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.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Lose the Attitude if You Want to Lose the Weight... Tuesday, March 17

Once in a very, very, v-e-r-y rare blue moon I have a new member at Hulk's that is, how should you call it, "difficult". Someone who tests my patience to its core, treats me like a part timer, and then expects me to train them.  It is such a rare occurrence but it does happen and when it does happen I continually tell myself over and over to be nice, smile through their $#it because in an hour or so they'll be gone.  They have to live with themselves 24/7 but I only have to struggle through an hour or two, at most, every time they come in.  I can honestly say that I've only ran into such a member 2 times in the two years that Hulk's has been in business -- 2 ladies who made me cringe in complete full-body frustration.

Tonight I had that "privilege".  Today I experienced my third and it was another female.

Perhaps I really shouldn't be expanding upon what happened tonight, it's not professional, but I'm going to wave the "there-is-no-distinction-between-business-and-personal-in-my-life" card here.  So ya, I'm going to do a little of venting here.  Feel free to close the browser or stray away from my homepage, I'm not offended one bit.

So shortly after 10pm this particular person comes to check out our club.  Snickers was busy training another member so I approached her and started to talk to her.  I told her a bit about the club -- our hours, facilities, etc -- but she didn't seem to be listening.  She kept on looking at her cellphone.  

"Isn't there a manager who can talk to me?" she asked.
"Ya... me", I told her.
"Ya, OK, sure.... What about that Korean guy?" she asked.
"He's not the manager, he's the coach here.  Like I said, I am the manager."

As soon as she noted that she hated exercise I giggled and told her "no problem, most do but we have a good crowd that comes out and we try to make exercising challenging but fun".  I thought my answer would convince her otherwise, it was a good answer, but then she asked "can you just tell me exactly what I have to eat and do to lose weight?"  "Sure", I told her, "I'll tell you the secret to losing weight, it's called eating healthy and exercising hard.  There is no secret."  "But I do that!  Just because I'm bigger doesn't mean I eat McDonalds.  I eat very healthy" she said in such a snarky voice so I snapped back and said, "Your 42% body fat InBody results tell me a different story.  Look, I'm more than happy to help you but seriously lose the attitude!"

She complained about the girls shower room and our bathroom when I showed it to her and then she insisted one of our members leave the locker room because she wanted to use the change room that's located inside it.  I thought that was pretty funny considering my old boxing club's change room was not private at all and the bathroom was one that everyone including people who walked off the streets used.  Then, when I told her we were going to start off with skipping, she said she didn't want to skip so I told her she could warm up with 10 minutes of light jogging on the treadmill.  She walked for 5 and then got off it, complaining because her forehead was sweaty.  When I asked her if she had done the full 10 minutes (because it was really only 5) she mumbled something under her breath and gave me such an evil eye.  "Please help me," I yelled out to Snickers, "I'm afraid I might seriously kick her", I quietly said to him when he approached me.  Snickers then put her through a very basic intro to boxing lesson to which she continued to complain.

After about an hour of dealing with this particular princess, she then finished her training, grabbed her bag and then went to the girls shower room.  No sooner had she gone to the back of the club to shower but then she returned.  She hadn't showered.  "I'm not going to shower; I don't like your girls shower room.  I can't shower in that!", she said.  At this point, I was seriously beyond stretching my patience to it's limit.  Not only had she treated me like some kind of part time assistant punk from the start but she then complained about everything and everyone at the club. My boxing club apparently wasn't up to her royal standards and she wasn't shy in letting us all know so ya, you best believe it took every ounce of self control in my 5ft 2" body to not round robin this girl in the head.  

Don't come into my club and insult it and don't you dare disrespect my members.  I know our club isn't for everyone but it's our club -- it belongs to us and all our members -- and it's to be respected.  We have a zero tolerance for rude members and have made their very clear in the member consent form we get every member to read over and sign -- "Members are to respect everyone at Hulk's and treat the club and its' equipment with respect", rule #1 on our consent form.  If you can't respect it and it's members, well, the door you came in is also the door you can go out.  Don't let the door hit you on the way out, it's a big heavy door!

When the painfully long hour with her ended and she was about to leave, we then gave her a complete full refund, wished her all the best with losing the weight and losing the attitude, and then opened up the front door for her to leave.  "Bye bye", I said, "good bye, no... fabulous goodbye!"  

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