In this video, Ryan Vaughn warns gym and fitness‑studio owners about the misleading use of the word “profit” in marketing and mentorship offers. He first defines profit in its purest form – cash received from members minus cash paid to vendors, staff, and other expenses – and explains why focusing on the actual cash left over is essential for long‑term business health. Vaughn contrasts genuine profit‑focused strategies with common marketing promises that only boost top‑line revenue or lead volume without guaranteeing a positive return on investment. He stresses the need for owners to track ROI on any marketing spend or mentorship program, warning that many marketers push lead generation without regard for the cost versus the revenue those leads generate. Vaughn also acknowledges reputable industry figures (Chris Cooper, Sean Pastuch, Stu Brower) and their contributions, while cautioning against less transparent offers that use “increase your profit” as a hook for lead‑generation services. He concludes by promoting a free webinar replay that walks owners through a “Profit Project” framework – a step‑by‑step financial planning and budgeting process that helps owners forecast profitability before committing to a gym concept, identify necessary adjustments, and ultimately increase the cash left over after expenses. The video ends with an invitation for questions and a call to choose profit consciously.
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Hey everyone, uh, happy Tuesday morning to you. Today I was thinking about some of these headlines that I see from marketing emails, and, uh, I just want to share some, uh, something from my point of view. I noticed that the emails talk a lot about increase your profit or how to increase your profit, and And whether that's marketers or coaches or mentors, a lot of them use the sexy word of profit because it's something that usually is on our mind and we'd like to have more of it. But then as you dig into some of these different programs, you realize they're not actually talking about profit. So I'm gonna define for you what profit really means so that when you see some of these headlines and then you look into the program, you at least know what you're getting. Because I'm not saying it's not a good idea to hire a marketer to help you. I'm not saying it's not a good idea to hire a business mentor to help you. All of those things are relevant and depending on your need, important to do. I can tell you at our gym, we are not very good. It is not our strength of bringing in leads to the gym. So any marketing help we can get, we need it. But it's important when I know that that's what my need is, I can go and look at the program that I need that really fits that instead of falling for some of these sexy words that are used when they don't really mean what they're saying. So profit is— this is the way I look at profit. Cash comes into your business from customers paying you. That's cash in. And then you pay your vendors, your coaches, other people. That's cash outflow. Whatever's left over That's profit. That's what we're talking about. That's our space. That's Insight Tax's space in the industry. We're the ones— we're your voice of how do you increase the money that's left over, because we believe the more money you have left over, the better chance you have of staying in business for as long as you want, and the more lives you change through the gift of health that your services offer. So again, profit is money comes in, money goes out. The actual cash that's left over, that's what we're talking about. Sometimes marketers are talking about increasing your profit, but really they're talking about top-line revenue. And then other times business mentors may talk about increasing your profit, but they're talking about creating systems that help you have like standard operating procedures and things that can on some level protect the cash, or at least give you a better control over the cash that's leaving. And again, all of those are great. There are a lot of great business mentoring companies out there. Um, I'm a big fan of Chris Cooper and his data-driven focus on providing what he sees as working for the gyms that work with him. Um, I had the opportunity to be on Sean Pastuch's Podcast, the Active Life. So Active Life is his company, and I've met with a few of our gym owners and other gym owners who've used their service, and they love what he offered. They love the education that the coaches get. So like Stu Brower, he has a great mind when it comes to branding and marketing and positioning yourself. So again, there's a lot of great people out there, and then you have the other people that I'm not as familiar with. I just get their ads likely. The same way you do. And I see, you know, increase your profit, but then I look at it and it's really just a program to try to drive a whole bunch of leads into the business. And to me, I just wanna make sure that you're not falling for any deception because a marketing job is to, like, they wanna sell, right? And if they're gonna tell you how you sell, then you can assume that whatever tactics they're using to get you to buy their services are going to be similar tactics they're going to ask you to do to get new members for your fitness studio or gym. But the issue is, if someone tells me, I'm going to help you increase profit, but really all they're talking about is, I'm going to help you increase the lead flow, if we're not aware of what that means, we could end up suffering from a net income standpoint from having money left over. Because if really they're pushing me to just get leads, they're not too worried about my return on their investment. They just want me to get leads. And a lot of times I've found, at least with the marketing companies I've worked with, it's spend more money on Facebook ads. That's the solution. Yeah. Just pay money to get your name out there and you're gonna be great, you're gonna get a lot of leads. Well, the issue is if I'm not tracking how much income I'm getting from the cash outflow, I could be spending way more money on ads than the leads that I get back. And so it's really important for you to understand your ROI on marketing things. It's really good to understand your ROI on any business mentoring company you hire. So with that in mind, um, last thing before I end. Last week I did a webinar, and, uh, in the chat here is a URL for a replay of that webinar. And what I focused on was profit. Specifically, you have an idea of what you want to do with your gym. Now, if you haven't made that a concrete plan yet, I walk you through from a financial standpoint how to make the vision you have in your head and what you want to accomplish with your gym, the services you want to offer, the size of the gym that you want to create, how to take all those things and put it into a profit project so that you are able to see before you even start down the journey how profitable your idea is going to allow you to be. And if it's not going to Allow you to be as profitable as you want to be. It gives you the chance. The webinar teaches you how to kind of work through your plan to see the areas that you may need to change. So it's a form of goal setting. It's a form of budgeting, but it takes out all of the problems that exist in the traditional way people goal set and the traditional way people budget, and it gives you a really great framework to use so that you can create. Your Own Profit Project. It's a free webinar. I invite you to watch it because again, I'm the voice of profit and I want to make sure we're talking about when anyone says the word profit, that they're being honest with the word and, and using it what it means, which is the money left over after you pay your expenses. We're trying to help you increase that amount. And again, we don't do the marketing consulting type of things and we're not business mentors. We just want to help you focus on cash flow and growing that, and that's our place. But again, hey, thanks, thanks for listening, guys. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. And profit is a choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.
