Message from the CEO - Manifest Your Dreams in 2019
Happy almost New Year FinGym Family!!
The past few weeks, my team and I have been working on our 2019 plans and strategizing a year that we’re all excited about. In the planning process, we decided to make the upcoming year a theme year and our theme is “Manifest Your Dreams with The Financial Gym in 2019.”
For those of you who don’t know, The Financial Gym has been a dream of mine for almost six years now. While I was working as a financial advisor of Merrill Lynch, I dreamed of a better way to help people with their money. I dreamed of a place where it didn’t matter how much you had in the bank, you would be treated as someone of worth. I dreamed of a place where advice wasn’t dictated about products sold, rather, what was best for you and your family. I dreamed of a place, where people could change the course of their future with a clear roadmap for changing it. I dreamed of a place where dreams could come true.
Five years ago, I left Merrill Lynch to build this dream, but my dreams didn’t stop with the Gym. The longer I traveled down this road, the bolder I allowed myself to dream. I dared to dream of raising millions of dollars to build the space, I dared to dream of talking about the Gym on The Today Show, I dared to dream of asking for rockstar mentors to guide me, I dared to hire amazing people; and more than anything, I dared to create a financial services company that actually cares for it’s clients.
Over the past five years, I’ve had a front row seat to seeing my clients manifest dreams they never dared to dream until I pushed them to do it; and this past year, has been surreal that they have gotten to watch me do the same thing.
In February, we opened our beautiful headquarters gym in New York City, thanks to the $1.8MM of generous investor money from people who saw my dream as something that should be a reality.
In November, The Today Show featured The Financial Gym, and I got to meet Hoda Kotb (who is as delightful in real life as she is on t.v.). The best part of that experience, though, was the email I got from client #1 of the Gym (she’s been working with me for 5 years now) telling me how proud she was of me.
In September, I gained a mentor and investor in Jean Chatzky, who I used to watch on the Oprah Show; and in November I found out that Melanie Whelan, CEO of Soul Cycle was going to mentor me. This time last year, I said, “I wish I could have Melanie as a mentor.” Both women are not only intelligent, badass women, but super kind, compassionate and have given me amazing advice.
Last year we ended the year with 7 employees, and this year we are ending the year with 27; and every member of this team brings something special to our FinGym family. Last week they all shared their 2019 dreams to manifest and it was a beautiful experience to hear what they are working for.
Last year, we ended the year with close to 300 clients, and this year, we are ending the year with 1,400 clients. You are all unique, special, amazing people who are working towards making your dream and reality and we route for you collectively as a team every single day.
Dreams come true: Shannon met Hoda!
2018 was a big year for me and the FinGym team, but we are not stopping where we are. We all have a dream of seeing Financial Gyms across the country and even the world, so we have a lot more work to do. In 2019, we have set the goals of opening 5 new gyms, growing to 13,000 clients; and raising the money we need to accomplish these goals. Are these big? Yes. Are these bold? Yes. Are these impossible? NEVER!
If there is one thing I want all of you to learn from my story, it’s the importance of dreaming big and setting out to manifest your dreams. Every single day at The Financial Gym our clients are manifesting dreams, I’m manifesting my dreams and if you’re not working with us, we’d love to help YOU manifest your dreams. After all, it’s our theme of 2019!
I hope you take this time heading into the new year to think about dreams that you have, write them down and put the plan together toward how you are going to accomplish it. If you need help with identifying your dreams and a plan, we can help with that; but just make sure that you dream big because the universe is just waiting to give you what you want, I speak from experience.
Cheers to manifesting your dreams in 2019!
Shannon McLay
Founder & CEO - The Financial Gym