Geronimo Unfiltered

Hosted by Geronimo Unfiltered

Business Entrepreneurship Health Fitness

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Most studio owners decide to open their fitness and wellness businesses because they want to help people and add more meaning into their lives.  Their heart is in the right place, but scaling a profitable business that feels incredible to own and run is trickier than ever before. So where they get stuck is no one has ever shown them how to run a wildly successful business, without the overwhelm and chaos. Plus, they’re doing it all alone.  Until now. Welcome to The Geronimo Unfiltered Podcast for ambitious boutique studio owners who are allergic to average and know they’re capable of more. They’re just missing the HOW. I’m your host Doza, CEO and Founder of The Geronimo Academy... And together with my crew and my community of owners and managers who are the doers and the implementers, we are on a mission to pioneer a better way to own and operate a health and fitness business, while building a life you love, not hate. So, if you’re ready to push your boundaries, level up your money, meaning and impact & stop doing it all alone… then you’re in the right place ...  This is going to be raw and unfiltered, zero bullshit.  So take a deep breath, strap yourself in, and let’s get started.

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September 29, 202643 min

3 Steps to Building a Team That Cares as Much as You Do

👉🏼Build your own Vision book with the exact tool we use. Grab it here:  Vision Book Template  👉🏼Or skip straight to a Strategy Call and we’ll help you map it out. Book a Strategy Call Everyone tells you you're killing it. Bigger numbers, more members, better systems. Then 7:30 pm hits and your team's out the door like the building's on fire. I lived that exact version of the business. Team gone at 7:31 pm sharp, sitting in a studio I couldn't afford to light, using the glow off the cheap TVs to do my books because I couldn't pay the electricity bill. It wasn't lonely because I didn't have people around me … It was lonely because none of them cared about the thing I was building. And now? The first thing most owners ask me? How do I build a team like yours?  Today Sophie and I are teaching you the three steps to creating a team that cares about your business like it’s their own and giving you the tool that helps you to create your own vision. In this episode you'll learn: The question to ask before blaming your team for not caring enough The three things a team needs before they'll ever buy in How to build a Vision Book that people actually care about (and the template that writes it with you) The 70% rule, why losing 30% of your team isn’t a bad thing  The leadership test every frustrated owner should take The vision that will make your team excited to come to work every single day Chapters:  00:00  Why Should Your Team Care? 03:29  The 3 Ingredients of Team Buy-In 04:34  The reason Sophie has stayed for 8+ years (and how to give your team something to stay for) 10:18  When a Job Becomes a Mission 14:54  Is Your Business Ready for a Vision Book? 18:20  The 70% Rule 19:44  How to Become a Leader Worth Following 22:12  How the Vision Guides Everyday Leadership 24:44  Why the Team Actually Care 30:05  The one thing that will change this from a Vision Book, to a future your team see themselves in 37:41  The 1% Pitch Every New Recruit Hears (it’s not what you think)  40:15  The first thing YOU need to do now Resources mentioned in this episode: Vision Book Template  See a copy of our actual Vision Books Empire28 & Aloha25 Listen to the Achievement Road Map episode: listen here If you liked this episode, go and listen to The Hidden Reasons Your Culture Sucks and How to Build One Built to Win same world, different lens: Listen on Apple Podcasts or Watch on YouTube Ready to stop guessing why your team isn't bought in? Book a Strategy Call and we'll map it out together.  Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Instagram

September 22, 202619 min

The First 3 Days Decide Whether They Become a Member

There are 5 parts to a conversation that turn a trial into a member. Grab your 5 Part Conversation Framework here:  The Convertible Conversation   And if your trial-to-member conversion rate is currently sitting below 80% (our Academy benchmark) and you haven’t been able to figure out why, then book a call with my team and we can help you identify the leak and map out how to fix it.  —----- Every studio owner I talk to thinks they've got a lead gen problem. They don't. They've got an onboarding problem.  The first three days after someone starts their trial decides whether they convert into a long-term member or ghost you by the end of the week, and it's not just costing you the sale, it’s costing you an opportunity to create a lifelong member.   You can run every open week and ad campaign in the world, get someone through the door, hand them a key tag and a smile, and still lose them by day three. Nobody talks about this stage because it isn't sexy. It isn't a funnel. It isn't an ad. But it's the difference between a $9,500 lifetime value and a mate who ghosts you after the free trial. That gap is your real competitive advantage, and almost nobody is building it on purpose. This one isn't a theory. Sophie built this system managing 80 newbies at a time on the studio floor, and took her own rollover from 30 percent (the so-called industry standard) to 80 percent, three times the average. We break down exactly what she did: how she tracked every newbie without losing one, the meeting that made her studio the most money in the business, and why "just having a chat" with a new member is quietly killing your conversions.  Grab the free 5-Part Convertible Conversation Framework we mention in the episode here: The Convertible Conversation  In this episode you'll hear: Why the first three days decide whether a new member stays or leaves How to lift trial-to-member rollover from 30% to 80% The wave system for tracking newbies so no one falls through the cracks The three B's that make a member stay The most profitable party you’ll ever have (and you don’t even have to run it!)  The buying signals that tell you a member is ready to roll over If this hit home, go back and listen to How to Turn Your 7 Day Trials Into LIFETIME Members we go even deeper on turning trial members into long-term ones:  And when you're ready to put this to work in your own studio, Sophie's rollover went from 30 percent to 80 percent using this exact system. Book a free call with the team and let's build yours.  Chapters: 00:00:00  - The real problem isn't lead gen, it's the first three days 00:04:55  - The 3-part system behind an 80% rollover 00:05:43 - The wave system that tracks your newbies for you 08:00 - The four things every member who stayed had in common  09:29  - The three B's that will take your conversion to 80% 12:31 - The party you should host for every member  14:16 - The signals that tell you they’re ready to buy  16:44 - Stop having chats. Start having conversations that convert. 17:20 - If you think ‘it’s a tough economy’ right now, listen to this  Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts Youtube Instagram: The Geronimo Academy

September 15, 202635 min

Double Your Profit Without Selling a Single Extra Membership

If you're already busting your ass on retention and you're still getting blindsided every time someone cancels, grab the churn checklist workbook we mention in this episode and work through it against your own member base. And if you'd rather just get on the phone and figure out your churn with us directly, book a discovery call, no fluff. Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Instagram Sophie and I sit down to talk about churn, and specifically the mindset reframe that has to happen before any process will actually work. More than half of the 1,400 gym members surveyed in a recent US study stopped showing up without ever cancelling their membership, and four out of five of them said something, anything, could have brought them back. For years I thought I ran one community. Turns out I run five, and so do you. We break down the exact segments hiding inside your member base, why the middle of the pack is where every cancel actually starts, and how some of our studios are holding churn under 3% at 300, 500 and 700 members while everyone else panics every time someone cancels. In this episode you'll hear: The real reason 80% of your churned members would have stayed, and why it's not about working harder The five hidden segments inside every member base, and the one that's actually bleeding you dry Why half of your churn is a sales problem you're mistaking for a retention problem How Nadine took her studio's churn from 12.7% down to under 2% without hiring anyone new The exact strategy shift you need to make at 150, 250 and 700+ members If this one hit home, go listen to How to Bring a Member Back from the Brink of Cancellation next, it's the episode we reference directly in this conversation, and it walks through the exact protocol for saving members before they go quiet. Chapters: 00:00 Cold open, the stat every studio owner gets wrong about churn 04:34 Why retention feels personal, and why that's the trap 05:07 The sales problem hiding inside your churn number 08:01 Proof, Refit's sub 1% churn over winter 09:14 Nadine's story, 12.7% to 1% churn with an AI assisted teammate 12:53 The one question that decides retention, are you essential 13:37 The mindset reframe, why fear keeps owners from fixing this 19:52 You don't have one community, you have five 24:37 The playbook, move every member up one segment 28:22 How the strategy changes at 150, 250 and 700+ members 33:08 Why more automation makes churn worse, not better 38:08 Good churn, bad churn and the mindset check for your managers 41:44 The close, what to do with this episode this week.

September 8, 202633 min

Stop Running Your Studio on Vibes Before It's Too Late

Everyone tells Sal her studio is killing it. Meanwhile she's barely paying herself and quietly wondering what she's actually good at if she can't even get this right. If that's you too, book your free discovery call and let's map out what's actually keeping you stuck. Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Instagram My coach Sophie sits down with Sal, who bought her yoga studio when it was little more than bare bones and has spent the last six months turning it into a real business. Sal came into this with a marketing background, actual skills, an actual resume for the job. And she still felt like a fraud running her studio. Not a brilliant yoga teacher. Not a brilliant meditation teacher. So what am I actually good at, she kept asking herself, while running a business that looked like it was thriving from the outside and was barely staying open on the inside. Six months ago she was swinging between $35k and $50k months with no real plan, just quick dopamine hits from discount offers that got people through the door and never got them back. Today she's sitting on $70k months, chasing an end of year finish line at $84k, and the thing that actually moved the needle wasn't a funnel or a hack. It was giving herself permission to stop hiding from being the owner. Sophie and Sal get into what changed in her sales calls, what changed with her team, and what changed at home with her kids once she stopped running the business from a place of fear. In this episode you'll hear: - Why "you're very convincing" was the compliment that was actually her rock bottom, and what it took to stop faking it and start actually running the place - The discount trap that was quietly wrecking her conversion rate, and what she replaced it with to build a real pipeline - What changed the day she stopped people pleasing on sales calls and started closing the way she actually talks - The one accountability habit that made the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it - Why her own kids are the ones telling her the business is working now If this one landed, go listen to Separation Sunday: The 20-Minute Ritual That Saved My Life (and My Business) next. Sal actually name-checks this exact ritual in this episode as the first thing that slips when she falls off the wagon, so if you want to know what it is and why it matters that much, that's the one. Sal went from swinging $35 to 50k months with no plan to $70k months on her way to a million dollar studio, and the biggest shift wasn't a new funnel, it was finally owning that she's the boss. If you're ready to stop guessing and map out your own version of that, book your free discovery call and let's find out what's actually stalling your studio. Chapters: 00:00:00 Six months ago: buying a rundown studio and running it alone 00:02:52 Stuck in the discount trap with no real plan 00:04:04 The confidence gap: marketing skills, but still stuck 00:05:25 From weekend side hustle to real business 00:08:47 Six months later: sticking to the process 00:09:30 The current numbers and the countdown to a million dollar studio 00:11:28 Ditching people pleasing to find her own voice in sales 00:14:21 The identity shift: from self doubt to leading a team 00:16:00 How the growth changed her at home 00:17:17 The accountability piece that made it stick 00:18:07 Advice for the studio owner who feels exactly like this 00:22:18 The three things that changed everything 00:24:00 Finally owning the role of leader 00:29:00 The one exercise to do this week.

September 1, 202638 min

Why 100 Hour Weeks Keep Your Studio’s Revenue Flat

Everyone tells you you're killing it, but your revenue hasn't moved in two months and deep down you know more hours isn't the fix. If that's you, grab the free studio dashboard we use with every client in the academy, then book a free discovery call and we'll show you exactly where your business is leaking. Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Instagram Sophie and I break down the seven numbers behind every million-dollar studio we've coached, and the near-collapse that forced me to start tracking them in the first place. I used to tell myself I wasn't a numbers person. That was a lie I told to avoid the truth, and I told it while working 100-hour weeks, watching my gym flatline, with a newborn daughter at home and a landlord who'd just told me my rent was about to double. Hope, vibes and hustle weren't going to fix a business that wasn't growing, and I was out of runway to find that out the hard way. So I built a dashboard out of pure desperation, tracked seven numbers every single week, and turned that same gym into our first million-dollar studio. We've since run over 2000 studio owners through the exact same seven numbers, and it still only takes five minutes a week to know exactly where your business is leaking and what to fix first, whether you're doing $5k a month or $150k a month. In this episode you'll hear: The seven numbers every million-dollar studio has in green, and the actual benchmark for each one, from lead flow through to net profit Why "I'm not a numbers person" is usually fear in disguise, and what to do instead The real difference between sales conversion and win rate, and why most owners are tracking the wrong one Why you can't outmarket a churn problem, and the one number that predicts it a month before it hits your bank account The five-minute Friday system that turns these numbers into a weekly habit instead of a once-a-quarter panic If this one landed, go binge ⁠MILLION-Dollar Maths: The 7 Numbers To Build A $1M Studio In 12 Months⁠ next. It's the deep dive on the exact same framework, from the other side of the mic. I built this dashboard because I was broke, terrified, and about to lose my business to a rent hike I couldn't afford. If you're stuck at the same revenue for two months running and you're ready to stop guessing which lever to pull, ⁠book your free discovery call⁠ and we'll audit your numbers together. CHAPTERS 00:00:00 - The real problem isn't your numbers, it's running on vibes 00:00:58 - My near-collapse: 100-hour weeks and a gym that wouldn't grow 00:05:07 - The seven numbers, in order 00:06:16 - How the dashboard was actually built 00:07:04 - Numbers 1 and 2: lead gen and sales conversion benchmarks 00:12:53 - Number 3: the trial-to-member story behind our 80% benchmark 00:15:54 - Number 4: engagement, and the leading indicator for churn 00:17:39 - Number 5: why you can't outmarket a churn problem 00:20:05 - Numbers 6 and 7: labor percentage and net profit 00:23:36 - Why business owners avoid their own numbers 00:25:32 - The green line, and the six-week sprint that saved the business 00:28:39 - Fixing one constraint at a time, not whack-a-mole 00:32:59 - The five-minute Friday system, step by step 00:37:14 - Recap, and where to get help next

August 25, 202632 min

How a Mum of 7 Built a 7-Figure Gym (and you can too)

If your week is whatever walks through the door and the whole studio is being run out of your head, book a discovery call and we'll map what's actually holding you at your current number. Follow Geronimo Unfiltered: ⁠Spotify ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠ Instagram⁠ Sophie sits down with Shell, who doubled her studio revenue in twelve months while raising seven kids. This is the logistics episode. How the week actually gets built. Everyone assumes a woman running a seven figure studio with seven kids has something the rest of us don't. More discipline. More energy. Some extra gear that switches on at 4:30 in the morning. The real answer is more boring and more useful than that, and it's the reason I wanted this one in your ears. Shell has four kids she birthed, three stepkids, three year old twins, a firefighter husband on shift work and a gym she bought while it was sitting in the red. In twelve months she went from $40k months to $70-80k, with a peak at $84k. She is not doing more than you are. She decides earlier than you do, she pays for the help she needs instead of hoping the week works out, and she asks for the rest. Her constraint was never time. It was that the whole thing lived in her head, and once she got it out of there and onto a plan, the numbers moved. In this episode you'll hear: The Sunday ritual she runs for the family calendar and the business plan in the same sitting, and why doing one without the other falls over by Wednesday What she actually pays for so the 4:30am starts and the school drop offs can both happen in the same day How she works out whether she can afford a hire before she makes it, instead of hiring and hoping the members show up What changed inside her own job between $40k months and $80k months, including the two things she hated doing until she got good at them The question she asks instead of "I can't," and the handful of standards she will not move for anyone, including her business If this one landed, go straight to the other episode about owners who were doing fine and decided fine wasn't it. Nate and Jacob from Newstrength went from good enough to a $1M run rate, and they did it while juggling kids and 3am training too. Shell went from $40k months to $80k in twelve months, with seven kids and a husband who's never home on the same schedule twice. She didn't find more time. She followed a plan and put the right people around her. If you want the same thing mapped for your studio, book a discovery call and we'll show you where your next number actually comes from. CHAPTERS 00:00:00 Seven kids, seven figures, and no excuses 00:01:43 "We were fine": the most expensive words in her business 00:03:09 How can we, not why can't we 00:05:34 The support network, and the au pair on a 38 hour roster 00:08:37 Separation Sunday: family logistics and business plan in one sitting 00:10:16 Training as the non-negotiable that keeps her sane 00:11:12 What she does when the plan gets punched in the face 00:12:51 Thinking bigger: the Japan trip that made the money mean something 00:15:08 Control freak, mum guilt, and the standards she won't move 00:18:26 Reverse engineering the hire from member numbers 00:19:52 The $40k role versus the $80k role 00:24:30 Buying a gym in the red, and the line from Benny that still gets her 00:29:06 Monday morning: one target, one focus, and why you don't wait for Monday

August 18, 202646 min

Your Business Is Stuck Because You Are

I sat down with personal growth coach Danny Kennedy for round two of one of the rawest conversations I've had on this show, on belief, identity and the team overhaul happening inside Geronimo right now. Follow the show: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Instagram I had a heart attack. Four weeks ago I started therapy. In two weeks I start EMDR. I'm telling you this before anything else, because the biggest jump my business has made all year didn't come from a new funnel, a new hire or a new tactic. It came from the inside, on the exhale of a breathwork session where I genuinely felt like I turned into an eagle, and I came out the other side making decisions like a different person than the one who walked in. Danny is a personal growth coach to some of the biggest names in the game, and he sat me down and called it straight. You're not stuck because of your team, your market or your funnel. You're stuck because you haven't decided who you're being yet, and your team, your revenue and your capacity are all just catching up to that decision. This one gets into the belief work behind that shift, and the very practical, sometimes uncomfortable team redesign that's come out of it. In this episode you'll hear: Why acting as if sold out our newest coaching tier in a week, and the one question now running every decision in my business. The belief test that decides whether you build a $100 outcome or an empire, and why they take exactly the same amount of work. The real reason we ripped out every layer of middle management, and what the research on the top 8% of teams actually says separates them (it isn't talent). The morning non negotiables and the offline weekend that are producing my biggest ideas this year. Why nervous system regulation, not another growth hack, is about to become the real competitive advantage for founders. Chapters 00:00:00 - Why I'm finally airing this conversation with Danny Kennedy 00:00:44 - "Is this empire enough?" The question now running my business 00:02:03 - Normalise the next level before you actually hit it 00:04:15 - Identity shift over pushing harder 00:06:00 - The $100 note test, belief before proof 00:08:09 - Friction vs flow, control, and why $100k decisions differ from $100 million ones 00:14:01 - My morning stack, cold plunge, meditation, journaling 00:19:14 - Why we killed middle management at Geronimo 00:21:10 - A players are built, not bought 00:24:47 - Inside the super team model, psychological safety, experiments, deep work 00:27:48 - Best thinking happens when you stop thinking 00:33:32 - The breathwork breakthrough and the Joe Dispenza retreat 00:36:06 - Nervous system regulation, the next competitive edge 00:42:00 - Hardware vs software, and the real leadership hierarchy

August 11, 202635 min

Never Chase Clients Again With This Million Dollar Studio Hack

Grab the free Avatar Workbook, write your first draft down, then sharpen it with our Avatar Creator bot. And if everyone keeps telling you you're killing it, but your revenue hasn't moved in two months and you know there's more in you, book a discovery call and let's find out what's actually stalling it. Follow Geronimo Unfiltered: ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠ Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠ YouTube⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ Ryan and I are taking over the pod to fix the biggest problem we see in studios: you think you know who you're for, and what you've actually got is a demographic. Every owner we meet swears they know their avatar. Then they say it out loud and it's "35 to 45 year old mums." That's a census field, not an avatar. And it's exactly why the ads feel like shouting into a crowded room of people who don't care, because if your avatar is everyone, it's no one. We ran this exercise as a live workshop this week and watched owners articulate who they're actually for, some for the first time ever. The messages were still coming in that night saying it finally clicked. So we're walking you through the same six steps we take every studio inside the academy through, in about the same 30 minutes we spend doing it with our clients. And here's the kicker: none of it has anything to do with what you do inside your gym. Pen and paper for this one, it's a writer downer. In this episode you'll hear: Why specific is not narrow, and how actively repelling the wrong people is what fills your studio with the right ones The six questions that uncover the fear your best members have never said out loud (the depth of your conversations determines the depth of your pockets) A live role play that starts at "I want more Pilates coaching" and ends at "I want to know I could protect my daughter," and why nobody buys your methodology The cheap-money trap: what uni student deals did to Doza's F45 (churn three times a year, and they crowded out the members he actually wanted) The one-line hook template that positions you as a category of one, plus the cover-your-logo test to check you've nailed it Loved this one? Binge this next: your message is only half the machine, so hear why ads flop even when the avatar is right in "⁠10x Your Leads in 2025: Why Your Ads Aren't Working (And What To Do Instead)⁠" And when you're ready to do this properly, this is the exact process we use to take owners from stuck at the same revenue two months running to their first 20k month, then 40, then beyond 100k, without burnout. ⁠Book your discovery call here⁠ CHAPTERS 00:00:00 You don't have an avatar, you have a demographic 00:04:59 Specific is not narrow (meet Stuck Sam) 00:07:53 Tony and Nat: the two avatars that built a million dollar gym 00:10:00 Step 1: Mine your best members (and the TAM check) 00:13:57 Step 2: Understand their pain, six questions deep 00:16:04 Sidebar: the uni student trap 00:19:53 Step 3: Give them a name 00:21:56 Step 4: From pain to promised land 00:24:41 Live role play: what she actually wants 00:27:10 Excuses and refusals (and how to weaponise them) 00:29:14 Step 5: Why here, not there 00:31:57 Step 6: Create the hook 00:33:26 The cover-your-logo test 00:36:12 Recap and your next move

August 4, 20261 hr 15 min

Back Yourself Before You’re Ready (to build a $1M studio)

Everyone tells you the studio's going great. Meanwhile you've been rehearsing one conversation with one staff member in the shower for three weeks. If that's you, this episode was made for you. 👉 Grab Annelise's workbook and write the shit down as you listen: https://bit.ly/p-the-studio-owners-workbook-for-backing-yourself 👉 Then book your free discovery call and let's look at what's actually keeping you stuck: https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up Follow Geronimo Unfiltered:⁠Spotify ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠ Instagram⁠ Communication coach Annelise joins Sophie and me to unpack why the scariest parts of running a studio, the tough conversations, the camera, the sales calls, have nothing to do with speaking at all. Annelise grew up a shy kid with a speech impediment and went through speech therapy. Now she's got 15 years of training people to speak behind her and delivers keynotes on stages in the US. I know that climb personally, because I had a hectic stutter as a kid myself, and Sophie was so quiet when she trained at my studio that members genuinely asked if she was on mute. None of us got here by finding confidence. We built it, rep by rep, like a muscle. Annelise reckons the real blocker is the fear of being perceived. It's the same fear behind the conversation you keep putting off, the camera you keep avoiding, and the sales call you keep fumbling. She walks us up the ladder she takes every client through, from desire to discipline to evidence to trust, and shows why you already coach your members through this exact process every day. You just haven't turned it on yourself yet. In this episode you'll hear: The banana bread trap: why one botched conversation convinces you you're "just not a leader" and what to do instead Three questions that turn confrontation into conversation: "help me understand", "what would it take" and "would it be helpful if" Why saving the big moments for the big moments is exactly why you're shit at them The evidence list: a two-minute Monday morning habit that changes how you walk into your business "Learn to love all doors": the lesson from Annelise's dad that rewires how you handle rejection, on sales calls and cancellations alike If this one hit a nerve, queue up "Why Outsourcing your Confidence is the FASTEST Way to Close your Business" next. It's one of our most downloaded episodes ever, and it's the same wound from a different angle. And if you're done borrowing confidence, book your free discovery call. Sophie went from members asking if she was on mute to coaching hundreds of studio owners, and I went from a kid in speech therapy to a sold-out room of 300. The reps work. Let's map yours: ⁠https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up⁠ CHAPTERS 00:00:00 The accidental leader problem 00:04:02 Your fear has nothing to do with speaking 00:07:47 My stutter, Toastmasters and The King's Speech 00:13:29 Three frameworks for hard team conversations 00:20:43 Stop saving the big moments for the big moments 00:23:00 Desire, discipline, evidence, trust 00:24:37 "I'm not a runner": the 1k lesson 00:30:28 Writing your evidence list 00:36:11 Borrowed confidence and finding your leadership voice 00:44:30 Sales calls and the fear of rejection 00:46:16 Learn to love all doors 00:53:12 When cancellations feel personal 00:56:35 Rapid fire: speaking up, firing and being on camera 01:12:06 Three Monday morning steps

July 28, 202642 min

The 3 Systems You Need To Go from Reactive to $115k Months

Everyone tells you you're killing it. But your week is back-to-back fires, the business only works because you're holding it up, and deep down you know this pace has a price. Book your free discovery call and let's map out what your studio actually needs next: https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up Follow Geronimo Unfiltered: ⁠Spotify ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠ Instagram⁠ Connor built five businesses by 28 and it nearly killed him. This is the story of one cardiac ward, two business sales, and the three systems that turned Athletic Culture into a $115k a month gym. He was doing 16-hour days and hadn't taken a real holiday in ten years when his heart gave out last August. A hole in his heart nobody picked up at birth, two weeks on a cardiac ward surrounded by 70-year-olds, then open heart surgery. Most owners would have used that story as the reason to quit. Connor used it as the reason to redesign everything. He sold the pasta bar from his hospital bed, let go of a cafe, and went all in on the gym he calls his baby. Three months after surgery his partner sent him a video of my heart attack, he inquired that day, and signed the same afternoon. Eight months later Athletic Culture has gone from stuck and reactive to $115k months, and he hit a goal we set for the end of this cycle before we were even halfway through it. Me, Connor and Sophie get into exactly what changed, and then his manager Taylor takes the chair to tell the owner's side of the story back to us. In this episode you'll hear: How Connor built a $100k a month gym with no sales system, no leads and no paid ads, and why that run was always going to hit a ceiling The retention play that turned the slowest weeks of the year into his biggest Fitness Passport month ever The playbooks and structure Taylor now runs, so problems get sorted before they become fires How to prove your culture instead of just claiming it, plus the hiring rule that protects it: character over qualifications, no dickheads What Taylor says owners get wrong the moment they finally hire a manager Loved this one? Binge this next: The Hidden Reasons Your Culture Sucks and How to Build One Built to Win. Connor says culture is his secret sauce. That episode is how you build yours on purpose. Connor went from a cardiac ward to $115k months in under a year, working fewer hours than he ever has. If you're ready to find out what that looks like for your studio, book your free discovery call here: ⁠https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up⁠ Chapters 00:00:00 Five businesses, 16-hour days, then a cardiac ward at 28 00:07:25 Why he didn't quit, he redesigned everything instead 00:11:21 Selling the pasta bar and the second cafe 00:15:00 System 1: sales 00:16:12 Culture is king, and how to actually prove it 00:19:33 How a 21-year-old ends up with five businesses 00:26:05 System 2: retention and the Survivor Series 00:27:57 System 3: playbooks, structure, no more firefighting 00:28:44 The heart attack video that brought him to Geronimo 00:34:40 Taylor takes the chair: the manager's view 00:41:06 The letting-go conversation every owner needs to hear 00:47:05 The 3-2-1 goal game: naming the November number 00:49:58 Final advice for owners and managers