394: Email: Your Gym’s Gold Mine
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
Release Date: 05/22/2025
#425: How Should Gyms Work With AD Agencies
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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 playbook. Want help applying this to...
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#424: What It Really Takes to Scale a Gym Business
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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: More tasks → More stress → More fires →...
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#423: 3 Ways Gyms Grow Revenue (Part 3: Retention)
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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.
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#422: You Don’t Need More Gym Members to Make More Money (Here's Why)
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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 But the truth is the opposite. The...
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#421: 3 Ways to Get More Gym Members (That Aren't Ads)
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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 pulling one lever How to grow faster without increasing ad spend How referrals, retention, and conversion multiply...
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#420: The Only 2 Gym Metrics That Predict Profit (Not Leads or Sales)
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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. If you’re running ads,...
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#419: Gym Owners: Your Real Marketing Job in 2026 (It's Not What You Think)
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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 marketing, the only three ways revenue can grow, and a simple framework to identify which lever your gym should...
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#418: $1.6M Gym's Marketing Playbook
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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 you own or manage a...
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#417: LIVE Gym Owner Marketing Training
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
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.
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#416: Lessons From the Best
Behind Gym Doors | A Fitness Business Podcast
In this final episode of the season, Mike Arce reflects on a fun and successful season of interviewing exceptional gym owners. He highlights the impressive statistic that 40% of the gyms he works with now generate over $1 million in annual revenue, a significant achievement given that less than 0.5% of gyms typically reach that milestone. The episode dives into the key factors that differentiate the most successful gym owners, focusing on three core areas: Customer Experience, Sales and Revenue & Team Building. This episode also features a special sponsored message from Inception...
info_outlineYou’re Sitting on a Goldmine: Unlocking the Power of Email in Your CRM
In this episode, Mike Arce, CEO of Loud Rumor, reveals why most fitness studios are sitting on a goldmine—and wasting it. With over 4,000 gyms served across 11 countries, Mike breaks down the real difference between sending emails and doing email marketing.
Learn why your CRM is your most underutilized asset, how to think about paid vs. earned vs. owned traffic, and what a proper customer acquisition cost (CAC) should look like if you're aiming for real profitability. He also shares one of the most effective email tactics studios can use today to reignite leads you thought were long gone—the legendary 9-word email.
Whether you're trying to drop CAC, boost lifetime value, or stop depending solely on paid ads, this episode will show you how to turn your list into a lead-generating machine.
🔗 Learn more: loudrumor.com