94. Ellen Latham, Creator of Orangetheory Fitness
Ali on the Run Show
Ali Feller
4.9 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2018
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“I finally thought, ‘Why not me? Why not give it a shot?’” —Ellen Latham
Ellen Latham is the creator and co-founder of Orangetheory Fitness. Orangetheory is the fastest-growing fitness franchise in the world: It's currently in 18 countries, it brought in more than $700 million in sales last year, and Ellen and her team recently celebrated the opening of the brand's 1000th studio. Of course, the road to super success hasn't been simple for Ellen. Before she was the founder of Orangetheory, she was a single mom who had just gotten fired from her job and had to figure out what to do next. On this episode, Ellen, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL, reflects on those challenges, how she decided to become an entrepreneur, and what makes OTF special. She also talks about her greatest successes and scariest failures and growing pains.
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What you’ll get on this episode:
- How Ellen made her way into the fitness industry (1:50)
- How being a single mom who got fired from her job led Ellen to create Orangetheory, and how she bounced back from extreme discomfort (2:40)
- Whether Ellen always knew she would be a huge success, and how she learned to be an entrepreneur (8:45)
- What Ellen says are the most important decisions she’s made to grow Orangetheory to become the fastest-growing fitness franchise in the world (16:00)
- Why Orangetheory’s motto is “More Life,” and what that means to Ellen (22:30)
- What a day in the life of Ellen Latham is like (26:00)
- Ellen shares her future goals for Orangetheory (28:00)
- Ellen’s advice for first-time Orangetheory-goers and for women who want to pursue careers in the fitness industry (30:45)
- What keeps Ellen up at night (33:45)
What we mention on this episode:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of The Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by Aftershocks. |
| 0:08.5 | Welcome to The Alley on the Run Show. I'm your host, Allie Feller, and as you may know, |
| 0:13.1 | I love Orange Theory Fitness. So I'm beyond thrilled to welcome Orange Theory's founder, Ellen |
| 0:19.6 | Laytham to the show. Today Orange Theory is in 18 countries across the world, and it just celebrated |
| 0:26.0 | the opening of its 1,000th studio. More than 700,000 people call Orange Theory their fitness home, |
| 0:33.5 | and in 2017 alone, Orange Theory brought in more than $700 million in sales. |
| 0:39.9 | But of course, behind every successful entrepreneurial journey is a story, and Ellen's is so inspiring. |
| 0:46.1 | She wasn't always at the helm of a multi-million dollar company. Her story starts when she was a |
| 0:51.2 | single mom who got fired from her job and had to figure out what to do next. I'll let her tell the rest. |
| 1:02.5 | All right, Ellen Laytham, welcome to The Alley on the Run Show. I am thrilled to have you on |
| 1:07.3 | the show today, so welcome. Well, thank you very much. It's thrilled to be on with you. |
| 1:12.4 | All right, so you know better than anyone how any good workout starts, which is with a warm up. |
| 1:17.8 | So warm us all up. Tell us who you are, where you're from, and what you do. |
| 1:22.9 | Okay, well, my name is Ellen Laytham, and I'm the creator and co-founder of Orange Theory fitness. |
| 1:29.6 | I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Our corporate office is in Boca Raton, Florida, and I'm actually |
| 1:35.6 | there right now speaking to you. Amazing. Well, like I said, I am thrilled to have you here. |
| 1:40.4 | Anyone who listens to the show is well versed in hearing about Orange Theory because I talk about it |
| 1:45.6 | all the time. I love the workouts. And I want to go back to the very beginning. Was young Ellen Laytham's |
| 1:52.2 | goal to be the founder and creator of the fastest growing fitness franchise on the planet? |
| 1:57.3 | Ah, not really. Okay, my father was a Fizzette teacher, so I was always interested in fitness and |
| 2:07.2 | exercise. I mean, when you have a father who's a Fizzette teacher, you're just going to be weaned |
| 2:11.6 | on that. And that's what I wanted to be. So I actually graduated from high school, and that's what I |
... |
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