Message from the CEO: Asking for Help
Dear FinGym Family,
In case you didn’t know, The Financial Gym is my life’s purpose (in addition to being Will’s mom). And I never thought about living a purposeful life until ten years ago when my life coach suggested it would make me a happier human being. In 2009, I was living the opposite of a purposeful life. I was working at a hedge fund, making a six-figure salary; and my only career goal was to make more money and buy a massive home at some point. During my life coaching, one of my “exercises” included reading a book about Happiness; and after finishing it, I knew that I would find my life’s purpose in the pursuit of helping people. I just didn’t know what that would look like.
Four years after reading the book, my “A-HA” moment happened and I knew I needed to create The Financial Gym, a place where people of all financial shapes and sizes could go to get financially healthy. It all came to me so clearly, and the idea consumed me to the point where I left my six-figure job at Merrill Lynch and started on the journey to build something bigger than myself. I knew if I didn’t build this, no one else would.
Like most entrepreneurs, my journey has been filled with numerous stumbling blocks, detours, road blocks, naysayers and detractors, but my grand vision has always stayed the same: Financial Gyms across the country. The Financial Gym exists to improve the financial health and financial literacy of this and future generations; and I have no plans of stopping until I make a dent in what I feel is a problem plaguing 70% of Americans.
Early on when I started to build this company, one of my friends said “Ask for help. I know it seems like a weakness to ask for help, but people will want to help you along the way; and how will they know how to help you unless you ask for it.”
Well, friends, this message is a request for help.
Starting next week, I will begin the process of raising my Series A investment round. It will mean the difference between The Financial Gym remaining a 1 Gym location in NYC versus us having over 20 Gyms across the US in the next two years. It’s a big deal for my big dream.
Every time I’ve raised money, it sends me into a scary place. I’m presenting my “baby” the business that I love, the business that’s my life’s purpose to strangers and asking them for money. With every meeting, I’m opening myself to scrutiny, rejection, and the possibility of the business failing if I can’t raise the money.
The best way to ensure that the meetings go as well as they can, though, is for the business to perform well. At the end of the day, financial results speak for themselves. So as I put mine and the Gym’s future out there, here’s what I’m asking from you...
Join the Gym - If you’ve ever thought about joining, now is the perfect time! Especially since April is Financial Literacy Month. We have set the goal for 1,000 new clients to sign up in the next three months and we’d love for you to be one of them. The process starts with our 20-minute warm up call. And if you’re not sure if this will be a good investment for you, don’t forget that we have a Money Back Guarantee Policy. I believe so much in what we do here, that I would never want someone financially worse for having worked with us. The great news is that we have special April promos going on as well so give us a call!
Tell Friends About the Gym - 40% of our business comes from referrals, we love helping friends and family get financially healthy and we pay $50 to our clients for referring friends to us.
Rate the Gym - We are encouraging clients who are happy about what we’re doing to leave reviews on TrustPilot about us. Our goal is to get 500 5 Star reviews on the site.
Give Feedback on The Gym - We are always looking to improve and get better. You may not have a 5 Star experience with us, and we want to know how we can improve our services. So we’ve created an online Suggestion Box where you can anonymously tell us how we can get better.
Send Positive Vibes Our Way - Raising money is a big undertaking and highly stressful. I would appreciate any positive energy you can send our way during this time.
The Financial Gym team and I have BIG goals for 2019 and this next raise will help us accomplish all of them so we can continue helping you in your financial journey. Wish us luck!
