Geronimo Unfiltered

👉🏼 Thought about selling your studio more than once? Book a Strategy Call  with my team and we'll find what's actually keeping you stuck.

👉🏼 Or start with the tools we use to run our team without us:

 Team Handbook Builder GPT and our Vision Book Template.

Most studio owners who tell me they want to sell don't actually want out of the business. They want out of the job they've built for themselves inside it. 

Maree has run her dance studio in Sydney for 24 years. It's doing seven figures, she has staff who've been with her for 20 years, and around 10,000 kids have come through her doors. And every 12 months, like clockwork, she'd hit the wall and start thinking about selling.

Just 6 months ago she was working minimum 50-hour weeks on three hours sleep a night, but now? It runs without her. 

Here's the bit that got me. Her team could already run the place without her. The day she realised it, she was standing in her own studio on a Saturday sharpening pencils, because there was nothing left for her to do. 

The problem was never the team, the leads or the strategy. It was who she thought she had to be. 

Today Sophie and I sit down with Maree to unpack the identity shift that ended her burnout, and the leadership shift that finally let her team step up.

You'll learn:

- Why a holiday never fixes burnout, and what actually does

- The one question Maree now asks her managers that stops her rescuing them (without letting standards slip)

- Why your team is not your family, and what the best teams in the world run on instead

- What happened when she stopped posting for her competitors (they ended up sharing her content)

- Why telling a parent "we're not the right studio for you" made her team respect her more.

Chapters: 

00:00:00 Seven figures in, and bored out of her mind

00:01:00 Why she wanted to sell every 12 months

00:02:51 50-hour weeks on three hours sleep

00:04:09 A team that had been there 20 years, and she wouldn't let them work

00:08:39 She didn't hate the studio. She hated the role.

00:13:05 What business is she actually in?

00:18:42 Ten years of marketing to her competitors

00:20:12 The post her competitors reposted 257 times

00:27:16 Telling a parent "we're not the right studio for you"

00:35:14 What she believed about her team when she was burning out

00:41:01 Your team is not your family

00:48:16 The one question that stops you rescuing your team

00:57:55 What she'd build if the studio ran without her for 30 days

01:00:32 We call her studio manager live on air

Resources mentioned in this episode:

- Team Handbook Builder GPT 

- Vision Book Template

If you liked this episode, go and listen to From Burnt Out to Booked Out: How Indi Took Back Control of Her Studio. It's another Academy owner who was running herself into the ground and took the business back.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Watch on YouTube. 

Six months after Maree hit rock bottom, her studio manager of nine years told us live on the podcast that the team now WANTS feedback and HAS the tools to lead. That's the shift. Book a Strategy Call with my team and let's build yours.

You can follow along Maree’s journey here - Follow Maree on Instagram

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👉🏼 Everyone's telling you the market's flat, and your numbers are starting to agree with them. If your studio isn't growing anywhere near 20 percent (our Academy average) and you can't work out why, my team will help you find what's holding you back: Book a Strategy Call. 

Everyone keeps telling you no one's growing right now. The head of one of the big Pilates networks told me it's as bad as 2021. It's not. The Australian fitness industry is growing at 1.4 percent. In the same market, with the same petrol prices and the same $9 smoothies, our studios in the Academy are growing at 20 percent. That's 14 times faster than the industry, and it's not an accident.

When we dug into the data, we found a group of studios growing 18 times faster than the middle of the Academy. Same content, same access as everyone else. They weren't luckier and they weren't spending more on ads. They did four things differently, and one of them is about the room you're sitting in right now. Today Ryan and I are breaking down exactly what those studios do, so you can stop believing the market is the reason you're stuck.

In this episode you'll learn:

Chapters: 

00:00 The lie that’s keeping your studio stuck

01:59 1.4 percent vs 20 percent: the gap nobody's talking about

02:37 What a Pilates HQ told its studios (and why I told him to stop)

04:37 The 4 things our fastest-growing studios do differently

06:42 The 7.5 metre rule: why your circle is costing you

07:13 Why it's not HQ's job to fix your business

09:49 Implementation loops (and what fighter pilots know about growth)

11:20 Why more information is slowing you down

12:04 The last thing people will stop paying for (and why it’s your studio)

13:41 3 real studios growing right now and how 

17:36 What an environment built for growth actually looks like

22:43 Why community isn't your competitive advantage

31:51 It's not the plane, it's the pilot

33:07 What to change on Monday so you stop being busy and start growing

Resources mentioned in this episode:

- How to 10x Your Life Using the Achievement Roadmap Framework-  Listen on Spotify or Watch on YouTube. 

If you liked this episode, go and listen to How Newstrength Went From 'Good Enough' to a $1M Run Rate, the full story of a studio from this episode that went from fine at $50K a month to 2 percent churn under management: Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Watch on YouTube. 

Abe tripled his BFT in 9 months, in a market everyone else says is flat. Let's find out what's possible for yours:

Book a Strategy Call with my team.

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👉🏼Can't explain why someone should pick your studio over the one next door? Start with Britt's five-question brand framework: Grab Britt's Framework

👉🏼Or skip straight to a Strategy Call and we'll help you work out what makes you different. Book a Strategy Call

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Everyone tells you your studio looks amazing, you have great coaches and an even better community. Then the studio two doors down opens with the same fit-out, the same Instagram captions about community and a cheaper intro offer, and suddenly you're fighting on price.

Here's what should worry you. Pilates cost per lead right now is a third to a half of what a BFT pays. It's a gold rush, and I still talk to Pilates owners every week who aren't making money.

Britt Austin has worked with Apple, Puma, Rebel Sport, EA Games & Who Is Elijah (Just to name a few) and her test is brutal. Take your logo off your studio and stick it on the one next door. If nobody can tell the difference, you don't have a brand.

Today Sophie and I get Britt to break down how to build a studio brand people actually want to belong to, on a budget. Then we put two real studio Instagram accounts in front of her and let her pull them apart live.

In this episode you'll learn:

Chapters:

00:00  How to find your REAL point of difference that people actually care about

06:13  The 5 Things Every Brand People Obsess Over Has Built

09:22  The Logo-Swap Test

09:54  If Britt Opened a Pilates Studio Tomorrow

11:55  If you're still scared to niche ... listen to this

16:13  The 5 Questions to Answer Before You Market Anything

19:51  How to Stand Out When You're One of Many Franchises

21:21  What Hundreds of Ad Accounts Tell Us About Founder Content

23:07  Should you EVER discount?

28:27  Why Brands Delete Your Partnership Email

31:52  Who to Partner With (and how to pitch them)

39:09  Live Brand Audits on Two Real Studio Accounts

46:45  The one type of content founders should NEVER make

53:31  The First Thing YOU Need to Do on Monday

Resources mentioned in this episode:

If you liked this episode, go and listen to Why Million Dollar Studios Never Have to Chase Clients. Britt told you to niche. This is what that actually looks like:  [Listen on Spotify] [Apple Podcasts] or [Watch on YouTube]

Ready to be the studio people choose for who you are, not your price?

Book a Strategy Call and we'll map it out together.

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👉🏼Build your own Vision book with the exact tool we use. Grab it here:  Vision Book Template 

👉🏼Or skip straight to a Strategy Call and we’ll help you map it out. Book a Strategy Call

Everyone tells you you're killing it. Bigger numbers, more members, better systems. Then 7:30 pm hits and your team's out the door like the building's on fire. I lived that exact version of the business. Team gone at 7:31 pm sharp, sitting in a studio I couldn't afford to light, using the glow off the cheap TVs to do my books because I couldn't pay the electricity bill.

It wasn't lonely because I didn't have people around me … It was lonely because none of them cared about the thing I was building.

And now? The first thing most owners ask me? How do I build a team like yours? 

Today Sophie and I are teaching you the three steps to creating a team that cares about your business like it’s their own and giving you the tool that helps you to create your own vision.

In this episode you'll learn:

Chapters: 

00:00  Why Should Your Team Care?

03:29  The 3 Ingredients of Team Buy-In

04:34  The reason Sophie has stayed for 8+ years (and how to give your team something to stay for)

10:18  When a Job Becomes a Mission

14:54  Is Your Business Ready for a Vision Book?

18:20  The 70% Rule

19:44  How to Become a Leader Worth Following

22:12  How the Vision Guides Everyday Leadership

24:44  Why the Team Actually Care

30:05  The one thing that will change this from a Vision Book, to a future your team see themselves in

37:41  The 1% Pitch Every New Recruit Hears (it’s not what you think) 

40:15  The first thing YOU need to do now

Resources mentioned in this episode:

If you liked this episode, go and listen to The Hidden Reasons Your Culture Sucks and How to Build One Built to Win same world, different lens: Listen on Apple Podcasts or Watch on YouTube

Ready to stop guessing why your team isn't bought in? Book a Strategy Call and we'll map it out together. 

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There are 5 parts to a conversation that turn a trial into a member. Grab your 5 Part Conversation Framework here:  The Convertible Conversation  

And if your trial-to-member conversion rate is currently sitting below 80% (our Academy benchmark) and you haven’t been able to figure out why, then book a call with my team and we can help you identify the leak and map out how to fix it. 

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Every studio owner I talk to thinks they've got a lead gen problem. They don't. They've got an onboarding problem. 

The first three days after someone starts their trial decides whether they convert into a long-term member or ghost you by the end of the week, and it's not just costing you the sale, it’s costing you an opportunity to create a lifelong member.  

You can run every open week and ad campaign in the world, get someone through the door, hand them a key tag and a smile, and still lose them by day three. Nobody talks about this stage because it isn't sexy. It isn't a funnel. It isn't an ad. But it's the difference between a $9,500 lifetime value and a mate who ghosts you after the free trial. That gap is your real competitive advantage, and almost nobody is building it on purpose.

This one isn't a theory. Sophie built this system managing 80 newbies at a time on the studio floor, and took her own rollover from 30 percent (the so-called industry standard) to 80 percent, three times the average. We break down exactly what she did: how she tracked every newbie without losing one, the meeting that made her studio the most money in the business, and why "just having a chat" with a new member is quietly killing your conversions. 

Grab the free 5-Part Convertible Conversation Framework we mention in the episode here: The Convertible Conversation 

In this episode you'll hear:

If this hit home, go back and listen to How to Turn Your 7 Day Trials Into LIFETIME Members we go even deeper on turning trial members into long-term ones: 

And when you're ready to put this to work in your own studio, Sophie's rollover went from 30 percent to 80 percent using this exact system.

Book a free call with the team and let's build yours. 

Chapters:

00:00:00  - The real problem isn't lead gen, it's the first three days

00:04:55  - The 3-part system behind an 80% rollover

00:05:43 - The wave system that tracks your newbies for you

08:00 - The four things every member who stayed had in common 

09:29  - The three B's that will take your conversion to 80%

12:31 - The party you should host for every member 

14:16 - The signals that tell you they’re ready to buy 

16:44 - Stop having chats. Start having conversations that convert.

17:20 - If you think ‘it’s a tough economy’ right now, listen to this 

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If you're already busting your ass on retention and you're still getting blindsided every time someone cancels, grab the churn checklist workbook we mention in this episode and work through it against your own member base. And if you'd rather just get on the phone and figure out your churn with us directly, book a discovery call, no fluff.

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Sophie and I sit down to talk about churn, and specifically the mindset reframe that has to happen before any process will actually work.

More than half of the 1,400 gym members surveyed in a recent US study stopped showing up without ever cancelling their membership, and four out of five of them said something, anything, could have brought them back. For years I thought I ran one community. Turns out I run five, and so do you. We break down the exact segments hiding inside your member base, why the middle of the pack is where every cancel actually starts, and how some of our studios are holding churn under 3% at 300, 500 and 700 members while everyone else panics every time someone cancels.

In this episode you'll hear:

If this one hit home, go listen to How to Bring a Member Back from the Brink of Cancellation next, it's the episode we reference directly in this conversation, and it walks through the exact protocol for saving members before they go quiet.

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open, the stat every studio owner gets wrong about churn

04:34 Why retention feels personal, and why that's the trap

05:07 The sales problem hiding inside your churn number

08:01 Proof, Refit's sub 1% churn over winter

09:14 Nadine's story, 12.7% to 1% churn with an AI assisted teammate

12:53 The one question that decides retention, are you essential

13:37 The mindset reframe, why fear keeps owners from fixing this

19:52 You don't have one community, you have five

24:37 The playbook, move every member up one segment

28:22 How the strategy changes at 150, 250 and 700+ members

33:08 Why more automation makes churn worse, not better

38:08 Good churn, bad churn and the mindset check for your managers

41:44 The close, what to do with this episode this week.

Everyone tells Sal her studio is killing it. Meanwhile she's barely paying herself and quietly wondering what she's actually good at if she can't even get this right. If that's you too, book your free discovery call and let's map out what's actually keeping you stuck.

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00:02:52 Stuck in the discount trap with no real plan

00:04:04 The confidence gap: marketing skills, but still stuck

00:05:25 From weekend side hustle to real business

00:08:47 Six months later: sticking to the process

00:09:30 The current numbers and the countdown to a million dollar studio

00:11:28 Ditching people pleasing to find her own voice in sales

00:14:21 The identity shift: from self doubt to leading a team

00:16:00 How the growth changed her at home

00:17:17 The accountability piece that made it stick

00:18:07 Advice for the studio owner who feels exactly like this

00:22:18 The three things that changed everything

00:24:00 Finally owning the role of leader

00:29:00 The one exercise to do this week.

Everyone tells you you're killing it, but your revenue hasn't moved in two months and deep down you know more hours isn't the fix. If that's you, grab the free studio dashboard we use with every client in the academy, then book a free discovery call and we'll show you exactly where your business is leaking.

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Sophie and I break down the seven numbers behind every million-dollar studio we've coached, and the near-collapse that forced me to start tracking them in the first place.

I used to tell myself I wasn't a numbers person. That was a lie I told to avoid the truth, and I told it while working 100-hour weeks, watching my gym flatline, with a newborn daughter at home and a landlord who'd just told me my rent was about to double. Hope, vibes and hustle weren't going to fix a business that wasn't growing, and I was out of runway to find that out the hard way.

So I built a dashboard out of pure desperation, tracked seven numbers every single week, and turned that same gym into our first million-dollar studio. We've since run over 2000 studio owners through the exact same seven numbers, and it still only takes five minutes a week to know exactly where your business is leaking and what to fix first, whether you're doing $5k a month or $150k a month.

In this episode you'll hear:

If this one landed, go binge ⁠MILLION-Dollar Maths: The 7 Numbers To Build A $1M Studio In 12 Months⁠ next. It's the deep dive on the exact same framework, from the other side of the mic.

I built this dashboard because I was broke, terrified, and about to lose my business to a rent hike I couldn't afford. If you're stuck at the same revenue for two months running and you're ready to stop guessing which lever to pull, ⁠book your free discovery call⁠ and we'll audit your numbers together.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 - The real problem isn't your numbers, it's running on vibes

If your week is whatever walks through the door and the whole studio is being run out of your head, book a discovery call and we'll map what's actually holding you at your current number.

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Sophie sits down with Shell, who doubled her studio revenue in twelve months while raising seven kids. This is the logistics episode. How the week actually gets built.

Everyone assumes a woman running a seven figure studio with seven kids has something the rest of us don't. More discipline. More energy. Some extra gear that switches on at 4:30 in the morning. The real answer is more boring and more useful than that, and it's the reason I wanted this one in your ears.

Shell has four kids she birthed, three stepkids, three year old twins, a firefighter husband on shift work and a gym she bought while it was sitting in the red. In twelve months she went from $40k months to $70-80k, with a peak at $84k. She is not doing more than you are. She decides earlier than you do, she pays for the help she needs instead of hoping the week works out, and she asks for the rest. Her constraint was never time. It was that the whole thing lived in her head, and once she got it out of there and onto a plan, the numbers moved.

In this episode you'll hear:

If this one landed, go straight to the other episode about owners who were doing fine and decided fine wasn't it. Nate and Jacob from Newstrength went from good enough to a $1M run rate, and they did it while juggling kids and 3am training too.

Shell went from $40k months to $80k in twelve months, with seven kids and a husband who's never home on the same schedule twice. She didn't find more time. She followed a plan and put the right people around her. If you want the same thing mapped for your studio, book a discovery call and we'll show you where your next number actually comes from.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Seven kids, seven figures, and no excuses

I sat down with personal growth coach Danny Kennedy for round two of one of the rawest conversations I've had on this show, on belief, identity and the team overhaul happening inside Geronimo right now.

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I had a heart attack. Four weeks ago I started therapy. In two weeks I start EMDR. I'm telling you this before anything else, because the biggest jump my business has made all year didn't come from a new funnel, a new hire or a new tactic. It came from the inside, on the exhale of a breathwork session where I genuinely felt like I turned into an eagle, and I came out the other side making decisions like a different person than the one who walked in.

Danny is a personal growth coach to some of the biggest names in the game, and he sat me down and called it straight. You're not stuck because of your team, your market or your funnel. You're stuck because you haven't decided who you're being yet, and your team, your revenue and your capacity are all just catching up to that decision. This one gets into the belief work behind that shift, and the very practical, sometimes uncomfortable team redesign that's come out of it.

In this episode you'll hear:

Chapters

00:00:00 - Why I'm finally airing this conversation with Danny Kennedy