The Cheer Biz Podcast

By Next Generation Gym OwnersBusiness

The Cheer Biz Podcast episodes

October 27 The Real Reason We Switched Class Management Software
Every cheer gym owner eventually asks the same question: should I switch my class management software? In this episode, Dan walks through the exact framework he uses to decide — and the right (and wrong) time to actually pull the trigger.

He covers the real reason he switched systems himself (credit card processing fees eating into every transaction), the “what’s actually broken” one-sentence test, a birthday-party booking snag that forced him to tell the difference between a software limitation and his own operations, why he won’t use any system without automated recurring billing, and a quiet hack for cutting down on paid support calls. He closes with his personal timing rule for switching without blowing up a competitive season.

Want to work through decisions like this one directly with Dan and the Next Gen team? Check out the 2027 Cheer Biz Accelerator events (January, February, and March) — head to Cheer Gym Owners or All Star Cheer Coaches and Owners on Facebook for details.
25 min
October 24 Before You Spend a Dollar: What to Fix Before You Pay for Marketing
Marketing is a bloodbath right now, Dan says, and gym owners who throw money at ads before fixing the basics are wasting their most valuable dollars.

Dan runs through the five things that need to be in place before you spend a cent on paid marketing: a functional website, a real CRM instead of a “billboard on the internet,” solid tracking and analytics, an active social media presence, and real reviews. Along the way he shares the story of running the exact same special two years in a row and watching enrollments fall from 40 to 19, and makes the case that marketing is “more art and feeling than math.”

If your website, CRM, or marketing fundamentals need an outside set of eyes, a Cheer Biz Accelerator event is a great place to get them sorted before you spend another dollar. Join the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups for more conversations like this one.
14 min
October 20 5 Revenue Streams Every Cheer Gym Owner Is Underpricing
Tuition is the baseline, Dan says, but most gym owners are leaving serious money on the table by underpricing everything they stack on top of it: pro shop, private lessons, birthday parties, and clinics.

Dan lays out his framework for diversifying revenue the right way, including why he aims for an 80% gross margin on everything from t-shirts to birthday parties, why all-inclusive tuition can turn into an “all-inclusive, except...” trap that frustrates families, and the real math behind whether private lessons are actually making your gym money or quietly costing you.

If pricing and margins feel like a guessing game in your gym, a Cheer Biz Accelerator event is built exactly for this kind of deep dive into your numbers. Join the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups for more conversations like this one.
22 min
October 17 Nice Lobby, Empty Mats: What Actually Brings Athletes to Your Gym
Competition season brings a flood of temptation — outside clinicians, cleanup camps, specialty apparel, new choreographers — and Dan says most gym owners say yes to these adds without ever asking if they actually solve a real problem.

In this episode, Dan breaks down his four-question framework for deciding what to add to your season: what problem am I actually trying to solve, can this thing solve it, what does it cost, and is that cost worth it. He shares a real story from his own gym about hiring an outside clinician who was phenomenal but didn’t fix what was actually broken, and makes the case that your gym is “just the building” when it comes to attracting new athletes through outside talent — kids don’t join because the lobby is nice.

If you’re weighing whether to bring in a clinician, add a clinic, or spend money chasing what another gym is doing, check out a Cheer Biz Accelerator event where Dan and his team dig into exactly this kind of decision for your business, and join the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups for more conversations like this one.
17 min
October 13 A Cheer Gym Owners' Guide to Staff Accountability
Staffing is one of the hardest parts of owning a gym. In this episode, Dan lays out a simple four-step framework for building real staff accountability — and how to know, without guilt, when it's time to let someone go.

He walks through Expect (writing down real KPIs like retention and competitive performance), Train (including his own story contrasting his "death by PowerPoint" military training with the intensive police academy and six-month field-training program he went through as a 23-year-old cop), Inspect (a regular cadence for checking in on those KPIs), and Correct (documentation, additional training, and verbal or written counseling before anyone gets let go) — plus his reminder that none of it works if you haven't hired the right people in the first place.

Dan also points listeners toward the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups, and the Cheer Biz Accelerator events, open to any gym doing $10K/month or more in revenue.
11 min
October 10 Attract, Convert, Ascend: The Framework for Filling Your Gym
Filling your cheer gym doesn't have to feel like guessing. In this episode, Dan breaks down the exact framework he uses to turn strangers into lifelong members — and why most gyms are leaking people out the bottom of their funnel without ever noticing.

He walks through the three stages — Attract, Convert, and Ascend — including why posting "we're hosting an open house" once on Facebook isn't actually promoting it, the free learn-to-cheer clinic that more than doubled one client's team registration, a $54,000-to-$12,000 price-anchoring sales call Dan breaks down line by line, and the churn benchmarks (6% for tumbling-only programs, 1-2% for competitive teams) that tell you whether your retention is actually healthy.

Dan also points listeners toward the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups — where this episode's inspiration came from — and the Cheer Biz Accelerator events for anyone who wants a deeper, in-person dive into their business.
15 min
October 06 Six Vendors in Fifteen Years: What Finally Made Me Switch
Picking a uniform vendor feels like it should be simple, until you're the one holding a surprise shipping bill and a prototype that didn't survive the wash. In this episode, Dan Cotton breaks down the exact framework he uses to evaluate a uniform vendor before committing a season's budget to them.

Dan walks through the real story behind a dye-sub uniform that tested solid black and turned almost white the second it stretched, and the crop top redesign that followed a wardrobe malfunction at showcase. He covers how to set a price-per-athlete budget, what "all-in landed pricing" actually means, why you should never skip the prototype (and should wash it five to eight times before approving it), how to vet turnaround time and problem-handling, and the real tradeoffs between a DIY and a concierge-style vendor relationship. He also answers a question straight from the Facebook groups: is it okay to let AI design your uniforms?

If you want us to put eyes on your gym in person, Dan's got four seats left for the Cheer Biz Accelerator event at Oregon Dream Teams this November, with two more events coming to Missouri and Oregon in 2027. Got your own uniform vendor story, good or bad? Join the conversation in the Cheer Gym Owners or All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups.
21 min
October 03 The Rise of Pro Cheer: Ty's Journey From Top Gun Miami to Miami Medal
Ty went from a football and baseball kid who'd never set foot in a cheer gym to a 4x World Champion at Top Gun Miami — and now he's making history on Miami Medal, the first-ever Pro Cheer League roster.

Dan sits down with Ty to talk about his unlikely start at a D2 gym in Starke, FL, the injury that nearly derailed his college cheer career at Weber right before trials, and what it's actually like inside the brand-new Pro Cheer League — from bullseye and flash pyramid to the controversial overtime rule that cost Miami Medal a tied 73-73 finale in Nashville. Ty also makes his case for what pro cheer needs next: a real draft night, just like the NBA.
35 min
September 29 3 Marketing Mistakes Killing Your Cheer Gym Leads
Dan's own ad performance has taken a hit this year, so instead of pretending marketing is easy right now, he's breaking down the three real reasons leads have dried up — for his own gyms and for the Next Gen clients he coaches.

He covers why AI-written ad copy reads exactly the same as everyone else's and quietly kills performance, why your best ad creative is probably already sitting in your organic posts, and a real story about turning down a 24-million-view video because of how commenters treated the athlete in it. He also gets into why "sign up now" isn't an offer, and why only 1 to 3% of people who click your ad are actually ready to buy.

If you want Dan and his team looking directly at your marketing, that's part of every Cheer Biz Accelerator event — more 2027 dates are open now.
24 min
September 26 Stop Guessing: The Real Formula Behind Your Cheer Gym Pricing
Dan's been obsessed with pricing for four years — obsessed enough to write the book on it — and this episode is him answering the three questions he gets asked more than anything else by gym owners.

He walks through his actual formula for pricing classes and all-star teams (payroll, expenses, enrollment minimums, profit margin — building to a real $625-per-class example), how to know when you can raise tuition (hint: check your churn rate against 6%), and why he thinks permanently grandfathering members into old pricing is a mistake — plus the September-to-January model he uses to roll out an increase without losing people.

Grab the pricing calculator and the book, Charge What You're Worth: The Cheer Pricing Handbook, at cheerhandbooks.com, and if you want to work through your own pricing with Dan directly, that's exactly what happens at a Cheer Biz Accelerator event.
22 min

About The Cheer Biz Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Calling all Cheerleading and Gymnastics Gym owners. Next Generation consulting specializes in connecting people and profits. As a group of entrepreneurs who started businesses in the Recreational and All Star Cheerleading and tumbling world, Next Gen‘s owners have dedicated themselves to inspiring, leading, and coaching other business owners to grow and thrive in their businesses. This podcast will dive into all aspects of owning a business. Highlighting and interviewing not only experts in the fields of marketing, social media, and all things business, but also interview some of our clients who have shown initiative, innovation and growth!