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This episode is sponsored by InBody.Commander Mark Divine is the founder of SEALFit. He’s the author of Unbeatable Mind, The Way of the SEAL, 8 Weeks To SEALFIT and his new book, Kokoro Yoga. In this episode, Mark talks about using Yoga to develop a warrior’s mindset and improve athleticism. This isn’t the foo-foo stretchy-pants-and-fancy-mats yoga from a Lululemon poster: this is the battle-born practice of preparation.0:00 – Commander Divine talks about his background and development: being trained as an accountant, and finding his way to war7:00 – Mark finds CrossFit7:40 – “Yoga is really a personal development system”10:00 – Developing SealFIT, the “working out” program and the “working in” program 10:45 – Kokoro Camp is a test11:40 – “Not everyone in the world is attracted to SEALFit-type training. My desire is to reach as many people as possible.” Mark talks about using his service to approach entrepreneurs and corporate types in a different path from athletes.15:50 – The Flow State20:20 – “Yoga means i

Jim Wendler is one of the best-known names in modern powerlifting. Thanks to his association with Westside Barbell, EliteFTS and his book, you probably think you know a lot about him already. In this episode, we go deeper than the Wikipedia page to talk about Jim's mentors, his values, and his concept of "freedom."

On August 12, 2011, Jason Brown and Danielle Bjorkman went for coffee. By September 19, they owned an affiliate together.The CrossFit gym was their first bond, but not their last. Within that first month, they started a relationship and moved in together."I don't like to gamble, but if there's one thing I'll bet on, it's myself."6:35: "No one outworks my husband. And I'm sure he'd say the same thing about me."8:39: Living on credit cards14:00: How the Browns spend a typical day doing the things they LIKE15:14: Jason talks about BoxProgramming.com (more to come on this)17:26: How defining roles helps partners respect one another19:15: Knowing the RIGHT roles for staff22:38: How paying others makes you the time to make more money27:00: Danielle talks about where she gets her huge ideas, like the WOD & Wine, Bright Spots and #CEOSaturday29:20: What to do when you have GREAT IDEAS and NO TIME35:57: Danielle gives advice on surviving business startup as a coupl

People who do Obstacle Races want three things:1. Something new2. Something they can do with their friends3. Something that scares them a little.They can find all of those things in CrossFit, of course, but many don't know it yet. Rich Borgatti sits at the nexus between Obstacle Course Racing and CrossFit. In this episode, he talks about the overlap; how to train racers; and how to get them into your gym.

Dr. Ryan DeBell is founder of The Movement Fix.He's been doing CrossFit for 9 years. When he opened his clinic, Dr. DeBell began traveling around to CrossFit gyms with a little two-hour presentation to help lifters. After he published a watershed post, "The Best-Kept Secret: Why People Have to Squat Differently," he was invited to bring his paid seminar to over 20 boxes. That was two years ago; he's already booked for 30 weekends in 2016.This podcast presents a fresh perspective on some prevalent dogma in our community. You'll see topics like "butt wink", the "perfect" squat and foam rolling in a new light!4:15 - "Can you have too much mobility?"6:10 - Two types of stability11:45 - Different methods of abdominal bracing, from wall balls to heavy cleans15:10 - Learning and "muscle memory"17:00 - Why your squat doesn't look like mine18:30 - The Real Purpose of the "Butt Wink" (link to blog post)25:20 - "Are the ones we see on T

F your Funnel.Why start your marketing plan with the people LEAST likely to want your service, and then try to filter out 90% of your audience? It's like cutting down a whole tree to find the right twig.Instead, start from a seed. Build a tree on which EVERY branch bears fruit. That's Affinity Marketing.Affinity marketing starts with your SEED clients: those perfect members who are most tightly connected to your brand. Then we move outward from the center: helping those people who are most tightly connected to your perfect client. Then, ring by ring, we identify the spheres of influence owned by the client.I give a few examples in this podcast, and then diverge into psychological and behavioral retention strategies.

You should be able to make a great living from 150 clients.The "low-rate, high-volume" approach doesn't work. Every week, I get on a phone call with a gym owner who sums up their failing business this way:"I just need more clients." Usually, they don't.As strong gyms begin to absorb weak ones, owners on the cusp of success are finding their way to our mentorship at an increasing rate. In many cases, one of the first orders of business is to increase rates and eliminate discounts.Usually, the gym owner is nervous about raising rates. Sometimes they realize it has to be done to save their business; these are the lucky ones, because the burden of choice has been removed from them. But with the strategy I'll outline below, the process is NEVER as bad as they think, and usually results in a large immediate gain.Shannan Garcia purchased Adamant CrossFit when the gym was at a low point. It had a great community, led by a charismatic coach...but wasn't even breaking even. Her p

Pieter-Jan Buysmans is the owner of CrossFit Hasselt in Belgium.He's also an innovator. When a back injury sidelined his career as a professional snowboarder, Pieter found CrossFit. Now he owns two gyms, and his systems are so dialed he ran both remotely for six weeks after a recent surgery.This time away from the day-to-day operation gave him weeks to pursue new ideas and growth--the things we call "CEO Time" in Two-Brain Business. But he's been pursuing the idea of Heart Rate Monitoring for over a year.In this second of two episodes on Tech, Pieter walks through using heart rate monitors from two perspectives: as a coach and as a gym owner. Are they effective training tools, or just a nice novelty? We're going to find out.

Ray Gowlett is a professional MMA fighter, motocross racer and research skeptic.His lab contains almost 600 subjects (it's a high school) and Ray is constantly seeking new ways to teach and coach. Many of these kids are high-level athletes; just as many don't want to be in the class at all. He's always trying new things, but this cross-pollination of students means every innovation has to satisfy two standards:1. It has to make people fitter;2. It has to make people happier.Sound familiar?Ray coined the phrase we repeat at Catalyst often: "Exercise until you're happy." It's the base of the hierarchy he teaches students. He also teaches research skepticism: how to read and rank the value of "research." Imagine a generation of people who believe what they read on Facebook: that's what's coming, except for the students in Ray's classes.I introduce this episode with the question, "Are we measuring 2016 results with 2001 technology?" CrossFit co

Larris Hutton is a Major in the US Army, a JAG lawyer, and a box owner. He has a unique model: fewer clients with higher value in a smaller space.CrossFit Prelude provides full-time careers for his coaches. Larris' box isn't one of the most expensive in the area, but his ARM is very high. And he does it all in 1100 square feet.How? He believes a box owner should behave like a LEADER instead of a COACH. In this interview, he'll tell us the difference.In "Critical Questions," I talk about the difference between seminars, systems and mentoring. Our next seminar is April 16!

In this episode, I talk with Jason Ackerman about selling two of his gyms and setting up his third. More and more, entrepreneurs are purchasing gyms from others, or buying out their partners, or selling their gyms. To help, I provide a Gym Valuation Tool (thanks to RigQuipment) and then answer the question, "Should I De-Affiliate?" (answer: no.)

Sam Brumenschenkel is a behavior therapist and co-owner of CrossFit Port Orange with her husband, Kyle. Nicole Marchand is a Registered Dietitian in Florida, where box owners can't legally prescribe a diet without the oversight of an RD.Before the conversation started, I mentioned two great ideas from other affiliate owners:Butch Santucci uses the Meijer grocery "curb" service in Michigan. Butch owns Wreck Room CrossFit.Jennifer Broxterman is the owner of NutritionRx, and her husband Dave owns CrossFit London. Her "Healthy Meal Exchange Group" is described here. You can download instructions to run the program in YOUR box free here:Healthy-Meal-Exchange-GroupWhen Sam and her husband Kyle learned about the Stratified Model through Two-Brain Business: Grow Your Gym (Volume 1) and the mentoring program, they decided nutrition was their best path to increase ARM...but in Florida, legal hurdles stopped her from using her Precision Nutrition certification with her clients."I wanted a p

I do up to a dozen free calls every week. On 90% of them, I hear this comment:"I just need 10 more clients."It's usually not true.But if it IS true, this episode will present a new option for getting a ton of clients. Tommy Hackenbruck has acquired well over 100 after running the program three times; Ken Andrukow signed up 120 after running it ONCE.Full show notes at http://twobrainbusiness.com/episode-17-the-new-you-challenge-with-tommy-hackenbruck

Every gym owner is aware of the "Baby Boomer" market--that massive way of the newly-retired--but most aren't sure how to attract seniors into their program. The key, says Alexander, is to understand what THEY want--or what their kids want FOR them.Many of these 50-60-year-olds are watching their parents decline into decrepitude, physically and mentally, and think, "That's never going to happen to me." At the same time they might perceive a regular CrossFit class to be beyond their capacity. Some, like Wayne, will seek Personal Training; but others will be attracted to Alexander's model. And we go through the pricing, programming and marketing components in this episode.Tyler Belanger is cofounder of IgniteGym and co-author of Enrichment Through Exercise. His daily BrainWODs are being used in gyms around the world to help special populations and add cognitive enrichment to exercise classes. BrainWODs can be a differentiating element in your Seniors' program, and research

Imagine it's 2003. Your high school volleyball coach decides weightlifting will help the team's jumping, so he Googles "clean and jerk Santa Cruz."The coach was Tony Budding, and Pat Barber was on the volleyball team. Over the last 13 years, Barber has "grown up" with CrossFit, first training in the original HQ gym and then becoming part of the early CrossFit Media staff. His first competition was filmed in "Every Second Counts" (Barber is the cover model) and he's made the Games as an individual and Team athlete several times since 2008.Now he's Head of Coach Development for NorCal CrossFit, and founder of WarmupandWorkout.com with his wife, Taz.In "Coach's Confessional," I talk about trying to keep every client (mistake!) and how to fire the bad ones. Recorded on January 15, 2016.

Sean Manseau is the author of “By The Numbers.”A former animator, Sean found CrossFit in 2005 and believed he was “the only person in New York who had ever heard of CrossFit.” As often happens, he was drawn to coaching after a few years as an athlete.In the animation world, a “master animator” draws the major positions of movement, and then an assistant draws all the joint angles between those positions. Sean teaches the major positions and assigns them a number–hence, “By the Numbers.”Sean refers to “rhyming positions”–positions that are identical across different exercises. “The second position of the deadlift is really close to the bottom of the KB swing, which is really close to the hang position of the clean…” he says. When he’s coaching, he can relate new cues to previous positions.We talked about “drawing the line” between intensity and sloppy movement. Sean says the line will depend on an individual coach’s “quality of mercy.” While he agrees a coach must take the long view on client training, he name

Doug Chapman was the 13th CrossFit affiliate. At his peak, he had 400 members at HyperFit in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Though that number has declined in recent years, he's best known for his online programming for athletes such as Julie Foucher. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Lindsey Valenzuela, Jennifer Smith, Nick Urankar, Neil Maddox, Chyna Cho, Jacob Heppner—they're all coached remotely by Doug. But his gym doesn't focus on competition. "If you focus on competitive CrossFit, you're going to ruin your business," he said. At the 1:09 mark, Nancy arrives. She's a retired lawyer and law professor, and she has a lot to say about training seniors with CrossFit. Doug steps aside for a few minutes and lets me talk to Nancy instead. As Doug moves more toward personal training and small group training (instead of teaching classes,) he talks about what makes a great trainer vs. a great coach and why many coaches should do more PT to improve their class coaching.

This podcast is about ideas.Every week, I try to introduce a guest whose ideas aren't exactly the same as your own. Sometimes they're VERY different; sometimes they iterate an old idea differently. Sometimes I agree with the idea, and sometimes I don't. That doesn't matter: the ideas provide context.Too often, we all get caught in the "get 10 more clients!" mindset instead of looking at the bigger picture. We think more about spearing fish on our little reef than rising above the surface to check the tide, position of the sun, and look for storm fronts.Luckily, I get to talk to hundreds of gym owners every week - a few dozen in person, a few hundred online, and thousands through blog posts and this podcast. There's some amazing stuff happening in gyms, through gyms and around gyms. There are ideas out there that are strange now, but could become the norm within three years.

Coach Mike Rutherford did his "Level One" before there was a "Level One." The group was so small, Greg Glassman introduced each person. When Greg reached Rutherford, he reportedly said, "He is my Coach. I've been learning and copying what Rut does. It is essential to CrossFit now. Our athletes are getting so much better.He is my Coach." Two attendees of the same seminar (Michael Halbfish and Jeff Martin) confirmed that quote. The owner of Bootcamp Fitness KC (CrossFit Kansas City), Rut created the Max Effort Black Box (MEBB) system, and later DBWOD.In "Critical Questions," I talk about automating tasks that aren't worth your time. Last week's big 8-Day Giveaway ended on a massive note, with a free email automation from RunYourGym.com. Almost 300 gyms signed up to get the gift (thanks again, Matt and Jake!) and I see "Couch to CrossFit" posts everywhere. Like many, I thought I'd just take the free gift and roll with it...and then realized ju

Jake Johnson served two tours in Iraq as a Marine. He returned home and pursued a career as a firefighter, where he now serves as a lieutenant. After one particular call to rescue an obese woman, Jake decided to open CrossFit Gettysburg to proactively help people.Now he's partnered with Matt Verlaque to create RunYourGym.com, an email marketing service specifically made for gyms. Today, he's GIVING you an amazing gift.The Couch to CrossFit strategy is a standalone program geared towards getting new members into the gym. The downloads you'll get free are over 8,000 words of free content including:14 pre-written emailsa facebook post4 handoutsan infographica complete 4-week training program.Show notes: http://twobraincoaching.com/episode-10-automated-marketing-and-huge-giveaway/Link to get the gift: www.runyourgym.com/chriscooper