8 Lessons in 8 Years - Parallels Between Business and Fitness
Join me on a trip down memory lane! In honour of my 8th business anniversary, I’m laying it all out on the line. The good, the bad, the burnout and the rebuild. Follow along on the journey that led to The Strength Girl - PLUS 8 parallel lessons between entrepreneurship and your fitness journey.
How It All Started
My story starts in 2016. I was still in University completing my Undergrad for Kinesiology and my Diploma in Health and Fitness Promotion. I came home for the summer and decided to start offering 1-on-1 training and boot camps.
A family friend kindly rented me some space at a training facility. I started reaching out to family and friends to see if they’d be interested in training and also posted about it on Facebook.
I landed my first 5 clients and officially dubbed my business mh-personal training. That’s right… mh-personal training. I still cringe a little at that one.
I had no prior experience running a business and no idea what I was doing - but I wanted to give it a go!
I went back to University and finished my degree. When I returned home I relaunched my services and changed my business name to Aim For Fit. I used Aim because it’s Mia spelled backwards… again, super original. I know.
I was 21 with no business plan, no core values, and no mission statement. I just knew I wanted to help people. I also had the goal of becoming a gym owner one day. Which brings me to…
Lesson One: Just start. Don’t wait for the perfect circumstances because there will never BE a perfect circumstance. Take messy action and you’ll figure it out along the way.
How I Got My First Commercial Space - And Lost It
In the Fall of 2016, my mom and I started to look for a commercial space. We had a few lined up to see, but I knew after seeing the first one that it was THE ONE. I had a gut feeling.
We signed the lease and had 3 weeks to get set up.
Lesson Two: Feel the fear and do it anyway. I was young and naive. I constantly questioned myself: “What if I fail? What if no one supports me? What if I can’t pay my bills?”
Sometimes we're scared to get started because of fear of the outcome or not being able to follow through on our commitments to ourselves. But, really, what’s the worst that can happen? Is it really self-sabotage in disguise? (I’ll leave a link at the bottom for us to discuss that subject more).
In November of 2017, Aim for Fit was open for business! It had a really good run but by February of 2020, we made the very difficult decision to close the doors. This led to another rebrand - this time to The Strength Girl. I went through the death of a brand and a rebirth all in one month - which was a lot.
Here are two more lessons I learned from closing Aim to Fit…
Lesson Three: Celebrate the small wins along the way. These add up to big wins over time. If you’re not enjoying the process, you’re going to let so much pass you by. You’ll always be thinking ‘what's next’ instead of taking the time to relish and celebrate your moment.
Lesson Four: Failure isn’t a fail… failure is feedback. The only way you can fail is if you don’t try or put forth any effort.
It took me a long time to learn lesson four. I felt like I was a failure - like I’d let my clients, my family and myself down. I had invested so much time and energy into the business and I was left with nothing.
I had to remind myself that a lot of people have not done what I’ve done in their lifetime.
I tried and I’ll always be proud of that fact.
I reevaluated and learned from the lessons and the failures along the way. The experience I had helped me figure out what I didn’t want for my business moving forward.
A Rebrand and Starting Fresh in a Global Pandemic
In March 2020 - right before the pandemic - I rebranded. The Strength Girl was born. I wanted something that was more of a representation of me, what I do and who I help. I began building a very personal brand around The Strength Girl and really started marketing myself on Social Media.
There I was at the start of the pandemic with a new business and no idea what to do.
In between the lockdowns, I started working for a CrossFit gym. I also started offering some online coaching within my own business. I’d worked with online coaches myself but I had never offered remote services for my own business.
The pandemic was a blessing in disguise for me. I feel guilty saying that because I know for many businesses it was not the same result.
As you know, online coaching became the preferred method. People invested in their own equipment and began working out from home. Gyms were either shut down or people were skeptical about going back to commercialized settings and I capitalized on that.
Lesson Five: Be Resourceful. Get creative and adapt as needed. I could’ve thrown in the towel since I had no clue how to run an online business. But I decided to figure it out along the way.
With the help of mentors and business coaches, I had the support I needed to keep building. Circumstances aren’t always going to be ideal so if you can learn to adapt and make it work with what you have, you’re going to have more success in the future.
In late 2021/early 2022, once gyms were reopened and everyone was trying to get back to “normal life", I stopped coaching at the CrossFit gym. I had developed a full client list and felt confident in going out on my own again. But it wasn’t all up from there.
Burning Out and Burning it All Down
In 2022 I celebrated my first 6 figure year in business - but I was also miserable. I was working so hard that I eventually started to burn out. I resented my business and the work I was doing - which says a lot because I love what I do! When I started hating my work and dreading showing up, I knew I couldn’t continue.
In February 2023 I took a step back from my business to reevaluate. I reduced my workload and my capacity and essentially blew up my business. I decided to go work for someone else for a while to give myself some time. I needed to gain clarity on what I wanted for my business moving forward.
Lesson Six: It’s ok to take a step back and reevaluate. We go through different seasons in life. It’s okay to change things up and to figure out what works best for you.
In November 2023, I slowly started to go back to full-time in my business. I was trying to figure out what I wanted for myself, for my business, and how I was going to show up this time around.
I wanted to set myself up for success and avoid another burnout.
Fast forward to March 2024 and I’ve finally built a sustainable business that I love. I work with incredible clients and I’m feeling better than ever.
I’ve learned there are highs and lows in both business and fitness journeys.
Lesson Seven: Success comes in all forms. It’s not just attributed to the amount of money you make or the number of clients you work with. It’s about creating your dream life, being truly happy, and being able to do the things you want to do.
There are so many measures of progress and success other than the scale. What about sleeping better? Having more energy throughout the day? Feeling stronger and more capable? Feeling less winded going up the stairs? Having better mental health and stress management?
And finally, the last but most important lesson from both my 8 years of business and my 15 years of working out/exercising…
Lesson Eight: Don’t give up. Keep Going. Don’t stop.
Listen to this on the Find Your Strength Podcast:
To learn more about Self-Sabotage - Check out this Blog Post: