We recently connected with Peggy Willms and have shared our conversation below.

Peggy, appreciate you joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

After working for 25 years in the wellness arena in Corporate America, I grew tired—tired of working long hours shining light on others and not being recognized for my efforts, concepts, and passion.

After a tragic motorcycle accident resulting in my 21-year-old son needing to learn to walk again, I assessed what was really important in life. Ultimately, choosing to move to Florida from Colorado (a dream since birth) and capitalizing on all the skills I learned along the way propelled my passion and purpose to oblivion.

The best decisions often come from times of turmoil. I am grateful for every one of my work experiences, which have led me to where I am today, changing and saving lives. As a health and wellness coach for over three decades, working with thousands of clients, a radio show host, and an author, I am now writing full-time and working with hundreds of authors by helping them share their stories globally.

Without the blood, sweat, and tears of my previous jobs and work relationships, I would not be living my dream.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have worked within the health, wellness, fitness, medical, and academic industries for 35 years. I have been blessed to work hand in hand with thousands of clients, students, military dependents and soldiers, athletic competitors, eating disorders patients, and co-morbid disease states, including stress and diabetes trials, and in every corporate wellness environment you can imagine.

As a certified health, wellness, and life coach, fitness trainer, wellness retreat and radio show host, and multi-bestselling author, I bridge the gap between wellness and wellbeing by utilizing my trademarked All Things Wellness wheel which teaches individuals how to manage their health and wellness by balancing 24 areas of their life from coping skills, habits, sleep, nutrition, medical care, stress, exercise, and much more.

I am most proud of how my purpose and passion to help others help themselves have been weaved throughout every experience and job I have had. My diverse education and experiences allow me to now help others tell their stories so we can collectively become a more compassionate, respectful, and loving humanity.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For decades, I thought my professional resume told my story. Chasing acronyms, degrees, and certifications spoke for me – or did they? In 2018, I worked with a branding coach for a full year. Yes, A YEAR. Through that grueling process, I realized my professional resume doesn’t “represent me” – my personal resume does! My stories. Me. I am my brand.

This aha altered the way I teach, speak, coach, host, and write. I teach through storytelling. It is not necessarily as interesting to share, “I received my first personal training certification in 1989” as it is to say, “I lived in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. I have a chunk of it to this day. While living there, I decided to help the military dependents become healthier and happier; therefore, I earned my first certification… over 34 years ago. It flips the connection.

So long story long, I have reframed my entire backstory by actually telling stories while also working with others to share theirs through my books and interviews.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Transparency and Authenticity. PERIOD.

Especially in my industry, when you are supposed to have all of the answers, it was difficult to walk the fine line between, “I have my act together” to “I have not worked out for weeks. I am downing Doritos like they stopped making them. And I loath my mother.”

Once, I realized it is my stories and my realness that people relate to, there was no stopping this Mohawk-wearing chic.

My mantra: “REAL people have REAL problems who can find REAL solutions and produce REAL results and all by telling REAL stories.”

Contact Info:

• Other: Just use my Linktree for all of the above. https://linktr.ee/CoachPeggy