Tom Blackman - Gym Business Coach

Tom Blackman - Gym Business Coach Helping gym owners build profitable businesses and have a stress free life

10/09/2026

One email helped us reduce member cancellations significantly. Research shows that once a member moves to attending less than 4 times a month they are at an 80% risk of cancelling

That starts to show in being absent for over 14 days.

You can try and firefight a cancellation request or you can recognise the signs and move to offer them help to get back on track before they think about cancelling.

Which is why we send every member a specific email after 14 days to ask them if we can be in their corner for a while to help them get back into the gym and find their mojo again.

If you'd like the template and simple system that we use comment "14D" and I'll send you the link. All you need to do is edit it for your gym.

This can be automated or you can run a manual report every week to find people at risk of leaving and email them manually.

You've got nothing to lose, what's the worst they can say? "I'd like to cancel?" they were on that road anyway.

Sure if you want to risk them becoming sleeping members instead, don't bother.

That WILL come back to bite you in the long term though.

Comment "14D" for the template.

For a while I kept getting punctures in my tyres, I wasn’t sure if it was from the gym car park or the drive from the co...
08/09/2026

For a while I kept getting punctures in my tyres, I wasn’t sure if it was from the gym car park or the drive from the country bungalow I was living in.

And they weren’t straight out flat tyres, instead they were slow punctures.

Annoying little nails here and there which sometimes you couldn’t see unless you took the wheel off. Even then, difficult to see.

I wasted hours of my time and a fair bit of money on fixing and replacing tyres that got punctured.

One Christmas Eve I got a slow puncture on the other side of Bristol, took me 45 minutes to get home driving VERY carefully and stopping at any garages that were open on the way to re-inflate my tyre.

I nearly didn’t make it to my family on Boxing Day as a result.

In the end I never found the real cause of the repeated punctures.

They just stopped happening

Whether I did something different or not, the situation rectified itself.

But not before costing me a few motorway stops, lost appointments and taxi fares.

I wish I’d been able to find the cause sooner and fix it, because I still don’t know.

As a result I always have my tyre pressure indicator on the central display on my car when driving.

I’ll never be caught out again halfway down the motorway as the pressure monitor tells me in 5 minutes if the values are off.

Slow punctures also exist in your gym business.

👉 It’s the lead flow where the emails end up in spam with a 1% delivery rate

👉 The automations that don’t fire

👉 A free trial with no follow up

👉 Your advert that focuses on going viral rather than getting people to visit.

A lot of these things go unnoticed because it doesn’t hit you like a brick wall, it chips away at your profits until you do have a real problem.

Which is why I designed the Invisible Puncture Scan for gyms.

In 5 minutes it can tell you where the holes are that are slowing your business down, and give you 3 practical fixes unique to your gym.

I can guarantee if you fix just one of them you’ll see your membership sign ups improve

Because that’s the first thing I do when working with a new gym.

Comment “SCAN” to see for yourself, you may be surprised at the simple things you can improve.

08/09/2026

This little tweak can change your business massively.

Social proof is hugely influential in a person's decision to hire you over another coach.

But getting that social proof is more difficult than just posting a before and after and hoping someone else fancies being photographed in their pants.

Asking the right questions from your clients will get you stories that you can repurpose and re use in your content to talk about a multitude of topics and show you aren't just a cut and paste cowboy.

There's a skill to getting a good testimonial and you normally only get 1 shot at it.

So make sure you don't mess that up by using my Testimonial Story Builder

It's free
It's simple
It's proven to get better answers
and more clients.

Comment "TSB" and I'll send it over

07/09/2026

Want to reduce your member cancellations?

Studies done on real gym data by Dr Paul Bedford shows that gyms where staff were friendly, welcomed people in and wished them goodbye increased retention rate from between 20-80%

That's not small potatoes

Retention is often overlooked by gyms, mainly because gym owners are so focussed on new member stats per month that they neglect their retention stratgies

Which is short sighted when you consider it costs 7 times more to get a new member than it does to keep an existing one.

In this video I outline 5 ways you can keep more of your members, and how by implementing those strategies, you attract new ones. WIN WIN

Comment "KEEP" for the full video

02/09/2026

A lot of gyms are stuck in the same circle - creating ads for likes and shares instead of getting more members.

So they double down on creating more ads and content that gets more likes and shares, as well as pats on the back from their gym owning buddies.

Meanwhile their membership doesn't move.

I've ran a lot of ads both organic and paid over the last 16 years, some have done great, some not so great.

In that time I've learned a few 'rules' if you want to call them that about what makes a good ad for a gym.

Which has helped me to generate a consistent flow of new leads that turn into members

Hardly any 'went viral'

But they did the job of getting the people I wanted into my gym as members.

I'll take more members over more liked any day of the week

And now I've packaged up that knowledge into a short mini course that gyms owners can use to get set up within a few days and get more members coming in within 7 days.

I've also kept it under £30 so that by just getting in one more member from it you'll have paid for it.

But my wish is that you 10x that investment

Comment "Magnet" for the details,

01/09/2026

Two things to think about when members cancel

The Peak End Rule - People remember the highest point of an experience and also the ending.

Negativity Bias - Negative emotions impact harder than positive

Why this matters for a gym?

Imagine your member has had 3 years at your gym which they've enjoyed, and then when they want to cancel you try and claw back as much as you can before they go.

You aren't going to feature favourably in their mind for the future and probably won't get a referral for a friend.

Well gyms that do make it hard to cancel are getting a wake up call from the new 1 click cancel laws coming in Jan 2027

So you can't rely on contracts or questionable cancellation terms to retain members.

But what you can do, is watch the youtube video I've created which will show you how to make it harder for members to walk away, even with a one click cancel policy

Comment "CLICK" and I'll send you the link

28/08/2026

You know you need testimonials and social proof to help promote your gym, but sometimes that can be a hard thing to get from members

People don't like being on camera

Don't know what to write on reviews/testimonials

But here's a way to show that your members get results

Make progress

Improve their fitness

While at the same time acknowledging people's achievements so they feel motivated and held accountable.

Everyone wins

We run our Myzone challenge every month, and every month there are at least 10 people who make the Top 5 leader boards

Plus one overall winner

We share on our socials to celebrate their wins.

Which is great for the members

And for us, helps with a bit of social proof each month to show that people here actually do improve.

It's also a bit competitive, which is a good thing.

There's other options to Myzone of course, but the key here is the data that we are able to pull off from the member stats.

When I was on holiday we were pitched daily by the hotel guest services for various excursions, beauty treatments and sp...
28/08/2026

When I was on holiday we were pitched daily by the hotel guest services for various excursions, beauty treatments and spa days

thing is, when I’m sat by the pool enjoying a drink and sunshine the last thing I want is to be pitched too

it’s not relaxing

even if I fancy a spa day, or trip, I’m not in that buying mood when I’m sat with my b***s out covered in sun tan cream

as I watched the spa guy continually get told to go away I was thinking, “why doesn’t he take one of the masseurs around with him offering a 5 minute free foot or shoulder massage?

because

- people love a freebie

- it’s easier to pitch people on the value of your product when they are already enjoying it

- it removes the objection of “this might be a waste of money”

- it’s much easier to make a sale when you have a small commitment already

referred to as the “foot in the door technique” brands have been using it for years to sell products and services

and gyms are no different

the amount of gyms I see advertising a straight to purchase offer is massive

and I’m betting their ROAS is low

because a gym is a major commitment for a lot of people

changing gyms especially

in fact a lot of people do paid trials eg day passes way before they sign up

but you don’t know who’s trialing and who’s visiting

so following up day passes with an offer is hit and miss (you should still do it)

but offering a specific trial membership should be part of every gyms lead gen funnel

I’ve run 3,5,7 day passes for my own and other gyms I work with. Some paid and some free

and I can tell you that the trials ALWAYS have a better ROAS than straight to payment campaigns

because people need to know, like and trust you before investing serious money in you

Google refer to it as 7-11-4. for a gym this is

7 hours (in your gym)
11 touch points (interactions with your staff, community, social media, email)
4 locations (can be the gym or via your digital locations)

you want more sign ups?

get more people into your ecosystem. for free if need be initially.

you know your gym is awesome. they don’t. so show them.

PS. make sure you follow up. that’s the number 1 mistake gyms make.

27/08/2026

This gym ruined 3 years of positive experience with 1 email. Even though this was nearly 20 years ago I still remember it and I'm still telling people about it.

That's the power a negative last memory can have for your members if they decide to leave.

By trying to claw back any additional money you can from them before they leave, you may get a short term financial gain

But the long term impact

- bad reviews
- unwillingness to return in future
- no testimonial if they leave

Just harms your business in the future

And because people always remember their last experience of you, even if that member has had many years of happiness with you, they'll only recall that final memory of being messed about and threatened for money.

My experience, if you let people leave easily, hold the door open for them, and keep it held for their return...they come back

To watch the full video head over to my YouTube channel - Bodybuilding Business Mentor and see all the systems I've got in place that have reduced leavers by 50% and adds 30 new members every month.

My partner Sam has a full blown snack fe**sh for Crunchy Nut CornflakesRawFrom the boxNo milkPsychotic behaviour in my o...
26/08/2026

My partner Sam has a full blown snack fe**sh for Crunchy Nut Cornflakes

Raw
From the box
No milk

Psychotic behaviour in my opinion

One day she wasn’t feeling great and asked me to grab some from the shop a few doors down

Of course I did because I am a good boyfriend and I also enjoy living without headaches

I get there..

No Crunchy Nut - f*k

Just plain boring cornflakes staring back at me

I return home with the bad news

Cue dramatic sadness, also cue me realising I forgot my own snack

So back I go

The shopkeeper sees me reappear within 2 minutes and asks what I’m after

I explain the Crunchy Nut emergency

Look back at the shelf

And from the reverse angle…

There they are

Hidden in plain sight

Success

I return home like a knight in shining armour holding a yellow cardboard trophy

Headache averted

Now how does this relate to owning a gym?

I’ve been told multiple times that members didn’t know we give free VIP cards for their friends

Even though..
it’s in the welcome email
we mention it
it exists, hidden in plain sight

“𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴”

Tells me we haven’t made it obvious enough
And they shouldn’t need to ask

If you have a member benefit that helps referrals

It needs more than one polite mention

Because people are busy... and not always professional 🙄

They won’t remember something you said once in passing

And they definitely won’t remember something buried in an email they didn’t open

So tell them once
Tell them twice
Tell them again

You’ll worry it’s overkill, it's not

If it’s the thing that separates you from the gym down the road

Make it:
- Obvious
- Easy to get
- Rewarding

Our VIP card consistently converts around 13% of the people who use it

And it’s not the free session that does the heavy lifting

It’s the follow up

The bit gym owners avoid because they’re scared of sounding salesy

In reality, if someone is genuinely interested
They won’t mind a few emails

If they’re not

They’ll unsubscribe, which is also useful

Don’t be scared of being salesy

You run a gym
You are selling memberships

You just don’t want them hidden on the wrong side of the side of the shelf

Address

C/o M*F GYM
Bristol
BS158NH

Telephone

+447850441137

Website

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