Sarah Luna - Pilates 3.0: How Pilates Addiction Plans to Scale to 1,000 Units by 2030

Hey friends, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness and wellness industry podcast for over five years and running. I'm your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the honor of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. If you like the show, we'd love it if you took three minutes of your day to leave us a nice supporter review wherever you consume your podcast. If you're interested in staying up to date with the future of fitness, go to futurofitness.co to subscribe and get weekly summaries dropped into your inbox. Now onto the show. One theme keeps coming up: the right technology can make or break your business. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce our new presenting sponsor, Perfect Gym. Perfect Gym isn't just another gym management system. They are part of the Sport Alliance Group, Europe's leading fitness software company that has officially entered the US market. Now, I've seen this movie before, but here's the difference. They've opened up a U.S. headquarters in Boston because they understand that the American market deserves dedicated, localized support. After digging into the platform, one benefit especially stood out. They are simplifying the nightmare that keeps business owners up at night migrations. These guys were able to migrate one mega client with more than 250 locations in six different countries in just 20 days between two payment runs, no disrupting operations, no member loss, one seamless operation that simply works. Now, if you have ever switched platforms, you know how terrifying that process can be and how truly impressive that feat is. At a high level, here's their secret sauce. They give the power back to the operator. Instead of forcing you into their closed ecosystem, their Perfect Gym Marketplace connects with over 120 integration partners. So want to use your own app, your preferred payment processor, ClassPass for booking? No problem. Whether you're running a single studio or managing a multi-location enterprise, Perfect Gym was built from the ground up for multi-club operations. They've invested a ton into this platform, and now they're bringing that European engineering excellence to America. The migration experts have arrived. Check out perfectgym.com where enterprise level sophistication meets operator freedom. All right, here we go. Sarah Luna, welcome to the future of fitness.

Hey, good to see you. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's a pleasure. Uh there's so many questions I have about Pilates and um what you guys are doing at Pilates addiction. Of course, recently had Anthony Geisler on in Verdeen. Uh SQL's already made quite a splash over the last year within our market and for good reason. You know, uh solid operators, um, you know, with a lot of experience, bringing kind of new twists to a lot of different things within the marketplace. So it's it's fun to watch from the outside to see you guys work. And uh we're gonna get some real good insights into um you know what Pilates addiction is. I like the term Pilates 3.0. You can help walk me through this as someone who's kind of Pilates uh ignorant, I guess, in in many ways. But yeah, it's it's gonna be great. And let's just start with this, Sarah. I'm as I was telling you prior recording, I love working with or talking to executives who have actually done the work at the ground floor. What I mean by that is like you've been a Pilates instructor for a lot. Like you've got a lot of experience, right? You've worked through as a franchise owner. Um you've done all these things, you worked yourself up through the industry with a ton of experience. And I think those insights that you get from doing that, like as a I was a coach and trainer and gym owner, like I know what it takes to get people to change their behaviors and improve their lives. It's not easy. It's not like selling french fries and burritos, right? Like we're we're selling something very different. So um just to set the table on that, maybe give us your experience, kind of how you got to be the uh CEO there of Pilates Addiction, and we'll take it from there.

Yeah. Um, well, thank you. I was a professional dancer, so I had studied dance and thought, you know, after I retired from dance, I would go into physical therapy. But along my dance journey, I I started to do Pilates and I and I absolutely loved it. And I thought, well, I'll get certified in Pilates and then I can have that as my day job as I put myself through grad school and, you know, continue to dance. And um, as I learned more about kind of where the healthcare system was going in physical therapy versus Pilates, um, I started to really fall in love with the fact that as a Pilates instructor, I could work with anybody, you know, big or small, old or young, um, professional athlete to rehab to people just coming off of, you know, chemo treatments, um, and just being able to meet people right where they were and going through life with them, you know, and and just seeing how they were before hip surgery or after hip surgery or before a baby and after a baby. And um, so I ended up putting, you know, grad school on hold and and um really pursued a Pilates career and taught all over the country and a lot of different companies and mediums and and got to the point where I said, you know, I'm gonna open my own Pilates studio and really jump into this. And I had some really wise Pilates clients who said, you know, you obviously know how to teach, but running a business is a completely different skill set, regardless of, you know, what what industry you're in or anything else. Why don't you think about going to business school and invest in yourself and that education um, you know, you'll always own and be able to keep. And so I thought, okay, I'll I'll I'll do that. So I was a you know, dance major turned business major. And uh I'm I'm really glad that I, you know, followed that advice, did a full-time MBA here in Orange County, Chapman University, and um came out the other side. And I thought, well, let's let's try some management, you know, and um jumped over to Equinox and ran um a couple of their Pilates programs here locally and really got a good taste of managing a full team, driving, you know, revenue, um being responsible for, you know, certain KPIs, hiring and firing staff, and then of course retaining customers. And, you know, one of my big aha moments was as I was moving Equinox clubs, I had clientele that would follow me. And, you know, back then I was like, I'm a celebrity trainer and people will go where I tell them to, you know. And then I had the opportunity to go to Club Pilata and you know, I I'll never forget, but I chatted with some of my customers and they were like, Yeah, Sarah, thanks, but we're good at Equinox, you know, and we've got all the amenities and the benefits. And, you know, basically you were one small part of my overall experience, and we love you, but not not enough to cancel, right? And that was a an aha moment for me of just how sticky the rest of the or the entire fitness experience has to be, that it isn't just what the trainer or the instructor brings to the tape, but it's all of the benefits that will keep a customer coming back to a business and also prevent a customer from following celebrity traders. So it was so humbling for me because basically I left my entire business with Equinox, which I should have done anyways, you know, and went off and pursued an opportunity and career with Club Pilates. But to this day, I draw on that um so that as I'm thinking about putting the programming together for Pilates addiction and thinking about the overall experience from the lighting to the equipment to the loyalty program to the retail that we sell, all of that is what's going to make the customers very sticky. And again, maintain really, really good um uh retention and minimize attrition and allow a business owner to be successful, regardless of maybe, you know, turnover of staff or you know, changes within their kind of their local community and environment. So yeah, a lot of those kind of like first being first on the line and being an instructor myself have certainly made an impression and helped me be a better leader today, to really know what it's like to run a studio, to be an instructor, and then of course be on the franchise or side. So as we welcome new franchisees into the system, you know, I make it a point to say that I've I've literally had every single job in the studio and in this, in this um, you know, environment that when we put together programs or we're launching things, you know, I'm really thinking about creating wins across all the stakeholders and all the audiences. The, you know, the customer has to win, but so do the studio staff and of course the franchisee and the franchise or so it's really about you know setting up programming that makes sense for everybody.

Yeah, well said. Well said. It's just an interesting moment that you had when you know you left Equinox and thinking like, I'm I'm kind of the shit, right? Like people are gonna people are gonna follow me. And uh I've seen that happen. I mean, I've uh A, I've done it, and I think many people who are listening to this probably have as well. But I've also seen as a gym owner, a lot of trainers get, you know, be a s kind of like a big deal within my gym, and then they go off.

That's totally what it is.

They take a couple of clients and then they're like, damn. Um, and then hopefully they come back because they're great trainers, and then they can be they can be trainers there again.

But uh that's just and you can't blame the customer either, right? Like when they're like, I have a pool and a steam room and everything, they're like, Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. And routines, right? Like everyone loves a good routine. Like once, especially for fitness and wellness, like if you find a good routine, you don't want to change it. Like, you know, you maybe you know people when you go to the song and you talk to them every morning, or whatever it may be. There's there's a million reasons to to keep it going if it's going well for you. Okay, so educate me a little here, if if you will. Pilates 3.0. Um, like I said, I've I've never actually taken like a reformer Pilates class. Uh, I've talked to a lot of people uh on the show, um, obviously because Pilates is such a big deal right now. I don't know a whole lot about the experience. So if you walk through like me, what was Pilates 1.0, what was 2.0, and now what are you now describing as 3.0?

Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. So if you use that analogy as a frame of reference, and because I do get asked a lot, does the world need more Pilates? And how does how does this make it different than what's out there? So really the way to think about it is that, you know, Pilates 1.0 was studio Pilates or Joseph Pilates Pilates, right? Taught on all the original apparatus and coming directly from that lineage. And then, you know, about a decade or or a little longer ago, Sebastian Legris came with Legris, Pilates. It's not exactly Pilates, but it's a spin off of the reformer with his invention of the megaformer and taking some of the exercises of Pilates and applying them to the megaformer. And so that whole lineage is kind of boot camp style and very much departs from some of the practices of traditional studio Pilates, right? So less focus on breath work and and you know, some core work, but just different, and all of the other like Pilates pillars that we got with Joseph Pilates. And so, you know, the way that I'm thinking about it is that Pilates 3.0 takes the best of both worlds or both lineages at the end of the day. Um, and I think with with Pilates being more of a household practice and people way more familiar with it, now there's the opportunity to differentiate and offer more in a experiences, which is where Pilates addiction comes in. So we still preserve a lot of the Pilates principles, um, you know, breath work and mental focus and core and alignment and you know, all of those different things, but we apply it to a new machine um that is patent. And it's the originally known as the Wonder Farmer. We've now renamed it the Aurum, which is Latin for gold. Gold, uh gold machines in our studios.

Cool.

And uh the idea is that we can have a more intense or high intense, you know, workout that is cardio, stretch, flexibility, um, you know, strength training, and of course, you know, core all built into one so that our consumers can come in and get everything from, you know, their cardio to their flexibility to their strength training in one workout. And with the machine that we offer, it combines four different Pilates apparatus into one. And so the idea is that it's not more intense because we do more reps or we do it on harder springs. It's the fact that because everything is combined into one machine, we simply have more workout minutes offered within the 50-minute session. So by way of example, if you go to a studio Pilates um experience, you know, if you jump from the reformer over to a one-to-chair, um, you know, you have to get up and set up the apparatus. And, you know, there's workout minutes or workout seconds, you know, that you really lose as you're setting up each of the pieces of equipment. You also need a bigger footprint of the studio to be able to accommodate all the different pieces. But because our machine is combines all of those pieces, you can seamlessly and fluidly move from the chair to the reformer to the jump board to the ballet bar. In fact, our educators, and we call them Pilates educators, not Pilates instructors, but our Pilates educators, they set up the equipment in advance of the customer actually needing that piece of equipment so that the customer is literally having zero downtime as they're moving around the apparatus. So the idea is that we can have that high intensity, but it isn't because it we're burning out or um boot camping in the body, but that it's more like functional, functional fitness and just more workout minutes in the 50-minute session.

Yeah, so it's very efficient. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um what's uh with this style of training, what kind of results can people expect in comparison to like, you know, a uh, I don't know, let's just say like a berries or an orange theory or like something else. Like what what what do you think keeps people coming back?

Yeah, I think what they like about it is that, you know, in the Pilates experience, they're getting full body workout, you know, every single time that they come in. Um but they're small classes. We offer, you know, 12-person classes. So there's tons of community and you know, the the educator knows everybody who comes into class and they're familiar with their bodies and people come on a regular basis because they get to, you know, kind of level up. And I think Pilates is one of those things that the more you do it, the harder it actually becomes, you know, because you start doing it right and you know how to cue different muscles within your body. And it's just one of those practices. I mean, it's been around for over a hundred years, but it's one of those practices that as you keep doing it, it's like, wow, that's there's more. There's more to this work, there's more that I can keep uncovering. So you have that. And then at Pilates Addiction, you know, we have lighting schemes that support each of our four different class formats. The music is uplifting, and the cueing is uplifting. I mean, everything about the environment is meant to be very positive and just make people feel energized and come out to conquer life. You know, I think a lot of times we say, you know, leave your baggage at the front door and then, you know, pick it up on the way out. You know, I, as I was developing this brand, you kind of had this aha moment again of like, it's not about, you know, having the one hour of relief from your life to then go back into your life. It's the one hour of empowerment that allows you to then go out and like conquer your life and go live your life better and deal with the challenges or the obstacles with a better like mental, you know, mindset. Right. So, so actually a a part of our design of the workout is that, you know, we don't really do like a massive cooldown at the end and bring the energy down, but we we send people out at the highest note of the class for that that intentional reason that they're leaving with the endorphins going and the adrenaline going, and they feel unstoppable. And that's that's how we want to send them back out into their life again.

Awesome. And who is the uh who's the target target person for this, the target demographic? Is it still, I mean, Pilates is typically skewed female, right? But I know it's changed over recent years, especially with like Solicor and a couple other ones, strong Pilates. Yeah, so what are you guys targeting here?

Yeah, our demographic is I would say 25 to 45 year olds and then primarily women. We do have about you know 10% of males that are coming into our studios. But hopefully we'll change that. And I I do think that Pilates, you know, will follow in the yoga pathway of being adopted more and more by by men. And uh, you know, our certainly our environments uh with the gold machines and then the lighting, as I mentioned, being a little bit on the darker side, um, does attract more of a male, you know, demographic and cohort. Today we're primarily, you know, women or female driven and uh 25 to 45 year olds.

Yeah. Well, uh us guys, we just need to get over our egos because we don't like sucking at things and going in and like, you know, like a jerk the first time you do it. Uh it's on us. It's not you.

And that's why we have private rooms, you know, so that's that we can accommodate kind of Yeah.

Yeah, just get me into competency, and then uh and then I can join the group. But walk me through, you mentioned four different types of classes. So what what is the what is the client experience going to be like or is like at Pilates Addiction?

Yeah. So we offer an Ignite class, which is a 30-minute uh, you know, intro to Pilates Addiction. It's not an easy class, but it's a 30-minute class, you know, kind of to your point, Eric, of let me try it and not look dumb. Uh you know, this is the entry point for a lot of people to come in for the very first time and look around to other people who are trying it for the very first time. And, you know, almost having this immediate community of I'm I'm a newbie, you're a newbie, okay, let's get through this together. Um, so that's our ignite class. We have kind of a, you know, call it a classic class that uh, you know, is our core plus. And the core core class is going to be the staple class, you know, on the class schedule. All of our classes are 50 minutes, but that one is going to be, you know, really focused on form and very focused on using and utilizing, you know, the entire apparatus. I wouldn't say it's slower because it's definitely not slower. So there's you're still gonna come out with a sweat, but it's for kind of people who are going from first time, you know, into like a normal class. Um and then we've got mobility RX, and that one's focused on flexibility and length, but it's not sleepy Pilates. So you don't want to come in and think, I'm gonna go take a nap on the machine. It's actually uh more sustained movements, creating a longer, more flexible body. It's harder because you're holding the positions longer and you're stretching the body while also, you know, finding strength to find that length. And then we have our max class, and and that's cardio, a lot more cardio. Excuse me. So the max class is really going to get your heart rate up. There's fewer breaks, and it's really meant for those customers who have been coming on a more regular basis and they want to level up their experience. And then we're working on a new class called Transcend that is just gonna be stupid hard. It'll be on the schedule maybe once or twice a week, but kind of meant to like really kick butt.

Wow.

You know, for people who who've come, you know, and have a good number of classes underneath their belt. So it's not gonna be for the novice, but there will be kind of qualifying requirements uh for people to be able to jump in. And that'll be launching um a little bit later this year. So those are our class formats. And, you know, our educators, they put together their own music and they put together their own choreography within the framework of each of those class formats. So as we have customers who are coming in, not only are you getting, you know, the spice of the educator, but we work to accommodate each of the bodies that are coming in as well. So we're adjusting springs or maybe giving heavier or lighter props, handheld weights, things like that, and then giving different choreography modifications. So within those class formats, there's also just tons of different levels that we provide and offer so that again, everyone leaves their class feeling just super energized and successful at the end of the day.

Yeah, I I hear you talk and I compare all the time to CrossFit because it's what I knew. That was like the gyms that I owned and ran. But it there's a lot of like parallels, right? I mean, one of the things you you may like I always tell people in CrossFit is um you you it never gets easier, you just get better at it. That was something we tell people all the time. And like as you progress, like some people are gonna want a more technical class because the other ones may not aren't challenging them to the way they want because they've gotten so far already in their journey and like the ability for you know, it's so coach heavy. Like we had to have really good coaches because they had to be able to work work the room and make modifications on the fly and get to know each client. So it's like it's it's it's there's a lot of I know they're not two modalities that you would put in parallel, but really they're they're kind of there's a lot of similarities there.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure.

Uh what I mean, besides the the technology and the experience, I mean, this is we were talking about this Pilates, people are asking you, why do you why do we need another Pilates modality, right? Given like the advantages or um strengths that you guys have as a brand company with SQL, like what what is your how would you describe your right to win here? Where where are you super confident going into the market?

Yeah, you know, really it's just about kind of winning at every every step of a studio launch process. Uh yeah, so it's about first, you know, finding the right, the right franchisees who understand that this is a young brand. Uh, been very discerning in terms of who the operators are in in coming in. Uh because we have two locations today that are operating as black. Addiction, but we have another, you know, 200 that will be coming online this year. So this year, we want to make sure that every single location that opens is a good representation of the brand. So that's kind of step one. And then step two is putting, you know, franchisees into really good real estate. And what's great about this brand is that the machines go directly into the center of the room. So that means that we can have two or three different room configurations. So we're able to be very, again, discerning on what type of real estate we go into and highly disciplined and making sure that we're not taking on, you know, bigger square footage than we actually need and what the model can actually support. So that's been good. The real estate process has been really great because of that reason. And then it's about having a very solid, you know, sales and marketing strategy when we come to market and when we launch, to then, you know, have great success as we we open the studios. So it's really just about um, you know, making sure that we're winning at every step of every step of the studio and the business launch. And at the end of the day, you know, boutique fitness continues to grow across the US. Pilates is growing, you know, even faster um than Boutique Fitnesses. So we're we are not of the mindset of we're gonna go out and cannibalize business or we're gonna go take customers, but it's more of the mindset of there's a younger new demographic that's coming on the scene that's looking for something new. And um, and we're gonna go be, you know, the Pilates provider for that demographic at the end of the day. So it's really just about winning the local community and and do it doing it very well.

Yeah, executing on the fundamentals, right?

Right.

Yeah, there's there's there's always room for great operators in this industry. I think that's something. Because there's a lot of bad ones. Not to name them, but there's a lot of bad ones. Where where are you guys at now? Like uh locations, territory sold. Give us a snapshot.

Yeah. Um, so as I mentioned, we have two Pilates Addictions that were converted over from the Windabar brand. And then I have former Windabar locations that we'll be converting over to Pilates Addiction throughout the year as well. So today we've got 11 total that were conversion studios, and then I've got about 30 locations in pre-sale that'll be launching in the next couple of weeks, another 40 behind that that will be joining pre-sale pretty quickly. But from uh where we're going in 2026, um, we've sold over 240 licenses so far, and we'll open 200 locations in 2026. We'll go from being a minnow in the pond to one of the second largest Pilates operators in the country.

And what is it, uh, what does it take to open one of these? Like square footage, um investment, like give us some idea if people were thinking, like, hey, I might want to look into this. The Future of Fitness podcast is proudly brought to you by eGim. In an industry full of noise, with more features, more screens, more promises, eGim is focused on something far more meaningful. Progress that counts. EGM is a global fitness technology leader, building the infrastructure behind real results. Their open ecosystem connects smart strength equipment, AI-powered software, and data-driven services to turn fitness into measurable, repeatable progress for members, trainers, operators, and communities. Now, what really excites me is how EGM brings its ecosystem together with WellPast, their corporate wellness platform. By combining their strength equipment with AI-powered software and their corporate wellness platform WellFast, they're leading the shift to proactive, preventative health. Isn't that what we all want? That's why we're here. The result? Members feel more confident and motivated, trainers have better tools to support people, operators see stronger retention and growth, and employers benefit from healthier, more engaged teams. This isn't innovation for show. It's progress you can see, measure, and repeat. To learn more, please visit eGym.com.

Yeah, um, the square footage is anywhere between 1,500 to 1,700 feet uh square feet. Um we look for, you know, great retail grocery anchored centers. Investment could be anywhere between half a million to 750, I think like on the high end, right? But even could be a much lower, depending on what market you're going into as well. But I think the great part about the business model is that we're not looking for thousands and thousands of members in order to be profitable. And this is a model where around a couple hundred members, um, the studio is breakeven and profitable. So that's really what the focus is in these early launches and pre-sales is making sure that we're setting the studio up very successfully with, you know, a couple hundred members as we open the doors and then keeping good sales processes as we continue to operate the business, you know, there on out as a sustained operation.

What is the uh what's the pricing model for the is it membership? Are you guys selling per class? Like how how is it generally done?

Yeah, it is a membership model. So recurring memberships that we offer, and we do offer a couple of packages here and there, but that's not really the bread and butter. You know, we want to make sure that we have recurring revenue that's coming in every single month so that as the operator, they know I'm opening the doors on February 1st, what does my draft look like? And then everything else that comes in above that is incremental. So, you know, we offer an unlimited membership and then a couple of recurring package memberships as well.

One of the things I've noticed over the past few years is is like talent is becoming harder to find. What I mean by talent is the trainers, the coaches, uh the actual GMs, if you have something like that. But what is the in order to become like applies addiction educator?

Yeah.

What does that take? And how has it been so far to find people who are keen on that? Because I I I just have concerns about the coaching and trainer and you know profession as we move forward, that maybe it's not as attractive as it once was to people. But I don't know. I could just be making that up. So yeah, what what's your what's your take on that?

Yeah, I mean, first off, it's an AI proof uh career, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So that that I think is uh, you know, really good in terms of like job security. But you know, so at Pilates Addiction, we have a Pilates Addiction Academy where we're able to certify people off the street in about 30 to 45 days with a one three-day um intensive weekend. Um and they get everything from you know queuing to voice coaching to um uh anatomy and then of course choreography and and learning how to uh you know move people's bodies um, you know, through various queuing and choreography and things like that. So really it's a it's a a highly intense, you know, education program, but it doesn't after that three-day intensive, it doesn't stop after the 45 days. We continue to pour into our educators uh with various workshops and continue education so that they keep coming back and being able to level up um, you know, their class experience for all of their members. But I think with any any business, labor is going to be your hardest piece of the business. But I I don't have concern on this front because we can open a studio with, you know, anywhere between three and five educators and really can take anyone who's PLATI certified and been in the industry for a very long time to personal trainers, to again, people, you know, right off the street. And it's a great career for people who are looking to maybe supplement a day job or supplement raising kids or supplement going to school. You know, I shared a little bit about my background, but I put myself through business school off the back of my Pilates certification. So we tell that story all the time. And and there's tons of instructors and educators out there that have very similar stories that were able to progress other pe pieces or parts of their careers because they had a successful run or continue to have a successful run as an instructor. So it's a great, it's a great job and it's part-time. So, you know, it's one of those opportunities where you can really give back to the community, make your own local community and have fun with very little prep work and you know, kind of do it as a either mainstay or a side hustle, kind of depending on what you're looking to do.

Yeah, right on. And who are you guys looking for? Like who do you think is, I'm sure there's a couple different types here, but like the the type of ideal franchisee that you guys are looking for? Is it you know, investor groups, is it the, you know, the instructor looking to start their own? Like what what are you guys seeing so far?

Yeah, uh a lot of our franchisees coming into the system are those that have a management and professional, you know, career career experience. They're not Pilates instructors or fitness instructors, but people who have a certain level of business acumen. We do have some professional franchisees that are coming in and they're this is their fifth or sixth run at a franchise, which is really exciting because they've been they've been great for the rest of the system who are coming in maybe as first-time franchisees and and learning, you know, how to work with a franchise or and within the franchise franchise context. But really, we're looking for people who have, you know, maybe marketing experience or their CPA or CFO of a previous um business, um, but they've had, you know, professional career experience before and um are now willing to jump out and start something on their own and and really make a good run of you know building their own business, but with the support of a franchise or behind the scenes.

Yeah, kind of like the business professional midlife crisis, right? Where they're like I've been in the corporate world forever and now I want to do something for myself.

Yeah, that's that's yeah, we see that we see that a lot. And you see that, you know, particularly when there's like macro squeezes or changes and and people are going, all right, I'm tired of being, you know, laid off for the third time or transitioned for the third time, and you know, I want to own my own destiny.

Yeah, yeah. There's um a lot of advantages, and I mean we've seen this play out at Expo too, is like with the brands that you guys have put together. They're they're all strategically pieced together, right? For there's you guys and there's iFlex, there's Beam, Body20, and then the longevity one that you guys have. And so that it's an interesting mix. All these are very like, I want to say like sexy types of businesses right now within our industry. So maybe give us an idea when you look at like how often do you interact with the other presidents and CEOs of the other brands? Do you guys strategize together? Like, how does it do you guys when do you guys work alone and when do you work together? I guess is the biggest questions I have.

Yeah. Um, I mean, we we're all in the same office and we are on text chains. Um, and then of course we pop into each other's offices and phone calls and stuff. So I would say that we're constantly working together. Um, and it could be small things like, hey, you know, what do you think of this vendor? Or everybody watch out, you know, that um this is happening or whatever. So it's it's everything from kind of like big strategic ideas and things that we want to do to just, you know, small hallway conversations. Um, we're constantly working together as a team, um, you know, from the CEO level, but then also our sales directors get together and they work together and the marketing team works together. There's a ton of synergy and um just learnings, you know, across all of the different brands. And as you mentioned, they're all very different as well. Now, this is outside of body 20, you know, we're we're the two fitness brands and the rest are in wellness and longevity. So very different than the portfolio that we had constructed before. So that part is exciting to just see how wellness and longevity is now in just in a different place in the consumer's mind of its importance and that these brands now are going to be able to take off and be successful alongside, you know, fitness concepts as well. And then just in terms of like working independently, you know, I wake up every single day thinking about Pilates addiction, and so do the other CEOs. So we're not trying to run each other's businesses or work, you know, across across brands, but we're hyper focused on our individual brands and making sure that we're supporting the franchisees and and their staff and just get to have that as a main focus each and every day. So that piece is really cool. But it's it's kind of the perfect setup in my opinion, because we get to lean on each other for all the best practices and like I said, making sure we don't run into any potholes and um, but then at the same time, like really own our own jurisdiction and domain.

Yeah. You know what uh Sarah with some of the numbers you you talked about with the license and sold and the projected growth and where you guys are going, that that's aggressive, right? Like that's you guys are moving pretty fast. So how do you start thinking now for the future? Like, what are you building now to support that scale? Um, what departments are you looking at that really need to grow quickly? Yeah. How how did how does a CEO prepare for that?

Yeah. So I think there's a couple of things. Um the first one is finding labor that um has worked in scaled environments before. Um, so I've been highly selective in terms of finding, finding those individuals to join the team because I know, you know, what type of pace they're used to running versus people who are coming in off the street and maybe they've run five locations before or, you know, 10 locations. That's very different than having run, you know, 200 locations or scaled up from 11 to 200. So that's kind of the first thing. And then the second thing is just using the right technology and setting the franchisee up for a mindset of operating multi-unit locations. So some things I'm doing early on is helping people really pencil out their financial plan of how they're funding their first, their second, and their third so that they can move quickly. I think for first-time operators, they get very focused on how am I going to fund the first and then I'll figure out the others. But our team is is standing up, you know, finance advisory services just to it's really just kind of like talking through what the plan is. You know, we're we're not a broker, we're not giving out loans, we're not doing any of that, but it's just being a sounding board for the franchisee to really have them talk through their business plan, some of the assumptions in their business plan, their use of cash. I'm now using a required tool for my franchisees that gives a snapshot of their PL every single day and also future uh cash uh planning so that they know exactly how the cash coming in, how it's going out, and then where they should be putting investments into their business. So it's just really educating the existing operators, you know, with 240 locations sold. Um, I actually have less than 100 operators that, you know, I'm shepherding through this process. So it's really, again, just about making sure they're set up for success and that they're focused on the right thing so that they can go out and and open that many locations. So I'm not trying to get 200 people to open 200 locations. It's about multi-unit operators being able to do it successfully several times over. So that's the way that we're thinking about it. And then of course, you know, I'm hiring in the sales department, in the marketing departments, teacher training, of course, and then you know, looking at um putting more people in around financial planning to help the franchisees think about that component as well.

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. If um one of my favorite questions here, so it's 2026. That's crazy. 2026. Uh 2030, if you and I are are having this, have another interview and you're like, Eric, I can't believe everything's gone so well. Like, what what would what would that have looked like?

Yeah, if we keep at this pace, we will be you know at a thousand units developed. And likely in a handful of international countries, Canada will have operating locations, but definitely Asian Pacific, and you've got interest right now in developing India and some uh some some countries that are abroad. So I think that's what the brand looks like is definitely hitting a thousand units and having a footprint in a handful of countries.

How is uh how is Pilates in South America? Like I I I visit Brazil fairly often just for family, but like yeah, I I haven't seen a lot down there yet. But how is is South America having any specific adoption of Pilates? Have you noticed that?

It is actually. It's I would say a couple, maybe a decade or so behind. You know, it's um there are a lot of mom and pop operators. Believe it or not, there's actually a lot of instructors that are in South America and Brazil, but um still kind of working, you know, out of your traditional studios or you know, garages or houses and things like that, right? So I think that there's there's a big presence there, but it hasn't necessarily taken off quite yet as like a mainstream experience. So there's there's still tons of opportunity to to do that, particularly because as I mentioned, they're about a decade or so behind. And I like when Club Pilates came on the scene, that's that's uh, you know, where South America is. So there's still the opportunity to bring studio Pilates, Pilates addiction to those markets.

Right on. Okay. Last question for you is what what do you what's a challenge or you're facing or something that the industry can help you with? What I mean by that is like, you know, if people inevitably will reach out, what what are some of the key things you like to hear from them about?

Ooh, that's a good question. Yeah, I I think it's it's gosh, I'm not ready for this one, Eric.

No one ever is.

What can people help us with?

I mean, do you need talent? Obviously you need you want to sell more territories, right? But is there any particular um Yeah, like what what's critical for you right now?

Yeah, I think it's just opening up um, you know, additional funding sources for for franchisees. Um, because we are a new business. I mean, we've got the track record, obviously, with the team, but we have a lot of I wouldn't say a lot, but you know, we have some uh financial institutions that are saying, well, we'll we'll wait on the sidelines and wait. So really unlocking additional, you know, cash for the franchisees who are looking to, you know, go out and and finance their businesses. Again, they all come in with very good, you know, financials and very strong financials, but many don't want to use their current assets. They want to, you know, you want to finance the business. So yeah, so that that piece would be a great unlock. But our team, again, is working on that every single day. And and we appreciate the institutions that trust and see what the vision is and and are working alongside our franchisees to make their dreams a reality.

Right on, right on. Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate it. Where um where would you like people to go if they want to obviously find out more website, if they want to reach out to you, like what would you um where would you direct them?

Yeah, they can go to PilatesAddiction.com or follow us on my Pilates Addiction on Instagram, and they can email me at SQL Brands.

So right on. Well, Sarah, thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure and uh enjoy that sunny weather in SoCal. I'm a little bit jealous. Ladies and gentlemen, Sarah Luna.

I appreciate it. Take care. Thank you.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minus. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it, iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it and we want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more, get in touch with me, simply go to the futureoffitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.