HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

Monique Nadeau is the Co-Founder of EatLove a company whose, "best-in-class technology delivers personalized, on-demand meal guidance that adapts to all lifestyles and food preferences and helps guide the 200 decisions we make around food each day." As a former investment banker, Harvard University graduate with an MPA in Economic Policy, Nadeau is well aware of the critical importance of nutrition and the obesity crisis currently facing America. "I've always been attracted to people who want to solve the hardest problems, even though it could take many years to actually come to fruition. Did you know, for instance, that the number one reason for rejection to the military is actually obesity," she states.

EatLove has 7,000 dietician approved recipes, 6,000 healthy restaurant options, AI to crunch the data, and more. It's a product that's "created to drive behavior change, it has the ability to process tremendous amounts of data, and it feels like we're just at the beginning," says Nadeau.

She and Pete also talk about the (rather substantial distinctions) between RD's (Registered Dieticians) and nutritionists, her company offerings on the medical and fitness sides, their current work with over 500 health organizations, and much more.

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InTouch Technology is a business very familiar to the Milkie family. As the current CEO, Mary spent 15 years on the vendor / CMS side, and has about 30 years total in the sector. She owned health clubs prior and worked in nearly every position.

InTouch recently secured additional investment capital and is now branching out into the consulting and call center side. Mary provides some very valuable intel into the changing landscape of the CRM world.

Regarding pricing she states, "I've been in the industry for about 30 years and I've said it's a race to the bottom as far as price goes, a race to zero. I just feel like we've really hurt ourselves sometimes . . . if we are focusing on customer service and helping people get results and offering people, things that they need to obtain their goals, I just think that's a better value and better option than going into a club where there's no hand holding at all." There's a lot of valuable takeaways in this one! Listen now to learn more.

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"I'm a tech guy / ex-athlete who became a big believer in this idea that food can get you sick, and food can also become the best medicine that you have," states Ari Tulla, CEO and Co-Founder of Elo. On their site they mention their vision is to "transform food from the cause of disease to medicine."

Ari is a serial entrepreneur and was an early investor in the (now very popular!) Oura ring.

When it comes to nutrition, where there's so much information changing (it seems!) weekly. Tulla says, "There's so many people who are giving you guidance and-really-it's like, 'I already have enough information!' So it's not about that. I can go online and find what I need, but to change behavior? It has to be made so easy that the new change makes your life easier than it was before." Elo aims to be the flag bearer for becoming the first "biomarker-first" and "smart nutrition" company. They built a cutting edge AI from a proprietary analysis of 3,000 peer-reviewed studies, and by looking at various biomarker data, Elo takes "custom" to another level. They look at sleep activity, recovery, glucose, weight, and much more. There is nobody else doing exactly what Elo is doing and everything was built from the ground up.

As a special offer for HALO Talks listeners, Ari is offering up something you should jump on! How does it work? Go to https://www.elo.health/ and signup with code HALOTALKS to start the Elo program with a free biomarker test and nutrition consult. Here's what's included in the Elo biomarker test: https://www.elo.health/articles/how-to-collect-a-successful-blood-biomarker-sample-at-home/ Definitely check them out!

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Robbie Bent is the CEO and Co-Founder of Othership. As one of the first employees with Ethereum, Robbie is extremely well versed in community building and galvanizing people around a particular cause. When it came to what is now Othership (with a brick and mortar location in Canada and a highly successful app,) he built this community initially in his backyard which grew to 400 people (and then a few thousand) with ~$20,000 a month in revenue.

His initial entre to breathwork was, "As a way to continue to stay sober and build up a social community that focuses on other things besides alcohol. I left the Ethereum foundation and started with an ice bath in my backyard, just building crazy community of neighbors, people coming in using the ice bath every night, doing these crazy bonfires and just creating a really nice social environment without alcohol. . . I just realized that the hot and cold could be used to build amazing class-based experiences for people and a whole new way to socialize," he states.

In one of those "clearly meant to be" moments, it also turns out one of Robbie's goals is the exact same as Pete's--to help solve loneliness! He's definitely on his way and has big plans to grow--mindfully! Robbie is extremely hands on (they tried over 50 types of tiles for the floor!) simply because he's that passionate about what he's built. He uses the space every day and it's baked into his daily life.

"It's really more about creating the best possible experiences where people will actually change their behavior. And then for me, it was always, the revenue will come later. It's always secondary for when you're working on your passion."

He and Pete chat about how to release the "DNA of your business" while still scaling it, how breathwork effects your nervous system, how it can be used to (literally!) change the way you live your life, how to cultivate community by "providing experiences that create awe and bring you joy," and more!

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In one of our most important podcasts released to date, we're proud to talk with Dr. Laurie Whitsel, Vice President of Policy Research and Translation of the American Heart Association & Senior Advisor to the Physical Activity Alliance, a non-profit that, "Brings together stakeholders in the physical activity communities for us to speak with one voice on significant policy and systems changes," states Whitsel. Joining her is Integrity Square's own Chief Political Architect and policy veteran, Tom Richards, JD who also heads up Activist in Motion.

It is critical everyone in the HALO sector know about the work going on behind the scenes in something called the HL7 process (Health Level Seven International) and the steps currently being taken to, "Build standardized measures for assessing, prescribing, and referring physical activity for patients."

Concurrent with that is the Time To Move initiative, a multi-year, multi pronged approach which (among other things) involves bringing in and standardizing billing codes for physical activity, connecting wearables so the data can flow and follow the patient through healthcare delivery, but also working with with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services) to get coverage determinations for the exercise prescription for health and fitness professionals to offer it and more. These things are happening now and Dr. Whitsel is the tip of this particular spear. Pete Moore, host of HALO Talks, mentions early on that this is indeed like "moving boulders" but they are moving. . . perhaps further and faster than we all thought. Policy conversations may not be everyone's particular cup of tea when you have a business to run and 100 other things demanding your attention. However, what Dr. Whitsel discusses here and what is literally happening right now will have incredibly far ranging positive effects for the entire industry-and probably sooner rather than later. This is one of our longer episodes and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. All the resources mentioned are available at the links below. Get involved now!

• PAA Letter to the White House
• PAA HL7 Slides
• PAA Action Plan

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A veteran of Techstars in 2019 with an app that has 10,000+ five star reviews (along with the the US Air Force as a client!) Tom Kiss, Co-Founder and CEO of Ate-The Mindful Food Diary and Coach, has made tremendous strides in a relatively short period of time.

Formerly a consultant who was often on the road, he entered the HALO sector out of a personal need and frustration. "I had a wakeup call in the form of a panic attack, and realized I had to do something, and my trainer friend introduced me to food journaling," he states.

"We built Ate with the belief that everyone is on an inner journey to become healthier and happier, and we think that building the inner curiosity about your choices and habits is the key to sustainable change. We built Ate with the intention to help ignite that curiosity and try to support people on their health journey. We're mindfulness based, nonjudgmental, and all about body positivity."

Ate's grown has been impressive. They're up 300% in the last six months both on the revenue and user side. Kiss goes on to chat about creating a consumer brand, their four core values ("Four H's-Honesty, happiness, hungry, and humble"), how they found some of their first angel investors, tips on maintaining focus across your team, and more.

This is an idea whose time is long overdue, and we suggest anyone in the sector who has a vested interest in seeing their clients, gym members, etc succeed to reach out to Tom and his team.

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Integrity Square and TSG go back a long way. . . and we're excited to finally welcome Pierre LeComte, a highly seasoned private equity executive to HALO Talks.

TSG began in consumer packaged goods but, "Just realized over time, what we were was brand investors. We really liked to back brands that were on trend and were riding consumer demand waves," states Comte.

He continues, "We realized that could happen in a lot of different categories, not just historically food and beverage . . . but that you can do that in many categories, including retail businesses, which we expanded into aggressively over the last 10 or 15 years. We realized what we wanted to do was really focus on businesses that needed resources and support to continue to grow, to create the infrastructure around that, and really have a differentiated consumer brand."

TSG currently maintains both control and minority investments. (They're investors in Planet Fitness) and have a legacy of 30+ years where many of the brands they invested in are still around.

Pierre discusses how to delineate between investing in a person versus investing in a brand, how TSG views a brand itself, how they consider valuation multiples, growing a brand (TSG has their own in-house agency!), thoughts on strategic companies buying brands they can't create internally (ex: What Coke did after buying Vitaminwater), what entrepreneurs need to consider before taking on external capital, what they need to think about when considering a majority or a minority stake, and much more.

We expected this podcast to be full of takeaways for anyone at any level of growth, and Pierre didn't disappoint. This master class in how private equity can help build a company (positively!) should be required listening for anyone as they continue to scale their company--regardless of whether they plan on selling, taking on outside capital, or want to continue to run the business indefinitely.

Download complete transcript here.

Mohammed Iqbal is the Founder & CEO of SweatWorks . . . the company quietly behind the tech of a lot of larger companies you're no doubt familiar with--CrossFit, Spartan Race, and many more. They are, "The leading digital agency in fitness design and technology to create meaningful wellness journeys for everyone."

Iqbal spent 7 years at Sharp and, while there, worked on the iPhone with Apple's team which strongly impacted him in many ways. Originally from Dubai, he moved to NJ in 1991. "I dove all in to Jersey culture . . .funnel cakes, the whole bit!" he laughs. "But I got out of shape and started my fitness journey. It changed my life and I asked myself 'Why didn't people get it?'"

He started SweatWorks in 2012, around the same time FitBit began, and has been in business for 10 years. The HALO sector though has never been big spenders on, well, anything, and Iqbal chats about how they were able to break through that initial hurdle. He discusses how to reduce churn, (hint: it's not 'set it and forget it!'), how the industry needs to respond to the hybridization model "which is here to stay," and a lot more.

A key takeaway on where we're going: "AI and machine learning need to be complementary, not the strategy itself. You need to have a human element. People know when you're talking to a machine versus when you're getting the personal touch."

The HALO sector has come a long way, and SweatWorks is positioned perfectly to ensure brands keep up with the times and bring their members along for the ride! Listen now to learn more.

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Carolyn and her husband Paul owned three private training facilities in Orange County, CA which catered mostly to higher level athletes. Nutrition was (obviously!) a significant part of that, and in 2013 they founded Balanced Habits™ as a way to bring scalable, personalized nutrition programming to the fitness industry.

"It became something we were known for. It carried us through the financial crisis and really is what put us on the map . . . Fitness and nutrition go hand in hand, and for whatever reason, the industry wasn't embracing that and were kind of farming out nutrition somewhere else," Fetters states.

She discusses how facilities around the country use their program to generate revenue, ways the program is being sold/implemented, tips on bringing nutrition into your club, how their program is managed, the necessity of proper messaging, and much more.

The fact is, "more people need to lose weight, than want to go to the gym," says Fetters and she's spot on. This is not something the industry can afford to ignore anymore or just 'hope' that members find something to do on their own.

Reach out now to the team at Balanced Habits to learn more about implementing this proven program at your facility.

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Becky initially began her career in ocean conservation focusing on coral reefs. "I wanted to save the world and see the world. . . and when I found Joyride, I found this authentic community and wanted to be a part of it!"

After moving full time into the HALO sector, she quickly realized there were no cycling studios in the San Antonio / south Texas region. She saw a need, jumped in, and become the first cycling studio to open in the area.

Now, as the Founder of her newly launched, Amp Studio and President of Consumer Brands at GoSaga (working with Geoff Schneider, a prior HALO Talks guest) Cerroni discusses her plans for Amp, market differentiators, the importance YPO plays in her development as a business owner, and more!

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