Bring it on! Turning Points interview By Lisa Westbury

As I meet Zuzana for this interview she is about to enter Miss Galaxy Universe and is buzzing with excitement. This former Educational Sales Manager radiates pure energy and enthusiasm as she tells me about how she set up Z-energy, a community based fitness business.

1.    What brought you to England from Slovakia?
I arrived in Brighton 10 years ago after visiting on holiday. I came for one week, fell in love with the place, and decided to move here. I didn’t have a plan. I stayed with my friend and his mother and started work in catering, like so many people who come to Brighton.

2.    And how did you get interested in health and fitness?
I have always been competitive and a dance and fitness fanatic. After school I joined a team of dancers who became disco dance and disco show champions in Slovakia and Europe. I loved the training, working towards a goal, performing in front of other people and fell in love with dance, the costumes and music. I then worked as a dancer in a number of countries before coming to England. I’ve always kept active alongside my office and catering jobs here too.

3.    After leaving catering you made good progress in your sales career, so what led you to change direction? 
I had worked my way up and had lots of support, but I realised my work wasn’t fulfilling enough. So I approached a local leisure centre and got the chance to run an exercise class. After that I qualified as a Zumba instructor, and started teaching more classes in my spare time. The breaking point came when I was promoted to Sales Manager at City College. I felt so removed and didn’t enjoy being on my own in an office doing the figures.  I was thinking about leaving for a very long time before I actually decided to do it. When I had some time off over Christmas I wrote my resignation letter, handed it in January and have never looked back. I love my new life – every day is different and I made the right choice.

4.    What helped you make the change?
A really challenging fitness programme called Insanity. You commit to six exercise sessions a week and a healthy diet plan for 63 days. You tone up, lose body fat and what it does to your head is unreal. When I completed the plan without cheating once I felt on the top of the world and believed that if I could do that I could do anything.  Bring on the challenge and I’ll smash it! And that’s what helped me to resign from my job.

5.    Your energy and passion come across in everything that you do – what do you have energy for now that you couldn’t do before?
I’ve always had energy and this drive to survive. Even though I now have everything that I want and I feel very lucky, I really want to live up to my full potential and I haven’t reached it yet.  I want to keep challenging myself and discovering what I am capable of. What I can now do is plan ahead, I have time to put things into place and trial them. I have time to think. I am no longer "fire-fighting" and "reacting”. I can also be more empathetic than I was in the corporate world.

6.    What do you find most challenging?
The paperwork – I just don’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy being out there in front of people, dancing and motivating them.  Also I need to learn to be better with managing my time more efficiently. I am currently reading a book called Productivity Ninja which I hope will help me to achieve it.

7.    How do you tackle it?
I have learnt that pain is temporary. No matter how painful the process might be, I know it won't last forever. That's something I learnt in exercise and I apply that in everything I do! Paperwork is a huge part of my business and it has to be done. I am the only person who can do it, for now, before I am able to start employing other people.

8.    Creating a community is part of your business ethos. How does that support your business strategy?
That is the most fulfilling part of job – Z-energy brings together people from all walks of life, people who wouldn’t normally meet. It’s truly amazing and very humbling to see how everyone gets on and how welcoming and supportive everyone is. A strong and happy community spreads the word and attracts an even wider audience which helps me out in so many ways. We call ourselves the Z-energy family and I’d like to think that’s special in its own way.

9.    If your business could change anything, what would your dream impact be?
If I could bottle the feeling that exercise and healthy, clean eating gives you and let people have a taste it would change the world. Exercise saved my life and I want everyone else to feel the same happiness and empowerment. I would like Z-energy classes to be taking place in lots of communities and inspiring others, bringing people together to socialise, to have fun and to do something good for their health and overall wellbeing.

10.    And what would you change for yourself?
If I could have one thing for myself, it would be never-ending energy to support all those ideas and plans I have in my head and want to make happen.

Lisa Westbury is a career coach for women, and helps teams to make more impact by building better relationships. Contact Lisa at lisa@generatepartnership.co.uk.

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