HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

After decades of success in the fitness industry, George Jackson created TG-The Gym in 2018. It represents the next step in his career and a distillation of all he has learned. TG is an umbrella organization offering a license to independent gym owners with a tremendous number of benefits and proven business model that's readily deployable.

George is a well known, long-time industry veteran who started with Gold's Gym around 1983. He's gone through multiple iterations over the years, taking what is useful and constantly refining his model . . . and it's working! Peter San Nicolas is the The Gym's first licensee. He's another industry pro who decided to rebrand his facility to The Gym-Ramona and he joins us on the podcast as well.

George states, "Starting the brand in 2018, we just saw an opportunity, especially for people like Peter. You know . . . independent guys that would now have an opportunity to be supported with a bigger group. As Peter knows, I'm never gonna tell him what to do, but if he comes to me and asks, 'Hey, George, what do you think about this?' Or, 'Hey, George, you're doing it this way. Can you tell me more about that?' Obviously I can help. My goal is really to support each of these independent operators and Peter is a great one! I'm so fortunate to have him as our first, because I don't think I could have found a better first licensee in terms of somebody who has been doing it since 16 years and who also competes as a bodybuilder."

TG-The Gym is open to licensing its name and is doing a discovery day during IHRSA 2023. If you're an independent operator with 10,000 square feet or more with a strong focus on results, bodybuilding, body transformations, and serious fitness, definitely contact George to discuss how a rebranding to The Gym, along with all ancillary revenue opportunities and cost savings could be a fit. ([email protected])

In this episode, George and Pete discuss:

1. The unique licensing agreement that TG-The Gym has created to help independent operators rebrand and take their businesses to the next level. 2. The multiple, ancillary benefits that come with joining TG and the potential of a grand reopening into "The Gym." 3. The advantages of being part of a team and how it can reinvigorate members, employees, business partners, and communities. Click here to download transcript. Other episodes you'll enjoy around franchising & licensing:

Jim Donnelly: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-386-restore-hyper-wellness-healing-the-world-one-body-at-a-time-with-ceo-jim-donnelly/

Todd Wadler: https://www.halotalks.com/todd-wadler-ceo-title-boxing-club-and-co-founder-boxunion/ Connect With Us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: http://www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

Dr. Sal Arria is one of the Founders of Lionel University (formerly ISSA College of Exercise Science), and an educational leader in the fitness industry. He's been around literally since the inception of the personal trainer education space. He continues his life-long mission of creating highly educated fitness professionals to help people change their lives.

Sal had a serious wake up call many years ago when, after presenting his plan to a Vice President of a very large insurance company, he was met with the conversation stopper, "Sal. Stop and do the math on this! It doesn't work for me!" Sal promptly threw $100 on the table and walked out. The very real reality is the fact that the medical insurance industry doesn't make money from healthy people.

Arria states, "Could you imagine walking into a physician who spent eight years in college, many years in residency and say, 'Hey, I earned my certification . . . I took one class.' You can't do it! A single certification is great for entry level, but think about nursing as one example. You've got your LVN's, the entry level. But then there's the RN, the Surgical Nurse, and the Nurse Practitioner. The greater the level of responsibility, the greater the level of education needed . . . We need our trainers to be able to go out and help change lives." And they need to be highly educated to do it! But not only that, the medical field as a whole also needs to know and feel confident that they're highly educated . . . so they can refer and partner with confidence.

All this motivated him to create a program at Lionel which eventually evolved into accredited Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees. Sal and his team have created programs which could (hopefully) give MD's, DO's, NP's, etc the confidence to consistently refer patients to fitness professionals and create a natural partnerships which could provide physicians with objective data to demonstrate marked improvements in a patient's health. But we're not there yet.

He continues, "The fitness profession is the healthcare profession! There are five key elements that, over the past 50 years, there have been more scientific and medical studies proving the domain of the fitness industry: Weight training, cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility, sensible personalized nutrition, and an active, positive lifestyle. Those five key elements are responsible for preventing and even reversing virtually every disease today."

In this episode Sal and Pete touch on:

1. Why the industry is, in many ways, fighting against a "backwards" system, and what we need to do to deal with this. 2. What the role is for skilled, highly educated fitness professionals in the HALO sector. 3. How teams of fitness and medical professionals can work together to attract more patients.

Click here to download transcript.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around fitness education

Graham Melstrand: https://www.halotalks.com/graham-melstrand-ace-fitness/

Dr. Layne Norton: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-328-dr-layne-norton-ceo-founder-biolayne Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

Taylor Stull, a former product manager for preventative health solutions, is the Co-Founder of Flowell, a platform that provides team-based experiences and lifestyle games to help clubs and coaches build communities and keep people healthy for life – all while navigating the challenges of helping them make good decisions for long-term success. "At the end of the day, we're working to try to keep people healthy for their whole life by helping them make good decisions. This way they can hopefully have longer, more enriching, more fulfilling lives. That's really what I'm here trying to bring to market," he states. Taylor was determined to find a way to help people make better choices after his own health journey and he wanted to pay it forward. He developed Flowell, a team-based fitness gamification platform, to bring the community together and nurture relationships, as well as motivate healthy lifestyle decisions.

Through trial and error, Taylor found that community, fun experiences, and rewards are key to long-term success and Flowell strives to provide all three. He hopes to bring people together, regardless of if they know each other, and create emotional relationships within Flowell. His passion is contagious! In this episode, Pete and Taylor discuss:

1. How Flowell is creating an innovative solution to help people make longer-term, healthy lifestyle decisions.2. How they are leveraging partnerships, games, rewards, and community to help retain memberships and drive revenue. 3. Using creative rewards and personalized avatars to build trust and emotional relationships with members.

Click here to download transcript. Other episodes you'll enjoy around rewards & gamification: Brian Mitchell: https://www.halotalks.com/halotalks-podcast-with-brian-mitchell-of-promotion-vault/

Derek Flanzraich: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-375-derek-flanzraich-ness-ceo/ Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

Doug Young, currently the COO of Easalytics, faces the daunting task of leveraging technology and machine learning to help struggling fitness businesses maximize value from their existing members, and increase revenue retention - all while avoiding unintended consequences.

Doug is a Connecticut-based software and AI expert who has been in the tech industry since the late 90's. He has a background in ecommerce, SaaS, and ed tech, and has been in the HALO space for a bit over four years. He specializes in customer onboarding, product adoption, and using machine learning and AI to scale businesses.

Doug saw the potential of data-driven analytics in the space, but also quickly realized many people lacked the time (and knowledge) to make the most of it. With the help of machine learning, Doug was able to help business understand new opportunities and help drive value from members. The ability to discern member value (and potential member value) enabled clubs to be more proactive and prioritize their highest value customers. The Easalytics platform helps facilities become a bit more data-driven and make more informed decisions. He states, "We can use data to make something better. And it's not going to require a lot of time, because one of the things that we work really hard with our product to do is make it easy to use. It doesn't require a lot of your time to get value from this." In this episode, Pete and Doug discuss:

1. How new technologies, such as machine learning and AI, are making data accessible more accessible (and actionable!) to businesses of all sizes.

2. How analytics and data can be used to increase revenue per customer, prioritize customer retention efforts, and derive greater value from customers.

3. How anomaly detection tools can be used to spot the unintended consequences of changes in pricing and customer acquisition.

Click here to download transcript.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around analytics:

Ian Mullane: https://www.halotalks.com/ian-mullane-ceo-keepme-ai/

Robert Jackson: https://www.halotalks.com/robert-jackson-ceo-fitness-bi/

Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

Growson Edwards is a software entrepreneur and founder of CIPIO.ai, a Community Commerce marketing platform that helps brands mobilize & monetize their brand communities. He has extensive experience in the SaaS space, having grown his last company to $100 million in revenue and sold it.

After meeting his two partners, they took on the challenge of building a Community Commerce Marketing Platform. A year later, he had close to 50 brands on his platform, including some of the biggest in the fitness industry. He was able to help them understand their followers better, as well as help influencers understand their own influence. His dedication to helping brands reach their goals has paid off, and he is now on a mission to elevate the lives of others.

"Influencer marketing" is a very loaded term, and (generally speaking) tends not to be thought of highly (for various reasons.) Growson dives into that headfirst in this marketing masterclass! He states, "People who buy followers. . .it's a real issue and a very common thing. And most people who buy followers actually don't realize that the majority, if not all of those followers are going to be bots, right? So they think it's a very innocent, 'Hey, I'm buying actual real people, real followers,' but you're not."

He continues, "We take someone's audience and we segment it into four categories so we can understand if you have 10,000 followers, how many of 'em are real people? How many of 'em are what we call suspicious accounts? Which are those fake accounts, those bots? Everybody has a certain amount. Usually 10, 15% is normal. When it gets north of that, that probably means they're buying their followers. The third category, how many are mass followers, which are also real people, but they follow so many people that they're not gonna see your content on a regular basis. The fourth category is actually other influencers, which could be super powerful because there could be all kinds of like joint partnership opportunities between your community influencer and other influencers that follow them as well."

In this episode, Pete and Growson discuss:

1. How can brands use their community for growth.

2. What the Syndex score is, and how it can help you determine the effectiveness of a Brand Ambassador.

3. What strategies can be employed to maximize the success of a community influencer campaign.

Click here to download transcript.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around technology:

Dr. Joseph Maroon: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-377-dr-joseph-maroon/ Mo Iqbal: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-341-mohammed-iqbal-founder-ceo-sweatworks/ Andrew Menter: https://www.halotalks.com/andrew-menter-tyler-nicholson-physmodo/ Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

"No matter what industry you're in, you need to find someone with the trait of being passionate about what they're selling, teachable, and who has naturally high energy - those are more important than anything else," states Jeff Sanders.

Jeff was 17 and, and at one point had to sleep in his truck. He literally had no place to go when he decided to take control of his life and "become teachable." Through various jobs at AT&T Wireless, substitute teaching, a Smoothie Factory franchise, nonprofit and church sectors, LA Fitness and others . . . he learned the in's and out's of business, developing a passion for helping people and learning the power of relationships along the way.

His tenacity and skills eventually got him recruited to work at Radio Shack, where he learned the importance of operations, systems, and the value of sales training. This inspired him to create an Ambassador program at his current job, Energy Fitness, where he serves as Chief Growth Officer. His team is encouraged to reach out, get leads, and build relationships with people. Jeff's drive to help others and make their lives better keeps him motivated every day. In this episode, Jeff and Pete discuss:

1. How to Equip Your Team to Generate Leads: Learn the tactics and methods Jeff uses to successfully equip his team to go out and generate leads, including concepts like "assumptive language" and taking a "tenacious approach."
2. Investing in Your Team and Building Relationships: Discover how to invest in your team and glean an understanding of the psychology of conversations, in order to build strong relationships with members and prospects to boost success.
3. Achieving Long-Term Goals: Find out how to create a paradigm shift in experience levels and provide the best service (and motivation!) for your customers so they stay for the long-term and achieve their goals.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around sales and growth:

John Merris: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-389-john-merris-on-balancing-long-term-and-short-term-goals-to-fuel-growth-at-solo-brands/

Donald Kelly: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-385-unlock-your-sales-make-more-money-donald-kelly-shares-his-strategies/

Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

Len Fridman was laid off from his corporate job in 2009 after nearly a decade, and upon doing a bit of soul searching, he decided to pursue his passion for fitness instead of continuing on in "corporate life." He started a small boot camp business in a local park which quickly went on to become the most successful outdoor program in Canada in multiple cities. Eventually, a need/business frustration presented itself on the software side, which then led him to his Co-Founder Sasha Davids, who promptly jumped onboard.

They started out small but have now scaled to where WellnessLiving is now quietly powering 5,000 studios, and were recognized by Deloitte in the Fast 500 and Fast 50 in Canada. Len was able to bring on Don Williams, their Chief Revenue Officer after recently securing a $66M investment from McCarthy Capital. With a team of 354 strong and growing, WellnessLiving is able to create amazing tools with the sole goal of helping fitness studios continue to expand. He loves giving back to the community as well. WellnessLiving is behind the extremely successful Stand with Studios grant program.

On their recent growth, Len states, "We selected McCarthy Capital really for one main reason: Our vision and goals were completely aligned. Their whole thing . . . they love to see companies grow, but more importantly, they want to make sure that the staff of those companies, that they evolve, that they grow as individuals . . . if they have families, they want to send their kids to college, and so on. It's just a complete alignment of values and vision. We're here to grow now." Be sure and visit WellnessLiving at booth #3351 at the IHRSA 2023 trade show in San Diego!

In this episode, Len and Pete discuss:

1. How a layoff in 2009 led to the creation of the most successful outdoor boot camp program in Canada and Len's initial journey into entrepreneurship.

2. The journey of building a platform to facilitate bookings and scaling a business to 5,000 participating locations.

3. The success story of a growing software company to 354 people strong and contributing to the boutique fitness community.

Click here to download transcript.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around software & tech:

Dr. Joseph Maroon: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-377-dr-joseph-maroon/ Derek Flanzraich: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-375-derek-flanzraich-ness-ceo/ Amira Pollack: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-361-amira-pollack-struct-club-ceo/

Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

J.Dennis Jean-Jacques is an experienced investor with over 20 years in finance. He is currently the CIO at Ocean Park Investments. His work is based on lessons from renowned figured such as Jeff Ubben, Peter Lynch, and Warren Buffett, and specializes in deep dive, fundamental investing and long-short equity investing.

Dennis and HALO Talks host Pete Moore make this a master class! This episode is a "must listen" for anyone in the HALO sector who wants a basic primer on types of investments, deal flow, private equity funds, hedge funds, and more.

J.Dennis was inspired to pursue an investment career after Buffett's visit to his Harvard Business School class. He dedicated the next 20 years of his life to fundamental and long-short equity investments. He eschews "trends," and . . . by following basic business fundamentals . . . is able to identify great opportunities in the public markets. He learned to find the best investments by understanding the deep reality of the businesses and avoiding fancy strategies for the sake of "style points."

In that vein he states, "Investing is not like gymnastics - there's no style points! Your returns are returns, and if you can make it much simpler and get similar returns, the better you'll be."

In this episode, Pete and J. Dennis discuss:

1. How investors can wait for the right opportunities and still benefit from the market. 2. What some of the best ways are to determine an investor's circle of competence. 3. How investors can make sure their returns are not diminished by "style points." Click here to download transcript. Other episodes you'll enjoy around finance: Pierre LeComte: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-342-pierre-lecomte-tsg-consumer-partners-managing-director-consumer-retail-private-equity/ Kaumil Gajrawala: https://www.halotalks.com/kaumil-gajrawala-managing-director-consumer-products-wellness-credit-suisse/

Jon Canarick: https://www.halotalks.com/jon-canarick-managing-partner-north-castle-partners/

Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: www.ratethispodcast.com/halotalks

John Merris is the CEO of Solo Brands, a public company that's making huge inroads in the outdoor space. With strong, in-the-trenches experience in sales and growth (he started as a door to door salesman!) Merris joined the company as its 7th employee and has since helped them acquire 3 other brands that now fall under the Solo Brands umbrella: Solo stove, Oru kayak, Chubbies apparel, and ISLE paddleboards.

When he was approached by the founders of Solo stove, a smokeless fire pit company that was actually based in hometown which he hadn't heard of previously, he was very intrigued and, nine days later, ended up joining as the 7th employee! Through his growth mindset and track record of building teams, John was soon asked to become the CEO, successfully acquired the other brands, and helped take the company public.

Going public, however, also brings some unexpected emotions and tricky waters you have to navigate as a leader. He quickly realized that by taking care of customers and maintaining a long-term view (versus only worrying about stock price and quarterly earnings) the company would be successful.

He states, "I believe that building a great brand centers around culture. What's your culture? Well, at Solo Brands, our culture is the customer. It's taking exceptional care of our customers. I don't believe, per se, in us going out as a company and building our brand. What I believe in is taking great care of our customers and letting our customers go and build our brand for us.

In this episode, John and Pete discuss:

1. How Merris approaches building a successful company through organic and inorganic growth. 2. What techniques he uses to create a culture of exceptional customer care.

3. How he works with and leverages influencers, social commerce, and affiliates to build Solo brands out as an umbrella.

Click here to download transcript.

Other episodes you'll enjoy around the outdoors:

Jared Hanley: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-325-jared-hanley-ceo-naturequant/ Robert Swan: https://www.halotalks.com/robert-swan-founder-of-2041/

Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here.

Helaine Knapp, a self-professed "tech junkie" with a Big Ten education and a penchant for healthy living, risks it all to launch a boutique fitness empire, only to discover the water is colder and the monsters more fierce than she ever imagined. City Row is over 10 years old and they were one of the first to "make rowing sexy" and bring it to the forefront. She is now an expert in connected fitness, having built a best-in-class software platform and content production.

Helaine was always a fitness enthusiast, but she had to learn the hard way to take it slow. After college, Helaine was working in tech startups when her love for fitness kicked in again. She was a "Spinning junkie," trying to out-work everyone else, but it led to her herniating three disks in her lower back. After this, she developed a concept for a boutique fitness studio, and recruited her old college friend Annie Mulgrew to help. Together, they built City Row from the ground up, and in the process, created an empire. Despite the challenges they faced, Helaine learned that the best way to succeed was to go together, not alone.

As someone who never started a business prior to jumping in with both feet, she states "As I tell young entrepreneurs all the time . . . I knew that it was going to be pretty hard, but I also knew that I wanted to bet on myself. And I would say, jump in if you really want to do it, but go in wise, with eyes wide open. This is not rainbows and butterflies. The water is cold, and there are fucking monsters lurking below. And if that sounds appealing to you, then you should definitely have some fun and jump in. But the water is cold and there are sharks!" In this episode, she and Pete discuss:

1. How Helaine used her tech skills to create a successful boutique fitness business.

2. What strategies she used to build a strong team culture and successful franchise.

3. The challenges entrepreneurs faced during the pandemic (and now post-pandemic climate) and how to overcome them.

Click here to download transcript. Other episodes you'll enjoy around boutique fitness:

Julian Barnes: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-326-julian-barnes-ceo-co-founder-boutique-fitness-solutions/

Greco Fitness: https://www.halotalks.com/greco-fitness-jenna-york-and-mike-donnelly/

Sumner Hanna: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-370-sumner-hanna-senior-instructor-at-soulcycle-designer-and-co-founder-sumner-leigh-athletics/ Connect With Us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here.