As I write this on July 2nd 2015, I reflect on the last 3 years. 

You see on July 2nd 2012 we (as a country) were getting ready for 

the London Olympics. 

This also happened to be the month that I was getting ready to open 

my new PT business. 

I had just turned 36 years old and had walked away from a successful yet

very dull / boring  / uneventful suit and tie wearing career in Financial 

Services. 

This was a career that I walked into at age 19 on the back of my Dad

(who also has always worked in Financial Services) getting me a job 

interview with one of his old friends. 

So anyway, here I was age 36 with a big fat mortgage, 2 big fat car loans, 

credit cards maxed out, and a young family to support about to launch my new

business with so much fear and uncertainty it was unbearable. 

What if I failed?

What if we had to sell the house ?(we had already come close to this a couple of years

beforehand)

What if I couldn’t afford to pay for our food shopping let along anything else?

What if I went bankrupt?

 

Anyway. 

It launched in the August of 2012 in a local park at 6am in the morning. 

My first clients were from a groupon offer that I had run. 

It was good to have a few numbers in the sessions – around 6.

But by the end of August I had spent significantly more than I had earned. 

September was exactly the same. 

Answering questions from my kids like

“how come we’re not having a holiday this year?” while all their friends were.

having to turn down nights out and weeeknds away with my friends because

we had to prioritise food (budget and value food at that) instead.

Speaking to our mortgage lender and trying to negotiate more favourable 

terms in order to get through this really difficult time. 

Doing the same with the other lenders that we owed money to. 

 

All of a sudden, that voice in your head starts coming back to say

“everyone else was right. This was a silly idea”

“personal training is a young man’s game”

“the average trainer earns £17k per year, what makes you think

you’re anything different?”

 

I really felt like time was running out. 

I was running out of credit on my cards and just not managing 

to get enough people through the door. 

Plus this was all totally new to me. 

I was trying to fast track my education along the way. 

 

I wasn’t sleeping properly and the whole thing was really stressing 

me out. 

I’ll admit that I was a shocking husband around this time. I took everything

out on my wife Alex. I’m not proud of this, and fortunately she understood 

the pressure I was under. No excuse though. She was nothing but supportive

and didn’t deserve to be treated and spoken to the way that I did with her. 

 

Then sure enough in the January of 2013 I came down with a 

chronic stomach condition that literally had me in hospital and 

unable to take my group sessions. 

This was not part of the plan. 

 

What had I done?

(my stomach is literally in knots writing this as I have done my best

to suppress those thoughts that I had at that time)

I was so close to giving up. 

 

It’s worth also pointing out that I had ‘given up’ on quite a few major things

leading up to this.

In 2008 I walked away from the firm that I was a joint partner in. There was no

fight in me to keep the thing going. I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds of

money borrowed from various lenders but also painfully (£50k from my in laws)

 

Then later on in 2008, I was a financial advisor in Madrid for 3 months. I gave up

on this as it was too tough.

Then later on again in 2008 I was a Financial Advisor in Dubai for 6 months.

I gave up on this for the same reasons.

Then in 2009 I set up another Financial Services company in the UK from

my in-laws garage. I took on a business  partner and then walked away from

that in 2011 as I just didn’t like it.

I put all of this down to being in an industry that I hated.

Hence the reason that I decided to

“FOLLOW MY PASSION”

into health and fitness.

 

 I think this was the difference. 

I didn’t want to give up on this as I really enjoyed what I did. 

I didn’t want to go back to wearing a suit and tie. 

I liked wearing a tracksuit every day and helping to improve 

my client’s lives. 

 

I knew that if I could just get in front of more people that I 

would do an amazing job in helping them. 

 

I had a decision to make. 

 

I went all in!

I spent a shit load of money on my credit card to learn how to start 

marketing myself better. 

I started to learn about email marketing. I bought courses on facebook

marketing and any spare moment that I had was spent on my sales and 

marketing education. 

 

By the May of 2013, we moved into our own premises. 

This was a move that represented me going ‘All In’ as well. 

I did not have enough clients to warrant such a move. 

But I managed to negotiate an agreement with the landlord 

that would stagger the rent for the first 9 months – allowing me plenty of time

to fill the place up with new members – using my new found sales and marketing

skills. 

 

Fast forward to now.

I’m amazed at how different things are for me and my family. 

I’m truly grateful that I listened to my heart and didn’t give up when I 

was so close to doing so. 

That unit that we moved into now caters for 240 members. 

A mixture of 121, semi private and group training. 

We’ll do over £250k this year. 

I have 3 other trainers that do the sessions for me. 

I now focus on doing what I love. Sales and marketing. 

This has afforded me the luxury of time with my kids. 

I now coach and sponsor my son’s football team. 

I take and pick them both up from school. 

We’re about to all go out to Spain and have the month of August in our 

own private villa with sea views and pool. 

I’m fitter than I have ever been in my life. 

We’re just in the process of launching our first couple of franchises as well now

as we look to expand the fitness business that way. 

 

Life is really relaxing and chilled and I love it. 

 

The thing that I soon realised though in 2014 was that if I had come 

close to giving up and if I had struggled with sales and marketing

then there must be other trainers that felt the same. 

That’s why I decided to set up the PT100K Club. 

To provide all of the things that I was desperately searching for

back in 2013.

I’ve kept it super simple by just testing things out on my business first

and the stuff that works I just record a video and upload it to the members 

area. 

The key thing though (again something that I had learnt when I was investing

in courses all the time) is that I wanted to make sure I could provide ongoing 

support. 

I had joined membership sites that were packed full of videos but if I had a question

about something that was relevant to my specific business I found it very hard to 

get a proper answer. 

That’s why I make a point of answering all of the previous days questions from

my members each morning Monday to Friday in our Facebook forum. 

I’m genuinely overwhelmed to currently have 63 members in the PT100K Club from 

all over the world. 

 

This was just something that I set up to help those that were perhaps feeling like I was

but it’s really evolved into a proper business now that I absolutely love working on. 

 

I spend no more than 1 hour per day doing this and so it’s in perfect alignment

with my ideal work / life balance. 

 

So as I say, before I even reach my 3 year anniversary in this awesome industry I’m

amazed at how much has changed. How tough it all was at first. But then also

how much things have changed for the better once I made a decision that I 

WOULD NOT

give up

and became laser focused on how to achieve my ideal outcome. 

Once you do that, things start to happen really quickly. 

 

So the point of this post that I would love you to take away.

IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO NEVER GIVE UP

IF YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU DO NEVER GIVE UP

If you’re struggling then just invest a bit of money into learning

from someone that has gone through what you’re going through 

and can show you how to fast track your way out .

 

Life’s riches are just around the corner. 

UPDATE VIDEO APRIL 2017

So following on from this original post that was written back in 2015, I now live in Marbella, Spain. Check out the video below to see how this journey has gone. It might inspire you to keep going and heading towards your own dream.

Ricky

ps. if you want more info on how to join the PT100K Club then just click

>>here<< .