On March 31, I made a $10,000 transfer. The amount wasn’t a big deal; but the click was: it meant I had spent over $1,000,000 helping gym owners in the previous 100 days.
That million was the fastest million I’ve ever spent–and it was the best.
None of that million went toward beach vacations or fast cars. All of it went to making gym owners’ lives better.
Here’s the breakdown:
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- Mentorship for gym owners. Two-Brain is a mentorship practice. We’re a mentorship practice because that’s what helps gym owners. It’s the most expensive service you can provide. Selling online courses would be 1000x more profitable. But we provide mentorship, because that’s what really works.
- The Bridge Fund. The Two-Brain team now has a pool of funds that we can loan at 0% interest to gyms in emergencies. We set up an approval and advisory board, put the funds in a secure account, and we’re almost ready to go. We’ll start with weather-related emergencies.
- Research into the best platform for gyms. We’ve now invested over $50,000 researching different payment processors, client tracking, WOD tracking and gym management platforms. It might seem a bit–uh, crazy?–to spend money trying to figure this out. But frankly, gym owners deserve something that works simply and well. We’ve published a list to of requirements for Two-Brain compliance. We’ll see who fills the gap first. UpLaunch was the first to meet the standard.
- A $50,000 commitment to buying media (photos, videos, blog posts, lead magnets, and more) that will help gym owners. We established Two-Brain Media with Mike Warkentin, former editor of the CrossFit Journal, and Mike’s been creating some amazing stuff already. Maybe you’ve already seen our free “What To Do After The Open” or “Broke Gym Owner’s Marketing Guide”. Members of the Two-Brain Family have already received marketing guides and photos for Instagram, as well as our first full lead funnel.
- Travel to CrossFit HQ–and 4 countries in Europe–to help gym owners with their businesses. We did one paid seminar in there (which I’m not counting here) but the rest was all covered by us.
We’ve made a ton of investment in things that won’t bear fruit for a few months, and I can’t mention yet. But if you’re a gym owner, your business will benefit from this investment in 2019.
Where did the money come from? From gym owners who trust in our stewardship. Thank you.
Why invest in things that won’t give us a return? Because it’s necessary, and no one else will.
Our success as the largest mentorship practice in the gym industry has become our obligation to lead the industry forward.
We put money into researching other people’s software because we want to help them produce what gym owners actually need. We built the Bridge Fund
Who benefits? Gym owners. Of which I’m one.
What’s coming? Group HealthShare plans for gym owners and their coaches. Meta-level measurement to prove what works best, and when. Continuing education for coaches, better financing options for gym owners, and some super secret stuff too. And, of course, all the knowledge we can find, test, prove and share.
Two-Brain Business grows when gyms succeed. In mid-December, several factors convinced me that no one else had the mission or position to improve gym owner’s lives. The first steps were to remove the things that can kill a gym: hurricanes, inflated expenses, and medical bills. Imagine this: a new entrepreneur quits her job, because she wants to dedicate her life to making others’ lives better. She exposes her family to financial risk; works 16-hour days to keep a candle burning in her gym; and slowly starts changing lives. But then her mission is wiped out for all the wrong reasons: a hurricane, or medical bills she can’t cover, or vendors who prey on new entrepreneurs. That’s the kind of scenario that keeps me up at night.
If someone really wanted to change the world, they’d start by keeping great gyms open longer; their owners happy and healthy; and their communities growing. That’s what I want. Thank you for wanting it too. Hope this helps.
