Episode 5 | Michael Ramsey, Co-Founder of Strong Pilates

Welcome back to the Sum of Many podcast, guys. I'm Pete. Today’s special guest is someone that a lot of you will know if you're in the health and fitness space. Starting out as a PT, he transitioned into owning a range of F45s here in Melbourne and up in Darwin. Then he started the famous brand Strong. He’s now a dad, family guy, still based here in Australia, transitioning over to the US and settling down in Texas to grow the brand through North America. Very excited to welcome Michael. Welcome, mate.

Thanks for having me.

Mate, to get started, I’ve actually known your name—not you personally—but I knew about you before getting to meet you in person. Never knew your name was Michael at the start. Everyone I knew always referred to you as Ramsey, but I heard about you through a range of personal and professional contacts, and then obviously through our chat with Digital Stack and everything like that.

But I wanted to step back—looking through your career, I found it fascinating that you used to be a personal trainer at Belgravia. We’re really passionate about PTs here. Can you touch on how you got into that, transitioning from your marketing career, and talk about that time in your life?

Yeah. Belg Gravier, Windy Hill. We’re both Essendon boys, aren’t we?

Yeah, mate.

It was a really interesting one. I started lifting weights at about 15—that was the youngest you could get a membership at Windy Hill Fitness Centre. I just loved it. Fell in love with it and ended up doing my PT course through high school. So at a very young age, I was a qualified PT by about 18.

It was a bit of a contradiction—I was working at McDonald’s at the same time. Flipping burgers at night and PTing in the morning. But yeah, mate, just fell in love with fitness. I was always mid-tier at sport but enjoyed lifting weights.

Probably similar to yourself—you get hooked on weights and traditional training. I PT’d for a couple of years and kind of fell out of love with it.

What I felt was that I became a bit of a psychologist. You get to know clients really intimately. Later in my fitness career, I discovered a love for group training and energy, but PT for me got stale quickly. I learned the fundamentals—physiology, programming, progressive overload—but after a while I decided to move into marketing. Ended up going back to uni and doing a Masters of Marketing over seven years.

Not seven years—wow, that’s committed. Congrats. laughter

Yeah mate.

It’s funny you mention the psychology part. PTs always remind me of hairdressers—you get them for an hour and they just dump everything on you. You hear everything from their week.

Was that part of the turnoff? Or was it the repetition of routines?

Yeah, probably both. To get results, repetition’s required. It became like Groundhog Day. I’m high energy and like the social aspect, but being locked one-on-one wasn’t for me.

I realized it wasn’t the exact space I wanted to be in, but I still loved fitness. Even while studying, I was still PTing on the side.

It wasn’t until F45 that I could bring everything together.

That’s awesome.

How long did you work at Maccas?

Probably like five years.

Yeah, but what a great place to learn systems.

Exactly. McDonald’s is one of the best franchises. How do you teach a 15-year-old to make nine cheeseburgers in two minutes?

It’s about systems—52 seconds to cook the beef, buns in the oven, then assemble: ketchup, mustard, onions, pickles, cheese, then meat. Done in just over two minutes.

So how do you teach consistency and efficiency? That’s what I took from McDonald’s—and it applies to fitness franchising and tech now.

I was crew member of the month once… I don’t even remember the year. laughter

That’s elite.

It was a contradiction doing McDonald’s and PT, but it taught me a lot.

And going from PT into business ownership—how did you choose F45?

PT is hard to scale—you’re trading time for money. F45 was different.

I was working at a nightclub with my now business partner Mark. He told me about F45—only a few studios existed. He said, “This is the future.”

Next week, we flew to Bondi. Trained there. It was insane—DJ, high energy, packed classes.

Then I ran the numbers. 300 members paying $70 a week—it’s a serious business. The model made sense. It was enjoyable. People got value.

We had no money, so we negotiated two free territories in Melbourne. We leveraged connections—AFL players, media—and made it work.

That’s insane.

We launched with about 30 members. It wasn’t instant success—it was a grind. But slowly classes filled, energy built, community grew.

We also used our nightclub connections—gave influencers free sessions instead of drinks. That helped it explode.

Port Melbourne was our flagship. It won best studio globally three years in a row. We had classes of up to 118 people.

That’s crazy.

Yeah.

From there, we expanded—Melbourne, Geelong, Darwin. Darwin was huge—bigger population per territory.

Managing remotely was tough. You need strong managers and systems.

And F45 obviously exploded—what caused the plateau?

Saturation and cannibalization. Too many studios too close together.

Also, they didn’t adapt quickly enough to trends—strength training, barbells, proper lifting. That’s when I saw the writing on the wall.

So you exited?

Yeah. It shocked the network, but we knew it was right. In hindsight, we timed it well.

Then came Strong.

Yeah. I discovered reformer Pilates while rehabbing an injury. It fixed a lot of my issues—knee pain, back pain.

Then I saw the “rowformer”—a rower attached to a reformer. It combined cardio and Pilates.

We went to the US, tried it, and loved it. Then we acquired rights and built the brand from there.

Now it’s strength, conditioning, and Pilates combined.

And the branding?

I actually bought the Instagram handle “Strong” years earlier. One-word handles are valuable.

When building the brand, it just made sense. The workout makes you feel strong—physically and mentally.

Now people say “I’m going to Strong,” which was always the goal.

How big is the business now?

About 70 studios in Australia, 108 globally across 14 countries.

Next year, around 60 new openings.

That’s huge.

Yeah, but franchising is hard early. 0–20 is the toughest.

It’s about building hype and picking your moments.

And growth?

We’re still bootstrapped. Franchises fund growth.

A lot of franchisees come from being members. Over 50% are multi-site owners.

Systems are everything—training, operations, marketing.

And the US expansion?

Mark moved there first—big sacrifice. Now we’ve got momentum.

The US is massive—more density, more money, bigger market.

Studios there are launching strong—over $1M annualized from day one.

That’s wild.

Yeah.

Globally, some markets like the Middle East have been incredible. Japan was harder—we had to adjust intensity and programming.

What’s driving the Pilates boom?

Science around longevity and strength training. Social media amplifies it.

Pilates feels good and is accessible—but alone, it’s not enough.

The ideal mix is Pilates, strength, and cardio—which is what we do.

What’s next for fitness?

Higher standards, better experiences, and full tech integration.

We’re building a fully connected system—tracking performance, form, progress, even integrating AI.

That’s the future.

And life outside work?

Being a dad is the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s given everything more meaning.

Love that.

What’s next for you?

Moving to the US full-time. Ready to go.

Final question—how will the Bombers go?

Probably terrible. laughter

Fair.

Thanks so much, mate.

Thanks, mate. Appreciate it. All the best.

This transcript was generated using AI and may contain minor errors or inaccuracies.