The 10th Annual Two-Brain Summit: Headliner and Theme Revealed!

The 10th annual Two-Brain Summit happens June 6-7, 2026, in Chicago, and this year’s theme will change how you think about scaling your gym.

Today, Chris Cooper reveals the event’s headlining speaker—bestselling author Mike Michalowicz—and the “Power of 10” theme that will guide every session.

The Power of 10 framework covers:

• How to take your 10 best clients and replicate them.
• The 10 weekly actions that guarantee business growth.
• The 10 core leadership skills every gym owner must acquire.

Coop also explains that scaling isn’t linear. The systems that get you to 10 clients won’t get you to 100, and the business that serves 100 won’t work for 1,000.

At the summit, you’ll work on the systems you need to grow at each stage of entrepreneurship so you can build the biz you want and earn your Perfect Day.

The summit isn't some motivational conference where you sit in the dark and try to stay awake. It's is a workshop: Attendees have created hiring plans, booked sales calls and posted content as speakers directed them during live sessions. You're going to take action in Chicago.

What does your gym need to reach the next level? Come work it out at the Two-Brain Summit, surrounded by expert speakers and 1,000 other gym owners.

Get your ticket via the link below!

Links

Two-Brain Summit Tickets

Gym Owners United

Book a Call

0:20 - Summit background

3:04 - This year’s headliner

4:33 - Your best client x10

7:11 - The work you’ll do

9:19 - Your invitation to summit

Transcript

Chris: 0:02

Ten years ago, I started something that I didn't know would become this big. I was sitting in yet another fitness industry conference, listening to yet another motivational speaker tell gym owners how to grow their business. And this person had never actually even owned a gym. They'd never struggled to make payroll and they'd never had to fire their best friend or figure out how to compete with the box down the street. And I can remember thinking there's got to be a better way to spend my weekend. So I started the Two Brain Summit back in 2016, not because I had all the answers, but because I wanted to create the conference that I wish existed when I was drowning in my own business. So I can remember that first summit. We were meeting up at this old kind of antiquated high school in Sault Ste. Marie, 53 people came and showed up. We had this kind of like stadium seating in this old auditorium. It was a very dark space, but the energy was amazing. And we worked out together and we sat around tables together. And I can remember some of the people like stayed up all night talking to other people. And I realized like this is different. And now, 10 years later, we're not just celebrating our 10th summit, but 10 years of T-Brain Business helping gym owners build sustainable, profitable gyms. This year's theme at Summit is the power of 10. And it's not just a cute reference to our anniversary. It's actually the framework that can transform how you think about growing your business. So here's what most gym owners get wrong. They think that scaling is linear. It's like get one client, get two, and then three and all the way up, but that's not how it works. You need completely different systems to go from one client to 10. I can remember doing that. And then you need different systems again to go from 10 clients to 100, different space, different equipment, different coaching, different operations. And then you need different systems again to go from 100 clients to a thousand. The business that got you to 10 clients will not be the business that gets you to 100. And I learned this the hard way. I was a personal trainer. I was going to people's houses. And when I got my 10th, 11th client, I realized like I'm spending more time driving than I am earning money. And, you know, the same thing happened when I got to 100 clients in my gym. And then the same thing happened again when I crushed at 150. I had to change the way that we did things. I had to get things out of my head and I had to stop coaching every class. We're going to be talking about how to do all of this. And at Summit, we're going to break down exactly what those transitions look like. What systems do you need at 10 clients? What about 50? What about 100? What changes? What do you have to do differently? What has to change in your leadership and in your operations and in your staff and in your marketing? But here's where the power of 10 gets really interesting. You're going to start with your 10 best clients. So instead of trying to be everything to everyone or saying things like, we're not for everyone, but we are for anyone. What if you just started with your 10 best clients and duplicated them over and over? Ask them what they need, what they want, what would make them even more successful, and then duplicating them. This is what Mike Mikalowitz teaches in the pumpkin plant. And yes, Mike is our headlining speaker this year. So instead of casting a wide net and hoping to catch something, you focus on growing your best pumpkins. You duplicate them. You identify who your ideal clients are, you serve them better than anybody else can, and then you find more people exactly like them. Now, your goal is not 100 random strangers with different wants, needs, desires, personalities, smells. It's 100 perfect clients. It's people who show up, who do the work, who refer their friends, who stick around for years. That's what we're teaching you to build at Summit. We're also going to talk about the first 10 days of that client's journey with your gym and how that's different from the next 100 days. Because we talk a lot about client retention in Tube Right. And here's something that most gym owners miss. Your client's first 10 days matter more than anything else that you do. Those first 10 days determine whether they become a raving fan or they quietly disappear in month three, like most. That's why we build on-ramp programs. That's why we focus on the first hundred days of membership, because if you can get those systems right, retention becomes automatic. You don't have to go out of your way to do retention things if you've built systems that first onboard people properly in the first 10 days and then retain them properly in the next hundred. And at Summit, we're going to show you exactly how to structure those first 10 days, what conversations to have, what wins to create, how to make your clients feel like they've found their people. Now, this is the part that might be most interesting to you. It's how to turn your best client into 10 clients. It's my favorite application of the power of 10. The best client in your gym knows other people who would be perfect for your gym. They work with those people. They live with those people or near them. They share the same values. They share probably about the same income, the same schedule. So how do you turn that one best client into 10 clients? Not by asking them to post on Facebook, not by giving them a free month if they refer someone, by actually helping those people first, by making them so successful that they can't stop talking about what you've done for them and making them help their friends in an easier way. And we're going to show you the exact systems for that too. Another key thing about the power of 10 are the 10 things that you do every week. So here's a question I want you to think about. What are the 10 things that you need to do every week that will actually move your business forward? Not the busy work, op the floors, of course, not the stuff that feels productive but doesn't create results, like working out longer, you know, reading 50 business books, but the 10 most important things that you need to repeat every week, the non-negotiables that, if you did them, would practically guarantee success. For most gym owners, this list doesn't exist. You've never made it up. So you're just reacting all day. You're firefighting, you're responding to whoever yells the loudest, you're greasing the squeakiest wheel. And at Summit, we're going to help you identify your 10 most important weekly actions. And then we're going to help you build systems so those things actually happen every single week on repeat. I'm going to be talking about the 10 habits of leadership at Summit because growing a business means growing as a leader. And leadership isn't just one vague personality trait, it's specific skills and habits that you build and repeat. We've identified more than 10. I'm going to try and keep it to 10, but 10 core habits that every successful gym owner needs to develop and practice. Things like how you handle conflict, how you give feedback, how you focus, how you set vision for your team. These aren't motivational concepts. They're like the back squat, the deadlift, the pull-up, the push-up of your gym. They're practical skills that we're going to be working on together. Let me be honest with you. Most conferences suck. You sit in a dark room for three days, drinking way too much coffee because you're bored and you're trying not to fall asleep. Somebody tells you to believe in yourself and think positive and you get pumped up for about 48 hours, and then you go home and nothing changes. That is not Summit. That's not what I built Summit to do. At our Summit, you work. We do workshops, not seminars. You're in breakout sessions with other gym owners, actually building your marketing plan, actually creating your hiring process. If you've been at Summit before, you'll know like we have you making Instagram posts while the speaker is on stage and measuring the effect. And quite often people will make the post and three minutes later they'll put their hand up and say, I booked a call. That happens at Summit all the time. You're going to be creating your hiring process together. You're going to be actually fixing the systems that are broken in your business. Every speaker has done what they're teaching. Mike Mikalowitz has built and sold multiple million-dollar companies. And our past speakers have been the same. Jason Kalipa won the CrossFit games and built a successful gym. Joey Coleman has helped major companies like Zappos and Volkswagen keep their customers. These are not motivational speakers. They're practitioners who are going to show you exactly what works. And honestly, at the Two Brain Summit, the energy is different. Every year, a thousand gym owners and coaches show up in Chicago and it feels like the family reunion. People are laughing. They're sweating together in morning workouts. They're making friends who they'll text for business advice for the next decade. That's what Summit is. It's your people, it's the ones who get it. It's taking the power of you and turning it into the power of 10. Now, here's what you need to know. Summit is June 6th and 7th, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont, Illinois. If you've been to Summit before, especially if you've been in Chicago before, we're at a bigger and better and brighter and more beautiful location, kind of across the street from where we've been the last several years. We have two stages. There's an owner stage and a coach stage. So if you're bringing your staff, they are getting specific training for coaches while you're working on your business. They're improving the product. You are improving the process. Our early bird pricing ends February 1st. This is our 10th summit. It's our gift to the industry. It actually costs me, we lose like$100,000 a year on this event, but we do it anyway because back when I was struggling, something like this would have changed my life. So here's my invitation. Join us, bring your team, come ready to work. Because the power of 10 is not just a theme, it's a framework, a mindset that can transform how you think about every single part of your business and multiply your impact on the world 10x. Early bird pricing ends February 1st. Get tickets now at twobrainsummit.com. We'll see you there.