Industry Education Episodes

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 p...

We're excited to release our Oct 14th conversation with Liz Clark, the newly appointed CEO of IHRSA. She joined Pete for a HALO Talks live during the IHRSA 2021 convention in Dallas. Liz grew up in Montana, played 3 varsity sports and is an avid outdoor fan, "but I'm a city kid now and live in DC!" she jokes. When asked about the advocacy role IHRSA plays she states, "Yes, we have a trade show and publications, but we were never an advocacy focused organization. We did do a lot of advocacy at t...

Jonathan is the CEO of Ingenuity Brands, which has Brainiac as their flagship product. He states, "I got into this space unintentionally. I always wanted to do things to help people and the planet." His background was founding a company focused on renewable energy. Listen to learn more about how (and why) they ended up in the "brain health" space, and a some tips on balancing entrepreneurial energy with discipline, planning, excitement, and focus. ("It's about planting seeds, harvesting relation...

Pete McCall is a respected industry veteran with 15+ years in the HALO sector. He recently published his second book with Human Kinetics titled Ageless Intensity: High-Intensity Workouts to Slow the Aging Process. "My definition of fitness is having the ability to do what you want to do, when you want to do it," he states. He discusses his motives behind the book, provides thoughts on where fitness is going (virtual reality!), chats about the increased importance of technology at the club level...

Bobby founded Active Entities after a successful college and professional basketball and tennis coaching career. "Health clubs don't matter to people these days. Health matters to people!" he states firmly. "People will pay for quality and results. Out of this pandemic, we learned a lot about ourselves as an industry--a lot of our shortcomings. When you get grouped with casinos, it really tells you where you're at." He shares his in-the-trenches experiences with independent "big box" operators,...

Founder & CEO of 305 Fitness, Sadie Kurzban opened her first studio in 2014. Currently with 7 locations across Boston, DC, and NY, over 1,000 trainers trained (with plans for 25,000+ in the next three years) 305 is perfectly positioned for massive growth! "The new woman isn't sold on an aspiration of exclusivity, thin-at-all-costs, performance and leaderboards. She's sold on the aspiration of inclusivity, self-confidence, owning her truth and feeling like there's a place to love her body," stat...

Erika Flint is an award-winning hypnotist, best-selling author, speaker, co-host of the popular podcast series Hypnosis, Etc., and co-host of the radio program Reprogram Your Health. She is the founder of Cascade Hypnosis Center and the creator of the Reprogram Your Weight System. Before becoming a hypnotist, Erika designed software for the high-tech industry. She was working in that field for over a decade when she realized how interested she was in the most powerful computing device available...

The Joy of Mom's Mission is, "To unite and empower women everywhere to be unapologetic warriors and sisters while navigating the ever-evolving life cycle of motherhood." To say they've succeeded would be an understatement! Founder Vicki Reece has, from the ground up, built a "natural, organic, beautiful community of over 5 million Mom's!" "They have a 60 million reach average monthly," which is, according to COO Dush Ramachandran, "Completely organic. Not one like or share has been paid for. Eve...

A former student-athlete and author of #sponsored: How Athletes & Brands Can Leverage Each Other to Create Value, Jasmine Chou chats with Pete about the differences between--and ways companies approach--both amateur and pro sponsorships, concrete steps on approaching companies, the three types of amateur sponsorships, how recent changes in the NCAA have impacted the sponsorship community, challenges of social media and more! Click here for complete transcript.

Kaumil Gajrawala is the author of a seminal, recently released (April 6, 2021) initiating coverage report from Credit Suisse titled, Wellness Sector Initiation: An Apple a Day which can be downloaded here. "We think HALO will be a $7 trillion industry. Not every piece will be a winning piece . . . but at the end of the day you're talking about something growing very significantly on a global basis," he states. Integrity Square views this as a critical milestone for the industry in that it's th...

"We do not have any tech available that's better than our ears and our mouths . . . we've spent 300,000 years becoming the best communicators this planet has ever seen using our voices and our ears," states Celeste Headlee, a journalist for over 20 years, author and TED Talk speaker whose video hit over 24 million views. "Email is not faster, is more prone to miscommunication, and makes people more prone to irritation . . . all of the assumptions we make to avoid actual conversations are just fl...

Eleiko is a Swedish based, 60+ year, family owned, seminal brand in the HALO sector founded in 1920's which has a massive following among strength athletes globally. "Quality has always been at the core of what we do," states Erik Blomberg, CEO. "We want to bring design into strength equipment, an area that's been lacking for many years . . . We're looking to create the ultimate lifting experience for people that feels as if it's part of your body." Pete chats with brothers Erik and Rickard on t...

Praveen Kashyap is the CEO of Smart Health Clubs and a self- professed, "Born inventor, engineer, and now entrepreneur!" He came to the USA in 1987, did his Ph.D in Computer Science, and among his many other achievements, led the Samsung digital R&D group for the very first smart TV. He partnered with Mike Alpert, COO, and a 20+ year industry veteran. "We took the vision Mike had of single platform that does everything and would be member facing . . . and that's what we built." They chat about t...

"Exercising at home is unstructured. As great as it is . . . there's nothing more beneficial than being in a gym with a good personal trainer . . . clarifying that what you've read online is what you should (or shouldn't!) be doing . . . I don't buy into the idea that gyms and health clubs are dead," says Dr. Reardon, Founder of FitnessGenes and long time fan of the industry. In this provocative, wide-ranging chat with Pete, they discuss his experience on the front lines battling COVID, the need...

"bodyART comes from an understanding of Western science as well as Eastern philosophy to 'help bridge the gap' in movement," states former professional dancer and bodyART Training Studios Director and Owner, Ryan Beck. Ryan appeared often on stage, TV, and movies and eventually, dancing took its toll. He found his way to bodyART and was instrumental in establishing a variety of collaborations with medical institutions with this very powerful, and unique modality which has a strong following worl...

"We've seen an incredible amount of growth in the HALO (Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoor) sector for the past 10-15 years. I love the space, the industry, and its passion and energy!" states Barry Herbst from The Elliott Group where he's been for 5 years. Founded 38 years ago (and now with 18 search consultants and 20 analysts!) Pete and Barry chat about job hunting, the benefits of using a recruiting firm, why private equity groups depend on the Elliott Group for C-suite hires, the critical im...

Jim was a former "rainmaker" and partner at three different investment banks on Wall Street for most of his adult life. He's written 7 different books, has a documentary about fitness and aging well on PBS, and recently turned 80. He says he's now in the "inspiration business" after being, for years, a "certified couch potato!" The Wall Street Journal named his book Just Move, one of the 5 best books of 2017. He chats with Pete about how he completely turned his life around (at 70!) with fitness...

"The cool thing about dance as fitness is that you don't necessarily have to focus on what you look like doing it. . .you're just focusing on movement and the well-being of your body without having to worry as much about performing," states Andrea Fornarola, Founder of Elements Fitness Studio. Andrea was always a professional dancer, and she got her start on the fitness side at the well-known Physique 57 in their early days around 2005. She and Pete chat about the proliferation of dance-based ex...

When asked about how the industry has been responding since COVID, Eddie Tock, CEO of REX Roundtables states, "I think it's great to see the industry coming together in a stronger way. I still think we have a long way to go outside of the traditional for-profit clubs to really make an impact on the national and state levels with the media, and with state legislations that are out there." He and Pete chat about how the industry will evolve, "how to partner with different aspects of the industry t...

"I'm a lifer!" states Frank Ancharski, industry veteran and owner of Club Coach Services. "I've been in it since leg warmers were around, The Step® was just coming out, StairMaster wasn't a reality yet, and there was the duo-chest from Nautilus," he jokes. Frank is bullish on an "epic comeback" and in this chat with Pete, they discuss the reopening of the industry and how to manage it, customer service ("You shrink your market more by the way you treat someone on the way out, then you do based o...

Matt Richter is President of the Thiagi group and, in his second appearance on HALO Talks (first one here,) he and Pete continue their in depth conversation on learning, development, and training. With regards to COVID, Matt states, "We were able to share, and demonstrate that live online learning can be as effective as in person . . . If things are done and designed well, you get the same level of effectiveness, if not a bit better." They go on to discuss how this can benefit the HALO sector wi...

A long time industry veteran, Glenn states, "Neighborhood Trainers was meant to be kind of a combination of a dating site and real estate listings as a way to help people find the right trainer." He got the inspiration (a while back) when people were still posting flyers on bulletin boards. (They're still out there and they still work!) Pete and Glenn chat about how trainers were forced to evolve during COVID, how they moved from ZOOM to parks, the always-ongoing discussions on "who owns the mem...

"The pandemic either will make you stronger, or will force you to get out of the way for new technology and new ideas. But I think a lot has been the same. Connecting with members in a deeper way is a big part of this. . . A huge portion of the value of a membership is the social experience. I can't see that ever really changing," states long time industry veteran, Rich Novelli. Pete and Rich touch on the many differences between High Volume Low Price (HVLP) business models versus a premium bran...

"Part of our Mission is to conduct an amazing, two way, connected, live stream workout with coaches that see and care about you. . . and two-way is the word I want to repeat! We're one of the leaders in it, and it's what the Peloton's of the world simply aren't doing," states CEO and serial entrepreneur Kyle Bergman. A former lacrosse college athlete who went on to play on the Israeli national team, Kyle got his retail background at Bloomingdales, coached for 4 years at Orange Theory and Flywhee...