The New Hybrid: 6 lessons for adding new services without losing your core – from the experts

Gyms are adding recovery treatments, medspas are expanding into holistic wellness, and massage studios are blending hands-on therapies with device-based treatments.

Beauty, wellness, and fitness are becoming increasingly hybrid. Service menus are crossing traditional boundaries, but adding more doesn't always mean getting it right.

With the average beauty and wellness business on track for just 2% same-store growth, according to data shared at Innergize 2026, many leaders are asking the same question: should we add new services to jumpstart growth, and if so, which ones?

At this year’s Innergize, three CEOs who have already worked through that decision took the Mainstage for a panel called “The New Hybrid: Redefining Wellness Business Models.” Their answer was not “add more.” It was to build on the trust you’ve already earned, stay ruthlessly selective, and be honest about what transformation costs.

The experts:

• Carrie Julier, CEO, SEV Laser. Best known for laser hair removal, SEV Laser operates a company-owned system of 76 locations. A brand builder and operator, Julier has led teams at the intersection of hospitality, wellness and luxury at industry-defining brands including Orangetheory Fitness and LVMH.
• Ryan Rose, CEO, VIO Med Spa. With extensive experience in franchising and the restaurant industry, Rose leads one of the largest single-brand medspa franchisors in the U.S. VIO is built around injectables, which make up about 65% of revenue.
• Shane Evans, Co-Founder and CEO, Heights Wellness Retreat. A pioneer of the membership-based wellness franchise category, Evans co-founded Massage Heights in 2004, scaled it to more than 140 Retreats, and is now converting every location to Heights Wellness Retreat, a longevity hospitality brand.

The session was moderated by Julian Barnes, Co-Founder and CEO of the BFS Network, a growth accelerator and market intelligence company for the beauty, fitness and self-care industry.

Here are six lessons from the conversation you can apply before your next new-service decision.

1. Expand the relationship, and earn the right to expand

Asked what “the new hybrid” means day to day, Carrie Julier didn’t talk about equipment or treatment rooms. She talked about the client. “We think about the new hybrid as expanding the relationship instead of expanding the menu,” she said.

That mindset comes from her Orangetheory days. The brand sells one consistent workout, but positions it around five facets of wellness, including nutrition, recovery and social connection. The takeaway, in Julier’s words: “You don’t necessarily have to broaden the product offering in order to broaden the value proposition.”

Shane Evans started from the guest’s wallet. When she dug into Heights’ data, she found members were already spending on wellness services elsewhere, and the massage category itself had been flat. As a franchisor, she said, her obligation is to help franchisees make money, and simple add-ons that “don’t move the needle” weren’t going to do it.

All three leaders built their businesses around one thing done exceptionally well before adding anything else. For Evans, that was massage therapy: convenient, affordable, professional, and backed by strong hiring and scheduling. Trust was the real asset. “We’ve got an average of 1,200 members across each of these locations,” she said, “and those 1,200 members trust us behind closed doors. They trust us with their health. They trust us with their bodies.”

Shane Evans, co-Founder and CEO of Heights Wellness Retreat on stage at Innergize 2026

“Anybody can go get red light therapy, cryotherapy, whatever, anywhere. There is no emotional connection to machines. There is emotional connection to the people.
- Shane Evans, Co-Founder and CEO, Heights Wellness Retreat”

2. Put every new service through a gate

Every operator gets pitched a steady stream of “next big things.” Julier and Rose each described a disciplined filter for deciding which ones get through.

Julier’s four lenses at SEV:

1. Protect the core. Can we deliver this without getting worse at laser hair removal?
2. Expand the value proposition. Is it a natural extension of problems clients already trust us to solve?
3. Fit the model. Can we deliver it without building a second business inside the business?
4. Earn the room. Is the profit truly incremental, or are we just trading one service for another in the same room?

“Adding a new service does not give us permission to get worse at laser hair removal.
- Carrie Julier, CEO, SEV Laser”

Rose’s approach at VIO: an Innovation Advisory Council screens the steady stream of pitches and selects only a small fraction. The business case comes first: a new service has to move the needle on systemwide sales without cannibalizing existing revenue. Only then does it go through medical efficacy review.

3. A confused mind doesn’t buy

More services can mean more confusion, and confusion is costly. Julier shared that SEV’s consumer insights work shows overwhelm is the most common state among the large addressable market it isn’t yet reaching.

That shapes how SEV evaluates new treatments. It avoids offering five solutions to the same problem and puts its team in a position to say, clearly, “for that problem, this is the best solution.” Guests come to you because they want an expert, not a menu. “A confused mind doesn’t buy,” she said. “And a confused mind also doesn’t sell well.”

Education is the other half of the answer. Rose’s team has turned most of VIO’s outward-facing social content into myth-busting education about how quick treatments can be and how much of the result happens at home. Consumers need to be taught as much as the front desk does.

4. Rebuild your team and be clear about selling

Adding services changes who you need to hire. Evans said the Massage Heights front desk was a pretty soft sell. At Heights Wellness Retreat, team members have to ask about goals, explain the benefits of multiple modalities and recommend journeys. She’s now recruiting from membership-based backgrounds like fitness, and has found that some front-desk staff who thrived before aren’t a fit today.

Julier described a moment of radical clarity. After 12 to 18 months of using words like “educate” and “consult” and not being heard, SEV held an all-hands meeting where leadership said it plainly: what the brand cares about hasn’t changed, but there is now a performance layer, and selling is part of the job. One of the most resistant team members, a nurse with more than ten years at SEV, thanked her afterward for making the expectation clear.

Her advice: make the message consistent at every touchpoint.

Panelist Carrie Julier, CEO of SEV Laser, on stage at Innergize 2026

“If you’re recruiting teams talking about hospitality and then your training teams talking about education and then sales all of a sudden shows up in a scorecard, we’ve lost the trust of our teams.
- Carrie Julier, CEO, SEV Laser”

Rose added that data can show you where selling breaks down. At VIO, new-guest close rates range from 98% at the best locations to just 10% at the worst. A gap that wide points to the front desk, the providers or both.

5. Design pricing and memberships around the whole model

The panelists all lean on recurring revenue, but each structures it differently.

• SEV offers three simple options: single services, packages or a membership, with more value for clients who commit to recurring visits. The business has shifted from 100% single-service sales to roughly 50/50 recurring and single over the past two and a half years.
• VIO is built on membership, which accounts for about 70% of systemwide revenue. It has simplified its membership offering to reduce friction, and anchors package pushes to a few key moments in the year.
• Heights Wellness Retreat gets about 75% of sales from membership dues. Members choose hands-on care, wellness technology or a combination, and day passes and two-week passes help existing massage members try the technology and build a routine.

6. Be disciplined, and honest about the real cost

Asked for the one thing leaders learn only after going through it, Rose’s answer was “be disciplined.” VIO has gotten smarter, he said, by saying no more often than yes, and by making sure a service adds the value you think it will rather than following a trend. His team has also invested ahead of growth, bringing on corporate talent before the labor percentage justifies it, because transformation starts at headquarters. “Talent wins,” he said.

VIO Med Spa CEO Ryan Rose on stage

“Be disciplined in your approach and make sure that it is going to add the value that you think it is, as opposed to just following a trend.
- Ryan Rose, CEO, VIO Med Spa.”

Julier closed with the most important caveat. Frameworks fall apart when leaders aren’t realistic about the investment in retraining and recruitment, or the membership attach they can expect. “Be honest with yourselves,” she said. Model the downside, too: what happens if this takes much longer to scale than planned? Costs include financial investment, human capital, time and marketing dollars.

Conclusion

The panelists run different businesses, from laser hair removal to injectables to massage and wellness technology, but their advice converges. Know what clients already trust you for, make every new service earn its place, and plan for the true cost of change.

Want to hear more leaders share how they’re growing their brands? Learn more about Innergize 2027.