< All episodes

July 31, 2024
Transform your local business in 90 days or less
with Amber Martinez
Brand President at JEM Wellness Brands for Crunch Fitness
Summary
Can you transform your local business in 90 days or less? In this episode of the Local Marketing Lab, Amber Martinez, Brand President and Operating Partner at JEM Wellness Brands, reveals how she’s done just that throughout her 25-year career in the fitness-wellness industry. She unpacks powerful strategies to transform your local business through grassroots marketing, community engagement, and innovative partnerships.
Consistency is key. Amber emphasizes the importance of consistent messaging across multiple channels. She advises businesses to find their strong message and repeat it through different channels, ensuring that the same story is told 100 times rather than telling 100 different stories. This approach helps clarify brand identity and resonates more effectively with the local audience.
Leverage community relationships. To transform your local business, Amber stresses the value of building genuine connections within your community. She shares creative strategies for partnering with local businesses, non-profits, and community groups to create win-win situations. These partnerships not only increase brand awareness but also position your business as a key player in the local ecosystem.
Low-cost, high-impact marketing tactics. Amber reveals numerous cost-effective marketing strategies that can help transform your local business quickly. From leveraging existing customers as brand advocates to creative fundraising partnerships, she demonstrates how businesses can drive growth without significant financial investment. These tactics focus on personal connections and community involvement, proving that impactful marketing doesn’t always require a large budget.
Amber’s insights offer a fresh perspective on local marketing, making this episode a must-listen for any business owner looking to transform their local business and drive sustainable growth. Her practical advice and real-world examples provide a roadmap for businesses to become integral parts of their communities while boosting their bottom line.
Key Takeaways
Here are some topics discussed in the episode around transforming your local business:
- Consistent messaging across multiple marketing channels
- Humanizing your brand through social media and community engagement
- Low-cost, high-impact local marketing tactics for immediate implementation
- Turn existing customers into powerful brand advocates
- Techniques for building strategic local business partnerships
The most important thing for me is: understand who we are, what we do, why we do that, know how to articulate it powerfully. And then for me, be able to train and develop my team to execute that at the community level.
AMBER MARTINEZ

Resources
- Connect with Amber Martinez on LinkedIn.
- Learn more about JEM Wellness Brands.
- Find a Crunch fitness location near you.
- Watch the episode with Allison Rand from YouFit Gyms.
Other shout-outs
- Jamie Esslinger and Emily Gentry on the JEM Wellness marketing team.
- Whole Foods for great community involvement and local partnership.
Transcript
Justin Ulrich
What’s up everyone, and welcome to the Local Marketing Lab, where you get real-world insights from industry pros to help you drive local revenue and local for growth. This podcast is brought to you by Evocalize – digital marketing tools powered by local data that automatically work where and when your locations need it most. Learn more at evocalize.com.
Well, what’s up? And welcome to the Local Marketing Lab. Joining us in the lab today is a guest that spent her entire career in the wellness and fitness space. She grew up as a competitive figure skater and is a reality TV star and is the Crunch Fitness brand president and operating partner at JEM Wellness Brands. Amber Martinez, thanks for joining us in the lab, my friend.
Amber Martinez
Thanks for having me. And hey, that is an intro. I had no idea. Hey, you did it right. Thank you.
Justin Ulrich
I stammered through it, but we got there. So dying to hear a little bit later about your reality TV star stint.
Amber Martinez
You got it. Yeah. You got it.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. I guess to get started, why don’t you let our listeners know, you know, who you are, maybe what your background is and how you got to where you are. And then a little bit about JEM Wellness Brands.
Amber Martinez
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, outside of managing my celebrity and, you know, when I was not on the ice, no, I’ve really spent my entire career in fitness and wellness. I started very early on, I’ll share with you. I always had a passion for serving people. My family owned a restaurant in Alamo, California, and my grandmother had me out hustling plates of food at like, three years old. Filling condiment bottles. I still do not eat mayonnaise to this day. That’s kind of a fun fact. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that.
But, you know, it was always a desire to serve people, create community, make a difference in people’s lives. That always drove me. But when my grandmother passed away at 14 from obesity related causes, and then my uncle, also at 37 years old, due to obesity related causes, my life really shifted. That’s where my ice skating career ended.
And I actually took up some really, you know, bad habits. And now I look back and in reflection, it was really just like, coping mechanism, right? And so I just let go of everything that was, like, healthy and good in my life, and I just really coped with food. And from 14 to 17, I gained 120 pounds during those main developmental years. And that was really difficult as a young woman, but I would never change it because it gave me such a strong understanding of, like, empathy and compassion.
And people’s goals and desires in life mean so much to me because I understand what it feels like. And no matter what those goals are, right, if it’s to take to the stage as a bodybuilder or to lose weight or to gain weight or to recover, to de-stress, right, for mental health purposes, whatever it is that drives you into a gym or a studio, it’s deeper than, you know, it’s deeper than most people realize.
So I have a personal attachment to that and understanding and ultimately you know at 17 years old I decided that I was ready to change my life and I went and joined a gym, California Health Club in Pleasant Hill, California. I say that I ran to the gym every day. I was really more of a fast walker but I had my gallon of water with me you know, every day. And over the course of a year I worked with a personal trainer. His name is Jimmy Simmons. And the community at that gym changed my life.
And although I was, you know, not the most fit person when I walked in, they gave me a job working the front desk and being an orientation trainer which I had absolutely no business doing but that was my job because they wanted my like love and enthusiasm for what we were doing to be shared with the community. So that’s where it all really started and influenced my journey and that was very early on, right 17/18 years old and then I, you know, lost over 120 pounds and…
But the interesting thing that I’ll share with you is what happened to me emotionally and mentally and socially was the real game changer and what happened to me physically became the byproduct and that’s what I think is really special and hey, looking great and feeling, you know that’s amazing but I think feeling great and finding a place of belonging has really stuck with me and has influenced my leadership to this day.
So yeah, I mean we can fast forward. There’s a lot I can take you through but definitely not in the amount of time we have today. But you know being a part of that community I realized that that’s, it was, I felt very inspired and very grateful and so I just continued to work the front desk. I moved into the Crunch world back in 1998 working with the founder Doug Levine. And I was very attracted to the brand because we just made fitness fun.
And we were willing to take an irreverent approach to what we do and we didn’t take ourselves too seriously and we did really great work. So front desk, sales, sales management, general manager, I became the fixer. So every underperforming club they moved me there and I thought why do you hate me so much? And they said no, we just believe that you can do it. And I thought oh well that’s all you needed to say.
And I focused on how do you turn a business around? And all came down to people. So you know over the course of 20 plus years we’ll say 25 ish years. I’ve gone from, you know, front desk to all the roles that I mentioned and then also the Vice President of Crunch franchise. I ran the sales, the sales team and all sales initiatives and strategies with Crunch franchise supporting the franchise network.
And then now I’m with JEM Wellness Brands and I’m the brand president. So honored to be a part of the Crunch brand and with the great people at JEM. We currently have six stores in Northern California and opening up four in Milwaukee the next over the next few months. So a lot of growth. Thanks. We have 75 to open over the next eight years. So if you don’t have a Crunch near you now, you will soon and hopefully it’ll be one of ours.
Justin Ulrich
I would say it sounds like it’s crunch time over there.
Amber Martinez
It is crunch time, indeed. Do you have a Crunch near you? Let’s talk about membership.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. That’s awesome. No, I really appreciate you giving the background there. It gives a lot of great insight into, you know, why you’ve stuck with the industry, because a lot of folks typically don’t stick within the same vein their entire career. But you’ve had that kind of core connection that’s helped keep you tied to the industry.
And with your experience, you know, you’ve worked for a few different orgs and it sounds like you’ve had your hand on a lot of different aspects of local marketing and community engagement. So I’d like to start by maybe telling, maybe give your take on what you think the most important aspects of local marketing are from your standpoint.
Amber Martinez
I think, you know, I love marketing. I didn’t go to school for marketing, but I am just a prolific sharer of the things that I love and that I’m passionate about. And so, you know, I am a marketer by nature and when I’m, you know, I can’t sell or market anything, you know, give me this pen, you know, but it’s because I truly believe and feel really aligned with the Crunch brand and what we’re doing. It makes my life easy to get out and share it.
But what I have to do as a business leader is also teach my team how to easily execute marketing efforts and what I’ll say about marketing, and I know you’ve had many guests on and, you know, I know that my dear friend Allison Rand was on, and she can share marketing far beyond what I can. Right? And there’s so many talented marketing executives out there.
But how I look at marketing from my position and my responsibility, in my community is marketing is a layered approach. Right. And especially in today’s environment, you have so much access to things through technology. Now with the advancements of AI, there’s. It’s really limitless. To me, the key is finding a way, right, finding your channels to say the same thing 100 times. People get a little lost in saying 100 different things about their business and then you get really confused about what the brand is.
And so to me, it’s understanding the channels that work for you. Find a strong message and repeat it through those different channels. And my commitment to our business is really finding those local opportunities to build connections, be very relationship driven, work and support local businesses. Because the most important thing for me is to drive my business through strategic marketing that’s built on relationships.
So that’s my, you know, and again, the most important thing for me is understand who we are, what we do, why we do that, know how to articulate it powerfully. And then for me, be able to train and develop my team to execute that at the community level.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah, no, I mean, that’s great. I’m picking up what you’re putting down. I do think, I do think that I agree with you with regards to message consistency. When you’re trying to communicate and, you know, develop awareness with any audience, consistency is key. And like you said, saying the same thing over and over across multiple channels, even if you focused on one channel, still say the same thing over and over and over.
Because if I’m, for example, I do a lot of marketing because we’re B2B. I do a lot of marketing on LinkedIn. I know that 1.5% of my audience that organically is within my reach is going to see any given post that I push out on LinkedIn. So if I say the same thing ten times, it’s not really going to get old to anybody.
The only people who are going to see it multiple times are the ones that already are a solid advocate of me and my personal brand, and they might not get fed up with it because they like being the stuff that I put out anyway. So yeah, consistency is key. And driving it across multiple touch points, multiple channels is also extremely beneficial because you never know when you’re going to catch somebody in their buyer’s journey.
Amber Martinez
That’s what you don’t know. And I think a lot of people, you know, back in the day, I’m going to totally date myself here. But we had the guest registration and it was like we highlighted yellow, green and red, and yellow was warm and green was they had become a member and then red was dead.
And I’m like, I’m stopping. I’m not going to use red anymore because there’s no such thing. Right? As long as they are a lead, a connection, an opportunity, I’m here. My goal is to serve them. So let me keep putting my message out because who knows when that person might be ready. And if I’m there nurturing them the whole time, guess who they’re going to think to come to me?
And that’s, you know, I’ve had people come into my gyms with passes from five years ago asking me if they can still use them. So you never know where an opportunity might come from. Be consistent.
Justin Ulrich
That’s true. Yeah, consistency is definitely key. It’s funny, five year old passes. I actually have a, it’s not a gym membership, it’s my Costco card because I have a Costco membership from when my wife and I got married. And like, I think we actually got the passes in 2008.
But on the membership application it asked for, it gave me the option for a nickname, which I’m like, I don’t have a nickname, but I want to mess with people every time they see my card. I put Vitamin J on it. And now I’m like 41 and I go to Costco and they see Vitamin J and they’re like, what is this, your name?
Amber Martinez
Hey, I think you’re going to be Vitamin J to me from now on, if you don’t mind. I love that. Let’s go Vitamin J.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you’ve done a lot of testing, you know, talk about marketing over different channels. What are some things that you’ve tried that have worked? Maybe channels that have worked better than others or maybe different content types or pieces that you’ve pushed out that have worked better than others?
Amber Martinez
And again, I’ll just give a high level overview. The brilliant people on our team or those brilliant marketing executives out there. We have Jamie Esslinger, who just joined our team as a CMO, and we have Emily Gentry, who’s an incredible marketing manager and they’ve done really great work in finding some unique channels for us or testing new things that have been working.
What I’ll talk about that I think is really important is being comfortable in navigating and pivoting. People say it’s like the goal should never change, but the plan should to accommodate the goal. And the same thing with marketing, don’t keep dumping your money into a channel that’s not driving a return. Learn, understand your other channels, the other opportunities that are out there for you.
We have incredible partnerships with the team at Roar. They do a wonderful job of supporting us and helping us understand the trends. Right. And what’s happening out there. So some of the recent things that we’ve been testing that are actually proofing out is like Snapchat. Right. And so I think you just have to know your community, you have to know your audience, and then you have to test different things. Be willing to test.
Always market your business. That is one of the biggest things that people get wrong if they get into business as entrepreneurs and they’re so excited, but they’re afraid to invest money in marketing. And I just, that doesn’t correlate because I say if you don’t invest money in marketing, you’re gonna have to invest later or at some point to cover the bills that you can’t afford because you didn’t drive enough customers to be able to run a profitable business. So if you’re not marketing your business, you’re getting it wrong.
And also, don’t just dump it into the basic channels that you’ve heard work: SEOs, you know, retargeting, display, those things do work for you, but you have to find what drives the best return and go there. And again, I think the best outcome comes when you have, when you’re using multiple channels. Right.
What has worked really well for me, specifically where I can get more in the weeds, I can roll up my sleeves and get dirty with this, is the local component. Right. And so what’s really worked well for my group is social media and organic posting. It goes back to what we were talking about a moment ago. Like, we have to humanize our business. We are people serving people. So let’s show people who we are and what we do.
Our awesome ads that are branded and bold, and come out and show you Crunch in this cool, fun way. And then we give you a great offer, a promo or a campaign that’s catchy and fun. That’s awesome. So now let’s take that, let’s layer onto it, and let’s bring it to life through social media so you don’t just let go and let an ad run for you or a promo and a campaign without bringing it to life in your gyms, through social media and in club events. And you also have outside of your four walls in the community. Right.
So I always find a way to take our promos and our campaigns that are running digitally, that maybe we’re sending through, you know, direct mail or whatever channel. And then with my team, you look and say, okay, now what are we going to do to level up this promo and campaign that we’re going to drive? What’s our storytelling on Instagram? What are we posting on LinkedIn? You know, what are we telling you now? What are we going to capture on Snapchat so that people can actually see this campaign and then feel it come to life through us? So that’s something that’s really worked well.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah, I mean, definitely. The other part is if you look at it in the reverse and you say, okay, what are we finding that’s working really well organically and then taking those assets and then pushing those out through paid channels?
Because if you find that certain things work resonating with your audience organically, typically if you put some money behind those things, that’s when you can really drive some solid traffic into your stores.
Amber Martinez
That’s right. And, you know, we have a number of, you know, Crunch famous team members now because they go out in the community and people are like, hey, you’re that Crunch person. Because we have some dollars behind our organics. It’s just like, you know, the influencers today, right?
We can create our own local celebrities through highlighting our own team, and they understand our brand better than anyone because they live it every day. And so I think that is really key and a huge opportunity to have that real connection with your community.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. And it’s free. And if you actually give the ability, like let go of the reins, give your team the ability to go out, engage with the community, highlight other local heroes within your community, share their stories, gain access to their audiences while developing, like, solid rapport with those folks. And they’re going to do whatever they can to help uplift your business and to promote you and amplify your message as much as they can.
Amber Martinez
Vitamin J, you sound like you know what you’re talking about. I think you get this whole marketing thing. This is fun. Like, I can geek out on marketing all day long because I think it’s just such a fun, you know, part of the gig when we get to go out and tell our story in all these really fun ways and bring people into our business and we know we’re going to help make their lives better. Just like this is what I get to do every day. So, yeah, I love marketing. Marketing is one of my favorite parts of my job.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah, same, same with me. I got a question for you. I guess if someone has, and it doesn’t matter what industry they’re in, if they’re struggling to drive growth at a local level. What are some suggestions that you could give to maybe help move things in the right direction? They could do maybe today or sometime this week.
Amber Martinez
Yeah, absolutely. And I love that question. And that’s, you know, I really look for those. I’ve never asked a franchise partner or my partners within my organization, no matter what role I’m in, it’s not about going and dumping a bunch of money and like hoping and guessing that it’s going to work for you. There are a lot of low cost options and for me, in quick turnaround opportunities, that if you are willing to see the opportunity, get creative, do the work, get the boots on the ground.
Because that’s a big missed opportunity right now that I see across many industries, especially fitness, where back when I started it was all boots on the ground, it was handwritten letters, it was knocking on doors, it was going out and shaking hands and kissing babies. It was attending local events in the parades. It still needs to be all of that. Like we’re still that business.
We just need to take all the technology and innovation that’s out there and blend it with our community driven efforts. So franchisees or business owners, entrepreneurs, business leaders, there is opportunity all around you, right? First and foremost, how many salespeople do you have? Ask yourself that question. If you’re the one person in your business, or if you have ten people in your business or 50 people in your business, don’t just think about your team internally who’s driving the business for you, but think about your existing members or customers. Those are your salespeople.
So what are you doing to leverage your existing network? Tap into them. Put it into a program that is a recognition program, you know, a celebration of their, you know, commitment to your company. Give them rewards. There are countless ways that you can create energy and excitement and get people rallied around your business to market it and promote it for you.
You can run buddy referral campaigns. You can look at your existing member base to find out where they work and what they do to establish corporate partnerships with them, letting them know that you’re reaching out to them first with this opportunity because they’re a valued customer or a valued member.
You just have to put that creative brain on and know that there are opportunities everywhere. What are you doing to maximize the opportunities in front of you? So always go inside first, right? Whether you’re a party of one, you know, your customers, your team, and get creative to recognize and reward your existing network.
Second, would be get outside of your four walls, get out. Make it a priority every single day. We have plenty of hours in a day that even if, say, 8 hours, say, if you just work 8 hours. Most entrepreneurs don’t. Most business leaders don’t. But if it’s just 8 hours, you need 30 minutes to 1 hour out in your community. If you’re managing your time and owning your day, you can prioritize that, no problem. It’s about having a strategy and knowing where to go when. Right.
I’ve had people call me and say, outreach doesn’t work. Well, where did you go? Oh, I was, you know, we went out in front of the bank at 7:00 p.m. at night on a Tuesday, probably not the best spot to be. So you got to have a little strategy behind it. You have to know where to go, where are the people? And make that a part of your weekly strategy.
Get out into the community with QR codes. Go meet people. Invite them into your business. You know what? When it’s personal and they feel like, hey, I’m going to go see that nice person, Vitamin J down at the gym, you know what? He’s going to hook me up and take care of me. They’re going to be more likely to come in and see you because you’ve made that personal connection. Beyond that one to one engagement on the community, there are local businesses everywhere.
From large businesses to small businesses, large businesses. You’re going to have to bring me back just to talk about corporate sales with them. Small businesses is easier because you go out from a business to business perspective, and you give them opportunities to cross promote each other’s business and to drive incentivized memberships, you’ll work together for each other and bring a better experience to your community because of your partnerships through your partnership.
I mean, and those are things that we do. I am. I’m preaching the word that I only, you know, I’m not fraudulent. And so I’m just sharing the standard expectations that we have with our team, and that’s part of our business plan. Every day you’re in your community, you’re a part of your community.
And then one last thing, you might have something to say, but I’m on a roll now. With that, is once you start to establish those relationships, the community, those businesses start to see you as an ally, a resource, a partner. And then if you planted the seed to say, hey, if there are other businesses that you work with or other affiliations that you have or organizations that you’re passionate about, let me know. We’d love to support.
People then start thinking about you when there’s opportunities and they start bringing you into those opportunities that you didn’t even have to go out for. And so it becomes this, you know, self, it just keeps perpetuating, and you have this lead flow that keeps coming through, and all you have to go is go surface it. Right. You just become known as one of those key partners in the community that people look to for support and partnership.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. And that’s a great place to be. Like, if you’re central in your community, you can make connections between other businesses, connect those businesses to each other. And it’s really like a rising tide raises all ships. If you’re able to work together, you know, you could co-market, collaborate, share funds on different ads that you’re pushing out.
Like, if you were to partner with a smoothie place down the road, you could push out a collaboration between the fitness, your fitness brand and the smoothie brand. There’s all sorts of things that you could do to share costs, and one plus one will equal three.
Amber Martinez
We’re actually doing that with Jamba Juice right now, and we’re running free down to the gym, you know, get your free smoothie certificate so you’re spot on. And again, it’s not just promoting a price point, a campaign. It’s actually building real connections through real relationships to create a better experience for not only your members, but your community.
And I think that’s just such a fun way to build brand awareness and to drive leads and ultimately sales opportunities. One other thing I will say, especially in fitness, and I’m sure other companies can do this as well, but something that we’ve done is working with local nonprofit organizations and youth groups and athletic teams and departments to give them an opportunity for fundraising.
And so you can identify the value. And it said, hey, we’ll give you a month membership. You sell it at X price point that’s approved by you, and then they have the ability to go out and sell those and take 100% of the proceeds. They just have to give you the leads. Every week they give you the leads. You’re helping your community.
You’re fundraising for a cause, which I call Crunch Cares, because we do care about our local community and we do want to make a difference, but we’re getting the…we’re doing well by doing good. Right. Cause marketing. We’re working in the community with local organizations that matter to people. We’re giving them an opportunity to raise funds, and then the people that are investing in these memberships, they’re coming in and working out, and so everybody wins, everybody benefits.
And that’s a really cool, quick, easy way to start again, building that lead cycle, getting your name in front of many people at a time, positioning yourself in the market as a key player, a contributor. So those are just some key, really simple things.
When I was a fixer and I’d turn a business around, it was like 20% to 30% increase within, you know, 60, 90 days. People would be shocked. They didn’t understand what I was doing. It was just all of this kind of grassroots, caring about people, relationships and community.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah, no, very cool. Those are great examples. Do you have any examples of brands, and it could be in fitness, it could be outside of fitness, but brands that you really want to emulate, you think they’re doing local marketing really, really well?
Amber Martinez
We have established many partnerships in the community, you know, a couple that stand out. Something that I was really, you know, proud of this was during my time at yoga works, actually. And we’ve continued to, you know, maintain. I’ve continued to maintain my relationships with people at Whole Foods. Right. And so locally going in, they do a lot of give back and they do fundraising.
And we partnered with them just similarly, like, to what I was just saying. And we gave them an opportunity to sell yoga works memberships. They took 100% of proceeds and generated all the leads for us. They also had us on site on Saturdays and Sundays to offer classes or to walk through the store and shop with a trainer.
And so giving good advice on, you know, what to choose, why you’re choosing that. If you want high protein levels, what does that mean? And so there’s just many great ways to bring fitness and what we do within our four walls to life through these partnerships. But I do think that Whole Foods has always done a really good job of having that sense of, you know, there’s a deeper cause and they do give back.
And so participating with companies that already get it is key. Yeah, yeah. And you’ll find also a lot of local businesses in your market where they want those opportunities to give back. And so collaborating, because within your fitness space, if you’re a fitness industry leader, you have a large platform for them. Right. And so you can come up with really creative ideas.
One thing we have also done that I want to share that has been really impactful is partnering with different groups, different fitness affiliated or wellness affiliated, where we don’t offer the same thing, but what we offer elevates. We elevate each other. And so partnering with them and putting on triathlons, right?
We did an event with Lululemon, and they have a run club, and, you know, then you partner with the cycling store, and they have cycling. And then we came in, you come into us, and we put you through, you know, a yoga class or a dance class, and then you go out to the, you know, you do this out in the community. So you’re going from business to business, and you have t-shirts and people sign up for it and they see what’s happening.
So these local partnerships, people that already understand the value, are the best ones to at least get started with.
Justin Ulrich
No, that’s perfect. Those are great examples. I appreciate, I mean, you’ve given so many nuggets. This is going to be one of the most valuable episodes.
Amber Martinez
Did you capture all of those? When you get me going. I don’t know, there’s a lot to work with.
Justin Ulrich
Luckily. Luckily, it’s recording, so I don’t have to write them down. But I do want to switch gears a bit, so if you wouldn’t mind. What is the deal with the reality TV show? What show were you on?
Amber Martinez
You know, I hesitated writing that. Funny story. I was the general manager at Crunch in West Hollywood, and, which was an amazing experience, and I have endless, very cool stories to share. One story I didn’t tell you, but it’s about Mike Tyson. And he asked if he could whisper in my ear, and I was like, Mike, you’re not getting near these ears, mister! Awesome member. I have so many stories.
But the reality TV, my moment, my 15 minutes, it was a modeling show, and Janice Dickinson, she was a member, and she came in and she was asking, “you need to be on my show. You know, I really need to be promoting healthy bodies, and I want you to be that person.” I was like, “Janice. Janice. Like, thank you so much. I am so appreciative.” And then I shared it with my vice president. He’s like, you should do that. Like, go on, you know, have fun. Talk about Crunch. And so I did it. I lasted, like, five whole days because reality TV is not for me. It’s not for me.
But it was a fun life experience that I’m glad I was able to participate in and confirmed that it is not something I want to pursue. You know, it’s very interesting. I’ll tell you something that I think people. I think people assume this is what happens, and maybe not on every show.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah.
Amber Martinez
But my experience was you’re having an organic, like, nice conversation with somebody in the kitchen. You know, you’re there making the best of it. And then the producers and the cameras run in, and they go, okay, we love this. We love what’s happening right now. But maybe if you just say this and you’re like, wait, what?
Justin Ulrich
Oh, weird.
Amber Martinez
So you want us to have the conversation, but you want us to change what we’re talking about. And that was just really challenging for me. And I understand. Well, they know what the people want, and I’m not.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah.
Amber Martinez
I’m like, you get what you get, so.
Justin Ulrich
Well, I thought it might be fun to show you, give you a glimpse of what it might have been like to be casted on one of your favorite movies, Braveheart.
Amber Martinez
Hey, look at that. Wow. What a warrior she is.
Justin Ulrich
What a warrior you are.
Amber Martinez
Hey, I love that. Thank you. So, what a gift.
Justin Ulrich
Yeah. Anyways, I’ll send this over to you. For those who are listening, it’s a shot of her as a warrior holding up a sword, ready to go into battle. Before we let you go, Amber, why don’t you tell us all how we could follow you, follow your brand?
Amber Martinez
Absolutely. This has been so much fun. You’re awesome. You can reach out to me and follow along with all the fitness fun on LinkedIn. It’s Amber Martinez on LinkedIn. And you could also follow along with my company at JEM Wellness Brands, also found on LinkedIn.
Justin Ulrich
Awesome. And what areas are you operating in currently with Crunch?
Amber Martinez
We are currently in northern California. We are entering a new market in the Milwaukee area, Wisconsin. We’re about to heat things up in Wisconsin. I think they’re ready for us. And we also have several other states that we’re moving into over the next few years, so really exciting. Excited to be on this, in this growth mode with JEM Wellness Brands and Crunch Fitness.
Justin Ulrich
Awesome. So you heard. You heard it here, folks. If you’re looking for a gym, check out the JEM Wellness Brand locations for Crunch Fitness. There’s locations for Crunch everywhere as well. But, Amber, it was a ton of fun having you in the lab. I appreciate you taking the time to join us.
Amber Martinez
My pleasure. Thanks so much. Anytime.
Justin Ulrich
You bet.
As always, thanks for joining us in the Local Marketing Lab. This podcast was sponsored by Evocalize. To learn more about how Evocalize can help you grow your business, visit evocalize.com.
If you learned something from today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook @Evocalize. That’s Evocalize and on X at Evocalize.
And remember, keep innovating and testing new things. You’ll never know what connects with your customers best unless you try. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

Amber Martinez
Brand President at JEM Wellness Brands for Crunch Fitness
Meet Amber Martinez
Amber Martinez is a dynamic fitness-wellness industry leader with over 25 years of experience, currently serving as the Brand President and Operating Partner at JEM Wellness Brands. Her unique approach to business success is guided by a triple bottom line: People, Profit, and Purpose.
With a proven track record in sales, operations, and business development, Amber has a knack for turning around underperforming businesses and driving growth through innovative, localized marketing strategies. Her passion for empowering others to live healthier, happier lives is evident in her commitment to developing diverse, inclusive teams and creating positive brand experiences that deliver both financial results and social impact.

Justin Ulrich
VP of Marketing at Evocalize
Meet the host
Justin is a seasoned marketing leader known for his creative expertise and innovative go-to-market strategies. With vast experience spanning both B2B and B2C landscapes, Justin has made his mark across a spectrum of industries including software, POS, restaurant, real estate, franchise, home services, telecom, and more.
Justin’s career is steeped in transformative strategies and impactful initiatives. With specialties ranging from channel marketing and brand management to demand generation, his strategic vision and execution have consistently translated into tangible results.
Empower your franchisees.
Drive real local results.
Not every franchisee on your team is a marketing pro — yet.
Let’s change that. Reach out, and we’ll show you how!







