It’s 2015. I’m putting together one-on-one, fully customized training programs for online clients and charging $50/month.

I’m a full time MBA student and I run a full time training studio out of my single car garage.

I do my homework, write my papers, and coach my clients via email and Google sheets until 2-3am. I wake up before 6am to train clients.

Fast forward to 2020, I own a warehouse gym in place of the garage gym. The Barbell Collective is the only way to to work with me in a fitness capacity online, I’ve been a small business consultant and coach for ~3 years, putting my years of business experience & my MBA to good use.

It’s March 2020. We go into lockdown. I turn my in-person gym into a virtual gym in under an hour- I thank my 24 year old self for starting an online business- I knew exactly what needed to be done. We migrated from Zen Planner to True Coach, we did Zoom sessions, we held super limited spots for open gym and upped cleaning protocols.

July 2020: I look at the numbers. My online business is bringing in far more profit than my gym. I’m tired. While everyone pranced around hopeful this would go away soon, I knew better.

As an immunocompromised person, with parents almost in their 70s, and grandmas almost in their 90s, I just wasn’t willing to risk it. I am not the captain of the Titanic- I’m not going down with a ship I can jump from.

I knew I didn’t want a trainer schedule for the rest of my life. I knew that for years.

Was this an out? Was it an excuse? Does it matter? Im still not sure.

September 2020: I commit to doing whatever it takes to make sure my entire life looks wildly different in one year than it did that day.

September 2021: here we are. I cried a lot. I lost a lot but I gained even more. I live somewhere far enough where no one knows me and I love that for me. Lol.

Christina today has to thank Christina from 2015 who had no idea what she was doing but figured the F out.

If you wonder why I’m so adamant about having a location independent business- this is one reason why. It can help you burn down an old life and build a new one- if you want to, of course.