Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelvon Yancey.
Kelvon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2010, I graduated with a B.S. in Exercise Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Immediately after graduating, I started my career in fitness and became a certified personal trainer in Chattanooga. Then, in August 2011, I made the decision to move to Houston, with never visiting the city and no job set up. Thankfully, shortly after moving, I ended up finding a job working for 24hr Fitness as a personal trainer. I worked there for a little over a year before I got the vision to start my own personal training company, which I named Zone Fitness Training. At inception, personal training was the only thing I initially planned for ZFT to ever offer. Mainly, because I didn’t have much experience teaching group exercise classes and you couldn’t pay me to run any distance over a mile.
After three years in Houston, I moved away for 2.5 years to live in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, but I continued working with clients on a small scale in both cities through ZFT. The turning point to get ZFT to where it is now, happened while I was living in Atlanta. I played football in college, and I continued to keep myself in pretty good shape after graduating. Though I was in good shape, my workouts weren’t challenging me the way playing football used to. With playing football no longer an option at my age, I settled on getting into distance running as my new challenge.
Then, a few months later, I was introduced to a run club called “Movers and Pacers” and this ended up being a blessing in disguise! This introduction allowed me to find a group of people that would motivate me on this new distance running journey. Furthermore, majority of the run club members were African Americans, which made joining the run club more comfortable.
Finding a group of black people that enjoyed running and made it fun, really sparked my interest. I ran with M&P for about 5 months before I moved back to Houston, in January 2017. With me wanting to continue my distance running journey in Houston, I searched high and low for a run club similar to M&P. I was unsuccessful in this search. This is when I decided to stop searching for the type of run club I desired, and instead, create it!
In 2017, on Juneteenth weekend in Third Ward, ZFT Run Club held our first group run. I named it “Running Through the Tre,” or better known as, “RT3s.” I decided to do the first run on Juneteenth weekend, in Houston’s Third Ward, because I wanted it to be understood that this run club was “For Us, By Us!” With Third Ward having a high African American demographic, I thought it would be great for the community to see black people doing something healthy and positive. Also, with most of our members being Houston transplants, I thought this would be a good way for us to connect with a black community. It was important that I created an environment that fostered fitness, friendship, and family in an effort to show that running can be enjoyable! With the growth of Zone Fitness Training and ZFT Run Club, I have evolved from being a personal trainer to becoming multi-faceted fitness professional!
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?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, at all! I’ve experienced challenges that are natural to the industry and some that I unintentionally created for myself. In the fitness industry we experience peaks and valleys. With working out not being something that most people do year round, fitness professionals will have good months and slow months throughout the year. The beginning of the year through summer we’ll experience the peaks, summer through the end of the year we’ll experience our valleys. So, one of the biggest challenges I faced was coming up with a way to keep my people engaged all year long.
Couple that with moving three times within a five year span and having to start completely over each time I moved, created another big challenge. Unlike when I worked for 24hr Fitness, I didn’t have a pool of people to pull from to help build up my clientele for ZFT. So, it took some time to get my training portfolio established in each city. Then, when I decided to start a run club, that presented another big challenge…. getting people to run!
Distance running isn’t something many people do in their free time, so I had to really lead by example and be consistent in convincing people to come and run with me. What got people to really start buying into the run club, was the environment I created for our weekly runs. People would be nervous to come out and run with us because they thought they had to be in tip-top shape to keep up. Once people came out and got a feel for how encouraging and motivating the environment was, the run club really took a turn for the better.
Staying put in Houston for the last 3.5 years and building up ZFT Run Club really helped me overcome the obstacles I faced and allowed Zone Fitness Training to truly grow. If I were to give advice to other fitness entrepreneurs, I would encourage them to find their niche, be consistent with their work, and give themselves time to grow.
Please tell us about the company.
Zone Fitness Training is a personal training company, but ZFT Run Club has become the face of it. When you talk to most people that are familiar with ZFT, they probably were introduced to the company through our increasingly popular run club. With our three year anniversary coming up, I’m proud of how much the run club has grown and evolved each year. However, what I’m most proud of, is how we motivate our members to become individuals who live outside of their comfort zone and achieve goals that they didn’t think were possible.
When we first started, we were merely a group of people getting together to run on Saturday mornings. Now, we’ve evolved into a LEGIT run club! ZFT has introduced so many people to the world of running and helped our members run distances they never thought they could run. We’ve helped our members complete numerous 5K’s and 10K’s, and this past April, we helped 20 of our members complete their first half marathon (13.1 miles)! Our next half marathon is scheduled for October 2020, and we already have 35 members registered to participate. Also, at the beginning of 2020, we were able to establish our second ZFT Run Club in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This allows us to expand our reach and impact more people across Texas, the same way we did in Houston.
Zone Fitness Training also offers specialized personal training that helps clients develop the strength they need to improve their running and decrease their risk of injury. Additionally, this style of personal training helps clients achieve the body composition goals they desire as well. The “Zone Fitness Training Program” bridges our personal training with our run club. The people that participate in both, experience the best physical and aesthetic results!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The quality that I feel has been the most important to my success, is my passion. I’m passionate about helping people better themselves and Zone Fitness Training allows me to do that through fitness. That passion gives me the energy to show up to 4am training sessions, work 12-15hr days, and continue to develop my craft. Seeing my people achieve and exceed their goals, gives me the motivation I need to keep pushing when times get tough. I definitely wouldn’t have made it through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship had it not been for my passion.
Pricing:
- Personal Training – $240/month – 12 sessions
- Run Club Membership – Free
Contact Info:
- Email: zonefitnesstraining@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/zonefitnesstraining?igshid=9swxisucxk32
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zonefitnesstraining/
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