Run a Profitable Gym

He Added $200,000 in Semi-Private Training Revenue in Just 1 Year!

Chris Cooper Season 3 Episode 675

Gabriel Mayer-Bédard, owner of CrossFit St-Basile-le-Grand in Quebec, Canada, used semi-private training to generate over $200,000 in new revenue in just one year.

Adding semi-private training also boosted his gym’s client retention, solved scheduling challenges, and produced higher pay and improved career paths for his coaches.

In a semi-private model, about four clients train at the same time under one coach, and each client receives personalized programming and attention—making it a high-value service for both clients and gyms.

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Gabriel outlines exactly how he launched the new service with the help of Two-Brain’s semi-private specialist, Brian Bott.

Gabriel explains how he set pricing and coach pay, sold existing clients on the service, and shifted his onboarding process to funnel new clients into the program.

Looking for a way to grow your gym without burning out? Gabriel’s story will show you what’s possible.

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0:54 - What is semi-private training?

5:43 - Selling semi-private training

10:27 - Session pricing and trainer pay

14:48 - Onboarding into semi-private

21:58 - Working with a specialist

Speaker 1:

Semi-private training. It's all the rage right now. So what is it? And can it work in a CrossFit gym? You're gonna get the answers today. This is Ronald Profitable Gym . I'm your host, Mike Workin . Please head subscribe wherever you're watching or listing with my thanks with me today. Gabrielle Mayor Bedard of CrossFit, San Basil in Quebec, Canada. Bon

Speaker 2:

Bojo ,

Speaker 1:

<laugh> . That's the , that's the extent of my French. So we're gonna switch to English, and I appreciate that. You can do that better than I can do it the other way around. So Gabriel, I'm gonna ask you right off the top, from January to December, 2024, one calendar year, how much semi-private training revenue did you add to your CrossFit gym ?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we almost add the 200 K in one year.

Speaker 1:

$200,000 in gross revenue in one year through semi-private training.

Speaker 2:

You're right.

Speaker 1:

Wow. Okay. So will you tell your listeners, our listeners, how you did that so they can do it too?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I hope so. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So first of all, I gotta let, some people don't know what this is, so we'll say semi-private training, they have no idea. To help listeners understand, explain what semi-private training is at your gym. How does it work?

Speaker 2:

First of all, it is a small group. It's two to four people training with their personal trainer. Uh , they all have their own , uh, personalized program. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . So we present this to clients, like, if it is personal training, it's almost the same.

Speaker 1:

Right? Is it fair to call it personal training in a group setting where you've got, like, let's say I'm the coach, you're one of my clients. There's three other clients. You all have your individual program. Like say you're working on power lifting , he's doing a running program, there's gymnastics over there, and maybe just hypertrophy on the other side, and I'm coaching each of you at the same time. Yeah . It's gonna take a lot of skill, right? Like, I have to be a great coach, but I'm deliver delivering personal training in a group setting to each of these clients. Is that right?

Speaker 2:

That's right. Exactly like this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And the variation of that is small group training where everyone in m say a group of three or four is doing the same workout. We're not doing that. This is everyone gets an individualized program. So there's a lot more value, because I'm not just saying we're all doing Fran today. I'm saying you are doing dead lifts, you are doing Helen, you are doing running, you are doing ski intervals, whatever it is, it's individualized. And it takes like, am I wrong? This takes a skilled coach.

Speaker 2:

You're absolutely right. It took us like , um, a year to get used to it and be , be really good to it. Uh, we are really lucky to have , uh, really hungry coaches. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Who want to learn more and to earn more. Uh, this was key in our , uh, success , uh, in our , in our growth last year in certain private .

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Because when, you know , people are gonna understand their PT clients, they're gonna get in this setting, they're gonna get less attention than they would one-on-one, but they get way, way more than they would in a group setting, and they get an individualized program. So there's huge value here. It's not quite one-on-one. Yes . But it's huge value. Did you find that,

Speaker 2:

You mean the value in price or for

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like, did you, like, did your clients, like when they see this program and they're like , wow, I get an individualized program and I'm , there's two other people here, but I'm still getting a ton of attention. Did they see huge value in that ?

Speaker 2:

Oh , definitely. The way we, we , uh, we package it, it allow them to do more training mm-hmm <affirmative> . Uh , than personal training. And as well they , it's including group class. So they have more opportunity to go to the gym. Uh, they have more frequency training and they have more results because , uh, they have more attention of their coaches. Uh , because before they were attending like a one or two personal training, that's it. Now they can do group class, and they have two or three small group. So it's , it's like per session. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . The price and everything. It's , it's a way better offer. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Uh , so they feel stupid to not say yes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So they, I mean, you , you said it right there. They get a small break in price, but they don't, they get a great service package. They get individualize program, they get other options to attend other stuff, and then you are gonna make more power . We'll get into that in just a sec, but tell me about, what did you offer before semi-private training and why did you switch?

Speaker 2:

Uh, we were offering like a traditional personal training. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And group class. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So you had two strong revenue streams. I'm guessing like any CrossFit gym, you've got great group classes where people are just crushing it in a big group and it's a ton of fun. The music is cranked. And then you've got pt, which was my mistake as a CrossFit gym owner. I never sold PT at a good volume and I suffered for it. But you've got those two strong revenue streams. So why did you decide to move to semi-private? Because you've got pt that's a great revenue stream. Why did you decide to add in a third one?

Speaker 2:

We arrived at some point that we were eating the ceiling. Like every full-time coaches cannot was what ? They were full of clients. They , they didn't add the capacity to take more. And

Speaker 1:

You ran outta ours ?

Speaker 2:

Yes. Ah , I ran out our , like the , the only way we had to increase our revenue was to add more coaches . So , ah , it was not working that way. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . For sure. We knew that at that point we had a problem. The retention was not great because we had a lot of part-time at that , uh, culture at that time. We were less invest and the result, maybe the client wasn't less there. So we decided to make the switch to student private mm-hmm <affirmative> . So now we have more results, more retention, and we can pay the coaches more.

Speaker 1:

So you solved a staffing problem. Yeah . You have better results for clients and your gym makes more revenue. So this is kind of a huge win across the board.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Yeah. But it , it , it's changed the business. Like literally in , we , we changed the business in , in a year completely. Wow.

Speaker 1:

I gotta ask you this before I go even further. How did you sell so much PT training that you were just completely maxed out on your hours? Like how did you pull that off?

Speaker 2:

We were doing what , uh, tub Brain says. So we're doing , uh, no potential. Yeah . Uh , goal review , stuff like that. We were good to upgrade current clients or group training clients to personal training. And me and my partner, Michael , Michael, we have both , uh, logistic background strength and mm-hmm . Ing background. We always been good doing that. And in fact, I'm a personal trainer since 2008. Oh, wow . So it's part, it's rooted in us. We're good doing that. I mean, we coach our staff to , to do doing that. So yeah, it was part of our strength. Now we, we were not, we're just doing the same thing, but with more people at the same time.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So you were a CrossFit gym and you used the two brain plan to sell so much personal training that you ran outta staff hours.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. <laugh>.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible. And then you had to go further with semi-private training. So I just, this is mind blowing to me . 'cause I never saw this back in the day and this would've changed my life. And you're doing it right now. So I'm gonna ask you, how did you make the switch? So you've got obviously a thriving CrossFit program, big groups. Then you've got this thriving one-on-one program. I understand that you made this switch in stages, but how did you do it?

Speaker 2:

At first? Uh, we were not really confident mm-hmm <affirmative> . About this service, and we didn't know if it, if it was effective. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . We knew that was effective, but how we will implement it, we had some doubt. So it's

Speaker 1:

A big change.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a big change. So we decide to switch all our current PT clients in semi-private, because our first problem was the hour was the schedule. So it was really hard to have , uh, the same spot like at five 30 for two or three clients, because we only had two at that time at the moment. So , uh, we did that first , uh, in January 2 24. It last like three month . That stage, I think for three months until March, we were able to move all our , uh, PT clients in sim private . I mean, almost all of them. I currently we're doing like, really a small amount of pity .

Speaker 1:

Did they, was there any pushback or were they like, okay, I'll try it. How'd it go?

Speaker 2:

We had some pushbacks, but you know what, I, I think our mindset was great at that time. And we push all the clients to say , at least to say, Hey, you know what, just try it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Just try it.

Speaker 2:

Then they will be like, they , they were , uh, convinced after we only had like three clients saying, no, I want to keep personal training. And to date, they're still going.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. If they like it, they like it, that's fine. Yeah. But your other clients, they tried it and they said, Hey, this works, this is great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And , uh, the , the service I have for my money is, is better so I can do more things. And the results and the attention of the , the coach is, is the same, in fact.

Speaker 1:

Oh . So that's cool. And like listeners, if you're out there, you know how this, like, you might say, how do I do this? But really the reality is like, you know, in a PT session, a client does some stuff, then you kind of talk about the weather and what they did on the weekend and da da da da , da . Instead of doing that, you just go to another client and tell them, okay, your set of five dead lifts, set your back lift. Go. Perfect. Yeah . I want your next set. I want you to really think about pulling your shoulders back and engaging your legs as you push through the floor. Okay. Instead of talking about your cycling event on the weekend, I'm gonna move over to this guy. And you just kind of do it like that. You're cutting out what we'll call the fluff, and you're getting right to the nuts and bolts of each client and you're moving efficiently. That's right . So each client gets a great amount of attention and you're just kind of cutting out a little bit of the banter. Now that doesn't mean that you can't do that. You obviously have to maintain the relationship, but you get what I'm saying ? Saying you are just focusing on essential stuff. Laser focus, laser focus , and moving through the roster there. That's how you Gabriel,

Speaker 2:

It's exactly like this , uh, is happening. And in fact, they, they still have the time to develop a great connection with the clients. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know, that there's, there's , there's tons of time to do that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah . You know what, our coach now, if they're doing pt , they find it bothering boring. They have too much time. Too much

Speaker 1:

Time. 'cause they're too good, too efficient. <laugh> ,

Speaker 2:

It's like, it's boring counting reps. Like, we are not doing that anymore. So. Yep ,

Speaker 1:

Yep . And I found that too, you know, that it gets tough. You're like 27, 28, keep going, 29, it's , that's tough. Right? But if you're just like, okay, do your set, move on. It's high energy hour flies by for your coaches and your coaches are making more money, so they're happy to , I gotta ask you this. How did you adjust your PT pricing to get to a semi-private rate? What'd you do?

Speaker 2:

I'll adjust my PT pricing right now. We didn't adjust it.

Speaker 1:

So you're, you're charging , uh, sorry, let me ask that again to make sure I get the right answer here. Did you take your one-on-one PT rate and reduce it for semi-private training?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay. What'd you do? How'd that look?

Speaker 2:

Uh, we were pricing like 95 recession in the , in pt. Now we are charging like 60 in sim private .

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So that sounds about almost exactly what Chris Cooper said, where he's gonna say, take your PT rate, double it, divide by three. That's your semi-private per session rate. That sounds similar to what you did. It's kind of the same numbers maybe with a little bit of difference, but that's, that's pretty close. So in that, so you said 60 something for for semi-private 60 .

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So 60 times four people, that's $240 an hour. And how do you pay, how do you pay trainers in that?

Speaker 2:

Uh, we pay 30%. So , uh, there you go. They , they earn like up to $80 per hour.

Speaker 1:

So this is way different than the traditional 20 to $25 for a CrossFit group class where a trainer's like, I have to coach so many classes, I'm burned out. I'm still not making enough. As opposed to now trainer's making 80 bucks an hour, gym's making , uh, one 60 I think at that point or something similar. And everybody's winning, the client's getting better results. Is that right?

Speaker 2:

That's right. In fact , uh, I think average early out , uh, rate, I pay , the coaches went to 26, 20 $8 per hour. Now it's above 40.

Speaker 1:

Whoa. So that's a huge increase. Your co so obviously your coaches are gonna stay longer because they're making better money in less time.

Speaker 2:

I hope so. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's just it. I love it. This is a cool way to create a career in a fitness industry. And we know as gym warmers for years, this has been the problem. We can't create careers for staff people. They train with us for a while . They max out 40 classes, $20, and they're out the door to be a firefighter or a real estate agent. And that's a big problem in the industry . This is a great way to do it. I took you off track, you talked to me about the switch where you got PT into semi-private. Yeah . Talk to me about the rest of the transition throughout that year in your group classes.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Yeah. So right after we , uh, switch our PT clients, we began to do more goal review , uh, session with our group clients and convert them to some private, and we are still doing that to date. So right now we have like 90 clients in the semi-private doing that 90. Yeah .

Speaker 1:

How many group clients do you still have?

Speaker 2:

I think one 70.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So that's, okay. So you've gotta create , that's a , so I've seen people easily move from one to one to semi-private. I haven't seen as easy go for going from group to semiprivate. You figured it out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It , it's all in the goal review session. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that's fascinating. So you talk to these people and you're saying, look, you wanna get to this goal, you're in group classes right now, and if you love that, we'll keep going. But if you wanna move faster and get stronger faster or accomplish your goal, semi-private option. Is that how it goes?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is. Uh , just like that. If somebody want to , uh, break a plateau, something like that, they want to learn their first muscle up or increase their deadlift, they do something private.

Speaker 1:

Wow. And so people jumped at that. Yeah . Man. And that's, so listeners, if you're think if you're doing the math here, he's got people coming from pt, they're still, they're training more at a better value for them. You've got people coming from group going up and increasing the a RM . This is where that $200,000 annual gross increase comes from. Like, this is crazy. And you've still got a strong group program, you've still got some PT people and you've got happy coaches. So all around this is like, wins, wins , wins in your , you know , obviously your clients are getting better results too. Like they're , the group clients who are struggling are getting stronger faster.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Okay. So this is great

Speaker 2:

For the business, for the clients and for the coaches. Yeah .

Speaker 1:

I always call that the triple win. If you , if your , if your clients are winning, your coaches are winning, and your business is winning, that means the owner's winning. That's a triple win and it's the best thing ever. And like they're, they're getting, you know, e extreme value for the coaching that you're providing and they're getting results. So this is, this is cool. So you're still working with this and you're still moving through with goal review sessions. Uh , is that where we're at right now in 2025, still doing goal review sessions with group of clients?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we, we still, we are still doing this. I think we are doing like a 60 goal review per month, something like that. Oh ,

Speaker 1:

Okay. Okay. So then let me ask you this, how did this whole thing change your onboarding process? So a brand new client, so not an existing client, brand new client comes to your gym, does a consultation, no sweat intro and says, here I am, what happens?

Speaker 2:

We just changed this. Okay . Let's hear . Uh , because I , I think it , it's more difficult than it , it appear and , uh, or at least it demand more , um, experience or more , uh, courage. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . From , uh, our side. Sure. Because we were doing like a one-on-one , uh, on ramp for new clients until like , uh, March. Okay . Now we just make the switch. Uh , honestly, it's, it's the same. We do the , we're doing the same thing, the same movement, the same structure, the same timeline, but with two to four clients at the same time. It's just that it was out of necessity because we were also struggling lately with the schedule and we were , yes . We were having , uh, trouble and onboarding new clients. So we decide to make the change because of that

Speaker 1:

In the on-ramp. Now, do they get an individualized program or is it your on-ramp curriculum delivered to four people at once?

Speaker 2:

We have two ways to do it. Aha . We , we have a personalized , personalized way to do it. Yeah . And we have a , like , um, already done , uh, structure , um, like step by step program , uh, that everybody can do if they want to integrate or join the , the group class.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So price differences obviously for that. If you wanna , wanna individualize. Yes . Yeah . So there you go. So that , and then if someone says, look, I'm, I'm going to do, you know, semi-private training, I want individualized program, your onboarding rate is much higher, I'm guessing, than the other option, which is essentially small group training.

Speaker 2:

I will not say small group training . Okay. Uh , it's like the still, I can have four people , uh, in, on-ramp together. Yeah . Doing an on-ramp, but not the same session. Got it. So , got it . So it's still to, the goal is to onboard them to , uh, the group class program. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . Then I can , I can have , uh, another people in this onboarding. Uh , 12 week is first for 12 week and they're doing something different. Mm-hmm . They will doing a personalized program, but only for them 12 for 12 week.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So, so we have two ways. Two

Speaker 1:

Ways . Yeah. But that works for both kinds of clients, right? Like they're getting to choose what they wanna do and it works for you guys and it's solving your, your staffing and time problems. Because my big problem was like my noon class, my six 30 class and my 5:00 PM class were outta control. I had dead hours everywhere and I struggled. I couldn't figure that , I couldn't solve that problem. So you said you were a personal trainer from like 2008 or something like that, is that right? Yeah .

Speaker 2:

Yeah .

Speaker 1:

What would this program have done for you in 2008? Like, I imagine, like, did you beat your head against the wall for like a while to get to this? Because if you had gotten this in 2008, what would've happened?

Speaker 2:

Uh, for myself. Yeah. I mean, I will , maybe I will not be a gym owner

Speaker 1:

Today . You retired because

Speaker 2:

I will be able, I will be able to earn enough money to, to live out of this because that was part of our , uh, f frustration. Me , Michael, my partner. It was really hard to have a good job as a TR trainer. Yeah . So , uh, for a personal trainer or a group class trainer, or for a <inaudible> coach, it was always been really hard. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And like I have a part-time coach. Uh , he is working 10 to 15 hour with, with us, and he is , uh, I think year , uh, around $30 , uh, $30,000 per per year with us doing that 10 to 15 hour. And, and he have another job. So, I mean, because he is passion , really passionate about CrossFit and teaching, he a teacher, but , uh, he's doing really, really well with this. So at that time, I , I was doing, I was working full-time and earning 30 , uh, thousand dollars per year.

Speaker 1:

And your coaches are doing that in 10 to 15 hours?

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Wow. What was your PT rate when you started two thou for 2008? One hour. What'd you charge?

Speaker 2:

I earned, I that time made $20.

Speaker 1:

Wow. So this is, this is wild stuff. So, and, and I , I just think that's so great. So what's the ceiling? What do you think, like a full-time, like you've got some full-time coaches in your business. Let , what can a full-time semi-private trainer earn in a cross the gym? Do you have an idea of what that would be?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we are still experimenting. The scalability of this. We did not hit the ceiling , uh, yet for sure, but we're not so far. Okay . I think we are like 80% of the ceiling of what we can really do. And currently, our full-time coaches, they can manage 30, 35, 40 clients in their schedule , uh, in semi-private and doing group classes. Yeah . They , they're doing the both things and they're working like 32, 35, 38 hour per week. Wow . In between that. And they all earning more than , uh, 60,000 per year. This year. They will, they will earn that more than that. I think 80,000 per year. It's doable for the best of the coaches. Like

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you've got in your gym now, and this was in our

Speaker 2:

Mobile right now. Yeah .

Speaker 1:

Yeah. This is such a problem in the industry, but you've got coaches earning above 60,000, you know, the program's not maxed out and you think you can get them to $80,000 a year. This is a huge deal because that's career money as opposed to $20,000. I need another job and I'm leaving. Right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Uh , if they , if my culture, some have two jobs. Yeah . Because they love it. Not 'cause they need it. It's different. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And that's just it. If they choose, like you said , you've got that one guy, he's a part-time guy, but if he's making $30,000 on the side and he loves it, that's, you know, that's like the ultimate beer money fund. Know . Yeah. Yeah . <laugh> . Alright , so I wanna ask you this. So we've laid out exact details. You've been so kind to tell me everything about what's going on in your business. Tell me this, if you were gonna talk to , if a Jim Warner calls you right now and says, man, how do I do this? I don't know what to do, what would you tell 'em ? How would you tell 'em to get started on this path?

Speaker 2:

I think it's like talk to a mentor. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Would that, so that , that was

Speaker 2:

The key for you at first ? At first we , we talked with , uh, Brian , but yes. Uh , and he explained us everything and we were feeling confident that we were, we had the skill to do it, the capacity to explain it to the coaches mm-hmm <affirmative> . To, to make them on board . Because at first they were not all on board . It was, the change is scary. Yeah. It is . So the , you will experience this for sure, the change for the coaches and the clients both will have like a resistance. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . It's not a , like a easy process.

Speaker 1:

Okay . So when you had Brian , and so Brian's our , our mentor, he's a gym owner, excellent gym owner in New Jersey. Uh , he's our semi-private training specialist. And so we have him available to help people. When you had a mentor explain this stuff and walk you through it, did the whole process become a whole lot easier?

Speaker 2:

I think so, yeah . Then , then we followed the plan. Yeah . So we execute. Yeah. It's helped us break down the, our things and it prepare us to have the tough conversation. Yeah. And also to have a simple way to explain it. Okay . You know what ? It's easy to make it over complex . You can easily , easily get lost in , in some details. Whoa.

Speaker 1:

So listers , I'm just gonna summarize this for you. If I go back to the very beginning here in a year, Gabrielle, at his CrossFit gym used a mentor and added $200,000 in gross revenue for threats for semi-private training. When he did that, he solved a staffing and space problem. And now he's got staff members that are working, you know, they're doing, they're , they're on track to be above $60,000 a year where he thinks the , the ceiling here might be $80,000 or higher. He's got clients that are getting better results, they're training more often, the retention is improving and his gym is doing better across the board with this program. Gabriel, is that an accurate sum summary?

Speaker 2:

This is it. Yeah .

Speaker 1:

Yeah , that's exactly it. So listeners, if this is something that you wanna look at, two point has an exact plug and play plan that makes this greasy and easy. Puts it in place, answers your question. It's been done by Gabriel, it's been done by other gym owners. It's an awesome way to change everything. Trainers make more, gym makes more clients get better results. I'd encourage you book a call. There's a link in the show notes. Go down there, book that call and talk about it. We'll talk to you about how this can work and every other aspect of your business because this is just one thing. But if this is something that you're interested in, book that call and you can do it. Gabriel, I wanna thank you so much for opening this up. This has been super insightful. You've been super kind of sharing exact metrics to make it real for listeners. I can't thank you enough for doing that. Thanks me . Yeah. We'll have you back on the show 'cause I wanna see if we can add another $200,000 in 2025 <laugh>.

Speaker 3:

Eh , maybe, maybe

Speaker 1:

We'll see what we could do. That was Gabrielle Bedard, mayor Bedard, pardon me. He's from CrossFit Seat Basil in Quebec, Canada. And he's using, he's using semiprivate private training to crush it. This is Run a Profit Regime . I'm your host, Mike Workin . Before you go hit a like on this wherever you're watching listing and hit subscribe so you don't miss any other shows. Just like it. And now here's to Rain founder Chris Cooper with a final message.

Speaker 4:

Hey, it's Two Brain founder Chris Cooper. With a quick note . We created the Gym Owners United Facebook group to help you run a profitable gym. Thousands of gym owners, just like you have already joined in the group. We share sound advice about the business of fitness. Every day I answer questions, I run free webinars and I give away all kinds of great resources to help you grow your gym. I'd love to have you in that group. It's Gym Owners United on Facebook, or go to gym owners united.com to join. Do it today.

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