All Podcast
July 22, 2026
01
Ed Connors
How Ed Connors Built Gold's Gym Into a Global Empire
Key Takeaways
- Master salesmanship before anything else. Levine's path — reception, then sales, then management, then ownership — reflects his core advice to new operators: spend at least six months selling memberships and rotating through every job in a club before attempting to own one, because leadership in this industry can't be learned from a textbook.
- Brand discipline is non-negotiable, down to the music volume. Levine personally marked gym stereo dials with nail polish and fired 90% of a Singapore club's staff after finding it had drifted off-brand — no music, closed doors, tea instead of energy — a lapse that cost roughly $300,000 in one month, recovered the moment the brand standard was reinstated.
- Conviction beats caution on real estate. Levine signed a $250,000-a-month, 45,000-square-foot Hong Kong lease — about $2 million due at signing — against advice that the market would never work out, and broke even in 90 days by pre-selling 3,600 memberships at $1,000 each, a bet that anchored California Fitness's climb past $100 million in revenue by year three.
Timestamped Chapters
- 00:00 — Cold Open: Introducing Eric Levine
- 01:52 — Eric's Background and His New Venture, Bandit Active Recovery
- 02:16 — Growing Up in Montreal and the Weider Family Connection
- 03:14 — Getting Started at Vic Tanny's
- 05:25 — Becoming the #1 Salesman at 16
- 07:09 — The Newsweek Story: Quitting for $60 a Month at Club Med
- 09:26 — Club Med as "PhD in Customer Relations": Origin of the Wow Philosophy
- 12:36 — Why Finding a Mentor Cuts Corners
- 14:23 — Arriving at Gold's Gym Venice: Meeting Samir Bannout
- 18:30 — Buying the Gold's Gym Name for Canada ($2,500)
- 20:03 — Opening Gold's Fitness Center for Women and Men in Scarborough
- 22:11 — The Origin of "Super Gym" Advertising
- 25:14 — The Commercial That Placed Second Worldwide Behind Michael Jackson
- 27:00 — Six Clubs, Most Profitable in the Gold's Gym Chain
- 27:28 — Partnering with Ray Wilson
- 29:47 — The Nail Polish Volume Marks and Curated DJ Mixes
- 30:43 — The Singapore Club Crisis: Closed Doors and Papaya Cutting
- 32:17 — Firing 90% of the Team and Restoring $300K in Revenue
- 33:28 — Gold's Gym vs. World Gym: Music as a Branding Decision
- 35:58 — Finding the Hong Kong Building Through a Cigar-Smoking Landlord
- 39:33 — The $250,000-a-Month Lease and $2 Million Deposit
- 43:18 — Breaking Even in 90 Days: Pre-Selling 3,600 Memberships
- 44:11 — $100 Million in Revenue and $36.5 Million EBITDA by Year Three
- 44:41 — Equipment Strategy: Paying More for the Best Treadmills in Asia
- 46:14 — Expanding to Seven Countries and 70 Locations
- 46:44 — Selling to 24-Hour Fitness and Mark Masterson's Rise
- 51:25 — Spotting Trends Early: Women's Bodybuilding, Yoga, Hot Yoga
- 52:29 — Launching Bandit Active Recovery Wellness
- 55:52 — The Pamela Anderson and Cindy Crawford Marketing Campaigns
- 57:41 — On Training Talent: Should the Industry Build Its Own "University"?
- 58:51 — The Beijing Keynote: "There's No Such Thing as Selling"
- 1:00:44 — Levine's Advice for Someone Entering the Industry Today
- 1:03:39 — Closing Thoughts: Hyperpersonalization, Gamification, and Integration