From One Studio to an Eight-Figure Exit: What I Learned Building, Scaling, & Selling a Business

From One Studio to an Eight-Figure Exit: What I Learned Building, Scaling, & Selling a Business

Most 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

Is Your Business Ready for NEOPlex? | Felipe Apablaza | The Owner Seat

This is a sneak peek into NEOPlex, what I believe is going to change the entire fitness, wellness and boutique studio business model. They are coming to the U.S., and I'll be helping them raise the capital. More to come 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 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

The Truth About Scaling Fitness & Beauty Chains with Julian Barnes | The Owner Seat

The same habits that build a fitness or wellness brand are usually the ones that cap it. The founder becomes the system, every decision routes through one person, and growth stalls right when it should compound. This episode is about how to scale a multi-location brand without becoming the bottleneck, with an advisor who has spent eight-plus years in closed-door rooms watching exactly where it breaks and what buyers do once a brand goes to market.Today on The Owner Seat Podcast, host Albert Ramos sits down with Julian Barnes, Co-Founder and CEO of The BFS Network and one of the most connected advisors to founder-led fitness, wellness, and beauty brands, and goes behind the operator seat:Why founders almost always become the bottleneck at multi-location scale, and where it hits hardest between three, ten, and twenty locationsThe leadership transition from operator to enterprise CEO that almost nobody prepares forWhat private equity and strategic buyers actually pressure-test first when a brand goes to marketJulian Barnes is the Co-Founder and CEO of The BFS Network, a peer intelligence network with proprietary benchmarking data and member-only forums for growth-stage fitness, wellness, and beauty operators. His path is not the usual one. He holds a JD from UNC School of Law, served as COO of MELT Method, founded and ran the NYU Institute in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, taught fitness marketing and management at the Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences, and sat on the USTA Investment Committee managing a $200 million portfolio. He now serves as Managing Director of the Global Leadership Council for Salons, Spas & MedSpas and sits on the board of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. For more than eight years he has sat in closed-door rooms with founder-CEOs of $2M to $50M-plus multi-location brands working to scale without breaking what made them valuable.This episode is for fitness, wellness, and longevity owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators who are tired of:Being the system every decision has to pass throughHearing the right diagnosis in a ballroom with 500 people, then flying home to solve it aloneWatching margin bleed somewhere in the business without knowing exactly whereGuessing at what a buyer will value until they're already in diligenceTop topics we coverThe founder as bottleneck: why the habits that build the business become the ceiling, and where it shows up firstOperator seat versus enterprise seat: the most expensive decision a founder makes before they make the switchPeer rooms that create value versus ones that turn into group therapy, and what to bring to make them workOutside advisors, peer networks, fractional CFOs, and executive coaches: when each is the right tool and when operators reach for the wrong oneExit readiness: what acquirers pressure-test first, what kills deals in diligence, and what premium-multiple brands have in common 12 to 24 months outWhere fitness, wellness, beauty, and healthcare are converging, and who gets squeezed when the underlying systems can't talk to each otherHow this episode helps you winIf you're a single-studio owner: you'll spot the founder-as-bottleneck trap early enough to build around it before it caps your growth.If you're a multi-unit operator: you'll learn what breaks between three, ten, and twenty locations and how to make the operator-to-enterprise shift before it costs you.If you're weighing acquisitions or outside capital: you'll hear what buyers pressure-test first, what kills deals in diligence, and the moves that make a brand sellable on command.If you're a franchisor or emerging brand: you'll get a read on where the fitness, wellness, and beauty category is heading and which model is positioned to win the next decade.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

[solidcore] and Boutique Fitness Survival | Nate Scott | The Owner Seat

Welcome back to The Owner Seat Podcast, where we explore what's coming next in the fitness and wellness industry. Today, we're joined by Nate Scott, CFO of Solidcore, to discuss growth, margins, and survival. He shares his insights from a robust career in corporate finance and cfo career development, offering valuable perspectives for any business.

From Car Crash To iCryo Franchisee | Matt Magnuson | The Owner Seat

Welcome back to The Owner Seat Podcast! This episode offers essential business tips for fitness and wellness operators. We discuss how to scale business effectively, emphasizing that true business growth and longevity come from smart recovery, not just constant pushing. Learn to grow your business with clarity, not chaos.