Meet Charlene and Adrian Martinez of The Yard Miami in Hialeah

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlene and Adrian Martinez.

Charlene and Adrian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The Yard Miami began with a vision by one of the owners, Adrian Martinez. He has been in the fitness industry for more than a decade. His vision for The Yard Miami came to life in 2014 when I, Charlene Martinez, who has a Bachelors in Communications joined him. I’ve worked for many big corporations since I was 16 years old and have always had a business mindset. Together, we’ve worked as a team to balance each other out not only as business partners but as a married couple. We started in a 1,500 sq ft warehouse with little to no money but with a big dream and a whole lot of faith. In less than two years, that dream not only became a reality but we moved to a bigger facility because we were running out of space. All glory to God, we are now in a 2,800 sq ft facility practically more than double the size of where we started.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a business is truly never a smooth road (lol), but well worth the ride. My husband and I have learned a lot along the way. One of the primary things we’ve learned is how to work with each other since we’re practically together 24/7. We’ve learned how to admire the strength and weaknesses of each other. For example, I am the one that handles the managerial tasks along with the marketing (which includes social media, graphic designing, and customer service.) While my husband, Adrian, is more of a hands-on type of person. He handles the training programming for all of our clients, the meal plans, and overall vision/ideas for the gym. Lastly, another struggle we’ve faced is learning how to actually start a business; dealing with the city, getting permits, how to manage our staff and finances.

Please tell us about The Yard Miami – what should we know?
The Yard Miami is a personal training facility where we don’t only train clients, but we offer a space for independent trainers to build their own brands. In contrary to corporate gyms, where the trainer, who does all the work, only gets 40% revenue per client. We came up with this idea of hiring independent trainers who pay rent in our first year at The Yard. The demand began to exceed our capacity and we had to start thinking about building a staff. However, Adrian, being that he’s worked in corporate gyms all his life, knows the struggle of what it takes to build a name for yourself while also being held back due to financial restrictions caused by the corporate gym model. We came to the solution of having our trainers be their own boss. We wanted to build an environment where trainers felt comfortable to make their own schedule, choosing their own prices according to their value, and help them build their brand.

Overall, our culture at The Yard Miami is what truly sets us apart from others. We strive to have a family environment, where clients feel at home and truly cared for. Like one of our trainers, Juli Lopez recently said in our documentary series, “Once we’re [trainers] all in the same building we are one. We interact with each other’s clients and help build each other up.”

What do you love about our city and what do you dislike?
Being born in raised in Hialeah, what we love the most is that we feel that we are a rare breed. Most of us come from families who have migrated from their country and are motivated to make a name for themselves. In other words, our city is a city full of hustlers and visionaries and we are proud to be Hialeahians lol

The only thing I don’t like about it is the traffic, but I’m sure a lot can relate lol

Contact Info:

• Address: 8001 W 26 Ave #8
  Hialeah, FL 33016
• Website: www.theyardmiami.com
• Phone: 3052097363
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theyardmiami/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theyardmiami/?ref=bookmarks

Image Credit:
Elba Dipp (Dipp Photography)

Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.