Up to 2025 every Two-Brain client built an annual plan with a mentor — often over multiple calls. Too many of those plans were never used. In this episode Chris explains why we moved annual planning into the Tinker stage: Growth clients are firefighting and don’t have the bandwidth to build or use long-term plans. He explains who should still do an annual plan, what we’re doing instead (daily access, weekly specialist calls, group coaching, and habit-building challenges), and gives mentors concrete scripts and rules for when to plan — and when not to. The bottom line: planning only matters when the owner can execute and delegate.

Toolkit Tour - Improving LEG

Summary

Importance of Client Retention in Gyms 0:01

Keeping clients in a gym for an additional three months can earn the owner an extra $40,000 annually.

Retention is crucial because it multiplies the value of other gym activities, such as marketing and client engagement.

But we need to understand what actually improves retention, as many current ideas lack data to support them.

The toolkit's LEG section focuses on the five pillars of retention, which are essential for improving client retention.

Understanding Retention and Its Measurement 0:34

We measure retention as the length of engagement, aiming for clients to stay for at least two years to see significant life changes.

While many people are now talking about retention, the concept was less discussed 15 years ago, and current ideas often lack data.

The toolkit differentiates between essential retention strategies (the five pillars) and nice-to-have perks like t-shirts and clubs.

Gym owners should focus on the five pillars first before adding extra perks to improve retention.

The Five Pillars of Retention 1:31

Start with the five pillars of retention, which are crucial for improving client retention in gyms.

Gym owners should ensure these pillars are in place and consistently implemented to see significant improvements in retention.

Retention is just sales over time, requiring ongoing marketing and engagement with current clients to keep them.

The five pillars will take gym owners 99% of the way to achieving great retention, while additional perks can be added later.

Addressing Client Drop-Offs 2:47

I can't overstate the importance of identifying when clients are dropping off to address the underlying issues.

Software companies often focus on churn rate, which doesn't provide specific insights into when clients are leaving.

Gym owners should track when clients are leaving to solve the actual problems rather than adding unnecessary measures.

Strategies for Different Retention Stages 3:16

The toolkit breaks down strategies for addressing clients who leave within the first 90 days, between 90 days and the end of the first year, and after the first year.

For clients leaving within the first 90 days, we recommend building an on-ramp and mapping out their first 90 days to create daily touchpoints.

For clients leaving between 90 days and the end of the first year, we recommend setting up goal reviews, events like golden habits challenges, and building a belt system.

For clients staying longer than a year, we advise doubling down on goal reviews and using the Pumpkin Plan exercise to focus on keeping these clients.

Recapturing Former Clients 4:24

Recapturing former clients is essential to repeat, because they are the next most likely group to return to the gym.

Former clients often leave due to falling off their exercise habit or...

Summary

Improving Effective Hourly Rate (EHR) in Growth Phase 0:00

During the growth phase, entrepreneurs should prioritize client acquisition, retention, and profit over their effective hourly rate (EHR).

The perfect day income is the first solve, followed by time, but entrepreneurs often focus too much on EHR, leading to business instability.

Examples are given of gym owners living their perfect day while their business goes bankrupt due to insufficient income.

The value ladder concept is introduced, emphasizing the importance of buying back time at low-value roles and reinvesting it at high-value roles.

Upgrading the Team for Higher Value Roles 1:14

The benefits of upgrading the team, including moving to higher value roles and the importance of the value ladder.

The upgrade team section addresses common client questions about hiring good staff, creating careers, and freeing up time.

The concept of making the gym run without the owner is introduced, typically addressed in the Tinker program but included in the growth toolkit for gym growth.

The first section focuses on hiring new staff, with a four-step process: looking internally first, leveraging local talent, leveraging local knowledge, and advertising on paid services like Indeed.

Finding and Training Good Staff 2:26

The importance of having a hiring pipeline, especially in high-turnover cities, and the need for a continuous flow of talent.

The toolkit includes job descriptions, contracts, and job postings, but the most important module is training new staff.

The coach basic training course and the coach basic training teachers course are highlighted as essential for training new coaches.

The course is described as a major project that, once set up, can create an amazing coach pipeline, reducing the need for job postings on Indeed.

Creating Careers for Staff and Systemizing the Gym 6:28

The next section focuses on creating careers for staff, emphasizing intrapreneurship and the four nights model.

The importance of assigning dollar values to different roles and ascending the gym owner and coaches is discussed.

Career roadmaps and evaluations are introduced as part of goal reviews for staff.

Systemizing the gym is critical for consistent delivery, and staff meetings are important for communication and alignment.

Freeing Up Time and Leading Effectively 9:07

The final section addresses how to free up time, starting with the concept of leading oneself before leading a team.

The importance of journaling, recording thoughts, and organizing oneself is emphasized.

The value ladder is revisited, focusing on buying back time at low-value roles and investing it in higher-value roles like sales and marketing.

The golden hour challenge is introduced as a way to build the habit of doing work and achieving results, even if imperfectly.

In this Toolkit Tour episode of Help Best, Chris walks mentors through the ROI section and how to turn financial knowledge into client action — not busywork.

Toolkit tour - ROI_otter_ai

He breaks the ROI content into three practical areas: (1) Where is my money going? — an expense audit that helps clients find “hidden money,” set up recurring expenses in the dashboard, optimize before cutting, and move to cost-saving behaviors (ACH, pricing cadence, remove unnecessary discounts); (2) How do I make a plan for the future? — a budgeting module that converts P&L history into a forward-looking plan (important but often lower priority in year one); and (3) Understand your financials — the P&L primer, Build Your Dashboard workflow, and the Six Strategies / “Your Next Best Step” audit that turns metrics into one clear action.

Key takeaways for mentors: all new Stage Two clients should build their Two-Brain dashboard as their first financial deliverable; long-term or inconsistent clients should be assigned the Build Your Dashboard task and reviewed on the next call; every gym should run an expense audit at least quarterly. The Six Strategies audit gives clarity and agency — it helps clients pick either the biggest burning fire to fix or the highest-impact growth opportunity. Chris emphasizes that accounting is unsexy but fundamental: teach owners P&L literacy, guide them to a budget when ready, and always translate numbers into one prioritized, measurable next step.

This episode is a practical roadmap for mentors who want to move clients from data to decisions — assign the dashboard, schedule the expense audit, and help clients act on their “next best step.”

Over the next six weeks, I'll walk you through our 2025 Toolkit upgrades.

These updates are done all the time, with a 'big' update in the third quarter of each year.

As always, we strive for more focused content that allows gym owners to take action on their own, or with some simple coaching to help them with the more complicated changes.

This week: Increasing NOB.

Here are the sections I'll walk you through:

1 - Pay Yourself First - setting up a habit for paying yourself, following the Profit First principles. https://members.twobrainbusiness.com/courses/growth-toolkit-2024/lessons/how-much-should-i-pay-myself-4/topic/pay-yourself-first/

2 - Give Yourself a Raise - setting up an increasing NOB over time. https://members.twobrainbusiness.com/courses/growth-toolkit-2024/lessons/how-much-should-i-pay-myself-4/topic/give-yourself-a-raise-3/

How much? That's up to you and the client. But when they have these habits in place, increasing NOB isn't a guess, a stressor, or a negotiation with oneself. It just happens automatically over time.

Walk through this module: https://members.twobrainbusiness.com/courses/tbb-certified-coach/lessons/client-ascension/topic/moving-a-client-into-stage-4/

Hey team, I want to share something exciting we’re kicking off October 1st:

The Six-Week Growth Challenge

This is designed to give you another powerful tool to use with your clients.

Why We’re Doing This

Our gyms thrive on focus and momentum—but most owners try to do everything at once.

This challenge creates clarity by targeting one metric per week.

It’s rooted in the Simple Six framework (ARM, Clients, LEG, EHR, ROI, NOB).

Owners who practice these habits consistently see compounding results.

How the Challenge Works

Duration: 6 weeks

Focus: One metric each week

Week 1 – ARM (+$10)

Week 2 – Clients (+10)

Week 3 – LEG (+2 months)

Week 4 – EHR (+$10)

Week 5 – ROI (+10%)

Week 6 – NOB (+10% raise)

Daily prompts follow the Golden Hour framework (Go → Open → Lead → Do → End → Next).

Kickoff call on October 1; daily posts in Growth group.

Goal: measurable 10-point improvement in each area.

Why Mentors Should Recommend It

It’s a ready-made accountability system—mentors don’t have to create structure, just encourage participation.

Gives mentees a clear project to focus on each week, reducing overwhelm.

Builds habits of CEO thinking (choosing Next Best Step, delegating, tracking progress).

Creates shared momentum across the Growth group: peers working toward the same targets.

Helps mentors guide mentees back to the Toolkit tactics for practical next steps.

This is how we help owners turn skills into systems, and systems into growth.

If you go to www.twobrain.app/marketplace, you'll see our Preferred Partners at the top:

GymLawyers

Kilo

Pathfinder Sales Coaching

Rogue

We Do Your Paid Marketing.

In this episode, I walk through why the Marketplace exists; the difference between 'sponsors' and 'exclusive partners', and how these 5 can benefit TBB clients.