It’s January and everyone's flooding into gyms like they're giving away free sixpacks.
New year, new you and all that stuff...
But I just cancelled my membership.
"Callan's lost it. Too many late nights staring at landing pages finally broke him."
Hold on. Let me explain…
My gym was perfect on paper,
It was 3 mins from home, cheaper than my Netflix subscription,
And of course, open 24/7…
And that’s exactly why I had to leave…
See, I'm not trying to become the next Schwarzenegger.
I don't need 24-inch biceps to write high-converting copy.
What I need is connections.
Real ones.
And I've got a confession…
I'm a networking junkie.
Like, wake-up-in-cold-sweats-thinking-about-business-cards level obsessed.
But here's the problem...
I live in a small town where I know everyone's coffee order by heart.
Same faces, same places, day after day.
The barista?
Mike. Been serving my oat milk latte for 3 years.
The gym owner?
Sarah. Still asks about my mom every Monday.
That guy on the leg press?
Dan the DIY store manager. We head-nod every morning.
Great people.
But my network was as stagnant as a week-old protein shake.
And that's when it hit me...
The best deals aren't closed on the treadmill at 6am in my small town gym.
They're made in those sweaty, overpriced city gyms where CEOs swing their kettlebells next to startup founders.
Where VCs plan their next investment between sets.
Where that guy struggling with his form might be your next big client.
(True story: I once spotted a guy on bench press who turned out to be a marketing director at a Fortune 500. But that's for another time...)
So yeah, I'm trading my convenient, affordable, 24/7 gym for a bougie city one that costs more than the monthly payments of my first car.
And you know what?
I couldn't be more excited.
Because here's what most people don't get about networking:
It's not about the LinkedIn connections or collecting business cards like they're Pokémon.
It's about putting yourself in rooms where success is breathing the same air as you.
Where opportunity isn't just a buzzword…
It's the guy asking you to spot him on his next set.
The best opportunities come from random conversations that start with "Hey, what do you do?"
Not from hiding behind your laptop hoping clients will magically find you.
So yeah, I'll drive 45 minutes to work out.
I'll pay triple what I used to pay.
And I'll probably have to wake up at ungodly hours to make it work.
But one good connection could change everything.
And that's worth more than all the 24/7 access in the world.
To calculated connections,
- Callan
Comments