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, and AI in healthcare and insurtech

- Front-line ownership inside StretchLab studios serving St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, and Mandarin

This conversation is raw, honest, and uncomfortably relevant for any franchisee, founder, or multi-unit owner trying to balance faith, family, tech, and local unit economics without losing themselves in the process.

🔍 In this episode, we cover:

- How a corporate layoff and identity reset became the launchpad for StretchLab First Coast

- What it really looks like to open, turn around, and scale multiple wellness studios

- The operating system David uses to run both code and cash flow with intention

-The 3–5 metrics he actually uses to manage his StretchLab portfolio week-to-week

-How faith, calling, and pressure show up when a studio is on the edge

-Were owners get punched in the mouth financially — leases, build-outs, and cash-flow gaps

- How a tech/AI background changes the way he looks at unit economics for a single studio

- Where AI can practically support franchise and studio operators over the next 3–5 years

Work with Albert – Fractional CFO for Fitness, Wellness & Franchise Brands

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M+) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio and territory.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

If you want CFO-level clarity on your numbers:

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

📘 Free Resource – Stratego CFO Playbook (Fitness & Wellness)

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

13-week cash flow structure

Location-level unit economics template

Core KPI dashboard for studios & franchise systems

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/M9QSgEz9VqiqkHVv6

🎙 More from The Owner Seat

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash flow, growth, and the messy middle of operating real businesses with real stakes.

🕗 New episodes every Monday & Friday at 8:00 AM CST.

✅ Subscribe to the channel:

/@theownerseatpodcast

▶️ Binge past episodes: operator deep dives, franchise growth stories, and real P&L conversations

📧 Stay in the Owner Seat (Newsletter)

Get weekly breakdowns on:

Fitness & wellness unit economics

Multi-location and franchise cash flow

AI-powered finance workflows for operators

🔗 Subscribe on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

Learn More

Fractional CFO services (Stratego): https://www.StrategoIntel.com

Connect with Albert on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr

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 Sola Salon Studios.

He’s the operator a lot of people think they want to become:

➡ Multiple territories

➡ Multiple brands

➡ Expansion bets on the table

But behind that is the part nobody posts about:

cash pressure, leadership strain, and the constant question — how fast is too fast?

In this episode, we unpack:

• What first-year franchise ownership really feels like
• Why “one foot in, one foot out” quietly kills operators
• How Tanner thinks about expansion pacing across multiple brands
• The operator reality behind Perspire Sauna Studio ownership
• How “longevity” fits into a real P&L — not just a trend deck
• The culture decisions that either hold the business together… or crack it

If you’re a franchisee, area developer, or franchisor trying to scale without drowning in chaos — this is required viewing.

📊 Work with Albert – Fractional CFO for Fitness & Wellness

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio.

🎧 Watch more episodes of The Owner Seat

👉 https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast

📩 Subscribe to the newsletter — The AI-Powered Finance Guide

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

...

📘 Request the CFO Playbook for Fitness Founders

👉 https://forms.gle/nY1QDj8p2wQ2XT6cA

...

💡 Fractional CFO Services for Fitness & Wellness Brands

👉 https://www.StrategoIntel.com

🤝 Connect with host, Albert Ramos

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

If you want cash clarity before your next deal,

If you’re tired of guessing on breakeven and unit economics,

If you need a finance system worthy of investors…

👉 Hit play below.

Take your seat back.

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 STRONG Pilates, with a mandate to open 100+ locations in four years.

If you’re a franchisor, area developer, or multi-unit operator in fitness, recovery, or wellness, this conversation is a playbook in disguise: real estate, launch sequencing, owner behavior patterns, culture at speed, and the financial blind spots that quietly kill growth.

This one is sharp, honest, and deeply tactical.

🔍 In this episode, we cover:

- How Ali helped build the operational backbone behind 100+ studio launches

- Why most franchise systems think they’re ready to scale — and why they’re not

- The hard truths she wishes every first-time franchisee heard before signing

- The most underestimated step in launching a studio (that always bites people later)

- Where franchisees get blindsided financially and operationally

- How to read the early warning signals when a studio starts slipping

- What real culture and brand stewardship look like when you’re opening at speed

- How multi-brand ecosystems like Momentic Studios will shape the next era of wellness franchising

- The role data, systems, and AI will play in supporting franchisees over the next 3–5 years

Work with Albert – Fractional CFO for Fitness, Wellness & Franchise Brands

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M+) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio, territory, and brand.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

If you want CFO-level clarity on your numbers:

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

📘 Free Resource – Stratego CFO Playbook (Fitness & Wellness)

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

• 13-week cash flow structure

• Location-level unit economics template

• Core KPI dashboard for studios & franchise systems

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/M9QSgEz9VqiqkHVv6

🎙 More from The Owner Seat

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash flow, growth, and the messy middle — without the fluff.

New episodes every Monday & Friday at 8:00 AM CST.

Subscribe to the channel:

/ @theownerseatpodcast

Binge past episodes: operator deep dives, franchise stories, and real P&L conversations

📧 Stay in the Owner Seat (Newsletter)

Get weekly breakdowns on:

Fitness & wellness unit economics

Cash flow and multi-location scaling

AI-powered finance workflows for operators and franchisors

🔗 Subscribe on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

Learn More

Fractional CFO services (Stratego): https://www.StrategoIntel.com

Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

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:

➡ Operators who know the business cold

➡ Investors who move fast and stay aligned

➡ Deal partners who create clarity instead of chaos

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why the independent sponsor model is exploding
• How to build trust with family offices without a fund
• The right way to structure layered capital stacks
• When culture beats financial engineering
• Real examples from industrial platforms scaling fast

If you’re a founder, owner, or operator who wants to grow without giving up control — this is required viewing.

🎧 Watch more episodes of The Owner Seat

👉 https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast

📩 Subscribe to the newsletter — The AI-Powered Finance Guide

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

📘 Request the CFO Playbook for Fitness Founders

👉 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1deDUoFXx3BBtualzlqJ8QGtdfc-W-DqT?usp=drive_link

💡 Fractional CFO Services for Fitness & Wellness Brands

👉 https://www.StrategoIntel.com

🤝 Connect with host, Albert Ramos

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

If you want cash clarity before your next deal,

If you’re tired of raising capital on messy numbers,

If you need a finance system worthy of investors…

👉 Hit play below.

Take your seat back.

Today on The Owner Seat, host Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO of Stratego, breaks down how YourFitPrint is transforming local gyms into full health hubs and why this shift will define the next decade of boutique fitness.

Our guest Devon Baldino is the Executive Director of Vendor Relations & Women’s Health + Founding Board Member at YourFitPrint.

She’s building the partnerships that help gyms:

- Add 30% revenue-share without CapEx

- Offer GLP-1 + hormone care ethically

- Drive retention beyond class packs

- Compete against big-box & digital giants

- Future-proof against price-driven churn

If you own or operate a gym — this is a must-watch.

🎧 Watch more episodes of The Owner Seat

👉 https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast

📩 Subscribe to the newsletter — The AI-Powered Finance Guide

👉https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

📘 Request the CFO Playbook for Fitness Founders

👉 https://forms.gle/PN5Dkv3kM7qxiFJc8

💡 Fractional CFO Services for Fitness & Wellness Brands

👉 https://www.StrategoIntel.com

🤝 Connect with Albert on LinkedIn

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

If you’re tired of razor-thin margins, staff churn, and depending on new members to stay alive…

It’s time to own more of the health journey your members already trust you with.

Hit play 👇

Take your seat back.

In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Beth Potter — Franchise Owner of True Movement®, former VP of Sales at Walla, and former Chief Experience Officer at Studio Grow.

Beth has spent over a decade inside the heart of boutique fitness — helping studios all over the world design businesses that actually scale and feel good to run. Today, she’s building her own chapter as a True Movement® franchise owner while writing openly about motherhood, identity, and leadership through Beth’s Journey Unfiltered.

This conversation is candid, human, and uncomfortably useful for any fitness or wellness owner trying to grow without burning themselves out.

• How boutique fitness is maturing — and what real leadership looks like in this next era
• Why culture, care, and connection will outperform clever marketing every time
• What Beth learned from Walla, Studio Grow, and global studio work — and why she chose ownership
• How motherhood, movement, and leadership intersect in ways most owners ignore
• What “a studio that scales” actually looks like in operations, team, and numbers

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

If you want CFO-level clarity on your numbers:

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

• 13-week cash flow structure
• Location-level unit economics
• Core KPI dashboard for studios
• Owner Seat finance rhythm you can actually run

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/xt13aXZvTxBHbau36

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash flow, growth, and the messy middle.

New episodes every Monday & Friday at 8:00 AM CST.

• Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast
• Binge past episodes: operator deep dives, franchise stories, and real P&L conversations

Get weekly breakdowns on:

• Fitness & wellness unit economics
• Cash flow and multi-location scaling
• AI-powered finance workflows for operators

🔗 Subscribe on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328

• Fractional CFO services (Stratego): https://www.StrategoIntel.com
• Connect with Albert on LinkedIn:

In this episode of Season 2 of The Owner Seat – formerly The Valisights Podcast – Fractional CFO Albert Ramos sits down with Travis Pomposello, a creative leader who’s lived multiple professional lives at the very top of media and then chose to completely redefine what success looks like.

Travis is the former Chief Creative Officer at Paramount Global, Co-Founder of EPIX, and Founder of Bella Vita Creative, where he scaled his agency past $5M+ in revenue serving clients like Netflix and Amazon. He’s also awarded more than $100M in contracts to agencies — so when he talks about what scales and what quietly kills a shop, it’s from both sides of the table.

But the real turning point is what happened after all of that: a near-death, flatline moment that forced him to confront burnout, identity, and what actually matters. Today, through the Creative Agency Accelerator and his mentorship work, Travis helps agency founders scale with systems instead of chaos, and build businesses that don’t destroy their health or relationships.

In this episode, we dig into:

• What 30+ years across MTV, Nickelodeon, Letterman, Discovery, EPIX, and Paramount taught Travis about storytelling and leadership
• The “quiet killers” of agency growth – and how to fix them before it’s too late
• The real playbook for going from $500K to $5M+ without burning every bridge (or yourself)
• How a flatline on an operating table changed his definition of success, ambition, and energy
• Why systems, not hustle, are the real driver of long-term creative growth
• How to protect creative integrity while chasing big contracts and big logos
• The mindset shift founders in their 40s and 50s need if they’re afraid to start over

If you’re an agency owner, studio founder, or creative leader trying to scale without losing your health or your voice, this conversation will hit home.

🔗 Work with Albert / Get the Playbook

Want to be on the show or explore working with Albert Ramos?

→ Book a CFO Strategy Call

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

→ Apply to be a guest on The Owner Seat

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

📘 Get the Stratego CFO Playbook

→ Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook for Fitness & Wellness Brands and see how Albert builds 13-week cash flow, unit economics, and AI-powered finance systems:

https://forms.gle/eJEEtCPdQ3tkWqb96

🌐 Connect with Albert

→ Connect on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

→ Learn more about Fractional CFO services for fitness, wellness, HALO, and multi-location brands:

https://www.strategointel.com/

If you’re a $1M–$30M fitness, wellness, HALO, or multi-location operator and you’re serious about fixing cash flow, cleaning up QuickBooks, and getting real finance strategy (not just bookkeeping), this is where you plug in.

👤 About the Host – Albert Ramos

Albert Ramos is the Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting, a Fractional CFO firm built for fitness, wellness, HALO, and multi-location brands. He helps owners and finance leaders:

• Fix cash flow leaks with 13-week cash forecasts
• Clean up and rebuild their QuickBooks + finance stack
• Use AI to automate reporting and forecasting
• Build investor-ready financials for growth, M&A, and roll-ups

Albert has led $200M+ P&Ls, overseen 200+ locations, and managed 3,000+ employees across the fitness and wellness ecosystem — blending financial precision with AI so owners can scale without losing control of their numbers.

In this episode of Season 2 of The Owner Seat – formerly The Valisights Podcast – Fractional CFO Albert Ramos sits down with Alan “The Train” Thompson, Founder & CEO of Groe Solutions, to unpack what happens when you combine Marine Corps discipline, data science, and human performance.

Groe Solutions is a fast-rising B2B SaaS company working at the intersection of gyms, the military, and health systems – using AI, behavioral science, and community design to drive real-world performance outcomes, not just more dashboards.

Alan is a Marine Corps veteran turned data scientist who went from preparing to open his own gym to building infrastructure for the next decade of human performance – across defense, VA, and commercial fitness.

In this episode, we cover:

How the Marine Corps shaped Alan’s approach to leadership, pressure, and execution

What it’s really like to raise capital as a veteran founder in the early stages

How Groe Solutions is building the data + AI backbone for the “new war on fat”

The reality of pitching investors when you’re the underdog – and what actually gets their attention

How Groe connects DoD, VA, and commercial wellness into one performance ecosystem

Why Alan believes wearables are overhyped – and how Groe focuses on behavior change and community instead

The leadership lessons from leading Marines and leading engineers, and how trust gets built in both worlds

If you care about the future of performance – from soldiers to athletes to everyday members – and how AI can enable it without losing the human element, this episode is for you.

🔗 Work with Albert / Get the Playbook

Want to be on the show or explore working with Albert Ramos?

→ Book a CFO Strategy Call

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

→ Apply to be a guest on The Owner Seat

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast

📘 Get the Stratego CFO Playbook

→ Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook for Fitness & Wellness Brands and see how Albert builds 13-week cash flow, unit economics, and AI-powered finance systems: https://forms.gle/EEhiyiw1K4EkvDQc9

🌐 Connect with Albert

→ Connect on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/

→ Learn more about Fractional CFO services for fitness, wellness, HALO, and multi-location brands:

https://www.strategointel.com/

If you’re a $1M–$30M fitness, wellness, HALO, or multi-location operator and you’re serious about fixing cash flow, cleaning up QuickBooks, and getting real finance strategy (not just bookkeeping), this is where you plug in.

👤 About the Host – Albert Ramos

Albert Ramos is the Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting, a Fractional CFO firm built for fitness, wellness, HALO, and multi-location brands. He helps owners and finance leaders:

Fix cash flow leaks with 13-week cash forecasts

Clean up and rebuild their QuickBooks + finance stack

Use AI to automate reporting and forecasting

Build investor-ready financials for growth, M&A, and roll-ups

Albert has led $200M+ P&Ls, overseen 200+ locations, and managed 3,000+ employees across the fitness and wellness ecosystem — blending financial precision with AI so owners can scale without losing control of their numbers.