#071 Building the Foundation Before You Chase the Growth with Jessica Yarmey

Built For This Podcast, with Carly Pepin

August 10, 2026 by

Carly Pepin

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In this episode of Built For This, Carly Pepin sits down with Jessica Yarmey, President of Squeeze Massage, to explore what it really takes to prepare a franchise for sustainable, long-term growth.

With more than 25 years of experience across brands including Burger King, Gold's Gym, Club Pilates, and KickHouse, Jessica has seen franchise growth from almost every angle. Now, following Squeeze's acquisition by wellness conglomerate GoSaga, she's bringing those lessons into a new chapter, with ambitions to grow the brand from a relatively small footprint into hundreds of locations.

But Jessica isn't interested in chasing location numbers for the sake of growth. She shares why her immediate priority has been strengthening the foundation first, from changing pricing and evolving the service offering to replacing the CRM, reshaping elements of the culture, and creating much closer communication with franchise owners and general managers. Her goal is to make sure the business can genuinely support its next stage before accelerating expansion.

Throughout the conversation, Carly and Jessica also explore the personal side of leadership. Jessica shares how feedback from hundreds of franchisees during her time at Club Pilates became an unexpected form of personal development, forcing her to challenge her thinking, communicate decisions more clearly, and become comfortable making difficult calls.

She also reflects on leaving a successful CMO role to launch KickHouse during COVID, navigating an earlier-than-expected exit, and why she continues to deliberately choose opportunities where she has something new to learn.

Whether you're scaling a franchise, acquiring a business, leading an organization through change, or preparing for your next stage of growth, this episode is a candid reminder that sustainable scale doesn't begin with moving faster. It begins with building something strong enough to support where you want to go.

Key Themes

Build the Foundation Before Accelerating Growth

Jessica has ambitious plans for Squeeze, but her focus is first on getting the model right at 25 locations, then 50. The systems, customer experience, franchisee relationships, services, and operations all need to become repeatable before the business can sustainably support hundreds of locations.

Culture Is Defined by How Values Are Lived

Values on paper aren't enough. Jessica explains how transforming culture sometimes means changing how existing values show up inside the organization, rewarding people who embody them positively, and being willing to make difficult decisions when behaviors consistently undermine the culture you're trying to create.

Leadership Should Keep Developing You

Jessica sees each stage of her career as an opportunity for personal development. From receiving constant feedback from franchise owners to deliberately stepping into unfamiliar leadership roles, she believes growth happens when you're willing to keep testing yourself, learning, and evolving.

About Jessica Yarmey

Jessica Yarmey is the President of Squeeze Massage, taking on the role following the brand's acquisition by wellness conglomerate GoSaga. With more than 25 years of experience building and growing major brands, Jessica has worked across organizations including Gold's Gym, Burger King, and Club Pilates, where she served as CMO during its rise to become the world's largest Pilates franchise.

She later founded KickHouse Fitness, growing the concept from zero to 30 locations before its acquisition by Mayweather Boxing + Fitness in 2022. Today, Jessica is focused on strengthening Squeeze's foundations, supporting its franchise network, and preparing the brand for significant national expansion while making its tech-enabled approach to self-care accessible to more people.

Memorable Quotes
"The game is just personal development and getting as much out of the opportunity for your own growth as you're putting into the opportunity for company growth."
"We don't want to grow faster than what we're ready for, and we don't want to grow faster than what the business can support and hold."
"You dig in, you make changes, you learn, you grow."

Jessica Yarmey