Episodes

Pete Moore appeared on Matt's podcast in August, and we're excited to introduce him to the HALO Talks audience if you're not already familiar. Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and host of the excellent, Escape Your Limits podcast, Matt's company started in the UK, progressed into Poland, Germany, and 10 years ago came to the states. He trades stories with Pete about his early trade show days and how to stand out. (Hint: clothes from The Prodigy!) "We always asked ourselves how can we continue to i...

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...

"You have to crock pot a manager, you can't microwave one," is a quote Terry offered in his first appearance on HALO Talks - which subsequently made an indelible mark on a good number of people, including ClearLight partners, the firm Terry partnered with. He initially had 18 Orange Theory Fitness stores and, in Sept 2018 after completing the deal and doing a number of acquisitions, now have 135 stores in 6 different states. Currently, they're the second largest OTF group in the country. Terry h...

A 30 year veteran in the HALO sector, Doug Katona has been the CEO of American Barbell for almost two years. AB is a Las Vegas based company where everything is manufactured by hand! ("It's a Ferrari with a BMW price!") Doug studied exercise science, was a college athlete, with a partner they began the first personal training organization in Newport Beach, and more. He started at the front desk and worked his way up. "Fitness chose me, I didn't choose it!" he joked. "I continue to gravitate tow...

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...

After 7 years at Equinox as one of their top membership sales people and then moving on to Xponential, former competitive athlete Hensley Ellefritz now owns her own consulting firm with a team of 7 serving over 100 studios. "Any successful fitness business, or any business in general . . . operates as a sales driven business with a conceptual overlay. Once you capture what makes a person tick and that specific emotion, there's no dollar sign which can be attached to that," she states. Ellefrit...

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

Currently the CEO of Texas Family Fitness with 13 locations, Josh Wheeler is a 33 year HALO sector veteran who started as a front desk employee with Gold's. Josh is a lifelong learner and clearly appreciative of his Mentors, whom he cites often in this educational, wide-ranging chat with Pete. "I look at people, systems and accountability. Who are my people? What systems are in place, and what level of accountability?" says Wheeler. He discusses having a "big appetite" for growth against, ". . ...

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...

In his second appearance on HALO Talks, 38 year industry veteran Frank Ancharski discusses his current role as COO of leading RaaS ("rewards as a service") gift card provider, Promotion Vault. "People really still don't get that 'free' and 'discounted' dues don't work. It erodes your revenue stream and EBITDA. We're on a Mission to let people know there are far better options than discounting memberships and dues . . . this isn't a gimmicky thing or tchotchke, we're a real life behavioral chang...

A former competitive triathlete, Damien Dau, Founder of ActivePlace, was frustrated with the fragmented nature of his online community. "People just don't do one thing anymore, there's an integration of categories," he states. Focusing initially on the endurance market (running, cycling, triathlete, swimming) ActivePlace, "Helps grow your active life by connecting you to health & fitness products, experts, community, information and inspiration." Damien discusses how they're markedly different f...

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...

While not actual Step Brothers, Bryan Baia and Calvin Martin might as well be! These two savvy, hard working (and hilarious!) friends have been working together since 2013 when they met at Equinox. Years later, they began their own brand, recently signed with OBE Fitness, and are now completely independent running 3 full classes per week. They discuss how they did it, their new partnership with OBE, the importance of knowing your strengths and splitting up work, and more. "Who we are as people ...

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...

Darryl and David Bailey have been in the HALO sector for 40 years. The family business began in 1979 and they were way ahead of the curve with with regards to using software to manage their clubs. They even developed their own, a system called PSI Power Software. Currently at 17 locations, they started small and eventually grew them into 20-40,000 square feet facilities and now completely dominate the Jacksonville, Florida area. Among many other topics in this wide ranging discussion with Pete-...

Lynn Cherry picked up a pickleball racquet about three years ago and, a month later, she got hooked and quickly started the Pickleball Fire podcast and website. Pickleball started back in the 60's, and is now one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. "Anyone can get on the court and play immediately! I've met so many people who've never played any other sport in their life, but they get on the court and can get started easily!" she states. We are still in the "top of the first" wh...

As a serial entrepreneur (who also was on the founding team of Audible in addition to other start ups,) CEO of Halotherapy Solutions Steve Spiro states, "I kind of just stumbled onto the Halotherapy industry. It's been great, and business is absolutely exploding now!" Halotherapy began about 150 years ago in Poland and Russia, made its way to the USA about 10-15 years ago, and has been slowly growing since. Pete and Steve chat about the powerful benefits of implementing this in your facility, pr...

Upper Hand makes running studios, facilities, and academies easier and offers best-in-class scheduling experiences for clients and better access to data for staff. Kevin MacCauley, CEO, initially began the company as a market place to help connect parents with youth coaches. Upper Hand has changed quite a bit over time and is now at the "nexus of sports and technology." "How do you start thinking about athlete progression? How is software helping that business owner? How does it help them deliv...