Run a Profitable Gym
Run a Profitable Gym is packed with business tools for gym owners and CrossFit affiliates. This is actionable, data-backed business advice for all gym owners, including those who own personal training studios, fitness franchises, and strength and conditioning gyms. Broke gym owner Chris Cooper turned a struggling gym into an asset, then built a multi-million-dollar mentoring company to help other fitness entrepreneurs do the same thing. Every week, Chris presents the top tactics for building a profitable gym, as well as real success stories from gym owners who have found incredible success through Two-Brain Business mentorship. Chris’s goal is to create millionaire gym owners. Subscribe to Run a Profitable Gym and you could be one of them.
Run a Profitable Gym
Double the Revenue: When More Members Stay Longer and Pay More
Gym owner Aaron Scott followed Two-Brain content for six years before finally signing up for mentorship. When he did, everything changed.
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Aaron shares exactly how he doubled his revenue at CrossFit Structure in the U.K.—without dramatically increasing his client count.
He reveals how implementing high-value onboarding, raising rates with confidence and improving back-end systems helped him grow monthly revenue from £7,500 to over £15,000.
With mentorship, Aaron also increased average revenue per member (ARM) by £40 and tripled his length of engagement (LEG).
Building the right systems allowed Aaron to reduce stress and buy back hours so he can spend more time with his family.
If you’ve been sitting on a pile of free content but still feel stuck, tune in to hear what happened for this gym owner when he finally started working with a business expert.
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The Prescriptive Model
Gym Owners United
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1:28 - Before and after mentorship
6:00 - Results using free resources
7:44 - Immediate changes with a mentor
11:60 - Three rate increases
15:49 - Aaron’s recent accomplishments
Can you compare gym metrics when you were using our free content to your metrics in the current period when you're working with a metric? What has changed?
Speaker 00:The month before we started the mentorship, we are at 101 members. Our arm was 100 pounds. Our leg was 6.2. And then our revenue was 7,500 pounds a month. Looking at today, we're at 115 members now. Our arm is at 140. Leg is at 16. And our revenues now it's at 15.2 so 15,220 free
Speaker 03:resources for gym owners we produce mountains of them it's part of the no gym left behind philosophy we crank out the Best free stuff in the fitness industry. We give it away daily for free in the Gym Owners United group, which you can join at GymOwnersUnited.com. So, if everything is freely available, why buy mentorship? The short answer is that knowledge is just part of the equation. You'll improve your gym much faster if you have a plan and someone to help you execute the plan. Today on Run a Profitable Gym, I'll talk to a gym owner who followed Two Brain for six years and then signed up for mentorship in 2023. He'll tell you why he made that decision. Aaron Scott owns CrossFit Structure in the UK. Aaron, welcome from across the pond. How are you today?
Speaker 00:Yeah, I'm great. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having
Speaker 03:me. I am very excited to talk to you about this topic because I did the same thing as you. I had a pile of knowledge and I didn't know what to do with it. So let's get into it. Let's make it real for people. So can you compare gym metrics when you were using our free content to your metrics in the current period when you're working with a metric? What has changed?
Speaker 00:Yeah, so we pulled up the metrics. The month before we started the mentorship, we are at 101 members. Our arm was 100 pounds. Our leg was 6.2. And then our revenue was 7,500 pounds a month. Looking at today, we're at 115 members now. Our arm is at 140. Leg is at 16. And our revenue now is at 15.2. So 15,220.
Speaker 03:So, these are significant increases, obviously. Yes. Like your average revenue per member, was it 40 extra pounds you said?
Speaker 00:Yeah, another 40 pounds a
Speaker 03:month. Wow. And length of engagement, did I get it right? Is it like 10 extra months?
Speaker 00:Yeah. So, it was 6.2 and we're at now 16. So,
Speaker 03:you're holding every member for 10 months longer and earning 40 extra pounds per month as a result of that. Like that's a big snowball rolling downhill.
Speaker 00:yeah it made a massive impact joining two brain like pretty much from from the off like i think within the first three months i mean like you guys advertise You make all your money back and we did that and more.
Speaker 03:Oh, that's good to hear. I'm fired up about that because I did the same thing where I was struggling. In fact, I was losing money, right? And then I started getting help and everything completely, complete U-turn turned around. So let's dig into it and let's help people. So listeners, you have the data. That's real Jim Warner, real story, real numbers. That's what happened. Let's talk about, you know, what you were doing before that and all the other stuff. So 2023, years of watching and learning, you know, what did, what made you finally pull the trigger on mentorship What problems were you trying to solve?
Speaker 00:So we were just coming off the back end. So the metrics I gave you there was just after we had let go of one of our weak lines in the gym. Follow suit of that, we had about another 15 to 20 members go. And I mean, it ended up being the best thing we ever did, but it was hard times financially. It hurts. Yeah. So I was trying to figure out, or we were trying to figure out who we wanted in the gym. And who we didn't want we knew now, but then it was just figuring out how to actually run a gym. I knew how to coach. I've been doing that for years, trying to be the best coach I could, but that didn't really matter if I was so tired that I couldn't really coach that well.
Speaker 03:Yeah. Yeah. I made the same mistake and you think you're going to be a great coach and that's going to make you a great business owner because everyone's going to love your coaching, but somehow the business doesn't grow on its own because you're a bad business owner. And that's exactly what I was. I just, I could teach fitness pretty well, knew nothing about business and I was in deep trouble. So you had some members, you had to get, you had to pull a weed essentially, and you had some members leave. So you're in a bit of a downturn at that point. Was that correct? But still a good decision, but kind of a low point.
Speaker 00:Yeah, that was probably our biggest low point that we've had. It was so scary at the time, especially because you do that and you expect to come into the gym the next day and you expect all this kind of backlash after a bit. But I think that's where we figured out who we actually wanted in the gym because as soon as we did that, what I actually walked into the next day was like, oh, actually, thank you for doing that. There was a lot of appreciation for it. Yeah, it actually gave us a lot of freedom to make the right choices because we weren't as nervous and scared to do that anymore.
Speaker 03:So in a little point when you're, you know, you're, you're in a storm and you're dealing with the follow-up after getting rid of weed client, why did you make, pull the trigger? Like what made you say I'm going to sign up for mentorship at this point? Was it like, was it an obvious thing or what was the thought process?
Speaker 00:So I remember reading two brain stuff for years and I just never really been able to implement it. So I'd seen it and it was just, I needed someone to hold me accountable because I'd seen it. I knew what I should be doing, but I would try things and it just wouldn't stick or on my side, I just wouldn't make it stick. And there's just no one there to hold me accountable.
Speaker 03:Yeah. And when I was looking for people in our client group to talk about this topic, I put up a post and I got a bunch of responses and asked, who looked at Two Brain content for a long, long time before getting help and jumping in? And a number of people, I think the longest person on that thread, I think was like 12 or 13 years or something ridiculous where they just looked at stuff forever and then finally jumped in. Six years and I was similar. I looked at Coop stuff. We worked together way back in the day, so I always knew what he was doing. I was looking at his stuff, but it took me a while to get into it. So, in the six years that you're looking at the content, were you able to implement any of the stuff or just didn't quite stick as you said, or how did that go with that in that six year period?
Speaker 00:No, I actually went completely the opposite way. I felt like I read it and then just for some reason, uh, ignored all of it and did all the wrong things. Um, well, my wife and I actually started up a gym before this one, probably about six, seven years ago when I first started reading all the two and it didn't work out. Um, put a lot of money into it. We didn't even get the doors open and just made every mistake you could. Uh, so that's why I knew a year into us owning this gym. I was like, I just didn't want it to end up another failure. So I was like, what did you do? I just didn't want to fail again.
Speaker 03:Yeah. And that's the double-edged sword of producing content. So we produce all sorts of stuff. And as I said in the intro, Chris has the philosophy of no gym left behind. So if a gym can't afford mentorship, we still want to help them and give them stuff. But because we don't know who's out there, we can't say, this is the exact thing we need to produce for that one gym owner. We can only kind of carpet bomb and say, this is very helpful. Put it out to the world. And what happens is you get this massive pile of stuff and people try to sort through it, but they can't on their own. And if the other side of it is if one gym owner reads that one right article and takes action on something and save something, like for example, how to raise rates, that's an incredible life-changing thing that can work. So that's why we put out that stuff because the stuff, there are people out there that are using this stuff. But the other thing that happens is exactly what you said, where you have this stuff and you don't know exactly where to start and you maybe get overwhelmed and you start saying, I'm not sure what to do. And if you do some stuff, it might be in the right order and so forth. So let's talk about the other side of it. So 2023, you sign up, you've been falling for six years and you've got this pile of stuff that you haven't really worked on. What do you notice right away when you start working with a mentor? What happens?
Speaker 00:It was pretty scary because we had to make a lot of changes and it was all for the good though. Within, like I said, within that first three months, we made all the money back that we spent on the course, the ramp up course. And it was more just getting over the nerves of raising prices, things like that. And a lot of the backend systems that I just didn't even really think of. We had someone there. So Lisa, now Lisa Palmer is our mentor and yeah, she's been, she's been great. I think that was a big thing for us as well. Like we were told because it was an American company and we're here in the UK, um, that it wouldn't work as well. And then we got put with Lisa and she just shows that it does work. It works just as here or just as well here as it does in the States or anywhere else.
Speaker 03:Yeah. There are small tweaks here and there that are a little bit different from region to region and so forth. Like rent costs might be different in Las Vegas versus some other place and like different things like that. And then ad costs might be different or whatever, but by and large, the principles work and we've seen this around the world because there are two brain gyms all over the world by and large things work it's just the order of how they're applied and maybe small regional variations and that's why we have mentors scattered all over the world who could help with that and lisa palmer she's fantastic right like she just she is a boss she runs our tinker program as well and i've seen her in action she's pretty like do this thing right now did that work for you
Speaker 00:yeah that's that's actually a meeting with before we actually had lisa we I can't remember her name, but she pretty much put us with Lisa. And in that interview, she's like, yeah, you guys will suit Lisa. But I think I needed that. I think my wife and I both needed that. Like I said, I just wasn't being held accountable, and Lisa can definitely do that. And it worked.
Speaker 03:Yeah. As entrepreneurs, we kind of almost want to do it our own way a lot of the time. But I find that when I have that option, I sometimes don't do the stuff that really moves the needle and I'm avoiding things. Like I'll be honest, sometimes I just avoid the hard stuff. Like raising rates was a really hard one. I avoided that for, I want to say five or six years. I literally put the rate increase in our software. I didn't pull the trigger for like five years until a mentor helped me do it. And I probably lost a hundred thousand dollars in that five-year period, if not more. So that's a personal example of how I didn't take action. Do you have anything like that? Do you have something that you were putting off that Lisa was like, you need to do this? I
Speaker 00:think it was, it was mainly pricing. So it was pricing pretty much every point. So our onboarding, we had an onboarding, which I'd learned from two brain and we did implement. It was just very cheap. So I think We raised that pretty much straight away. That's where we made most of the money back actually, was actually putting that onboarding system in and making it better, putting more value in it so we could charge more as well. And it made it better for the client that was coming in. They got way more value out of what we were doing then. That was probably our biggest point was around the pricing and all the backend systems, like checking in with people, like the goal reviews, like we weren't really doing any of that. And that's why our churn rate was super high at the time. So putting all that in place as well has made a big difference.
Speaker 03:And then of course you get the 40 pounds extra ARM average revenue per member per month. And then you've got huge length of engagement. So like this stuff all started to change and it made huge results. Our initial program listeners, if you're thinking about it, is designed to get you quick results, quick wins, exactly like that. Where it's like, we want you to pay for the program and start seeing results fast. And then eventually once you get through that period, we're going to start backfilling lots of systems and doing some other work. That's not, you're not going to see essentially like staff playbooks and things like that, at the beginning period is really to ramp up, get you wins, maybe fix some pricing, create and sell high value services, do some things that are going to put you in a spot where you have a little bit of time to then build out all the other stuff that you need to run a business. And then after that, we get into the growth phase where you start targeting all these specific things and metrics and bumping them all up. And then eventually when you're earning about $100,000 a year from your gym and it's very solid, that's what we call the tinker stage. And you are going to start thinking about what's next. And that's a super exciting time where you can start thinking about opening a second gym, maybe doubling the size of this location, maybe investing in real estate, whatever it might be, there are resources available for that. So that initial period, you start working through stuff. Talk to me about the rate increase thing, because that's a terrifying thing if you're out there on your own, but Two Brain has a plan and it's like spreadsheets, math, you know, lists of who might leave, who won't leave, that kind of thing. And you do all these different calculations. Then you pull the trigger. It's super scary. with the help of a mentor was it easier and what happened to your membership like did you lose all your members
Speaker 00:no no it's uh fully fine like we've done it uh i think three times in now as we've been in two brain and yeah it's been fun every time you kind of expect well this last time we knew what was coming like it was surprising the first time we did it and the plan that Two Brain had that you can put in place, like how detailed it is, like all the emails, like everything that goes out. It's all this, like you're a month or more ahead of this price increase and showing the value that you have in the gym. And people don't even question it. And it's been fun every time we've done
Speaker 03:it. And you said you had 100 members before you had about 115 now, correct?
Unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Yes.
Speaker 03:Yeah. So that's 15 extra managers paying $40 or 40 pounds extra per month and staying an extra 10 months. Like that's, that's massive. Like that is just that, that it's like a force multiplier where all these things come together and all of a sudden your revenue goes up and then your profit goes up. Your net owner benefit goes up. Your lifestyle is better. You get home to see your kids. Like the whole thing is kind of a great thing. And you sent me a picture before the show. Is that you and your kids in the school bus?
Speaker 00:Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Do you get to
Speaker 03:see them more now?
Speaker 00:Yeah, exactly. And that was, that was part of the reasons of, the mentorship as well as like my wife pulled me aside and it's happened a few times. It's like, I just get very into the gym and like, I just, I won't hardly see the family at all for like weeks at a time. And she was getting to the point where she was pulling me aside and like, we haven't seen you. Like, and even when I am at home, I'm so tired that I have nothing to give. So yeah, that was, that was a big reason we wanted to make the changes. Like I just had nothing left at the gym or at home.
Speaker 03:So lifestyle's improved now.
Speaker 00:Oh, massively. Yeah.
Speaker 03:Yeah. That's great.
Speaker 00:We can actually take vacations, which is, which is nice. Um, but I think we can even like, I think people here at the gym also, they, they get more help as well. Um, so like they're paying more, but they're also getting the results they want. Whereas before a lot of them, there was, there was so many things going on. Like a lot of people would leave so quick, whether it be like through injuries or they had like Their goals didn't align with what we thought they were. And with the goal reviews and things like that, now that we have all the systems on the back end in place, we can keep a track of whether there's actually progress. If there is anything going on, even if it's in a personal life, we know what's happening. It's just making sure all that's dialed in all the time and you can't really pull your foot off the pedal.
Speaker 03:Do you mind sharing what Lisa has you working on right now? So what is your current focus?
Speaker 00:Biggest focus at the minute was actually... two of my coaches are away and I'm going to be taking quite a few of the hours. So what we were looking to do is try to push towards that tinker. Like we're getting close. So we're a bit of a push towards that. Um, but we're actually doing right now is we need to do well. So I don't completely wreck myself cause I'll be taking some of the hours is we're actually holding still. So I actually came in with like, I want to try this out, try this out and try to bump it up a little bit more. But then, yeah, Lisa was actually saying to let's, get through this next month. Slow down a little bit. Make sure you're not going to completely burn out and save it. We have time. Play the long game. don't go backwards.
Speaker 03:And that's exactly it. Sometimes you need a manager to say, Hey, don't do that thing because I'm the same way where I would, okay, I can handle 18 hour days and I'm going to keep plowing. And all of a sudden you can't, your clients are notice you're upset. You're yelling at people, they all leave and you're back where you started. Whereas if you say, Hey, just slow down here, let's weather the storm here. And then let's target the next thing. We go from there. What was the previous thing before this period? So what in the previous period, what's the most significant thing you've accomplished in the last three months with Lisa's help?
Speaker 00:I think goal reviews have been the biggest ones because we weren't really doing them. And again, that's just where we've seen the biggest progress in the gym and for us and clients. That's probably been the biggest thing is actually setting a system for goal reviews.
Speaker 03:yeah and we've seen our data shows that when you start using goal reviews listeners you're going to see your length of engagement increase because you're having that regular content you know what your clients want to accomplish and then you can prescribe to them the stuff that's going to help them accomplish those goals that prescription is going to raise your arm because you are saying hey dude you need to do some personal training in addition to this or maybe nutrition coaching or habits coaching or whatever arm goes up which means revenue goes up and then it's the daisy chain where profit goes up net owner benefit goes up happiness goes up and it's a beautiful thing so goal reviews if you take nothing from this podcast If this is the free thing you're listening to today, take a look at goal reviews. Take one member and book them for a goal review session. Talk to them about what they want to do and tell them how to accomplish it. Then do the next one. That is a big one that you can take from this today. Aaron, do you mind? I want to be listeners in case they forgot the numbers. Do you mind telling me the stats again from the opening part of the show that you get listed for me? You had clients, ARM, length of engagement and profit. Can you battle that off one more time so they know what you're all about?
Speaker 00:Yeah, so our starting was 101 members, 100 arm. Our leg was 6.2 and revenue for the month was 7,500. And yeah, now 115 for members, arm is 140, leg is 16 and revenue 15,220. That
Speaker 03:is the difference. That is an inflection point, obviously, and the data listeners right from ground zero that is what can happen so aaron i'm going to ask you this question to close this guy out what is the best way for a listener to use our free resources and when is it time to make take the next step
Speaker 00:i would say just have a have a plan on actually acting on what you're reading uh that was the thing i made was i would i would read a lot but wouldn't put anything into action there was no plan to put anything into action and from there like just start with Two Brain as soon as you can. If I would have started with Two Brain that first year, there would have been a lot less kind of pain in that first year of opening up. It would have been way easier
Speaker 03:i love it and to help out so you've given them the recommendation i'm going to give them the resource i'm going to put a link in the show notes is to the prescriptive model listeners if you want to look at something today and take action on it it is the essential reading the prescriptive model will tell you exactly how to connect with members find out what they need prescribe the solution to their problems and and help them. And it's a whole cyclical thing. Chris Cooper has laid this thing out in total detail. If you take action on this one free thing, I guarantee that your revenue and your average revenue per member and your profit are going to go up. And then at that point, I would encourage you to book a call to talk to a two-way mentor to find out what's next and how you can get further. Because Aaron did this, had a big hockey stick where his revenue all went up, everything went up. And now he's looking at that tinker stage. How far away do you think you are from that next stage where you can really start playing?
Speaker 00:We're hoping in the next few months. That's the
Speaker 03:goal. So this is it. Tinker Stage, very exciting. This is when you're making about $100,000 a year from your gym. It's stable, solid. And now you're thinking about what's next. And this as an entrepreneur is probably the most exciting thing you can possibly do. So I'll leave that with you listeners as a long-term goal. Aaron, thank you so much for sharing your time with us and the metrics. Congratulations on the success. Thanks for taking action and showing us what's possible.
Speaker 00:Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 03:That was Aaron Scott. This is Run a Profitable Gym. I'm your host, Mike Warkin. And thank you so much for watching and listening. Please hit subscribe wherever you are with my thanks. And now here's Two Brain founder, Chris Cooper with a final message.
Speaker 02: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 gymownersunited.com to join. Do it today. Hey!
