A Speaker Who Knows What It Really Takes to Run a Studio.
Cathy Fitz built a dance studio from a single room to over 950 students, a staff of 16, and a 250-member competition team. She also knows what it costs personally — the exhaustion, the health toll, the years of putting the studio first and herself last.
That combination of real business experience, transformational life coaching certification, and hard-won personal lessons is what makes her talks land differently than a typical business presentation.
She speaks to dance educators and studio owners about the business side of the work they love — and why taking care of that business is the same as taking care of themselves and every student who walks through the door.
The Gifts You Give Are Too Important to Lose
Option 1
A keynote and presentation for dance conventions, conferences, and studio educator events
You already know dance goes way beyond dancing. You see it every single day in the kid who finally stands a little taller, the shy one who finds her people, the student who walks in carrying something heavy and walks out a little lighter.
When Cathy asked former students to share what dance had given them, she wasn't prepared for what came back.
One student grew up coming to her studio while his father struggled with addiction. As a queer kid who didn't always feel like he fit into what the world expected of him, the studio was the one place that was always there. "It was where I felt safe, seen, and celebrated." That student went on to perform on Broadway and says none of it would have happened without the foundation built inside a dance studio.
"Dance didn't just prepare me to perform. It prepared me to navigate uncertainty with resilience."
Studios close every year. Not because the teaching wasn't good enough. But because the owner was exhausted. Because the business wasn't sustainable. Because somewhere along the way, the person who built it all could no longer keep going.
You are doing something extraordinary. You deserve to be paid for it. You deserve to take care of yourself. And when the business is strong enough to pay its bills, its staff, and its owner, you get to keep doing the work that changes lives.
Somewhere out there is a little kid in a pink tutu with sparkles who needs exactly what you offer. And the ripple effect of what happens when she finds you will reach further than you will ever know.
The gifts you give are too important to lose.
Format: Keynote, breakout session, or workshop.
Every attendee receives a complimentary copy of Let's Dance: The Thriving Method for Running a Profitable Studio Without Burning Out by Cathy Fitz.
Option 2
From Teacher to CEO: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything
There is a turning point that almost every studio owner hits. And it asks something hard of you.
You have to let go of who you were to become who the business needs you to be.
You started as a student. Then a teacher. Then you opened a studio, and the role changed again. One day, you looked up and realized you were also the bookkeeper, the scheduler, the marketing department, and the one fixing the sound system twenty minutes before class.
Each shift asks you to release a little of the last version of yourself so you can grow into the next one.
Student. Teacher. Manager. Leader. CEO.
None of those versions disappears. They just stop being the whole story.
This talk meets studio owners wherever they are in that evolution and helps them make the mindset shift that changes how they see themselves, how they lead, and what becomes possible.
Format: Keynote, breakout session, or workshop.
Every attendee receives a complimentary copy of Let's Dance: The Thriving Method for Running a Profitable Studio Without Burning Out by Cathy Fitz.
Bring the Book to Your Event
Let's Dance:
The Thriving Method for Running a Profitable Studio Without Burning Out
Available Summer 2026.
Every attendee at a studio presentation receives a complimentary copy. Cathy's gift to the studio owners in your audience.
Option 3
A Transformative Keynote for Midlife Women
Your Audience Will Love
Cathy Flew the Coop: What Happens When You Finally Choose Yourself
At 55, twice divorced with six kids and thirteen grandchildren, Cathy Fitzgerald gave away her furniture, let go of her apartment, packed a Canon 5D and a couple of suitcases, and bought a one-way ticket to Ecuador.
No return date. No plan. Just a woman who had spent decades putting everyone else first finally deciding it was her turn.
What happened next is the kind of story that makes audiences laugh, cry, and leave the room feeling like anything is still possible.
This keynote is for every woman who has kept the peace at the cost of her own, who has poured herself out for everyone else and wondered what was left for her, who has looked at her life and thought — surely there is more than this.
There is. Cathy's story proves it.
Your audience will leave with:
A renewed sense of what becomes possible when you finally stop shrinking.
Permission to choose themselves without guilt.
The reminder that it is never too late to start over.
Available for: Women's conferences, corporate events, dance conventions, and private events
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