🎆
Independence Day
Celebrating the Fourth of July with fireworks, parades, and time with family and friends
🧴
UV Safety Month
Protect your skin and eyes from harmful sun exposure — wear your sunscreen!
🍦
National Ice Cream Month
Stay cool and watch for National Ice Cream Day on the third Sunday in July
🍔
Grilling & Picnic Month
Perfect for outdoor cooking and making the most of the summer weather
National Blueberry Month
Celebrating peak season for fresh, antioxidant-rich blueberries
📵
Cell Phone Courtesy Month
Encouraging mindful digital habits and polite phone etiquette in public
Happy July, Empire! Summer is in full swing, and we have been busy the past month — we crowned a new Coach Showcase champion, brought our regional leaders together in Millburn, and had representation from every region at the first-ever HYROX NYC.
Empire Portfolio Group Presents
🔥 Coach Showcase 2026 Finals 🔥
Shout out to all the Coach Showcase finalists who traveled from far and wide to coach high-intensity, high-energy classes at OTF Millburn on June 12th. Giselle Shaw, Steven Sherwood, Jessica Campisi, and Christopher Vargas all put on a show.
📍 OTF Millburn, NJ · June 12, 2026
👑
Giselle Shaw
Charlotte – Midtown
Your 2026 Crown — the Top Coach at Empire! An incredible performance that earned Charlotte back-to-back titles.
🏆 Back-to-Back for Charlotte
The 2026 Finalists
Christopher Vargas
Finalist
Thank you to Stephanie Rivas and the entire OTF Millburn team for setting up a full-on festival to celebrate the championship. 🎉
The 2026 Regional Week took place leading up to the Coach Showcase, hosted in Millburn, NJ. Our regional sales, ops, and fitness teams spent two days focused on every aspect of the business — training and development sessions all aimed at setting up every studio for success to close out the year strong.
"Regional week is great because we have so many smart and talented leaders and we all learn from each other."
— Maizie Machado
"It's inspiring to be with such a great team from all the regions and so fun to work out together too — plus we got to see the Knicks win the Championship!"
— Morgan Smith
Empire had soooo many team members and studio members participate in the first-ever HYROX NYC event over a two-week period. Congratulations to everyone who put in the hard work and crossed that finish line — you crushed it! 💪
Eleni Demos · New York City
And a special shout out to
Eleni Demos for participating in the HYROX/SURF "Blind Date," where she ran the event with a blind date. Was it a love connection? You'll have to ask her… 😏
🏆
Some BIG Studio Winners
Empire Pound for Pound 2026 Champions! Congratulations to these two studios that topped the charts for both Jenn's and Rich's regions. Great job, team!
🏆
Hackensack, NJ
Rich's Region
🏆
South Riding, VA
Jenn's Region
🏆
May Studio Showdown Champions
Four Empire studios placed in OTF's May Studio Showdown! Huge congrats to these teams for stacking up against the system across the All Out, Push and Base challenges. Way to represent, Empire! 💪
🤑
Ballantyne, NC
All Out +10 · #2
🤑
Freehold, NJ
Push +8 · #6
🤑
Montvale, NJ
Base +5 · #10
🤑
Ramsey, NJ
Base +5 · #19
Every month, OTF releases the studio ranking report (net members) for the entire system. Here's how we're stacking up more than halfway through the year — keep up the great work! Rankings below are out of 1,189 studios.
Top 25%
37 Studios
67% of Portfolio
26% – 50%
12 Studios
22% of Portfolio
51% – 75%
5 Studios
9% of Portfolio
Bottom 25%
1 Studio
2% of Portfolio
89% of Empire studios rank in the top half of the system. Keep it up!
Movers & Shakers
AR
Aric Roberts
Charlotte Region
⬆️ New Regional Fitness Manager
New
KK
Katie Kocher
Charlotte Region
⬆️ New Regional Sales & Operations Manager
New
💡
A Few Fun Facts — BBQ Edition
It's almost the 4th of July, so why not? Here are a few facts to drop at your next cookout.
🌭
Americans eat about 150 million hot dogs every July 4th — laid end to end, they'd stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times.
🔥
The word "barbecue" comes from the Taíno word barbacoa. So every time you fire up the grill, you're technically speaking a 500-year-old language.
🍗
The record for most chicken wings eaten in 12 minutes is 501. Please do not attempt this before your next OTF class.
📬
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