Second in Command with Cameron Herold

Episode 551 — FAN FAVORITE | Orangetheory Fitness Former COO Griff Long | The Truth About Building Outstanding Leadership Teams
Date: February 5, 2026

Episode Overview

This highly popular "fan favorite" rebroadcast features a deep dive into leadership, operational excellence, and organizational growth with former Orangetheory Fitness COO, Griff Long. Host Cameron Herold explores Griff’s approach to building high-performing leadership teams, scaling operations in fast-growth environments, and fostering a culture where data, innovation, and people-development fuel business results. With anecdotes from Griff’s extensive career—including leadership roles at Purbar, Equinox, SoulCycle, and Hertz—the conversation is packed with actionable insights, candid stories, and practical frameworks for every COO and aspiring leader.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Griff Long’s Career Journey and Approach

• People, then Process, then Performance
  Griff emphasizes the importance of first understanding and supporting the people in an organization before layering in process improvements or expecting performance gains.
  • "Focus on the people, then the process and then the performance, but really understanding the people, where were their opportunities..." (00:17)
• Griff’s passion for fitness and his Six Sigma background drove him to join Orangetheory, admiring the brand’s science-backed workouts and long-term vision.

2. What Makes Orangetheory Fitness Unique

• Science-backed, technology-enabled, and coach-inspired group fitness.
• Focus on heart rate-based interval training and data-driven results to enhance member engagement and retention.
  • "We are science backed, technology, track coaching inspired group fitness workout..." (03:09)
• Use of proprietary metrics (e.g., 'splat points', EPOC effect) and continuous innovation (e.g., in-body composition scales, app tracking) to differentiate from competitors.

3. Leadership Team Dynamics & Breaking Down Silos

• Orangetheory’s leadership is a tight-knit group, with Griff brought in for his dual strengths in process improvement (Six Sigma) and leadership development.
• Breaking silos:
  • Prioritize real conversations over email.
  • Introduce a "golden thread" for all projects, clarifying objectives and connecting initiatives to the broader mission (10:41).
• Borrowing from Tony Robbins: “State, Story, Strategy” ensures the why behind each project is clear and gets buy-in from franchisees and stakeholders.

4. Onboarding & Early Days as COO

• Griff advocates “shut up and listen” for the first weeks to understand culture, history, and the landscape before making changes.
  • "The first two weeks, I just shut up and listened and really asked two questions: What advice do you have for me and how can I make your job even more effective?" (08:39)

5. Operational Excellence and Center of Expertise (COE) Model

• Shift from generalists to specialists—e.g., single marketing/sales/facility experts supporting regional operations—to foster efficiency and tailored support (16:02).
• Use of customized approaches recognizing the unique challenges of each studio, especially internationally.

6. Disciplined Execution and Project Prioritization

• Leadership alignment comes from a strict meeting cadence (weekly roundtable, annual strategic summit), and discipline in roadmap execution.
  • "Every year we go away into what we call a strategic summit and we map out our priorities for that entire next year." (21:11)
• Introduction of formal project vetting: golden thread, business case, defined KPIs, and opportunity cost evaluation.
  • "It's not just going great idea, let's launch it. Let's prove it, let's put some numbers behind it." (23:55)

7. Franchising Best Practices and Listening to Operators

• Running corporate-owned studios provides a proving ground for initiatives before rolling them system-wide, giving the leadership team empathy for franchisee challenges (13:25).
• “You can never listen to your franchisees enough... Sometimes we forget that our customer is the franchisee.” (40:54)

8. Lessons from Career Milestones

• At Hertz: Importance of trust, humility, and empowerment.
  • "Build relationships rooted in trust... People aren't going to remember what you said, but they're going to remember the way you made them feel." (26:01)
• With Steve Case at FlexCar: Value of humility, cross-functional teams, and letting others lead where you lack expertise. (38:17)
• At Equinox: Persistence and passion can open unexpected doors. (39:53)
• Griff’s “Top 10” career lessons revolve around trust, humility, vulnerability, empowerment, and personal growth.

9. Candid Reflections: Weaknesses, Growth, and Leadership Humility

• Griff admits low patience; needs to support, not micromanage, and let others operate at their own speeds.
• He avoids deep detail work in spreadsheets, instead relying on capable team members for translation and focusing on high-level insights.
• “I am the least important person in every room I am in. I'm the one who will facilitate the conversation and make sure the different departments are saying, what do you see? Help me see around corners. What are we missing?” (15:09)
• Personal development is ongoing—working on communication, listening deeply, and flexing style for different personality types (36:06).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On onboarding and culture:
  "First 30 days, just focus on getting to know the people and making sure I understood that culture because I… stepped on some landmines by going in there like a bull in a china shop."
  — Griff Long (00:17; 08:39)

• On project discipline:
  "Every project now has a golden thread, so it clearly understands the why behind it."
  — Griff Long (10:41)

• On stakeholder buy-in:
  "If we go and pitch a new idea to the franchise and it's not vetted out properly, they're going to go right into judgment mode..."
  — Griff Long (12:19)

• Leadership humility:
  "People aren't going to remember what you said, but they're going to remember the way you made them feel."
  — Griff Long (26:01)

• Personal development:
  "I am the least important person in every room I am in. I'm the one who will facilitate the conversation..."
  — Griff Long (15:09)

• On listening to the field:
  "You can never listen to your franchisees enough...our customer is the franchisee. We've got to listen to what their challenges are."
  — Griff Long (40:54)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:17 — Griff's people-first leadership philosophy
• 03:09 — What makes Orangetheory Fitness different
• 06:54 — Six Sigma: Adapting process expertise for service industries
• 08:39 — Approach to joining a new company; listening first
• 10:41 — Breaking silos: Golden thread and project communication
• 12:19 — Testing initiatives in corporate studios before launching to franchisees
• 16:02 — Establishing Centers of Expertise (COE)
• 21:11 — Maintaining leadership alignment; annual strategy summits
• 23:55 — Project vetting and decision-making process
• 26:01 — Top lessons from years at Hertz: trust, humility, empowerment
• 30:42 — Weakness in detail work/numbers; focus on team strengths
• 36:06 — Ongoing personal development focus: communication
• 38:17 — Working with Steve Case: humility and cross-functional leadership
• 40:54 — Best practices in franchising: always listen to franchisees
• 42:57 — Advice to Griff’s younger self: "Don't be a jackass and leave your ego at the door" and never play the victim

Conclusion

Griff Long’s interview is a masterclass in practical, people-oriented leadership. He offers candid advice, real-world frameworks, and memorable stories for COOs navigating fast growth, complex organizations, and the realities of scaling through others. The focus on humility, trust, testing before rollout, and structured (but human) processes are repeated themes—making this episode a standout for anyone aspiring to lead from the second seat.