One of the Most Interesting Things I’ve Learned

As many people know by now, I spent over a decade navigating my company CITYROW through every imaginable up and down - and there are countless crazy stories to tell around every single aspect of that (yes, read the book for more ).

Yet I’m completely amazed by how fascinated people are not about that, but about the fact that I wrote a book! Like, way more interested in that than in how I built a multi-million dollar business.

Don’t tell my publisher or agent, but the book was honestly an afterthought at first. When I set out to write it, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I did know that I was going to be collaborating on it with someone (my colleague/friend Leanne) whom I was excited to collaborate with. I also had a feeling it would be fun/cathartic to tell my stories around CITYROW and have them on paper - it was a huge part of my life and I liked the idea of memorializing them.

Outside that, for the first two years my closest friends and family didn’t even know I was writing it because I legitimately forgot to tell them! Mainly because I was working a hundred hours a week building and keeping a company alive. 

At the time, it was just such a small thing that I was doing on a weekly basis for a couple hours here and there; it wasn't yet real to me. 

And yes, it was hard at times, and yes, it forced me to be vulnerable, but the amount of work that it took to write a book versus what it took to start and run a company is actually comical.

So I’m blown away with how impressed and excited people are.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as impressed and excited, but it’s just so interesting to me about how amazing storytelling is.

This all says something to me about the importance of storytelling in a tangible way. Not building. Not selling. Not standing behind the four walls of a nationwide fitness studio system or the algorithms of a connected fitness platform. 

Pure, raw storytelling really means something: it makes us feel like we’re not alone, someone else has been through it, and there aren’t just learnings, but also likely a solution, a mindset, or an end to almost everything, even the most painful things. 

And when one person (me) does it, it gives permission for other people (you) to share in the same way. 

I’m grateful to be here and to be able to share my story.