Kathy McKnight

Official Bio

Kathryn McKnight is a certified group fitness, nutrition, wellness, and self development coach. She believes her ultimate purpose is to help people find true happiness and fulfillment in life through positive solutions and a healthy lifestyle.

At the start of 2017, Kathy decided it was time for her to follow her purpose and dream. She left her sales career to start a personal empowerment coaching practice with a simple business plan and lots of courage.

Her story isn’t like the clichéd tales you usually hear of people born in a small town who then move to a cosmopolitan city to seek their calling. Kathy was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in Brandon, Florida. She went to Brandon Senior High for her high school diploma. She then studied marketing, law, psychology, and sales at the University of Tampa during her Bachelor of Science in Marketing. There, she joined the Delta Zeta and SAE Little Sister sororities and became a cheerleader.

It didn’t take Kathy long to realize that there are many rewards for being a sales professional. When she graduated from college, she had three offers waiting for her. She accepted the offer for Pitney Bowes Inc, and worked in business development and contract negotiation for the next five years. After her time at Pitney Bowes Inc, Kathy took a Sales Representative role at GTE Mobilnet. She worked there for over a year and a half, selling phone accessories and cold calling for B2B sales and contracts.

Eventually, she took on a permanent spot at Automated Petroleum & Energy Co.
Kathy didn’t let APEC go just as APEC wouldn’t let her go. In her many years working there, Kathy had the opportunity to learn more about relationship management. As a person who had always enjoyed helping people find happiness, Kathy established customer satisfaction as the defining element of her success. She would go out of her way to find her customers solutions they had been unable to get anywhere else. This is why some of those clients have since stayed in touch with her.

Over these same years, Kathy also had the opportunity to exercise self-discovery (she takes pride in being a spiritual person brought up in a Catholic household). This journey to self-discovery only brought her closer to the belief that having a connection with God makes her stronger. In her words, “If we aren’t spiritually fit, we can’t use our potential to heal ourselves or others”.

This spirituality has guided Kathy through many challenges in her life. She knows it has made her the independent, self-confident, and happy person that she is now. It has also helped her develop professionally and find her true calling in helping others with their struggles in life through personality development coaching.

Kathy found out years ago that she wanted to do more with her life than be a great sales manager. As personal coaching became popular, she realized personal empowerment coaching is the ideal profession for her. She had always been able to build a rapport with people and, more than that, truly understand what they really wanted. She could always sense what was wrong in a person’s story.

Due to her empathy, active listening skills, and the ability to identify the most important bits of information, Kathy was always able to help people see the actual problem they were up against. Friends and family were already taking advice from her when she decided to become a professional coach.

Being an organized person, Kathy approached this idea with authentic education and recognized training. In time, she earned recognition as a life coach, a professional coach, a self development coach, a health and wellness coach, and a group fitness and nutrition coach; and is now qualified to help clients in all these areas.

Kathy believes in walking the talk. As a fitness and wellness coach, she practices a unique but very healthy lifestyle. She has multiple healthy meals a day, exercises daily, stays happy, and ensures that her body gets proper rest every night.

As a person who believes in personal strength and forgiveness, Kathy has come out of challenges in her life stronger than ever. She believes we can’t blame others for our trials, and we cannot grow unless we look past the blame and take responsibility. This is a unique personal quality that makes Kathy a remarkably good coach and a disciplined person. It also makes the foundation of her coaching philosophy. She strongly believes her clients can turn their lives around by following this philosophy as well. This is why, when it came to naming her practice, Kathy chose Accountable Actions as her brand name.

Kathy uses this philosophy to help her clients become better versions of themselves by achieving their goals. One of her clients has adapted to Kathy’s techniques and is now trying out a more adjusted attitude with her business team. She now feels a lot more confident in her meetings. Another client who kept failing at her fitness goals was able to meet her set weight limits through Kathy’s coaching.

As someone who’s full of life and appreciates being alive every day, Kathy makes the most of each moment. You’ll often find her on the beach; or listening to live music and dancing to it if there’s enough room; or watching movies; or taking part in fitness competitions. In moments of solitude, Kathy prefers the company of a good book (she hopes to write one soon). On a regular day, Kathy begins with a workout, goes to her spiritual program, works with her clients, and takes her kids to school and games. On Sundays, she never misses church. She volunteers for social causes whenever she can.
Kathy lives in Riverview, Florida, and tries to spend all her free time with her three children, whom she absolutely dotes on.