⸺ CASE STUDY ⸺

From Single Studio to Franchise:

How Discover Strength Scaled With Pinnacle

LUKE CARLSON is the Founder & CEO of Discover Strength. He holds a BS and MS in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota, completed executive leadership and strategy programs at Stanford, and received an honorary PhD from Solent University. With a vision to expand from a single location into a national franchise, Luke turned to Pinnacle to provide the structure, tools, and leadership alignment needed to scale successfully.

Image from a case study video with Luke Carlson

⸺ Client Snapshot

Company: Discover Strength

Location: Minneapolis, MN (Headquarters)

Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness

Number of Employees: 140

Founded: 2006

Time Working with Pinnacle: 10+ years

Website: DiscoverStrength.com

Guide: Greg Cleary

⸺ The Challenge

When Luke Carlson founded Discover Strength, he had the drive and curiosity to learn — devouring business books, attending conferences, and constantly seeking out new ideas. But he lacked a method for turning that learning into real-world application.

“I didn’t have a formula for applying all of that learning. I needed a consultant, a coach, a Guide.”

⸺ The Pinnacle Approach

Luke began working with Pinnacle Guide Greg Cleary more than a decade ago. Greg facilitated not just Luke’s personal leadership growth, but embedded the tools, frameworks, and habits into the company’s leadership team and culture.

The process included:

  • Quarterly Summits with the full leadership team

  • Annual offsite strategy sessions

  • Focused facilitation to tackle issues, align strategy, and strengthen leadership capacity

“Being together with my leadership team, being with a guide in that room, the topics, the work that we get into, the issues that we’re solving, the strategy that we’re challenging — that’s about as good as it gets.”

⸺ The Result

Since starting with Pinnacle, Discover Strength has grown from a single corporate-owned location to:

  • 9 corporate-owned studios

  • 32 franchise locations in 12 states (with 5–6 more opening in the next two months)

  • A self-managing leadership team fully engaged with the Pinnacle process

Luke credits Pinnacle with enabling large-scale growth while creating a leadership culture that frees him from day-to-day operations.

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