We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yumi Lee. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yumi below.

Yumi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

After graduating college, I was in charge of hiring, training and maintaining quality fitness instructors in Global gyms. The difference between hiring then and recruiting a team for Reebok LAB is that the Global instructors didn’t necessarily represent my vision or brand, they represented the Global gym’s vision.

In the pre-opening months of Reebok LAB, we scouted for Strength & Conditioning coaches by going to take their class(es) without letting them know we were interested. And if we were impressed with their passion, professionalism, how they commanded the room, gave instruction, and interacted with each athlete, we would let them know we were interested.

From the beginning, all coaches and trainers were and still are required to shadow and assist existing classes with a Head Coach. They are also required to attend classes to get used to our system, rules and methodology of coaching. During this time, we meet regularly to review, practice and learn all aspects of running a successful class. The challenge in Los Angeles can be that there are many people who teach fitness but are not fitness professionals and use fitness as a side job while they’re working on their real passion-profession. I’m truly grateful to have an incredible team right now.

To this day, although the training process has been streamlined for efficiency, it remains the same.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my professional fitness journey to earn money while in college. After graduating, my first job was as the Group Exercise Director of a high-end gym in Georgetown – Washington, DC. Our clientele consisted of celebrities, power politicians and Type A lawyers – all with very high expectations and demands. This helped me to develop my customer service skills while building a strong sense of self and the confidence to manage a large staff and even larger member base.

I eventually went on to work as an independent contractor for Reebok. I travelled the world with them for many years to train and teach other personal trainers and instructors. When Reebok partnered with Cirque du Soleil, I created a suspension training program, called Fit to Fly, to represent their partnership. Not long after, Reebok partnered with CrossFit and this is when I decided to open my own gym, Reebok LAB.

My ongoing goals are to remind our community, coaches, trainers and members, that we have one body in life. We need to respect, listen and take care of it to carry us through our life with strength, endurance, agility, flexibility and balance. I take pride in the fact that we are more than just a gym where people come to workout, we are a community of like-minded people and we are a lifestyle – mind, body and soul.

Each person should feel seen, corrected, motivated and encouraged. Each person should feel supported, inspired and better than yesterday when they leave our facility.

Any advice for managing a team?

Managing a team requires structure/a system, firm boundaries and solid role models. Some may find this challenging in a smaller fitness setting where everyone becomes good friends and spend a lot of time together socially.

If the boundaries and standards are set in place from the beginning and you as a manager remain as consistent as possible, the respect and trust will hopefully follow.

I learned very early on that without a solution, there is no problem. And how one comes up with these solutions can change everyone’s experience.

1. Give your team a voice. Let them know their opinions and thoughts matter.
2. Treat everyone with respect – even if it’s not returned.
3. Instead of always giving what you think are the more correct answers, let them use their knowledge to come up with it on their own.
4. The Golden Rule

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

We don’t use marketing tools. Our best source of new clients are: 1. Client referrals – people can’t stop talking about their experience in our classes and with our community. When they’re raving about it, their friends and colleagues want to experience it as well.
2. Location, location, location – People are stressed for time. With LA traffic being what it is, people either workout close to home or close to work.

Contact Info:

• Website: reeboklab.com
• Instagram: reeboklab
• Facebook: reeboklab.
• Yelp: Reeboklab

Image Credits
Aldo Chacon