When the gyms closed in March 2020, most instructors hit pause. Dr. Karen Fiorillo went live on Facebook every night and built something called Corona Aerobics — free for anyone who showed up, drawing 600 to 800 viewers a night at its peak.
Karen is a STEM teacher, personal trainer, barre instructor, published author, and doctoral researcher — and she’s been coaching through some version of adversity for most of her career. In a recent conversation with AAAI, she shared insights that go well beyond technique. Here are three that stood out.
Your Niche Isn’t a Limitation
Karen works primarily with premenopausal, menopausal, postmenopausal, and postpartum women. She didn’t manufacture that niche. She lived it. Her own history with an eating disorder, overexercising, and the recovery that followed shaped who she is most equipped to serve.
She’s clear about what she’s not, too. She doesn’t try to be the trainer for someone building maximum muscle. “I’m probably not your person,” she says without hesitation. That kind of clarity is what builds trust — and keeps clients coming back.
For coaches who feel pressure to know everything and serve everyone: Karen’s advice is simple. Work with a wide range of clients for six months, pay attention to who you’re most effective with, and then become the authority in that space. Your lived experience is a professional asset.
The Experience Before Class Matters
Karen arrives 15 to 30 minutes before every class. She sets up the mats. She puts the weights out for each participant. She has the music already running when people walk in.
That might sound like a small detail. It isn’t. One of her participants walked in, saw that every spot had weights pre-set, and was visibly stunned. “The look of shock was unbelievable,” Karen recalled. “If you set that tone from the beginning, they won’t feel uncomfortable.”
She also makes a point of asking — every single class, even with the same regulars — whether anyone is new to this format or new to the gym entirely. Because if something makes sense to everyone except one person, that’s not a welcoming environment. And retention starts with how people feel, not just how hard they work.
The coaches who think about the full client experience — before, during, and after class — are the ones whose participants follow them from gym to gym when circumstances change.
You Are in Sales
Karen teaches entrepreneurship to middle schoolers and runs her own wellness business on the side. She also works the gym floor at Crunch, approaching members whose form is off and offering to help. She doesn’t see that as selling. She sees it as doing her job.
Her advice for coaches who are uncomfortable with the sales side of the industry: be authentic, give value, and don’t try to be who you aren’t. She also shared a stat worth holding onto — it takes 7 to 12 contacts before someone says yes. Persistence, delivered with honesty and care, is a professional skill.
The coaches who build strong, loyal client bases aren’t the ones with the loudest marketing. They’re the ones who show up consistently, educate their clients, and make people feel like coming back is worth it.
Karen’s career didn’t follow a straight line. She lost three gym homes to closures in three years, rebuilt her client base each time, and never stopped showing up early with the mats already laid out. That’s not luck. That’s the kind of professional identity that gets built one class at a time.
The fundamentals she lives by — know your niche, own the experience, show up as both a coach and an educator — are the same ones that make a fitness career last. Want to hear Karen’s full story — including how she built Corona Aerobics, navigated three gym closures, and thinks about coaching through adversity? Watch the full interview here.
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