Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Sheridan.
Laura, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started my journey with fitness a little over 3 years ago, when I decided to transfer colleges and ended up in a transitional/interim period of my college experience. I began with a HIIT-style (High Intensity Interval Training) program and made an Instagram to keep myself accountable. After making a few friends, I kept up the page as I began dabbling with lifting. About 1.5 years ago, I decided to truly adopting a lifting fitness routine. I also began studying for the ACE Certified Personal Trainer exam. I wanted to prove I could pass the exam and to learn to be able to best train myself. I passed the exam a little over a year ago. The experience was extremely enlightening and I realized how much horribly wrong info there is online, especially social media. I wanted to do more than just train myself better. I now do online training through my Instagram to try and best pass on helpful knowledge through social media. I love teaching people even a small little tweak that I know will make a difference and help them see the results they are craving.
I’ve also begun working with photographers in Boston, which has been a great compliment to Instagram and a fun creative outlet for myself. I love helping to bring a vision to life while pushing myself outside my comfort zone.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My fitness journey has been really hard. Throughout the past 3 years, I have technically attended 3 colleges, held 2 fitness-related jobs (which I decided to leave to be able to focus on school and Instagram), had a full time legal job and and I am a full time student. I also was prepping for a bikini competition for 6 months. I struggle with mental health problems that I work through in the captions to my Instagram photos. Trying to stay motivated to get to the gym was tough at the beginning of my journey but then, I learned to love lifting; it is my outlet. It was tough to commit to prep for the competition, as it is an intensive process. It was even tougher to make the decision to stop prep for my mental health. Getting back into a routine after quitting prep was also tough. I’ve been through multiple romantic and friend relationships that have been complicated by fitness and my Instagram. But the entire process has been essential for me to figure out who I am, something I hadn’t been able to do prior. With the new modeling I am doing, stepping outside of my comfort zone, especially in non-fitness related shoots, has been tough but rewarding.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My goal for my page has always been to be a place of transparency. I share about my mental health struggles in the hopes to tell even one person they are not alone. I never photoshop, so all of my photos are authentically me. I try and post videos and share as many training tips as possible, because there is a plethora of horrible information on social media. There is a push to “look good” or “cool” when training as clickbait but often, these training methods are horrible and unsafe. I want to help add to the positive side of the fitness Instagram community.
As an online trainer, it can be hard to connect to clients and help them as much as I hope to. But, when I receive texts from a client after they did their first leg day or was actually looking forward to their workout that day, it makes me smile. Changing clients’ attitudes about health, fitness and the gym is one of my priorities. In order to be successful with your own personal fitness, it needs to be a lifestyle and mindset change and that takes time. Because I had to go through this myself and relatively recently, I think it places me in a great position to understand what a client is going through. That trainer to client connection is one thing I am proud to cultivate.
What were you like growing up?
Prior to starting fitness and my instagram, I was not interested in fitness. I did play field hockey for 6 years before going to college, which I loved. I have always had a tough balance as a kid with my desire to hold a leadership role while also being shy and self conscious. But I always put in a lot of effort (some might say too much effort and stress) into school. I loved to cook and still do! I have wanted to be a lawyer for well over a decade and I am on that path today. Fitness is a hobby and passion that has evolved more recently.
Pricing:
- Personalized Online Training: $60 (1st month)
- Continued Online Training: $30/month
Contact Info:
- Email: Lsher.fit@gmail.com
- Instagram: Lsher.fit
- Facebook: facebook.com/lsherfit
Image Credit:
Nick Cosky, Jordan Anderson, Corey Davis
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