Taymax Vice President of Marketing Mike McDonough is reaching a major life milestone – he will be retiring after nearly a decade working for the company and years more in marketing.

“I joined the Taymax Group in 2014 after spending my prior years working on both the agency and client side of marketing, most extensively at Bose,” McDonough said, explaining that he had a broad background in areas like market research, direct marketing and media planning. For McDonough, it made sense to move to a franchise group like Taymax, which had aggressive growth plans.

Being with Taymax gave McDonough the opportunity to explore new areas of North America since Taymax has grown from 12 to 114 clubs in the United States and Canada. Having the chance to travel like this and see parts of the country that are off the beaten path was one of his favorite aspects of being part of Taymax. “It’s not just enjoying the obvious places we’re located, like Nashville or the San Francisco Bay area, but the more obscure discoveries like the Monument to a Boll Weevil in Enterprise, Alabama, or the early Viking settlements in Newfoundland,” he said. “And then to see our clubs thrive and bolster the neighborhoods in such diverse environments is yet another thrill.”

A favorite memory from McDonough’s time at Planet Fitness^® involves these explorations. “I always enjoyed trips to new markets to look for potential sites, and it was especially fun whenever our CEO, Tim Kelleher, joined us. Tim has a notorious fondness for Dairy Queen, so I’ll always treasure the moments when Tim would gather the development team around a table full of Blizzards and Brazier Burgers and regale us with stories about ‘the good old days.’”

McDonough joked that the Planet Fitness brand is so well-established and unique it is actually quite difficult to fail. “That’s why I always found it crucial to focus on incremental success – how much are club and DMA-level advertising plans contributing above and beyond the baseline level of sales that would occur if I did nothing?” he said. “Once you look at things that way, you realize a large amount of activity is unnecessarily redundant, and it forces you to focus on elements that really matter.”

Though this is an exciting and happy new chapter for McDonough, he will be greatly missed by his team.

“Mike has acted as a mentor for me for several years and has proven to be a very smart, articulate, driven person with an extremely strong affinity for the Planet Fitness brand,” said Jared Fletcher, senior director of marketing for Taymax. “Among a host of other things, his quick-witted humor and uncanny skill to find grammatical errors will be missed deeply! I couldn’t be happier for Mike and his family as he enters this next chapter.”

Ryan Wholey, director of real estate for Taymax, said, “Mike has been a pillar of our organization for years, and he will be missed beyond measure. Mike has always been able to make everyone laugh with a well-timed dad joke or an obscure pop culture reference.”

Planet Fitness is so fortunate to have people like McDonough who are committed to the brand and who have such a knack for promoting it. Congratulations, Mike, and we wish you all the best for your next chapter!