A story not just about CKB Fitness
In March of 2020 a group of fitness instructors in their homes all received the same email… “Williamson County Parks and Rec Gyms and Group Fitness programs are closed until further notice”. There was a collective pause and a common thought amongst them all, “But what about my classes… my clients… MY SANITY?” It took maybe five minutes before the first group text was sent among these friends (we’ll call them CKB) … “Why don’t we just teach TbKO together from one of our houses on Facebook?” Done.
What a joy that was! March 17, 2020, our first Facebook Live TbKO class took place. It was WAY more fun than we could have imagined and the response was tangible.
We began teaching in the bonus room, the garage, the driveway, in the cold and in a little rain! We taught for the people and we taught for ourselves. We pivoted because we LOVE what we do! Below is a small glimpse to the early days of our catalog:
Weeks went by as we continued to teach our Facebook live classes. Our virtual family grew, our connections grew stronger and our borders were expanded. One of our teammates coordinated a virtual “TbKO T-shirt day” and everyone sent in selfies in their shirts! The virtual love was booming and CKB was SO grateful for the joy and growth that was happening.
As mandates began to lift we began meeting outside in all of the parks we could find on Saturdays. We were reuniting with our TbKO Park Tour, and it felt so good!
This article is not meant to praise the efforts of CKB bringing fitness to the internet during the pandemic. Many people have done that, many people are doing that, and it’s WONDERFUL and NOT EASY!
This article is meant to encourage the desire, hopes, and cool ideas, that many of us have but put on the shelf for lack of self confidence or lack of know how.
There is a story to be told out of the dream you are holding onto and if you start to put words to your dreams and action to your words then you can put one foot in front of the other and build something you are proud of. You have to pivot; you have to adapt, and you have to be flexible! You have to try.
Our first pivot was teaching from Facebook, and we could have stayed there if we wanted. It was easy. We knew how to do it. There was an instant gratification with seeing folks pop online! However, even with those variables we ran into many issues. Sketchy internet, low sound quality, muted music. The more we used Facebook as a platform to teach the more we wanted to make the content better for our people on a consistent basis, so we PIVOTED and started putting words to our dreams and discussing HOW we could make that happen.
Some of that step was simply reaching out to people we thought could get us started. There is something especially motivating, vulnerable (and also a little frustrating) to talk about your vision to people and find that no one can help you get it off the ground. Not only that, but finding out that what you WANT to do does not exist on its own. You may just have to build it. It’s the best way to kick your butt into full gear when you realize that if YOU want it done you have to DO IT yourself.
We received lots of encouragement and several opinions, but one day K’s husband surprised the team by purchasing a domain name and adding a few of our pictures at TotalbodyKnockOut.com. It was our first non-verbal unprompted confidence nod to say “you guys can do this. CKB can do this”. Not long after that we were gifted beautiful tanks with our draft logo right to our doorstep from a dear friend! That’s where the second pivot came. Building a website and a brand around a format we loved. We launched our website on June 1, 2020.
A year ago, CKB would not have told you we would be able to add website builder, video editor, trademark researcher, fitness brand builder/certifier, virtual fitness content creator and choreographer to our resumes… but now we can. We yin and yang, ebb and flow and together have organically grown something that we may not have had if this pandemic would not have come. It may not have come if we would not have chosen to pivot and adapt… and be flexible.
If the story ends here and all CKB Fitness has to show for itself is how we united together with AMAZING people over the internet by bringing a little fitness joy and laughter to a dark time then we can all stand proud with our own personal testimony of what it looks like for us to pivot and adapt and be flexible. However, we feel our story will be much more than that!
Be encouraged! Continue to PIVOT! We will!
-CKB