Episode #541: Insights on Boutique Studios and Big Box Clubs with Deborah Strougo

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I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership

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with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I

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mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This

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allows you to convert website traffic visitors

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directly into leads. It's not just another chatbot, and it's not

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AI, but it allows a visitor to call, text, or leave a voice

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mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club

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instantly. MIT shows a study that if you contact the lead within

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ten minutes, chance of them converting goes up nine times

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that of the average. We got the Atlanta clubs on it, Vida

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Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness

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Philly, College Park. Become one of the

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next halo companies to deploy the wizard. It's easy to

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use. Go to the prospectwizard.com. Get a free

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thirty day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set

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up, and let the leads flow based on the

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wizard. Go get them.

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This is Pete Moore on location, Al Nashervani's

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Kitchen, New York City to Seattle.

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I have the pleasure of bringing on industry expert veteran

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and trendsetter in the future and in the

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present. Deborah, welcome back to you Halo

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Talks. Pete, it's the first time I've ever been on Halo Talks. And,

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honestly I said that because we've had some scheduling issues, but I

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wanted to kinda bury the lead on that, which I did. The all Which has

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only aspire to call me out on it. I only aspire to

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be in your book and to wear your hat. Like, the fact that I have

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one of these is So for those of you that are on audio, we are

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wearing EBITDA hats, which is earnings before interest,

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taxes, depreciation, amortization, which is basically the cash flow that you

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earn for the operations of your club, your studio,

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your consulting business, your advisory firm. And if

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you got EBITDA, that's positive, and you should sleep a couple extra hours

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a night. If you don't, you should stay up a little bit later and try

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and get to EBITDA. So welcome to your first show. Now

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we have to And you should definitely learn you should definitely learn what EBITDA

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is at Halo Academy. Right? I mean, obviously You can go to the Halo

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Academy. Thanks for that little, plug, unpaid plug, about Halo

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Academy. There is another one in January that you can take for the

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January right before the Super Bowl, so there's no

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excuses on why you can't attend. And we'll teach you five

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companies and five EBITDAs. So thank you, Deborah, as a a

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halo alum. So let's talk about you for a second,

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given that this is my podcast and you're my guest. Let's first talk about

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you as a consumer, and

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you're one of the most astute consumers in the halo

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sector. So what do you do? What have you been

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gravitating towards? And what is the average fitness consumer

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in 2025 going to experience that you're already on

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the front end of? Okay, Pete. That's a lot of

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content. That could be lot, but, I mean, I could unravel it more, but I'd

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be pretty smart. So go. Okay. Let's break it down. So what am I doing?

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Well okay. Twenty years in this industry, started as a step

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instructor. Well, wannabe step instructor. Couldn't figure out the counting.

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And Yeah. It's so, you know, been doing modalities

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galore. Right? Fitness modalities galore. Back

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in the day, it was Equinox Crunch and all of those places. And

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this week, I went to Bay Club, and I had a great

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time. If you guys aren't familiar with Bay Club, awesome.

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Where were you? What's the location? El Segundo. I

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had people meet me. I sent them to Redondo by accident, but it

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was El Segundo. Yeah. The so those clubs are are for historians

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in the industry. Those were Spectrum clubs. It's a deal that we

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worked on that were sold from the private equity fund that owned Spectrum

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to Bay Clubs. And El Segundo is one of

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the highest producing clubs, I would say, on the West Coast,

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and, in that corridor between the 405 and

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Sepulveda. In El Segundo, Manhattan Beach is

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probably the most grossing dollars in fitness in the

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entire world on that one street. Really? Well, I would

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how many people do you think walk through a day? Say 1,200 to

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1,500 a day. Yeah. It is amazing

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what certainly, what the product and service offering is, you know, how it

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spans. They start at six weeks in child care. Okay?

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But Yeah. Just, you know, four big studios

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going at a time. I took a step class. That's why I mentioned the whole

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step thing. With the Zumba instructor, I took a Zumba step. That was

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an experience, which I loved. Okay. It was amazing. And,

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you know, all of the other studios going and all the

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recovery spaces going and the Pilates room going

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and the yoga room going and then the full gym floors and small group training

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areas, pools, pickleball. You know? Full full service offering with

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child care. Loved it. So when you take a look at a club

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like that, obviously, they're running somewhat of, like, a city, if you

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will. Right? So are they able to

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effectively cater to their micropopulations,

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and do you feel like they've kinda nailed that business model of,

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hey. I'm gonna you're gonna be in the high end of, you know, a trophy

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asset as we like to call it. You're gonna belong to a trophy asset, but

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I'm going to give you all the benefits of basically

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the cult personality of group exercise

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inside of my trophy asset. No. So exactly.

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So I'm sitting in there, and I'm saying to myself, why would I ever go

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to a boutique studio again when I have all this stuff? And then I

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settle into it, and I realize it's because there are

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50 people in this class, and nobody knows anybody. A few people

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know a few people, but it's the super users that know the super

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users or the super users that know instructors. They don't necessarily

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know the quiet person in the back corner that needs the accountability and

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the and the, you know, consistent friendliness or

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customer service. Not no. Not and and I'm not saying a bad thing about Bay

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Club. I'm just saying just juxtapose it, right,

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to the fact that this morning, I was at OTF over here,

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owned by Mark Thomas, this whole group over here. He's an

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amazing operator. I think I introduced you to him, by the way, at some point,

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Pete. Anyway, I went into OTF

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and, you know, sat there and I'm like, I love this

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experience too. Right? So I personally can

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live very happily in each of those. At OTF,

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you know you know they have amazing things that have been woven in through the

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years from accountability to figuring out who the first timer is,

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to all of the things that keep your minds focused, to, like,

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the, you know, the hero wad type things that

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they've put in and the I can't even think of the name of it. You

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know? The the week of hell torture stuff that comes week. Yeah. That's what

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it's called. Yeah. All of that. And it's so

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interesting how the different users, you know, how the different

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things solve to different users. Yeah. I mean, when you

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think about the unit economics of a bay club

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and the fact that there is probably a 50,000 square feet, and

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they're actually running, you know, four to eight

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independent studios inside of those four walls,

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and then you look at a studio that says, hey. How am I gonna compete

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with their marketing, their incremental services that you could

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do inside there? Right? So I could take my class, and then I could go

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take a shower and go to the pool. I could go to cafe. I can

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get a shake. I could drop off and pick up my kid. You know,

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I would argue that a Bay Club has way more of a

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competitive advantage if they can pull off the experience

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inside of the studio. They really should win,

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you know, eight times out of 10 or four times out of five

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to use simple math. I,

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yeah, I would agree with that. I guess the only place

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where they don't win, if you're getting really granular on it, is

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is kind of like, I'm an Orangetheory user, let's say,

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or, you know, any pure bar. And

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I wanna travel the country city by city and stop in

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and have that exact experience everywhere I go. Bay Club is pretty regional.

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This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this

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company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards

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from retailers that allow you to incentivize your

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members without having to do zero down and one month

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free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What

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you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that

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people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.

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So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards

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vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.

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They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be

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able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your

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club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and

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outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them

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to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded

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properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.

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You shouldn't be. Promotion vault's your answer. Trust me. This is

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real.

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So let me ask you a question. As you kinda fast forward over the next

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several years, let's say Orangetheory decides, not saying that

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they would, that, hey. We're gonna do we're gonna allow big box clubs to

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become franchisees, and we're gonna put Orangetheory's inside of, you

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know, big clubs and inside of, you know,

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lifetime fitness and and, you know, Chelsea

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Piers. Did does that is that an evolution that could

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happen, or do you think, like, people that go to Art Theory

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want that boutique experience and are not going to allow

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it on average to be in underneath somebody else's

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banner. I'm asking you this because I think I think

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operators gonna need to think about, like, what can I do to bring in 800

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members? Do I go and try and get an Orangetheory inside of my location? Do

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I buy an Orangetheory locally that maybe is for sale?

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Is it is that even a viable thing to do since you're the

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consumer with your hat on, your EBITDA hat on? I'd love to

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get your your opinion on that. Would you go to an Orangetheory if it was

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inside the El Segundo big clubs?

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I've never seen it work. I don't know. Have you ever seen it work? And

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I haven't. That's why I'm asking you. It's so interesting that you answered that that

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way because I have not seen it work. And I wonder if it could work

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in this new, you know, new realm of reality. People

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approached me years, you know, in a variety of different

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years in a variety of different industry phases, mostly when I was

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in the row house place. But even once I was kind of, like, in the

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p vole space, you know, just, like, in different models, how can we make this

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work? And my feeling has always been there is a

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massive friction that happens at the desk level and at the

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email marketing level. And those are basically not things that can

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be solved for. Yeah. True. At the desk level, it's like, am I

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speaking with my marriage theory hat on, or am I speaking with my big club

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hat? At the email marketing level, it's like, am I speaking with marriage theory hat

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on, or am I speaking with you know? And the pricing also

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doesn't really work. It always clashes, which is kind of the desk, which

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is the same thing as email. It's like, who are you communicating as of? So

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the only way I think it works, Pete, which could work, but the only

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way I think it works is if you're Chelsea Piers, great

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example. And just like how Chelsea Piers has

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the bowling pier, you have the OTF area. You have the

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OTF entrance, which, by the way, is how Bay Club has a separate door.

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Bay Club has a separate door for the kids' club, that entrance. So you have

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the entrance over there, and then you somehow or another tack on

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$20 all access into Bay Club to use the general space or, you

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know So that's one of our big takeaways today thus far,

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and we've had several in in the last ten minutes. What are you doing a

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shot of? What's that? Nutella? Espresso. Oh, I thought

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it was Nutella. No. I didn't. I do espresso.

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So one of the big takeaways is, hey. If you wanna be in the middle

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market or the high end market, you also wanna be in the boutique

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space, and you have not been able to, quote, unquote,

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manufacture your own cult, which is not easy to do.

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A simple door and a separate entrance

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may be your path to success. So we'll put that as

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exhibit a. If you are exhibit b of

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takeaways would be if you are a successful group

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exercise program inside of a big box club,

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make sure you convince everyone that the amenities that you

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are getting for the price that you're paying is is the

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place to stay because a boutique cannot replicate

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that set of incremental services for you because they don't have the square

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footage to do it. So if you have a great group x program,

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don't dismantle it. Maybe put some things around it. Maybe put a

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recovery program around it where people are moving from

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the boutique class that you took at the Bay Clubs, and maybe

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there was a NormaTec, you know, horseshoe of people that could hang

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out and talk to each other afterwards. I feel like the the workout recovery and

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the the workout and the workout recovery should be tied together as

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a group program, almost like a a psych a soul

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survivor class, if I may dive into my

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own cult that I'm part of, obviously. I was gonna ask

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you to of my clothing. Really?

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65% of my clothing is soul

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cycle at age 52. I mean, who woulda guessed that?

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I just wanna give a hundred dollars to whoever gets you

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off Soul Cycle. It's, like, personal. Just anybody who can

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get him off Soul Cycle. It's not gonna be easy because they they have a

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matching fund. They'll pay me 200 now. Yeah. Go. It could be

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long. I know. So They'll raise the stakes on that. Okay.

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So one thing is as a as a consumer, you're seeing a lot of a

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lot of really good program offerings, I would say, you know,

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where where where you choose to travel. Is that accurate?

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Oh, yeah. Listen. And then you have the studios that are just one off studios

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that know their community through and through and through, and they're doing great

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EBITDA too. Right? So it's interesting. I mean, I tend to

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feel kinda like I walked out of the Bay Club, and I reached out to

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girlfriends. And I'm like, you've been doing the studio thing or the at home thing.

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You should go back to, like, a big full service gym. And so, you know,

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I think that there's different offerings for different people, and it's all shaking out, and

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people are circling back on the things that are gonna keep them in the game,

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which brings us to, like, you know, it's it's you're asking what's

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twenty twenty five. It's about the holistic human being. Right?

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It's really about and we kinda saw a lot of the rise of the women's

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stuff last year. Starting to see the youth stuff kind of pick up

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and get interwoven back into things, certainly starting to see the

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nutrition stuff and the sleep and the, you know, trackability, all of

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that. That's all leaning just towards the rise of the holistic

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human being. So who can look at each individual person and

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say, how can we better surround you, surround sound

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you, with what you need to be the happiest, healthiest, productive

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human being that there is? By the way, Bay Club even has a workspace. I

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mean, that's nice. I was like, I'll drive here an hour every day just to,

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like How do we work? Yeah. Like, there you go.

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Holistic human beings. So I think, you know, that's kind of the trends,

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Pete. I mean, it kind of sounds cliche, but at the same time, I don't

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know how cliche it really is. Even if you're a boutique and

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you can't offer a workspace or this or that, that's what people are

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looking towards. Like, how do you have the smart partnership with the thing that makes

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your life that much more robust? Yeah. Ten years ago, we worked it

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on doing a deal with New York sports clubs, and I told

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them we should just take certain clubs and turn them into half WeWorks and

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half health clubs, you know, whether on our own or not. But

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you got the space, and you got the the locker rooms, and you've got

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the recovery. And, you know, maybe you just need to put up a wall for

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noise so people can actually work from there. But there's no reason why they couldn't

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have attacked that opportunity and charged $300 a month.

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And these entrepreneurs that are going into buildings, going to clubs. So and

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why didn't it happen? Why do you think it didn't happen? People get

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get get stuck in their tracks of what they think that they are and what

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they can execute on and not realizing that I

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can service what a a a member wants

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versus what they wanna service to have a member want

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and and and limit it. I think that's that was the issue. But, yeah, I

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think I think if you're gonna cater to a member, find out

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what that member's day is and how you can help them solve frustrations,

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how you could reduce their costs of having a WeWork

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office and also a Bay Club membership, or a

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lifetime membership, or or convince someone that, you know, when

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they sign up, which I'm sure they do now, is, you know, hey. You

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have that expense, we can get rid of that expense for you and work out

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and and and work from here, which I think is is is a

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great potential model for the future. I want I

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wanna move on to a couple of things because you you work with a lot

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of studios. Obviously, you start Row House. You see

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a lot of these the growth in the Pilates category. Do you

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view that as sustainable? It seems like there's a lot

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of different studios that are coming out that are all based on

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reformers, which I think is a great workout. It could take a

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hundred dollars for me and and put me into the, outside of my

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soul cycle. Could be a Pilates concept. It it's possible. My

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gosh. It's possible. I don't wanna air it too loudly because I might have

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to walk it back due to contractual obligations I have as a soul

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cycle master to work out. This is a big moment.

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Do you see Pilates as be you know, maybe jumping the shark, or is this

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thing, like, here to stay and it could be one on every corner? I

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have always believed in education first for

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people, and so I'm gonna use that as a preface to the answer to this

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question. So Pilates has the

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it is a conduit towards exercise that really, really

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helps people that are, you know, amongst their life stages,

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especially women, men as well, athletes. But, you know, it

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takes it takes a lot a lot of shapes. It's

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mobility. It's strengthening. It's you know, you can get cardio off

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of Pilates machine and all of that. And it's been a huge rise because people

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are gravitating towards it. And it's not new, just like

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rowing wasn't new when we launched it. It's just seeing its

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its face right now because we're educating the consumer in the right

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way about what they need to know it'll do for them.

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And so, you know, we we've all talked about this. I'm sure you've done many

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episodes on this about just, you know, the strength day and the cardio

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hit day and the, you know, Pilates day. And, really, it's just

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about the fact that more and more people are hopefully getting fit. We're

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finding more and more people to get exercise to get healthy, and it should be

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a collaborative environment where we're tapping into what's gonna help them move them

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along their way. And so in the Pilates space, you're seeing a lot of women

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that are interested in getting more fit, but in a low

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impact sort of way. They're not into the whole

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hit thing. Some of them have had fertility related issues, and so

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they are looking in other directions. That's the founding story of your reformer.

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And, you know, they're looking in other directions, and so that's a big rise

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of the knowledge and the education behind why this modality

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is really working right now. It doesn't mean that there aren't other modalities

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that need more education, by the way, and that'll continue to catch,

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you know, wins and grow. But Pilates is here to stay

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just as it's been here for a long time. It's just gonna keep growing, and

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hopefully, all the other modalities will as well.

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This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.

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00:20:30,290 --> 00:20:34,130
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333
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334
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335
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336
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337
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338
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339
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340
00:21:00,030 --> 00:21:03,804
up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and

341
00:21:03,804 --> 00:21:07,245
going into one of their locations for $200 per

342
00:21:07,245 --> 00:21:10,765
month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an

343
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344
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345
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346
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347
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:29,220
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348
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:33,044
and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.

349
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You know, when you were, now now that you're advising

350
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studio operators and you saw kind of going through

351
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COVID and coming out the other side that you really

352
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needed to be at I usually use, you know, $2,000 a

353
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day or, you know, $60,000 a month to

354
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be in position where you're making money and and you

355
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enjoy this this business. What have you seen as

356
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kind of either some of the benefits

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and the traction that a number of groups are getting or that, hey.

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There's gonna be a certain amount of studios here that inevitably are gonna fall off

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because they can't compete with the multibranded franchisors,

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such as extraordinary brands that bought Row House or Xponential

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or Solid Core that's institutionally backed or

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metabolic that seems to be, you know, generating traction.

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Do you see kind of, like, a parting of, like, the sea, if you will,

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between groups that get it, that have a good business model, and groups that

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are still trying to figure it out and may not get to you on the

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side? Okay. So I will answer this question this way. So I

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think that there is no more is the day of if you build it,

368
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they will come. Right? No more is that day. And so

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the literally, the single studio and Lisey

370
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Kiecker from Studio Go, who I love dearly and moves the needle for studios all

371
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the time, works a lot with these types of guys, the littler guys Yeah. Who

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literally will get scared because, you know, big brands,

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franchises coming into market. It's like, okay. What are your keys of differentiability?

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Why are you different? And how are you gonna monitor your production

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and your performance every single day to get to what you just said, Pete,

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which is, you know, your $2,000 or whatever a day? I have gone

377
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into a ton of brands where I have basically said, like, let's break it

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down. We're not even talking about $2,000 a day. We're talking about how many check

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ins a day. We're talking about how many leads a day. And, you know, you

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go to, like, line of sight, what matters to the front desk person. And if

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you're solely focused on what matters to the front desk person and what

382
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matters to the instructor, that and you figure out your business model

383
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around that about what drives it in to bring you to the, you

384
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know, to the levers that create your profitability

385
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and your EBITDA within your brands because you know your differentiators

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versus the others. You can run a smart business no matter

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what, and that's the lovely yoga studio that I go to here. It's a

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one and done. She wants to expand. I'm like, don't expand. You're running a

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wonderful business because you're literally focused on how can I

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make sure that this business is profitable and solvent, and it doesn't

391
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matter what everybody else is doing because you have a special team, you have a

392
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special location, you have a special modality? You're not chasing everybody

393
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else's shiny object. So to a degree, I believe

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that no matter what level or layer you're at within,

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you know, a one store, five store, 10 store, you know, a hundred

396
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store type situation. Gotcha. Gotcha.

397
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And then for me What's that? Do you agree?

398
00:24:41,159 --> 00:24:45,000
Yeah. Yeah. I I I do. I'm I'm just nervous about some

399
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of the locations that, you know, maybe the business model is

400
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not, hasn't been optimized. Maybe they bought a franchise

401
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that isn't like a playbook that that is an operating playbook

402
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and that they, you know, have a bad franchise or franchisee

403
00:25:00,610 --> 00:25:04,370
relationship and, you know, everyone's pointing the finger at each

404
00:25:04,370 --> 00:25:07,810
other, but it was it should never been franchise to begin with. Well,

405
00:25:07,810 --> 00:25:11,570
franchising is a different story. So I agree with you.

406
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Franchising is a different story. If you come in as a single operator

407
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in a franchise system, you've looked to the franchisor to

408
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run different plays and figure out different successes so that you can then

409
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put your operating team in and your marketing dollars and all of that

410
00:25:26,765 --> 00:25:30,519
towards it. Right? And your your coaching squad or instructor

411
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team towards it. So, yes, if it's broken, and I've sat

412
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in a lot of franchising systems outside of,

413
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fitness where they say that, you know, 50% needs to be organic

414
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of the entire franchise system and various things like

415
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that for you know, you need to be over ten years and x amount needs

416
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to be profitable to be considered and deemed a,

417
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productive franchise. And so franchising, I definitely think

418
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is different. Like, we're kind of nascent in this

419
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industry from really successful performing franchises.

420
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Don't you think? Yeah. I'm just saying from a standpoint of,

421
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you know, whose responsibility is it to to either put

422
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more programs on the calendar or to, you

423
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know, work on the pricing model? Or is there an

424
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annual maintenance fee that you could somehow push into the studio space that doesn't

425
00:26:22,545 --> 00:26:25,985
currently exist? Or their programs to get

426
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in, seniors and, you know,

427
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HFA, FSA usage. I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out how

428
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the franchisee was to take control. I think the answer is

429
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to the franchisees. The answer is it's both. You know, whose responsibility

430
00:26:41,305 --> 00:26:44,985
is it? It's both. It's the franchisor's responsibility to put things into play. It's

431
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the franchisees responsibility to have their ear to the ground, to test

432
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things, to give feedback. And it's the franchisor's

433
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responsibility to have the right balance between franchisee

434
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feedback and expectations and all of those types of things so that they

435
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continue to play the model because they have to ultimately play the model. So that's

436
00:27:03,735 --> 00:27:07,415
why it's nascent. It's like we seal there's successful fitness

437
00:27:07,415 --> 00:27:11,175
franchises out there for sure. Right? But they're still growing and

438
00:27:11,175 --> 00:27:15,015
they're still figuring certain things out to bring the lowest ones up.

439
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So there's still, I think, probably a bigger discrepancy than there should

440
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be in the typical franchise systems where, you know,

441
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the higher ones should probably continue to grow, but I don't have those

442
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,120
stats, for our industry versus others. What, like, the

443
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:33,894
delta is in the franchise units. I do feel it's

444
00:27:33,894 --> 00:27:37,495
like a tale of two cities, though, where you've got some locations that

445
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are, you know, absolutely crushing it and and, like, a solid

446
00:27:40,855 --> 00:27:44,490
core where they're doing, you know, 10 to 14 programs

447
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a day or classes a day, you know, and very low

448
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labor. And they locked the door during classes. There's one

449
00:27:51,610 --> 00:27:55,230
person that works there. There's no showers. You know,

450
00:27:55,690 --> 00:27:59,445
pretty pretty good rents because they got a lot of them during COVID, which is

451
00:27:59,445 --> 00:28:03,044
super smart. And then there's groups that are out there struggling to make, you know,

452
00:28:03,044 --> 00:28:06,885
500 to a thousand dollars a day that, you know, maybe are

453
00:28:06,885 --> 00:28:10,505
are been outflanked, you know, from a from a strategic

454
00:28:11,125 --> 00:28:14,745
term. But moving on to a couple other things, you spend a lot of time

455
00:28:15,090 --> 00:28:18,070
working in and around the industry from a networking standpoint.

456
00:28:19,410 --> 00:28:23,090
Give give a little insight into, you know, what you've picked up

457
00:28:23,090 --> 00:28:26,690
over the last year by by attending all these events, whether

458
00:28:26,690 --> 00:28:30,535
it's from, you know, the type of people that are coming into the industry,

459
00:28:32,275 --> 00:28:36,035
people that are coming in from from other markets, you

460
00:28:36,035 --> 00:28:39,795
know, from from international saying like, hey. I'm coming to The US. It's not

461
00:28:39,795 --> 00:28:43,610
like we necessarily need more players here. Right. Or that, like, we're

462
00:28:43,610 --> 00:28:47,289
missing something. You know? We need you to build another 500 locations

463
00:28:47,289 --> 00:28:51,130
of the x y z force because we don't have them. So I I

464
00:28:51,289 --> 00:28:54,429
is there are you nervous about oversaturation?

465
00:28:55,210 --> 00:28:58,664
Are you excited about new entrants coming in? Like, what's your,

466
00:28:58,664 --> 00:29:02,505
like, if you were to balance the two? That's a

467
00:29:02,505 --> 00:29:06,105
wonderful question. So I think about two years ago, Pete, you and I

468
00:29:06,105 --> 00:29:09,384
sat on a stage somewhere. We were doing a,

469
00:29:09,705 --> 00:29:13,440
kinda kickoff of trends or something. And I made a

470
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:17,220
comment that I've thought about a lot since then about how

471
00:29:17,679 --> 00:29:21,380
I feel like new blood coming into the industry. And I'm

472
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:25,120
talking more about adjacent industry blood, and

473
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,885
adjacent industry knowledge than an outside player in the

474
00:29:28,885 --> 00:29:32,645
space, but that was really beneficial to

475
00:29:32,645 --> 00:29:36,405
the industry. So I do think that new people coming into the

476
00:29:36,405 --> 00:29:40,165
fitness industry from adjacent industries, hospitality, media,

477
00:29:40,165 --> 00:29:43,930
all of that is really helping the industry. But I made the point then, and

478
00:29:43,930 --> 00:29:47,770
I still feel very strongly about it now, that those players need to

479
00:29:47,770 --> 00:29:51,290
tap into the knowledge, deeply rooted knowledge of the

480
00:29:51,290 --> 00:29:54,890
industry here, like, need to team up with those types of

481
00:29:54,890 --> 00:29:58,645
people. Like, you know, whether it's myself, like you've been

482
00:29:58,645 --> 00:30:01,865
there, you've seen all of the modalities, you've seen like the different

483
00:30:02,085 --> 00:30:05,765
phases of boutique to gym, to boutique to gym, you've understand the

484
00:30:05,765 --> 00:30:09,330
growth of the holistic human being. Like, I feel like there's a lot of

485
00:30:09,330 --> 00:30:12,950
opportunity for us as an industry to grow and expand

486
00:30:13,810 --> 00:30:17,510
actually with other business practices that come with, from outside

487
00:30:17,810 --> 00:30:21,315
of our industry, if that's done right. So I do think that that's a

488
00:30:21,315 --> 00:30:24,835
thing. I also think to your point that people who are

489
00:30:24,835 --> 00:30:28,675
coming from with product or ideas from elsewhere, from other markets, of

490
00:30:28,675 --> 00:30:31,975
course, they wanna be in The US. US is the biggest market that there is,

491
00:30:32,115 --> 00:30:35,560
but there there will always be differences, cultural

492
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,000
differences, just like there was a lot of people from The US going to help

493
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,620
kind of, you know, in The Middle East. There will always be cultural dish differences

494
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:46,440
that by the same token, you need to absolutely pay attention to.

495
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:50,115
Like, what brand's awareness do I build need to build, what credibility do I

496
00:30:50,115 --> 00:30:53,715
need when I come in so that I can navigate this properly because I'm

497
00:30:53,715 --> 00:30:57,395
coming into a place that's gonna be a very different moment in time to when

498
00:30:57,395 --> 00:31:00,890
I came in and launched something elsewhere. And that that, you know,

499
00:31:01,030 --> 00:31:04,570
of huge momentous importance as well.

500
00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:08,710
So I don't know. I I think to your point, like, we don't need a

501
00:31:08,710 --> 00:31:12,150
million other things. We have a lot of big players that are here to

502
00:31:12,150 --> 00:31:15,895
stay. But there are people that have unique special things that

503
00:31:15,895 --> 00:31:19,575
are gonna keep moving the industry on innovation. And of

504
00:31:19,575 --> 00:31:23,195
course, the passion that new players bring into the industry

505
00:31:23,495 --> 00:31:27,015
is kind of exciting. Even if they're making mistakes along the way, they bring

506
00:31:27,015 --> 00:31:30,669
passion, they bring new ad spends. You know, it might kind of, like, be what

507
00:31:30,669 --> 00:31:34,510
brings people back to the original players at the end of the day. So

508
00:31:34,510 --> 00:31:38,110
we can't, like, you know, get mad at people for wanting to come

509
00:31:38,110 --> 00:31:41,605
in, but they should just be doing it smart if they're doing it. It.

510
00:31:41,605 --> 00:31:45,365
Yes. Alright. Well, we've done thirty minutes here to give a little insight

511
00:31:45,365 --> 00:31:49,125
into what you've been doing and and your thoughts and what we see coming down

512
00:31:49,125 --> 00:31:52,485
the pike here. I think, you know, some of the key takeaways are, you know,

513
00:31:52,485 --> 00:31:56,110
contact people like Deborah if you're coming in to the industry or if you

514
00:31:56,110 --> 00:31:59,950
want a little more of a primer on how things have evolved. I do

515
00:31:59,950 --> 00:32:03,630
agree with you that without a historical view on what works and what

516
00:32:03,630 --> 00:32:07,230
didn't work and, you know, how the different vendors are set up and the

517
00:32:07,230 --> 00:32:10,895
softwares are set up and the marketing and who you're going after,

518
00:32:11,035 --> 00:32:14,795
you know, you don't wanna build a business in the dark. So

519
00:32:14,795 --> 00:32:18,495
Deborah is somebody that would definitely help show you the way

520
00:32:18,555 --> 00:32:22,360
to profitability into a great business model and also your insights

521
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:25,640
into the industry and your networking, is,

522
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,880
is one and a one of a one of a kind, Deborah. So thank you

523
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,820
Thank you. For sharing your knowledge and being present

524
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,175
at all times. No. Thank you. I listen. I have to say, I take great

525
00:32:37,175 --> 00:32:40,695
pride in that because as a business owner, brand founder myself, like, you can just

526
00:32:40,695 --> 00:32:44,535
make a million mistakes along the way. You can Yes. You can. Everyone

527
00:32:44,535 --> 00:32:48,215
needs this. Everyone needs that. And it's like, in reality, they don't need that because

528
00:32:48,215 --> 00:32:51,890
actually they're going under or they're in the middle of an acquisition, and

529
00:32:51,890 --> 00:32:55,650
they're not gonna pay attention. So stop wasting your time. Those types of things are

530
00:32:55,650 --> 00:32:59,490
happening all of the time. And, obviously, you've been a huge player and

531
00:32:59,490 --> 00:33:03,090
an advocate and supporter, you know, of the industry. So anybody

532
00:33:03,090 --> 00:33:06,615
listening to this is already doing the right things. Thank you.

533
00:33:06,675 --> 00:33:10,515
Alright. Well, I'll see you soon at the next event. Alright. Goodbye. I'll wear

534
00:33:10,515 --> 00:33:13,815
my glasses. With pride. All Go three. Go halo.

535
00:33:13,955 --> 00:33:15,600
One, two, three.

536
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:27,380
Halo.