[1:30] - Dan's Life Time membership experience

[2:59] - Waitlists and scarcity marketing

[6:29] - Having a clear ICP matters

[10:25] - Churn prevention strategies

[13:30] - A professional Sales teams in a gym? Yes.

[15:20] - Maximizing your revenue streams

[18:50] - The good and the bad of a big-picture business model

Dan Uyemura: [00:00:00] I mean, in the last year that I've been there, I learned a lot from them. And the first thing I learned was they fucking stole everything. Welcome to the PushPress Podcast, where gym owners learn to dodge bad advice, crush the competition and actually make money doing what they love. Let's get after it.

Dan Uyemura: This episode is not sponsored by Lifetime Fitness. Got a shirt. Who, who is this? Oh, this is one I can't say. Can you read this for me? 

Nick Reyes: Kaniho. We probably screwed that up. Kaniho. But you didn't send me a shirt, so I'm kind of mad at you. 

Dan Uyemura: I'm just kidding. It's probably Kaniho, Kanihoi. I really screwed that up.

Dan Uyemura: Crossfit Kanihoi. Okay, that's probably closer than mine. Kaniho, dude.

Dan Uyemura: Anyway, this episode is from Crossfit Kanihoi. We are off on the wrong foot, but we're we're gonna start. Um, so hey recently last year I'll tell you I’m going to tell you a little bit of story time first and then we're going to dive into this episode It all has a purpose and a meaning I promise [00:01:00] um I live in Vegas.

Dan Uyemura: Vegas gets hot as shit. I bought a house, doesn't have a pool. Wife, not okay with the heat, freaking out. She's like, we have to find somewhere to use a pool. Lifetime Fitness near us has an amazing pool. Like, resort pool, water slides, cabanas. Like, you feel like you're at a hotel on the strip, basically. And they're like, yeah, man, this is included with your membership.

Dan Uyemura: So, sold. Like, you know, just on the pool. But because I had this membership, uh, and because I wake up at 4 a. m. a lot, I would just get up and go and work out there. And the process of that this year that I've been there, I'm actually probably going to quit. Like when I get back into town, um, in the, in the last year that I've been there, I learned a lot from them.

Dan Uyemura: And the first thing I learned was they fucking stole everything from boutique, like their whole business. Not just from boutique, like they have tennis courts, they stole the whole tennis, you know, like they have, they pickleball, they've got a whole pickleball operation that came up out of nowhere, [00:02:00] basketball, they've got, uh, Alphafit, which is CrossFit, they've got GTX, which is Orange Theory, right?

Dan Uyemura: They've like everything that's popular out there, they have heated yoga, they have yin, they have Pilates, they have spin, they have barbell booty bootcamp, everything, everything. And they took it all from like, they just looked at every successful model and they're like, okay, cool. Crossword worked. I'll go fit.

Dan Uyemura: Took it, took it, took it, took it. And in my time there, I'm like. They've taken so much, but there's stuff we can learn too. And so I started paying attention to all the stuff that they're doing, because they do a lot of stuff well on the business side of things. They're a really well run business. And that's what this topic, this is what this episode is about basically.

Dan Uyemura: It's like, there's five, I've learned more, but these are the five biggest things that I've learned from Lifetime that I think gyms can take, steal, deploy, and do better at. Okay, so that's kind of the setup. Let's dig it. Alright, let's do it. So the first one is a wait [00:03:00] list. Now, I didn't realize this was a thing.

Dan Uyemura: I've actually befriended a. Not to be named sales manager there, uh, super cool guy. I love him. Um, but you know, he's kind of like told me about how, like some of the stuff they do and I hope this doesn't get him in trouble. Anyway, um, they have a wait list, a wait list. And so you go on their website and it's like, eh, we're full right now, but put your name down on the wait list and we'll let you know.

Nick Reyes: Mm. A little scarcity. 

Dan Uyemura: Mm. And uh, what does that do to anyone who has like a high desire to be part of something? Makes it very desirable. 

Nick Reyes: Ramps up that, that desire even more so. 

Dan Uyemura: And I'll tell you, I remember my first demo there, like, I got that bullshit, and then I'm like, yeah, screw that, I'm gonna go. I just went down there, and I'm like, hey, can I just get a tour?

Dan Uyemura: And they're like, nope. Oof. You cannot get a tour. You have to schedule a tour. There's no one here to give you a tour. Go home. Ballsy. For real. [00:04:00] And I was pissed. I was literally pissed off. Then I got a phone call and said like, Hey, we'll have a tour. When are you free? We got you. Did you? But I want to 

Nick Reyes: give you the right experience.

Nick Reyes: Ooh, so they twisted it into, we need to make sure we're, uh, giving you the correct experience rather than winging it and having a B player. Would you walk, just show you around. Yeah, 

Dan Uyemura: let me, let me compare and contrast, right? I tried to join a CrossFit gym in my city. Uh, did the whole lead nurture thing through some automation tool that they have, you know, like how I grow, uh, and you know, I got a message back from them the day I had my tour and it's like, Hey Dan, super excited to see you today.

Dan Uyemura: Let me know if there's anything else you need. You know, like felt really good. I'm like, cool. I'm good. I'll see you guys at noon. I showed up at noon. Coach was like coaching a class. Didn't even know we were coming. 

Nick Reyes: Oh, 

Dan Uyemura: then she left the class alone and did a horrible and no sweat intro with us. Like a terrible one.

Dan Uyemura: Like she was just reading a script. And while the class was out there doing whatever they were doing. 

Nick Reyes: Just unlimited burpees. Because [00:05:00] they were told to go to the next movement. 

Dan Uyemura: And this is a Saturday, right? This is, I'm digressing from our podcast. But I'm just telling you the contrast. Yeah, 

Nick Reyes: yeah, yeah.

Dan Uyemura: Leaves her class. There's a dog running around in class because it was her dog. But the dog was freaked out because she wasn't with it. She was in the room with us. Like, it was just a crazy shit show. And I'm like, this is the difference, right? But anyway, uh, Lifetime. Uh, hey, I'm gonna give you the right experience.

Dan Uyemura: What day you want to come in? Pick the day. Came down there. Tore the facility. Great. Signed up. Um, what I found was after the fact, the wait list is their filtering tool. One, it creates scarcity, but two, it allows them to look through the list and say, like, who's most likely to join because the salespeople, uh, are selling.

Dan Uyemura: These are professional salespeople. These are not just coaches who are just trying to like get through their day. 

Nick Reyes: Right, right. Yeah. I mean, so, so if you, if you probably peel back the data there and then I would, I would just be guessing, right? Like they might get, uh, 30 leads a day, 40 leads a day at, at, at, at, at a location.

Nick Reyes: And the [00:06:00] waitlist. Uh, without a wait list, they might close five of those 40 leads. It's probably more than that. It's probably five per person per day, to be honest. But like, again, let's just say it's, they get five out of the 40 closed. Uh, but they got to do the work of touring all 40. Yes. You put that wait list in.

Nick Reyes: You might only, you might only end up with 10 tours, but you might close nine of those 10. And therefore you only did the work for the nine, right? So we're up to 10. 

Dan Uyemura: Yep. And so that, that takes me to my second point, which is a clear. ICP, which is like this ICP thing we keep coming back to and not only a clear cut ICP, but they've, they've got a picture of a high value ICP that they go for.

Dan Uyemura: And honestly, I'm not it. So, I mean, you've been a member for a year, I've been a member for a year, but let me, let me tell you this. So like one of, if you become a member of a lifetime, one thing you'll notice like in my lifetime app, at least 50 percent of their classes are kids classes. And so what I figured out pretty quick was their ICP is a super busy [00:07:00] mom and dad.

Dan Uyemura: Who work are high paid professionals who want to be young, sexy fit, but their kids demand all their time. 

Nick Reyes: Dammit kids. 

Dan Uyemura: So what did they do? They built this whole kids program that costs more that does everything from like STEM, you know, STEM. Oh, there's like 

Nick Reyes: Mac computers. Gymnastics. In every one of, uh, in the centers.

Nick Reyes: And you can just go, there you go. Two hours. Xander, go have 

Dan Uyemura: fun. Two hours, right? So you get two hours. They get to take two hours of classes a day. The kids do. But why two hours? Because that's enough time for you to get in, get your workout in, take a shower, pick up the kids, 

Nick Reyes: probably get a protein drink, get a 

Dan Uyemura: protein drink at the shop, maybe get your nails done at the studio.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? Like they actually have a clear high, their ICP. Like if you look where they're built, they're not built everywhere. They're built in affluent areas that have families. Yep. Right. Yep. And so this way, if you count, if you. Buckle this into the wait list, who [00:08:00] gets called first, it's the family of four, the family of five, because every kid's another a hundred bucks.

Dan Uyemura: Right. And now they're driving their ARPU from 299. It's 299 for one person, 399 for two, and probably damn near close to a thousand dollars a month. If you've got kids, you know, damn. Yeah. Yeah. So if I'm a salesperson, I've got a wait list and I'm going through and I'm seeing like, oh, this is family of five.

Dan Uyemura: Right. Do a little bit of magic stalkery, like the restaurants do like, Oh, who is Nick Reyes? Oh, he's, he works at a software company. Okay, great. Probably makes okay money to, you know, do that kind of stuff. And you can really, like as a salesperson, like you were saying, pretty quickly decide who you want to spend your time with.

Nick Reyes: Uh, I would not doubt if they have a full blown lead score based upon the number of kids that you have, what information they can find about you on LinkedIn. They got your name, they got your email. They're going to do a deep dive and get a damn near instantly. It's corn rank. Yes. 

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. And so this is like the mindset shift between like boutique gyms and lifetime is like, [00:09:00] it all, it's all where you're starting from, right?

Dan Uyemura: So you know who you're serving, you know how to get them, you know, what kind of value they're willing to pay. You build the product around it and then you just. Operate against that. Instead of taking every damn person that comes in and like watering down your entire client base, they're very selective about who they let into this business.

Dan Uyemura: I think I thought that was a very insightful thing that they do. And, 

Nick Reyes: and they are, they obviously fill up a really big facility. So like the, the mindset of. I've got to get everyone versus I've got to get as high of a percentage of people who only look like this is different. And that's what you're pointing out here.

Nick Reyes: Yes. They, there's enough people that look like this to them, like that narrow gap that they're able to filter out everyone else and still grow and pack a facility. Yeah. 

Dan Uyemura: And I believe, I believe I was told like they're in the hole, like a million dollars a month. On day one, like their burn, you know, like their monthly expenses is a million bucks.

Dan Uyemura: So like when you open a facility, your, your, your burn is a [00:10:00] million dollars a month until you build that back. Wow. Right. So I hope that's right. Something, it was something astronaut, but I mean, they're opening 150, 200, 000 square foot spaces with all of that stuff. And they've got, I mean, one time I was there, I was counting.

Dan Uyemura: I'm like, there must be a hundred employees here right now. You know, between the lifeguards and the people making food and stuff that they do. So absolutely 

Nick Reyes: they got to support that. There's another note on here. Uh, point number three, and I'm so intrigued to hear this one, the 45 cup of coffee. Yeah, this is a good one.

Dan Uyemura: So in, it's probably right. It's right when I joined. So around March, so in a couple of months, they're going to sell this. Oh, I don't, I don't know. I thought I might have it here, but it's a tumbler, like one of those Yeti tumblers. Uh, you can probably get for like 12 bucks or 15 bucks. In mass, they had shit ton of them.

Dan Uyemura: And they're like, uh, if you want to buy this tumbler, it's 45 bucks. My maybe it's 55 bucks. I don't remember. It was a lot of money because I had to do math on like, what's the ROI on this thing? And they're like, but if you buy it, you get free [00:11:00] coffee until labor day, which is the one in September labor day.

Dan Uyemura: Uh, 

Nick Reyes: that's, I don't even, 

Dan Uyemura: I don't, the, the, one of those days, 

Nick Reyes: I think it's Labor Day. Yeah. That's supposed to wear white after Labor Day. Right. Yeah. It's 

Dan Uyemura: Labor Day. So from like March till September, you get free coffee, free iced tea, free iced coffee, free hot coffee. Okay. For the whole time. And so I was like, oh hell yeah, because I would, I would like stay in work after I would, you know, go to the gym at 5am, work out till like six, work there until like seven and then go home.

Dan Uyemura: Anyway, I was like, cool. Free coffee every day. Dope. I'll do it. Um, then I do the math and I'm like, well, these coffees cost six bucks a pop. Like I'm gonna get my money back in 10 days, like five days or whatever it is. And, uh, so I asked the guy, my guy there and I'm like, how does this, like, why does this make sense?

Dan Uyemura: He's like, dude, those coffees cost us 5 cents. Right. He's like, we make money no matter what, but people quit in the summer. And like, this is one of those tools that we have deployed in March so that you've got your 45 coffee cup that [00:12:00] you don't want to lose. Oh, that's so good. You know what I mean? Oh, that's so good.

Dan Uyemura: It's just like one more of those like dumb little things that you're like, well, I get coffee until August or September. So I'm, I'll just stay because most people in Vegas leave during the summer, but they'll, you know, like they'll rationalize it. So they don't quit. He's like, it's just one more of our things that we do.

Nick Reyes: Oh man, I'm going to be noodling on how we can do this in a gym. That's so, 

Dan Uyemura: so in my keynote speech, I did talk to people about like, how do you manufacture things that reduce the churn? When you see the churn curves go. And I was like, they did it. Like they looked at their churn curves and they said, we need some tool here.

Dan Uyemura: And they did it. And that's probably just one of like eight things they did that I tuned into. Right. And probably every, like tennis probably has their own and pickleball player has their own, there's something everywhere. Yep. But I'll guarantee you that pool that they built, which is like 20 times bigger and more luxurious than needs to be, is definitely like keep families here for the summer.

Dan Uyemura: 'cause it, it has a ma has water slides for the kids and, and, 

Nick Reyes: and they're just playing. They're playing a [00:13:00] different game that's, that's, it's a, it's infinite, right? So, uh, so what I mean by that is like they are willing to invest the extra half million dollars into that pool that will reduce churn by half a percent in the summer months.

Nick Reyes: Because over 

Dan Uyemura: 30 years. Because over 

Nick Reyes: 30 years, they're gonna compound that half million dollar investment into 20 million dollars or whatever it's gonna stack to, right? Yeah, long term thinking, long term games. Very much so. 

Dan Uyemura: Um, the next point I have is growth goals. So this goes along to like having a professional sales staff.

Dan Uyemura: So they clearly had quota. They clearly had the idea that this business has to grow this many percentage points every month or whatever. And they clearly have a sense of a scramble that you would see in a sales org that's not only compensated on sales. But has a growth mindset, which I see lacking in a lot of boutique gyms, right?

Dan Uyemura: [00:14:00] Absolutely, and I get it like nobody wants to be seen as a slimy salesman I don't really feel like the person I've interacted with that lifetime is slimy at all. Hey, he did it very ethically But there is a middle ground where you can have your growth in mind and not be selling people things They don't need 

Nick Reyes: you know, right?

Nick Reyes: I mean at the end of the day You walked in And we're interested in joining and it's a salesperson's job to connect the end result or outcome with, you know, what they're offering, you know, and so, uh, I largely obviously with my background view sales as you're doing yourself, you're doing yourself and, uh, you're doing your clients a disservice or your prospects a disservice if you don't.

Nick Reyes: Take those shots. 

Dan Uyemura: That is the biggest disconnect I had when I first launched my gym. Is, I didn't realize that. Like there are plenty of people I let walk out of the gym because I was afraid of being a bad salesperson. And they needed, they needed the gym. 

Nick Reyes: Yep. I just didn't want to sell them. Yeah, [00:15:00] taking action is hard.

Nick Reyes: Uh, kudos to them for, uh, having a, having a professional staff. And I, I, you know, I've been a member at Lifetime in the past and I had the same experience. I thought they were, uh, a pretty good sales team. Uh, frustrating points with the facility in general, right? But like all in all, every single thing that you're saying here, I'm like, This is genius stuff.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, and the last one ties into this, right? They have multiple revenue centers in their gym So they have uh pilates reformers which cost extra money per month They have pt galore like every I go at random hours all the time always somebody except like 4 a. m. But there's always Not one, a crew of PT people getting in work, getting paid.

Dan Uyemura: Um, they have like advanced training for pickleball, tennis, you know, you can pay extra for tennis courts, cabana rentals, they have a food, they have a hair salon. 

Nick Reyes: I took, uh, Mila, my daughter, to, um, a camp there, like a one week long camp. Like a swim camp. Uh, when she was like [00:16:00] six or something like that, right?

Nick Reyes: Like, I mean, when you remember, uh, no, I was not a member then. And I, and I had to pay a little bit more. So like a member, it was like 200 for the week. And a non member was like 250 for the week. And so to your point, like another revenue stream, like they're running kids camps during the summer. Because they're ICP, suburb parents, we know that they need this, 

Dan Uyemura: you know, so I guarantee, in fact, I know, but I don't know the terms of it because I don't have any young kids anymore, but they have summer programs where you can just leave your kids there for hours, six hours or whatever, and you, they actually provide good value to the kids stuff, you know, it's like they're learning fitness, they're learning some education, they have computers, they're learning to swim, learning tennis, just stuff that, you know, like you want your kids to learn.

Dan Uyemura: So, but to tie that into the sales team. Like when we did our tour, like I could tell like the sales guy was like leaning, like picking at me. What, what, where do we want to work on? Something came up where I'm like, Oh, my mobility stinks and says like, Hey, I'm gonna schedule you [00:17:00] a free stretching session, which was an upsell, you know, into their PT of stretching, uh, did the stretching thing.

Dan Uyemura: I didn't buy it, but I can see like they're, they're working in unison with their coaches on the floor to give them opera shots on goal to sell their service. Right. And I think it's like. As you're building an organization around growth and around revenue and around service providing, like you've got to create those shots on goal.

Nick Reyes: Yeah. Your clients are not just going to learn about, uh, the fact that Dan is an amazing personal trainer who can help you with your. You know, weightlifting or your Olympic weightlifting, unless you connect the dots. And that's, that's essentially what they're doing is they're walking you through the tour and they're connecting the dots of all the different things that they offer to give those clients or to give Dan a shot, you know, in this case, you're the coach, right?

Nick Reyes: Like a shot on goal at coaching me in weightlifting. Yeah. Right. 

Dan Uyemura: Yep. So that's basically it. Like, just to recap, you know, I feel like when I walked in there, I was seeing a genericized regurgitated version of a lot of the things that. [00:18:00] I, I like in the boutique fitness world, which was like mildly, I don't know, I wouldn't say offensive to me, but yeah, you could tell like I've taken some of the classes.

Dan Uyemura: I'm like, not even nowhere is good when you do all 

Nick Reyes: that wide of things. There's going to be lacking at depth in areas. So no, no doubting that. But that doesn't mean there's not amazing things to learn from that. 

Dan Uyemura: Exactly. Like we can't just throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Like let's learn from stuff back from them because they're, they are a great business.

Dan Uyemura: Right. Right. They may, they may not be the best at coaching certain things or, you know, actually operationally providing the fitness service, but they are a great business operator. So I guess my question to you guys is, if any of you guys have been to a lifetime gym and you've witnessed something that I've missed here, I would love to know, I can learn from you guys and maybe we can bring that back up in another episode.

Dan Uyemura: Email that in podcast@pushpress. com. And we will bring that up in another episode. See you guys. Thanks guys. Thanks for listening to another episode of the PushPress Podcast, where we help gym owners, entrepreneurs, and fitness enthusiasts thrive with actionable insights, inspiring stories, and [00:19:00] strategies for growth.

Nick Reyes: Don't forget to follow the show to stay updated on new episodes. And if you're ready for more, join our free Facebook community for gym owners. Check the show notes for the link, and we'll see you next time. Keep raising the bar for your business and community.

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