Marketing

Before You Spend a Dollar: What to Fix Before You Pay for Marketing

Marketing is a bloodbath right now, Dan says, and gym owners who throw money at ads before fixing the basics are wasting their most valuable dollars. Dan runs through the five things that need to be in place before you... Read More

5 Revenue Streams Every Cheer Gym Owner Is Underpricing

Tuition is the baseline, Dan says, but most gym owners are leaving serious money on the table by underpricing everything they stack on top of it: pro shop, private lessons, birthday parties, and clinics. Dan lays out his framework for... Read More

Nice Lobby, Empty Mats: What Actually Brings Athletes to Your Gym

Competition season brings a flood of temptation — outside clinicians, cleanup camps, specialty apparel, new choreographers — and Dan says most gym owners say yes to these adds without ever asking if they actually solve a real problem. In this... Read More

Six Vendors in Fifteen Years: What Finally Made Me Switch

Picking a uniform vendor feels like it should be simple, until you’re the one holding a surprise shipping bill and a prototype that didn’t survive the wash. In this episode, Dan Cotton breaks down the exact framework he uses to... Read More

The Rise of Pro Cheer: Ty’s Journey From Top Gun Miami to Miami Medal

Ty went from a football and baseball kid who’d never set foot in a cheer gym to a 4x World Champion at Top Gun Miami — and now he’s making history on Miami Medal, the first-ever Pro Cheer League roster.... Read More

3 Marketing Mistakes Killing Your Cheer Gym Leads

Dan’s own ad performance has taken a hit this year, so instead of pretending marketing is easy right now, he’s breaking down the three real reasons leads have dried up — for his own gyms and for the Next Gen... Read More

Keep Your Feet Shuffling: What I Do When I Want to Quit

Every cheer gym owner hits the wall at some point — the moment you look at your spouse or your business partner and ask, “Is this actually worth it?” Dan’s been there more times than he can count, and this... Read More

Is It Time to Hire a Manager for Your Cheer Gym?

You’ve heard it everywhere — as a busy gym owner, you need to delegate. So you think it’s time to hire a manager. But according to Dan, it might not be. In this episode, Dan breaks down what a manager... Read More

5 Things I’d Do to Make Sure My Gym Never Grows

If Dan wanted to guarantee his gym stopped growing — or put it out of business entirely — these are the five things he’d do. Unfortunately, he sees gym owners doing all five on a regular basis across the industry.... Read More

5 Things I’d Do Differently If I Started My Cheer Gym Today.

When Dan Cotton and his wife Tori took over their gym back in 2011, they didn’t know the first thing about running a business — they just knew how to coach. In this episode, Dan breaks down the five things... Read More