"Fix the leader, fix the business". - Aaron Stokes, ShopFixAcademyIn this series, I've been talking about the natural evolution of a business...and the things that stop it from growing. The things that stop the business from evolving are usually inside the founder's head.In the Systemize phase, the founder must get the operating instructions for the business out of their head and into the heads of their employees. If they don't, they've bought themselves a job instead of a business. They must overcome the Swamp of Perfection and the thought that they can "just do it better/faster myself."In the Optimize phase, the founder must hire people who are more skilled at their particular skill than the founder can be. Founders are generalists--they're pretty okay at every part of the business--but they must hire specialists to take them to the next level. Specialists are expensive. And it's scary for the founder to say "I'm not the best person for this job." This is the Valley of Death.If the founder can get out of their own way, they can reach some pretty respectable heights: multi-million-dollar businesses, run by excellent staff and polished systems. Their business is valuable and attractive to buyers for the first time, and could probably carry on for a decade if the founder doesn't make any big mistakes. It has momentum, and the founder's job is simply to keep pushing the team forward.But to really scale--to reach the next level, where the business becomes self-replicating; the clients are self-referring; and the business becomes the default choice--the business must begin to generate its own momentum. That means the founder--who pushed the car up the hill alone, then pushed it faster with a team, and eventually got in to steer while his team pushed--must sometimes hand over the wheel. Decisions should be led by data. The company must produce metrics and dashboards to understand its progress at a glance. For example, our dashboard includes leads, sales calls booked, sales calls showed, sales calls closed, conversions, ascensions, retention, client headcount, gross profit and net profit.Historical performance should then be modelled into financial projections. Should the company increase pricing, or increase the marketing budget? The first step is to look at retention and conversion metrics, and then build financial projections to help the leaders decide.Next, an executive team with high levels of trust should lead and manage their own specialties. At this level, these leaders should really run the company. If the founder disappeared, the staff might notice, but the key metrics would not change.Many companies follow a "Traction" model for reporting and executive leadership.The executive team might have managers to lead different departments or teams. For example, we have a head of Media and head of Sales (reporting to the CMO); a lead Mentor, app developer and lead curriculum developer (reporting to the COO). Their job is to manage quality of their team and work to improve it. If improvement is driven by the founder, the company doesn't have its own momentum yet. This is important, because if the founder is creating the product updates, they'll always be "tinkering" with the product instead of making decisions based on data.When a business escapes the Quicksand of Control, it can become a movement.However, if the owner still has the responsibility to inspire the movement and create energy and passion for the customers and team.And if the owner relinquishes control too early, the business could lose momentum and slide backward. There are certainly days when every founder is...

"I can't take on more business without more staff...but I don't have the money to hire anyone!"I'm sure you've been there. Your business is busy, but you're not making enough money. You have cash flow, but not enough to hire someone else without cutting your own pay. This is the Valley of Death: when you have to hire for capacity ahead of cash flow. Greg Crabtree coined the phrase "Valley of Death" in his book, "Simple Numbers". The Valley of Death is when you have to hire ahead of cash flow, so your profitability drops. Then you race to generate new cash flow. You get out of the Valley when your profitability grows higher than it would have before the hire. For example, when Two-Brain reached $1M in revenue, it plateaued. I couldn't fit more sales calls into my schedule; didn't have capacity to take more clients; and didn't have time to train more mentors for the team. I was absolutely stuck.The only way forward was to hire an Admin. This cost money, and cut into my profitability. But hiring Joyce bought me back a lot of time: she processed payments, helped clients find resources, shipped our 'welcome boxes' and filtered my emails. While her role didn't generate revenue directly, she created the bandwidth I needed to find, hire and train two mentors for the team. Within two months, we were more profitable than we could have been without her.A few years later, we hit another - larger - Valley. I couldn't move forward without people who were more skilled than me: a dedicated marketing expert and a real, experienced COO. I also had to hire someone to lead our growing tech team, and someone to lead our Media production. Finally, we needed to upgrade our bookkeeping and accounting. Together, these roles cost more than our annual profit...but I knew we couldn't reach the next level without them.Of course, the new CMO paid for their role--and more--very quickly. The head of Media upgraded our content, boosting sales and retention. The COO took every headache off my plate, took over HR (the hardest part of any business) and started running operations. The new Chief Information Officer oversaw app development (another huge investment) and doubled as part-time financial analyst. We hired a fractional CFO to guide us on big decisions. Our profitability dropped to nearly zero...but we'd built the team we needed to take us to the next level.Here are the keys to beating the Valley of Death:You can't avoid it; the best thing you can do is get out of it fast.View every new hire as an investment. Either they generate more revenue than they cost, OR they buy you the time to generate more revenue than they cost.Hire the revenue-generating people first. This is a balancing act, because you don't want to sell a service you can't deliver well. But the marketers pay for the operators. Hire them very close together, but if you need cash, hire the marketer a month or two ahead.Hire people who are already better than you. I've often tried to train a beloved staff person to do a new role. But they're always limited by my own skill; it rarely works out; and it's actually more expensive to train them than it is to hire an expert.The hires that will lift your business are, by definition, better than you are at their job. That's what makes the Valley of Death so scary: you're hiring experts, and experts are expensive. But if you want to make it to the next level of business, you need people who are ready for that level...

"Nobody can do this as well as I can!" - every entrepreneur, ever"Never mind. I'll just do it myself!!!" - every human who thinks they're saving timeEarly in my career as a fitness coach, a mentor told me to work more ON my business and less IN my business.Since I had no time in the day, I decided to hire another coach to run the 6am group at my gym. I thought, "She can run the group. I'll show up at the same time, and do my homework while she's coaching."Logically, this made sense. But in practice, here's what actually happened:The group started a few minutes late. I paced around, trying to make eye contact with the coach, getting aggravated. But I was determined to let her run the group.Then some members of the group were talking while the coach was talking. I wanted to step in and yell at them to give her the same attention they gave me.Then she demonstrated an exercise in an imperfect way. She gave the clients a cue that didn't really make sense to me.Within twenty minutes, I was in the mix, "helping" her coach better. I wasn't doing anything to grow my business, because I was so focused on controlling what happened IN my business. After the group, I went down the list of problems. I tried to soften the blow of my feedback, but there were so many details to fix that she went away feeling totally beaten.Here's what I should have done, and how you can avoid my mistakes.Small businesses progress in stages: systemization, optimization, growth, and scale.The first real pitfall of most entrepreneurs is the "swamp of perfection" - the need to have every staff person do it exactly as the owner would. This is a dangerous trap that can actually stop a small business from growing. The 'swamp of perfection' looks like:micromanagement - constant oversight (I once watched our cleaner working through our security cameras--don't do that.)recurring enforcement of "rules" for clients and staffhigh staff churngrowing frustration and a desire to be a "one-man shop" Here's how to get through the Swamp of Perfection.Get your business out of your head. Record how you do everything - from opening the door in the morning to closing it at night.This is a constant process, so don't try to remember everything all at once. Keep an open notebook and add to it whenever you do something "new".Shoot for a C+ level to start. Your staff should follow your recorded systems perfectly, but still deliver only "pretty well" to start. Your first attempt at systemization won't be perfect. This is an iterative process, and you'll get better over time.Set up an evaluation process. Improve each system at each evaluation. This is the start of the move into "optimization".Your first systems won't be perfect. But consistency is the first step. Your clients and staff must be able to deliver in a predictable way, even if that method isn't perfect.In the above example, I should have:Recorded a step-by-step process to running a group class, including...

Every business grows through four phases:Systemization - optimization - growth - and scale.Systemization means getting every process in your business out of your head.Optimization means repeating the processes that work best, over and over. It also means pursuing virtuosity in those processes - doing them well, without wasted effort or excessive "tweaking". Optimization often means avoiding novelty in favor of repeating what works, even when it gets boring. This is also where delegation occurs and metrics are tracked to make sure staff can deliver at the owner's level. Growth means focusing on activities that grow the business instead of delivering the service yourself. This usually means focusing more on sales and marketing instead of coaching the clients or baking the muffins.Scale means replicating your business over and over. This usually means a second location, but it could also mean placing your model over another business or simply adding a management layer to your current business to scale it up. Growth phase is incremental (one new client or one unit at a time); scale phase is exponential (50 new clients at a time or a new distribution channel).My friend Sharran Srivatsaa introduced this simple pathway in his podcast. You can listen here:https://sharran.com/episode105/This week, I've been writing about The Novice's Curse. Many entrepreneurs are tripped up because they don't follow this process of systemize-optimize-grow-scale.Like me, they try to attract new clients before their business is ready to serve them well. So they run Instagram ads before they have systems in place for delivery (growth before systemization). Or they try to open a second location before their staff can run a sales consultation effectively (scale before optimization).My first business simply didn't grow until I mastered the fundamentals of systemization. As hard as I worked, as long as I worked, and as much as I tried to grow, I was always taking one step forward and two steps backward. For example, I'd work hard to get a new client in the door. But they'd show up when I wasn't available. No other coach knew how to sell them on the gym, so the client would leave. My 'growth' initiative would fail because my system (sales) wasn't optimized (my staff didn't know how to do it.)In my mentorship practice, I created a logjam when, during an early period of fast growth, I failed to systemize our onboarding process. I once found myself packing 'welcome boxes', driving them to a shipping outlet, loading them into two shopping carts, wrestling with doors, and standing in line for an hour to get them out--because I hadn't recorded the process for my administrator. Meanwhile, new clients were waiting for their first call (and others were waiting to sign up and pay.)Our business doesn't rise to the level of our marketing; it falls to the level of our preparedness. Businesses without clear, written systems will always be on a marketing treadmill of gain a client/lose a client. Their owners will always be burned out and angry at their staff.Entrepreneurs that don't track metrics will never be able to delegate work to their staff; never know what marketing is actually working; and always be in a rut of "trying stuff" instead of identifying what works and repeating it over and over.Entrepreneurs who can't afford to invest in marketing can't grow their business, and if they aren't clear on their ideal clients and value proposition, their marketing won't work.Finally, entrepreneurs who can't replace themselves in management roles can't scale their business because they'll spend all of their time watching...

"If you want to succeed in business, you're going to have to make a lot of mistakes."That's true. But...it's not the mistakes themselves that matter.Many business owners make lots of mistakes, and don't survive them. In fact, that's true for the majority of small businesses. They make pricing mistakes; they order too much inventory; they shoot for the moon with their restaurant design or gym equipment. Then they run out of money and it kills their business.The more fragile your business, the more impact a single mistake can make. In a book that I wrote for gym owners ("Start A Gym",) I wrote that every mistake made at startup requires at least six months to correct...and, sadly, many gyms can't survive long enough to fix their mistakes.The key to success isn't making mistakes--it's learning from mistakes, and never repeating the same mistakes twice.The US military calls this the "OODA loop". In previous articles, I've referred to it as the Audit Cycle. Business schools call it the "Evaluation Process". My seventh-grade teacher called it "The Scientific Method" and my high school teacher called it "Evidence-based decision making." It goes like this:Try somethingMeasure the result Compare the result against other resultsIf the result is better, keep doing it. If the result is worse, stop.Of course, this system only works if you measure your results. If you try something -- like running Instagram ads -- and you get ten new leads, then you don't really know if the advertising was successful until you compare it to something else.Did you get ten new leads without the ads last month?Could you have earned twenty new leads if you'd done the same ads on Facebook instead?Would you have earned twenty leads with a different Instagram ad?Would you have earned twenty leads if you'd doubled your ad spend with the same ads?You don't know--yet. But measuring the efficacy of the first ad means you have a baseline to compare against.The next month, you can change one of these variables, and measure against your baseline: ten leads.This is how science works. This is the process of empiricism on which empires are built.Now let's apply this to making mistakes.Let's say you have people coming into your shop, but they're not signing up.Are your prices too high?Does your service not solve their problem?Did you not explain your service in a way that evokes value?Does your advertising attract the wrong people?Your hypothesis is that your prices are too high. But you don't know until you measure, because your first attempt at pricing your service was a straight-up guess.First, you measure your close rate.Then, you look at the variables you can control: your price, your advertising, your sales process, your sales skill.Then you choose one--and only one--variable to change. Since changing your prices carries the largest risk (if you're wrong, you're underpriced; if you're right, you have a different problem), you change your sales process.You try a new sales process for the next ten leads, and measure the change.If you sell more of your service, great - you keep the new sales process going.The next test might be upgrading your sales skills. You work on those, and track the results over the next two months. Did your sales improve?Real business "experience" has little to do with how much time an entrepreneur has spent owning a business, and everything to do with how many mistakes they've corrected. The biggest challenge in entrepreneurship isn't that our first decisions are guesses. Of course they are--and most of our guesses will be wrong. We're going to make mistakes. What kills businesses is when entrepreneurs compound their guesses--and compound their mistakes.For

How do you scale up a one on one coaching program? I'm Chris Cooper, this is BusinessISGood. Today I'm going to tell you what is in between one on one mentorship and a big group coaching program. In the past, there have been a few different models where people have delivered their mentorship or their coaching, and it started off mostly like one on one -- kind of like a personal trainer, you would have this mentor who would get on a call with you and work one on one. And this is actually how Two-Brain Business was built. At the other end of the spectrum, you have these big group coaching programs. These are usually lifestyle businesses for the mentor or the coach, they build themselves up to be an icon on Instagram or Tiktok, or whatever, they bring you into the program and you get on a massive group call. Now there are pros and cons to both. Obviously, it's tougher to scale a one on one mentorship practice because every mentor has to be thoroughly trained, there has to be ongoing training, if one mentor isn't doing a great job that affects several clients, etc. On the other hand, the one to many approach has very high churn, clients don't feel like anybody is taking a long term view of what they're doing, and they have trouble finding access to materials or figuring out "how does this even apply to me?" What sits in the middle is a mentor-coach-concierge model that a few clients in our META program are now using with their business coaching practices.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

When your clients run out of future, they’ll quit.If they can’t see the ultimate goal, they’ll question why they’re in your coaching program.If they can’t see how your prescription will get them to that goal, they’ll be distracted by other ideas.If they can’t see the very next step in front of them, they’ll be overwhelmed and fail to make progress.Here’s how to show them the future: long-term, near-term and short-term.Start with their Perfect Day.Ask a client to describe their perfect day. Go into great detail: what time would they wake up in the morning? What would they do first? What would they have for breakfast? Would they go into work, or do something else? Who would they see first? How would they greet that person?Where would they go next? Who would they invite to lunch? What would they do in the afternoon? Would they eat an early dinner, or a late one?Break down the steps to get there.Ask, “What do you think that lifestyle would cost you per year?”“Who would you need to have on your team to give you that kind of free time?”“What does the team need to know for you to take that time away?”If you can correlate their Perfect Day to metrics, that’s even better.Finally, identify one single step they can take to start their journey.Be very specific. “Earn $100 more per week” isn’t helpful. “Launch a preorder program” is slightly better. “Follow this checklist between 8am and 9am tomorrow, and text me when done” is best.Big jobs require motivation.Big jobs require grit and determination.Big jobs require hustle and focus.Small jobs get done.Make the big jobs small.When clients can see their future waiting, they’ll find it hard NOT to get there. The key is to make each step so small, simple and easy that it’s hard for them NOT to do it.The key? Keep showing them exactly what to do. When they run out of future–when they can’t see the long-term, near-term or short-term goal–they’ll give up on themselves and your program.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

What makes a great mentor stand out from an average one? For starters, a great mentor will say, "I don't have experience with that, but I know someone who does. Can I connect you?" Business is Good and Chris Cooper is back, addressing the problem of "guru on the mountain top" – that know-it-all mentor who'll answer any question regardless of whether they have the skill or experience to do so! It's okay not to have all the answers as a mentor, and today Chris is showing us why working outside your zone of expertise doesn't scale. In fact, it's far better to build a strong network of people with expertise in specific areas. The higher the level of client you're working with, the more value you can bring through your network.As usual with Chris Cooper, there are plenty more shrewd business insights where that came from! Building your client's trust and affinity for your brand is just one click away. Please join us. "It's okay to be wrong as a business mentor. But it's not okay to pretend to be an expert." ~ Chris CooperIn This Episode:-Beware the "guru on the mountaintop" mentor!-Why it's okay to say 'I don't know'-Building scalability by having a network of experts-The value of having a partner you can trust-Learning not to undervalue your own expertiseAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Master the basics yourself. Systemize them for your staff. Optimize outcomes over time, but do them forever.One of the hardest skills for entrepreneurs to practice is virtuosity. This is simply a mastery of the fundamentals instead of trying to do every new idea that comes along.High-level performers in golf, for example, work on their basic swing for years; novices buy new equipment. This is true in most sports. Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, used the gymnastics definition of virtuosity: performing the common uncommonly well. For example, a gym owner should work to master their skill in selling their program before attempting to "flood their gym" with marketing. But the siren song of "leads! leads! leads!" is strong enough to distract most of them. Likewise, a gym owner should develop their staff to make them all an 8/10 as coaches, instead of employing a few "3s" and one "9". This includes evaluations and feedback--uncomfortable processes that many gym owners forget or ignore.Entrepreneurs in any service business should develop the skill of asking for referrals, nurturing leads, and creating content before considering a TikTok account...but most lack the discipline to master the basics, because the lure of novelty is so strong.One of the challenges of mastering the basics is that it gets boring. Who wants to do another sales roleplay when they could shoot an Instagram reel or record a podcast? It's tempting to be the first to try (and talk about) a new idea, be an early adopter, or tell your friends how to do the new thing. This is the curse of the novice. In a letter to coaches around the world, Glassman wrote, “There is a compelling tendency among novices developing any skill or art, whether learning to play the violin, write poetry, or compete in gymnastics, to quickly move past the fundamentals and on to more elaborate, more sophisticated movements, skills, or techniques. This compulsion is the novice’s curse—the rush to originality and risk.”He went on to describe the "novice's curse"-- manifested as "excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery.”This is equally true in business. Focusing on building a Facebook ads campaign before a consistent sales process means a lot of wasted time on cold leads, poor conversion and burnout. Worse, it's hard to learn to be a better sales person if the pitch is different every time, because the entrepreneur can't see what's working with clarity.What are the basics every entrepreneur should master?Reading a P&LGetting client referralsConsistent delivery of their service by their staffSelling their productClient communicationsStaff evaluationsContent creation...and more.It's important to note that "mastery" of any of these is nearly impossible. But most entrepreneurs can grow their business faster by improving the fundamentals than by adding new strategies or tactics.For example, every entrepreneur should know how to read a Profit and Loss statement (P&L). Even basic familiarity will help an entrepreneur understand how their business is doing. But the pursuit of mastery--asking questions of the bookkeeper, thinking about classifications, identifying opportunities, and putting in lots of reps--will grow their business faster than searching for new trends on social media. The P&L should create focus for a business owner, which is the first step to growth.As another example, a business owner who can improve their close rate by 10% will grow their business faster than an owner who increases their ad spend. Ads take time to...

Strategies guide long-term growth. Tactics generate immediate results. And skills compound.More and more, our data set shows that clients with solid skills – like focus, virtuosity, and patience – outperform everyone else, even when they’re given the SAME strategies and tactics as everyone else.Skills have compounding value (they become more valuable over time, because):1 – a little bit of each skill is helpful, but a high skill level pays off even more;2- no one can copy them – they’re an unassailable advantage;3 – the government can’t tax you on them;4 – you don’t lose them. If one business fails, these skills will build the next faster5 – they can be improved regardless of outcome (if you win, you learn; if you lose, you learn);6 – they multiply your other investments.7 – the time and effort invested to learn them has lifelong returns.For example, patience is a skill that will usually pay off with your investments. Given a long enough timeline, real estate almost always pays off, and stock markets trend upward. Warren Buffett has said, “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”Focus is a skill that will multiply your return on mentorship. As I wrote in “Strategies, Tactics and Skills“, the gym owners who get the best ROI in our mentorship program often say “I just did what my mentor told me.” And the owners who get the lowest ROI often say, “I’m just too busy to do the work!” Of course, both groups have nearly the same amount of work, but the top-earners have the skill of focus.Another skill is a mindset of abundance: many business owners pass over opportunities to collaborate because they see only competition. For example, instead of taking BJJ gyms or cheerleading gyms in Two-Brain now, we refer these clients to excellent coaching programs. Instead of worrying about “share of wallet” with other providers, we commonly link to vendors we really like.Another example is the skill of public speaking. I have a coach for this particular skill. If every business that I own tanked overnight, I would use this skill to rebuild from scratch. Ditto blogging and podcasting. These skills don’t go away when the market changes or you get your pricing structure wrong.Of course, this principles works in the fitness business itself: learning how to squat, press and deadlift properly will make all future forms of exercise more effective.The challenge with coaching skills is they have a long-term payoff, and they’re hard to quantify. Some clients might not realize they’re picking up skills in focus, planning or patience while working with you. Adding skills into your coaching program can be tough. Usually, entry-level clients need quick tactics to see a fast ROI on your program. And high-level clients, who recognize the value of skills and have the time to work on them, already possess at least a moderate skillset.One key is to call out the skill as you’re teaching it. “I know it’s hard to understand why I’m asking for a picture of your calendar right now, but we’re slowly building the skill of focus. First, we’ll do this with me; then you’ll do it on your own, and I’ll check; then you’ll own the skill forever.”How do you teach skills in your program?Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

After working with over 1800 gyms worldwide, we know that our program can get a gym amazing results.Our strategies are commonly used in huge businesses. Our tactics are specific to the fitness industry, and tested relentlessly. Every tool, every template, every social media swipe file has been tested hundreds of times. They work.But still, around 1.8% of the time, a client struggles in our RampUp program.They get the same strategies and tactics as everyone else. They have 1:1 coaching calls (and, honestly, we sometimes do a couple of extra calls to get them on track.) So why aren’t these outliers getting the same results as the others? What’s missing?I didn’t want to guess, so I looked at our most successful gym owners: the ones who ascended rapidly from their starting point to 100k NOB and then to 1M net worth. I called their mentors; I looked at their call notes and walked through their metrics month by month. Then I scrolled through their Facebook posts and questions, and FINALLY a theme began to emerge.The most successful gym owners have SKILLS that the least successful don’t.For example, the most successful gym owners are able to focus on the work they’re assigned in RampUp; make time to do it; and complete it between calls.In fact, the most common thing these fast-ascenders say in interviews is “I just did what my mentor told me to do.”Conversely, if you read the conversations and exit interviews of the unsuccessful, the opposite theme is repeated over and over: “I just don’t have time to do it,” or “I’m so overwhelmed, can I pause and come back later?”Focus is a skill.Some clients have the skill of focus already. Usually, these are people who have a family, own a business and also train hard. The most focused sometimes have multiple “fields of play”, each of which is important enough to warrant their full attention. So they’re not just running a business, but also raising kids or pets and doing Triathlons.Some clients don’t have strong focus skills, but they can force a deep focus when required. These are people (like me) who do their best work right before a deadline. When given a short leash, these clients can be really successful with our RampUp program, but they’ll never be successful just by reading books or listening to podcasts. They won’t benefit from a group coaching program unless they’re in it for a very long time. They’re a bit slower than the first group, but they’ll get there. A 12-week sprint with frequent touch points will keep them on track.Others don’t have any focus skills, and they’re overwhelmed and stressed all the time. In most cases, 1:1 mentorship is their only hope…and even then, they might struggle to keep up with the mentor’s pace. In these cases, the mentor has to do really frequent touch points – almost daily. Or they can make appointments with themselves to do the work and show their mentor when they have “focus blocks” planned. These clients might benefit from scheduled “open office hours” where they just show up and work. But they won’t benefit from getting a new task or idea every month.Finally, the 1.8% who are so overwhelmed that they can’t get anything done. These clients might not be successful in your program or any other. If they have compounding stressors, like money or problems at home, your coaching sessions will just become therapeutic venting. You’ll have to keep these clients on a very short leash – “text me what you plan to accomplish every morning, and tell me what you got done every night”. They should also be coached on building a schedule to do the work–and their expectation to have the work done–on the very first call. In fact, you might want to add a qualifying question to your sales script: “When do you plan to do the work required to get a great return on this investment?”There are other skills that some entrepreneurs lack, like:An abundance mindset (vs a...

As business mentors how do we build curriculum – and how do we create generations of clients whose performances improve upon those that came before them? Business Is Good with Chris Cooper, and today's topic provides insight into how we create content, how we audit that content, and how we then upgrade it.Much like the story of the tortoise and the hare, we need something or someone to compete with and measure ourselves against. Building curriculum that we improve upon with each generation of clients, and then auditing that content and improving upon it, allows us to set ever higher benchmarks for our clients. With each generation of clients, we are introducing new hares into the race. And the goal is for them to exceed your standards, and surpass your estimations. That's good business mentorship.Let's learn how we can identify what content we should be teaching, how we test that content to know if it's any good, how we build courses around that content, and also how we audit ourselves so that we can all improve. Let's dive into the show. "If you're coaching anything, you need to outgrow this mindset that the best experiences and ideas and stories and concepts and courses have to come from you. Eventually, your clients will improve on your best tactics and tools."  ~ Chris CooperIn This Episode:-What can we learn from the tortoise and the hare?-How do we identify high-value topics that will get us clients faster?-How do we test our content solutions so we know that they will work?-How do we buy material from other people (and our clients) to help our other clients solve their problems faster?-How do we build courses to teach these concepts and provide our clients with the right tools?-Understanding the Audit Cycle – how are we constantly seeking improvement for our clients? And more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

We currently have 868 gyms in Two-Brain Business, my mentorship practice for gym owners.We’re going to cap it at 1000. I’m Chris Cooper, and this is BusinessIsGood.Today, I’m going to tell you why we’re capping membership in my mentorship program, TBB. If you’d like to talk about this or any episode, go to businessisgood dot com and click “join the BIG movement” at the bottom.Here’s why:It’s best for our clients.We know that the clients who get the best results from Two-Brain keep it simple: they trust the process, they follow their mentor’s direction, and they don’t get sidetracked by second-guessing or other options.These traits are harder to instil in new clients. But if a new client joins a group that’s totally bought in, positive and making progress, they’re more likely to do the same. They learn the skills by watching others.The best thing we can do for our new clients is to put them in a high-trust, high-affinity environment of other people who are excited and focused.Adding a cap will mean they are more likely to encounter those people.Right now, we have the best ‘churn’ rate in any business coaching program I’ve ever found. But still–even ONE nonbeliever, doubter, or cynic in our program affects ten others.Clients can pull one another up, or pull one another sideways.It’s clear: the faster a client can build momentum, the larger their result will be over time. Removing overwhelm, distractions and imperfect fits will help them build momentum faster.We don’t want to ‘compete’ for every client anymore.While we have more experience, data, proof, clients, and success in every metric than other business coaches in the gym industry, it’s still tempting to watch what the others are doing, or try to talk gym owners out of joining their program.This promotes a scarcity mindset, and worse: it means we “play down” to everyone else’s level. We find ourselves building stuff that gym owners don’t need just because the “other guys” have it.The truth is that not every gym owner is ready for mentorship with Two-Brain yet.With a cap, we’ll stop chasing ‘bad fits’ or feeling like we’re losing when a gym owner signs up with someone else.We’ll always ascend the best clients to Two-Brain, even if they start elsewhere.Over the last decade, I’ve worked with many clients who have had another business coach or mentor. Some were happy with the other program, but had simply outgrown it. Others were skeptical of all business coaching because they’d had a bad experience.But either way, the best fits always find their way to Two-Brain, even if they start somewhere else. “Best finds best” isn’t a slogan – it’s our business plan.We want to focus on getting the big results FASTER.Two-Brain could continue onboarding 35-40 gyms per month indefinitely.Instead, I want to focus on getting Two-Brain gym owners to earning 100k NOB–and then to 1M net worth–FASTER.We’ve proven we can do it. Every month, a couple of dozen of our clients reach 100k NOB for the first time. And, on average, two of them become millionaires.For the last five years, we’ve been focused on building everything they needed to get there. We’ve been tracking and publishing how the best gyms do it across the Simple Six metrics.Now that we’ve done it with hundreds of gyms, we can ask “How do the FASTEST gyms do it?”We know what’s possible. Now we’ll do it for time.We want to actually change the industry.We’ve seen, from our data, that a thousand well-run gyms can actually have greater impact than 2000 pretty good ones.The best gyms create full-time jobs for trainers, keep clients engaged far longer, pay the owners dramatically better, and have the systems to last 30 years.If you believe in the libertarian ideal of...

No matter what field you’re in, you can build a staff training program following these five steps.If you’re a business coach, you can help your clients do the same. Take this model and apply your own branding.First, a question: why do we have to train staff at all? Doesn’t our education system prepare people to work?In Western culture, our education system is an “industrialized Greek model”.We follow the original Greek teaching model: a student sits at the feet of their teacher, listens to a speech on a topic, and asks questions to better understand. This was used by Socrates to teach Plato, and by Plato to teach Aristotle. The needs of industrialization sped up the process by incorporating large classrooms, specific subjects and more emphasis on following specific instructions.But another model–the Hebrew model–is better for training staff on the job.The Hebrew model follows four phases:I do, and you watch.We do it together.You do, and I watch.You do.The Greek model is designed to teach what the teacher knows. The Hebrew model is designed to teach who the teacher IS. It’s powerful for on-the-job training because it’s simple. But it’s incomplete. It requires an evaluation process. For staff to become masters at their craft, they must do more than know how–they must adopt a process of constant improvement. That process should be driven by feedback.In early Hebrew times, tradespeople received fast and direct feedback: “this food is no good”, or “your sheep are small.” Apprentices learned first from a master, and then from their customers or patrons. There were no managers or NPS processes–you improved, or you starved. This is the root of a free market economy.In a more complex world, feedback is slower and less direct. Having hundreds of clients makes it hard to find the most important feedback. Multiple levels of leadership means every piece of feedback passes through filters. And removal of severe incentives–eat, or don’t eat–means that feedback isn’t always applied with urgency.That means we must add a feedback process to create continuous improvement.So the model for staff development is this:I do, you watchWe do togetherYou do, I watchYou doI correct, you do better.This is a cycle of mentorship that can be applied in any service business.For example, in a gym, a good staff training program looks like this:I coach and tell you why I’m coaching this wayWe coach together. I give you specific assignments to help me.You coach, and I give you feedback to improve until you’re ready.Then you coach alone for awhile, and reflect on what you know.After three months, you do a self-evaluation and I do a managerial evaluation.Then you coach alone, and we repeat between practice and evaluation forever.In an accounting practice:I walk you through a series of P&Ls and tax returns and talk while I do.Then I assign specific parts to you, and check your work.Then you do a series of P&Ls and tax returns and I audit them.Then you go off on your own for three months, and take notes.Then we do an audit of your work and make notes for improvement.Mentorship is different from “teaching”, at least in the Western sense. As mentors and coaches, we must be less invested in what our clients are LEARNING and more invested in who they’re BECOMING.Use this model to train your own staff, or teach it to your clients. Add templates and tips to build out your ‘staff training’ program!Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

How do you produce more content, better content, and do it consistently well? Business Is Good! - and today, your host Chris Cooper is sharing his ABC Content Plan.The ABC Content Plan is a framework that will allow you to consistently build better content over time. It's also how Chris built a $25 million company from a 200-word daily blog. Separating the content you produce into levels, according to Chris's framework, will allow you to focus your energy more wisely, and spend your time on the content that matters, according to your strategy. Along the way, you will see that your content in one medium suddenly has new reach in others.From online books to YouTube videos, and from podcasts to blog posts, categorizing your content according to its long or short-term value will help you to grow your brand. What content are you saving for your social media channels (C-level content, and how can that possibly turn into A-level content in time?Chris is showing us how your hard effort can be triplicated, by turning a YouTube video into audio for your podcast, with the transcription of that audio being turned into a blog article. All of this makes you and your brand easier to find online, and for your potential customer to consume your content in the manner of your choosing. Creating a quality, consumable content with Chris Cooper is as simple as ABC... please join us."Content is the foundation of my mentorship practice, it's the foundation of everything that I do. But I make better and better content by identifying what my clients like hearing about, and making sure that I'm telling it in a different way all the time." ~ Chris CooperIn This Episode:-Understand the A, B, and C of the ABC Content Plan-How to systemize the B and C levels (the daily and weekly publishing deliverables)-Chris's top secret 'Power of 10' strategy for building A-level contentAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Traction (book) - Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business: Wickman, Gino: 0783324916904: Amazon.com: Books - https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

If you could spend 1 hour doing something – or 10 hours – and get the same results, which one would you pick? Of course, most of us would choose one hour. But in truth, in business, that rarely happens. As business owners, we have often been brought up with a job mindset, believing that the harder we work at our jobs, the more successful we will be. The reality is that our job, as owners, is to focus on outcomes: how do we put those first, and what are the fastest ways to get there? Shifting our mindset involves learning not to feed the amygdala (that part of our brain that feeds off our 'fight or flight' problems) as a CEO or entrepreneur, i.e. looking for problems to solve and stressors to resolve.Rather, we need to be more strategic in our approach to how we reinvest our time and set future outcomes that will help us grow our business – and accurately reflect a worthwhile return on our time investment. Chris is hammering home an appreciation that your greatest asset is your time, and that from there you need to figure out the fastest way to get to your business outcomes in order to see real growth. Let Chris show you how to work smarter, not harder in this enlightening episode of Business Is Good. "As an owner, you invest your time (which is your most valuable asset) to get an outcome back." - Chris CooperIn This Episode:-Why your job as an owner is to produce outcomes (not to produce work)-Why we think we need to keep working really hard in business to achieve success-How to focus on outcomes to put them first –  and find the fastest ways to get there-Thinking like an investor as a CEO – learning to reinvest your time in future business endeavors-Ask yourself: what is your Return on Time (ROT)?-How to work out your Effective Hourly RateAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Traction (book) - Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business: Wickman, Gino: 0783324916904: Amazon.com: Books - https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

SUMMARY KEYWORDSclients, increase, expenses, arm, business, gym, photographer, revenue, hourly rate, work, bucks, crm, paying, owner, hire, retention, simple, coaches, raise, coming SUMMARY KEYWORDSclients, increase, expenses, arm, business, gym, photographer, revenue, hourly rate, work, bucks, crm, paying, owner, hire, retention, simple, coaches, raise, comingToday, we're going to talk about raising client value before you do anything else. I'm going to go through this in three big topics. First, the six levers that will grow any business.Then, why ARM (client value) comes firsThen I'm going to talk about how ARM improves everything else. Then I'm going to tell you how to improve your ARM. OIf you're trying to boost your net owner benefit--how much you take home--the easiest way to do that is to increase how much each client pays. If you're trying to increase length of engagement, how long a client sticks around, the best way to do that is to start with high value clients who stick around longer.If you're trying to boost your effective hourly rate, the best way to do that is to increase the price that your clients are paying. If you're trying to get a better return on your expenses, the best way to do that isn't by cutting your expenses. It's by increasing your revenue. And if you're trying to get more clients, I challenge you to ask, "do I actually need 50 more clients if every client that I'm paying is playing slightly more?"Then I'm going to give you three case studies.  Thanks for listening to business is good. If you'd like to chat about this episode or the blog posts or podcasts that I put on the business is good site. Just go to business is good.com and click Join the movement. We'll see you there.Thanks for listening to business is good. If you'd like to chat about this episode or the blog posts or podcasts that I put on the business is good site. Just go to business is good.com and click Join the movement. We'll see you there.Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

How would you scale from one client to ten without hiring anybody – and still give those clients excellent service? That’s the question for the one-man band. How to build a single-person business is what Chris Cooper is addressing today on Business Is Good. Chris is sharing his vast experience as a business coach and mentor by narrowing down the decisions that the person running their own business has to make to three key areas. These are: should you do it, how to scale up your time effectively, and the tech you need to build a single-person business. You want to grow your business, you don't want to lose existing clients, and you know a little bit about different coaching modalities, CRM software, and social media platforms (like Facebook) that you can use to communicate with your clients. But how do you tie it all together, take advantage of increasing AI software opportunities, and succeed as a one-man band? Chris is here to guide us as he expertly weighs up the pros and cons of marching to the beat of your own drum while scaling your single-person business. "If you're thinking about scaling up by going one-to-many, what I would suggest (and what seems to be working for a couple of programs right now) is to go one-to-few."- Chris CooperIn This Episode:-Creating courses as a way to increase revenue and maximize your time-Building a client-centric business-How to scale your time from one-to-one to one-to-many-Various models on how to scale effectively-Dealing with a high turnover of clients -Talking to 12 people at a time as the ideal number for maximum retention-Using an existing social media platform (like Facebook) for client support-Following up with clients to help keep them accountable for generating results-Using the right CRM that fits your niche -Using AI to take people's dashboards and look at their metrics-Using AI to create media for you if you are a single-person operation-Hiring people who are good at what you aren't -Having high churn as a single-person businessAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Don't teach what you know, give people what they need. This is BusinessIsGood. I'm Chris Cooper. And today we're going to talk about outcome-based coaching. I'm going to cover this in three big topics. First, we're going to talk about what outcome-based coaching is, then we're going to talk about elegance. And then we're going to talk about speed. Building a successful coaching business means starting from your clients' ideal outcomes and then working backward. So here's how we do it. If this is helpful to you, please just go to businessisgood.com. And join our community where you can talk about stuff like this building your coaching practice, and anything else about entrepreneurship that you want to talk about.  So first, today, we're going to talk about outcome-based mentorship. What is this? Well, it's basically starting with what your clients want to achieve, and then working backwards from there. Instead of starting with "here's what I know; how can I sell this to other people?" we want to think about what our ideal client's goals are. And so if you've got a specific niche (my niche is the fitness industry) you want to look at the people in that industry and ask "what do they really want?" One great exercise I'm going to share with you right now is called the Perfect Day exercise. This will help you get a broad sense of what your clients' goals are, and then you can build your mentorship program or your coaching practice for your fitness business or whatever it is backward from those goals to make sure that your clients are achieving those outcomes. Here's the Perfect Day exercise. What we want you to do--and you can do this yourself right now-- is imagine you're living your perfect day. You don't have to worry about money or anything else like that. What time, in a perfect world, would you wake up in the morning? What's the first thing that you would do? What would you do after that? What would you eat? Who would you do those things with? Would you go to work or not? Would you go to the beach? paint a clear picture of all that? Would you have a nap in the afternoon? What would you do for lunch? Where would you go for dinner? Would you be alone? Would you be with friends? Would you be reading a good book? Describe that perfect day, including what time you go to bed at night, in great detail. Now just the act of visualizing this perfect day and thinking through it will help your clients understand what it is that they eventually want from life. And then it'll help you understand in a more objective way how you can help them get there. Then after they've done the exercise, you can work backward and you can define the outcome a little bit more clearly. So you can say, "Okay, what kind of income would it require for you to live in this perfect day all the time? Who is in this perfect day with you? Where are you living? From there, you can say okay, so these are more specific outcome. If somebody says, well, to live this kind of lifestyle, I need to make about $150,000 a year, that's perfect: you've got an ideal outcome that you can coach them to. If they say "to live in this perfect world outcome, I would need to be about 20 pounds lighter, so I'm not embarrassed to go to the beach," wonderful. 20 pounds is a great outcome, we can work backwards from that goal, to create a plan to get you to be 20 pounds lighter. Okay? This is one way that you can help define your client's ideal outcomes. And after you've done this with enough clients, you can see the commonalities and say, "Ah, all the people in my niche seem to have this similar goal!" For me, working in the niche of gym owners, that goal was making $100,000 a year. Now that's not their ultimate...

Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

How to Consistently Produce Better and Better Content.In this episode, I tell you how to produce content for YouTube, your Podcast, your blog AND your social media...all at once!Then I tell you how to use the media you produce to create a book, longform video or audiobook using a model we call "The Power of Ten." (It's how I wrote my last book, "Start A Gym".)I'll start by telling you what each "level" of content means:A - longform, big projects, like a book or filmB - shorter-form daily or weekly content, like a podcast, YouTube video or blog postC - amplifiers, like reels, tweets, pictures or snippets.Then I'll tell you how to systemize the process to create MOUNDS of content from one recording.Finally, I'll tell you how to make your content better and better over time, so it doesn't matter where you start!Every company is a media company.You MUST publish content.Your first content doesn't have to be great - you'll bury the bad stuff with new stuff, as long as you keep getting better.Want to chat about it? Visit www.businessisgood.com and join our community of entrepreneurs!Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Whether you're running a personal training business, a coaching business, or teaching painting on the weekend, chances are that you've thought about how you can scale your business. Fear not: if you hit a ceiling whenever you try to scale, then Chris Cooper is here with four tips that will take your coaching business from 'one to one' to 'one to many.' Learning how to leverage technology and add group coaching to your business offering while creating replicable models AND hiring the right staff is no easy task. Chris breaks it all down for us, though, taking us on his journey to where he is today while also outlining the practicalities of how you could get even two of your clients to start working together. It's all about advancing your business further forward, faster – and still delivering those outcomes to your clients. Chris's mentorship insights mean you can apply the lessons he's learned in his business journey in a smart and seamless fashion. Please join us. “You don't have to hire the same person that you are." - Chris CooperIn This Episode:- Hiring an administrator to buy back more time - Seeing your first hires as investments- Can you scale using an online course?- Getting your clients to train/learn together- Putting your clients into groups of 8 to 12 people (a 'board')- Building an ascension model – what that means- Understanding what your client needs- How to replicate what you do by creating models- Developing models so you don't have to develop skills from scratch- Evaluating which of your clients would work well togetherAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

 BiG Podcast - Partnerships and SponsorshipsMon, Mar 13, 2023 8:11AM • 17:44SUMMARY KEYWORDSaudience, website, product, gym, building, recommendation, people, clients, business, bike, partnership, recommend, booth, owners, company, test, trek, podcast, local bike shop, sell I will pay you $500 for a 30 minute phone call. Hey, I'm Chris Cooper, this is business is good. And today I'm going to tell you about sponsorships. Why I don't take sponsorships on my podcast and why I said no to the software company that wanted to pay me 500 bucks for a 30 minute phone call. Today, I've got three big key topics for you. First, we're going to talk about the value of your audience. Second, we're going to talk about the value of your recommendation. And third, we're going to talk about the partnership funnel. But first, a story. In 2006, I was sponsored by Trek bikes. Trek was the biggest most popular cycling company in the world. At that time. Lance Armstrong was winning the Tour de France seemingly every year on a Trek bike, everybody wanted to ride Trek bikes. But I wasn't a cyclist, I was powerlifting. Best case, I might have been the fastest powerlifter with a bicycle within a square mile or something. But the local bike shop wasn't interested in my legs, they were interested in my audience. I was a personal trainer at a local gym, I had a full book, and every Tuesday night, I would lead a cycling group for any of my clients who wanted to come. Now my clients were high earning individuals who could afford to work with a personal trainer a couple of times a week, they had high affinity they really liked and trusted me, most of them were beginners, some of them were thinking about doing their first triathlon. And so when they thought about what kind of bike should they buy, they would naturally turn to me. And so it made sense for the local bike shop to put me on a Trek. Now, this didn't make sense to me at the time, because I didn't understand the value of the audience, I thought that they really thought I was an amazing athlete. And that's why I was gonna get sponsored by Trek. Of course, at the end of the summer, the store asked for its bike back. And I don't blame, you know, at least they didn't ask me to pull up under the cover of darkness and leave the bike, because they were embarrassed by my actual cycling prowess. But they did sell bikes from this program. And I learned something, which is if you know how to build an audience, you'll never go hungry. Your audience is more valuable than what you know. even more today than 20 years ago, attention is really hard to get and it's extremely hard to keep. Now that my mentorship practice Two-Brain Business has 40,000 people on its daily email list, 10,000 YouTube subscribers and almost 3 million podcast downloads, people want to get in front of my audience. So here's why I don't take sponsors on any of my podcasts and I recently turned down offers for 500 bucks for a 30 minute phone call. And I will politely decline your offer for your amazing revenue share program if I push your product to my audience of gym owners. Let's start with point number one the audience is harder to build than the product is. If you're like me, and you're listening to this, and you're a founder or a business coach, you're probably really in love with your product. You love building out your courses or your widget or your cookies or whatever it is that you make. And you want to believe that simply making the best widget, the best courses, the best cookie will guarantee your success. This is called the technicians curse. And I first read about it in the E Myth mastery book. But the reality is that more and more, it's less about what you make and more about your ability to build an audience. building an audience is easier than...

How can you get your clients better results — and use those results to get more clients? The A+ Client Results Framework is what you need to get better results for your clients over time, resulting in more clients for you. And in this episode of Business Is Good, host Chris Cooper shares the four phases that create this framework.It starts with assessment and how you measure and track what your client is doing. You then have to hold your client accountable to do the work, which will then lead to a natural affinity between you as their mentor and them, their staff, and their brand. Next, you publish your values often and then build your authority by sharing the success stories of what you’ve done for other people. And then you start over!Learn how to lead with positivity and base decisions on evidence by applying Chris’s A+ Client Results Framework to your business and mentorship program. As always, the advice dispensed on Business Is Good is worth its weight in gold. Please join us!“Tracking the data and knowing the averages is the key that allows people to exceed that average and become better, and push the envelope up over time.” - Chris CooperIn This Episode:- Assessment - measure and track how your client is doing- Adherence - hold the client accountable to do the work to get results- Affinity -  how tightly tied are your clients and your staff to your brand?- What are your values, and how are you communicating them?- Are your decisions evidence-based? - Authority - share success stories of what you’ve done for other people- Why you should repeat the process of auditing your clients and measuring results- Creating an evolutionary cycle that is tied to results over timeAnd more!Resources:Blog - https://businessisgood.com/blog/Connect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Ask yourself: what level of leadership are you at now and what influence do you need to build to get to the next level? Respect to Chris Cooper and the information he’s distilling for us in this luminary and logical episode of Business Is Good. We all know the term “influencer” from social media these days, but what does real influence have to do with leadership? And, more importantly, how can you grow your business, your family, and your community by becoming a better leader by wielding more influence?There are 5 levels of leadership that are worth understanding to gauge where you are. What those levels are — and how to level up — is what Chris is here to teach us. In between, he’s weaving personal stories that add gravitas to the theory while providing us with relatable contact points on how we can grow our level of influence. Please join us. “You can change how people view you as a leader and you can become a more impactful leader by improving your influence.” – Chris CooperIn This Episode:- What are the 5 levels of influence? - Understanding positional influence - What is permission influence?- If you have a proven track record, do you wield production influence?- Appreciating respect and how people follow you because of who you are- Chris’s success with CrossFit and building a foundation of trust- Using data to show how you can help people- The importance of intent when creating media — showing people HOW and WHYAnd more!Resources:- The 5 Levels of Leadership - John Maxwell: https://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/the-5-levels-of-leadership1/- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert B. Cialdini: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189XConnect with Chris Cooper:Website - https://businessisgood.com/

What can we learn about our business when teaching tomorrow’s leaders? Business Is Good has never been better in this beautifully philosophical episode with our host Chris Cooper as he reflects on what he teaches teenagers about entrepreneurship. Considering that most of what teenagers will learn today will become outdated and obsolete by the time they finish high school, Chris reminds us that it’s the values and principles that underpin entrepreneurship that will make the biggest impact on the world. What are the gifts that teenagers need to pursue a career of lifelong learning? Why is building an audience so important in today’s entrepreneurial landscape? And why is mentorship so crucial in helping you fast-track your business growth? Chris Cooper’s inspirational approach to entrepreneurial education has never been more evident than when he’s considering the mind of a teenager — full of potential to shape our world for the better.  “Every business now is a media business. You start by building an audience before inventing a new product or coming up with a new idea.” – Chris CooperIn This Episode:- Building an audience by sharing what you are learning - If you know how to build an audience, you will never go hungry- Why fame is the most efficient business model- How mentorship can help you grow your business faster- What do you give kids when you want to inspire them to go into entrepreneurship?- Why the way your parents plan to retire is not the way you should plan to retire- What long-term impact do you plan to have on your family and community as an entrepreneur? - Write your own entrepreneurial textbookAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Why do we need business coaches? What is the difference between a coach and a mentor? And how do coaches earn the permission and trust to help someone grow their business? These are the questions Chris Cooper is answering for us today on Business is Good. He provides us with personal stories from his early days in business that illustrate the value of having a coach who can support you in growing your business faster than you ever could on your own. Chris’s advice is invaluable as he shows us how ‘simple scales faster’ and explains why successful entrepreneurs don’t have time to volunteer — which is why we need to seek out business mentors. There’s insight on what value a coach can add to solving a specific business problem, as compared to what you might gain from working with a mentor for a few years. The groundwork is all laid for you by Chris in terms of the logic of having a business mentor help you grow your business quickly and efficiently. Listen in and learn how Chris’s ideas can positively impact your business.“I want to help the next generation of entrepreneurs grow faster than I ever did and reach new heights. Because that is what will change our local economy, our larger government economy, and our world, by helping people grow.” – Chris CooperIn This Episode:- Chris’s first experience with a gym mentor- Why mentorship is not just about finding a successful entrepreneur- The difference between a coach and a mentor- ‘Simple scales faster’- Learn to paint by numbers before you start coloring outside the linesAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- http://www.businessisgood.com/

Business is Good has never been better with ‘The Simple Six’ and Chris Cooper as your business mentor. The Simple Six is a process where you can grow any service-based business using the principle of incremental growth and compounding gains over time.Join Chris as he outlines The Simple Six, explains the difference between strategies and tactics, and how to use The Simple Six every day to snowball your business growth. Chris has been mentoring entrepreneurs worldwide on how to get better results faster, and he’s developed these six actions you can take to fast-track your business success. Stick with Chris and you’ll appreciate that applying ‘The Simple Six’ each time is like turning a giant wheel for your business once — and that each time you do it, things will get a little bit easier. “The first step to getting results is to be able to focus on one tactic at a time.”  – Chris CooperIn This Episode:- Increasing the number of clients you serve- Increasing the value of each client that your business works with- Increasing the length of engagement or the amount of time your clients spend in your business- Valuing your time- Measuring the return on investment on everything that you buy- Calculating the amount that your business pays you- How to go from strategy to tactic- Doing a ‘Six Storm’- What is your average revenue per month?- Setting goals based on your strategies- Choosing the easiest, fastest tactics- Work on your business before you work in itAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

What are the 11 things you must have to grow your business exponentially? Business and marketing are evolving so fast these days; there are tools needed to track your growth and help figure out where you and your business are going. Chris Cooper is back with an episode that is bursting at the seams with tools that you can apply to your business as you try to grow exponentially. And fear not – you don’t need to remember 11 complicated growth strategies or philosophies. Chris has distilled the 11 tools needed down to two simple acronyms. We start with unpacking your Massive Transformational Purpose, and we end with assessing your engagements with your staff, your clients, and your wider business community. There’s a smart Call To Action, too, so you can apply Chris’s business acumen to your mentoring practice and business. Join us for IDEAS on how to SCALE – you won’t regret it.    “The Left brain of your business is in charge of systems and processes and data. The right brain of your business is in charge of creativity, managing growth and having empathy for people.” – Chris CooperIn This Episode:- What is your vivid vision? What are your goals numerically? - Do you have straightforward ways for people to interact with you? - Define your interfaces: separate staff and clients- Which metrics are important to your business? Track those- Don’t get disrupted; disrupt yourself- Understanding evidence-based decision making- Go to your audience- Create things that can be delivered 24/7 without you being present- You need a larger community of people who are paying you attention if not paying you money- Always be hiring - Marketing is now a science, not an art formAnd more! Resources:Vivid Vision (the book) - https://www.amazon.com/Vivid-Vision-Remarkable-Aligning-Business/dp/161961877X Exponential Organizations - https://www.amazon.com/Exponential-Organizations-organizations-better-cheaper/dp/1626814236Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

Greg Glassman is the Founder and former CEO of CrossFit, a gym franchise that is popular all over the world for how it revolutionized the fitness industry. Our host, Chris Cooper, was fortunate enough to spend many years working for CrossFit, which gave him an eagle-eyed perspective on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. In this episode, Chris candidly offers us the six lessons he learned from someone he describes as the ultimate disruptor. Some lessons were harder to learn than others, and sometimes he needed to learn them twice before they really sunk in. Chris Cooper shoots from the hip while speaking from the heart, which makes his insights into the entrepreneurial journey so invaluable. There are lessons on being prepared to fail, why a $10,000 charitable donation is better than $1 million, understanding that we are all media companies (no matter the nature of our business), and the societal value of creating entrepreneurs. If you’re a business owner looking for insight into the world of CrossFit and the lessons you can apply to your entrepreneurial approach, Chris Cooper is here with tools to save you from learning these lessons the hard way. “Every company is now a media company, no matter what it is that you are good at.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- “The next time I start a billion-dollar business from my garage…”- The pitfalls of losing focus for scope- Your business is a media company- How to avoid losing money when doing charitable work- Build your own platform, create your own audience- Entrepreneurship grows economies- Meet your heroes, even if you're likely to be disappointed And more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

How much does being the best matter? In this episode of the Business is Good podcast, Chris Cooper illustrates why being the best business in your industry is 10 times more important than being second. Chris lays it out for us with 3 key reasons that involve appreciating exponential value (and understanding how it’s different from incremental value), ascension value, and why 'being the best' is actually a subjective metric. There's also actionable advice on how to compile a list of your best clients (the ones that make you happiest) and cross-reference that with a list of clients that earn you the most money. These lists will help you focus on your best-earning clients and those that bring you the most joy, and zero in on how you can meet their additional needs. This episode is a great reminder that you also don't need to be the best to everyone, but that ‘best finds best’ – which is incentive enough if you're looking for reasons to dial up your ambition in your business. “If you're the best, the best will find you. Because best finds best.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- The 3 big reasons why being the best is so important- Understanding exponential value and why it's better than incremental value- What does ascension value mean? - Why you don't have to be the best for everyone- Identifying your best clients using the Pumpkin Plan- Figuring out what else you can offer your best clientsAnd more!Resources: - The Pumpkin PlanConnect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

In the old days, when you thought about a franchise, you probably thought about McDonald’s - the prototypical franchise model. Someone who wanted to be an entrepreneur, create wealth for themselves and have some freedom, but who really didn’t want to take the risk of starting from scratch with their own ideas (that might not work) would invest in a famous franchise like this one. When people invested in a franchise, they would get a reputable brand, massive advertising, precise information about the equipment they should buy, training on how to make the product, how to sell it, and how to store everything. They would receive instructions about the whole process. A franchise wasn’t necessarily drawing the highest profit margin, but you could get revenue consistently. It was a predictable money machine. But the modern franchise is different. And it is failing. Right now, modern franchises don’t have the attributes that they need to be successful in the long run. But luckily, there are three things that franchises can implement in order to survive and serve their franchisees better. In this episode, Chris Cooper shares these actionable items with you so you can improve your business (even if you don’t have a franchise.)   “The modern franchise doesn’t have the attributes that it needs to survive in a modern information-based economy.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- Franchises in the past- Franchises in the present- Importance of tracking metrics- Learning from metrics taken - Incentives propel evolution - What to do for your businessAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

Have you ever been called a “slave trader” on social media? Chris has. And the business coach who did it probably got what he wanted from him - and that’s attention. This experience has led Chris to think about the efficiency of negative marketing and he goes in-depth about the controversial subject in this episode. Chris shares the definition of negative marketing and explains how it works—until it doesn’t. The truth is that negative marketing can get you a little bit of a jumpstart. It’s a valid business tactic to attack the leader in your category. But in the long run, you can’t build your business by tearing your competition down. Being your own self is the best marketing strategy. You need to be bold enough to say: “I have my own ideas and I’m going to share them.” Of course, this is easier said than done. It is scary to give advice because, no matter what you say, you are going to be judged by that advice. Until you share your own thoughts, experiences, and opinions, your growth will always be limited by the other people in your category. When you start expressing your own opinion, you will be attacked. However, you have to do it anyway. If your ideas can help another human being, you don’t just have the opportunity to share them; you have the responsibility to do it. “You can’t build your own brand by tearing another brand down.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- What negative marketing is- The problem with negative marketing- Chris’ personal experience with negative marketing- Fear around being your own self and sharing your ideas- How to help others by expressing your opinionsAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

Years ago, when Chris Cooper was powerlifting, he would go to a federal prison in the United States twice a year. There, he actually got to meet and compete with prisoners who, in most cases, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Chris and his team would get locked in from 6 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, with a small break at lunch. Aside from all the amazing feats of strength that he witnessed from people with little training, access to quality nutrition, or equipment, he got a lot of insight that helped him to live better and grow his business. In this episode, Chris will share with you the 3 best tips he learned while spending time in prison.   The reality is that, in the internet age, you cannot protect your intellectual property. You have no secrets anymore. Therefore, it’s best to share everything with everyone. This doesn’t mean that you won’t get paid. Your value comes from serving your audience by giving them exactly what they need at the right time in order to prevent overwhelm. In business, just like in prison, you can’t protect knowledge, but you can protect your tribe. Does this sound useful? Great, because Chris offers two more juicy tips in this episode. The tips he learned in prison can be implemented right away to change your life and your business for good. “Our actions over time define who we are. We can affect those actions by the way that we feel, and we can affect the way we feel by taking pride in the way we take care of ourselves.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- How Chris ended up in a federal prison in the United States- Not having secrets is great for your business- Importance of looking good and taking care of yourself- Having a routine is more powerful than being disciplined- Tips for implementing a successful daily routineAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

Are you looking for ways in your business to measure your value and, if possible, drive up your price? Chris Cooper is here to show you how – with 5 simple but effective tools that will help you as a business owner. Each tool involves appreciating an aspect of your business that demands your focus. That’s the hard part. The easy part is tuning in, right here, as Chris breaks it all down for us. What is your ‘Niche’? Because the narrower your niche, the higher your price because the greater your specialization. That’s the first tool. Are you willing to constantly upgrade your methods to offer your clients more? That’s ‘Audit’ – the second tool of Chris’s that we’re sharing here. You always have to be improving in your business and so need to be constantly asking yourself: is this working?There are three more tools that are explained and expounded upon with anecdotes, quotes, and stories from Chris’s own entrepreneurial endeavors. Jump in and give it a listen and soon you’ll be counting the 5 things you need to improve your value and drive up price on one hand – while counting your business growth on the other! This is business mentorship at its pragmatic best.“You have to be committed to solving your audience's problems more than stoking your own ego.” – Chris Cooper In This Episode:- The smaller your niche, the greater your value- People are actively seeking trust in troubled times- Delivery – you have to get results- Auditing yourself – how can I get my clients there faster?- How do you scale 1-on-1 mentorship?- What Ernest Hemingway means when he says that you have to murder your darlings- Why your price is a reflection of your valueAnd more!Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com

In this episode of Business is Good, Chris shares a valuable mental exercise for CEO’s who want to grow their companies. Flip the script and think about what you would do if you definitely didn’t want to grow your company. This is a great way to identify the things that are holding you back. Chris breaks down the three things that most people do to sabotage the growth of their companies. The first of these is starting new ventures. As alluring as it can be to start a new business, it is a trap. The number one reason that entrepreneurs start new businesses is because they don’t know how to grow their current business. The second mistake that Chris sees a lot is that people who have reached a plateau point in their business start to make massive lifestyle changes. They move to a different state, get a divorce, fire key staff or start drinking. This only creates problems that they then need to solve.The third thing that CEO’s do is abdicate the responsibility for growth to someone else. This can only hurt your growth. As the CEO, you are the primary engine of growth - you can’t outsource that. If you want to break through the growth plateau phase in your company and avoid these mistakes, this episode is for you!  “If you want to stop growth, the best way to do it is to start a different company, to make a big lifestyle change or to abdicate responsibility to somebody else.” – Chris Cooper In this Episode: - Three things that most people are doing to stop their growth- Why starting a new venture is NOT the best way to grow your business- A real-life example of how starting something new can hurt your growth- Why the novelty of starting something new is so attractive- Making big changes in your life can seriously hold you back from growth- As CEO, it’s your responsibility to grow the company- The CEO’s job is growth - you can’t outsource that- Put new ideas on the shelf for 3 months, then see if you’re still excited- Questions to ask yourself as the CEO of your own companyResources mentioned in the show: - Anything You Want by Derek Sivers Connect with Chris Cooper:- www.businessisgood.com