Mike Arce | GSD Gyms | Fitness Business Growth
458 episodes listed below
Gym growth, measured and coached.
Behind Gym Doors treats fitness businesses like operating systems, not passion projects. Episodes move through gym metrics, sales calls, marketing channels, culture, leadership, and owner mindset with a strong bias toward measurable improvement.
PRESS PLAY
Behind Gym Doors is a fitness-business show with a heavy operator bias. It is not mainly about workouts. The focus is the business sitting behind the workout: revenue, retention, sales, marketing, staff, leadership, standards, and owner psychology. Mike Arce often teaches in a direct training style, especially when breaking down gym metrics. He treats numbers as decision tools. Attrition becomes a retention-length calculation, sales opportunities become process gaps, and revenue targets become a way to judge whether the model is actually working. The solo episodes move fast, with formulas, warnings, benchmarks, and clear pressure on owners to measure what matters. The field-training episodes are more tactile. A sales call at The Collective becomes a lesson in energy, repetition, appointment commitment, gifts, personalization, and making a prospect feel heard before arrival. Guest conversations bring in broader examples from fitness and adjacent businesses. Sheetal Guttigoli talks through operating three Club Pilates studios and selling them for a multiple seven-figure outcome. Doug & Thea Wood connect The Hive with culture, purpose, education, and bigger community goals. Brady Edwards brings YouTube, podcasting, creator economy context, transcription, and lead generation into the conversation. Akshay brings a framework for fear, struggle, and plateau-breaking. Michael Bernoff brings language, communication, NLP, and HIT into a sales and marketing setting. The show can be promotional around GSD Gyms and the 100K Plan, but the core value is still in the practical operating lens. It keeps asking what a gym owner should track, practice, fix, or raise as a standard. The result is a brisk, coaching-heavy feed for owners who want a more disciplined business, not just a busier studio.
Made for: Gym owners, studio operators, fitness entrepreneurs, and sales leaders who want practical help with growth, retention, team standards, and marketing execution. It best suits listeners who are comfortable with direct business coaching and revenue-focused benchmarks.
What sets it apart: Behind Gym Doors stands out by turning fitness-business advice into calculators, call reviews, benchmarks, and live operating examples. It mixes high-energy coaching with case studies from studios, creator marketing, communication training, and owner-led exits.
We cover the most common challenges in the fitness industry to help you overcome them and GSD! This podcast is also available in high-def video and audio only formats. -- Read the show: https://www.loudrumor.com/the-gsd-show/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GSDshow/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GSD_Show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gsd_show/
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Behind Gym Doors makes gym economics legible through detailed conversations about sales systems, member retention, measurement, and growth.
Behind Gym Doors turns gym ownership into a set of decisions that can be measured, taught, and improved. Host Mike Arcee moves between direct training and guest conversations, keeping the focus on the operating mechanics behind fitness businesses.
Ten percent monthly churn means ten-month members; Mike Arce makes your sales treadmill measurable.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear metrics breakdown of where gym profits quietly leak away.
Behind Gym Doors keeps its point simple: gyms lose money when they do not watch the numbers that matter. Mike Arce lays out 12 metrics and ties weak tracking to churn, wasted lead spend, overspending, vendor double billing, missed sales, and bad hiring or cuts.
A practical gym-sales session that emphasizes process, personalization, and cleaner closes.
This episode follows a sales working session at The Collective, a fitness studio in Gilbert, Arizona, and traces the path from first opt-in to membership close.
A metabolism discussion that turns into a practical case for selling fitness with science.
The GSD Show uses this conversation to tie fitness science to the harder problem of selling results. Mike Garcia and Glenn Gasser circle the same point from different angles: many owners know the outside of what they sell, but not the inside, and that gap makes the pitch harder…
A connection-first conversation that gets personal about small talk, depth, and addiction recovery.
Joe Polish reads as a connector who has spent years turning relationships into real leverage, and the conversation keeps coming back to how much connection shapes the way people show up.
A blunt sales clinic for gym owners that stays practical even when the numbers get dense.
The episode is a straight-talk sales clinic for fitness studio and gym owners, framed as a free live training that can also be heard on the go.
A practical gym-sales conversation about pricing, renewal, and client retention.
Scott Carpenter brings real operator experience to this one. His history owning six gyms and running a mentorship program gives the discussion weight, and the best parts stay close to the business mechanics: pricing, renewal paths, and follow-up that keeps clients from drifting…
Strength coaching with sharp edges.
Masha Gessen narrates her own cousin's murder-for-hire arrest and custody battle.
Rich Roll interviews recovery and endurance guests, plus 'Roll On' segments with Adam Skolnick.
Peter Attia evaluates longevity science, from CETP inhibitors to protein debates, through evidence.
Rhonda Patrick translates NAD, vitamin D, and coffee research into daily health protocols.
Shawn Stevenson interviews researchers and coaches on nutrition, sleep, hormones, and fitness.
This episode discusses strategies for gym owners to reduce member attrition and optimize marketing during the competitive holiday season, using an analogy to illustrate how high competition can present greater opportunities.
This episode segment discusses high member attrition at OHM Fitness and explores common retention issues in gyms and fitness studios.
This segment features Caitlin Beauvais discussing her Pilates studio's record $175,000 month and challenges with member retention and referrals.
This episode segment explains that gym owners focus too much on handling objections in sales, which are just symptoms, and reveals that most sales are lost earlier in the sales process stages.
This episode segment discusses a small gym achieving $321,000 in one month and multiple record-breaking months, focusing on Kim's marketing and sales strategies and Dave's retention expertise.
A conversation with a top-performing gym owner in Brooklyn, discussing her resilience through health challenges and her goals for business success.
This episode segment introduces Lindsay Greenlee, a successful Pure Bar franchise owner, and sets up a discussion about her lead generation and marketing strategies for her fitness business.
This episode segment discusses strategies for gyms and fitness studios to achieve $100,000 per month in revenue by focusing on membership and ancillary revenue, based on real-world examples and mathematical analysis.
This segment discusses the leadership and referral-based system behind a successful $1.7M Pilates studio, emphasizing team building and community-driven growth.
This episode segment explains that increasing revenue per member through pricing, upselling, and retention is a faster growth strategy for gyms than acquiring more members.
The host introduces Jen, a gym business owner with six locations and nearly 2,000 members, discussing her expansion to a seventh location and recent decision to franchise, while highlighting her and her husband's complementary roles in operations and community building.
This episode segment discusses how gyms can effectively work with ad agencies to generate leads, categorizing outcomes into successful and unsuccessful scenarios and offering strategies for sustainable success.
This episode segment discusses alternative strategies for gyms to increase membership beyond paid advertising, focusing on three key levers: more members, higher revenue per member, and better retention.
The episode discusses the misconception that generating leads is the primary marketing goal for gym owners, emphasizing that the real job is to increase revenue.
The host introduces Edwin and his team's marketing playbook for their Muay Thai Kickboxing Gym, emphasizing that marketing involves more than just ads and is integrated into all company departments.
This episode segment explains that most gym owners focus on the wrong metrics like leads and sales, and introduces the two key numbers, including CAC, that truly determine marketing profitability and profit levels.
This episode segment discusses how gyms can increase revenue through better retention, explaining the impact of reducing attrition and introducing three systems to achieve this.
This episode features an interview with Scott Carpenter, a gym owner in Scottsdale, Arizona, who runs six private or semi-private gyms and leads a mentorship program.
In the season finale, the host shares that 40% of their gym clients achieve over $1 million in annual revenue, far exceeding the industry average, and promises to uncover the strategies behind this success.
Mike Arce opens with a blunt warning: most gyms are leaking money, and they usually do not know where.
The episode digs into how gym and studio sales should really work.
This episode explores how to use advanced communication techniques like NLP and HIT to improve sales and marketing effectiveness, featuring insights from expert Michael Bernoff.
This episode features Doug & Thea Wood discussing how they built a $6M gym with a strong culture and purpose, while also running an innovative online school that serves families globally and creates social impact.
This episode explores how YouTube and podcasting can drive business leads in 2025, featuring Brady Edwards sharing his journey from door-to-door sales to engaging with top creators like Tanner Fox and Mr.
This episode features an interview with Akshay Nanavati, author of Fearvana, discussing how to master fear to break through personal and professional plateaus, based on his experiences and research.
An interview with a fitness entrepreneur who sold three Pilates studios for a multi-seven-figure sum, discussing business strategies and mindset.
A gym business podcast episode discussing marketing, team building, and leadership standards for scaling a successful gym.
Interview with a successful F45 gym owner discussing unreasonable hospitality and member experience as keys to business growth.
Interview with Mike Arcy about building a winning team in a gym, focusing on getting the right people in the right seats.
Hosts interview fitness studio owners about their marketing automation strategies to generate leads and referrals.
Interview with a top F45 franchise owner discussing her journey to achieving high monthly revenue and operational excellence.
The hosts discuss lead generation strategies for gyms, comparing referrals and paid ads, and introduce a rebranded podcast focused on fitness business challenges.
The host interviews a fitness business owner who scaled from unprofitability to $20 million in revenue, discussing the mindset and skill evolution required for growth.
Mike Garcia discusses the challenge of knowing when to let go of underperforming team members in a fitness business.
The host discusses how focusing inward and controlling what you can, rather than external factors, can improve fitness business metrics like member retention, referrals, and product sales.
The hosts discuss the challenges gym owners face with paid advertising agencies and how to effectively generate leads and members.
Interview with a top Pure Bar franchisee discussing lead generation strategies and her unique background in contortion.
A fitness business owner discusses B2B marketing strategies for gym growth with a partner who excels at building business relationships.
Interview with a gym owner who doubled her business in six months using organic social media and a high-conversion sales process.
A gym owner shares how she grew her Pilates studio revenue from $40k to $166k per month.
Interview with a gym owner about using real estate as a secondary business and achieving high member retention.
The host discusses stress statistics for business owners and shares techniques to reduce stress and improve decision-making.
The host introduces a discussion on sales and conversions with a guest who builds ad campaigns for gyms, emphasizing the importance of sales in business.
A talk on how to avoid being an average salesperson to close higher-value deals, delivered to a fitness business mastermind.
This episode features an interview with Michael from Superfit Grow, discussing strategies to maximize ad spend for gyms and businesses through effective paid advertising campaigns.
An interview discussing sales quadrants and behavior styles to improve communication and sales in the fitness industry.
This episode explores how copywriting's importance in marketing has evolved from being highly valued pre-digital era to being overshadowed by technical optimization, and is now regaining prominence as a key differentiator in effective advertising.
This episode discusses strategies for reducing membership cancellations by implementing account update meetings to understand and address members' real reasons for leaving.
This episode features an interview with Michael Freeman of Superfit Grow, discussing how to create effective marketing offers that drive gym growth and membership conversions.
Mike Garcia welcomes Glenn Gasser.
Mike Arcee opens with Joe Polish and sets him up as a GOAT of connections.
Mike Garcia opens the training with a plain promise: sales help for fitness studios and gyms.