What if your business could grow without more risk or more work?

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I unpack the powerful concept of intrapreneurialism—where staff build businesses inside your business. It’s not just delegation or profit-sharing; it’s about giving your team a platform to grow something remarkable while you both win.

I’ll define what intrapreneurialism really is, break down the value for staff and owners, and share five real-world examples from service industries (including one from the fitness space). Plus, I’ll give tips for structuring revenue-sharing and avoiding c...

Description:

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, we delve into the timeless wisdom of Sun Tzu's The Art of War and explore how its principles can be applied to today's service-based businesses. Discover how to:

Tune in to learn how ancient military strategies can provide a competitive edge in the modern business landscape.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

...

Podcast Summary: Just Do It

Over the last six months, I’ve worked with five different business coaches to simplify my company and refocus on what matters.

I’ve talked to experts, mapped out plans, brainstormed strategies—until yesterday, when executive coach Dennis McIntee said something that stopped me cold:

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I unpack the hard truth:

👉 Knowing what to do isn’t enough.

👉 Learning an...

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you think: “To grow, I need to do more—more marketing, more ads, more promotions.”

But Keith Cunningham, author of The Road Less Stupid, has a smarter answer:

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I walk you through Cunningham’s Growth Funnel—a five-step roadmap to growth that puts your energy where it matters most.

We cover:

✅ Why keeping more customers is your #1 growth priority

Most entrepreneurs know they should do more of what works.

But very few realize they also need to stop doing what doesn’t.

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I walk through how to identify the things in your business that are wasting your most valuable asset: your time. I share stories—from my own businesses and from our mentorship clients—about how much time, money, and energy are lost doing things that feel “good” but don’t actually produce results.

I explain:

You’ve probably heard the saying: “The rich get richer during a recession.”

But here’s the truth: It’s not the crisis that makes people successful—it’s their preparedness.

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I share one of the best lessons I’ve learned from Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach:

Luck will come. Opportunities will show up. The real question is—will you be ready?

Using real examples from the COVID lockdowns, I talk about...

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I talk about one of the biggest mistakes business owners make: running their business by story instead of by numbers.

The problem with stories—especially the ones we tell ourselves—is that they’re often wrong.

We tell ourselves things like:

But those are stories, not facts.

If you’re not running your business by numbers, you’re running it by feelings—and fee...

We’ve all heard that we should “have a growth mindset.” But what does that actually mean in business—and how do you practice it?

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I break down the difference between a growth mindset and a scarcity mindset, and explain how most of us were raised to believe in competition, limitation, and fear of loss. The truth? Business isn’t a zero-sum game. Success isn’t finite. And when we focus on collaboration instead of competition, everyone wins.

I’ll give you:

Culture Is What You Tolerate

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I give full credit to Keith Cunningham, author of The Road Less Stupid, for one of the clearest insights I’ve ever heard about culture:

“Culture is what you tolerate.”

It’s not about nap rooms, Red Bull in the fridge, or inspirational posters. Culture is shaped by what we allow, what we ignore, and how we interact with each other—especially when things get uncomfortable.

Here’s what I cover:

Podcast Summary: Chicken and Rice

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I talk to business owners who feel like they’re pushing harder than ever but getting the same—or worse—results.

Maybe your sales have plateaued. Maybe retention’s dropping. Or maybe your business just doesn’t feel fun anymore. It feels heavy. Slow. Like you’re pushing a rope uphill. You remember when it used to feel easier, and you’re wondering what changed.

Here’s what happened: your business got bloated.

As businesses grow, we tend to add staff, ru...

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I talk about how it feels to take one step forward in your business—only to get pulled one step back.

Most entrepreneurs think they have a growth problem. But the real issue? Shrinkage. You make progress… and lose it. Over and over. I share why that happens and how to fix it.

The solution is to hit "Save Game"—by building a staff playbook made up of clear, repeatable SOPs. That way, when the unexpected happens—and it will—you don’t lose all your progress.

I share 5 exam...

In this episode of BusinessIsGood, I talk about one of the most common breakdowns in founder-led businesses: lack of clarity. Too often, CEOs and founders assume that once is enough when it comes to communicating vision, expectations, or processes. But the truth is, if your team doesn’t seem to "get it," it’s not a people problem—it’s a clarity problem.

I share why founders need to repeat their message often, in multiple ways, and constantly work toward clarity instead of novelty. I draw from my experience coaching athletes and building teams to explain how repeated...

Podcast Script: Why Business Leaders Should Be Coaches, Not Captains

Intro Music Fades In

Host: Welcome to BusinessIsGood, the podcast where we explore the ideas and practices that help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create lasting success. I’m your host, Chris Cooper. Today, we’re tackling a big question: should you lead your business as a “captain” or as a “coach”?

To illustrate this, I want to start with a story from hockey. Bobby Hull, nicknamed “The Golden Jet,” was one of the greatest players to ever lace up skates. Known for his blazing spee...

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. 

Abraham Lincoln

You're buried in work. Who has time to work out?

Being a good entrepreneur doesn't just mean making money. It doesn't mean out-grinding the competition, or even loving your work every day. But it does mean:

Selling your service

Negotiating

Leading others

Focusing

Thinking with a clear head

Overcoming procrastination

...and more.

How To Calm Down

Every entrepreneur gets triggered sometimes.

The reasons might be obvious: a late employee, a missed detail, a poor customer experience.

Or they might not be: we could show up to work escalated; we could be carrying dread or guilt around; we could have a fight with our spouse before we left for work.

Many days, our emotional meter is already cranked up to 9 before we start our day, and one little thing pushes us up to MAX 10. Then we have an over-the-top response to some little thing...

In this episode of *Business Is Good*, I explore the concept of self-leadership and why it’s the foundation of all other types of leadership. I share that while a business's efficiency helps it survive tough times, it’s the strength of its leadership that determines its success in the good times. Often, the biggest limitation to growth is the founder or CEO—their personal knowledge gaps, emotional control, or mindset can be what holds the business back.

I walk through different forms of leadership, including team, brand, and niche leadership, but emphasize that self-leadership is the one we...

This November, join me for a 30-day GOLDEN HOUR Challenge to grow your business!

To participate:

Commit to participating in our Facebook group (join here)

Post "done!" under each daily GOLDEN HOUR CHALLENGE post when you've completed the work for the day!

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Why Get Rich_

Chris Cooper discusses the motivations and challenges of gym owners, who often sacrifice higher-paying careers to pursue their passion despite low earnings. He argues that wealth creation is essential for personal and societal progress, emphasizing that wealth enables freedom, problem-solving, and opportunities for others. Cooper highlights the importance of entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and democracy, noting that wealth creation is necessary for job creation and tax generation. He advocates for building wealth to solve personal financial issues, compound wealth, create opportunities for others, and ultimately, to give back through philanthropy.

Transcript<...

why you want the hard times

Dave tate: business is a battle of attrition

what determines who lasts and who doesn't? the hard stuff

nobody wanted covid lockdowns, but when they reopened there was far less competition

Tadej Pogacar - I want the steepest, hardest climbs becuase they're the separator

when you ahve stafff quit - so do they

when your rent goes up - so does theirs

maybe not the same day, but over the 3-year span, everything that happens to you will happen...

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we’re talking about how business owners—especially gym owners—often make the mistake of overcomplicating their businesses. It’s easy to add unnecessary options, details, and management layers, but that can slow down growth, create confusion, and reduce profit. Many of us became entrepreneurs to flex our creative muscles, but there’s a point where experimentation becomes a barrier to success. We’ll dive into why simplifying back to a minimum viable product (MVP) is essential for increasing profitability and reducing stress.

Key Takeaways:

This week, we're going to build entrepreneurial resilience: the ability to just keep going when things go wrong.

Listen to this episode, and then visit the Daily Directives section at BusinessIsGood.com to complete daily exercises for resilience all week.

I'm Chris Cooper, and today I'm discussing strategies for overcoming adversity in business. Setbacks are inevitable, but they can be managed by spreading them out over time and making them less impactful. I've found that taking a long-term view, recognizing small wins, and maintaining a practice mindset can prepare us for future challenges. It's also...

Why founders don’t make money

They are product oriented -inventors not investors 

They quit too soon - in the product crew successful, they have done its job

They failed to scale - They are irreplaceable in their business.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

I'm a product guy.

I want to believe that if I keep making my product better, I'll make it more profitable.

Unfortunately, that almost never works - we get caught in the Technician's Curse and never stop iterating on our product, tweaking it, improving it...and never having time to market it.

But there are SOME ways that improving your product CAN make it more profitable:

Being the best in class creates a huge advantage, because the best clients will ascend to your service (if they know about it.)

...

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Characteristics of Missionaries and Mercenaries

Missionaries:

Mercenaries:

 I get between 30 and 300 messages on FB every single day. Usually, I ask, "what are your goals for the business?" and the entrepreneur answers, "I need more clients." But in many ases, they have lots of clients, and that's not ht eproblem. They're chasing the wrong metric. In fact, they're chasing the hardest metric. They should be chasing profit. How do you get more profit and impove that metric? Getting more revenue and cutting unnecessary expenses. You improve those 2 metrics. How do you improve the revenue metric? More clients, maybe...or maybe more rev per client, or maybe less c...

When most entrepreneurs get their business running smoothly, they turn their eyes to the next thing: the next level, the next opportunity, the next location, or the next big idea.

This means they no longer spend all of their time caring for, feeding and protecting the Golden Goose. They might entrust its care to someone else...but that person doesn't have all of the context, experience or knowledge of the business owner.

We call this "moving from Farmer phase to Tinker Phase". When you leave your farm in the hands of someone...

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

No matter what kind of service business you own, you must carefully consider their first 3 visits into your service. These first 3 interactions set you up for long-term client retention...or early washout.

Here's how to do it.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Last week I shared the story of the Smokejumpers, and the horrible tragedy that happened in Mann Gulch, Montana in 1949.

But as in all tragedies and all business setbacks, there's a lesson that we can learn and take from this. In this lesson, the foreman of the Smokejumpers--Wagg Dodge-- did something that seemed counterintuitive and didn't make sense to his team: he lit an escape fire. And this brave act ultimately saved his life, and it shares profound lessons for businesses facing their own kind of wildfires.

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website...

In the annals of firefighting history, few events are as heartbreaking and instructive as the tragedy of the Smoke Jumpers in Mann Gulch. This group of elite wildland firefighters met their fate in a devastating fire in 1949, which claimed the lives of 13 brave souls. Their story is not only a poignant reminder of the hazards faced by firefighters but also serves as a metaphor for businesses navigating the treacherous landscapes of change and competition.

Smoke Jumpers are specially trained firefighters who parachute into remote areas to combat wildfires. They are the first line of defense against some...

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

BiG Podcast - Golden Hour

Chris Cooper emphasizes the importance of dedicating an hour each day to growing one's business, citing the benefits of uninterrupted time for focus and consistency in practicing the 'golden hour.' He advises listeners to prioritize their mentor's tasks during this hour and highlights the ease of entering a state of focus with consistent practice.

Action Items

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Today on the podcast, Business Mentor Ashley Haun shares the importance of rest for entrepreneurs, highlighting three types of rest: physical, emotional, and mental.

She shares personal experiences of feeling exhausted after a 72-hour race and the need for emotional rest to avoid burnout. Haun encouraged entrepreneurs to prioritize rest to make better decisions, see things from a different perspective, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

The importance of rest for entrepreneurs, including physical, emotional, and mental rest.

Stay In Your Lane

Summary

Motivation is not about fear or money. True motivation comes from those 3.

Autonomy, mastery and purpose - dan pink

Autonomy:

the 4 Ts: their task, their time, their technique and their team

Freedom and responsibility within a framework

Mastery

You don’t get motivated and then start winning. You start winning and then get motivated.

Counting tiny wins - gap and the gain

Habit stacking becomes win-stacking. At first, the work is the win.

Purpose

A Noble Purpose: The Foundation fo...

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/