0:02

I am a generous person. So I shall pay my

0:04

coaches more. However will I

0:06

do it? I shall review seniority

0:08

lists and then use my abacus to calculate

0:10

an appropriate increase. And then I shall

0:12

retire to the drawing room to read the new book by the

0:15

young author, Ernest Hemingway. Today

0:17

on Two-Brain Radio, Chris Cooper is here with

0:19

modern ways to pay your coaches more. Get

0:22

out of the past and join the clever entrepreneurs

0:24

who are paying staff members more by growing

0:26

their businesses.

0:28

We know that getting clients results isn't

0:30

enough to make a great business or a

0:32

great career, but it is the foundation.

0:34

If you're not getting your clients results, none

0:37

of the other stuff matters. Your marketing plan,

0:39

your operations plan, your retention plan, your

0:41

systems, how much you care about the clients.

0:44

You need to get them results. What does

0:46

it take to get a client results? Long-term

0:48

behavior change, short-term habit

0:50

change. It means learning skills

0:53

like motivational interviewing, peer-to-peer programming.

0:55

It means focusing on things

0:57

like adherence and retention instead of novelty.

0:59

And I built twobraincoaching.com with

1:01

my partner, Josh Martin, to teach

1:03

coaches how to do this. More than ever

1:05

before it is critical to get results

1:08

for your clients. You need

1:10

to charge a premium fee. You need

1:12

to provide high value to warrant that

1:15

fee. And what is most valuable

1:17

to the client? What do they care about

1:19

the most? The results on the goal

1:21

that they choose. Twobraincoaching.com has programs

1:23

set up to help your

1:26

clients achieve those goals. We will

1:28

train you and your coaches to deliver

1:30

personal training, group training, online training, nutrition

1:33

coaching, and coming soon, mindset

1:35

coaching, in a way that's

1:37

simple for you to adopt, it's legal

1:39

everywhere. And it's super effective.

1:42

These courses were built by

1:44

experts with years of experience getting

1:47

clients results. Twobraincoaching.com is a

1:49

labor of love for

1:52

me, and I know you're going to love

1:54

it too. I know

1:56

you. You are generous.

2:00

You put other people ahead of yourself.

2:03

Your clients, your family,

2:05

and even the people who are paid to put you

2:07

first, your coaches. Now

2:10

it's not wrong to put other people first. Your

2:12

team is critically important to your gym's success,

2:15

but it is wrong to

2:17

undermine the gym's stability or

2:19

sacrifice your family's income

2:22

by paying your coaches too much

2:24

or following the wrong strategy. Coaches

2:27

and your other staff can have a great career in your gym,

2:29

especially when the relationship is good for everyone.

2:31

And today, I'm going to tell you how

2:33

to give your staff a raise. The

2:36

first principle here that we need to understand

2:38

is that you earn more money by

2:41

creating more value for

2:43

more people. Your staff can

2:45

do the same. And today

2:48

I'm going to walk you through the exact path

2:51

to do this and why salaries and bonuses aren't

2:54

the best ways to create opportunities

2:56

for your staff, because the best way to create

2:58

opportunities for your staff is to allow them to

3:00

grow the pie, not to divide

3:02

it up a different way, or to allow them to take

3:05

the biggest slice. OK?

3:07

So before we get into this, I don't want you

3:09

to assume that every great coach is a full-time

3:12

coach. A great coach can work part

3:14

time, and I've got a link in the show notes

3:16

to a blog post I wrote called gym management:

3:19

the case for part-time coaches. But

3:21

whatever they choose, full-time part-time, here

3:24

are the steps to building the careers that they

3:26

want. Step one:

3:29

At your quarterly career roadmap meeting,

3:31

of course you're doing those, right? You can ask

3:33

your coach, what do you want now? Ask

3:36

the coach to tell you about his or her perfect day.

3:39

Ask how your gym can support that perfect day.

3:41

Ask where he or she would like to be in six

3:43

months. And we teach people how to

3:45

do career roadmap meetings in our mentorship

3:48

program. But basically a career roadmap

3:50

meeting is a 30 minute sit down with a coach

3:52

where you do an evaluation to measure where

3:55

they're starting from. You give them some goals

3:57

to accomplish in their career. And

3:59

then you work backward on the math to help them

4:01

achieve those goals. You assign different

4:03

roles and tasks based on, you

4:05

know , what they want to achieve, how much they want to work

4:07

and what their target income is. And

4:09

then you mentor them to achieve those goals. That's

4:12

step one. Step two is

4:14

you determine exactly how much the coach needs

4:17

to earn those, the

4:19

money that will pay for those goals. So

4:21

you can use tools like the happiness index. If

4:23

you want to approximate. Or

4:25

you can use that coach's personal budget if you

4:27

really want to get specific. And

4:29

then you should calculate a goal number and that's step

4:31

two. Step three is

4:33

to use our career roadmap tool

4:36

or to build your own spreadsheet, to

4:38

work backward from that number. And then

4:40

you assign a dollar value to the different roles

4:42

in your gym. This much for group classes, this

4:44

much for personal training, this much

4:46

for cleaning, this much for admin work. And

4:49

then you create opportunities to do

4:51

those things for your coaches.

4:53

So you can create opportunities to do

4:55

personal training or nutrition

4:57

coaching, or other specialty programs.

5:00

And I lay these all out in our free guide

5:02

entrepreneurialism one-on-one , which

5:04

you can download if you go to the show notes

5:07

for today and just click the download button.

5:08

Step four is to determine

5:10

the starting position. So what will

5:13

the coach need to learn before they can really

5:15

capitalize on the plan that you've just built for

5:17

them? Will they need to take a super

5:19

new certification before

5:22

they start their kid's program, for example, or

5:24

will they need to take the Two-Brain Coaching

5:26

first degree program before they can work one-on-one

5:29

with clients? Are they brand new, et cetera. Step

5:31

five is help them launch whatever

5:34

their growth program is. You got to

5:36

mentor them through it. And you've got to perform

5:38

regular reviews to make sure that they're on track.

5:40

You have to have an evaluation process. And

5:43

then step six is, you know , when they

5:45

get there, give them the opportunity

5:47

to open their own business under

5:49

your brand. So after you've taught

5:52

a coach how to be an entrepreneur , you

5:54

can help him or her step outside

5:56

your protective umbrella and open their own

5:58

gym with you as a partner and mentor. And

6:01

there's a link to a blog article called go with

6:03

them. So here's the path to a

6:05

solid career. Step one through five.

6:08

And then step six is if they want to open

6:10

up their own gym. Step one, sit

6:12

down with them and say, what do you want now. Step

6:15

two, determine how much they need to earn

6:17

to make that dream a reality. Step

6:19

three, create opportunities using

6:21

a career roadmap tool, step

6:24

four, determine their starting position. Step

6:26

five, measure their progress regularly

6:29

and mentor them on it. And then step six,

6:31

for some coaches, give them a chance

6:34

to open a business under your brand. But

6:36

the key to all of this is asking your coaches,

6:38

what do you want now? Some coaches

6:41

might want more money. Some might want

6:43

more opportunities , somewhat consistency

6:46

and some are willing to take risk in exchange

6:48

for equity, but nobody wants

6:50

the same thing forever. So

6:52

the best way to help your coaches build careers

6:54

is to mentor them to success. The

6:57

wrong way is to pay them bonuses

7:00

based on metrics they can't control

7:02

or to pay them based on like ideas

7:04

out of the 1940s, like seniority.

7:07

According to data in our state of the industry guide,

7:10

most gym owners aren't profitable enough to give

7:12

their staff members raises. The average

7:14

coach income in our state of the industry last year

7:17

was $21 per class coached.

7:19

That's not enough, but the businesses

7:22

can't afford to pay them more. So the best

7:24

way for coaches to earn more is

7:26

to help grow the business. Instead of

7:28

giving them a largest share of the pie and going

7:30

hungry yourself, just grow the pie.

7:33

So here's how to pay more. So

7:35

start with what can you afford to pay per

7:37

class? So you add up all

7:39

of your revenue from all of your groups or

7:41

your classes, and you multiply that

7:44

by 44%. This is the rule

7:46

of four ninths. And that's your total

7:48

class budget for staff. Think of that as like

7:50

your salary cap. OK? That's

7:52

how much you can afford to pay all the

7:54

coaches to coach your classes. Now

7:56

divide that budget across

7:59

all of the classes that you offer.

8:01

It's Chris Cooper here.

8:03

Your gym's programming won't attract

8:05

new clients, but it can help

8:07

you keep your clients longer. Good

8:10

programming includes benchmarks, novelty,

8:12

skills, progressions, leaderboards, you know all

8:14

that stuff. But great programming

8:17

contains something more: a link

8:19

between each client's fitness goals

8:21

and the workout of the day. Your coaches

8:23

need to tell your clients more than what

8:26

they're doing every day. They need to explain

8:28

why they're doing it. Gym's

8:31

whose coaches could explain the why connection

8:33

had a 25% better retention rate during

8:35

lockdowns. Imagine how that translates

8:37

into better retention when things are

8:39

back to normal. Now, I want to solve this

8:41

problem for gym owners. Programming is

8:44

the service you deliver to your clients. So

8:46

I partnered with Brooks DiFiore, who had

8:49

one of the highest adherence rates in

8:51

the world for his group classes at

8:56

his gym to build twobrainprogramming.com. We built this for

8:58

Two-Brain gyms and we give them free access

9:00

in our mentorship program. But I'm now making this

9:03

available to the public. Programming

9:06

proven to improve retention and cashflow in

9:09

your gym. Visit Two-Brain programming.com to get it. So let's say that you're taking

9:11

in a thousand dollars a week, you have a budget

9:13

of $444 and 44

9:16

cents to pay coaches to run those classes.

9:19

Now you've got to divide that budget evenly across

9:21

all classes, because each

9:23

coach is teaching the same programming

9:25

and following the same plan, they

9:27

should all be paid the same amount for classes.

9:29

They're delivering an identical service at 6:00

9:32

PM and at 6:00 AM. If

9:34

the resulting per class rate is too low,

9:37

then you have three choices. Number one,

9:39

raise the price of your group training classes,

9:41

which will expand the 44% budget

9:44

without changing the ratio and allow you to pay

9:46

people more per class. Number

9:48

two , put more people into the classes or

9:51

number three, deliver fewer classes. So

9:54

which one of those three options should you choose?

9:56

Well, you can go back to our first rule. You make

9:58

more money by creating more value. So

10:00

if you deliver far more value than

10:02

you charge for group training, raise your

10:04

rates. The average group training

10:06

rate, according to our state of the industry data is

10:09

about $154 per

10:11

month. You should be much higher than

10:13

that. The September 2021

10:15

leaderboard for average revenue per member

10:17

per gym showed that some gyms

10:19

are actually making just over $400

10:22

per member per month. You can certainly go

10:24

up from where you are now. Second,

10:26

if adding more people to a class will increase

10:29

its value, then focus on marketing.

10:31

If you're running a quote unquote class

10:33

for two people, you need to add more

10:35

people to that class. What's the ideal

10:37

number per class? Seven people,

10:40

minimum, 13 people maximum. At

10:42

seven people, retention

10:44

and adherence go up because you've got enough

10:46

friends in your class to hold you accountable. But

10:49

at 13, that number starts to

10:51

go down again because you've got so many people that

10:53

nobody misses the one who doesn't show up. OK.

10:56

Third, if you find yourself delivering one-on-one

10:59

coaching at group class rates, just

11:01

kill that class. So if you're giving somebody

11:03

personal training at 6:00 AM, then

11:06

you know you need to remove that class. And there's

11:08

a strategy for doing that too. But

11:10

raising your rates, increasing your value,

11:13

that increases your salary cap. Adding

11:15

more clients increases your salary

11:17

cap. Delivering fewer classes,

11:19

spreads out your available spend

11:22

better. It's not the long-term solution,

11:24

but if keeping coaches is your priority,

11:26

it might be the best solution. Right now. You might

11:28

have to take a small step back, run

11:31

one fewer class per day before you can

11:33

take the big leap forward because you're just not ready

11:35

to run eight classes yet. Now

11:37

the key here is to understand your numbers

11:40

and understand your salary cap. When

11:42

people say, how do I pay my coaches

11:44

more? I say, make more money

11:46

in the gym. The ratios don't

11:48

change. And when people attack

11:51

or criticize the four ninths model, it's simply because

11:53

they just don't understand the math. You

11:55

don't need to give people a larger share of the

11:57

pie. You don't need to starve yourself and your family.

12:00

What you need to do is to make the pie bigger

12:02

and your coaches can help you do that through

12:04

a process that we call intrapreneurialism,

12:07

they can grow the pie for everybody. They

12:09

can earn themselves a raise and that's

12:11

how you give them more and create more value in

12:13

their lives. Now, what

12:16

about paying different coaches different

12:18

amounts? So if you've got a group

12:20

class and it's running the same programming

12:22

and you're following the same class structure, and

12:25

you've got two different coaches coaching it, those coaches

12:27

should be paid the same amount because

12:29

even if one coach is more experienced

12:32

or you know, technically better,

12:34

or they've got 50 certs, that will not

12:36

change the value that the client receives

12:38

from that class. However,

12:41

if you've got a coach who is

12:44

very proficient, you know, level three

12:46

USAW certified, then

12:48

they should be running a weightlifting

12:51

class for which you charge more

12:53

because you're adding more value to the clients

12:55

and they should be making a percentage of

12:57

that number. And that's how they

12:59

make more money. Whenever you're

13:01

adding value to the clients,

13:04

you can give the coaches a rais

13:06

and the more valuable the service that you offer, the more

13:08

the coaches get paid for delivering that

13:10

service. If you've got two coaches

13:13

doing personal training, should

13:15

they have different rates depending on their experience?

13:18

Only if one client is paying more

13:20

than the other. And that's why we use a ratio

13:23

to figure out how much the coach should be paid

13:25

instead of prescribing an actual dollar

13:28

value or saying here's a hierarchy

13:30

of raises that you get with experience. The

13:32

truth is that experience alone does

13:34

not necessarily increase client value.

13:37

And it certainly will not make

13:39

one client pay more than another client.

13:42

However, quality, value.

13:45

And if your knowledge adds value

13:47

to the client, then the client should be paying more.

13:50

I'll give you an example of where a lot of gyms get this

13:52

wrong. Let's say that you

13:55

own a CrossFit gym. And you've got some people

13:57

who are competitors. And those

13:59

people are like, oh, we're going to follow super-duper

14:02

secret squirrel programming. We only

14:04

want open gym access. And

14:06

because these people are like the best

14:08

at CrossFit in your gym, you're tempted

14:10

to let them come in, coach themselves,

14:13

pay somebody else for programming and

14:15

only charge them for open gym. So they wind up

14:17

taking up the most of your time and space,

14:20

but paying the least for it. The reality

14:23

is that the people who wants to

14:25

compete need more coaching than anybody

14:27

else. Not less. They need more of

14:29

your time and attention and individual

14:32

focus than anybody else, not less.

14:34

And so they should be paying more than anybody

14:36

else. Not less. They

14:38

should not be paying for the minimal amount

14:41

of service. They should be paying for the maximum amount

14:43

of coaching if they really want to progress in

14:45

their sport. And if they're not willing to pay

14:47

you for that, then they should be going

14:50

to, you know , whoever they are willing

14:52

to pay for it. And that's where

14:54

maybe one coach earns more than

14:56

another. When the client is paying more for

14:59

their expertise. But when a client is paying

15:01

two coaches the same amount, those coaches

15:03

should be paid the same amount, because

15:05

that is the value that they're delivering to

15:07

their clients.

15:09

Two-Brain Radio airs twice a week and

15:11

features all the info you need to run

15:13

a profitable gym. Subscribe so you don't

15:16

miss a show. Now here's coop .

15:19

Thanks for listening to, Two-Brain Radio. If you aren't

15:21

in the gym owners, United group on Facebook,

15:23

this is my personal invitation to

15:25

join. It's the only public Facebook group

15:27

that I participate in. And I'm in there

15:29

all the time with tips, tactics, and free

15:31

resources. I'd love to network with

15:33

you and help you grow your business. Join gym owners

15:36

United on Facebook.