Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Walkyria Whitlock. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Walkyria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

I worked on yachts as a meditation instructor, yoga instructor, and stewardess. The purpose of my job was to help people have a relaxing time while on vacation onboard a private yacht. I would serve them drinks, food, and help plan activities. Preparing and observing these trips I learned these valuable lessons: -Gratitude is the Seed of Joy
-Planning is Everything
-You Must be Adaptable

Gratitude learned through how people would treat the crew and appreciate the services was a direct correlation with how much joy they expressed.

The repeat customers were the most planned people. That is the people who had the most time and money to spend on board yachts and were often owners of the yacht themselves had their schedules planned months and months, sometimes years in advance. Try to book at the nicest marinas in the world, and they will have reservations for years in advance. Some of the reservation bookings start at 2500 EUROS/day, but often they are also charged by the foot/meter. Planning is an essential part of sustainable success.

Planning was essential for their success, but my job also required a lot of planning. We are there to cater to the World’s 1%, ensuring they have the best vacation. We must provision for their needs/wants but also anticipate their desires. We are working in remote areas, so we must have these plans far in advance. We can fly in anything that we need last minute at the billionaire’s expense, but even a billionaire doesn’t appreciate the cost of convenience at times. If it was something that we could have anticipated and could have ordered ahead, they would expect us to have it prepared during our ‘off-season’.

This leads me to my next lesson: You Must Be Adaptable. As much as I built up planning, planning is important because it prepares you. Most of the time, things don’t go to plan. You have small things that come up, sometimes big things, and you must adapt and change. Your planning wasn’t a waste of time, and in your planning, you may prepared yourself for alternative actions/steps, in case Plan A doesn’t go in the direction you thought it might. With preparation, you equip yourselves with more resources and alternative actions, so you can pivot quickly, as needed. Planning certainly helps things go more smoothly, and the more you plan the same type of thing, the easier the task becomes and the more you can anticipate different actions.

When someone asks for a special cocktail, you have to think not only about what that individual likes but what we have enough provisions of, in case everyone likes it. We also must consider how long it is going to take to make, if everyone likes it. In the spirit of service, this is planning and preparing myself so that I don’t get overwhelmed. Too many times, early in my career I would go over-the-top on one cocktail. People would love it, but repeating it would take so long that I would get behind on my other tasks so I learned to plan for more difficult situations like having everyone order that exact cocktail at once, so that I wouldn’t take to long to serve them or run out of certain ingredients. Planning and preparing helps you navigate obstacles more smoothly and adapt more seamlessly.

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

Sure, I am from small-town Idaho and have an array of experiences through ventures all around the world in industries including modeling, publishing (poetry), yoga, and yachting. Recently, I moved back (Idaho) after 10 years abroad and am the Founder and Owner of W Fitness, which is an online platform for personal transformation. I serve as a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach specializing in helping women redefine their body image, boost confidence, and attain their desired body shape through personalized training plans. I also LOVE what I do!

The wellness industry is filled with wild myths and conspiracies, and I am passionate about educating my audience about scientifically proven methods and practices. My goal is to help my clients attain complete self-efficacy and to raise the baseline understanding of health and wellness.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

All of 20s, the main question I asked myself: ‘What is the best thing I can do with my life?’ ‘How can I make the most out of my life?’… I also believe that anything is possible, and life is what you make it. I had done a lot of volunteer work in my teen years, specifically with the elderly, volunteering at retirement homes. The resounding advice I got for my 20s was: Enjoy Your 20s! Do Everything You Can! Travel as Much as You Can!

So that was what I did. I tried everything because my 30s would be about settling down and building a career. I didn’t know what I wanted to be, so I dropped out of college. I wanted to travel the world, so I sold my car and moved to Fiji. I modeled there and picked up my first job on a yacht. I got into the culinary side of yachting and was soon offered a job as a private cook and nanny in the Hamptons. I started a band with one of my friends, and we moved to Australia and recorded an album together. I got back into yachting and traveled the world a bit more, trying to discover what it was that I wanted to do. I never truly loved yachting because of the lack of freedom, but I had fun on the job and admired the people that I was serving.

Deep into meditation and yoga, I felt one of the most evolved things I could do was master my emotions, so I moved to Los Angeles to act. I ended up doing a bit more modeling and was largely disappointed by the acting scene so I went back to yachting. I became a yoga instructor and meditation instructor instead and taught meditation and yoga working on yachts.

In 2020, I wrote a poetry book, started a nonprofit, tried Launching an App, and started going to the gym. I published the poetry book in 2021, failed at both the nonprofit and app launch, but I fell in love with the gym… It improved my confidence, body image, and body composition! All while still working in yachting. In 2023, I met the love of my life which changed my direction. I began to consider alternative careers and fell in love with the thought of helping others improve their confidence, body image, and body composition. I became a nutrition coach and personal trainer through NASM.

I am now heading into my 8th month in business!

Any advice for managing a team?

To manage a team well it is important to: -Have a Plan, help them to learn more about the vision, and course of action so they can better perform and understand the direction
-Meet daily, everyone should be a part of a team, no matter your company size. Create intimate settings where your employees/you are held accountable for your tasks and feel they are working with others on projects. If you don’t work physically together, this is especially important so that you have a better sense/feel of who you are working with. They will have this too, and it can help them develop more care and appreciation for the job.
-Offer regular feedback, Feedback should be specific, prompt, and direct. Providing regular feedback helps people know where they stand, and understand your preferences much easier/sooner/better. It helps people practice receiving/giving negative feedback so that it feels less personal. It also helps people feel appreciated and recognized when they did a good job.
-Set a Good Example, this should go without saying but you must set a good example if you want a strong team that respects you and has high morale!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wfitness.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wfitness.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wfitness.org
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/walkyria-whitlock-137b6693/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wfitnessorg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0tJmp4FjJLhUYc-tDqTbkg
• Other: http://www.tiktok.com/wfitness.org