With just 1,700 square feet of usable space, Daniel Purington’s gym averages around $50,000 in revenue per month, allowing him to earn over $100,000 in net owner benefit, provide careers for four full-time staff members and pay two part-timers.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host John Franklin sits down with Daniel, owner of Woodslawn Fitness in Portland, Oregon, to uncover the secrets of his success: consultative selling, diversified revenue streams, strong systems and mentorship.
By pairing carefully created programs and consultative selling—aka, No Sweat Intros—Daniel gives clients the services they need, while boosting profit and retention.
Solid systems enable Daniel to focus his time where he chooses, both inside and outside the gym.
And having a trusted mentor to hold you accountable and celebrate your successes is, in Daniel’s words, “like dumping gas on the flame.”
Check out Daniel’s tips, and then use them to determine whether you’re making the most of your time and space.
Links
Daniel's Instagram
Woodslawn Fitness
Gym Owners United
Book a Call
0:34 - What Dan’s gym does
7:17 - Dan’s pricing model
15:49 - The process and how it works
26:13 - Incorporating the hybrid
30:41 - What has Dan been planning?
With just 1,700 square feet of usable space, Daniel Purington’s gym averages around $50,000 in revenue per month, allowing him to earn over $100,000 in net owner benefit, provide careers for four full-time staff members and pay two part-timers.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” host John Franklin sits down with Daniel, owner of Woodslawn Fitness in Portland, Oregon, to uncover the secrets of his success: consultative selling, diversified revenue streams, strong systems and mentorship.
By pairing carefully created programs and consultative selling—aka, No Sweat Intros—Daniel gives clients the services they need, while boosting profit and retention.
Solid systems enable Daniel to focus his time where he chooses, both inside and outside the gym.
And having a trusted mentor to hold you accountable and celebrate your successes is, in Daniel’s words, “like dumping gas on the flame.”
Check out Daniel’s tips, and then use them to determine whether you’re making the most of your time and space.
Links
Daniel's Instagram
Woodslawn Fitness
Gym Owners United
Book a Call
0:34 - What Dan’s gym does
7:17 - Dan’s pricing model
15:49 - The process and how it works
26:13 - Incorporating the hybrid
30:41 - What has Dan been planning?
Welcome to Two Brain Radio. We have a very special episode and a very special guest for you. This week we are sitting down with Daniel Perrington of Woods on Fitness in Portland, Oregon. We're coming at you from the Tinker Meetup in Dallas, Texas. You are my first interview of the weekend, so thank you for laying on the sword in the grenade. Oh yeah. And , and making content that helps , uh, the, to bring community out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Happy to help. I'm , uh, I'm excited to talk to you. So
Speaker 1:I gave you a brief little intro. We've been going back and forth a little bit getting into the interview. For people who are unfamiliar with your gym , maybe give us a quick rundown of what your gym is, the type of training you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have a , a relatively small gym in , in , uh, Southwest Portland. Uh, we started out as a CrossFit gym about five years ago, and over the course of Covid and , and you know, the , the recent three or four years, we've pivoted much more to a personalized model in a semi-private model. So we do probably about 30% in our , uh, CrossFit classes. And the rest , uh, makeup is through private training, semi-private training and hybrid.
Speaker 1:And what were you doing pre Covid ? Was it all large group, like traditional CrossFit model? Yeah,
Speaker 2:I mean, we always had class caps. 'cause , 'cause my space, so to give you an idea, my, my primary location is under 2000 square feet with usable of like 1100. So we always had a size limitation. We're really fortunate in that I took the space because I got 30 parking lot parking spaces with it. And as you can imagine, that came in super handy in Covid . I where so much so as we actually built an outside gym full, you know , coverings and pull up bars and the whole thing. But when COVI hit, people really didn't want to be around groups. And so we started to, to be honest, sit down and listen to people a little bit more. And they, they told us more and more and more about what they wanted. And not that it wasn't CrossFit, but they wanted a little bit more personalization. So as the mandate started to lift, we started to see our model needed to shift to kind of support what people were telling us. And that's, that's kind of how we got to where we are now.
Speaker 1:So when I hear my first gym, we were around 2000 square feet, 1400 usable. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Uh, so I , I'm very familiar with the difficulties of operating in what we call like a submarine, you know? Yeah . The equip , you have to be very mindful of the equipment, the programming, all those things. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh,
Speaker 1:Where do you cap out in terms of membership when you were doing like that large group model?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, so we had, I mean, we always capped our classes around 12 except for on the weekends, which we strategically do partner workouts and we can open that cap up to 16 and 18. But we do find interestingly enough around that 1 50, 1 60 mark is about as much as we can handle logistics, like you mentioned in the submarine is critical. So as we diversified, we really had to be conscious of where the group class was gonna go, where it flowed, have that not interfere with some of the other things. And so working in that small space while limiting actually got us better.
Speaker 1:Yeah. 'cause you really have to be mindful about the service you're delivering, the programming you're doing. And then I'm sure your coaches are familiar with drawing out class plans, like where the rowers go and you got a full class or anything like that. Yeah . So talk to me a little bit about how you're packaging pricing your services. Right. Because one of the reasons why we want to talk to you is that you are doing CrossFits slightly differently than the rest of the affiliate community. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And what I mean by that is a very large , uh, percentage of your revenue comes from, you call it semi-private, correct? Yeah . There's a small group and semi-private, but but you identify as semi-private. Yep . Yep . Okay. So, so explain what that is. Gimme a little rundown there. And then tell me how you kind of package and price your Sure . Your services.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the way that we define semi-private is we do six on one training sessions and we run those in eight week blocks . So we specifically focus on something for eight weeks. We started out with some glute work or some upper body work, and we kind of package that out through that. It's the same six people upfront charge. That's, that's how that runs. Our hybrid program is what we consider our two-on-one or our three-on-one training. And that's what we pair with our group classes. Our semi-private, which just continually rolls and rolls like the, the first two semi-private we started two and a half years ago are still running. And if I were to think real hard, I bet you 70% of the people are still in that same thing. They just turn over and turnover and turnover in that. And so the price point has gone up as we've raised our rates. So right now for our 16 session semi-private block, it's 5 49 per person. It's all upfront . And a lot of those people are coupling that with additional private training and or working out with our group classes, both of which are, are added on top of the membership.
Speaker 1:If I was at my computer, I would be working the calculator really quick to get the session rate. What, what does that come out to about per
Speaker 2:Perception for the, for the semi-private, it's right around $38 a session in our six on one environment. What it's really important to me with that semi-private program is we can give people what they want specifically, but to be honest, more importantly, I'm paying coaches 92, 90 $4 a session. So one hour work. I'm paying coaches about three times of what we can pay them for a general class. And they're able to build a relationship. So not only am I stabilizing my revenue stream, but I'm making careers more stable for these folks . So I am controlling my length of engagement with coaches and not just length of engagement with my athletes.
Speaker 1:And you said you're thinking about it in eight week blocks, right ? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And , and you said it'll have a focus. So it's like this eight weeks we're we're building booty this eight weeks. Exactly . We're building arms. Yep . And , and so that'll rotate and then people can just opt in or opt out based off of whether they they want to do that.
Speaker 2:Yep . Yeah. And so we are strategic. So once we get people in, we have a set point. So we use GLM, which is great to have connection points of them when we want. 'cause we just put tags on them. Like Dan semi-private 6:00 AM they're gonna get some built out things we have for them. But week six we approach the class and say, we've got two weeks left. Next week we're gonna do this the week after we're gonna retest everything. This is what I'm seeing as the coach that you all would benefit from. Is there something specific that you want to work on? So we're engaging them. They get three to five days to say I'm in. They get a email that comes out after that conversation that happens that says, you know, I've had a great time with you. This is what our focus is coming up. Smash this button, send me your in . If you don't, we're gonna open this up to the general population. And so if we lose a person in there, we're already actively searching for the next person.
Speaker 1:So there's a bit of scarcity to it, you know? Yeah . Once , once you lose your spot , someone else is gonna pop in there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Yeah . And spots rarely become available. And so people naturally like wanna hold fear of losing, you know, fear of missing out. They wanna hold onto that. Yeah . Yeah . And so you said you'll pair that with what you called hybrid, which is two on one or three on one training, right? Yep . And so how , how is that priced
Speaker 2:Out? So we use , um, similar to the, to the two brain model, we do , uh, 25% off for our two on one and our three on one training. So essentially, you know, person A will buy an eight pack , person B will buy an eight pack and they'll get 25% off when they train together. The reason that we do two, two, and three at the same price is so that if we have a three, three-on-one and one person doesn't show, we still can run that session and that's okay. 'cause we're at the same discounted rate. We don't discount our class memberships for that though. Like, if they want to add a class membership in, that stays at the, the standard rate, the only discount we do is for the , uh, two on one and the three on one training. So
Speaker 1:If a personal training sessions a hundred bucks an hour Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , you say, Hey John, why don't you train with Chris and you're both gonna pay 75 an hour instead of a hundred. Yep . Right. Exactly. So I'm understanding that, so instead of a hundred for the personal training, you're making one 50 as the gym and as the client, you're getting 25 bucks off and you get to train with somebody presumably that you like. Yep .
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're strategic about that too. We don't, well we recently built out a private semi-private on-ramp, which we started about three months ago that is geared specifically to pair people up throughout an on-ramp. But before that, we were trialing it out and essentially like, Hey, you each have one session left, let's try to train together and if this is cool, then we're gonna continue on that. So it was a little bit cumbersome in the beginning of pairing people up that weren't friends. And so we kind of worked through some of that a little bit and I have figured out a , a better way to target that.
Speaker 1:Got it. And so what is your PT session rate ? That's
Speaker 2:A good question. So we do 45 minute sessions. We're around $72 a session for a 45 minute , uh, session. So
Speaker 1:It's about double what you're charging for your semi-private. Yep . It's
Speaker 2:Exactly double that. Uh , I love math. And so the way we set up the semi-private is the cost to do 16 semi-private sessions is the same cost to do eight one-on-one private training sessions.
Speaker 1:And then let's , uh, let's go further then. What , what is the group cost?
Speaker 2:So our unlimited model, which is the only model that's available to you unless you do personal training, is 200.
Speaker 1:Okay. And that's as many classes as you can feast on groups . Yep , yep .
Speaker 2:Just group classes. Yep , yep . And we do, I mean, included, that would be your 90 day goal review, which we have, which is where we pull a lot of our semi-private and two on one and three OnOne people from is from the goal reviews. But
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like it comes like, Hey John , you've been trying to get a muscle up for eight weeks now you've been coming to group, but maybe let's work on this a little bit. One-on-one Yeah . And kind of naturally flows into that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I think this is , uh, something I was talking to , uh, the, the West Coast , uh, CrossFit rep about the semi-private program about a month and a half ago. And I think one thing that we do very differently than your traditional CrossFit gym is we actually don't dig into the skills as much. Like people talk about doing a double under one or a muscle up one, and we go a little bit more towards the strength stuff. And we don't talk about the movements. We actually talk about the body parts. So we'll say we're gonna do a glute hypertrophy, we're going to , you know, this is how we're gonna do this and we're gonna do it through hip thrust. And like, that's the last thing in the conversation. And that is really changed the way people have responded to, you know, some of our, some of our emails and conversations and things like that.
Speaker 1:Because most of your membership, I would guess is gen pop . Like are you targeting , uh, suburban moms or Yeah . You're in an urban, are you in an urban area or suburban? I was gonna say , yeah,
Speaker 2:We're, so we're 35 plus , uh, very high level working parents. I mean, we're made up of , um, the medical center's about eight minutes from us. Nike's about 15 minutes from us. Intel's Nike's next door neighbor, and then attorneys, like that's who we are. And so we're with a , a clientele base that understands the value of something. So as long as we can show it to them, the financial side of thing isn't necessarily burdensome.
Speaker 1:Sure. So it's just providing that value.
Speaker 2:Yep . That's the key right
Speaker 1:There can solve the problem there . Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that most of them have the depo , the disposable income to they do to pay a premium price. Yep . So what does that boil down to in terms of top line ? Like what does your membership look like and , and what does the top line look like?
Speaker 2:I mean , what , what are we , where are we pulling in every month on average? Yeah. Uh, so right now we're right around 48,000 a month. That's, that's kind of been our consistent throughout last year, which is a , a big jump from the, the previous two years. We missed 60 K in November by like a thousand. We should hit it for January because we turned over five, maybe six semi-private programs. So we're gonna have a , a pretty big , uh, influx coming in January. So we should hit the, the 60 threshold.
Speaker 1:So sounds like you're pushing 50 to 60 out of 1100 usable square
Speaker 2:Feet. Yeah. Uh, so we have, so we have 1100 and then we have a space next door that's about 600. And so we have, we , we have 1700 usable. Um, and then we have like our parking lot and stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's how that'll work. You , I'm , I'm assuming the group happens in the 1100, the six hundreds where all the semi-private and private and hybrid is going down. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times the group spills out to outside. 'cause we still have that all erected, which is nice. That said, during the winter, logistics are critical. I , I had a conversation with a , with a , a couple up in New York today, and they have about 800 square feet and they're questioning if they could run a six on one semi-private Mondays and Thursdays am at 6:00 AM I run a six person semi-private and a three-on-one training session in that 700 square foot space. As long as you can control your logistics and you understand how the programming works, and you have that conversation with your coaching staff about having conversations before you get started, you really can, can maximize your square feet, you know, without bumping into each other. And the biggest thing without like, diluting the experience of the, of the athlete. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Some spaces are built better for it than others. Uh, but it seems like that sweet spot in terms of square footage for that six on one experience seems to be around that 1200 square foot area. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . But I think you condense it down if you did a well laid out , uh, yeah . Space and were thoughtful about the programming and Yep . So that's cool. Uh , what , what I like about this is it's space efficient, which I think a lot of people think like a bigger gym is always better. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . But there's been just a movement in the sports performance community to move to smaller spaces and do smaller class sizes, higher costs , because you can just have more impact. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And , uh, what I like is the fact that you are still running a CrossFit gym. Right. Like you , you're affiliated, right? Yeah , absolutely. Yeah. And so you , you mentioned you're talking with the reps and stuff. Yeah . Um, do you think this is a model more affiliates could use and benefit from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really hope so. And that's, that's, so I spent about an hour on the phone with Katie Hogan before. So they, they rolled out a semi-private conversation , uh, about two months ago. And I unfortunately had a call during the time there, but I, I , uh, dmd her and to ask her if she wanted to converse about that. And that's one of the things that I talked about was CrossFit is, is definitely for anyone but it in the situation or the format that, that we see in the, in the bigger gym space, it's really intimidating. People also have a challenging time of saying, how is this gonna get me there? Right. And so by adding this in, I feel like we can still get the community aspect from it. I mean, I love the methodology of CrossFit, but some people need a little bit different and a little bit more specificity. And so we can give them the best of both worlds. And so I think with some focus on, I'll stand a little pistol with some focus on a no sweat intro where you're sitting down and listening to people and not just letting people coming in and trying a class and starting to really understand why someone's there. Uh, there's a lot of CrossFit gyms that could benefit from the un from that understanding and saying , okay, we can make you really successful in our group classes two to three days a week, and then we're gonna put you in the specific strength block that's gonna help you get further towards where you want to go.
Speaker 1:And you bring up the no sweat intro, which is how you sell, I'm assuming, all consultative selling. Yep . And , and how does that process work with these different offerings? Like how, how is it different than when you were just selling a , a large group in either take it or leave it?
Speaker 2:So I, I was fortunate in that be , so before I opened my space, I found two Brain . And so I had been educating myself. I come from the medical community and, and didn't, don't have a fitness background. Um, and so I was able to dig into some of the business and understood that consultative process was critical. So we actually did that since day one. We've actually had an on-ramp since day one. It's looked differently throughout the years, but right now it doesn't matter if you've been doing CrossFit for 10 years or you've never seen a barbell, you come in through a no sweat intro process. And we have that, there's a couple of, you know, lead generations that we use through our website where we talk to people. Um, and the biggest reason we wanna do that is we wanna understand why you're there. We wanna understand what's worked for you in the past, telling us about your challenges so that we're not assuming that we know what you need. Right? Like, we wanna understand you. And as the experts we can say, okay, now I get where you're at. This is what you can do coming into our gym. There's only three ways you can come in if you've got significant CrossFit experience. And I'm gonna put a huge asterisk on this. If you have significant CrossFit experience, then we do, you can come into our class setting. That said, we still talk to you about the on-ramp and a significant portion of people who have CrossFit experience still go through our on-ramp. So just 'cause you have somebody coming in that has CrossFit experience, our immediate question is, tell me about your on-ramp process at your old CrossFit gym. Invariably they did not have one. And then we tell them about ours and they're like, oh, that sounds pretty awesome. Ours is six weeks in length. It's private training and group classes, so they're gonna get a feel of our community. And oftentimes they come through that. So that's two . And then our third way, which is our newest way, is we have a semi-private and a private training on RAMP where people come in looking for private training. We don't sell front end private training. And we do that very deliberately. Just over the years we've tested some things and we found this works. They train with the goal of getting into a semi-private or a two-on-one or a three-on-one. But we're still starting them in that one-on-one environment going through, where are your challenges? Where are you, where are you really focusing on things of that nature
Speaker 1:And what do the price points look like for the different starting packages?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our semi-private and our private on-ramp is 900. That one includes, let's see, that one's eight one-on-one training sessions. They get some at-home programming. They get some , uh, they get a , a walking plan and they get some , uh, nutrition recipes from our general on-ramp is 4 99, that's six one-on-one training sessions. And then we start putting them in classes. And I think this is really critical after they've gone over the movement that's in the class, excuse me. So we wouldn't put someone in a class that has a deadlift when we haven't covered the deadlift in the on-ramp. And so we're progressing them through the on-ramp as they're learning new
Speaker 1:Movements. So it'll be like, Hey, Sally, Wednesday's dead list . We're not gonna do that for you, but we got something on Thursday or Friday that goes over the , the press that we just learned. So why don't we sign you up for Friday?
Speaker 2:Yep . And if we have someone in the on-ramp that has come in and has some barbell experience, we can make our on-ramp modular in it . Like, you know, John, we're in the middle of a power clean block. We don't usually do power cleans until session four. This is session three and I'd like to get you in the class. So we're just gonna flip flop session three and session four, and we're gonna cover power clean today so that I can get you in class on Thursday. And then we'll revisit body weight stuff next week. So we can do little shifts like that when we're making those as assist assessments to make sure that that athlete is getting the exposure to classes that they're looking for.
Speaker 1:And the class, the class piece essentially reinforces what they just learned in the on ramp .
Speaker 2:Yep . Yeah. So we break people up in class two. Again, going back to controlling logistics, we limit the amount of people moving with a barbell. So if we have 12 people in class, we try to keep it to only six moving at a time. We we're very strategic about pairing people up. We have a tight knit community. So people love to do that. Anyways, another component to that is when we have somebody on the on-ramp, the on-ramp coach is texting the coach that's coaching the class that, that on-ramp person is going to and saying, Hey, John's new, they're coming in today. This is where they're, they're on-ramp. So that coach knows that this person's new, they know confidently they have gone through the movement patterns, but it's also a , a friendly face and whatnot coming through the gym door that, you know, like, oh, I know this coach is knowing I'm coming.
Speaker 1:So it must make them feel a lot more comfortable than just doing some private training and then just being thrown into group. Yeah . Because they've already been integrating into that throughout the entire process.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We actually control it so much. So we don't let people register for classes while they're in the on-ramp. The , the coach does it for them the entire time. Awesome.
Speaker 1:And so what, what percentage of your revenue comes from not group training? Not that $200 a month unlimited group class?
Speaker 2:I'd have to look at my metrics specifically, but somewhere around 40 to 45%. It flexes a little bit just dependent upon where we're on our , our , um, semi-private. But we do, we do a significant volume of our revenue. We hit, we typically have a reoccurring revenue of membership of between 21 and 23,000. And then we're, we're averaging 45 to 48 and then we've gone over 50 several times last year.
Speaker 1:And that, like, that 20 mark, that recurring piece, which if I had to guess, the average CrossFit gym is probably doing between zero and 15% of revenue coming from non , uh, group training sources. Yeah . And so that's substantial. Like that's the difference between , uh, you know, paying the bills and maybe having a couple thousand every month to talk in your back pocket to like being able to make decent money from a gym. Yeah. So I'm sure there's gym owners in similar situation, you know, in that 20 marks hearing this and say, this sounds awesome. Mm-Hmm . I'm in, you had covid as a forcing function that kind of like, you know, push people into this Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . But if you were coaching a gym owner on how to implement this into their business now Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , it sounds like you're having those conversations.
Speaker 2:Yep . Just had one today. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what are you telling 'em to do?
Speaker 2:So the person that I talked to today was considering kind of flipping their model from group completely to semi-private. And I wouldn't do that in the beginning. They, they really needed to double down on kind of their on-ramp and start to sell hybrids coming out of your on-ramp. And at that stage, depending upon the logistics that you have in the space you have, you might just be able to double down on that. Like that's a great offer. One of the reasons we had to do hybrid, or excuse me, semi-private, is we just don't have the space to run multiple coaches to go back to, to like what we have on our reoccurring monthly revenue. One of the really cool things is my payroll is just under 30 KA month, so I'm paying my coaches and a whole bunch of coaches to be able to do all this. So we really had to be strategic, like in the sense of we have to put multiple people in in this session, or we're not gonna be able to continue to do that. If you have a little bit more space, then you can start to run those two on ones, three on ones coupling with your classes. 'cause the CrossFit community is not gonna want to go away from that group class. And I totally get that. I love that. But if you want to increase that accountability, you want to meet people where you are, you want to have that length of engagement go up. We know those one-on-one relationships are critical with that.
Speaker 1:So 30,000 a month, that's a, that's a spicy payroll number. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , that's , uh, that's more than the average gym owner does in top line based off of our numbers. Uh, so you sounds like you're providing people with , uh, some real careers here. Maybe , maybe break down how many people work for the gym and uh Sure . What , what they do
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yeah. So, so I work , uh, as , uh, I just do semi-private and I do a couple of private training. I don't do any group class coaching, which kind of stinks 'cause I really like that. But I moved out of the way for some other coaches to make a career. Then next in line would be Jonathan, he's our operations manager. He also runs our on-ramp program. Um, he does a lot of our day-to-Day , um, interaction on on GLM and things of that nature. Um, but he also, you know, makes sure things are flowing. He, he coaches both classes semi, or excuse me, all three classes. Semi-private and the hybrid. Then we have a nutrition coach , um, who handles about 30 clients a month there. Plus she runs the bulk of our semi-private. We have another coach who we built a physical therapy program together. We have a tiny little office there. So , um, I brought him on , uh, about four years ago. Built that practice out. I I sold it to him this past, this past summer. He's our head coach. He does all of our coaches development. He does all of our programming, our programming son in house . Does some one-on-one training, then runs his physical therapy practice. And then we have one more coach , um, that we consider full-time. So all those people that I've talked about are full-time. Um, and he does similar, has Jonathan in that he does group classes, semi-private and a , he does a lot of our, our two on ones and three on ones. Um, and then we have two bench coaches with a third that just went out on maternity leave.
Speaker 1:So three full-time, two part-time.
Speaker 2:Myself, John , uh, Anna Tyler. And so five, five people that their sole income comes from us. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then you said two two bench coaches was a Which with a third.
Speaker 2:With a third. Who just went on maternity leave . Maternity leave, yeah .
Speaker 1:Yeah. Normally record these earlier in the day. The brain's moving a little slower.
Speaker 2:<laugh> .
Speaker 1:Yeah , we're , we're trying here. Alright . So yeah, that , that is insane. So out of 1700 usable square feet, you got five people eaten off of that. Yep . And so you're saying if you are a gym owner, this sounds good. Don't pivot, don't, don't completely change your model. Just slowly filter in maybe a semi-private block. Mm-Hmm . Sell that out. Add another semi-private block. Sell that out. And then at what point do you incorporate the hybrid?
Speaker 2:So I think it , it really depends. The , the folks I talked to today, I actually suggested they, they start with a hybrid first. If you're gonna start with a semi-private, and the way the rules that we have at our space that are in our SOPs is you need to find three people within the group that want what you are talking about before we can even talk like you, they bring me an idea of like, oh, I wanna do this. I'm like, that's awesome. This is the expectation of how we roll it out in our email list. The first step though is you need to tell me three people that are, that are good for this. So you're starting with that before you're, before you're throwing all your eggs in the basket and just throwing this err this errand offering out there. 'cause then as far as we go, you only need one more. So we have a , a limit of a program of four. If you can't get four, we don't run the program for a semi-private. And so you only have to get one after that. And so we have kind of these checkpoints of like, if you can't get three, I'm not gonna run that through our, our really curated email list. We're not gonna run that through our groups and things like that. So there's a, there's a little bit of a push for the coaches that wanna do that. And that would be my suggestion too. Like, and the reason I do that is I want you talking to the athletes to find out what they want. I don't want you to say, oh, you need this. It's like, understand what their goals are, understand what they want, how can you provide that? So back to the value thing, like how can I solve your problem and not create one and try to solve it there. So that's what I, that's what I would tell people. They're coming into that semi-private, that hybrid conversation. So with
Speaker 1:Five full-timers, there's probably a decent element , uh, uh, probably some management going on there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , uh, how many hours a week are you working in the gym?
Speaker 2:So, as far as the management goes, I put Jonathan in place about eight months ago to run our operations. And that significantly decreased the amount of time , uh, which was strategic in that, that's when I came on board , you know, working with two brains. So it was, it was really great to be able to focus on the mentorship side of things as far as inside of the gym, not including some of the private training that I do. Probably 10, 10 hours a week. And that, to be honest, is by choice. I really like creating emails. I really like curating our list. I , I do our social media. Like I , I like to do that stuff. I really enjoy doing the no sweat intros and the goal reviews. If I decided to not do them, my Jonathan and Brandon would have the bandwidth to take up on. So I'm choosing to do everything I do in the gym currently I'm choosing to do.
Speaker 1:And how much , uh, actual coaching are you doing then?
Speaker 2:So I do , um, I do four semi-private training sessions. And then I do maybe a total of six private training sessions, addition to that in the week. And the, the three people that I train in there are small business owners and that's why I train them. 'cause we talk about small business stuff and we talk about that network. Yeah. It's like, and I love those people. They've been with me forever, but I haven't taken a new private trading client in man at least a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Brian Bot , who's the other guy who runs semi-private small group in two Brain . He, he, he has a handful of choice private training clients as well. And uh , I know some of them, they're like some of the most successful people in that entire area. Yeah. And it's crazy what type of a network you can build off of a small gym like that. Uh, if you , if you get into the right crowds,
Speaker 2:It's really cool. Yeah. I, I enjoy that. And that's the way those, the two semi-private that I coach, the separate ones , um, that's the same, same thing. Like they're, they're people that I really just like being around and I, I truly enjoy doing that. So I get to do it. It's cool.
Speaker 1:So it's about 10 sessions and 10 hours a week of non coaching work that you're doing. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And it's the stuff you like doing. So you , you know, it sounds 20 hours. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> we'll probably call it 25 'cause they're shifting and Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> the , you know, task switching and all that going on. Yeah. The payroll sounds pretty substantial, but , uh, are you able to pocket more than a hundred thousand in net odor benefit from that? Oh yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep . No, no, no problem with that. We , um, we wouldn't have , uh, brought Jonathan on as when we did. And to be honest, the , I mean I've had three full-time coaches for a couple years now, so yeah, we're, we're doing just fine there.
Speaker 1:And so what is, how are you thinking about what to do next? Are you just enjoying having the single gym? You know, a lot of talks in these meetups is taking over the world and Right. And buying all the real estate and your city or opening a hundred gyms. Uh, I sometimes think that may not be the best approach for , uh, every single gym owner on the planet. Yeah. Yeah. Um, how are you thinking about where to go next? Because it sounds like you're in a good spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So as far as like opening gyms, so I own , um, half of another one. And that was a former coach who, who um, left us about a year ago to , to buy out this other gym. And I helped him with the evaluation. Um, so as far as as increasing our footprint, if I had another coach that wanted to open a facility, then I would invest in them. I would not open another one. Just in my, my area. We have a , a great spot that the area that we're located, there's almost zero commercial space. We certainly don't have any warehouse space. The MySpace is a converted , uh, real estate office or something like that. It, it's, it's uh , it's challenging to get quality space in our area. My moving forward, I really enjoy acquisitions and talking people through that and, and looking into, in investments around small businesses, the real estate wise . I could see doing a , a short term rental or so, and , and potentially my commercial building, I have first red refusal on it. Um, I'd have to get real crafty 'cause it's pretty big building and I live in an expensive county. Yeah. Um, so I, I would take something like that on, but I don't have the desire to, to pivot heavy in that regard. So it's more on the, the business side. Um, I'm spending a lot more time on the, the two brain mentorship team, which I've really enjoyed. And so , um, yeah, just kinda seeing what that takes me.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like the business is going well. Uh , rumor has it, you're doing some crazy stuff personally with , uh, your extra free time, <laugh> , uh, uh, you have some 50 K rucks or races or what Yeah . What , what do you got going on this year that you're planning for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean , um, historically I've been a , a mountain runner. So I've run oh six or seven , uh, 50 K races. But I've done, I enjoy the Unsupported Mountain stuff, so Circumnavigating, mountain Hood, St . Helen's, the Enchantments, things like that. And so I tend to plan big, big things like that to spend a lot of time in the mountain. And that takes a lot of training. So I've incorporated Rucking in, and so some weeks I'll ruck 25 or 30 miles and, and when I'm, when I have calls where I'm just the listening piece, then I just ruck with them. Or when I, I do a lot of staff conversations, staff evaluations with Rucks. I bought three of my staff members Rucks as presidents throughout the year and things like that. And so I get to get some extra fitness in, get to be outside, and it's getting me ready for, for the adventures that are coming in this year.
Speaker 1:What, what are those?
Speaker 2:So the first up we have a 30 K mountain race on Mount Hood , uh, which is gonna be in the beginning part of July. We'll see if snow allows that. Uh, and then that really starts to dig into what the year is. I'll absolutely run around St . Helen's again, which is 33 miles, and then I'll do an out and back of the Enchantments, which is another 30 miles. And then I'll decide if I wanna actually schedule a race towards the fall. I enjoy the unsupported bigger distance more than, than the supported ones. So I don't mind the race. Like, I like racing. I just like the, the aspect of you're out in the middle of nowhere and the only thing that's gonna get you back is your feet. Like there there's no aid stations and none I like , so I really enjoy Sounds
Speaker 1:Horrifying.
Speaker 2:I love that. It's just, that's , uh, that's what I like to do.
Speaker 1:I'm from Florida. I've seen like three mountains ever <laugh> . So, you know, all the , all this is news to me. I don't , I don't, I don't even know how to ruck , but that sounds insane. And and you're a family man too, right? I
Speaker 2:Am. Yeah . You
Speaker 1:You have uh ,
Speaker 2:I have two kids. Eight kid . Yep . Two kids. So my daughter , uh, Mabel , she's gonna turn eight. Mable and I have the same birthday. Nope . So she turns eight in February. Uh, and then my son Cole will turn five in May
Speaker 1:Because , uh, not every gym owner goes into gym life to be , uh, a slave to their gym. You know, we , we talk to way too many people in two Braden who are doing every single class, working 60 plus hour weeks making, you know, not enough money for the hours they're putting in. You know, it seems like you're at the, the end , uh, you're at the end point , you know, you're , you're towards the , the top of the mountain here to, to use a mountain. Uh mm-Hmm. <affirmative> analogy for you . Um, how, how are you balancing, you know, your , you're rocking and your races and the gym and your side projects and your family? Like, do you have a system for thinking about all of this or , uh,
Speaker 2:Not so much thinking about that, but I , we have systems in place at the gym that allow me to be a little bit more flexible with it , with the time. Like we have, we've had a CRM since the beginning that since we started, we had, we had one , uh, previous to GLM that, that worked. Okay. The, the GL M1 that we're using now works really well. And , and really digging in with that right in the beginning and, and taking out a lot of the initial things that you need to do is critical. Having a staff playbook so that, like, I'm not at the gym a lot, or if I am, I'm in my office talking to other gyms around the country or around the world for that matter. My staff needs to know how to do X, Y, and z if a , if a new person comes in or what the expectations are for a two on one or a semi-private or one classes . So having those things really in order allows me to have the flexibility to say, oh, I , I feel like going for a ruck today. Um, and that doesn't mean I'm, I'm absent of stress, you know, I mean, you're a small business owner and you still bear, you know, all the responsibility, but having those systems in place , um, helps a lot.
Speaker 1:And so you talked about the importance of systems. You , you gotta , you got diversified revenue, you talk about consultative selling, you talk about bright spots, all these best practices. You talked to a decent amount of gym owners now and , and you , you got a good finger on the pulse of what people are dealing with. It sounds like you're having conversations with CrossFit hq , um, which, you know, in the two brain realm you're probably dealing with more business oriented people than the CrossFit at large. Yeah. You know, just based off of your 10,000 foot view of what you're seeing, what are kind of one or two things that the average gym owner you , you change about the average gym owner if they wanted to impact both the revenue and the , the time they're working?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the big one I think is, is the no sweat intro. It amazes me how many, how many gyms, and I'll speak specifically for CrossFit ones just 'cause I, you know, I went to the, the affiliate gathering and, and led a couple of the big breakout sessions and , and the people that are still doing free trials and not learning about their people, that right there I think is, is can make a huge impact on, on , um, on people. And then there's, there's, it kind of depends on where you are in your journey and, and things like that. You know, having someone to talk to, like finding a mentor, finding someone that can say, do this, do this now. And then when you meet with 'em in two weeks or a month or whatever your cadence is, they can say, okay, how come A you didn't do this, or Hey, you killed it. Let's celebrate this as a small business owner and as an entrepreneur, there's a really small set of the population you can celebrate your wins with, right? Like profit still is kind of an ugly word in places, but getting involved with people that recognize everything that goes in to get that $1 of profit is huge. And surrounding yourself with that , um, is, is really like dumping gas on the flame.
Speaker 1:So Dan, this has been very helpful. Where would people go if they wanted to follow along in your journey? Find out a little bit more about you.
Speaker 2:I mean, easiest place is just Instagram is just perrington at Woodlawn . Um , or I , I would follow my, my , my Woodlawn fitness account. We post a lot more in there. I posted just post pictures of grilling over the fire play with my kids on my private page . <laugh> ,
Speaker 1:That's content I want on my feed . There we go. That's what I'm looking for. This is great. And uh, for the listeners listening , uh, like I said in the beginning, we are at the Tinker Meetup in Dallas. This is two brain's highest level group. You get to be around guys like Dan, who are doing cool things, testing new models, living, living a good life. Uh, the environment is electric and uh, you know, he talked about having a mentor, but there's also something to be said, just putting yourself in a room with gym owners like this, having these conversations and just being able to network. Uh, because I, I'm sure you probably agree, once you get to a certain point, the decision tree, the options you have that you can make of what to do next , uh, become a lot more convoluted and a lot wider. And , uh, I think this phase is where people make a lot of the most expensive mistakes. Like once you get here, yeah. Uh , you just have more problems. You can get yourself into more landmines, you can step on. So getting in the right room with the right people to stop you from , from shooting yourself in the foot or doing anything crazy is really important. So sorry to take you away from the group for 45 minutes here. I , I appreciate it . I think a lot of people are gonna get a lot of value
Speaker 2:Out this . Awesome. It good talking to you .