The Next Level of Entrepreneurship: The Tinker Program

The Next Level of Entrepreneurship: The Tinker Program

Mike Warkentin (00:02):
So your gym is stable and profitable. What now? No one used to ask that question, but it’s common as more gym owners build thriving businesses through mentorship. Two-Brain’s Tinker program is the thing you need to take the next step in your journey. I’m Mike Warkentin. This is Two-Brain Radio. I have a tinker with me today. His name is Chris Plentus. He owns Kanna Fitness in Pennsylvania. He just got back from a recent Tinker meetup in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s gonna tell you how the program supports him and the other entrepreneurs that he got to hang out with. First, what is a tinker? When you start a gym, you’re a founder. When you’re working to get it running properly, you’re a farmer. When it’s running profitably without your constant oversight, you’re probably a tinker. You can take a quiz in the show notes to find out exactly what stage you are at.

Mike Warkentin (00:47):
At the Tinker Stage, there are a lot of options for you. You might wanna open a second location or expand your current one. You might wanna buy or rent commercial real estate, invest in crypto, start a completely different business. The point is you have options in front of you, and who knows what you’re gonna pursue? You might need help figuring that out. Tinkers, in general, are looking to grow their wealth, expand their influence and become better leaders, both for their staff and their local communities. In the Two-Brain Tinker program, these gym owners learn how to reach the next level of entrepreneurship through mentorship and peer support—they get to hang out with people like Chris. Now, just like a person doesn’t have to be fit to join your gym, you do not have to be a super-wealthy tycoon to join the Tinker program. You just have to be past the point where your gym isn’t struggling and eating all of your time. You need to pay yourself about a $100,000 a year. And if you do, Tinker is for you. Our Growth program is designed to get you to the $100K level, and our Tinker program takes you further. We’re pursuing $1 million in net worth. And if you wanna talk to someone about this program on the phone or on Zoom, book a call through the link in the show notes. Now I have a tinker who’s gonna tell us from ground level what the program did for him, including helping him get to $1 million in net worth. Chris, from Pennsylvania, welcome to the show.

Chris Plentus (02:01):
Thank you, Mike. Happy to be here.

Mike Warkentin (02:03):
I am pumped to ask some questions about this. We saw each other at the Summit in Chicago earlier this year, and I saw that you got an award for $1 million net worth. That’s a big accomplishment, but I wanna know what, in addition to that, did the Tinker program help you accomplish—like we’re talking your really big deals as an entrepreneur, not just a gym owner?

Chris Plentus (02:20):
Yeah, so the goal of Growth is to get to about $100,000 net owner benefit. And the idea behind that is just simply to be profitable in the gym and live a relatively comfortable lifestyle. So that’s obviously gonna vary depending on geography and cost of living, but we’re using that as a round target. The goal of Tinker is to achieve financial independence, and this is going to really depend on what people are aiming to do. But I asked the tinkers, knowing that I was gonna come on this podcast, what they got out of Tinker. And a lot of this surrounded freedom and choice. So when gym owners are tied to their business, they feel like it’s a ball and chain. They have to be there to coach the 5:30-a.m. class, or they have to be there all day to coach classes or even PT. They don’t have freedom—you know, the freedom of choice. So you want to get the gym to a place where either you’re not doing much in the business or you’re only really doing the things you actually enjoy doing. Because a lot of people get into the fitness industry because they enjoy coaching. They really love working with people and coaching them. So I think a misconception about Tinker is that you have to be completely removed from the business. That’s not true. You have to get it to the point where you’ve developed systems and you have the choice to do the things that you wanna do with your time and with your day. So that’s really what Tinker is all about. When you get to the Tinker Stage, there are so many resources available to figure out what the next steps are.

Chris Plentus (03:51):
So it can be a lot of information at first. People are getting into real estate; they’re getting into crypto; they’re getting into second, third, fourth locations. You know, we had a Tinker at one point who just bought his sixth location. So there’s a lot of information in there, and I feel like one of the first things that people have to do is figure out what it is they want. You know, for a lot of people, a lot of gym owners, they’ve had their head down in the ground. They’ve been grinding away for years and years, building their business up. And so when you can actually come up for a breath of fresh air, it actually takes some time to reorient yourself and, and to figure out what it is that you actually want for yourself. Once you know that, then there are so many resources within the Tinker group. So, for instance, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I got into the Tinker group, but at some point I realized I did want some real estate. I wanted a short-term rental. So I used the resources within the Tinker group and a different mastermind to figure out the best way to start a short-term rental, acquire the property, and then get it up and running. And I’ve done that. And that’s something that, without the Tinker Group, I probably wouldn’t have even done. Or if I did do it, it it’d be, you know, five, 10 years down the road.

Mike Warkentin (05:01):
At this level, when you get to a level of a success where you’re not grinding every day in your gym, you can actually step back for a second and maybe start to think “what’s next?” It can be overwhelming, right? I think this is when you need mentorship almost more than ever—because the stakes are higher, right? Like, you start thinking about what you can do next. There are so many options for you and you can make a ton of mistakes if you’re not careful. I started as gym owner. I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m just a gym owner, right? I don’t know anything about real estate. I don’t know anything about crypto. I don’t know anything about starting a new beverage company—which one of our tinkers did. However, there are some options and mentorship programs available that will help me figure that out. And so it sounds like you didn’t have a background in acquiring rental properties, but you figured out how to do that, and away you go. So mentorship is important at this stage, even if you’re a successful gym owner.

Chris Plentus (05:49):
Yeah, and it’s also being surrounded by like-minded people. You know, I think a lot of people, when they get into Two-Brain and they get into RampUp and then Growth, they’re surprised, and pleasantly surprised, by the types of people that they’re interacting with in the Facebook group, and certainly at Summit. And it’s just this really nice breath of fresh air compared to some of the other Facebook groups out there, where people are negative and they’re talking about really trivial things. Within Two-Brain, the Two-Brain ecosphere, we can really talk about higher-level things. Well, Tinker is that just times 10. So if you really enjoy the idea of figuring out what’s next, and you also thrive around being around like-minded people … . For me especially, and then certainly for a lot of the other tinkers that I asked, it’s important to be around other like-minded people who want to grow, who want to challenge themselves, who want to diversify in terms of their revenue streams, who wanna build a legacy. That’s really what a lot of us are doing in the Tinker group. It’s certainly talking about gym stuff. So, you know, I think another myth about Tinker is that we don’t talk about gym stuff. It’s only about real estate or it’s only about other financial assets. That’s not necessarily true. Sometimes we are talking about growing our gyms and troubles within the gym because we are handling that as well. But we’re also talking about things like the real estate, the crypto, the tax strategies. How to, you know, become more resilient in terms of our portfolio.

Mike Warkentin (07:18):
Yeah. And I’ve been privileged to do some media at some Tinker events, and it’s been incredible to see the amount of interesting things people are doing—and it’s stuff I never would’ve thought of. And it’s gym owners saying, “Hey, yeah, I started a recovery beverage company.” “Hey, I’m into the short-term rentals.” “I’m doing whole-life insurance or overfunded whole-life insurance”—whatever Shawn Rider is up to. Like, it’s incredible stuff that people are doing. And I’m watching these entrepreneurs who are quote-unquote “just gym owners” like me diversifying into really interesting entrepreneurs who are now becoming great leaders, not just in the fitness community, but in their local communities as a whole. I understand that you solidified your business and you moved locations, correct?

Chris Plentus (07:59):
That’s correct. Yeah. So one of the very first things that I got out of Tinker was having the connection and also having the permission to reach out to other tinkers for what they were doing. So we just did a podcast about Founders Club, and when I was moving my location from one building to another, having just gotten into Tinker, I knew that Jason Cohen had also just moved his place and had done a Founders Club 2.0. At the time I think I joined, there were maybe only 25 of us or 30, and at this point there are about 70 of us. So at the time I absolutely felt comfortable reaching out to Jay and being like, “Hey, can we get on a call to talk about this Founders Club 2.0?” And then I modified it for myself to make it my own thing. But having the permission to reach out to each other and having this network of people that you can go to to talk about problems, to do things that you might not otherwise feel permission to do is absolutely one of the biggest benefits of being in the group.

Mike Warkentin (09:02):
It’s peer support, right? It’s people at your level and slightly above your level who are pulling you forward, right? And you’ve got mentorship. Jeff Smith is the leader, Chris Cooper speaks lot, John Franklin, our marketing head does as well, but then there are also outside experts who come in and teach incredible, incredible stuff. One of the things you mentioned that I wanna highlight is tax strategy and estate plan planning and legacy building. When you’re mopping the floors at your gym, you don’t think about that stuff because you’re probably not really paying yourself. At least I wasn’t. Once you start actually making some money and having some assets and having a family and having some time to step back and think about it, it’s then important to start thinking about “how do I protect this? How do I pay exactly the amount of tax that I owe and not a penny more? How do I create benefits, long-term benefits, for my family, for my community? How do I give back?” And that’s one of the really cool things about a wealth platform. Chris Cooper is passionate about this: Build Your wealth platform first. Support yourself with more than you need so you have some to give away. And there’s some cool stories that we’re gonna get into about that. So tell me what have you got the last Tinker meetup? What are some of the really cool things that are going on in that group? Like, tell me what’s bubbling up to the surface and what balloons are flying up in the air?

Chris Plentus (10:10):
Yeah, let me first go over the format of Tinker because I think it would be good for them to know. It is different than growth, you know. So in Growth, the whole idea here is that you have a very cadenced structure. You have calls with your mentor every month. There are obviously modules that you can access. And there’s the Facebook group, which is super valuable. In the Tinker group, there are weekly calls. So we do a weekly Zoom. We also have a monthly—what we call—”board.” So you’re actually in a smaller group because as the group is getting bigger, we still wanna maintain the intimate nature of being in a small group to be able to get your voice heard and talk about things. So there are monthly boards. There’s obviously the Tinkers-only Facebook group. We also formed our own book club. So every month we pick a business book or something personal development-wise to—

Mike Warkentin (10:59):
What are you reading right now?

Chris Plentus (11:02):
We just read “The Gap of the Gain,” which is a great mindset book. And then for the next one we’re gonna read “Built to Sell.”

Mike Warkentin (11:13):
Perfect. Keep going.

Chris Plentus (11:14):
And then the biggest difference is that we do quarterly meetups. So these are huge because, you know, in person, all of us are coming. In-person meetups, they’re not required, but they’re highly encouraged, and most of most Tinkers try to make it. We were just in Charlotte, and I wanna say out of the 70 total tinkers, I think there were about 50, 55 of us down there. It was amazing to meet people.

Mike Warkentin (11:41):
I saw the picture, it was awesome.

Chris Plentus (11:42):
Yeah, it’s just so great. I mean, just like Summit, it’s so great to meet people in person. It’s the energy that you just don’t get over Zoom. So, you know, we’re doing sessions during the day. So we have people like Kathy from The Go-Giver give a talk. We had Bonnie Skinner, who is in the Tinker group also give a talk. We do some 90-day sprint planning, which I’ll talk about in a minute. But then you have a lot of time to network, and this is not the local-chamber-of-commerce-type networking, where, you feel awkward and stiff trying to introduce yourself. Everybody already knows each other for the most part. And we’re also coming from very similar backgrounds. It’s just we have nuanced problems that we wanna troubleshoot and solve with and for each other. So we’ll go work out. We went to work out at Brian Strump’s gym, and then we go out to eat and hang out. And it’s just a really, really good time to get to know each other. And, you know, I’ll say at a lot of networking events, you’re gonna talk about what you do and the stiff, very surface-level business stuff. But at these meetups, we kind of skip that because we’ve already talked about it, either on Zoom or we already know each other from the Facebook group or whatever. So we just dive into the deep stuff. You know, we talk about legacy. We talk about what it is we wanna be known for. We talk about some of these nuanced things, like tax strategy, even though that might sound boring. It’s just one of those things where it’s not boring when it works.

Chris Plentus (13:15):
I just heard this simple concept: If you work a standard W2, where 50% of your money goes towards taxes. I mean, that’s a high rate, but let’s just say that you go buy something for a dollar. You actually have to earn $2 just to buy that thing that costs a dollar because of all the taxes going out, right? So yeah, this is one of those things that we’re trying to focus on. But the meetups are super valuable for just getting to know each other, feeling like you can let your guard down and be yourself and be your own person. And then the other super-valuable thing that I found, and that a lot of people find, is that we do these 90-day sprints. So it’s taking this idea—and this comes largely from Todd Herman and other writers—but it’s this idea of taking a 90-day focus, setting goals and then going and doing those goals. So for me, setting up the Airbnb, that was on several 90-day sprints because it just stretched over the course of several quarters. I set up a nonprofit within the gym in order to serve at-risk youth, youth in our area. That’s something that I got outta Tinker in terms of permission to do. And also, you know, a time horizon to give myself in order to get it done. And then for me personally, I also want to become a mentor, which, having the freedom from the gym and time to dedicate toward that has also helped. So in terms of my wins, I would say those are my three biggest. But having the time to do it, having the network of people to reach out to and then, you know, having the resources available to you in the Tinker Toolkit—super, super valuable.

Mike Warkentin (14:54):
So I could see an entrepreneurial group very easily devolve into “how big is your bank account?” conversation or a lot of measuring this and stacking of that and posturing, I haven’t got that sense in the Tinker group. I get the sense that it’s a bunch of peers who are all very close to the same level, who are more than willing to help each other out. “I might be a little bit ahead on this thing. I’m gonna help you out. Chris, I don’t have a clue how to do rental properties. You might have some tips for me.” And the cool part that you mention is a lot of these people have come up together through our Growth group, so they know each other pretty well. But that’s not to say that outside people won’t come up to speed very quickly—because it’s a very welcoming group, and it’s not a group where it’s all about trying to get far ahead of the pack. It’s a group where the pack is pulling each other forward as a giant group of gym owners. Have I got that right?

Chris Plentus (15:37):
A hundred percent. One of the things that you usually talk about when you do meet fellow gym owners, let’s say not within the Two-Brain world, is you’re talking about how many members you have and possibly top-line revenue and all the shallow metrics, right? We kind of skip all that, and we just get to the important things: family, fitness, freedom, finance, future and faith. So those are the six F’s that we cover. And one of the things that I didn’t expect—but that is absolutely a focus since a lot of us are parents within that group—is this idea of family and this idea of creating a life that you want. And it does go back to that Perfect Day activity that we do in Growth. And this idea of “what is your Perfect Day? How do you spend your time? What are you actually doing things for? Why are you running a gym to help people? Okay, great. But why do you feel like you need to be there 12 hours a day?” And people start realizing, “Okay, in Growth I need to get myself out of this because this is not sustainable. I’m gonna reach burnout. And also I have this family that I need to be home for, right?” But even beyond that, how can you enhance your life in order to better serve the community and also your family? So one of the things that I got out of one of our 90-day sprints, David Allen is a tinker in there, and he was talking about doing dates with his kids. So he spends one-on-one time, very specific time, with each of his kids. Which I then took because I realized, sure, we’re gonna spend time as a family, the four of us, but it’s pretty rare to just be one on one and have really quality time with my kids. So that’s something that I consciously am doing because of this Tinker group and of getting ideas from other Tinkers.

Mike Warkentin (17:39):
So it’s really, it’s like a lifestyle program, right? Like if you think about Growth as a business program for gym owners, this is like a business program at a higher level, but it’s also lifestyle. Because you’re talking about those six F’s that you talked about. Like, “Why are you doing this?” I’ve talked to so many tinkers who said, “You know, I was that grinding gym owner. I literally didn’t get home till 9 o’clock at night. I left the house at 4:30 in the morning. I worked 80-hour weeks. I never saw my family.” How horrible is that? At the tinker level, you start to realize, “Okay, I’ve got that behind me. Now I can start focusing on what I want and need to do to be a good human being.” And for a lot of tinkers, it’s that freedom, like you said, where “I can choose to coach a little bit. I can choose to work at my gym. Or I can choose to just delegate that to my staff and take my kid to the park.” And there’s some really cool stuff that people are able to do. What else has inspired you in that group? Who’s got some cool stuff going on there?

Chris Plentus (18:28):
It really is a diverse group. You got Shawn Rider who you can go to for any whole-life insurance banking concept talk. You’ve got Nick, who’s got a couple locations and he wants to grow his locations.

Mike Warkentin (18:49):

Nick Blum, the tire guy?

Chris Plentus (18:51):

Yeah. So you’ve got Nick Blum, the guy who owns the tire business, but then you’ve also got Nick Habich, who just went through the hurricane and has to deal with you know, obviously the hurricane stuff, running two locations and also finding a new spot for his second location, right? A lot of these issues that come up definitely are related to gym things. But it’s also just at a higher level, right? Then you’ve got Tommy Alfinito, who is opening a distillery, and that’s a whole new world of permits. It’s still a hospitality business, because I do consider the gym industry to be in hospitality somewhat, but you know, that is a whole new world there.

Mike Warkentin (19:36):
So distillery—that’s amazing.

Chris Plentus (19:39):
Yeah. It seems random, but when you think about it, it still has to do with serving people. It still has to do with systems. Right now he’s going through the fit-out process and realizing, you know, all the ups and downs with that. And so when you strip away the actual fitness aspect, a lot of what he’s doing is very similar to setting up a gym. And then the things that he has brought to the Tinker group as it relates to the gym are things like hiring a general manager, getting systems in place so that he literally doesn’t have to walk into his gym at all because, yes, he does have to spend time on that. Plus he has twins, right?

Mike Warkentin (20:22):
He’s not the only beverage guy out there that we’ve got.

Chris Plentus (20:25):
No, you’ve got Josh Grennell, right, who set up Cowbell, and it took him three years to do that. He was in Tinker well before I was, but from my knowledge, the Tinker group helped spur him to do that. There are several of us who are doing short-term rental work, and that’s been a huge help to be around other people who are doing the same thing.

Mike Warkentin (20:50):
Commercial real estate comes up, too, regularly

Chris Plentus (20:53):
Commercial real estate. Yep. So a number of people are buying buildings or they’re asking their landlord to buy buildings. You know, the overall theme that I see beyond just the freedom and the choice of things is also the mindset, right? Because I feel like when people join Growth, they’re suddenly elevated in terms of who they are as a business owner, and suddenly they realize the importance of systems and they realize the importance of removing themselves from roles, not because they hate them. I mean, of course if you hate them, you should remove yourself. But mostly from a system standpoint: If you get hit by a bus, how is the business gonna run? And so you take that mindset in Growth, and then when you elevate it and you’re among people who are searching for the next thing … . The mindset of going after things that seem impossible or doing things that seem crazy or not even possible because you don’t know what you don’t know, being around that discussion is amazing because there’s a lot of tinkers right now who are going to their landlord and they’re asking, “Hey, can I buy this building?” And they’re coming back with “this is gonna be a $2 million building. This is gonna be $3 million building.” Like, a lot of people, if they’re in RampUp or Growth, might think, “Well, I don’t have $2 million.” But then you bring it to the group, and then we come up with these creative financing options and all of these things that you just don’t know. And Jeff has so much experience and is so valuable in talking especially about real estate that suddenly you realize, “Oh, like I can go to the bank and ask for this.” Or “I can go to these lenders and ask for this.” And, you know, terms like “hard money” and five plus different ways of acquiring a down payment without you having to actually pay out any money. A lot of this stuff people just don’t know. And so being in a group where they’ve been there, done that is immensely valuable in terms of building up your net worth and building your legacy.

Mike Warkentin (22:55):
It’s like the four-minute mile. And Chris Cooper’s used this analogy: Roger Bannister runs it, and then I can’t remember how long it took, but it was not very long before someone else ran another sub-four-minute mile, even though no one in history was able to do it. But it’s like, “Ah, it’s possible.” And there’s a mental leap that happens there, and that leap happens when you get out of the muck of getting your gym running properly. When it’s stable, you can step back for a second, take a look. You have some space, and that’s when you need to be surrounded by other people. The best thing you can do if you wanna be a millionaire is to hang out with millionaires. What do millionaires do? How do you do that? You learn, right? So how did you know that you were ready for the Tinker program? Because I know there’s a lot of people that’ll be in that mindset just below it where they’re like, “I can’t do this. I can’t even get my head around buying a property worth $2 million. I don’t understand.” How did you know you were ready?

Chris Plentus (23:41):
I wanted to be in it. I had the FOMO of seeing the group in New York meeting Todd Herman, and I was like, “I want to be that. I want to do that.” And so I worked with my mentor, Greg Strauch. Systematically, methodically, each month we would work on a new thing. And you know, I think a lot of us who join Tinker would say that we probably join a little bit sooner than we feel like we should.

Mike Warkentin (24:11):
It’s impostor syndrome creeping in.

Chris Plentus (24:13):
Yeah. It’s a combination of impostor syndrome. Like, “Oh my gosh. I’m in this room of really advanced people when actually they’re not that much more advanced.” Like everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and everybody has something to contribute. You know, to just to quickly go back to random things that people are doing. Kevin Neglia, who is in the Tinker group, he opened a pet store. Like he bought a pet store. So number one is impostor syndrome. And then number two, it makes you level up. Like if you have the goal of getting into Tinker, it’s gonna make you do the things in the gym to get it systemized and get you out of the day to day so that you can actually spend time to go through the Tinker Toolkit and be on the calls. So I will block off these times that we’re doing calls because I think it’s really important. And figuring out what it is that you want because that’s a question that I don’t think a lot of gym owners actually ask themselves. Like, “What do you want besides just having a gym? Why do you want the gym?” “Well, I wanna help people.” “Okay, what do you want beyond that? Do you want to be able to go away for a full month and not have any contact with the gym? You’ve gotta set it up in a way that you can do that. Do you want your to pay for your kids’ college or whatever it is that you wanna pay for? Weddings, just lifestyle wise, what do you want? Okay, great. We need to figure out a way to do that.” The gym might be the answer, and we build that up, but oftentimes it’s not the only answer because we are typically entrepreneurs who are ready, willing, able to do new things and just go and experiment. I don’t know whether that’s the chicken or the egg, but a lot of us are getting into other things either because of our entrepreneurial spirit or because we see the bigger picture. We see the North Star of wanting to build that legacy and get to—I mean, Tinker is not even the last stage. It’s the Thief Stage, where you can then have that legacy and build upon it and do even more good for your greater community.

Mike Warkentin (26:23):
So listers, if you’re on the fence right now, the best thing you can do is book a call to talk about it. Link in the show notes. You talk to someone, and that person will explain what you need to do to be in Tinker. They’ll give you some feedback, answer all your questions and let you know if this program is a good fit for you. Interestingly enough, you mentioned impostor syndrome syndrome shows up all the time. “I’m not ready for this. I’m not good enough. I’m not as good as everyone else.” Bonnie Skinner, a psychotherapist, she’s a member of the Tinker group. She’s actually spoken about this exact thing. And the point that I’m making here is that there are not just gym owners in this group. There’s Bonnie, who’s a psychotherapist. Nick Blum has tire franchises. There are people in there who are benefiting from the knowledge of entrepreneurs who are not just gym owners. It certainly is a group that has a lot of gym owners, but people are branching out, and other people are coming in. And what happens is you have this giant, cohesive snowball effect of people who know quite a bit about a lot of stuff. And so if I wanted to open a therapy business of some sort, Bonnie Skinner would probably have some tips for me, right? And same thing if I wanted—

Chris Plentus (27:26):
David Allen is opening a ninja gym.

Mike Warkentin (27:27):

Right?

Chris Plentus (27:28):
Andrew Romeo is doing a personal-training studio as a second location, but he has a functional fitness gym as his first location.

Mike Warkentin (27:38):
Bringing a product to market—we’ve got Josh Grennell we’ve got like distilleries, we’ve got things happening. So the overall message here is this is a group of talented people who are going in one direction, and they’re gonna suck you along with them, which is pretty cool. What’s next for you? Look at the crystal ball. What are you inspired do right now? You’ve done a couple of really cool things in the last little bit. What are you looking at now? What are you inspired to do?

Chris Plentus (28:02):
Yep. So right now we have our board for our nonprofit, and we just had our open house. So we’re gonna get kids into our youth program, and we’re right now going out to our boys and girls club to do fitness classes with them. So that’s all off the ground. Short-term rental is doing well; systems are going. You know, if there’s anything I learned, it’s that there are so many skills in running a gym that can apply to other businesses, like setting up systems, understanding the importance of them. So I spend minimal time on the Airbnb, and so my effective hourly rate is sky high on that. So next I think it’s probably going to be something in real estate, maybe another short-term rental. If I had to pick, and I’m still open to doing something like a second location, but I might go the Andrew Romeo route or like others who have done a focus on a personal-training studio or something a little more simple in terms of revenue stream but high end in terms of higher ticket offers.

Mike Warkentin (29:08):
But you’ve got options, and how cool is that? I wanna point out that you are able, from this position of strength, you can now give back. So you’re building this nonprofit, which gets kids involved, and let’s not minimize this. A child who starts a fitness program and maybe a disadvantaged child who couldn’t afford to do that in the first place, that is a life-changing thing. So if you talk about legacy, vision and faith and all the things that are important to people, that must feel pretty good for you to be able to give back.

Chris Plentus (29:34):
Yeah. It’s one of those things that I always had as an idea, but getting into the Tinker program made it almost mandatory that I do it because I put it out there in the universe. So, you know, for people who have read “The Secret” or talk about just manifesting what it is that you want, all the kind of woo-woo stuff, it’s true. Like if you put it out there—especially to a group that’s gonna hold you accountable between the 90-day sprints and the weekly calls and people checking in on you to see how X and Y are doing—well, you’re gonna go do it because you don’t want to look like a goof. When you come to the next meetup and people are asking “hey, how’s that nonprofit doing that you said you were gonna set up” and then you’ve got nothing to show for it. Right? So it, it’s one of those things where you’re gonna follow through on things and you’re gonna get things done because of the group, the power of the group.

Mike Warkentin (30:29):
The manifesting things: People hear that, and it kind of sickens some of us. And Chris Cooper will know what I’m talking about if he’s listening. But to manifest something and then actually take the steps to do it, that is the link, right? When you actually surround yourself with people who will teach you how to do it, you’ll commit to it. You’ll have some accountability. That’s not manifesting, that’s manifesting and taking action. And that’s when really cool stuff happens.

Chris Plentus (30:55):
Action is the only thing that matters. Yep.

Mike Warkentin (30:57):
That’s exactly it. Saying it doesn’t matter. Saying it and then taking action is what matters. And that’s what Tinker program is there for. Now, people out here are listening and they’re thinking “I don’t know if this is for me. I’m maybe on the fence.” What would you say to someone who’s thinking about the Tinker program right now?

Chris Plentus (31:12):
Definitely talk with your mentor. Just talk things out. They’ll give you a pretty good gauge on if they think you’re ready for it. Again, you do not have to be completely removed 100% from your business. There are plenty of tinkers who still coach, who do personal training, who do nutrition coaching because they love it. But they choose to do it. That’s the difference. And then they have the systems so that they can go away because our meetups are in the middle of the week. They’re Thursday-Friday, and a lot of us fly in Wednesday or even Tuesday. So to take four days off from the gym for some people is unfathomable. So if that’s the case, then you gotta build the systems and you got the gotta get the gym up running to the point where you can get away and feel good about what you’re leaving behind. And then, yeah, book a call with Jeff or Chris Cooper because you’ll also get some information from them. You’ll get a sense from them as to whether you should be in or not. And again, it’s not “ready” in the sense of “do you have to be paying yourself a hundred thousand dollars exactly?” No. But if you’re just scraping by, is Tinker right for you? Probably not. Growth is meant for you to get to the point where you can provide for your lifestyle comfortably. But then taking that next step in Tinker is to really put rocket fuel on getting that net worth up and then building that legacy.

Mike Warkentin (32:40):
It’s a beautiful thing. Listeners, book a call through the show notes. You can absolutely find out if this program is right for you. And I wanna thank you, Chris, for, for sharing. I’m gonna check back in with you and we’ll find out what you’ve built next. Because every time I talk to a Tinker, there’s some incredible stuff that comes out of it. And it’s amazing to see what quote-unquote “just gym owners” are actually accomplishing now that they’ve got some free time. Thanks so much.

Chris Plentus (33:02):
Thanks, Mike.

Mike Warkentin (33:04):
That was Chris Plentus on Two-Brain Radio. Please hit subscribe on your way out. Thank you for listening. Chris Cooper is in here with a final message.

Chris Cooper (33:13):
Hey, it’s Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper with a quick note. The Gym Owners United Facebook group has more than 6,200 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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