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Boxology: The Business Behind the BarbellGemma Webster spent 20 years in the fitness industry before working out that loving the job and running the business are two different jobs.She started as a sprinter, moved into judo, and found CrossFit in London in 2011 when there were barely three boxes in the city. In 2015 she opened her own. Then she lost the building, moved from 7,000 square feet to under 2,000, found out she was pregnant in the middle of the worst of it, and was back at her computer the day after giving birth.What she built out of all that is the reason for this conversation. Aphobos CrossFit runs on systems rather than goodwill. Coaches are developed in-house through a 12-week programme she ran free. Staff stay five years and more because they are paid properly. Retention is a 30, 60 and 90 day process, not a hope.Gemma now runs Boxology from Dubai, a consultancy built on four pillars: systems and operations, sales and retention, coach development, and marketing. She takes Jen through the two questions she puts to every client before they do anything. Is it scalable? Is it sustainable?We also get into why Hyrox found a lower entry point than CrossFit ever had, why the fitness profession is still treated as a plan B, and what a gym should look like when people work from home three days a week and their doctor and their coach have never spoken to each other.Connect with GemmaGemma on LinkedIn: / baileygemma Boxology on LinkedIn: / about Book a discovery call with Boxology: https://boxologysolutions.com/signupCollective spotlightGemma's shout-out goes to Evelyn Mair, Director and Co-Founder of FitIQ Education, who delivers UK regulated health and fitness qualifications across the UK and UAE. Evelyn's work is on what happens after someone qualifies: staying with new personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches through the first years of their career, and holding the employers who hire them to account for developing them properly.Evelyn Mair on LinkedIn: / evelyn-mair-29380ab1 FitIQ Education: https://www.fitiqeducation.com/Chapters00:00 Intro00:59 A career built on three sports02:13 Connect the dots: judo, and a stepdad who coached07:54 Silver is gold in waiting11:21 Two boxes in London, 201112:46 Ireland, Burgener Strength, and what community is worth15:15 A broken rib in Tipperary16:55 Why CrossFit was the gateway for fitness as a sport18:34 A 24-minute Fran21:35 A lower entry point: what Hyrox unlocked23:33 The Hague, and a box that broke us24:35 CrossFit Bromley, bootstrapped25:54 Run it like a business from day one27:36 Losing the building: 7,000 square feet to 2,00029:21 Seventeen-hour days, and a pregnancy31:34 Building coaches instead of hiring them33:36 The professional standards gap37:07 Is it scalable? Is it sustainable?39:15 Acquisition is loud. Retention is quiet.40:27 The four pillars41:55 The month we lost 20 members and raised prices44:25 Small fish, big pond: landing in the UAE46:42 A country that pushes fitness from the top49:22 Boss of the world: what good looks like52:24 When your coach and your doctor never speak57:44 Blue sky: pools, F&B and a slide58:47 Bringing your kid to the gym floor1:01:50 Collective spotlight: Evelyn Mair, FitIQ Education
The Longevity Economy: Built on Ecosystems
with Ekatherina Pajic
The longevity market is maturing, and the companies scaling fastest are not the ones with the best product. They are the ones with the best ecosystem around it.
Ekatherina spent a decade structuring capital before building one of Europe's most complete longevity clubs from the ground up. She joins Jen to connect the dots between capital, health and business strategy, and to argue that longevity is the ultimate compounding strategy.
We cover:
About Ekatherina
Ekatherina works at the intersection of longevity science, capital and business strategy. She advises next-generation wellness, tech and longevity ventures, hospitality brands and members clubs, alongside founders and executives building for decades rather than the next quarter.
She began in asset management in Toronto before completing a master's in International Affairs, Finance and Security at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She then spent five years in impact finance at Symbiotics in Geneva, where she grew the fintech team and oversaw a structured debt portfolio of more than $70M financing some of Africa's fastest-growing technology companies, building partnerships with over 30 VC firms and ecosystem operators across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Mexico. She is also an angel investor in female-founded companies.
In 2024 she became Founding COO and Head of Wellness and Longevity at Powercube in Geneva, a 360 performance and longevity club spanning diagnostics, science-backed classes, a biohacking suite and a longevity nutrition café, plus the first Ultrahuman wearable membership of its kind in Europe.
She now advises businesses and founders in wellness and longevity through EP Advisory, across long-term strategic positioning, product-market fit, brand strategy, ecosystem building and partnerships, capital guidance, and operational expertise as a fractional COO. She also built The Architecture Method, a proprietary framework for founders and operators, which includes The Architecture Score, a 27-question diagnostic across nine dimensions. She currently advises longevity skincare brand Adipeau (NYC) and wellness brand MIAFIT (Paris), among others, and acts as a super connector, linking her portfolio network to opportunities globally. She also curates Wellist Week in Miami, a yearly B2B gathering for the wellness and longevity industry.
Her route into longevity was personal. Over roughly three years she worked through gut and hormonal issues, including PCOS, using nutrition, biohacking and Eastern medicine. She shares that as lived experience rather than medical guidance.
Find her at ekatherina-pajic.com
Mentioned in this episode
Gender balance at the top is still stagnant, and three skills decide who breaks through: conflict, negotiation, and assertiveness. Executive coach and accredited mediator Pinky Ghadiali returns to Connecting the Dots to make each one practical.
Her reframe: the problem is not that women do these things wrong. We were trained to keep the peace, ask politely, and absorb tension for our reward, and then we wonder why we hit a ceiling. In this episode she breaks down what holds women back in each skill and what good looks like, all running on her four B's framework: body, breath, belief, bridge.
In this episode:
Chapters
(01:19) Welcome back, and reintroducing Pinky
(02:28) From optometry to executive coaching
(04:09) Net Women and Mindset by Pinky: the gap she saw
(05:39) Mediation as prevention, not just repair
(06:06) Learning to "speak with pencil"
(07:15) Why we are not at gender parity, and the three skills
(08:19) Conflict: what we were trained to do for our reward
(11:40) How conditioning sets you up to fail
(14:05) Setting up the conversation: direction and non-negotiables
(16:59) The four B's: body, breath, belief, bridge
(17:42) A real scenario: the senior coach who went behind your back
(22:23) Owning your stories and testing them with curiosity
(24:06) When conflict turns personal: pause, don't react
(27:00) Negotiation: the gender pay gap and asking for your worth
(28:01) Negotiating against your own inner voice
(29:00) State it, don't ask it: statements over questions
(31:35) Building the business case and your walk-away number
(33:34) A fixed number, said with confidence, no question mark
(35:36) Assertiveness: the word that gets mislabelled as aggression
(37:39) Assertiveness vs aggression: the difference is intent
(38:31) Stop apologising and stop over-explaining
(40:24) Clear is kind: resentment is the real risk
(41:45) How culture shapes directness
(44:13) Are leaders already doing any of this on their own?
(45:31) The conflict blueprint and team workshops
(48:20) How to get in touch with Pinky
Resources
Listen to the full episode: https://www.wearethecollective.world/podcast
Pinky's first episode on conflict and negotiation: https://youtu.be/u_QsTTEQmws
Connect with Pinky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bypinkyg/
Pinky's website: https://www.bypinky.com
We spend so much time looking after our bodies, our strength, our nutrition, our fitness, and we completely forget the organ running the whole show. This week Jennifer Halsall sits down with Tanja Guigon-Rech: adventurer, polyglot, mother, twin, and self-taught neuroscience nerd who turned her curiosity into a business.
Tanja calls herself a translator of the science rather than a researcher in it, and it shows. From why multitasking is an illusion and what cognitive residue does to your afternoon, to why burnout means you've been too strong for too long, she makes the research feel like common sense you can use tomorrow.
Along the way: the difference between a good break and a bad break, what short videos are doing to your dopamine, why motivation is an emotion and structure is the answer, and how her new offering, Brain at Work, helps companies restructure the working day so people finish with energy left over for the lives they go home to.
Plus Jen opens up about ADHD, hyperfocus, and the daily structure she built for the way her brain actually works.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome: the organ running the whole show
02:45 Connecting the dots: hospitality, headhunting, nutrition, the brain
07:47 Busting the multitasking myth
09:13 Cognitive residue and why rest is a performance tool
14:19 The neuroscience of procrastination, and what to do about it
19:08 ADHD, deadlines, and working with your wiring
25:16 We'd never treat athletes the way we treat desk workers
27:43 The workday is broken: what companies get wrong
34:49 Good breaks vs bad breaks
36:28 What short videos do to your brain
40:38 Jen on ADHD, hyperfocus, and designing her own workday
46:02 What brain fitness actually means
48:17 Too strong for too long: the truth about burnout
51:40 Motivation is an emotion. Structure is the answer.
55:44 Action over perfection, and permission to be shitty
1:02:26 Introducing Brain at Work
1:03:58 Balance as tension: finishing the day with energy left over
1:09:47 Revenge scrolling, sleep, and the vicious cycle
1:11:38 Spotlight: Anna Milani
Connect with Tanja
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanja-guigon-rech-49943534/
Brain at Work: https://brainatwork.carrd.co/
Her book, Unstuck: A Real-Life Guide to Clearer Thinking, Bolder Action, and Better Communication: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7XHS49J
Mentioned in this episode
Dr. Wendy Suzuki: https://www.wendysuzuki.com/
Angelique Joan: https://www.instagram.com/angelique.joan/?hl=en
The Wheel of Life exercise: https://students.hud.ac.uk/media/assets/document/studentservices/WheelofLife.pdf
Connecting the Dots: Luke Olley on Football, Gambling, and Building Resonance
What do a fractured pelvis, eight years of professional gambling, and a handful of stones at a children's event in Mallorca have in common? They're all dots on the path that led Luke Olley to found Resonance, a performancewear brand pioneering mineral-infused clothing.
Luke's story is one of constant reinvention. He left school at 14 to play football at Millwall and QPR, until injury ended that dream at 18. What followed was a winding road through professional gambling, tax companies, and a spiritual awakening that ultimately collided with his father's Parkinson's diagnosis and sparked the idea behind Resonance.
In this episode, Luke shares:
This is the start of a story I suspect will need a part two.
Chapters
(00:00) Welcome and introducing Luke Olley
(00:48) Leaving school at 14: football at Millwall and QPR
(02:13) The fractured pelvis that ended everything at 18
(03:11) Eight years as a professional gambler
(04:25) Lockdown, a daughter, and a Parkinson's diagnosis
(05:24) Athlete identity, intuition, and the skill of pivoting
(09:34) The tax company detour
(12:04) Watching his dad lose his independence
(14:58) Mallorca: stones, kinesiology, and the spark
(18:24) A quantum entanglement machine and losing it all
(19:42) 200 phone calls and finding Cassie in Doncaster
(21:02) The amplified formula and meeting Dr. Henry Brew
(23:00) "You wouldn't know my dad's got Parkinson's anymore"
(23:40) Jen's own energy healing story
(27:53) Building the team through skepticism
(31:00) How the infusion process works: any fabric, patented
(34:16) Father's Day 2023 and the Schumann Resonance
(38:54) Funding without asking: Barney's £50,000
(41:02) Launching at FIBO and the London pop-up
(42:23) Proprietary minerals and the Resonance ecosystem
(44:11) The triple-blind study in Slovenia: 5G, heart rate, skin conductivity
(50:46) Jen's first 24 hours wearing the sleeve
(53:00) Carpal tunnel, Mia's story, and what comes next
(57:36) The Middle East deal and working with athletes
(58:49) Champion jockey Oisin Murphy and the athlete story
(01:02:08) Shout-out: John Baba Wanyama in Tanzania
(01:03:12) Closing: this is just the beginning
Resources
Resonance Energy Wear: https://www.resonanceenergywear.com
The science behind Resonance (Dr. Henry Brew): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qwURd_me4U
Connect with Luke Olley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-olley-b2ab4937b/
John St Julien Baba Wanyama, The Creator Share Foundation: https://www.babawanyama.com
What would fitness look like if it were designed for the people who need it most? In this episode, Jennifer Halsall continues the GLP-1 conversation with Dr. Ritva Mettänen and Dr. Lou Atkinson, moving past the challenges and into the blueprint. Together they define what good looks like for people living with obesity, on or off medication, and map the bridge into physical activity that the fitness industry has yet to build.Ritva shares the lived experience behind the science: why walking into a gym can feel like walking in naked, what GLP-1s change about the relationship with food, and what they don't change about identity. Lou brings the behavioral science, from why "results" and "goals" set people up to fail, to the coaching skills every trainer needs and none are taught.This is a practical episode for operators, trainers, and anyone building fitness experiences: rethink the space, rewrite the marketing, retrain the team, and redesign the membership model for the majority population you're not yet serving.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome and framing: defining what good looks like
01:05 How Ritva and Lou came to this work
05:46 The lived experience: walking into a gym with obesity
10:06 Identity, shame, and what GLP-1s don't fix
11:45 Bias, discrimination, and chronic stress
15:00 What operators get wrong: the willpower myth
20:06 When a trainer breaks trust: Ritva's story
23:30 Blue sky design: what a safe, motivating space looks like
27:45 Why "results" and "goals" set people up to fail
30:40 Start with life, not the scales
35:01 The gym makeover and finding joyful movement
42:25 Culture, confidence, and filming policies
45:38 What trainers need to know: human health, not just movement
51:08 Programming with autonomy, competence, and connection
55:12 Psychological skills are non-negotiable
1:01:05 Rethinking recognition and reward
1:05:30 Membership models built for non-linear journeys
1:09:16 Where operators can start: the Obesity Coaching Standard and readiness audits
1:15:16 Closing thoughts
Connect with the guests
Dr. Ritva Mettänen: Obesity Coaching Academy - https://ocaofficial.com/ / ritva-mett%c3%a4nen-md-21b3a6188
Dr. Lou Atkinson: behavioral science consulting and readiness audits
https://www.wearethecollective.world/ / drlouatkinson
Ability, not age. That's the message Laura Dow has spent more than 20 years putting into practice, helping older adults move better and stay strong across health clubs, yoga studios, and continuing care communities. Laura is an award-winning fitness professional, founder of Stiff to Fit, author of Mind Your Movement, and co-author of the Ability Not Age position paper.
In this episode, Laura connects the dots from medical social work to conservatory to the gym floor, and explains why older women are one of the most underserved groups in fitness. We cover the Title IX generation of women who never got access to organized sport, the business case for serving older members, what operators need to change to make gyms feel safe instead of intimidating, and the research showing internalized ageism can shorten your life by more than seven years.
Chapters
(00:00) Welcome and introduction
(00:58) Three careers: social work, music, fitness
(04:35) Hiring her first trainer
(06:13) From front desk opener to certified coach
(08:05) Coaching soft skills and meeting clients where they are
(13:25) Adaptive programming and the women's health gap
(19:16) Why older women are underserved: Title IX and gendered ageism
(26:29) The business case for the older adult market
(30:34) Boss of the world: designing a gym that feels safe
(38:16) The Ability Not Age white paper and the problem with "chair yoga for seniors"
(42:47) Internalized ageism, self-talk, and Laura's next book
(51:52) Shout-outs: Dr. Sabrena Jo and Erin Eleuterio (Agents of Movement)
(54:42) Closing
Mentioned in this episode: Stiff to Fit, Mind Your Movement, the Ability Not Age position paper, Title IX, Dr. Becca Levy's Breaking the Age Code, Dr. Sabrena Jo (American Council on Exercise), Erin Eleuterio (Agents of Movement).
Connect with Laura Dow:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-dow-1269783/
https://stifftofit.com/
Dr. Ritva Mettänen has lived obesity from every angle: as a child, as a teen, as a patient whose BMI peaked at 40, and now as an obesity medicine physician whose own BMI sits at 24. In this episode of Connecting the Dots, she joins Jennifer Halsall to unpack what the fitness industry gets wrong about obesity, and how to fix it.
Ritva explains why obesity is a chronic, multidimensional disease rather than a willpower problem, what really happens in the brain and body on GLP-1 medications, and why the bias she met from her own personal trainer ("you can do it on your own") is exactly what keeps medical professionals from referring clients to gyms. She makes the case for safety as the foundation of any work with this population, walks through what a doctor-to-trainer handoff should actually look like, and shares the vision behind her Obesity Coaching Academy, a six-month training that equips trainers with clinical knowledge, non-stigmatizing language, and tailored client pathways.
This is a candid conversation about closing the gap between healthcare and fitness, the disappearance of the body positivity movement in the GLP-1 era, and why serving the 60% of inactive adults means rethinking everything from gym marketing to club floor design.
A must-listen for personal trainers, club operators, and anyone who believes fitness should be preventative healthcare.
Topics covered: obesity as a chronic disease · GLP-1 medications and side effects · trainer bias and stigma · creating psychological safety · the doctor–trainer–client model · inclusive marketing and beginner pathways · the Obesity Coaching Academy
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 — Welcome & intro
01:28 — Connecting the dots: a lifelong journey with obesity
02:19 — Starting GLP-1s and the moment "the brain goes silent"
03:08 — Her trainer's pushback: "you can do it on your own"
04:17 — The intuition to help more than just her own clients
04:44 — What is obesity? Defining the chronic disease
06:57 — Why the body fights weight loss with hundreds of mechanisms
07:32 — Abundance, evolution, and a societal recipe for disaster
08:30 — Diet culture and bias among fitness professionals
09:18 — Why safety is the number one thing
10:32 — The armor: surface-level personality and self-protection
11:12 — The onslaught of judgment obese clients carry
12:49 — Building the Obesity Coaching Academy: the vision
13:30 — Near-100% adherence vs. the industry's dismal rates
14:27 — Why personal trainers and the gym floor are the answer
15:37 — What a doctor-to-trainer handoff should look like
17:05 — The 60–90 minute trust-building first session
17:59 — Navigating the 6–9 month weight plateau
19:49 — GLP-1 side effects in the first 12 weeks
21:12 — Why lifestyle coaching matters more than the workout
23:08 — What trainers can expect: beginners, injuries, and outliers
25:00 — When sport becomes a coping mechanism
26:11 — What the fitness industry must change to reach this group
28:30 — Reframing the messaging: "everything counts," not "more more more"
30:50 — Where did the body positivity movement go?
33:03 — Is anyone connecting these dots well today?
34:04 — Inside the Obesity Coaching Academy course
37:02 — Looping back to the medical practitioner: a seamless pathway
40:00 — Peeling back unconscious stigma: the work trainers must do
41:29 — Where to find the Obesity Coaching Academy
42:41 — Shout-out: Johanna Riihijärvi of Liikku
44:16 — Closing
Connect with Dr. Ritva Mettänen:
🌐 Obesity Coaching Academy: https://ocaofficial.com/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritva-mett%C3%A4nen-md-21b3a6188/
The Longevity Playbook | Beyond Botox: Peptides, Exosomes & What Actually Works
The conversation around longevity has moved far beyond diet and exercise. Today it includes skin health, regenerative medicine, hormones, aesthetics, and a growing list of treatments that promise to help us look and feel younger for longer. But which ones are backed by science, which are simply trends, and where should you actually spend your money?
In this episode of Connecting the Dots: The Longevity Playbook, Jennifer Halsall sits down with aesthetics expert Maaike Dorsteen. After more than 15 years working alongside cosmetic doctors and clinics around the world, Maaike has become one of the industry's best translators—turning complex medical terminology into practical advice that everyday consumers can understand.
Because Jennifer and Maaike are close friends, the conversation feels less like an interview and more like sitting at the table while two girlfriends compare notes on everything happening inside the longevity and aesthetics world.
Together they discuss:
Why the conversation has shifted from anti-ageing to longevity
The difference between Botox, fillers, skin boosters and polynucleotides
Why exosomes are generating so much excitement
The growing hype around peptides and why patience may be wiser than impulse
How aesthetics and lifestyle medicine increasingly work together
Which treatments Maaike believes are worth investing in—and which are a waste of money
How she would spend €1,000 on her own longevity strategy
The future of longevity clinics and regenerative medicine
Injectable treatments, typically based on hyaluronic acid, that improve skin hydration and quality rather than adding volume. They stimulate the skin to look smoother, healthier and more radiant.
Injectable regenerative treatments derived from purified DNA fragments that stimulate fibroblasts—the cells responsible for producing collagen and elastin. The goal is improved skin repair, texture and overall quality over time.
The skin's natural "builder" cells. Fibroblasts produce collagen and elastin, helping maintain firmness, elasticity and healthy skin structure.
Tiny biological messengers released by cells that carry signals between cells. They are being researched for their potential to support skin repair, regeneration and collagen production, making them one of the most talked-about areas in regenerative aesthetics.
Often called the "vampire facial," PRP uses a sample of your own blood. The platelets and growth factors are concentrated and then applied or injected to support healing, collagen production and tissue repair.
Short chains of amino acids that act as signalling molecules within the body. Different peptides are being investigated for applications including muscle growth, recovery, metabolic health and skin regeneration. Many remain investigational or are subject to varying regulatory approval depending on the country.
A next-generation investigational metabolic therapy currently in clinical trials. Unlike current GLP-1 medications, it targets three hormone pathways involved in appetite regulation, blood sugar control and energy expenditure.
Guest: Maaike Dorsteen
Instagram: @furrownl
Clinic discussed in this episode:
KVIG Clinic – https://kvig.nl
Disclaimer:
This episode is intended for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Many treatments discussed are emerging technologies or may have different regulatory status depending on your country. Always consult a qualified medical professional before undertaking any treatment.
From Solo Flight to Fit-Tech Founder: Amina Kurbanova on Building Through Resistance
At 22, Amina Kurbanova boarded a plane to Kuwait alone, against her entire family's wishes, to build a career in women's fitness. Today she's the Fitness Director of four mega gyms and the founder of Move Mentor, a fit-tech startup bridging human coaching and technology. In this episode of Connecting the Dots, Amina sits down with Jennifer Halsall to trace the journey from professional athlete to intrapreneur to founder, the hard lessons about leading people through change, and why she stopped seeing her youth as a liability and started treating it as her edge.
A raw, generous conversation about courage, building quietly, and refusing to listen to anyone who isn't where you want to be.
⏱️ Timestamps
00:45 — Welcome & intro01:18 — Connecting the dots: from childhood sports to the Gulf02:56 — Moving to Kuwait alone at 22 against her family03:36 — Why Kuwait? Choosing opportunity over saturation06:49 — "Building through resistance" as a personality08:00 — Don't take advice from people who aren't where you want to be09:25 — Inside a women's-only mega gym11:20 — Starting as a coach and spotting the gap12:09 — A brand-new market for women's fitness in 201813:16 — The two problems: lost members, misaligned coaches16:21 — The Fitness Map is born19:51 — Borrowing the NASM OPT model: green, yellow, red zones20:38 — Pitching the CEO before she was "ready"24:38 — The hardest lesson: no product works without your people27:12 — Leadership as a constant feedback loop30:55 — Insiders vs. outsiders in fitness leadership31:29 — Introducing Move Mentor33:33 — The member experience: 100% personalized navigation36:02 — Keeping the human element while tech does the admin37:17 — What setup looks like for club operators39:00 — Unlocking a secondary revenue stream: talk to members & staff, then test42:04 — Member journey from intake to workout, with coach support44:55 — Founder, director, mother, partner — managing without "balance"48:25 — Winning the RX Female Youngster Award at FIBO49:23 — Flipping age and imposter syndrome into a superpower54:15 — Why women so often feel "off" in systems not built for them55:28 — Shout-out: every woman building quietly (and her friend Inez)57:15 — Closing reflections on saying it out loud
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