Upgrade Your Life. Divilly Pat
natural discomfort that comes with embarking on such a big ambition, we would still be sitting around making plans in an attempt to cover every conceivable thing that could go wrong. Instead we decided on a goal, put it out there, and took the first step to get us started.
Similarly, on a recent trip to Nepal I met with a man who wanted to build a hospital for children with cancer. His own son had battled the disease, and to access the necessary treatment, they'd had to travel back and forth to India. He wanted to build a hospital in Nepal so other people wouldn't have to travel, but felt completely overwhelmed. He kept looking at the massive scale of the project rather than the first step, and consequently felt unsure of where to begin. I told him his first step would be to phone the hospital in India and speak to a doctor or a consultant there about his plans. Doing this would then lead him to his next step. I genuinely have no doubt he will get there in the end, but it all has to start with that first step, otherwise it will never happen at all.
I firmly stand by the motto I introduced you to in the introduction, ‘when you dream more creatively, and more importantly when you act on it, you start to discover a whole new perspective of how great life could be’.
Some people never even get as far as the ‘dream big’ stage. Those that do very often don't take the necessary steps forward. Then there are those that have convinced themselves they can't move forward because of circumstances. If you fall into this category, then here's what you need to realize. It doesn't matter how down-on-your-luck you are right now, you're in a position to transform your life if you are willing to follow those who have done so before you.
The highest achievers in every industry have at some point taken their biggest adversity or their lowest low point and used it as fuel to turn their lives around. No one succeeds without hitting the proverbial wall, and I guarantee you that almost everyone on the Sunday Times rich list has seen rock bottom at least once. The one thing that differentiated them from the majority, however, was their reaction to the situation. You cannot discount the impact of that factor in their subsequent success.
My own key low point – the one that subsequently led to me starting a fitness business – occurred on Christmas Eve, 2011. After being let go from a commercial gym, I launched a business as a personal trainer offering one-to-one sessions, but I really struggled to make ends meet. I borrowed money for the rent, and even took on a second job of working in a clothes shops to try to keep myself financially afloat. Meanwhile on social media, I was portraying an image that in no way reflected the real situation. I was just too proud and too stubborn to admit that things weren't going that well for me.
Eventually, however, I had to admit defeat and move home. I was so strapped for cash, I had to borrow the bus fare from my dad. What hurt me most of all was the fact that I couldn't afford to even buy my mum a gift for her birthday. Instead all I could do was give her a card with the promise that I would take her to dinner once things picked up for me. That was my rock bottom, undoubtedly.
In the months that followed, my sense of worthlessness caused me to sink into a depression. I had banked on Dublin being a success, and when that didn't happen, I was at a complete loss over what to do next. I felt like I was back at square one. I got myself a part-time job in Fat Freddy's Pizza Restaurant in Galway City. On my days off, I would walk up and down Silver Strand Beach for hours on end just trying to come up with some break-through business idea or revelation. At the time, I was playing the blame game, pointing the finger at everyone and everything apart from myself. I blamed the cheap rates offered by commercial gyms, the impact of the recession, and everything in between.
During one of my beach walks, back in March/April of 2012, it occurred to me that there were plenty of trainers out there making a perfectly good living from the fitness industry in spite of the recession and the rates offered by the fitness chains. Yes, the country was in a bad recession at the time and money was certainly tight for everyone, but I figured if other guys were making money from the fitness business then there must be a way. Following this realization, I decided to contact a few personal trainers in the UK. These were guys I had been following on social media and who looked like they were doing really well in business, so I asked them if they could give me some advice on how I could get started. My way clearly wasn't working so it made sense to speak to those who were doing well.
I received a reply from a trainer in Cardiff called Mark Tregilgas who at the time was enjoying great success with his fitness camp. In his response, he gave me the encouragement I needed to start again in the form of a few tips to help me on my way. I took on board everything he said and sat down to create a plan. For a long time I told myself that I would start the fitness class on my local beach in Barna but only when 20 people signed up. Eventually I just decided to set a date and regardless of whether two people signed up or 200, I would train them as best as I possibly could. Once the date was set, I had to get the word out there and advertise. As I didn't have a budget – shoestring or otherwise – both newspaper and radio ads were out of the question, so I figured the next best thing would be flyers. I went into Galway City and ordered a print run of 5,000. They were still hot off the printing press when I dropped them all over the city, leaving them anywhere I thought my target audience would see them.
Five people turned up at my very first session on that day in May 2012. Most trainers would have packed it in after that but for me it was a starting point. By the second month, I was training 20 people, and by the third, I was up to 100. I felt completely renewed; my sense of ambition and purpose were both back in full force. In hindsight, I can honestly say that my low point made me a better trainer. Having experienced such a hard time on a personal level made me realize that everyone was struggling with something. It made me more determined to make my fitness class a place where people could escape their daily stresses and forget about whatever was bothering them. Overall, my strategy was simple – I would try to make my class the best part of their day.
Those early days of the business were far from easy. I didn't have a car so instead I would cycle 30 minutes from my workplace in the city to the beach in Barna where I would hold my class. On a fine day, cycling that coast road out to Barna is idyllic, but in the pouring rain, it's probably the fastest route to pneumonia! Sometimes I would make this journey three or four times a day. Later, as the demand for classes grew, I would end up cycling all around the city to four different locations where the classes were taking place. Yes, it was difficult, but it wasn't about comfort or convenience, it was about progress, and I was willing to do whatever it took to make my business even just 1 % better each day.
When I wasn't teaching the classes, I was writing articles, recording podcasts, and trying to grow my social media pages.
This only happened after I realized that the way to become successful in business was to add value to what I was offering, something I will cover later in the book. This is the only way anyone can become outrageously successful in business. During the very early days, however, I was doing the opposite. I was trying to make the money before I gave the value. I was asking people to buy my products and pay for my services before I had proved my worth. I had the attitude that if someone wasn't paying me then I wouldn't give away my knowledge or skills. I see now that it should have been the other way around. I should have been giving away the good quality content for free in order to show people what I was capable of. I have shared my own story so many times that my friends and family could probably do a good job reciting it word for word themselves, but I don't tell it for me. It's not about me anymore. I have already lived that part of my life. My hope is that the story will help inspire others.
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