Dallas Grit Fitness: Studio Set Up – Home Stretch!

Hey guys!  I hope your week is off to a good start.  I was feeling pretty chipper this morning, but then the reality of the MASSIVE AMOUNT of work I have to do to get my studio set up hit me like a ton of bricks – AHH!  From writing the press release, conducting instructor orientation, planning the grand opening party and finishing renovations, I don’t expect to sleep much in the next month.  The frustrating part is that so much of what needs to be done I can’t do by myself.  Having to rely on others is definitely giving me a life lesson in humility.  Alas, lots of progress is being made so I’ll rejoice in that regard.  We have come such a long way!  Remember when we started with the demolition work?

Oh hey – we have mirrors! Let me take a selfie

The most recent accomplishment is mirror installation!  Alpha Glass company installed the studio mirrors last Thursday!  They really open up the space and make it feel like real studio.  I think this is the most excited I’ve been so far.

Paint – check, Floors – check, Mirrors – check! 3 huge renovations milestones DONE!

Tomorrow the electricians will come and install additional power outlets,  lighting and the sound system.  I’m really excited about the lights because they respond to the bass in the music 🙂  I went to Guitar Center and totally geeked out from all of the lighting options (see below).  Finally, I decided to buy the Ultrabar colored lights.  Can’t wait to have these installed tomorrow!

Checking out all of the cool studio lighting options! So fun

After Thanksgiving the real fun begins – decorating!  While decorating seems simple, it also requires professional help – UGH!   Is there any particular fitness studio decor that you like?  If so, post a comment and let me know!

Stay motivated this Monday! xoxo, Brit

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Dallas Grit Fitness: Site renovation almost complete – we have a floor!

Image: I literally ran outside and jumped around in front of the truck delivering my studio floors!

Great news gang!  We are less than 2 weeks away from fully renovating my very first fitness studio, Dallas Grit Fitness – YIPPEE!  Last week marked the completion of a major renovation milestone as our floors were installed!  I was so excited when the floors arrived, I couldn’t stop jumping around and cheering.  You can see me in action on this Instagram Video clip.  Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, right?

Floor installation at Dallas Grit Fitness was no easy task since our space was formally a chiropractor office.  We had to demolish all of the existing carpet and tile to create a smooth surface for the new studio flooring.

Now that the hard work is done, I’m excited to move on the to fun part – decorating!  I got lots of cool wall art and lighting for the studio.  We will also install a full wall of mirrors and the sound system this week.  It’s really coming together.  I can’t wait to share my energy, passion and grit with you in person.  If you live in Dallas or ever come to visit, you must pop in to Dallas Grit Fitness for a sweat session! 🙂

Tearing up the existing carpet and tile
Smoothing out the surface to ensure the floor is completely level
All smooth! Waiting for the surface to dry to until we start laying the floors
Floors are installed and the black base was molded to the wall – almost ready to dance!

Get ready for the most FIERCE, FUN, FABULOUS fitness studio in Dallas!   xoxo, Brit

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Dallas Grit Fitness representing at lucy!

Image: Me and my friend Andria shown’ our grit – GRRRRR!

Hey Friends!  Happy Tuesday.  I hope your week is off to a good start.  Just wanted to share a few photos from my event at lucy Dallas last weekend.  I was there promoting my new fitness studio, Dallas Grit Fitness.  We enjoyed a fun day of photos, goodies and 30% off all merchandise!  lucy Dallas will be one of the proud retail partners of Dallas Grit Fitness.  Stay tuned for more fun events and discounts from lucy in partnership with Dallas Grit Fitness!

I’ll be back tomorrow with your workout of the week – Oh Hey Workout Wednesday 🙂  Luv, Brit

Me and the lucy Dallas store manager – excited about Dallas Grit Fitness grand opening!
More fun representing Dallas Grit Fitness!
Giving away GRIT DVD’s, flyers and KIND bars to lucy shoppers!
And of course we got our shopping on – a girl can never have too much activewear!
Had a blast – can’t wait to see you in your lucy gear at Dallas Grit Fitness!
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Dallas GRIT Fitness: My 1st Studio – Progress on Site Renovations

Hey guys – happy Tuesday!  So I’m back in Dallas and back to work renovating and preparing for the grand opening of my very 1st fitness studio!  I can’t believe this is all happening.  It’s SO MUCH more work than I anticipated but I’m loving every minute of it.

My studio, Dallas GRIT Fitness, is located in East Dallas at 3821 Ross Avenue.  I’m SO excited to bring the very 1st one-stop-shop for a variety of the most energetic group fitness & yoga classes!  No more having to drop in to 5 different studios to attend your favorite workouts.

Right now, I’m in the thick of of renovations and managing contractors.  We started off by tearing down 6 walls in what use to be a chiropractor’s office.  Talk about manual labor.  I had a little bit of a hiccup last week when the City of Dallas officials stopped by and said I needed an additional permit for the demolition work that was done – YIKES!  We had to stop working for a couple of days until we secured the permit – UGH!  Fortunately, everything is squared away now and we are back in business!

My friend Turner, owner of Dallas Fit Body Bootcamp, did all of the demolition work by himself! Talk about GRIT
Turner knocked down 6 walls on 1 Day #BEASTMODE
During the demolition, the flooring guys came by to give me an estimate on wood floor installation
I almost fainted when I heard the price… maybe I can get wood floors installed barter for classes???
At the end of Day 3 all of the wall were gone and the debris was cleared out. Turner and his buddy Glen literally did magic!

Once we got all of the walls knocked down and cleaned out, we did a mini celebration – YAY!  Then the painters came in and worked their magic.  I decided to go with gray walls and white crown molding.  What do you think?  My biz partner, Tuner, will run Dallas Fit Body Bootcamp in the suite next door.  We’re excited to offer cross-studio memberships and  joint workouts 🙂

Painters doing the final touches on the crown molding
All done with painting yay! Now I need to get a “Dallas GRIT Fitness” sign made to go in the entry way behind the welcome desk

Now that painting is done, the flooring guys will install beautiful maple wood floors this week.

Last but not least, we will wrap up renovations with mirrors, wall art and sound/lighting installations.  Then we are good to go!  I’m having an orientation for all of my rockstar instructors in early December and “soft opening” in late December 2014.  I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the progress.  In the meanwhile, check out the studio website: dallasgritfitnesss.com

So much is happening so fast!

Thanks for being a part of the journey.

Lots of luv, Brit

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10 Questions to Answer Before Quitting Your Job: How I took a leap of faith to start my own business

Image: Over the past 4 years I’ve served over 10 corporate clients, worked for 2 large consulting firms and traveled over 600,000 airline miles. My bittersweet departure from corporate America has come – here’s to the next chapter!

Hey gang. As many of you already know, I recently quit my consulting career to open my own fitness studio, Dallas GRIT Fitness (my dream come true)! My double duty life is officially over. No more weekly travel, no more day-to-day interaction with corporate clients, no more expense account, no more health insurance (yikes). I’m terrified. I’m exhilarated!

To clarify, this was not a knee-jerk decision. I’ve been praying and preparing for this moment for 2 years. I don’t know if everything will work out. I may fall flat on my face. Nonetheless, I feel confident about my transition thanks to the wise insights from friends, family and mentors. I read a job hunting guide that my friend recommended to me, incase my business didn’t work, but thankfully it did. In the spirit of sharing these wonderful words of wisdom, I summarized these insights into 10 questions and my associated reflections.

10 Questions to Answer Before Quitting Your Job

1. What do I dislike about my current job?

Job dissatisfaction tends to fall in 1 of 2 camps:

  1. “I dislike my job because it’s hard”
  2. “I dislike my job because I don’t care about what I’m doing.”

If you fall in the latter camp, this may signal that you should change career paths.

Hardships and challenges are actually good. They build grit and help us achieve long-term goals. I highly discourage quitting your job because it’s hard or because you have to work with difficult people. These are temporary situations and you can control how you handle them. But if you don’t care about what you’re doing, it’s difficult to be passionate about your work.

This Summer I got to hear Jillian Michaels speak at fitness conference and she said, “Work with passion is purpose, work without passion is punishment.” When we lack passion, we lack energy. And we need energy and enthusiasm to be our best selves.

2. Am I emotionally stable?

My dad always told me to never send an email when I’m angry and to never make a decision in a valley. Likewise, it’s probably not a good idea to quit your job if you’re in the midst of tough life experience. I considered quitting earlier this year when I had to work with a leader that I simply did not like. At times I was so angry and frustrated I just wanted to throw in the towel. But now I’m glad that I toughed it out because I was able to reach my savings goals and leave my firm on good terms with a positive reputation.

3. What energizes me?

Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t dislike my consulting career. In fact I LOVED my job the first 2 years. However, once I started teaching group fitness, I realized that I had an excitement about leading workouts that I simply didn’t have in consulting. I can vividly remember auditioning for my first group fitness instructor position. I was more nervous for that audition than I had ever been for any corporate client engagement. I practiced for an entire week and even had my mom come over and watch me do mock auditions in my living room. I initially chalked up my nerves to being out of my element. But the more I taught group fitness classes, I noticed that I spent hours and hours making the “perfect playlist” and brainstorming ways to energize my class. I never put that much voluntary effort into my consulting work. This was that proof that my energy came from my fitness career not my consulting career. I’m learning to lean into the things that energize me and I encourage you to do the same.

4. What is my gift?

I love this quote from Pablo Picasso, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” I believe that our “gift” is any talent/skill that we can share with others to help them live life more abundantly. It’s often something that we are both naturally good at and enjoy doing. Often, you can discover you gift by answering question 3 – find what energizes you!

5. Do I have a vision for my future?

After I started teaching group fitness I knew I wanted to start a fitness business, but I didn’t know what it would look like. It took me 3 years to develop a vision for my fitness studio. Without a vision, it’s hard to prepare. Go ahead and ask yourself the fundamental questions of any new venture: What is my core product or service? Who is my target customer? Who are my competitors? What is my differentiator? What are the industry dynamics and trends?

6. Have I identified my “Champion Friends”?

When contemplating the “big corporate jump” it’s critical to have a solid support group. It’s equally important to avoid negative influences. Overall I’ve found that people fall into 3 camps:

  1. Champion Friends – This is your core support group. Champion friends will support you, love you and encourage you regardless. My champion friends each supported me in their own unique way: my friend from business school (cheerleader), my pastor (spiritual advisor) and my parents (risk managers). It’s a good idea to identify a core group of champion friends and stay closely connected with them during your transition.
  2. Hesitant Friends – These are good friends, however seeing you prepare to take a leap of faith strikes a chord within them. The reason is that deep down they also want to make a leap but haven’t or won’t for whatever reason. Be careful with this group, they may unintentionally discourage you.
  3. Haters – These folks aren’t happy with their own lives, so they can’t be happy for anyone else. Just disregard the negativity and spend more time with your champion friends.

7. Have I prepared and executed an action plan?

In preparation for my departure from corporate America, I literally created an Excel spreadsheet containing “Action Items Before My Last Day.” I included start and end dates for each action and closely tracked my progress. My action plan included things like: meet with a career coach, attend a fitness conference, secure a personal line of credit, research health insurance options, create a financial business plan, etc. I told myself I couldn’t quit my job until the action plan was 100% complete. I highly recommend you make an action plan. It served me well.

8. How much money do I need to save?

After chatting with some trusted advisors, I decided that I needed to save enough money to cover my living expenses for 6 months. I don’t think this is a hard and fast rule, but I highly recommend saving enough money to cover your living expenses for a few months + additional funds to invest in your business. At first I blurred the two funds, which made me think I was in better financial shape than I really was. I was better off setting a personal savings goal in addition to a business investment goal and making the sum of these two figures my overall savings target. Thinking about money is not necessarily something we all want to do, but it is very important. Even if you have already set up a business you should still be thinking about how to keep costs to a minimum and maximize profits. Even small things such as visiting a business energy comparison site could help you do this.

9. When is the right time to transition?

Don’t even think about jumping ship until you’ve completed your action plan and met your savings goal. That’s step one. After you’ve reached that point, it’s just a matter of trusting your gut. There was a very specific time when I knew deep in soul that if I didn’t leave immediately, a part of me would die. The part of me that’s super energetic, vibrant and excited about life would die and I would just be a person who wakes up each morning and goes through the motions. I responded to that gut reaction and gave my 2 weeks notice the very next day.

10. Do I truly believe in myself?

We are so much stronger than we think and we possess more power than we assume. I always say this in regards to fitness but this truth transcends to all aspects of life, including our careers. If you’re going to take the leap of faith to start your own business, you must be confident and you must BELIEVE in yourself! There will be ups and downs and many obstacles on your new journey, but when you work hard, serve others and pursue your passion, the reward will be great!

Wishing you all the best and lots of success.

Show your grit! Luv, Brit

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Dreams Coming True: GRIT by Brit + Dallas Fit Body Bootcamp teaming up to launch the BEST group fitness studio in Dallas!

Happy Monday Friends!  I have big news.  Just over a week ago, I quit my job – AHH!   I’ll share more details later this week about how made this decision as it took many sleepless nights, self-reflections and panic attacks.  Nonetheless I’m super happy to announce that starting today, I will spend all day every day pursuing my passion.  Each day I get to wake up and help people live healthier, happier and more abundant lives!  I’m overflowing with joy right now because I have been waiting for the moment for over 2 years.  It’s been exhausting living a double duty life of maintaing a corporate career AND teaching fitness glasses AND blogging.  Now I don’t have to constantly switch personas. I can just be myself and it’s so liberating!

God works in mysterious ways.  Just after I gave my 2 weeks notice, I was teaching my usual Turbo Kick class at 24 Hour Fitness and after class I had a long chat with one of my regular class members.  Her son happens to be one of my closest, hometown friends so we often chat about the good old days growing up in Mesquite, TX.  She also has another son, also a friend of mine (Turner), who is  well-respected personal trainer and owner of Dallas Fit Body Bootcamp.  She mentioned that he was looking for a fitness partner to utilize the other side of his gym which was currently sitting vacant.  I literally jumped with joy when I heard this news.  Long story short,  Turner and I are now partners in crime!

Having my own fitness studio is my DREAM!  It’s so crazy that this opportunity came only AFTER I took a leap of faith and quit my job.  If you want to walk on water you’ve gotta get out of the boat, right?

Me and Turner last Thursday after signing our business agreement!

The very next day I met with Turner to tour the gym.  The space is perfect for my own fitness studio.  It’s about 1,300 sqft, has a beautiful foyer, long walls for big mirrors and is perfectly located in East Dallas.  On one side of the gym Turner will run Dallas Fit Body Bootcamp and on the other side, I will run GRIT Fitness.  We are offering all-access passes for those who want to workout on both sides of the gym.  So excited!

GRIT Fitness will be the 1st and only studio in Dallas providing a variety of leading group fitness formats!

You guys know I’m a group fitness junkie so I’ll be offering a variety of my all-time favorite group fitness formats including PiYo, Turbo Kick, Power Yoga, Body Sculpt, Dance Cardio and Hip Hop.  I’m also bringing on some of Dallas’ best yoga and dance instructors to help me create the ultimate, energetic experience.

Turner and I are on a  mission to create the #1 group fitness studio in Dallas.  We are passionate and we work our butts off so I’m 100% confident we will succeed.  I’ll keep you posted on our journey – there’s sure to be ups and downs but we are ready for the challenge.  BRING IT!

Our gym is located at 3821 Ross Ave. Dallas, TX 75204.  We will start demolition on the new space today!  Visit the GRIT Fitness website for updates, dallasgritfitness.com – Grand opening January 2015!

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What Motivates You? How to Set Positive and Powerful Intentions

Often we set intentions to fix things that we think are “wrong” with ourselves (i.e. “I’m fat so I wanna lose weight” or “I don’t like my job so I want a new one”). However, I’m big believer in the Power of Positive Thinking.  This means our intentions should focus on what motivates us, not on what frustrates us. In doing so we generate natural energy and positive thinking to support our desired outcome. “We are authentically inspired by [our] goals [and] empowered to make them happen.” (Source: Oprah.com)

As you start the week answer the question, “What Motivates You?”  Use your response to set your intention for the week – I can’t wait to hear your success stories!

Lots of love and joy to you this week!  xoxo, Brit

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