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.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Feeling Awake Now... Thursday, March 15

I feel awake. 

It's like a light switch was flicked on.

"Be more aggressive", I told myself today as I sipped on my morning coffee.

At the event the other night I sat and heard a panel of female entrepreneurs talk about how much their juggling and how they went after what they want.  They're juggling so much and it was inspiring.  Last week I sat and listened to Skittles' tell his story about his rise to success and what I got out of his talk and the talks from last night is that you really do have to go after what you what.  Establish your why and then figure out the how, but you need to know your why.  Why you're doing what you're doing.  The how can come later.  Make your own story and have non-negotiables regarding how you're going to be successful in life and with life.

Some of Skittles' non negotiables included getting rid of negativity, keep learning and don't quit.

So what are my non-negotiables?!  Good question.

I think my biggest non-negotiable would be being selective with who you surround yourself with.  My dad use to tell me "I know your friends, I know you" and it's true.  You became what you surround yourself with.  It's so important to surround yourself with positive-minded people.  My circle here in the Philippines, it's all entrepreneurs.  I've got a friend who owns 25 corporations, another who is always jumping on a plane to go here and to go there for business meetings and whatnot.  They're all very successful in that they're being super aggressive with pushing themselves and going after what they want.  They're all hungry for success, for life.  Life is whatever you make of it and they are trying every bloody day to make it better than the day before.  

Another non-negotiable that I'm really trying to adopt for myself with how I approach situations and business is to be more aggressive.  No one is going to be as passionate about my business as I am so I have to fight for it myself and stop feeling like I have to sugarcoat things or assume people will help me.  Like investors, for example, I'm having a hard time asking them how much money they're putting into my business and now it's coming to a do-or-die crunch moment where I might lose the space in McKinley because I haven't been aggressive enough.  I've been too relaxed and somewhat assumed the investors will approach me about their contribution when the fact of the matter is that's my responsibility.  

You want something then go get it.  Don't assume anyone is going to give it to you.  You have to fight because anything great worth fighting for isn't going to come easy and anything easy that doesn't require a fight isn't going to be great.  You want something that is worth fighting for but you do have to put up that fight to get it.

I think a big part of me feeling so awake also had to do with who I sat beside.  I sat beside my former business partner.  I saw that she had clicked "going" on the Facebook event page but wasn't sure if she'd follow through with it.  When I noticed her there at the event, I approached her from behind and teased her by covering her eyes with my hands.  It was the first time I had seen her since we parted ways and I suspected it to be super awkward but it wasn't.  She asked about Empowered and I told her.  We chatted a lot about it and I ended up sitting beside her the entire night.  I had anticipated me running into her would be super uncomfortable and I wouldn't know what to say but it was actually quite the opposite.  If anything, it was a relief to see her and it served to reassure me that what I'm doing is exactly what I'm suppose to be doing and I made the right choice in parting ways.  

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