Black Belt Business Coach

It cost us over $55,000 a month to run our gym in 2008. By 2010, we could only pay a bill when the notice turned red.

Phone. Power. Internet. Water. We waited until they threatened to shut it off, then paid just enough to keep it on another week.

One of our training clients paid six months up front, about $5,000. We put all of it toward the electric bill. We were still $13,000 in the hole after that.

My brother knew we were done. I didn’t. I kept saying, “I’m a Marine. I don’t quit. We’ll figure it out.” We’d already foreclosed on our house to keep the gym alive. There was nothing left, and I still wouldn’t call it.

Then one night I had a dream. A little girl jumped on my chest and said, “Daddy, wake up, let’s play.” I woke up and told my wife I wanted to start a family. She said, “Casey, I can’t afford to support you and kids on my paycheck.”

That was the moment. Not the $13,000. Not the red notices. The thing I was most proud of, that I don’t quit, was the exact thing keeping us trapped.

I drove to our competitor, put my keys on his desk, and said, “This is yours if you want it.” They took over the gym and cleared our debts. The catch: we had to stay on as trainers for a year. So I stood in my own building and watched them scrape our name off the glass.

If you’re holding a struggling school together on pride right now, telling yourself you don’t quit, I need you to hear this. Sometimes quitting the thing that’s sinking you is how you save everything else.

How does the saying go: “Nothing changes IF nothing changes?!”

Update: “my dream” is in this picture with me.

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