Running a business with your significant other can be awesome and inspiring while also being stressful and demanding. You see each other all day. You talk shop all day. Pretty soon, work problems become home problems and vice versa—and you can't even go home and vent to your spouse!

Two-Brain fitness-business mentor Kenny Markwardt gets it. He runs Sandpoint Strength and Conditioning with his wife Jenn, and the two have had their fair share of ups and downs.

Here, Kenny shares his hard-won wisdom on how to work with your spouse—without burning down the house.

Links:

Sandpoint Strength and Conditioning
“Couple-Preneurship”: How to Work With Your Spouse
Couple-Preneurship: How to Hire Your Spouse
Couple-Preneurship: What to Do When Things Go Wrong
AGuard
Two-Brain Coaching
The State of the Industry Guide

Timeline:

3:35 – Speaking from experience.

7:00 – Common challenges couplepreneurs face.

10:28 – Benefits of running a business with your spouse.

12:14 – Preventing pitfalls.

12:55 – Make a financial plan.

15:01 – Setting boundaries.

18:19 – Don’t forget to work on the relationship.

21:11 – Setting goals.

24:50 – How to solve problems and settle arguments.

27:54 – What spouses can do today to improve themselves as couplepreneurs.

Gareth Wayt, owner of Second City Fitness in the United Kingdom, has been through three lockdowns since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gym is still in that third lockdown, yet now, their retention, average revenue per member, and life-time value are all higher than ever.

Here's what Gareth and co-owners did to make their business even stronger during the pandemic.

Links:

Second City Fitness
Level Method
Forever Fierce
"Help First"
Free Tools
Gym Owners United

Timeline:

2:01 – Using WhatsApp to keep the community alive during lockdown.

10:47 – Getting creative to keep members engaged—and do your marketing for you—during lockdown.

13:29 – Using lockdown to evaluate the business and make changes for the better.

18:24 – Switching to a hybrid membership model.

21:47 – Facing fears when making big changes to your business.

23:50 – Why Gareth and his team spent 10 days calling all 225 members of the gym.

28:05 – Looking to the post-COVID era.

32:03 – Numbers don’t lie: increased ARM, LEG and LTV. 

Staff meetings are such a hassle. They're hard to schedule, nothing really gets done and they usually end in arguments. Sound about right?

But what if they weren't a waste of time? What if you could use them to get your staff members to take action and even increase revenue right then and there?

That's what staff meetings are like at 416 Fitness Club. Here, owner Dan Visentin explains how it's done.

Links:

416 Fitness Club
"Actionable Staff Meetings: Build Your ARM"
Driven Nutrition
Arbox
The State of the Industry Report
Book a call

Timeline:

3:09 – The first key to a successful staff meeting: preparation.

4:24 – Know your objectives for the meeting.

7:24 – How often should you have staff meetings?

9:36 – How much is reasonable to cover?

12:00 – How to avoid negativity.

12:53 – Top mistakes gym owners make in staff meetings.

14:47 – Don’t forget the follow-up.

16:34 – Resources to help you run great staff meetings.

20:26 – How to get staff members to actually take action.

24:52 – How to make money during your meetings.

31:00 – Using meetings to energize and motivate staff.

33:07 – Using staff meetings to generate content.

38:59 – Why you need to have your staff members create content.

You're busy.

You've got tons of ideas—what about this new marketing technique? This new speciality-class idea?—but day-to-day tasks keep getting in the way. By the time your head hits the pillow each night, it feels like you spent the day treading water at best and trying not to drown at worst.

Here's how to swim—how to focus and prioritize to move your business forward.

Links:

The Microgym Model: 2021
Take the Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief test
The State of the Industry Report
Arbox
Forever Fierce
Gym Owners United

Timeline:

1:13 – The reason you’re overwhelmed.

5:24 – Mission.

6:33 – Strategy.

8:36 – Tactics.

9:46 – The importance of mentorship and the objective eye.

12:32 – Moving the business forward every day.

Nutrition challenges are quick fixes that don't deliver long-term results—for your clients or your business. Kickstarts, on the other hand, are designed for ongoing progress.

When Lindsey VanShoyck swapped the word "challenge" for "kickstart"—and made sure participants understood it was just the beginning of long-term change—she doubled the program's front-end revenue. The change also generated 75% more conversions to ongoing nutrition coaching afterward.

Tune in to learn why kickstarts work and how you can implement them to get your clients lasting results and generate increased ongoing revenue.

Links:

Two-Brain Programming
Arbox
Free Tools
Two-Brain on YouTube

Contact:

[email protected]

Timeline:

1:57 – Why Lindsey stopped running nutrition “challenges.”

3:55 – How “kickstarts” get clients in the right mindset.

6:37 – Boosting revenue big time.

9:11 – Opportunities for more conversions and increased ARM.

11:54 – How to market a nutrition kickstart.

14:30 – How to get people to sign up for a nutrition kickstart.

17:23 – How to get people to convert to ongoing nutrition after the kickstart.

A gym owner in Atlanta once told Chris Cooper it was impossible to sell CrossFit in his area for more than $79 a month. Why? The market was saturated, and the only way for gyms to differentiate themselves was to be cheaper than the next guy.

But that strategy doesn't keep the lights on for long.

Here, CrossFit South Cobb owner and Atlanta microgym-industry leader Miles Davis explains how to get out of the price war and set your gym apart while also high-value services that are good for your clients and your business.

Links:

"Gym Owners Handbook"
CrossFit South Cobb
Arbox
AGuard

Timeline:

1:24 – How Miles got into the fitness industry.

3:36 – CrossFit in Atlanta in 2009: a copycat market.

7:41 – Why you couldn’t sell CrossFit in Atlanta for more than $79 a month in 2018.

11:03 – Making chicken nuggets.

16:13 – The Atlanta Two-Brain Group. 

20:43 – ARM at CrossFit South Cobb.

24:02 – How to mentor staff to achieve their goals.

26:23 – How to sell high-value services.

28:15 – Competing with the gyms who charge less than you.

30:35 – Helping first to make everyone better.

33:53 – Communicating with staff and clients.

38:09 – To earn more, ask “What can I sell for $200” instead of “How can I charge $200 for this one thing?”

What would happen to your gym if you got COVID-19 tomorrow? Would you have to cancel two weeks of classes and pump the brakes on your business?

At Live Active Charlotte, it was just business as usual when owner Brian Strump tested positive. That's because his gym was already equipped to keep on running whether he's there or not.

How? It all comes down to skilled staff members who are in it for the long haul. Here, Brian shares how he cultivates long-term staff with the passion, autonomy and know-how to take the helm.

Links:

How to Maximize Staff Retention
The Dream Manager
Two-Brain Business YouTube channel
Live Active Charlotte
Driven Nutrition
Arbox
Free Tools

Timeline:

3:00 – What Brian did after he tested positive for COVID-19.

6:32 – How Brian’s gym is set up to run without him.

13:05 – Words of wisdom from Brian’s mother.

15:45 – Using “love and loathe” to set staff up to stick around.

18:02 – How to help staff grow and advance their careers in your business.

22:16 – The intrapreneurial model in action.

26:20 – Grace, patience and why it’s good to expect mistakes.

32:18 – Why you should give feedback regularly—and not just about what staff did wrong.

Karen Hazelton never thought anyone would pay $300 for a gym membership. She could hardly believe people would pay the $140 she was charging—that is, until she joined the Two-Brain family.

After overhauling her systems and prioritizing helping first by prescribing exactly what her clients need to reach their goals, Karen is now pulling an average revenue per member around the $300 mark.

Here's how she changed her mindset and started selling more high-value services.

Links:

Telos Strength and Conditioning
Nutrition Challenges Are Dead. Kickstarts Are the Answer
Free guide: Affinity Marketing
Two-Brain Programming
Incite Tax: Profit First for Microgyms

Timeline:

1:59 – Karen’s ARM pre-Two-Brain.

3:10 – How personal training helped her ARM skyrocket.

6:26 – How Telos Strength and Conditioning grew its personal-training program.

9:21 – Getting comfortable with affinity marketing.

13:17 – Telos’ ratio of personal-training- to group-fitness clients.

14:24 – Personal-training- vs. group-fitness rates.

16:38 – How to sell high-value packages.

19:39 – Specialty programs and nutrition.

23:35 – Why Karen tells some clients NOT to do nutrition challenges.

26:13 – How regular communication with clients leads to more sales.

29:24 – “Stop thinking about the money.”

What does it take to be a world-class coach? Tons of technical knowledge? Lots of certifications?

Those things might make you good at correcting movement, but they're not the key to exceptional coaching.

Here, Two-Brain Coaching mentor Shawn McQueen explains what is.

Links:

Railroad CrossFit
Two-Brain Coaching
AGuard
Gym Lead Machine
Gym Owners Handbook

Contact:

[email protected]

Timeline:

2:49 – What does a great coach look like?

6:43 – Why you still need to rehearse.

8:27 – What a less-than-ideal group glass looks like.

12:25 – Why excellence matters.

14:46 – World-class coaches are teachers.

16:28 – Communication and commanding the room.

20:29 – Developing the craft of coaching.

24:53 – How to coach coaches.

30:19 – The non-technical skills critical to great coaching.

33:28 – Providing excellence and affinity marketing.

37:34 – Signs you might make a great coach.

Brian Zimmerman's ARM (average revenue per member, per month) is more then $300—and those are lockdown numbers.

What's his secret?

He does a lot of cool stuff, but perhaps the most effective for boosting ARM while getting clients results is his hybrid package: a combination of group classes and personal training designed to give clients the best of both worlds.

Here's how it works.

Links:

Forever Fierce
Two-Brain Programming
"How to Run Specialty Courses Every Day of the Year"
Free Tools

Timeline:

1:37 – How Brian beat $300 in ARM in December.

3:24 – Listening to seed clients to develop high-value services.

5:54 – What Brian charges for hybrid services.

7:36 – How hybrid services improve client retention.

9:26 – Hybrid packages provide more opportunities for coaches, too. 

12:00 – Pitching the program to clients.

16:03 – Providing accountability.

19:12 – Why Brian developed an internal marketing role.

25:07 – Using speciality programs to drive up ARM.

28:07 – The first thing you should do if you want a higher ARM.