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...

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 m...

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 Ow...

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...

This is a sneak peek into NEOPlex, what I believe is going to change the entire fitness, wellness and boutique studio business model. They are coming to the U.S., and I'll be helping them raise the capital. More to come 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...

The same habits that build a fitness or wellness brand are usually the ones that cap it. The founder becomes the system, every decision routes through one person, and growth stalls right when it should compound. This episode is about how to scale a multi-location brand without becoming the bottleneck, with an advisor who has spent eight-plus years in closed-door rooms watching exactly where it bre...

Welcome back to The Owner Seat Podcast, where we explore what's coming next in the fitness and wellness industry. Today, we're joined by Nate Scott, CFO of Solidcore, to discuss growth, margins, and survival. He shares his insights from a robust career in corporate finance and cfo career development, offering valuable perspectives for any business.

Welcome back to The Owner Seat Podcast! This episode offers essential business tips for fitness and wellness operators. We discuss how to scale business effectively, emphasizing that true business growth and longevity come from smart recovery, not just constant pushing. Learn to grow your business with clarity, not chaos.

Welcome back to The Owner Seat Podcast, the show for operators, franchisors, franchisees, and founders in the fitness industry. We cover where fitness is actually going and how to build a sustainable business strategy. This episode is for anyone with an idea and the courage to build it, focusing on entrepreneurship from patents to partnerships and how to achieve business growth through a recurring...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Joe Meglio — Founder & CEO of GameChanger Fitness, Inc. 5000 honoree (2025), and former strength coach at Underground Strength Gym. Joe started GameChanger in 2013 in a 600 square foot baseball facility in New Jersey. Today the brand operates 16 locations across New Jersey and Maryland, with Wayne NJ in presale and two new studios...

This episode is a blueprint for where fitness is actually going — and why the next winners won't be single-modality studios. We break down the ecosystem model (sport + strength + recovery under one roof), the unit economics and real estate logic behind multi-concept buildouts, and what a serious franchisee or area developer needs to bring to the table before claiming founding territory. If you're...

This episode unpacks what actually drives topline growth in multi-unit fitness — and why national brand power means nothing without local execution. We go deep on building a multi-state platform, scaling culture without losing it, running sales and retention systems that don't depend on one hero employee, and how to buy studios the right way. If you're an operator trying to grow in 2026 without br...

The Pricing, Operations, and Financial Framework That Actually Scales a Fitness Business Imagine you've been pulling levers in your business — raising prices, adding membership options, cutting costs — and every decision felt right in the moment. Then six months later, the consequences show up in ways you never saw coming. That's not bad luck. That's what happens when you scale without a system. A...

Is the 30-Day Gym Membership Dying? The Debate Every Fitness Operator Needs to Hear Imagine you've spent years building your fitness business on a model that was never designed for the member — it was designed for the operator. A flat monthly fee. Passive EFTs. Members who pay and don't show up. It's predictable. It's scalable. And it may be quietly working against you. Because the consumer has al...

In this episode of The Owner Seat Podcast , Albert Ramos sits down with Nataliya Kisseleva — a multi-brand franchise operator running Massage Envy and The Lash Lounge in the highly competitive NYC metro market, with 15+ years in the trenches and an operator’s discipline that most franchisees never develop. Nataliya was the first-to-market Massage Envy franchisee in her county and has continued to...

The lines between fitness and healthcare are blurring — and the operators who recognize that shift first are going to be the ones who win the next decade. This episode is for every fitness and wellness owner who has looked at the landscape around them and felt it: gyms are no longer just places to work out, studios are no longer just places to take a class, and the consumer sitting across from you...

In this episode of The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Rachel Whitlock, a Hotworx franchise owner in Spanish Fork, Utah, senior project manager, and adjunct professor at BYU’s Marriott School of Business, to break down what really drives retention, lowers churn, and helps fitness businesses grow without staying dependent on the owner. Rachel Whitlock brings a product and opera...

In this episode of The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Fernando Delgado, EOS Implementer, executive coach, and franchise owner of USA Ninja Challenge, to unpack what really breaks when a business tries to scale and how founders can build systems that create growth without chaos. Fernando brings a rare mix of experience from global brands like Procter & Gamble, Gillette, an...

If you’re a personal trainer who’s tired of giving 40–60% of your revenue to a gym… or a fitness operator who knows the next era won’t be won by “more memberships”… this episode is for you. Because the most underrated business model in fitness right now isn’t a new modality. It’s fitness infrastructure — letting coaches run their business without leases, long-term contracts, or gym politics. In th...

In this episode of The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Chris Skeates , franchise owner of TYG Whitby and CEO of CW Wellness, to break down what it really takes to build a scalable fitness business that delivers consistent results. Chris shares his journey from operating F45 studios through COVID chaos to transitioning into The Yard Gym model, a strength-focused system built ar...

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook: https://bit.ly/owner-seat-cfo-playbook —-------------------------------- In this episode of the Owner Seat podcast, host Albert Ramos is joined by Justin Kennington , a former high-performance tech executive (with experience at Google and Crestron) who transitioned into the wellness industry as a franchise owner of Altered State Wellness in Houston’s Vin...

This episode explores the evolving fitness culture, highlighting a critical shift from forced memberships to flexible, on-demand access. We dive into effective distribution strategy and the importance of owning marketing channels for entrepreneurial success in the modern fitness landscape. Tune in to learn how to adapt your workout business model and stay ahead. In this episode, Albert Ramos Jr. s...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Lindsay Vastola — Leadership Strategist, keynote speaker, founder of VastPotential, and one of the most operationally grounded leadership advisors in the fitness and wellness industry. Lindsay isn't leadership theory. She ran a real fitness business — Body Project Fitness & Lifestyle — for over a decade, spent nearly a decade as Ed...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Kory Angelin — Founder and CEO of CoreHaus Fitness , multi-unit Club Pilates operator, former President at The DRIPBaR, and one of the most direct, unfiltered voices in fitness franchising on what scaling actually costs when the cameras are off. Kory isn't here to give you a highlight reel. He's here to give you the grind behind it — t...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Sonia Gonzales — Founder and CEO of AlxRX Corp., patented packaging innovator, and one of the few founders in performance nutrition who is simultaneously building IP, manufacturing capability, and a distribution strategy designed specifically for fitness and wellness operators. Sonia isn't building a supplement brand. She's building a...