Today we are joined by Cody of CrossFit ColdWater and CrossFit Angola. We hear about his first experiences with CrossFit and how he turned $250 dollars in ad spend into $5,500 worth of revenue. Cody was first introduced to CrossFit by his older brother in 2014. At the time, Cody was overweight and out of shape and he almost didn’t come back. When he did come back, it took only a couple of classes and he was hooked. Today Cody owns two CrossFit gyms and is committed to improving the quality of people’s lives through strength and conditioning.
Cody purchased CrossFit Coldwater in 2015. Two years later, he was broke and so stressed that he developed Bell’s palsy. He tried mentorship with a different group, but didn’t get much from it. Then he signed up for the Two-Brain Incubator and everything changed.
Mateo: 00:00 I’m Mateo from Two-Brain marketing. And on this edition of the Two-Brain marketing podcast, I’m telling you with Cody from crossfit Coldwater and crossfit Angola. You’re going to hear about the first crossfit class he ever took back in 2014 and how after just one year, one year later after taking that class, he became the owner of his own affiliates. We’ll also learn how he turned $250 in paid ad spend and he took that and turned it into $5,500 in new member revenue. So make sure you subscribe to Two-Brain radio for more marketing tips and secrets each week.
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Mateo: 01:44 Hello, welcome to the Two-Brain marketing podcast. I’m your host, Mateo Lopez. I’m one of the digital marketing mentors at Two-Brain business and this is your weekly dose of digital marketing magic. Every week we go over arching campaign strategies, useful tips, updates to keep you in the loop on the ever changing landscape of advertising on the Internet for Your Business. In today’s episode we have a special guest, Cody from fortitude, strength conditioning, which is the home of crossfit Coldwater. He’s also the owner of crossfit Angola. And you’re going to learn a little bit more about him and his experience. He’s someone who’s also tried different consulting companies and mentorship companies. So hopefully we’ll hear more about his experience there and, and what it’s been like transitioning in working with some of the systems we have at Two-Brain and also learn more about his paid advertising system, how he was able to generate some, some pretty cheap leads and, and, and some new members. So welcome.
Cody: 02:37 How are you?
Mateo: 02:38 I’m doing well.
Cody: 02:38 Thanks for, thanks for having me on.
Mateo: 02:40 No worries. So, so for those listening, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you’re from and in and you know, what’s Your Business? My name’s Cody Ringle from Coldwater, Michigan. Uh, we’re just north of Indiana, only about 13 miles up. I have another gym in Cross crossfit, Angola in Indiana, about 25 miles south. Oh, I have a really awesome partner down there who runs the day to day. Um, he’s the face of the gym named Seth. He went through the, uh, went through part of the incubator with me.. Really good guy to have in place down there. Makes that really successful. I started this whole crossfit thing about 2014 and very much like everybody else, you know?
Mateo: 03:25 Yeah.
Mateo: 03:27 That was right at the hockey stick.
Cody: 03:29 Oh yes. Well, I started when I started, I did my first crossfit class and I remember it was something very simple. You know, it was like five rounds of some pushups, lunges, and ring rows. I didn’t make it through the entire workout. I thought I was gonna throw up. I didn’t come back for three months. Uh, when I finally did, I just, I loved it. And I, six months later started coaching in the thing at the affiliate that I was going to and started to grow a pretty good relationship with the owner there.
Cody: 03:59 Um, he became one of my first mentors. And probably about six months after I started coaching, I got a call from him one night and he’s like, Hey, meet me up at Buffalo wild wings. Let’s have a beer.
Mateo: 04:12 Nice.
Cody: 04:13 S o we stopped. I stopped up there and had a beer with him and he just, he told me he felt like, uh, you know, God was calling him in a different direction and he was either going to sell the gym to me or he was going to close the doors.
Mateo: 04:24 So was that cold water?
Cody: 04:26 Yeah, that was crossfit coldwater–it used to be crossfit pursuit. So I ended up thinking about it a little bit and obviously it was something that I wanted to do. I was bit by the bug and, and I want it to be a part of this thing. So I ended up basically purchasing from him, his equipment and the members that he had at the time, which was somewhere between like only 30 and 40.
Cody: 04:46 So we had like two classes a day. It wasn’t a big thing. Um, and grew, grew from there. I brought a couple of partners with me. They have since exited the business. I wouldn’t be here, you know, where we’re at right now without their, without their input and their help throughout the time. And for me, this really took off for the first two years that I did this, this coaching and ownership thing. It was very much, uh, kind of just a thing to do. And it was like, yeah, I’d love to run this full time and I’d like to eventually get there at some point in time. But I had a full time job.
Mateo: 05:22 Let’s talk about that for a second. When, so when did you actually purchase the gym?
Cody: 05:26 2015 January of 2015.
Mateo: 05:29 Took your first crossfit workout 2014 and bought your first crossfit gym a year later. That’s pretty fast turnaround. And then so, and you had a full time job too?
Cody: 05:41 Yes.
Mateo: 05:42 Jumping into entrepreneurship, you know, it’s not for everyone. What kind of made you want to go in that direction?
Cody: 05:48 I felt I was a, you know, I played sports in high school and I played rugby in college and I really enjoyed the competitive side of it. So very much like everybody who got involved in 2014 about that, the early teens or so, like the, the competition side was what I loved. And I slowly, I slowly kind of fell in love with the ability to change people’s lives. It’s, that’s I think a story I hear all the time from people. I started seeing people finally talking about how hey, I feel, I feel a whole lot better when I do this thing. So we fell in love with that aspect of it and I was lucky enough to have a couple of partners who could help kind of balance the load at that point in time. So it was able to be kind of a part time gig.
Cody: 06:28 But when we started, you know, the goal was always to kind of make this more of a, of a standalone business and operate on its own. So my, uh, in December 18th of 2016 I lost my father. I came home on a Sunday and he was, he passed away on my couch and that was a real turning point for me. Um, that hit me really hard and it made me really realize that this thing is short and if I keep putting this off and I might never get to it. So it was just after like the Murph, five months later, I stood up on a box in the middle of the gym and I said, hey, January 19th is going to be my first day full time at the gym.
Mateo: 07:07 Was it ready to take you on full time a year?
Cody: 07:09 I need to just stop my job and just do it. We both, we had just secured a contract with cold water high school to manage their strength and conditioning for their entire high school for three years. Yeah. So there was some revenue coming in from that. The Gym, we were clearing $5,000 a month. We were, and that was, that was our gross. We were not in a position to support anybody full time. So, I mean, my first six months I made about 10 grand, you know, that’s what I brought home. So it was very much like a, I got to do this and I know I got to struggle for a little bit and try to build this thing up. Um, or else it was just going to be a hobby all the time. So kind of just jumped right into it. Very much like the ownership and the coaching thing, you know, That’s how most of us have gotten into where we are. We just kind of took the plunge. And it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I mean, it’s been a very stressful and, and challenging couple of years, but it’s led to a tremendous amount of growth. And I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to work with some, some different coaches throughout the years, and then some other consulting firms. And I started the incubator back in March of this year, so, or February, excuse me, finished it at the end of March. And in programs that I had been with before, it was, it was very clear that they had a template and things that they wanted you to do, um, milestones to hit. And there was no room for really adaptation for where I was at in my business. I had worked with the firm I was with before for, for two years as they made transitions.
Cody: 08:46 And then I went through their foundations program, which I had the first five calls that I had with them felt almost entirely worthless because he’s like, okay, we’re going to work on your intro session today. And then he’s like, here’s what I want you to do. I was like, all right, let me tell you what our intro process looks like. And I laid it all out for him. And he goes, yeah, that’s, that’s exactly it. And I said, okay, so what do we talk about now for 40 minutes? And it was just, it just, it wasn’t where I needed to go. I’d probably outgrown that and what they had to offer. The first call in the incubator man, I got on it with uh, with Jeff Larsh or actually my first couple of calls were with Ashley Mak and my first incubator call with Jeff. I got off of it and I looked at my, my partner in Angola and I was like, this is going to be the best decision I’ve ever made. Yeah.
Mateo: 09:32 And I guess what was the deal? Is it just that you were not receiving, I guess the personalized coaching that you needed for where your business was that or is it just, it was not being challenged enough for,
Cody: 09:45 it was, they had kind of, it was kind of their, their Beta program for the foundation’s deal. So it was their second run at it and it was just, it was very clear that there was kind of a, you know, almost for my mentor there was like a script and bullet points to follow. There was very little adaptation. It was like, Hey, these are the things we need to get done on this call today. And that’s the scope of what we’re going to do. And every call that I’ve been on with Jeff, it was like, all right, sweet. No, that’s good. Let’s move on. Let’s work on something else. I didn’t have that before. I just don’t know if the process was refined in the way that, you know, Two-Brain has it refined. So I’ve just found a tremendous amount of value in having somebody who can look at the business that I have right now and tell me exactly where I need to go to to get out of this, this founder phase that I’ve been in for, for, for four years.
Mateo: 10:38 So talk to me a little bit about that. Right. So it sounds like, you know, what motivated you to make the switch? You said you’re kind of in the founder phase, you’re kind of feel like you’ve been stuck there. What motivated you to, to, to want to get out of that and, and then how has it changed since working with, with Jeff and, and, and going through the incubator?
Cody: 10:57 Yeah. One of the big motivators for me was, you know, this year, uh, tomorrow I turned 30. So
Mateo: 11:04 Nice. Happy Birthday.
Cody: 11:06 Thank you. It’s, I’m not a a 25 year old who can continue to be a martyr in this thing and not making any money. I’m, one of the biggest revelations that I had with Jeff was I got off one of our calls and I just, I was finally excited about how much money we were going to make. And that’s nothing, that’s not a Lens I’ve ever looked at this thing through. I mean, I started, you know, I, I, when I started coaching, it was a trade for membership deal. It was, it was, I spent years donating my time and pouring personal money into this thing just so finally I was like, okay, this can be sustainable. I had had some, um, you know, some employees on like full time before, uh, in 2018. And the deal was I was tired of missing paychecks. I would make sure that they would get paid. And then at the end of the month, there’d be, you know, nothing left. Yeah.
Mateo: 11:58 You get whatever the scraps leftover over if you’re lucky.
Cody: 12:01 Right. And if you don’t have a crazy expense that pops up. So I was personally tired of that and so I took my own personal, you know, it’s all your personal money when you own the business, but I took my own money and I invested in the incubator. I didn’t pull that out of the business. I did that, you know, from money that I arguably couldn’t afford at the time. But I had heard one thing earlier on in my, uh, somewhere in 2018 it says, if you can’t afford it, then that’s exactly what you need to be doing. If you feel like you can’t afford it. And that’s exactly what I did. I was like, okay, let’s go, let’s do this thing now since starting just, I really big on the process and the path to mastery, that’s kind of laid out before you, we preach that in our gyms all the time. Right. People want to get a muscle up. We’re like, hey, here’s the path to get this thing. I had never had that for my business. I’ve, I started this thing because I enjoyed coaching and I loved Christ and I wanted to help people. I had no idea what I was signing up for when I stood on that box and said, hey, I’m going to go into this thing full time. I thought I was going to coach and chill. Boy was I wrong?
Mateo: 13:07 Yeah. Yeah. You think, yeah, I’m going to coach some classes. I’m going to help some people and then we’ll chill on the couch. We’ll train together.
Cody: 13:16 Yup. And then it’ll all be great. I’ll bring my best friends in here and we’re just going to train all day and then we’ll coach sometimes. Yeah. That’s just not how it worked out. And then, you know, I get hit with stress like everybody else and then it really hit me over the summer of 2018 I got Bell’s palsy. Uh, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but it’s like a mixture of stress and inflammation and a nerve. And this side of my face paralyzed. So I was like this, I was like this for two weeks and wow, it could come back, it might not. It might take two weeks, it might take a year. And I finally sat my coaches at the time down. So Seth, who’s my partner in Angola started here full time with me as a coach. It was kind of an opportunity for us to work on building that thing and teaching him the backend stuff for the business. And I was like, look guys, something needs to change. I can’t do this anymore. And really at the beginning of this year, I told myself, I was like, I either have to like start making some money at this thing or I got to get a real job. I mean this is a real job, but when you’re making
Mateo: 14:16 I, yeah, I get what you’re saying.
Mateo: 14:17 When you’re making, you know, 1000 bucks a month, it’s hard to support anything like that.
Mateo: 14:22 And we’ve talked to a lot of gym, like we talked to probably over 130 gym, gym owners, a a month when they’re inquiring about the service. And it’s just like everyone pretty much in the same boat, you know, when they have heard the same story a lot and it’s, you know, it’s, and that’s why we do what we do because everyone gets into it for the same reason that you just said, right. We want to just help people. Yes. We have this thing that we’re passionate about. We see it as a really effective tool for changing lives and we’re just trying to put that in the hands of as many people as possible. But it’s tough when you, yeah. When you’ve never had to build systems before to build something that’s can be a process that can be repeatable and manage people, um, which can be sometimes the hardest part. So, so, okay. So you, you reached this breaking point and then I know you started to touch on a little bit about the systems, but how have you seen things things change?
Cody: 15:15 I finally have some SOPs or you know, like a lot of gym owners, I’m used to doing all the things and wearing all the hats and I’ll coach and then I’ll do the marketing and the Facebook and uh, clean the toilets and absolutely right. Put the mats away. Hundred percent spend an hour vacuuming every night, you know, and I just, I always thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. You know, you’ve got to grind and you’ve got to work 14 hours a day and if you don’t sleep at night because you’re stressed out, well that’s part of the game, man. You know, you’re supposed to suffer a little bit grind in. Yes. Right. And then you get Bell’s palsy. So, but I got, you know, I just got to the point where, okay, Two-Brain laid out a path for me to start implementing these things and building these things out. And it really helped me realize that I don’t have to do every single thing by myself. And if I document it in the right way, a lot of my, my fears with, with, with, with a lot of entrepreneurs I think especially in this space is we’re afraid that if we don’t do it, it’s not going to get done in the same way.
Mateo: 16:12 Yeah. It’s not going to be the way I needed to get done. No one knows how to put these mats away so that it fits on the shelf. And like I do, no one’s going to like clean the toilet the way I know how there’s the thing in the back that needs to get fixed. You always want to coach this person of correctly, cause I did their intro and I know that they have a bum knee. Like no one’s going to be able to do it quite like me.
Cody: 16:30 Yup. Yeah. That’s the, that’s the fear for sure. And I took that into every aspect and it was almost, it had got to the point where I was like, you know, I had a couple of full time coaches early on in 20 in the summer of 2018 and it got to the point where after we were done with the summer and the strength and conditioning for the high school, it was like, okay, what do we do now? Cause we went from having an 11 classes a day to five classes a day and there was a bunch of hours that needed to be filled and I had no systems built out so I had nothing. I was like, ah, you know, just do the things that I would do. Through Two-Brain I now have the ability to be like, okay, these are the things that I need you to do and this is exactly how I would like them to be done. And if it’s a, if it’s a small deviation from the exact way that I would do it, dude, it’s still 99% better than it would be if I said, hey, go do this thing for me. Yeah.
Mateo: 17:21 Now your time is freed up so you can refine it so they can get closer to being the way you want it to be done. Yup. Which I think is how you level up out of that founder phase.
Cody: 17:31 Yeah. And I can now focus on the higher value things like, uh, you know, I can focus on the sales process and the, and really refining the No-Sweat Intros, and we can have these bigger conversations about, okay, how do we make foundations better? One of the things that, that we did over the incubator was I used to, uh, give foundations away.
Mateo: 17:50 Well, yeah, yeah. We hear that a lot.
Cody: 17:52 Yeah. I got on, we talked about foundations. I was on my call with Jeff and he’s like, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to start charging for foundations and you’re going to charge 165.
Mateo: 18:01 They start panicking because like, no one’s going to be a little floored. It no one’s going to stay.
Cody: 18:06 He’s like, do you think that’s something you can do? And I was like, yeah, I think so maybe. Right. My very next no sweat intro sold a foundations and I went, holy crap, we can do this. Yep. I ran that first foundation and one thing that I can say it was, it was one of the best foundations that I have ever done because I now attached the value to the thing. Even as a coach, I’m like, they’re paying extra money. I got to bring it, man. I gotta do the best that I possibly can. Not that I wasn’t trying to do that before, but in a way, yeah,
Mateo: 18:37 totally different. And especially for your, if you’re not even doing it right now, if your coaches are going to be doing now, you can compensate them for it. It’s a whole, absolutely. Whole other ball game there. Yeah. Which I think is really what you said is really, really important. Amazing. So I guess let’s, and then in your, let’s see if we can, let’s talk about that a little bit more. You’ve been talking about no sweat intros in your own words, what is it that you sell and how do you sell it?
Cody: 19:01 We sell bad-ass 90 year olds, right? I want health and fitness for everybody that we work with. One of the things that I have, I get to have these conversations. I get to sell solutions to problems. I’m not selling a gym membership. This is one of the biggest things we’ve had to overcome and that’s huge. Yeah, this is one of the biggest things we’ve had to overcome just as a, we’re, we’re a relatively small town, I think there’s like 10,000 people in cold water and there’s a couple of, you know, traditional gyms selling memberships for 20-30 bucks a month, two year contracts, nobody bats an eye. We’re the highest priced crossfit affiliate in the area. So to have a conversation with people and to sit down and be like, all right, our membership, you know, our foundations is going to cost you between 165 to $265 a month.
Cody: 19:46 Our memberships are $120 a month. A lot of them are like, but the gym down the road is 35 and that’s a whole lot cheaper. So I’ve had a really great opportunity to kind of inform these people on the value that we’re going to provide and the difference. And that’s I think a huge disconnect. And one of the problems with the whole fitness thing as a whole right now is the planet fitnesses of the world are selling this thing for 10 bucks a month and give them free pizza. But, and we’re, we’re over here asking for 125 for what people perceive to be a similar service and it’s not at all. So I get to like layer in the education process now through our No-sweat intros and just getting to sit down and have conversations with people. And even if they don’t buy from me on that day, we’ve got to have that higher level conversation and now they at least understand that we’re not even playing the same game as the traditional gym down the road.
Mateo: 20:38 Yeah, I think it’s important that a big part of the, the, the consultation, the intro processes. Yeah. You’re doing a lot of educating for a lot of people. Yeah. And I think that’s for those who are kind of not afraid of selling, but who have not the most positive feelings about selling leave. You approach it the way you just said where you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re offering solutions.
Cody: 20:59 No, it’s not, I’m not trying to sell this PT package. I’m, I’m trying to sell a solution to, you told me you have bad knees and you’ve haven’t been able to work out cause okay, well then we’re going to fix your bad knees, but it’s going to, it’s going to take this, this and this. Yes. Uh, you know, so I think, I think that’s key. And one of the things that I kind of got from one of the things I kinda got from Blake
Mateo: 21:18 Who is Blake?
Cody: 21:20 He’s my Marketing Mentor at Two-Brain — is we were able to have, you know, a couple of conversations over our calls and he’s like, you almost have a duty to, to sell this to these people. Because if they’re not with you, they’re going to go back to doing what they were doing before and not being successful with. And if you don’t position this in a way that, that you’re going to be able to help them, then I fail on my part and I’m losing the ability to change one life. And in a small town, that’s a lot. Even in a big town, that’s a lot. It’s a, it’s an awesome opportunity that we have as affiliate owners and we owe it to the people that we’re working with to, to up our game and be, become better at selling this thing.
Mateo: 21:57 Well, and there, you know, every time they opt in or send you an email, find your website, like they’re raising their hand and they’re saying, I need help with something. Yeah. So, you know, that’s, that’s really all, that’s how I try to teach sales. Like you’re just responding. This person’s essentially a cry for help, you know that they’re asking for help and you’re offering a solution to that problem. And you mentioned Blake, so walk us through if you can, the, the work that you’ve done, the paid advertising system that you’ve been able to set up.
Cody: 22:27 Yeah. So one of the coolest, I think things for me as a, as a small business owner is the education aspect. So I have now gotten to learn the systems and the processes and how to do these things well with, with, with Two-Brain marketing, you know, their guidance. It was something that had been touched on in previous, um, with previous companies that I had worked with. But theirs was very, I guess, proprietary. It was very like secret, you know, hey, we’re going to do this thing, but we’re not going to show you how, because I don’t want you to go and reproduce it. It was the exact opposite. It was total transparency with Two-Brain. It was like, hey dude, if you learn how to do this, you’re going to be successful. And if you’re successful, you’re going to tell other people about what. So it was coming from kind of more of a growth mindset then that fixed scarcity mindset, which I loved so much.
Mateo: 23:16 Yeah, that’s how, that’s what I’ve said this before on his why I designed the course the way I did. Like, I don’t think this stuff should be secret. Like I think, yeah, I think everyone should know how to use the Internet to generate new business. Like I think everyone should know how to do this for themselves. You know? I think once you learn it, if you want to, you know, at some point down the line when your business is big enough handed off to someone on your staff or a third party, like you can do that, but you still have to, like you said, you need to develop mastery over this, this part of your business. I mean digital advertising and paid advertising and marketing paid or not like it’s, it’s the key to your growth, so why wouldn’t you want to be in complete control of that and know how to do it for yourself?
Cody: 23:57 Right. As far as the building out the ads, I had a ton of help from, from Blake. He basically said, hey, these are the things that I’m doing that are working really well for me, and the dude was awesome enough to pretty much give it to me. He’s like, all right, here’s what we’re going to start with. And I’ve only been running ads for about two weeks now. We started our, our, our first paid, ads two weeks ago. And you know, like I said before, I had installed Facebook pixels before, but I had no idea what exactly they were, what they did or how to, how to use them. So I had a little bit of like competency from stuff that I’d worked with before, but no real understanding. And I had never done any sort of metrics like this perfect example, the only about a week into these paid advertising, these paid ads.
Cody: 24:41 I was looking at the amount of leads that we were getting. I was looking at the No Sweats booked and the clients that we closed, we had something like 55 leads and had only closed about seven clients. And I sat here one day just all in my feelings and I’m like, am I really a terrible salesperson? I’ve had 30 people come through the door and I’ve had 23 of them tell me that it’s priced too high. It’s not for me. I’ll think about it. I got to talk to my spouse and I’ll be back. Right. And I just was like, man, I must really not be as good as this thing as I had originally thought I was. And I stepped away from that for a second. I put everything in my big sheet to calculate metrics and then I rewatched some of the videos and you’re like, you were talking about a close rate of 11 or 12%. You’re like, this is really good. And that’s right where I was at. And I’m like, all right, this is a lot better than I had thought it was at the time. And then I saw the total revenue and I’m like, holy crap. We’ve brought in in front end revenue. I’m a quarter of what we made last month. We brought in more front end revenue over this two weeks more than the gym made when I took over full time two years ago.
Mateo: 25:47 Wow. That’s awesome.
Cody: 25:49 It’s, it’s been nothing like short of a crazy success. Right? I mean, we’re paying $2.69 a lead as of Monday.
Mateo: 25:56 That’s awesome, man. That’s great. Yeah, and I think, I think dealing with colder traffic too is it’s a different kind of mindset and you do have to look at it a little bit more. Yeah, exactly what you’re saying it to look at the numbers. Say, Hey, if I can get 70 or 80% of these people to that are inquiring to, to come to the book and then if I can get 70 to 80% of the people that come in and talk to me and then from there, as long as I can close, you know, half of them I’m having a really good return on my ad spend and I think that’s, that’s what’s a little bit different than organic for sure. Awesome.
Cody: 26:26 That was definitely a hard thing because you know what, I’m used to people coming in who are highly motivated and they’ve experienced the know, talked with people before and they’re like, yeah, I’m ready. I’m ready. When do we start? Let’s go. And it was just a much different experience than when it was a great learning process for me.
Mateo: 26:40 Yeah. But in those, in those scenarios, right. Half the selling’s already been done for, you. They have talked to a friend or they’ve researched crossfit on their own or they’ve watched videos from HQ or the journal like that’s, that’s half the selling already happening for you. So yeah, it’s just a different, it’s just a different mindset, a different approach. And what I like to tell people is like this paid advertising route should be just one part of everything else that you’re doing, right? Yeah. And you should continue to be doing your, your outreach and your, your events. You should continue to outreach directly to, to to members and ask them for hey is or your husband or someone who might be interested in this as well. Like you should continue to do everything else that you’re doing advertising. Just one other piece to bolster your business and your growth. Having the coldleads is something that has helped me kind of refine my toolbox and get better at this.
Cody: 27:28 Just having conversations with people about what we’re offering because it’s, I mean, we went to a 30 minute No-Sweat intro, and before we did an hour long, it included a workout. We went to that 30 minute, no sweat. So you’re really just just sitting down and learning about people and just shutting up and listening to them, uh, for 20 minutes. And then you get an opportunity to be like, awesome. I think that you know what you’re going through, we can really help with here’s what we have to offer and here’s the value that we’re going to provide. And this is why we’re different than anybody else in this space right now. And based on what you told me this is, this is the path you. Yeah. So the cold traffic has really helped me refine the message and I, I, I appreciate it. It’s helped me sharpen my iron and develop and I love that part of it.
Mateo: 28:10 Awesome, man. Well, I think we’ve touched on this pretty much throughout this whole conversation, but I mean it sounds like you’re doing great. It sounds like you’ve been able to, to really level up out of that founder phase and you’re seeing some awesome growth so far and it sounds like you can continue to do that. You’ve put your, your partner at Angola through some of the process. Sounds like his business is changing to what, you know, what do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Cody: 28:34 Probably as a business, as a whole. Caring about people just trying to come from the position that we can help where everybody talks about it in CrossFit. The community is what a is what people people stand for is what they come back for. Everybody, you know, you start from the workout and you stay for the people we have over the last couple of years, you know, gone through some, some tough stuff in, in coldwater with, you know, coaches leaving and uh, ownership, uh, departing.
Cody: 29:04 And it has really allowed me to, to sit back and step back from this thing and say that, okay, you know, the community here is unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced or especially in it in a gym, you know, I mean, I played college sports in high school sports and I, we got some really good friends. The best relationships that I’ve developed have come from this thing, this thing called crossfit. Um, for us as kind of a, a beacon of, of fitness in the community. We’re all in this journey together, right? We’re all headed towards this thing called fitness. Why not act like it? The worst thing that, that in my opinion with, with the fitness space as a whole is walking in somewhere, having people with their headphones in and their eyes down and the only conversations that you have is, hey, you done using that?
Cody: 29:50 That sucks. Yeah. And we can do better. And I think that like people are starting to see that. So the, the, the shift and the change. In the community. And you know, the, the broader fitness landscape as a whole for us as a, as a business, small town, you know, word of mouth. If you’re doing things right and you’re treating people right, you, you’re going to be more successful. Now we are able to do that now better than ever before because of what I’ve gone through in the incubator and being able to, to have these processes in place and to make sure that when Steve and Ian Coach classes, it’s going to be to the same caliber that I would go to the class and we’re offering the best possible service and, and foundations is as good as it can be. And you know, I always want people to feel like they’re underpaying for our service.
Cody: 30:37 Like they’re getting a tremendous value for, for what we ask for a membership. I can’t do all that by myself. The incubator has really helped me realize how to position myself to have a broader reach. Those systems and processes saved me and my business from the brink of a, of a collapse man without the incubator. And I was at my wits end with the service that I was working with before. I just felt kind of empty and I didn’t have that. I was ready to take the next step and nobody to tell me how I got that and more than I could ever, you know, repay from, from Two-Brain. So I’ve signed, I know I had my first growth call last month and, uh, I’m gonna do this thing until, you know, hopefully I retire one day.
Mateo: 31:25 That’s awesome man. That’s great. I mean, I, let’s end on that note because I think that that was awesome. He just said, if people want to learn more about, uh, you know, what you got going on in, in Coldwater, Michigan, and your two gyms, where, where can they find you? How can they talk to you?
Speaker 4: 31:40 Yeah, so crossfitcoldwater.com we’ve got ForTimedesign working on our new a website, so that’s going to be pretty dope. We’re on Facebook, it’s Fortitude strength and conditioning or crossfitAngola, and, Instagram. It’s the @crossfitAngola and @crossfitcoldwater. Um, my personal handle is Cody Ringle, they’re more than welcome to reach out and chat with me. I really enjoy talking to other gym owners and just hearing about the things that they’re doing well because I’m under no illusion that I’ve got this thing figured out. Uh, if it wasn’t for the people that I’ve been lucky enough to have, you know, in my life through different mentoring roles and, and things like Two-Brain, I would still have my head in the sand.
Mateo: 32:20 So. Totally. Do you do any work with, uh, are you, I know you had the youth program, you, you guys, you only work with other youth athletics or I don’t know if you do any virtual coaching.
Cody: 32:30 People want to, yeah, we don’t, I haven’t really expanded into remote coaching. I think that there’s, there’s a tremendous value in it. Don’t get me wrong, but I do much better one on one with a, with a person or in a group. Um, it’s just, I’m a better coach that way. Um, yeah, we do everything from, we worked from kids, you know, we’ve got a summer camp that has the third all the way down to third grade who come in and we’re just teaching them to have fun with fitness. So we work from the, we work with the eight year old to the 98 year old.
Mateo: 33:00 Awesome. All right man. Well thanks for hopping on and I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the 2019 holds for you.
Cody: 33:06 Yeah, thanks for sure.
Chris: 33:08 Hey everyone. Chris Cooper here. I’m really thrilled to see you this year in June in Chicago at the 2019 Two-Brain summit. Every year we have two separate speaking tracks–one for you, the business owner and there’s one for coaches that will help them make better, longer, more meaningful careers under the umbrella of your business. This year we’ve got some pretty amazing topics like the client success manager, how to change your life organizational culture or the business owner’s life cycle, how to have breaks, how to have vacations, how to help your marriage survive, owning a business and motivation and leadership. How to convert more clients, how to create a GM position that runs your gym for you and leaves you free to grow your business. How to start a business owner’s group in your community in more point here is to do the right thing that will help gym owners create better businesses that will last them for the longterm, get them to tinker phase, help them be more successful, create meaningful careers that their coaches and give their clients a meaningful path to longterm health. We only do one big seminar every year and that’s the two brain summit and the reason that we do that is because a big part of the benefit is getting the to bring community together and welcoming strangers into our midst and showing them how amazing gym ownership really can be. We’ll have a link to the two brain summit including a full list of all speakers and topics on both the owners and the coaches side in the show notes. I really hope to see you there.
Speaker 5: 34:35 As always, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. We greatly appreciate you and everyone that has subscribed to us. If you haven’t done that, please make sure you do drop a like to that episode. Share with a friend, and if you haven’t already, please write us a review and rate us on how what you think. If you hated it, let us know if you loved it, even better. See you guys later.
