The Owner Seat

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Michael Parrish — SVP of Client Development & Funding at Halotherapy Solutions, combat athlete, U.S. Military veteran, former SWAT team member, and operator of a high-performance training camp that prepared elite athletes and special forces candidates. Michael doesn't come at halotherapy from a wellness trend angle. He comes at it...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Jeff Zwiefel — former President & COO of Life Time , and one of the most credible operator-leaders in modern fitness and wellness. Jeff spent nearly 27 years helping scale Life Time from $137M to $2.3B+ , leading 30,000+ team members across 170+ locations . Today, he’s deeply involved in the future of longevity, performance medici...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Kip Knippel, Esq. — President & CEO of KIP Search , retained executive headhunter, investor, and host of Capitalist Culture . Kip places CEO/CFO/COO-level operators into private equity-backed and high-growth companies — and his core thesis is simple: org design beats talent when growth gets heavy . In fitness and wellness, that ma...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos delivers a solo, operator-grade breakdown of what a real Fractional CFO actually does for fitness, wellness, longevity, and franchise brands — and why most owners don’t need “more revenue,” they need cash clarity and decision-grade numbers . Albert also explains his mission: he gives 99% of his work away for free through daily educational videos, tw...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Chris Reilly — private equity and FP&A veteran, founder of Financial Modeling Education , and founder of Mission Capital Consulting . Chris has trained over 91,000 operators, analysts, and executives to build financial models that actually work in the real world — where the data is messy, reports don’t tie, and decisions still hav...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Bobby Hines & Anna Hines — longtime fitness and wellness operators who’ve built, scaled, and managed multi-brand franchise businesses across Anytime Fitness , Basecamp Fitness , and Waxing The City over nearly two decades. Bobby recently sold his final Anytime Fitness location after almost 20 years with the brand — and now advises...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Mo Iqbal — Chief Strategy Officer at ABC Fitness, Founder & Chairman of SweatWorks, and Co-Host of LIFTS. Mo operates at the intersection of fitness, wellness, platforms, payments, AI, and scale , advising some of the largest and fastest-growing gym, studio, and franchise ecosystems in the world. If you’re a fitness or wellness bu...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Christine Garcia , franchise owner of BODYBAR Pilates in Strongsville, Ohio, with a second BODYBAR studio in Brunswick currently in pre-opening buildout. Christine is deep in the trenches — past franchise award, lease signed, possession transferred — navigating site selection, buildout delays, capital planning, and the real timeline t...

In this episode of The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Michael Iannuzzi — Partner and Franchise Practice Leader at Citrin Cooperman , CPA, and Certified Franchise Executive Michael works at the intersection of private equity, franchising, and financial diligence , advising franchisors and multi-unit franchisees across fitness, wellness, QSR, and multi-location consumer brands. If you’re a...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes behind the curtain of STRIDE Fitness — and into the part of franchising most brands avoid talking about: Leadership under load. Standards under speed. And what it really takes to scale without breaking culture, people, or unit economics. My guest is Anthony Badalian — President, COO, and Partner of STRIDE Fitness . Anthony has spent 12+ year...

5 provocative, AI-SEO-friendly episode titles (Bob Thomas) GLP-1s Are Rewriting the Gym Business Model — Here’s the Playbook (Bob Thomas) Gyms Are Becoming Longevity Centers: GLP-1s, Peptides, HRT & the Truth About Profit The Longevity Supply Chain: Why Your GLP-1 Partner Can Make or Break Your Brand Ozempic Didn’t Kill Fitness — It Exposed Weak Retention, Weak Systems, Weak Economics From 6 t...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes straight at the thing most fitness + wellness founders keep trying to “AI their way out of”… Broken financial infrastructure. My guest is Bill Dillmeier — an operator-minded finance leader who’s obsessed with the boring stuff that actually determines whether your studio scales cleanly : accounting systems, revenue + cost truth, cash timing,...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes straight at one of the fastest-growing (and most misunderstood) categories in wellness and recovery: halotherapy (dry salt therapy) — what it is, what it isn’t, and how operators can monetize it without hype . My guest is Lisa Marie Semerly — Chief Revenue Officer at Halotherapy Solutions , President of the World Halotherapy Association , an...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos breaks down the truth about what’s coming next in fitness, wellness, and franchising — and why AI isn’t a feature … it’s a business model shift . My guest is Garrett Marshall — CEO & Founder of Wellbuilt Ventures and former President of Xponential+ . Garrett has 22+ years across fitness + tech + SaaS growth, with real operator outcomes (inclu...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes straight at the reason most boutique fitness studios and online coaching businesses feel “successful” but still feel broke: profit leaks + payroll drift + zero cash visibility — not a “more leads” problem. Paul Roch, CPA helps online fitness coaches and boutique studio owners translate confusing financials into operator language, tighten pro...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes straight at the real reason most fitness and wellness businesses stall out: execution drift — not a “marketing problem,” not a “more leads” problem. Ben Ludwig is a fitness industry leadership, sales, and strategy operator who’s trained teams across 60+ countries , helped support nearly 2,000 F45 studios globally , and served in executive le...

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast , host Albert Ramos goes behind the curtain of fitness + wellness media — and into the coaching economy problems most brands would rather keep off-camera. Elisa Edelstein is the Editor-in-Chief of Coach360 and a NASM Certified Personal Trainer — which means she’s not just reporting on coaches… she is one. She sits at the center of what gets amplified, what gets igno...

Today on The Owner Seat , host Albert Ramos goes straight at the finance problem that’s about to wreck margins for a lot of operators in 2026: Usage-based pricing + AI spend + “I’ll check it at month-end” finance. Our guest is Catherine Neuman , Co-Founder of SpendPilot — the ambient finance layer built to stop reactive chaos and give owners real-time visibility into spend, risk, and performance b...

Today on The Owner Seat , host Albert Ramos goes inside the real transformation story most founders never talk about: the moment your health, your family, and your identity collide — and you either change… or you drift. Don LaTorre is the Founder of Layman’s Fitness — an online coaching business helping busy parents lose weight with simple, sustainable, kettlebell-based training. But Don didn’t st...

Today on The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Pete Moore , and they go inside the deal discipline that separates real fitness and wellness brands from the ones quietly headed for a valuation haircut. Pete Moore is the Founder & Managing Partner of Integrity Square — the advisory and investment platform that’s helped shape the modern HALO economy. He’s advised on $1.5B+ in transactions,...

Today on The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Joseph Cicero to talk about what it really takes to scale a brick-and-mortar fitness brand without the façade — just utilization, discipline, and the emotional grind most owners never admit out loud. Joseph is the Founder of The Yard , a strength-forward training model with two high-performing studios in San Francisco and Mill Valley — both prof...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with David Ramos — President & Owner of StretchLab First Coast and a mission-driven tech executive who’s led global platforms at Aetna/CVS, Rakuten, and high-growth startups… and then chose to build a local, family-owned wellness portfolio in Northeast Florida. David has lived both sides of growth: - Boardrooms, M&A, platform scale,...

Today on The Owner Seat , Albert Ramos sits down with Tanner Holmes to go inside what multi-unit, multi-brand franchise ownership actually looks like — not the Instagram version, the real one. Tanner Holmes is a multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee, investor, and Area Developer across Illinois and Wisconsin, building a portfolio under Impact Brands LLC with concepts like Perspire Sauna Studio and So...

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Ali Orleski — Operating Partner at Momentic Studios , former VP of Franchise Development at Pause Studio, and former national operations leader helping scale Orangetheory Fitness Canada with FSO. Ali has opened 137+ boutique studios across two continents and now sits at the center of a multi-brand expansion engine with SweatHouz and ST...

Today on The Owner Seat , we go inside the dealmaking model that’s reshaping lower middle market M&A — with someone who’s mastered it. Casey Minshew , Managing Partner at Equity Launchpad , has acquired legacy industrial businesses like H&M Plating and Mercer Controls — and rebuilt them with bolt-ons, culture transformations, and CapEx-forward growth. He calls his blueprint the SWOT Team :...