Mike Warkentin: (00:02)
Gym owners. If you aren’t running a nutrition program, you’re leaving a ton of money on the table. How much? You’re gonna find out today. Get this: our 2021 data shows that only 69% of gyms offer nutrition coaching. Just 69%. And these programs generally only generate about 5 or 6% of gross revenue. Nothing, right? Very small percentages. So if you do 20k gross, 6% is nutrition. That’s just $1,200. But we all know that nutrition is the other half of the health equation. So if you offer fitness coaching, nutrition coaching is the perfect compliment. It’s good for your clients and it’s good for your business. So, to help you fire up your program today, I’ve got Clark Hibbs of Yellow Rose Fitness with me. You’re on Two Brain Radio. I’m Mike Warkentin, your host. Please subscribe and follow along. Now, Clark crushes nutrition down in Houston, Texas, and he’s gonna tell you exactly how he does it, because you are leaving money on the table. Clark isn’t. We’re gonna help you out right now. So before we jump in, go to GymOwnersUnited.com. And if you want advice and support from a helpful community and Chris Cooper himself, that’s the place to do it. GymOwnersUnited.com. Clark, welcome to the show. How’s Texas?
Clark Hibbs: (01:12)
Well, you know, we finally got our first little bit of fall. It was below 60 degrees this morning, and it was too cold for me. So we’re pretty frigid down here below 60 degrees. But besides that, you know, everything’s great.
Mike Warkentin: (01:23)
All right, well, let’s put some meat on the bones. Let’s eat a big pile of advice stew here, and let’s see what we can talk about.
Clark Hibbs: (01:29)
Not too big of a pile. We need to make sure that it’s moderate, you know, moderate calories for sure.
Mike Warkentin: (01:35)
We’ll zone it, do our macros and all that. So, how important, you know, all jokes aside, how important is your nutrition program to your business? Like, can you give us any numbers that put these things in perspective so listeners will understand that 5 or 6% of revenue is not a good thing for a gym?
Clark Hibbs: (01:51)
Yeah, I mean, I can’t remember the last time we’ve done five or 6%. We are averaging month over month. It kind of depends based on quarters, like in quarter two and three when people are on summer vacation and whatnot, we might be around that 18 to 20% mark. But like right now, I’m just looking at last month in September, we did 20% of our gross revenue in nutrition, and we’ve had months that have been upwards of 25, 26%.
Mike Warkentin: (02:14)
Okay, So that’s huge. So gyms that are doing like 5 or 6%, they’re just not doing enough nutrition because this is such a complimentary service if you’re running a fitness business, and your role months are a multiple of the average, you know, for a gym in our State of the Industry study, which is coming out soon. Guys, you can get that and we’ll tell you how when it’s time. So follow us on social media. So let’s break it down. And I want you to help people improve their number from five to six to like, start for 10, then 15 and a little bit higher. Have you always offered nutrition coaching? And if not, when did you start?
Clark Hibbs: (02:49)
So before I go any further with that, my wife is our head nutrition coach, and she is the one who is behind the keyboard all day making sure that she’s training or checking in with all of her clients. And that is not her sole job with the gym, but I’d say that it is 80 to 85% of her job. She does the nutrition coaching, and I think that that is a huge aspect of that. But anyway, back to your question. No, we did not always do a nutrition program. In fact, we actually used to work for a different nutrition company as contractors for them. We owned our gym and then we also worked for them. And then after we gained a little bit of experience there, we were thinking, Wait, what are we doing?
Clark Hibbs: (03:29)
Why aren’t we offering this in-house? And we were able to make that transition. We’re still on great terms and a great relationship with that company and that company’s founder and, incredibly supportive of us as well. And then now we were able to sort of transition all that experience and all those reps that we built helping people with their nutrition into our own business. And the best part about it was, it’s not like we took a bunch of clients or anything like that. We learned how to talk about nutrition. We learned how to coach, which I think is the biggest thing that most gym owners are missing, is not being able to properly coach nutrition. And we were able to implement our own systems in order to make sure that our members and our clients got the best experience possible when it comes to something so personal and so emotional like nutrition.
Mike Warkentin: (04:14)
So you started at zero, zero percentage of revenue and you ramped that. When did you put this program in and what did the first stages look like? And I’ll ask you a follow up question to that. Was it good at the start or did it have to evolve? So when and what?
Clark Hibbs: (04:29)
So we started coaching nutrition in 2018, and then we brought it in-house into Yellow Rose at the end of 2020. End of 2020, or beginning of 2021. I can’t remember the exact date. And there’s been a lot of iterations since then. But it started out pretty slow, but then after we started, after those first few early adopters started seeing progress and we were able to showcase that those people were seeing progress, that number of things just sort of took off. And now we’re at that steady percentage of our gross revenue.
Mike Warkentin: (05:02)
I’m gonna ask you for advice at the end, but I gotta ask you one right now. Yeah. People are thinking, Okay, so it starts slow. How do you skip the starting slow part? Is there a way that you’ve discovered that’ll save listeners the time? Can you help them get there faster?
Clark Hibbs: (05:15)
No, I really don’t think that that’s thing. I mean, the thing that most of the listeners might be looking for is like, Hey, how do I do this jumpstarter? How can I do this big challenge? Or how can I do anything? We have not once at Yellow Rose ran any sort of kickstart challenge, anything. And that’s more from our personal philosophy of things. We don’t want nutrition to be thought as something that has this in-date to it. We don’t want to have people feel like, Oh, I need to do this six week challenge so that way then I can mess around for 12 weeks and then do another six week challenge. Like, we don’t want that. We want this to be a coaching service that is sustainable. Not sustainable, that is just a part of their monthly experience with us.
Clark Hibbs: (06:01)
So that way, they always have that accountability in their corner. And we treat it as such. We make sure that whenever we go through their goal setting sessions, that they know that we’re not here to help you lose 20 pounds in six weeks. We don’t wanna do that. In fact, we’re happy with just 1% of body weight a week, maybe as like our max weight that we want us to lose. And I think that the more people that get to experience that, the more they realize that, oh wow, this is actually sustainable. And the best part is, after they lose the weight or gain the weight, whatever their goal might be, they’re able to sustain that. They don’t feel like they have to constantly keep coming back to a challenge or constantly keep coming back to any sort of diet they are in.
Clark Hibbs: (06:41)
They’ve made the life changes, they’ve learned, they’ve been educated, and now they can actually sustain that for the rest of their lives. But it was not a, sorry to cut you off. It was definitely not a fast start because like all good things, you don’t hit overnight success. It took a while to get this up to where it needs to be. And it took tons and tons of coaching from my wife to make sure that all these members were reaching their goals, meeting their goals, and learning new things and being challenged enough to actually see the right progress, see the results.
Mike Warkentin: (07:17)
I’m gonna guess though, that with that plan, you’re talking about long term sustainable programs mm-hmm. , you probably have better retention than a nutrition kickstarter six week challenge, right?
Clark Hibbs: (07:27)
Oh my gosh. It’s huge. I mean, I think our length of engagement for our nutrition clients, it’s close to nine months.
Mike Warkentin: (07:33)
Yeah. So that’s a huge, huge thing. Listeners, if you are thinking about running a nutrition challenge, it’s six weeks and it’s gonna be a one and done revenue spike. It’s cool if you need that revenue real bad. But don’t look at that as the basis of your program. Clark is telling you that a long term sustainable play is going to increase length of engagement, which means people are going to change their lives, which is your goal as gym owner and your gym is gonna benefit.
Clark Hibbs: (07:54)
And not only does it increase the length of engagement for just nutrition members, we’ve noticed that our gym members that have added in nutrition, it’s increased their length of engagement as well. Because all of a sudden when they lose 10, 12, 15, 20 pounds, oh wow, I feel better in the gym. I enjoy working out more, I’m recovering better, I’m sleeping better, I’m happier. And all of it is thanks to our fitness facility.
Mike Warkentin: (08:18)
So people are seeing PRS and success, visible body changes, I’m sure, but they’re also seeing, you know, it’s easier to do pull ups when you drop 15 pounds. So they’re seeing better times. Like all these markers, all these milestones of success are now appearing for clients at a faster rate. And they’ve got both nutrition markers and fitness markers. It equals a stronger program, which equals better results and better results equal retention. Right. So give me your overall length of engagement for your gym as a whole, not just nutrition.
Clark Hibbs: (08:45)
Yeah, so we have a length of engagement of 28 months right now, which is really awesome.
Mike Warkentin: (08:49)
Huge. That is really awesome. You may not know the answer to this but I’ll ask anyway. Did you notice that increase significantly when the nutrition program came in?
Clark Hibbs: (08:58)
Yes, absolutely. Hundred percent. Because we have some people that- you know, nutrition is so funny because it’s a lot like personal finance. I mean, it’s so hand in hand with personal finance. We all know that we need to not live above our means, but so many people do that. That’s why so many of us in the world are in debt. And then the same thing with nutrition. We know we don’t need to eat more, but for some reason we do. And yeah, it’s delicious. And so we’re living above our means. And so by, we have so many of our nutrition clients that they don’t even talk about when they’re gonna stop nutrition coaching. My wife is just their nutrition coach, just like they have a finance person, just like they have a *insert whatever service that you need in order to make sure that you see results with that*. We just become a non-negotiable in their monthly expenses.
Mike Warkentin: (09:51)
Now, do you have a breakdown in your mind of hybrid clients? Like nutrition and fitness together versus just nutrition clients? Do you have any idea on that?
Clark Hibbs: (10:00)
I don’t have the exact numbers on that. We have more hybrid clients of gym and nutrition than just nutrition. But we do have, I’d say, just thinking of the numbers, I actually just looked at numbers before this, trying to be prepared here. I’d say it’s about split 50-50 there. Yeah. Luckily with our previous experience and with our reach with our personal Instagrams and Facebooks and whatnot, we are able to take this nutrition coaching aspect of it and have it be global. We literally have a client in Australia, we have a client in Japan, we have a client in Germany, and that’s pretty cool to say. Our little fitness business in Houston, Texas is actually global, which is pretty cool. And it’s all done very simply via email and some Google sheets.
Mike Warkentin: (10:44)
Okay, we’re gonna get into that in just a second. I wanna point, yeah, I wanna know the exact details. I wanna point a few things out for you. First, you’ve got nutrition-only clients. This is a completely different revenue stream. Chris Cooper advises you generate different revenue streams, not a million of them, but three or four really strong ones and build them up. Nutrition is a good one. So let’s say you have just nutrition clients. That is awesome because if there’s a gym closure, they can still do nutrition, and we had gym closures the last two years, right? That was a tough one. Second thing, if you have nutrition hybrid clients, right, where they’re doing fitness and nutrition, you’ve got built-in retention. Clark has the data that says that is true. It also increases your average revenue per member, which is a huge deal. They’re paying more for fitness and nutrition, increased length of engagement, plus increased average revenue per member-ARM- incredible multipliers in the fitness world. This is where successful gyms make huge money and get great results for their clients. You can’t miss this. It’s a really, really important thing for you. So now I- no, go ahead.
Clark Hibbs: (11:43)
Jumping in there too. I mean our main revenue services, or our main revenue streams are group fitness, personal training, nutrition coaching, and then our youth program. And we have at least 12 members right now, just off the top of my head, that are a part of group fitness, personal training and nutrition coaching. We have at least 12 members that are paying anywhere from 700 to $1,200 a month just for our services.
Mike Warkentin: (12:07)
Gym owners. If you’re sitting here saying, Holy crap, $700 a month for one client, I could never get that. You can start by combining nutrition and fitness and the rate for that, I’m gonna guess, I’m just gonna throw it out there that you could probably start at around 300 bucks. That would not be outside the realm of possibility. I know gyms are charging much more for it because it is a very important service. But don’t think that 700 bucks is impossible. It is doable. The other thing I wanna point out before we get into the nitty gritty is this. Nutrition scales faster than fitness because you don’t need more barbells, you don’t need more space, you don’t need all this heating, electricity, all this other stuff. You just basically need some form of communication. That’s pretty much it. You can have clients, and my wife has the exact same situation as Clark does, clients anywhere in the world who work with the nutrition coach online. We have in-person clients, we have people who do fitness and nutrition. Nutrition scales really fast. And the final thing, you could hire someone to do this at a 44% four ninths model situation where this coach generates revenue and takes a percentage of revenue. So it’s not like I have to pay coaches wages to coach classes. They’re generating revenue and getting a percentage of that. So everyone eats more because there’s more to eat. Ok.
Clark Hibbs: (13:19)
Yep. More pie.
Mike Warkentin: (13:20)
Talk about, you said it was a simple program. People are sitting there saying, I could never do this. I don’t understand. That’s why I didn’t have a nutrition program at the beginning. No idea how to do it. Simplify it. What did gym owners need to make a nutrition program?
Clark Hibbs: (13:34)
Well, first they need basic education on nutrition. And not just basic education on the textbook, but there really is a real life experience that goes behind it because we can all look up the textbooks and know all the things in the world. But you know, the textbook definition of how you’re going to see nutritional success for the 25 year old single guy who has all the time in the world is gonna be a whole lot different than the busy dad or the busy mom, or the CEO or the whoever. These people that have real lifetime constraints. So actually understanding how, even if they’re not doing the perfect things, don’t let good be the enemy of great or whatever that saying is. You probably know what I’m saying there, but you know, for most people, being good enough or being just good is good enough as far as allowing them to see progress.
Clark Hibbs: (14:26)
And a lot of times I see nutrition coaches try to make sure that their clients are being perfect, when at the end of the day, that’s not what’s necessary. They just need to be consistent, which is again, why we don’t do the “try to be perfect for six weeks” sort of challenges. We do the, Hey, it’s all good, let’s make sure we can do this for a long time. So the basic education is there. And then also really, I mean, what they need to get started, they just need to talk about it. They need to talk about it a lot. The only way that you’re gonna actually get some clients is if you’re actually talking about your nutrition. Talking about how you’re going to help people, giving people helpful tips, posting a lot of content, free advice and making sure people say, Hey, I actually wanna do this with you.
Mike Warkentin: (15:05)
Listeners, check your local jurisdiction. Just find out what you’re allowed to do with nutrition. The laws vary. They’re weird all over the place. So do do that legwork first. Figure out what you need. There’s some things you can and cannot do in certain states and certain jurisdictions around the world do check that out. So you’re gonna have to do that legwork. But know this nutrition coaching doesn’t have to be meal plans and macros and all this other stuff, meal, you know, nutrition coaching. A good program can just be habits based, right? Where you’re just saying, I want you to eat vegetables at every meal for a week straight. Start with that.
Clark Hibbs: (15:37)
I mean, my wife has clients that are training for Ironman right now. They’re doing long endurance stuff, which, that is actually really nutritionally complicated. Trying to figure out how many carbs, fats, proteins they need while they’re going on a three hour bike ride. I mean, that’s gonna be very different than someone who’s trying to fuel up to get through their day at work. Very, very different. And then she also has clients that are literally, you know, the only goal is I want you to eat something green today, and I want you to take a 30 minute walk. I mean, really, I think that one of the biggest things we can do as an industry is to stop talking about nutrition coaching and start talking about it more as lifestyle coaching. Because at the end of the day, that’s really what it means.
Clark Hibbs: (16:17)
All we’re trying to do is getting people to move consistently, getting people to be aware of what they’re eating, and then making sure that people are also aware that their behaviors are what impacts their goals. There’s a lot of people out there that, that think, Oh, I’m not eating a whole lot, but they haven’t tracked it. So then actually we do know that, or there’s a lot of people that say, Oh, I’m being really good, but are they being really good? And why are we actually talking about this food in a moral stance? Like, what is “good”? And so there’s a lot of digging really deep with people individually to make sure that we are giving them a truly customized program for that person. I mean, we have a basic template, which I’m sure we’re gonna kind of get into on how we do things, but at the end of the day, it is all 100% customizable. Just like, I mean, if we’re talking CrossFit here, all your workouts are scalable and modifiable. Your nutrition needs to be the exact same way as well.
Mike Warkentin: (17:12)
Yeah. It doesn’t have to be that complicated, listeners. No, the average person in North America is not very fit, doesn’t move very much, and doesn’t eat very well. So literally, if you just get someone moving a little bit more and eating more vegetables, that is a huge step in the right direction, and there’s value in that. Their health will improve and then they’ll start going further. And then eventually you might be able to get into like, snatch grip high pulls with 60% of max for reps. Like, you can get into the complicated stuff later on. You don’t have to do it at the beginning. And you don’t have to be a nutrition wizard to start with this. So give me the very basics of the program, and you don’t have to reveal the trade secrets and so forth, but tell me like, what is in your program and how can other gyms, what can they steal from you to just get a start on this thing?
Clark Hibbs: (17:52)
Yeah. I mean, if we were to put like an identity behind it, we would say that we’re a macronutrient based nutrition coaching, just because we think that it’s very simple and very scalable and sustainable for people. It’s very easy for people to kinda digest that and understand that. But really what it is, it’s one on one weekly nutrition coaching. We get a general intake form from them. We know, Hey, what are your goals? What are we doing? My wife does an intro call with them to make sure that we’re on the same page and everything. And she lays out the guidelines, lays out the do’s and don’ts. We send them FAQs, some frequently asked questions, send them a little nutrition guide that helps them, like, Oh, how do I weigh my food?
Clark Hibbs: (18:36)
Oh, here’s how you weigh your food. How do I track my food? Here’s how you track your food. And then my wife gives them basically unlimited email access. We don’t do cell phones or text messages. Just that way, we can have a little bit of work-life balance on that. And then they have a day each week that they’re supposed to check in. So my wife has clients that check in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and they send in their seven days of tracked food. And then she gives them, they send in their seven days of tracked food. They also say, Hey, here’s what’s going really well. Here’s what’s not, here’s what I need help with, or here’s what was great. We talk about bright spots in that as well. And then she makes any adjustments if necessary, does all the coaching, starts those conversations and then sends them on their way for their next week.
Mike Warkentin: (19:20)
And this is done through Google Sheets and in person at times or by email?
Clark Hibbs: (19:25)
No in person. It’s all Google Sheets, It’s all email. I mean, the initial call is gonna be a Zoom call, but it’s literally all virtual.
Mike Warkentin: (19:34)
So the world is your market. That’s a great thing. Your office space could be your bathroom if you so desired.
Clark Hibbs: (19:40)
I mean, I am in my guest bedroom right now. This is where she works, .
Mike Warkentin: (19:43)
So there you go. I mean, listeners, if you’re looking for a way to generate some additional revenue, this is kind of a slam dunk where you’ve already got a captive market that wants and needs this service in your members, and then you’ve got the entire world who is suffering with health in general. You can do this with a Google Sheet and Zoom or email. There are other platforms around. My wife does use, I think she uses My Macros Plus, My Fitness Pal potentially. I think she also uses True Coach if I’m not mistaken.
Clark Hibbs: (20:14)
True Coach is great.
Mike Warkentin: (20:14)
Yeah, the details are irrelevant because there are many of these platforms that will do versions of it. You just have to find the stuff that you want. There’s nothing wrong with using just a Google sheet and you know, you can certainly ramp things up with some in-person meetings if you so desire for people who are local. You could do InBody testing if that was something you decided or any other biometric. The important thing though, is to measure something the client cares about, not something you care about. Chris Cooper’s been very firm on that because if people don’t care about losing weight, don’t measure their weight.
Clark Hibbs: (20:41)
You know, that’s a really good point too, that last point, because we find that so many of our members, while they initially think they wanna lose weight, what they actually wanna do is just get rid of their food anxieties. You know, we’re coming up around the holidays with Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the other holidays and whatnot, and people are scared. They’re scared that they’re gonna put on five to 10 pounds. And you know, I think, oh, that’s silly, but no, people are truly terrified about these next six to eight weeks. And we’re here to help and show them, here’s how you navigate that. Here’s how you make sure that you leave the family gathering not feeling terrible. Here’s how you can step on the scale January 1st and go, Oh, cool, I’m right on track. Rather than, Oh crap, there went the holiday fluff again. And so not putting our own biases towards people is huge, because not everyone needs to lose weight. Not everyone wants to gain weight. You know, there’s so many different things that you can work for your people.
Mike Warkentin: (21:35)
My wife has clients, to confirm what you said, she has clients who wanna lose weight. She has clients that wanna gain muscles. She has clients that wanna run marathons and do all sorts of fitness competitions, CrossFit people, weightlifting people. The goals vary, and her approach varies, but what it really comes down to is helping them with habits with certain people. It might be more specific in terms of, look, we want you to eat more protein and lift this kind of weight to gain the muscle you want. With other people, it’s a more basic, Hey, we were using the plate model. I want you to start filling half your plate with vegetables. This is gonna be lean protein and just the basics of stuff where people need to find some wins and move. So absolutely, you do not have to be an elite dietician or macronutrient counter, any of that stuff. You just have to be able to change behavior. And as a CrossFit fitness coach, you already are.
Clark Hibbs: (22:18)
And you have to be able to properly listen. And also kind of read between the lines a little bit because a lot of people will say one thing, but they don’t actually mean that. It’s just something that they’ve heard so much. And now we’re having to help them unlearn and we’re having to teach them new things. And also we can’t be afraid to ask tough questions. There’s a lot of hard conversations that need to have- like, one conversation that I didn’t realize I was going to have so much with people whenever I started nutrition coaching was the topic around alcohol and oh man, especially after 20. And the question that I started having to ask people is, okay, especially when it comes to, let’s just use a single type of beverage. For example, let’s use beer.
Clark Hibbs: (23:02)
You know, especially since the craft beer scene is huge and it’s like, I love beer. The question is, okay, do you like craft beer or do you like to drink? And it’s very different. If you like craft beer, you have no problem taking a few sips, enjoying the flavors, enjoying the profile, everything, pouring it out and moving on with your life. If you like to drink, that means that you’re putting away eight to 12 beers on a Saturday afternoon and enjoying that feeling. And, you know, whatever floats your boat. But we need to make sure that our actions are in line with our goals. And if your goal is to lose weight, we don’t need eight to 12 beers on a Saturday. There’s nothing wrong with having a sip or two, enjoying that flavor profile and then moving on. But that’s where we really have to come down to changing the habits, changing the behaviors, and having people be very honest with themselves, which people don’t like doing.
Mike Warkentin: (23:54)
I agree with you. And it’s just, it is all habits formation and lifestyle changes, which is what you do as a fitness coach already. Becoming a nutrition coach, not that big a step. So let’s change some lives here and let’s give away like $10,000 to a listener. Yeah. Walk me through if, let’s say I walk up to you, Clark, Holy crap, you’re making 20% of your revenue from nutrition? I don’t have a clue where to start. Let’s lay out, what would you tell me? What would you just say? I’m starting at zero nutrition coaching at my gym. What would you tell me to do?
Clark Hibbs: (24:23)
I would say start posting helpful nutrition content on your business page, on your personal page, on your email list, on your everything. You have to talk about it because with the realm of pseudoscience and garbage and fit teas and all these certain supplements out there that are, and all that BS out in the world. You need to be the authority. You need to be the person that people trust when it comes to their nutrition advice. And your first tons of posts, I mean, I can’t even try to quantify how many posts I’ve made about nutrition, aren’t going to generate anything. But then all of a sudden you make that one post or someone says, Oh wow, I really liked what you posted. I started doing it, I started seeing some changes. Now I wanna sign up with you. And really take this to the next level. That one person could be your next before and after picture that you post. Says, Hey, look how I helped you know, Johnny so-and-so, now he looks amazing. Who else wants this? And now you have the proof and then things that go in. So you have to talk about it. You have to put yourself out there. You have to be the authority in your area.
Mike Warkentin: (25:33)
Guys, I’m gonna give you a couple of quick media things that you can do. This is not protein. There’s a post for you. And all you do is you lay out common items that people think are protein but aren’t. Peanut butter. That’s the one I was gonna say, right? People think peanut butter’s high in protein.
Clark Hibbs: (25:48)
It’s terrible!
Mike Warkentin: (25:49)
Right? Like, just, it might seem basic for you, it’s not basic for everyone. So lay out some stuff, some obvious things. So like, why do we need vegetables? Again, sounds silly to you and me, but many people do not know the answer to that because think about hyper-palatable fast food delivered by incessant advertising. That’s what you’re combating. So do that one. Go ahead, Clark.
Clark Hibbs: (26:11)
I was gonna say do that, but you know, the hard part is doing it in a tone and in a voice that is relatable and not so, you know, I’m talking down to you when it comes to nutrition.
Mike Warkentin: (26:25)
Yeah, you don’t wanna shame anybody. Exactly.
Clark Hibbs: (26:26)
No, no. We don’t wanna shame it. We like to be relatable as well. I mean, if you have your own weight loss story, that’s something that people really wanna hear about. If you have your own struggles, people really wanna hear about it. If you always find yourself struggling with X, people wanna know about it. Talk about it, so that way they know how you’ve fixed it, they can start trying it as well. And then all of a sudden you’ve helped them and you’ve gained their trust.
Mike Warkentin: (26:48)
And that leads to my second idea, which is experiential stuff. Like my favorite post workout protein snack, my favorite breakfast, my favorite healthy breakfast when I’m rushed to get out the door, perfect. My best healthy snack for my kids. Stuff like that is huge. If you start posting that stuff, people will start listening and they will start to regard you as an expert. So starting with just talking about nutrition, the second part is so what would you do from there? What would you do if you were gonna start selling a nutrition program at a gym, you were gonna advise me to do it. How would you set that up? What would be the basic service plan?
Clark Hibbs: (27:26)
The basic service plan would be weekly accountability check-ins. Ok. Truly, because at the end of the day, meal plans don’t work because people, after they get the meal plan, they don’t have any accountability to it after the first week, they don’t care. They fall off. So getting that weekly accountability and then really going above and beyond to make sure that these people know that they’re being held accountable. So if your client is supposed to check in on Mondays, on Thursdays give them a second free accountability check in, just, Hey, how’s it going? Just that way they know that you’re there, you’re in their corner. So weekly accountability check-ins would be a really, really fantastic start. It doesn’t have to be a crazy program. It doesn’t have to guarantee any biometric marker success or anything like that. But nutritional accountability, which will build their consistency, which will give them their results.
Mike Warkentin: (28:18)
So you meet with your clients, you find out what they wanna accomplish, you give them some habits or a plan according to what’s allowed in your jurisdiction and according to your skillset. And you give them that plan to help them accomplish their goals. And then you check in with them weekly. Now, there are listeners out there who are gonna say, That doesn’t sound like enough. Clark, you have done a crap ton of nutrition sales in your business. Is that plan actually worth, is it valuable for clients?
Clark Hibbs: (28:40)
That’s literally our plan. Mike , that’s literally our plan. That’s what we do.
Mike Warkentin: (28:46)
And yet people will say it’s not enough.
Clark Hibbs: (28:47)
Right? And we just added a platinum nutrition coaching option, which is two check-ins a week. That’s it. So our base nutrition coaching is a once a week check-in. Our platinum version is twice a week check-in. That’s it.
Mike Warkentin: (29:06)
Listeners, do not overthink this. Clark has given you the keys to at least $10,000 of additional revenue per year and probably a lot more if you follow this plan and take some steps to do so.
Clark Hibbs: (29:18)
That’s it. And you know, one of the other things that is really beneficial too is experiencing nutrition coaching yourself. I work with a nutrition coach, my wife works with a nutrition coach, and it’s basically like mentorship. And you get to learn how they do it. You get to learn, Oh, I like the way this system works from the client facing side. And then it’s easier for you to turn it into your own thing that people will love.
Mike Warkentin: (29:42)
Would you advise people to work with their spouse as a nutrition coach? Do you do that?
Clark Hibbs: (29:46)
Absolutely not.
Mike Warkentin: (29:48)
no way. My wife’s slapping my beer outta my hand and no, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. So maybe listeners maybe don’t do that. But that is great advice. If you wanna learn more about nutrition coaching, work with a nutrition coach, and let’s be real here. It’s not a stealing client situation. There are millions and millions of people in the world who need nutrition coaching. We are not looking for clients. We just need to find ways to serve them and connect with them. They’re out there. We’re not stealing clients here.
Clark Hibbs: (30:14)
No. I mean, if you get 50 clients paying 150 a month, you’re in a really, really solid position.
Mike Warkentin: (30:20)
What do you do? Do you mind telling us what you charge for nutrition coaching? If it’s a secret, you keep it.
Clark Hibbs: (30:25)
150 a month.
Mike Warkentin: (30:27)
There you go. And so
Clark Hibbs: (30:27)
For weekly accountability check-ins, and then our platinum option is 250 a month.
Mike Warkentin: (30:32)
And if you are hybrid, what will that run? Do you know that one off the top of your head?
Clark Hibbs: (30:36)
So the hybrids are all customizable depending on what frequency of PT or group or nutrition.
Mike Warkentin: (30:44)
But like, 300-700 bucks probably.
Clark Hibbs: (30:46)
Well, you know, if we have an unlimited membership at $200 and they add nutrition, they’re 350.
Mike Warkentin: (30:51)
So gym owners,
Clark Hibbs: (30:52)
Keep it really simple.
Mike Warkentin: (30:53)
Yeah, that is the key takeaway from this. Gym owners are not doing enough nutrition coaching in their gyms. They are leaving money on the table. You can make more by following a simple plan. Clark has laid it all out here for you. You can take it, run with it, and you’ll make money. Clark, thank you so much for opening, pulling us behind the curtain to show us and tell us what you do. You’re gonna make a lot of gym owners happy.
Clark Hibbs: (31:15)
Good. And I hope they make a lot of their clients happy.
Mike Warkentin: (31:19)
That is it. That was Clark Hibbs on Two-Brain Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Please take action on this, help some clients with their nutrition and help your business. Please hit subscribe also on the way out, wherever you’re watching or listening. And now here’s Chris Cooper with a final message.
Chris Cooper: (31:34)
Hey, it’s Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper with a quick note. The Gym Owners United Facebook group has more than 5,600 members and it’s growing daily. If you aren’t benefiting from the free tips and tactics and resources that I post daily in that group, what are you waiting for? Get in there and grow your business. That’s Gym Owners United on Facebook, or www.GymOwnersUnited.com. Join today.
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