“Any idea that is held in the mind that is either feared or revered will, begin at once to clothe itself in the most convenient and appropriate physical forms available.” Dale Carnegie

At age 50, I left my career on Wall Street to pursue a career in fitness. I signed on with a national franchise to open a gym in Massapequa Park, NY. I had no idea what I was doing but luckily with the help of my mentors, Dustin, Thad, Matt and others, I acquired enough knowledge and experience to be confident to launch my business. At one point, I had decided I wanted at least 300 clients for my grand opening, a feat that was almost unheard of for an owner of their first location. I shared my intentions with Dustin who was a great supporter and even screenshotted the text message.

When I told him I was going to have that many clients in my grand opening, I really had no idea how I was going to do it. I’m sure he thought I was crazy too. That didn’t matter. I had my mentors and I believed that was all I needed. For the next 9 months I would keep the image of 300 clients in my mind constantly. I imagined what the workout sessions would look like. I imagined the rows of people sitting in the studio during my grand opening orientations. I visualized how the workout sessions would be conducted and what the culture would be in my gym. I visualized it all. For the next 9 months I worked on hiring the right coaches, learning the operations and mechanics of running a gym. I visited dozens of other owners and gyms to learn what I wanted and did not want. Most importantly, I began my market efforts, 6 months early.

My new coaches and I would run demo workout sessions. 3 months in advance of the grand opening. We honed our coaching skills to be able to bring a great experience the workouts.

With the advice, guidance, and marketing strategy, I ended up selling over 300 memberships for my grand opening. The orientations were exactly as I had envisioned it. We had 6 different orientation sessions and least 2 of them had over 50 people.

In the 2 years following the grand opening, I would use visualization many times to achieve many goals that I originally thought were outrageous. Each time I was able to prove they were not that outrageous.

Visualization is one of the most powerful practices one can do to achieve goals. It has been shown to be almost as effective as the real experience.

If you have goals, you must visualize and imagine, in detail, the successful attainment of those goals. You must keep the image of these goals in your mind persistently. While working towards these goals, the universe will bring you the people, places and material means necessary to achieve what you want.