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Bonnie Grylls-Graham

"Look out Freedom, I am coming"

For the year 2020, my personal goal is to put myself out there, into the unknown, into the eyes of the world. To share my stories of life, as a wife, mum, coach, personal trainer, business owner and an athlete.


Last time l started to blog, l would get emails about spelling mistakes, or people leaving negative comments. So l stopped. I am not the greatest at writing, l spend my days counting to 10 (sometimes), and watching people move, then watching myself move, not in a creepy way, but in a training way. I am also not the greatest at spelling. I will put my hand up and ask…. How do you spell that? Oh cat, got it now!


Part of putting myself out there – is to know that people will comment on my grammar, spelling and leave comments that can easily start a fight on the old social.

I came across a quote from Jim Carrey – “when you truly don’t care what the fuck anyone thinks of you, you’ve reached a dangerous level of freedom”.


Look out freedom, l am coming!


So l will leave my blog, not vlog because l think it sounds like flog too much – with you, if you want to read it then great, if you don’t like it then great – either way l am doing this to break through some personal barriers.


My target is to write one a month, my stretch (going back to working at The Summit days) is to write two a month and my super stretch is to write three a month.


It wasn’t until late last year after working in the Fitness industry for 19 years, and running mine, ours, PT business that l was told and realised that we do have a successful PT/Coaching Business. I would never of thought it was successful, maybe because l kept looking at all the negative’s that were happening in the business. Then one day, someone pointed out to me that, hang on, 80% of your client base has been with the business for 5 years plus. That tells me you are successful – but then how do you measure success. Everyone does it all in a different way, some with money, some with cars, some with clothes, others with no material items such as happiness and love.


Well, our house is full of love and happiness but that doesn’t pay for the food we need to eat or put petrol in our cars. I remember back when l was working in a Globo Gym, and we were paid – $11.45 per hour and the PT rate went on a pyramid system; the more clients you trained the more you got paid. The Globo Gym was still charging $45 to $40 per 30 minute session, they were making a killing off the newbies in the industry. One of my clients turned to my manager at the time and said ‘you need to pay your staff more’ he responded with ‘it’s about working for the passion’ he then replied with ‘passion doesn’t fill your car!’ Then it became quite awkward after that. Still to this day l can not stand when people say ‘I am so passionate about fitness!’ Yes, still scared.


Everyone works for money, everyone has a job that earns the dollars to keep their lives, family lives going. I tend to find in the Fitness Industry that people keep it close to their chest. Going to different Networking events, talking with other owners, “yeah our business is great”. And you can see straight through the lies. Running a business there are ups and downs, the good and the bad.


Being honest about it, is hard. In saying that there is also nothing wrong with talking about the old elephant, money. The big ‘M’ (not the milk) is part of what we all do, and like to do.

We have been running our business for 8 years, and we haven’t had to close the doors. Instead we have extended and we plan to grow our Weightlifting Club, so to me, l would say we are successful. Seeing that the average life span of a Fitness Business is 5 years. Average life span of a Trainer/Coach these days is 12mths – l guess the brochure isn’t selling the industry right?


Is that tooting my own horn, is that what this blog mission is about? Well that’s your perception, the reader. I am not the person who posts about her lifts when l PB and l don’t even post on the day when a client PBs – maybe l am doing this social thing all wrong, for promoting the business. Is it tooting, or is it self growth? Or is it that l don’t have enough on my plate that l would like to add another task to do… Let’s go with.. A little bit of all of the above.. here’s to a little toot!

Here’s to the first step in the re-birth of the blog adventure again, if you've made it this far, l thank you, if you didn’t well you wouldn’t know what l would of or could have written.

Look out for the next blog, about making work, work with a little one by my side – oh how it didn’t work.

And if you would like to leave a negative comment remember what Jim said!

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