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
50-Lead Bring-a-Friend Events With 25% Conversion Rates!
If you want to improve lead flow, add more high-value clients and generate more revenue, these three simple words can work wonders: “Bring a friend.”
In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” gym owner and chiropractor Dr. Braeden Cordts shares his secrets for using bring-a-friend events to replicate his very best clients and grow his membership.
Braeden walks through his plan to get red-hot leads into a workout at Kôr Fitness & Performance in Minnesota, and then he lays out his air-tight follow-up process for turning those leads into clients. The final step: He uses a system to ensure every new member he recruits is a source of future referrals.
Braeden's plan has produced amazing results: He's increased his membership nearly tenfold in just four years.
Tune in to hear the full breakdown, then schedule your own bring-a-friend event to add clients and revenue before the end of 2025.
Need an extra cash boost? Get the free “Year-End Revenue” guide in Gym Owners United, linked below.
Links
Gym Owners United
Book a Call
2:29 - Process for bring-a-friend events
6:45 - Bring-a-friend workout example
8:12 - What to do after the workout
13:15 - How to follow up with leads
19:58 - Mind-blowing gym metrics
Braden, let's hear your critical numbers on Bring a Friend events.
Speaker 1:Well, every Bring a Buddy week, we call it Buddy because we're in Minnesota. We shoot for 50 50 plus leads and uh 20 to 30% conversion.
Speaker:Wow, those are huge numbers. Will you share your secrets with our listeners?
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker:Ah, great. Dr. Quartz here might be a chiropractor, but he's also a bring a friend wizard. And Braden is going to share all his tips with you guys on Run a Profitable Gym. I'm your host, Mike Working. And please hit subscribe wherever you are before you go any further so you get all the tips that we put out every week to help gym owners. Now, bring a friend events, they are one of Chris Cooper's top five tactics for generating year-end riff revenue. If you want the rest, send Coop a DM through our Gym Owners United group. He'll respond and he'll send you his complete guide. Request that thing, tack on, use those five tactics to tack on a ton of revenue and close out your year in the black. Today we're gonna dig into bring a friend events. These things are great because you can get some front-end revenue and you can boost retention because you're using great clients already in your business to refer their friends. These are high value people, and retention is going to be built into the system because they're gonna bring in their friends and both are now invested in your business. So this is a huge one. We're gonna close out your year just like this. Braden runs core fitness and performance in Minnesota and he crushes these events. So, Braden, welcome. I thank you for your stats. In the intro, this is gonna be a really great show. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Mike. Appreciate being here.
Speaker:Yeah, we're gonna jump right into it. So set the table before we tell people exactly what you do. What's the 60-second summary of your business like? Who do you sell to? What are you selling? I want people to understand what you're doing at these Bring a Friend events before we talk about the details.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I own Core Fitness and Performance. I'm also a doctor of chiropractic, practic that practices out of the gym. So our gym is, I mean, we serve parents, we serve kids, um, we have a legends program as well, but we are predominantly a CrossFit group fitness. Okay, we have semi-private, small group, and personal training.
Speaker:Okay, so you've got a lot of like you got a broad market, but you've dialed it in and you're selling it in. I like big groups, small groups, personal training. I love that stuff. You've got a whole bunch of different legs to the revenue stool there. But if you talk about it, you've got high-intensity fitness delivered to a good swath from everything from like you said kids to legends, correct? Correct. Yep, so you got everybody going on in there. I love it. We're gonna talk about bringing friends. Here we go. What is your exact process? Like, how do you get so many leads and clients? Because a lot of people do this wrong. What do you do and how do you make it work?
Speaker 1:Well, I think the biggest thing is making it very, very how little a friction can you have for people coming in? And that's what we really try to focus on. So we start with our members, and our members, we do goal reviews just like you guys talk about on this podcast all the time. And we're told in those goal reviews, okay, hey, ask for them to refer someone. Not everyone is going to be really adherent of like, hey, here are five people. So we make it, okay, here's three times a year that we do bring a buddy events. We have a big ass calendar at the front of our gym, and every year we have those dates already pre-listed. Annual plan, yes. Yeah, so we have a huge annual plan that our members are like, okay, when's the next bring a buddy event? And they have their list of people and ready to go. So we've been doing that for three years. Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, so that's a huge one. List is right there before Brandy Brain goes any further. Have an annual plan, put your stuff on there a year in advance and start getting this stuff out there so that the people in your gym know how the how the trains run. You will get more stuff if you just make an annual plan right now and take nothing else from this episode. Keep rolling, Doctor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so uh we make it as easy as possible. So the only thing that the members and then the new person has to have, or our lead, is the lead has to sign a waiver. That's it. They don't have to sign up for any classes, they don't have to figure out any apps, and the member just has to tell them, hey, fill out a waiver. They don't even have to come to the same class together, they can go at different times because we know a 6 p.m. or is not going to go at 5 15 in the morning.
Speaker:Aha. Okay. So your your event, like you, and again, we'll go over this, the details of the simplified version of this, but you so in this bring a friend week, you can simply have them refer a friend who can drop in at certain at different times. It's not like an official time, correct? Okay. So, listeners, this is an advanced system that you again, we talked to you about this. You could just do a one-hour bring a friend event on a weekend at 10 a.m. Totally fine. All you're gonna do there is you're gonna get everyone to come. You might do a little seminar, you might do a very fun short workout. You're gonna collect email addresses and so forth. That is the simplest plan that you can possibly use. Braden, because he's a top gym owner, has scaled this up a little bit. And so he's got a system where he's got tons of referrals coming in and he's opened it up where people can drop in at different times. Let me ask you this. So, our how do your coaches accommodate these people that are dropping in? Like, what's your plan there so that people are like, oh, new person?
Speaker 1:Yes. So it's not the most stressless week of the year. Um so there's a few different things that we do for our coaches, especially. We dumb down the programming a little bit. Um, we try to pair it up with our cycles. That way it's a little bit more of a D load for our current members and then for everyone else coming in. It's not the highest of intensity, it's not the heaviest of weights, and it's very teachable movements. And we also make the workouts that 90% of them are gonna be partner. That way we can plan for a class of 10 or we can plan for a class of 30. And I'm gonna tell you right there, because I know a lot of people are like, oh, a 30-person class, I ran this out of 1,800 square feet, and now in our current space of 6,000 square feet. And the numbers are still the same in terms of the amount of leads that we get per week and conversions.
Speaker:Yeah, and I talked to a gym owner, uh, Tyler Quinn, who's up in, he was in Minnesota, but he's up in uh Denver now. He runs 18 to 30 person classes in 2,000 square foot classrooms maximum, and he has no problem with that because he programs for that space and uses equipment that works in that space. So this isn't the time to like program like muscle app sled pushes, 800 meter runs, and a bunch of other like crazy stuff where it's people are moving all over the place. Keep it simple. And that that works whether you're doing, you know, bring a friend week, bring a friend day, bring a friend hour. Keep it simple and fun. Like Chris Cooper's often talk about like run a ninja warrior course, something like that. Like it does not have to be the proof of your elite status as a fitness programming god. This has to be fun. People need to come in, get a good workout, do a little bit of sweating. The whole point is opening up a conversation. They can't do that when they're vomiting in your parking lot. I have made that mistake. Make it fun. So no matter what format you choose, it's going to be a very simple workout or even just a seminar. You could absolutely do that. But you program, so give me an example of like one day, a workout on one day that might be in there. Give me just a simple example of something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, to keep it super simple. I mean, and we started at and it might be better to frame it how we structure the entire class because the first five to eight minutes is a question of the day because you have buddies coming in that may not be with their buddy. So we make sure that we do a question day sharing everyone's name. That way you know at least one person's name. Icebreaker, sure. Uh icebreaker. And then we go into a warm-up, and you're going to be get partnered right away. And then we go into a partner workout. Okay. And then that partner workout, for example, let's say it's a 20-minute am rep, as many reps or rounds as possible of 10 synchro air squats, 10 am at sit-ups, and 10 synchro dumbbell snatches.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker 1:Very simple.
Speaker:Yep. And that works for like if an elite athlete did that, they're still going to get a good workout. If someone does it in a partner format, they're still going to get a good workout. I love the partner thing because what you're doing is like, it's bring a buddy, but maybe your buddy's not there. You get you make a new friend right away. And then I love the format because, you know, if I'm kind of new and I don't know what I'm doing, I get to watch you. I get to rest a little bit while you're doing stuff. I get to look and learn and kind of just catch my breath. It's not intimidating. Partner workouts are such an awesome way to do this. And again, you just laid out a great workout with like, I think, one dumbbell, right? In an abmat. So you've got you could do that in what, 50 square feet of space or something like that. Like it, it's it's great. So you've got these great workouts. What happens when the workout ends now? Let's talk about this part because this is where it gets interesting.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is where our systems have really developed over the time. And we are what 12 to 15 buddy weeks. Our business is four years old. So we've been running it since year two, and we ran it quarterly, and now we timed it that it's every four months. So our systems have gotten to this point where there's no pressure for selling or my coaches to sell during these sessions. We want it to be fun, high energy. There's no pressure of anyone coming in. So how we do it is as soon as the workout is done, everyone's doing their stretching, the coaches are announcing, hey buddies, just make sure you know that you can come as many times as you want for the rest of the week. Just make sure you don't come twice in a day, right? So we and then we take pictures. If the buddy is there with their buddy, right? They're the member and the buddy, then they take a picture together. If not, then whoever the buddy partnered with takes a picture with that individual as well. That way they're getting camaraderie into getting picture taken taken, social proof. And here's the most important thing when it comes to the systems of me following up later. I still do all of our sales at the gym. I love this part of the business. So I tell the coaches I need one interesting thing about the buddy that was brought in. I don't care if it's they have a dog, they're doing, they're playing hockey, they're in college or whatever it is. I need one interesting thing. And then we have a list, our buddies put their name next to the member, and then I get to go through that list at the end of the week. I typically tell my wife that on Sunday and maybe the entire next week, I'm going to be on my phone a whole lot more following up with all these people. So, but once we get towards that end of the week, there's a lot of people that will naturally be coming up to us because they came two to three times that week and they'll come up and they'll sell themselves.
Speaker:I'm having fun. How do I continue?
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly. And then anyone else that was waiting for me to reach out, I hit on Sunday, and especially during the NFL season. Everyone's sitting around anyway, so might as well pick up their phone and check with it.
Speaker:Vikings, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. There we go.
Speaker:So the thing that I'm gonna lay out before you go any further is systems. He has a system, listeners. If you do not have a system, this whole thing will fail because I tried this, you run a bring a friend event, and you stand there and you just wait for people to sign up and they don't. Like that didn't happen for me. You've got to talk to them. And this is I'm saying specifically if you're doing like a bring a friend event that's like an hour or something. Braden's got a different system where it's a little more involved with people who can come more often. But I would do this. I'd have like an event and I just stand there and wait for people to sign up. It did not happen. You need to get their contact info, and then you need to have someone who is absolutely responsible for talking to people and selling. At Braden's gym, it is Braden because he likes it and it's he's good at it. So, what you would do there is you would have someone whose goal at these events is to speak to people on the spot and say, like, can we conduct a no-sweat intro? That could be as simple as a five-minute conversation just right where you are. You could even pull them into the office and have a more involved thing, but you conduct this no-sweat intro, find out what their goals are, what their issues are, and then give them a plan to accomplish that and you can sell right on the spot. That is the best way to make this stuff happen and close on the spot. If you're not doing that, your goal is to contact them after the fact. Hey, did you I just wanted to check in with you? You crushed the squats in that workout. Did you have any additional questions for me? Open a dialogue, and you're into that sales process again. You can do it right there. At minimum, you're going to take their contact info, feed it into your content system, and you're going to funnel it out where they're in a nurture sequence. Now, I wouldn't recommend that you automate the stuff right off the bat. I would do what Braden does. Talk to them first. Call them, talk, talk, talk to them, get in front of them if you can, do your best to get them into the place. But if you can't do that, feed them into that CRM and have the robots take care of the long-term lead nurture for you because Braden said 50 leads that he gets from each of these, that's 50 chances to add a client. And like, have you ever had someone, Braden, who like you'll feed into a system or you'll nurture them long-term and they'll come back like three months down the line from a bring a friend? Has that ever worked?
Speaker 1:So we've had people that have come to three buddy weeks. Like they won't respond to our long-term nurture or anything like that, and they'll come and they'll sign up after three buddy weeks.
Speaker:So there you go. That is long-term nurture, though. That is exactly what yep, consistency. The message is still there. They need to see something different, eventually see it, or the problem comes up. We're like, I'm just not losing that weight on my own, or I really, you know, I'm still bad at running. I need to see, you know, the guys at core, right? So, like, these you have to get their contact info. So, like at minimum, no matter what format, get their contact info, put that into your lead nurturing system. Be try to get them right at the event to sit down and talk with you for a no-swhat intro. The prescriptive model of selling is the perfect way to do it. If you can't do that, try and get them on the phone as quickly as possible, get them into the gym, or just talk to them on the phone there. So when you when you do you, I guess we'll go into your your sales process just a little bit here. You talk to them, they're watching the Viking game. They're probably a little bit sad right now. I'm a Vikings fan, it's not going super well, but they're at the moment. They're talking, but you call them and you they chat. What do you say on the phone to them after the Springer Friend week?
Speaker 1:So the biggest thing is that one thing that I got from the coach, I'm gonna use that in my introduction saying, Yes, hey, Mike, heard you did really well in the Toes Bar workout. What do you think of what do you think of yeah? What'd you think of the what do you think of the week, right? And and then they typically will respond back right away, and then I go into hey, do you have any fitness goals that you're looking to achieve? Yeah, that is the number one thing that will get people, and then we go into a further either it's a sell-by-chat situation, I get them on the phone, or if they're still curious, I have them come in for an NSI. But that this is the three times out of the year that you do the most sell-by-chats, and it's the easiest and it's the best conversion because these leads are so warm.
Speaker:Say that line one more time, the question about fitness goals. What is your line?
Speaker 1:Is there any fitness goals that you have that you're looking to achieve right now?
Speaker:And they almost, of course, they have something because they came to your gym, right? There's something that they came for a reason. There's something, and like, I'm sure there's one person like, I just came to, you know, because my buddy berated me and I'll see after the game or whatever. But I bet 99.9% of the time someone's like, you know, I'd like to get a little stronger, I'd like to lose 10 pounds, I'd like to whatever it was. And then from there, do you just give them your solution to that problem? Or how does your sales script go from there?
Speaker 1:Depends on what the response was because you sometimes will get a warm response, and then you can go right into, hey, this is how we can help you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or if they're a little bit like not upfront with what their goals are, then you say, Hey, I would love to sit come, I would love to have you come and sit down, and we can really show you what we can maybe do and uncover a little bit more what your goals are.
Speaker:Okay, let's play this out. I'm gonna put you on the spot here. So you just called me, we're we're doing the game. You just said I did well in the toaster bar workout, and you just asked me, Do I have any fitness goals? I'm like, uh, you know, Braden, like, I I just I I play rec league hockey and I'm just kind of feeling a little sluggish on the ice these days. Like, I don't know, like, is it it's I just don't feel great on the ice. Is that something you guys can help me with?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, Mike. I think the biggest thing that we need to do is we need to establish a baseline for you and kind of really see where you're at. Do you prefer doing personal training or do you prefer group classes?
Speaker:You know, I I honestly I gravitate towards group classes, but my schedule is brutal. So I think I could like I can't make your five and six and seven o'clock classes. I have some weird availability. Like, do you have personal trainers that could accommodate something like that, flexible?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course. And we actually have a starter package that is a mix of personal training and group classes. So that's perfect. Yeah, so it's gonna be it will work really well with your schedule. Let's get you booked for a time to come in and meet with one of those personal trainers.
Speaker:Done. That's as simple as it goes. But you see how this has obviously been rehearsed so much that it sounds natural, but Braden's got everything in his head, he knows exactly what he's gonna say when I bring up something here or there. He's got it all rehearsed, but it sounds super natural, super smooth, and it's as easy as come on in, let's get you to sit down, we'll talk about some options. Here we go. And this part is the hugest part of the whole deal is that following up with people after they get into the event. So I mean, like you must you said like you're you're closing 20, like 20 to 30 percent conversion to membership after each event.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow. And that's so so like you're getting 50 leads, like the guys do the numbers, like this is incredible. Your gym must have these bumps every time you do one of these, just these bumps of membership revenue, huh?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you look at my revenue since I took over the gym four years ago, and just to kind of give you a picture, like we started when I took over, we had 28 members, and now we have 220 in four years. So it's 200 plus, yeah. So a huge part of this is these bring of bring a buddy events, and also like I'm gonna tell people this is our first bring a buddy event, we did not have 50 people, and I did not close 20 to 30 percent of them. The first one, I was looking up the numbers when you asked me to come on. We had seven people, still seven is good, yep. And I converted one, right? So it grows over time, but here's the biggest tip that I can give anyone is if you're going to start buddy weeks, you need to be consistent and you need to have them on your calendar around the same date every year. So our dates that work really, really well for us, and I'll give you guys this little tip, is January, because everyone is really timid to get back into the gym, so you might as well go with a friend. It is June, the start of summer. So in Minnesota, that's when everyone is on summer break. Parents may have enough a little bit more time on their hands, or teachers are out and ready to work on their fitness again. And then September, when all the kiddos go back to school.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that's it. So those are the that's a great framework. If you have no idea where to put the stuff, try that. If you have an idea of what's perfect for your place, put that in, but do put some stuff on the calendar. No matter what, put this stuff on your annual plan. Now, Brain, you said something super interesting. So you said you got seven people for your first one and you converted one. Now that's still pretty decent, right? Like you're that's a plus one at a time when you said you had like 28 or 30 members at that point. So like that one person is super valuable. But the thing you said is that it snowballs, and that's so obvious, but you don't get it when you really think about it. As your gym grows, you get more members. Each of those members has a group of friends and a network of people that they're connected to. And if you find creative ways to access that network, actively trying to do so, not just waiting for it to happen, all of a sudden the snowball rolls downhill big time. Now, it's just it's so obvious, but I didn't realize this because I thought that referrals would just happen. It doesn't work like that. But if you actively sit there and do this and Two Brain calls it the affinity marketing plan, where you're doing goal review sessions with people, and then you're finding out, you know, hey, could we do a referral? Could we talk about your friend group? And we actually have a cheat sheet that you can look at where you're writing down this is Bob. Bob is an engineer, he works in an engineering firm, he also plays Rack League hockey, he also is uh a golfer, you know, and he's got all and this is his family. So you have all these people listed. You can say in that meeting, Bob, I know your buddy Dale from the golf club said his he's just not driving the ball as far as you and he's getting a little angry about it. What do we can we get him in here for some strength training? Boom. If you actively do this, every new member that you get becomes a referral source. And this is the best part. Chris Cooper has written about this. People who refer members stay longer because they're invested in that member's success. So uh Bob refers Dale, Dale refers Cindy, Cindy refers Sam, and all of a sudden you've got this massive chain of retention of high value, amazing people who are all connected together at your gym, and you've got life-changing fitness results because they're all staying there for 24 months or more, paying 200 to 300 to $500 a month. You've got a great life, your staff has great careers, and your clients are getting great results. Now, Braden, I think you're seeing that at your gym. Have I just laid out basically what you're doing? Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:I mean, the big the big metric for that is our leg is over 40.
Speaker:40 months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 40 months. Yeah. So our leg is over 40.
Speaker:So you're crushing that by almost 4x. Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a huge, huge piece of it. And then also, like at the start of this conversation, we were talking about all the programs I have, but all those programs wouldn't exist or wouldn't be able to be filled if it wasn't for these bring a buddy events. And also saying if someone comes in and group classes are not their thing, then great, we have personal training, we have semi-private, we have a kids program for your parents that are coming in for the kids that are not doing anything in the off seasons.
Speaker:So everybody that comes in probably has parents and kids, right? So and you've got those programs set up. So this is like this is kind of a fish in a barrel sort of situation. Do you happen to have handy and would you mind sharing your ARM?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so our ARM is 212-220, right around there, fluctuates.
Speaker:So guys, think about that. 212-220. And you said you've got in the neighborhood of what uh 280 members, was it? Did I say that? Did I remember that right? 220. 220, and you've got a leg length engagement of 40 months. Like these are industry leading stats, and we know for a fact with two-brained data, if you get 150 clients at $205 a month, you can make $100,000 from your gym. If you do better than that, you can make more. And there's a complete plan for that. But the idea is you're keeping members for a long time. And uh do you have a lot of ad costs, Braden, or any?
Speaker 1:No. No.
Speaker:Obviously, because you're doing so well with this other stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. So, guys, when you look at this stuff, you do not have to spend money on ads. You may in some markets or whatever, but if you have not asked for referral lately and you're spending a ton of money on ads, I'd encourage you to run a bring a friend event. I'm gonna lay out the simple process again. Pick a date, put it on your calendar, and put another one on your calendar. Do at least two, and you're just you can just start very easy. Do a one-hour thing, tell all your clients we're doing a one-hour nutrition seminar or a healthy habit seminar or a fun workout, bring a friend. Get those people to sign waivers, get them on your contact list, feed that into your robots so that they do this some nurturing for you, but talk to them on the spot, try and get them to do a no-sweat intrude there. If not, try and get them in for as soon as possible after that and follow up after the fact, follow up regularly, nurture them long term. That is your simple plan. If you do this before the end of the year, you will add revenue to your gym. Now, Brayden, I'm gonna ask you, how is your process evolved? You hinted at a few other things. Is there anything else that just didn't work that you cut, or anything that worked so well that you emphasized it and locked it into your system?
Speaker 1:One of the things that we absolutely locked into our system is we do a drawing at the end of this for our members. And I do just because our leg is so high, our LTB is so high, I'm able to do this. So I'd give away a pair of training shoes for each buddy week. People are competitive, people want to bring in more people. So each person you bring in is a drawing into this, uh, or is an entry into this drawing, and you get a free pair of training shoes. So that was something that we started even when we were at 28 members, right? It was it was really hard at that time. So maybe I don't recommend it to people that were at that point where I was at, but it's very easy for me to do that now, and it's an incentive for our members. The other part that we didn't have um that we have adapted is that follow-up, that system of following up. I just thought, like you said, the first couple times, I'm like, people are gonna just kind of sign themselves up. They're here, might as well, right? No, you have to follow up, you have to be persistent, and then the consistency piece. We got very deterred from doing another one after our second. We did, what was it, seven and one, one sign up, and then we did, I think it was 15, 16, and then we only had one sign up again. I'm like, well, we had more people, but less vote only one person still signed up, which is great. But we're like, is this really working? Is this really serving us? And this is that's where the consistency comes in, time after time, having the same product and making sure the product is always improving.
Speaker:And it might take two or three bring a friends, like you said. It might take someone coming two or three times before they're convinced enough, they like you enough, they're not scared enough, the problem is big enough, whatever it is, for them to just do it, you know. So, and you saw that. So I imagine as you started doing this, they just started getting bigger and better to the point where now 50 leads each time with a 20 to 30 percent conversion rate to members. Like, guys, these are industry leading stats, and it's costing Braden a price of shoes. You know, like that's really it. And you don't even have to do that. You could certainly make, you know, you you don't have to, you could have a the prize could be as simple as a gift certificate to a local coffee store or something if you want to spend $20 or whatever it is. But if you want to go a little bigger, I love this idea because now people are getting competitive about it. What a great idea that is, right? What's the most one person is referred? Do you know that off the top of your head?
Speaker 1:Uh, this Pasco around, one of our clients that has been with us since before I bought the gym, she brought in eight. And you know what's really funny? Here's the competitiveness. Her husband brought in one. Guess who got the pair of shoes?
Speaker:He did.
Speaker 1:He did.
Speaker:Yeah. Luck of the draw, but that's I mean, they that that is incredible. So you got one family bringing in nine people. Were they all like randos from all over the the world, or were they like in a peer group, or where did these people you have an idea of where these people came from?
Speaker 1:So hockey for this family, this family pre specifically, it was a lot of hockey friends or uh things along those lines. But here's a really good example. The parents that came, they joined in the group classes, and then their kids, they wanted their kids to do semi-private for sports training. So the kids never even came to the Bring a Buddy event, but the parents signed up and they didn't like the training their kids were receiving. And we said, Hey, we can meet you where you're at.
Speaker:Yeah, so you can see, guys, how this can spiral so quickly. One amazing socially connected person can connect you to like 50 to 60 people, just that one person, because they are out there. Those people, those Maven's uh seed clients, we often call them, those people are out there. I had one at my gym. He was uh just a man of the people, for lack of a better term, and like he knew everyone, he knew everyone all over the city, and he would constantly bring people and refer people, and that one client alone was a source of probably dozens of new clients for me. Your clients are out there, but if you never ask them for this stuff, they're not just gonna do it. It just doesn't happen. You have to start setting these things up. Uh so you said one thing I want to just dial in systems. No successful gym owner I've had on the show does not mention that word. It's systems. So you look, you did this thing initially, you looked at it and said, Ah, this was okay, this wasn't great. Fix some stuff. Okay, try this, try this, try this. So now you've got this thing dialed in. I imagine your staff is completely like everyone on your staff knows exactly what to do during these weeks, correct?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, and it just probably runs super smoothly every single time. And it's a is it stressful?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's always going to be stressful because you're having it's a little bit of the CrossFit mentality, and it's a little unknown uh how many people you're gonna have in class. Yeah, and that's totally fine because we tell our coaches, we make sure they're prepared. They're gonna have and we we tell them and remind them on Sundays hey, this is our protocol. Just remember you're planning for a class of 10 and you're planning for a class of 30. So, and the most people we ever had was a Saturday, and we had 64 people in one class.
Speaker:Wow. So, I mean, that's a good problem to have, right? It's it's amazing. And guys, if you're thinking though, oh scary, don't worry about it. Remember, Braden's done this for like four years now, and he's got his systems in place to manage stuff like this. If you again want to be just simple about it, end of year, nutrition seminar, healthy habits seminar, 10 a.m. Saturday, sign up with your friend, register in advance. I've got your email address. You don't even need a waiver because they're not doing anything physical, they're just sitting there and listening to you. But you get them to sign up for a draw or just sign in for your email newsletter or whatever it is, get their contact info. You know who's coming, you know what you're gonna do, you talk to them, everything works very simply. You don't have to go big on this. Eventually, once you've got your systems in place, and this is two-brain you know, DOS doctrine right here. Once the systems are in place and the foundation is built, you can go as big as you want. But don't go big right off the bat. Keep it simple and stress-free. Start small, build momentum, and then go big. So easiest thing you can do again. Chris Cooper has this complete guide. There are four other tactics in this guide. DM him through our Gym United group, and he will send it to you and you can run on this stuff. Braden, as we close this out, let's help gym owners take action. Top three things to remember when planning a bring a friend event. What do you got on your list?
Speaker 1:One, make it very easy for people to sign up. Okay, I cannot stress that enough. Yep, plan ahead. Put dates on the calendar a year ahead so people can look forward to it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay. And then three, create a system for following up.
Speaker:Yes. Those three things. Listeners, if you take nothing else from the show and do those three things, you will add revenue through this program at the end of the year. Braden, thank you for sharing outstanding numbers here and helping gym owners. I think you're gonna make some cash for people out there.
Speaker 1:That's the hope.
Speaker:Yeah. Well, we'll check in with you again because uh you've just become a two-brain uh mentor and uh you're gonna be helping clients do this uh for reels now, not just as a podcast guest. So congrats on that.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm really excited to help all their gym owners.
Speaker:Yeah, you guys can connect with Braden as a two-brain mentor now. That was Braden Quartz's run of profit for William. I'm your host, Mike Workman. Thanks for watching and listening. Again, please subscribe and head to Gym Owners United. There's a link in the show notes for that. DM Chris Cooper through that group. Ask for his guide to year end revenue. He's got five sure thing, works every time tactics you can use before the end of the year to add revenue to close out 2025 and move into 2026 with huge momentum. Jim Owners United, DM Coop right now.