Ep 57 Transcript: The Unexpected Road to Gym Ownership with Eryn Lobsinger

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today I have an extra special guest. And I know I say that sometimes, but honestly, this is one of my favorite guests to have on because we've got a really unique story that we're going to be telling today about how you can be an entrepreneur without actually founding a company yourself. And the person who I'm bringing in is actually someone that I've known for a number of years because she happens to be the chief operating officer at the boxing gym that I go to, which of course is SydFit Canada Corps for anyone who's not familiar, I know I've talked about this or sorry, SydFit Health Centre, SydFit Canada Corps, all the things. And, you know, I've talked about my boxing journey on this podcast previously, I know. So many of you know how active I am. I've got a great running group of ladies that we run with this group of ladies from boxing as well. And so I wanted to bring in Eryn Lobsinger, who is like I said, she's the COO of SydFit.

And she's a mother, she's a foodie, she's all things to Syd and all things to Sydfit Everyone knows her kind of as the person who keeps everything moving. She keeps Syd on track, she keeps all of us on track. And I'm gonna start by welcoming her first of all, and I'll tell you a little bit more about her as well. So Eryn, first of all, welcome. Thank you, Shauna Lynn I'm glad to be here today. I am so excited to have you in here because I think we had a bit of a pre-inter...

pre-conversation before we hit record here talking about this. And we've talked about this prior to me getting you on the podcast, because I I of talk about this for a little while here, but I love your story. And I want you to tell our listeners about your story, about how you came into the role that you're in, because it is such a unique story in that you were not the founder of the company, but you basically run the company now. so and I love how how you got there. So.

You were just telling me that you were working in a tool and die shop in like reception. And so tell us a little bit about how that journey led you to SydFit, to a boxing gym of all places, tool and die to boxing. It totally makes sense. Yeah, it's been definitely, you know, the last 17 years have been quite the journey for sure. I made the decision because I became a mother for the first time that I didn't want to be kind of restricted to the corporate desk and the nine to five.

I wanted to be able to be a mother that was available for my kids. And it just happened through a happenstance of the people that I had around me and the opportunities that presented themselves that one day when I was with one of my clients, walked through the door and she basically looked at him and Syd likes to joke. She she told him, Syd, you need my lady. My lady counts every penny. You'll have to have my lady.

And Syd just kind of, you know, in his way with that smile that he gets, he just kind of did the little shrug which told him he's like, okay. And a week later, I met with him for the first time and almost 18 years later, here we are now as SydFIT Canada Corps. Unreal. Okay, so you had started your own business as like a freelance bookkeeper, is that right? Yeah, bookkeeper and small business administration support. Yeah. And so, and you were telling me that you were, you were really digging into a lot of

operation aspects of these businesses that you were working with. And so when you first started working with Syd, was it like on a part-time basis, like as a freelancer then you weren't actually like an employee of his. Yeah. for the first many, many years, we're at six, eight things for the first 12 years. So I had to do a little bit of math in my head. I really was just a strong administrative role for Syd. It started with the

bookkeeping, really to help him get an understanding of organizing his invoicing, making sure that his membership, which was growing pretty rapidly at the time, that he was able to stay on top of what they owe him and that he was being paid properly and all of those kinds of things. He probably won't care if I share this, but when I first walked into my meeting with him, he handed me a spiral bound notebook and this was how he was doing things.

We took the spiral bound notebook first into Excel sheets and then into proper accounting software and then into actual systems and processes that we still continue to develop today. And I will say knowing said the way that I do none of that surprises me of course that he had this spiral bound notebook that you he was organized I'm sure in his way but I think as any business owner can attest to is growth is very challenging if you don't have someone to take over the things that you are not doing.

at the optimal level. So bringing you in for that, I'm sure was just game changing for him. But your role has really evolved over the years. And like I said, you are essentially an entrepreneur who didn't actually start this business. I'm sure there probably wasn't a point in your life where you're like, you know what I really love to do? I'd really love to be like this partner in a boxing gym. But of course.

For anyone who is not familiar with boxing, there really is such a community around it. So I know that that's obviously a big part of it. But at end of the day, like this is still, it's work. Like there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And, you know, so how did the role of COO come up? Did you go to Syd with that or did he come to you and say like, hey, I want you in a bigger position? How exactly did that come about? Well, I think over the years, the way that

We kind of relied on each other's very different strengths, as you said. Syd and I, we love doing those personality tests and they always come back the same. We're a dyad. He is very strong on one side. I'm very strong on the other side. Together we make it happen. And it just kind of, when I started working with Syd and just a quick little history, my uncle was also a boxing coach. He had the Grand River Boxing Academy when I was a kid.

So I kind of always had the boxing aspect of things in my life. I was very close with my uncle Bill. He was just an amazing role model for me in my life, testament of patience and grace. And so as Syd and I got to know each other a little bit more, we realized we had these connections from the way back and we probably crossed paths, but obviously didn't recognize each other as adults. And so it was a tie for me back to that love that I had with my uncle.

And so it made me naturally just want to gravitate to making this the best possible thing that it could be and that I would be able to have a role in something like this was just so exciting. And it really played to my administrative strengths, especially in the very beginning, building spreadsheets and teaching Syd how we can make things flow so much easier. And then being able to see the crazy exponential growth that came just from those simple bits of organization.

that we worked through at the very beginning before we even transitioned into full on accounting software and all of that. It just made me so excited about something for the first time, really. You know what I mean? I was like, wow, everything I do, I'm seeing actual effectual change. And so I just wanted more and I wanted more and I wanted more. And so whenever Syd would be like, hey, Jags do you think you could do a thing? I'd be like, of course I can.

It just kind of over all the years, it just became this whole our own little culture between the two of us, almost I would say, of just understanding anticipation and how to get it there and make it successful or let it fail because things need to fail sometimes. And we've had many of those along the way and each one of our failures has been brilliant in some way or another. Right. So.

It just kind of was like, can you do a thing? Of course I can. Can you do a thing? Of course. Sure. Let's figure it out. Let's do this. How do you want this to look? What should this be? What does this mean for the future? And eventually, here I am, you know, and about six years ago, we made the decision where I was going to move away from the remaining clients that I still had. had ended up in a corporate position as a financial controller. And we were just like, you know what, we're not going to be able to

keep going with our dream if we don't just take the plunge and this is it. Jags needs to be here full time. And so I said goodbye to corporate life as I knew it. And we've created our own little, I think even better corporate life, the two of us together. Very free, very creative and just very challenging but encouraging. It's been amazing. Well, mean, Syd has had some

pretty big dreams over the years since I've known him and I've known him just a little over 10 years, I guess. And, you know, he's definitely had some pretty big dreams over the years. And, but execution for any entrepreneur can sometimes be where the challenge comes in, like, I know I want to do this. I know I can do this. And you've got this kind of idea of what it looks like, but we need someone to break down into the nitty gritty details and into those tasks. And I want to go back to something that you said earlier though, where you were mentioning how

You just started with just some simple Excel spreadsheets to reorganize some of the information, which I'm assuming gave more of like a dashboard kind of view of things. And just the fact that you're talking about how like that made a difference. And I think this is something that everybody needs to hear, you know, as much as we don't love doing some of the administrative stuff, especially if we are creative with all these ideas and we just want to be the doer. We just want it like.

do the things, do the super fun things that we set out in this career to do. mean, like Syd started his career to coach boxing. wants like boxing as his life. And with that, of course, comes being a business owner and he's an amazing business owner as well, an amazing entrepreneur. But it doesn't mean that we have all the things figured out because we're following this passion more than a plan. And that's pretty common. And so having someone like you come in to be able to

evaluate the overall structure of the business, fine tune some things. And then to your point, like you start seeing those results right away. I think that people often view administrative tasks as the thing that we have to do, but it doesn't do anything for our business. I think like you're here saying like, no, no, this was making a difference. it allows you to me a little bit more about some of the things, like how were you seeing those results translate into the actual business?

Yeah, so we used to say, Syd is the dreamer in the schemer and I was the one that figured out how to make it happen. That was kind of how we, we operated. and really it's just, everybody loves to be able to come in and do what they're strong at. And we always leave the stuff that we call the grind to the far reaches of our desk. I'll get there. It'll get done. I know it has to get done and I'll get there, but I'm going to do all the fun stuff first.

So I think the beauty of what Syd and I were able to find over the years was he can concentrate on the fun stuff and the grind stuff is kind of like my fun stuff. Right. So we work in alignment together all the time. Not to say that he doesn't have stuff he has to grind on because we both have parts of our job that are fun and grind and fun and grind. But we were able to really just understand each other's strengths very early.

where he's very creative and he could be like, I could do this, I can do that, I can do this. And I'm like, that's fantastic. But the business requires you to also be able to think like this and think like this and think like this. And I think we had just the wonderful benefit of discovering that early. And so that growth that came so fast was because we were talking the same language, but in our own, you know, in our own way, in his creative way and in my administrative way.

it was like he was talking English and I was talking French but at the end of the day it still ended up being the same language because it just skyrocketed everything in the direction we needed to go and it was I think a very important part of being able to keep that vision so alive and evolving constantly that we were then able to not necessarily have stalls in the business where life feels

really, really hard for a long period of time and you just want to, you know, pull your hair out and we were able to just even with the fails, like there would be a little dip, but there would be a more immediate rise and maybe a little dip and a more immediate rise. It never tanked, if that makes sense. Yeah, but I think having someone like you to keep things organized is key to that too, because everything you're talking about with the creative ideas and such.

You know, every entrepreneur, I should say every entrepreneur, but every creative entrepreneur that I ever work with, all of my clients pretty much suffer from the challenges that come with shiny object syndrome. So to have someone who can like keep you a little bit in line and be like, this is great, but we still need to make money. like, I think, know, Syd has always been very passionate about balancing his community involvement, giving back to a community that's given him so much.

But at the end of the day, still need someone to say like, okay, but we need to make sure we're making money. So in order for you to have the luxury of being a philanthropist and being able to do all these wonderful things for charity, we also need to make sure that we're bringing things in the door. And even like to your point of making sure that memberships are caught up and having a system to ensure that it's easy for people to manage their memberships. And as you grow, I mean, I remember when I first started and so I started at the gym again, a over 10 years ago.

And I remember Syd and I talking about the membership and everything. And he was like, I don't really know how it works. Like just, I don't know. Like it's, someone will tell you like what the price is and they'll be in touch with you and they'll get your payment. Like, I don't know. I don't even know how, like, you know, it was just very, I was like, okay, well yeah, sign me up clearly. Cause like, why not? And I'll admit like I've never looked back. It's probably one of the greatest decisions I ever made was joining the gym. Some of my

most valuable, both personal and professional relationships have come out of that gym. So a true testament to the community that he's built. But I love that he like really gave that over to you. He's like, listen, this is not my jam. And I'm a big advocate of telling business owners to like give away the things that aren't, that don't need to be your responsibility. And especially when you can find someone like, I think this is the thing that business owners think all the time is like, well,

It's such a grind of a job. I don't want to hire someone to do that because they're not going to enjoy it. And meanwhile, you're like, give me, give me all the spreadsheets. Yes, yes. I'm here. This is what I, this is what I want to do. You know, I think, I think like you said, the way that Syd kind of owns, you know, like, I don't know how that works and still to this day, he, he will be the same way because he knows he has a team that can back him up. And the most beautiful part about Syd and what he does is like you said, like you're like, I don't care. Sign me up.

because he has that amazing ability to just make you feel wanted and a part of this and we'll figure out the administrative stuff. That doesn't matter. Are you happy here? Are you seeing growth here? Are you being challenged here? What are we doing to make sure that you're your best you? It's about you. And he just has that charisma.

He doesn't need to know how the stuff works. That's why he has a team. And the team, like for me, like I was explaining to you, since the one who does the talking, Aaron doesn't do the talking. Since the one in the spotlight, that's his jam, as you would say. Whereas I'm like, just let me sit at the back of the room and observe and make sure that I can, you know, do what he sees in his beautiful mind and bring it to fruition. Because at the end of the day,

Nothing makes us happier than when we have people like you, Shauna Lynn, 10 years you've been with us. That's a commitment. That is not a small piece of time. So the fact that we have some of our members that have been with us 17, 15, 10 years, Syd's doing it right, I'm doing it right, we're getting it right together. We're just gonna keep going with what works, know, so. Yeah, and I also wanna say, know,

We've been talking, we've been singing Syd's praises quite a bit and for good reason. But I think that you just mentioned how like you're the one who's normally not in front of the camera. Syd's the one who's in front of the camera. And if anyone who goes to the we know who's behind the scenes making all this stuff happen. And I think you're a bit of the unsung hero though, because you aren't just making things happen.

we're almost downplaying, I think, a little bit about what it that you do, because it's almost sounding like, well, Sint comes up with the idea and then you just work on executing it. It's not that you don't have your ideas, though. Like, you are the one who is driving this ship, and we all know it. And I appreciate that, because for someone like me, because I'm very introverted, it's very easy for me to be just kind of happy in the shadows at the back. But I don't ever want anybody to think that

that this doesn't consume my life and my thought pattern all the time. I was very lucky that I had the opportunity just over about a year ago to become partner in the business. And even before that, I was constantly like, what's happening? It comes into my dreams. It comes to me at 2 a.m. What's the next thing? What do we need? Where are we going? What's the team at? What's the community? What's the next event? It does become consuming.

And then when I became an actual partner in the business, it became consuming in a slightly different way in my brain space. That change of ownership was actually kind of welcomed to me because for many years I felt like I owned part of the business because I've poured so much of myself into it. And then to have that little piece of paper that says you actually do own part of the business that you've been building all these years was wonderful.

And not that it took any stress away, but it was just a wonderful little tip in my cap. I'm not, I'm not really a celebratory person, but that piece of paper was like, yes, I did it. I did a thing, you know? So, and it's just, I can't, under, I can't understate enough the difficulties in, in allowing yourself to be that person that doesn't take the forefront of all of the accolades.

because sometimes like you said you feel like you are overlooked. I struggle sometimes with imposter syndrome. I feel like I don't really belong here because I don't have this or I don't have that knowledge or whatever and then I look around and I'm like no no no no no no no one knows more about this except for maybe Syd you know what I mean? it's really nice to hear that and I'm very lucky I hear that from the members all the time and

hear it from them. Because I don't really, you know, they don't know me. They don't really know my face. They know my email. And they know, they know, you know, if I'm fixing something for them or whatever. And at the events, I get to kind of mingle a little bit. So it's nice when I do when I do get that back from them. And it was a bit of a hard battle for me, because for a long time, I didn't want to

them to know who I was and Syd used to force me into the ring and get me to talk at events so that people would know who's, you know, doing this with him. And I never understood the reason why until many, many years that we were into this together, that he, he understood the value of people knowing that it's not just him, that he had me, that he has our team of trainers.

And so sometimes even still taking that compliment is difficult for me, but I've gotten much better at it. And I do really appreciate it because it's hard work. It is hard work. And it's hard work. You touch on the imposter syndrome, which I think like every woman especially has had has experienced imposter syndrome and especially entrepreneurs. And it's so common because

As entrepreneurs, we don't have the technical training for half the stuff that we end up finding ourselves doing. And yet it doesn't mean that we can't be good at it. And it doesn't mean that you don't learn those things, not just like trial and error, but you can. There's a lot of resources out there. You seek the resources. You find the way you you stumble through it. You make it work. And, you know, for you to be able to, as you said, be a partner in this business and have that bit of ownership above and beyond just how you felt like an owner.

Now you're actually an owner of the business. And so you went from owning your own business and taking on clients to letting go of all of your clients, joining another company because you were so passionate about it and you put everything into that. And then here you are as a partner in the business. And it all started because one of your other clients introduced you and you started doing some bookkeeping and admin stuff part-time.

and now you're a partner in the business. so one of the reasons why I really wanted to share your story, like I said, was because we have this idea that the entrepreneurial journey is sort of defined by, I have to start my own business from the ground up, put that stake in the ground. It's all my blood, sweat and tears in it. It's still your blood, sweat and tears in this. you, because the business would not be what it is now if it wasn't for you coming into it.

Syd is aware of that. Every single person at SydFIT is aware of this. You are aware of this. But to actually be able to define it and say, you know, this is is a partnership. We've been acting like partners for years. And that takes a lot for an entrepreneur to say, I am going to like you have invested so much in me, I'm going to invest in you as well. I'm going to bring you into this in a partnership way. And I mean, to your point, it doesn't reduce the stress, if anything. It probably adds to it a little bit.

because now you really have skin in the game. But at the same time, though, you know, it just it solidifies that relationship. And and that's that's really powerful. And I'm glad that you that you thank you for sharing that vulnerability of, you know, the the challenges that you've had in your own mind about about things and about where you're at. And and yeah, it is hard because there's a lot of people who are introverts who know they should be embracing the spotlight, but it's not your comfort zone.

And so there are ways to still ensure that you are celebrating a little bit, like for you to be able to take a step back and just kind of look at things and be like, I built this, not you alone know, but you built this to what it is today and you can really take credit for that. And that feels really good. That's really powerful. So like good for you on that. Yeah. I think the one thing that I love the most about my entire journey with Syd is the way I've been able to show my kids.

You like you don't have to be defined by what your guidance counselor in high school tells you to go to school for. Otherwise, you know, I'd be in a daycare right now with screaming children all around me. So being able to show them that you can do whatever you want, as long as you keep your mind open and understand it's going to be hard work. You have to be committed to the understanding that whenever you work outside of the box, it's going to require

whatever percentage more of you and there's going to be times where you want to cry yourself to sleep and there's going to be times where you wake up and you're just like my life is so amazing. Why doesn't everybody live their life like this? How could you ever go back to you know standing on a line in a factory or being a bookkeeper in some corporate firm? I've been so you know blessed with opportunities.

through all of the people that I've known, not just Syd, because like I said, when I first met Syd, I was doing bookkeeping for many different clients across many different industries. And all of those industries taught me something new that I was able to bring back and relate to this. And really that's what kind of kept Syd and I just moving forward. Well, what's the next thing? well, but this thing is for a whole different industry.

but the model maybe could work for us here or things like that. And if I wouldn't have had those opportunities, I don't know that we would be as strong as we are now. not just what I've learned from SydFIT because we are a constant learning machine, but everything that I've been able to absorb from all the other opportunities that came my way before I just became SydFIT centric and it's all important to where we are now.

Yeah, and I'm glad that you're bringing this up because you also mentioned something earlier about the failures and how you learn from those and you learn from all of the experiences. And I often hear people say, you I wish I hadn't done this. I wish I hadn't worked that job. I wish I hadn't dated that person. I wish I hadn't decided to move to this city. But there's nothing to regret about any of those decisions because you wouldn't be who you are. I like one of the big things for me, I've shared quite candidly on this podcast about the loss of my father a few months back.

And he lived with MS for 30 years. And at his celebration of life, in his eulogy, I'd said to everyone, I'd love to say that I wish my dad never had MS. But I wouldn't be who I am if he hadn't. The lessons that I learned from it, not only about MS, but accessibility, about patience, about grace, about overcoming challenges and dealing with adversity, like all the different things, I wouldn't have learned those lessons. So no, I don't wish MS on anyone.

and especially not my own dad, but at the same time, you we couldn't live our lives wishing something didn't happen because that's not the reality. You can't go back into the past and change things. I don't care how far evolved science and AI and everything else gets. I don't think it's ever going to be possible. So therefore we, you know, we got to play the hand that we have at any given moment. You know, so you mentioned that there were some things that, you know, you've tried that.

We're always like, you you love some of the failures. Is there any that stand out that you would be willing to share? it's okay if you say no, but I know sometimes people are like, my gosh, I bombed so bad here, but here's what came out of it. If you happen to have one, I'd love to hear it. You know, I don't think, I think luckily enough, we never had any major bombs, you know, so nothing that ever, nothing that ever set us back on our butt and was like, crap, we gotta rethink everything at this point. But

Like you said, I have no regrets. That's very important to me. Every decision made, whether it was made and it went well and it was made and it went bad, there was a reason at that moment, in that moment, that decision had to be made. So even when we've done things over the years where we've been like, we're going to try this program or we're going to try this promotion and we'll sit there and I'll be like, why didn't that work? That was like so perfect. That's beautiful.

And nobody wanted it, you know what I mean? And sometimes even with, you know, team members that we've brought on, one of the hardest lessons we've learned over the years is how to really identify when a person is at their prime with us and still good and growing with the team, and we're at their point where they need to move on into something that might be bigger and better for them, whether, you know, that's a good exit or a bad exit, there's always going to be both in life.

But it's just understanding that, okay, that didn't work, so what's next? People have often asked me over the years, you're a single mom, you work like a fiend, how do you just do it? And I'm like, well, but the next choice is what's next? I have to wake up today and I have to make the next choice. So what's the next choice? And let's just get it done. And sometimes those choices blow up in your face.

And sometimes those choices are like, holy crow, this is the most amazing thing and it launches us faster than we ever thought we could go. But I can't really say that there's any one particular moment where I was like, man, that was a doozy. That's totally fair, Yeah, yeah, because I think, I wonder sometimes when people think of failure, if

They only think failure has to be this big monumental thing. I fail every day, Shana Lynn. There are things that are just little, you know, and just like the penny in a bank account, if you spend all the pennies, you're going to hemorrhage all your money and not understand where it went. The little failures, if you don't acknowledge that there's little failures that you learn from every moment in your day.

you're never gonna learn anything moving forward. How does a baby learn to walk if they don't fall down every time they try and take that step? And there's today, like I failed at getting two major tasks done that I wanted to accomplish today. That's not happening. Those are getting rescheduled. So it's not that it's a failure, but it's a reevaluation and a new choice that's being made and we're gonna get them done. It's just not gonna happen today.

something that I tried to fix on the training floor did not stay fixed and fell apart again. And so we got to fix it again. And that's okay because we learned why it didn't stay fixed in the first place. I'd sit and I said really works amazingly with me as a mentor over all these years. I would have to say, even if I didn't work for SydFIT anymore, I would never let that man go. He has been

the biggest rock for me in so many ways, both in my business mind growth, but also in how I approach failure. we actually, for the last little while, we don't allow that word anymore. We don't say we don't say failure, we don't fail at anything. We just understand how we need to do it the next time. So yeah, so if we if we don't ever let ourselves learn how to do it better the next time, how would we ever grow? How would we ever

keep this community that we love interested and engaged and challenged and coming to us. So yeah, we love to learn how to do it better the next time every day. And that's so beautiful. That is something that translates for your personal life, for your professional life, in business, and in all the things that we do that just translates so perfectly. And I'm sure for Syd coming from the boxing background, mean, there's a saying in the

in the fitness and athletic industry of like, you got to put in the reps, right? And it's the same thing in business. You got to put in the reps and putting in the reps means that it's not going to go perfectly. I loved your analogy of talking about, you know, the child learning how to walk. It's the same thing that, you know, if you were to step into SydFIT today and say, I want to learn how to box. Do you think you're going to be in a fight next weekend? No, there's a lot to learn. I've been going for 10 years and I got to say, I still got some work to do. Seventeen years.

There, you know, with the exception of when I was, you know, very big with baby and didn't feel like working out, you know, there's a very rarely a week that goes by that I don't get to have some technical time with Syd on the focus pads. And that's the beauty of both the sport and the business, right? There's always more fine tuning to do. Always, always, always. The perfect job is never perfect. You know what I mean? There's always a little, a little tweak that can be done and,

You know, I think that having that inspiration, though, to continue to challenge yourself and having a partner like that who encourages the challenge of like, let's let's aim high. Let's try the big thing. And even if it doesn't go perfect, let's still do it and not you don't have to worry about to your point of like the word failure doesn't even exist there anymore. So you don't have to worry about it all coming crashing down and getting yelled at or.

someone is thinking like, I can't believe you did that. It's a matter of, OK, so how do we do this bigger, better next time? mean, you alluded earlier about how you put on different events. It's not just a training gym there. And it's an intense training gym. You've got your fitness clientele. You've got your athletes. You've got your full-out events that you're putting on. You've got the community support.

There's so many different facets to the things that you're doing. So everything that you touch is not going to turn to gold. That's just impossible, but you wouldn't be able to do all the things that you do if you didn't keep trying to do bigger and better things. And it wouldn't be where it is today if you weren't continually doing bigger and better things. I gotta tell you, I mean, like if I was at a gym that wasn't evolving, I think any business that I associate with both personally and professionally, I wanna see them growing. I wanna see them adapting and changing.

Don't get me wrong, there's something to be said for like, I'm sure you've dealt with it with us members over the years of people don't always like change. Sometimes change is not the most comfortable, but I'd be disappointed if you weren't changing and evolving. I mean, for myself, for example, I used to train personally with Syd until very recently. And that was a choice that I made, not because I don't love Syd, but just because of some changes that were happening at the gym that

the direction of our training was going one way and I'm like, actually would rather go in a different direction. So I chose another team member that like, that's a testament to the team members that Syd has. Where it's like this coach over here, I'd like him. Can I get, can I get him? So, you know, it was nothing personal. was nothing, you know, Syd fully supported. I still get to see him every week when I'm in there, of course. but what the direction that he was going didn't support the focuses that I had. And so.

I love the beauty of like, because of how he runs his business, I knew that he was gonna have no issues with me saying, I don't wanna go in that direction anymore, I wanna go this way, instead I'm gonna take this coach and do it with them, so you can continue on your journey in that direction, no problem. And it's just, that's the same thing in business is that sometimes we've got to branch off in different ways and we've got to do it what feels right and what makes the most sense and not everyone's always gonna be on board, I'm sure over the years as changes happen.

Some members leave, not many, but some members leave and that's just a part of life. You lose some clients, you gain some more. But what you've both done is you've created this vision, you know where you're heading and you're taking the steps towards that. And if things have to fall off from the old way of doing things, from the old business, that is a part of life. We have to upgrade things. Your car is not going to stay on the road for 20 years if you don't make a few upgrades along the way.

So we wanna make sure that this car is staying on the road. Yes, absolutely. And I think like you said about encouraging the change, I would say sometimes, a lot of times maybe even, we try to embrace the change, not just encourage it, but hold it close to us because it is a necessary thing. So if you're afraid of change, that can be both good and bad.

I really feel like in my own life and in the business and with conversations I've had with people, we don't see real deep rooted change in a person until they hit a pain point that they can't deal with anymore. There's always a tipping point to long term habitual change in a person's life for better or for worse, because all things in life for better or for worse.

What I love so much about my entire team here is that they have all changed. In the short or the long time that they've been with us as an athlete, as a coach, as a trainer, whatever it is, I can say in every single one of them, I've seen that point in their head where they've reached the point where they're like, I just can't be this level anymore. I have to be more than this. And the long-term habitual change comes into play. if you don't embrace the idea that

change can be good or bad, doesn't matter. You still have to embrace it, love it, own it, let it go. And then that's when you're gonna see the real skyrocketing, you know, forward momentum instead of maintenance or falling off. So we love to hug the change like it's a big teddy bear, you know? I love that.

And so I got one more question before we wrap things up here, because we've talked about this a little bit about how you went into sort of that freelancing bookkeeping as a way to be able to have more flexibility to be able to be the mom that you wanted to be. And you were able to do that. You did have that flexibility. But of course, now you're also running very much a growing large business and still balancing mom duties and everything else.

You know, how do you find, how do you balance all of that? How does that continue to work for you? Well, not without a lot of boundary setting, which for the first number of years was very difficult because I loved what I was doing so much. I realized that I had workaholic tendencies that I never knew I had before because in the corporate world, I didn't care. I punched that clock. You know what I mean? But when it came to this,

I was working hours that I wasn't billing for. I was just doing anything and everything I could to make sure that this thing that I had discovered a love for was going to be successful. And so it was hard for me to draw the line and turn off the emails and all those kinds of things. And honestly, it's only been in the last, you know, maybe COVID years where I know everybody hates COVID. They blame it for a lot of things.

To me, COVID was almost a blessing. Was it hard? Absolutely. I got to be at home with my kids so much. coming out of it, I understood that I have them for a breath of time in my life. My oldest is just about to leave me for university in September. It's gonna be beautiful, but at the same time, oh my God, my oldest is leaving me for university in September. It's such a small.

piece of our life that we get to be that real hands-on parent. And so for the last number of years, what I've really tried to do is define my boundaries of time. you know, after 6 p.m. on a day that I have my girls with me in the evening, we have family dinner with my parents, no exceptions. And I don't answer emails unless I choose to because it's a key relationship that I'm that I'm, you know, building or working through or that I value very high.

And that's usually my team. If they need me, I try to be available to them. otherwise, no, no, after 6 p.m., there's no work. That's not a thing. And on the weekends when it's me and my girls, we are out in the world and I'm not working. And just trying to really live in that moment with them. They're teenagers now. In four years, potentially my house is.

empty and then I can be all the workaholic I want to be again. You know what I mean? I can take that deep dive off that diving board into the pool of business and never come back up if I want to. But for this time right now, I'm I'm just loving that I drew that line in the sand. Good for you. This is my family time. And it's not just we're sitting at home on the couch, which we do a lot, I have to tell you. But like,

For example, for Christmas this year, I didn't buy gifts, I bought us experiences because I knew this was my last year with my oldest before they leave for university. So I bought us tickets and trips to everything. Amazing. And that was it. You know what I mean? Time spent, experiences lived, opportunities for conversations. When I first started working for myself, I didn't allow myself that. I was home, I was mom, I did the laundry to cook the dinner, I put them to bed.

But in every other second in between every one of those breaths, I was working, working, working, working, working, working, working. It's a horrible cycle to break free of. And I really encourage people to know that that is OK. It is OK to say, I am not going to answer my emails after 6 p.m. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to chew slowly. I'm going to have a conversation with my family. And I'm allowed to.

that that's essential to my spiritual well-being my emotional well-being how I feel like I am as a mom I quit the corporate world so that I could be a mom and for many years I didn't I failed myself there you know what I mean so now how am I gonna do it better I can't do that anymore so I cling hard to it and I'm very lucky that my team and that said

They're very good at it. If I post in the chat and I'm like, hey guys, this weekend I am completely offline. So you are on your own. Don't let the house burn down. I'll see you on Monday. And they respect it. And that's for me the most beautiful gift that they can give me is that when I say it's family time, they're good. They're like, nah, we'll figure that out or it can wait until the morning. I've been very, very blessed with having that support around me.

And so I wouldn't, I don't think I would be able to really still be passionate where we are now 18 years on if I didn't have that amazing support and encouragement to have work-life balance. I left the corporate world because it was not valued there. And I just, I just couldn't, I couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Had to find a better way. One of the beautiful things that you touched on too that I think is so important to reiterate here is that

You were saying how you were leaning into those workaholic tendencies because you genuinely loved what you do. think that is one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs have is like, but I love what I do so much, would do it for free. It doesn't mean that you need to drop all your boundaries and allow it to creep into every nook and cranny of your life because we do require that balance. And I like to call it more of a work-life integration. think that exactly what you described is a

perfect example of exactly that. Because I think work life balance people have this idea that you have to have this very strict and rigid structure to it. No work life integration means that you get to make up the rules and you get to make them up as you go. And so to your point, you're saying you're not checking emails after six o'clock, but you might if you know that there's something important coming in or if there's a message that comes in from your team.

that you feel like you can help them out and support them with, and they're not abusing it. There's a beautiful balance to all of that, but at the end of the day, they are going to be integrated and overlapped. And that is something, you mentioned this earlier, that you want your girls to see what you're doing and see the options that they have going forward. And this is a great example of they're watching mom kick butt and be this powerful businesswoman while she can still be the mom, so you're not ignoring them.

but they're also seeing how much you value what you do and how important it is to you and that there are times where you do have to make some of those little exceptions in order to, for the greater good basically. But that doesn't mean that you're sacrificing. We shouldn't be sacrificing ourselves, our relationships, our wellbeing, any of that for the good of the business because you can't take it with you. Yeah. I think the other thing, the other side of the equation too is work.

needs to balance with life, but life also has to balance with work. And one of the things that with my girls, I never hid from them or made them feel away about when I do have to work and it's our time together. When we travel, it's always like, okay, guys, we're going on this trip. But probably the first hour and a half of my morning before you're even up or before we're even looking to start our day,

Syd and I are gonna video call, we're gonna have our daily meeting, we're gonna check in on the business. Because if I don't, I won't be able to shut it off. I have to have both sides of my coin, right? Even when it's a heavy side of the family time, if I don't know that everything's okay, then that ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka. And then how do you enjoy your time with your family, right?

I always just kind of made it clear from them, we're together. I need this 90 minutes for the business. And then we have the whole day to do as we please. letting them know that I'm bringing them into my work life as well, that they're just as important as my work. So I'm going to tell you what my work requires. I'm not just going to tell you, bother mommy for the next 90 minutes. No, I'm going to tell you what my work requires so that

you know I'm trying to respect you and you know how to respect me. And my girls love it here. They were with me at our open house recently and my youngest is, how do I help with more events mom? I want to be more part of this. My oldest kind of unceremoniously ended up being the overseer of the kitty corner. Everybody was playing with slime and coloring and drawing and watching movies and

I didn't ask them. They just understood. This is mom's work. We want to help mom with her work because she's always made work and us feel the same level of value. I mean, obviously I love my kids a little bit more than I'm ever going to love a business, but I want them to love what this place is as much as I love this place myself. So that when I have to do something that the business requires me of, I'm not

letting them down. not shocking them with needing to be at work. I'm not disassociating them from what I do. It's all the same to me. It's all love. I love them. I love my job. I want my job to love them. want them to love my job. So. that's leading by example. And that's beautiful. Yeah. I that. well, I think you know what? That is actually a perfect place to to leave off. I think I

Truly can't thank you enough for sharing your story here today. I think this is gonna resonate with so many of our listeners. And I truly appreciate the time that you've taken to be vulnerable, to share all the ups and downs of everything that you've dealt with and to let us in behind the scenes a little bit of what it's like to become a partner so many years into a business. It's really beautiful. Congratulations on all that you've done. Thank you for joining me. Thank you, Shauna Lynn It was fantastic. Thank you very

Well, thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in today. And don't forget that if you're liking what you're hearing here, don't forget to leave us a review. Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform. And of course, as always, the best way that you can show your support not only for this podcast, but for your fellow female entrepreneurs is to share this episode with someone that you think just might need this message right now. And until next time, keep thriving.