Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up, guys?

Welcome to another episode of
the I don't even know what this

show is called anymore.

Business Secrets for Gym Owners.

I'm your host, Uncle Vinny.

And I uh many of you know me as
a business guy, but I was a

personal trainer for a real long
time.

I started my career in San Diego
and was a trainer there, banged

60 one-on-one sessions a week
for five years.

So I know what the grind is
like.

And one of the cool parts of the
grind, especially being in San

Diego, was I got to train pro
athletes, and I trained some

pretty good ones.

I was the assistant personal
trainer for Lydanian Tomlinson.

So Durkin was my boss and he
would always train LT.

But when Durkin would go away
and he started to get kind of

well known and famous, so he
would travel a lot.

And so I got to train LT a
bunch.

It was super cool.

But anyway, I got to work with a
lot of the San Diego Chargers.

But one of the guys that I never
worked with and had never even

heard that was on the Chargers
was a guy named Wes Welker.

And if you don't know, Wes
Welker went on to be, I don't

know, think he's a Hall of
Famer, but a very, very, very

good player for the New England
Patriots.

Did not know his name, did not
know he existed.

And I knew like almost every
player on the team.

Like I was, I used to get
invited to players, like parties

at players' houses.

Like I was in with the Chargers.

Didn't know Wes Welker even
existed.

And this guy, two years later,
he's on the Patriots and he's

like scoring all these
touchdowns and Pro Bowl and all

that.

And what was the shift?

The shift was Wes Welker went
into a different system.

And he fit very, very perfectly
into that system.

Wasn't a fit for the Chargers
system at the time, and he was a

perfect fit for the Patriots.

And Belichick put him in there,
and he was just like the best

thing they could ever ask for.

Right?

And so it begs the question of a
really, really good system and a

process for success.

I was on a call recently with
one of our members and CEO,

Mastermind.

He was, I'll tell you his name.

His name's TJ.

And he was our SPF Gym Owner of
the Year Award winner last year.

And I recorded a podcast with
him.

I don't think it'll be released
like in a few months, so it's

not we're well ahead of schedule
with podcasts right now.

But anyway, I did I was talking
to TJ and getting his insights

on stuff, and he started to talk
about the CEO mastermind, which

is essentially a mastermind
that's a boardroom-style

mastermind where it's 12 gym
owners meet, and they they

basically take a two to three
hours to fill out a 15-page

document and then show up for
two days, and then the rest of

the gym owners and myself and
Johashi unpack their business,

right?

And TJ's been doing this for six
years, four times a year, has

never missed a meeting.

And actually, as I record this,
it's the evening before one of

our events.

Actually, this is what January
2026.

This is the sixth year.

So we started January 2020, it
was our first meeting.

So this is January 2026.

And so 24 meetings, four times a
year, never missed a meeting,

and the guy's gone from I think
he was doing well under a half a

million bucks when he started in
that group.

And so he was doing okay.

You know, I don't want to take
all the credit for his success,

but fast forward today, he's
doing, I think, like 1.8 or 1.9

million bucks today.

And he legitimately, and I think
he gives more credit to the

group than he deserves.

He's a talented guy and talented
business owner, but he gives a

ton of credit to the group.

But he really was talking about
the structure.

He's like, if I didn't have this
structure, he said these words.

He said, I don't trust myself to
do it on my own.

He's like, if I don't have this
structure, I ain't getting done.

I ain't looking at my financials
like I look at them.

I'm not looking at my
organizational chart like I look

at it.

And if I didn't have this group
and if I didn't have this thing

that I had to get ready for and
to prepare this document, and

the document's robust.

Like it's it's a pretty robust
document.

It's got stuff about staff, it's
got stuff about finances, it's

got stuff about marketing, it's
got stuff about the sales

process, it's got every data
point you can ever imagine,

right?

It's like a, you know, and it's
interesting, actually, and I

think TJ told me this.

He was he was talking to one of
his athletes' dads, who's like a

big wig investor, right?

Big wig guy.

And he was showing him the
documents that they fill out

that we fill out for CEO
mastermind.

And the the the investor was
like, holy shit.

He was like, This is the most
robust.

He's like, this was impressing
big business people, right?

Um now it's not complex, it's
pretty simple, but it's robust

and it's a lot to fill out.

And it takes some time, it takes
some effort, but it's the

structure of sitting down and
doing the work to identify what

are the challenges of the
business, what are the

opportunities of the business,
what are the threats, right?

What are the things that are
going to possibly get in the way

of the company?

And then unpacking that every
quarter, right?

Not letting six months go by or
a year go by and not come up for

air and think about what needs
to happen.

And so I think it's like a it's
it's a really, really important

point.

And you know, I'm a I'm very
open about my that I run my

companies on EOS.

And EOS is a structure, right?

There's a structure for a
meeting pulse, there's a

structure for, you know, how you
organize your staff, right?

There's a structure for how you
do visioning.

It's a structure.

And it's really, really powerful
and really helpful.

And one of the things that we do
in, so we have that, that's our

CEO mastermind, and that's only
we only have two groups of 12 in

that one.

So there's like it's a small
population of people that are in

that group.

And it's a it's a big chunk of
money to be a part of it.

And I realize it's not for
everybody.

But I try to, I try to do the
same thing in my SPF mastermind,

right?

Where we provide a structure to
hold people accountable.

And that's what TJ was really
talking about.

He was talking about
accountability.

And most gym owners aren't going
to, on their own, pull out their

P ⁇ L, look at it.

Most gym owners on their own
aren't going to, if they don't

have someone locking over them,
look at their leading indicators

and the, you know, how many
leads they got and how many

trials.

Like there needs to be some kind
of of a structure.

And that's kind of what we do in
the in in SPF, and we build that

structure into that.

And one of the big pillars of
the structure is we do a weekly

meeting.

And we meet every Wednesday as a
group.

I know there's a lot of
masterminds out there and they

like do quarterly meetings or
they meet three times a year and

they rent mansions and stuff
like that, but they don't do

shit in between the meetings.

And so I found, and I used to be
part of masterminds like that,

where there was like nothing
else in between.

And I found that this weekly
call that they get on, I taught

one of these calls today as I
speak.

And it's like it's like part of
their business life is to show

up, is to learn something new,
is to hear from other gym

owners, is to ask, get their
questions answered.

And it's part of the structure
of them being a business owner.

And so this is like a I and I
said this to my guys this today

like running a business isn't
the easiest thing in the world

to do.

And it's hard to do on your own.

One of my mentors, Paul Goff,
says one of the reasons why

people fail in business is they
don't have any second voices in

their conversations.

That the conversations are
always in their own head and

it's dancing around and bouncing
around.

And when you have some kind of
an accountability structure,

like TJ does in CEO, like most
of my guys do in SPF, there's a

built-in structure to get that
second voice.

And whether that second voice is
me, whether that second voice is

Joe, whether that second voice
is other gym owners in the

mastermind, you're getting those
second voices.

And it's really, really, really
important.

So one of the things that we do
from a structure standpoint that

I think is is really powerful is
we do quarterly, well, we do it

three times a year.

We do three time a year goal
setting at every meeting.

So we meet in person three times
a year in the in SPF, in the

that's the big meeting.

And we I have a usually a
two-hour block of time where I

will lead everybody through a
goal setting session for the

quarter.

And the goals aren't usually
built around how much money they

want to make or how many leads
they're gonna generate or stuff

like that.

That's stuff that they should
have already set up.

What the goals that I'm talking
about are the things that they

need to accomplish, the projects
they need to start and finish

that help them hit the financial
goals.

You can't just say, I want to
make a million dollars this year

and just like no plan of how to
do it.

Well, the rocks and the and and
the goal setting session is the

how, like how are we gonna get
this done?

And so we set goals around
people, right?

Do we need to make a strategic
hire?

We set goals around roles of the
owner.

What is the role that the owner
needs to take on?

We set goals around onboarding
people into specific roles.

One of the things I was working
on with a business owner

yesterday is they had a general
manager, and they're they're

about to onboard the general
manager into that role.

Well, that's the job of the
owner to onboard the general

manager.

And we want to give it 90 days,
sometimes in something like

that, bigger, to make sure that
that actually gets accomplished.

Because a lot of times there's
there's what's called abdication

going on.

And that's when you be like,
hey, you know, that thing over

there, yeah, yeah, yeah, go do
that.

Business owners do this all the
time.

They don't actually take the
time to onboard people properly

pro properly to delegate things
like they need to delegate, and

they end up struggling because
of it.

There's goals around expansion,
right?

Do we need to open up another
facility?

Do we need to open up a new
product line?

Do we need to, you know,
document a marketing plan?

Do we need to document systems?

All of these things go into the
goal setting process.

And that is really how you stay
focused as a business owner.

You stay focused as a business
owner around two areas.

One is the areas around the
critical drivers of your

business, which are your leads,
your trials that you sell or

consults that you have, your new
clients you sign up, your

attrition.

Right?

Those are critical drivers of
the business.

If those are off track, you
don't need to look at your PL.

That's gonna be off track too.

And so it's important to be
looking at that on a very, very

regular basis and to be making
decisions and doing things based

on what those numbers are
telling you to do.

So for example, if you had a
goal of 10 leads in a week and

you got two, well, you gotta do
something about that.

And that's come becomes what you
focus on.

Right?

You focus to keep those critical
drivers on track.

And then the second piece of
being focused is your what I

call rocks or you call quarterly
goals or whatever you want to

call them, right?

Are those projects?

The projects that we need to
have in our in our in our

business life, like the ones I
just mentioned, and getting to

the end of a quarter and being
like, I said I was gonna do this

and I did it.

It's done.

And that's how confidence is
built.

Confidence is built, and I
didn't know this till not that

long ago.

Confidence is built when you say
you're gonna do something and

you do it.

And so if you set out and your
company sets out to accomplish

hiring a new trainer,
documenting a marketing plan,

and I don't know, launching a
supplement line.

You hang, you hook up with my
buddy Jason DeRoes from Gym

Subs, right?

And you do all those things,
your confidence as a business

owner is gonna grow.

So that's like that's like a big
piece of focus, is those two

things.

Well, it's the critical drivers,
and what are the projects that

I'm deeming most important.

That's what you're focused on.

Because a lot of people, they go
through their life and their

business journey, like, I don't
know if I'm I don't know what to

do.

I don't know if I'm focused on
the right things.

And trust me, I say that knowing
that I've said that many times.

And there's been many times
where I've been in my career and

I'm burying my head in my hands,
like, I don't know what the fuck

to do.

And it's frustrating, it's
really, really frustrating.

But when you're focused, you get
something that's really

important.

You get certainty.

And when you have certainty, you
have a sense of control.

And when you have control, you
feel better.

When you don't have certainty
and you don't have control, you

feel very unstable.

You feel very stressed.

Now, I am not saying that
there's a lot of things you

can't control.

But what you focus on is one of
them.

This is a really, really
important point.

You can control what you focus
on.

Tony Robbins has a line.

What you focus on is what you
feel.

And so when we focus on the
right things and we're focused,

we have certainty.

When we have certainty, we uh
feel like we have control.

And at the end of the day, you
never really have full control.

You're never gonna have total
control over everything.

Sometimes you just gotta let God
have it, right?

But at the end of the day, at
least you're not wading through

your day, not knowing what the
hell's going on.

That gives you some little
insight on focus, that's give a

little some insight on
structure.

But what we try to do is we try
to build that in.

And and you know, I've been
talking about my event that's

coming up, super excited about
it.

It's February 27th, 28th, and
March 1st.

And it's gonna be in Orlando,
Florida.

It's called the Gym Pranos, it's
a play on the Sopranos theme.

I do one event a year that's
themed.

And last year we did a WWE
version.

This year we're doing the Gym
Pranos.

I have lots of shenanigans
planned, so you definitely want

to be there.

But it's gonna be a combo.

We're obviously gonna have fun,
we're gonna do cool things, but

you're gonna learn a ton.

You're gonna learn a ton.

Sorry, you're gonna learn a ton,
and we're gonna be focused

around helping you become the
boss your business needs.

Helping you become the boss your
business needs.

So you're gonna learn
leadership, you're gonna learn

that role of a CEO.

Uh, even if you're not a CEO
yet, right?

If you're just like a one-man
show, you still need to learn

some of these skills.

We're obviously gonna learn how
to make more money.

We're gonna teach you all the
latest, what's going on in

marketing and sales, but you're
also gonna, man, you're gonna

meet gym owners that are kicking
ass.

You're gonna meet people that
are doing really well and doing

great things, and it's going to
be a super powerful event.

So I cannot wait.

I love these things.

I lose sleep over the fun things
we're gonna do, the the

breakthrough things that were
are gonna happen.

And one of the things that we'll
do on day three of the event is

I will lead you through a
two-hour workshop to set your

goals.

So I'm not just gonna dump a
bunch of shit on your plate and

say, oh, here's a bunch of
things you learned.

Um no, we're gonna take the last
day and we're gonna really sit

tight and we're gonna be like,
all right, what do you need to

focus on?

And I'll be walking around and
I'll be watching what you write,

and I'll be having my staff walk
around and watching what you

write, and we're gonna look at
it and we want you to leave with

a clear plan of action.

Once you leave Orlando with a
clear plan of action of what

you're gonna do.

And so it's not just an event
where you're gonna learn stuff,

it's an event that you're gonna
have a plan.

And the cool the other thing is
too about these types of events,

these events are important
because when you get outside

your four walls of the gym and
you get away, it's like, man,

the ideas and the thoughts just
come flying.

And it's a really, really,
really powerful thing.

It's a really powerful thing
that you will have ideas when

you're walking through the
airport, you will have ideas

when you're walking through a
hotel, you will have ideas when

you're talking to someone at the
bar that just says something,

you're like, holy shit, I never
thought of that.

That is what the power of these
types of things, the power of

these types of events are
getting outside and getting in a

different environment, getting
around successful, inspired,

motivated people.

You want to you want to be
there.

And if you're not there, you'd
go to something, other things

like this.

Ours are just more fun than all
the other boring ones out there.

We have a lot of fun in ours.

And so, again, this event is for
my private mastermind group, but

we do talk about it because we
have guests.

We have a bunch of guests
already signed up, ready to

come.

They're super excited.

And if you're listening to this
and you want to inquire about

coming to the event, you want to
get a ticket, there's a link in

the show notes.

There's a page, you read all the
info about the event.

It's it's gonna be it's gonna be
a breakthrough.

It's gonna be a breakthrough
event.

And and we got the legend Thomas
Plummer that will be speaking.

You know, if you've ever never
seen Thomas Plummer speak, you

want to see him speak.

If you've seen him speak before,
you'll have a lot of nostalgia

of seeing him speak again.

It's it's powerful stuff.

My my best friend of the world,
Mike Waldron, will be speaking.

He's uh he's an expert in
finance, so anything you need to

know about finance.

GR Hoff will be speaking from
Gym Member Machine, talking

about how to get your Facebook
ads and website to work better.

I could go on.

But the best thing you do is
click the link in the show

notes, read all the info on the
page, and join us, man.

Join us.

I think it's gonna be a really,
really cool event.

It's a lot of really good
people.

You're gonna learn a ton, you're
gonna walk away with a plan of

action of what you need to do.

And the amount of money we're
charging for tickets is like so

ridiculously cheap.

It's like sad.

But we won't we won't help
people.

That's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to help people.

When I realize if we made the
event so expensive like other

people do, it's cost prohibitive
for you to get there.

So we made the event very
affordable, at least until

February 1st.

Right?

So you have until February 1st
to make your decision and

hopefully you join us.

So it's a little kick in the
pants for you.

But go to the link now, check it
out.

Hopefully, we'll see you there,
and you can join us for a

really, really breakthrough
event that's going to help your

business take it to the next
level.

All right, guys.

Thanks so much.