HALO Talks

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 the state level, but nothing federally. We just weren't structured that way. That wasn't the Mission of the Board . . . but obviously over time it became much more critical."  She continues, "We know we lost a lot of members over the years because we weren't focused on advocacy . . . I was very intentionally chosen for this position to pivot the organization to focus on advocacy and communication. That is the first thing we're doing out of the gate."  She discusses the need for IHRSA to reevaluate "our value for member

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 relationships, it's about working your butt off ultimately, and following the opportunity.") Jonathan's story and how he ended up doing what he does currently is a wild, fun ride and a must-listen for any entrepreneur!  Click here to download transcript. 

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--they discuss about how their demographic has skewed toward women versus when they first started, how the first four days back after they were allowed to reopen were the largest in the club's history, building brand loyalty, what their future plans are, advice for newer club owners, and more!  Click here to download transcript. 

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" when it comes to pickleball and many people in the industry want to get it into the 2028 LA Olympics. Lynn chats about the sports explosion, RV parks/pickleball concepts, how the demographic is moving to the younger generations, why this is a must for anyone in the HALO sector to consider, and more!  Download complete transcript here. 

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, pricing structures, how "localized wellness and 'staycations' are going to be huge," the response from the medical community, their partnership with Clearlight saunas, and more! Click to download transcript. 

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 deliver the value of what they're doing to help the athlete know they're getting better? Something like 20% of US income is spent on youth sports and fitness," states MacCauley. He chats with Pete about what made them pivot, offers some case studies with D-BAT (Baseball and Softball Academies,) Athletic Republic, Modern Goalkeeper, why it's critical to be a partner to your customers and not, "a vendor" and more.  Click here to download transcript. 

Co-Founder of The Axle Workout, Andrew Page has been a sports performance coach and fitness trainer since 19. He's worked with NBA players in the Euro league, the Hospital for Special Surgery,  and has a long history with injury recovery and injury prevention. "A 7 foot long, 45 pound bar isn't really that big for guys 6'6 and up, but when you put it in the hands of someone who has never lifted weights before, it becomes a different challenge," states Page about the origins of the company.  "We saw an opportunity to create something much more practical for someone who has never lifted," he continued. Staring with a Crunch rollout, they now sell on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Wayfair, and many others. He chats with Pete about the importance of staying lean, how it's possible to start a business without a lot of money, getting a "digital marketing education," and more!  Click here to download transcript. 

"Scenting is something luxury brands have always done, and paid attention to. Sense of smell has always been pivotal in the HALO market--two of the most famous brands that focus on it are Equinox and SoulCycle," states Daniel Zimmon, Founder of NatScent.  He and Pete discuss the strong use case for creating a unique scent, empirical data behind the effectiveness (and very high ROI!) of scenting, the results of a famous NIKE experiment, and some examples of how this is used by companies like Wynn hotels, Aveda, Apple, Mercedes, Rolls Royce and others. This is something that should be strongly considered by any HALO company. Click here for complete transcript. 

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--especially for those 25 and younger, building out co-working/remote working facilities in the clubs, reviews recent studies around aging and testosterone, and more. Grab the book, leave a review on Amazon, and "get after it!" Finally, if you're not familiar with that fantastic commercial discussed in the podcast, you can see it here. (But don't say we didn't warn you!)  Click here to download transcript.

As a "typical entrepreneur" who dives head first into everything, Dan did the same with CrossFit, ". . . after doing nothing for 10 years. I  went down the rabbit hole, realized the software in the space was sub-par. Now, here I am 10 years later!" he jokes. He discusses how PushPress differentiates itself in a very crowded field ("We built it on the concept of integrations & expandability like the concept of app store, so you can make it your own") and more. PushPress also tends to focus on the single owner-operated facilities as well--a space where others may have left. As a self-professed "tech nerd," he offers up thoughts on where the market is going (data driven decisions, AI, automations) as well as pricing discussions, sales (top-down or bottom-up shoppers), the importance of failure, and more! Click here to download transcript. 

In this info-packed episode, we're treated to an "insider's look" at the public and private markets from a highly experienced veteran. Sharon chats about what public markets look at and why some companies get valued the way they do. "Any analyst worth their salt is doing their own modeling and trying to figure out where the risks lie, and where the opportunities are," she states. She continues about the importance of playing the long game, (regardless of whether you're public or private,) calibrating market euphoria, ("First mover is advantage is important, but it's only important  so long as you can maintain your flywheel and maintain your innovation gap relative to your competition,") thoughts on inflation, labor, going back to the office, and more! Click here for complete transcript. 

Bob began his career with Healthtrax in 1980. Due to his strong science background, they were one of the first to get into company healthcare. "I was a company intrapreneur," he states. "Starting divisions, selling some off, and keeping others. I forged a lot of relationships with hospitals like John's Hopkins as well."  In this wide ranging discussion, Bob offers his thoughts on the corporate wellness market, ACO's (accountable care organizations)  the continuum of "upstream and "downstream" care, population health management aimed at early interventions, post workout recovery, and more! 

Going from a former insurance agent to a successful entrepreneur with a Shark Tank appearance under his belt (January 2020,) Genius Juice Founder Alex Bayer has quite the story!  Genius Juice makes the purest coconut smoothie on the market, and produces over 20,000 coconuts per day and brings in several containers per month. They use less than 10 ingredients per bottle, their top seller has 2 ingredients and their number 2 seller has only 5 ingredients. "We pride ourselves on simplicity, taste, and benefits of using coconut water and coconut meat in every single bottle produced. I often say there's 'no dumb stuff in our product' he jokes. Despite the Shark Tank deal not working out, the company raised half a million dollars in one month after the episode aired. He chats with Pete about future growth, the beverage market, his two new key hires (Casey Plachek & Gavin Linde) the story behind the company name, behind-the-scenes experiences on Shark Tank, and more!  Contact him at Alex@geniusjuice.com, email 

After a 20+ year background in finance, Pete Moore brought Brent into the industry in 2005. After acquiring Crunch while at Angelo Gordon and then working with New Evolution Ventures, Brent is now firmly on the operating side. Since founding Equity 38, he has since become the new owner of the highly regarded TRX brand. Leffel states, "You can't model people and culture. That's the most important thing in these businesses . . . All my time in private equity, we were focused on the wrong things. We should have been focused on, 'Do you have the right people running the business? Are you supporting them in the right way?'"  He and Pete chat about lessons learned, discussion of TRX and how Equity 38 thought about the purchase, where TRX is going, club hybridization, virtual training, trainer compensation and retention, the three most important words a fitness owner needs to know, and more!  Click here to download transcript. 

Regarded as one of the top body transformation studios in NYC and very well known for the fantastic community they foster, this podcast was conducted right from UpFit Academy! Junior high school classmates, Wes Chow and Paul Park have co-owned UpFit for the past 4 years. "We treat members as if they're extended family. I don't want someone paying for something that they're not getting tremendous value out of . . . if they're coming here, they know they're going to get results," states Chow. They continue on to discuss how to determine roles & responsibilities, what their definition of success is, their carefully considered plans for expansion, how they're seeing revenues now that are better than pre-pandemic levels, and more!  Click here for transcript. 

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, chats about why it's important to consider increasing prices, provides some tips for independent clubs who may feel they're "on an island," what clubs are doing now to get people in the door, and more!  Click here for transcript. 

Kevin is a 28 year veteran of the beautiful, 44 acre Atlantic Club.  33% of its business comes from the health club, and 67% from ancillary revenue. They have one of the biggest day spas and tennis programs in the country and most managers have been with the organization for over 20 years. "During COVID we had to ask ourselves what would we need to be in the future . . . Pretty much everything has changed. We are a completely different company . . . also we also learned our competition can be our friends, they don't have to be enemies."  Pete and Kevin chat about how they survived (and in some ways thrived) during COVID, the conversion of their 22,000 square foot  fieldhouse into one of the largest training areas in the industry, what they did with their cycling studio to maximize revenue, their use of shipping containers (!) why the future looks especially bright for the larger facilities, and more thoughts on marketing, medical fitness, new pricing strategy, and more! Click here to download transcript.

In business for 12 years, Anthony started in the industry at 16 and worked his way up. Now 41, he's the owner of five Push Fitness locations in the tri-state area. "I always wanted to do a luxury gym at an affordable price . . . a lot of people think running health clubs is an easy business, but it's really not, especially if you run them the right way," he states. Tony reviews some tips anyone opening a new facility should consider, the right (and wrong) reasons to expand, how he competes (and wins) against cheaper clubs, how they survived COVID, advice for people just entering the field, and more! Click here to download transcript. 

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," states Kurzban. She and Pete chat about how she created the special culture she has while finding (and retaining) the best talent (over 90% of her staff is returning,) how she found angel investors and strategic partners, their pivot into the digital side for COVID ("we built our amazing YouTube community almost by accident!") and more!  Click here to download transcript.

At 19, Coss Marte was making over $2 million a year selling drugs. Imprisoned at 23, he quickly realized he had "all sorts of health issues." He lost 70lbs in 6 months and started CONBODY  after his release 8 years ago. He states, "I knew it was going to work. Just show up everyday, deliver a great product, and trust the process. . .  95% of the people in Rikers Island are Black or Hispanic. I've hired over 50 people with a zero recidivism rate. Nobody has gone back into the system." And people are paying attention! They've trained over 50,000 people and during COVID, one of his classes had 800 attending! Coss discusses his plans for opening post-COVID, an instructor training program, non-profit work, apparel, their current capital raise, and more! Click here to download transcript.