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, May 27, 2018

Bye-Bye, Goodbye... Sunday, May 27

Tonight I hosted my last free BoxHIIT in the Park.  

It's been interesting hosting it.  I've met some fabulous ladies, tested the waters with some new training techniques, got to share my passion for boxing and fitness, figured out a lot regarding what works and what doesn't, was spied on by want-to-be competitors, and was watched by admirers.

All and all though, it's been an amazing experience and I'm grateful for those who have come out.

I'm grateful for it all actually.

It's hard to convince people to care about their health and staying active.  That's something they have to find and feel on their own.  My job was always to encourage them and give them the means to stay active, by offering them free training.  You can't really argue with free, I even provided the equipment, but you'd be surprised how many mistake free for cheap.  

My training isn't cheap.

I offered my training for free as a means of putting myself out there, further branding myself and Empowered.  

Free isn't cheap.

I know a many places that offer training at very expensive prices but the quality of it is very cheap.  Personal trainers stepping up to coach boxing when they themselves don't even box, now that's cheap.  I don't coach karate because I've never done karate and taking 2 yoga classes back in the day hardly qualifies me to be a yoga instructor.  

Free is an opportunity to try something that perhaps you wouldn't normally try.

I no longer offer my training for free so now the average person can not afford my training, that's the truth.  I'm looking to launch my own "clubhub" soon and those who would have, could have, and should have tried my training when they had the chance will no longer be able to.

So yeah, free doesn't mean cheap, but, to tell you the truth, those people who bailed last minute, the no-show-no-speak people, they made me feel cheap.  They made me feel something I've never felt before and that wasn't fair.  I know no one makes you feel anything unless you give your consent but I did feel cheap.  Their disregard for me planning a training session, making it and making them my priority every Sunday and lugging out all that gear for them, that was what was most discouraging.  Now I can turn around though and tell them, "Sorry, I'm not sorry, but you can't afford me".

I definitely have a special place in my heart for those who came out and came out on more than just a few occasions.  It was pretty awesome to see them training hard and taking my direction.  I do love boxing and I do love coaching, so coaching them in boxing was the absolute best.    

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