Podcast
The Owner Seat
Hosted by Albert Ramos · EN
The Owner Seat (formerly The Valisights Podcast) is where fitness & wellness owners step out of the whirlwind and into the numbers. Host Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO for fitness & wellness brands, sits down with studio owners, franchisors, and finance leaders to break down cash flow, unit economics, and the messy middle of growth.
Book a call with Albert Ramos: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/30min
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Episodes
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How InLife Wellness Makes Sure Your Margin Doesn't Disappear | Scott Caplelin | The Owner Seat
Jul 300:35:06Tap to summarizeMost people who buy a business end up buying themselves a job. The studio works when they are in the room and stalls the minute they step out. Scott Capelin spent 20 years learning why that happens and how to build the opposite. This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners who want a studio that holds its margin and keeps running without them standing in the doorway.Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Scott Capelin, Founder and CEO of inLIFE Wellness and a former multi-unit operator who sold all 5 of his Vision Personal Training locations in 2011, and goes behind the inLIFE Wellness model:Why two owners run the exact same systems and the exact same pricing and land in completely different placesWhat it actually takes for a studio to keep its revenue when a key instructor walks out the doorThe few numbers Scott tells every owner to read on Monday morningScott Capelin is the Founder and CEO of inLIFE Wellness, where he helps everyday people open and operate Pilates-inspired studios with full support from day one. Before inLIFE, Scott spent over a decade as a multi-unit franchise owner running 5 Vision Personal Training locations across Australia and New Zealand, then sold every one of them in 2011. He has logged more than 30,000 hours training clients face to face, built Tribe Social Fitness after studying the top fitness models in the world, and learned brand-building from Anne McKevitt. He is an international Number 1 best-selling author of Fit to Flourish and inShape, inLove, inSPIRED!, runs the inLIFE Wellness School of Pilates and Group Exercise Certification, and was recently named one of Entrepreneur Mirror's Top 10 Visionary Leaders Driving Global Change.This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of:Owning a studio that only works when they are physically in itWatching margin disappear into line items they never priced forRevenue that depends on a constant churn of new members instead of retentionBuilding something for years that they could never actually sellTop topics we coverThe multi-unit P&L lesson: what running 5 locations at once teaches you about unit economics that you only see when the whole P&L is on your deskWhere the margin actually lives in a low-impact studio model, and the one line item new owners underestimate every single timeInstructor quality versus the system: which one really drives retention and contribution marginThe four questions Scott uses to separate a real business from a job that just looks like oneThe Monday-morning numbers every owner should read every weekBuilding for the exit: what most owners fail to put in place that quietly caps their valuationHow this episode helps you win If you're a single-studio owner: you'll know which numbers to read every Monday and where to find the margin you're leaving on the table. If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll get a clear test for whether your locations run on systems or on your adrenaline, and how to take yourself out of the room. If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear how Scott thinks about the capital you put in and the realistic return and timeline before you sign. If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll learn what has to be true in your financials and systems before you sell a single license, so you're scaling a proven model and not hope.Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and Wellness I'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible. Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcast Free STRATEGO CFO Playbook: https://bit.ly/owner-seat-cfo-playbook Subscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328 Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.com Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/More from The Owner Seat New episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST. Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast STRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com
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From One Studio to an Eight-Figure Exit: What I Learned Building, Scaling, & Selling a Business
Jun 2900:58:42Tap to summarizeMost operators think they're building a business. The best ones are building an asset. This episode is the difference between the two, told by someone who scaled to 40 locations and sold to private equity twice before she had fully separated which one she'd built. If you run a fitness, wellness, or longevity brand and you've never stopped to ask whether your company could survive without you, this is the conversation that forces the question.Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Kristie Shifflette, the founder who built the Orangetheory Fitness Area Developer platform OT Growth Partners from a single studio into a 40-location enterprise, and goes behind the climb:How she funded location one with a $700K SBA loan and a personal guarantee, then funded the rest from cash flow instead of outside capitalWhy she turned down the highest offer on the table in 2018, and what a retrade setup actually looks like from the insideThe Founder Absorption Effect she lived through, where the business you build to create freedom quietly becomes the thing that owns youKristie Shifflette is the Founder and CEO of OT Growth Partners, the Orangetheory Fitness Area Developer platform she launched from a single studio in North Carolina in 2013. She grew it to 40 locations across North Carolina, Indiana, and Iowa with more than 500 employees. By the time she was running ten studios, her locations averaged $1.5M in annual revenue at a 40 percent net margin. In 2018 she went to market with 13 owned locations, sold 70 percent to Kian Capital, rolled 30 percent into the new entity, and went straight back to work running acquisitions toward a full exit. Today she's a Restore Hyper Wellness franchise owner in the Raleigh-Durham market and Founding CEO of PrismLife, a health innovation company built around Food as Medicine and functional nutrition for kids, young athletes, and families.This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of:Running hard with no idea whether they're building equity or just buying themselves a jobHearing the highlight reel from people who sold, and never the real cost of the climbGuessing at what a PE process looks like until they're already across the table mid-dealAdding location count while unit economics quietly erode underneath themTop topics we coverThe single-studio start: a $700K SBA loan, a personal guarantee, and profitability inside 90 days using the Orangetheory 12-week presaleThe path from location three to location ten that produced $1.5M average revenue and 40 percent net marginsThe 2018 Kian Capital recapitalization: 15 to 20 buyer meetings, the offer she walked away from, and the $1M she negotiated back into the dealLife inside a PE-backed company: reporting cadence, financial discipline, and the autonomy you trade away when you stay on as operatorThe Founder Absorption Effect, and the moment that snapped her out of itBuilding again with PrismLife, this time with the operator awareness she didn't have the first timeHow this episode helps you winIf you're a single-studio owner: you'll hear how the terms of your first deal are set years early, inside the unit economics you build or ignore today.If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll see what breaks between 13 and 40 locations so you can build ahead of it instead of paying to fix it after the fact.If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll learn how to spot a retrade, hold your number, and separate the emotional weight of a sale from the financial logic.If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll get the franchisee's real view of the relationship from someone who built and exited a 40-unit platform before sitting on the other side of it.Work with Albert, Fractional CFO for Fitness and WellnessI'm Albert Ramos, Founder of STRATEGO Intel Consulting and host of The Owner Seat. 16+ years of P&L ownership at Life Time Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Gold's Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness. I help fitness, wellness, and longevity brands ($500K to $30M) build cash visibility, unit economics, pricing and utilization models, and capital planning so every decision is clean and defensible.Book a CFO Strategy Call: https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-strategointel/youtube-podcastSubscribe to The Owner Seat newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7288029005239267328Website: https://www.StrategoIntel.comConnect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/More from The Owner SeatNew episodes every Monday and Friday at 8:00am CST.Full library: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcastSTRATEGO Intel: https://www.StrategoIntel.com
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