We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jemerris Giles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jemerris, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Good Afternoon Everyone !
I Hope And Pray All Is Well.
My Name Is Jemerris Giles Or Better Known In The Fitness World As “ Jay The Goat. “ I’m 26 Years Young And I Am A Certified Master Trainer And Founder And CEO Of GYM 55 In My Hometown Of Hampton , Ga.
I’ve Been Training Now For Twelve Years Now. I Started Training In My Parents Two Car Garage At The Again Of Fourteen. I Started Out Training Myself Before I Fully Started Training Others As I Struggled With My Weight As A Younger Kid. I Was Always Active And Always Was Good At Sports , But Loved To Eat More And Lacked Confidence As I Started Getting Bigger. One Summer As I Got Ready For Middle School I Locked In On My Fitness And Asked My Parents To Get Me A Gym Membership And My Dad Or My Mom Would Drop Me Off At The Gym In The City And I Would Train Every Morning Before School And Run Three Miles Back To The House Right Before It Was Time For School. Fast Forward To Once I Started Getting My Body Back To Shape Someone Had Asked Me Would I Like To Train Them As I Was Transforming Quickly With The Plan I Made For Myself. I Respectfully Declined Because During The Time I Was Focused On Playing Football And Going To College To Play And Having Admirations Of Going To The NFL. So Now Fast Forward To My Senior Year Of High School I Had A Couple Clients Up Under Of My Belt As I Was Training My Teachers And Teammates And People In My Neighborhood For Free As I Just Always Loved To Help People And Just See People Feel And Look Good. As I Was Helping People Get Results It Never Crossed My Mind Like Jay Your Actually Good At This And Can Do Something With This. Again Like I Said Earlier My Main Focus Was Playing Football And Playing In The NFL , Not Training. Once I Graduated From High School I Was In College And Worked At Planet Fitness In Griffin , Ga And Was Playing Ball At Reinhardt University. I Was The First Trainer They Ever Hired And Loved The People And The Environment At First. But The More I Realize The Owners Didn’t Truly Care About The People Or Saving Lives Like I Did One Friday Morning I Just Walked Into Work And Quit. I Started Focusing More On Football More And School More And Ending My Career For Awhile And A lot Of People Really Questioned My Passion For It And What Did I Truly Wanted To Do. Fast Forward To My Sophomore Season Of Football I Ended Up Tearing My ACL And Had To Sit Out And Focus On Rehabbing. As I Started My Rehab Process I Knew The Ends Of Outs Already From My Earlier Training Background And Instead Of Coming Back In A Year I Came Back In Six Months Ready To Start Up My Junior Year On Time. But After That I Ended Up Tearing The Same ACL Again And Doctors Gave Me A Tough Decision To Hang It Up Or Rehab Again. I Said This Is A Sign From God That He Has Somethings Greater For Me To Do In Life And That Was Training. I Rehabbed And Started Back Training And Building My Name Back On My College Campus And In My City As Well And Of Course Some People Supported And Some Didn’t , But It Made Me Go Harder To Make A Name For Myself And Get Everyone’s Attention. I Started Working At Workout Anytime And Anytime Fitness And LA Fitness To Name A Few During And After College To Get My Feet Wet More , But It Just Never Worked Out As God Was Molding Me More Into My Own Boss And Something Greater For Myself And His People. I Walked Out On Faith With No Money In My Pocket And My Parents Investing Three Hundred Dollars In Me To Start My Own Business. I Bought Me A LLC And A Couple Pieces Of Equipment And Started To Get To It. Again Some People Supported Real Quickly And Surely And Some Doubted Me. But As I Started Growing More And More Quickly I Knew I Had Arrived And Had Everyone Attention Then. But Of Course As Every Business Owner Has There Ups And Downs In Business I Started Moving To Fast And God Humbled Me Real Quick And Stripped Me Down Of Everything I Worked So Hard To Build Due To Lack Of Focus And Just Moving With The Wrong Crowd. But Now As We Fast Forward To Present Day I Have Over Three Hundred Clients And Own Two Gyms And Still Growing More And More Daily As I Am A Sponsored Athlete With Reebok And Nike And ASICS To Name A Few And Do A Lot Of Community Work In My City Of Hampton As Well.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
The Services We Offer Below :
• Meal Plans/Grocery List
• Home/Gym Workout Plans
• Virtual Training
• Yoga
• Boxing Training
• Sports Training/Team Training
• One On One Adult And Kids Fitness
• Group Fitness Training
• Rehabilitation Training/Therapy
• How To Become A Personal Trainer Classes/Mentor Program
With being in the Fitness Business for over twelve years now I have definitely seen the ups and downs of the business. From working at every known gym in the area , To go out on my own and getting it out the mud to now being a week away from opening up my new gym , It’s definitely a blessing. God has definitely humbled me more ways than one of my tenure in this business. From losing clients , To losing out on big sponsorships and getting my car repossessed to losing my apartment as well. I definitely had to grown up and lock in more and understand my true calling that god had on my life and definitely just be more of a servant to him and the people that need my services. An now looking back then to where I am now , It’s just a blessing to be here still standing and still growing during this pandemic and just still be able to bless others with my god given talents.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
From just staying consistent and humble and learning from others mistakes and even my own. Just understanding this is a business so I need to always come harder than I did the previous day and just be aware of how I move and how I conduct myself. So just understanding what it takes to be the top trainer in your area comes with a big responsibility I feel you have to be mature and ready for , But as well as let things come naturally and in gods timing to really be the top dog.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
For me it’s definitely been word of mouth and always social media. But I love being out in the community talking and meeting new people and just naturally building that relationship and bond and then let it follow over to my training.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: _JTheGoat
- Facebook: Jemerris Giles
- Other: https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-jemerris-giles-ceo-certified-master-trainer-doctored-in-physical-science/ http://voyageatl.com/interview/meet-jemerris-giles-trainedbyjay-hampton/ http://voyageatl.com/interview/meet-jemerris-giles-the-new-face-of-the-southside-fitness-scene-owner-and-founder-of-gym-55/ https://mcdonough.macaronikid.com/articles/61d62358ca83e049ebf2e190/get-fit-together
Image Credits
Tashia Cole Meka Bridges LaTonya Carson Shamyreia Ingram Andrew Wilson III Matti Kidd Kendrick DuJour George Tharpe