Amber Martinez - Scaling Culture: The 21% Profit Strategy Most Fitness Brands Miss

·51 min·5 clips

Amber Martinez shares how companies dedicated to people and culture achieve 21% stronger profitability.

This episode features host Eric Malzone interviewing Amber Martinez, Brand President and Operating Partner at GEM Wellness Brands, about scaling culture in fitness businesses. Martinez brings over two decades of experience, having started as a front desk associate and risen through roles at Crunch Fitness, YogaWorks, and Pound. She explains her "fixer" reputation, turning around underperforming gyms by focusing on people, experience, and process, encapsulated in her REPS acronym (Relationships, Experiences, Processes, Success metrics). Martinez argues that operations and sales should not be siloed, as both are essential for member acquisition and retention. She emphasizes that scaling culture requires making it a core business strategy, not an afterthought, citing data showing companies focused on people and culture achieve 21% stronger profitability. Tactically, she details implementing defined company attributes at core, leader, and executive levels, along with clear standards for professionalism, accountability, and communication. Martinez advocates for consistent training, rewards, and internal promotion tracking, treating people strategy with the same analytical rigor as financial planning. She shares that her team at GEM formed a committee to codify these non-negotiables and created interview scorecards to hire for cultural fit. An interesting insight is her belief that systems should support people, not run the business, and that a "generalist" understanding across all business functions is key for leaders. She notes that culture is often the first thing leaders abandon under pressure, but staying true to these commitments drives faster growth. The conversation is conversational and educational, blending personal anecdotes with actionable business frameworks. This episode is ideal for fitness studio owners, franchise operators, and executives seeking practical methods to grow while preserving company culture. Listeners solely interested in fitness trends or workout science might find it less relevant.

As heard by us

A practical discussion of culture, standards, and growth for fitness businesses.

It frames growth as a people-and-culture problem rather than a spreadsheet exercise, and it keeps coming back to the idea that standards only matter if they hold when pressure rises.

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Why you'd press play

You want the culture talk that actually reaches the numbers.

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