Betiana Viqueira, better known as Betz, had long wanted to build something of her own. The turning point came after she moved to Miami and realized how much of her time she was devoting to other people’s ambitions. She was working to pay her bills while trying to establish herself as a fitness coach in a country that was still new to her. If she wanted to develop her own brand, no one else was going to sit down and do that work for her.
Her older sister helped her move past the fear of starting. She had left her life in Argentina, returned to Uruguay and temporarily moved in with their parents while betting on her own business. Watching her make that choice gave Betz a different way to think about risk: she did not have to wait for ideal circumstances to begin.
The decision brought a new kind of discipline. Betz was balancing a regular job with the hours needed to study, organize her ideas and work on her project. She also had to learn skills that coaching alone had not taught her, including sales and the financial side of running a business. At the same time, taking stock of what she could offer helped her recognize knowledge she had been overlooking while comparing herself with more visible people in fitness.
Beyond the following
Betz is a professional dancer as well as a fitness coach, and her plans include online training, fitness plans and an app that could eventually allow her to work with people beyond the United States. She would like to travel and connect with the people she trains. For now, she is candid about being at the beginning of her coaching career in Miami.
Social media is part of building that career, but she does not want likes or follower counts to become its purpose. She would rather see her content encourage someone to begin moving or pay closer attention to their health. That distinction also shapes how she views her personal brand. Her training, nutrition and rest are choices she makes every day to stay focused and keep doing the work, not simply material to post online.
She is especially concerned about the fitness advice people encounter on social media. “Misinformation hurts”, she warns. In her view, inaccurate guidance can leave someone frustrated or stuck, even when they are making an effort to change. She wants coaches to keep studying, explain what they teach and be willing to challenge advice they believe could harm someone.
Leave room to learn
Betz speaks openly about what it feels like to be new to an industry in a different country. In Miami, she has had to adjust to a different system and work in another language. Rather than pretend to know everything, she sought help from a friend with years of experience in fitness, who shared material that helped her study exercises and learn how to explain them in English.
That experience informs her advice to other coaches: ask questions, accept corrections and stay open to people who know something you do not. Fitness, she argues, is too broad for anyone to treat their own knowledge as complete. “Leave the ego at home”, she says.
For Betz, that applies to how coaches treat people as much as to what they know about training. She wants gyms to be places where clients feel safe and respected, not judged by their appearance or spoken to without care. Expertise matters, but so does the way it is shared.
She is still building the career she wants, sometimes after a long day at a job she hopes to leave behind. The phrase she shares with her sister is simple: “Never give up”. For Betz, it is less a promise of quick success than a reason to keep studying, asking for help and showing up for the next step.
Keep showing up: @betz.vi
