Honesty and Authenticity Comes First – Fitz Koehler

When it comes to living a healthy life, there are no excuses! And our guest today is the perfect example.

Meet Fitz Koehler. Fitz is a compelling fitness expert, race announcer, and an inspiring cancer survivor. With a Master’s Degree in Exercise and Sport Sciences and decades of experience teaching fitness worldwide, she has helped countless people improve the quality of their lives. She’s also the CEO of Fitzness International, and she masterfully uses every form of mass media to lead people toward health and athletic adventure.

When she got diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, she didn’t let it ruin her life. Even though she was brutalized by 15 months of chemotherapy, she decided to fight and live life to the fullest. So she decided to turn up the volume on her career, managed to recover from cancer, and triple her business throughout this process.

Now, Fitz is committed to sharing inspirational cancer-crushing lessons, fitness tips, and business stories with the world. Her memoir My Noisy Cancer Comeback: Running at the Mouth, While Running for My Life is a massive source of motivation to both the cancer and fitness community.

In this episode of the Think Business with Tyler podcast, we chat about how fitness can improve the quality of your life, why you need to be honest and authentic in your business approach, why you must take care of yourself, and the importance of balance in life.

If you want to get your daily dose of inspiration, make sure you tune into this episode to hear everything that Fitz has to say.

Guest-At-A-Glance

 

💡 Name: Fitz Koehler

💡 What she does: She’s a race announcer, fitness expert, cancer-crushing keynote speaker, and author of the Cancer Comeback Series.

💡 Noteworthy: Fitz is an inspiring cancer survivor. In 2019, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her healthy and athletic body was brutalized by 15 months of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgeries. Instead of shutting down, she turned the volume up on her career.

💡 Key Quote: “Prepare your body to do battle today because you never know when illness or injury will strike. If you go into any sort of crisis with a healthy, fit body, you will be far less likely to decline because of it and far more likely to rebound and recover quickly. So please prioritize your health now.”

💡 Where to find Fitz: LinkedIn

Key Insights

 

Fitness improves your quality of life. It’s no secret that exercise does wonders for your mental health and physical well-being. And it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve the quality of your life. But fitness can also improve your professional success and personal relationships.

Fitz is a big believer in the power of fitness. She says, “I have a course, it’s called Fixing Your Life with Fitness, but I know what fitness can do. It’s not only about your body and your mind, but it’s about your personal and professional success. If you take care of you, you’re going to be a nicer spouse, a better parent, a better buddy, a better child. You’re going to certainly excel at work had you not. So I just believe. I believe. I believe in ed. I believe in my ability to deliver that message and that package to people and have them excel.”

Be honest and authentic. If you want to be successful in life and business, you need to be honest and true to yourself. You won’t get anywhere by lying and deceiving your customers. Quite the opposite. Customers respond best to honesty and authenticity. Fitz says, “I think you should be telling the truth. And it’s interesting that even though my business is fitness, it’s not about me. It’s never about me. So everything I put forward is how do I affect these other people? Now, what you mentioned before we shot is all the joy. The joy is real. That’s intrinsic. That’s who I am. And I couldn’t fake it. I couldn’t fake the mass amount of joy in there.”

Take care of yourself before you take care of your business. Business owners and entrepreneurs often neglect their physical well-being, especially at the start of their business. And that’s a huge mistake! Fitz explains, “For starters, you never heard of a real sickly person with a booming business, so if you don’t take care of you, your business is going to fail. I truly believe that. And if you’re an entrepreneur like I am, you know that your business is 24 hours a day, and it requires your attention, but it doesn’t require all of your attention. And if you stop giving yourself attention, your business will certainly fail.”

Balance is everything. Life is about balance. And the same goes for your health and diet. You don’t have to be radical about your life choices. Instead, go for a balanced and healthy approach. Fitz explains, “You don’t have to be perfect. My philosophy is 80 to 90% of the foods I put in my mouth are good for me. I have wiggle room. That 10 to 20% could be fun. Maybe you’re going to have a beer, maybe you’re going to have some Cheetos or a glass of wine that’s up to you. But stick within your personal caloric budget for weight management and then fill those calories up with things that are going to fuel your body and help fight diseases like cancer.”

Top Quotes

 

“This is where the business and the illness and injury thing collide is, number one, do you love what you do enough to do it with a potentially terminal illness? Are you still motivated to keep going?”

“It was hard. I felt bad. I felt so sick, but I was motivated. […] But this is the magic of choosing a career and the people that you love.”

“My doctor said when I told him how sick I was, he said, we need to get you back on your feet because he knew living life was the best thing for a very sick cancer patient. And yeah, if I hadn’t gone and done those things, if I hadn’t shown up for my kids, all I would’ve been was sick. And Fitzness? Fitzness would’ve died. My brand, my business, those jobs would’ve disappeared. They would’ve given them to somebody else. Probably never invited me back. And instead, during 16 months of miserable, horrible chemo treatments, I tripled my business. So all’s well that ends well.”

“Your business is your business. Your personal life is your personal life. And if your personal life is not going to enhance your business, don’t share it.”

“You must be proficient in these four pillars to qualify as fit. So I have marathon runners who don’t qualify as fit, and I’ll tell you. You must be proficient in strength, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and balance. All four of those things matter. If you’re a marathon runner who can’t do five pushups, are you fit? You’re a bodybuilder who can’t touch his toes, are you fit?”

“Don’t be afraid to create services to create products. That’s the American way. Just figure out who you are, what you have to offer, and someone will give you money for it.”

Links

Fitzness Website

My Noisy Cancer Comeback Book

The Everything Flat Belly Cookbook

Instagram