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

Alright, Shirlee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

Social media is HUGE! We moved to Ohio from NYC almost 7 years ago. It seemed as though social media was just catching on in Ohio. We were already in full swing with our social media plans.

Social media (especially instagram) is where we get 95% of our clients. We manage our own media at the moment. It’s extremely important to us to be “solid” on our mission, methods and vision for the gym and fitness community. That being said, if we ever feel the need to hand over the social media, we would definitely do so. We would plan to hand it over to an employee who is actually in the gym with us to ensure they are understanding Hybrid to the fullest.

Shirlee , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Shirlee and I am co-owner and trainer at Hybrid Barbell. I am a professional dancer turned fitness professional. I have always loved movement, the body and health. As a professional dancer, I was required to workout. So training is something I have always loved. After dancing and teaching dance for several years in NYC, I felt it was time to do something else with my life. Personal training was the first thing that came to mind! I studied, took the test, and started training in a commercial gym in Manhattan, This is where I met my fiancé and business partner, Gio. We worked there for a few years as well as privately all throughout Manhattan. We both came to realize that training at a commercial gym had a very low ceiling for earning. This is where the idea of “doing it on our own” came into play. We started researching places for rent and how to open a business in NYC. It was very discouraging. The prices and hoops you have to jump through are insane. We just kept working, saving and researching different options.
Long story short, we came to my hometown of Ohio to visit my family one year. While talking with my mom about wanted to start our own gym, she told us to just move to Ohio where prices are cheaper. I said absolutely not, I moved to NYC 10 years ago and never had plans of leaving. Well…..3 months later we moved to Ohio and started up shop!
We started in a very small garage space and a year and a half later moved to our current (much bigger) location. Hybrid Barbell is a private gym. We offer personal training, online training, subscription based training, small group training, boxing and nutrition coaching,
We focus on providing the best training experience you can get! Our knowledge is based off of science-backed information and experience. We don’t have any tolerance for fads or extremes. We take pride in teaching our members the correct way to train, eat and live a healthy lifestyle.
Our biggest mission is to help people understand how important their health is! We always say, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. We help people reach their goals by helping them understand the basics of fitness and nutrition. We help show them how they can fit fitness into their lifestyle.

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

Gio and I have always been the type to put our words into action. No matter what! We both have that resilience, grit and perseverance to do whatever we have to do to get where we want to be.

We moved to Ohio from NYC with about $10,000 saved between the both of us. We had no specific plan in mind other than get to Ohio, look for a location, open up shop!

We are forever grateful to my mom and step-dad for letting us live with them as we got started. This helped tremendously with finances. At the time of the move, both Gio and I had some work to do on our credit. So the option of a loan was out of the question. We asked a friend for a small personal loan to help with start-up costs, but they said no. Looking back, I’m very glad he said no. It made us have to figure it out on our own.

As we were looking for spaces to open the gym in, Gio started working for a roofing company and I started some fitness classes as my moms dance studio to bring in some income. 3 months after moving to Ohio, we found and secured our first location. We didn’t have a loan or a bunch of extra money to get equipment with. We literally opened the gym with 1 squat rack, 1 barbell, 1 set of bumper plates, a few kettlebells, 1 plyo box, and a battle rope.
So the initial capital to start was some money we had saved from NYC, and some extra money we had saved from 3 months of work in Ohio. Not much at all, but we made it work!

How did you build your audience on social media?

It’s a very simple answer. We were just very, very consistent. You have to be consistent about posting and getting content out there. We started when all you could do is post pictures on instagram. We took pictures of the gym, the equipment, our clients, etc… We posted ALL the time. No matter what. We made sure that our instagram and facebook was connected so every time we posted to instagram it when straight to facebook.

For real, it’s all about be present and consistent.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.HybridBarbell.com
• Instagram: @hybridbarbell
• Facebook: Hybrid Barbell

Image Credits
Andrew Paul Studios