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):

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, and a multi-modality spa owner.

She’s also not coming from “wellness vibes” — she spent

15 years in pharma (respiratory + dermatology), including

over a decade at Merck, before jumping into ownership and

scaling this category the right way.

This episode is for fitness + wellness business owners,

franchisees, and franchisors who are tired of:

1. adding “recovery” modalities that don’t get used
2. buying equipment that becomes an expensive coat rack
3. seeing wild claims that create distrust (and legal risk)
4. guessing on pricing, packaging, and utilization
5. missing the margin upside of low-labor modalities

What dry salt therapy is, what clients report, and how to

market responsibly without crossing into medical claims.

Why adoption spiked, what’s real, and what operators should

expect from consumer behavior going forward.

How to think about ROI inside compact space (even a 4’×4’)

and which modality mixes actually convert to repeat usage.

Why low labor + high throughput can print margin — but only

if you operationalize onboarding, education, and usage habits.

What’s getting exposed in wellness marketing, why standards

matter, and how serious operators protect trust while scaling.

If you’re a boutique operator:

You’ll learn how to add recovery profitably, drive repeat

sessions, and avoid the “novelty trap.”

If you’re a franchisee:

You’ll leave with a clearer model for pricing, packaging,

and utilization targets — so the investment earns back fast.

If you’re a franchisor:

You’ll understand how to evaluate modalities like a serious

platform: standards, claims language, unit economics, and

scalability across locations.

📊 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-strategointel/youtube-podcast

Free Stratego CFO Playbook:

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 (including two IPOs).

This episode is for boutique studio owners, franchisees,

and franchisors who want to win in 2026 without drowning

in tools, hype, or “AI theater.”

1. buying tech that doesn’t improve retention or margin
2. running 20–30 disconnected tools with no real ROI
3. hearing “personalization” but seeing zero behavior change
4. feeling behind without knowing what actually matters
5. security fear narratives with no actionable plan

1. AI as a margin event
2. How intelligence changes cost structure, speed, and profit.
3. Personalization at scale (what actually breaks)
4. Why most AI “personalization” fails in real operations —
5. and what use cases actually move retention.
6. The “one app for everything” trap
7. What to build instead: connected ecosystems that don’t
8. break your workflows.
9. The 2026 stack: systems of record + integrations
10. Where most operators fail (and how to rationalize tool
11. sprawl without disrupting the business).
12. Agents + security: what’s real
13. What browser-native agents make possible, and what
14. leaders should do now to reduce risk without paranoia.

Franchisors:

Build a defensible tech + data standard across the network,

reduce variability, and protect the brand experience.

Franchisees / Multi-site operators:

Stop bleeding margin through tool bloat, identify the first

workflows to AI-assist, and drive measurable ROI.

Boutique owners:

Get a clear filter for what matters, what’s noise, and how to

build a simpler operating system that improves retention.

📊 Work with Albert — Fractional CFO...

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 processes, and build cash flow clarity that lets you pay yourself without crossing your fingers. He’s also a real operator inside complex systems — currently serving as Executive Director of Academic Affairs and Business Operations at the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership, with years overseeing budgets, HR, and large-scale reporting.

This episode is for operators who are tired of:

1. making decisions off the bank balance
2. thinking “revenue is up” while profit is missing
3. watching payroll creep month after month
4. getting surprised by “small” expenses that compound into chaos
5. not knowing if they can pay themselves consistently

In this episode, we unpack:

1. What a “profit leak” actually is in simple operator terms
2. The most common leaks in boutique fitness (software stack sprawl, contractors, marketing creep, processing fees, payroll waste, etc.)
3. A fast, non-overwhelming way to audit the last 60–90 days of expenses
4. How to cut costs without nuking operations or culture
5. The “small” leak that’s the most dangerous because it compounds

1. How payroll drifts to insane levels without anyone noticing
2. What “healthy” payroll ranges look like (and what changes the range)
3. The levers that reduce payroll % without destroying morale (schedule design, class utilization, comp models)
4. How to handle comp conversations when you know you’ve waited too long
5. The minimum KPI dashboard to catch drift early

1. The operator-grade metrics that expose reality (not vanity):
2. revenue, profit margin, retention, average revenue per client, owner pay consistency
3. The ONE metric that creates the biggest “truth moment” in the next 30 days
4. What to do operationally when

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 leadership scaling an F45 franchise group from 4 to 12 locations with 200+ staff and real operational infrastructure. He’s now the President of Colossians 3:23-24 Fitness Holdings and the host of Revenue Machines Podcast (DXFactor) — focused on the systems, onboarding, and accountability that actually move retention and revenue. pasted

This episode is for operators who are tired of:

1. “busy” teams that still miss goals
2. onboarding that feels like “handbook + hope”
3. dashboards nobody uses
4. seasonality whiplash (Black Friday → holidays → January)
5. and owners who can’t explain their true unit economics

Execution & operator-grade systems

1. What “efficiency” and “simplicity” really mean on the floor (not in a slide deck)
2. Where operators confuse activity with productivity
3. The biggest lie the industry tells itself about growth

Data in the hands of the front line

1. Why dashboards fail (even when the data is “right”)
2. What data matters daily for GMs and department heads
3. How real-time visibility changes retention behavior immediately

Onboarding as apprenticeship (or culture leak)

1. “Unmet expectations should never be a surprise” — what great onboarding looks like
2. The 3 things every new hire must SEE and FEEL in week one
3. How to scale onboarding across locations without losing culture

Member onboarding & seasonality

1. Why Black Friday onboarding determines end-of-year success (or stress)
2. How to prevent holiday freezes/cancels from becoming churn
3. The minimum accountability stack members can actually follow

Pricing, margins, retention

1. Why copying competitor pricing quietly kills profitability
2. The weekly KPI Ben would force every operator to review

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 ignored, and what operators are getting dead wrong about staffing, retention, and career development.

This episode is for founders and operators who are tired of:

1. the highlight reels
2. the “pay to play” narratives
3. and the pretending that coaching burnout, misinformation, and retention issues are “normal.”

Fitness + wellness media (the real incentives):

1. How media actually makes money — and what that rewards (and distorts)
2. Editorial integrity vs. sponsorships: where Elisa draws the line
3. Coach360 vs. Athletech vs. FittInsider vs. Club Solutions — who’s hitting, who’s missing

The coaching economy (staffing, pay, burnout):

1. The biggest structural problem in the coaching career path
2. “No one wants to work” vs. “no one pays well” — who’s right and why
3. The real reasons great coaches leave good gyms
4. Career Lab by Coach360 (Jan 17, LA): what it solves that most conferences completely ignore

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 a finance engine that doesn’t collapse under growth.

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

Book a CFO Strategy Call (Albert):

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

Free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/eoGKSCsKMLSPtr1e6

Subscribe to The Owner Seat (YouTube):

/ @theownerseatpodcast

Stratego Intel (Fractional CFO):

https://www.StrategoIntel.com

LinkedIn Newsletter:

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

Connect with Albert on LinkedIn:

/ albertramosjr

Hit play — and take your seat back.