Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Hibbard.
Hi Julie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I entered the fitness industry at just 19 years old, working as a personal trainer while earning my degree from Texas State University, where I also minored in Theatre Arts. That foundation in communication, storytelling, and performance continues to influence how I lead, coach, and connect. Early in my career, I learned how to navigate and challenge sexism in a male dominated field, which required resilience, confidence, and the ability to advocate for myself long before it was comfortable.
At 25, with a loan from my father, who later became my business partner, I invested in my first Anytime Fitness. Over time, I built two clubs from the ground up and acquired two additional underperforming locations, successfully turning them around through disciplined operations and a people first leadership style.
My divorce occurred over a decade ago, and in the years that followed, I faced some of my most defining personal challenges. After the COVID shutdowns, I made the difficult decision to sell the Ardmore club as my father became terminally ill. Shortly after, he passed away, a profound loss that reshaped both my life and leadership. During that same season, I also found the strength to leave an abusive relationship, choosing growth, stability, and self respect so I could continue building a life rooted in integrity for myself and my daughter.
Today, I own and operate Anytime Fitness locations in Gainesville, Pilot Point, and Krum, Texas, while raising my daughter as a single mother. Beyond my fitness centers, I’ve built Julie Moves You, my personal brand focused on movement, recovery, storytelling, and personal growth. As a writer, speaker, and coach, I use both my professional experience and my healing journey to empower others to find their voice, reclaim their strength, and step into alignment in their own lives.
My biggest ongoing lesson has been learning true life work balance and choosing relationships that support my growth rather than hold me back. I have found solace in travel, healing, and service, and I believe strong, independent women thrive best alongside strong, secure men. That alignment, both personally and professionally, is where real success begins.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The hardest part of my journey has never been starting businesses. It has been surviving everything that came with leading them as a woman, a mother, and an entrepreneur.
I entered the fitness industry young and quickly learned that being competent was not enough in a male dominated space. I faced sexual harassment, constant scrutiny, and repeated attempts to negate my intelligence by reducing my success to my appearance. I was told more than once that I was only successful because I was “hot,” not because I was disciplined, strategic, or capable. Learning how to have a backbone while still being empathetic, especially as a woman conditioned to people please, was a painful but necessary evolution.
I became an entrepreneur at 25 while still learning how to lead, regulate my emotions, and carry responsibility far beyond my years. At 27, I became a mother to my daughter, Brooklyn, which reshaped everything. Navigating divorce soon after was difficult, but I am fortunate to have an ex husband who is a committed and respectful co parent. He also owns an Anytime Fitness in Denison, and together we have prioritized stability, communication, and our daughter’s wellbeing. He is now married with another child, and Brooklyn is happy, supported, and thriving. We have been through a lot, and we are still here, supported and growing.
Leadership brought challenges few people see. Managing employees meant navigating theft, abusive members, entitlement, and emotional labor that often fell solely on my shoulders. COVID nearly broke me. Keeping businesses alive during shutdowns while protecting staff, members, and my family required endurance and decision making under pressure that changed me permanently.
Years of sustained stress eventually pushed my nervous system into survival mode. At one point, the symptoms were so severe that I was misdiagnosed as having a mental illness, when in reality I was an exhausted entrepreneur and single mother operating under relentless pressure without adequate support or recovery. That experience forced me to confront how normalized burnout is, especially for women who are expected to carry everything quietly.
The most devastating chapter of my life arrived when my father, who was also my business partner, became terminally ill and passed away. Losing him was not only the loss of a parent, but the loss of my anchor, mentor, and emotional safety net. While grieving, I was still expected to lead, decide, and perform.
At the same time, I was forced to leave an abusive relationship. Walking away required untangling trauma bonds, protecting my daughter, and enduring manipulation and smear campaigns meant to discredit and silence me. Navigating public judgment, private grief, and professional responsibility simultaneously was the most destabilizing experience of my life, and the moment that demanded the deepest level of self trust I have ever known.
Work life balance remains an ongoing struggle. I surf and travel not to escape my life, but to regulate my nervous system and return grounded, clear, and motivated. I live the lifestyle I teach because I know firsthand what happens when rest, embodiment, and joy are ignored.
I am 40 years old now, and I understand that young entrepreneurs are a different breed. The isolation, pressure, and responsibility are rarely understood by anyone who has not lived it. Resilience is not born from success. It is forged in survival.
Despite everything, I continue to lead, build, and heal. Not because it is easy, but because my honesty and lived experience help others find their voice, their strength, and the courage to choose themselves too.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Creativity has always been at the core of how I build, lead, and heal, even long before I understood it as a strength. I went to school to be a coach, with a background in mass communications, and I minored in Theatre Arts at Texas State University. Storytelling, movement, and human behavior were always intertwined for me. In college, I wrote scripts that classmates went on to secure agents with, while I took a different path into entrepreneurship. I never stopped writing, I just redirected it.
As a gym owner, creativity became a survival skill. I broke a world record with presales before opening the doors to one of my clubs, not because I had a roadmap, but because I learned marketing and leadership through relentless trial and error. I built systems by failing forward, testing ideas in real time, and learning how to communicate value, emotion, and trust. Everything I know about branding, audience connection, and business psychology came from doing, not theory.
Outside of my fitness centers, my creative work has expanded into writing, speaking, and digital storytelling. I believe deeply in embodied healing and self expression, and my philosophy is simple. Fuck it. Book it. Do the thing. The key to happiness is not caring what people think, because people will judge no matter what. Doubt has never stopped me. If anything, it tends to fuel me. When I’m underestimated, I prove people wrong quietly and consistently.
I am currently building a YouTube channel from scratch, along with a lifestyle blog and a Patreon where I share poetry, journals, and long form reflections on entrepreneurship, relationships, healing, and finding yourself through movement. My writing today is focused on empowerment, especially for women and men who have experienced abusive relationships and are learning how to trust themselves again. I don’t write from theory. I write from lived experience.
At the heart of everything I do is wellness as a lifestyle, not a performance. Movement, creativity, travel, and rest are not extras. They are essential. I live the life I teach, and that authenticity is what resonates most with people.
Above all else, I am most proud of being a mother. My daughter has watched me build, fail, grieve, grow, and choose myself over and over again. My creativity, resilience, and commitment to health and wellness have shaped not only her, but many other women and men who see what it looks like to keep going with honesty and courage.
My work is not about perfection. It is about expression, truth, and forward momentum. Creativity saved me, and now I use it to help others remember who they are too.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
One thing people are often surprised to learn about me is that my confidence didn’t come naturally. It was built through self awareness, accountability, and learning how to feel deeply without losing myself. While I’m often perceived as strong and unbothered, I’m actually highly introspective and emotionally attuned. I question my own behavior, take responsibility for my patterns, and work hard to lead with integrity, even in situations where I was hurt.
People assume success came easily or that criticism doesn’t affect me, but the truth is that my resilience was forged through survival, not ego. I’ve experienced seasons where prolonged stress overwhelmed my nervous system and forced me to slow down, reassess, and rebuild from the inside out. That process taught me the difference between performing strength and embodying it.
Another surprising aspect of my journey is how much I value nuance in relationships. I don’t believe in villainizing people or rewriting history to protect my pride. I believe in boundaries, accountability, and growth, even when things are complicated. That perspective has shaped how I co parent, how I lead teams, and how I show up in my work.
At my core, I’m not driven by attention or external validation. I’m driven by alignment. I don’t want to win or be admired. I want peace, clarity, and integrity. Everything I build, whether in business, creativity, or wellness, reflects that value.
Strength, for me, is not about being loud or unshakable. It’s about staying honest, choosing myself, and remaining open hearted while still standing firm.
Pricing:
- Each of my journal entries on Patreon range from $111-$777
- You can join my inner circle on Patreon for $22 a month. Mentorship and coaching to come which will range from $1100-$2200 a month
- My gym memberships range from $51.95 to $88.95, monthly
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliemovesyou
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/17aFtq9kvs/
- Twitter: https://x.com/juliemovesyou?s=21
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@juliemovesyou
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/JulieMovesYou444
Image Credits
Aaron Adventures and Mollie Bell Photography and Sailing Doodles
