HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

Dr. Layne Norton jokes, "I describe myself as a meathead who loves science or a geek who lifts heavy things!" A highly prominent figure in the direct-to-consumer fitness and nutrition space, Norton attended the University of Illinois (perennially in the top 5 for Nutritional Sciences) where he earned his Ph.D. He went on to earn his pro card in natural bodybuilding, and became a world record holder in powerlifting, all while authoring, "conservatively over 100,000+ posts on bodybuilding.com and other various forums."

With a "six figure business" coming out of graduate school, Norton is currently the founder of Biolayne, Outwork Nutrition, Carbon diet coaching app, and author of a good number of books. And he does all of this while--much to enjoyment of his very extensive audience-- naming names and calling out the nonsense so utterly pervasive in his space.

When asked how nutrition got so complicated for the general consumer he states, "There are tons of voices out there vying for your dollars. If you're doing it the right way, it's going to take time . . . and people are very impatient, so they start making bold claims because that's what gets attention."

He continues, "If I want to get healthy, if I want to change the way I look, it takes months and months, so people are always asking, 'What's the hack? Where's the trick in there?' Behavior modification is devoid in the fitness industry. We make people out to be X's and O's, but people are messy."

Norton closes with thoughts on why he doesn't necessarily think government intervention into the nutrition world is the best idea, the state of fitness in the USA, serving sizes, marketing, modern news media, scaling his business, how he defines success, and more.

There are relatively few people in the D2C space that are as qualified as Dr. Norton, never mind his willingness and obvious passion to continuing to myth bust, name names, and educate those who have found him.

This is a must listen, but with a caveat: Be prepared to examine your own beliefs because, as Norton is often fond of saying, "Data is greater than your feelings" and not everyone likes to hear that.

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Now with 15 years in the HALO sector Founder of YBell Fitness, Aaron Laurence, found his calling and career relatively late at 35 years old. He jumped immediately into small group training. "The one challenge I faced was around the equipment I was using," he states. "Setting up a whole lot of stuff in the morning for 30-40 people was quite a bit of a challenge!"

Host Pete Moore has stated many times that the best businesses / solutions are often born from a Founder's frustration, and the YBell's genesis (and quick scale!) are proof of that.

Industry veteran and seasoned marketing & advertising executive Mark Livingston explains how YBell has managed to actually grow in the middle of COVID and how they've increased business internationally. "We were one of the only companies that actually had product," he states. He continues and chats about how, in certain ways, the pandemic has even made them a better company!

This extremely ingenious piece of equipment (with top-notch content provided as well) deserves strong consideration from everyone to distributors, club buyers, fitness professionals, and more.

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CEO & Co-Founder of Boutique Fitness Solutions, Julian Barnes joins a rare club of HALO Talks guests making their second appearance! (First one here.) We're proud to join him at BFS's 4th Summit, April 28-30, 2022 at the Westin Times Square.

In a quick "state of the industry" after 2 years of COVID, Barnes tells us according to IHRSA, 30% of the studio market is now closed unfortunately. He discusses why that is and more importantly, what those studios who've remained (and in some cases, thrived) have done differently.

In terms of some thoughts on the future, Barnes states, "Digital isn't going anywhere. We're very much at the beginning. Virtual is not intended to be a national brand. Most studio owners aren't trying to compete with the Peloton and Daily Burn's of the world. They've realized that the role of virtual in their business model is to support existing clients . . . 80% of the industry is run by studios with 3 or fewer locations."

The BFS 2022 Summit has tracks for CEO's (their invite-only CEO Summit) as well as for Managers and other employees all under one roof with top speakers from across the country.

Register at the links above, and hopefully we'll see you there!

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Jared Hanley is the CEO and Founder of NatureQuant, a company that "quantifies" nature in a sense. In a nutshell, their tech assesses and promotes nature exposure.

Hanley's background was in finance using big data, analytics, and machine learning . . . but he's always been passionate about the outdoors. "I wondered why do we feel so good when we get outside? I wanted to apply my skill set in that area. Nature never had any real data attached to it, it never had any kind of measurement, and I thought it was a huge opportunity," he states.

They have found very strong associations between certain natural elements and many positive (or negative) health aspects. "Nature prescriptions" have existed for a long time in many Asian and European countries, but only recently are starting to gain traction in the USA.

Listen now to learn what the most influential environmental factor is, possible uses for the HALO sector, their upcoming app (NatureDose), how policy makers, insurance companies, and others are beginning to realize how important nature prescriptions are to the healthcare continuum, and much more.

This is a fascinating company and a must listen for anyone in the HALO sector.

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Keith began his career in the HALO sector from the ground up working as a commission-only salesman at a Powerhouse Gym in Augusta, GA. He slowly became interested in the tech side of the business as well--which was "pre-Windows" era when you had to connect computers with coaxial cables!

Trawick became an evangelist for technology in the sector as the years went on. He states, "Tech companies now are trying to be too many things to too many people . . . Organizations should be allowed to have their own definitions and enact their own business processs around those definitions."

He and Pete discuss the always-controversial topic of who owns what data, marketing trends that have come full circle, why we're still in the "bottom of the first" when it comes to tech compared to other industries, pricing trends (thankfully, it's no longer as much of a "race to zero" as it used to be) and more!

How an organization should use tech is also critical, and is often overlooked. "Technology enhances and amplifies the core that's already there . . . and that can work to your advantage or against it, depending on how good your existing business processes are."

This is a must for anyone in the sector with an interest in tech. It offers definitive takeaways from a long time, industry veteran who has been there since the beginning.

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Benj has had fascinating career path into the HALO sector. Currently the General Manager of the College Park Athletic Club, he's always been into sports as a kid (thanks in part to his Dad who coached in high school.) He lived in Sweden for a year and eventually became a Pastor for 7 years at a small church in Michigan. After returning east, his friend gave him a job in the club business, and he hasn't left since!

On navigating COVID, Ecker states, "We're a program driven club as opposed to membership driven. Programs really drive our revenue. We stuck to the same price model we had all along." He continues on about the current trends in racquet sports (pickleball, tennis, paddle tennis), how they work internally to ensure tennis pros and trainers are on the same page, the lessons he's brought into the space from being a Pastor, the importance of addressing mental health issues in sports, why everyone should "learn how to lose and deal with failure," and more.

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The former CEO of In-Shape, Schuler now serves as the CEO of the California Fitness Alliance, an advocacy organization working to galvanize all subsets of the fitness industry in California.

"It took this crisis to realize how important advocacy is, how hard it is to get heard in an industry that's just trying to get people healthy . . . and how much of a disconnect there is with policy makers," she states. The well-represented Alliance is also looking at other powerful, highly effective organizations (notably the National Restaurant Association) as models.

As a life long marketer, Schuler opines on some critical issues which need addressing in our sector. "We need to focus less on vanity, and more on health! Google 'fitness' as an industry and it shows the top of the pyramid, which makes us look very exclusive and less essential," she states.

Anyone with an interest in where the HALO sector is going post-COVID needs to listen to this. Help support IHRSA in their Mission, support the Gyms Act, get involved in the CFA if you're in California! And perhaps most importantly . . . hold your local representatives accountable!

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Ntiedo has had quite a career both in corporate America and as an entrepreneur. Originally from Nigeria and the Bahamas, he learned six computer languages before age 11, eventually made his way to McKinsey, founded FitGrid (originally called YourGuru) and, along with Julian Barnes (his HALO Talks here), co-founded Boutique Fitness Solutions,

Etuk became interested in the HALO sector because his group ex classes helped cured him of his plantar fasciitis! However, he saw a big need that wasn't being met: "From a retention perspective, we believe that if you come to class, you're more than likely to keep coming back if you're connected to other people," he states. FitGrid is kind of an "automatic community builder," he continued. "Nobody had ever created a software that allowed you to leverage your entire community."

Ntiedo discusses the challenges of building the platform from the ground up, how software should work with "real life" scenarios ("Software should help 'surface' what you need to do in person!") and more.

He offers examples of other companies outside the industry he turns to for inspiration (and encourages others to do the same!) Listen until the end where he also gives us "the best business advice" he's ever received!

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Joining us for his second appearance on HALO Talks (first interview here), Founder and CEO of Flexit--Austin Cohen--chats about rolling out their new virtual personal training platform mid-COVID and how it's been an "absolute game changer" for both their B2B and B2C customers.

Virtual personal training "fits into a real white space in the industry," he states. Flexit built out their own system with features specific to the modality. Suffice to say, it's definitely not ZOOM . . . and they did so mid-COVID!

Cohen discusses new revenue models he's seeing which are highly effective ("Clubs that compensate trainers the same for virtual that they do for in-person are having really good adoption internally"), as well as other metrics and best practices.

"It's important for clubs to embrace how virtual now fits in with the future of bricks and mortar," he says. It should be clear to anyone in the HALO sector at this point that digital isn't going anywhere. It was coming anyway--and COVID simply accelerated that.

This episode is a must for anyone who already has a digital/hybrid program in place, or for those continuing their research for a future rollout.

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Conor O'Loughlin, CEO & Co-Founder of Glofox, is a former professional rugby player who is taking his lessons learned on the field and finding great success in the business world. Glofox raised a "humble" $2M initially, and recently received another round for a total of nearly $25M. With a fast-growing team of approximately 200, Conor and his (initially) small team bootstrapped everything, started as a basic "professional services" company, and evolved from there.

Any entrepreneur (at any level of growth) can relate to what Conor is doing! He chats with Pete about how they came up with the Glofox name, the challenges of entering a very crowded US market from Ireland ("We came to the USA with a very narrow focus on the type of business we want to serve . . . we went, almost uncomfortably narrow"), and more.

He discusses use of funds ("We have 40% in R&D for long term planning,) thoughts on cash burn, why it's important to learn to stay no to "big fish" even if it's a great revenue opportunity ("You can do anything, but you can't do everything,") and more!

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