Meet Rikki Bocchinfuso

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rikki Bocchinfuso a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rikki, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

To be honest I stumbled upon my purpose, and I think it’s a beautiful thing. I always knew growing up I wanted to help people, but I never truly understood what that meant. I knew I wanted to make a difference in peoples lives and be a positive light to guide them. After the pandemic, I had been laid off of my job. A job that I wouldn’t consider very fulfilling, but it paid the bills. I felt like this redirection was a blessing. At the time I was attending classes and having one on one sessions with a trainer at my local gym. Shout out Prime Intensity Training! As I grew to get to know the owners they had offered an idea to me, why don’t you work here? I was scared and unsure I was fit for the job because I had never worked in the fitness industry. What I did know was I enjoyed being there and my sessions with them always had a positive impact on my day, so I took the leap. Now 2 years later, I am training new employees and watching my clients flourish. Helping people lead a healthier more fulfilling life truly is my purpose.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a personal trainer and fitness instructor. A lot of people hear that and think, okay so you help people push weights around? Although that may be true, it is a lot more than that. I give my clients time for themselves. Whether it’s a mom who just needs that one hour of me time, or someone bogged down with work who needs to get away for a bit. I take my time truly getting to know my clients and their needs to ensure that the time I spend with them has more of an effect on them than just physical changes. It’s mental, and physical. That hour is for them, and nothing else. I want them to leave my session thinking about all they accomplished and letting that propel them through any hard times they have.

I am currently working at a few gyms, but behind the scenes I am slowly growing my own fitness brand. FitByRik, Personal Training. I want to be able to offer my services to a wider audience. Offering virtual sessions and in-home sessions will help people who may not have time to make it to a gym, but still want to start leading a healthier lifestyle. I will offer guidance in times when they chose to workout on their own, and always be available for questions and concerns. Goal is to one day have my own in-home gym !

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three skills that truly helped me in my journey are compassion, confidence, and adaptability.
When it comes to working out a lot of people are scared to get started because, what if I look dumb, what if I’m not doing this right, what if I hurt myself?
All very valid concerns, so you need to approach new clients with compassion. Understand this is probably all new to them. Paired with compassion, you need confidence. People are coming to you because they trust you, or you inspire them. Realize you are the expert, and act like it. When you say what you mean and mean what you say, they will notice it. And lastly, you need adaptability. As we all know, things usually do not work out the way we plan, so you need to roll with the punches. There have been plenty of times I had a workout all planned for my client and when I get to the session they are injured or in pain. I am happy they still decided to show up and give it their best effort, but I need to make adjustments. You need to think quick on your feet and find what will work best under any circumstance. Always keeping the the clients best interest in mind.

There are a few ways to improve on these skills. The first one is time. Sometimes it just takes a lot of trial and error to help you learn, and to help you feel confident in your craft. The second thing is to listen. Although we are knowledgeable in our field, we still have things we can learn. Ask questions to the people around you, find ways to become inspired, and always listen to your clients concerns. You may not always be able to fix everything, but when your client feels heard and understood, it goes a long way.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it is very important to try and be more well rounded. If you are good at something of course you want to hone in on that strength, but if you want to continue to learn you need to keep doing hard things. I consider myself new to my field, 2 years is not that long, but I am trying to soak up knowledge like a sponge. I work a three very different gyms to expand my horizons. I don’t want to limit myself or my scope of practice because I spent too much time focusing on what I know. If you find your niche specialty that works for you, I don’t knock that, but me personally I don’t want to put myself into a box. Learning new skills will only help improve upon the ones you already have. In my personal life for example, when I started at the gym I hated bench pressing, and refused to do it. Why did I hate it? Because I wasn’t good at it. I thought well I’m not good at it so why try? But now years later chest is one of my favorite muscle groups to work. I think that’s the thing about fitness, we are always adapting. We want more challenges to help us grow. Now I run a women’s strength class and a lot of the women will bench press for the first time in their lives in my class. They start out nervous, but now they are absolutely crushing it. Hitting new personal records and cheering each other on. New strengths are something to celebrate!

Contact Info:

• Website: Working on getting a website in the next year !
• Instagram: FitBy.Rik
• Other: TikTok: Rikkileaha

Image Credits

RZKPhotography
AidenScottCreative