The Small Group Gym Pod

Jan Westrik went from running a 200-member CrossFit gym to building a premium small-group personal training facility — losing around two-thirds of his existing members during the transition.In this episode, we talk about why a busy gym isn't necessarily a successful business, making difficult decisions that upset members, charging enough to build a great team, and why Jan believes gym owners need to build the business around the life they actually want.We also get into how gym marketing is changing, why the old Facebook ad → sales call model isn't as reliable as it once was, and what gym owners need to do instead.Find out more about Jan:InstagramHis Gym

James Pratt has built one of the most unusual small-group PT models I've come across.His 7,200 sq ft headquarters has around 950 members, can coach 30 people an hour and still gives every member individualised programming.We get into the systems that make it possible, why Pratt Personal Training only offers ONE service, how they generate around 50 referrals a month, why their free trials convert at 83%, and James' obsession with creating an "unreasonable amount of customer satisfaction."An absolutely fascinating look inside a small-group gym operating at serious scale.Find out more about James:InstagramHis Gym

Nick Winkleman's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar Details (4 spots left)Most gyms barely use email.And the ones that do often send stuff nobody particularly wants to read.In this episode, copywriter and marketer Mike Samuels explains how gym owners can use better stories, stronger messaging and simple emails to build relationships and ultimately bring in more members.We get into:Why your message matters more than the marketing platformHow to write emails people actually want to openWhy you should write to ONE ideal memberHow often your gym should emailWhere your offers should fitWhy storytelling is such a powerful marketing skillHow Mike uses AI without letting it write his contentWhy your email list should get your best content firstIf your gym has an email list gathering dust, start here.Find out more about Mike:Instagram

Nick Winkleman's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar Details (8 spots left)Tom Buckle thinks about his gym a little differently from most gym owners.Within a year of opening TBH, he'd fired himself from coaching.Now, he tries to fire himself from another role every three months.The result is a 183-member group training gym that can run without him - and Tom has just secured funding to open another three locations.In this episode, we get into:Why TBH runs sessions with up to 24 membersWhy your coach-to-member ratio shouldn't necessarily be your USPHow Tom reduced churn from around 9% to 5.5%The 180-day system TBH uses to catch members before they leaveWhy they film and review entire coaching sessions as a teamWhat Tom looks for in the "modern coach"How their latest referral campaign turned 15 trials into 13 membersWhy Tom deliberately tries to make himself redundant from his own gymThe lessons he's learned turning TBH from a gym into a scalable businessFind out more about Tom:InstagramHis Gym

Nick's Sept 26th Edinburgh Seminar DetailsNick Winkelman is one of the world's leading experts on coaching communication and the author of The Language of Coaching.In this episode, we explore his work through a very specific lens:How can group training gym owners help their coaches become better at the actual craft of coaching?We talk about why coaching quality isn't separate from retention and business performance, how the language your coaches use shapes the experience members have in your gym, and why great coaching shouldn't simply be left to chance.Nick explains how to spot the subtle "echoes of understanding" that tell you when a cue has landed, why different clients respond to different types of language, and how coaches can move between managing the energy of an entire group and giving one individual exactly what they need.We also cover:Why "if they're laughing, they're listening"How to create better and more personalised coaching cuesThe difference between global and local communicationWhy asking more questions can improve your coachingA simple way to discover how your clients prefer to be coachedWhy filming one session could dramatically improve a coachThe one question every coach should ask when watching themselves backHow gym owners can build coach development into their businessHow AI could eventually provide coaches with personalised feedback on how they communicateIf you own a small-group gym and care about making the coaching inside it genuinely world-class, you'll get a lot from this one.Find out more about Nick:InstagramHis BookEdinburgh Seminar