Real estate guru
International electronics broker. Luxury-real-estate agent. Pole-aerobics studio owner.
Not many people boast a work history as diverse as Phil Tibi of Phoenix, who recently opened Move! Creative Health and Fitness Solutions at 32nd Street and Thunderbird Road.
The studio offers pole-aerobics classes, as in the types of poles found in dance clubs, along with traditional classes such as yoga.
The entrepreneur sees the studio as just another investment, but he recognizes the contrast with his primary career.
“I guess I just can’t stand still,” the 40-year-old said. “I have a passion for creativity in business.”
Tibi launched International Circuit Sales while earning his MBA at Fordham University in New York. He ran the company for 18 years, adding offices in Brazil and Taiwan, before selling it in 2005.
In the meantime, he moved to Phoenix and got his real-estate license, building his reputation in the luxury-home market.
Like any business junkie, Tibi can’t pass up an opportunity. When an aerobics instructor applied for a job at ICS, complaining he had no place to instruct after his studio closed, Tibi soon found himself in the health-club business in Mesa.
He recently moved the club to north Phoenix, where he is targeting soccer moms looking for a fun way to exercise, as well as professional dancers. He has a few dozen regular clients for the pole classes, he said.
“It’s good exercise,” he said, adding that women are more likely to bring friends to the pole classes than to traditional aerobics. “They’re going to tell someone, ‘You’ve gotta come with me.’”