Mateo: 00:00 – Hey, it’s Mateo of Two-Brain Marketing. On this edition of the Two-Brain Marketing podcast. I’m talking to a very, very close friend of mine, Ryan O’Shaughnessy, former operator at Bowery CrossFit. You’ll hear about his experience operating a CrossFit box in New York City, one of the most competitive markets in the world. You’ll also learn about his lead nurture and sales system and how last year the gym spent $10,000 on ads and generated over $70,000 in front-end sales. So you don’t want to miss this. Make sure to subscribe to Two-Brain Radio for more marketing tips and secrets each week.
Greg: 00:38 – Two-Brain Radio is brought to you by Two-Brain Business. We make gyms profitable. We’re going to bring you the very best tips, tactics, interviews in the business world each week. To find out how we can help you create your Perfect Day, book a free call with a mentor at twobrainbusiness.com.
Chris: 00:55 – One of my favorite finds has been foreverfierce.com. I linked up with Matt several months ago at Forever Fierce and he had some fantastic ideas, and so he and I have put together a couple of packages that we think are really going to help CrossFit affiliates everywhere. Two-Brain mentoring clients use Matt almost exclusively. He’s got fantastic designs and he takes all the work out of it. All that time that you spend searching the internet and Pinterest and junk like that for great CrossFit T shirts? You don’t have to do that anymore. Matt has designs for you. You can put your logo on one of his templates, which are fantastic, and your clients will never know the difference. It saves you so much time that you could be using on other things like real marketing. He’ll also go so far as to remind you when it’s time to reorder. He’ll give you suggested order sizes. He’ll help you set up preorders so you’re not even fronting the cash for the inventory. It’s all amazing stuff built to help affiliates and that’s why I love this guy and this company. Foreverfierce.com, they do all the Catalyst shirts, all the Two-Brain shirts, all the Ignite Gym shirts. They do everything for every business that I own.
Greg: 02:09 – Coming at you from my apartment, actually. Normally I do these and I do a video call with a guest and I decided to have Ryan on here today. Ryan O’Shaughnessy, Ladies and gentlemen, and everyone in between, Ryan and I are very close friends. We’re dear friends, I think. I hope. And so instead of—we were going to record this but instead of crowding behind my webcam on my computer sitting side by side, I thought that would be kind of weird, so we set up the camera. The lighting is not great. This is my studio apartment in New York. So you’re seeing the window shining right into your eyes. But, for those of you listening, none of this matters. Only if you’re watching it on YouTube. But yeah, today’s my guest at Ryan O’Shaughnessy. Ryan, I have known each other for I guess, was it 2016?
Ryan: 03:06 – Yeah, I think so. The beginning of 2016.
Mateo: 03:08 – Almost three years here, coming up almost on three years. And Ryan and I worked together at John Franklin’s second gym, Bowery CrossFit; it’s where we both earned our stripes. Is that what they say? We earned our stripes were forged in that fire, and I wanted to bring Ryan on as he’s now transitioning out of fitness for a time and is going to pursue marketing endeavors. Another project with me and John. And so having spent years managing a CrossFit gym in one of the most competitive landscapes in terms of fitness, probably in the world, I mean, New York and maybe like Miami and parts of Florida would probably be there to rival it, right?
Ryan: 03:55 – Yeah, I would say there. I don’t know how I would say parts of LA for sure. In America, definitely. And then, you know, you tap the other worldly markets, I’m not sure.
Mateo: 04:06 – Yeah, not sure. Not as well traveled as we’d like to be, but I would say safe to say New York City, probably one of the most competitive markets for any industry really. You’re just like fighting for real estate. The space to work and breathe is a challenge in and of itself.
Ryan: 04:21 – Just finding an apartment to rest your head is a challenge in and of itself.
Mateo: 04:26 – And Ryan, I worked at Bowery CrossFit as a operating manager there for many years right out of college really. And Ryan came in as kind of like, I guess an assistant manager role you would call it at the time. And then after that, when I opened up a couple other gyms with John, Ryan stepped up and pretty much ran the entire gym. And he’s done that full time in that capacity the past year, year and a half now, and now I thought it would be great to bring Ryan on to hear kind of the perspective of someone who or both of us really, while I normally bring gym owners on here and while Ryan does not own a business, or a gym, I should say, I want to bring someone on to hear the perspective of someone who’s in the weeds, someone who is doing the lead nurture and the sales and the follow-up and operating that facility. So, you know, we talk about building the system and then a lot of times we’ll talk about those strategies on here with different gym owners. But you know, I think it’s valuable to hear the story from the person who’s doing the No Sweats, from the person who’s doing the follow-up, from the person who’s dealing with the members day in and day out. And I thought Bowery CrossFit would be a great case study because last year alone we spent $10,000 on ads and we generated well over $70,000 in front-end sales. I want to hear from the guy who made that happen. That’s why he’s here, Ryan O’Shaughnessy. So Ryan, let’s do some softballs. Tell me about yourself. How’d you get into fitness?
Ryan: 06:09 – I was kind of thrown into it, I don’t think I had a choice. At a young age involved in athletics, like most anyone that finds their way into CrossFit. And then it kind of transitioned. I tried to pull myself out of athletics and I learned very quickly that didn’t work and then found CrossFit. And after competing as a collegiate-level swimmer, I was looking for that edge again and just something to move and like get the energy out of my body. CrossFit came to be and then long story short ended up at Bowery.
Mateo: 06:39 – So you were a competitive swimmer in college. How did you find—did someone just take you and do a workout? How did you find it?
Ryan: 06:45 – Yeah, I was training, thinking about going into the military and someone was like, yo, there’s these really intense workouts. I was like, they can’t be as intense as swimming in a pool. Like, you don’t even get to breathe half the time you’re swimming in the pool, like what’s more intense than holding your breath and like doing cardio. And then I did, I don’t know, like Kelly or Fran or one of the girls. And I was like, you guys are nuts. Can we do this in the pool? I was hooked just like anyone else and I found I couldn’t even squat my own body weight back then. Wild. Now thinking about that, I mean it’s not like I could squat a lot.
Mateo: 07:24 – Some say you still can’t.
Ryan: 07:25 – The Dan Diggins of the world; our friends would say, I still can. But yeah, that’s kind of my trajectory into the sport.
Mateo: 07:37 – Well but you were a very intense athlete. So it sounds like you’re saying, listen, you were just drawn to this intensity because CrossFit, I guess it’s fitness at the highest of intensity.
Ryan: 07:51 – It is the fitness of the highest intensity, but also you get to really listen to really good music that you choose. I’m not used to—not a lot of pools have speakers, but it’s got that competitive edge. It’s got that strategy you’ve got to implement very quickly and good vibes from everybody. Everyone’s super supportive. That’s probably the biggest thing I love.
Mateo: 08:11 – And coming into Bowery, I guess, what were the first kind of impressions and then what were so
me of the challenges that we ended up facing operating in a Chinatown basement in New York City?
Ryan: 08:27 – The magic, the Chinatown connect. So coming in to Chinatown, I had no idea what to expect, right? Like I was working at Yelp, I got in contact. So John and I, for the people in the back of the people listening, John and I grew up swimming together in south Florida, very good friends. And then reconnected up here in New York. I had no idea he was here. I was working at Yelp doing sales and phone calls over the phone, needed to take a job at the moment, dire times, call for dire situations. So you gotta do what you gotta do, feel everybody out there. And I came into Bowery and you were running the show, but you were doing essentially foundations. And there was, I think one person at the desk, there was class going on, it was a little bit of mayhem and you’re like, great, you’re here. And the message from John was keep Tay alive cause I was like, all right, I’m here to keep it.
Mateo: 09:16 – We were onboarding people with private sessions, but our fundamentals was 12 hour-long one-on-one sessions that they had to buy before they could go into group classes. And you know, we were selling probably 20, 20 of those, 10 to 20 of those a month. It was a lot of one-on-ones.
Ryan: 09:37- And you were like the only one doing the one-on-ones at this point.
Mateo: 09:41 – Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: 09:41 – So Bowery is operating super lean and just needed another help.
Mateo: 09:47 – Needed another hand. So awesome. I think the first thing we probably started you on was—
Ryan: 09:53 – Fixing the Assault bike?
Mateo: 09:55 – Fixing the Assault bike but also handling the desk with nurture and sales, right? So I want to get into the lead nurture system. I want to get into the process. I want to get into how you approach it, how you approach sales. Because you know we mentioned last year we spent $10,000 on ads, that’s over 2000 leads, over 2000 leads for Bowery CrossFit in the last year alone. So how do you deal with that kind of volume?
Ryan: 10:28 – I think coming from, because I came right off the Yelp train—and those were cold leads, right? Like I’m calling these people, they don’t really want to talk to me like, so I’m coming from a place of no, no, no all day where it’s like I’m literally wasting my time and my life on here. It’s like, oh my God, these people are even interested a little bit? Like it’s game over. They’re going to buy.
Mateo: 10:48 – So for those of you who don’t know, actually you probably do. If you ever got a phone call from Yelp, it was from people like Ryan, where they’re essentially just looking at the list of businesses in the area and just calling each one and saying hey, you interested in ads? And like, no, like these people didn’t even opt in, like you didn’t opt, I’m sure. I guess the opt-in is just putting your business up on Yelp, volunteering as tribute at that.
Ryan: 11:17 – You don’t know it but you are, that’s the fine print in the contract no one ever got.
Mateo: 11:25 – So Ryan’s the guy, if you got that phone call, which I’m sure at some point you have if you’re a gym owner listening, Ryan was doing those.
Ryan: 11:33 – Yeah, I was.
Mateo: 11:34 – So I guess what you’re saying is this was a refreshing change of pace because at least the people submitting their info for a six-week program or whatever we were advertising, at least they volunteered to learn a little bit more.
Ryan: 11:48 – Exactly. So the conversation’s already open before the conversation has started. You know they’re going to be somewhat receptive. And with that amount of volume of leads, it was just making sure I’m calling and emailing all the time and compared to, OK, I had to make 200 dials at Yelp, like they have quotas you have to hit per day and like leads would come in and let’s say it’s like 50 leads. I can bang those out, no problem. Or at least I get a point of contact with them with Google voice, with email, like we had so much going on to make sure that we could get in contact with these people via text message. From that standpoint, I know for a lot of you it’s like new, and you’ve never done this before. It can feel like a lot, but when you’ve just been like drinking from a fire hydrant the fire hose, it’s like, oh great, I actually get a sippy cup. I can breathe.
Mateo: 12:35 – A manageable amount of leads.
Ryan: 12:37 – Mainly dealing with that coming from where I was. Yes, it felt manageable and also it felt like I had a fighting chance and I think that that perspective and that mindset going into it was a huge game changer for me.
Mateo: 12:51 – So we got a lot of back, throughout the history we’ve been able to get a lot of people coming in through the door, but as I’m sure some of you know who’ve done maybe a large group challenge or a group intro where you’re bringing a big cohort of people at once, it can be a challenging, it can shift the dynamic and the culture of the gym, bringing all those new people at once, you have to maybe cater to them a little bit more and your current members might get, you know, feel a little not so happy about it.
Ryan: 13:26 – Who are these newbies coming in here?
Mateo: 13:29 – We eventually changed the way we onboard and bring on six-week challenge people, or people for our front-end offer. We used to do a lot of the big groups we do now, or Bowery, that last year kind of did a combination of the two. So we were able to solve that problem. We can talk about that more in a second, but how did you deal with customer feedback coming in from Bowery?
Ryan: 13:47 – Yeah, I mean customer feedback coming in from Bowery, from current members from—and when I say current I mean like super OG members that were founding members and also you know, new six-week challenge members that just came through the funnel. Right? Like both are very valuable. But the feedback I’m getting from the OG member is they’ve been there, they’ve seen it for four or five years and I’m saying, OK cool, this is something they’re looking out for me and it’s more, they probably have more of the group of like the total individual of the gym in mind. So like that’s very important. And that’s a different conversation to have. It’s like, OK, listen, make sure that they understand they’re valued and kind of look into that a little bit more. I always think about, give them what they want—listen to your members, but don’t give them everything that they want, right? Because if you listen to everything your members say, it’s not your gym anymore. It’s their gym. Right? And while it wasn’t my gym, it was John’s gym, I was running it like it was my gym. And there certain things that these members know and like it’s a place that’s coming from love and I very much appreciate the feedback. But it’s also, they’re not running a business in the fitness industry. They’re an accountant. They are in film, they are a lawyer, they’re a doctor. I mean Bowery’s got ’em all, right. So, and they’re all very high functioning people out there that have really good input, but they’re not running the gym in the fitness industry and you’re the expert in that situation. But also 6-week challenge member, right? Like they have a completely different perspective than the person that’s been there for four years. So new light, new blood, OK, let’s see what they have to say and implement the feedback, whether it was directly in a six-week challenge. That’s immediate feedback that could be changed or altered in the programming in the coaching. And that’s a conversation to have right there. So they have a different insight into what they just completed as far as the business goes versus the OG member, they’re already in CrossFit. They’re seeing other stuff that’s going on. Two different perspectives. Both of very high value.
Mateo: 15:57 – But I think what you said is critical, m
an. Those are two viewpoints. People’s first impression, their first experience with your service, very valuable to take the notes and feedback from them and then also to retain your current clients. You gotta talk with them and see what they want. I think when we started implementing goal- setting sessions that was really eye-opening for us and helpful, and the same time though, I think what you said is super important. Like, listen to what everyone has to say, but like you don’t have to do everything that they say.
Ryan: 16:32 – Hundred percent, cause if you do everything they say you’re going to have a petting zoo going on during class, half the gym is going to be at the bar for happy hour. You’re not going to have any money in your pockets. Yeah.
Mateo: 16:43 – What is your process for cultivating community? And I feel like that’s definitely been the defining factor and the legacy that was kind of left from Bowery is ,the community. The community is really strong and very unique. So how do you cultivate community, yeah, just how do you do it?
Ryan: 17:06 – Yeah. I mean I got to say I learned a lot from you. I’m gonna tip my hat to Mateo over here.
Mateo: 17:08 – That was not on purpose.
Ryan: 17:18 – He’s going to pay me afterwards. I guess it’s—I grew up in south Florida. I kind of grew up all over, but I grew up in south Florida and I come from a place where it’s like the community that I swam with was very influential in my life and it was like so much love. Everyone’s super supportive. We grinded super hard. I mean I slammed with people like Dara Torres, for those of you that know her, like an Olympian, Vlad Polyakov, like big-time athletes like gold medalist, silver medalist, bronze, you know in Athens and Beijing. So when you’re surrounded by that you understand, I found that I understood like wow, this is such a high caliber functioning athlete or individual for that matter, but they also like, it doesn’t have to be all work, right? People come into the gym and like, yes, they’re athletes, but they’re also human beings and they’re there to stay fit or whatever their goals are. But they also like want to have a good time, right? Like the music’s got to be good, the coaching has to be great, but like how do you get those things right? It does use some snap your fingers. I think it’s leading. It’s definitely leading by example and how you treat people, right? Like you teach culture, you teach people how you want to be treated. There’re like boundaries that go into all of this. The people when they understand what type of environment that you’re fostering, it’s like if it’s no worries, if it’s cool, come in, we’re going to take care of you, but this is how we’re going to take care of you, they get on the vibe, they get on and I know like vibe is like such a trendy like hipster word, whatever. But I love it. It goes well with me. I’m gonna use it. They get on your vibe, they get on your frequency, they get on your wavelength. The members are going to see how you teach the coaches, how you speak to other people and how you deal with situations where someone was unhappy. And like word travels fast, just like anywhere else, especially in the CrossFit community. And especially at your gym, word’s gonna get around. So if you treat the member that was unhappy with their six-week challenge and you’re like, well, we’re still gonna keep your money. Like in the short term, I don’t think that’s the right way to handle things. I think it’s what can we do to fix the situation for you? And we’re both trying to win here, right? Like I want to take care of you long term because in the long term you’re going to pay the bills of the gym, but also this is more than just a business. This is a fitness relationship, which is much different than just hey, you’re going to do this work for me. I’m hiring out this contract work and it’s done. Everyone parts their way. It’s like you’re going to see these people day in and day out. Summarizing that long-winded speech, cultivating culture is how you treat your coaches, how you teach people to treat you and you know, interact with the gym and it’s the precedents that you set for yourself and other people at the gym.
Mateo: 20:09 – I think you had some really, really valuable stuff there. I think the key, I mean it goes back to core values, right? If we talk about the Incubator for a second, the first module, the first thing we go over with our clients, is like what are the core values of your gym? If you don’t have those codified somewhere like you know, how can you expect your coaches to uphold what you want to be upheld at the gym. And for us, I remember a session, I think like the first one at the gym and I think that is basically what you’re saying. It’s like be obsessed with your members. There’s a balance, right? Like you said, like listen to what they say but you don’t have to do everything they say for sure there’s a balance. But when you have that lens thinking members first, help first really, is kind of what you’re talking about, which obviously Coop has a book on. That’s kind of where it starts. And also you’re talking about, I think what you were saying before is we’re in relationships business. Especially if you’re a personal-training focused gym or whatever. That relationship starts when that person, that prospect, whoever it is, first walks in the door. Right? And so how are you greeting them? How are you treating them? What’s that person’s experience when they walk in? And now for you, I’ve seen it in action, so I’ll have to describe it to everyone listening. But yeah, it’s Ryan’s talking about vibes. Cool vibes, chill vibes. But I mean, yeah, there’s a way to make someone feel warm and welcomed when they enter your space and feel important. And I think you’ve got to make sure that not only you’re delivering that the first time they walk in, but consistently throughout their experience and make sure that you frame these interactions with your members with that in mind. So I think that’s key there. We’ve created, we were able to create really great vibes at Bowery CrossFit. How do you deal with toxic people, toxic members, toxic staff?
Ryan: 22:07 – Well, I actually had that recently, before I left probably like four months ago. You know, there’s a lot of people at your gym. I mean at Bowery CrossFit we had almost 200, a little over at some point sometimes, you know, 250, 260. There’s no way you or I or whoever going to have eyes on it or I was going to have eyes on it. Your golden members, the ones that come to you that are like, hey, something’s not right. Like take that feedback with open arms and like hone that and love it because that’s how I found out about certain toxic members, things happening that I had no idea were going to happen.
Mateo: 22:45 – In Two-Brain speak they’re seed clients.
Ryan: 22:47 – Yes. Your seed clients. Exactly. For me, I have to physically see about it. Hearing about it isn’t just like enough sometimes, but hearing about it means that, you know, be on the lookout. So toxicity is cancerous and cancer spreads in cultures and in, you know, biology. So if one person is affecting more than one other person, we have a problem. And that’s a conversation I have with the individual. If the behaviors don’t change or they’re not open to the feedback, we got to go separate ways and we’re not picking up a brick and mortar gym and leaving. So they got to go.
Mateo: 23:23 – Right, right. We’re not moving.
Ryan: 23:26 – No, we have a lease that’s not up for another 12 years.
Mateo: 23:30 – Yeah. So how do you, because I think people struggle with this, right, how do you fire a member?
Ryan: 23:35 – There’s a very mindful way to go about it, right? Each situation’s different and it’s not the George Castanza “it’s not you, it’s me” because it’s definitely them.
Mateo: 23:44 – Don’t want to lie to them.
Ryan: 23:46 – No, don’t want to lie to them. It’s a conversation of, hey, this is wh
at we’re about here. These are the things I’ve been hearing from other members about such behaviors, such things, you know, whether it’s cleaning up after class or it’s, you know, talking smack or if those things are happening, it’s like this is not acceptable. And this is what the next steps are. Either you’re on a final warning or you’re on, you got to go and I can recommend you to another gym. There’s a soft way to do that.
Mateo: 24:20 – That’s the key, right? It’s just like, hey, you know, this is not the right fit. Here are three other options that I think might be a better fit for you. And then do everything you can to make that transition easy for them. You know, call the other gym, let them know or you know, whatever you need to do to make that transition easier for the client, that really is the best way, I think.
Ryan: 24:47 – And that’s how you avoid a negative review, right? Which will impact you financially as well.
Mateo: 24:53 – Managing the reputation, obviously critical. And so if you do get someone who’s not quite right fit, like you want to make sure that, like Ryan said, right, just treat them with respect and how you would want to be treated and that’s the way to do it. So let’s shift gears a little bit for the end here. And circle back to what we’re talking about before, right? So 2000 leads, over 2000 leads in the year, $10,000 spent on ads, tons of people coming in off the street just ’cause you’re in New York, there’s just a lot of people walking by in general. And all these leads just volume, right? So what is the lead nurture process?
Ryan: 25:33 – Lead-nurture process is the lead comes in and so for yourself as a gym owner, you don’t necessarily have the time to be doing lead nurture process. So one you have hired someone and you’ve trained them, right? And then that’s a whole other conversation we can go into about training and that. But you have someone, they’re dialed in, they get it, they understand. Great lead comes in, they’re contacted, double dialed, triple dialed sent to Google voice texts. And like if for everyone, for the people in the back, as I like to say for everyone watching, listening, this is a full-time gig, right? They’ve got a burner phone or they’ve got a Google voice phone. You’re paying for their cell phone bill or the phone is paid for by the gym and they understand like this is a sales lead nurture process. If a lead comes in, speed matters, right? So as soon as that lead comes in weekend, this is the conversation’s been had and everyone’s OK with this process, then it’s a double dial, triple dial, text message, email, minimum six or seven points of contact to get this person in, right? Like we live in New York City, you lose someone on the subway as you’re talking to them going over No Sweat. Pick them up at Grand Street. Intro. Got it, see you in here. Off the subway, VD line and get in to Bowery CrossFit. So you’re going to miss people constantly, but giving them those opportunities to get in there. Great, the appointment’s been scheduled. It’s a follow-up. It’s an email. It’s a confirmation the day of, OK, you’re coming in here and even I know people are listening, like I do that and people still don’t show up. 100% you’re going to get ghosted. In dating I’ve been ghosted and it doesn’t feel good but I’m gonna slip that one in there, but also in CrossFit and No-Sweat Intros, right? It’s just like a relationship. You want to bring them in, make them feel comfortable. Great. They show up for the appointment.
Mateo: 27:24 – What is the confirmation process? I know you mentioned the auto email, but yeah. What else is the staff doing?
Ryan: 27:31 – Phone calls. We went as far as sometimes doing video messages. Yes. We also text message, Google voice and then that gets highlighted in the system. So like I come in, sales rep, who we got on the docket today, great this person’s confirmed, these three aren’t, these two are confirmed for later. OK, great.
Mateo: 27:49 – That person’s communicating that to the sales rep.
Ryan: 27:52 – Right, exactly. Right. So the lead nurture process, individuals communicating that to everybody involved and the sales rep. Right. Communication is key. So I highly encourage you have—if you’re not on Slack or you’re on Whatsapp, you have a separate group channel for communication of lead nurture process in where people are at. So that way there’s no miscommunications, there’s no missed appointments which have happened, so on and so forth. So that’s a side note. Appointment’s booked, we’re confirmed, amazing. Make sure that they’re confirmed right, like this person’s coming in, awesome. Then they show up, right? They show up, make them feel super welcome. However it is you feel about that. At Bowery it was, do you want anything to drink? Cool. Welcome to make a joke about it. Like welcome to the basement in Chinatown, where a dumpling restaurant’s upstairs so you know, make light of the situation, be real with them, and then we go into, you know, what roadblocks are going to come up at the end of the conversation. If you jump right into it, which I never advise anyone to be like, OK, we’re just going to start selling. One, find out what’s up with them. How are they doing? Why are they here? Once you break that ice, then we’ll go into a little bit more along the lines of, OK, why are you traveling? Right? People in New York City, you’re traveling all the time. Is that going to prevent you from like signing up for the six-week challenge, which starts on X date. OK, great. No, yes. OK. Then let’s talk about this. The conversation changes immediately at that point. Do you need anyone else on this meeting that you’re going to have to run this decision by? Like what is every single roadblock that you potentially could encounter here and like, let’s just hash this out and then if they’re like, cool, I’m going to be, you know, I’m ready to, you know, essentially sign up for this. All right, now let’s talk about what it is that we do.
Mateo: 29:37 – Because then otherwise there’s the B option, right? We have a one-on-one option that would be if someone can’t, if someone’s schedule is not the right fit, we have that option in the back pocket. So sounds like you guys ask a little bit of the pre-qualifying questions beforehand mixed in with the discovery phase and that’s kind of how it’s disguised. It’s, you know, using the discovery phase to bring up potential objections that normally happen at the end of the sale. You’re kind of trying to agitate that a little bit and bring them up to the service sooner.
Ryan: 30:08 – Yeah, 100% and I have found, and that works for me, everyone’s different, right? I’d rather get all of that stuff out in the beginning. So then it’s like, cool, grab your cup of coffee. We’re going to like kick back and talk about why it is you’re here. Why the lifestyle change you want to happen or it needs to happen and what’s prevented you in the past from getting there? And then, you know, by the end of the time they’re like, cool, how many spots left? I want to sign up. Right? It’s not me being like, do you want to do this? It’s like on them and they’re like, this sounds great. I’ve seen the pictures that are up on the walls of the gym or the TV screen rolling through, whatever it may be, I’ve heard the success stories. How can I do it? And that’s if you’re selling one-on-one, right? Like Bowery was such, we operate in 2,800 square feet in the basement. So you have members sitting at the desk next to you, and then your members are going to sell it for you because they’re going to see that you’re sitting there and then Aaron Mu’s going to lean in and be like, so you should just do it because we’re awesome. And then they’re like, OK, if the members are willing to step in and just sell it for you, that’s the best.
Mateo: 31:14 – Right. I advise people if you have an office, definitely selling your office in a private area. But yeah, we were in kind of a bind down there and while it wasn’t ideal, there were som
e positive side benefits where if a member was sitting kind of within earshot, they could come over, just be like, you know, that was the vibe, they’d come over and be like, you know what, you should just sign up for this thing. I don’t even know why you’re sitting next to this guy. How do you get your staff trained up?
Ryan: 31:44 – So I’ve actually, I was thinking a lot about this recently because now that I’m moving out of the gym, it’s like, OK, eventually I’m going to have to replace myself. Right? And so always trying to think two steps ahead. I learned this a lot through you because you understood, and I don’t think either of us knew this. Maybe you did. I didn’t. You understood how I operated. Right. And I think it’s understanding how one operates and then showing them in that regard. So you’re like, oh, you learn through actually doing, so like we’re just gonna let you go and do. Some people call that throwing them into the fire. Some people would like call it pushing them into the deep end. I learn by doing so it was like, OK, I need to actually start making mistakes and like getting my hands on here. Some people it’s, I need to read it and then practice on my own and that’s fine. So I think it’s step one, understand how the people that you’re going to be teaching learn. And then step two, adapt and teach them in the modality in which that they need to learn. And then three, it’s having them shadow and watch you or the person selling or the person going through the process do it. And then it’s the last one of the last steps. Cause I mean steps can go on forever, but one of the last steps would be following up, making sure that there’s an accountability checklist and it’s laid out so that way there is no ambiguity. There’s no, oh that was never said or put down or said somewhere. It’s this is how we go through the process. These are how you follow up with people. This is how you confirm and this is how you sell. So always have that in writing. That way you can always reference back, to one, hold yourself accountable. And two, there’s no like, miscommunication. And there’s clarity on that.
Mateo: 33:25 – Ryan, it’s been a delight having you on.
Ryan: 33:29 – It’s my pleasure.
Mateo: 33:30 – We’re running out of time here, but for people who want to talk to you more, where can they find you?
Ryan: 33:35 – You can find me on the Internet. You can email me at ryan@twobrainbusiness.com you can Instagram message me if you’d like. _@lucidvisions. You can come visit us here in New York. Oh yeah, I’m in Brooklyn now. Come to Brooklyn. Yeah, come on out.
Mateo: 33:56 – We’ll surf.
Ryan: 33:57 – Well the waves aren’t that good in New York, if you want to surf, let me know and we’ll book the surf trip to Mexico.
Mateo: 34:01 – Or New Jersey.
Ryan: 34:02 – Or New Jersey. You can go down and see John as well.
Mateo: 34:05 – Very different place.
Ryan: 34:08 – The tacos aren’t as good.
Greg: 34:21 – 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.
