Episodes

At the height of her career in Manhattan advertising, Francesca Sipma began to feel burnt out and unfulfilled. She had no idea this restlessness would eventually end up being the catalyst for an unexpected journey: Her discovery of an immensely powerful practice, one that would lead her to leave her career and start her own business, Mastry. Through this groundbreaking modality, she now works with top companies like Deloitte and Google to help empower employees to reach their highest potential. ...

Rachel Begun, a respected nutritionist and dietitian, has a wealth of experience in the food and nutrition industry. With her Master's in Nutrition Education and background in PR, Rachel has developed a unique skill set that blends science-based nutrition knowledge with powerful communication strategies. Her expertise has led her to work with global food service manufacturers, food and wine retailers, and natural food brand startups. In recent years, she has transitioned into executive coaching,...

After being diagnosed with Crohn's disease, Celina Semente, a stubborn yet determined (former!) fashion major, decided to take matters into her own hands, changed her field of study, and embarked on a journey of self-discovery to heal her gut and help others as a holistic health coach. With a hat tip to Mike Pesca, host of the Gist podcast for the initial intros--and a happy client himself--Celina is now a highly skilled health coach whose experience with Crohn's continues to fuel her passion f...

After her husband and son became ill, Michelle Zipper (practicing out of the Well Center in Westchester, NY) fiercely pursued a career in Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, determined to find answers and help others, unlocking a powerful inner strength and courage as she faced the challenges of balancing her business ambitions with her family's needs. Michelle has spent over a decade exploring the world of holistic health and functional medicine. With a background in graphic design, her passion f...

Mark Moyer is (clearly!) our long lost, Brother from Another Mother! He is the Founder and CEO of the Win Again Academy and the author of Win Again: Turn Athletic Success Into Business Success. He shares our desire to help provide athletes with the resources and connections they need to transition to a life outside of sports when that time comes. His ecosystem will help current and former athletes discover their identity beyond sports, develop the structure needed to succeed again, and receive t...

In this engaging podcast, our guest Brian Socolow from Loeb & Loeb, LLP shares his insights on the psychological and legal components to consider before jumping into a private equity deal in the "post-COVID new normal." With a focus on protecting and monetizing technology ideas in the sports and health and wellness industries, Brian reveals the checklist of factors to consider when seeking investment or selling a company. He also offers valuable advice on legal protection, insights for entrepre...

Mike Geenen is the Senior Director of Investments at EPR Properties. EPR is a 25+ year old, publicly traded REIT with $6.5B in investments, 350+ assets across 44 states and Canada, with more than 200 partners and tenants. A REIT is a real estate investment trust which owns (and sometimes) operates income-producing real estate or related assets. These typically include things like office buildings, malls, apartments, hotels, resorts, self-storage facilities, and so forth. Geenen states, "We bill...

With her unique perspective as a historian and deep roots in the fitness industry, Natalia Petrzela, Ph.D embarks on a mission to uncover how fitness has gone from a "suspect" activity in the early days, to an essential part of modern life, leading to the crucial question of how we as an industry can make it more accessible to all. "I think we've got to find a way to talk about obesity, health, and morality that isn't just about like, well, 'you look that way, make better choices,' because I do...

When Matan Gavish, a former Special Forces commander in charge of combat training, discovers the "silent pandemic" of rising sexual assault against women in urban areas, he repackaged his Krav Maga skill set to empower a reluctant and fearful audience to learn to take back their safety. He is the Founder of FITHIT in NYC and is passionate about solving this problem. Gavish states, "Somewhere along the line, it became crystal clear to me that there is a problem, a real big one that is not being a...

Jarlo Ilano is a martial artist, physical therapist, and entrepreneur. He is the Managing Director of GMB Fitness, and has been at the forefront of the 'alternative fitness' movement for over two decades. At the age of twelve, Jarlo found himself in karate classes at the local community center. As he grew, he explored more martial arts and fitness-related activities. After his parents encouraged him to pursue physical therapy, Jarlo began to see the potential of combining his own passions into a...

Eve Nasby is the President of Band of Hands, a company now in 11 states with a disruptive business model that helps small business owners manage their staff without having to worry about the administrative burden of being the "employer of record." She has over 30 years of experience in the staffing industry and is passionate about helping businesses succeed. 98% of businesses in America are small businesses-those with less than 50 employees. And (putting it mildly), staying on top of the latest ...

After decades of success in the fitness industry, George Jackson created TG-The Gym in 2018. It represents the next step in his career and a distillation of all he has learned. TG is an umbrella organization offering a license to independent gym owners with a tremendous number of benefits and proven business model that's readily deployable. George is a well known, long-time industry veteran who started with Gold's Gym around 1983. He's gone through multiple iterations over the years, taking what...

Dr. Sal Arria is one of the Founders of Lionel University (formerly ISSA College of Exercise Science), and an educational leader in the fitness industry. He's been around literally since the inception of the personal trainer education space. He continues his life-long mission of creating highly educated fitness professionals to help people change their lives. Sal had a serious wake up call many years ago when, after presenting his plan to a Vice President of a very large insurance company, he wa...

Taylor Stull, a former product manager for preventative health solutions, is the Co-Founder of Flowell, a platform that provides team-based experiences and lifestyle games to help clubs and coaches build communities and keep people healthy for life – all while navigating the challenges of helping them make good decisions for long-term success. "At the end of the day, we're working to try to keep people healthy for their whole life by helping them make good decisions. This way they can hopefully...

Doug Young, currently the COO of Easalytics, faces the daunting task of leveraging technology and machine learning to help struggling fitness businesses maximize value from their existing members, and increase revenue retention - all while avoiding unintended consequences. Doug is a Connecticut-based software and AI expert who has been in the tech industry since the late 90's. He has a background in ecommerce, SaaS, and ed tech, and has been in the HALO space for a bit over four years. He specia...

Growson Edwards is a software entrepreneur and founder of CIPIO.ai, a Community Commerce marketing platform that helps brands mobilize & monetize their brand communities. He has extensive experience in the SaaS space, having grown his last company to $100 million in revenue and sold it. After meeting his two partners, they took on the challenge of building a Community Commerce Marketing Platform. A year later, he had close to 50 brands on his platform, including some of the biggest in the fitnes...

"No matter what industry you're in, you need to find someone with the trait of being passionate about what they're selling, teachable, and who has naturally high energy - those are more important than anything else," states Jeff Sanders. Jeff was 17 and, and at one point had to sleep in his truck. He literally had no place to go when he decided to take control of his life and "become teachable." Through various jobs at AT&T Wireless, substitute teaching, a Smoothie Factory franchise, nonprofit a...

Len Fridman was laid off from his corporate job in 2009 after nearly a decade, and upon doing a bit of soul searching, he decided to pursue his passion for fitness instead of continuing on in "corporate life." He started a small boot camp business in a local park which quickly went on to become the most successful outdoor program in Canada in multiple cities. Eventually, a need/business frustration presented itself on the software side, which then led him to his Co-Founder Sasha Davids, who prom...

J.Dennis Jean-Jacques is an experienced investor with over 20 years in finance. He is currently the CIO at Ocean Park Investments. His work is based on lessons from renowned figured such as Jeff Ubben, Peter Lynch, and Warren Buffett, and specializes in deep dive, fundamental investing and long-short equity investing. Dennis and HALO Talks host Pete Moore make this a master class! This episode is a "must listen" for anyone in the HALO sector who wants a basic primer on types of investments, deal...

John Merris is the CEO of Solo Brands, a public company that's making huge inroads in the outdoor space. With strong, in-the-trenches experience in sales and growth (he started as a door to door salesman!) Merris joined the company as its 7th employee and has since helped them acquire 3 other brands that now fall under the Solo Brands umbrella: Solo stove, Oru kayak, Chubbies apparel, and ISLE paddleboards. When he was approached by the founders of Solo stove, a smokeless fire pit company that w...

Helaine Knapp, a self-professed "tech junkie" with a Big Ten education and a penchant for healthy living, risks it all to launch a boutique fitness empire, only to discover the water is colder and the monsters more fierce than she ever imagined. City Row is over 10 years old and they were one of the first to "make rowing sexy" and bring it to the forefront. She is now an expert in connected fitness, having built a best-in-class software platform and content production. Helaine was always a fitne...

Hassan Shah is an avid gamer and entrepreneur from Pakistan who is passionate about the intersection between connected fitness, sports, and gaming. He's set out to transform the fitness market with an innovative open world game, mixing Peloton and Zwift, which (among many other things) creates an all-encompassing experience with a unique monetization system. His company is called X-Originz and based in the UK. They're currently looking to raise £2.7m to order their first batch of 10,000 bikes an...

Jim Donnelly is the CEO and founder of Restore Hyper Wellness, a company focused on "making hyper wellness affordable and accessible for more people." He is a serial entrepreneur and a highly experienced leader with a passion for helping others. Six or seven years ago he found himself training for a triathlon and, after a friend suggested cryotherapy, he decided to try it out, but was unhappy with the experience-putting it mildly! He thought he could do it better, and he certainly has! They bega...

When Donald Kelly, Founder of the Sales Evangelist, attempts to teach a group of businesses how to infuse sales back into their culture, he discovered that the key to success is building genuine relationships with clients (especially during discovery) and establishing a bridge between the value of your solution and their problem. He states, "The most effective organizations . . . they all have the pedigree that everyone is in sales. Even if it's a brick and mortar with a cashier at the front, a...