When I first started LEP Fitness I pretty much sacrificed everything. I had zero money, and put all of my time and effort into building a business. The first year especially was horrendous at times. 

Not knowing when the next payment would come though.

Sleepless nights.

Fear. 

Insecurity. 

Self Doubt. 

I was that desperate, that after 6 months of starting LEP I did an offer on GroupOn. The offer was 10 x 1-1 boot camp sessions for £12! Each session was 45 mins and GroupOn took 50% of the £12!  Basically I was working for 0.60p per session! 

Why would you do this Nick???

Well…

I was so determined to make LEP Fitness work, and knew if I got in front of lots of people, and showed my passion and enthusiasm to help, at least a few people would invest in a £300 package after the GroupOn sessions ended. 

Around 50 people bought the GroupOn offer and all of a sudden I had an influx of customers. Ok I only made £300 for doing around 500 sessions (375hrs work!) but at the end of the GroupOn deal around 75% of people signed up to a full package. 

After a 6 month slog, living off cheap food, coffee to keep me going, and walking everywhere because I couldn’t afford bus fair…

BOOM! 

I WAS IN BUSINESS!

That initial sacrifice was the real start of LEP Fitness. 

Since that time the business has grown exponentially but it wouldn’t have been possible had I not made sacrifices.

I sacrificed…

• Time – 70+ hrs of work per week for 6 months.
• Quality of life – didn’t see many friends or family. 
• Money – I lived off cheap Aldi cornflakes, beans and toast and tuna pasta mayo for half a year. 
• Health – 6am starts – 9pm finishes 
• My ego – I got rejected, had clients cancel last minute, had equipment stolen, couldn’t go out with friends because I was so skint!

BUT in the end it was totally worth it.

So why is this important?

Well…

Whatever you want in life comes at a cost. You want to lose weight – you have to eat less and move more.  You want business success – you have to work weekends, and evenings, you have to use your imagination, deal with uncertainty and much more!

Are you willing to give up those Friday nights out so you can study?

Are you prepared to give up your Sunday sleep in – so that you can work on your body or business?

The beautiful thing is that you can get all of these things back, it doesn’t have to be permanent. But in the short term you do have to sometimes go to extremes to make a BIG impact on your life. 

Nowadays I don’t work 70+ hrs! I do a productive 40hr week and have a much better work life balance. 

Nowadays I don’t live off basic food, I buy quality food and treat myself to nice takeouts .

BUT this wouldn’t have happened had I not taken the lifestyle hit back in the early days.

Although this may sound slightly cheesy  …

You can achieve anything you want in life.

BUT the real question is…

Are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifices and put in the hard work to make your dream a reality?

For those of you out there who have the balls (pardon the french!) 

I want to wish you the best of luck. 

And..

To those of you out there who are already on this path, facing fears, getting up each day and giving your best, learning, growing, and trying to make the world a better place – I just want to say I take my hat  off to you. 

The world needs people like you and you will eventually be rewarded for your efforts.

Nick 🙂