The Vision Behind Our Program
Why boxing? What can we learn by stepping into the ring when it comes to defining what we really want in our lives and careers?
How it started.
Fight Co.Lab began as a conversation between Shea O’Neil — a developmental leadership coach and facilitator working with executives and teams — and Erin Renzas, a tech executive turned entrepreneur and author.
The two found themselves asking the same questions many high-performing leaders quietly face:
What happens when you’ve spent years climbing, winning, achieving — only to realize the definition of success no longer fits?
How do you continue to lead when the pace, the pressure, and the fight itself start to cost more than they give?
Learning to fight your own fight.
At the time, Erin was training for her first amateur boxing match. What began as a physical outlet quickly became something deeper — a way to reconnect instinct, discipline, and presence.
In their conversations, Erin and Shea began to notice how the lessons from the ring mirrored the dynamics of leadership and life. The fight wasn’t just physical; it was structural, psychological, and deeply human.
They started mapping those principles — reading the ring, conserving energy, knowing when to yield and when to strike — onto the realities of executive life. The parallels were undeniable.
“I realized I’d been fighting for the next rung on the ladder. Every time I got there, there was another fight waiting — only this time the stakes were higher, the hits landed harder, and the exhaustion ran deeper.
The fighting never stopped; it just changed form. At some point, I lost sight of what I was fighting for. The fight became about fighting itself. I still knew how to fight, but the win felt increasingly out of reach — and I wasn’t even sure what winning meant anymore.”
Boxing has always been in crisis, a sport of crisis.
In boxing, you learn quickly that you can’t win a fight defined by someone else’s terms. Too often in work and life, we find ourselves reacting inside rules we didn’t write — on defense, against the ropes, burning energy on shots that don’t land.
The skill is learning to reset — to lower your chin, raise your guard, pivot out, and step back to the center of the ring. That’s where perspective returns. That’s where you can see the angles again.
Boxing trains you to pick your shots with intelligence, conserve what matters, and move deliberately toward what counts. You learn to read your opponent, take a hit, recover, and counter with precision. Above all, you learn to define your fight — because only then can you win it.
In boxing, you have to know why you’re fighting in the first place. You have to define the terms of the fight so you can get the knockout and win. That’s what we explore at Fight Co.Lab.
Define. Construct. Embody.
Fight Co.Lab was built around that principle.
Our retreats create the space to define the terms of your own fight — in your career, your relationships, your ambitions, and your life.
Boxing is intense. So is leadership. So is self-definition. This program brings them together, pushing you to integrate body, mind, and instinct into one coherent form of strength.
You’ll train, reflect, and recalibrate alongside peers who are doing the same — translating physical discipline into strategic insight and renewed capacity.
This isn’t about fighting harder; it’s about fighting smarter — about understanding the hits, choosing the battles, and directing your energy where it matters most.