Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast

CrossFit Elkhorn keeps gym churn under 4% with 233 members. Here's the weekly scorecard, class standard, and coach scoring system behind it.

The average CrossFit gym churns members far faster than that. Trevor Baxter has run CrossFit Elkhorn in Omaha, Nebraska for 12 years, and his gym churn rate sits at 3.85% for the year, which means his average member stays close to 29 months.

Mike visited the gym in person and walked through every system behind that number. Trevor's weekly scorecard takes 10 minutes to run and tracks revenue, member count, paid versus pending accounts, holds, cancels, and attendance. His...

Stephanie Swanson's boutique fitness studio growth story starts with a simple problem: she did not know her own numbers.

Stephanie owns Oxygen Yoga and Fitness in Burlington, Ontario, and just opened a second location in Alder Shot, already at 50 pre-sales in under two weeks. In her first 60 days working with GSD Gyms, her revenue grew 15%, hitting close to $73,000 in a single month.

In this episode, GSD's Director of Operations Ash Wimble sits down with Stephanie to unpack exactly what changed. For a year and a half, Stephanie ran her studio without fully understanding her own...

This is part of how we help gym owners build ad systems like Joel's. See the plan here:

https://100kplan.com

Joel Holland never ran a gym ad in 14 years. He used AI to build his first campaign. $3 cost per lead. 84 leads in 10 days. Here's how.

This gym Facebook ads using AI breakdown starts with Joel Holland, who runs 902 Athletics, a 17,000 square foot CrossFit and commercial gym in a 9,000 person market in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 14 years of business he had never run a paid ad. Everything was organic...

Matt charges $600 a month, keeps under 2% churn, and earns $30K per member. Here's his exact gym sales and referral system.

This gym membership sales case study starts with the math. The average gym member in America is worth $1,400 over their lifetime. Matt's average member is worth $30,000. Same math, completely different numbers: under 2% monthly churn, more than 50 months of average retention, and 15 competing gyms within five minutes of his Costa Mesa studio.

Matt runs Recoup Personal Training with his wife Stevie and business partner Beau, and joined Mike at the A-Class retreat to break down the...

Mike coaches a struggling Pilates studio owner on phone sales live: avatar building, referral strategy, and a real walk-in prospect.

This pilates studio sales coaching session picks up where Part 1 left off. In Part 1, Mike walked through Jess Landar's churn, lifetime value, and pricing. In Part 2, they build her customer avatar, run a full gym sales role play on her actual phone script, and design a gym referral program built around feeding children.

Halfway through filming, a real prospect walked into Jess's studio while the cameras were rolling. Mike coached her through that conversation live...

Struggling pilates studio owner goes viral asking for help -- Mike Arce coaches her live on numbers, retention, ads, and pricing.

Jess Landar runs a struggling pilates studio in Auckland, New Zealand. She posted on Instagram that she needed help, so Mike reached out and turned it into a live gym business audit. This is Part 1 of a two-part series.

Her studio peaked at $15,000 NZD a month and had dropped to $10,000 when they sat down. Mike walks through her gym churn rate, her lifetime value, her ad data, and her pricing structure, and shows her...

Fixing gym Facebook ads conversion tracking is part of how we get studios to $100K a month.

Your ads manager sees fifty leads on one ad and six on another, calls the fifty-lead ad the winner, and kills the other one before ever checking what happened next.

That is the blind spot behind most gym ad optimization strategy decisions. When your CRM and your Meta ads manager never talk past the lead stage, nobody actually knows which ad produced a member. The six-lead ad that closed two members just got cut so the fifty-lead ad...

Want to see how we help gyms get to $100K a month? Here's the plan the best gym owners are following right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPx7b3_LOA Your ad agency did not lose you that member. Something else did, and it happened long before the ad ever ran. Paid ads get blamed for problems they did not cause. A great ad still fails if your Google reviews look shaky, if leads sit for hours before anyone calls, or if your team has no script for the close. More than 80 percent of consumers research a company...

Curious what it actually looks like to build with us? Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPx7b3_LOA Mike found a competitor a mile and a half from one of his gyms. She has no idea he is watching. Studying competitors sounds like copying. It is actually the fastest way to find out where you already win and nobody else has noticed. One studio in this breakdown has 458 five star reviews, and not a single competitor ad in the market uses reviews as proof. In this episode you'll learn: — Why Mike is against competitor focused marketing, except fo...

Curious what it actually looks like to build with AI instead of just talking about it? Start here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPx7b3_LOA

856 members. Under 3 percent churn most months. One hire changed how this gym runs everything.

Everyone assumes AI adoption means fewer people on payroll. Dave Rafuse spent more, not less, because the tool only pays off when someone builds it into the business first.

Blended Athletics grew 23 percent, then 25 percent, then 28 percent over the last three years, and Dave say...

Want to see how we help gyms get to $100K a month? Here's the plan the best gym owners are following right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPx7b3_LOA

Your ads aren't failing because of your audience.
They're failing because of nine fixable mistakes most gym owners don't even know they're making.
And the agencies running those ads may not be telling you.

You are probably paying your agency to do things that should never be their job. Strategy. Budget. Offer. Reporting. At $800 to $1,500 a month, they're a vendor...

Here's the plan the best gym owners are following right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPx7b3_LOA

The gyms winning with AI right now are not using it to write emails. They built a machine learning algorithm that predicts who's about to cancel. They fired their ad agency and their bookkeeper. They have an AI employee living in Slack that nobody on the team can tell isn't human.

Pav spent 20 years in Fortune 500 companies before opening BFT Tysons. His financial planning background and tech instincts put him in a different category than...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT

Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you — and what to do instead. Limited seats.

Register → GSDlive.com

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You're spending money on ads. The targeting is right. The creative is solid. And the leads still aren't coming in the way they should. It's not the ad. It's what happens after someone sees it.

82% of people who see your gym's ad don't call. They go do homework first. They check your Google reviews, your Instagram, your website. A...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT

Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you — and what to do instead.

Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Two gyms. Same city. Both doing $1 million a year. One sells for $1.2 million. The other can't find a buyer. Same revenue. Completely different outcomes.

Most gym owners have no idea what their gym is actually worth. The number they think they'd get if they sold tomorrow is probably way off. And the reason almost always comes down to the same ten...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT

Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you — and what to do instead.

Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Your pricing sheet is losing you sales every single day. Not your staff. Not your pitch. Your sheet. And the fix takes less than an hour.

Most gym owners build their pricing sheet to look professional. What they're actually doing is handing prospects a reason to say "let me think about it." When someone walks into your gym ready to buy a...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you, and what to do instead.

Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Your gym's Instagram is probably growing the wrong audience. The more you post, the worse it gets. The likes feel good but the results don't lie.

Most gym owners have been optimizing for the wrong metrics for years — and the algorithm has been learning exactly the wrong thing about who your gym is for. Mike Arce spent 16 years doing it wrong, then h...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you — and what to do instead. Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Right now, some gym owners are waking up to leads already followed up, books already closed, ads already optimized, and payroll already processed.

They didn't hire more staff. They just stopped doing it themselves.

In this episode, Mike Arce breaks down exactly how gyms and fitness studios are using AI in 2026 — not the basics like writing email copy, but the real stuff. The...

🔥 Fire Your Ad Agency — LIVE Workshop for Gym Owners — June 16th, 1pm PT
Learn why most gym ad agencies are costing you more than they're making you — and what to do instead.
Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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80% of gyms are making at least half of these mistakes.

And the brutal part? They're subtle. You won't catch them on your own. But once you see them, you can't unsee them — and you'll feel it every single time you're about to make one.

In this episode, Mike Arce breaks down the 9 sales mistakes gyms make that quietly kill close...

🚨 LIVE AI Workshop for Gym Owners — April 30th, 2pm PT / 5pm ET
Learn how to use A.I. to get more leads and members at your gym — without being a tech person.
Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Think about your team right now.

If someone quit today and you felt relieved — that's a C player.
If someone quit and you panicked — that's an A player.

Most gym owners already know which is which. They just haven't done anything about it yet.

In this episode, Mike Arce breaks down exactly how to identify the A, B, and...

🚨 LIVE AI Workshop for Gym Owners — April 30th, 2pm PT / 5pm ET Learn how to use A.I. to get more leads and members at your gym — without being a tech person.

Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Most gyms are leaking money. They just don't know where.

And the reason isn't bad marketing or a weak sales team. It's that most gym owners are working on the wrong things, while the real problems go completely undetected.

In this episode, Mike Arce breaks down the 12 metrics every gym and fitness studio must track. Not vanity numbers. Not wh...

🚨 LIVE AI Workshop for Gym Owners — April 30th, 2pm PT / 5pm ET Learn how to use A.I. to get more leads and members at your gym — without being a tech person.

Limited seats. Register → GSDlive.com

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Most gym owners think the sale happens at the close. It doesn't. By the time you're showing the pricing sheet, it's already done — or it's already lost.

In this episode, Mike Arce sits down with the sales team at The Collective — a fitness studio in Gilbert, Arizona that went from $35K to over $100K/month — and walks them through the entire sales p...

Your gym staff isn't bad at sales. You just never gave them what they actually need to close.

In this episode, Mike Arce breaks down the CPT Sales Machine — the 3-part framework behind the gyms GSD works with that consistently hit 80%+ close rates, even as they raise prices.

Here's the hard truth most gym owners miss: you're great at sales because you have conviction no employee will ever naturally match. Your gym is your baby. Theirs is a job. But conviction can be built — and when you pair it with the right process and the righ...

You just lost another sale. The lead came in, they seemed interested, and then you got hit with one of these ... "let me think about it," "it's a little out of my budget," "I need to talk to my spouse."

So you did what most people do. You went to YouTube, practiced your rebuttals, maybe bought a book on closing. And the next lead sat down...and you got the exact same objections.

Here's what nobody is telling you: the problem isn't your objection handling. Those objections aren't even the real problem. They're just the...

Most gyms think their retention problem is a marketing problem. It's not.
If members are walking out the door faster than you can replace them, the issue isn't your ads, your pricing, or your location, it's whether every single person on your team makes every single member feel like the whole operation exists for them.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike goes live inside OHM Fitness Happy Valley in Peoria, AZ with the owners, head coach, manager, and front desk team for a real, unscripted coaching session on why retention suffers, and exactly what...

Most gym owners think growth comes from better marketing. The reality? Most are ignoring the systems and data that actually drive predictable results.   In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with Lindsay Greenlee a former Texas Tech University professor turned owner of one of the top-performing Pure Barre studios in the franchise to break down how data-driven decisions, structured marketing processes, and strong execution helped her generate consistent lead flow and industry-leading conversion rates.   Instead of constantly chasing new tactics or relying on agencies to "figure it out," Lindsay explains how understanding your numbers, tracking lead quality, an...

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with top-performing F45 owner Grace to break down the systems, mindset, and operational decisions that helped her turn seasonal dips into record-breaking revenue.

We dive into how elite gym owners plan revenue dips before they happen, why comparing month-to-month data can lead to bad decisions, how integrating Hyrox strengthened community and lead flow, and what it really takes to build a high-performing fitness business that compounds over time.

Instead of reacting to slow periods or constantly changing strategies, Grace focused on understanding her numbers, identifying...

Most gym owners think growth comes from better marketing. The reality? Most are ignoring the systems and data that actually drive predictable results.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with Lindsay Greenlee a former Texas Tech University professor turned owner of one of the top-performing Pure Barre studios in the franchise to break down how data-driven decisions, structured marketing processes, and strong execution helped her generate consistent lead flow and industry-leading conversion rates. Instead of constantly chasing new tactics or relying on agencies to "figure it out," Lindsay explains how understanding your numbers, t...

Most gym owners think they have a marketing problem. What they actually have… is a retention problem.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with Kim and Dave to break down the systems, mindset, and relationship-driven approach that helped their gym reach record-breaking growth, including a $321K month and multiple record months throughout the year. Instead of constantly chasing new leads or switching marketing strategies, they focused on building a business that compounds through strong retention, deep member relationships, and consistent operational systems. 

We dive into what most gym owners misunderstand about gro...

Most gym owners don't struggle because of marketing. They struggle because they can't let go of control.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with Caitlin Bovee to break down the leadership shift that changed everything inside her business. Instead of trying to control every decision, meeting, and outcome, she focused on developing leaders, building systems, and stepping out of daily operations, allowing the business to grow in a completely different way.

We dive into the real challenges gym owners face when transitioning from operator to leader, including why control often becomes...

Reaching $100,000 per month in your gym isn't about luck. It's about understanding the math, solving the right problems, and building a model that actually supports scale.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike breaks down the real path to hitting $100K/month, including the revenue structure, pricing strategy, and operational shifts required to grow beyond the plateau most gym owners hit. We walk through the exact numbers behind membership revenue, ancillary income, pricing sweet spots, and the strategic decisions that separate gyms that scale from gyms that stay stuck chasing more members without real profit.

The biggest reason most gyms don't grow isn't a lack of leads. It's a lack of leadership and systems. Too many gym owners believe more ads, more sales scripts, or more hustle will fix their plateau, when the real issue is their inability to build a team and environment that can actually scale.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with Ahme Bovee, Owner of Bovee Pilates, who built a $1.7M business largely through leadership, culture, referrals, and systems, not massive ad spend. We break down why most gyms hit a ceiling, what high-performing...

The biggest mistake gym owners make with ads isn't choosing the wrong agency. It's not knowing how to work with an ad agency in the first place. 

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike breaks down how gyms should actually partner with ad agencies so results are predictable, profitable, and scalable, not lucky, short-lived, or dependent on guessing. We walk through what separates gyms that win with ads from gyms that churn through agencies, burn cash, and stay stuck.

If you want ads to support real growth (not just activity), this episode is your p...

The fastest way to scale your gym isn't working harder.

It's building systems that work without you.

In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike sits down with the founder of The Hot Room, a fitness brand that grew from 1 studio to 7 locations, stayed profitable, built a cult-like culture, and is now expanding into franchising.

We break down the real systems, discipline, and leadership decisions that allowed her to scale without burning out, without breaking culture, and without losing control of the business.

Most gym owners get stuck in chaos:

The fastest way to grow your gym isn't more leads.

It's keeping the members you already have.

In this episode of GSDGYMS, we breaks down Part 3 of the 3 Ways Gyms Grow Revenue series: Retention, the most overlooked, most profitable, and most misunderstood growth lever in the gym business.

Most gym owners are stuck in a cycle of: More ads → More leads → More churn → Same revenue.

If your gym is growing but your bank account isn't, this episode explains exactly why.

Your gym might be busy…and still not making as much money as it should.

Most gym owners think increasing revenue means getting more members. That's usually the slowest, hardest, and most expensive way to grow. In this episode of Behind Gym Doors, Mike Arce breaks down the second of the three real ways to grow your gym and the one most owners avoid:

👉 Increasing revenue per member. Most owners believe:

• Raising prices will cause cancellations

• Members won't buy add-ons 

• Selling higher tiers will hurt the culture

Your gym doesn't have a lead problem.

It has a leverage problem.

Most gym owners think growth only comes from running more ads.

In reality, that's just one of three levers you can pull and it's usually the weakest one.

In this episode, I break down the three real ways to get more gym members (and more revenue) without just lighting money on fire with marketing.

You'll learn:

The 3×3 growth grid we use with gyms scaling profitably

Why most gyms are stuck only p...

Your marketing might look great…

…and still be losing you money.

Most gym owners track leads, cost per lead, close rate, and show rate... then wonder why their bank account tells a different story.

In this episode, I break down the only two numbers that actually determine whether your marketing is profitable, and why gyms that understand them make better decisions around ads, discounts, retention, and growth.

This framework is used by gyms consistently producing $30k–$50k+ per month in profit.
It's simple. It's measurable. And it removes guesswork entirely.

Most gym owners think marketing is about getting more leads.

Last week, a gym owner told me he spent $8,000 on Meta ads and got 147 leads. His agency sent charts, graphs, the whole victory lap.

So I asked one question:

How much revenue did it produce?

He didn't know.

And that's the real problem in 2026. It's not the owner. It's not the agency. It's that almost nobody knows what the job actually is.

In this episode, I break down the gym owner's real job as the head of...

Most gym owners think marketing means ads, posts, and promotions.

That mindset is exactly why most gyms stay stuck.

In this episode, we go inside the actual 2026 marketing playbook of MTK Muay Thai Kickboxing, a gym business doing roughly $140,000 per month, to show what real marketing looks like when it's built to scale.

This isn't theory.
This isn't surface-level tactics.
And this definitely isn't just ads.

You'll see how marketing touches product, pricing, retention, events, culture, and team structure—and why gyms that understand this grow differently.

If...

Most gym owners think higher competition means higher risk.

In this episode, we walk through real numbers from Crowned Boxing to show why that belief often leads to missed growth, stalled momentum, and unnecessary caution.

This conversation breaks down ad spend, retention, lifetime value, and decision-making in a way every gym owner can understand... without hype or theory.

If you've ever paused ads because "it felt like the wrong month," this episode will challenge how you think about growth.