Built To Grow

This episode marks Tim’s 41st birthday. Last year, for the 40th birthday, we did a big birthday giveaway for GPS marketing and a lot of people got tons of value from it. This year, Tim feels generous and asked in the fitness professional Facebook group what members in the group wanted. Everybody replying to the post wanted to get into the Iron circle.The iron circle is an amazing group of high level-gym owners. We don’t advertise the group and haven’t taken in more people since round one in October last year. The group is all about helping each other and learning from each other.The second thing that people wanted was our Private Client Coaching, which is our 8-week step by step process on how to create systems around your operations. The Iron Circle is $30,000 a year and the Private coaching program is $15k a year for a combined total of $45 grand. Being in the Iron Circle gives you access to everything we offer for free. For Tim’s birthday, for $20,000, you will get membership to the Iron Circle and Private

In this episode we talk about what to expect when you reopen. We have some hard data to share with gym owners in states that are yet to reopen. The data is very promising and points to the fact that your clients want to come back. From what we have seen so far with our clients in the gym, 80% are ready to come back. Our sessions have been packed across the board. About 50% of the clients we had lost to freezing due to the shutdown have reactivated and were still waiting on a few more to come back.We’ve also got some new clients, without doing much marketing. Just some email and text message blasts to our non-clients lists telling them we’ve reopened and have a one-month free offer if they sign up for one year. We have 8 new clients from the first four days we have reopened and others coming in the next few days. This shows gym owners that your old clients and some new clients are ready to come in once you reopen. This is the chance for gym owners to realign their operations and bring in the change they’ve alw

In this episode, we talk about optimizing your day as a gym owner through spending time on the most profitable parts of your business. To help achieve this, we have an exercise known as Automate, Delegate, Eliminate. The exercise involves writing down everything that you do in a day. Every task that takes up your time, note it down. Against this list, have three columns with checkboxes for every item. The columns are Automate, Delegate, Eliminate. For every task, decide if you can eliminate it, if you cannot, decide if you can automate or delegate it. Part of being a business owner is automating and creating systems. It gives you the peace of mind and efficiency to your day to accomplish more. Automate Delegate Eliminate exercise is about optimizing your day getting your time back. So then you can reinvest that time into income-producing activities as the owner and build the business and scaleKey TakeawaysBeing intentional on how you spend your time as a gym owner (05:24)Automate, Delegate, Automate exercise

Gym owners need to be ready to open as soon as they get the green light from their state. If you hesitate and wait, your clients will find another place that is open. Clients are ready to go back to the gym. In our case, we have our schedule packed and some clients are on the waiting list. Get your gym ready with the cleaning and sanitizing, and all you have to do so that as soon as you are allowed to open, you are not caught sleeping.There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be ready. You had several weeks to prepare for reopening. Your clients are waiting for you to reopen the gym. The trend across all gyms that have reopened is that clients are trooping back in. Figuring how to keep clients safe with your team is not a difficult thing to do. As a gym owner, you are smart and should figure this out pretty quickly. You should not buy anything that is being marketed to you as a golden ticket on how to reopen your gym. Save that money.  For states that are yet to reopen, gym owners can be advocates for t

Some companies in the fitness space have been marketing to gym owners that brick and mortar gyms are dead and will never come back. This is a complete lie meant to scare gym owners and market to them to shift their business to online training. It is unfortunate that this kind of marketing is happening. It is based on guesses of what could happen.This is fear-mongering that is completely untrue. Those companies are exploiting the situation we are in to sell their products. Gym owners should not fall for this. They should not believe what could happen. They should look at what is happening with the gyms that are already reopening. Brick and mortar gyms are not dead. Gym owners should be ready for their business reopening and should not close their gyms. You can poll your own clients to prove this. You will find out what is being marketed to you is not true. Your clients are ready to come back as soon as you open. Gym owners who have been in business for a number of years and have their clientele should not fall

As we get prepared to reopen our gym business, we have decided to go back to the roots, the fundamentals of why we are in this business in the first place. People are looking for direction, they need that motivation to get moving again, this is the right time for gym owners to evaluate why they are in the health and fitness industry.Rediscovering your passion and your purpose for being in this industry is very important. The initial reasons why you decided to take the risk and get into this business. This is what will help keep you going in these hard times we are in. It will also help you serve the community and help others achieve their health and fitness goals. As professionals and business owners in the health and fitness industry, we need to use our voice to raise awareness about the devastating effects on people’s health if we continue being closed. Mental health, domestic violence, cardiovascular problems are all issues that need to be addressed even with COVID. There has never been a greater need for

In this episode, Tim and Randy will address everything that’s going on in the fitness industry due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses (including gyms) are still shut down save for the state of Georgia which is slowly re-opening businesses, and it’s expected that other states will follow suit if governments are able to ensure that there are no new cases of infections. But considering that the risks are still going to be there, gym businesses will have to ensure their existing and new members that their facilities are safe for them to use by implementing stringent health and safety (with lots of cleaning) protocols.This will be a great time for a gym owner to make changes in their gym as they implement the protocols because clients will be in the mentality of expecting changes. Gyms will be expected to keep their clients six foot apart, safe, healthy, and happy, and any gym that will fail in that will lose clients fast and be out of business. Tim has been implementing that at Pulse Fitness, and

In this episode, Tim and Randy will be joined by a return special guest, Rick Mayo. Rick is the owner of Alloy Personal Training Solutions and has been a great friend and mentor to Tim. He will join Tim and Randy to talk about the fact that he has recently reopened his fitness business and share what the experience has been like. He’s based in the state of Georgia where the governor announced phase one for the reopening of specific businesses, including gyms. Rick has several gyms in the state and one of them reopened successfully while the biggest one, where he’s located, was the second one to reopen. Before opening their doors to the public, he procured the services of an industrial cleaning company to do a COVID-19 treatment in the entire gym so they could be sure that it was free from the virus. He made a very interesting observation about their clientele and how they reacted to their reopening. Some were very skeptical about it and felt that the gym would put people’s lives at risk, while others held ont

In this episode, Tim and Randy will welcome Martin Rooney, an internationally-recognized coach, fitness expert, sought-after presenter and bestselling author. Martin is the former COO of the Parisi Speed School and the founder of the Training for Warriors system. The TFW System is now being operated in over 200 facilities in 20 countries worldwide, and his programs have been used by over one million youth athletes and adults. A former US bobsledder, Division I track athlete, Judo black belt, record-setting powerlifter, and two-time Guinness World Record holder, Martin not only has the academic and athletic background, but also first-hand coaching experience of what it takes to run global organizations.As a coach, Martin has been listed in the top 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness for the last 5 years, and in 2015, he was inducted into the Personal Trainer Hall of Fame. Over the last 15 years, he has traveled to over 35 countries to help prepare world-class athletes and teach trainers, coaches

In this episode, Tim and Randy will welcome Dr. John Berardi, the co-founder of Precision Nutrition, founder of the Change Maker Academy, and the author of the Change Maker book that helps health and fitness professionals navigate the huge, competitive, and confusing industry they’re in, make sense of chaos, and lay out a clear roadmap for their success. Precision Nutrition is the world’s largest nutrition coaching, education, and software company while Change Maker Academy is more focused on impact and is devoted to helping would-be change makers turn their passion for health and fitness into a powerful purpose and a wildly successful career.Over the last 15 years, John has advised Apple, Equinox, Nike, and Titleist, as well as the San Antonio Spurs, Carolina Panthers, US Open Champ Sloane Stephens, and 2-division UFC Champ Georges St. Pierre. He has also been named one of the 20 smartest coaches in the world and 100 most influential people in health and fitness. Stay tuned as he shares the biggest lessons h

In this episode, Tim and Randy will give us a broad-stroke overview of what the Built to Grow Podcast is all about, who it is they endeavor to help, and how they’ve been helping gym owners win every day by growing their fitness businesses. Winning could mean different things for different gym owners, but for Tim and Randy, they see winning for a gym owner as having a gym that operates without them while still making money and having their business supporting their lifestyle so they can have time to do what they love. Their goal is to always deliver value to gym owners by disseminating the kind of information that they can take into their gyms and personal lives, and implement it so they can achieve their desired results. They will dive into what being a business owner should look like and it all boils down to whether one will be employed by their business or own their business. These are two different things. When one owns their business, they have the systems in place that run the business with or without th

In this episode, Tim and Randy will be joined by Adam Trenk, an attorney and partner at Rose Law Group based out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Adam represents both tenants and landlords in a lot of cases and is going to talk about landlord lease agreements especially in the context of all the changes that have been going on in the gym ownership community due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim and Randy invited him over to the show to help gym owners navigate the uncharted waters they’re in right now, so they can hopefully get out of this ahead.Adam is already working with gym owners, and he recently negotiated on a gym owner’s behalf with their landlord to get them a smooth deal for their gym. He got a three-month moratorium on rent payments and an agreement that the lease would then be extended by three months, and the landlord also agreed to waive some of the common area maintenance charges and reduce the base rent for the next 12 months once the gym owner restarts rent payments. That may turn out to be a smoking deal

In this episode, Tim and Randy will talk about how gym owners can leverage the ProFit Client Lifecycle Automation for their online training programs, and they will focus more on communication automation which includes email, text message, and voicemail. Voicemail, for example, is a very underutilized but effective way for a gym to get the message to their prospects and clients. When Tim and Randy were transitioning to online training at Pulse Fitness, they used a software to blast out all of their current clients to give them instructions on a recording that went right to their voicemail. They also leverage that for new leads that come into their online program by setting those voicemails automatically.When a gym runs an offer, ad, or funnel, and they get the necessary client information, they most often use an autoresponder to send a single email to the lead to try and get them to book an appointment, but with automation, that lead can be nurtured continuously until they book an appointment. Once they book t

In this episode, Tim and Randy will discuss whether gym owners should proactively reach out to their clients to lower their memberships to the lowest level during this time that gyms are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue came up in a group that Tim is a member of where a gym owner was sharing how she keeps getting emails from clients requesting if they can freeze their memberships and it’s really draining her, so she was asking for advice on whether she should email all her clients and give them the option to freeze or lower their memberships.Tim will highlight a piece of advice that came from one of the group members who said that there is no need for any gym owner to contact all their members asking them to change, freeze, or cancel their memberships because every individual member is very much capable of deciding all on their own if they want to change, freeze, or cancel their membership. They will discuss some of the different ways gym owners are currently handling charging their members and

In this episode, Tim and Randy will talk about how gym owners can make the most out of the current situation with the Coronavirus shutdowns by focusing on the different areas of their businesses that will enable them to come out prepared when the shutdowns and the global pandemic are over. They have been encouraging and helping gym owners set up their online training programs, and they’re going to dive into whether it would be beneficial for the gym owners to keep those online programs running even after they’re open for business again.Online training was there even before the current pandemic and there’s a type of person that it appeals to, while there’s a type of person who prefers to go to the gym to workout with a coach. But now, gym owners are forced to take their members into their online programs because they’ve been forced to close shop, and the gym members are getting used to it and even learning to enjoy it. So now there is a chance that after gyms are re-opened, some of the members will prefer to s

Tim and Randy bring on special guest Tax Strategist Shauna Wekherlein to discuss what the new Stimulus Plan. In a roundtable discussion with gym owners, they cover what actions should be taken in order to take advantage of these benefits.Resources:Book a time with Shauna: https://my.timetrade.com/book/VPXMJ --If you are interested in a free audit for your gym, visit http://bit.ly/free_gym_audit--You can find out more about Tim and the strategies covered in this episode by checking out our website.--Would you rather watch the video version instead?Head over to our YouTube channel to watch this episode by going here--If you don’t already have my book, get your copy FREE here.--Connect with Tim:Schedule A CallFacebookInstagramLinkedInConnect with Randy:FacebookInstagram--Subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, YouTube or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts.If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

In this episode, Tim and Randy will continue sharing their advice to gym owners on how they can maneuver the shutdowns happening due to the Coronavirus pandemic, so they can keep serving their members as best as possible. They’ll start off by addressing the fact that most gym owners are concerned about how they can keep their businesses running and growing. The last two weeks or so have been tough for them, and they’ve been on the defensive trying to keep every one of their clients and maintain their revenues. Some gym owners have so far chosen to freeze their memberships until they can open back up again, but Tim completely advises against that because there are way more better options.Some of those options include doing online training, which Tim has been doing at Pulse, and it has worked pretty well because it’s fun for both the coaches and members. There are a lot more gyms that have implemented the online training as well as other programs, and Tim and Randy will talk all about that, so we can learn how

In this episode, Tim and Randy will share the recording of a special Zoom meeting they recently had with over 30 gym owners to share ideas and insights into how to handle keeping clients on track during this time that all gyms have been forced to shut down due to Covid-19. They will share ideas on how to keep their doors from closing for good despite all the uncertainty surrounding the forced closures.Tim, Randy, and some of the gym owners in the Zoom meeting will talk about some of the things they’re doing to figure things out for the survival of their gym businesses including getting transparent with their clients about how their gyms are struggling, taking their training programs online through trainerize, and mainly focusing on coming up with solutions that will help clients continue working out to stay in shape and maintain their health especially with the current Coronavirus pandemic. If you’re looking to see your gym business through the storm gym owners are going through right now, this episode will d

In this episode, Tim and Randy will talk about the recent shutdown of businesses all over the US, including gyms, and how scary a time it is for gym owners. They have personally been affected and their clients have been affected too, which means they won’t be in business until it’s announced that businesses can re-open. Tim predicts that 25% of gyms will not make it out of the shutdown because right now it all boils down to whether gym owners will be able to adapt and sustain their businesses. The government has promised financial assistance to business owners but that always takes too long, so it’s really not offering much hope. In the Built to Grow spirit of helping gym owners win, Tim and Randy will share some of the things themselves and their clients are doing to sustain their gyms so they can help you adapt with your gym. Adapting is the only way a gym will come out strong on the backside of this Coronavirus shutdown, so stay tuned for more, go adapt and stay safe.Key Takeaways:The shutting down of busi

In this episode, Tim and Randy will have a conversation with Wendy Lennon of Create Fitness 24/7 in Brisbane, Australia, who came all the way to meet with Tim and Randy so they could help her with the custom client life-cycle automation (CLA) for her gym. She has owned her gym for five years now and had left the corporate world with no previous fitness experience when she started it. Her main goal with the business was to start something that would enable her to also take care of her young family. Wendy has spent the five years of her gym ownership learning what works in the industry and she felt the need to seek the support of the ProFit team in taking her gym to the next level. Her gym is a 24 hour access gym and she decided to include training in her offering, which is what she’s looking to grow with the CLA while also affording herself some freedom from the business. ProFit did not disappoint because they went above and beyond their standard approach to the CLA and built on a bunch of cool extra features