Do Great Things Episodes

"My purpose is to help others," states Roger Harvey succinctly. This long time, highly-seasoned HALO executive served as the COO of Crunch for 13 years (from 3 studios to 27 in 1993-2006), as a COO and CEO in the boutique space, a consultant to a good number of brands, and most recently as the CEO of New York Sports Clubs. He was charged with the "minor" task of taking a 50 year organization (from 186 gyms going in, to 68) out of bankruptcy--while in the middle of the pandemic--pre vaccines! "I ...

Matt Spielman is Founder of Inflection Point Partners and author of the newly released book, Inflection Points-How To Work and Live With Purpose. (Check out a quick one sheeter here as well.) Matt notes, "I transitioned from Executive to Executive Coach . . . and the part that really drew me in was seeing the people on the team grow, develop, thrive, giving them stretch opportunities, the promotion discussions and . . . just giving feedback in a constructive way. That was the stuff that really ...

Virginia Carnesale is the founder of Shop Stage. Her story of surviving breast cancer is incredibly inspirational for others going through what she did, and was the push needed for starting Shop Stage. Her inspiration was based on her experiences as a patient, and her life long background in retail. While the company is only about five months old as of this podcast (Sept 2022), she and her team are doing incredible work helping other women take the guess work out of their cancer treatments, hav...

As a very active kid, Bryan Clay (Founder of the fast-growing franchise Eat The Frog Fitness and 2008 Olympic decathlon gold medalist), found himself with an ultimateum by his Mom: Track and field or swimming . . . and he chose track and field because, "There was no way I was going to wear a Speedo!" he jokes. Clearly, it turned out to be the right choice. "The track became my sanctuary," he states. Clay went on to gain a Fulbright scholarship, compete in the 2004 Olympics, won the gold in 2008...

In this episode, we're pleased to present an informative and enlightening interview with Ben Ludwig, a growth pastor, and a fitness coach with a rather unique background. "If you ask most people that are in ministry, that was never their original plan. For me, fitness was always my 100% go to. I started as a person trainer back in the day and worked my way up just through my passion for helping people. That's what I thought my career was going to be forever," states Ludwig. Ben and Pete discuss...

A former college athlete who moved into a fitness career (and became a pro MMA fighter!) industry veteran Emre Ozgur is now the Founder and CEO of a buzzy new brand with an extremely unique concept, Safe Sweat. "When we started really working on this, initially it was a concept for the pandemic, but the reason we decided to push forward is because there is a very large demographic of underserved people that have been saying for years, 'I don't want to work out in the social environment. I don't...

"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, ...

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 m...

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 what...

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 a...

"Culture can never be something where you just check the box. Once you've built that culture, you're not done! It takes every single day," states Joel Goldberg, speaker, broadcaster and author of Small Ball, Big Results. The parallels between sports and business are undeniable, and Goldberg shares some 'in the trenches' stories with Pete on everything from recruiting, finding the right roles for employees (athletes) and more! He also provides some real life examples (involving athletes you pro...

Wellness 4 Every 1 aims to increase awareness of the inequalities in the wellness industry and provide opportunities for diverse communities to have access to quality arts and wellness programming, as well as a space for social and emotional well-being. Their programs are currently in 100 public schools nationwide, with 150 classes weekly (new programs are added all the time) and impacting over 10,000 students! How do they know it's working? Among other things, "Every year the schools expand th...

Kory Angelin has been in the HALO sector for over 10 years. He began as a trainer and worked his way up with organizations like 24 Hour Fitness, Lifetime, Equinox, F45, and is currently the COO of Volofit. "I think I've been in every position along the way," he jokes. On the culture of an organization, he says, "A business is made or broken starting with the owner or ownership group. You're setting the tone at the top . . . the relationship between you and the customer, even before they become ...

A computer scientist by training, Ross Lauder, Founder of Single Focus Talent, went through an IPO with Hubspot and has ". . . worked the roles I hire for!" he states. Single Focus is a boutique executive search & career specialist for the SaaS / computer software & technology driven industries, with a focus on sales, operations and leadership roles across the EU and USA. Lauder also hosts the Global Tech Leaders podcast. "You've got to go inches wide, and miles deep . . . and there's way too ...

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'...

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 mem...

Petra Robinson (aka "Mama ZUMBA!") got into the HALO sector while living abroad because of her passion and desire to help others. She studied with industry pioneers Jacki Sorensen & Judi Sheppard- Missett, became certified by AFAA in 1986, and eventually became their VP and ran their convention for 10 years! Now with ZUMBA since 2005, Robinson runs 100-120 tradeshows a year for them. She and Pete chat about how ZUMBA became one of the most successful companies in the HALO space, and why it cont...

Robert's first HALO Talks was in 2019 where he chatted with Pete about the up's and down's of scaling a business-to-business software company. "A B2B SaaS business caught me completely off guard. It's a different totally different ballgame from running a gym!" he jokes. (Jackson also owns the high end Forma Gym in San Francisco.) Since then, he's sold Fitness BI (which he started with only $100,000!) to ABC Fitness, and chats with Pete about the process of exiting / valuations, working through ...

Recorded live at the 2021 IHRSA convention in Dallas, Brent has been in the HALO sector his entire career. With degrees in both exercise physiology and exercise science, he's served as the VP of Cooper Aerobic Center, (see Dr. Cooper's HALO Talks here,) owned TELOS Fitness Center, and is recently coming off of a fantastic job having served as the interim CEO of IHRSA prior to Liz Clark's appointment as the new CEO. (HALO Talks here.) "Crisis breeds progress, inventiveness, and creativity," he s...

A passionate and driven voice for the industry, Andrew Wall states, "For me, being on the front lines in helping to support and to bring education to the industry is one of my passions. It's a dream job, and everyday I get to wake up and do what I like." Wall is the Director of International Business Development for the American Council on Exercise, a long time, industry leader in education for fitness professionals whose Mission is, "to get people moving." Andrew and Pete discuss the current c...

As former college athlete, Peter brings his many lessons learned on the field into all top companies he works with. He currently serves as an Advisor, Board Member, CEO and Investor. Having worked at Fortune 100 companies in the past, he now works with Xponential Brands, Yoga6, was the former CEO of Velocity Sports, is a Senior Advisor to Athletic Republic, Chairman of UpperHand, and others. In this wide ranging conversation with Pete, Peter discusses the top three things an executive must cons...

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 trainer...

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...

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 contin...