You may be seeing a lot of these posts coming up soon and it’s a day and feelings I won’t forget anytime soon.
I was in an empty dive bar with a ping pong table out back with friends on March 15th 2020. Like many others, I went on this trip not thinking too much of what might be coming next. They news that day felt real though. Every channel showed the beginning of shut downs, people trying to get to their home country and a lot of shame for those of us who made the decision to go to a St. Patrick’s Day party the day before.
Mitch and I were texting back and forth. Cleaning supplies, smaller workouts, communication with staff and clients. What should we do?
I was overcome with emotion when I sent him that text and looked at my friends and said “we are shutting the gym down tomorrow”. That is not something I ever though I would have to do in my (at the time) 11 years in business.
What followed was a mixed bag. A lot of stress, a lot of unknown, a lot of ups and downs, some great decisions, some terrible decisions and probably the most lessons you could learn about yourself and your business.
I wish it never happened for very obvious reasons. But I am also grateful for the lessons, the relationship with clients that got stronger and the new relationships that were formed.
Here’s the timeline and some insights that I think are worth sharing…..
-March 17th I did the first virtual workout at 6am from my apartment downtown. I can’t recall if I wore green for St. Patrick’s Day. We went all in on virtual and providing a ton of classes. We gave all of our clients a coach to check in with, personal programs and as much support as possible. They all thought they would be working out in person that week and beyond so we knew we had to do everything we could do support them with their goals.
-Soon after, Mitch had the idea to make virtual available to non members by donation. We hoped to use the money to buy gift cards to local businesses with a goal of raising a few thousand bucks. Within 3 weeks we had over a thousand people join and raised $65,000. It was so amazing and unexpected. We bought A LOT of gift cards for local businesses and also donated to local charities in need. Our clients also organized an “Evolve Day” where they raised 25,000 in one day just to help us out. At the time I felt both humbled and a little embarrassed as we were giving so much that it felt weird to receive. Little did I know how much that money was needed to help us keep things going as time went on and normal didn’t come back.
**Big takeaways here were that we got to connect and build relationships with so many amazing local business owners, we got to meet so many new amazing clients and work out with them virtually and we got to see awesome people do their thing supporting others. We also got a lot of media attention getting on the front page of the Huffington Post Business page, the front page of the Chamber’s Magazine and lots of other news articles. Yes the bank account was going down, but these things were very meaningful and will be for the rest of our lives.
-After a month, we turned the virtual fundraiser into a full time virtual program that still exists today while also prepping for the day we might get to reopen the gym. You know the drill. Open, then close, then open, then close. Now you can workout outside too? Okay great, but no let’s change our mind about that and not let you workout outside. It was a lot to keep up with and it was a tough time figuring it out all with both full time and part time staff.
**A lot of takeaways here. We learned that we had no systems and processes really for anything, including staff. Evolve had grown organically over the years and most of it’s existence was just me, Mitch and Alan as brothers and friends. It was a big wake up call and things had to change. Over time, we implemented a system called Traction (based on the book by Gino Wickman and shoutout to Keith S for suggesting it). Doing that was one of the best things we ever did. We are still perfecting it 4 years later but it’s made a huge impact on the business, our team, how we hire and how we set and reach goals.
I also learned that I needed help. Covid was like dealing with 3x as many businesses between creating a virtual program, trying to keep the in person ship from sinking and trying to figure out how to navigate the subsidies and our staff (thank you Jen times a million). As a business owner you always know you should find an amazing assistant or admin who can help you focus more on the big rocks but it never seems like you can afford it. I got to my breaking point and forced myself to afford it and it was one of the best decisions I ever made hiring Christine. In 3+ years she’s turned herself from my assistant to basically running the show helping us build systems and processes to continue to grow and help more people.
**I am not ever going to write anything negative on the blog and I truly do not ever want to judge anyone on how they deal with stressful situations. As I would say, “ain’t nobody perfect”. I do feel though that in hard times, you find out who your friends are and I am thankful for finding out during Covid. The whole thing sucked but I am glad to have strengthened relationships with those who share the same values, I am glad to have made some amazing new friends/connections/team members, and I am glad to have had some relationships change due to values not being aligned. I do think this is a good thing for both parties when it happens and I feel overwhelmingly positive about finally clarifying what my values were and doing my best to live through them every day. They were always inside, but I never thought about them much until everything we dealt with through Covid.
-The next few years have been a blur. We saw the wage and rent subsidies come and go. They started off great and impactful and then got worse over time. We saw restrictions come and go while the government continued to tell people to avoid crowded places like gym. We saw restaurants and tourism continue to get supports while gyms (with the same restrictions) got left behind. We saw memberships go up, then go down then start to slowly trend up. We did our first Ride For Cancer in 2020 and had the largest team and largest amount raised ever at $373,000. Year 4 is this year and we are hopeful to get to a million raised over 4 years. We love this event, the people (riders and Ride Team) and the impact it makes in the community. F*ck cancer. We got to travel again, we got to go to country concerts again and life got back to feeling normal. It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years.
**In this time we bought a gym in Elmsdale and Dartmouth and got to inherit great communities and teams in both places. It took 3 dang years and big expansion/renovation but we finally got back to pre covid membership numbers in Halifax last March and Bedford hit it’s stride in 2023 as well (shoutout to the amazing team and community there led by Scott). We also started a health clinic with a focus on preventative health that is an actual dream come true for someone who cares deeply about the full health picture beyond just workouts. None of these things would have happened if Covid didn’t happen but we found our long term vision and the opportunities came. I would absolutely go back in time and have it not happen with all of the death, mental health issues, burn out for healthcare and other workers, businesses closing etc. But we are here now and I will always push the envelope when it comes to helping others be the happiest and healthiest versions of themselves.
I want to finish with a couple of thoughts.
The first is a shoutout to all of the small businesses out there who love their product/service, who care deeply about their customers and who live every day through their values. What I loved about all of this was seeing “the people” behind the businesses. It was hard for us all to be vulnerable and admit we needed help. As business owners we are used to being mostly in control of our fate and Covid really through that for a loop. Working harder, longer and the best business strategy ever couldn’t help most of us during Covid. I will raise my hand first and admit that we have a pile of debt that is going to take 10 years to pay off because of all of this. I had to go find money in places I never thought I would have to after the banks said we aren’t giving you anymore just to keep the doors open. I will also raise my hand first and admit that I made a lot of financial missteps and would probably have done some things different had I known the impacts would last this long. But I wouldn’t change my newfound appreciation for small business owners and I hope that anyone reading this continues to go and support all of your favourite businesses. This isn’t just with money and that’s actually only a small part of it. Referrals, shares of social posts, 5 star google reviews and things like that go so far for small businesses.
Second and lastly, thank you to all of our clients and our community who stepped up for us. We quite literally would not be here without you. I didn’t have time to get down during all of this because I was so overwhelmed with positivity. If I was having a bad day, an email would magically pop into my inbox from a client telling me how that virtual workout made their whole week or a note from someone telling me we were doing a great job and to keep going. It was appreciated more than any of you will ever know, so thank you for that. Included in this blog is a surprise set of photos that our clients took and then hung on the walls in Halifax to show their support. Zoom in and see why this is probably the coolest and most special thing that’s been done for us.
That’s it for today and thanks for making it this far. I am a very long term thinker (something I learned the last few years) and believe that the future is very bright. Most blogs won’t be like this one and will hopefully have actionable items for those who read it. But if there is one action item for this it’s to get clear on your own personal core values and use them to drive your daily actions and behaviors. It will take time but you will soon find yourself surrounded by people who share these values and your life will be better for it.
Chat soon
Matt
PS. Also a special shoutout to Alan and Jen who are the rocks who always keep us together and who are able to give Mitch and I a different perspective of things. You both are amazing and are huge assets as pretty much family and colleagues. Notably Jen took care of everything related to the finances of Covid, all the subsidies, hours on end talking the to CRA making sure we were doing everything right etc etc. I could not have done that myself.
PPS. If you go on our FB page or IG page back to 2020 you can see some of the things our community did to try to stay positive through Covid. We held virtual concerts, Friday evening happy hours, special theme workouts and so much more. Check out out @evolvefitnesshalifax and www.facebook.com/evolvehalifax
