We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ebony Cooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ebony below.

Alright, Ebony thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Fit & Fierce is a wellness movement that started with my own personal journey.. I lacked support, confidence, and most importantly a positive mindset.

By trade I am a early childhood educator. In 2015 after a 12 month battle, I lost my father to brain cancer. To keep from being wrapped up in depression, I redirected my grieving energy to become a healthier me. I trained 6 days a week, changed my nutrition habits, lost about 75lbs within 6 months and never looked back.

I fell in love with the transformation process and decided to become a Personal Trainer. My purpose (WHY) is to provide an encouraging environment where women (not limited to) can be comfortable and confident in themselves during the journey & walk fiercely in their own skin.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Fit & Fierce is a wellness movement that started with my own personal journey.. I lacked support, confidence, and most importantly a positive mindset.

By trade I am a early childhood educator. In 2015 I fell in love with the transformation process and decided to become a Personal Trainer. My purpose (WHY) is to provide an encouraging environment where women (not limited to) can be comfortable and confident in themselves during the journey & walk fiercely in their own skin.

Outside of Personal Training, I am a functional movement specialist as well as a certified boxing coach. We also have other trainers who specialize in Group Fitness, Dance and Hip Hop Step.

We are open 6 days a week (M-S). We offer small group classes, boot camps and private sessions. While the main focus is full body, each class consist of Strength, cardio and core.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I funded (start up cost) my business completely out of pocket.

Prior to opening my business, I worked for another trainer at their gym. They allowed me to teach classes and build my clientele (at no additional cost) when I wasn’t teaching classes for them.

This gave me the opportunity to build and save in preparation to start up at my own facility.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Now a days social media is KEY! About 85% of my clientele is from word of mouth and social media.

I built an audience starting with my journey. After every workout I would post a picture of me in the mirror showing that I completed my workout. I would also post progress pictures, pictures of what I was eating, me drinking my post workout or a short video during my workout. People became so intrigued; they started following, asking questions and encouraging me.

When I became a trainer I would ask my clients to make post about their session or take a picture and tag me in it so their friends could see. I’d post videos, before and after pictures. Today I still post pictures of myself, record class videos and take post class pictures of the group. Now it’s a thing and no one leaves without the picture. They always say “If Coach doesn’t post a pic it didn’t happen.”

Advice: Be consistent with your social media presence. The more you post the more people look for you. It will get to a point where your daily Morning post or night post becomes apart of their routine. When you’re absent they notice.

Don’t be afraid to re-share an old post. There’s almost always someone who didn’t see it the first time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fitandfierce
• Facebook: @fitandfiercestudio
• Other: Tik Tok: @fitandfiercestudio