All Things Fitness and Wellness

Amber Burke, COO of Burn Boot Camp, on Growth, Innovation, and the Future of Boutique Fitness

• Krissy Vann

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How is Burn Boot Camp differentiating itself in the competitive boutique fitness market? In this episode of All Things Fitness and Wellness, Amber Burke, Chief Operating Officer of Burn Boot Camp, shares insights into the company’s expansion, member engagement strategies, and the evolving landscape of group fitness.

Burn Boot Camp has built a strong community-driven model, focusing on empowering its members while maintaining scalability across multiple locations. In this conversation, Burke details the company’s approach to trainer development, CRM automation, member retention, and the integration of technology in fitness businesses. She also discusses the challenges of maintaining a strong brand identity while scaling a boutique fitness concept nationally.

Key topics covered in this episode:

-The role of automation and CRM in streamlining operations while preserving a personal touch
-Why the trainer-member connection is the foundation of long-term retention
How Burn Boot Camp is adapting to changing consumer expectations in the fitness industry
-Strategies for expanding a boutique fitness brand without losing its core identity
-The impact of technology and digital engagement in modern fitness business models
-Future trends in boutique fitness and what operators need to consider in the coming years

This episode provides valuable insights for fitness entrepreneurs, gym owners, industry executives, and anyone looking to understand the future of boutique fitness business models. Whether you are considering expanding your own fitness brand or refining your member engagement strategies, this discussion highlights key factors that contribute to long-term success.

Subscribe to All Things Fitness and Wellness for in-depth conversations with industry leaders, covering topics like business growth, technology integration, and consumer trends shaping the future of fitness.

Unknown:

Having an effective CRM to be able to automate touch points is critically important, but it will always come back to what is the human element to make sure that not only the trainer that trains me is worth coming back to every single time, right? I don't care how many automations you send me. I don't care how many promos you send me. I don't care how cheap it is if it's not resonating and fulfilling the needs that I have across my fitness journey, that's the value proposition that's never going to actually retain.

Krissy Vann:

This is all things fitness and wellness, uniting industry thought leaders and fit influencers on the mission to inspire innovation and encourage people to live a life fit and well. On today's episode, I'm joined by Amber Burke, Chief Operating Officer of burn boot camp with over two decades in the industry, starting as a strength and conditioning coach before moving into fitness center operations and franchise leadership. Amber has seen the evolution of the fitness business firsthand. She's managed everything from education and sales to driving operational growth at a national level. One element Amber really emphasizes in today's conversation is that she knows that no amount of automation or technology can replace real human connection. In this episode, we get into the role of automation and fitness business success and its limitations, why personal connection and community are still the most powerful retention tools, lessons from Amber's career in scaling operations and building strong teams and what fitness business owners should be focusing on in 2025 before we get to it, be sure to hit like and subscribe. We have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry thought leaders and influencers. I'm your host, Krissy Vann, and this is ATF W I don't think I've ever been so excited to podcast, because not only do I have Amber Burke here from burn boot camp, but for those that are tuning in via video, I think we compliment each other quite well, and I just gave Amber kudos for best setup. So the bar has been set. Everybody that's right. I love it. Thank you. I'm so pleased to have you Amber, and it's one of the things that I really love about the fitness industry. It is so tight knit. People are so willing to move and learn and grow together. And you and I essentially just connected through the LinkedIn universe. We were talking a

Unknown:

little bit before we started recording, and it's I've only ever worked in fitness, and so I always joke that I've never actually had a real job because I just wear spandex every day. But to have seen the growth and the maturity of fitness and now wellness as an industry, as brands, as an opportunity for someone to have financial success and legacy, you know, is pretty incredible. And so it's been very fun. I always say it's like the Forrest Gump effect, where you're just like in the right place at the right time for the the duration of history is I feel like that's kind of how my experience has been in fitness.

Krissy Vann:

I can only imagine, because even for myself, I just stepped into this space in 2022 prior to that, my only experience was as a consumer, and it's been so fascinating to come in after, obviously the huge uprooting of so many individuals through the pandemic, this rebuilding phase, and then really this refocus and unification of messaging that seems to be taking place, and this fresh definition of what's happening in these spaces that it is mental wellness, it is social wellness, it is physical wellness. And to your point, when you started out, it really was just about physique. And you have been in this industry a while, so I'm curious, because I looked at your education, it seems like you were just bullseye. This is where you were going. Where was that seed planted?

Unknown:

Yeah, very early on. So my dad was a PGA golf pro. He ran a club. He wasn't on tour, but he ran a club, and he was a PGA pro, and my I was a dancer. At first, dancing in gymnastics. I started when I was five. I had a lot of energy, and so my parents were like, what do we do with this kid? And I was the third kid. I had two older brothers. They were tired, so they were like, throw her into everything, which I just assimilated to. And so I did dance and gymnastics for a very, very long time. Started playing soccer when I was in sixth grade, did all three for about a year and a half, and then I was like, Okay, I can't do all the I can't be in three places at one time. So I just chose soccer. Loved it. Took that through college. In high school, I ran, I dove, I swim, I did track and field, I played soccer in softball, and then soccer through college. And so I was joked that I went to college to play soccer and happened to graduate. So, you know, within that, it was just, I've just always been very aligned to just not, I wouldn't say fitness, because I didn't know that's really what I was doing, but just movement and sport and competition. And so once I understood, like, what that might look like, it's a job. Then my undergraduate degree is exercise science, and then my master's degree was sports management. And so I do feel very blessed and lucky that I've been able to sustain the same career path for my entire career, because I'm I don't feel like I go to work every day like the fact that they pay. Me to do this, I think is pretty incredible.

Krissy Vann:

That's the absolute goal in life, when you align the passion. And the thing that doesn't surprise me is you ending up in a leadership position, because not only obviously, this is something that you were passionate about and resonated with, but I do feel like what's instilled in you, if you are somebody that is doing athleticism at those levels. Growing up, you learn a lot of leadership skills along the way. So I'm curious for burn Boot Camp, where did your relationship start with them? Because obviously you also have seen your career path grow through the organization.

Unknown:

Yeah, I started as a member, so I love that. Yeah, for three years and I was a member, and then I just thought this has literally changed my life, personally. I think it can change my life professionally. And I had worked in an HP, hblp gym for 11 years. I was very happy. I mean, I was at the top of, kind of probably where I was going to peek out, very successful. Loved it, but there was just something that kind of just was missing a little bit. And I recognized that I was getting that as a member at burn boot camp. And I also recognized just having that hat on every time I walked into the gym. I was like, they are so successful and but I'm still operationally going that could be better, that could be better, that could be better, that could be better. And so I applied for a job that I didn't want. They offered it to me. I turned it down, but then I already had kind of prepared, like a three step process of of something that I had kind of noticed from a sales culture perspective, that I felt like I could really impact, that I could turn into some ROI. And so they took a bet on me, and and six years later, or three years later, now as a team member. So I've been with burn for six years total, but that's that's the entry story, and to being with burn. So

Krissy Vann:

it's interesting. I just had a conversation very adjacent to this, with Kathleen Ferguson, of course, 360 where she was really emphasizing, obviously, the labor shortages that we're seeing these days and truly understanding the importance of cultivating who's in your doors, and sometimes even your clients, are the best champions and potentially the best staff that you can have, especially boutique, it's such a focus on close knit, on community. Truthfully, what I feel like a lot of HV LPS or different models are trying to emulate now is that essence that's found in boutique walls. I don't want you to give away your secret sauce, but do you recall what those elements were that you noticed about their business model, that you thought that they could do differently? Yeah,

Unknown:

absolutely. And it's no secret, and we laugh about it, but no one actually asked me to join. So for 18 months, because I was doing, I was turning 40. I know I don't look like it, but I was turning 40, it's great for ourselves. I was doing a bodybuilding show, because who doesn't want to get on stage when they're 40 in a bikini and, you know, do things. It was like a bucket list thing. And so I was kind of, I just done it, and I was deciding, did I want to do it again? And all the girls in my neighborhood were like, You have to come to burn boot camp. I was like, I don't know. I'm kind of a gym rat, like, I just like to go to a dirty gym and pick stuff up and put it down. And they were like, No, you're gonna love it. And of course, I loved it, and so. But what was really funny is, like, no one ever asked me to join, but it was the most beautiful community that I had really been a part of it was what I didn't know I needed or wanted. And so I just kept we had free Saturdays. So I kept coming to free Saturdays, because, by the way, I work in a gym, like, I could work out free if I wanted to. So I kept coming to free Saturdays. And then I bought a voucher, and then I bought a Groupon, and then I bought, like, I just kept buying all these different things. No one ever asked me if I actually wanted to be a member. And so when I interviewed, I gave that I did a PowerPoint, I gave that presentation, and I was like, here's, here's some things that I think, if you're not even asking people to join, and you have this amount of success, let's just start asking, and then let's start talking referrals, and then let's start talking retention. And so you know that element, and then, you know, we have nutrition, we have active wear, we have bird on demand. There's other revenue streams that just that concept kind of goes into and then just intentionally running the business we you mentioned passion. We are very much inside out. We have most of our franchise partners were members that went this changed my life personally. How can it change my life professionally, too, and from a financial legacy perspective? So when we have that, it's really easy for us to kind of turn that in. It was easy for me to go, it's so hard to teach passion. I can't teach passion, but I can teach process. I can get you the right tech platforms. I can make sure that you understand operations. So you know, being able to just kind of push all of that together has been really, that's really been the secret sauce, I guess. But it's not secret. We didn't reinvent the wheel. We just kept pushing it forward well.

Krissy Vann:

And sometimes you need a friendly face that is going to tell you what your blind spots are, and it sounds like that's exactly what you did. And then you. Like this is how I can help you grow and grow it has 375 gyms across, 41 states, 44 There you go. Not a small feat, but the thing that you mentioned in there was the fact that a lot of the franchise operators were members. And so we know that boutique fitness, the real special element is the community that is fostered in those walls. So when you're growing and on this path of expansion, how in the boutique world do you make sure that that remains at the core when you are going through this expansion, how is it not lost sight of Yeah,

Unknown:

I mean, it has to be a system and a process. You know, you can't scale tribal knowledge, right? And I think that when we think about, how do you systemize passion, how do you systemize community, it comes down to process and accountability, and, you know, just validating what you expect, but doing it in a way where it's it's very rewarding, and you almost have that instant gratification. So when you have a trial member come in and you execute, we call it the blue carpet experience, because everything is blue at burn but when we execute the blue carpet experience in the right way, and each and every one of those steps is intentionally designed to be a touch point that makes this person feel special. But it's not a touch point that is just made up. It's not busy work. It's not it's very intentional on understanding why they're there, how they mustered up the courage to walk through the door, what they want to get out of it, and then ultimately, are we providing that to them? You know, in a way, whether it's subjective or objective and qualitative or quantitative, are they seeing that and able to really make a decision at the end of their first camp to go. This is the answer to what I was looking for. And so if you can, it's really, you got to create a system and a process that your people can execute, and then you measure but when it's done intentionally and with a true sense of desire to change someone's life. And we hear that all the time in fitness, I think community has become this buzzword. And, you know, sometimes I'm like, just using that too much, like, show me what that really means for your brand. I think each of us really do feel like we have a community, but I will argue that ours is pretty strong well,

Krissy Vann:

and there's to your point, there's processes put behind that, but I think it can be difficult for those that are doing the franchise model to keep that consistency in the brand while also balancing the entrepreneurial spirit of those that are heading up the franchise. So how do you kind of balance that to ensure those core values do remain and so to your point, the blue carpet remains blue, and you don't, all of a sudden have someone that's like, well, maybe, like, a little splash of red over here, keep that in

Unknown:

check. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it's, you know, profit and culture. There's, there's a book you can read about it, but it's like, that's really where you have to find what is profit and culture? What is the balance of profit and culture mean to you? What does it mean to your brand? I would say, you know, as a as a boutique fitness brand versus other franchise concepts or quick service restaurants like profit and culture balance is very different for that type of franchise versus our type of franchise, where we have to understand that the balance of profit and culture has to has to authentically transmit through our team members, and it also has to authentically translate to our members, because at the end of the day, we're all small businesses in a franchise, right? And so every single small business entity is there for their own financial legacy I like to call generational wealth and health, not only for them as individuals and business owners, but for their communities, because most of them are very, very owner operator, tied to their community. And so there is this inherent desire for their to deliver a product or a service that truly represents them as people, but then also gives that person the opportunity to have some sort of reward or result from from experiencing your product or service. And so it almost doesn't always have to come from us to hold people accountable to the franchise brand. You know, they really do align with it and want to do it themselves. And of course, we have rogue people that that have this idea. They're like, this is the best idea ever, right? And sometimes that turns into an alpha test or a beta test, and we either prove it right or we prove it wrong, and if it's right, then we scale it. And if we don't, then we sunset it, and we say, maybe we'll revisit this. And so through our franchise Advisory Council and other committees, we do bring people in, because I think there's a collaboration where if I feel like I'm part of the conversation, and I get to be heard and I get to be part of it, it doesn't always feel like we're just dictating to you as a brand. And so you know, balancing that, and at the end of the day, they're for profit businesses, and you can't be afraid to make a profit, because that's what you bought into. And you want to make sure that your team members understand that profitability is very important, because that's what gives me the ability as a franchise partner to give you a raise, to have a career path for you, to go invest in another location. And if I can do that, then that also. Helps to Kathleen's point about, you know, the revolving door in fitness, for sure, there's there's a longevity factor that comes in. And if you're a trainer and listen, I trained for a really long time, it's hard. It's hot on your body, it's hard on your voice, it's hard on your mind. And at some point you want to graduate out of that and say, What is my career path look like. And so for our franchise partners, we want to be able to have that that element too. And so the closer they are to the brand and executing the processes, the closer they are to seeing that kind of legacy and future build out

Krissy Vann:

without question. And I love that you highlight that collaborative approach of you know, perhaps this idea all of a sudden becomes a beta test. Because, to your point, a lot of people simply want to be heard, but your own experience was you flagging a blind spot that they hadn't noticed, and then they realized there was a better way. And to that exact effect, the individuals that are on the ground with their locations and different demographics coming in the door, I'm sure they flag things where you're like, Huh? We hadn't quite looked at it through that lens, and it can be so effective. I'm curious on that note, you obviously have such a community that is in your ecosystem in real time in 2025 which means, you know, the temperature check of the boutique fitness industry at this point. So I'm curious, how are things looking in boutique fitness right now, in your point of view, I understand obviously burn boot camp has been on this path of growth, which is fantastic to see. But what's the climate?

Unknown:

Yeah, I think the climate for for us is burn is is moving pretty well. We actually just got some some financials back in comparing 23 to 24 and we're seeing our median and averages move up by percent. And that, as that denominator changes, we're still seeing growth, and so I think it is indicative of the boutique fitness industry for people and brands that really have a fundamental understanding of who they are and what they do. I think where brands and the industry in general gets a little squirrelly is when we start to try to be everything to everyone and listen. We've been we've done that in certain instances, but I think if you can come back to the fundamental non negotiable parts of who you are as a brand, then you know who your audience is, and if you need to expand your audience, one of the things I learned recently at an athletic summit back in January was they talked about the unexpected customer, And it resonated with me, because I think not only for our franchise development before, for our franchise partners, if we kind of get stuck in who our audience is, it's limiting for us to be able to grow as a brand, and the results of being in boutique fitness and so, you know, boot camp in general can be very off putting to some people. It just sounds hard.

Krissy Vann:

People don't like hard. For some people, if they've never dabbled, right, they're like, yeah, and

Unknown:

bring it on. But for a lot of people, they're like, No, thank you. So how do we overcome that, and how do we speak to those audiences, and how do we do it a little bit differently? And where are we speaking to them? Are we in the right platforms? And, you know, are we using the right data from a pre positioned marketing perspective to make sure that I can quell some of those initial anxieties around joining a boot camp for someone who who truly does need it. And so, you know, I think for the for the industry in general, you're seeing a lot of those conversations about community, about authenticity, you know, strength in general is probably one of the biggest things that we do really well for women, we started as a women's only brand, and then post COVID, we went to women and families, but, you know, we're now investing in 110s 120s 130s 140s and 150 pound dumbbells, because we've got women in our gyms that need those. And I think that's probably one of the best markers of our commitment to developing and designing fitness protocol for women is when our gyms are going our women need the 150s and like I got you, we'll be there for you. So it's pretty interesting. Can

Krissy Vann:

you elaborate a little bit about how you've pivoted marketing strategies, especially going from targeting women only and then expanding to families like what have been the most effective forms of outreach for you, especially, I love that you highlight that because we talk about gym timidation all the time. Every single conference is about the other 80% and you kind of have this added extra hoop because you have to do a little bit of education before they even walk in the door that they're going to be able to walk the next day. I mean, maybe,

Unknown:

maybe it depends on if it depends on what camp was. That day was leg and plyo. You were not walking the next day. The stairs might be challenging. This little bag of Epsom salt.

Krissy Vann:

Are you really, yeah. Oh, that is brilliant marketing. Yes, I love that. You

Unknown:

know, it's funny. You asked. I don't know that. I would say that we've pivoted. I would say that we've leaned in. I think when, when we look at our differentiators, so we have free childcare in all of our gyms, which has always been a thing, and it's always been one of the biggest differentiators, some of our competitors are now adding that and exploring that as a as a service. But you know, for us, it's always. Been the foundation, because our initial marketing was fit community of moms. And as we know, moms drive most of the purchasing behaviors anyway, across any industry. And so it's really just continuing to lean into that and then focusing on their ability to scale us. Because if they are the decision maker and they have the knowledge and the experience to go. This is my place. You need to come with me. Husband, you need to come with me. Friend, you need to come with me. So I would say, leaning into who we are, fundamentally making sure that our differentiators and our amenities are represented in our marketing materials, and that the events that we produce, whether it's a national event or a hyper local event continues to reflect those items of things. I mean, listen, people join gyms for results, so you always have to constantly come back and say, Hey, we understand that you're coming to burn boot camp because you have a certain amount of results, but they always, always stay for the experience in the community. And so I'm not trying to teach and give you insight on my Instagram about all of the amazing community and things I gotta, I gotta capture the attention that you have for the four seconds before you scroll. I gotta, I gotta harness that enough to have you come in then we can, we can do all the blue carpet, you know, experience and community stuff kind of on the back end. So I think it's again, kind of just coming back to knowing who you are, what you do, who your audience is, and then who your audience isn't, and how much penetration do we want to get into that audience, and how do we speak to them? It's in that four seconds to get them to fill out a form, or, you know, to sign up for a trial so

Krissy Vann:

well. And then to your point, once you have them, that retention piece becomes so important. And I really appreciate that your own journey and your own story was kind of like, hey, no one's even asked me to join, which is hilarious. They're lucky that you just kept on coming because of the product. But when it comes to that retention piece, huge conversation almost everywhere we go these days is about leveraging technology. And I'm just curious for burn boot camp. Are there any things that you've implemented on the tech side to kind of harness that retention piece, or reiterate to your members different offerings that you have on top?

Unknown:

Yeah, I mean, it's a work in progress. Look, Tech is a journey that's never ending. It's, for sure, a marathon. But you know, one of the things that we did a couple years ago is we started cleaning up our data, because trash in is trash out, and you can't make effective decisions if you don't really know what's going on. So we did a really big cleanup with our POS system to make sure that we really, truly understood fundamentally, who our members were and what they were buying in terms of membership mix and data. So next we built we partnered with another company, and we built an ODS our operational data store, and so now we have all of our API connections coming in from our primary vendors into one space. And I always think of it like The Matrix, and it does things that I can't even explain, and then the output is through, you know, demo, it's through our dashboards. And so it gives us and our franchise partners, insights, and the dashboards are, we're refining them all the time as the data continues to flow, as we have more API connections, as we partner with more people. And so I think this is probably the biggest evolution that I've experienced over the last probably three years, since I've been at burn, is identifying those partners who truly are subject matter experts in gathering the right behavioral analytics of our customers to help us decide, what do I need to do? When do I need to do it? How do I need to say it for the biggest return? Right? Because I've been in the industry for a long time, I could guesstimate some things right? I could give you some general markers of a behavior, a set of behaviors that might indicate somebody's going to terminate their membership, but it's all conjecture. And so now what we've done is we're really being very intentional about the partners that we have to give us the data that we need that can be truly actionable, and then to make it as efficient as possible. So having an effective CRM to be able to automate touch points is critically important, but it will always come back to what is the human element to make sure that not only the trainer that trains me is worth coming back to every single time, right? I don't care how many automations you send me. I don't care how many promos you send me. I don't care how cheap it is if it's not resonating and fulfilling the needs that I have across my fitness journey, that's the value proposition that's never going to actually retain. So you have the data so important to make the decisions, but then your actionable steps have to really, truly resonate with your customer and with your member in order to get them to stay and so that's really, again, work in progress. And it sounds like we have it all together, and we kind of do, but I'm super excited by the end of this year, we've got some really great projects in the works right now, maybe we'll do this again next year, and I can tell you all the data.

Krissy Vann:

I love a little nugget that just hooks me in to be like, we're gonna have to circle back. And I've actually made it a habit of setting reminders in my phone to follow up, so I will send you. Down Amber, if you don't find me first, and then we can revisit because it is so true. I mean, the technology space right now is beyond fascinating, because us, even as humans on a global scale, seeing how rapid it is changing in our own daily life use and then how applicable that can be to run business more efficiently, to see those blind spots. But what I loved the most that you highlighted there was exactly the the most basic part that I think is such, the fundamental part of boutique, and it is the instructor. And at the end of the day, anyone that has endeavored, because I'm much like you, when you were like, I get into like the rest of the gym. The better for me. Telephones on like, do I? Do I get a tetanus shot after maybe, but myself, and then I would sprinkle in different because I would get a the community piece, but just having somebody push you in a different way, all to your point about needing the Epsom salts at the end of the day, I might not be able to do that to myself, but it really comes down to the individual that's welcoming you in the door. And that's kind of who as a consumer, you're investing in the most when you have those repeat visits. I mean, we see people that book classes specifically for their specific instructors. So I'm just glad you highlighted the human element, because in the land of AI Tech's gonna solve so much. I don't know, maybe they'll be robots, but, well,

Unknown:

it's like, you know, it's, it's no different than what we use supplements for, right? Like whole food and supplements, you can't live just on one or the other. Unfortunately, you have to have both. And that's the way I look at AI and tech in general, is the whole food of what we do from a community perspective. For the we call them burn ambassadors, they're our front of house representation, but they're standing at the door. Part of our process is they are literally standing in front of the desk at the door, high fiving everybody as they come in as that initial touch point, whether you want it or not, I'm going to be smiling in your face, welcoming you and giving you a high five before you even step on the floor as you're even walking into the lobby, and just there's, there's power in that, and then there's power in the reminder that I might get as a text message if I haven't come in to camp for 10 days to go, I need to go back in and see Leah. You know what I mean. So it's like there has to be this really true, intentional combination of whole food and supplement, of working through your business processes and having your AI work for you, it has to all come together. That

Krissy Vann:

is a fantastic analogy. As we start to slowly wrap our conversation here, obviously we're heading into HFA. Everyone's going to see each other, and then, before you know it, it's already going to be spring summer, and we're going to be doing our wrap up 2025 countdowns, because the years go so quickly. So as you do, I know, but as you do look ahead, I'm curious about top challenges and top opportunities for the boutique fitness industry right now. What do you see those as? Yeah,

Unknown:

I mean people. People are your hardest thing, to scale, to replicate, to maintain. They move they have babies, they get married, they, you know, go do something completely different. So I think people is always going to be one of the number one factors, especially in small business and franchising in general, because each market, each community, you know, they have their own challenges, just with people in general. So people is always going to be something that's an opportunity, and that's a challenge, for sure. And then I think, to your point about tech and the man, it is lightning fast, and it is lightning fast to be the next best thing, and is lightning fast to fail and go, oh shoot, we just spent a bunch of money on something that is irrelevant at this point. And so I think for us also at burn, it's really under getting our tech stack in place. It's getting our tech roadmap really wrapped into something that from our app to our burn on demand, our digital community, our in gym community. It's really integrating all of these things together, like I said, with the whole food and the supplements. You know, how are we? How are we really putting these things together to where they they seamlessly work. It reduces friction for the customer or the member. It doesn't increase it, you know, and that way we can see that quantified in profitability, higher higher retention rates, lower attrition rates, better acquisition over time, because the onboarding process is more seamless and less complicated. So those are the big things, I think, for us and even the industry in general that we all gotta pay attention to. Well,

Krissy Vann:

Amber, I kind of mentioned in the lead up there, the HFA is around the corner, and I understand that you're going to be speaking as well. I'm going to have this up on quick turnaround so share with people where they can come and see you, and what's going to be the focus for yourself that you're going to be driving home and packing people away with that info to take to their businesses.

Unknown:

Yeah, so we will be presenting on March 12, at 130 we are in the I think it's like a boutique fitness track, or it's a new track that HFA is doing this year, and it's really operationalizing the success of burn boot camp. And so I'm bringing Matt Morris. He's my VP of fitness. COVID. I'm bringing Trisha Pena, she's my VP of marketing, and then I'm bringing Melanie Skinner. She's a franchise partner, but she's also the chair of our franchise Advisory Council, and so she's going to represent who we service. So I think it is going to be a really cool discussion. We're going to talk about our non negotiables. There's three non negotiables that run our business, and there's a fourth that supports it, and so it's sales, product, service and data. And so if we don't have those things working together, it's going to be really hard to scale and see that profitability.

Krissy Vann:

I will make sure as well, to put all that info in the show notes. You know, we started this conversation out where this was the destination for you. You may not have necessarily known it would be burn boot camp, but you knew that you were going to be in this industry, and this path has taken you to great height so far. And we talked about how being so active in sport, growing up, you learn all these really incredible leadership lessons that then become applicable to business when you're an adult. So now that you have all this extra wealth of experience behind you. I'm curious, what is your biggest leadership lesson that you can impart on our audience? Mine,

Unknown:

personally, and I think it's something that probably a lot of people struggle with, is the idea of transparency and vulnerability and leadership. I am a very much just head down, bullish, kind of stubborn. You know, nobody can't fail. Failure is not an option, and sometimes that resonates. And it can be off putting. It can be a little bossy. And so for me personally, my journey has really been to understand that vulnerability where I'm actually transferring the weight that I'm carrying to appear to help me do that is okay. It doesn't mean that I'm weak. It doesn't mean that I'm, you know, incompetent. It just means that I have awareness enough to say I'm not going to be able to do this on my own. I need your help, right? Like, that's the vulnerability that I'm still learning 100% work in process, progress, and then the the difference for just transparency. So sometimes you may not like what I'm saying, but I'm going to communicate it to you, and I'm going to be transparent with you about what's going on if you're my team member, if you're a direct report, just so you have clarity and understanding. Because that clarity and understanding, while you may not like it is is better than the narrative that you could potentially be creating on your own, or that your office could be creating on their own. So it's really those are the two hardest lessons that I think that I've that I'm learning. I wouldn't even say that I've learned.

Krissy Vann:

I think those are the most beautiful lessons in life. Are the ones where they are always a work in progress, because there's never really a goal or a destination. There's refinements and tweaks. We're much like an Apple iPhone always seem to have a little bug and an update necessary, but it's having awareness, right? Sometimes you gotta replace the screen in water. It all happens, but I think that awareness and recognition is so key. Amber, I am so glad we connected, and I truly look forward to meeting in person. This is what the industry is all about sharing learning, people willing to share their growth experiences. So thank you so much for sharing your time with me, for having me. It's been great. You've just listened to the All Things fitness and wellness podcast hosted by Krissy Vann. Be sure to hit like and subscribe. We have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry insiders and influencers. Together, we're on a mission for everyone to live a life fit and well the.

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