In this episode of The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Chris Reilly — private equity and FP&A veteran, founder of Financial Modeling Education, and founder of Mission Capital Consulting.

Chris has trained over 91,000 operators, analysts, and executives to build financial models that actually work in the real world — where the data is messy, reports don’t tie, and decisions still have to be made.

This conversation is built specifically for fitness and wellness business owners, franchisors, franchisees, and multi-location operators who want clarity on their numbers — not spreadsheets that look impressive but fail under pressure.

If you run a gym, studio, franchise, or wellness brand and feel like:

1. cash flow surprises keep showing up
2. reports don’t match what your bank account is doing
3. forecasts feel academic instead of usable

this episode is essential listening.

Because strong businesses don’t run on vibes.

They run on defensible financial models and real cash visibility.

This episode breaks down how operators can turn messy studio data into models they can actually trust — including how to think about 13-week cash forecasting, error checking, and unit-level economics in a way owners can run every week.

This is not theory.

This is operator-grade finance.

1. Why profitable fitness and wellness businesses still run out of cash
2. How to turn messy studio data into a clean three-statement financial model
3. The 5-layer model structure Chris uses to make numbers usable
4. Why support schedules are where most models live or die
5. The most common financial “lies” fitness owners believe about their numbers
6. How to separate real operating problems from reporting problems
7. The silent errors that destroy decision-making without anyone noticing
8. What real error-checking looks like (not just tapping F2)
9. How to build a 13-week cash flow forecast owners can actually understand
10. The biggest cash timing traps for gyms, studios, and franchises
11. Why AI doesn’t replace financial fundamentals — it amplifies them
12. Where AI helps modeling today and where it can still mislead owners
13. What fitness operators should fix this month to stop guessing

This episode is for owners who want control, clarity, and confidence — before growth, expansion, or capital conversations force the issue.

I’m Albert Ramos,...