How to Build a 300-Person Waiting List in 24 Hours

Hey, it’s the Cardy Brothers.

We finished filming all the content for our new Studio Prep Kit last week.

It’s everything we wish we had when we first opened our fitness studio.

You can join the waiting list here.

📝 Studio launch diary

How to build a 300-person waiting list in 24 hours

Two months before we opened our gym, we posted one message in a local Facebook group.

24 hours later, over 300 locals had joined our email list.

Here’s exactly how we did it and why it worked:

1. We found the right group

Most towns have at least one Facebook group with decent activity. Avoid spammy selling pages. Find 1-3 with real locals asking for things like:

• “What’s the best coffee in town?”

• “Anyone know a good physio?”

• “Why is the road closed again?”

That’s your focus.

We found ours. It had around 8,000 people and lots of engagement.

2. We wrote the perfect post

Here’s the full post we used (steal it, tweak it, make it yours):

It wasn’t fancy. But it was:

• Personal

• Clear about what made it different

• Positioned as something they could be part of early

We also used a clean, simple landing page making it easy for people to opt in.

3. We replied to every comment

This part matters.

We didn’t just post and ghost. We replied to every comment.

Facebook pushes posts that create replies. So the more back-and-forth we had, the more the post got shown.

That one post stayed near the top of the group feed for days.

4. We followed up fast

Once someone joined the list, we immediately sent:

• A thank-you email

• A bit of info about what we were building

• A teaser of what was coming

That first email had a 78% open rate.

We weren’t just collecting names. We were building a buzz.

If you’re looking to open a studio, we always recommend starting with a local group.

That waiting list became the fuel for our entire pre-sale strategy. And it all started with one post.

🎧 Listen to the episode

In this episode, we share what it was really like to go through a price increase at one of our locations. We talk through why we did it, how we did it, and what we learnt from the reaction. If you’ve been putting off a price increase for months (or years), this one will hit home.

You’ll learn:

• Why we raised prices after 19 months

• The true cost of running a gym right now

• How we communicated the price increase

• How to handle member feedback (good and bad)

• How to adopt the right mindset during tough decisions

💡 Launch lesson

Most aspiring owners wait until the lease is signed, the paint is dry, and the equipment’s in before they start telling people what they’re building.

Our studio launches were successful because we were visible early. We made locals feel like they were part of the journey.

That’s it from us. Reply any time…

Cardy Brothers
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