The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
The Truth About Fitness Studio Finances Nobody Talks About
If opening your P&L spikes your heart rate, this conversation will feel like a deep breath. We bring on Lauren and Lisa from Active Core Consulting to turn finance anxiety into focused action, showing how simple metrics and a steady mindset can reshape a studio’s future. Instead of treating numbers like a verdict, we use them as a map to smarter pricing, cleaner costs, and clearer decisions that grow profit without chaos.
We start with the emotional side of money—why shame keeps owners from looking at data—and walk through the Finance & Flow approach that pairs mindset with method. From there, we dig into the Owner Pay Roadmap to define what you need to take home, then reverse engineer revenue targets, capacity, and acquisition. On marketing, we set practical guardrails (5–10% of revenue) and press the key question: is the spend producing the right results? With a simple funnel—lead cost, trial conversion, member conversion, retention, LTV—you’ll know where to fix leaks and where to double down.
Operations and payroll come into focus next. We connect offers to staffing and schedule design so your team supports demand sustainably. You’ll hear how a tiny $12.40 per-class improvement rolled into more than $20,000 a year, proving that small, low-risk changes compound. We also cover trimming expenses with a blunt filter—either elevate the customer experience or drive top-line revenue—and show how phases of testing turn “risk” into structured learning that powers scale.
Along the way, Lauren and Lisa share a client journey from heavy credit card debt to multi-studio growth, four months of reserves, and confident marketing investment tied to ROI. If you’re a newer owner with at least a year in business and $250K in revenue, or a multi-location leader chasing optimization, you’ll find a clear, actionable path here. Join the conversation, borrow the KPIs, and start acting like the CEO your studio needs. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a fellow owner, and leave a review telling us the one metric you’ll track this week.
Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://creatitive.com/fit-to-grit-cast/
Something that I hear a lot when it comes to finances and numbers is they don't even know what to look at. It feels a bit scary. There's a lot of shame that comes with knowing or not knowing your finances, the number in your bank account.
SPEAKER_02:And hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Fitch a Gritcast. I am your host, Zach Coleman. And today we have a special podcast. We have two very special guests and some dear friends of mine, Lauren and Lisa. Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about your company, what you do, and how you help studio owners?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So um I am the founder and Lisa was our co-founders of Active Core Consulting. And we help boutique studio owners um build solid financial, operational, and sales foundations so the owner can step out of their operator seat and into their CEO.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect. And what roles do you do you play compared to Lisa?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, great question. So my background is in finance. I worked at like the big four accounting firms and then did pre-IPO at WeWork and uh finished my corporate career doing finance at Equinox. So I definitely bring the finance, the numbers, the spreadsheets, um, the strategy on how to build a business plan that supports the goals that the business owner has, whether that is just to optimize profit from one or two locations, or they have big dreams to go five, 10, 15 locations, get private equity funding. The foundations that we support owners with will help them do uh whatever their bigger goals are. And then after we clean up their PL, give them a business plan with specific goals that are in alignment with what they need to hit to hit their bigger vision goals. Then the client um is handed over to Lisa and the operations team. And then Lisa, I'll let you chime in with Yerville.
SPEAKER_01:So I work really hand in hand with Lauren on these things because we believe that data and FinOps are the foundation of every good studio. So my focus really comes in from my background in all sorts of hospitality and service brands, having been an operator myself in restaurants, retail, gyms. And now our finance and our operations arm both focus on the ability to blend together to provide you with a good plan and also a strategy and your people, your payroll, and all of your pieces working in concert. So I guess what I do is bring the strategy to life with our owners, long-winded way to say that.
SPEAKER_02:So we've we've known each other quite a bit. And I know that you guys work really behind the scenes and work with hundreds of fitness brands. And so with what you've seen with going through this process, what have you seen that most of these studio owners think to be their biggest problems when it comes to their finances?
SPEAKER_00:Just to clarify, are you asking what I think their biggest problems are or what the owners think their biggest problems are?
SPEAKER_02:Well, what the business owners think their biggest problems are. But you what you've seen from that, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, great. I just wanted to make sure uh bit of a different way to respond to the question. So a lot of the times when we work with studio owners, they are starting out with the one to three locations. Um, so from a finance perspective, they probably have a bookkeeper, they get their PL at the end of the month, they go down to the net profit and they're like, oh, I made 5K. Cool. And then the next month they made 3K, the next month maybe they broke even, the next month maybe they lost 7K. And they're kind of just like, okay, well, I guess if I look at my year to date, it's in the black, it's good. So that should be fine. And so it's a big education process that we are really passionate about to help owners understand what their PL is saying and how the PL tells the story of your business to identify operational enhancements or adjustments that we can make to improve, um, to improve the operations, improve the profit in the business. Something that I hear a lot when it comes to finances and numbers is they don't even know what to look at. Um, it feels a bit scary. There's a lot of shame that comes with knowing or not knowing your finances, the number in your bank account. And with that aspect of it, it goes beyond just the strategy that we teach. There's um a whole aspect in our upcoming group coaching program called finance and flow. And the flow in the group program is really helping our owners understand where their money stories have come from. And so if they're having a limiting belief about their business, they may not even consciously know that it's a limiting belief, but subconsciously it's running the show and it's prohibiting the owner from really being able to live up to the potential that they know they have for their business in their community because of a story that was learned through societal programming or their parents growing up. So it's definitely a mix of mindset work around money so they can have like the nervous system capacity to do something that's uncomfortable and probably a little bit new and maybe a little bit scary. And then we help them out with all the strategy so they can see the plan on how to either become profitable or hit that 20, 30% profit margin goal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And 20, 30%, I mean, as you guys know, most studios, most studios try to say, you know, hey, 10% is common in the industry, right? And being a business owner myself, I I can relate to that mindset shift, right? Like kind of how do you look at numbers and that shame that's evolved uh uh around it. So most of these studio owners, I take it that they they kind of try to avoid those numbers. And through the the mindset shifts and your consulting, you help them get a better understanding of not just the numbers, but probably the emotional detachment from we'll say stuff like marketing and stuff like other things that you need to they need to do to help make them more money. Is that sound accurate?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, definitely. And then with marketing specifically, because I know that's your uh zone of genius, a lot of times we feel like studio owners don't even know what's an acceptable amount to spend on marketing based on where their business is at. And so generally, just to give a quick tip, we like to see between five and 10% of revenue spent on marketing. But then the part two, the the second question we have to ask ourselves, okay, if we're bringing in$50,000 a month in revenue and spending between five or eight K a month on marketing, is that five to eight K a month actually driving results in the business that we want to see? And when our studio owners aren't as confident with that answer, Zach, that's where we love to bring you in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I have another video that that came out last week that actually goes through LTV and all that fun stuff. And we did a webinar last month to kind of go over that stuff, right? And so I agree with you. I think that there's just kind of a misunderstanding and but a learning experience revolved around, um, and I think we all have to go through this. I have to go through it as a in my mental state as well, as I've been continuing to grow. Like studio owners, I don't think uh understand the difference between bringing a person in one time versus bringing them in for one year, two years, three years, four years. It's more of a retention model. And how do you really focus on that retention model and understand and build that cash flow necessary to not feel embarrassed?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So it's something I was talking about yesterday with a client. Um, we took her from gosh, about 75 to 100K in credit card debt on top of her SBA loan. And she's been working with us since 2022. And now she has multiple studios. We're planning studio three and studio four. She has about four months of emergency savings in there. And now that we have that cushion, she's able to make bolder, smarter moves in her business. And so the financial security of knowing that you have the right team that you can trust and can execute on the vision that you have, knowing that you have the right systems and the right data to track what's working and what's not working in her business. We are now able to spend a little bit more money in marketing. So I think she's about how about nine to 11%. But we know that that nine to 11% gives her the ROI that we need because we mapped it out. And like we're hitting the goals that we need to get the ROI on the marketing. And so it's, I think, less about, okay, I'm spending this money on marketing, but like what are the results that you want to get from that? And how is that going to impact your PL so you can get the ROI that you need? So really going through that analysis to be clear on the goals and how those goals are going to bring in more revenue into your business is like the, I think, the fun part of what we do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it it is. And it's helping, it's it's those small wins that really help move the needle. I had a client myself who was asking me, um, a studio owner that was asking me if they should stop social media marketing. And I always tell them not to, because I'm like, you need multiple channels. You just need to find what's working. But they were like, we got 110 leads in last month and we sold two people. And I'm like, so if you spent$3,000 on that, is there really a lifetime value to is there really how do we recalculate those numbers to find, like you said, what is working? Um, or maybe it is working, but just from a different mean, right? What does your flow look like? What does your funnel look like that's going to help them sell later um down the process line? And so when it comes to this mental state, I mean, I think that we all we all kind of have it, right? And in certain times of our evolution as business owners, I think it's common. So with this mindset shift, like what are some of the things that uh studio owners can really start to understand with their numbers to help them not just react back to that risk, making more calculated risks, right? Because I also see it from the other end, right? Where it's like they're desperate, so they make uncalculated risks and they spend money the wrong way.
SPEAKER_01:So I think one of the things that Lauren and I talk about all the time is determining what you should do based on what your numbers are telling you. One of the things that we always work with our clients on is how do you read what's going on in your business and create a strategy off of that? And one of the major challenges that I think people tend to encounter that we help people work through, especially in the finance and flow program, is if you see a pattern, when should you address it? How do you address it? And what shifts are financially feasible in your business. Sometimes your goal is two steps down the road. And what we aim to do is help people understand what is the benchmark for revenue or marketing spend or first timers acquired that you need to hit so that you can safely take step two towards that goal. We're not always going to be able to take a seismic shift. Sometimes shifts that are incremental, to your point, Zach, it's small, but it has a big ripple effect. We just worked through a change in schedule for someone. And this change brought on an additional$12.40 of revenue per class. That sounds insubstantial, right? But over the course of a year, it's over$20,000. So I think for us, one of the major things that we hope that people gain and realize, whether they work through this program or they're working on their own, is that they understand that a small shift is still worth it. And you can do something little that doesn't require massive investment. And that small change will help you gain some of the money need to make the larger change. And it's all about doing things in balance, risk and spend in balance with results. And how do you track those? What should you be looking at? We talk about our core KPIs. So one of the things that we really lean into at ACC and our major ideology is you don't need to look everywhere. A few things will tell you really what you need to know to make safe decisions in your business that will progress you forward. And bringing back Lauren's example from before, this client started in 2022. And that feels like a long time. But when you think about the mountain that this person moved in that time, it's incredible. And it was done with calculation, not blindly. And I think that's one of the major strengths that we give to our clients is vision and the numbers that support the vision.
SPEAKER_02:I would say that's one of your differentiators too, because I was just going to kind of say, hey, talk a little bit more about F and F. And is it more than this, this course that you're creating, this program, is it more than just a course? But I would say that that calculation is probably one of your differentiating factors. So can you elaborate a little bit more on some of those maybe other differentiating factors that really separate this program out from, we'll just say some of the competitors out there?
SPEAKER_00:I created this program starting, gosh, two years ago. And it has evolved every year since. And so this is the third iteration of the program. We really dialed up some of the operational areas that Lisa and I have seen to be the most impactful over the last year in our clients. And so if it is one course that takes you through the mindset shift, gets you in, we call it the CEO flow. So you can make smart decisions rooted in your business. And then we give you the strategy behind all of the areas around operations and how to look at them through a data first lens to see what your business can sustain. So we go over I call it the owner-pay roadmap, really getting clear on how much money do you need to live your most fulfilling life? How much do we need to earn from the business? Because sometimes when we are just like, oh, we'll just pay ourselves whatever is left. There's no goal and there's no purpose and there's no intention behind it. And I know this might sound woo-woo and a little silly, but I promise you, once you get clear, I need to make$7,000 a month from the business to support my goals and my family. And once you get in the energy of being clear with your money and what you need to do and you're taking that aligned action, the business and the universe gives you that. It's not going to just like snap in the middle of nowhere, right? But through the program, we give you all the tools to set your business up for success. And so the owner pay roadmap is something that is a really unique thing that we do for our owners. Um, we then go into making sure you're understanding all of the money that you're spending in your expenses. I want all of your expenses to have the ROI of either a kick-ass customer experience or top line driving top line revenue. If it's not doing one of those things, in our opinion, it's not worth the expense. So we really help owners get rid, I guess trim the fat, if you will, on what expenses do not need to be in their business. Um, and then we go into payroll, which is Lisa's topic. So I'll let you uh dive into structure and how we go into the payroll aspects.
SPEAKER_01:I think one of the unique things that we do with payroll is that we also look at structure and need in your business. So let's say you have an unlimited usage intro offer. When you're designing your team and you're figuring out how much you need to spend, you need to operationally be able to support your first-timers having unlimited visits within a given period. So part of what we aim to do through our payroll strategy is define what is needed and what we can afford to do sustainably while also taking it back to all of our operational efficiencies and looking at it through the lens of what is possible with the team you currently have. So again, it's about steps. And you're not going to enter this program or enter any work with ACC and get this big vision without all the small steps that allow you to make it a reality. And I think that's one of the really great things about our program is because Lauren came at it from a place of wanting it to be incredibly digestible and understandable while also incredibly effective. So every time it's operated, it gets stronger. One of the things that was just added that I think also is a point of difference with perhaps some other programs that are available for this type of learning is there's now an additional session in which you're working on these modules, like this payroll module, perhaps, with other people who are sitting in the same situation as you. They are also figuring out what is appropriate for their studio manager. They are also trying to create separation between themselves and everyday operations so that they can lead the vision of the future. And this collaborative work environment that now exists as part of this program also allows you to see other iterations of possibility in real time with real data from real people doing the exact same thing as you across the country. And that's been so valuable to people. They've established relationships and they network, but ultimately when we think about payroll, it's about people and it's about what's appropriate in your market. Yes, what's appropriate to spend in your budget, what we can handle now versus what we can handle in six months versus what we can handle in a year? How do we build an compensation structure that incentivizes growth within role? How do we make sure that you have the operational support that you need to meet your financial goals? If you need to get$7,000 out of this business to live, what top-line revenue do we need to drive? How do we do that through these offers? Every single piece of this program plays into every single other piece of this program. And I think, especially with payroll, it's really us helping people design from a function and operational need perspective, and then helping them understand how do we make that vision a reality in a sustainable way that you can afford. And what are the steps to get you to the end goal if the end goal is not within your grasp right now? So I suppose with payroll, that's how it functions. But part of the unique point of difference in this program is really that ability to gain collaborative insight across the entire program group and work through problems together. So it's not just obtaining advice from us based on what we've learned in our time in industry as well as what we've learned working with other clients. It's working with your peers in real time. And that's such an uplifting experience.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, definitely. I think that like you guys mentioned the community side, right? I mean, we're in an industry, this is about community. So why wouldn't it, why wouldn't you build the business the same way you're trying to preach to your clients is with community? And in there, I think I also found a really good differentiating factor. You guys preach what you do, right? Like Lauren, you talked a lot about, hey, we developed this program, we're on the third or fourth iteration of it. So you're going in basically saying, hey, we're not perfect. We're going in and we're taking our small risk factors, our incremental changes to continue to improve, which shows you not just your guys' transparency on building something phenomenal for your audience, but also that you're learning from past experiences very similar to what you preach to your clients with their finances and pushing their finances forward. So I think it shows overall how this program itself can really benefit the studio owner as they're continuing to grow and they're continuing to evolve. And I know you mentioned a little bit about that community. Who would you say out of because you know, we're in an environment where we have a plethora of different types of studio owners, right? Um, they could be under a million, they could own a brick and mortar by themselves, they could be in a franchise, they could be batic one to three, like you said earlier, um, or even higher. So, what kind of person will say do you think really fits this program the best for? And how can they kind of get on that waiting list to uh take advantage of this program?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, great question. Thank you. We've created the program so it to be really versatile. If you're new-ish to studio ownership, we have a requirement that you have been in business for at least a year and you're already bringing in 250K in revenue. Um, and so if you are on the lower end of those marks, this program is the absolute gem of a program for you to be in. So you can understand what is this foundation that I should have. I know I need to have systems and processes, I need to have better organization for my team so I can stop doing every single thing, but I'm just not really sure what to do. And so this program holds your hand to give you, to give you that foundation so you can start now rather than waiting another couple of years to figure all this out, because the sooner we can get the owner out of the operator seat and into their CEO seat, that is when the business is going to catapult forward because the owner um can think of the bigger visionary things. What is going to drive drive top line revenue? What systems, what processes do we need to create? Um, alternatively, if you're a studio owner that is over that million dollar mark, you have a couple studios and you want to do this program, maybe you feel like you have a really good foundation set in your business. And that is fantastic. For those kind of studio owners piggybacking off what Lisa says, we're not looking to redo your entire business. Like you have something that is working because you have multi-locations, you're over the million dollar mark. But where are those incremental small changes that can amount to a$20,000 change over the course of the year? And we want to help you redefine and optimize those little operational opportunities. And I say opportunities because it's something that is very important to how we work with clients. If you're taking aligned action towards the goals in your business, there is no wrong decision. There is no bad decision. Because even if you make a decision and it doesn't work, we can learn from it. Okay, X, Y, and Z didn't work. So we're gonna shift it this way. And in phase two of the plan, something is going to work. Something of it's probably not gonna work. And then we can shift it again into a phase three. So a lot of times, especially with numbers and finances, people like, oh, I'm bad at this. I made a bad decision with this hire. And it's like, no, you didn't. You'd made the best decision you could at the time. And now you have more information about your business. You have more information about this hire. So now we can just take a step back to see like, is this the best person in my business? And if the answer is no, that just means you've up leveled and that is something to celebrate.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Like you said earlier, it's it's those once you get start start growing and seeing that momentum, it's those incremental vision changes that tend to make the biggest impact.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And we also, for um studio owners that are definitely at the plus a million multi-locations, or a studio owner that's on the newer side that just wants a little bit more hand holding and support, we do have a VIP upgrade where they get calls with Lisa and I and our other coaches throughout the program. So if you're doing the payroll module and you're like, oh gosh, I'm not really sure how to fit this into my business, you just book a call with Lisa and you use one of your VIP calls, and Lisa will dive in deep with you to figure out the payroll structure or whatever question you have. We also have um modules on pricing. So that's a really big topic that people love to get a little bit more one-on-one support to making sure their offers and their pricing is in alignment with their business, their market, and what they need to sustain their financial model.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. I would say that one of the biggest troubles that we see when we start to do marketing for our clients is they don't have uh an offer to either test or they don't have something that's allowing people to come in and have those conversations with them uh appropriately. And so I think that's also highly very important. So yeah, I I appreciate everything that's gone on. I really appreciate Lisa, Lauren, you guys both both coming on. And so why don't we leave off the podcast by telling everyone where they can find you and where they can find this uh the FF program and where they can kind of get their hands on it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the best way to interact with us is on our Instagram, ActiveCore Consulting. We post a ton of educational content. Slide into our DMs if you have any questions or an aha moment you want to share from this podcast, we would love to hear what resonated. And if you're interested in joining the program, we have a workshop on November 10th that will help you understand more what the program is. It's called Financial Flow, How to Build a Profitable Studio. And so not only are we going to give you some quick tips so you could implement them before the year is over, but we'll also have some really amazing bonuses for people on the call to get signed up and committed to the program.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And so if anyone wants uh wants a link to that, go down into the description. Um you can find a link to this program. Um, but again, I I thank thank you both for being on the podcast. You know, this is another episode of the Fitch a Grit cast where we like to turn owners into brand visionaries. I thanks, thank you for everyone for listening.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Zach.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
