Happy New Year friends! Thanks so much for reading my blog. I believe that what we appreciate, appreciates! So I’m keeping up my long-standing tradition of expressing gratitude for the top 10 moments I experienced this year. Obviously, 2020 presented unique challenges, but we made it through! And we didn’t come this far, just to come this far. So let’s keep pushing forward with hope, knowing the best is yet to come. Happy 2020! xo, Brit

1. Honeymoon and New Year’s in Aruba

Zach and I were fortunate to travel out of the country one last time before COVID-19 hit. Little did we know, we’d be quarantining together at home for the rest of the year. We even got matching “BZ” tattoos while we were there! So grateful for fun in sun for a week after our wedding and fireworks on the beach New Years Eve.

2. Celebrating 5 years of business

This video captures it all. Being an entrepreneur is an exciting, lonely, fun, challenging experience and I would’t change it for the world. So grateful to do this work, full-time for the past 5 years!

3. Launching GRIT Fitness Virtual Studio

A few years ago I launched a mobile app with the hope of creating a virtual fitness studio experience…that project wasn’t profitable and didn’t take off very well. While COVID-19 shut down my brick and mortar businesses, it propelled the development of our new virtual studio. Now we have the ability to truly connect and workout with women all over the world via your livestream and on-demand fitness classes. Learn more about GRIT Fitness Virtual Studio HERE

GRIT goes global – let’s claim it!

4. Harvard Business School Case Study Published

💥PUBLISHED💥 @harvardhbs WOW. Navigating COVID-19 as a small business owner has been quite the journey the past 2 months, BUT seeing a Harvard Business School case published this week with ME as the protagonist is something to be celebrated! Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that MBA students all over the world would study the company I founded 5 yrs ago (and still maintain 100% ownership) to learn about effective entrepreneurship. For 15 months I had pleasure of working with most brilliant case writers and professors at Harvard as they traveled from Boston to Dallas and followed me around all day, interviewed my instructors and staff, performed detailed research about the boutique fitness industry and so perfectly captured my start up story @gritbybritand critical decision points and highs and lows I’ve experienced along the way.

This case is all about the big decision I had to make to grow GRIT beyond our start up phase…we wrapped it up in late 2019…and now it looks like we’ll need to start working on the sequel, “How to pivot your business and thrive in a global pandemic! 🤔” I’m so grateful for all that I learned through this process and more importantly to be role model for young, black, female founders all over the world and be one of the very few black women protagonist in a Harvard Business School case. If this girl from Mesquite, TX who went to public school can go to Harvard and start her own thriving business, you can do ANYTHING!

5. Being on Master’s of Scale Podcast and partnering with Capital One Business

Massive shout out to Capital One Business for selecting my company GRIT Fitness to highlight as one of the courageous small businesses who have pivoted our business model during COVID-19. I had the pleasure of sharing our story on the Masters of Scale podcast, in a 3 part feature (starting at minute 4:15, then 22:44 and last at 45:25). Here’s the link to listen to the full podcast (which is really good btw) – I hope it inspires and encourages you.

6. Buying our first home!

I finally gave up the Dallas Uptown hi-rise life for a proper house. This was my first time going through the home buying process. My lil bro just got his real estate license, so he was our realtor. Zach and are about 6 months into home ownership as husband and wife and we couldn’t be more grateful.

7. Reopening my fitness studios after shutting down due to the global pandemic

To God be the glory for keep my business afloat. The support and loyalty of our amazing members (I LOVE YOU #GRITFAM) and staff (I LOVE YOU #DREAMTEAM) allowed us to weather the COVID-19 storm and keep the doors of all 3 GRIT Fitness studio locations open. In environment where so many small business are shutting down, each day I’m just grateful, as a small business owner, just to be here.

8. Opening GRIT KO Boxing Studio

3 years ago I had the vision for GRIT KO – a safe, judgment-free place for women to learn proper boxing technique, let out aggression and get a killer workout with their girlfriends! It took us a year to find a space for the studio. Another year for our team to do the market research and create the format. Finally at the end of 2019 we signed a lease for a 2,500 sqft space, spent lots of 💵💰on equipment and finish out while investing tons of time training with a professional fighter (thank u @m.o.v.e.hq) The team and I were ready and eager to share this awesome experience with the GRITFAM in March 2020, but then… RONA 🦠

We put all plans on hold and instead of opening GRIT KO, we converted our brand new boxing studio to a 2nd spin studio so we could safely serve more women while allowing for social distancing. BUT, after 3 years of hustling and adjusting, we finally opened the doors to our KO Boxing studio on November 8, 2020 and classes have been AMAZING so far!

9. Rettig Family vacation to Panama City Beach

We drove 12 hours from Dallas to to the Gulf Coast, with my hubby and my lil pup, Pearl. It was Pearl’s first time travel and she did so good – I was so proud of her! Honestly, this was the best trip I have experienced in a really long time. There’s no time like family time…especially when I have a special someone to share it with now too.

10. Celebrating 1 year of marriage

Zach and I celebrated the ano! We enjoyed a chill relaxing week, 100% off of work. I spent the day looking at our beautiful wedding photos and we took the top layer of our wedding cake out the freezer and ate it for good luck. But we don’t need luck. If God is for us, who can be against us? I’m so blessed to do life with my amazing husband, Zach.

YAY for 1 year as Mr. and Mrs. Wold #ToHaveAndToWold

Word on the street is Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is positioning herself to run for US political office which is why she’s investing so much time and energy in promoting her new book, Lean In. I don’t really care what her intentions are. I just know that after I read the book and heard her speak this weekend, I felt re-energized and ready to CRUSH it. I like Sheryl and the “Lean In” message because, to me, it’s a modern day, sexy, non-butch feminist movement. I’m a “girly” girl, but I’m also feisty, aggressive and have lots of GRIT (aka GRIT by Brit). The way Sheryl describes a feminist allows me to be ME 🙂

I graduated from Harvard Business School in 2010, so last weekend 2 of my best friends/classmates and I went back to Boston for the Women’s 50 (#W50) Summit. W50 celebrated 50 years since women were admitted to HBS. We had a rockstar list of key note guest speakers including Anne Moore, Karen Gordon Mills and Frances Frei. But in addition to these high-profile guests, I learned SO MUCH from my fellow HBS women alumni who simply shared their personal stories. I left the weekend feeling like…

“I got this. I’m gonna be okay. It’s all good. The world is MINE.”

I also feel a duty to share the Top 5 Life Lessons I learned over the past 3 days. I hope these nuggets of wisdom impact you as much as they’ve positively impacted me.

Life is about “juggling” not “balancing” priorities. If we try to be “balanced” we’ll always be disappointed. It’s not that easy. Better yet, think of life as juggling and the only way to get good at it is to practice. In life, we are juggling several balls (i.e. priorities) , family, career, friends, hobbies. Some balls bounce if you drop them (i.e. career) but others don’t (i.e.family.) When juggling, the ball that requires the most attention at a point in time is the one that’s falling – Howard Stevenson
Dare to be bad. This doesn’t mean we should act like 16 year old rebellious teenagers. It means that in order to be GREAT at some things, we have to have the courage and wisdom to be BAD at somethings (i.e. Wal-Mart is not GREAT at customer service). If we try to be good at everthing, all we achieve is perfect mediocrity. The road to mediocrity is paved with good intentions. But daring to be BAD is pathway to greatness. – Francies Frei
Attribute your successes to your OWN talents and skills. This is a key point that Sheryl hammered home which rings especially true for women. While luck, the help of others and hard work play a large role in our achievements, we also have to acknowledge that we are pretty freakin’ talented. Men do this much more than women. But ladies, we need to start giving ourselves some credit when we knock it out of the park. Like I always say, “Show some Swagger”
Leaders adapt and pressure is a privilege. We should be excited about the challenges in our lives and face them head on, with confidence. – Ann Moore
The most important decision in our lifetime is who we choose to marry. Frances Frei says, “Plan A, marry the person who energizes you and inspires you to be a better person. Plan B is to surround yourself with a team of people who do the same.” No matter who I spoke with this weekend, a key theme I heard is that a happy, supportive spouse played a critical role in each woman’s livelihood, career success and family health. Many of the husbands described were willing to help do the laundry and take care of the kids so that these high-achieving women didn’t have to “lean back” from their own careers. – Sheryl Sandberg

2020 Year End Top 10