Built To Grow Fitness Business – Details, episodes & analysis

"This can’t be right!"

Every gym owner has heard this at least once from clients who check their BMI and see they’re labeled as "overweight." This isn’t only true for occasional gym-goers but also for those who consistently work out, lift weights, and eat right.

It’s clear that BMI is just a number that doesn’t tell the whole story. And it makes us wonder if there’s a better way to measure health.

Yes, there is!

In this episode, Tim and Randy sit down with Bradley Davie from InBody, who explains why accurate body composition analysis is so important for your gym.

Bradley started out teaching physical education before moving to California to work at Lifetime Fitness. His experience with InBody devices inspired him to build a career in sales, marketing, and public speaking with the company.

InBody’s technology goes beyond the outdated BMI and gives you a complete picture of your health. It measures everything from muscle mass to visceral fat, providing the insights you need to personalize your fitness journey.

In this interview, Bradley shares details about InBody devices and discusses the potential shift from BMI to the more precise Skeletal Muscle Index (SMI).

It might sound like a cliché, but you really don’t want to miss this episode.

Tune in and find out how your gym can better educate your clients about muscle mass, overall health, and why this data is more important than ever in today’s fitness landscape.

Don’t let your competition leave you behind – let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Bradley Davie’s background and journey to InBody (00:54)
• Overview of InBody and its ecosystem (06:14)
• InBody’s unique accuracy without empirical estimations (09:59)
• Shifting gym marketing from weight loss to muscle gain (15:06)
• Importance of interpreting and using InBody data (21:09)
• InBody Academy and continuous learning (27:15)
• Portable InBody devices for external marketing (34:44)

Additional Resources:

- Check out InBody

- Win an InBody 380 body composition scanner 

- Join the waitlist for tickets to the 2024 FitPro Growth Summit

- ProFit Accelerator: Helping Training Gyms Grow to 30K/month and Beyond Facebook group

- An app designed for semi private training - Semi Private Pro

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Sooner or later, gym owners hit a revenue ceiling, finding themselves stuck making the same amount for a long time. We're all searching for ways to boost income without adding more hours or stress to our day. But can this really go on forever? 

Well, maybe not forever, but definitely longer than you might think.

In this episode, Randy and Zach chat with a guest who's cracked this code by introducing a new service in his gym that boosted his revenue. Plus, his clients keep coming back for more.

Randy and Zach are joined by Evans Armantrading Jr., founder of CNU Stretch, gym owner with multiple locations, and a member of the Iron Circle.

And his powerful service is stretch therapy. You might be skeptical – can something as simple as stretching truly be impactful? 

Evans says yes, and we agree. When we integrated it into our gym, we saw our revenue increase and marketing costs decrease, all because this service fits seamlessly with what we were already doing.

Curious?

Tune in to this episode as Evans, Zach, and Randy share how to successfully incorporate stretch therapy into fitness businesses.

You don’t want to miss so many valuable tips you can use in your own gym – let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Background on Evans Armantrading Jr. (00:26)
• The skepticism and eventual acceptance of stretch therapy (02:12)
• Marketing advantages of offering stretch therapy (04:38)
• Business model and client conversion strategies (07:56)
• Profit potential and minimal time investment (12:35)
• Retention improvements through stretch therapy (18:41)
• Client acquisition – training vs. stretch therapy (21:43)
• Benefits of one-on-one stretch therapy sessions (26:00)
• Stretch therapy promotion on Growth Summit (30:30)

Additional Resources:

- Unlock your gym’s potential with CNU Stretch

- Join the waitlist for tickets to the 2024 FitPro Growth Summit

- Win an InBody 380 body composition scanner 

- ProFit Accelerator: Helping Training Gyms Grow to 30K/month and Beyond Facebook group

- An app designed for semi private training - Semi Private Pro

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Many owners think that 6-week challenges are the secret to boosting their gym's revenue and membership.

This challenge is a fitness promotion where participants pay a fee to commit to hitting a weight loss target in six weeks. If they stick to the diet and exercise plan and achieve their goal, they get their money back. If not, they must decide whether to continue at a cost or leave the program.

As you see, it's all about getting results fast. It means that these challenges promise quick cash and a flood of new clients. It might sound like the perfect solution for financial issues.

But what seems like a quick fix could easily turn into a business nightmare because these short-term gains come at a high cost.

You'll spend more time and money on marketing and sales, trying to keep up with the constant turnover. Also, these challenges often attract the wrong type of clients who leave after the challenge, either due to unmet goals or after achieving their short-term objectives.

On the other hand, running these challenges can strain your gym systems, overburden staff, and disrupt your gym's culture. And let's not forget the ethical dilemma – these challenges mostly promote a quick fix that isn't the long-term solution your clients need.

At the end of the day, the challenges can damage your gym's reputation.

Tim tested this controversial model back in 2016 and discussed the results and 6-week challenges with Randy in an episode almost five years ago. This week, they're revisiting the topic.

Have their views shifted since then? Tune in to find out!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Revisiting the 6-week challenge topic (00:40)
• Explaining the 6-week free challenge model (02:45)
• Initial pros of the challenge (05:06)
• Cons and long-term issues (07:36)
• Testing the challenge model - personal story (10:23)
• Clash of cultures in the gym (17:36)
• Economic inefficiency and unsustainable growth (19:36)
• Industry trends and experiences (24:52)

Additional Resources:

- Check out Part 1: 6 Week Challenge - The Rise & Fall

- Win an InBody 380 body composition scanner 

- Join the waitlist for tickets to the 2024 FitPro Growth Summit

- ProFit Accelerator: Helping Training Gyms Grow to 30K/month and Beyond Facebook group

- An app designed for semi private training - Semi Private Pro

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Imagine inheriting or buying a gym and being thrown into the deep end without the experience of years of challenges and growth in the fitness industry. This is the case with some young gym owners Tim recently spoke with.

Those young men stepped into a gym model that, on the surface, seems efficient but has some lurking pitfalls. It is a personal training gym, which also functions as a big box. They offer a variety of training formats, from one-on-one sessions to team training and semi-private setups.

With seven or eight coaches mostly focusing on one-on-one training, they have fallen into a structure where each coach has a unique roster of clients. These aren't clients the coaches brought with them; the gym assigned these clients as they sold memberships.

Now, you might ask, "What's the problem with that?"

Well, there are numerous reasons why this model could be putting gym owners at risk. And yes, some of these pitfalls have already manifested for these young entrepreneurs.

But it's not all doom and gloom. The three-hour coaching call Tim had with these owners wasn't just about pointing out problems. They discussed challenges and crafted a comprehensive action plan and a clear roadmap for the future.

With Tim's guidance, these gym owners are on a path that promises their business model will be transformed in just eight weeks, placing the control firmly back in the hands of the gym owners.

So, are you a gym owner wondering if your current model might be putting your business at risk? Or are you simply curious about the potential pitfalls in the world of fitness entrepreneurship?

Tune in for this episode as Tim and Randy highlight all the risks your coaches might expose you to and how to navigate away from such positions.

Let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Today's episode comes from a coaching call (02:14)
• The risks your coaches might expose you to (04:30)
• Employees vs. contractors - How do you pay your coaches? 14:36)
• Recap (23:14)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

According to the news, COVID's making a comeback, and it feels like we're getting ready for another dance-off with it.

Thinking back to the first round of COVID, a lot of the stuff they told us to do just didn't pan out the way they said it would - masks, vaccines, closing up shops… but then places like Walmart kept going like nothing happened. 

That seemed quite unfair, especially for the gym owners. And it's pretty clear that people in power like telling us what to do. So, how are you going to handle it this time?

That’s the very topic of this episode - to raise awareness. It feels even more important now than the first time to get ready for whatever comes next. And it seems that this time, a lot of people aren’t keen on following the same old playbook.

Here’s the thing: How you see COVID and how it impacts your day-to-day, especially if you run a place like a gym, is deeply rooted in your beliefs.

Of course, nobody wants people sick, hurt, or passing. But at the end of the day, the data from everything that we went through in the first round completely contradicts everything that they forced upon us.

So, this is your opportunity to decide what side of the coin you're going to be on.

Join Tim and Randy as they offer their perspective on what they, as gym owners, are going to do in the case of new lockdowns.

Tune in now!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• COVID cases rise - here we go again… (01:28)
• Now we know better (02:37)
• You have to decide now what you're going to do (08:44)
• None of this COVID thing is a coincidence (13:13)
• Challenge what you're being told (16:03)
• Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me (22:31)
• Join Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group (25:59)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Tim and Randy are joined by an exceptional guest - John Briggs, the founder of Incite Tax. He is the author of the insightful “Profit First For Microgym” and the soon-to-be-released "The 3.3 Rule" book, subtitled "The New Workday Standard of Creating More by Working Less."

John has crafted a niched version of the Profit First program tailored for micro gyms, chiropractors, realtor real estate investors, dentists, and landscape professionals. At this point, there are more than 10 derivative books.

He's on a quest to protect unfairly treated taxpayers from massively overspending on taxes.

So, if you're a business owner looking to retain more of your hard-earned money and build long-term wealth, John Briggs is your guy.

Tune in for this interview Tim and Randy had with him on how to leverage tax codes to your advantage. He shared four immediate tax mitigation tips for gym owners, along with many more strategies to ensure you pay only what you owe and not a penny more.

And remember, if you're paying a penny more, it's on you, right?

Join them, and let’s avoid that pitfall!

Key Takeaways:

• Who is John Briggs (00:00)
• Tweaking the Profit First system (02:07)
• How John ended up buying a CrossFit gym (03:54)
• It's not what you make - it’s what you keep (08:54)
• 4 immediate tax mitigation tips for gym owners (12:22)
• Using the leverage of the tax codes (23:56)
• 7 Profit First accounts (26:28)
• Working less and creating more - The 3.3 Rule book (31:35)
• How to connect with John (36:07)

Additional Resources:

Follow Incite Tax on social media:

Instagram 

Facebook

X

TikTok 

YouTube 

Pinterest 

Join Profit First for Microgyms Facebook group

- - -

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

In today's episode, Tim and Randy dive into an often-overlooked aspect of gym management that can make or break your business: optimizing the lead-to-member journey.

Think of this journey as a chain, where each link represents a step in the process of converting a potential gym-goer into a full-fledged member. One weak link can halt the entire conversion process, leading gym owners to mistakenly scrap entire marketing campaigns. 

Essentially, that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Why does this happen?

Each step in your conversion process - from lead acquisition and booking an appointment to member sign-up - has its own conversion percentage. If you're not tracking these percentages, you're flying blind.

So what's the solution?

Optimization.

Instead of scrapping a generally well-functioning system due to one problematic area, focus on refining that weak link. A minor tweak could be all you need to massively improve your overall conversion rates.

Even if you're not a marketing whiz, understanding your business metrics and knowing which aspects affect your conversion percentages is essential. It's not just about knowing where you're going wrong; it's also about knowing where you can go right.

Tune in for this episode and let Tim and Randy show you how to pinpoint your weak link and transform it into a potential game-changer for your gym.

Let's dive in!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• One weak link in the lead-to-member journey can break it all (01:33)
• Laying out the conversion system left to right (04:03)
• What works in theory doesn’t always work in reality (08:11)
• Optimizing your lead-to-member conversion system (10:02)
• Why most gym owners are good converters (14:48)
• Adding a call to your lead-to-member conversion system - yes or no? (17:04)
• You have to have enough data to be able to interpret that data (21:31)
• Recap (24:19)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Ever found yourself puzzled, wondering why an event you were sure would be a hit ended up flopping? Tim went through this, and it led to a key insight about his gym's clientele.

For Memorial Day, Tim and Zach planned a "Legacy Olympics," featuring rowing, Versa climber challenges, and strength tests. They anticipated that at least 50 of their 200 members would join in, even going as far as to make custom shirts.

However, they got only 15 sign-ups for this cost-free event, leading them to cancel the whole thing. In contrast, they had no trouble attracting 100 attendees for a Thanksgiving event just five years ago.

So what changed?

Well, the failure of the Memorial Day event wasn't really a flop; it was more of an eye-opener. Over the years, the gym has transitioned from focusing on large group boot camps to primarily offering semi-private training sessions.

This shift doesn't just affect the workouts; it also changes the social dynamics among members.

In this episode, Tim and Randy delve into the differences between clients who prefer semi-private training versus large-group sessions, explaining why it's crucial to understand your clientele for improved service.

Keep in mind: it's not always about what you're offering; sometimes, it's about who you're offering it to.

Tune in now!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Why Tim’s Memorial Day event failed (01:23)
• Group mentality vs. individual mentality (05:29)
• Group vs. semi-private training - the club analogy (09:19)
• Recap (10:42)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

The topic of this episode is something most gym owners try to avoid - standard operating procedures.

Yeah, SOPs might seem as thrilling as watching paint dry, but once they are set up correctly, they’re pure magic. Here’s why… 

Instead of viewing SOPs as a boring chore, think of them as a golden ticket to escape your everyday grind, especially when every moment of your day feels packed. 

To step away from the grind, you need to train others to do what you do. And for that? You need an SOP, a detailed playbook that encapsulates the essence of your business. 

But the beauty of SOPs isn't just the immediate relief they offer. They can transform your business into a genuine, sellable asset, not just knowledge trapped in your mind. 

Because potential buyers aren't interested in what you know; they want replicable processes that you’ve documented. 

Even if selling isn't your goal, SOPs allow you the luxury of enjoying your business's success without being anchored to your desk. 

Yes, SOPs can seem tough and tedious, but the benefits are crystal clear. 

Tune in to this episode, where Tim and Randy discuss how gym owners can effectively use SOPs.

Let’s dive in!

Key Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• One of the most boring topics any gym owner tries to avoid (01:21)
• 3 key steps of a good SOP (04:11)
• Discussing pricing on the phone - yes or no? (09:53)
• The importance of documenting your process (12:26)
• Recap (16:58)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

Nike is opening a network of training studios in California. They're introducing two studio concepts: Nike Training Studios (NTS) and Nike Running Studios (NRS). 

NTS will focus on metabolic conditioning-style functional training, while NRS will offer running classes. (It means that one type of studio will feature treadmills, and the other will be equipped with sandbags, kettlebells, and similar equipment.)

All these offerings come at a low price of $99 a month for unlimited workouts. This move shows that Nike, a giant corporation with vast backing and a massive marketing budget, is stepping into the fray.

They might shake things up, especially in places like West Hollywood or Newport Beach in California. If you operate a large group training studio, it might seem they're aiming for your clientele.

However, for those running a semi-private training studio with a distinct concept, there's no cause for alarm. Among the gyms we collaborate with that focus on semi-private training, this development is a non-issue.

Why?

Tune in to find out because, in this episode, Tim and Randy explore whether Nike is genuinely diving deeper into the boutique fitness studio market or if there's a different marketing strategy at play.

Let’s find out!

Key Takeaways:

• Nike is opening up a network of training studios (00:00)
• Nike needs to be smarter than this (04:18)
• Noise in the marketplace (07:00)
• A marketing tool to sell shoes? (09:28)

Additional Resources:

- Business Accelerator Program winninggym.com/call

- Learn more about The Iron Circle 

- Business Talk with Fitness Professionals Facebook group 

- Jump on a call with Randy

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If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!