The Owner Seat

Albert Ramos
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The Owner Seat (formerly The Valisights Podcast) is where fitness & wellness owners step out of the whirlwind and into the numbers. Host Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO for fitness & wellness brands, sits down with studio owners, franchisors, and finance leaders to break down cash flow, unit economics, and the messy middle of growth. Book a call with Albert Ramos: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/30min

  1. 10h ago

    Reputation Is an Asset: How PR Compounds Like Capital? | Natalie Trice | The Owner Seat

    Most wellness founders believe great work gets found on its own. It doesn't. This episode breaks down how reputation actually becomes a business asset: one that lowers acquisition cost, lifts pricing power, and opens doors that outlast any single media hit. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Natalie Trice, a chartered PR professional with 30 years across global media, and goes behind the build: How a personal crisis, her son's hip dysplasia diagnosis, became Cast Life, DDH UK, and coverage in the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, and the BBCThe honest ROI conversation on premium PR fees, and where earned media actually shows up in the numbersWhat separates founders who convert visibility into real business results from the ones who get the hit and nothing changes Natalie Trice is the founder of Natalie Trice Publicity, a boutique, senior-led PR agency for experts, founders, and brands in health and wellness. Over three decades she has worked with CNN, the Discovery Channel, and Cartoon Network, plus organizations including the Royal College of Art, the International Menopause Society, and the Harley Street Fertility Clinic. She's a three-time author, founder of PR School, and founder of YOMU Magazine, built to make health and wellness information accessible inside a $1.8 trillion global wellness market. Next up: a PhD. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Being the best-kept secret in their market while louder competitors get the coverageSpending on ads with no idea whether PR belongs in the budget yetBuilding a brand entirely on the founder's face with no plan for it to stand on its ownChasing one-off media hits that never change the numbers Top topics we cover Turning a real story into a movement: why authentic stories travel where polished campaigns stallThe financial case for PR: acquisition cost, conversion, and pricing powerReputation as a compounding asset that can lift valuation and open dealsGetting picked up in a crowded market: what makes a journalist say yes in a $1.8 trillion industryRegulated and science-based wellness brands vs. lifestyle brands: where the PR play changesDIY vs. outsourced: the highest-value PR work a time-strapped owner should never hand off How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: learn the PR work you can do yourself before you're ready to spend, and when it's simply too early. If you're a multi-unit operator: understand where earned media shows up in acquisition cost and pricing power across locations. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: see how reputation functions as an intangible asset that lifts valuation and opens deals. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: build a brand that stands on its own so the business stays valuable when the founder steps back. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    Reputation Is an Asset: How PR Compounds Like Capital? | Natalie Trice | The Owner Seat

  2. 4d ago

    He Sold His Business to Bet on His Wife's: The Lawless Pilates Expansion Playbook | Landon French

    Most operators dream about expansion. Landon French sold his own business to go execute one. This episode is the operator's playbook for turning a single reformer studio into a regional brand: the real estate underwriting, the unit economics, the presale strategy, and the green light that tells you it's time to sign the next lease. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Landon French, President of Lawless Pilates CO., and goes behind the build: How he underwrites a site before signing a lease, and what has to be true about rent, square footage, and marketWhy Lawless pre-sells founding memberships before the doors open, and how that cash de-risks every new locationThe number that has to hold at locations one through three before he commits to location four A'Lexus French started Lawless Pilates CO. at 21 with one reformer studio in Rapid City, South Dakota, built from a bank loan and 80-hour weeks. She built her own method, her own instructor training, and her own grading system so the Lawless experience holds up in any city. Seven months in, Landon sold his business and joined as President, owning real estate, site selection, lease deals, build-outs, and the math under each new location. Fourteen months after studio one, they opened Sioux Falls. This June they opened their third location in Omaha, Nebraska. Today Lawless runs six full-time staff and more than thirty instructors, with a vision to build across the Midwest. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Guessing on leases instead of underwriting themOpening new locations that drain cash instead of pre-selling itScaling a business that depends entirely on one personNot knowing what number actually says "go" on the next location Top topics we cover The bet: selling your own company to join a seven-month-old studio, and what the early numbers showedReal estate underwriting for boutique fitness: rent, square footage, and the market test before you say yesSecondary Midwest markets versus coastal metros: how Rapid City, Sioux Falls, and Omaha change the unit economicsRevenue mix that actually drives a studio: drop-ins, class packs, and membershipsFounding memberships and presale cash flow: de-risking a location before you teach a single classUtilization in a capacity-capped business: classes per week, seats per class, and the booking windowLosing nearly an entire team in year one and rebuilding in six weeks: protecting the model from single-manager risk How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll learn what a repeatable method, in-house training, and a grading system make possible when you're ready to open door number two. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get Landon's underwriting framework for the next lease and the reporting cadence that lets him see every location's performance. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear how Lawless decides between cash flow, debt, and partners to fund the next opening. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn how a proprietary system keeps the customer experience consistent across instructors, managers, and markets. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    He Sold His Business to Bet on His Wife's: The Lawless Pilates Expansion Playbook | Landon French

  3. Jul 17

    Clean Numbers, Cracked Leadership: Why Do Scaling Founders Break? | Dr. Alyssa Webb-McCune

    Operators will spend six figures on a build-out and then neglect the one asset that actually runs the business: their people. And the most neglected person of all is usually the founder. This episode is a live coaching session on the leadership problems that quietly decide whether a fitness, wellness, or longevity company makes it. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Dr. Alyssa Webb-McCune, LPC, licensed professional counselor and Founder of EDGE, and goes behind the human side of the build: What under-investing in people actually costs you on the P&LHow to coach the founder who can't let go at eight locations and 70 hours a weekHow to save a burning-out location manager in the next two weeks, before they quit Dr. Alyssa Webb-McCune holds a doctorate in professional counseling and a master's in clinical mental health. Through EDGE, based in The Woodlands, Texas, she combines real clinical training with practical business strategy to help leaders and their teams perform: burnout, resilience, hard conversations, team dynamics, and the performance of the people in charge. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Being the bottleneck in their own businessWatching their best managers burn out and walkLeadership teams stuck in silos where ops blames sales and sales blames financeAvoiding the hard conversation until it explodes Top topics we cover The P&L cost of neglecting your people: the case for a numbers-driven ownerCoaching the 70-hour founder: why delegating feels slower and how to fix itOutside capital and the anxious operator: carrying pressure without leaking it on the teamSeparating self-worth from revenue without killing the driveAccountability without killing the family culture that built the placeResilience as a skill, not a personality trait How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll learn how to stop tying your identity to a bad month and start building capacity beyond yourself. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get a two-week playbook for the burning-out manager and a reset framework for a leadership team that stopped trusting each other. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear how new capital changes the person at the top, and how to carry that weight without breaking the culture. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn how much culture is trainable and systematized versus leader-dependent, and where to spend your energy. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    Clean Numbers, Cracked Leadership: Why Do Scaling Founders Break? | Dr. Alyssa Webb-McCune

  4. Jul 13

    The Drip Bar CEO Explains Why This Business Model Works | Ben Crosbie

    The wellness category is moving fast, and most operators are being told to chase the next modality without anyone showing them how to make the math work. Ben Crosbie sees this business the way the people who listen to this show do: as a P&L, not a press release. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity operators who want the honest unit economics behind IV therapy and the longevity wave before they bet on it. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Ben Crosbie, CEO of The DRIPBaR and a franchise builder who grew and exited more than 500 Tapout Fitness locations, and goes behind the economics of building a longevity brand: How to think about a single DRIPBaR location as a P&L, and the levers that decide whether it prints money or just survivesHow to protect contribution margin per visit on a high-touch, nurse-delivered service while keeping the price where members come backThe opportunity a fragmented industry creates for a brand with real infrastructure, and how to be the consolidator instead of the consolidated Ben Crosbie is the CEO of The DRIPBaR, one of the most recognized names in IV therapy and wellness, and a franchise builder first. He is the founder of ZOR411, a franchise development company, and before The DRIPBaR he founded Tapout Fitness, where he secured the global rights to the TapouT brand and grew it through more than 500 franchise locations across 11 countries before exiting in 2019. He sits on the Leadership Advisory Board of the American IV Association and came up through franchising, real estate, and fitness, with a degree in kinesiology and nutrition. Under his leadership The DRIPBaR has moved past hydration into NAD+, peptides like Sermorelin, hormone support, and the longevity services shaping the next decade of wellness. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Chasing new services that get commoditized in months, not yearsWatching contribution margin erode on every high-touch visitPricing pressure as the hot molecules get cheaper and more availableBuilding something that gets consolidated instead of doing the consolidating Top topics we cover The franchise builder's lesson: what building and exiting 500+ Tapout locations taught Ben about what actually makes a location profitable, not just sellableThe levers inside a single DRIPBaR P&L, and how to protect margin per visitMemberships versus walk-ins, and what a healthy recurring-revenue mix looks like for predictable cash flowUtilization across fixed chairs and fixed nurse hours, and what moving that number does to the economicsWhere the real demand and margin are heading in NAD+, peptides, hormone support, and longevity over the next three to five yearsStaying on the right side of pricing pressure as the GLP-1 wave resets the metabolic category How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll learn the levers inside a location P&L and how to keep a member past the first 90 days. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get a clear read on utilization, recurring revenue, and how to price new services so you stay ahead of the curve. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear what has to be true in a location's economics before planting the flag in a new market, and where the consolidation opportunity sits. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn how to build the infrastructure that lets you consolidate a fragmented industry instead of getting consolidated by it. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    The Drip Bar CEO Explains Why This Business Model Works | Ben Crosbie

  5. Jul 10

    The Wellness Robot Is In The U.S.: Meet RoboSculptor | Elena Kormilina | The Owner Seat

    Every operator in fitness and wellness is being told the same thing right now: add recovery, add longevity, add the next modality. Almost nobody tells them how to make the math work. Elena Kormilina lives at exactly that intersection, where a brand-new technology has to turn into a real business an operator can actually run. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity operators weighing a capital-heavy modality and wanting the honest unit economics before they sign. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Elena Kormilina, Head of Product Strategy and Commercialization at roboSculptor, the Dubai-based company building AI-powered robotic body therapy for wellness businesses, and goes behind the economics of recovery on demand: How robotics changes the math on a treatment that used to need an hour of skilled labor, and where it still doesn't pencilWhat utilization and pricing actually have to hold at for the published per-unit revenue numbers to be real and not a best-case headlineWhat has to be true in the numbers before a hardware company can raise real capital and scale the rollout Elena Kormilina is the Head of Product Strategy and Commercialization at roboSculptor, where her craft is translation: taking complex health-tech and turning it into something operators, investors, and customers actually understand and adopt. Before roboSculptor she spent a decade at Profile Products, growing a region from $50,000 to $1.7 million and building distributor networks across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, opening new markets like Turkey and Mongolia. She holds an MBA in finance and thinks about a product the way a CFO thinks about a P&L. At roboSculptor she helped reposition the product from a niche aesthetics tool to a recovery and wellness platform built for gyms, hotels, spas, recovery centers, and longevity clinics, evolving the vibrocompression method behind Beautylizer into a full-body, AI-driven system that scans the body and selects the protocol. She helped take the install base from around 15 units to roughly 100, grew revenue about six times, and carried the company to a first investor soft commitment. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Being pushed to add the next modality with no P&L to back the decisionHeadline per-unit revenue numbers that fall apart the moment you check the utilization assumptionTreatments that need an hour of skilled labor and never pencil outBuying a trend they regret instead of a durable shift in demand Top topics we cover The commercializer's lesson: the gap between a product that's technically great and one that actually sells and scalesHow robotics extends capacity without adding headcount, and how to read that on the P<he real per-unit economics behind the published $200,000-a-year-at-60%-usage figureWhy retention and repeat visits, not the first wow, tell you a location truly worksThe shift from a big upfront hardware sale to a rental model, and what it does to operator economics and cash flowWhat changes in pricing, model, and partnerships when crossing from the UAE into the US How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll get an honest framework for whether a capital-heavy modality actually pencils at your traffic and pricing. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll learn how to extend capacity without adding labor and how to read utilization before you replicate. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear what a hardware company has to prove in the numbers before raising, and how a rental model reshapes the risk. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn how to tell a durable demand shift from a trend, and where to focus a product that could go everywhere. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Free STRATEGO CFO Playbook: https://bit.ly/owner-seat-cfo-playbook Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    The Wellness Robot Is In The U.S.: Meet RoboSculptor | Elena Kormilina | The Owner Seat

  6. Jul 6

    He Built Brands for L'Oréal and Honda, Then Bet on His Own | Jonathan Singer | The Owner Seat

    Most founders fall in love with their product. The best ones fall in love with the experience their customer actually has, then build the business around it. Jonathan Singer spent 25 years doing exactly that for some of the biggest brands in the world, and now he's doing it for himself with The Red Light Wellness Company. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity operators who have to make the experience sing and make the math work at the same time. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Jonathan Singer, a 25-year brand experience veteran and Founder and CEO of The Red Light Wellness Company in Miami Beach, and goes behind the build of Redwell: How to deliver professional-grade red light therapy at prices regular people can afford without crushing the marginWhat the unit economics of a single flagship have to prove before you replicate it across citiesWhy community, not equipment, is the part of the model a competitor can't just buy Jonathan Singer has been engineering brand experiences since 1999. He started at McCann, launched GMR Marketing's Canadian business and had it profitable in its first year working with brands like Royal Bank, L'Oréal, Unilever, Nokia, and Honda, then founded JSEM, Jonathan Singer Experience Marketing, where he helped pioneer the experiential agency landscape in North America. He went on to run brand experience at Subnation across gaming, fashion, and entertainment, and led the global brand experience practice at Winston Francois. He has served on the board of the LASD Foundation and is a McGill graduate. Today he is Founder and CEO of The Red Light Wellness Company, built to take professional-grade red light therapy out from behind premium price tags and make it accessible to regular people who want to take control of their healthspan, guided by his operating philosophy of Cultural Currency and the five C's: Culture, Connection, Community, Conversion, and Commerce. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Building a brand that generates buzz but never turns attention into real revenueWatching mission and margin pull against each other inside the same businessConcepts that get copied the day after they start workingFunding a physical, early-stage build without knowing what investors actually need to see Top topics we cover The agency P&L lesson: what running a profitable business that early teaches you about the gap between a brand that looks good and one that actually makes moneyPremium quality at accessible prices, and how to solve that tension without gutting contribution marginMembership versus per-visit pricing, and what healthy utilization and recurring revenue look like for a red light studioWhere AI actually lowers cost to serve or lifts margin, versus just sounding good in a pitchCultural Currency and the five C's, and how community moves retention, lifetime value, and customer acquisition costWhat has to be true in the systems and the numbers before you hand the model to an operator in another city How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll learn what your first location has to prove before you spend a dollar replicating it. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get a clear read on what makes a model survivable across cities and where the leadership depth has to sit. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear what investors actually need to see before they'll back a single-location proof of concept. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn how to protect the experience and the margin as you add locations, and what makes the business valuable instead of just busy. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    He Built Brands for L'Oréal and Honda, Then Bet on His Own | Jonathan Singer | The Owner Seat

  7. Jul 3

    How InLife Wellness Makes Sure Your Margin Doesn't Disappear | Scott Caplelin | The Owner Seat

    Most people who buy a business end up buying themselves a job. The studio works when they are in the room and stalls the minute they step out. Scott Capelin spent 20 years learning why that happens and how to build the opposite. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners who want a studio that holds its margin and keeps running without them standing in the doorway. Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Scott Capelin, Founder and CEO of inLIFE Wellness and a former multi-unit operator who sold all 5 of his Vision Personal Training locations in 2011, and goes behind the inLIFE Wellness model: Why two owners run the exact same systems and the exact same pricing and land in completely different placesWhat it actually takes for a studio to keep its revenue when a key instructor walks out the doorThe few numbers Scott tells every owner to read on Monday morning Scott Capelin is the Founder and CEO of inLIFE Wellness, where he helps everyday people open and operate Pilates-inspired studios with full support from day one. Before inLIFE, Scott spent over a decade as a multi-unit franchise owner running 5 Vision Personal Training locations across Australia and New Zealand, then sold every one of them in 2011. He has logged more than 30,000 hours training clients face to face, built Tribe Social Fitness after studying the top fitness models in the world, and learned brand-building from Anne McKevitt. He is an international Number 1 best-selling author of Fit to Flourish and inShape, inLove, inSPIRED!, runs the inLIFE Wellness School of Pilates and Group Exercise Certification, and was recently named one of Entrepreneur Mirror's Top 10 Visionary Leaders Driving Global Change. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of: Owning a studio that only works when they are physically in itWatching margin disappear into line items they never priced forRevenue that depends on a constant churn of new members instead of retentionBuilding something for years that they could never actually sell Top topics we cover The multi-unit P&L lesson: what running 5 locations at once teaches you about unit economics that you only see when the whole P&L is on your deskWhere the margin actually lives in a low-impact studio model, and the one line item new owners underestimate every single timeInstructor quality versus the system: which one really drives retention and contribution marginThe four questions Scott uses to separate a real business from a job that just looks like oneThe Monday-morning numbers every owner should read every weekBuilding for the exit: what most owners fail to put in place that quietly caps their valuation How this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll know which numbers to read every Monday and where to find the margin you're leaving on the table. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get a clear test for whether your locations run on systems or on your adrenaline, and how to take yourself out of the room. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear how Scott thinks about the capital you put in and the realistic return and timeline before you sign. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn what has to be true in your financials and systems before you sell a single license, so you're scaling a proven model and not hope. Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Free STRATEGO CFO Playbook: https://bit.ly/owner-seat-cfo-playbook Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/ More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    How InLife Wellness Makes Sure Your Margin Doesn't Disappear | Scott Caplelin | The Owner Seat

  8. Jun 29

    From One Studio to an Eight-Figure Exit: What I Learned Building, Scaling, & Selling a Business

    Most operators think they're building a business. The best ones are building an asset. This episode is the difference between the two, told by someone who scaled to 40 locations and sold to private equity twice before she had fully separated which one she'd built. If you run a fitness, wellness, or longevity brand and you've never stopped to ask whether your company could survive without you, this is the conversation that forces the question.Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Kristie Shifflette, the founder who built the Orangetheory Fitness Area Developer platform OT Growth Partners from a single studio into a 40-location enterprise, and goes behind the climb:How she funded location one with a $700K SBA loan and a personal guarantee, then funded the rest from cash flow instead of outside capitalWhy she turned down the highest offer on the table in 2018, and what a retrade setup actually looks like from the insideThe Founder Absorption Effect she lived through, where the business you build to create freedom quietly becomes the thing that owns youKristie Shifflette is the Founder and CEO of OT Growth Partners, the Orangetheory Fitness Area Developer platform she launched from a single studio in North Carolina in 2013. She grew it to 40 locations across North Carolina, Indiana, and Iowa with more than 500 employees. By the time she was running ten studios, her locations averaged $1.5M in annual revenue at a 40 percent net margin. In 2018 she went to market with 13 owned locations, sold 70 percent to Kian Capital, rolled 30 percent into the new entity, and went straight back to work running acquisitions toward a full exit. Today she's a Restore Hyper Wellness franchise owner in the Raleigh-Durham market and Founding CEO of PrismLife, a health innovation company built around Food as Medicine and functional nutrition for kids, young athletes, and families.This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of:Running hard with no idea whether they're building equity or just buying themselves a jobHearing the highlight reel from people who sold, and never the real cost of the climbGuessing at what a PE process looks like until they're already across the table mid-dealAdding location count while unit economics quietly erode underneath themTop topics we coverThe single-studio start: a $700K SBA loan, a personal guarantee, and profitability inside 90 days using the Orangetheory 12-week presaleThe path from location three to location ten that produced $1.5M average revenue and 40 percent net marginsThe 2018 Kian Capital recapitalization: 15 to 20 buyer meetings, the offer she walked away from, and the $1M she negotiated back into the dealLife inside a PE-backed company: reporting cadence, financial discipline, and the autonomy you trade away when you stay on as operatorThe Founder Absorption Effect, and the moment that snapped her out of itBuilding again with PrismLife, this time with the operator awareness she didn't have the first timeHow this episode helps you winIf you're a single-studio owner: you'll hear how the terms of your first deal are set years early, inside the unit economics you build or ignore today.If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll see what breaks between 13 and 40 locations so you can build ahead of it instead of paying to fix it after the fact.If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll learn how to spot a retrade, hold your number, and separate the emotional weight of a sale from the financial logic.If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll get the franchisee's real view of the relationship from someone who built and exited a 40-unit platform before sitting on the other side of it.Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and WellnessI'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible.Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcastSubscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.comConnect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/More from The Owner SeatNew episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST.Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcastSTRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com

    From One Studio to an Eight-Figure Exit: What I Learned Building, Scaling, & Selling a Business
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About

The Owner Seat (formerly The Valisights Podcast) is where fitness & wellness owners step out of the whirlwind and into the numbers. Host Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO for fitness & wellness brands, sits down with studio owners, franchisors, and finance leaders to break down cash flow, unit economics, and the messy middle of growth. Book a call with Albert Ramos: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/30min

Information

  • Creator
    Albert Ramos
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    90
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Albert Ramos
  • Show Website
    The Owner Seat