0:02

I get into real gym owners every week

0:04

on this show, so be sure to subscribe

0:06

so you don't miss any tips. I want you

0:08

to run a profitable gym as well. Now, Jake Fields

0:10

runs CrossFit Devotion that is in Kent City,

0:12

Washington. It's near Seattle. He has

0:14

a lot of clients at his micro gym , and we're here to find

0:16

out how he did it. Jake, welcome. I

0:19

can't thank you enough for being here today. Warning,

0:21

we are going to talk about a Jim's

0:24

client count today. Now, this can be a trap because

0:26

you could have 10,000 clients and no

0:28

profit whatsoever. So let's get this outta the way

0:30

first. Jake, do you run a profitable

0:32

gym ? Yes. Now that's the most important thing.

0:34

Next, we can go onto the question two.

0:37

Did you earn a spot on two brains top 10

0:39

leaderboard for total clients in October?

0:41

Yes, sure did.

0:42

All right . Will you share your secrets and tell

0:45

other gym owners how you got and kept your clients?

0:47

Definitely, yes .

0:48

All right . I appreciate that. This is Run a

0:51

Profitable, Jim. I'm your host, Mike Warton

0:53

. Now Jake Fields runs CrossFit

0:55

devotion that is in Kent City, Washington. It's near

0:57

Seattle. He has a lot of clients. That is

1:00

Mike Jim, and we're here to find out how he did it.

1:02

Jake, welcome. I can't thank you

1:04

enough for being here today.

1:05

Thanks, Mike. Glad to be here.

1:08

Right . We're gonna talk about two things. First, retention

1:10

and acquisition, but we're gonna put the most

1:12

important thing first because I know you've got a really cool

1:14

thing going on for Jim Retention. You

1:17

can't grow your client base if everyone is leaving

1:19

and a lot of people think about adding new

1:21

clients, you gotta hold onto them. That's more

1:23

important. So what are the key features of the retention

1:26

plant ? CrossFit, devotion. Bring us up to speed.

1:28

I would say for us it's been our coaches

1:31

for one, we have excellent

1:33

long term coaches. That doesn't mean full time

1:36

, so don't get that confused. But they , uh,

1:39

are amazing humans. We definitely hire

1:41

the human burst and

1:44

then train them. So

1:46

I've made that mistake in the past going

1:48

the other way. Um, so we

1:50

have an amazing staff, so

1:52

that really helps to keep members

1:54

along. And then so

1:56

Personal engagement, right? So you've got like coaches who

1:58

actually connect with members, not just tacticians who can spot,

2:01

you know , early on pulling a clean

2:02

Exactly. Like our members actually

2:05

come to see the coach, you

2:08

know, so like that's a big thing. Like they

2:10

want to come see that person because they're friends and

2:13

they have interest in them . And

2:15

so that's been huge. That's been, that's been

2:17

a huge game changer. And then the other side is

2:19

we just keep refining our 90 day

2:22

journey and we keep adding

2:24

little pieces. Um, the CSM

2:26

has been probably one

2:29

of the biggest things that's kept people

2:31

the longest, just to get that feedback from the

2:33

members. Um, like, Hey, what's

2:35

working? What's not? We actually had a team

2:38

meeting last night and we're gonna

2:40

redo our intro process because

2:42

of the feedback that our CSM is

2:44

getting from the new members. And

2:47

so just always refining that

2:49

is really important. And if we didn't have that

2:51

feedback there , we would never refine it. We would

2:53

just, we would just think it's working. So,

2:56

So listener CSM as a client, success

2:58

manager, customer success manager, whatever

3:00

you wanna call it, that person's job is

3:02

to make sure current clients are super

3:05

happy. Retention is

3:07

the job of that person, making sure no one is leaving

3:09

the business. Tell me a little bit more about that

3:11

role. Cause I understand you have some interesting wrinkles in

3:13

the CSM role at your gym, and I want hear about

3:15

that.

3:16

Yeah, so we do it . We do it

3:18

, uh, interesting, not really by choice,

3:20

just how our staff is laid out. We

3:23

have two, and actually we're bringing

3:25

on a third one on Monday. Okay

3:27

. And so we have, and they're

3:29

, all three of them are part-time. So they work five,

3:32

maybe 10 hours a week in

3:34

this particular job, maybe like that's

3:36

top end . And uh

3:38

, one of them is in charge of

3:40

kind of the new people coming in, like

3:43

from the marketing , um, getting them

3:45

in for a consultation , um,

3:48

uh, and then getting them set up and

3:50

making sure that process is warm

3:52

and welcoming and flawless. And

3:54

then, so that's kinda like the new client success

3:57

manager. And then we

3:59

have another one that is , that does

4:01

our intros. And she also

4:04

is the 90 Day Journey csm.

4:07

And so she focuses on making sure they

4:09

have everything they need and want in

4:12

that first 90 days. And she also

4:14

follows up on the people that haven't checked in

4:17

in like a week. So she's kind of that

4:19

, um, ghosted members person. So she has

4:21

a real tight , um, hold

4:23

on what the members are feeling, what they're thinking

4:26

, um, uh,

4:28

in and out of the intros. And then in

4:30

that first 90 days,

4:32

I love it . Split . I'm

4:34

gonna ask you some specific questions, but I'm gonna ask you first

4:36

, uh, the third person, what is that one Gonna

4:38

do? A mix of both or something,

4:40

or what

4:41

We wanted her to be.

4:44

She, she's kinda , I don't

4:46

know what to call it, but she's like the operational client

4:48

success manager. So she's gonna make sure

4:51

that , um, from

4:54

start to finish and beyond in the

4:56

years, clients continue

4:59

to feel like they're being

5:01

appreciative and being counted

5:03

on. So she's gonna run more of like

5:05

the, like the , um, are we , are

5:07

we communicating by all social platforms,

5:10

email and texts for Thanksgiving?

5:13

Um, you know, schedule. Does everyone know

5:15

the events coming up? Does every

5:18

client know , um, the workouts

5:20

that are coming? Um, do

5:22

the , do the coaches know , um,

5:24

everything about new members coming in

5:26

and out? And so she's kinda like gonna

5:29

be the sticky glue that connects

5:31

us all together. And so,

5:33

and of course, like maybe in a perfect

5:35

world that'd be like maybe all the same person,

5:37

but we've just been so blessed with multiple

5:40

awesome people that could do it

5:42

part-time. So if anyone's

5:45

thinking they need to hire, like, you know, pay

5:47

someone's salary to do this job, you just,

5:49

again, just find some really awesome

5:51

people with five hours that are really

5:53

good at this particular thing. And

5:56

, uh, you can, you can run it that way. And

5:58

we're doing it really successfully.

6:01

So you've, what this all relates though

6:04

to is your client journey, which you mentioned

6:06

you've got a clear idea

6:08

in your head of how you want clients to

6:10

come into your business from their first interaction,

6:12

whether they see your sign or your ad or whatever to

6:14

the very end, which is hopefully five or 10

6:17

years down the road. But you know everything

6:19

about the client journey and you know that

6:21

in the 90 days, the first 90 days, everything

6:23

you do to make that experience better is

6:25

going to increase your retention stats. Bear that out.

6:28

Like we have that data, we know that the first 90 days

6:30

are critical to success. So you

6:32

see in this path roles

6:35

for three different people. Like it's that important

6:37

to you to make sure that these clients are happy.

6:39

Wow. Right. Yeah. I

6:42

mean the long , the , the third person we're

6:44

bringing on for the long term , I mean 300

6:46

members, you know, is a lot of

6:48

members are getting close to there . And so

6:51

it's a lot of people to take care of. So

6:53

having someone on the front end and

6:55

then having someone in that, in that beginning

6:58

90 days and then making sure the people

7:00

that have hit a thousand classes or five

7:02

years or 10 years are still being appreciative,

7:05

that's hard to do for one person. So

7:07

we've kind of broken it up into , uh,

7:10

you know, those three different sections of not

7:12

knowing us, barely knowing us

7:14

for the first 90 days, hoping to capture

7:17

them for life. And then what about those people that

7:19

have been there for life? How do we still continue

7:22

to appreciate them? So

7:23

There's an interesting thing

7:25

here. Chris Cooper has often talked about 150

7:28

members as a real sticking point for a gym

7:30

. And it , it goes back to even like human social

7:32

groups or 150 is kind of that number where

7:34

it's like, I know about 150 people and

7:36

a 200, you don't really know anyone . Right ? Jim's

7:39

often fracturing, I found it very difficult

7:42

when I got to 150 members to know everyone

7:44

and connect with everyone. So if you kind of break

7:46

it down, you've got just about 300 members, you

7:48

got two CSMs, you're creeping over

7:50

300 members, you got a third csm kind of an interesting

7:53

number that maybe didn't plan on, but it kind of

7:55

syncs up with some of the thoughts. What do you think about that? A

7:57

A hundred percent ? Yeah. Like it,

8:00

yeah, exactly. That's where we were talking like,

8:02

well, we , we don't, we

8:04

never said we wanted to get to 300 . That

8:06

was never a number in our head or really

8:08

, um, we were more just like, like

8:11

the , uh, making sure that we're profitable so we could keep

8:13

good people and good coaches. But

8:15

ever since we started implementing

8:17

these new CSMs, like less people are

8:20

leaving, you know, more referrals.

8:22

And so we're just growing a

8:24

lot more that way. So yeah, I definitely think now

8:26

we add another person, we could easily get to three

8:29

50 and still not have the wheels fall

8:31

off.

8:32

So you mentioned a couple of important things. You've

8:34

added these, these people, but you are seeing a

8:36

return on investment through referrals

8:38

and increased length of engagement. Correct?

8:41

Correct. Yeah.

8:42

Yeah. Was it pretty obvious when you added

8:44

this stuff in? Like when you put these rules , responsibilities

8:47

and people in place, did you see numbers changing quickly?

8:51

Uh, I would say yes. Like quickly as

8:53

in six months to a a year quickly.

8:55

So yeah, definitely. And it really,

8:58

it's the feedback. Um, uh,

9:01

Zan , our , our gal that does

9:03

, uh, Zan and a , they do the intros

9:05

and she does the client follow up . She's

9:07

so good at getting feedback and then

9:10

you , you know, we just have to be humble enough to be like, yeah, we

9:12

need to change that and then make that

9:14

change. And so when people see you doing

9:16

that, I think that that goes a long way.

9:18

And , um, she's really good about bringing

9:20

that feedback to us. And so just

9:23

trying to adapt, you know, people are in a different spot

9:25

than they were five years ago. They're coming in

9:27

differently. So it's good to have that

9:30

feedback. And if one person was doing that, I

9:32

don't know if they would have the capacity to

9:34

do that with bringing in new people,

9:36

doing the intros, making sure the new people are

9:39

good, and making sure that eight year members are

9:41

getting a cool t-shirt . Like, that's a lot. That's

9:43

just too many for one person.

9:45

And let's be real, how many of us make

9:47

this mistake? I am guilty of this, of

9:50

having your long-term members, who are your most valuable

9:52

members, who have given you tens of thousands of dollars

9:55

and taking them for, granted. It sounds horrible

9:57

to say, but you sometimes do it right.

10:00

Uh, all the time. Literally,

10:01

Because they become like, they're like the furniture in the sense that

10:03

like, they're always there, they're always working out. They always

10:05

supported you and you're just like, oh , Tim

10:07

will always be here. But if you won't, if

10:09

you don't show your appreciation and why give a new

10:12

toaster to the first who opens a bank account

10:14

when the existing customer doesn't get one,

10:16

You know ? Exactly. Yeah. And we've learned that

10:18

lesson the hard way. Uh, and so that's

10:20

why I'm so excited about this new

10:22

person because I want to just really surprise

10:24

and delight our old members that

10:27

really, they're not, they're not really expecting it, you

10:29

know, like , um, I mean,

10:31

I've been with Two Brain for a lot of years and

10:33

I'll get random things in the mail. I , and

10:35

I'm just like, wow, five years later I

10:37

got this cool shirt, cup, backpack.

10:40

It's like they still like really care

10:42

about us. So definitely just that surprise and

10:44

delight to the old members is gonna go a

10:46

long way.

10:48

And listeners, I'll give you one thing to do right now. If , uh,

10:50

you have five minutes, you should send five

10:52

texts to five clients and tell 'em why you appreciate

10:54

them. Pick any five and just

10:56

do that right now and it will increase your retention . Guaranteed.

10:59

Do that. Now we're gonna talk

11:01

about a couple of , retention is

11:04

so important you can't bypass on this one . Why

11:06

, why I wanted to put it first, but the other side

11:08

of it is acquiring clients. So you, you hinted

11:10

at some referrals and some stuff. Where are

11:12

you getting all these clients from? And then you've

11:14

got your sticky trap where they stay in the bit gym , but

11:16

where do they come from?

11:18

Yeah, we , um, we

11:20

have an excellent marketing guy. Like

11:22

he loves Google ads and

11:25

Facebook ads, so he loves

11:27

it. Like, he loves the follow up process, he

11:29

loves the making the ads and stuff like

11:31

that. So, and he shines at it.

11:33

He loves sales. Um, he loves

11:35

to make sales friendly and

11:37

non slimy. He's just really good at

11:40

that connection piece. And so , uh,

11:42

mostly Facebook and Google ads.

11:46

And then every quarter we do

11:48

a bring a friend a week , uh,

11:50

and so they can come the whole week for free.

11:52

And we get a lot of referrals

11:55

that way, especially when it's scheduled

11:57

like that. We get a lot of referrals. Um,

12:00

but yeah, mostly , um, Facebook,

12:03

Google, and then

12:05

, um, with our, with like transformation challenges

12:07

and stuff like that. But , um, and

12:10

then, and then of course those four , four

12:12

times a year we do that bring a friend week

12:14

that's really popular.

12:16

So you've obviously got a clear marketing

12:18

plan that involves some paid advertising, but

12:21

it doesn't just involve paid advertising

12:23

because your best source of clients in most gyms

12:26

is going to be your current clients because they know, like, and

12:28

trust you. They have kids, friends, family members, coworkers,

12:30

hobby hobbyists, all the other stuff. So

12:33

I wanna dig, get into the, bring a friend week a little bit.

12:35

Yeah. I'm guessing that's not just a

12:37

, Hey, bring a friend, we'll make them vomit and

12:39

then , uh, hope they join. I bet there's some structure around

12:42

that.

12:43

Yes, definitely. The programming

12:45

is always like super fun. Mm-hmm

12:47

. <affirmative> not complicated. We still,

12:49

we used to do Bring a Friend week where we'd really

12:52

bring it down a notch and do like body

12:54

weight stuff all week, but then we

12:56

weren't really that, that wasn't the actual product

12:58

people would be getting. Sure. So

13:01

we just , so we kept the lifting and

13:03

kept all the CrossFit in. We just kind of brought,

13:05

brought it down a notch. And

13:08

so , um, they , they still knew that

13:10

we lifted weights and went heavy

13:12

and went , um, fast. And

13:15

so , um, yeah, we basically

13:17

do a week at the end of the quarter

13:19

and they can come for a full, they

13:21

can come all seven days for , uh, free,

13:24

and then if they sign up during that

13:26

week, we give them a little bit of

13:28

a first month , uh, bonus, like

13:30

with a , with a welcome box and like

13:33

t-shirts and things like that. So we

13:35

, we don't wanna discount our price,

13:38

but we wanna upgrade them through

13:40

different things. Um, and then

13:42

, uh, get them into our intro classes.

13:45

That's a big deal. Discounts can kill

13:47

gyms, but bonuses don't

13:49

cost gyms a ton of money, but they have a huge effect

13:51

on clients. So if you're thinking about discounting,

13:53

you might wanna look at what

13:55

can I give a client to add value that

13:58

doesn't equal a discount that will bite

14:00

you later on. Chris Cooper has written about this on the two Brainin

14:02

blog, and I'm going to put in the show notes a link to

14:04

an article that talks about selling with bonuses. Uh

14:07

, how do you, so what kinda conversations

14:09

happen around happen around those bring of fend weeks? Like do you

14:11

make a point of like connecting with these people, you

14:13

know, making sure you get their email addresses and then,

14:15

you know, like sales pitches. So I'll use that

14:17

slimy term, but that's not what I actually mean. Do you do consultation

14:20

stuff with them ? Yeah.

14:22

Um, Jared does our sales guy, we have everyone

14:24

check in and then we have them

14:26

, uh, sign up through a specific,

14:28

bring a friend week sign up on

14:31

our crm. Yeah . And so we can just kind

14:33

of go through there and like, welcome them and

14:35

thank them for coming in and

14:38

uh, you know, tell them how appreciative we

14:40

are of their friend and how awesome it's been to have

14:43

their friend here for so many years and

14:45

then try and schedule a consultation with

14:48

them the week after for intros from

14:51

there . So , um, it's, it's, you

14:53

know, if their friends doing it, it's pretty easy

14:55

to get them back in, you know , uh,

14:58

that's, yeah, that's probably the warmest lead

15:00

you can get. Um, mostly we

15:03

get the spouse, you know, if the

15:05

, if the wife's been coming a year or two and they've

15:07

had great success and to bring a friend, we

15:09

usually get a lot of spouses that way. Um,

15:11

so yeah, that's worked well for us.

15:14

I , I asked you that question for a specific reason.

15:16

Do you know what I added to my , uh, free

15:18

trial package to get people in the gym? What's

15:21

that ? Nothing <laugh> , nothing. I

15:23

just had people come in and try it and then I let them

15:25

walk out and I didn't have a conversation. I

15:28

didn't engage them, I didn't follow up . This was

15:30

back in the early days where I was just like, you're

15:32

gonna love it and you're gonna sign up. And it was a huge

15:35

mistake. And now I know so much better. If

15:37

I were to do it again, I would do it just like you. If I was gonna

15:39

do a free trial, I would make sure that I have a

15:41

process to talk to the people, get

15:43

their information, connect with them, interview

15:45

them, find out about their goals, and tell them about

15:48

other stuff that I can use to solve or

15:50

that I can provide to solve those goals. But I didn't

15:52

do that, you know , how dumb was that <laugh>?

15:54

Yeah. And to your point, we, we do

15:56

like try and get 'em signed up by the end of

15:59

the week and just add those bonuses so you

16:01

know, if they come and do a class and they love it. Like, well

16:03

if you sign up today or by the end of

16:05

the week you get all these bonuses, some supplements, t-shirt

16:07

, this and that. So we kind of incentivize it through,

16:11

through there and keep the whole price thing

16:13

not even in the picture. Yeah,

16:14

That's beautiful. Does the average client come into

16:17

your gym? Uh , you know , if they're acquired from a Facebook or

16:19

Google ad or something and they come , do they do a free consultation

16:21

with you guys first ?

16:23

Yes. Yeah, they always do a consultation

16:25

.

16:26

How important do you think that is to your acquisition or retention

16:28

process ?

16:31

Everything <laugh> . We , yeah,

16:33

I mean ev like, we've just started doing

16:35

, uh, so when they call, when

16:37

they book a appointment , uh,

16:39

Jared gives them a call actually and he

16:42

, he sends them , um,

16:44

a little template thing that is , um,

16:47

their five reasons why. And

16:49

he said, before you come in, I need this filled out.

16:52

And that's, that's a , that's

16:54

a good precursor. If they don't fill that out,

16:56

they're not coming in, they're not serious. And

16:59

when they fill out, gimme your five , gimme

17:02

your five why's, and they bring that in, it's

17:05

over. Like , we're gonna change . Like

17:07

, so one it like , it

17:09

, it , it , it makes that, that

17:11

show rate sky skyrocket.

17:15

Cause if they're not gonna fill that out, then they're not gonna

17:17

come in. But if they fill that out, they're definitely

17:19

coming in. You definitely know where

17:21

they're struggling and you can definitely change

17:23

their life right from that point. So it makes

17:25

that process good .

17:26

Well , can you and I get , and I'm gonna

17:28

, I have a question I when ask you there, but I'm

17:30

gonna say that like I guarantee now that you've

17:33

got those reasons why you now have

17:35

a powerful retention tool for your CSM because

17:37

you can eventually show these people, you

17:39

came because of this and look what you've

17:42

done, right?

17:43

Yeah , yeah. And also gives Jared a direction,

17:45

like are they looking for a total life

17:47

transformation or are they looking

17:50

for just, are they transferring from another gym

17:52

and they just wanna work out ? Cause like you

17:54

don't wanna sit down in the office, spend

17:57

an hour and they're like, oh yeah, no, I

17:59

just am like transferring from the other city. I

18:01

just want a place to work out . It's like, oh, okay , well we

18:03

could have done that over the , you know , over the phone almost

18:06

. So it's

18:08

<laugh> so it's really nice to get those five reasons

18:10

why. Um, cuz you

18:12

get the haven't worked out in 10 years or

18:14

moving from Texas just looking for a new

18:16

awesome gym . Yeah . It's like, oh perfect. Well

18:19

that intro, that that , that knows what intro

18:21

goes a lot better that way.

18:23

Oh , that's, that's interest you . Now what are some of

18:25

the things that you might hear or Jared might

18:27

hear on the five reasons why, what , what kinda stuff comes

18:29

up regularly?

18:32

Uh, <laugh> , well mostly

18:34

, um, you know, if they're

18:36

not talking to you directly, they

18:39

usually get a little more personal. Uh , I

18:41

don't know what forever reason, like when you give them space

18:43

to think they can

18:45

get a little bit more personal. So it has a lot to

18:47

do with just , uh, not putting themselves

18:50

first. Um, they're

18:52

, you know, obviously covid hit

18:54

a lot. They've been sitting at home for

18:56

a couple years and then they need to do something

18:58

else. Um, their , their

19:00

kids are grown. Um,

19:03

but usually it's just, I haven't put myself first

19:05

in a long time and I need

19:07

something that's gonna kick my to

19:10

gear.

19:11

Holy Fran. Right? Like that's, that

19:13

is some leverage in a sales meeting,

19:15

Right? Oh my gosh. Yeah . It's game changer

19:17

.

19:17

Yeah. Cause like all of a sudden, rather

19:19

than saying you should sign up for this thing, you

19:22

can say if you sign up for this

19:24

thing, you are going to accomplish this

19:27

powerful emotional thing that you wanna

19:29

accomplish. Right? Like, it must give

19:31

Jared , just like all the tools in the , in the , in

19:33

the toolbox,

19:34

Everything, he knows exactly where to

19:36

talk to exactly what program might fit best

19:38

for them. There's no wasted time or

19:40

space into different things. Most

19:43

people are coming in pretty deconditioned from

19:45

the last couple years. And so

19:47

personal training is obviously through the roof right

19:50

now. Um, just cuz they don't feel comfortable

19:52

going into a large class. And

19:54

so yeah, it just gives him everything he needs to know

19:56

in that consultation to give

19:59

uh , them the best ability to , uh,

20:02

pick the right plan so they'll stay around a

20:04

long time.

20:05

I , I'm gonna hammer this point because

20:07

I do, every successful gym owner that I

20:10

speak to has systems and

20:12

procedures. You clearly have a retention system,

20:14

you know, your client journey, you have a sales procedure, you

20:17

know, did you ever run this gym without

20:19

that stuff? Like back in the day? Were you kind

20:21

of doing it by the seat of your pants

20:24

<laugh> , like for the first 10 years?

20:26

<laugh> ,

20:28

Whatever ?

20:29

Yeah . Yeah ,

20:30

People stayed . I don't know why people stayed . Maybe

20:32

we we're the only cross red box in town. I don't know

20:34

. But yeah, no

20:36

processes or procedures really.

20:39

What year is this for you now ?

20:40

This is , uh, 13.

20:42

Okay . So three years ago you kind of started formalizing

20:44

stuff. What happened when you did that?

20:47

That Yeah , it was really just because we were growing

20:50

quite a bit and uh,

20:52

well sorry we weren't

20:54

growing but we were getting lots of people

20:57

in.

20:58

Ah-huh

20:58

<affirmative> . So it was like , this is weird . Like

21:00

what's

21:01

<crosstalk> anyone out ?

21:03

Yeah . There was no , yeah , like two

21:05

years in a row we were basically exactly

21:08

the same. And I was like, that's weird cuz

21:10

we do a lot of onboarding

21:12

<laugh> , so like something's

21:15

not right. Yeah. So yeah,

21:17

just uh , just uh , getting that CSM

21:20

there , uh, having people reach out,

21:22

making sure everyone's good. Um

21:24

, that has been just a huge, huge

21:27

game changer . And then just, yeah, making sure, you

21:29

know, people that do it did need a full transformation. Maybe

21:32

they were just being put into class and we didn't really

21:34

know because cuz they didn't know, they

21:36

didn't know what we offered. So

21:38

sitting down and just showing them the

21:40

menu like, hey, from what , from what your

21:42

answers are, I think this is your best

21:44

bet. Uh, that

21:47

was, that was just huge,

21:49

huge for them .

21:50

Huge for the gym too. Like huge for them.

21:52

They get exactly what they need. You get increased

21:54

revenue, it's a big deal. Yeah . Do you remember

21:57

what that number was three years ago that you were stuck at when

21:59

it was kind of that one in , one out ? Not , you know , just putting

22:01

along ,

22:02

It was around two 20 , we couldn't

22:05

get past . It was like 2

22:09

20, 2 40, 2 15, 2 35 , just like over and over. And

22:11

, uh, we always had our core group, but

22:13

we couldn't get past that core group

22:16

it seemed like. Um, and

22:18

then yeah, slowly implementing

22:21

what the CSM would do and , um,

22:23

having them go from that intro 90

22:26

days and past has been

22:28

definitely a big, big, big game changer .

22:30

So three years ago stuck

22:33

at a number and

22:35

obviously, you know, kind of leaving revenue on

22:37

the table. If people are leaving all the time, you're doing all this onboarding,

22:39

but they're not staying or someone else is leaving

22:41

while they're not , while you're doing that. But three years ago

22:44

you put structures, systems and procedures

22:46

in place and all of a sudden look

22:49

what happens. Have I got that right? Yeah,

22:51

Yeah. I mean it's all about giving the member

22:53

or client the best experience possible. And

22:56

we weren't. So we've just been slowly 1%

22:58

trying to be like, okay , how can we dial that in a little

23:00

bit more for the member? Not , not

23:02

even to make our job easy, even though it did. How

23:05

can we make their life easy? How

23:07

can we make it more digestible for them to

23:10

come in, get through their 90 days, feel comfortable?

23:13

And so yeah. And it and , and it

23:15

in turn it's made our life so much easier.

23:17

Yeah. And the reason I hammer this is that

23:19

no successful gym owner from our leader board

23:21

who has come on this show has yet said to me, I

23:24

did it without systems and procedures and policies. No

23:26

one said that. Yeah , it's always comes down to that. Whatever

23:29

they are, it's always that, you

23:31

know,

23:31

Always. Yeah, for sure. I wish I would've done

23:34

that a long time

23:34

Ago. Oh , me too. Back in , uh, 2010

23:36

, I think I'd be, I'd be retired by now if I had

23:39

<laugh> .

23:40

Oh , for sure. Oh , I can only imagine the amount

23:43

of members we lost for really no good reason.

23:45

Like literally it no good

23:47

reason. Just like, well you never called

23:49

me <laugh>.

23:51

Add the members times the months , times the years

23:53

and , and times your average revenue per , you know,

23:56

the monthly rate or whatever and you start looking at

23:58

some six figure numbers pretty fast and it's horrifying.

24:00

Yeah ,

24:01

I don't wanna do that .

24:02

I did it. It was not a pleasant experience.

24:05

My friend <laugh> , we got into six figures and

24:07

I just put my head in my hands and, you

24:09

know, drove my 2008 Honda Civic

24:11

to , you know , buy a bottle of beer, <laugh> <laugh>

24:14

. But anyways, that's why we're here. Run a

24:17

profitable gym is the name of the show. And we're trying to help people avoid the

24:19

mistakes that we made. And so I'm telling you guys,

24:21

retention sales systems, put

24:23

them in place . Let's , uh, let's

24:25

close this out. You've got a great

24:27

member total . Now what's your focus at

24:30

this point? Are you looking for even more people? Are you looking

24:32

for higher a m like average revenue

24:34

per member , increased length of engagement? Like what is , what

24:36

are your metrics goals right now?

24:39

Our metrics would definitely bem

24:42

Average revenue per member drive that up.

24:45

Um, yes. And, but yeah

24:49

, yeah, I guess it's kind of a tie. We definitely wanna

24:51

keep these people a long time. We don't really have

24:53

any growth goals because we, we

24:55

think that taking care of the first

24:57

two, you know, the arm and

24:59

the uh, the leg will

25:02

kind of take care of the membership

25:04

count. So we don't really have any specific

25:07

growth goals as of right now, but

25:09

definitely length, length of engagement

25:11

would be high for us

25:13

right now. And , um,

25:15

getting our CSMs just

25:17

so dialed in. So every member, whether

25:20

you're day one or year 10, you

25:23

feel like special and the same and

25:26

, uh, make sure no one's left out. And

25:28

that's pretty easy at a hundred,

25:31

really hard at 300. So

25:33

that's definitely gonna be the next hurdle. Um,

25:36

coming up is as we grow, it's

25:39

just gonna be tougher and tougher to make sure everyone

25:41

feels good and special and part of the team at

25:43

the gym. So that's definitely where our, our

25:46

heads are at .

25:47

But you've got staff people in place who

25:49

have specific roles and tasks and duties to

25:52

do that, so you're gonna be further ahead

25:54

than someone who's like, wow, I've got 300 members

25:56

and no people who know what to do

25:58

here.

25:59

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.

26:02

Listeners, the secret

26:04

to a high client total is

26:07

retention and acquisition,

26:09

but mostly retention, right? If they leave,

26:11

it doesn't matter. You have to keep

26:14

your clients, you would do really well right now

26:16

if you're looking, listening to the show, looking to add clients, what

26:18

can you do to keep your current clients look

26:20

at that first after that, strike

26:23

out those marketing sales systems and so forth. Cause those are

26:25

important too, but they're not important if you're pouring people

26:28

into a leaky bucket and they're coming out the

26:30

bottom. Jake, thank you so much for

26:32

sharing all this info. I love talking to successful

26:34

gym owners who are happy and willing to

26:36

share their knowledge with other people. Thank you.

26:38

Yeah, Mike, no problem. Anytime

26:41

.

26:41

That was Jake Fields. This is Run a

26:43

Profitable Gym. I'm your host, Mike Warkin , and

26:45

I'll help you do exactly that, run

26:48

a profitable gym every week. Please subscribe

26:50

for more episodes, and if you're on YouTube, please

26:52

hit that like button as well. Now,

26:55

here's two brain founder Chris Cooper with a final word.

26:57

Hey, it's two Brain founder Chris Cooper with a

26:59

quick note. The Gym Owners United Facebook

27:01

group has more than 5,600

27:04

members and it's growing daily.

27:06

If you aren't benefiting from the free

27:08

tips and tactics and resources that

27:11

I post daily in that group, what

27:13

are you waiting for? Get in there and grow

27:16

your business. That's Jim Owners United

27:18

on Facebook, or www jim

27:20

owners united.com. Join today.