Greetings from Lockdown Land! How’s it going for everyone else? My experiences have been….ummm…interesting. Somehow in the middle of all of this I kinda, like, started a business. Which is absolutely mind boggling for me to write as that was never, ever one of my life goals. How did it happen? Let me set the scene…
I am a fitness instructor. I work at a few local gyms teaching group exercise classes. Muscle, Spin, Barre etc. So, needless to say, when Corona came barging into our lives I quickly found myself out of work. As an independent contractor, collecting unemployment wasn’t going to be an option for me. So now what?
I was stuck home, anxious about bills and stressed out about trying to homeschool my two boys. Plus I had no motivation to workout myself. I decided it was time to put my big girl pants on and figure something out.
I love teaching. I hate business. I don’t have dreams to open up my own studio someday, I don’t want to own a franchise, I don’t want to deal with employee or member issues or money. Especially money. But weird times call for weird solutions. I found myself thinking: How can I somehow get creative enough to earn a paycheck? How can I market myself and give people a product they both need and want? The product was easy, everyone needs movement in their lives. Fitness sells itself. But who’s going to buy ME?
I started small by reaching out to a few close friends. I put my feelers out to test if anyone would be willing to workout with me remotely. I got a great response so I started my own personal fitness page. For a small fee you would get the pleasure of coming into my home and having me lead you through a workout while my dog crawled all over me or my kids screamed in the background. May not be ideal but it’s always 100% real. Something people can relate to.
I had always had a gym backing me up. I had always had a brand name to use to promote my classes at different studios. But suddenly I WAS the brand. I have to tell you, self promotion is so incredibly far out of my comfort zone. I typically lack the confidence needed to really sell myself. But, ya know what? I’m really good at my job. There. I said it. People trust me with their fitness needs because I’m accessible, I’m genuine and I legitimately know my stuff. So why not go for it? Why not step up and sell what I have to offer?
So I did. The few friends I shared the page with at first shared it with more friends. And then they shared it with their friends. And suddenly I have a group of over 150 people who count on me for their daily workout. And just like that I created an income source. I’ve had to plan and market and promote the hell out of me. No gym admin or support staff to fall back on. And I’m finding that I’m growing and gaining my footing more and more every day. The feedback I’ve received from my members has been overwhelmingly uplifting. People are asking if I would consider keeping the group even after life returns to some semblance of normalcy. And that feels pretty damn good.
What’s the point of the story? I guess it’s just that, although it wasn’t my plan, there’s never a bad time to seize a great opportunity. I kept myself in business through some difficult circumstances and I’m stronger and more confident from the experience.