373. A close confidant is keeping me in the loop, changing my ingrained responses to not be anxiety

Chapters

• 1:03 Planning a deer hunting escape
• 1:43 Confronting accusations from former members
• 4:09 Financial reality and refund plans
• 6:47 Managing stress and moving forward

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Happy Friday. Well, we made it. Today. We're going deer hunting for the weekend because I've been planning for probably a month, maybe two months, trying to get back into the normal reality. What does a normal Nathan do and what does it mean to have a life outside of work and biz ownership and all these duties that I do? What's something that I do for myself, and it's been a long time, so that's what I did. As a kid, I did a little bit of deer hunting with my dad and brothers, so we're going to be doing that this weekend, going up this time with friends because, since family aren't in the area as much, and doing that.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Something that jarred me last night regarding the gym and doing that Something that jarred me last night regarding the gym was definitely a close confidant who is still in the loop of all these things. There's an unofficial Facebook group, so I don't know. I think I know who created it. I don't know who created it, but there's this unofficial group for current members, former members, everyone who wants to be a part of it. People are just like funneling into it. But in there somebody asked about refunds and like, hey, I'm assuming we're not getting refunds, and one of the responses was actually from one of my former managers. Surprisingly, she said oh, no, worries, someone is submitting a complaint to the attorney general. This sounds like a criminal instead of a civil issue. Pm me or like DM me if you want more info on it. And so for what it's worth like, it sounds like at least one member I don't know if it's a multiple people, but at least one member thinks that I committed criminal actions by not paying myself for five months and paying my staff and then charging members leading up to the gym closure, and then they're not getting a same day refund. So I haven't received any news on that, but apparently that's something that a member thinks is the right way to get a refund to message our attorney general and report that. So I'll admit that really jarred me at first, just the thought of like going to jail. What would it mean to have that on my record, and fortunately my wife was able to talk some reality into me of you don't go to prison for overcharging someone's credit card because it doesn't add up and we haven't paid ourselves in months, we haven't taken any owner benefits in months, and so the last time the staff knew that, oh, things are tight things look like, we'll close.

Speaker 1: 3:14

I then infuse an additional what? $40,000 cash into the business and I was ready to tap my retirement funds. I was ready to start going crazy and I'll ask you to keep the gym afloat. And realize partway in, like you know, I can't zero out my retirement to keep a losing gym open. That's losing money. And so the stop was at about $40,000. And, unfortunately, that's all the cash I have. I am not wealthy, I am not affluent, I don't have a trust fund. I don't have a trust fund. I don't have rich uncles, I don't have rich parents, rich siblings. To keep something open that loses 10 grand a month, that is not something I can do. So we shall see if that person gains traction and if they pursue throwing me in jail because I am broke. So we shall see how that unfolds me and Jill, because I am broke. So we shall see how that unfolds.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Um, today, uh, corporate data. I did get confirmation. This is this is good news. On the refund side, I did get confirmation from my attorney yes, we should use any remaining funds to issue refunds for services not rendered and about. And that's awesome. I want to do that, I'm happy to do that I don't. I'm not planning on keeping any of the cash. It's going to be gone Our remaining $3,800 from the business. At least, I'm not planning on keeping a dollar of that.

Speaker 1: 4:36

So corporate asked me to wire them the funds. I asked my attorney hey, should I do that? He said you know, make sure it's documented in writing, all that good stuff, so that if something comes down the line of members, hey, I got a partial refund. What gives? Corporate said that they would handle everything onward Once I do the best that I can do, because I can't. If someone needs a hundred dollar refund and I have 80 bucks, I'm sorry, I don't have a hundred dollars to give you because I have 80. And so, all that being said, um, I doubt everyone will be made whole. I don't think that's a possibility. I want it to be possible but I don't know, I don't think it's going to end up happening. Um, so we'll see how it all unfolds. Um, just waiting for. Corporate asked me over Zoom verbally to do that. I said I'm open to it. Let me confirm with my attorney that's not going to be illegal activity for me to wire funds to my franchisor. If he says go ahead, happy to do that. Let me just double check with him so I don't put myself in a legal bind. He said, yeah, that's good. Yes, go ahead and do that. So now waiting for corporate to put that request in writing. So it's not a, he said. She said debate on all that. So, awaiting that today, happy to wire every penny over to corporate and then they will handle the rest of the refunds.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Out of this whole thing I'm learning staying organized, staying documented and staying stress in under control are the biggest things. Um, I have not historically been good at handling stress. My knee jerk reaction when fight or flight happens is to go into to fear mode, to be stressed, to internalize, to assume the worst, or not necessarily the worst, but between a 10 optimistic, a zero of like the sky is falling, I assume something along the lines of very unfortunate is going to be happening and so I need to shake that. I don't need to operate that way. Something negative could happen, something positive could happen. And so all that to say, um, that's why we have attorneys that are able to provide guidance and bumpers, so that you don't fly off off the rails on this. So that's where we're at, that's where we're going. Um, we're going to take things day by day. Let's rock and roll.