Dan spoke with three leading fitness business owners to discuss their top five books for fitness business owners.

Jake Morgan, Ben Major and Scott Hook give us their most impactful and business-changing book recommendations.

The boys also discuss their reading habits, and why reading (or listening) to books has been instrumental in every level of their success.

Add these to your wishlist!

Jake Morgan, Habitual Strength and Conditioning.
1. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
2. The Power of Moments by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
3. 10x is Easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear
5. Happier by Tal Ben Shahar

Ben Major, PrimeFit:
1. Man Up by Bedros Keuilian
2. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
3. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
4. The Power of Moments by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
5. Endless Customers by Marcus Sheridan

Scott Hook: VSC
1. Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
2. Get Different by Mike Michalowicz
3. Cult Status by Tim Duggan
4. Built to Serve by Evan Carmichael
5. Beyond Entreneurship by Jim Collins

Dan Williams
1. 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
2. Company of One by Paul Jarvis
3. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
4. Deep Work by Cal Newport
5. Influence by Robert Cialdini

In this episode Dan breaks down how he'd build a fitness business from scratch in 2025, including the exact model, setup, pricing, and marketing he’d use if he were starting again.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why Dan would start by designing his ideal lifestyle before building the business
• The overlooked role of community in delivering long-term client results
• How he would structure semi-private sessions to maximise both coaching quality and social connection
• The type of space he’d choose to operate from, and why less is more
• Who he would and wouldn’t work with, and how he’d attract natural referrers
• Why he’d charge premium rates and how he’d justify the price
• How he would keep admin, payments, and scheduling simple and low-cost
• What he’d do differently when it comes to equipment, technology, and gym setup
• How he’d market the business without spending anything on advertising

This is part two of a conversation between Tim Karajas and Dan on the Extension Fitness podcast.

Tim and Dan we explore how to improve retention by helping our clients and members build long-term exercise habits within your business. They talk about practical strategies and mindset shifts you can use to turn your customers into life-time exercisers.

We work so hard to increase retention rates in our business, but if you’re not building habits in your clients, you’re fighting a losing battle against human psychology. Today, Dan explores how to win that fight.

• Why making exercise laughably easy at the start is essential for building lasting habits.

• How identity-based motivation increases adherence to exercise and turns actions into lifelong behaviours.

• Why loss aversion is a powerful psychological driver—and how to use it to help clients stay consistent.

• How to apply the minimum effective dose to avoid burnout and ensure sustainability over decades.

• What mindset traits, like growth mindset and life-structure alignment, are common in people who succeed with long-term exercise.

1. Help clients design a starting exercise habit that feels so easy it's impossible to fail.

2. Ask clients to picture their worst possible week and build habits they can still stick to even then.

3. Reinforce identity-based language by helping clients move from “I exercise” to “I am an exerciser.”

4. Use loss aversion by tracking progress and helping clients see what they risk losing by stopping.

5. Check for alignment between a client’s stated values and their calendar—then help them close the gap.