My Story
You might know me from the fitness industry, or as a motivational coach. But here’s something you may not know about me..
I was supposed to be a chef.
I grew up in Bruges, Belgium where my family ran a restaurant. It was assumed that I would be a part of the business. So, I had to study to become a chef.
I hated it. However, I was very passionate about dancing, fitness, and the idea of traveling the world.
When I was 19, I lost my mom. She threw her life away for being scared to disappoint others or make changes in her life.
One month later, I was in a small rowing boat in the middle of a lake, laying down and crying. I was thinking about how horrible my future felt. Like my mom, I too was in a life I didn’t feel like was mine.
And then it happened. It took 5 seconds for me to decide that I didn’t have to live this life. I felt reborn. I turned my boat around like I turned my life around and went home.
The hardest part was to tell my dad what I wanted to do with my future. How was I going tell him that 7 years of cooking school will be wasted? That I won’t raise a “normal family.” That I want to become a fitness instructor and go back to school.
And there he was, waiting for me. I could see he had tears in his eyes because he could feel the pain of me losing my mom.
He locked eyes with me and I felt like I had just told him his son is a different person now. I was so scared for his reaction. And then he responded..“𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺!”
And this is how it all started..
The First 10 years of my new life
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the beginning. I actually got rejected twice for my aerobics certification! But I didn’t let that hold me back. I worked hard to gain more education, build my confidence, and tune out the naysayers.
Eventually, all that hard work paid off and my career exploded! I was fortunate enough to be recognized with some pretty cool awards along the way:
In 1997, I was awarded Instructor of the Year by FFA
..followed by Rookie of the Year in 2000
..the Belgian Fitness Trophy in 2002
..EFAA presenter of the Year in 2003
..Presenter of Excellence in 2004 in the UK
..nominated as one of the top 4 best international presenters in NY!
I even became a Reebok® master trainer (1998-2006) and a NIKE® Elite trainer (2006-2012) for Belgium.
On top of that, I was invited to be a trainer on three national television shows, including “The Biggest Loser” and “Celebrity Fitness”, and had a column in Men’s Health magazine for an entire year!
My dream was already happening and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
When I first heard about the “Latin-inspired program” called Zumba® Fitness, I have to admit that it didn’t appeal to me. Being a tall man from Europe, it didn’t feel right for me.
However, after experiencing the happy vibes and seeing how much my students loved it, I got hooked.
My JOURNEY IN ZUMBA
Zumba Education Specialist (ZES™) since 2009, serving Scandinavia and Middle East areas.
Featured on several ZIN DVDs and Zumba consumer DVDs during the years, including ZIN Volumes 39, 47, 55, 58, 64, 67, 70, 78, 95, 102
Creator of education programs, such as Pro Skills, Take the Lead and Virtual Pro trainings, Burst and Cue like a Pro e-learnings.
Presenter at ZINCON since 2011, with my own sessions, such as “The King of Pop”, “The Queen of Pop”, “ABBA”, “Motown”, “Emotion Flow” and “Next Rising Presenter Contest“.
Invited for events, trainings and workshops in over 100 countries around the World.
After being in the fitness industry for a while I realized that health is not just physical fitness or nutrition. It’s also the health of your souls, mind!
I can not train people physically if they need to find their balance again mentally. When your soul, mind, heart needs to be healed, there is no way your physical health will improve. It is all connected.
That’s why, in recent years, I have focused more on mental health by being a keynote speaker and coach, helping people find the balance between their mental and physical health
Life COACHING
That’s why I decided to become a life coach. I got certified at Health Coach Institute in the US in 2020. Here’s a little bit about the work I’ve been doing as a life coach:
I co-hosted The Fun Road training and podcast with the amazing Kass Martin
I did 1:1 life coaching sessions to help people work on their mindset and achieve their goals
I taught workshops for groups who wanted to work on confidence and mindset together
I had the pleasure to be a Guest Speaker at Workplace Wellbeing 2022 Conference in Isle of man, which was a fantastic experience
I co-wrote the best-selling book “The Right Mindset” with the wonderful Delphine Steelandt
And most recently, I was the Confidence Coach for the Miss Belgium 2023 candidates, which was an absolute blast!
In January 2023 I launched my brand new online life coaching program, called INVINCIBLE, which is a 10-month program designed to help people learn to live a happier life. Learn more about the program here.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I had the idea to create a space where instructors and fitness enthusiasts could come together, learn, connect, and just have fun.
It all started with me teaching a weekly Zumba class on Zoom.
..and growing into an online platform and community, called the Inner Circle
From Virtual Zumba to Global Community: The Inner Circle Story
In March 2020, I taught my first Virtual Zumba class using Dacast streaming platform. Let me tell you, it was weird not seeing anyone in person, not even through webcams. I wasn’t sure if anyone would even want to join. Eventually, I switched to Zoom so I could see my students, and that made all the difference.
I really loved seeing the same faces every week and that I could talk to each of them.
But I wanted to bring more value to my students, more than just Zumba classes. I wanted to share all my expertise and help them improve their teaching skills, but also life skills.
That’s why I decided to create the online membership platform called the Inner Circle by Steve Boedt.
In 3 years, we’ve been doing, besides Zumba classes, 1:1 coaching sessions, team-teaching classes, masterclasses with fantastic guest presenters, exclusive webinars, life coaching sessions, even cooking classes!
.. but we also built friendships and precious moments together!
Now, The Inner Circle is not just me. We’ve got an amazing team of people bringing value to our members. We’ve got ZJ Beatrice Coman and ZIN Shari Huyers teaching weekly Zumba classes, Andrea Bollella co-hosting Invincible life coaching with me, and Carmen Barbulescu-Sosoiu handling website administration and customer support.
Since 2022, we’ve been also organizing an amazing bi-annual event called The Inner Circle Weekend. It’s where members can meet up in person and spend a whole weekend together in my hometown, Bruges. And you know what’s crazy? I was thinking just people from nearby countries will come.. but we even had members coming from the US or Canada!
And you know what’s really, really amazing? The Inner Circle is more than just a learning platform; it’s a big, supportive community of people from all around the world who care about each other like family.
