Fitness Business University Podcast · Vince Gabriele

Why Calling Lady Gaga Fat Created a Viral Opportunity

·42 min·2 clips

Jim Collins says at 68, he feels better than at 38, with more energy than ever before.

The host returns from Gym Pranos with a lot on his mind. He opens by plugging his free book, The Eight Profit Levers, and says it is a very short read built around eight practical ways to make a gym more profitable. From there, he widens the lens and talks about podcasts. He does not expect every show to hand over the whole formula or every secret, and he says the smarter move is to grab one useful idea and act on it. While waiting for Joey at jujitsu, he had been listening to Tim Ferriss talking with Jim Collins, which shaped that thinking. He also says the event itself was huge, with seventy-two hours of work spread across three days, and he tried to pull out seven actionable takeaways. After the mastermind, he and his family drove to Vero Beach and stayed with a cousin who is very wealthy, owns a monster house, and is also a long-time client. The two of them spent hours on the beach talking through business ideas. The cousin knows the gym world well because he has been a client since 2007, before the host opened his gym, and he also knows the tech world well. The host says both of them are upbeat about opening more gyms. He pushes back hard against fear-mongering. He says there are challenges ahead, but nothing that calls for panic. The better move, in his view, is to build a huge amount of trust with customers and the local community. He keeps coming back to authority. The person running the business has to become the trusted advisor and the expert people rely on. That matters more than hype. It matters more than chasing novelty. It matters because people want to do business with someone they believe in. He ties that back to the person leading the company. The business is not just a spreadsheet. It is also the character of the owner and the reputation that owner builds. The episode ends in gratitude and a nudge to take action on at least one thing.

As heard by us

A loose but useful case for trust as the gym owner’s real moat.

After a Gym Pronos debrief, the episode settles on a simple point: brick and mortar gyms win when the owner is the trusted advisor in the room and the clearest expert in the neighborhood.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a blunt reset on why owning a gym still looks strong.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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