Chris Cooper (00:02):
Hey, I’m Chris Cooper. This is “Run a Profitable Gym,” and today, we’re talking about what happens when, as an entrepreneur, you build a team, you’re a little bit successful, maybe you’ve even got some profit, but you still get distracted all the time. You’re still looking at your phone all night; you can’t stop thinking about your business. With me today is Ashley Haun from The Traveling Bee Business and Lifestyle Mentoring. Welcome, Ashley.
Ashley Haun (00:26):
Thank you.
Chris Cooper (00:27):
And we’re going to talk about transferring to success, like evolving as an entrepreneur to the point where you actually create a lifestyle that you want when it might actually be more challenging to do so than people think. So, Ashley, let’s start with this. A lot of people think like, “Oh, when I’m successful, I’m just going to live on the beach all day, and I’m going to drink rum drinks, and then I’m going to get in my Lambo, and I’m going to—” Like, they think that they’re going to be Magnum P.I., right?
Ashley Haun (00:55):
Yeah.
Chris Cooper (00:56):
Why isn’t that the case with most entrepreneurs once they reach a little bit of success?
Ashley Haun (01:01):
That’s such a good question, and one that is really important to answer because I think as we become more and more successful, it’s easier to get further and further away from it. And so, asking this question in the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey and as your business scales and really defining what lifestyle means to you—because this is an individual answer—is super important.
Chris Cooper (01:30):
So, if we start with that—so, you know, at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, I mean, I was just like, “Please God, let me pay the rent this month.” Right? How do you start thinking about, like what I eventually want out of a lifestyle?
Ashley Haun (01:45):
You have to be very intentional with it. It can’t—it’s never going to happen if you just haphazardly plan for it, or you don’t take time and intention with defining your own personal lifestyle. So, you know, this is a great time of year. We’re at the end of a year, and we’re planning our businesses for 2024. Are we planning our lifestyle, and are we defining it and putting it into your calendar along with those business goals that you want to reach to?
Chris Cooper (02:21):
That’s interesting because, you know, when I started my gym, I was like, “Well, I’m living my dream. My dream is to open a gym, and now here I am, like perfect day, every day.” But then you quickly realize that owning the gym or being an entrepreneur comes at the expense of other things. So, you know, one thing that I want to start with is really talking about the notion of a balanced lifestyle or work-life balance. Do those things even exist?
Ashley Haun (02:49):
That’s tough. I don’t think they exist. I think that life is in seasons and segments, and it’s impossible to balance it all in any particular season or segment because some are going to require more of you in your business—if staff changes, you know, you lose clients, whatever may be going on—and that requires you to get back into your gym or— And so, that’s going to feel a little out of balance, right? You’re not going to be able to do the lifestyle things that you’ve picked out for yourself. Then things are going to—you’re going to work on it—they’re going to pick back up. You’re going to start achieving those goals again, and you’re going to be able to do some more lifestyle stuff that you had set out in the beginning of the year. So, there is no, there’s no balance to any of it. It’s, I think, more an awareness is what’s important than trying to balance it all. Like, “Hey, you know what? I recognize that I am deep in my business right now, but that’s not my goal.” Or, “Hey, I recognize I am enjoying the heck out of this lifestyle I’ve created because of my business.” And that’s what’s really important, not trying to balance all of it.
Chris Cooper (04:02):
What do you mean specifically by seasons and segments?
Ashley Haun (04:06):
Yeah, so this is—seasons are longer periods of time, right? Three months, four months, whatever. Like we traditionally think of it as fall, winter, spring. Segments are moments that are shorter. And so those can last a couple of weeks or a week, right? I’ve been sick this week, and so that’s not my whole life. That’s not even a season. That’s a segment in this week. And how am I going about doing all the other things that I normally do in this small segment of life?
Chris Cooper (04:38):
What season of life would you say that you’re in right now?
Ashley Haun (04:41):
Oh, I am in a season in which I am learning how to articulate, how to help others really get the lifestyle they wanted or they want, because I did this thing, like I have a lifestyle that I love, and it keeps expanding and growing, and my businesses keep expanding and growing. And it’s not by chance that any of this happened. I didn’t realize when I was doing it how intentional I was being with it. And so, now I’m in this phase of figuring out how I did it, so I can help others duplicate what I’ve done. The biggest piece of the puzzle that I figured out so far is the planning part of it: how important planning is to making all of this happen. So yeah, that’s where I’m at.
Chris Cooper (05:31):
That’s interesting. And I want to dig into that because a lot of people associate their dream lifestyle with this carefree, “I don’t need to plan. I wake up when I’m ready, and I sleep when I’m tired, I exercise whatever,” and we’re going to come back to that. But first, let’s talk about what we mean by lifestyle because not everybody’s kind of perfect day is the same, right?
Ashley Haun (05:52):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think there’s a big misconstruction with thinking lifestyle is just more vacations. Lifestyle is not more vacations. It can be. I mean, I’m the first to admit we go on some great vacations, but that’s not my lifestyle because I want my lifestyle to be my day in and day out, not just, you know, a week that I got away from everything. So, when thinking about designing and planning your lifestyle, it really should start with the moment you wake up and how your entire day looks after that.
Chris Cooper (06:29):
Can you walk us through how you formulate that plan?
Ashley Haun (06:31):
Yeah. So, for me personally, I plan every single week with a lot of intention. And I was lucky enough to see Todd Herman speak in 2020, and this is one of the things that I walked away the most with—and this comes from him—is that Sunday there’s about an hour spent looking at what this week is going to look like. And so, I use a planner. I’m a write-it-down, pen-and-paper person. And so, I plan everything out from my own personal fitness to the meals that my family’s going to eat, the meetings, the dates with my wife. Like all of it goes in this planner. So, then it’s very intentional with not just—I don’t know, you know, I only get December 1st, 2023 one time, and I want to make the most of it.
Chris Cooper (07:21):
Yeah. It’s funny. That’s of course today’s date. And I’m like, why’d you pick that weird date? You know? So, that’s interesting. Like, can you walk us through what kind of the perfect day in your life looks like? Or even just a typical day?
Ashley Haun (07:34):
Yeah. So, you know, years ago, Coop, you asked me this question, and it was really hard for me to answer this because we open gyms: A lot of times we see a problem that needs to be solved, right? We want to make other people healthy; we want to make them as happy as we are. And we get lost in the sauce of what that actually really turns out looking like. And so, a lot of people think when they’re planning their perfect day, it has to be a perfect workday. And I don’t think that answers the full question. So, for me, I plan perfect workdays and also perfect off-days because I want to be very intentional, when being off, with my time and who I’m paying attention to and giving myself to. So, I have two of them. Perfect workday for me:
Ashley Haun (08:24):
You know, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not a 4 or 5 a.m. riser. And I think that’s OK. There’s all kinds of different ways of getting a lot of stuff done in life. And so, I’m a perfect, you know, 6:30/7 a.m. riser. I spend the first two hours of my day doing the things I want to do, which is, you know, sometimes we label that as selfish, but it’s not. If I’m not optimized, then nothing is going to go right. I’m the biggest asset to any of my businesses, and the biggest asset to my kids is their mother. And so, the first two hours is about me and what I like. Then I go to work after that and speak to my clients and have meetings at my gym and all that good stuff. Fitness is in the afternoon, and then evenings are spent at home. My off days are very off, and I do my best to not be attached to Slack and all those forms of communication. And—but that’s just as important as things too.
Chris Cooper (09:25):
So, you have to map out each one. And what was the process of mapping this out? Did you just sit down and think, like, “What would my perfect day be?” Or did you have to do some reps of trying different things to figure it out?
Ashley Haun (09:39):
It’s definitely trial and error. Right? Each family, each relationship, each person is different. And it’s trial and error of what works best for you and the people and the businesses that are surrounding you. So, there’s no one great answer. I think the best thing to do is revisit it often. You can’t know what you want without knowing what you don’t want. Right? I tried the 5 a.m. life: I didn’t love it, and that’s OK. Right? So, trial and error for sure.
Chris Cooper (10:11):
When you’re figuring this out, like how much does your partner figure into the process? Like, are you saying, “Hey, Kara, let’s design our perfect day together”? Or is it more like, “Well, this is what I want it to be,” and then they have like their own perfect day, and you guys try to integrate it together, or are you just ships in the night, or how’s that work? How do you tie it into the family?
Ashley Haun (10:33):
Yeah, so being an entrepreneur, right? And then having someone in your life who’s not an entrepreneur, that’s very typical and hard waters to navigate. And we were terrible at it in the beginning because I would have these, you know, big dreams and things like that. And fair enough, like she’s a firefighter, so it’s put water on the fire, right? Like, that’s the job. And so, it was allowing each other to have, again, a season or a segment in which maybe the one pulled on each other’s perfect day a little bit more. And communicating that. So, we recognize we own the gym together. We recognize, “Well, Ash’s got to dive back into the gym a little bit more right now.” Or “Ash really wants to build The Traveling Bee and do more with that. And so, there’s not going to be so much of her available for other parts of life, but that’s not forever.” And we also recognize what each other’s end goals are, and that’s the common denominator between everything. So, really coming together on, “Hey, you know, our three-year, five-year plan is to retire in Costa Rica. And when we do that, everything that we’re doing is working towards that one end goal. Our Tuesday might have to look a little different than we want because of that end goal, but that’s OK too.”
Chris Cooper (12:02):
How do you start that conversation with your spouse?
Ashley Haun (12:05):
You have to recognize the differences in each other and how each other operates, and then have an openness to change. Not everything is—I mean, it’s a partnership, it’s not a one-way street. And it’s a lot of—it’s a lot of talking, a lot of talking and a lot of being open knowing that the other person has your best interest at heart.
Chris Cooper (12:30):
OK. So that’s how you define your perfect day. What are some of the other obstacles that entrepreneurs face? I know like, I got this really bad habit of: Things are going well? Just dig into my business a little bit and wreck something, you know, swing a sledgehammer, break it—because then I can fix it, and I can feel really important because I’m the only one who can fix it. Right? Like, what are the obstacles that entrepreneurs go through? Why aren’t they living their perfect day all the time?
Ashley Haun (12:56):
I think it’s—there’s different ones at different parts of the entrepreneurial journey, and I can just speak for myself, but I’ve heard this from other ones too. In the beginning, when you reach a little bit of success, you’re afraid to share it. “So, hey, you know what? I’ve been working, and I saved up, and I earned this Hawaii vacation, and I’m going to be gone for two weeks.” And they’re afraid to share it with their team, with their members. They’re, you know, they hide, and they’ll say, like, “Oh yeah, I’m just going to be gone, but I’m going to work the entire time. Don’t worry about it.” Right. That’s an obstacle for sure. I think some of the other obstacles are, like we talked about, not being purposeful and not planning. The more we scale, the larger we grow, it’s harder to get back to that perfect day because we’ve been so far removed from it that we’re just not recognizable in anything that we want to be doing.
Chris Cooper (13:53):
Where do you think this guilt comes from? I didn’t think of it until you said it, but I can totally resonate with that. Like, you’re checking in with your staff five times while you’re on vacation because you want them to know you’re not having any fun. Right? You feel guilty about it. Where’s that from? Yeah.
Ashley Haun (14:08):
I think it comes from assuming. You are assuming that they’re upset that you’re gone, and, you know, you are not working and they’re working. Or you’re assuming that maybe your members are upset with you because you’ve gone on this amazing vacation. I think that’s the first place where you have to stop. Then the second place is you have a conversation. You know, I used to say my greatest joy was teaching someone how to do their first pull-up, like helping them get the strength, and right? Like, that was amazing. My greatest joy now is—part of it is helping my staff live a life that’s abundant. And that is for them, if it’s a great vacation, then heck yeah. You know, for one of my staff members, it’s buying a motorcycle. Heck yeah. Like, how do I help you do that with the career that you’re having with me and my business?
Chris Cooper (15:00):
So, that’s interesting. And would you say that’s part of your dream lifestyle—helping them? Or are you helping them only because it’s part of their dream lifestyle?
Ashley Haun (15:09):
I hope it’s both. I hope that I’m building something that allows others to be abundantly happy in all the ways they want. I mean, that’s a little selfish, but I think that’s pretty cool to do in life, and that I want them walking around just that happy.
Chris Cooper (15:25):
That’s pretty cool. To be honest, Ashley, you’re the expert here, but if we asked any of the mentors on the Two-Brain team, “Why are you a mentor?” I think they’d give a very similar answer. It’s just part of their perfect day to be of service and feel like they’re helping other people. So, super cool. Well, let’s talk about some case studies here. So, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, and you help them kind of achieve their dream lifestyle. What are some of the first things that you usually have to fix? And then I’m going to ask you for some stories or examples.
Ashley Haun (15:55):
Yeah, so the first thing we have to fix is that very beginning stages of: Let’s get you back just a little bit. Let’s remember just a little bit of why we started this thing. Like we decided probably we didn’t want to work for the man, but what did we want also in that? And let’s pull that from the vault in our brain, and then let’s really dream big because oftentimes the dreams are too small—it’s not, you know—and so I’m really always encouraging them to get bigger with what they want because I think there’s a sense of, you know, “Well, if I accomplish this thing, that’s good enough.” No. Like, you know, I had one of my mentees, he wanted to—he had started his pilot’s license, didn’t finish it, so the goal was to finish his pilot’s license. And I’m like, that’s cool. Because he wanted to be able to get to his kids faster who were farther away. And I’m like, “Well, what about buying the plane?” Right? Like, let’s really do the thing if we’re going to be able to get to our kids faster.
Chris Cooper (16:58):
Wow. OK. So, that’s one thing they have to do is like, set up a possibly a bigger dream or just even clarify the dream they have. I remember you telling me one time, like the first step that you don’t want to overlook is that the business has to be doing well for the owner to be able to take the time off they want, earn the money they want, et cetera, right?
Ashley Haun (17:19):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny though because you need to—you know, really step one is figuring out what you want. Step two then is reverse engineering the business to make sure it can support that.
Chris Cooper (17:30):
Yeah.
Ashley Haun (17:31):
Right. Because we can get stuck in like, “Yeah, the business is killing it, and I’m just still killing it over and over again, but what am I doing it for?” Right? So, it’s making sure that those go in order for sure.
Chris Cooper (17:43):
Yeah. I think that’s the thing a lot of us lose sight of is that we start the business and at first, like we exist in service of the business, but ideally, the point is that the business exists to serve us and build this lifestyle. OK. So, Ashley, can you give us a couple of examples here? No names or anything, just like, you know, here’s an example of a person who was feeling like this and then, they identified this was their ideal lifestyle, and here were the steps that we had to take to get there.
Ashley Haun (18:10):
Yeah. One that recently came up is that she wanted to go back to her home country for a couple of months during what is their traditional holiday season and so part of what we had to do—you know, that was the goal, right? And it’s a big one. Like she’s gone for about two to three months, may extend it, but we had to get the business to a point in which the staff could handle managing the business for that long without her actual presence. And so, what we did were some trial runs of, “OK, now I want you to go away for a week. Let’s see what holes are in the boat. They’re not allowed to talk to you. Let’s identify those when you get back, and let’s fix that.” And so, we trial and errored this situation, this business, until it was able to move without her being physically there for a couple months at a time.
Chris Cooper (19:06):
OK. So, that was the first step. And then I’m sure that there were still some lingering fears or emotional hurdles to overcome when it was time to actually get on the plane, right?
Ashley Haun (19:15):
Yeah. You know, we all, we set ourselves up—and I don’t think it’s necessarily my intention—but our business generally runs on us: our face, our demeanor, our— And when we leave that thing—I mean, it’s a baby of its own—there’s some fear that it’s not going to be OK without us. And so again, recognizing that that’s a thing and helping walk through, “Well how are you going to deal with that? How is your staff going to deal with that? How are your clients going to deal with that? And having some steps in place in order to feel better about that is what’s been important.
Chris Cooper (19:58):
OK. So, how do you get over that? Because honestly, I think a lot of gym owners, the first time they take a vacation—they’re down in Mexico or whatever—they’re looking at their phone like, “Oh, what’s going on at the gym?” And, you know, whoever they’re there with is getting angry. Like, “Come on, can’t you just shut it off? Can’t you shut your brain off? Just relax.” How do they get to that point?
Ashley Haun (20:20):
Practice.
Chris Cooper (20:21):
Practice.
Ashley Haun (20:22):
Underst— Practice. You have to allow the situations to happen, right? The things, the Slack messages, the whatnot. And give your team, give the moment, the ability to work through it. Not everything that happens needs an answer right away. So, practicing being slow to answering those messages, or you know, “Hey guys, I’m going to hop on every day between two and three o’clock and handle stuff. Let me know what you need then.” But practice is where it’s at.
Chris Cooper (20:58):
OK. That’s interesting. So, if somebody doesn’t have a lot of self-discipline about this, right? Asking for a friend. And they’ve always got their phone on them, and as soon as Slack buzzes—maybe it shows up on their watch, or it vibrates in their pocket or whatever—and they’re like, “Ugh, the team needs me. I’ve got to get this.” How do you start building resistance to that?
Ashley Haun (21:18):
It’s like anything else, right? When you—you know, if you have an addiction to something. Because it’s truly an addiction. There’s some studies that have been done. There’s a particular great podcast between Huberman, and he talks about the small dopamine hit we get every time we see one of those things or— And so, we want to remove that from it. So, you know, turn those notifications off. That’s the first step, right? Doesn’t buzz you, doesn’t alert your arm. Second step would be to, you know, “OK, I’ve done that; I feel good about that. Can I remove that app from my phone?” You know, technology is wonderful in the sense that everything can happen on my wrist these days, but does that take away from my overall lifestyle and the people who I’m wanting to experience that with?
Chris Cooper (22:04):
Cool. Who would you say of your clients has like kind of the coolest lifestyle, the dream lifestyle that a lot of other entrepreneurs would want?
Ashley Haun (22:11):
Oh my goodness. That’s a tough question. I’ve got some fun ones where—I’ve got some pilots who are, you know, completing dreams like that, traveling for a couple months at a time. One of my favorite all-time clients was able to adopt and leave her business for two months to go, and her business ran just fine, and she came home and brought a brand-new family member. So, I think that one probably will go down as my all-time. I don’t know if you can beat that, but yeah, I mean, just some really fun stuff that people are accomplishing. Because, you know, why are we doing what we’re doing if we’re not enjoying it too?
Chris Cooper (22:54):
OK. So, you know, to flip back to gym owners, what’s realistic here? I mean, a lot of our friends would say, “Oh, you’ve already got a dream lifestyle. You work in a gym. You wear sweatpants all day; you probably work out like four hours a day. You know, you probably love it when nobody’s there, so you can go flex in the mirror.” Everybody listening to this podcast knows, like, I’m being sarcastic, but how far could a gym owner go? Like, what can a gym provide for you as far as lifestyle?
Ashley Haun (23:21):
Speaking from like personal total experience? I mean, it can do anything you want it to do, but you have to allow it to happen, and you also have to set out what it is you want. So, you know, for me, we take two giant vacations a year. I don’t work in my gym as far as, you know, coaching and things like that. But that’s what I personally wanted. It provides a great salary for me and my family to do everything that I want it to do. So, there is no limit on it. It’s the limits that you impose on what it can do for you. And if you choose to let it impose those limits, or you don’t believe those are limits, that’s cool too. Maybe that’s your lifestyle that you want. You want to be in your gym, you know, six hours a day and working out four, and flexing for an hour. That’s OK.
Chris Cooper (24:19):
… you want that.
Ashley Haun (24:21):
But I think it’s, you know, what is most important is don’t set a limit on it, and don’t judge other people for what they want out of their particular gym.
Chris Cooper (24:32):
So, that’s interesting because, you know, this week we’re talking about “Millionaire Gym Owner” the new book, and there are some people who are just repelled by the idea of even making money. But the point of the book is that what you’re really making is wealth. And one of the things that wealth creates for you is time freedom. Ashley, how long did you own your gym before just being in the gym every second of every day was no longer the dream?
Ashley Haun (24:55):
I would say I owned it for—before it was no longer the dream?
Chris Cooper (25:00):
Well, I mean, you still love owning your gym. I know. Just like I do. But you know, I kind of reached this point, maybe a couple years in where it’s like, “OK, I’m here 6 till 9, 6 a.m. until 9 p.m., you know, maybe Sundays off would be OK.” Something like that.
Ashley Haun (25:16):
Yeah. I was probably three years in where, you know, I recognized that my kids were saying things to me. I would pick them up after school; they would go to the gym after school every day. They would—and it was great. It’s a great way for kids to watch parents or anybody work out. They were in a great environment. They’re building forts in the backyard. They’re in the back of the gym; they’re skateboarding. Like, all of that is great. It was great until I realized that I was taking my kids through drive-thrus at nine o’clock at night because I didn’t have time to serve them dinner. And then I was like, “That’s enough.” This isn’t all that great for them because I, particularly, valued family dinner. And so, that’s when I was like, “We’ve got to make a change.”
Chris Cooper (26:02):
Is the family dinner in your perfect day lifestyle now?
Ashley Haun (26:05):
Yeah, absolutely. It’s funny: Our boys are older, so we do breakfasts and things like that because, you know, everybody’s a little crazy now. But yeah, that was a big—you know, I was taking them through, legit, I was taking them through Taco Bell at nine o’clock at night, and I was like, “What am I doing?” Yeah.
Chris Cooper (26:23):
It’s funny where that dark night of the soul hits you, right? Like, you just, “Lightning bolt, like, wait a minute. Uh, chalupas at nine?” So, Ashley, like, you and I have both been through this. We’ve been through dark spots in the gym, and there are people listening right now who are there, and they’re like, “Oh man, I work—I’m here at 6 a.m. I’m here at 6 p.m. My kids have to come to the gym way too often to just be fun anymore. Like, how do I get from there to the Ashley Haun lifestyle that I see on her Instagram?” Yeah. What are the steps?
Ashley Haun (26:56):
So, step one, talk to somebody who’s been through it, and has walked the walk. Really and truly, like the exact walk that you are walking, and be unafraid to listen to what they’re saying. Be inspired by that because that can buy you speed into getting out of that situation quicker than it took you or I to get out of it. Yeah.
Chris Cooper (27:23):
OK. OK. So, you talk to somebody, then what?
Ashley Haun (27:26):
Then you have to be diligent in taking the action that’s worked for them, really and truly. But here’s the, here’s where it’s—I’m going to go off a little bit different than what we typically say is: You have to take care of yourself too. So, take the action; do the steps. You know, I used to—and I think I made a mistake in saying this, if I’m being honest with you—the difference in success and failure is action. Yes, that’s true. But the action also includes taking care of you.
Chris Cooper (28:00):
Makes sense.
Ashley Haun (28:01):
And I never used to differentiate between that. I just thought it was like, “Do the steps, do the steps, do the steps.” But part of the steps are, “Am I OK?”
Chris Cooper (28:11):
OK. Well, I definitely want to dig into that a little bit more, but I can remember years ago—you know, I own a CrossFit gym. “Well, would you ever go to another gym to work out?”
Are you crazy? There’s no way. I would never even do that. Or think about it or talk about it.” And now, I see more and more gym owners doing that, like running their own gym and going to another gym to work out just to get that head space.
Ashley Haun (28:33):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, whatever it takes for you, there’s no judgment in it. Everybody is allowed to do the thing—within reason—that makes them function and be as great as they possibly can be for all the reasons that they set out to be.
Chris Cooper (28:53):
Yeah. I don’t think we should be feeling guilty about that. Like, at all. Like, we probably practice what we preach, and I think a lot of people are just scared, but they’re also scared of the effect that doing that would have if somebody saw that. Right. They’re afraid to get caught. So, let’s talk about that. You know, you talked early on about like: Entrepreneurs, they become successful, and they start to feel guilty, and they might want to disguise that, or they might want to hide it because the people around them might be suspicious, jealous, whatever that is Right? Might feel different. Like how do they handle that? Or how should they handle it?
Ashley Haun (29:25):
Yeah, they should handle it by: They have to be comfortable with it themselves. Right? So, you know, gosh, I actually thought back 10 years ago, “OK. You know, if I had a hundred members and I charged a hundred dollars a month, like I’m going to be killing it.”
Chris Cooper (29:41):
That’s $10,000.
Ashley Haun (29:43):
And then, you know, and that is, that’s a lot of money. And but, you know, I didn’t recognize all the other things that came along with it. Then I realized, well, yeah, and you know what? That’s exactly what my members are going to think: “Ashley’s killing it.” And I have to hide any of it. But I had to become comfortable with myself and how I would handle that situation with them before I could actually go out and handle it. So now, I had some of those interactions that were uncomfortable, you know, people are going to say things, and—but I am able to articulate, “Hey, you know what? Come along with me.” And that’s part of the reason that I want everybody in my life to live so abundantly because I want to show you the way. I’m not here to gatekeep any of this. I’m here to share with you how we can all live like this. And that’s a great way to approach the conversation.
Chris Cooper (30:38):
And that’s, you know, one thing that a lot of gym owners have to understand about wealth is you don’t become wealthy by taking from other people. Right. You’re not like having this lifestyle at their expense. Most of the wealthy people that you and I know got wealthy by making other people successful.
Ashley Haun (30:55):
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Cooper (30:57):
And so, that is kind of the key. How do you handle it when your dream lifestyle is maybe nowhere near the dream lifestyle of your partner or spouse or your family? You know, for example, maybe you want to fly, travel around the world, and they just want to stay at home on a rocking chair or vice versa?
Ashley Haun (31:13):
Yeah. That’s a good one because there has to be a common thread between you, and maybe it’s not today’s—or, you know what, I take that back. It could be that mine is to travel the world and, you know, someone else’s is to sit at home, and that’s the person you’re in a relationship with, so then your day to day becomes your common thread.
Chris Cooper (31:35):
OK.
Ashley Haun (31:36):
I think that’s—you know, because that’s how you’re going to find a common ground to walk together with. And you know, Kara and I, Kara’s and mine are very different. Like I love her to death, but her goal is to hang her 10 toes off of a surfboard. That is her ultimate life goal. Not mine, but it’s cool, right? And there’s zero judgment on my part. I think it’s a great goal, and it’s super hard, and I don’t know how to do it. And very few people do know how to do it. But, you know, our, it’s—my goals as far as business goes, and the number of people I want to help is different than what she’s trying to accomplish. But we also have a common thread of what we want to.
Chris Cooper (32:19):
But you can both surf, right? Like you do have that in common. Yeah.
Ashley Haun (32:22):
Yeah. Yeah. We both can surf. I’m not nearly as good as Kara. I kind of just stand up.
Chris Cooper (32:29):
Yeah. That’s cool. That’s cool. OK, Ashley. So, this is—there are a lot of gym owners listening to this, and they’re like, “Ah, I’m frigging mopping my floor at 10 o’clock at night. I’m listening to this. Like, why do I—why should I even care about building my dream lifestyle and building a plan to get there and like designing it and talking to my spouse about it? Like, this is my life. It’s never going to change.” Right? What do you say to those people?
Ashley Haun (32:54):
You only get one of them. You only get one life. And if mopping the floor at 10 o’clock at night is really and truly what you want over and over again, great. But if it’s not truly what you want, if you’re resentful a little, even just a little bit about it, then go out and find somebody that has done one thing that you’re inspired by and ask them how they did it. And start there; start with that and build momentum on, “OK, you know what? I liked that. I did that. I want to do the next thing.” And because it doesn’t have to be this way.
Chris Cooper (33:29):
That’s great. And the beautiful part is that if you talk to somebody who works a 9 to 5, they’re working in middle management or something, they don’t have a lot of freedom on how they set up their lifestyle, but entrepreneurship gives you that freedom. And if you’re a gym owner, you’re doubly lucky. Ashley, thanks so much for coming on. Where can people reach you if they want to start setting up their dream lifestyle?
Ashley Haun (33:51):
Yeah. I’m on Instagram at braveashleyhaun. Facebook, same thing. Ashley Haun or www.ashleyhaun.com.
Chris Cooper (34:00):
So awesome. Thanks Ash.
Ashley Haun (34:01):
Thanks Coop.
