Your best clients already know your next best clients. Here’s how to find them.

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper kick off Marketing May with the most underused growth tool in the fitness business: referrals.

Referrals are free, they get results faster than any ad campaign, and most gym owners are leaving them on the table every single day.

John and Chris walk through the seed client exercise, a simple process to identify your best clients and find more people just like them.

Chris shares three questions to ask seed clients over coffee to sharpen your offerings and open the door to referrals without feeling pushy, plus how to use goal reviews with all clients every 90 days to increase retention and referrals.

The pair also lay out a full playbook for in-gym and out-of-gym events that bring non-members through your doors and turn them into paying clients.

Subscribe and follow along all month. Every week in May, we’re breaking down one of the four funnels you need to grow your gym. Next up: social media.

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0:50 - Why referrals first?

2:10 - Seed client exercise

9:21 - Goal review process

15:58 - Internal and external events

21:05 - Your actions steps

Bruce Edwards just became CEO of CrossFit. Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper thinks it’s the right call, and he has a very personal reason for saying so:

Bruce fired him. Personally.

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin sits down with Chris for an unfiltered reaction to the April 28, 2026, appointment, following Don Faul’s resignation in March.

In 2018, when Bruce trimmed the CrossFit Media team, Chris learned everything he needed to know about the kind of leader Bruce is.

“Bruce could have delegated the job. He didn’t,” Chris said. “He picked up the phone himself and did the hard thing the right way—head-on, with clarity and respect.”

Chris explains exactly why Bruce is the right person for this moment, from his time as CrossFit’s COO during the brand’s biggest growth phase to his experience as a CrossFit affiliate co-owner himself.

He also traces Bruce’s career since CrossFit—leading growth at In-Shape Health Clubs, barre3 and one of the largest Planet Fitness franchise groups in the country—and says that experience makes him even more qualified for the job.

Chris opens up about why he quietly ended his own affiliation in 2022 after 14 years, what it would take to bring him back, and the three signs he’ll be watching for in the next year to know whether the ship is actually turning around.

Then Chris and John tackle the bigger questions: why affiliate counts keep declining, how Greg Glassman fits into this transition and what Bruce needs to do first to rebuild trust with the affiliate community.

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Gym Owners United

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0:55 - Why Chris left CrossFit in 2022

5:26 - Bruce’s role in CrossFit’s growth

7:29 - Bruce’s post-CrossFit career

9:46 - Why affiliate counts keep declining

18:42 - What’s sacred and what has to change

27:48 - Chris' message to affiliates

29:36 - How Greg Glassman fits in

How do the best gyms in the world scale to 300, 400 or even 450 clients without burning out or sacrificing quality?

In this episode of “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper presents the leaderboard for client headcount in coaching gyms and reveals what separates these businesses from the ones stuck at 100-150 clients.

The Top 10 gyms in Two-Brain have cracked the code: strong systems, outstanding coaching, community-first decisions and retention strategies that keep clients for years.

To provide more insight, Chris shares quotes directly from the mentors who work with these gym owners to maximize results.

Tune in to hear the exact tactics used by these world-class fitness entrepreneurs, such as adding high-value programs (Hyrox is a great one right now), running bring-a-friend events and asking for referrals during Goal Review Sessions.

Links

Gym Owners United

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0:01 - Intro

3:04 - The Top 10

4:09 - The leaders’ strategies

6:40 - Exactly what to do

9:24 - Success vs. failure