Episode 148: The Power of Resilience with Brynn Putnam

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I've been doing a lot of jewelry. I had a jewelry show on Saturday.

How did you do that? Oh, you did the update this morning. That's why I knew that. Oh, I got a question for you.

Sure.

Do you know what animal sound this is? Christina, do you know what this is?

I'm ready.

Yes.

You're mad at us, aren't you?

What?

What is that?

You just talked over as a woman getting the animal ready. And you talked over it.

So that's a woman getting an animal ready.

That. That was the sound. Yeah, yeah. Not the woman. What was that sound? One more time. Yes. You're mad at a third shoe. Oh, my God. That was the whole sound you got. What animal is that? It's an animal to bat. Close. Very, very close. What's the.

I was actually gonna say that too.

A robin cookie.

It's my guest.

It's a goat. It's actually a goat. It's a baby goat. Yeah. It looks like a bat. It's ears, if you can see the picture.

It looks like a ferret.

It's not even close to a bat.

I know. Okay, you ready to get started?

I'm so ready. You are listening to the Profit first podcast, episode 148. There it is.

Mmm.

Dancin dancing. Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. I'm Christina Bulduk, the event specialist of Profit First.

Yeah. At the Bing. Carmen. I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First. Among with other books, you know, Profit first was released now, three months ago, four months ago. In the box, an expanded edition. It was kind of crazy.

Crazy.

Time goes crazy.

Time to go. But if you don't recognize that voice, that's Kelsey.

Hey, guys.

And you. You are listening to the Profit first podcast. This is a show where we explore of profitability.

Every single part, including overcoming adversity.

That's what we're gonna be doing today.

Yeah. Yeah. So you can find us over on itunes. Stitcher, Tune in, radio, Google Play, of course, profit first podcast.com, and anywhere. That's anywhere that you find a podcast.

So, Christina, I was totally jumping early by asking Kelsey what she's been up to. This is normally when we ask each other what we've been up to, so we've been.

Okay. It's because you didn't ask me.

Yeah. What have you been up to?

Oh, we've been hiking a lot. Although my dog got really sick, actually. Yeah. Anybody goes hiking with her dogs, please be careful, especially this time of year. Number one, the ticks are, like, crazy. We picked like, 20 off of him the other day.

Oh, my God. Where did you go?

Well, we go, like, in the woods, you know, like on the trails.

You know, we usually go for hiking.

Yeah. You know, but no, he took a drink from a stream. He literally took, like, two sips and he got rid. Yeah. So he's good. He's good now, but that was a pricey.

So don't let your dogs drink from a stream. Was it a stream or is it standing water?

No, it was an actual stream, but we think it was, like, runoff from the.

From the cesspool?

No, from the ski mountain where we live. So it might have been, like, from.

I don't know.

But yeah, just be careful.

Okay, I'm with you. What have you been up to, Kel?

I've been hiking, too.

Yeah?

Yeah. It's kind of a nice rebuild.

Did you get 20 ticks on you?

I got bit by a tick.

What?

Yeah. I have to go to the doctor.

Seriously? Did you get a bullseye?

I didn't get a bullseye, but I, like, pulled it off. And I already had Lyme disease, so I don't want to get it Again.

You'Ve had Lyme's disease.

Yeah. M. My God, we're outdoorsy.

On that note.

Yeah. So on that note, let's.

What have you been up to?

Thank you for asking. I've been flying a lot. I have a little cold. Can you hear it?

Yeah, a little bit. I actually can't hear.

I can't really know that you do.

Because of the tissues.

Oh, no. It's jammed up my nose. Yeah, the tissues up my nose. No, so. Oh, I should really fade this music out because it's horrible. So. I've been traveling like crazy. I got you. I don't know if you know, you kind of hooked me up. Of the three flights I was most recently on, every single one is able to catch an entire road to myself. However, the flights are just empty flights or empty ish flights. Except for my last flight in Nashville. It was a packed flight. My first flight was canceled. It was packed. People were trying on the flight. For whatever reason, the people that were in the seats, the two seats next to me, didn't show.

Oh, how lucky.

So I quickly jumped over to the center seat. I had a window seat. Jumped to the center seat so that no one else was sprawled. So I'm sitting there, I'm stretching a lot until the plane takes off. And then I laid out and I slept so much on flights.

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, Yeah, I did plan that.

You hooked me up with some empty flights, so you did a good job.

Okay, so we have a couple.

You're a little snarky today. I just want you to know.

You know what? She's sassy. I like it.

Sassy and snarky.

We have a couple shout outs today. The first one is a shout out to Jennifer. Come on, man.

Yeah.

To Turlik, CEO of Markerkids. Www.markerkids.com.

That'S Maker Kids.

Oh, my God.

That's awes.

Can you tell? It's Monday, so read that.

Who's it?

Let me try that again. Jennifer Tul, CEO of Maker Kids. That makes more sense. She says my bank balance is way higher than it's ever been. About three times. You're a genius. And of course she's referring to profit first.

Could you imagine if Jennifer site was Marker Kids barking on her face?

I was thinking like, oh, that's fun. She sells markers for the kids. That's awesome, right? Also, we have a question that came in from Chris Rohrer. He's. What is it? Nvng.com NVNG Creative LLC. They work with clients to craft branding, identity and advertising strategies.

What's his question?

He's referring to page 97 in profit first.

Oh yes, yes, good old page.

And in quotes. In most cases, businesses have never paid taxes on behalf of their owners in parentheses, even though they should. So his question is, I've been attempting to learn more about this approach and my research has up almost completely empty handed. By chance, could you shed some additional light on why businesses should be paying their owners taxes and how that works for business owners in real life?

First of all, go to MarkerKids.com no. You know, because a business owner, we start our businesses for one of two reasons. One is to have an impact on others, to serve others. Sec.

Right.

You started a business because you want to serve others. Secondly, to achieve some degree of financial freedom like we want to make some kind of living out of what we do. Well, to make a living, people play a shell game. They say, well, I'm paying myself and then tax taxes come. They haven't paid any of their taxes and panic ensues and they take all the money that they can find and pay taxes. So effectively they haven't paid themselves. It becomes a shell game. The reason the business needs to pay taxes is to achieve financial freedom so that the owner is paying themselves a reasonable salary so that they have the taxes paid for them by the business and so that all the elements are covered. Otherwise it's a shell game. The second thing is the, the insanity people go through when they have to pay taxes. They business owner will say, well, I'll incur more expenses. I'll buy whatever I can just to buy stuff so that I don't spend money on taxes. Basically they spend $10 to save three. It makes no sense. But when the business pays for the taxes, reserve the taxes for them, there's not that visceral response that they have. And they don't waste money. So there's a couple of benefits. It's amazing how many people email me and say my business paid my taxes this year. I can't believe how great I feel. That's the objective.

That's awesome.

That's amazing is what it is. Right?

Right.

Yeah. I made it funny. I made it funny. What else we have to get through here, Christina?

Oh, you know, sponsors. Who's our sponsors? Or I'm sorry, corporate partners.

Corporate partners. Fundera who sponsored Master Meetup. Right. Which by the time this airs his Mastery Meetup already.

No, that would be fun. Box.

Oh my God. We wish you sponsored Mastery Meetup. Yeah. Oh God. Oh well. Funder is amazing. Nonetheless. We'll talk about them a little bit. Fund box. You know what? I think they sponsored Mastery Meetup, if I remember.

Oh, they did.

Yeah.

Good memory.

Yeah. Thank you. I really work on that a lot. They're amazing. You are snarky.

I'm sorry.

No, it's funny. I like it. Nextiva, voice over ip, phone system receipt, bank and Xero. Who is our hero? We'll talk about all of them in a little bit. Actually, I got a little. Do we have that Correction? Someone emailed me about Zero the mess up. Who was that from? Do you remember?

Yeah, it was Peter McCarroll.

Yeah. Slammed me.

Oh, my God.

Zeros from Australia. You know, he's like, they're from New Zealand. So Peter's from New Zealand. And he's like, they're from New Zealand, pal. And so he made all these suggestions of ways I could improve things, and he's totally right.

Yeah.

Get it together.

It's on here. You can say that. You can say. You can make. You can make fun of me because he's walking away. She grabs my. My sheet. Oh, it's right on there. Oh, okay. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. It's on the sheets.

Do we have to shout out one other temporary? Amex America.

Oh, American Express. Yes, thank you. And I even hand wrote that on there. So I'm doing a new show with American Express called Turning Points. And actually our guest today was on Turning Points, and that's why we're bringing her on.

Nice.

That's awesome.

Yeah. So Turning Points are business owners that faced some turning point or change in their business and they actually took that tiger by its tail. They're not always great stories. It's not like, oh, a big investor came and gave me money. That's not a turning point. Like when disaster strikes. How do you handle it?

Yeah.

So that's where our guest is going to talk about today. Her name is Bryn Putnam. Now, do we have anything else we gotta talk about?

Yeah, you know, I just want to shout out real quick. We get these bottles of wine from our members, as we all know. This one looks delicious. It's a pinot noir. But this comes from Lynn Matice. She said she increased three of her best clients. That equates to 15k more per year in fees for the same work. She's.

Oh, that's awesome.

Increase her confidence. She's so excited for this year. Congratulations.

Congratulations. All right, let's get down to business, right?

Yeah, do it.

Hold on. First I want a Nice big old punch to the face. Okay. Her name is Bryn Putnam. Have you heard that name before?

I have.

Where?

Through emails.

Oh, she knows her.

That's right. Did you ever check out our website refine Method?

I didn't.

Why not? You should have. It's really cool. So what she does is it's a boutique fitness studio that offers a smarter, more efficient way to work out. She. She kind of spies on other fitness studios and she takes her best stuff and then refines it. She is a ballerina, professionally changed ballerina. And she's a Harvard grad. So talk about the two most intimidating things for me and a Harvard grad. And she's developed the refined method and continues to develop it. She started her first studio in a church, 500 square foot room, and the place has taken off tremendously. So we're going to learn she's faced a major turning point in her business too. So we're going to learn that right now. Bryn, welcome to our show.

Welcome, Bryn.

Welcome.

Are you still with us?

Hi.

Okay, I didn't know by now after all that talking, I'm out of here. I'm leaving.

So I want to get in on the wine club.

Oh, my God. You have come over here and boost. So here's. Let me set the stage for Kelsey and Christina. So Bryn walks into the studio. We're recording in New York. Right, Bryn. And you know, perfect posture. She's ripped, you know, total ballerina. And she comes and sits down so I'm feeling all like uncomfortable with my body. Totally, right? And she goes, oh, her exact words, Brendan, don't deny. She goes, oh, you have nice arms. She goes, but those are vanity muscles. And then she goes, oh. And then she goes, and your ass could use some work. Right?

I think I was nicer.

It was nicer. That was the gist of it.

Yes.

And then I was trying to stick my chest out so that I looked like at least masculine whatsoever. And then you start busting my chops about that.

Oh, my goodness.

He's got some good arms, but not a lot going on everywhere.

Yes.

Vanity muscles, conversation.

So, guys, Bryn, what are the most common vanity muscles that guys work on versus women?

Biceps and chest, I would say, are the winners for guys. And women tend to be a little more butt focused.

And so what do we need to do to work ourselves out properly, like bring about balance and stuff?

I think the best thing is just to realize that your body isn't Mr. Potato Head. It's not a series of parts kind of strung together, but your Body is built to do certain movements, like sitting down and reaching for things and lifting things, carrying things. So you should train your body like a series of movements rather than a series of muscles, and you'll be healthier and hotter.

Don't skip leg day, guys. What do you mean, the thing? No, they say. A lot of guys, they focus on. I see it in the gym all the time. I'm dating a bodybuilder, and most of the time, they, you know, they always are pumping up their chest and their arms because they care about the muscles. And their legs are so skinny.

Toothpicks, right? Yeah.

But your legs need to be strong.

Yeah.

They skip them all the time.

Yeah, but how do we're. Get to your business in a second. But how do you get past that mindset? So, like me, I'm like, I gotta. I gotta do more curls. Like, I. I'm totally stuck in that mindset, or what do I need to do to start bringing about that balance?

I think, unfortunately, usually what happens is there's a turning point. Someone usually gets hurt, or there's something that happens where someone feels pain and that inspires them to kind of change how they've been training. But realistically, if you think about kind of the big things that your body does. You squat, you bend over, you push things, and you pull things, and you kind of train doing those types of movements. You'll create a program where your body's going to look better and feel better. So usually the. The proof is just giving it a shot for some period of time, and you'll. You'll feel the difference and see the difference.

Yeah. I found it another way to turn you. You said when you feel that big pain, have a ballerina mock you.

Yeah.

In a studio.

That's your pain. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm like, oh, my God, I got to start working out. So, Brent, I was doing those stretches you were suggesting to me, like, that lunge, kind of. That is really powerful. I got to show you all later. Yeah, yeah. And she. Yeah, I'm trying. I'm making her.

Mike is preparing to stretch. Mike is in sort of the pre stretch phase.

Yeah. She had me, like, hold my hands up, like, you know, and I had my hands up in the air like I do now. And then I had to lift my hands without moving my shoulders. But I think I. I wanted to do the form so properly. I wonder if I was just, like, too intimidated, and I wasn't. I wonder if I can do it watching you. Yeah. She was, like, staring at me. She's like a little better form and so forth. I don't know. It was the public shaming in my sweaty armpits too.

Of course, there's that.

I'm kind of making fun of Brent. She was actually awesome and very helpful and actually very kind. I was throwing fake words in her mouth. All right, Bryn, let's get down to business now. So what inspired you to start the refine method from the beginning? Like coming out of Harvard as a ballerina? How do you start the refine method?

Yeah, I was dancing after I graduated from school and just started teaching fitness to make ends meet. And when I decided to retire from dancing, I looked at fitness as a full time job. And for me, it was really just selfishly, I wanted to know how to work myself out better now that I wasn't dancing anymore. And a lot of the things that I had been taught as a teacher didn't really make sense to me. So I spent about a year traveling around the country, meeting with physiologists and trainers and coaches and business owners and kind of compiled that information into something that I felt made sense for my clients who weren't athletes. They were just sort of your average mom and dad looking to feel better.

Yeah. So the part where it doesn't make sense, I think a lot of people experience that we are either a consumer of an industry or we're trying to step into an industry and we realize what the industry is doing doesn't make sense. But it seems rare that someone steps up and says, I'm going to define a new way. And if the fitness studios and so forth weren't working out for you and you presented something new, didn't your customers say, hold on, this has never been done before? Isn't there resistance to it?

Yes, absolutely. I think the biggest challenge for our clients is not necessarily to move differently, but to think differently. And I've had that for seven years. There are some clients who arrive and say, but I've always done it this way. I don't know if I want to do it differently. Usually we just ask them, is it working for you? If you're really happy and you feel good about yourself and good about your body, then we're not trying to change that. But if you feel like there's room for you to grow and change, then trust us for some period of time. Take a leap of faith. And what do you have to lose if it's not working, Try something different.

Yeah, I can imagine that leap of faith because we all get into our routine. I'M into my routine and now you're introducing something new. How do you help them bridge that leap of faith, though? I mean, how do they stick with it until it becomes the new routine? I assume that takes at least in the workout arena, months, years. How do you keep them motivated as they change their routine?

For us, honestly, the easiest way we've done, we figured out how to sort of trick people into committing to a new way for at least 90 days is we find, financially incentivize them. So our pricing is designed to incentivize you to work out with us at least twice a week for 90 days. And generally what happens is if you commit to that program with us, you feel the difference and you start to understand it. And then from there, usually you're hooked. But we sort of trick people with advantageous pricing.

Okay, do you have any clients that push back in that type of mentality though? Because I know quite a few people. Like, if I'm doing a certain program, I'm like, oh, it's a 90 day fix. But they're like, yeah, but jump, jump, jump starts don't really work because once you're done in 90 days, don't you kind of revert back to your old habits?

Yeah, I mean, our goal is not to promise dramatic changes in 90 days. Our goal is just to get people over that hump of, you know, they come to our first class and there are certain things that they just don't see. Like we don't do crunches or sit ups. We don't do any kind of quote unquote ab work lying on the ground. For a lot of them, they're using heavier weights than they're comfortable with or used to. So really our kind of challenge that we call it our challenge pricing is designed to just get people to try. So for us, if we get you to sort of try the program, live the program for 90 days, usually it becomes a lifestyle change. Most of our clients have been with us for five or six years. So, you know, we're not offering a quick fix, but we do understand that you need to try something for a long enough period of time to feel the difference.

Well, talking about try, I think you've lived what you're coaching through business. You tried out your new business, refined method in a church, and now it's grown on. I guess you became defined by this new routine. Like it worked in the gym, it worked in the church, and then you expanded it out. So why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got Your business started and kind of set the stage for us in the church. That where you started?

Yeah. So when I made the decision to open my own studio, I had a pretty big limitation, which is New York real estate isn't cheap, certainly not real estate that's big enough to accommodate a gym. So I spent many months kind of just wandering the city by foot, looking for unusual spaces that I might be able to convert into a gym. And one day I stumbled on a Russian church that was finishing their morning service. I think it's probably one of two or three Russian churches in Manhattan, and I'm a Russian literature major. So I just sort of casually struck up a conversation with the minister who was standing outside, and he mentioned that they had a room to rent. And the catch was that every Saturday, we had to basically take down all of our fitness equipment and turn the space over to the church for Sunday services and then sort of refit the space on Sunday night for classes to begin again for the week. And. And perhaps youthful optimism at the time, I grabbed it. So I was able to take my small $15,000 savings from my years of dancing and apply that to converting this room into a gym.

And what are they charging at the Russian church for rental? The space?

Oh, gosh. I think our initial rent was maybe $1,400 a month.

And what would have been. That sounds pretty good. New Jersey, it sounds like. Actually, like you can get space in New Jersey. I think for 1400, though, you're. Yeah. I mean, I think you are saying, like, that's a good deal. But I'm wondering, what does space in New York cost comparatively, the equivalent space in a retail area? What's the cost there?

Oh, I would say probably 10,000.

Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? That's unbelievable. That's ridiculous. So, okay, it's huge savings. Now, are you in the vestibule or are you in the. The. Like, where are you on the altar, like, saying, lift your hands, jump higher, like, where. I can't envision this in the church.

So we're not in the sanctuary. There's a room right in front of the sanctuary, which is our space. However, for the first three or four years of the business, actually, there was the adult baptismal font, which was a commercial refrigerator that they had converted into a fount for performing adult baptisms, which was actually too big to move out of the door. So we converted into our desk.

Now, this is a story.

When you came to refine method, you saw this large silver cube with a cross on it, and that Was my desk.

So hold on, hold on, hold on. A adult baptismal refrigerator, Right.

I can't picture that.

I can't even picture it. Okay. They don't call it refrigerator or. Okay. But.

But it was an old refrigerator.

It's filled with water, right?

Yep.

And then you make it into your. You make into your desk.

Yep.

Unbelievable. They're like people are dipping when they baptize. They go all the way under, right?

Yeah. So imagine basically the bottom half of a. Of a silver cube, you know, cut. Cut in half. And they put a wood top on it that they took off. And then they attached a hose to the back to fill it with water. And, you know, they needed a container that was large enough for an adult to sit inside and then be submerged in water, which they do. I believe they do most of their baptisms on Easter once a year.

I mean, I'm not like. You ever watch Dateline? Because it sounds, I mean, this could be like a dateline episode, you know what I'm saying? Like, or it could be a great religious thing. It's kind of funny. So. Okay, so now I'm kind of getting a sense for the space, and this sounds very cramped. How many people do you have working out in this church space you were using?

Yeah, so that was sort of the first challenge of the space was how do you find equipment that allows you to teach the most people possible in this small room and also is easily convertible each week? Because we were going to be doing effective a move every Saturday. And what I realized was that we really didn't have the space for gym equipment. We didn't have room for weight racks or machines or any of the traditional pieces you'd find in the gym. And so we had to build our own equipment. So what we built was a wall mounted cable tower that takes up just three feet of width. So if you imagine two vertical metal posts that mount on the wall and then a series of springs that provide resistance. And so each person who comes to our studio gets their own cable tower. And all of their workout occurs in a 3 foot by 6 foot space, which allows us to offer a gym experience in a really small room.

So it sounds like the constraints, physical constraints, maybe financial constraints that combined actually sparked massive innovation for you.

Yeah, I'm really grateful for the limitations of the church, honestly, because I think that had we had an unlimited budget, we wouldn't have invented our equipment. And I think our equipment not only allows us to accommodate more people in our space, but I think it's also a great Way for people who are not used to lifting weights or comfortable with gym equipment to become more comfortable because the machine looks like nothing they've ever seen before. So you don't get that intimidation factor that you get with traditional gym equipment. I think it allows us to kind of welcome beginners into our space.

All right, so let's go to step two. You prove out the model. You're highly innovative, you're getting traction. You moved into a new space.

Yeah, we had an inflection moment. New York magazine named us the best new gym in New York. And we were just kind of overwhelmed by interest. And so we were able to use the money we generated from our first studio to open our first really large, large space, which was a 2,000 square foot facility right on Union Square.

Did you keep the mentality of building your own equipment since that kind of became your niche, so to speak, or did you then transition to more traditional, like, gym equipment?

No, we kept our equipment. Over the years, we've become more professional with the equipment. The initial equipment, my husband jokes that we were actually installing on the walls of the first studio, he and I, on Thanksgiving, because on Refined method, you do terrible things on holidays. We were installing by hand, and we were covered in sawdust. And he actually was planning on proposing because it was our anniversary. And we were unfortunately there so late in the night and bickering so much because of this terrible construction that he actually decided not to propose.

That's funny.

Me, I got engaged a month later because of Refined methods equipment.

So Brennan, Bryn's husband, and I have become good friends in the last few hours. And originally he was planning. I don't know, Bryn, if you knew this, of jumping out of the baptismal refrigerator, but it was too much like a reincarnation. It was just too freaky. So that's why he tried this other plan. So, okay, here's the deal. You're in your new space, 2,000 square feet, business is booming, and then literally, Hurricane Sandy's coming your way. Yep. And the landlord ain't working out. That's Russian. Ain't means it's not. So tell me that. That. Tell us about the final hours of. Of you in that space. This story blew me away when we were talking last time.

Yeah, we had sort of, you know, forgive the pun, but kind of the perfect storm that happened October 31st. Hurricane Sandy had just hit. The city was entirely shut down. There was a blackout in lower Manhattan. Really, everything was closed. And at the same time, we had been dealing with some difficulties with our landlord and so on the morning of October 31st, I actually called my dad, who had drafted our lease, and he said, well, you know, you do have a clause in your lease that allows you to vacate without penalty by the 31st, provided that you move everything out of the space and turn over the keys and give notice by midnight. So we, my husband and I, traveled down to Union Square in the blackout, arrived at our building to find that the electronic door actually wasn't working. So the building was entirely open to the street, and walked inside and kind of stood there and sort of made the decision to actually vacate the space in the blackout between 10am and midnight.

So the day before, you're not thinking about moving out. The day of, you're like, all right, we're moving out. We have 10 hours.

Yeah, I mean, I think honestly, you know, we were really in the mindset of this was, you know, our first. Our first space. You know, it was such a big milestone. We'd really just moved in, I believe, nine months before. And I wasn't really ready to let it go. But I think I arrived on site to the door being open. It was like a scene out of a western. Like, the streets were silent and the door was flapping open, and to kind of walk inside and see our equipment and all the love that had gone into this space and realized that kind of the business was in jeopardy if we didn't make the decision to jump and, yeah, just resolved to move and figure it out.

What goes through your mind during this? I mean, I think the common person would just say, I give up. Like, Hurricane Sandy hit, business is done. Why don't we restart one day in the future? But you're during the aftermath of a hurricane moving. What's going through your head?

Yeah, I don't know if it's just like youthful hubris, but I think when you literally kind of build a business with your money, your hands. Initially, I taught all the classes, answered all the emails, all the calls. Just so much of me was in the space that I just decided that I had to just keep going. I just kind of had to push a little bit harder for a little bit longer to get to the next.

Step, but pushing harder. Like that day, you and your husband. He's a faithful guy, by the way. I mean, he's an older. I love. I love him. Are moving stuff in in the dark, right?

Yeah. So we, you know, we were on the third floor. The elevator obviously was out because there was no power. So we were up three flights of stairs and we had this equipment which were, you know, these steel tubes screwed into the wall. We had no. No tools, no lights.

You do have a glow stick. I heard. Tell us about the glow stick. This is true.

Yeah. So we reached out to all of our staff and said, hey, we're going to do this crazy thing today, and we need lights. Does anyone have access to light? Because there was a shortage in Manhattan of any light source at that time. And two of my staffers wrote back. One said that she had a small handheld camping lantern, and the other said, I have a glow stick.

A glow stick.

A glow stick. Isn't that the best?

Yeah.

Single glow stick. She had just graduated from college, and she had. I guess they're in a party and she had a glow stick. So they came down to the studio, passed off their light, and we basically set to work kind of unscrewing the equipment from the walls, carrying weights down three flights of stairs. Really just my husband and I moving everything out of this space to the sidewalk.

You know, I know hindsight's 20 20, but you could have made this your new workout regimen. You could have called all your clients and said, hey, we figured out this new workout. It's called the three flight climb of moving equipment. And also, I don't know if he knows. When I talked to your husband this morning, he said that he was also intending to approach you. Wait for it. He was going to approach you that day and think it was time to start a family, but decides to because you guys started bickering not to do it. I don't know if that's true, but that's why I heard.

Unfortunately, it was also October 31st, was Halloween, and also my husband's 30th birthday.

You guys have rough holidays.

Gosh. So tell us about the outcome of this. You. You're moving in the aftermath, you're skipping your husband's birthday, and where do you end up?

So we. I had, you know, called a company online and had reserved a moving van and storage facility. And our plan was to just move everything to this storage facility while we figured it out. And I basically, like, kind of wrapped the glow stick around my head, walked from Union Square over to, you know, 11th Avenue in Chelsea to this moving facility and found out that it was closed. But the call center that was renting things was actually located out of Manhattan and didn't realize that the facility had shut down. So we now had all our things just sitting on the sidewalk and really just didn't know where to go. So, you know, I was. I basically was fortunate enough. I called my mom, who had some suggestions about kind of who to call and how to get there. And we were able to find an alternate moving company and an alternate storage facility and really got ourselves out of the space. By 11:59, it was really down to the wire and, you know, turned over the keys and said goodbye.

Incredible.

That's insane. Where's your business stand today? After going through that massive inflection point? Where's your business stand today? Healthy. Unhealthy.

Yeah. So we're really fortunate. Now that we have three locations in Manhattan, we are profitable. And each location has been powered by the success of the previous location. I think sort of the learnings for me from that experience were that all the spaces that we've built out subsequently have been sort of these unusual spaces with below market rents. And I've been really kind of cautious about each step and have made sure that sort of the success of the business fuels its growth. And, you know, as a result, I think we've been able to weather sort of the ups and downs of New York real estate and the client climate and all these things, because we really are building spaces based on the love of our clients.

And your business is profitable, right? I mean, this is the.

We are profitable.

Yeah. I mean, this is the Profit first podcast. All right, so here's the deal, Bryn. There's thousands of folks listening to the show. Your story probably connects with them. Starting in the basement, a refrigerator. Those type things, I think, are actually very common. I think your mentality is uncommon. Challenge of challenge. You went through it. What's your advice that you can give our listeners on facing challenges and staying profitable?

I think that the biggest piece of advice is that, you know, while financial success or sustainability is a vital part of founding a business, you know, your business needs to be able to support you and your family. I think it's really important that if you're going to open a business and run a business for many years, through many ups and downs, that you truly wake up excited each day about the problem that you're solving or the people that you're serving. So, for me, I still get really excited when I am able to make someone feel more confident about their body by giving them information that they didn't have before. And that kind of fuels me, and I think that fuels most of the successful entrepreneurs that I know is that they're dealing with a problem that they really feel passionately about, regardless of the profits involved.

Yeah, that passion clearly sees you through. Okay. I Love it. And next time I'm in the city, you did offer me a workout, so I gotta take you up on it.

Yeah.

And film it.

It better only be curls by the. All we're doing is curls and bench presses. That's it. That's it.

Yeah. The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Yeah. No, I'm ready to work out. I am totally ready to work out with you. Hey, so in the meantime, we want more people coming to your studio. How can people listening to the show learn more about where to find your locations and get involved?

Yeah. Check us out@refinemethod.com and refine method on social media. We have locations in Manhattan, on the Upper west side. Upper east side. And in the West Village.

The last thing is, as Britt and I were talking, you know, she walks like. You can just tell she's a dancer. Right. And I said, I can't remember the exact question. Britain, I asked you, but it sounds like there's almost a code among dancers. Like you can spy each other across the street, right?

Yeah. We were joking. It's like the Jeep wave. Even nine months pregnant, you can kind of spot a dancer from across the street.

All right, you dancers out there, start waving to Bryn when you see her. All right, Bryn, thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Bryn.

Thanks so much, guys.

All right, so here's the dealio. I'll go back to my notes. We are going to talk about what we learned from Bryn today. I have some interesting insights that I didn't expect to gain that I'm going to share. Plus, we'll talk about some other things. But first, I want to thank our corporate partners.

Yes.

And there's some new sexy stuff we're going to be sharing in this update.

Sexy.

Yeah. This is my hook for not fast forward through the sponsors. I'm going to fast forward through it. Don't. Because you're gonna miss out on a couple cool key facts here. The anticipation is building. Let's. Why don't you say their company names and I'll share some of the amazing key facts.

Okay.

Nextiva, did you want to say something? Nextiva? Nextiva is a voiceover IP phone system. We use it here. And they've laid down the gauntlet. You know, talking about the gauntlet, the owner has challenged me to a. A tennis match again.

Are you good at tennis match this?

No, I. I can hang my own. Like, I can run enough to get to the ball. I can't hit it well, but. But as a game goes on, I can. I swing my Rack real great. I kick the ball. But the benefit is. Listen, I'll play you in tennis there, chief. I don't care how good you are. Like, by the third or fourth set, I think it's called, like, you know, I'm still playing and I start. I start tiring the other person and my. And my verbal assault on them, too.

Yeah.

So he keeps laughing at me because last time I'm classy. I'm like, oh, you suck. The last time I played, I didn't have sneakers, so I played in my Vibram. Those. Those five finger shoes.

Oh, no.

Do you like those?

I love those. I love those things.

Do you break any toes?

No, but they're not good for tennis.

Yeah.

So he's like, oh, I kicked your butt and so forth. I'm like, dude, I had, like, sores on my feet within a minute. So now I'm wearing proper, proper shoes. I'm gonna beat him. Him.

Kick his arse.

Okay, another fun fact. Give me another company.

0.

0 is accounting software. Now, I love the face you make. Like, zero. Tell me something. Here's the story. They are not from Australia. They're from New Zealand.

Yeah.

Auckland, perhaps. What do you want to say?

Perhaps you shouldn't say.

I'm just making that up. I just said that's the only city I know in New Zealand.

Yeah, perhaps you shouldn't say information you're not sure about.

Okay, I shouldn't say that. You know, they were founded by two ballerinas, perhaps. I'm just saying. Yeah, so they're. They're based out of New Zealand. We use them for two years and. Phenomenal, phenomenal software.

Yeah. Yeah, I love them.

And we're actually still using. We're so the funny thing is we still go back to the system to pull information out because. Well, because that's where our information is. So we still use it in part. I wish we're still using, quite frankly. All right, who else we got?

Fundbox.

Yeah, Mike, just stop talking Fundbox. You know what Funbox does give you.

A box of fun.

It's a box of fun. It's a cash flow accelerator. So if you have invoices due to you right now, you can get that money released to you immediately by Fundbox. And who's coming to our office from Fundbox? Joanna. Right.

Joanna.

Yeah, she's a boozer.

She's amazing.

I don't know.

She's not a boozer. She's so much fun.

I don't even think she drinks, actually.

Okay, Fundera.

Fun. Facts just don't stop. You know, I think how the company was founded was someone says, I dare you to start a fun company. Dare. Fun. Fun. Dare. Oh, I think that's how the name came about.

Yeah. Clever.

That's crazy.

So here's what they do. They it was clever. They are a one stop shop for loans. You need money for something in your business, go to Fundera, they shop it around for you, they come back with, with all the options and suggestions on who you should proceed with. And they don't even charge for it. I mean, they get a commission from, but they don't charge you. So your loan is the same amount. It's not like it gets inflated or anything.

Yeah. What about receipt bank?

Oh my gosh. What about them? What can I not say about them? I mean, they come here, I who is that? That young lady, Bora, and I call her Laura. All day I'm like, hey, Laura. And it's so funny because I thought, I thought I was reading a book. They said the more often you use someone's names, the more enamored they become with you. So I kept on saying, hey, Laura, let me show you something. Hey, Laura. It's good to see Laura. Would you like to grab lunch with me? Just me and you? Laura.

Laura.

I had no idea it was Bora. And I'll tell you what I do have an idea about though, is their software is the perfect tool for efficiency. You can scan in receipts, you can actually scan any documents it ties into your accounting system. Xero, qbo, Fresh books, any of that stuff.

Yeah.

All right. Is anyone else? Let's talk about.

Yeah, what about net payroll?

Oh my God. So we do use them. We love them. How long, Christina, you do the processing?

Oh, at least a year.

So at least a year. Efficient and easy. Hands down.

Amazing.

And we've had stuff like for example, Aaron had to be out for a while. We need to address something. For her especially, it's a quick. It's so easy because it's a phone call or an email. The these large companies, you gotta go online, fill out the online form, process it. Someone customer service emails you back and says you didn't enter it. Right. Please re enter right here. We're just calling, you know, emailing the owners.

Oh, they're so sweet. And they get, they treat you so well. Very personal relationship almost. It's very sweet.

Yeah, yeah. Is that everybody now?

That's everybody.

And American Express. We didn't talk about American Express yet. Turning Points. Yeah, Listen to Turning Points by American Express. It's awesome. Okay, so whatever podcast you're listening for too, write us to listen to us on right now. Just go type in turning points and download it. It's really cool, really fun. Plus, the first episode, I crack a beer on air. I really do. All right, let's go quickly. What did we learn today? Christina, you're up first.

Biggest challenge is to think differently. Not to move differently, but to think differently. And that not only applies to your body, but to your business as well. She had to think outside the box and find places to rent that were, you know, lower than average because that was their budget, and it actually worked to their favor. That's amazing.

And I think it's with the refrigerator and stuff, I think it's funny, but it's also. It's mythology for the company. All right, Kelsey, so what'd you learn? There's your cue.

I just appreciated her resilience time and time again. I think that's so empowering. And the innovation that came as a result of that is incredible. I mean, it kind of of created this base of her company and how she approaches it, and, yeah, it's inspiring to me.

Go with the flow.

Yeah, I love that too. You know, and I was busting her chops and being. She was not harsh with me at all, but she was factual. She said, here's what you need to do. And I think it takes a special talent to be able to speak the truth with enough slant that you're not offending the person.

Did you ask her for her opinion?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't just sit there and she's like, oh, my God, I've seen a better ass on a mule. No, I mean, I said, what do you think about my ass?

Yeah.

I did not. I did not. I just went in there. So here's the setup real quick. I had to do a pre interview with her on the phone, and she goes, yeah, I do this workout stuff. I said, oh, you know, I'm not really. I don't, like, work out or anything, and I'm really out of shape. You know, it's kind of staging it because I do, you know, I work out a lot. So I just saying that. So then when I see her, she's like, oh, you do work out. And that's when she went, oh, and your arms, you know, good job. But you realize you're not balancing things out. And then she demonstrated with my shoulders. I'm like. I was like. Like a Frankenstein. I couldn't move things. Then she got me on the floor, and I'm like, they're doing like this weird air humping thing. And she goes, oh, my God. Like, you can't even hump the air appropriately.

I bet that's what she said.

That's exactly what happened.

That was pretty close. That was pretty factual. And then she goes, it's cause your gluteus is not our glutes.

Gluteus.

Is it Gluteus. The gluteus. Glutes are not properly, you know, rounded.

Yeah.

So she was at the work. Her ass.

Well, listener, we want to know what you think about Mike's ass.

Yes. Hold on. One more before you cut me off. What did I learn today?

Today. What did you learn today?

Family really matters. It was interesting. She didn't say that, but she said in the beginning her dad was involved. Then her mom got involved, her husband, and it's very interesting. Successful entrepreneurs inevitably invoke their family, and her family's very supportive. So I thought that was cool how she used all her family to help her out.

I agree.

Okay, now you can. Now you can wrap me up.

I know. I'm sorry. So listen, we do. We want to know what you think about Mike's ass and about this show. So please go to Gluteus.

Is.

So please go to profit first. Podcast.com, iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere. You're listening. Post a comment. We love to see your comments. And we'll respond. Send us an email. You know, we just want to hear from you. We want to feel the love.

Yeah. We want to know what you learned. So go do that. Give us a rating and, oh, go to proffers. Professionals.com.

Of course.

Right. We're really. There's something changing here for the better. I've always been so proud of our organization, but the word is getting around such a high level. I was just down at Dave Ramsey's offices, you know, talking about profit first. They've started Dave Ramsey's organization, Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur Leadership. Started a book club or has a book club. And they're studying profit first now.

Yes. The book of the month.

Book of the month. I've been traveling all over the country. Germany. I'm going to Atlanta Wednesday, all over. Speaking about profit first. I spoke in Germany. A thousand people were at that event. I must have 50 or 60 emails them saying, you got to bring profit first to this country. This place.

Yeah.

Here's what I'm building toward. You should hire Profit first professional. Profit first is taking off because it's having an impact. We have a group of Profit first professionals, accountants, bookkeepers, and I'm just doing the music there. Oh, I should really turn up the music. We have bookkeepers, accountants, always people that teach profit first. So what you knew we do is go toProfit First Professionals.com, click on Find. We will hook you up with a professional that can take your business to the highest levels of profitability ever. Okay.

Ever.

Ever. That was it. That's all I got. Good. We good, guys? Yeah. All right. It's a little rocky today.

Until next time.

See ya. Oh, who's coming next week? Hold on. It's Ryan Lee. Ryan Lee. Oh, my God. I am so jacked up for Ryan Lee. This guy is funny.

I can't wait.

Pretty remarkable. I don't either. I hope. I don't try to be overly funny. Sometimes I try to impress people.

You try too hard, I'll knock you down. In fact, it's fine game.

You do that pretty quick because you do like a fake laugh.

I do. I do. But like, with br, I was trying to be over, like, strong. Like, I'm afraid of trying to be over funny.

Now, don't overthink it.

All right, Sam.