Coop's Comfort Zone Challenge: How to Deal With Big Biz Changes

Most gym owners stay stuck because of fear. Fear of failure. Fear of confrontation. Fear of making things worse.

But here’s what Chris Cooper learned after 15 years of mentoring gym owners: The only thing stronger than fear is love.

You have to love the local people who need your help more than you fear publishing that Instagram post. You have to love your family enough to fire that coach who’s hurting your gym.

Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Chris presents gym owners with a challenge: Expand your comfort zone.

Coop gives you 10 difficult scenarios to choose from and a simple four-day process for practicing them until they become easy:

• Day 1: Practice the uncomfortable task in a mirror
• Day 2: Practice with a supportive friend or spouse
• Day 3: Practice with your mentor
• Day 4: Do it for real

Your comfort zone is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it gets bigger—and you become more capable of making the changes your business needs.

To get the free Comfort Zone Challenge worksheet, DM Chris in Gym Owners United, linked below.

Links

Gym Owners United

Book a Call

0:01 - Intro

1:57 - How to change

3:27 - Do you care enough?

11:01 - Comfort Zone Challenge

15:09 - Which gym owners succeed?

Transcript

0:02

Hey, I'm Chris Cooper. This is Run a Profitable Gym. And I made a worksheet to help you with the exercise I'm going to guide you through in this video. To get it, send me a DM through. GymOwnersUnited.com. You can't change your business if you don't change your business. doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. And yet I see this every single week. Gym owners come into Two Brain wanting to change their business, or at least they want to change the results that their business is getting, but they don't actually want to make changes. They're looking for that one new thing to add on top of what they're currently doing, or that one silver bullet that's going to change everything. They want the magic supplement, that one weird trick, that golden ad campaign, the secret hack that nobody else knows about. But if you actually want different results, You have to actually change your systems, your pricing, your services, and your thinking. Now, I get it. Change is scary because here's the thing. Our businesses are not totally failing, right? Maybe you're breaking even or maybe you're losing a little money each month, but not enough to go bankrupt tomorrow. I'm treading water here. That's what I mean. Maybe you're not growing on your own at least fast enough, right? or not profitably enough, and you're scared to make things worse. You don't want to leave first base because you might get tagged out on the way to second. You know that feeling when you're stuck with your foot on first base and you want to steal second, but what if you get thrown out? You're better safe than sorry. At least right now we're on base, right? At least we feel safe. And that's where most gym owners live. They know logically that they have to do something differently. They know that change is not just a matter of time spent. The time is actually working against them here. They know that somebody else has even figured this out, but still change is scary. So here's how to change. It's actually very simple, but I'm going to guide you through it in depth on this podcast. The way that you change is first, you find a mentor and then you follow the steps that the mentor gives you. That's it. And if you listen to our top leaderboard shows every single month, that's what everybody always says. I do what my mentor tells me, but I've been mentoring gym owners for 15 years and I can tell you it sounds easy, but it's still kind of scary because it feels risky, especially with all the fake experts out there. How do you know who to trust? How do you know if their advice will actually work for your gym? Because we're all different. Well, first you need to understand this and it took me a decade to learn this. The only thing stronger than fear is love. Knowledge is necessary, but insufficient for change. You can't just learn your way out of fear. You can't read enough books or take enough courses to make the fear go away. You can't work out hard enough to eliminate the fear. The only thing stronger than fear is love. You have to love someone enough to change for them. So first, you have to love the people in your town, the strangers that you meet who aren't your clients yet. These are the people who need what you have. They're struggling with their health. They're tired all the time. They're on three different medications. They've tried everything and nothing has worked for them. They need you, but they don't know you exist. Or maybe they have heard of you, but they don't trust you yet. Or they think maybe they can't afford you. Now, three years ago, you know, I was down in this hotel in Minneapolis at my nephew's hockey tournament, and I ran into some people who were there to go to the Mayo Clinic. And the gentleman was going to have his leg removed. He'd already lost a leg to diabetes, and he's about to lose the second. And every single morning at 6 a.m., I would be in the lounge, and I'd be, you know, having an espresso and eating my breakfast. And they would come in, and his wife would get him a can of Coke and some Froot Loops. And this happened day one, day two, day three, and day four was my last meeting. And I had to say to myself, Chris, do you care enough about this person to get over your own internal bullshit and tell them the truth? because maybe nobody had, maybe that was the problem. And while as humans, we don't want to intrude, we don't want to put ourselves at risk and our ego at risk. If there was a slight possibility that this person just didn't know any better and that could actually change the rest of their lives, it was worth it to tell them. And so I finally sucked up the courage and did. And I said, you know, I'm a fitness coach and I got to tell you, I'm sorry that you're here in Minneapolis to have your leg removed. Have you been told that there are small lifestyle changes that you could make to avoid this from getting worse? And of course, the husband says, well, it can't get any worse. I'm losing my second leg. And I looked at the wife and I said, you and I both know it can get worse. She agreed. And I spelled things out, like get off the sugar, get off the couch, do what you can do. And she said, you know, we've been told this 30 times, but nobody's ever made it that simple before. Sometimes you'll help just because you care enough to help. And that's enough for them. That reinforcement. And of course, I never heard from them again. We didn't exchange contact info or anything like that. But I want to believe that by making things simple for them, get off the couch, off the carves, maybe that actually did make a difference. Or maybe it was a part of a bigger puzzle that made a difference to them. You have to care enough to get over your own BS and publish that Instagram post, publish that story, publish that blog, publish that podcast like I'm doing for you right now. I do it because I care about you and your success. Love is the only thing that overcomes fear. Now that question, do I care enough about this person to get over my own internal hangups? That changed everything for me. More than I care about looking foolish on camera, I care about your success as a gym owner. More than I care about failing, I care about the people in my community getting healthier. Because if I don't care enough to push through my own stuff internally, then I don't really care at all. And I shouldn't be in this business. So second, you have to love your clients enough to risk your own ego for them. And that means publishing daily content to them, love letters. It means not trying to win the workout to impress them or being the best athlete in your gym. You don't need to show off. They need you to show up as a coach. It means wearing silly costumes if that's what builds a party atmosphere for Murph this year. I know gym owners won't do theme days because they think it's beneath them. But you know what? Their clients love that stuff. Look how silly I look in this picture. You think I enjoy that? I do not. But I do it because my clients love it. It means publishing daily content, helping first, not because it's great marketing, but because you care so much that you're desperate to help them and you can't teach them fast enough to overcome all the BS they're hearing from the influencers on TikTok. So you give them stuff to read and think about every single day to help them. You're literally writing love letters to your clients and their friends. Now you might worry about what other people think about you, what other gym owners say about you on. Facebook or other people who think that you're spamming them. And it's hard to ignore these people, but you have to care so much that you're willing to do it anyway, because maybe it helps that one. You know, there were many years when I would really be reluctant to talk about food with my clients because there was a risk that if people started counting calories or measuring grams of protein that they could develop an eating disorder. And of course, that's a very remote risk, right? 99% of our clients will never have that problem. Just like 99% will not accidentally gain muscle and become a bodybuilder overnight. But still, that held me back. And finally, I had to say, Chris, yes, there is a risk here. Maybe a dietician is going to see your post and attack you for it. Maybe another gym owner is going to say, well, carbs aren't always bad and say something about it. But if my message reaches one person, am I willing to take that social risk to help them? Am I willing to do it to help them? And the answer for me now is yes. I will take social risk 10 times a day if it helps one person actually change their gym or one person in my community get off the couch and off the carbs. I don't care if I look like an idiot anymore, as long as it helps them. There's this old story, and I actually have this poster in my office, And there's this grandfather and his granddaughter walking along the beach. And the tide has just gone out, and the beach is full of starfish. There's starfish everywhere. Now, starfish are living creatures. They're fish. And the granddaughter is picking them up and throwing them into the ocean. And then they'll walk a few more steps, and she'll pick one up, and she'll throw them in the ocean. And the grandfather finally says, you know, that's great, sweetie, but you can't save them all. In the end, you know, there's thousands of them on the beach. Stopping every second is just making us late for breakfast. It won't really matter. And she picks up another one, and she throws it in the water, and she says, it mattered to that one. And that's what I think about every single time I put a message out there. You know, maybe 9 out of 10 people won't care about this. But if it matters to one, it's worth doing. You have to care more than you fear wasting your time or being criticized or being attacked or being told you're wrong. You have to care more than that. And then the next lesson is you have to care about your family. A great question to ask yourself is like, do I want to make this coach sad or do I want to make my wife sad? You have to care enough about your family that you're willing to risk your ego, your embarrassment, your fear of confrontation and all that stuff to get your family the result that they're trusting you to get. You have to evaluate that coach even though you know it's going to be a hard one. You have to confront that member even though you know it's going to be a hard and awkward and uncomfortable conversation because you do not want it to affect your family. And the question that I had to ask myself the first time I fired a coach was, do I want to make this coach cry or do I want to make my wife cry? Because the reality was this coach was hurting my gym, hurting my bottom line, hurting my profitability and hurting my family. Did I want to do the right thing, the hard thing, or did I want to ask my wife to sacrifice even more that she already did because I was procrastinating? That question can give you a reframe of what's really important in your business. You have to share your knowledge without fear of losing your business, losing your advantage, or giving up your secrets. You have to publish. You must show up. You must speak at events. You need to raise your hand at meetings. You have to reach out your hand and introduce yourself in places where you don't know anybody and you feel awkward, where you're taking social risk. This is how you express care. You can't just care about the people who walk in on their own, throw you their credit card, and start paying you. You have to care about the others, the strangers, and the critics too. Here's what I've learned. Comfort zones are for cowards and rich people. You can't afford them. They're not for you. But here's the good news. You can exercise your comfort zone and make it bigger. It's like a muscle. And so I'm going to give you a challenge. I'm going to call this the. Comfort Zone. Comfort Zone Challenge. Here's how it works. First, I'm going to give you 10 scenarios. And again, you can shoot a DM to Two Brain Business and get this worksheet and work through it on your own. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you these 10 scenarios. And for each one, I want you to record if it's totally comfortable for you. It's easy, right? One point. If it's not too scary, you could do it. Two points. If it's uncomfortable, three points. And if it makes you absolutely squirm, like, no, I'm not doing that. You procrastinate. That's four points. Then pick one of these 10 that makes you uncomfortable. Not the one that makes you squirm, but the one that makes you generally scared. Look for the three pointers, the four pointers. Pick one of those. Then you're going to do practice reps for three days. First, you're going to practice doing it in a mirror. Second, you're going to practice it with your spouse or a friend, a supportive person, human. And day three, you're going to practice it with your mentor. And then on day four, you're going to set an appointment with yourself to actually do it and report back. I'll give you an example at the end, but here are the 10 scenarios. First, taking four cups of coffee to the business next door and introducing yourself. Is that easy for you? One point. If it's like, okay, I guess I'll do it. Two points. If it makes you squirm, but you can gut through it, that's three points. And if you find yourself totally avoiding it, I could never do that. That's four points. Second, introduce yourself to another parent at your kid's sports event and ask about their fitness goals. One point if it's easy, four if it's impossible. Third, introduce yourself to another personal trainer, coach, or gym owner in town. Fourth, call your client's spouse to thank them for supporting your client's fitness journey. Fifth, email your client's boss to praise your client and tell them how much your client loves their job working for them. Sixth, post a daily video on Instagram every day for two weeks. A lot of people say yikes when they hear that. That's a three for them. Seventh, ask a client in person to record a video testimonial right now. Eighth, call three former clients who left and asking them honestly why they quit. Not to win them back or say the perfect thing, but just to learn. Ninth, host a free workout in a public park and invite your whole neighborhood, not just the people you know. Tenth, ask your ten best clients face-to-face why they haven't referred anybody to your gym yet. Now, some of these things might be totally comfortable with you. Great. If you've done them before, they're probably more like a one than like a four. And some of them might make you squirm. Save those for later. Pick one that's uncomfortable, something that you gave like a three to. One that makes you a little bit nervous to think about and do that. Because every time you do something uncomfortable, your comfort zone gets exercised. It gets stronger. It gets a little bigger. You get a little bit braver. You become a little bit more capable of making the changes your business needs. And that's how you change your business, by changing yourself first. Now on that same trip to Minneapolis, this was really great. I went to visit my friend Chris. Lohman at his gym and he had just finished doing a personal training client and she was a physician and so I was sitting in his little staff office. They had a nice little couch in there and the client was getting ready to leave and Chris brought me out and said, oh you got to meet my business mentor. This is Chris Cooper and so I shook hands with the physician and I said, you know, what's your favorite thing about this gym? And she went on and on and I said, look, it would really help these guys if you as a physician said that on camera. We're really proud of you and we'd like to show you off. Are you cool with that? And she of course was like, oh I'm all sweaty, oh my god. And I'm like, okay, you ready? Here we go. And I recorded her and I said, what's your favorite thing about this gym? And she, ripple effect, and she went on and on for two or three minutes and we recorded it and we published it and that was it. But before that, Chris and his partners didn't want to do testimonials because it felt weird, it felt awkward. They didn't understand that by loving their clients enough to make them famous, they were giving their clients something that nobody else in the world could. Look, I get it. Change is hard. Change is scary. But here's what I know after 15 years of mentoring gym owners. The ones who succeed, who show up on our millionaire plaques and our leaderboards every month, they're not the ones with the best location or the most money at startup or the fanciest equipment. They're not the ones that have some secret programming or some marketing hack that you don't have. They're the ones who care enough to change. They're the ones who love their clients and their community more than they're scared of looking foolish. They're the ones who are willing to do uncomfortable things because they know that's where growth happens. So if you want to change your business, start by asking yourself, do I actually care enough to change it? Do I care enough to follow a mentor's advice even when it feels different and risky? Do I care enough to publish content every day, to make videos or blogs or podcasts like this, even when I'm scared of what other people will think, my critics, the other gym owners in town? Do I care enough to do uncomfortable things? Not just the easy uncomfortable things like a hard workout or rucking for 24 hours, but going up and meeting a stranger and shaking their hand and introducing yourself at a meeting. Because if you do, if you really truly care, then you will find the courage to change. And that's when everything else changes too. Now, if you want the worksheet that I mentioned in this video, send me a DM through gymownersunited.com. Let's role play through one of these, okay? So I said, we're going to make an appointment with ourself to do the hard thing. So let's say that the hard thing is taking coffee to all your neighbors, okay? So there's several businesses around my gym. And I know like there's a taxi cab company across the road. There's a salon across the road. There's an auto body shop just down the street. And I'm picturing there's like a water jug delivery service kind of next door. I haven't always had great relationships with all of these neighbors. And so I'm a little bit about taking them all coffee. However, I've done this before. I've done that hard thing before. I've reached out and met parents at sports before. I've asked people, do you want to meet me in the gym before? And so this isn't really that hard for me. I've practiced going first. I've practiced walking up to strangers, making eye contact, say, hey, I'm Chris, shaking their hand. And so this is easier for me because I've worked on that change muscle. It might be hard for you. Let's say it is. The first thing that I want you to do if you're listening to this podcast and it's, say, a. Monday is book an appointment with yourself to do that hard thing on Friday, four days later, book an appointment. So open up your calendar, pick the time you're going to do it, probably 6.45 a.m. on your way into the gym. Make an appointment with yourself to do it. Okay, now you've got a plan. We want to make you comfortable. So day one, tomorrow, Tuesday, you're going to practice in the mirror. Okay, so you get a tray or you get a booklet and you go up to yourself in the mirror and you say, hey, guys, I'm Chris from next door at the gym. I brought you some coffees, there's some cream and some sugar here. How's business? That's it. Once you've started the conversation, it'll take on a life of its own, you'll be fine. Practice that in a mirror, you're gonna feel dumb. But the reality here is we got to baby step ourselves into change here. Just like your clients, we can't just go from zero sitting on the couch watching. Netflix and overeating to working out five days a week, practicing perfect zone diet, etc, etc. Okay, you have to baby step your way in zone two, you're going to practice this with a caring friend, your your wife, okay, now they're gonna laugh, you're gonna laugh, it's gonna feel dumb, like, oh my god, but it will make the final act easier. Okay, day three, you're going to practice with your mentor, they're going to be a little bit more objective. So you're going to go to your mentor, hey, I brought you this coffee, and you're going to do this like five times, it's going to take you 10 minutes. And then finally, on Friday, when it comes time to actually do the thing, it's easy. I do this every year with my summit talk. All of our presenters at summit go through coaching on speaking and that coach that they work with helps them baby step themselves into it. So by the time they get to the stage, they look totally calm and cool and professional. And if you're in the audience, you have a great time because the speakers aren't awkward and unpracticed and unfocused like most speakers are. That's because they baby step their way into it. And you can baby step yourself into change anytime you want. Look, if you want to work through this exercise and you care enough to work through it, just find two brain business anywhere on social media and send a DM and say, Hey, can I have that like change exercise? And we'll make sure that you get a copy. Thank you for caring enough to change your gym.