Adam Sedlack - How UFC GYM Scaled to 46 Countries With One Pricing Fix

The first time I met Mark was in 95 when he walked into my gym when I was a GM. I was starstruck. I couldn't believe that Mark Mastrov was in my gym, and I'll never forget. He said, Man, the gym's amazing. Your results are amazing. But why are you allowing your janitor to use water to mop the rubber floors? And I'm like, I felt this position of like I let Mark down because my janitor's using water on the floors, but everything else was amazing. The ironic thing is he comes back two years later in my same gym and the janitor was using water on the floors. And he said, Do you remember when I told you, don't put water on the floors? So I'm thinking, okay, the guy's got 350 gyms, and somehow he remembers one circumstance with one GM, you know, two years prior. Without Mark, I'm not in my chair today. I don't have the success that I have. He's opened doors that I would never have opened myself.

All right, Adma Sedlik, here we go. Welcome back to the Future of Fitness, man. It's been a while.

It is good to be back. It's almost like coming back home. Good to be here.

Yeah. You know, you and I were just chatting. It was like, uh, it feels like a lifetime ago because we were squarely in the pandemic, right? We were like if we didn't know our heads from our asses at that point. And but it also seems like it was just yesterday. So it's just we are lapse in time, and maybe we were talking about our age, maybe it's just because uh we're at a certain age where everything goes slow and fast at the same time. But it's called the fifth decade. The fifth decade. I'm getting there. I'm I'm inches away. It's really good to see. And and to reference, I you know, it has been a while. So it was 2021 is when we we did our last interview and released it, and that was a very different time. The industry was very much in survival mode, everybody was on their heels. Um what stood out about that with my memory was that you had some capital and you had some money in your pocket and you were going out and actively expanding and uh acquiring and doing things. It must have been a very good time to have some cash. So maybe let's start there. And you know, to set the table now, you guys are absolutely crushing it, right? We were just talking about some rough numbers, 180 open, opening one per week, 46 countries, over 48 locations open in 2025. You debuted in Pakistan, Ecuador, France, Morocco. Like this is truly global, and uh you're doing really well. So I'll set that table. But walk us through the last five years, if you can, from pandemic to where you are now. You know, has it has it gone what you what you would have envisioned?

I think yes and no. That there's there's there's a story here, and it's it's a fun story. Um, you know, as the pandemic hit, all of us in the industry were on our heels, as you as you discussed, and we all reacted a little bit differently, right? And and one of the things that we really wanted to do is have great relationships with landlords, all of our vendors, and and figure out how to make sure we can get through a very difficult time together. Time, the opportunity because multiple companies filed bankruptcy, there was some empty real estate on the market. So the the opportunity was you could step in with some good deals on TI and really open a gym for the cost of equipment, maybe FF and E, and you're you're up and running. And at that point, at that period of time, again, you know, let's argue that we have a 30% fitness penetration in California. The fitness penetration at that time was more like 17, 18. So you were taking a little bit of a risk and a little bit of a gamble. We opened up quite a few sites in in that time frame. There was a bit of a flaw. So so if you if you circle back on the history of UFC Gym, right? We we started as a as a five club test that went amazing. We, you know, was with Lorenzo and Dana and Mark, and and it was a great joint venture, 50-50 with the UFC. We were only going to open up five gyms and call it a day and have some fun. And those five gyms did so well, they averaged about a million dollars of profit per location, and UFC was excited, and they said we have to grow. And so we went out and acquired a franchise company. And the company that we acquired, it was it was probably not the most prudent move. We got into franchising, which was great, but we ended up having an acquisition that had some challenges on the franchisee side, and it really fragmented our business because we had big gyms that were doing amazing, and then we had you know some undercapitalized franchisees and and a very inconsistent footprint on these smaller gym models that really had more complexity getting return on investment. And so it really took us six or seven years to identify the best return on investment for a franchise investor. We got that right. And then in a way, COVID was an organizational blessing for UFC Gym because it allowed us to work with franchisees that were maybe undercapitalized from a prior company that did not have the right footprint. And we were able to work with them and do mutual terminations where it didn't hurt them so much because with COVID, they could get out of leases, and it didn't hurt us because it was creating a more of a consistent footprint. And so we were able to really put ourselves in a great position of consistency as you started to hit 2022 and 2023 of what model provided the best return on investment, and more importantly, how do you price it with price elasticity and how you look at the competition and how you how you maximize fitness penetration? And so we know, uh, and you know, that 30% of the population in the US is going to join a gym, right? We know that. Hope so. And we know that what I call the Planet Fitness effect, right? Planet Fitness did an amazing job creating a new consumer, the entry-level consumer that really was intimidated by the gym experience. And it's been a blessing for all of us because I think that's taken the fitness industry from 17% penetration to 30%. I think it's created a whole new consumer that would not have joined gyms if it were not for that initial Planet Fitness effect. And of course, many companies followed that, right? You you you see many low-cost providers out there doing an amazing job. And it's and it's bringing in record-breaking amount of new members and new customers into fitness, which is great. The challenge that I had as I was getting through the 22 and 23 was our pricing model. Our our our lowest price point in that time was $60 a month, and our highest price point was $134 a month. And so, although we had clubs performing really well that had a great value proposition, when you do franchising, you have to set up an operating system where average operators can perform reasonably well. And if you put too much pressure on the skill set of the team member, it really can jeopardize profitability if you lose key team members. So you want to develop a process and a system, which by the way is why low cost is pretty successful, is because they're lower labor. They have great gyms, and it's more about the functionality of the gym itself than it is the interface of the people. Now, we still at UFC Gym believe in people. People are number one asset without great people. We can't push the boundaries of what fitness can how fitness can be accomplished and how we think fitness needs to be presented to the consumer. So we're all in on people, but we also paid attention to industry data. And industry data says people join clubs for two reasons, two reasons location and price, at least initially, right? I was overcomplicating it in my head that I'm gonna have the best value proposition and charge the most amount of money and it's gonna be great. And I was going against the grain that the average person just wants to join a club close and they want to have a good workout floor and they don't want to pay a lot of money and they want to see if it's gonna work. And so I completely modified our pricing model in 2023. And the results since have been unbelievable. We we took the entry-level consumer, we did a we do an analysis of a five-mile trade area, we take a look at the average price point. That is now our entry-level pricing for any UFC gym signature location. So if the average price is $18 a month, $20 a month, that's what they the consumer can get on an access only entry point. And then it's up to the consumer. If the consumer wants boxing, they want recovery cryotherapy, they want red light, they want jujitsu. We're putting meds med spas in the gyms now. If they want all these different value proposition points, they can add it to their core membership if they'd like. So what we've seen is literally a 25% member growth in existing stores. Margins have hit all-time highs on profit margin because the amount of revenue coming in in the dues bucket has increased significantly to allow for there to be more profit margin at the end of the day. So we're really excited about excited about where the pricing strategy has taken us. And it's put us in a position where we can now be more price competitive with the lower cost gyms, offer amazing 40,000, 50,000 square foot locations that have multiple value proposition points and still charge $135 a month to the premium consumer that wants the value proposition that's joining because of the brand, all by taking care of the initial fitness consumer.

That is problem solving at its best, right? Like I think when I, whenever I think about, you know, people in management positions or entrepreneurs, like it's you can't you have to look at everything. Our problem solving brains are so active all the time. I would imagine this is the type of stuff you'd be driving or in the shower and or running or you know, waking up at 3 a.m. and being like, I think I got I got it. Right. And you gotta write, you gotta talk to the team about it, you know, like really put it out there. Was a question for you was one of the first five, was it one in San Ramon or Pleasanton? Concord. Concord, yes. I I was still okay, that was back in the day. I was still living in Northern California. I remember driving by that and thinking like, huh, like a UFC gym. And UFC wasn't what it is now, obviously. That was, you know, and I was like, what is it like a combat sports? Like people in there just beat the shit out of each other. Like, what is it? And then I think I did walk in at one point, I'm like, oh, this is like it looks like a gym, but it's got some boxing bags and things like that. I'm like, well, we'll see. And then left Northern California, and that was that. But yeah, you know, a couple follow-up questions on that. So once you've figured out like what is the best ROI to scale, right? Which sounds like a lot of what you just described is that. Is that correct? Is there any additional components to that?

Yeah, I I mean, yeah, there are the additional value proposition points and technology, and there's other variables that have been put into play to complete the puzzle. But fundamentally, I guess the root story here is the consumer always has the answer if you just listen to them and you check the ego and the arrogance at the door, and you say, okay, what does the consumer want and what are they going to pay for it? And you address that need, you're in a pretty good position.

Smart, smart. So what with all these add-ons, so you have the base rate, you know, you said it's somewhere between what 20 and 30, depending on location, it varies across locations. So that gets them in the door. So on average now, like what is a consumer spending per month?

So the inter that's a great question. So the interesting thing is before I did this, you know, we had a about a 10 to 12% prepaid mix, and our average dues were $57, $58 a month. When you take into account subsidy programs, health insurance, prepaid, paying zero dues. Once we did the adjustment, the dues only went down an average of $4 a month per consumer. And so, but when you amplify that times the additional incremental volume, it's obviously a good story. And the retention ends up improving in a material way because the baseline consumers that didn't want to necessarily pay the higher-end membership for what they were being offered, they can now downgrade to a just a traditional access-only type of workout membership.

Yeah, super interesting. And the offerings are so unique. You know, having BJJ, any kind of MMA or combat sport, you know, under your roof and offered as, you know, I imagine that must be a tough thing to scale, right? Because to teach these things, these are highly skilled teachers that go into these environments. So yeah, let's talk about that. Like, how do you how do you keep a level of quality across 180 plus locations when you're teaching something that's so technical, right?

So you're you're you're never gonna be perfect. And for the people that come across and say we're gonna have perfection, it's not possible. Yeah, you're always gonna have a a position of opportunity. We've developed an online university, we have uh inner market certifications, we've created an UFC Gym cert that incorporates MMA with a little bit of traditional fitness. We also have silo specific head coaches. So when you look at jujitsu, when you look at boxing kit, boxing kind of movie tie, and even group fitness, you know, the traditional group fitness of Zumba and cycling, like all these modalities have to have specific leadership to make sure that we have A, compliant instructors, B coaches or instructors that are properly certified that we know the services to the consumer are being presented the right. And then you have to have accountability and compliance checks, right? You have to go out there and you have to actually visit the gym versus being in a corporate office, and you have to understand are are these the are are the is the application happening correctly? Is is what we're trying to push out to the consumer, to the franchisee, is it being spilled down uh at the club level? And so then we address it if it's not, we fix it through support and education. And then we also it can help with recruiting and and the j the jujitsu world, although it's large, it's also small, it's very interpersonal, where you know all black belts came from a couple sources, and so there's this tree of lineage that's really helpful. And and listen, I I respect that community in an insane way. And I'm just I'm just so excited that UFC Jim, I think, has been able to tap the entry-level jiu-jitsu consumer that really hasn't done it before. Kind of similar to Planet Fitness and and how they brought the initial fitness consumer in. We're doing that on the MMA side. We're able to introduce people in the MMA and then graduate them over time. The beautiful thing is now we're seeing black belts graduating every month because really, you know, we go back now 14, 15 years. It takes 10, 11 years to get a black belt if you do it the right way. So we're starting to see homegrown black belts at a U of C jump.

That's really cool, man. Yeah, you know, I wonder when you visit these locations, do you tell them you're coming?

So half the time I do, and half the time I don't. I I wanna I want to make sure that I can get the best use of time. So I sometimes I want to prepare and set it up to make sure I can do that because I want to talk to as many people as possible. And then sometimes when I feel like there's compliance issues or there's there's areas of concern, I'll just show up. You know, I I I own 10 clubs myself, 10 gyms myself, and and I can't get to all of them like I'd like to. I was in two clubs yesterday, and it it's it's by far the most enjoyable part of my job is when I can actually get next to the people, the leaders, the amazing leaders that UFC Gym has, and and really just talk shop with them and listen to them and hear about their challenges, hear about their successes too, because there's so many amazing stories out there. And and and I do I wish I had a couple of me that I could I could scale out to gyms around the globe, you know. And then when you travel and you go to UAE or you go to Saudi Arabia or you go to Egypt or Tajikistan or wherever we have these gyms, it's a different story in every gym. There's different legacies, there's people that all share this common goal of empowering the fighting spirit to make people better, and they do it through their culture, which is really fun and amazing to see.

Yeah, that's you know, it's Jim Rowley told me told me the same thing. You know, he's he obviously, I mean, you guys know each other, I'm sure. And uh we'll talk about the Mark Mastrov coaching tree here in a minute, too. But same thing. He's like, I I love it when I get to get out, visit the operators, see what's actually happening on the ground floor, right? Where where the rubber meets the row or that the member comes in and lives are being you know impacted and and great services are being produced and the brand is being expanded. Yeah, that must be really fun. Of course, you know, zoom meetings are always a good time too, but uh that's part of your job. So you you know, 17 years ago when you started this thing, Adam, UFC wasn't what it is now. Jiu Jitsu BJJ was not uh really a thing. I knew a couple people who were into it, and they're hard it was hardcore gyms, right? But now it's it's become you know so uh ubiquitous. And one thing I don't talk about on this podcast actually is like the expansion of BJJ. Like, you know, little like uh we have straight blast gym here in this area. I know that's kind of bigger in the mountain areas, and but that's been booming. Maybe it's to give us some insights, like UFC alone, probably the biggest global sports brand now, right? Dana White's probably one of the most powerful people in professional sports, full stop. So talk to me about that. Like, how have you seen this progression? How have you guys been able to ride the wave of those two things? UFC as a brand, and then BJJ and some like MMA as a as a spec as a you know normal consumer engagement.

Yeah, it's a great question. And let me talk about Dana White first and how amazing this guy is. You know, Dana, people know him through 15-second clips on TikTok or Instagram. But if you go under the covers and you really see this guy, what he does, he's able, I mean, he spends individual time with me. And he's got A-listers, he's got politicians, he's got the president of the United States, he's got president, yeah, you know, these global forces all just demanding his time. And he's leading a bill multi-billion dollar organization, and he's finding new concepts like slap and and and Zufa boxing. And I I mean, the guy is absolutely amazing. He's got insane energy and he's so authentic, you know. And part of it is he's got FU money, I'm sure, but part of it is the guy really has this amazing heart. What people don't see when I go to a UFC fight, I sit close to Dana and I see him bring people in that are where he's giving back to people, where he's helping people. The cameras don't pick that up. He does so much for law enforcement, for military, for the disadvantaged, for people that wind up in bad circumstances, even the way he dealt with COVID, where he was not going to let go of one staff member. He kept every single staff member and he said, We're going to be the sport that operates during COVID, which he did. He created Fight Island, right? So that resonated very strongly in that world. And he was able to drive the global distribution of the sport. And then as you start to mature that global distribution and it becomes more mainstream, and then you get these big TV packages, right? Whether it's ESPN or Fox, what have you. But then you have Paramount enter the picture, and then you have TKO do an acquisition, which is a public company with Ari Emanuel. All of a sudden, you got this huge win that you're back with Dana White, the best possible promoter on planet Earth, driving the sport. I'm so happy to be at the very tail of the UFC engine that we can connect to that great content distribution, that great media distribution. When there's events internationally, we're all connected to them, and we're developing this amazing community of MMA-like people. But my obligation to the UFC, you know what it is? Is I want to introduce people into this amazing sport. I want to take people that don't know what the UFC is today or that are just kind of beginning level understanding type of people that really don't understand how the sport works. And I want to introduce it to them because you know what I've learned? Remember, and I think I told you this on the last podcast, when we started UFC Gym, I was not an MMA guy. I knew nothing about the UFC. And I had to learn it firsthand through just education and awareness. But once I started training and doing boxing and kickboxing and did a little, I'm I'm now I'm the world's longest white belt. I mean, I'm I've I've got I've I've got that.

Congratulations. Yeah, congratulations.

I'm a 15-year white belt, but but I every time I'm able to roll when I can do it, it's so empowering. And I'm seeing average people, shape people, people that lacked confidence. I'm seeing them start to adopt MMA or jujitsu type of modalities into their training. And it's not just a physical transformation and change, it's a mental transformation and change. The confidence, the empowerment, the uh engagement where the consumer starts to come more. It all starts to flourish when you start intersecting MMA conditioning and MMA training into the regiment. So, you know, when you when you look at the popularity and the growth of the UFC, I give that so much credit. When you look at Dana White, I give him so much credit for driving it. Of course, the amazing athletes of the UFC, nothing happens without them. They're like the the managers and team members and coaches I have at UFC Gym. Without them, the company doesn't go forward. But when you intersect all that together, it turns into a beautiful thing.

Yeah, that's great, man. That is great. I'm curious too, when you look at like people getting in getting exposure for the first time into NMA and BJJ and kickboxing, all these things that you have. Do you do they graduate? Like, do they get to a certain level and do they graduate to like a very specific type gym, maybe like a you know, a mom and pop shop? Are you seeing that? Are you seeing more people stay, or do you feel like that's just the natural evolution of things?

I think it's a combination.

Yeah.

I I think I do see a lot of members that that for jujitsu as an example. Some will will stay with us all the way through the black belt. Some will stay with us and continue to train jujitsu, but also go to a local studio. We're when a UFC gym opens in a market, it's good for the jiu-jitsu studios in the market. And by the way, we just launched a concept called UFC Gym Jiu Jitsu, which is the 1,000 square foot model that you can open up your own jujitsu studio for less than 200,000 US dollars and you're off and running.

Sorry, that's a franchise, right?

It's a franchise, yeah.

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And it's doing amazing. So we don't mind. We feel like we're Switzerland. We're we want to have members use other clubs, use other gyms, use other studios. But we like that everybody comes to UFC Gym as their home. They tend to, as long as they're living in the and they stay in the area, they tend to stay members. And a percentage of them will always go do some other stuff, but they'll always come back home to have that as their kind of home base of training. That's awesome.

What is the most popular class or modality you have within the gym?

It's still because traditional fitness still leads the way. We have this daily ultimate training, which is kind of like a CrossFit that's been filtered through NASM. We have uh studio turfs in every gym. And so they're they're basically one-hour classes that do five, five-minute rounds. So it mimics a UFC championship fight and it pushes you uh to the extreme on the fitness side. So I would say that still leads the way. I would also say the traditional Zumba class somehow still pops 50, you know, ladies in there going crazy.

Yeah, it's amazing.

I love it. I love it. And then uh and then, yeah, then boxing Mui Thai is extremely popular. Jiu Jitsu, to your point, has elevated and grown to record-breaking levels, and we're continuing to see the uh what's beautiful is when the when the young lady in jiu-jitsu or in uh Zumba runs into the jujitsu room after their class. That's an amazing thing this to see happen. And what the only thing that's more amazing is when you see their son taking class at the same time in the in the U studio. That's awesome, yeah.

Have you guys looked into high rocks at all?

We do, we we do some of that in a few of our gyms. Obviously, what's the consumer telling us again? It's becoming very popular. Very, but it's not just it's high rocks, but it's really the challenge, right? It's it's when you think about the really the creators of this, which I think is the CrossFit games, right? When you create this ultimate challenge, you know, you have my zone creating competitions, of course, high rocks, but you have all we we have a new value proposition called Ulta, which you can come in and train like a UFC athlete five times a week for 20 weeks. And at the end of that 20 weeks, you're matched up with a similar kind of skilled athletic uh opponent, and you guys actually fight for three rounds in the like full on. You got the announcers, you got the referee, you got an ambulance there just in it's an amazing experience, but it's so popular. It's so popular that you and I could start training right now, Monday through Friday, for the next 20 weeks, and then you and I are getting it on in the octagon for three rounds. Let's go, right?

We're doing this, Adam.

Is that is that what I'm hearing right now? Is that when you're ready, you let me know. We're both in our 50s now. Come on, let's go. Let's see what happens. No, but it it what it what's what's so great about those experiences, by the way, is the way people respect each other, right? They start off on the fight with a lot of respect, but they're literally at the end of the fight hugging and crying that they made it through this 20 weeks together to get to this fight. There's no losers. There, there's a winner on the actual combat, but there's no losers at the end of the fight because they experience something amazing together.

That's so cool. And I would never fight you, man. You're like six foot twenty.

No, no, you'd have me. You'd have me, man.

I I yeah um so one of the things I want to ask you about because you know, I got to interview Mark Mastrov uh earlier this year, was uh obviously he's he's back, right? Took took 24 hours of fitness, bought it back. It was one of those interviews I've been waiting nine years to to do, and it was it was a pleasure, and people seem to like it too. And you know, one thing that amazed me as I kind of uncovered layers within our conversation was the this this thing like the Mastrov coaching tree. Like you're on it, right? You work with Mark. He's part of UFC, of course. Jirolli, right, from Crunch. And you can name it. So maybe can we discuss like what does it mean to you now that that Mark Prosterov is like back involved in 24 Fitness? I know he never really left the industry, right? I'm sure you can tell us that. But like to have the headlines and see him back, and I think everybody, it actually, I think you gave the industry a boost of optimism to have someone like that back. So, what did you, when you first found about the news, what was your reaction? And then maybe give us an idea of like how much influence he's had on you and all of like your peers and colleagues who have come under his his umbrella.

Yeah, I mean, listen, uh, I don't think there's anybody more well respected than Mark. And when you look at his fan club, I consider myself the front of the line. Without Mark, I'm not in my chair today. I don't have the success that I have. He's opened doors that I would never have opened myself. And he's done it because he believes in people. He looks at potential, talent, work ethic, and big word is trust. And if you can fit the bill there, the guy will do amazing things for you professionally. I was lucky enough to start with 24 Hour Fitness in 1994. Um, you know, the first time I met Mark was in '95 when he walked into my gym when I was a GM. I was starstruck and and I was biting my tongue. And like I I couldn't believe that Mark Mastrov was in my gym, and I'll never forget he said, Man, the gym's amazing. Your results are amazing, but why are you allowing your janitor to use water to mop the rubber floors? And I and I'm like, I feel I felt this position of like I let Mark down because my janitor's uh using water on the floors, and but everything else was amazing. The ironic thing is he comes back two years later in my same gym, and the janitor was using water on the floors, and he said, Do you remember when I told you don't put water on the floors? So I'm thinking, okay, the guy's got 350 gyms, and somehow he remembers one circumstance with one GM, you know, two years prior. That's wild. And at that point, I'm just like, this guy is unbelievable. So I created a great relationship with Mark where he didn't give me all the answers, but he asked all the right questions to make me become a leader. And it's through those questions you either take advantage of it and you learn from it, or you just do your own thing. The trouble with a lot of people is they think they have all the answers and ego comes into play and they do their own thing. If you can learn to be self-aware and understand somebody like Mark Mastrof's in front of you, giving you the answers by asking the right questions, and you can run through that hall in a very aggressive way, you're gonna set yourself up for some good success. And through those years of working with Mark at 24 hour, the next 14 years working with him, um, you know, we were able to grow that company to 430 gyms. And I think the prime year was 2006, 2007. We had the one of the best years ever in the industry. Of course, Mark did amazing on an exit where you got a huge multiple, sold it in 2005, he left it in 2007. And then when Mark leaves, to show you the kind of person he is and the kind of leader he is, when Mark exited in 2007, the majority of the leadership team of 24 hour followed, right? The majority exited out with him because Mark's the one that set the culture, Mark's the one that asked the right questions, Mark's the one that provided the opportunities for us. And you don't forget that. You you you you pay attention to that. So Mark goes out and acquires Crunch and starts NEV. And Jim Rowley, who's an amazing operator, who's in the Mark tree. Um, you know, he he goes in and and helps start UFC Jim. He he does multiple verticals in the in the industry, and Crunch takes off in an amazing way. Jim isolates the Crunch, and then you have Chris Smith that's up in Canada doing amazing work. You have Sadie Lincoln. The list goes on and on globally. The funny part is every time I'm talking to somebody different at a trade show or what have you, if they're inner if I'm international, all of a sudden they say, Yeah, I'm a partner with Mark. And I'm like, how? Okay, I know Mark extremely well now after being with him since 1994. And I feel like I know every business he's in. And then all of a sudden I learned something new that Mark's done in the fitness space, right? Whether it's this the, you know, it's the innovation of wellness that Mark's very involved with, many people don't know that, to the obvious 24-hour, you know, transaction to things that happen internationally. He's in, he's he's so diverse in the way he looks at the fitness industry. But yet, when you look at the acquisition of 24 hour fitness, you know, kind of buying the company back, everybody that was with him in the initial journey took a high level of pride in his acquisition. Whether we're at 24 today or not, the fact is when you get brought up in a company like that, it's always in your heart, right? It's always part of you. And it still is part of me. Like I still care immensely about 24 hours. When they lost their way a little bit under prior leadership, it was it was disappointing and it was sad to me. Like, like literally, I had a trouble with it. And to see Mark emerge, to come back, and then he's really driving that culture of what it means to be part of fitness again, what it means to have a special leadership community, what it means to be what was once the biggest brand on planet earth, and what it means to get that brand to re-emerge. They are back. They really are back. And I'm seeing a lot of people that I know in the industry back with them. The the energy and the motivation is very high there. But I'm lucky. I'm lucky that I get Mark here as well, right? I'm I'm blessed that the energy that Mark's bringing over there, I already have here, right? So my team's been feeling that for a decade where they feel the connection to Mark. And now Mark's broadening to the 24-hour fitness world. And we're proud to be their kind of cousin company, right? We're we're proud, we're proud to be connected and and it's great. It's an amazing thing. And I think 24 is gonna set some huge, huge growth numbers over the next few years. You can already see on social media that they've been re-uh investing into their existing portfolio and and improving their gyms. And and you know, I've been able to do that continuously for the last 10 years at UFC Gym to constantly reinvest. And it's good to see 24 hour kind of parallel tracking that. So I'm happy for Mark, and I'm and I'm really happy for a lot of the team over at 24 Hour Fitness, and I'm equally as happy for our team that the culture of Mark Mastrov continues to build and grow.

Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, it's I've known that name, you know, really since you know, when I was a gym operator, I was a CrossFit guy. And we didn't CrossFit didn't give a shit about anything outside of CrossFit. We thought the rest of the industry was a bunch of, you know, we were so arrogant. God, we were arrogant. Um but then as I as soon as I stepped out of it, I kept hearing this name. I'm like Mastrov. Okay, and then like the more I started to learn, I'm like, oh my God, like connecting the dots, like he's like you said, he's like he's a part of every business and he's done so many things. And I feel like he's really taken um our industry and gave it a certain amount of uh juice like outside of outside the industry. Like he's a serious investor, right? He's he's he builds things, he's an incredible builder, and he's taught a lot of people to be incredible builders like yourself as well. So it's it's really cool to hear, man. And uh I'm I'm so glad he's back talking out there again and and doing all the the stuff he is with 24 fittings. It's exciting.

What people don't realize is and I actually get upset with him because he's so humble. Yes. I'm I'm like, I'm I'm with him at a lunch or whatever, and I'm like, like, I have to start talking about him because he won't ever talk about himself. And I'm like, do we know who we're sitting with at this table, everybody? This is Mark. Let me tell you a little bit about him, right? And he will never be that guy that wants all the attention. He will never be that guy that wants all the lights on him. He actually enjoys when the lights are on his tree. He enjoys to see the success Jim Rowley has had. He's enjoyed to see how he's taken a guy like me who couldn't speak in front of people at one time, who couldn't hold a meeting in a gym, to now, you know, being on Fox News and and doing some different interviews. Like he enjoys and he takes pride in those types of things. I think that really reflects on the type of leader he truly is. Amazing.

You know, I'm I'm quite tired of asking this question to executives like yourself, but I feel obliged to do it. So what what are you what's your AI strategy? What's your approach to AI right now? Um, you know, there's there's a lot of people who are aggressively all in, pushing the envelope right away. Of course, the the software companies and the CRMs, they have to be in. This is their job, right? They want to have it all integrated within their platform. But what's kind of your at a high level, what's your AI strategy right now for for you?

Well, it's very similar to the pricing strategy, right? When I told you in the early years we had a little bit of arrogance on our pricing strategy, and then we learn from our consumer that we have to modify it to really maximize our full potential. I think AI is no different. I I think AI is moving so quick, and it's very easy to try to be first to market and to overinvest and to go down different silos with AI. The problem is it's literally getting 20% better week over week. So if you perfect it this week, you got to change the model next week. And so I think the baseline, as far as I'm concerned, is the first thing that I did was I got all I had all my executives with UFC Gym. We have a co-work clot account, right? Because I want them to test the waters. I want them to be involved, I want them to use it, learn, uh, become more efficient in their day-to-day work, which it's it's absolutely helped us do. Yeah, that's incredible. But at the enterprise level, it's about how do you reduce operating costs? How do you become more efficient at a global position? How do you integrate with CRM data and integrate your recovery strategy and your wellness strategy and your acquisition strategy and your pricing strategy? That's the part that I'm being patient on because everybody's racing to do it so quick. And I know when you have high demand and you have a lot of people driving it, best practices, best operating solutions will get revealed very quickly. And then more importantly, as we learn how to use AI in our industry, whether it's AI personal coaching, AI operations, AI music, whatever it is, there's going to be best practices established. And then AI is going to adapt to those best practices to make it very user-friendly. So I think in one position, it's about allowing the team to have some fun with it and to learn how we can do some amazing things. It's about some investment with a company like Claude or different verticals to make sure that we're trying to do the best we can to acclimate the operating system into UFC Gym. And then it's about patience and it's learning and learning from other operators and learning from outside the industry of how they're doing it and how they're using it, and trying to identify what's coming in the future and just taking it day by day, not going crazy, not over embellishing the percentage of work applied to there, but being very open, adapting, and making sure it's going to be part of our system on a go-forward basis.

Adam, is there like for operator executives like yourself, is there like a board where everyone gets together and talks about like AI, like how it can be implemented across the industry, best practices? Like, do you guys get together and talk about that kind of thing? Because I feel like it would be really valuable.

It happens a lot. So, like you on these summits that happen all the time, whether it's international or domestic, there's always breakout sessions. There's, you know, like Club Solutions has retreats where they spend a lot of time talking about it. CFA is focused on it. There's plenty out there, and there, and there's plenty of communication. I have the benefit of you know being able to talk to people like Jim Rowley and talk to people like Chris Smith and and and other great leaders. There's there's a there's a leader that I like a lot. His name is Brian Caligari that has been part of the the Crunch franchise, but he's got a very good innovative mind as it relates to AI. And then I look at my own team, you know, Ryan's and Donnie's and Shauna's and and Stephanie's and other people that really put energy into learning and they also will reach out to other companies, people that they know. And we try to bring everything together to learn from it. So it does happen at these summits and HFA and conferences and so forth. I think you will, to your point, though. I think you will see more professionalized sessions, not just in this industry, but uh I think you're gonna see it as a major in college. I think you're gonna see conferences in every major city where they're bringing people together to interface them with AI, and it's just gonna continue to grow and expand. That's cool.

Yeah, you know, I would like to see more. I would see like I would like to see more, and I have some ideas on that, but that's for another podcast. Uh okay. Last question in the minutes I have with you here, Adam. Uh, what's the vision for 2030? Tell me, where where do you think UFC is gonna be? Where do you want it to be? And what do you need to get there? In 2030? 2030.

2030. Okay, we're in 26 right now. Okay.

Five years. Let's just say roughly five years.

So we have an ambition, and when I say we, it's our team, right? It's it's very little to do with me. It's it's really about the passion and the belief in in the team to revolutionize planet earth to train different. And we want to empower our team members, which we believe will empower our customers to go out there and help people find the best version of who they can be. And we think with our unique value proposition of jujitsu and MMA that really builds self-confidence, we're going to be allowed to do that. Now, the the blessing that I have is an amazing um big brother in the UFC, and Paramount um is a huge distribution um asset that drives UFC globally. So I have this amazing partner that is doing such terrific work that allows us to open doors in almost every country around planet Earth. So right now, you know, argue what by the end of the year we're going to be in 50 countries growing, you know, and and I I think we can probably add another seven or eight countries per year all the way through 2030. I think we'll get to a point where we'll be averaging three to five gym openings per week in the organization. And I think we'll be at a point where as you see the sport continue to grow and become more and more mainstream, we're going to be that destination where people can go and not just do the traditional vehicle of fitness, but also find ways to deal with the issues of that we all deal with, which is stress, sometimes lack of sleep, and all the issues we have sometimes around lack of nutrition, especially in the US where the laws are crazy. I think U of CGM's building these locations to be able to deal with that opportunity that every mainstream consumer deals with on a day in and day out basis. Right on.

Well, Adam, thank you so much, man. Last question finally is you know, people are listening. What what do you need help with? You know, how can the industry support you in what you're doing if people are going to reach out? Anything you want to hear about?

Yeah, I mean, to your point, I think the continued communication of AI and and working together, not just as an industry, but as a planet, uh, I really think that eventually this is gonna help with the division of planet Earth as AI becomes more and more uh applied in into our into our lifestyle. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to learning more and more on the evolution of peptides and and GLPs and and how that's gonna interface with nutrition and proteins. You've seen protein powder spike up, right? The cost of protein because of GLPs. And so I I'm looking forward to seeing how we intersect that more in the people's lives. And I'm gonna watch some great operators, I'm gonna watch great doctors, I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch the science to see how we can continue to get better there. I think the other opportunity is gonna be how we communicate with our consumers with CRM systems and again how we leverage AI and the integration of C of our CRM systems to make fitness just part of their daily routine without any friction. And so I look forward to learning from others on how they're gonna continue to do us so I can best apply it to UFC Gym.

Awesome, man. I know LinkedIn is a good place to find you. Anywhere else you want people to go?

Instagram, CEO UFC Jim. I'm on that a lot. LinkedIn's a great place as well. Awesome.

Well, I know you got a lot of things to do. I'll let you uh get on CEOing. And uh Adam, it's been it's been an absolute pleasure. I'm glad. Let's not make it five years next time.

At least three years when you hit that 55 for sure, and when we're 60, we'll compete in the octagon together.

Let's do it. Awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Sedlik. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.