I heard something on the radio today about the upcoming
Rio Olympics in August.
and was immediately taken back back to this time 4 years
ago in the build up to the London Olympics.
In April 2012 I was in the process of changing careers.
I was trying to leave behind a career(17 years ) in Financial Services
and desperately trying hard to find the time to get my
qualifications as a Personal Trainer.
As I approached y 36th birthday, those that were close to me
said that I was mad.
that I was having a ‘mid-life’ crisis.
What about the responsibility to my family.?
The big fat mortgage?
The cars on finance?
The credit cards?
The holidays?
I remember people saying that I would be leaving
a career behind that I was really experienced and
qualified in and starting at the bottom.
It just felt like the right thing to do.
In the August I had my first sessions – in a local park
with 5 ladies.
I’d officially swapped my shirt, tie and pinstripe for
a tracksuit
There was no turning back.
But
then the reality check of paying the mortgage at the
end of the month came and our outgoings were
massively more than what we now had coming in.
Paying the mortgage on a credit card is never
great but we had to do it.
When I sat down and did the number, the money
that was coming in wasn’t even enough to cover
our weekly shopping bill (family of 4) let alone
pay for anything else.
So as far as having fun, doing what I loved, following
my passion was concerned, it was all going to be short
lived unless something dramatic happened.
Were the naysayers all going to be proven right?
I kind of figured that I had already taken huge risks to
get this far, so if I was going to fail then I might as well
fail big.
Within a few months I had decided to take on as big a unit
as I could find and then I would try and fill it.
Sounded like a great plan.
However in the January I came down with a really bad stomach
condition. I was in hospital. I think it may have been linked to
the stress of the whole situation.
I’d lost weight – in the region of 10kg through it as well – and for a naturally
skinny guy I just looked really ill.
Alex, (my wife stepped in) and helped to manage things.
She helped to keep things ticking over until I was better.
Nothing had changed my commitment to see this through though.
By the April we had secured our unit – 2700 square feet in Northampton
(where we still are today)
There were not many ladies to move across (but I’m pleased to say
that some of them are still with us today!).
There were times that I seriously doubted what I was doing.
There were times when I just wanted to go back to that comfort zone
of financial services.
There have been plenty of sleepless nights worrying about how
much we had taken on.
But
here we are (nearly 4 years later) and I look at what this business
is becoming.
I look at the amazing transformations that have taken place
and the impact that we have had on so many local lives.
I look at the trainers that now work with us (3 of them are ex members!)
and the way that our sessions are delivered.
Every session is still different. – something that I insisted on from day 1.
We have sessions that run every day during the week from 6am
and they run up until 7:30pm.
We have 5 hour bootcamps that sell out every 8 weeks.
We continually invest huge amounts of time and money on
improving the experience.
We’re not a gym.
We actually want all of our members to attend every session.
We pro-actively help to educate all of our members regarding
nutrition so it becomes less about diet and more about lifestyle
change.
We offer to track every single members weight and body fat %
and then monitor the progress (again, something that we’ve had
from day 1 in that park!!)
Most of all we aim to make every single session FUN. (check it out below)
Are we perfect? – far from it! We’re still a small family run business
and as much as we try our best to be perfect, we’re still human and
often will make mistakes.
With now over 250 active members though we know that we get it right
more often than not.
The most rewarding part of what we do is seeing a transformation
take place before our eyes.
Women that come in that are unfit, overweight, not confident and with low self esteem
are completely transformed within 6-8 weeks.
I never ever had this kind of ‘job satisfaction’ in Financial Services – not even
close.
Which is why we have to keep moving forward.
Who knows how things will look by the time the next Olympics comes around!!
Ricky