Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up, guys?

Welcome to another episode.

This is Business Secrets for Gym
owners.

I am, of course, in the jujitsu
parking lot recording this

podcast, dropping my young boy
off, getting there and getting

after it.

So it's good stuff.

It's a great sport.

If you have kids, get them into
jujitsu.

It's one of the best things you
could ever do as a parent.

Couple things.

We just finished our annual plan
event last week.

We had a really, really awesome
day where I brought in about 20

people in person and then
another 60, 70 people on Zoom to

do the annual planning event.

We did a five-year vision.

We set one-year goals.

We said personal goals.

We decided upon a Masogee, which
is like a big challenge for the

year.

All really, really great stuff.

A lot of people left with a ton
of clarity and a lot of energy.

A lot of energy and excitement.

And sometimes it's you know,
it's interesting.

Sometimes you don't need to
change your situation.

You sometimes you don't need to
actually change your situation

to feel better.

Like you can, you know, be
really frustrated about your

marketing, right?

And you could come across a new
way, structure of how to send an

email to your list.

You could come across a new
offer that you thought of.

You could find out about a
really good success story that

you can use in marketing.

And instantly you'll feel
better.

You'll feel like a little bit
more energized to do it.

And it didn't fix the problem,
right?

It didn't, it didn't change the
result.

Like you still you haven't
brought in another customer yet,

but you're hopeful, right?

And that's hope, right?

And that and that and what it
is, is it's one of my favorite

quotes.

It's action cures fear.

And when you do stuff, you're
gonna feel better.

And so that's what it's always
trying, and I have to remind

myself of this because you know
sometimes I have to move myself,

right?

Move myself into action.

And if you if you sit around and
you wallow, you're always gonna

feel helpless, really.

But when you're moving and
you're active, like you're

moving towards something, you're
you're you're gonna feel good.

And it's that energy that keeps
the momentum going.

And then eventually, you know,
when you start putting things

into place, that you know, you
start seeing the results.

But you don't you don't don't
wait to feel great about your

business to get an actual
result.

Get the feeling from the action
and the movement that you're

actually taking, right?

So we had that.

We had the annual planning day,
and then I had a great guy come

in, Jason Marr from he's up in
Massachusetts.

He's got a phenomenal business.

He did half a million bucks in
his first year, in his second

year, he'll do 720K.

He's in my elite program.

Elite is where it's a regular
he's in regular SPF mastermind,

but we have about 17 people in
our elite program, and they meet

with me or Joe out in Colorado
two times a year uh for three

hours, and they come, and it's
like a consulting day, but we

split it up into half days, and
they do that twice a year.

And then uh so he had a a great,
great fit great, great finish to

the year, bought uh bought a
nice car for himself with all

the profits because his
accountants yelling at him.

We actually had a bunch of
people in the group, their

accountants like, go buy
something, go buy something,

because they made a lot of
profit this year, and we don't

want to pay all that tax.

He said, Go buy something.

So all good stuff, not all good
stuff, definitely you know, it's

challenges and frustrations.

There's challenges and
frustrations in some of my

clients' lives.

There's challenges and
frustrations in my life,

nothing's perfect, but overall,
I I I definitely think as I go

through life, I I I definitely
used to hang my hat and hang my

happiness on my business and how
I was doing.

And you know, and and there are
certain circumstances where

sometimes it's not where I want
it to be, and I found myself

getting really frustrated and
shit and feeling not great.

But then the other thing is I
remember that that's not the

only thing in my life.

Right?

I have a great wife, I have
three awesome kids, I have my

health, right?

I have really, really a good
group of friends, you know.

I have people like I work with
that like I just are my fri my

the people I work with are just
awesome people and they're my

friends too.

And I get to hang out with guys
like Joe Hashey all day, like

it's man.

So I think that sometimes we we
do this, I forget there's

actually a term for it.

I can't remember what it is, but
it's where if one area is in

your life is going poorly, you
deem your entire life like that.

So if like your work is bad,
your everything is bad in your

life, and that's usually not the
case.

And so you gotta find, you know,
the overall approach to how

things are and how you're doing
in life.

All right, I'm I'm rambling.

What do I want to talk about
today?

Today I want to talk, uh tell
you a couple stories and then

lace some of these lessons in
with the stories.

I've told the story before, but
if you're a first-time listener,

it's worth hearing it.

So I hired a consultant to sit
down with me for the day, and

she started asking me all these
questions about my numbers.

What's your cost per lead?

What's your lifetime value of
your customer?

What's the margins?

What's the CAC ratio?

Like she gave she started
spitting all these numbers on

me.

And I was like, I have no idea.

I don't know any of those
numbers.

And she basically looked at me
and she's like, I'm sorry.

And you know what the
embarrassing was?

She was a client.

She was a client at GFP, and she
had like she was a consultant

too, and she was a client at
GFP, and she played hardball

with me.

She got up and she was like, GFP
is my gym, if you don't follow.

And she's like, Sorry, Vince, I
can't help you.

You don't know your numbers.

I was like, and she's like, we
can you know reschedule at

another time, but you gotta get
this stuff down because I really

can't tell you what to do if we
don't have any of this data.

And she like left, gangster.

I was like, damn, that ladies,
that's why she she told she

ended up selling her company for
like a bowlload of money.

But she's a baller, right?

And she was right.

She did, she and and she taught
me.

And here's the think of this is
uh taking a detour here.

This is the difference between
being nice and kind.

So being nice is oh Vince, all
right, well, let's look at the

numbers.

Let's that's the nice thing to
do because it didn't hurt my

feelings.

The kind thing to do is to tell
me the truth and to be like, you

don't know your shit, dude, and
you ain't gonna ever learn and

know your shit if I don't walk
out of here and make you feel a

little bit weird.

And she was being kind to me.

And sh she might have changed my
life.

It might it's literally like it,
you know, from that day forward,

it's like I am going to start
getting a grip on this finance

marketing data thing.

Because I didn't have it at the
time.

And so my best friend at the
time was a hedge fund guy, and

he was in the hedge fund space,
but he hated it, right?

He was just, you know, dealing
with idiots all day.

Well, not idiots, but people
that he didn't like, right?

And he hated it, and he's like,
I told him, I was like, dude, I

got this lady, she left.

Like, I need to I gotta
understand my finances, and he's

like, all right, dude, I'll help
you.

And he started doing my books,
and then he started teaching me

about accounting and finance and
taxes and all these different

things.

And, you know, since he was my
best friend, like he spent a lot

of time with me, and he's really
patient because he knows his

friend's a big dummy, and it's
harder for him to understand

these things.

But he spent a ton of time with
me, and he gave me-I mean,

literally, he's been doing this
with me for I think it's now

like 15 years.

So for 15 years, he's been in my
like back pocket and has taught

me everything I need to know
about finance and accounting and

investing and taxes and all this
stuff.

And I I I can tell you that I'm
not where I'm at today without

the education that I have on not
now, I'm not like the best in

the world at it, but I
understand I can look at a P

⁇ L, I can see what it means
and doing everything like that.

Very, very all my companies
follow very, very specific

processes in terms of the data
and what we want to look at and

what we want to how we want to
make decisions and everything

like that.

So it's it's a really, really
important piece to me.

So one of the things and and
it's interesting, I talked about

the CEO mastermind before, but
one of the one of the things

that people that join my higher
level programs, the reason they

tell me they join the
higher-level programs is because

I want to know my numbers
better.

I I I feel like I don't and it's
almost like this, you know, you

know, we're embarrassed about it
or whatever.

But it's it's it's it's not
something that just comes to you

for some but for most people,
this is a difficult thing and a

difficult thing to have.

And so you need people in your
life that are going to keep it

simple and and and make it
clear, you know, for you to

follow.

Right.

And that's what Mike does for
me.

And honestly, that's what Mike
does for hundreds of gym owners.

He's got like a
hundred-something clients from

you know gyms all over the world
where he helps, you know, do

this numbers thing.

And the funny thing is, is Mike
is he's a bit of a what I call

it, I call him the spotted owl.

So he's like, he never, he's not
on social media at all.

He, if you Google him, like one
picture comes up, like there's

no other pictures of him.

He never is out and about.

He's always he's he lives in
Cali, so he likes his hangout in

Cali.

He likes the weather, he doesn't
like to go, he hates the woods,

he doesn't like to go, he hates
the East Coast, that's why he

left.

I always yell at him for
leaving.

I was like, my best friend left
me, bro.

Went back to Cali.

But he he very, very rarely is
out in public, so it's hard to

get a hold of him.

It's you know, the only people
that are talking to Mike are his

customers.

Right?

That's it.

You're not gonna see any YouTube
videos from him, you're not

gonna see any podcasts from him,
you're not gonna see him on

stage until now.

Where I bribed Mike with a case
in Addy Light to be able to come

to the event and speak on stage
with me.

He's like, I'm not doing a
keynote or anything like that,

I'm not doing PowerPoint, and
it's gotta be you and me

talking.

And so what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna interview him on stage and

basically structure and ask the
questions that I know need to be

asked so you can get as much
insight about money, about data,

about numbers as possible.

Like this is going to be
incredible.

It's not a guy that does this
very much, if at all.

And to hire him is a good chunk
of money, and you know, the

advice that you're gonna get at
this event is gonna be

absolutely amazing.

So I'm super excited that he's
gonna be there.

He's going to be you know
hanging out at the event and and

everything like that.

He's gonna bring his family out
as well, and they'll probably

hang out at Disney and stuff
like that.

So really big stuff.

But the the important thing is
that we gotta get a grip on

these numbers thing.

We we gotta understand and not
just you know knowing the

numbers and know what they are,
but then you have to understand

and learn the thought process
behind what do you do with them.

And that's really what I'm gonna
probe him on.

That's really what I'm gonna
push him on is like, all right,

now I know my payroll relative
to revenue.

Now what?

Now I have my profit percentage,
now I have my rent relative to

my top line revenue, right?

What do I do now?

Like, what do I do with all this
information, right?

And so that's really what I'm
gonna get him, I'm gonna pull

out of him, right?

Is is is what to do.

Okay, it's one thing to look at.

He will tell you what to look
at, what statements.

There's three statements to look
at that you get from your

accountant.

There's your scoreboard metrics,
which I talk about all the time,

the things that you're tracking
weekly.

These are things like your leads
and your trial, like how many

consultations you had, how many
new members you signed up, what

your retention is, and and
everything like that.

So that's your your what's
called your leading indicators,

but then your finances is a
whole separate piece of it.

But he's the expert in all of
the data and he knows gyms

inside and out because every one
of his customers are gyms,

believe it or not.

It's crazy, right?

There's very few finance people
that are working just with gyms,

but it's really cool that he's
doing that.

So yeah, that's the the the
first thing, and you know, I'll

tell you how you can get a
ticket to the event for a 90%

discount if you're listening to
this podcast.

Second story.

I have a mentor, and his name's
Tom.

And Tom is a probably the known
as the most legendary person in

the fitness business space.

And he's been doing it for I
don't know how many years.

And I think back to the time
where I first met Tom, and it

was at a Perform Better seminar
when I was a trainer out in San

Diego.

And I went to the I went to the
seminar, and I sat in the seats,

and I was working 50 hours a
week at the time.

And I'm just like burnt and
tired, not knowing what's next,

and I didn't even plan on at
that point.

I don't even think I had in my
head that I needed to open up a

gym.

I was just training people.

And, you know, he talked about,
you know, making money, and he

talked about developing a
career, and he talked about

having freedom, and he talked
about, you know, owning

something and how important it
is to own something, to build

wealth.

And I wasn't even thinking about
any of this stuff at the time.

I was just wanted to train.

But it kind of hit me, and I was
just like, man, that that's this

is my next step.

This is where I need to go.

And I think in that seminar that
he gave me the permission to to

do something like that.

And so I, you know, said I'm
going to I'm going to do this,

I'm going to open a gym.

And I ended up, you know, moving
to New Jersey from where I was

in California a few years, I
think it was a few years later,

after this.

And I I opened the gym and soon
after I, you know, you know, did

okay in the beginning and then
had my struggles, right?

And I was like, I need some
help.

And he was, you know, the guy I
called.

I was like, this is the guy that
got me into it.

I'm going to see if this guy,
you know, can help me.

And I remember at the time, I
think it was like 200 and I

think it was like 250 bucks for
the hour.

And I was just like, holy shit,
how am I paying this much money

for a one hour of anything?

Like this is like absolutely
crazy.

And the funny thing is, I paid
Dan Kennedy$4,000 for an hour

not that long ago.

Right.

But back in the day, I was like,
$250 for one call for an hour?

Like, this is crazy.

But I like bit the bullet and
got on the phone, and he, you

know, was as real as real gets,
and he was the he was just in

your face and told me what I
needed to hear, and he told me

a, you know, being you're little
being a little baby, and he was,

you know, where everyone around
you is dancing around you.

You know, Tom gave me the
brutal, honest truth.

And it was really, it was really
what I needed at the time.

And one of the things he asked
me was, he said, you know, where

do you want this thing to go?

And I was just like, I don't
know.

I don't really know.

I'm just kind of like, I'm here,
I'm working.

I'm like, I you know, he told me
to open up a gym, so I did, and

here I am, I'm doing it.

And he's like, no, we need a
direction.

We need a direction.

And I was like, well, can you
help me find the direction?

I was like, because I don't know
what to do.

I don't know, I don't know, I
don't know what I want.

So now I need help figuring out
what I want.

And so what he did was, and this
is really interesting, he

started asking me, not about
business, but he started asking

me what I want in my personal
life.

He was like, What kind of home
do you want to live in?

How much wealth do you want to
leave to your kids?

I didn't have kids at the time,
but do you want a kid someday?

Yes, I do.

Do you want to leave the money?

Yes, I do.

Do you want to have this?

Like, how do you want your life
to be when you're you know?

And he started asking me all
questions about me as a person,

not about my business, about me
as a person.

And he told me this, and I'll
never forget it.

He's like, Your business is the
vehicle to give you the life

that you want to live.

And so once we figure out the
life that you want to live, now

we have to build the vehicle to
go get it.

And I guess I told him some big
stuff.

And he's like, You want some big
stuff, buddy?

So we got to build a big
vehicle.

So let's get moving.

Right?

And I remember him saying that.

So he he he he helped me build a
big vehicle and ended up

building a pretty big vehicle.

And Gabriel fitness my gym.

I think the the peak of our
revenue was 1.6 million, which

you know, back you know, in 2014
was like unheard of.

Like unheard of to have be
making that kind of money at you

know, a single location, you
know, gym.

Now some guys I got guys in my
group doing way more than that.

You know, so it's really awesome
to see.

Um, but at the time I had built
something that was a unicorn,

and you know, he was behind a
lot of it.

He was behind a lot of it, he
gave me a ton of advice to help

me get there.

But one of the things that I got
from Tom was always the life

stuff.

Like he always helped me with
business stuff, but he always

hooked he was old a lot older
than me, so I always looked at

him as like a mentor and a
father figure, and I really I

really got a lot of value out of
the life stuff that that he he

taught.

And similar to Mike, I have
invited Tom Plummer to speak at

our next event, which is coming
up.

And one of the I I said, I don't
want you to touch fitness

business.

Okay.

We got that.

We're gonna talk about a ton of
stuff.

I got Waldron coming, I got Joe
Hashi speaking, I got you know

Carly speaking, we got the
fitness business thing covered.

I want you to make us better
people and better human beings

so we can build the business
that gives us the life that we

want, right?

And then enjoy it and then be
able to enjoy that success.

So I asked him to craft, you
know, a very specific

presentation that's gonna help
us live our lives the highest

possible level that we can live.

I'm super excited about that
talk, and it's gonna be it's

gonna be great.

It's gonna be an amazing event.

I'm super excited, it's gonna be
in Orlando, Florida.

It is on February 27th, 28th,
and March 1st in Orlando.

Now, the theme, let me tell you
about the theme.

This is gonna crack you up.

So last year I told you guys we
did Gym Business Raw, which was

a wrestling theme, right?

And this year, I have decided on
a theme called the Gym Pranos.

Okay, so one of them from New
Jersey, one of my favorite shows

was The Sopranos.

So we are doing a Sopranos
themed seminar.

Now, understand this if you
don't know me and you've never

been in my world before.

And you're like, I'm not going
to a seminar about the Sopranos.

It's not about that.

That's the theme.

That's where we have fun.

That's where we laugh.

Right.

But it's going to be all about
helping you make money at your

gym and helping you live the
best life that you possibly can.

The fun part is going to be
there's going to be some

shenanigans.

There's going to be some things
that we're going to do that's

going to make us going to make
you chuckle and laugh and have a

great time, right?

Because that's the way they go.

I don't want to go to a seminar
that's boring.

Let's have some fun while we're
there.

So that is the event theme is
the gympranos.

I'll be dressing up as Tony
Soprano, of course, and then

we'll have that.

But one of the reasons why I
picked Tom is Tom's the

Godfather.

Tom's the godfather of fitness
business.

So I have Tom, you know, there
as well as my good friend Mike,

and we have a bunch of other
speakers coming that I'll be

announcing as we move forward
towards the process.

So I am very, very, very
excited.

We are, you know, I think 70
days away or something like

that, and maybe even less than
that.

And it is going to be epic, just
like Jim Business Raw was.

The last one was epic.

This one's going to be even more
epic.

And I cannot wait for it.

But I really think that those
two stories, you know, will

hopefully, one that hopefully
gives you some insights on how

important some of this stuff is.

One, knowing your numbers, two,
knowing what you want.

And then you can take those two
things and you can be like,

okay, I don't know my numbers.

Okay, I don't really know what I
want next.

You know, and and knowing what
you want is not just like a

rookie business owner thing.

There's a lot of gyms that are
doing really, really well and

they're making lots of money,
and they're like, I don't even

know what's next.

And it's a really good thing to
be able to decide.

So yeah, it's gonna be it's
gonna be epic, it's gonna be

great.

I cannot wait.

These events, we put a lot of
energy and effort into planning

of these events, and we're gonna
have some fun, but we're gonna

learn a ton.

I'm gonna have some really good
speakers there for you, and then

you're gonna connect with
hundred, a hundred gym owners.

You know, like think about this,
like other gyms that are doing

what you're doing, you know, and
some of them are kicking ass and

doing really well.

Man, what a what a room to be
in.

So it's gonna be it's gonna be
great.

So that is the the show for the
day.

Now, I here's the the last thing
I'll tell you.

The normal ticket price.

Now, this isn't a private event
from my mastermind, but we

allow, one of the reasons why
I'm talking about it is we allow

a certain number of guests, the
people that are not SPF members,

that can attend the event as a
guest.

The ticket price for the normal
ticket price for the event is

997, 997 bucks.

If you are listening to this
podcast now and it is before,

hopefully it is before January
1st, as I record this podcast.

I think it's like mid-December.

We'll be releasing it soon
after.

If you listen to this podcast
and it is before January 1st,

2000, it was before January
21st, 2026.

I'm recording this in 2025, and
you want to purchase a ticket

for 90% off, meaning$900 off.

So you can purchase a ticket for
$99.

We are only making this
available specifically to you

podcast listeners to on uh by
January 1st.

Okay, so once January 1st hits,
the ticket prices will go up to

997.

So if you're listening to this
and you're interested and you

want to come to the event, there
is a link in the show notes.

All you gotta do in that link is
book a call.

It's probably a five to ten
minute call with my guy Tom.

He'll tell you a little bit more
about the event, and then you

know you can decide if you want
a to purchase a ticket, but do

that before January 1st.

Super excited.

I really hope you can make it.

We love what we do, we love
working with gym owners, we love

helping gym owners grow the
business, and I'm super excited

to see you.

Hopefully, see you there.

Thanks for listening.

Peace.