Kita Richards is a former AAU, USA and high school track and field coach. Teaching basic and advanced movements to young adults was always her passion along with helping people to meet and exceed their physical and mental capabilities. It was this passion that prompted Kita to become a personal and group fitness trainer, transforming her two car garage into her first training space. She has now expanded her brand and has launched two fitness clubs, one in Greenwood, South Carolina, and the other in Greenville, South Carolina. During the interview, Kita will discuss what life was like growing up in Greenwood, South Carolina, how she manages being the CEO of two fitness clubs, family, self-care and how the last words of her mother, who lived a very active life until she succumbed to colon cancer, gave her the drive and motivation to live life to the fullest. She will also share her fitness journey which included losing close to 80 pounds of body fat with the help and guidance of her husband and changing her diet.
Kita believes that each of us is connected in divine space and that we should share our gifts with the world, something Kita is doing on a daily basis with everyone she comes in contact with. This was a most inspiring interview.
Vince Ferguson:
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Kita Richards:
Thank you for having me.
Vince Ferguson:
Before we discuss your career as CEO of these two fitness clubs, tell my listeners and viewers where did you grow up and what was your childhood like?
Kita Richards:
I grew up right here in Greenwood, South Carolina in the south, which is so interesting now that I look back at it. I grew up running around in the dirt.
Vince Ferguson:
Running around in the dirt?
Kita Richards:
In the dirt.
Vince Ferguson:
Really? Really? So you must have been very active?
Kita Richards:
Yeah. It was because this is a small town, this is a small town. It’s bigger now, but it was definitely a lot smaller when I was a lot younger. So it was small and it’s basically a football city. So it’s all about football here. Everything else is secondary.
Vince Ferguson:
Everything else is secondary to football. But family came first, but family came first. Right?
Kita Richards:
Especially back then. Everything else was secondary.
Vince Ferguson:
Wow. Nice. But were you always active, always healthy even to your adult life?
Kita Richards:
Well as a kid, the challenge as a kid was, especially growing up, because we were active as children. I was an active child. My inactivity didn’t start until I got older. So I was, but my mom was active. So I have to tell you about her. She was very active. My mom played a lot of sports even as we grew up. So I grew up with a very active mom. She played softball for one, it was nothing for her to be on those teams. She was on teams, and she would travel. So I grew up watching her do that.
Kita Richards:
And of course she did what people in the south do, bowl. So she did a lot of bowling and different things like that. So that’s how we grew up. I grew up with a mom that even as I had my kids, she rode bikes. She would ride bikes with them. And she was one of the first women around the area, because people still talk about it because like I said, I live in a small town, that rode a motorcycle. So she was extremely active too.
Vince Ferguson:
Is Myrtle Beach near you?
Kita Richards:
No it takes us about three hours to get to Myrtle Beach.
Vince Ferguson:
I hear so much about Myrtle Beach motorcycle. You know what I’m saying? But was there a aha moment for you when you decided, you know what, my health is going down the tubes and I need to get it together?
Kita Richards:
Well, I think the backstory is my mother was really active, but my mother died of pancreatic/colon cancer. And so with that being said, I knew she was active much more active than me. I was getting overweight. I took care of her. And then when she was passing away, she said to me something, some words that I never will forget. She said, “Do what you want to do, and have a good time on this side because when you’re leaving, you never want to regret what you didn’t have time to do and what you wanted.” So that launched me into just taking a deeper look at who I had become.
Vince Ferguson:
So you feel that motivated you and drove you to be the person you are today?
Kita Richards:
I know it did. I know it did. It just became one of those things that watching, if you ever watch someone pass away and you never took care of anyone passing away of colon cancer and watching everything fail. Life begins to look a little different for you.
Vince Ferguson:
Hmm. And when you say it looks a little different, you start to see it out of a different prism, different window.
Kita Richards:
You start to cherish it and cherish the moments. You start to cherish life like never before. Even when my clients come in, I have this thing, because I cherish my moments with everybody now. I see life now as everybody being divinely connected to one another in that we are sharing space. And when we’re sharing those spaces, we should be sharing, not only our passion, but our love for one another. And so that’s what changed about me. I knew at that point that I needed to share whatever gifting, whatever divine gifting that I had with other people. I knew that then at that moment. I knew that that was going to bring me joy. And I know that sounds weird, but I knew I also needed to take care of me. And I knew that I could never go to the next level, or I never could get there without self-care.
Vince Ferguson:
Hmm. Makes sense. Very, very profound.
Kita Richards:
Because you could never pour from an empty cup, and back then I was an empty cup. I was an empty cup, and I could never give what I didn’t have. When people say I gave 100% to a person, you should never give 100% to anybody. Always give people the surplus of what you have. Because if you give 100% of your energy, then you have nothing for yourself. And if you have nothing for yourself, you never can grow anything that’s worth giving anyone else.
Vince Ferguson:
Hmm. Very profound. Very awesome. So this is interesting because you speak so much wisdom, and you look like a person of 22.
Kita Richards:
I thank you. I promise you need to add some to that though.
Vince Ferguson:
Well, we add a couple years, you know what I’m saying? But what motivated you to become a trainer?
Kita Richards:
So back to what my mom said, you’re never going to… When I was in my twenties, I was taking it was step aerobics. It was step aerobics there.
Vince Ferguson:
Step aerobics.
Kita Richards:
I absolutely love step aerobics. But there was a problem. There was a problem. The problem was I had a degree in computer science. So I had a really nice job.
Vince Ferguson:
Yes, I bet.
Kita Richards:
Are you going to make this, or are you going to make this?
Vince Ferguson:
What happened?
Kita Richards:
There was a problem here. And so I got the opportunity to actually get licensed doing that, and I didn’t even take it. Because by that time I had my first kid, I had the first child. And so I was like, no, no, no. I know better now. I know better now. But back then, and life is a growing process, but back then I was like, no, this is not a good financial decision to be making.
Vince Ferguson:
So you feel that knowing what you know now, you would’ve still taken the leap before?
Kita Richards:
If I had of known what I know now, yeah. I would’ve literally left what I was doing, and did this because I’ve learned that joys in life, that you should enjoy your life. And what I mean by that, I have this saying that I always say. People don’t understand. And what you have to gravitate and learn that in your purpose, you will always have prosperity, and you will have mental prosperity, spiritual prosperity, and financial and emotional prosperity. And you need all of those. Back then, I was only looking for financial prosperity.
Vince Ferguson:
But now you don’t only have one child, you have four?
Kita Richards:
Yes. Right.
Vince Ferguson:
And four adult children?
Kita Richards:
Four adult children.
Vince Ferguson:
And you don’t look like an adult yourself. That’s a beautiful thing. But again, you had the strength and fortitude to go out there and make this happen. But why the fitness space? What do you feel you can contribute to people in the fitness space?
Kita Richards:
Fitness is one of those great, wonderful things. And here’s what, because it’s more than the outward. Because before you ever make a decision, before you ever become physically fit, there is a mental that happens. You actually have, because it’s so optional, that you have to gravitate there in your mind first.
Vince Ferguson:
So it’s mind first, then body?
Kita Richards:
Always mind first. And the challenge, and then I love the challenge of it. I love the challenge of because even when I have my clients, and I’ll talk to my clients. I always tell them you’ve made the first step to the best version of you. And here was the first step. You made up in your mind to make a change. So fitness, I think I chose it because not only was it challenging, it was mentally challenging too. Because if we back up, I didn’t look like this. I can promise you. I lost 80 pounds like this. I hadn’t been doing anything. And so I tell my clients, I know what they felt. I know exactly what they feel like. I remember not being able to touch my toes.
Kita Richards:
I remember what that felt like. And I remember even though I was taking care of kids, and I was getting bigger, I just remember what it felt like. I remember being exhausted. I remember, just to be honest with you, I remember just being tired. And then I remember suffering health, other health issues. Because as women, when you have more weight than you need to have on you, there’s other things that come along with your health. There’s hormonal imbalances that you end up with. For me, I had several different things happening. I actually ended up with a liver issue, and I found out later it was actually fatty liver.
Vince Ferguson:
Fatty liver?
Kita Richards:
It was fatty liver. And this was from my diet of, I love sugar. Now I’m not going to lie to you. I used to love some sugar. So I love eating sugar. And I wasn’t a big fried food eater, and that’s what most people are like, I don’t eat much fried food. But I love some donuts and cakes and cookies and stuff like that. And I ate a lot of that back then.
Vince Ferguson:
So you were, you said, about 89 pounds heavier than you are now?
Kita Richards:
About 80. I was 80.
Vince Ferguson:
About 80. What did you do to take it off? What’s that secret sauce?
Kita Richards:
Make up my mind first that it needed to come off. You know what? And the first thing I did is I decided I wasn’t going to make an excuse.
Vince Ferguson:
No excuses?
Kita Richards:
Yeah. I was like, I’m not going to make an excuse. I’m not going to blame it on my age or anything. You know what I said to myself? I’m responsible. I just took full responsibility. I did. I said, I’m responsible. And my first trainer was my spouse.
Vince Ferguson:
Your husband?
Kita Richards:
My husband, who was army. So I learned to lift first, and I learned to lift, and he was patient with me to a certain extent because he drove it. He would just come in like, are you going to do it today or not? You can leave the gym if you want to, or you can stay in it. But it’s going to be your choice. I’m not going to make you stay. And I remember just because at that point, now that two car garage that I started in, it was actually I made it into a home gym because I was serious about it. I was like, I’m going to be serious. So first I made up in my mind, second I said no more excuses.
Kita Richards:
Third, I changed that space into a home gym. And that was crazy because that meant no excuses. I went out there and he worked like 12 hours, and then it took him an hour to get to work and an hour to get home. So it was 13 hours. So I had to work out with him at night. At night. When people wanted to go to sleep, I had to be working out. No excuses. And I still had to get up to the next day. Because at that time I still had one in high school, one in middle school and then I had two grown. So because my fitness journey back to being fit, didn’t start until I was 40, 41 1/2. Almost 42.
Vince Ferguson:
And were you still working at computer science?
Kita Richards:
I was actually not this is because I was at that point when I decided to be fit, I actually owned a photography, videography business.
Vince Ferguson:
Really? A photography, videography business?
Kita Richards:
I was doing some of that. And then all of a sudden I decided I wasn’t going to do it in this. I was like, I ain’t doing that no more.
Vince Ferguson:
Wow. So you start training ferociously, training with your spouse.
Kita Richards:
With my husband. With my husband at night. At night. Understand because he worked early in the morning, and it was at night. So what did I do? I didn’t just train one time a day. I trained with him, and anything I couldn’t do, anything I struggle with, during the day or in the morning I go practice it.
Vince Ferguson:
You go back practice it?
Kita Richards:
I would go practice it. Whatever I couldn’t do. As long as I didn’t need a spotter, I practiced it.
Vince Ferguson:
Now but what role besides the exercise, what role did nutrition play?
Kita Richards:
Oh, huge. Huge. That was another thing. The first thing I had to do was give up sugar. I had to give up the sugar because I was a sugar addict. I had made up in my mind, I’m going to give up sugar. And that was the hardest thing, because I didn’t have, some people have a caffeine addiction. No, I had a sugar addiction. So sodas wasn’t even a problem. It was sugar for me. So I gave up sugar first. I gave up sugar, and you’re not going to believe this, I gave up cheese.
Vince Ferguson:
Cheese?
Kita Richards:
I love cheese. Cheese was my first two things that I said I was done with.
Vince Ferguson:
It had to be hard to do because you also have kids around the house. So how did you do that? Just cold turkey stopped or-
Kita Richards:
I stopped. And most people, most women asked me because I am the cook of the family. I am the cook of the family and I’ll be launching some recipes soon. But I am a cook up the family. And so what I had to do was I cook their food, but I cooked my food. Because I said I wasn’t going to make an excuse. I wasn’t going to say I got to cook for them. No, I was standing in the kitchen anyway. And so I would cook their food the way they wanted it and would cook mine at the exact same moment.
Vince Ferguson:
And that was the temptation to eat some of theirs?
Kita Richards:
It was there, but here’s what I would say to myself. I would say to myself, you know what? There’s life and death in the power of the tongue, and there’s going to be life or death in this food. So you better be choosing which one. And so that was my thing. And it got so bad, I was label things life or death so much. I’m choosing life. I’m choosing life. And that’s the way I would eat. Because remember I was a sugar addict, and I still had to go to the grocery store. And when I go to the grocery store, what happens when you go get in the checkouts? Because you can avoid the cookie on the aisle of cookies, but the checkout has the candy, and all of the quick snacks.
Vince Ferguson:
For a reason. Yes.
Kita Richards:
So I would pull up my buggy inside of there and I would look, and my mind, I would label them in my head. I would be like, death. And that would be my two things, life or death. And I would leave there without the candy bars, which was so interesting because understand, I was the person that drove, that went through their buggy through the thing. And I would bring everybody back their favorite candy bar, including my own. .It was so bad that my husband, there’s a particular store that has a particular type of candy that I like whenever he would go into that particular town, he would buy me four of those candy bars because I couldn’t get them locally. So the moment I asked him to stop bringing me the candy bars, he knew something was real because I like don’t bring me the candy bars. Don’t bring me the candy bars.
Kita Richards:
But I was making choices. And what I was doing is I was making the choices at that moment. I wasn’t trying to live outside of the window. I wasn’t trying to say, tomorrow I’ll do better. I was like, I’m going to do it the now. I’m going to experience the now moment. So that’s what I was doing.
Vince Ferguson:
Do it now. Are you now a vegan?
Kita Richards:
I am.
Vince Ferguson:
Really? Plant based?
Kita Richards:
That was interesting.
Vince Ferguson:
Yes. How did that transition go?
Kita Richards:
That was about like the same. That was the same for me. The big problem wasn’t for me the meat, it wasn’t the meat. It really wasn’t. Although I would tell people, they were like what would be the thing that would that draw you? Because I love what I would love. And I’ve always loved bison burgers. There’s a particular place in Texas that I just absolutely love, and now I don’t eat that. But that’s not where it got me. That is probably the one thing, but the other was eggs. I absolutely love eggs. And I was eating a lot of eggs in one day. I said, oh, I told my husband, I’m going to become a vegan, and I’m not going to eat the eggs anymore. And he was like-
Vince Ferguson:
Did he ask for a divorce.
Kita Richards:
No. He was like, he’s very supportive. He was like, so you’re not going to eat the eggs? Do you not know within a couple days he cooks eggs? Because he’s the breakfast person. So he cooked the eggs, and they look so light and fluffy. And I walked past the stove, and I looked at the eggs, and then I said, I want the eggs. And then I said, no, no, no. You chose, you made the choice to not eat the eggs. So just make the choice. And something in the back of my head said, but nobody’s looking so nobody’s going to know you ate the eggs. But then I said, I would know that I ate the eggs. And so I’m going to know that I ate the eggs, so I’m not going to eat. And it was enough of them. I could have just tasted them when I was like, I’m not going to eat these eggs.
Kita Richards:
And I didn’t eat the eggs. And I sit at breakfast, and this was the thing, with my family because we are a family that eat together. We actually eat together. So it’s not like I go take my plate and not see their food. And I saw them eat, and I did not touch them. And I felt victorious. Not that you have to give up eggs in your fitness journey or your whatever, but for me, I felt victorious. Everybody asked me do I feel like that I have such a restricted diet? No. I feel like I’m in charge of my life. Food can no longer control me. I’m in control of me. I take my power back. Food is not supposed to control me anyway.
Vince Ferguson:
But food seems to control most of us. And that’s why you have the obesity, diabetes, all these chronic illnesses in the community because of how we eat. So your clients, who are your ideal clients?
Kita Richards:
Well my ideal clients are, most people think that most of my clients are vegan, and they’re not. My ideal clients are people that just want more control. And I shouldn’t say control, more clarity in their life. Because I told people my thing is always I want to help you find your strong point. I want to help you meet your goal. I always told people also this studio is when they come in, we greet each other. Just, I say, hey, how are you doing today? And they told me how they doing. They say, oh, I’m doing great. So my ideal, my avatar client is the people that just want the best out of their life. They want to find the joy in being them and whatever they do. Because really and truly, you are not your body. And I told people that you are not your body, but your body is a manifestation of what you’ve done. It’s a journal.
Vince Ferguson:
It reveals.
Kita Richards:
Can be changed.
Vince Ferguson:
It can be changed. Interesting. Very, very, very good. So what programs do you offer at your, before you even tell me that, what are the names of your gyms?
Kita Richards:
So this one actually has hero on the wall, but this one is She Rocks Fit.
Vince Ferguson:
She Rocks Fit.
Kita Richards:
She Rocks Fit brand. And then the other one is hero.
Vince Ferguson:
Hero.
Kita Richards:
I’m going to tell you about the She Rocks Fit because it seems a little weird. If you look inside of She Rocks Fit, you see the name hero.
Vince Ferguson:
Yes. I like that very much. Very much. What programs do you offer at these two facilities?
Kita Richards:
Okay. So at the studio style one, it’s group fitness. I do a lot of group fitness here. We do the weight lifting, the calisthenics, parts of yoga, functional training. I’m big on functional training because I think you just, you should be able to move your body. I do a lot of body weight. I do a lot of body weight, a lot of body weight. But we do some lifting here. At the other gym it is really and truly a full service gym. So it has all your machines, you have your ellipticals, you have your treadmills, you have the spin bikes, and then you have the studio side of it. And then that one, there is, I think there’s about nine other trainers there.
Vince Ferguson:
Oh, wow. Really?
Kita Richards:
Yeah. There’s nine, about nine. I think we’re at nine other trainers there. And they train clients there as well. So they’re training clients, and whether it’s personal and there is actually, we have, there’s a boxer there too. And he actually teaches boxing. So there’s a variety of stuff going on at the other one.
Vince Ferguson:
So one is called She Rock Fit, which is where you are today. And the other one is called?
Kita Richards:
Hero.
Vince Ferguson:
Hero, just hero? And do you have group fitness programs?
Kita Richards:
I do. I do. I do my group fitness because that’s what I trained. That’s what I specialize in, in group fitness. My group fitness, like I said, will range from different things. So I have steps. We may do steps. Let me tell you what kind of trainer I am. If we had to classify, if we really had to put a label on my training style, I would say it’s OCD.
Vince Ferguson:
OCD?
Kita Richards:
It’s very OCD. So how my whole program works is you walk into my gym. There is not an ab day. There is not. There is not a we’re going to do back day. You walk in, and you don’t know what I’m going to do and here’s why. Because people don’t come because it’s a certain day, and they don’t like to work that particular. But I found out people don’t like to work where they’re weak. Most people don’t like to work the weak side. So what I do is I vary the training where you don’t know, it’s a mystery. A mystery. And I’m going to be honest with you. You know what they do? They peek up under the door to see what is laying in the-
Vince Ferguson:
What’s going on?
Kita Richards:
They’re like, oh my God, what is she going to do? But you know, it works for them because they understand why I do it. I used to announce what I was going to do, but I did find that people would cheat and not come. The also the other part of the gym, a part of the studio side of it is accountability. So I was huge on accountability. I don’t know if it’s because my husband was military. I actually know where people are supposed to be, in which class they’re supposed to be. If you miss a class and you have not contacted wonderful trainer and said, I won’t be in, I have something going on, whatever, I text you. We have an app. I will message you in the app, and I will personally text you. You’re lucky if you get away with 2 sessions back to back. I’m getting in contact with you.
Vince Ferguson:
Is that right? Interesting. So you have that personalized approach. That personalized approach, you hold people accountable, which is awesome. Now can someone join your class virtually?
Kita Richards:
Yes I do. I do virtual. So I have this app. Well we have this app and in the app everything comes through. But as soon as the virtual classes open up, it’s usually a link that appears within your app within 30 minutes telling you the virtual schedule, but it reminds you that there’s a virtual coming up. And here’s the cool thing about it. If you are in for that day, you can join any class. So mine is set up like this. Basically, if you are in for the week, let’s say you say, I want to do virtual or I think I want to join you and I’m going to pay for a week or I’m going to pay for a month. You’re not only that one class, you can join in into any class that happens because you are getting links that’s telling you. So if you are stuck in traffic, so you ain’t making this one, you just click the next link that appears and you make the next one.
Vince Ferguson:
So you still make it. Awesome. Awesome. That’s really good that you’re doing that. That’s actually amazing. Now that you told me who your ideal clients are, do you give them personalized nutrition guidance?
Kita Richards:
I do. I do.
Vince Ferguson:
You do?
Kita Richards:
So my meal plans being a vegan is interesting. So what I do is the way I build my meal plans are, I shouldn’t say simple, but they are built on levels. So when I say levels are different styles. So the base of every one of my meal plans is always vegan. It’s always vegan. So it starts out at vegan. And then you see this list of other things. You, I list the eggs that you can have in the amount. And then I list your meats here so you can add back this list. So that’s how it lists outs. Not only is that is every, it all has the calorie counts beside it. So, and when I say that is, I actually put recipes in because I’m a cook. I like to cook.
Kita Richards:
I like to cook. And I don’t like eating the same. So recipes come with all my meal plans. So basically if I’m telling you that I want you to eat this, I’m actually giving you the recipe to eat it.
Vince Ferguson:
To eat it.
Kita Richards:
So you can meal prep. You can be able to meal prep that. But then for those who say, well, I don’t have time because you have all these options. There is also those quick items. You can go get your frozen vegetables and you just do some roasted vegetables. Or if you out, I even help you if you’re eating out. We discuss how to eat out. What do I choose? What’s a good choice. I found that if people understand their choices, they can make better choices.
Vince Ferguson:
Better choices.
Kita Richards:
My thing is, I like to be your guide, but I want you to walk away from me with knowledge to be empowered. So I do give you the meal plan, but there’s so many instructions even in inside of the app. I think I would walk over and show you my board. My board tells you the different vegetables that can help you detox your liver, because I want you to learn it. I want you to walk away with knowledge because here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking to myself, if you walk away with that knowledge, not only will it impact your life, it impacts now your family life. And now it impacts the next generation. Because I have a family, and I want you, not only my client to be healthy, I want them to be impactful within their environment.
Kita Richards:
Because like you said before, there’s so many. There’s diabetes, there’s blood pressure problems. How do you come at that? We can come out at it one person at a time, but I get that. I can touch you. But even if I’m touching you, then what you do is you touch your family. And then your family will touch other people, and it grows from there. I think that’s the only way that we’re ever going to be healthy as a community.
Vince Ferguson:
Hmm. Awesome. Yes. Most definitely. Educate the community and share that knowledge, share that love. And now obviously I can talk forever with you because you have so much knowledge and wisdom to share, but I want a couple more things that I just one to ask you. Because you’re so busy, you have two facilities there and you’re working with people, how do you manage your family life and your business? Because you have a spouse. So that’s and four kids.
Kita Richards:
And four kids.
Vince Ferguson:
How do you do it?
Kita Richards:
So I’m going to let you in on how I manage. First of all, how I manage my personal relationship. My personal relationship with my spouse. We actually have one day one, well, we have dinner. We decide, he actually asks me, when do I have time to have dinner? So we try to have dinner once a week together.
Vince Ferguson:
Once a week?
Kita Richards:
Yeah. Once a week dinner without the kids, we try to go out without the, we go out. This is ours. Dinner and maybe a movie or something. We have a date. We have to have that. On the date, I disconnect unless it’s the kids trying to contact me or grave emergency, then my focus is not outside of that. It wasn’t, and I’m going to be honest with you. I’m going to be honest with you. It wasn’t like that before, because trying to be a business owner, sometimes you can get out of balance, and I’ve been out of balance.
Kita Richards:
So this helps balance the scale. It tells your spouse or it tells that significant other, that you are important. So this time it’s dedicated to us. And so I try to make sure that I do that. For my kids, they’re all grown. And it’s amazing. We actually have what’s called a group chat. And so everybody’s in this group chat on their phones. It’s message. We have it on Facebook, and then we have it on our phones. We have chat, we talk to each other. We have our own little group text every morning. And I don’t know if somebody did it this morning, someone says good morning. And we are all over the place. So my daughter, like I said, is in Korea, and she’s military. So she may be anywhere, but we have this chat and it says good morning.
Kita Richards:
And at least a couple times a week, because I write affirmations every morning. I send over affirmation to my family. And I send over my affirmation to my clients to just remind them to be the best version of them. But also to say, I love you. And everybody piggybacks inside of that for my family. So whatever is happening within the family, we actually can pick up the phone and just text and we are all in the same space at that time.
Kita Richards:
And so we do that, and about every week or so, we do FaceTime each other. And oh yeah I have grands by the way, I have grands. So we do FaceTime with everybody and that’s how I manage having the kids. So we feel close even though we are in different cities. We feel close. We feel that close and we reach out to each other via that. So I have that with them. And then with each of them, I have my own little, like the girls in the family because I have three girls. We only have our own little group thing. Also we have that. And then we have the whole thing. And then they have the sibling chat where it’s only the-
Vince Ferguson:
The kids.
Kita Richards:
So that’s how we manage it.
Vince Ferguson:
That’s how you manage.
Kita Richards:
So that’s how I manage my personal. And so that makes sense to me with technology. It just makes sense to, but it makes them feel as though they are important as well.
Vince Ferguson:
Which they are. But what about self-care when it comes to you?
Kita Richards:
I’m big on self-care. I’m big on that one.
Vince Ferguson:
Make time for that? What do you do?
Kita Richards:
I make time for myself. So one of the things that I do, and all my clients know it here. One of the things I do is I rise. My clock goes off at [3:45] AM.
Vince Ferguson:
Really? What?
Kita Richards:
Yes. I know. It goes off at [3:45] AM. And one thing that happens at [3:45] is I wake up, and I always listen to some type of meditation. I always brighten up the day. That’s how I wake up. That’s my time. And when I’m sitting there or when I’m laying there, I don’t focus on being awake because I have other alarms. My alarm rings again at [4:43]. Now if I wake all the way up, that’s fine. I wake up. But if I don’t wake all the way up at that [4:43] AM, I go into my own meditation. That’s my time. That’s my time to pour into me. And then about [5:25], because at that time I get up, I do about 15 minutes of that. I get up and I’m getting dressed, I’m moving around.
Kita Richards:
And, but those are my moments. That’s my morning moments. That’s my time to be filled up because I want to feel joy, and peace and love so that when I get in the gym at [6:20], at about [6:15] because that’s when our class start. I want to already be present, and that’s what I do to get present. So that’s my first thing. At night I disconnect. Everybody knows it. At a certain time at night, I literally pull the plug on everybody else. That is my time, and I take that time for myself. And it’s usually a little later at night. I take the time for myself where I may read a book. I may be reading or listening to something. I may decide that I just want to watch something. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I may decide I want to watch something.
Kita Richards:
And I just spent that moment doing that. So that’s how I run that. And then on Fridays, I never work a full day on Fridays. I told people that. I don’t care. I’ve had people to tell me, can I get a session with you? Can you open up this? I’m like, no, no. On Fridays, I’m done. When I get done, I’m done, and I’m done until Monday. I’m done until Monday. I’ll chat with them. I’ll chat with people within texts and stuff like that. But I’m done. I’m done. Even if it’s a business call, it’s got to be an emergency. It’s going to wait until Monday. So I do that. And then Wednesday, you catching me here on a Wednesday. Wednesday is very important too, because Wednesday is also my slow day because I’m back and forth to Greenville on most days.
Kita Richards:
But Wednesday is the day that I don’t go to Greenville. I normally stop about [10:00], and I don’t start back until about [4:20]. And that time, if I want to have a hair appointment, my nails done, I want to have a massage, if I want to just lay in the floor and think about nothing. That’s really, truly my time. And I spend it well. My husband will even tell you, everybody knows my schedule because they will tell you. And some people are so afraid of hurting other people’s feelings, but I can be really, really blunt. My thing is hurting myself first is not what you want to do. So I tell people, create a space and an atmosphere that’s conducive to your growth. Sometimes that requires me to set boundaries. This is my time. And then you have to say it is okay to have it because you are worthy of it. And that’s the way I feel. I feel that I am worthy of time. The same value I give to everyone else, I give to myself.
Vince Ferguson:
Yourself. Beautiful. Very well put. I couldn’t have said it better because that’s not my reality. That’s yours, but that is beautiful. Now how can my listeners and viewers find out more about you, Kita Richards.
Kita Richards:
I’m so easy to contact. You can always go to my website, which is http://www.sherocks.fit. and message me there. Or you can hit me up even on the other one, which is a http://www.bornherofitness. You can get that one, bornherofit.com. And if you message you’ll get me again or you can just do what’s easy. Hit me up on Facebook. It’s Kita Richards. Instagram is Killa_Kita. They gave me that name. I didn’t do it. My clients gave me that name.
Vince Ferguson:
Really? Killer.
Kita Richards:
You can do that as well. I’m so easy to contact that. It’s really strange. And I try my best really to answer people’s questions. I have a certain time of day that I just sit down, and I just start to text other people. So I’m very easy. I’m very easy to contact. And I always say too, if you ever, because I believe we’re all interconnected. So I try to always give my best to those who are trying to contact me.
Vince Ferguson:
Very good. Very good. Kita Richards. So on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, that’s my nonprofit program and Six Weeks of Fitness. I truly want to thank you for coming on this show today.
Kita Richards:
Well thank you for having me. Thank you so much. And can I say one more thing to your listeners?
Vince Ferguson:
Please.
Kita Richards:
I just want to remind people that always strive to be the best version of you. That’s going to mean you got to take time for yourself. You got to love yourself properly. You got to show every part of you, your bodies, you got to show your body up. Yeah, it’s going to fade away. Here’s the thing. Once you take care of your body, your mental, your spirit, and you feed it properly, then that produces not only fruit, but it also produces seed. And when that seed, and when you talk, and we become peaceful, when that seed in your voice begin to flow on other people’s thoughts. And then they get to produce seed. So remember that you are impactful in your environment, and you’re never out of the wrong season. You’re always in the divine timing, and there are really no true mistakes. There are only purposes. So just remind yourself that you are being the best version of you. And today is a good day But guess what? Tomorrow, your tomorrow will be even better. And the day after would be better than that. So just keep going, being your very best self.
Vince Ferguson:
Wow. Awesome. Beautiful. Beautiful. To my listeners and viewers. I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and I know it was inspiring and that you will continue tuning in to my Six Weeks of Fitness podcast. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes. And remember you don’t stop exercising because we grow old. We grow old because we stop exercising.
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