IAM1628 – Founder Helps Those Around Her Achieve Their Fitness Goals

Inez Sobczak Teaser 00:00

Corporate wellness is on the horizon. I would love the opportunity to create this for your company. Give me a shot and based on that, I got some. Yes, let's do it, Inez. And that allowed me to have some seed money in order to create fitness. So that is the short story on how fitness evolved, and more importantly, how I became the CEO of my company.

Intro 00:30

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely.

The information you're in search of this is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:58

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today I have Inez Sobczak of Fit-Nez, Inez it's awesome to have you on the show.

Inez Sobczak 01:07

I am so happy to be on the show, Gresh, thank you so much for including me.

Gresham Harkless 01:11

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Inez so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Inez is the founder and Master Trainer of Fit-Nez and has over a decade of experience as an innovator in health and fitness. What began as a passion for sports and aerobics in her youth culminated in her founding of Fit-Nez located in Arlington, Virginia.

Inez was first certified as a group fitness instructor while still in high school and while in college, she created and ran a wellness program for the college, including nutrition, education, and fitness classes. Upon graduating, she embarked on a career in sales. During her lunch hours and weekends, she continued her commitment to helping those around her achieve their fitness goals by teaching cardio classes.

And after a few years in sales, she decided to turn her passion into a full-time mission by opening Fit-Nez. In addition to successfully coaching her Fit-Nez clients. Inez holds over a dozen health and fitness and nutritional certifications. She's a national figure competitor, a marathon runner, and a widely recognized expert in corporate wellness.

She maintains a complete commitment to living the fitness lifestyle she imparts to her clients. Inez, are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community?

Inez Sobczak 02:20

I am ready. Let's do it.

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Gresham Harkless02:21

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I guess I wanted to hear a little bit more on how things began. Can you tell us a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start with your business?

Inez Sobczak 02:30

Well, thank you. Well, my CEO story started pretty humbly. I had worked a sales position at a local company selling primarily to CFOs and general councils, and I would leave at lunch to go teach spin classes. And even though I was working in sales, I knew in my heart blue passion was fitness and health.

When the recession hit I had to figure out a new way of providing for myself. So I decided in the interim to double down on all the classes that I was teaching. Personal trained a little bit more just to make ends meet. I didn't realize during that time period my problem was my opportunity, and so in doing what I had to do to survive the recession and being laid off, I found my passion and that was spreading the gift of fitness and health.

Now, how that was gonna happen was pretty challenging, so what I decided to do was reach out to some of the CFOs that I had initially. Sold to in my corporate sales shop and said, Hey, you know, I have this unique background of corporate sales plus fitness, corporate wellness is on the horizon. I would love the opportunity to create this for your company.

Give me a shot. And based on that, I got some, yes, let's do it Inez. And that allowed me to have some seed money in order to create fitness. So that is the short story on how fitness evolved and more importantly, how I became CEO of my company.

Gresham Harkless 04:14

I love it and I definitely appreciate it as somebody who has, unfortunately, gotten laid off from a company.

I know how frustrating that can be. But I love how you said, I think you said the obstacle is the opportunity and just being able to see like those problems that come up. And sometimes if we can change our mindset and understand that sometimes things are not happening to us, they're happening for us and put us, propelling us in the, in the direction we should be.

Inez Sobczak 04:38

I agree 100% and it's all about mindset. So using that Op mindset of that opportunity is the op is the problem, is the opportunity, is definitely what was my launching path to create fitness. Now, the way fitness involves is that it's simply a wellness company. That's whole mission is to empower people with the gift of fitness and health.

Now the way that plays out is in a variety of different services, but not limited to personal training, nutrition coaching, and corporate wellness leading. And lastly, my newest addition is life coaching.

Gresham Harkless 05:20

Awesome. No, I, I appreciate you for, for, for obviously breaking down your mission. Cause I think it's so important to have that mission and understand that, cause that's kind of like your North star for why you do everything and then how it manifests itself.

And I think that you can definitely correct me if I'm wrong those things are, are so important to the overall being. Like, I know you mentioned corporate wellness in that piece, but just because if you aren't taking care of yourself, you, if you aren't, if you don't have, that nutrition and fitness and focus, sometimes, you know, problems will arise.

So be able to have all those different kind of modalities to be able to connect with somebody and, and make sure that their, their best selves is, is definitely.

Inez Sobczak 05:58

I agree 100% I'm glad that Gresh you're on the same wavelength as myself.

Gresham Harkless 06:05

Yeah, absolutely. And you have to be there. Cause I think so many times we drive, especially a lot of the people that are probably listening to this podcast you know, we're driven towards our goals and our aspirations and not sure exactly how best we can be our best selves.

And we'll lose co sometimes sight of fitness and how important that is and how, as you said, you've been able to give that gift. And, that's exactly what it is, a gift to be able to, to have you know, good health and, and to be great.

Inez Sobczak 06:28

Especially when it comes to fitness and health.

I mean, it takes so much courage to be coached. And, you know, we all think we can do it on our own, but like Gandhi had a coach, so why should we have to do it on our own? And so my whole mission in running Fit-Nez is teaching people that the biggest strength is asking for help. Because it's much easier to figure out your taxes than it is to figure out.

What you should be eating and how you should be moving to reach a certain fitness goal. And that could be either losing weight, putting on lean muscle, getting ready for a marathon, getting ready for your big wedding day. Whatever it is, it's hard. But my whole focus and mission, and the reason why I wake up every day, it's to make it a little bit more manageable for the next person by coaching them the right way.

Gresham Harkless 07:19

I love that and I appreciate you so much, for breaking that down. And I think, you know, sometimes, and especially with people that, you know, I guess we all have an ego and sometimes we wanna be able to, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be able to do this by ourselves and that by ourselves.

But not realizing that Gandhi and all the greats and all the people that we look up to, no one does it alone. And to be able to ask for help and ask for assistance in so many different ways in fitness and health and wellness, and understand that there are people that are willing and, ready to be able to provide that gift is definitely something that we kinda have to remind ourselves of.

Inez Sobczak 07:52 Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 07:54

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. So I don't know if you kind of already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for yourself or for your business, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Inez Sobczak 08:04

I would really. , I have to say it's about deep coaching.

So I'm invested in my clients and I strive to exceed all of their expectations of what they want and what they need. So every person I look at as an individual, and I'm thrilled to see their transformation as a client from how we transform their body. Their belief and ultimately their lives. So I think it's really the authenticity that I bring in coaching them in a very deep way.

Gresham Harkless 08:40

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a C E O hack. So that could be like an App a book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Inez Sobczak 08:51

I would say my CEO hack is my morning routine. The reason why I say my morning routine is that it really starts the night before.

Like I really make sure that before I even start the next day, I'm over-preparing to have a successful morning. And so that might be laying up my clothes for the next day or prepping my food and my breakfast, or making sure my son's book bag is by the door. Or reminding my clients what they have to tackle.

So it's really kind of taking that time at night to ensure a successful morning routine. And then in terms of morning routine, you're gonna hear every fantastic CEO president individual talk about winning the morning. And winning the morning for me means I wake up early. I don't need an alarm clock.

I wake up at 3:42 AM every morning. The first thing I do before I even go to the bathroom is make my bed. It's the thing that. It's the first accomplishment that I have, and it'll allow me to coach other people better because I've done one thing for myself. Then from there, you know, I go to the bathroom, I meditate, I work out, and I'm always doing that whole time period, have EarPods in my ear, priming myself with the right type of, I call it.

, know, food protein, like whether it's a great podcast or a YouTube video or just good like music waves in my ear to make sure that before I even speak to another human being, including my own son, that I got the right things in my head.

Gresham Harkless 10:38

Truly. I appreciate that. And I don't know if that was what I would call your CEO nugget, which is kind of like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, but is that what you would tell your younger business self or maybe even a client.

Inez Sobczak 10:52

You know, I really thought about this question in preparation for our call. And I just had so many things that ran through my head, but the one that really stuck out was humility, because when I was in my twenties and was creating this company, I just kind of thought I had it all figured out. And I had to fail a lot in order to get to the place where I'm at right now, where the company runs itself.

And I can even be asked to be on a podcast saying, I am a CEO. So I would tell my younger self be humble, you know, and be humble and be hungry, and know that there's gonna be a lot of failing before you start winning. And, you know what? That's okay. That's a part of the journey, that's a part of this stance of success.

Gresham Harkless 11:42

Absolutely. Yeah. And there's that, that I don't know if I saw it on Instagram or where, but I've seen it a couple of times where the way to reach the success you think is a straight line, but in reality, it's a, it's a windy road. It goes up and down, there are pitfalls, and so on. But if you understand that, and for one, you, you embrace the process, but for two, as you said, two, are able to kind of tap into that humility and understand that you can ask for help.

You can, you know, get assistance. You can look for people, to mentor you or help you grow or to coach you. And in so many aspects of our life, that's when we truly can become successful is cause we're not leaning on our own. We're not being so proud and so prideful that we don't allow ourselves to grow as much as we can.

Inez Sobczak 12:20 Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 12:21

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on this show. So Inez, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Inez Sobczak 12:31

Being a CEO to me is living life on your own terms.

Gresham Harkless 12:39

I love it. And I think so many times when I, say a lot of times like we have the opportunity like artists to be able to paint the canvas that we want and sometimes we forget that we hold the paintbrush air or we can at least find the paintbrush and we can paint that picture. We can paint our life, we can, we can be in control and, and create as much as we can.

And as you talked about from a day-to-day standpoint, but also in our life as a whole, we have so much power to be able to kinda do that.

Inez Sobczak 13:04

Absolutely. And I mean, when you get to a place in your life where you can be the architect and you don't have to react so much, then that, that's the CEO, whether it's of a business or the CEO of your own life is like, Hey, I can live life on my own terms and, and be happy from that.

And man, that takes, that takes a lot of humility. It takes a lot of courage and honestly, it takes a lot of coaching.

Gresham Harkless 13:29

Yeah, absolutely. And being able to kind of look beyond yourself and to be humble enough to be able to ask for advice and help as well. So definitely appreciate that perspective and that definition.

Appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best can get ahold of you and find out all the awesome things you're working on.

Inez Sobczak 13:51

Great. Well, I'm excited to work with anyone out there who is looking for a coach that's gonna keep them accountable and really looking for the ability to be coached in a very authentic, deep way.

And if that sounds like you, then please go to my website. It is www.fit-nez.com. So Inez, fitness reach out to me. I'm also on social media, so whether it's Facebook Instagram or Twitter, you can find me through F I T N E Z. So looking forward to hearing from everybody. And if you hear this Interview and you have some feedback.

I would love to hear about that too, because as a coach, we can always grow and learn and I was a bit nervous about doing this today, so I would love to make sure that that it resonated with folks and that if you got one thing out of it, please let me know what that was.

Gresham Harkless 14:44

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Inez.

And, and you can work with anybody or just in the DMV area?

Inez Sobczak 14:50

Pretty much all across the world. I have clients that are remote, some live in Spain, some live in L.A. some live in Leesburg. The way that the programming is set up is that. I can coach in a very remote way. I also coach in a very physical way, so whatever is the right fit for you, you have a one-stop shop coach that can do it.

Gresham Harkless 15:12

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again we will have the links and information in the show notes and definitely appreciate that reminder we all need that reminder that we're always trying to be our best selves and we're going to continue to grow to do that. And I thank you so much for giving so much words of wisdom and, and advice to us and how we can be our best selves and of course, doing it in the work that you have with your clients.

And I just hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:35

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast, powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceo.gear.co. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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