Justine Schwarz

I attribute my success to my hardships growing up. I had a pretty interesting childhood, and it drove me to work harder, to be better, and want more for myself. I did not want to end up the same way. Those experiences left me strongest and gave me the determination to push forward and create a better life for myself.

The best career advice I've ever received is that if you're 100% invested, you're going to get 100% driven results back. I think it's so true, because there was a point in my life where I was 50% doing one thing and 50% doing another, and neither were really taking off because, at the end of the day, I just was not that invested, even though I thought I was. I think the hardest part for people to admit is when they're really not invested in something, because it proves whether you really want it or not. But I believe that if you're putting 100% effort in, something great will come, even if it changes your direction and journey into somewhere else.

Keep exploring, keep researching, and allow yourself to grow in different areas that you didn't expect. It might be the best worthwhile thing for you. Sometimes I think we go in saying 'I'm gonna do this, this, and that,' and we get fixated on it, but we're allowed to spread out and journey into other things and find new things to be passionate about, and that's okay. You're allowed to pivot. For a long time, I felt like I had to live up to my word, but you're allowed to change.

The biggest challenges in my field are that a lot of people get into it but don't last, or just because they like it doesn't mean they should be in it. Sometimes people say 'oh, I love fitness, I want to teach it,' but that's not really who they are. You're allowed to like stuff without having to do it professionally. Just because you like music doesn't mean you're going to be a musician. I think people get into this field thinking it's something other than what it is. A lot of it is very surrounded by Instagram and TikTok and becoming an influencer, and I think you can be in this field and not be an influencer. Usually, the people that are not influencers actually know more. It's actually made the job harder to get into and grow because it's been influxed. But the opportunity is that fitness is only still on the rise, or health and fitness is still on the rise, and there are other opportunities as bigger companies are starting to grow, or smaller companies are taking off. So if you're looking in the right area, you can see the opportunity that hasn't been filtered through already.

The values most important to me are integrity, authenticity, and transparency. I try to be authentic and honest in everything that I do. I feel like as long as you're true to yourself and you're true to other people, it's just good karma. If you're always transparent, you get respect in return. Letting people know the why, I think, is super important to what you're doing. People will tend to be more supportive, whether you're working alongside them, they're above you, or they're your employees.