What a difference a year makes...

If you were a member with us this time last year

You would have received an email and phone call from me explaining that I have to close the gym down

This was one of the most difficult times of my life

And it got worse, when I had to in fact close the gym down in the middle of the day

Imagine this

I received the bad news and  then I had to tell my members who were paying us a considerable amount of money for a 

service that quite frankly changes their lives, that they no longer can attend the gym

Because we have no gym

I've got to close it down

The feeling in my stomach at the time was a feeling of pain, frustration, anger and also embarrassment

Now what happened was completely out of my control which I'll explain in a mo...

But on the day that I had to call members there was one particular member that was working out

Picture this..

There was no electric - music and lighting diminished 

The place became cold, silent and eary - you could even hear a pin being dropped, it was that silent

Then I got the news

But the only thing that was running through my mind at this particular point was

"How am I gona tell not only my loyal members but the member that was working out in the gym"

She will recall this

Her name was Angela

So I sat her down and had to explain the situation

But as I did, I could feel myself dwelling up uncontrollably 

To a point when I just broke down

Looking in to my members eye and having to tell them just that

Was quite literally heart breaking 

You see this wasn't just the only thing

For months after I agreed to be in this particular location I had many encounters with my landlord

Which challenged my patience on more than one occasion

He was quite frankly a fraud and a crook, his name was Sameer, you might know him. Actually that was one of his names... he used many

Being naïve and new to this venture I put my faith into a man who was to become my landlord

However, cut a long story short and without going in to detail

I had nothing but problems with him

Until one problem just became too big of job even for him

He basically hadn't paid the electricity bill (even though I had paid him as part of the service charge which he therefore 

should pay the supplier-basically he just banked my money) which meant that not only the electric got disempowered 

from his building but also mine... the gym

Furious as I was.. I couldn't do anything about it

But they say, in times of pain and deepest struggle, that is when there is greatest opportunity

It is times like this that I do really personally thrive in

Strange I know

I have a saying... and coincidently, it's very similar to that of James Arthur's lyrics on his new song 'recovery'

"I'll define, I'll design my recovery from this, because I have the choice to do or not to do"

This is when I started the re building process

It's really coming to forth now  and actually the mess of this was a turning point for me and you all are in for something special (we are special now :)) but this is bigger and it's about to occur but I have to keep it under wraps, I've been told!

But for the purpose of this email

Myself, my team and more importantly our loyal members got through this

I cannot quite explain why

I think I know

And I think they know

Its just something that we cant quite articulate

It's the kind of loyalty that words cannot describe

But I have to ask

Would you have shown the same loyalty to your gym or PT if they closed or would you find it pretty easy to just move on

Remember we closed down

For 2-3 weeks

We had to train at school halls

With no changing facilities

No equipment

What would you off done?

I thought about this myself

This is what actually made me standout out from the crowd of trainers in a commercial gym all those many years ago

It actually prepared me for now

Crazy right?

Typically 15 or so trainers you have to choose from

But I was the one in demand

I couldn't control the environment

The cleanliness

The service

Nor the space available

The one thing I could control was...

The clients RESULTS

My personal relationship , loyalty, dedication to my clients

This is what separated me from the rest

Its what separates us now

But this time I am in control of everything

You could say its a complete menu to health!

Now, as I write this email and I think about the members that  were with us at the time of this struggle

I can honestly say that the majority are still with us

Including Angela

Which actually inspires me to leave you with this message...

There's scarcely any happiness, passion or success without struggle. Life is a constant climb, but the journey is rewarding and the view is great. Its just a matter of pushing forward when the going gets tough.

So wherever you are right now in your journey - keep going, keep pushing but more important have the faith and belief that you are going to succeed!

Joe 'thick face, black heart' Hanney

Ps- many people to this day ask me how I coped with all of this going on BUT was still able to DELIVER my promise to my members without ever looking stressed or annoyed about it - I'll share this with you next time

Pps- ive also got an interesting story  that occurred around the same time last year regarding a member that I had to ask to leave - talk about shit hitting the fan and pain of cancellation :)  this will be in your inbox soon I promise