybody here took a risk that nobody else would take, right? Everybody here gave up the sure thing, the job, the nine to five, the brokerage to open a gym to help people. That’s tremendous. I want you to give yourself a round of applause.
Chris Cooper (30:41):
Do you know how special you are? There are very few people who, given the choice, given the opportunity, given the social safety net that we take for granted in the Western Hemisphere, would still risk the sure thing for the slight opportunity that they might be able to change one other life. But you did that. Who better to change the world than the people who are here right now, who are willing to do it all, who are willing to take the risk, who are willing to sometimes screw it up? ‘Cause I know you’ve done it for free. You’ve done it for no money, you’ve done it on no sleep, you’ve done it hungry, you’ve done it tired, you’ve done it angry, you’ve done it, and then you’ve gone in your office and cried and wiped your eyes and gone right back out and done another show. If that’s you, say “hell, yeah.” Who better than the person sitting on your right to change the world? Give them a round of applause. They need it. Who better than the people at your table? Give them a round of applause. They need it. Who better today than you to do all this stuff that’s gonna change the world? Give yourself some love.
Chris Cooper (32:06):
You have all the parts that you need, and while you’ve been out there building the rocket, straightening the rocket, pouring juice into the rocket, the team back in the control room has been pretty busy, too. This is Matt Stanghetta. Matt was up past midnight last night, past my bedtime, launching two brand new tools that we’ve been building for you for a long time. This is called the Growth Toolkit. And when you log into twobrain.app today, you’re going to see both of these. Three years ago, I built something called the Two-Brain Business Roadmap. And at the time my goal was just map the galaxy, show everybody where all the parts are, what they have to do, where they have to go, then where they go after that, and then where they go third. And what’s happened over the last three years is some people have really exploded.
Chris Cooper (32:57):
They’ve found faster paths to get to where they want to go because it’s not about my path; it’s about finding the best path. And so just before lunch, you saw us hand out the million-dollar-in-net-worth awards. 18 people have become millionaires in Two-Brain this year. Can you believe that? And it’s because they focus on just what they have to do right now, and that’s the first thing they do every morning. And so I wanna make that easier for everybody. And so the new Growth Toolkit goes like this. You get on a call with your mentor, you look at your metrics and your mentor says, “Here is your greatest opportunity to increase your speed or increase your velocity or carry more weight or get more clients or keep your clients longer. Right now, here is what you need.” And then they’re going to say, “Here’s the tool that you need to align your fins to stabilize the ship, to add fuel to the boosters. Here’s the exact tool you need.” And then you can just go get it. That’s the toolkit. And it’s active right now. Higher speed, lower drag. The second thing that we added last night at midnight, and we’ve been building this for several months, is called the Two-Brain Marketplace.
Chris Cooper (34:17):
Somebody gave a woo from the back of the room—who’s probably in the marketplace. There are about 800 gyms in Two-Brain right now, and there are thousands who are paying attention, who wanna be part of the movement. And that gives us enormous leverage. It attracts a lot of people who wanna be part of this movement, who wanna help you guys out, who want to accelerate your journey, who wanna remove stress from you. A lot of people, what we did was say, “If you wanna be part of this movement, you’re gonna have to undergo some pain. You’re gonna have to be a little bit creative. You’re gonna have to dig deep. You’re gonna have to give these gym owners more than you give anybody else. You’re gonna have to save them money every single month.” Like Merchant Advocate does. The testers who tested Merchant Advocate for us saved between 600 and 900 bucks a month on money they were just handing over to their processors.
Chris Cooper (35:14):
Can you believe that? And the marketplace is full of this stuff. There are 15 people in the marketplace right now that we’re proud to have there. There’s another cohort of 15 who are waiting to get on there today. And so if you want to accelerate your journey, go on the marketplace. We built this for you, not for me. This isn’t “how do I get a cut?” This is how do we speed you up toward your North Star because we want to get you to your impact. Good. Let’s do a practice round. We wanna get you to your impact. Good one. All right, so I don’t wanna give away the surprise here, but I do wanna give you an example.
Chris Cooper (35:56):
I wanna show you the difference between a legacy and impact. My legacy project is to give away a million dollars a year for the rest of my life, give that to causes that promote entrepreneurship; who are advocates for entrepreneurs when we need it, when maybe the government isn’t always on our side; who teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to kids in elementary school and high school; who publish books about entrepreneurship to show that this is a viable path. And these books and these courses, they’re about you. We’re going to support these organizations, but I really wanna talk about my impact platform today. My legacy platform is called businessisgood.com, and we’ll start some fundraising on there with books and stuff pretty soon. The impact platform is twobrainbusiness.com. You’re all familiar with that. And our mission at Two-Brain is to change a million lives by empowering fitness entrepreneurs.
Chris Cooper (36:56):
The reason we’re empowering you guys is so that you can go out there and build stable businesses that will last at least for 30 years, that will support you and your family and create other businesses that will change these lives. We’re gonna start by getting 5,000 gym owners to earn $100,000 a year. That’s the start. That’s the first goal. We’re also going to get 500 gym owners to a million dollars in net worth—and a little bit more, too. Why do we wanna make these gym owners millionaires? Because impact takes money and freedom. I wanna share with you some examples. There are some people here who are at the Tinker Phase who have a little bit of extra money and a little bit of extra time. They’re not throwing cash out at the clubs while they’re in Chicago, but they have just enough time to be working on the bigger projects that will actually make a difference.
Chris Cooper (37:51):
The first is Joanne Cogle. Joanne is running for council in her city, not because it pays very well, not because it’s good marketing for her gym, not because it will improve her effective hourly rate and impress her mentor, but because that is what her city needs, and she has a little bit of extra time that will allow her to do that. I wanna tell you about Tres Kennedy, who can’t be here because he’s at, he’s teaching a bunch of other pastors how to run better churches. Tres has a great gym, and he also founded Move Church because he wants to help people find God, but he wants them to have a happy, healthy life while they’re waiting. I wanna tell you about Kevin Neglia. Where’s Kev? Kevin has a great gym. He and his wife just bought a pet health spa because his mission extends beyond the human biome.
Chris Cooper (38:44):
He wants to help pets too. Yeah, Kev. I wanna talk to you about Dave Colina back here at 02. When the chips were down for microgyms around the world, Dave said, “What can I do?” And he leveraged all his connections, pulled them all together, and he created this little card that made gyms money. That is impact. And that’s the kind of stuff that you can do when you’ve got a little bit of money, a little bit of time to let your brain work. I wanna talk about Shawn Rider. Shawn recently bought a small building in the center of his town. His town was struggling. His town needed a beacon. It needed inspiration. It needed a place for entrepreneurship. And Sean gave them that. Not because he had $3.2 million in his pocket, but because he had the time to ask himself, “How can I do this and then do it?”
Chris Cooper (39:39):
Shawn left to be at his 2-year-old’s birthday party. So today I wanna share about Chance Beam. Chance runs a baseball academy. And after he went through Two-Brain mentorship, he started extending his baseball academy to help other baseball academies, and now other baseball academies use his brand and his systems and his operations. And now, every time he adds a new baseball academy, he impacts hundreds of little lives through baseball. Rich Borgatti’s here. Rich has written a book that will get people excited about a different type of fitness. Finally, right, Ari? Yeah. Finally he’s got this book. Yeah, she did this. I’ve got 10 copies of Rich’s book here, but that’s it. If you want a copy, find him. Stand up Rich. Give us a wave. Find him. Get his book ater. I wanna talk about Clark Hibbs. Clark boarded a flight to make the Tinker Meetup on Friday, and he sat beside a couple who were both overweight, and they were really awkward about it.
Chris Cooper (40:44):
And the first thing outta their mouth was “I’m sorry that I’m so fat.” And Clark said, “I can help.” And he signed them both up as nutrition clients before the plane left the ground. He is changing their lives because he is good at this and he had the app on his phone to do that. Finally, Corey Lewis is here. Stand up, Corey. So Corey’s got us all raising funds this weekend for Brace for IMPACT 46, which helps fund education and health-care facilities in Haiti. And just as a reminder, if you post a picture anywhere and put the Two-Brain Business tag and hashtag “impact,” I’ll donate a buck to Corey’s cause. Okay, finally, as I was rehearsing this kind of in the back room and pacing around and going through this list and saying “I’m never gonna remember all these guys,” the mentors started sliding me notes.
Chris Cooper (41:37):
“What About this guy? What about her?” And so what I’ve got here, I’ve got a bunch of these little pieces of paper. And so we’re gonna give out a few lion flags. So if you look at what Kaleda and Amber have here, maybe you can step on the stage here. If you’re not familiar with the Lion Flag at Two-Brain, we award these flags for people who have been through extraordinary hardship and come through better. They’ve not just survived, but they’ve actually improved their business and their life after going through the hard thing. I wanna call four people to the stage here today. The first is Chris Miller. Second. Come on up guys. Come on up and I’ll read your bio. Yeah, while we’re doing this. Andrew Alvarado. Matt Andrus and Ash Huggett. I’d love to have you all up here. Where’s Ash? So good guys. Hey, thank you. Thanks, brother. I’ll read a little blurb here while I’ve got them. So the first was Chris. Greg nominated him for a Lion Flag. Chris overcame some health challenges through the pandemic. He overcame a brain tumor and a blood clot, and he’s bounced all the way back and his gym’s doing great. Now. Congrats, Chris. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Chris Cooper (43:04):
Andrew went through a ton of personal adversity. You probably heard his story on Two-Brain Radio, but he took all that stuff and—like an injury after a pro sports career, right?—he took all of that, the bad experiences, and it just forged an iron core in Andrew. And if you’ve been marking this guy’s progress, you will see literally a rocket. He is growing so fast. The skill that Russ really appreciates in Andrew, that made him nominate him for the Lion Flag, was he just goes through the work line by line. He doesn’t cherry-pick the easy stuff. He doesn’t skip steps. He just gets it done. Thank you for being such a model to us, Andrew. Matt had to run a gym on a generator for months before he was profitable. Now he’s bought a family cabin. He’s leading a big team. It was just a pleasure to run into him in the halls. Sequoia CrossFit is doing better than ever right now. He literally pulled himself up from the weeds. Great job, Matt. Thank you. Ash survived almost all of his clients leaving several months ago. He went to losing money, then he moved to a new location, but he’s already paid down his debt. He’s making more revenue with fewer members. He’s getting paid. He’s taking holidays. He’s all the way over here in USA. Thank you for being such a great example to the rest of us. Thanks, guys. Yeah, let’s take your picture with the Lion Flag while I’ve got you up here. Okay? Yeah. Just stand right up there. Me too, me too. Way over here. All the way over. A little bit more. Thanks, guys. All right, let’s hear it for these guys.
Chris Cooper (45:01):
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We’ll ship them out to you guys. Thank you. Thanks. Impact doesn’t mean giving away a million dollars for the rest of your life. Impact means doing one small thing, changing one life. And that’s what these guys are doing. Incremental, small impacts, one life at a time. And so my question for you is “how do you wanna be part of this?” Do you wanna be part of the 5,000 gym owners making $100,000 a year or more, creating a platform for health and safety in their community and a platform that can launch other careers? Hell, yes. If that’s the case, would you rather be one of the 500 who reaches a million in net worth, expands their audience and expands their care to reach even more people and change their community? Hell, yes.
Chris Cooper (45:56):
Do you wanna maybe be one of the first five who reaches 10 million in net worth? Hell, yes! And the first is here, by the way. He’s gonna do it this year. He knows who he is. I promised I wouldn’t call him out. I mean, if he just wants to spontaneously stand up, he can do that. But he might not want to. When you’re at that level, it’s not like you stop caring about people. But what you have now is the vehicle to deliver that care to more people, more deeply, where it will make an immediate change that lasts forever in their lives. And that’s why we wanna get people there. So I want you to ask yourself this: How can you get there? If you said you wanna make $100,000, how can you get there? If you said you want to be a millionaire and expand your care and your audience, how can you get there?
Chris Cooper (46:49):
And if you want to hit the eight-figure mark, how can you get there? What is stopping you right now? Who do you need in the cockpit with you that you don’t have? What do you need to stabilize in the business? What’s setting you off course? What fuel do you need to acquire to get you all the way to your North Star? What habits do you need to start practicing? Do you know what these are now? Do you know who you need, what you need and when you need it? What footprint do you wanna leave behind? When we’re all done in 30 years and we hand over the gym to somebody else and it’s thriving and it’s grown, what kind of footprint do you wanna leave on your community? Do you think the people in this room can have an impact? Yeah, applaud. Applaud by all means.
Chris Cooper (47:41):
Yeah. Or if just gimme a hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Do you think the people at your table can do it? Yeah. Do you think the person on your left can do it? Yes. Do you think you can do it? You better say it louder. ‘Cause I’m gonna make you promise. Do you think you can do it? Yes. All right. I’m gonna make you promise. At the bottom of that sheet, you’re gonna see something that’s called an “impact pledge.” And I want you to fold it, fold that sheet along the perforation and tear it off. I want you to make a promise to me and to yourself. I want you to take the first steps towards having a big impact down the road. And so I want you to write, “Here’s what I will do for myself. Here’s how I will invest in myself. By June 2023, by the time I see all of these friends, by the time I run into Coop and the team again, I will have done this for myself.” Go ahead. Write that down. How will you invest in yourself even if it’s just giving yourself another three hours a week of paid time off. Now that’s the hard one. Here’s the easy one. What will I do for my family by June 2023 to create the wealth that I want them to have? What small step will I take, will I commit to, will I promise to myself to get done by one year from now to build wealth for my family? Buy a dirt bike, teach my son chainsaw safety, do not leave all the gas cans empty like I did this weekend when I came down here? Next, what is one thing you’re going to do for your business to change your business, to grow your business by this time next year?
Chris Cooper (49:27):
One action you’re going to take that you can commit to, that you will promise. One thing could be “get 10 clients,” could be raise your rates, whatever. Improve your LEG. Pay yourself more. Finally, what is one thing that you’re going to do for your local community? I don’t just mean the members of your gym. I mean your town. I mean the people around you who need to hear from you so bad, who need your success, who need your inspiration, who need you to be a beacon? What is one thing you’re going to do to impact them? All right? One word is good, two words is great. Fold it in half, stick it in your pocket, put it somewhere. Don’t put it through the wash. Put it somewhere and bring it back with you next year to our summit. Okay? I want you to bring that back and we’re gonna open them together and I’m gonna ask you “did you do it?”
Chris Cooper (50:21):
Dave, did you have an impact on your community this last year? Adam, how did you build wealth for your family this year? Okay, Greg, what did you do to improve yourself this year? I’m gonna ask you that next year. So bring that slip of paper with you. I don’t want to hear any “dog ate my homework.” Between now and then, I got a couple of things I’d like you to do. I want you to be successful. I want you to leave tracks for others to follow. I want you to show other people, other entrepreneurs, other gym owners how to do it. I want you to be the one who pays for change, not just the one who pickets. I want you to be the one who actually changes things, not the one who just complains about them, as I’ve spent a lot of time doing this weekend–complaining about my flights. To do that, I want you to go out and and be commissioners in your town. I want you to take over your city. I want you to influence the people. Run for mayor or council. Protest something. Be the person to change. Lead your town to health. Take controls of your own mission and guide us all to impact. Thank you for coming this weekend.
Announcer (51:35):
This is “Run a Profitable Gym.” To talk about this episode and interact with other gym owners, including Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper, head to gymownersunited.com and join our group today.
