After 15 years as a respiratory therapist, Cathleen Turner longed for a new adventure—so she decided to open a gym.
“I asked my husband, who had never even stepped foot into a CrossFit gym, if I could quit my well-paying health-care job and open our gym,” Cathleen recalled. “Being the loving and supportive man he is, he agreed.”
But just four days after opening, Cathleen’s business partner backed out.
“I am the primary caregiver to my two children, who were 5 and 6 at the time,” Cathleen said. “I got them up every day and out the door by 5 a.m. so I could coach at 6 a.m., ran them to school, ran back to the gym to coach at 830 a.m., picked them up from school and ran back to coach 4:30-p.m. classes. We were there until 8 p.m. most nights and at least six hours on Saturdays since I had to clean.”
Looking back, she’s not sure how she managed.
So, after eight months of spinning her wheels and “making all the rookie mistakes,” Cathleen decided to call Two-Brain Business.
Her mentor, Anastasia Bennett, helped her focus on improving operations.
“I was fortunate to have decent growth and retention in my first year,” Cathleen said, “but when I joined Two-Brain Business I was still coaching every class, cleaning, marketing and doing all the admin work. Within just a few months of working with Anastasia I had a full coaching staff, a cleaner, SOPs galore and a plan for what I wanted my business to be.”
Since getting her processes in line, Cathleen has hired a GM, which has allowed her the time to pursue a new source of revenue: opening an ice-cream shop.
“I now know how to separate business from personal feelings and relationships,” she said. “I am taking what I have learned the last few years and am using all this knowledge as we prepare to open our shop. The best part is I already have employee handbooks, contracts and SOPs ready to go—before we even open!”
With her business—Trust Athletics—chugging along, Cathleen is free to pursue her Perfect Day—which includes being able to just pack up and leave on a trip to somewhere warm, sunny and tropical.
“I realized last month I was there when we decided on a Saturday to book an all-inclusive in Punta Cana, and we left on that following Monday for a week! Having the time and resources to do this was awesome, and I’m looking forward to many more Perfect Days.”
