Podcast Summary: Turning Questions Around - Being the Mirror

Welcome to Help Best, the weekly quickcast where I share skills and tactics to help our mentor team guide gym owner clients to success. In today’s episode, I’m talking about an incredibly powerful coaching tactic: turning the question around or being the mirror.

I start with a personal story about a pivotal moment in my life. Ten years ago, I was considering a big move but felt unsure. A friend asked me a simple but profound question: "What could they say that would make you stay?" That question made me realize there was nothing that would keep me where I was. It gave me the clarity I needed to make a difficult decision. Fast forward to today, when I faced a similar question about staying on as CEO of my company. The same question rocked me again, prompting deep reflection.

At a recent Strategic Coach meeting, I noticed that the coach never answered questions directly but instead turned questions around on the person asking. This technique—acting as a mirror—helps clients discover their own answers and make stronger, more confident decisions.

In this episode, I explain how you can use this strategy in your mentorship calls. Often, the best mentors aren’t there to provide answers; they’re there to help clients uncover the truth they already know deep down. I share seven powerful questions you can use, each tied to specific challenges gym owners frequently face:

"What would happen if you didn't make this change?"

Example: Hesitating to increase prices despite low profitability.

"What would success look like if you solved this problem?"

Example: Retaining clients after a short-term challenge ends.

"What is stopping you from taking action right now?"

Example: Avoiding hiring because of fear of finding the right person.

"If you could wave a magic wand, what would be different in your business?"

Example: Wanting more time to focus on strategy instead of operations.

"How would your future self thank you for making this decision today?"

Example: Debating whether to introduce semi-private training.

"What do you know deep down that you're afraid to admit?"

Example: Knowing a tough conversation with an underperforming staff member is needed.

"What is the smallest first step you can take right now?"

Example: Overwhelmed by marketing but starting with scheduling one post.

I close with a challenge for you: on your next mentorship call, test this mirroring strategy. Come prepared with a few of these questions and see how your client’s mindset shifts as they find their own answers.

Being the mirror can change lives, and it can change businesses. Let's keep helping gym owners succeed, one powerful question at a time.

Summary:

In this episode, I explain how the Two-Brain Avatar chart helps mentors identify and overcome behaviors that slow or accelerate a client's progress toward their Net Owner Benefit (NOB) goal. While the curriculum itself works for everyone given enough time, the timeline depends on how quickly a client does the work.

I break down the key avatars—like the Eager, Buddy, and Cynic—and explain how each type requires different mentoring strategies. Great mentors don't change the curriculum; they adapt their approach to fit the client. This chart is our tool for speeding up client outcomes.

If you want your clients to reach their goals faster, this episode is for you.

The Simple Six is the Two-Brain Business mentorship operating system.

After a client has built the basics in Stage 1 and created their metrics dashboard in Stage 2, we use those metrics to determine their Next Best Step.

https://vimeo.com/899043103/8f17186a69?share=copy

Here are the steps:

Look at their metrics and their targets in the Dashboard.

Find their biggest gap (current metrics vs target)

Scroll down the Toolkit to find a list of Projects to improve that metric

Choose a Project to solve their problem

Break the Project down into Tasks (usually 3-4)

Assign the Tasks in the Dashboard.

These steps fit into the Growth Call template, right after you get them out of “story state” and focused on the present opportunities.

Podcast Summary: Lessons on Coaching from Dan Sullivan & Strategic Coach

In this episode, I share key lessons from Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan that will help mentors guide entrepreneurs toward greater success:

• Focus on Unique Ability: Help clients identify and amplify their greatest strengths while delegating or eliminating the rest.
• Measure Progress Backward, Not Forward: Shift focus from the future to celebrating past wins and growth (The Gap vs. The Gain).
• Prioritize Four Freedoms: Coach clients to make decisions that maximize freedom in time, money, relationships, and purpose.
• Simplify First, Then Multiply: Encourage clients to simplify their businesses by focusing on the 20% of actions driving 80% of results.
• Ask Transformational Questions: Use powerful questions to help clients clarify their vision and solve challenges, like:
• "What has to happen for you to feel happy about your progress?"
• "What’s the biggest obstacle holding you back?"
• "Who, not how, can solve this problem?"
• Create Repeatable Frameworks for Growth: Guide clients to develop predictable systems and routines for consistent progress and sustainability.

👉 These principles align with our mission to help gym owners grow their businesses while achieving balance and freedom. Listen now for actionable tips you can apply with your clients today!

The first coaching business I ever owned was called FOCUS. The tshirts said, “The continued evolution of the species”.

Evolution never ends. The human body - and the species - is constantly adapting to changes in our environment, our lifestyle and the demands we make of it..

Unfortunately, in many areas of the world, the species is actually devolving. We’re living longer, but we’re less healthy. Our lifespan is being increased by drugs and long-term bed care, but our healthspan is decreasing thanks to an overabundance of carbs and a shortage of movement. We’re living longer, but not better.

For the first time in history, many of my generation will have shorter, sicker lives than their parents did. I want to fix this problem. The people who are best suited to turn the tide are fitness coaches.

But just as our clients are always evolving, the field of fitness must evolve.

When I started coaching fitness back in 1998, no one had a cell phone. Few people had personal trainers. There was no CrossFit. No gyms had bumper plates. No one did any biometrics tracking and nobody really thought about healthspan.

My parents’ generation was told to eat low-fat meals and go jogging. But most of them grew up without excess, and didn’t really need a gym, let alone a trainer. Look at television from the 70s and 80s: the “fat people” were barely even chubby.

My grandparents wouldn’t understand what I did or how anyone could make a living at it.

But my kids’ generation sees fitness as a necessity. In only 50 years, we’ve gone from “only weirdos join a gym” to “everyone needs to work out at least 4x/week…and it’s probably not enough.”

The need for change is larger than ever. And we do have new tools: new science to point us toward what’s best. New technology to measure our food and our sleep and our fitness, and tell us whether we’re improving - or even help us to improve. New societal acceptance and awareness of the pursuit of fitness. If you aren’t working out, you know someone who is. New working conditions, especially post-Covid, create more time for exercise, meditation, and proper grocery shopping. New supplements are everywhere (and many of them are even helpful). HRT and available and, for some people, the new GLP drugs will actually encourage them to change.

We even understand the science of change better. We know that people who don’t exercise aren’t necessarily lazy; that nobody actually has a “sweet tooth”, and that we can change our bodies by changing our habits.

WHo’s evolving the field of fitness? Who’s taking all of these tools and making them useful on the front lines of fitness: in the gyms, studios and clubs?

There’s a gap between the lab and the university and the researchers, and the coaches actually applying the knowledge to change lives. Who’s bridging that gap?

Is it the certifying bodies? No.

Is it the universities? No.

Is it the licensing boards for dietitians and therapists? No.

We’re going to do it.

The purpose of this podcast is to introduce you to new research, technology, and methods that will get your clients results. But it’s not enough for me to say “here’s why training in Zone 2 matters” - we’re going to tell you how to use it in your coaching practice to get clients results.

It’s cool to talk about HRV and watch your clients wear a Whoop…but how do you use that to change their program, or even talk about it with them? We’re going to give you that.

I’m really into this stuff and have been for over 30 years. But the evolution of the industry can’t pass through me - I’m too slow. So I’ve invited some mentors from Two-Brian, successful gym owners and coaches, to help me out.

Kenny Markwardt

Brian Bott

Chris

When it comes to motivating gym owners, we often focus on what they stand to gain by doing the work. We paint the picture of a thriving gym, loyal staff, and financial freedom—but sometimes, that vision isn’t enough to get them moving. Here’s the truth: humans are wired to fear loss more than they hope for gain.

In this episode, we’re flipping the script. Instead of asking, “What will the client gain by doing this work?” we’ll explore the powerful question, “What does the client have to lose if they don’t?”

We’ll break it down into three key areas where clients stand to lose the most:

Staff Retention and Pay

Business Sustainability

Client Experience

In this episode, we introduce the concept of negative motivation—using the fear of loss as a tool to drive action. You’ll learn how to ask the right questions to help clients visualize the real cost of inaction. Sometimes, helping a client see the consequences of staying stuck is the nudge they need to move forward.

Humans fear loss more than they hope for gain. Use this to your advantage.

• Ask clients hard questions about what’s at stake if they don’t act.

• Help them visualize the real cost of inaction—on their staff, business, and clients.

This is about empowering clients to take action—not scaring them, but giving them a clear, honest perspective. The right question could make all the difference.

0:00: Hey team, so this week on the Health Best podcast,, I'm going to talk about how fixing the owner can fix the business and how we move avatars from red to yellow to green.

0:14: And understanding that someone's nature in, let's say, one of the yellow avatars can still hang around even if they're doing all the things and all the actions that a green avatar can do.

0:28: So, if you ever feel like your mentees or clients are making progress, but they still slip back into old habits, it's not so much failure, it's part of the process.

0:37: So, We just want to talk about,, you know, just because someone is green, it doesn't doesn't mean that, you know, it's set and forget, and that the work is done.

0:47: And so, we need to figure out how to consistently move mentees from those red and yellow to green avatars.

0:56: And then, why even that green avatars can sometimes swerve and how we can manage those things.

1:02: And then looking at mentorship as one big habits-based challenge.

1:09: So, we all know green avatars are those, you know, dialed, eager and classic avatars, where the client is focused, they're consistent, and they're making progress.

1:17: And we know that the yellow flat and stalled avatars, the client is moving a little bit, but they lack direction or confidence, and they're stuck in cycles of inconsistency.

1:29: And then that red avatar where, you know, the person's overwhelmed, they're resistant to change, and they're sabotaging their own progress.

1:36: So, it's just important to remember that even when a mentee gets to the green level, they can still maintain some of those old habits, some of those right side habits,, they can linger around.

1:49: So, we cannot change who someone is quickly.

1:53: And it's important to realize that.

1:54: So real change happens through the mintes consistent action and guidance.

1:59: So, mentorship is a lot like fitness, so results are step by step, brick by brick.

2:04: It's not about one-time fixes or, you know, repeating poor habits.

2:10: It's about making sure that we can stack good habits on top of more good habits.

2:15: So, if we take the example of the recent Golden hour challenge, you know, it's just with higher accountability, more frequent course correction for the mentee, and some deeper reflection on their habits.

2:27: So, we often say, fix the owner, fix the business.

2:30: And it really is true that if the owner changes, the business will follow suit, and it's more to do with the mindset shift that happens over months and years in that mentee that actually gets the business moving forward.

2:42: So what we're really looking to do is rewire the Minte thought process and strip away those self-sabotaging tendencies they've carried around, probably their whole lives.

2:50: So, going from red to yellow,, starting with those things like small wins, simple, clear priorities, and building trust, and then going from yellow to green is, you know, making sure that we're tying things back to their goals, and it's something personal, and that we're holding them accountable, and then celebrating their wins.

3:11: So, that's absolutely huge that we can do that, but we need to realize that it's not linear, it's not a linear process.

3:16: Someone could go from red to green.

3:19: And the thing to realize is that those red tendencies can hang around.

3:23: So, what does it look like if a client is green?

3:26: So they're taking action, but they still have some of those swerving tendencies.

3:30: So they might look dialed in, but they overcommit, they procrastinate, and they bounce between ideas.

3:36: It's not really aggression, it's more residue from their previous avatar, and I think that hangs around in everybody.

3:44: Why it happens...

In this episode, we tackle a common challenge for mentors: navigating conversations when clients bring up personal struggles that take the focus off their business. You'll learn how to acknowledge their feelings empathetically, pivot the conversation back to actionable business strategies, and use simple phrases to refocus on what you can control. By staying in your role as a business mentor, you’ll help clients achieve the results they need while still showing care and support.

How to Pivot the Conversation (2-3 minutes)

• Use Future-Focused Questions:
• "What’s one thing we can work on today to help you feel more in control?"
• "How can we make sure your business feels like a source of stability while you’re dealing with this?"
• Redirect to Actionable Steps:
• "Let’s focus on something we can change right now—what’s the top priority in your business today?"
• "I know this is a tough time, but let’s make sure your business is supporting you. Where do you feel stuck right now?"

Short Phrases for Refocusing (1-2 minutes)

• Share these go-to lines:
• "I can see how much this is affecting you. Let’s focus on making your business as strong as possible so it can support you through this."
• "That’s really tough. Let’s make sure we’re taking steps today to give you peace of mind on the business side."
• "I can’t imagine how hard that is, but let’s focus on what we can control right now in your business."