Fitness and Wellness Juggernaut Jamie Weeks is Betting on a New Daydream Studio Concept for Screen-Free Rest

The landscape of modern commercial wellness is undergoing a fundamental philosophical shift, moving away from grueling physical exhaustion and toward cognitive recovery. Jamie Weeks, a prominent figure in the fitness and wellness franchising industry and the founder of Atlanta-based investment firm Founders Row, is spearheading this transition with a new venture called better.states. Developed in partnership with Beachbody (now BODi) founder Jon Congdon, the brand introduces the concept of a "daydream studio"—a boutique wellness category centered explicitly on brain health, intentional rest, and radical digital disconnection.

Scheduled to launch its first brick-and-mortar locations in New York City, Miami, and Atlanta next year, better.states arrives at a cultural inflection point. As hyper-connectivity, smartphone fatigue, and burnout increasingly plague urban populations, industry leaders are banking on the idea that unplugging will soon supersede extreme physical exertion as the ultimate status symbol of health.

The Evolution of Wellness: From Exhaustion to Recovery

To understand the market positioning of better.states, one must examine Jamie Weeks’ extensive track record in the health and fitness sector. Weeks has a history of identifying and scaling nascent consumer trends before they enter the mainstream consciousness. In 2010, he helped scale the Orangetheory Fitness franchise group, eventually operating 142 locations during the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) boom. More recently, Founders Row has launched or operated popular wellness concepts such as SweatHouz, a cold plunge and infrared sauna franchise boasting 105 locations across 25 states, alongside digitally instructed pilates concept All Day Pilates and women’s strength-training brand LiftHer.

However, better.states marks a distinct departure from the sweat-and-strain ethos that defined fitness culture over the past decade. Instead of asking consumers to push their bodies to physical exhaustion, the new concept asks them to do something historically undervalued in modern society: absolutely nothing.

"If we look at the science of what screens have done to us in the last 20 years, it’s so obvious what we need," Weeks explained in industry interviews. He notes that prior to the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, society had not anticipated the psychological toll of ubiquitous connectivity. "I know we’re early with better.states, but this category is coming, no two ways about it."

The Anatomy of a Daydream Studio

The physical spaces of better.states are engineered from the ground up to encourage neurological decompression. The foundational rule of the studio is absolute technological abstinence: upon arrival, clients must check their smartphones and smartwatches at the front desk or secure them in locking pouches for the duration of their visit.

Rather than focusing on cardiovascular endurance or muscular hypertrophy, the service menu is tailored to cognitive restoration. Offerings will include guided meditation, breathwork sessions, journaling spaces, instructor-led sound baths, late-night silent discos, an adaptogenic juice bar, and proprietary "substance-free digital psychedelic journeys."

The latter experience is powered by the Morphus LayFlat portal, a specialized bed engineered by Jon Congdon. Depending on user preference, the portal utilizes synchronized light, sound, and vibration to either induce deep meditation or simulate a drug-free psychedelic state.

Pricing for sessions is projected to range between $50 and $85, with options for both group classes and individual appointments. Rather than positioning the studio as a daytime errand, Weeks aims to capture an underserved segment of consumer leisure time: late-night socializing.

"Eighty-five percent of the health and wellness offerings available now are before 6 p.m.," Weeks noted. "Better.states is the place where you’re going to want to go at 8, 9, or 10 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night to do a digital meditation session while you’re hanging out with your friends, or before or after dinner."

The Science of the Default Mode Network

Behind the commercial branding lies a foundation in neurobiology. Weeks points specifically to the brain’s "default mode network" (DMN)—a interconnected web of brain regions that is active when a person is not focused on the outside world, such as during daydreaming, recalling memories, and processing emotions.

Modern digital consumption, characterized by continuous scrolling and rapid-fire notifications, chronically suppresses the DMN. By replacing moments of idle rumination with external stimuli, society has systematically starved the brain of the time required for memory consolidation and emotional processing.

"When you daydream, it’s memory consolidation and emotional connections. There’s science to it," Weeks said. "Now, every day, every chance you get to daydream is replaced with a scroll."

This neurobiological argument taps into a broader cultural zeitgeist. Across the consumer market, a counter-movement against constant connectivity has gained momentum. Devices such as the Brick—a physical token that locks users out of addictive social media apps—and "dumb phones" like the Meadow device, which restricts functions to essentials like calls, maps, and transit apps, have found niche commercial success among consumers seeking refuge from their screens.

Cultural Implications and Market Shifts

Weeks predicts that disconnecting from technology to cultivate brain health will soon become the new cultural "flex," replacing the glorification of overwork and exhaustion that characterized the 2010s. The commercial viability of this pivot is supported by shifting consumer demographics, particularly among younger generations.

Data from fitness platform ClassPass illustrates this behavioral migration. In recent surveys, 53% of users aged 18 to 34 reported booking a workout, fitness class, or wellness experience in the past year instead of going out for traditional nightlife or alcohol-fueled social gatherings, compared to 42% of users aged 35 and older. This trend toward health-conscious leisure provides a fertile customer base for concepts that blend social interaction with restorative self-care.

Despite these favorable demographics, introducing a commercial marketplace for daydreaming presents a unique marketing challenge. Skeptics may question why consumers would pay $50 to $85 to meditate or journal in a studio when they can perform the same activities at home for free.

Weeks, however, remains unfazed, arguing that structured rest is paradoxically easier to sell than physical exertion. "Do you know how hard it is to convince people to do an all-out sprint for 33 minutes on a treadmill or get in a cold plunge for three minutes at 50 degrees? It’s really, really hard," Weeks observed. "Convincing people to come to a digital meditation for 45 minutes to rest their brain is a really low lift."

Broader Industry Context and Adjacent Trends

The debut of better.states coincides with a period of rapid evolution across the broader wellness, fitness, and lifestyle sectors. As the boundaries between medical science, cosmetic beauty, and preventative health continue to dissolve—exemplified by multinational conglomerates like Unilever increasingly integrating beauty and wellness offerings—investors are aggressively hunting for white-space categories.

Concurrently, adjacent market shifts are underway. In the technology space, fitness and lifestyle influencers are expanding their footprints; notable figures such as digital creator MrBeast recently filed trademark applications for wellness wearables, signaling mainstream creator-economy interest in biometric health monitoring. Meanwhile, in recreational sports, padel continues to capture market share and consumer attention, rapidly outpacing pickleball as the favored racket sport for affluent urban demographics.

Yet, amidst the rush to digitize health through wearables, apps, and algorithmic tracking, the counter-movement championed by Founders Row suggests that the next frontier of luxury may simply be the absence of technology. By constructing physical sanctuaries dedicated entirely to cognitive stillness, better.states is gambling that the most valuable commodity in the digital age is silence.

As the brand prepares to open its flagship doors in New York, Miami, and Atlanta, the experiment will test whether consumers are willing to invest capital not just in building stronger muscles or enduring colder water, but in reclaiming the lost art of the daydream.