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+ years in the trenches building multi-unit operations, leading high-performance teams, and driving execution inside franchise systems.

This episode is for fitness + wellness business owners, franchisees, and franchisors who are tired of:

1. “franchise opportunity” hype with zero operational truth
2. culture slipping the second growth accelerates
3. talent burnout disguised as “high standards”
4. unit economics guessing instead of weekly discipline
5. leadership pressure being treated like a personal weakness

1) Leadership under load (the part no one trains you for)

When leadership stops being exciting and starts being heavy — and how great operators process pressure without leaking it into the team.

2) Standards without burnout

How STRIDE thinks about “high bar” execution without destroying morale, retention, or culture.

3) Talent decisions that protect the business

The hidden cost of keeping the wrong people too long, how underperformance spreads, and what operators must spot early.

4) STRIDE Fitness franchising: what’s getting protected as they scale

The real mission behind STRIDE beyond “treadmills + sweat” — and the non-negotiables that can’t be compromised as the franchise system grows.

5) The STRIDE franchisee scoreboard (5 numbers weekly)

If you’re in the Owner Seat, you don’t get to guess. Anthony breaks down the weekly metrics a STRIDE operator must know to stay profitable and stable.

If you’re a franchisee / aspiring franchisee:

You’ll learn what matters before you sign — the standards, the pressure, and the operating cadence that separates winners from owners who stall.

If you’re a boutique fitness owner:

You’ll leave with real frameworks for leadership, team execution, and performance standards that scale without culture collapse.

If you’re a franchisor / emerging brand:

You’ll understand what breaks first in growth — and how to protect culture and unit economics while expanding fast.

📊 Work with Albert — Fractional CFO for Fitness & Wellness

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO + Founder at Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($500K–$30M) build cash visibility, utilization + pricing models, and capital planning so decisions are clean and defensible.

Book a CFO Strategy Call (Albert):

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-st...

Free Stratego CFO Playbook:

1. GLP-1s Are Rewriting the Gym Business Model — Here’s the Playbook (Bob Thomas)
2. Gyms Are Becoming Longevity Centers: GLP-1s, Peptides, HRT & the Truth About Profit
3. The Longevity Supply Chain: Why Your GLP-1 Partner Can Make or Break Your Brand
4. Ozempic Didn’t Kill Fitness — It Exposed Weak Retention, Weak Systems, Weak Economics
5. From 6 to 120 Clubs to Longevity Medicine: What Operators Must Do Before 2026

Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos goes behind the curtain of the fastest collision in fitness and wellness right now:

medicine + longevity + the gym business model.

GLP-1s, peptides, hormone optimization, telehealth, and outcomes-driven longevity aren’t “future talk.” They’re here — and operators are either building the bridge… or getting disrupted by it.

My guest is Bob Thomas — CEO & Founder of NexGen MD Scientific and Founder of Nexgen MD 360.

Bob is a 40+ year fitness industry operator who’s seen multiple cycles of hype vs. reality — and he helped shape real scale as a sales/ops executive during Life Time’s growth from 6 clubs to 120 clubs.

Today, he’s building the infrastructure behind longevity medicine the right way:

1. NexGen MD Scientific: a wholesale supplier serving healthcare providers with hormone solutions built on quality control, compliance, and trust (including a DEA-compliant facility and rigorous standards).
2. Nexgen MD 360: a doctor-supervised weight management program coordinating with clinics across the U.S. — designed around medication + nutrition + education, not “medication only.”

This episode is for fitness + wellness owners, franchisees, and franchisors who are tired of:

1. chasing longevity trends without knowing what’s real
2. partnering with sketchy vendors that create brand + legal risk
3. guessing on how GLP-1 demand changes acquisition + retention
4. bolting “medicine” onto fitness and wondering why it doesn’t stick
5. losing margin to programs with weak ops and no outcomes system

1) What’s real vs. hype in GLP-1s, peptides, and HRT

What operators need to understand now — and what narratives are misleading the market.

2) GLP-1s and gyms: the operational shift nobody is modeling

How GLP-1 adoption changes retention, onboarding, programming, and the member lifecycle.

3) “Medication-only” is an outcomes trap

Why the real winners bundle medication with nutrition, education, strength training, and adherence systems.

4) The longevity supply chain: quality, compliance, and...

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, and decision-grade visibility.

Bill’s core message is simple and it should make every owner uncomfortable:

Better forecasts don’t fix broken financial plumbing.

Infrastructure comes before insight.

This episode is for fitness + wellness business owners, franchisees, and franchisors who are tired of:

1. running the business off bank balance + vibes
2. using Stripe/Shopify as a P&L
3. “forecasting” from spreadsheets that don’t match reality
4. finding out margins are leaking after month-end
5. buying dashboards/AI tools that only amplify bad data
6. making growth decisions without clean unit economics

How forecasting becomes guesswork when revenue, costs, and timing don’t live in one system of record.

Why bank balance, sales platform revenue, and spreadsheet reporting quietly destroy confidence as you scale.

The practical building blocks: chart of accounts structure, close process, cash vs accrual clarity, location-level tagging, and reconciliation discipline.

What happens when Sales, Ops, and Finance all show up with different numbers—and why conviction drops even when revenue is growing.

Why the next wave of software pricing (usage-based, tokenized, variable) makes real-time cost visibility mandatory—not optional.

If you’re a boutique operator:

You’ll learn what to fix first so your P&L becomes decision-grade—and your cash stops surprising you.

If you’re a franchisee:

You’ll leave with a clearer infrastructure model to protect margins, manage local labor/COGS, and make growth decisions with confidence.

If you’re a franchisor:

You’ll understand what a “finance system that scales” looks like across locations—so you can standardize reporting, protect brand economics, and stop allowing drift.

📊 Work with Albert — Fractional CFO for Fitness & Wellness I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO + Founder at Stratego Intel Consulting. I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($500K–$30M) build cash visibility, utilization + pricing models, and capital planning so decisions are clean and defensible.

Book a CFO Strategy Call (Albert):