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Business is Good with Chris Cooper

Author: Chris Cooper

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One on one mentorship saved my business. So I decided to share that process starting with a 200-word blog post. Fast forward to today and my mentorship practice is a 21 million dollar worldwide company with a team of 50 professional mentors.

Scaling from a tiny gym business to one of the largest mentorship practices in the world meant developing simple systems that could be taught easily to others. But building a movement requires leading by example, and showing people that business isn’t evil; that building wealth doesn’t require taking it from others; and that creating value lifts us all.


It’s always been important to me to succeed the right way: without empty promises or slimy sales tricks.


So the purpose of the Business Is Good podcast is to share the models that will scale a business FAST; but, more importantly, to help you build a business you’re proud to own.

Visit businessisgood.com for more info and resources from the show.
62 Episodes
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Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Product-Market Fit

Product-Market Fit

2024-02-2615:48

SummaryIdentifying ideal clients and product market fit. 0:01Chris Cooper identifies the challenge of identifying ideal clients and explains the importance of product market fit for business growth.He observes that businesses have a small group of loyal long-term clients and a larger group of newer clients with a higher churn rate, highlighting the need to serve the former for optimal growth.Identifying and retaining ideal clients in a business. 2:30Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of identifying and retaining the right clients for a sustainable business, rather than constantly bringing in new ones who may not have a long-term fit.Product market fit is achieved when clients get the results they want and can afford the service, while bad fit occurs when clients are working towards a goal that they don't care about.Identify best clients by ranking top 10 clients by payment amount and happiness level.Seed clients are those who appear on both lists, they are the best clients who get the most value from your service and make you happy to work with.Understanding ideal clients through interviews. 6:22Chris Cooper advises business owners to ask potential clients about their needs and preferences to better serve them.Identifying ideal clients and tailoring a business to meet their needs. 7:53Chris Cooper realized he wasn't his own ideal client when a personal training client quit due to not fitting in with other clients in his gym.To find good product market fit, Chris recommends identifying best clients through exercise and surveying only those clients, then identifying common traits among them to create avatars for marketing.Chris tailors gym service to high-paying client after epiphany.Finding product market fit and growing a business. 11:34Find product market fit by iterating and upgrading services based on client feedback, rather than appealing to a broad and vague market.Focus on best clients, product market fit, and speed to reach goals.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
SummaryWhy businesses should fire underperforming staff quickly. 0:03Chris argues that it's best to fire people quickly, rather than psychoanalyzing their personal problems or taking on their troubles, and explains why this approach is best for everyone involved.The impact of bad team members on business success. 2:15Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of removing bad staff members to boost morale and productivity, citing examples of how a single negative team member can demotivate the rest of the team.Staff members look to the leader for guidance and action, hoping to elevate their performance by removing the weakest link.The importance of hiring and retaining top talent in business. 4:46Chris Cooper reflects on instances where an "almost perfect" person left a job, creating an opportunity for a "perfect fit" candidate to step in.Chris Cooper highlights the negative impact of keeping a lower quality staff member on a business, including harming current staff, restricting future better staff, and losing client trust.Clients often hold back negative feedback due to fear of conflict, leading to unaddressed problems only surfacing after the staff member has left or been removed.Removing bad staff members for business success. 7:54Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of removing bad staff members quickly to avoid torturing both the staff and oneself.Firing employees for the benefit of the business. 9:32Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of not keeping employees who can't be seen working for the company in a year.Chris Cooper advises on how to handle a difficult staff member: be direct, be clear, and give them a push off your dock to start their next journey.Chris emphasizes the importance of asking oneself if they are willing to make the best people in their life sad, angry, or frustrated, rather than holding onto a bad staff member.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
There are two types of marketing. Brand Marketing is your long term play. Direct Marketing is your short term play. In this two part podcast series, I'll walk you through what each means as succinctly as possible. I'll tell you the opportunities and challenges with both. And I'll tell you what you can do today to grow your business using both brand and direct marketing.Key points covered in the episode include:The distinction between brand marketing (focusing on reputation and awareness) and direct marketing (aiming for immediate sales).The challenges of measuring the success of brand marketing and the importance of affinity in building a strong brand.Real-world examples, including a gym owner's experience, to illustrate the consequences of neglecting affinity in marketing efforts.Strategies for effective brand marketing, such as content publication and maintaining a positive reputation to foster customer loyalty.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
In a perfect world, a business goes through four phases:Ideation - you craft your original idea, test and tweak it until you have good product-market fit.Income - you build your business to give you a good predictable income.Investment - you build your team to give you time freedom. And you build your wealth to give you financial freedom.Impact - you build your community.Good businesses are focused on eventually making an impact, but don't try to skip steps to get there. In today's episode, I'll tell you how to focus on one step at a time, get through each phase quickly and maximize each one!Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Years ago, I thought about making my gym a co-op. I told myself I wanted to give 'ownership' to the clients and let them guide the future...but really, I was trying to avoid responsibility.In this episode of Business Is Good, I discuss the common - but sometimes unconscious - desire for the owner to say "It's not my fault!"It's up to you to make the decisions and bear the consequences: you get the upside, if you make good decisions. And you also bear the downside, if you make bad ones.It's this risk that separates the owner from everybody else.But if you share decision making, and you build committees in your company, what you wind up with is a bureaucracy.SummarySharing responsibility in a business co-op.0:02Chris Cooper learns to embrace business responsibility as owner.The drawbacks of bureaucracy in business.1:44Bureaucracies prioritize employing people over solving problems or serving needs, unlike businesses that exist to solve problems or meet needs.Decision-making and leadership.2:55Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of making decisions and taking responsibility, even if not everyone agrees.He shares an example of a trust-building moment with his daughter's birth, where the doctor took quick action without worrying about his feelings.Effective decision-making and communication in crisis situations.5:07In a crisis, prioritize decision-making and communication over bedside manner.Decision-making and leadership in business.6:38Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of making tough decisions and standing by them, even if it means going against staff members' opinions.Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of decision-making in business, arguing that owners must take responsibility and make decisions to succeed.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Many entrepreneurs will tell others they "have ADD" or have a "slight case of attention-deficit disorder".But most don't: they're just scattered. They're trying to multitask instead of focusing. They're unclear on what to do next in their business. They love starting things, but not finishing; they're usually juggling a dozen things in their head at once; their workday is incredibly long, but they rarely finish everything.I first took the ADD short-form test in 2011 and wrote about it on my IgniteGym blog at the time. I should note that ADD is an outdated term for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: they're the same thing. However, ADHD isn't always a downside for entrepreneurs.“ADD people are high-energy and incredibly good brainstormers. They will often happily work 12 to 15 hours by choice. The business community should not fear ADD. Instead, they should see that they have a potential gold mine here.” – Dr. Kathleen Nadeau, a psychologist who is ADD herself (from an ABC News Report)People with ADD are excellent at seeing a situation from all sides, says Dr. John Ratey. Emergency-room doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs….the ability to approach an obstacle from ten different ways is of enormous value.  Likewise, the ability to imagine oneself in the shoes of others – to empathize – has helped me be more empathetic than others.And as Leighton Bingham shares on today's podcast, people with ADHD are actually capable of VERY deep focused work. Is my truck untidy? Heck, yeah. Can I tell you the phone number of a client from five years ago? Yes. Do I send emails, and then think of another detail, and send a second one…a few seconds apart? All the time. Do I actually have ADHD? I doubt it. I just lose focus if I'm not disciplined with my attention.However, even this low-level of distraction sometimes pays off: I’m able to generate ideas rapidly. I can ‘see’ shapes while I’m listening to music, and that helps me appreciate it more. I can switch rapidly between creative and academic tasks, like math. I can incorporate successful ideas from other industries into ours.  And I can write for 5 blogs in the same hour.Instead of ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ I’d love to see the education system appreciate the gifts bestowed by ADHD. Frankly, in a business environment that’s fracturing our attention more and more, entrepreneurs need to be able to balance focus with mental dexterity.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Taryn Dubreuil of PDBM

Taryn Dubreuil of PDBM

2023-12-0441:39

Taryn is an experienced business mentor, and she's worked with a lot of small businesses.Based in Yorkton, SK, Taryn started a gym to pursue her CrossFit passion. Like many of us, she quickly realized that her job skills didn't translate into ownership skills. She sought a mentor and turned her gym around. But during that process, she began sharing her lessons with other entrepreneurs (as I did.) That unlocked a new passion for coaching small businesses to help them avoid the mistakes she made...and scale up faster.Taryn's in a unique position: she's a popular mentor in my mentorship practice for gyms, AND she's successfully opened her own practice to help other types of businesses. Many have tried to do it, but Taryn is successful. In this episode, you'll see why.Links:perfectdaybusinessmentorship.comTaryn's Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/theceoclubhouse or https://www.theceoclubhouse.com IG: @perfectdaybizmentorshipTikTok: @perfectdaybizmentorshipYT: youtube.com/perfectdaybizmentorshipConnect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
In a lecture to Entrepreneurship students at a local university this month, I shared a simple business plan that you can use in a week to launch a business, and continue to use for years.In this podcast, I walk through the model step by step, with examples you can use for different businesses. It's never too soon to start a business...and it's never too late!To see the full model, click here:https://businessisgood.com/the-simplest-business-plan-for-2024/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Starting your own company often means wearing many hats and mastering a wide array of skills. When I founded my first business, a gym, I had to be adept at various tasks from entering daily sales to ensuring a clean and welcoming environment for my clients. While I considered myself an A-level trainer, my skills in other areas, like bookkeeping and cleaning, were decidedly less polished. I quickly learned that entrepreneurship demands generalist abilities—you can’t just be an expert at your service, whether it's personal training, hair styling, or driving a cab; you need to have a competent understanding of all aspects of the business.However, as the business expands and staff are brought on board, a shift occurs. You're no longer looking for jack-of-all-trades. Instead, you seek out specialists—individuals who excel in a singular field. This is evident in any large company, where specialists are often employed by generalists. The key is understanding when to bring in these specialists to fill roles you are less adept at handling.Consider the wisdom of John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, who knew how to position his players to their strengths. Unlike most coaches, Wooden didn’t force his players to become proficient in every aspect of the game. He observed where each player excelled and then designed plays to optimize their strengths, significantly increasing their success rate. His strategy illustrates an essential leadership principle: put people where they can succeed the most, rather than trying to make them good at everything.As a gym owner, I juggled multiple responsibilities—crossfit coach, client success manager, cleaner, nutrition coach, among others. But as Michael Gerber explains in his book, "The E-Myth," good leaders excel at assigning the right people to the right roles. For instance, hiring an account manager requires someone with a keen eye for detail, a strong handle on bookkeeping and math, and a diplomatic touch—not necessarily someone who's an excellent crossfit coach.Growing a business means recognizing you shouldn't be the best at everything. My own experience led me to hire an account manager and a client success manager who were better suited to those roles than I was, freeing me up to focus on other areas. This concept holds true in any small business—aim to fill specific, narrowly defined roles with people who excel in those areas, rather than looking for a "unicorn" who can do it all.We live in a gig economy where it's feasible to find and hire specialists for particular tasks. As a business owner, your role evolves from doing to connecting—finding the right people and creating systems that enable them to collaborate effectively. Placing staff in roles where they can't succeed is detrimental to morale, retention, job completion, and overall culture. A misguided approach, like expecting everyone to share cleaning duties or to participate in round-robin sales, can backfire by reducing productivity and damaging morale.To conclude, it's imperative to understand your role as a generalist and entrepreneur, while also recognizing when and how to employ specialists to further your company's growth. This approach not only fosters a successful business but also creates a culture where every individual has the opportunity to excel in their niche. If you're keen to explore this topic further, join our free Facebook community at businessesgood.com, where you can connect with fellow generalists and discuss hiring specialists. For more insights on this subject and others related to the entrepreneurial journey, head over to the Business is Good website and click "Join the Movement." Let's continue the conversation there.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
What do you do when your system crashes, or gets really slow, or spins around when doing normal tasks?You reboot it. You clear the memory and start from scratch.When you reboot a computer, you shut down all the programs that are running in the background. You clear its memory. When the computer reboots, it starts with the basics: just the systems that are required to run, and nothing else.If your business is slowly going backward and you can't figure out why; if you feel like you're just spinning your wheels, working harder and not growing, then you might need more than a new tactic or MORE stuff to do: you might need a complete reboot.A reboot kills the stuff that is slowing you down, starts over from the basics. And builds up from there. It's not a blank slate. More like digging down to bedrock and repairing the damage from the ground up.Here's how to do it - and how I did it in one business I own (my gym).Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
How To Be Coachable

How To Be Coachable

2023-10-2407:54

For the last 15 years, I've almost always had a 1:1 mentor. I've participated in masterminds, had specific coaches, but always paid someone to help me set goals, build a plan and stay on course. I pay between $100,000 and $250,000 per year, but the ROI is unmeasurable (though it's in the millions.)Working with a mentor is a two-way street. These are professionals whose time is almost always worth more than my time; who have done the hard (and sometimes boring) work to get where they are. They are not my personal assistant - they are not going to do the work for me. They are not Google--they're not going to go seeking answers that I can easily find myself. They see things that I don't; they remove obstacles in advance; and they stop me from taking wrong turns that would waste time and money. But to get that benefit, I have to be a good client. Over the last 15 years, I've learned that, to get a great return on mentorship, I have to be a good mentee. I have to be coachable. Here are my top tips:Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Two Types of Problems

Two Types of Problems

2023-10-1812:21

“My staff never cleans up before they go home.”“Our front office is a pigsty!”“No one returns phone calls or emails quickly.”“No one cares except for me!”If you struggle to get consistent action from your staff, there are two possible causes.The first probable cause is your process. The second probable cause is your people.Read the full article: https://businessisgood.com/the-two-types-of-problems/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
You’re busy. You probably work a longer day than anyone else you know.You probably start early and finish late. And every minute is packed: you hit the ground running and don’t stop until bedtime.So why don’t you feel like you’re getting anywhere?For most of us, it’s because we’re avoiding the work that will actually grow our business. We’re really good at distracting ourselves, lying to ourselves about what matters most, or falling into the trap of urgency. We’ve become skilled at procrastination. We confuse the pursuit of knowledge with the pursuit of progress. Today, I’m going to tell you how to get over it and actually grow your business.First, know your enemy: This is what Avoidance looks like.Collecting more info before you act. “I need to find one more podcast on firing a bad staff person before I actually do it.”Gathering more opinions instead of acting. “I was struggling with paying my staff, so I kept asking opinions on the 4/9 model until I found a guy who said ‘it won’t work in the UK’–that let me off the hook!” We seek confirmation that things won’t work so we don’t have to do them.“Checking” stuff – we start our day playing defense. We think we have to respond to emails and social media before we do anything else. Once we get on that ‘urgency’ bus though, we say goodbye to the important stuff. Social Media is literally built to derail your brain and stop you from doing the stuff you had planned to do.Doing low-value work – we know we need more clients, but instead we do the “easy-hard” stuff: switching payment processors, building our own CRM, changing our logo, designing tshirts, customizing supplements. We know there are pros out there who do this for almost nothing. But doing it ourselves lets us say “I’m busy!”Gathering ideas you don’t need. How many podcasts do you listen to in day? What’s the last one on which you took action? The entrepreneurs who read 50 books in a year don’t impress me anymore.Procrastination: “I need to be in a better headspace to do this…” or “I need to wait for the banks to open” or “This isn’t the best time to take my neighbor a coffee.” Yes it is. At least it’s better now than never.Looking for the ‘next thing’ instead of repeating the thing that worked before. We all need to be reminded sometimes, but if something’s working, don’t stop doing it.Having a “morning routine”. Somehow, we’ve been led down this road to believe you need a 6-step routine around meditation, cold plunges, deep breathing, reading…but really successful people don’t have a complicated morning routine. Here’s mine:– get up– walk down the hall and press the ‘on’ button on the Keurig– walk downstairs and pee– wash my hands– walk up the stairs and get the coffee– walk back downstairs and open my laptop– open a clean blog page and start typing.I do this at 5:30 because my dog wants to go out at 6:30.What’s interesting from this list is that none of these things are BAD. We just employ them at the wrong time, or give them priority over doing the stuff that actually grows our business.Here’s how I fell into the trap: I started listening to podcasts in the morning. I can’t write a blog post while I’m listening to podcasts, so I’d fire up my kid’s Xbox and play NHL for 40 minutes while I listened to Naval or Alex or Sharran or whoever. I’d tell myself I was learning and I’d do a blog post later.This lasted almost a year. At the end of the day, I was exhausted from meetings and doing stuff on demand. I was creating content because that’s a big part of my job, but I was stressed, anxious and kinda angry all the time. My businesses were growing because they had good momentum, but the growth was slowing and I didn’t know what would drive them forward.Worst of all, this was a very addictive rut. It was very...
I own the largest mentorship practice in the world for gym owners. There are over 900 gyms currently in the program, each with their own 1:1 mentor.The mentors are trained, drilled, tested and taught nonstop. They're quizzed on our material--but, more importantly, they're taught how to mentor and coach someone. When I started mentoring others, I didn't have any of these skills, and didn't know how to get them. As I got better, I became obsessed with developing myself as a mentor, and sharing these lessons with my team. Even if you're not a business coach, these will help you lead your clients, your team and anyone who seeks your guidance.https://businessisgood.com/4-skills-every-mentor-needs/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Steven McCoy

Steven McCoy

2023-09-1430:41

"I believe entrepreneurship and business development are key for Indigenous individuals, like myself, and communities, to escape situations of poverty and become sustainable, independent and positive contributors to the overall greater good while reclaiming our economic independence within the local, regional, national and international markets.Growing up a poor brown kid in the city of Sault Ste Marie, I witnessed enough poverty early on in life and I remember telling myself that I never wanted to be poor as an adult.I looked around and I saw people in business who were not poor and that is what I decided to become, not really aware of anything particular when it came to business, just a general sense that I wanted to be a businessman.Now, as an Indigenous adult entrepreneur, I can honestly say it was well worth the effort to stay in school, invest in myself and follow my childhood dreams of escaping poverty through business."Contact Steven McCoy: www.thestevenmccoy.comConnect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
"Freedom and responsibility within a framework."In his book "Good to Great", Jim Collins lists "A culture of discipline" as one of the six necessary elements that make a company great. It's a really profound concept, but I'm going to make it actionable for you.Read the post here:https://businessisgood.com/a-culture-of-discipline/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
The Hedgehog Concept

The Hedgehog Concept

2023-09-0813:09

In his book, "Good to Great", Jim Collins shares 6 big ideas that great companies have in common.The unifying theme of the companies in his book is that they didn't start out great, but became great when they acted on these big ideas.One of the biggest is the "hedgehog concept", which is a strategy of focusing hard on the thing you can do better than anyone else, and repeating it over and over.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
Comparison is the thief of joy.Theodore RooseveltEntrepreneurs spend most of their time looking for the next problem to solve.This is often good for business, but bad for the entrepreneur.According to Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy in The Gap and the Gain, "Gap Thinking means looking at the distance between where we are and where we want to be (or comparing ourselves to what other people have achieved)."When you're "in the gap", you can't be happy, because you're always desiring the next thing - the next revenue milestone, the next acquisition, the next hire. Unfortunately, this means you can never be happy, no matter how successful you are. Sullivan's advice is to focus on "The Gain": look back at your progress you've already made. He calls this "measuring backward, not forward" - which means comparing your current position against your former position, instead of your ideal position. You have an ideal in your mind, and you're measuring yourself against your ideal, rather than against the actual progress you've made. This is why you're unhappy with what you've done, and it's probably why you're unhappy with everything in your life. Don't let your past be forgotten. Always measure backward.Dan SullivanThis makes conceptual sense. Buddhists have been preaching the pitfalls of comparison and desire for millennia. But in a world of constant comparison, where we're watching everyone else's highlight reel on Instagram every single day, how do we avoid comparison--or even jealousy? Here's how to build the habit of living in "The Gain".Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/
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