Care-Coach-Lead

As gym owners, a lot of us have been sold the idea that we can build our business to run itself, and we will never have to step in and handle minor day-to-day issues.

But even 7 years in to running our gym, I still find myself plugging holes in various areas a couple times each month.  Just a couple days ago, I covered our childcare room for a couple hours, since our attendant for that day had to go home sick.  I've learned to be okay with these moments, and often find a way to enjoy them and the perspective I gain from being thrown back "in" to the business.

If you find that plugging holes is becoming a recurring pattern though, it may be time to take a step back and attack the problem at its root cause.

This episode shares some short examples of when it might be okay to step in as a utility player in your business, and when you will be better off solving the underlying issue, and delegating that solution to someone on your team.

Learning is one of the most high value skills we can have as gym owners, yet most of us are never taught how to do it at an exceptional level.

We read a book with the goal of finishing that book and checking the box, instead of using books as a tool and resource to solve real world problems we are currently facing.

Over the years, I have learned that there are mindsets, strategies, and tools that you can take into any book, podcast, or course that will drastically change your ability to retain that information and actually implement it into your life.

This episode covers 7 quick tips for learning faster, so you don’t get caught up in the trap of consuming information, and not applying it to your life.

In this episode, I sit down with my good friend Carl Penney, who runs CrossFit El Cid in West Palm Beach, FL, which is about a 30-minute drive from our gym, CrossFit Palm Beach.

Carl and I have made it a habit of meeting for lunch or coffee every 3-4 months for the last couple years, regularly trading business ideas or providing a sounding board for each other to work through issues we are facing in the gym.

Our relationship has been vital for me to clarify my ideas, learn what things are working for other successful gyms out there, and to just remind me that I’m not crazy for believing what I believe.

Entrepreneurship and running a gym can feel like a lonely pursuit at times, and I can’t overstate the value of having someone to share the journey with that isn’t your direct business partner or your business coach.

I recommend that every gym owner finds a “Carl” near them that they can vent to and learn from.

This week’s episode will give you a window into what one of our regular conversations might look like, as we dive deep into topics like managing your time, working ON your business instead of IN your business, and dealing with unhappy members.

Over the last 7 years, we've run in the ballpark of 15 different types of nutrition challenges at CrossFit Palm Beach.  We've run challenges as short as 28 days and as long as 90 days.  We've done challenges centered around paleo, macros, lifestyle, and habits.

You name it, we've probably done a version of it.

I'm a huge fan of nutrition challenges for getting more clients thinking about their nutrition, getting them to step outside their comfort zone with their dietary habits, and providing a platform for us to educate about nutrition on a deeper level.

This past fall, we ran a successful 28-day nutrition challenge, that was my favorite challenge that we have run so far at CFPB.  It had the perfect mix of group and individual accountability, clients saw great results, and it wasn't super time consuming on our team.

This episode covers exactly how we structured that challenge, from pricing to prizes.  If you are thinking about running a nutrition challenge to kick off 2020, this is a must listen.

Also, head over to sevenfigurebox.com/challenge to pick up the exact templates we used to run the challenge in our gym.

While most gym owners would agree that nutrition is at least as important as exercise for helping our clients create results, most owners still aren’t clear if and how they should implement a nutrition program at their gym.

Luckily for us, companies like Healthy Steps Nutrition, Working Against Gravity, and Precision Nutrition are building out plug-and-play solutions that we can add on to our current service offerings.

But adding 1-on-1 nutrition coaching may still not be the best use of resources for most gyms at this time.

In order to run a successful nutrition program, we need to have the right coach to run the program, have regular access to a body fat tracking machine like an InBody, and we need to price the program in a way where it serves the coach, the gym, and the client long-term.   (Most gyms are screwing up the pricing and then ending up in a race to the bottom)

In this episode, we dive deep into how we structure our nutrition programs and pricing at CFPB, why we work with HSN to oversee our program, and how many people you can expect to join your program if you do launch it.

When you think about the future of your business, do you worry about your competitors or new technologies taking your members and putting you out of business?  Do gyms like Orange Theory and F45, or technologies like the Peloton and Mirror, feel like threats to your future?

If we try too hard to be different in the micro gym industry, we will likely put ourselves in a rat race against bigger and more powerful brands that we don't have the funds or the resources to keep up with.   Even if we are "successful" with our different concept, it's only a matter of time before others copy us or replicate our ideas.  

So rather than aim to be different for the sake of being different, I encourage most micro gym owners to aim to be timeless with their service and their offerings.  What services and environment can you create that will never go out of style?  What issues can you solve, or experiences can you provide, that your customer will still have a need for years and decades into the future?  What value do you provide today that can't easily be replicated by new technologies?

In this episode, I discuss what it means to be timeless versus being different.  I also talk about how we are in the process of re-writing our vision statement at CrossFit Palm Beach to be more timeless, and adopt a more infinite mindset.  

Back in 2008-2010, I did sales for Norwegian Cruise Line.  I wore a suit every day to work and spent the entire day making sales calls, with the goal of making 150+ calls per day.  It was my first real job after college and a short stint in professional baseball, and taught me a lot about sales, hard work, and navigating corporate culture.

Many of the lessons I learned in those 2 years at NCL have stuck with me to this day.  

I overcame my fear of selling, while learning how to listen to customers.  I learned that there is a lot of money and abundance in this world, and it isn't my job (especially in sales) to project my personal beliefs about money onto others.  I learned what it took to become a top performer, and that it's a lot easier to stay at the top then it is to ascend there.  

John Briggs is a rare breed in our industry.  He's a CPA and tax professional that also happens to be a CrossFit affiliate owner.  He specializes in helping microgyms become profitable, which he shares in his brand new book, coming in January 2020.

The key message of John's new book, is that we as microgym owners, deserve to make money and make a living off of what we are doing.  And while he shares a ton of tactical tips in this podcast and his new book, the most important hurdle most gym owners need to get over is this mental block that its okay (and necessary) for them to make money for the value they are putting into this world.

This episode covers a range of topics regarding gym ownership, tracking numbers, and mindset.  We even dive into the book writing process near the end of our interview, which I found fascinating.

Brittany Welk is the owner of LadyStrong Fitness, a women's only fitness studio in the Chicago suburbs.

In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty details of how she generates leads, gets them to actually show up for their free trial, and converts them into long-term members.  She shares the exact step-by-step blueprint for how she has grown her gym to 250 members in 3 years.

I was personally impressed with the systems she has set up to reach out to new leads automatically and immediately, and how she aims to engage all of her new prospects in a conversation within 5 minutes of them becoming a new lead, which she says increases your chances of converting that person by 5X or more.

We also discuss what it's like to own and run a ladies-only facility, and whether or not co-ed micro gyms should consider offering a gender-specific class.

Brittany is a wealth of knowledge and a true student of the craft of business ownership.  If you are looking to generate or convert more leads into your long-term membership, this episode is a must-listen.

If you follow Dr Sean Pastuch and Active Life RX on social media, you know they haven’t been shy about sharing their thoughts on coaches pay and the 4/9ths model.