Meet Layn & Jeraldine Chess | Personal Trainers & Gym Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Layn & Jeraldine Chess and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Layn & Jeraldine, what do you attribute your success to?
We feel the single most important factor in designing success for any company or brand is being able to cultivate a strong team.

Jeraldine: For so many years, as I was developing my career as a coach, I was forced to wear too many hats. This left me feeling burned out and frustrated on so many nights. As I looked to expand, I realized having a space where I was supported would be a place I would have the freedom to grow. That’s when I found Facet Seven, which is where I met Layn.

I originally wanted to have my own studio, but as I matured in my career I knew that I really wanted to train my ladies more than I wanted to operate a gym. The marketing, paying bills, managing staff, it’s all a headache. I just wanted to focus on what I was best at, helping other women find their best selves.

Layn: I had started my career as a coach, but by my third year training clients I started my first gym. It didn’t take me long to realize I would need a lot of help. From running the gym, to spending time with clients, there were never enough hours in a day. It takes a village to raise a kid, and it takes a community to make a gym. It’s the people, the team you have, that makes it all a reality.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Layn: We both started in our own corners of the city before we met. I grew my first location in the Heights, and decided to open another location in East Downtown in 2018. Meanwhile she was busy building her ‘Fierce Curves Fitness’ brand online and servicing customers at local gyms on the East side. When my East Downtown location opened, she walked in to see what we were about.

It’s funny as we look back, but part of our initial interest in each other stemmed from the awe we had with each others fitness businesses.

Jeraldine: I was impressed that he was so young and already had 2 gyms in Houston. When I learned about his business model and brand concept, I saw a lot of potential. That’s when I applied to be an independent trainer there.

Layn: When she I applied, I naturally I looked her up to make sure she would fit our standards on coaching. When I saw her website, her coaching app, brand concept, her whole system amazed me! She was a fully functioning fitness company, yet mobile, effective, and very well branded. I was impressed. So we brought her in as the first independent trainer at our EaDo location.

Jeraldine: This is when we started to spend more time together. When I interviewed with Layn, he asked a lot about how I programmed my clients, and myself. I had competed in figure shows, so I confidently shared my ideas with him. He asked so many questions about why I did things, no-one I ever spoke to asked those questions.

Layn: I’m always really interested to learn about how a Coach sees movement. Some, most, look at simple goals to accomplish and usually ask their clients “What would you like to focus on next?” I believe a good Coach knows where the client is going next. I can usually find out a Coaches skill with a few questions. Once I see a Coach has the skill, I’ll work as hard as I can to bring them into our gym. They’re far and few in between.

I always brag that we could take a “Pepsi Challenge” with any local or global fitness company out there, and when it comes to coaches we will always win. I scout out and recruit the best of the best.

Jeraldine: Meanwhile, I hated to do accounting, and Layn was good at it. So he started doing the accounting for my business while I helped him market his. As our relationship progressed, Layn really wanted me to bring my energy to the Facet Seven brand, so our deal was he’d do my books and I’d help him with marketing.

Layn: This is another area Facet Seven is so different. When I ran her numbers, I realized she was spending well over 30% of her revenue on simple operating expenses, yet she was having to manage it all. The website, creating videos/photos, managing her credit card system, following up with clients to get payments… etc. She was working her ass off doing everything my company did already.

I realized there was an opportunity here.

The problem we solved goes like this – Most Coaches like to Coach, they hate the “business side” of Coaching. The typical path for a Coach is to work for a gym under an hourly W2 model that is a fraction of the value of the session they’re charging. Once the Coach gets any good, they want to “go independent” so they can get paid directly by their client as a 1099 and make more per hour.

And as a gym, you get the greenest coaches who aren’t any good, then when they get good they leave. So the gym and the clients of the gym get the less experience coaches.

If I could “convert” some highly experienced Coaches from fully independent to this “integrated” independent model, then they would be able to spend more hours Coaching and earning income, the gym would get better Coaches, so the Clients would in turn get better Coaches, and everyone wins.

In practice, instead of Jeraldine having to pay rent to the gym, and manage all of the marketing and business aspects of her business, she could run all of her payments through our system and I would turn key her business for her and do all the things she didn’t want to do. This way she could just focus on Coaching yet make pretty much the same amount or more.

Jeraldine: Essentially, I was going to pay him to do the things I didn’t want to do, and take home roughly the same amount percentage wise, so it was a win-win.

Layn: So the new business model is we bring in the best Coaches the industry has to offer, support them growing their business, and everyone wins. It’s simpler, easier, and the Client ends up winning by getting highly experienced Coaches who are focused on Coaching instead of finding the next client.

Jeraldine: I was the first under this model, but we have around 14 Coaches who are making careers out of this model now. Each one of the Coaches has over 5 years of experience, some over 10!

Layn: I look at the long term with everything, and I feel this is a long term solution for the industry.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Jeraldine: We both love to go out, and being Mexican I LOVE Mexican dishes. Two awesome local restaurants I would recommend are Cuchara & Cielito

Layn: I’m a huge fan of wild game and seafood, so I recommend local restaurant called The Rainbow Lodge.

Jeraldine: If you were to take a trip here for a week, I’d recommend visiting The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, renting a bike to explore downtown and the different restaurants/bars.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our community of members are our biggest supporters, so a big shout out to them! But we would have never have made it this far without the eternal support of our families.

For our favorite books:
1. Start with Why – Simon Sinek
2. The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
3. The Laws of Human Nature – Robert Greene

Website: https://www.facetsevenfitness.com

Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/facetseven

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Youtube: https://Www.youtube.com/facetsevenfitness

Image Credits
@duytakesphotos