Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal welcomed Tori Johnston, President of goGLOW, to the LIFTS Podcast for a conversation about a brand that is challenging assumptions about what the wellness franchise model can look like — and how far into adjacent categories like beauty and personal care the fitness industry's best instincts can reach.

This episode covers goGLOW's evolution of the tanning industry, its franchise economics, and how it is positioning itself at the intersection of premium personal care and health-conscious consumer values — a conversation that has real implications for any operator thinking about how to expand their wellness offering beyond the gym floor.

What This Episode Covers

goGLOW is a wellness franchise operating in the beauty service sector with a particular focus on eco-friendly and health-conscious approaches to services like sunless tanning. Led by President Tori Johnston, the brand has built a model that challenges the traditional tanning industry's positioning and practices.

The goGLOW franchise model has been designed with unit economics that give franchisees visibility into performance and a clear path to profitability — a feature that distinguishes it in a beauty services sector where many concepts have struggled to translate consumer enthusiasm into sustainable business fundamentals.

By targeting a consumer demographic that values both the experience of premium personal care and the assurance of health-conscious, eco-friendly practices, goGLOW has carved out a position that is difficult for conventional tanning or beauty service brands to replicate.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• The tanning industry is undergoing a meaningful evolution, with health-conscious and eco-friendly approaches increasingly defining what premium consumers expect from beauty services.
• goGLOW's business model applies franchise thinking to the beauty service sector in a way that prioritizes transparent unit economics and scalable systems — lessons that operators in adjacent wellness categories can learn from.
• Consumer demographics in beauty services are shifting, and brands that understand who their customer actually is — and what that customer values beyond the core service — are consistently finding more durable growth.
• Pricing strategy in premium personal care requires balancing genuine premium positioning with the competitive realities of a market where accessible alternatives are multiplying.
• Work-life balance is a real and important conversation for wellness entrepreneurs, and founders who build it into their company culture from the start tend to build more resilient organizations.
• Eco-friendly and health-conscious approaches to beauty services are no longer niche positioning — they are becoming table stakes for brands targeting educated, health-aware consumers.

Why This Conversation Matters

The wellness industry's boundaries are expanding well beyond traditional gym and studio formats, and LIFTS has consistently tracked that expansion. goGLOW represents exactly the kind of adjacent wellness concept that fitness operators should be aware of — whether as a potential co-location partner, a source of franchise model inspiration, or simply evidence of where health-conscious consumer spending is flowing.

For Matthew Januszek and the Escape Fitness USA team, understanding the full spectrum of the wellness economy — from premium gym equipment to beauty franchise models — is part of what makes LIFTS valuable as an industry intelligence platform.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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