HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

After 7 years at Equinox as one of their top membership sales people and then moving on to Xponential, former competitive athlete Hensley Ellefritz now owns her own consulting firm with a team of 7 serving over 100 studios.

"Any successful fitness business, or any business in general . . . operates as a sales driven business with a conceptual overlay. Once you capture what makes a person tick and that specific emotion, there's no dollar sign which can be attached to that," she states.

Ellefritz provides some insider thoughts about her time with Equinox, (there's never been an ad for Equinox with a dollar price on it!) offers solid takeaways on how boutiques can manage their relationship with ClassPass, thoughts on the future of the boutique space, and more!

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"The industry has changed so much . . . ideally a PE firm should be complementary and supportive from a strategy standpoint," states Richard Steere, Founder of New Heights Capital. He spent 10 years as an M&A advisor before moving into private equity, was one of the earliest investors in the sector, and a first mover in the HVLP 2.0 model. He's done minority, preferred, structured equity deals and others. . .and was also an initial investor in The Edge Fitness Clubs, Fresh Meal plan, Orange Theory Fitness at the franchisee level, and more.

He and Pete discuss what happens when you bring in institutional capital, having conversations with landlords, his disciplined approach to investing and evaluating companies, thoughts around HALO sector deals in the COVID climate, his outlook on the sector for the next few months (bullish!) and more!

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Currently the CEO of Texas Family Fitness with 13 locations, Josh Wheeler is a 33 year HALO sector veteran who started as a front desk employee with Gold's. Josh is a lifelong learner and clearly appreciative of his Mentors, whom he cites often in this educational, wide-ranging chat with Pete.

"I look at people, systems and accountability. Who are my people? What systems are in place, and what level of accountability?" says Wheeler. He discusses having a "big appetite" for growth against, ". . .being real careful to not grow just the sake of growing." He defines HVLPHS, a phrase they coined (High Volume, Low Price, High Service), what a persona mix is, their plans for the future, and more! This is a must-listen for any executive at any level in the HALO space.

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As a newcomer to the HALO sector, Erick Donaldson built out 99 Bxng, to one of the top boxing clubs in the Tusla, OK area. Donaldson has always been in fitness. He received a baseball scholarship to Oral Roberts. While rehabbing a torn Achilles he encountered a boxing club in the area and loved it so much he ended up buying and rebranding it!

He discusses the challenges of learning the business from the ground up (he had no experience with fitness clubs before), his thoughts on personal trainers, ("Trainers are your new marketers . . . and when they have the backing of the location, it only elevates them!") his plans for expansion, how boxing has made a "very strong" comeback, and more!

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In his second appearance on HALO Talks, 38 year industry veteran Frank Ancharski discusses his current role as COO of leading RaaS ("rewards as a service") gift card provider, Promotion Vault. "People really still don't get that 'free' and 'discounted' dues don't work. It erodes your revenue stream and EBITDA. We're on a Mission to let people know there are far better options than discounting memberships and dues . . . this isn't a gimmicky thing or tchotchke, we're a real life behavioral change company," he states. Promotion Vault offers a completely digital, zero-waste gift card solution with top brands like Amazon, Lululemon, Starbucks, Nike, Under Armor and many others.

Frank and Pete discuss what "breakage" is and why it's a good thing, why "point" systems can harm your balance sheet, how the CEO of a well known brand switched from "zero down" to a $25-50 gift card on a join which resulted in significant increased cash flow and revenues, why continuing to sell on price hurts the entire industry, how using gift cards can be critical to increasing your company's valuation, and more!

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A former competitive triathlete, Damien Dau, Founder of ActivePlace, was frustrated with the fragmented nature of his online community. "People just don't do one thing anymore, there's an integration of categories," he states. Focusing initially on the endurance market (running, cycling, triathlete, swimming) ActivePlace, "Helps grow your active life by connecting you to health & fitness products, experts, community, information and inspiration." Damien discusses how they're markedly different from things like Facebook Groups, how they pivoted to make it through COVID, their subscription model launching shortly, lessons for startup Founders and more!

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A former D1 cheerleader for Syracuse University, Danielle Donovan founded CHEERFIT after tearing her ACL twice. She decided to forgo surgery and worked to rehab her injuries herself. "Cheerleading has evolved from cheering for sports to becoming its own sport in general . . . It's going to be featured in the next Olympics!" she states. CHEERFIT offers a 2-day, 8 hour certification with standardized workouts appropriate for kids as young as 6-8, for both cheerleading gyms and for selling directly into the health clubs.

She chats with Pete about how her program has scaled from just "fitness for cheerleaders" to include kids of all ages, and even their parents who may have been cheerleaders in the past. Her program could be a strong revenue driver for any club wishing to tap into this extremely fast-growing segment. Listen now to learn more.

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Founder of Health Hero, Anthony Diaz naturally gravitates toward helping people due to his Dad's background as head dietician and nutritionist at a health care facility. Started 6 years ago, now with 4,200+ clients around the world, Health Hero is, among many other things, a gamification app placed in MS Teams, Slack, or Salesforce.

"We take gamification and health engagement seriously, and if you provide those elements you can change behaviors, and we've seen that, we've done it, and we continue to do it," Diaz states. In essence, they're "building UnitedHealthcare in reverse." Learn more about their significant differentiators, how to think about enterprise level sales, tips to scale quickly, their future plans, and more!

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While not actual Step Brothers, Bryan Baia and Calvin Martin might as well be! These two savvy, hard working (and hilarious!) friends have been working together since 2013 when they met at Equinox. Years later, they began their own brand, recently signed with OBE Fitness, and are now completely independent running 3 full classes per week.

They discuss how they did it, their new partnership with OBE, the importance of knowing your strengths and splitting up work, and more. "Who we are as people and as coaches, the way we connect and really build our brand, is when we get in front of people . . . when that happened, it took things to another level," states Martin. Their advice to club owners on how to get the best from their training staff and what to do post-COVID is crucial. Keep an eye on these guys. Big things in their future! (And here's the Instagram post Pete keeps coming back to!) 😂

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Dr. Cooper is a legend in the HALO sector. Currently a spry 90 years old, Cooper founded his clinic 51 years ago in Dallas which has since grown to a 30 acre campus. It is one of the few places in the USA that combines a medical and fitness center. With books published in 42 languages, over 600 peer reviewed papers presented, Dr. Cooper was--putting it mildly--way ahead of his time. After presenting his keynote at IHRSA 2021, he sat down with Pete to discuss the results of one 25 year study in particular ("You're better off being fit and fat, than skinny and sedentary") and adamantly continues to drive the point home that, "No drug can replicate the results of an active lifestyle."

He points out some of the problems with statin drugs, the 8 factors his Institute focuses on to get people "Cooperized," the critical importance of Vitamin D3, his personal regimen, thoughts on wearables and personal fitness data, ("Data drives decisions!") and more.

His message (perhaps now more than ever due to COVID) is a must listen for anyone at any level in the HALO sector.

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