I spent the last 72 hours with most of the senior mentors at TwoBrain.
It was the first time any had visited the TwoBrain Workshop. And the first time several had met in person. Despite growing from zero to 350 mentoring clients in just over 18 months, we’d never had our own private Summit.
I didn’t sleep for two nights before they got there. These are some of the most successful gym owners in the world–and, far and away, the best mentors in the fitness business. They’re friends, and we often lean on each other. The struggles of our clients weigh heavily on each of us (I’ve cried with Ken many times, and celebrated with Dani almost every week) and that has forged a very strong bond.
All of that brainpower in the Workshop at once, and I could have pointed the conversation in any direction. So what did we talk about?
We talked about OUR process, and YOUR opportunities.
First, our process: over 15 hours spent in front of a whiteboard, making sure we’re giving gym owners the best advice in the most actionable way.
Now, we’re busy. We don’t have to fly all over North America to sit on my couch for a weekend. None of us is asking, “How do we get more clients?” or “how do we make more money?” because that’s not our goal. Instead, we spent thousands of dollars and time away from our families to figure out how to help gym owners MORE. These discussions will result in upgrades that are mostly invisible. They’ll be expensive. And our clients probably won’t know about them. But it will make our mentoring practice better for THEM, and that’s why we do it.
Codifying my gym’s processes saved it. Not a marketing strategy; not a sales pitch; not a Facebook ad.
Whenever a business wants to reach the next level–whether that level is earning the first dollar in profit, or the $10 million mark–it MUST start with solidifying its processes. Operations at their current level must be codified, them optimized, and then (if possible) automated. New roles emerge from this discussion in gyms AND in a large mentorship practice. If you’re coaching every class, you simply can’t work on your retention strategy. And if I’m implementing the CRM, I can’t finish the book that will change your idea of “marketing” and “sales”. Making me better at fixing a CRM doesn’t help YOU–the gym owner–one bit.
Second, we talked about what gym owners actually need. Starting with a blank slate, we asked ourselves, “How much help do people need? What does the data actually support? Are we better off as franchisees?” Nothing was off the table.
This sounds superfluous, maybe. But it’s necessary, because most “consultants” in our industry are actually selling ineffective solutions. As I learned in 2015, online courses don’t actually solve anyone’s problems, because knowledge is less than half the issue.
The discussion finished with, “Which of these problems can be solved by software?” which, of course, led to the obvious question: “Is software effectively solving the problems of gym owners in 2017/2018?”
You can probably guess the answer to that one.
Finally, I asked, “What’s the biggest opportunity in front of the CrossFit community that no one is seeing yet?” Two years ago, that was adding nutrition programs. Now, Two-Brain Coaching offers a Nutrition Course. That’s been huge for many. Before that, the opportunity was the Intramural Open; before that, it was Bright Spots.
I’ll share the next “big opportunity” for CrossFit gyms on Thursday. In the meantime, I’ll be at HQ all week talking about business!
