The Future of Fitness
With Mike Gray, President of Rumble Boxing and Former President of Club Pilates
It can be hard to establish reliable culture and community in a standardized physical environment. Mike Gray describes how he does so across his franchises, and what makes for good franchise management.
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ServiceChannel
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar.
The podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
On today’s episode, we talk with Mike Gray, President of Rumble Boxing. As a relatively new boutique HIIT fitness center, Rumble has been a franchised brand for 3 years and has over 80 studios and counting.
About the Guest
Mike Gray is a veteran fitness professional with almost 30 years of experience in the fitness industry and holds 19 national fitness certifications. He was born in California and lived all over the US growing up. He started his career in fitness between high school and college at Family Fitness Center, making $4.25 an hour as a floor instructor. Family Fitness Center was bought by what is now 24-hour Fitness, where Mike spent much of his early career rising through the ranks to become District Fitness Manager. He transitioned to UFC Gyms, where he finished as Director of Operations. In 2017, Mike joined Club Pilates as the Vice President of Sales before transitioning to Senior Vice President of Operations in 2018 and then President in 2021. During his time at Club Pilates, he oversaw all departments to grow Club Pilates into the household name it now is at 1,000+ global locations. Following this success, he was named President of Rumble Boxing, Xponential’s boxing and strength training workout where he is focused on driving all areas of the business to grow it into another household name in boutique fitness.
“One of the most intriguing things about what we do in a boutique model is it comes back to that culture, right? Because you’re walking into a small space it’s hard not to socialize and get to know the person next to you and have those conversations and build relationships. And as you build those relationships, that helps in the retention process, too.”
— Mike Gray
TIMESTAMPS
** 00:56 – About Club Pilates
** 01:34 – About Rumble Boxing
** 01:58 – Mike’s journey
** 06:36 – The North Star of boutique fitness
** 10:27 – Design and construction across franchises
** 17:54 – Building quality assurance
** 27:37 – What’s next for the consumer?
** 31:37 – Future thinking
** 35:58 – Where to find Mike
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