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 —...

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.

Today on The Owner Seat, host Albert Ramos goes straight at the finance problem that’s about to wreck margins for a lot of operators in 2026:

Usage-based pricing + AI spend + “I’ll check it at month-end” finance.

Our guest is Catherine Neuman, Co-Founder of SpendPilot — the ambient finance layer built to stop reactive chaos and give owners real-time visibility into spend, risk, and performance before it hits the P&L.

Catherine has held strategic finance + operations roles at Apple, Novo, and Butter Payments — and now she’s building one of the most important finance products of the AI era.

She’s also not afraid to say the quiet part out loud:If you’re deploying AI tools without real-time spend controls, you’re not scaling… you’re leaking.

In this episode, we unpack:

1. Why founders & franchise owners are getting crushed by usage-based pricing leaks
2. What LLM operations actually cost — and why Finance (not just Engineering) needs to own it
3. Tokenization, model selection, and the hidden costs nobody budgets for
4. Why real-time spend visibility is now mandatory, not optional
5. The early warning signs of margin erosion — and how to protect unit economics before it’s too late

If you’re an operator using AI tools, paying for software, or trying to scale without getting surprised by your bank balance…This is required listening.

📊 Work with Albert — Fractional CFO for Fitness & Wellness

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($500K–$30M) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics across every location.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

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

📘 Free Resource — Stratego CFO Playbook (Fitness & Wellness)

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

1. 13-week cash flow structure
2. Location-level unit economics
3. Core KPI dashboard for studios
4. Owner Seat finance rhythm you can actually run

🔗 Download: https://forms.gle/DppjbHQvkF2yV3Vd9🎙

More from The Owner Seat

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash flow, growth, and the messy middle.

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

Subscribe: / @theownerseatpodcast

📧 Stay in the Owner Seat (Newsletter)

Weekly breakdowns on:

1. Fitness & wellness unit economics
2. Cash flow and multi-location scaling
3. AI-powered finance workflows for operators

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

🌐 Learn More

Stratego (Fractional CFO): https://www.StrategoIntel.com

Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: / albertramosjr

Today on The Owner Seat, host Albert Ramos goes inside the real transformation story most founders never talk about: the moment your health, your family, and your identity collide — and you either change… or you drift.

Don LaTorre is the Founder of Layman’s Fitness — an online coaching business helping busy parents lose weight with simple, sustainable, kettlebell-based training.

But Don didn’t start as a “fitness guy.”

He started in corporate HR… until stress, weight gain, and a panic attack forced a hard reset.

And then he did the thing most people talk about but never do:

He rebuilt his health, rebuilt his habits, and walked away from the safety of corporate life — with a wife, three kids, a mortgage, and a mission.

This episode is for:

1. parent-entrepreneurs
2. founders building from the kitchen table
3. operators who want to win in business without losing at home

In this episode, we unpack:

1. The turning point that forced Don to change (and what actually worked)
2. Why kettlebells made fitness fun again — and why simplicity beats intensity
3. How Don built Layman’s Fitness from $696/month into a full-time business
4. The transformation patterns Don sees in parents who succeed vs. quit
5. Food flexibility + “budgeting calories like money” (and why it sticks)
6. The business realities: sales, pricing, systems, consistency, confidence
7. Stability vs growth when your family depends on you
8. What “earned, never given” really means in faith, family, and business

If you’re trying to build something real — and you refuse to sacrifice your family to do it — this one will hit.

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

If you want CFO-level clarity on your numbers:

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

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

1. 13-week cash flow structure
2. Location-level unit economics
3. Core KPI dashboard for studios
4. Owner Seat finance rhythm you can actually run

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/BcEi2VhHZv9wtCrx8

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash...

Today on The Owner Seat, Albert Ramos sits down with Pete Moore, and they go inside the deal discipline that separates real fitness and wellness brands from the ones quietly headed for a valuation haircut.

Pete Moore is the Founder & Managing Partner of Integrity Square — the advisory and investment platform that’s helped shape the modern HALO economy. He’s advised on $1.5B+ in transactions, built the industry’s go-to media engine HALO Talks, and trains operators through HALO Academy to think like investors, run cleaner processes, and scale with actual rigor.

Pete has seen every version of the movie:

➡ deals that win

➡ deals that die in diligence

➡ and brands that never should’ve franchised in the first place

In this episode, we unpack:

1. What buyers actually pay for in fitness & wellness
2. Why weak Item 19 economics are a flashing red light — not a marketing problem
3. How to run a sell-side process that doesn’t bleed leverage (NDA → IOI → LOI → QoE → close)
4. The unit economics signals that reveal a brand is a dynasty… or a time bomb
5. The sports mindset operators need to survive the next 3–5 years and keep winning

If you’re a founder, franchisor, or multi-unit operator thinking about raising capital, selling, or franchising “because everyone else is” — this is required viewing.

📊 Work with Albert – Fractional CFO for Fitness & Wellness

I’m Albert Ramos, Fractional CFO and Founder of Stratego Intel Consulting.

I help fitness, wellness, and franchise brands ($1M–$30M) fix messy multi-location books, build 13-week cash visibility, and prove unit economics for every studio.

👉 Book a CFO Strategy Call

If you want CFO-level clarity on your numbers:

https://calendly.com/albertramosjr-st...

📘 Free Resource – Stratego CFO Playbook (Fitness & Wellness)

Get the exact framework I use with owners and franchisors:

13-week cash flow structure

Location-level unit economics

Core KPI dashboard for studios

Owner Seat finance rhythm you can actually run

🔗 Download the free Stratego CFO Playbook:

https://forms.gle/nY1QDj8p2wQ2XT6cA

🎙 More from The Owner Seat

The Owner Seat is where fitness, wellness & HALO owners talk cash flow, growth, and the messy middle.

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

Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOwnerSeatPodcast

Binge past episodes: operator deep dives, franchise stories, and real P&L conversations

📧 Stay in the Owner Seat (Newsletter)

Get weekly breakdowns on:

Fitness & wellness unit economics

Cash flow and multi-location scaling

AI-powered finance workflows for operators

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

🌐 Learn More

Fractional CFO services (Stratego): https://www.StrategoIntel.com

Connect with Albert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/