Hey there! Nice to meet you.
Thanks for stopping by to learn a little more about me. Since you’re here reading this, I guess I’ll start at the beginning. I was born and raised in Michigan. I grew up very disciplined in both my academic and extracurricular activities. My passion for athleticism, music, and movement began at the young age of 3, when I strapped on my first set of tap shoes. I grew up as a competitive dancer, formally trained in tap, jazz, and ballet. During that time, I attended a private Catholic school from grade 1 – 12, which at the time, was all-girls from grades 5 – 12. I was also a cheerleader, played sports, was Miss MI Teen USA, Miss Michigan and Top 10 in the America pageant, all by the age of 18. After graduating from High School, I left my home state of Michigan, and moved to Los Angeles, where I earned my Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount University and my Master of Arts from the University of Southern California. I even attended Pepperdine University School of Law. While I didn’t become a lawyer, I did end up with a lucrative career in corporate marketing and sales. I worked as an independent contractor for Lexus Motor Sales for over a decade, and after the leaving automotive industry, I transitioned to pharmaceutical and medial sales working for incredible companies like Takeda and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
But any free time I had, I found myself in pursuit of fitness. At some point in my journey, I began to reflect and realize that I wasn’t TRULY happy with my career. I was making great money, had a beautiful marriage, an awesome dog, wonderful friends & family, but I wasn’t feeling “fulfilled.” I realized that I needed to make a change so that I could move forward and find true happiness. That’s when I decided to enroll in my first yoga teacher training, so I could deepen my own yoga practice while really looking inward to learn more about myself. I have to admit, it was an intense experience because I was not only working full-time, but had to put in 200 hours of class time and practice to get certified. However, this experience truly changed me for the better. I not only learned what yoga really means, I learned about listening to my inner voice, how to quiet my mind, and how to recognize my strength and power.
From there, I discovered the world of indoor cycling through rhythm riding on a bike at SoulCycle. On a whim, after only a handful of rides, I decided to just go for it and audition to become an instructor. I didn’t make it the first time, but they saw something in me and suggested I audition again. And the second time, I made it into their training program! That was a turning point for me because in order to attend, I had to quit my corporate job to move to New York to train, with ZERO guarantees that I would walk out with a job as a SoulCycle instructor. Fortunately, with the support of my loving husband & family I did quit my job, move to New York at my own expense for three months, and I immersed myself in the intensive training required to become a SoulCycle Instructor. And in November of 2016, I made the cut and graduated their training program! I taught my first ride as an “official” Soul Instructor at 6 am during our ” Instructor on-boarding week” in the New York Financial District, and then a week later I was back home in Los Angeles and teaching everywhere from my home studio of Manhattan Beach, to Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Newport Beach, Malibu and everywhere in between. My new career as a full-time fitness professional was starting.
I began teaching yoga at places like CorePower Yoga and Hot 8 Yoga, in addition to teaching cycling, and training private clients as a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. One day, after teaching my regular hot yoga sculpt class at the local studio where I worked, I was approached by Katrina Scott, one of the founders of the fitness and lifestyle brand Tone It Up®. She said they were creating an app which would feature some of their favorite local trainers, and that she loved my class, my crazy Missy Elliott music remixes, and wanted to know if I was interested in being a part of the app by filming some of my yoga sculpt style workouts for the Tone It Up Community. Of course, I jumped at the chance. And just by saying yes to this incredible opportunity, back in 2017, I’ve been on a whirlwind of amazing adventures, and made friends both online and in-person that will last a lifetime. As a featured trainer, I create and share my own at-home workouts for Studio Tone It Up; an app which reaches a global fitness community of over 1.4 million women. I also share some of my health and fitness tips on the Tone It Up brand’s website, social media channels, and in the book Balanced and Beautiful by New York Times best-selling authors Katrina Scott & Karena Dawn. I’ve even gotten to travel the country to lead Studio Tone It Up “Live” in-person workouts where I got to meet and coach thousands of the incredible strong women who make up the #tiu community at any given location.
I enjoyed all of this very much, but after a few years, I realized that it was time to take my career to the next level. I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and decided that it was time to leave the safety of many of the “big box” corporate fitness entities that I was working for, to start my own business, called RydeFYR Indoor Cycling Experience.
RydeFYR, officially opened November 2nd, 2019 and was the first brick-and-mortar fitness studio I ever owned. Opening the business was both a scary and exhilarating process all at the same time! As a woman of color, under the age of 40, with only a few years of fitness training experience under my belt, I was not the typical prototype of a Manhattan Beach business owner. But I had the time of my life building such a special place and curaing and unbelievable experience for my Los Angeles South Bay community. Around this time, I also created the FYR® Method of training my clients, which includes a mix of Functional Fitness, Yoga, and Rides to provide the ultimate cross training experience for busy individuals on the go to feel strong and get fit anytime, anywhere, on any device.
In 2021, I created NAMSTRONG — my unique fitness and lifestyle program designed specifically for women, to help you get your mind & body strong AF. I lost 20+lbs of pandemic “quarantine weight” on this program and as of October 2021 I officially launched the NS program which includes virtual live and on-demand workouts, nutrition coaching, and personalized accountability and support to help other women do the same.
Currently I live in the Los Angeles South Bay with my husband, Jaime, and my “fur-baby” long-haired chihuahua. Sadly, RydeFYR closed its doors in early 2022, but when one door closes another opens so since then I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate and partner with many incredible brands including iFIT, Nordictrack, Aviator Nation, Rumble Boxing and more. And you can still catch me live and on-demand from home through the FYR & NAMASTRONG virtual platform experiences. Life is a wild ride so I’m excited about the future. Let’s keep in touch on Instagram @ChevyLaurent.
Click here to sing up to learn more about the next NAMASTRONG & how you can join my #namastrongfam and train with me virtually live & on-demand from the comfort of your home
Join the #FYRFam community and try out my FYR® Method for yourself by subscribing to FYR ON DEMAND — FIRST 2 WEEKS FREE, THEN JUST $0.67 cents per day!
You can also catch me on the bike or the mat at Aviator Nation Ride in Santa Monica, CA + box with me as one of the founding trainers at the new Rumble Boxing Los Olivos in Irvine, CA!