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From Track Star to Franchise Trailblazer: Montayla Yancey's Inspiring Fitness Journey
Montayla Yancey, an inspiring athlete turned successful gym owner, shares her incredible story with us. From cheerleading in Indianapolis to competing as a track star at the University of Iowa, and even participating in the 2016 Olympic trials, Montayla's athletic journey is nothing short of remarkable. She opens up about her pivotal decision to shift from a potential professional running career to a passionate role in fitness training. Initially hesitant, Montayla discovered her niche with the encouragement of a gym owner, transforming her life from a childcare worker to a personal trainer and eventually leading to multiple successful gym franchises.
Join us as we explore the world of franchise fitness through the eyes of Montayla and her husband, who broke barriers to become the youngest franchisees of Burn Boot Camp. Their journey highlights the challenges and triumphs of opening multiple locations, including Burn Boot Camp Hiram, and Burn South Cobb. As one of the few Black franchise partners, their story serves as a powerful testament to resilience, determination, and the unyielding support of the Burn Boot Camp community. Listen in for an inspiring tale of entrepreneurship, perseverance, and the pursuit of passion in the fitness industry.
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Hey y'all, hey, welcome back to another exciting episode of Coffee Chit Chat. We have an awesome guest in the house, but before we introduce her, let's shout out the coffee of the week, which is an Apple Crisp Oatmeal Macchiato. I know that's a long name, right, but try one. We have Montayla Yancey. She's a wife, mom, multi-unit franchise owner of Burn Boot Camp. We will learn more about Montayla doing our chat. So welcome to Coffee Chit Chat, montayla. Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. Oh, you are welcome, so I know you're going to answer our burning questions.
Speaker 2:I'm excited, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Okay, I know that you and Brittany met in Indianapolis when you guys were young cheerleaders, so, and now you live in Atlanta, is Indy your hometown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I grew up in Indy. I was actually born in Knoxville, tennessee, but grew up in Indy and was there all the way until I left for college. I went to the University of Iowa, left the cold to go to the cold, so that was fun, but yeah, straight from Indiana.
Speaker 1:Okay, so in Iowa we're on a scholarship. What made you go all the way to Iowa?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was a cheerleader with Brittany and obviously that that didn't take me nowhere, unfortunately, and like Brittany said, I'll be running laps. So I ran track at Lawrence Central and during my time there I was like a two time Indiana State champ in the 400. State champ in the 400. And I started getting recognized, like my sophomore year and then my junior year. I started getting like scouts coming to see me and all of that, getting all the letters. So then I was like, oh wow, I can go to school for this and potentially for free. I was like, okay, let's take this serious now, let's do that. So I stopped cheering Unfortunately that was the fun part of high school and start taking track serious.
Speaker 2:And so I got an offer. I got a couple offers but I chose the University of Iowa because they had a great hurdle coach and I was being recruited for the 400 hurdles. And out of all the schools that gave me an offer, which are also smaller schools, they weren't big 10. It was the coaching. And then you go on visits and you see like these nice locker rooms and uniforms and all that. I'm definitely a bigger school type of girl and so I landed at Iowa and I actually loved it. People are like you went to the University of Iowa, like, yes, I did.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is so awesome and you remind me so much of my younger son because he's the same way. He ran track, played basketball forever and then ran track and went to a smaller school here, but now he ended up at Marquette and he loved the gear and the locker room.
Speaker 2:Yes, you are sold on all the other things. You're like I'm here for the coaching. No, I'm here for the cute uniforms and the nice locker rooms and everything aesthetically pleasing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that was a huge part of it. I love it, love it. So why did you become a gym owner and personal trainer?
Speaker 2:So I was in my senior year at Iowa and I made it all the way to the Olympic trials in 2016. So, yes, I was running really fast times. So, yes, I was running really fast times. Unfortunately, I was running fast times in a event that is absolutely loaded in the US and my 11th in the world. At that time, or when I ran, it was like eight in the US getting me absolutely nowhere, but, yeah, like top three makes the team so um, but nonetheless, I was like you know what, if I'm running these types of times now, maybe I give it another year and I can, you know, maybe see where this takes me. So after the U? S Olympic trials, I talked to my coach and I was like, should I run pro? Should I do? Do you think I got it? Like, if I do, I'll stay here in Iowa.
Speaker 2:I had just got accepted into Teach for America and I was placed in Miami Dade County, and so I was like I don't know if I really want to teach middle school in a unknown and then like the hardest you know county to teach in in America. And so I was like, let me weigh my options. And so my coach was like you can do this. Unfortunately, track is one of the most underpaid sports and so you a lot of people who go pro, who don't sign a Nike or Adidas or whatever contract right after college. You have to work. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm a nanny now that makes decent money, but I'm not really passionate about it. And so I started looking for like other jobs that that was like dealing with kids. There was a gym opening called Next Level Extreme Fitness and they were hiring for their child care and I was like, okay, I'll just do this until I figure out what else I want to do. I was also working in Iowa's athletic department as a receptionist, so I had two jobs going to practice every day, twice a day.
Speaker 2:I went into my interview for the child care position and she was like interview for the childcare position? And she was like, okay, so I see this long resume as you as a nanny. But do you want to be a trainer? And I'm like absolutely not, no, terrible, okay, absolutely no. And she was like I will teach you everything.
Speaker 2:The owner was amazing. She's like I'll teach you everything. Like you, just you. You just have a great personality. You can be a trainer. And I'm like, okay, we didn't have mics. So I got on that floor and I was absolutely terrible, I'm not even gonna. I was terrible, okay, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna give it a try. Ended up finding my my flow and getting into the groove and fell in love with it. I did a great job training there for the year that I was there and that kind of kickstarted my career. I met my husband that same year and, yeah, I was like, ok, my track career is not really going anywhere. I got injured, he got drafted and he was like so are you coming to Green Bay with me?
Speaker 2:And I was like I'm leaving the cold to go to the cold, to the frozen tundra You've got to be kidding me. But nonetheless, I said yeah, hung up my track cleats and went to Green Bay with him and I was like, all right, I need to figure out what I want to do. Next, started my master's there and we decided that Atlanta was going to be our home because we weren't going back to the Colts Okay, indiana, he went to Purdue, by the way. So we bought our house in 2017. And I moved here without him while he played and I looked for jobs that were training and I was hired as the manager and trainer at I Love Kickboxing in 2018 and that's kind of how I got into franchise fitness, fell in love with it and that kind of of kickstarted everything into getting me into.
Speaker 2:I left there, went to burn as the lead trainer in Smyrna, um, and fell in love with it. My husband ended up getting hurt two years later and I was like you should be a trainer Like this is great, it's fun. He liked it. So then he became a head trainer and we're like what are we doing? We're both head trainers. Like we think this is our career. Let's open one ourselves. So, at 26, we were the youngest Byrne Bootcamp franchisees to open up a Byrne Bootcamp. Long story long I love it.
Speaker 1:It was like really hard for us on the journey.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it's a journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a journey, but I mean the journey ended up with you guys being franchisee owners, which and especially young people of color. I love to see that.
Speaker 2:Yep. So we were at that time, one of the very few black franchise partners and we were the youngest and it was. It was a learning experience, but it was. It was a learning experience, but it was. It was awesome, and I mean burn as franchisees or franchisors, I would say it backwards were amazing with giving us the tools and everything that we needed to, you know, become um who we are today.
Speaker 1:So it was great that's awesome, and you have more than one location yes, so we opened up burn boot camp Hiram in 2021.
Speaker 2:We both. We opened up a burn bootcamp Hiram in 2021. We both. We opened up a burn bootcamp lost mountain in 2023. We ended up selling that one, and then we opened up a burn South Cobb, which Brittany is a member of, and at 2024.
Speaker 1:Okay, she really loves it too, so I'm feeling it. Just saw you.
Speaker 2:Just saw you.
Speaker 1:Just saw you.
Speaker 2:It was hard but it was good. It's a good workout. It's so hard it never gets easier.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine. I'm retired military. But you know, and I said I'm going to join a gym and I said, well, that's okay, I just work out on my own.
Speaker 2:Okay, listen, I'm going to get you in the door jammed. And I said, well, that's okay, I just work out on my own. Okay, listen, I'm gonna get you in the door. That's one of my jobs here today is to get mama in the dough.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is too funny, but how important is your customer service in this business?
Speaker 2:in this business, it's literally all we have. Like we hire people based off of their customer service experience. We are a community-based business, so if you are not someone who values and understands that customer service is the forefront of everything that we do, then you can't work for us. Like we at Byrne Bootcamp, we have a saying that we treat them like queens and we say queens because Byrne actually started as female only, and so the treat them like queens is like we are going above and beyond, because Byrne is a franchise that literally caters to women. Like we, we allow men now to come, and our South Cobb gym is probably the most men I've ever seen in a burn location. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Um, however, um, burn is a gym that that we say hey, women, this is, this might be the only 45 minutes of your day where you get some me time. So drop your kids off in our child watch. They are safe, they're in the next room. Um, and come out on this floating floor and just lose, lose yourself, become whoever you are.
Speaker 2:I want you to be Sally, sam, brittany, whoever the case you may be. You are no longer mom, you are no longer wife, you are no longer boss, ceo Brittany, whoever the case you may be, you are no longer mom, you are no longer wife, you are no longer boss, ceo, nurse, whatever the heck and bob you do all day. All that is erased right there when I'm on the floating floor. I'm no longer their boss. I'm no longer Tay the trainer, which I still am, because I'm like uh-uh, no, it ain't it, but I'm just Tay and it's like that release. So being being customer service oriented is and focused is so that we can give these, our members, the experience that they need, because it might be the only 45 minutes that they get in their day.
Speaker 1:I love that and because you guys have those early hours. Yes, people can come and work out before they actually go to work.
Speaker 2:So absolutely, and they do this our biggest camps before and after work, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So I love that and what you say treat them like Queens. Okay, did you study health science or something related to training, or you know, like this workout in college?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I um in college I got my uh bachelor's of science in recreation and sport, so in sport management. So I learned all about, you know, running sport businesses. Um, you could have went, I could have went anywhere with this. So, managing athletes, managing gyms, managing like recreation parks and recreation, any of that. And then my sophomore year I end up taking on a not a minor, but a certificate entrepreneurship management. And cause I knew that if I went the um managing athletes route I would eventually want to do it, you know, for my own business. And then if I did gym route, I would want to own my own gym eventually. So, uh, my degree paired with my certificate kind of landed me right where I wanted to be. So I didn't really study exercise science or kinesiology, just more so the business aspect of it. I just happened to be a decent trainer.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, though you had all the tools in your toolkit to get yourself going. I love it. Great, great, great. How is the reality of gym ownership different to the way you thought it might have been?
Speaker 2:I know it's some struggles and some challenges. That's a great question. That's a great question. It it's different, like I am still in love with owning my own gym and and the process and everything that I've learned it has it rocked my world this these last three years. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It is hard and I think a lot of people don't talk about just how hard owning a community based business and not just a small business. It's hard owning any business. It's hard owning a big corporation, a small business, but when you own a community-based business, your livelihood is truly based off of if your community likes you or if you are doing everything perfect and right. And the hard part about you know, owning a gym is that we have all the natural things that happen in every business, whether it's a McDonald's or you're working for a corporate Amazon, whatever the case may be, you have all the same problems Turnover, we have miscommunications, we have all of that. But when it's on a smaller scale, it's magnified. And when it comes to a community and them not knowing everything on the back end of what it takes to run the business and and then you have to make these, these decisions that that affect them, it's hard because it's not good and we have to kind of sit back and be like, okay, well, these are the businesses decisions that we have to make, or this is the move that we have to make, and it's nine times out of 10, not understood by the community.
Speaker 2:And so the reality is that when I came in, I was a trainer and I love training. It's one of the things that I know in my life that I am great at, like I am a great trainer, and when I when I and I don't compliment myself much like that I always tell people that if I give myself one compliment is that I am a good trainer and I know how to connect with my members and I know how to especially women, I know. And now, as a mom, I truly feel like I am connected and can understand and reason with people around me and in my gyms. But when I came into this and when I brought my husband into this, it was like, oh, we're about to be trainers, we're about to change everybody's lives, we're about to do all the fun stuff, and three years later, I'm barely in my gym, I'm sitting behind a desk, I am making the hard decisions, I am doing the boring stuff and I am completely removed from what made me happy, and it's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard Like I can imagine yeah, so I'm somebody with a big personality. I am I'm both an introvert and an extrovert Like I have to go recharge my battery. So I'm like if you ever see me sitting out in my car at the gym, it's because I'm recharging, so I can come back in and be like, hey y'all. But it's hard because I want to be in my gyms.
Speaker 2:I want to be a trainer in my gyms. I don't want to just be at the front desk Like I want to be a trainer. But that's not how business works and the reality is I have to run the business and it's different. I'm coming to realize that and accept it and trying to figure out how I can both fill my cup and also run our business, and that's kind of the power struggle that we're having right now.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask that question because I want my listeners to know and understand that being an entrepreneur is not easy. It's not all the glam glam that you think you know. Oh, I own my own business, I'm free, I have all these extra hours. It's a lot of time, it's a lot of hours. I'm an entrepreneur, by the way, these extra hours, but when you first start, it's a lot of time, it's a lot of hours I'm going to, but I, you know, I wanted those listeners to understand that that it's not all. Just, you know, like you said, you thought you were going to have all this fun, but then you realized that you had to run the business aspects of it as well yeah, it's a reality check.
Speaker 2:Like we're, like, we're grateful, and I know that all business owners are grateful for the opportunity to work for themselves. But I'd be lying if I didn't say, at least once a week, what would it be like if I just worked in corporate America Like somebody else, like else, please Like, maybe, because I that, but, but yeah, it's a power struggle and then we talked about the community.
Speaker 1:That leads us into the next question. You guys, gym is based on community. What made you uh is is that how uh? I guess is that how burn runs their businesses? Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, I all burns different, but headquarters definitely pushes like, hey, we, you should be doing more than just training camps. You should be doing more than just that's like, why burn? Boot camp offers, what's called focus meetings, because you sit down and for free, you get to get on an in-body scale that would usually cost you $20 anywhere else Each scan. We do it completely for free. We sit down, we connect with you, we build rapport with you. When you come into our gym, it's not just how'd you find us, it's hey, what brought you in? What can we do to get you to your goals? What are you looking for? We literally have rapport notes on every single person that walks into our gym so that we can truly cater to whatever their needs are and their goals are.
Speaker 2:And so, when it comes to community, it's because a lot of people come into gyms. They start run groups or join run groups or they do. It's just like joining a book club. You didn't just join it just to have coffee and talk about the book. You joined it because you're in a group of like-minded individuals who you can connect with. And maybe now you're not just going to book club but you're now having mom's night outs and you're having play dates with your kids, and so a lot of people come into their gyms not just looking for a transformation, they're looking for somebody to connect with.
Speaker 2:And it also holds tight to accountability, like you know, when you come in, you're like all right, today I don't want to be here, but I know the person next to me is somebody that I met three weeks ago and she told me that she's going to be here. So I'm going to come and I'm going. We're going to both not want to be here together, you know. So it's it's the accountability aspect. And then, um, giving them more. Like our goal is to give you more and, um, whether that is a nutrition plan that you thought was not available to you in your um, in your membership, or the best friend that you never thought that you'd find as an adult, cause that, let's just be honest, that's hard. I literally texted Brittany. I said come on, what we need to go out? What are we doing? Um, because finding adult friends is hard.
Speaker 2:And so just going in and just providing more, and that's why we have all these burn night outs where we might go to a local bar, or the other night we had a mom's night out at like Atlanta Flight Club, Our men. They meet up and have monthly events and things of that nature, because it's it truly does keep you connected and um provides you with you know, whatever else you were looking for.
Speaker 1:I love that Cause I know sometimes she's telling me oh, I'm going out with the gym friends and that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Like with um excuse me with um like our gym, we just like to provide, you know, whatever else could you know, whatever else could could you know, make you also proud of you. You know, like the free photo shoots it's, it's, yeah, it helps us out Like y'all look great, we get to use y'all's transformation stories, and all of that it's also because you get to take that photo that you probably wouldn't have taken before you walked in our doors, because you, oh, I have goals. I'm going to take it after I reach my goals. No, let's celebrate you where you are and and let's and let's be proud of where we're going, and so things like that, those community things, it it just brings full circle to um, what a gym can provide. Okay.
Speaker 1:And being that you guys own two, I feel that you are successful. What makes you guys so successful in this industry?
Speaker 2:Um, I think that a big part of it is just us being in the community. Um, I, I, I struggle with like, are we successful? Like I and I maybe that's just me being hard on myself, but I think that it just. I think when you go about being in your small business and making yourself available and being able to be every single role if needed, like both Dee and I, can go in and work child watch, work behind the desk, we can train the camps, we can be every single role and I think it's appreciated by our members, but it's also appreciated by our staff that we can. If somebody calls in sick, I can say I got you, I'm on my way, or things like that. That. So I think just us running our small business and being inside of our small business is why we have the success that we've seen to date.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Leading by example. I love the leader right.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. We wouldn't ask anybody to do what we can't do, and so that's what we've held tight to for the last three years.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it, love it. Now, how can our listeners follow you so they can become members of Byron Boot Camp?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my personal Instagram is just my name. I know I'm Beyonce, I don't know how I got that, um, but no, it's, it's not that common. But my personal Instagram name is Montayla. Um, so, at M-O-N-T-A-Y-L-A. And then, if you are interested in joining Burn Boot Camp South Cobb, it is uh on Instagram and Facebook at Burn Boot Camp South Cobb, g-a yep. And then our high room location is the same Burn Boot Camp, high Room G-A. That, yep. And then our high room location is the same Burn Boot Camp, high Room G-A.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Y'all hear that chit-chat. Make sure, if you're in the ATM, go check them out. Yeah, I hear they have a lot of fun, awesome, awesome. So our quote of the week is fitness is not about being better than someone else. It's about being better than you used to be. And that is Khloe Kardashian. Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Coffee Chit Chat.
