As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Fine-Tuning Events... Sunday, July 16


Love, love, LOVE… L…O…V…E the weekends! 

My weekends are definitely not the relaxing days most experience and they leave me exhausted and often passed out on the kitchen floor, still in my sweaty exercise clothes. But I wouldn’t change a damn thing!!! 

Today I hosted the Flipside Fitness Clothes Swap Party. It was another super fun event and those who turned up brought some really, really great clothes to swap. I scored a sexy little black open-back dress that has been labeled for “Snickers’-eyes-only”… yowzers!!! 

With every event I host for Flipside Fitness, I am definitely picking up tips and tidbits for future events. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to not take things personal, a lesson I too often need a follow-up lesson on. Flipside Fitness is my business, that’s true, but I’m definitely not making a living off it nor am I running it really like a business. This is personal to me. I started it because I was sick of settling for jobs I didn’t like and tired of waiting for something to happen. “Be the change you want to see”, a common quote here comes to mind and that’s what I’m trying to do. Flipside Fitness is my business but I’m running it with my heart on my sleeve. It’s hard not to have it be a personal thing to me. Many of these girls I see every weekend, a couple are personal training clients of mine so I contact them various times throughout the week, and the success of Flipside Fitness really rests in their hands if you think about it. I’m constantly trying to improve upon events I’m planning, whether it’s the actual event activity or when I post the sign-up on Facebook, and in the months that I’ve been posing events I’ve definitely learned some important event-planning tips. 

Some of the things I’ve learned:
- People have issues with committing.
- About 10% who say they’ll come won’t.
- It’s about those who show up and not about those who don’t.
- For every one person who shows up that’s one more person that says “this matters”.
- You can’t be offended for people not being as excited about something as you are.
- I’m putting way too much time and effort into the planning and execution of events. A participate fee will be in effect in future events.
- A participant deposit for events is needed to help limit the amount of participants who sign up and then become a no-show.
- Posting events too far in the future generates early hype but early forgetfulness about it so you can’t post sign-ups too early.
- Party favors aren’t just for kids’ parties, adults love them too. They’re such a great souvenir.
- Creativity is important and flexibility is necessary!!!
- You have to make your own definition of what it means for an event to be "successful".  A successful event for me is no longer filling up the sign-up list but instead is in the constant participation of certain members and the addition of first-time participants to events.  

- With everything you do, do it because you love it and you think it's great. A good thing will attract followers.
- Good energy is contagious. Bad energy is damaging and it eats things alive.

2 comments:

Jacky said...

I thought you were having good turn-outs on your events. Sorry people that people who sign up aren't actually going. I wish I could go to more...that's why I put 'maybe's unless I know for sure. I really do hope I can go to some more events. :)

권투선수 에이미 [Amy] said...

Hey Jacky,

Oh, we do. We have a great turn-out for the Flipside Fitness events but it's hard to get new people out and get more than just the regulars to commit. It's expected that people will skip out but it's disappointing because it's those who come out it affects. Take for example the Clothes Swap Party. We would have had much more clothes if more came out.
And yes, I hope you can come to more events too but I know it's quite far for you:( By the way, Seoraksan will be on for September. Not sure yet of the date but it's definitely going to be back on!!!