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This is people on Halo Talks nyc. I have the pleasure of bringing a friend of mine for over 30 years, circa 1992, Emory University, fellow AE PI fraternity member, outstanding athlete of the decade back in the day, coming from Atlanta, moving directly into the Halo sector. Bricks and mortar. Marcus Gordon. Thanks. 30 years, Pete. That's too long, brother. Too long, too long. But, but has a lot of legacy to it. So anytime you need a podcast, bro, you can text me and we will just jump online.
So I'm gonna do a little Mr. Rogers thing now. I'm gonna put on my, my Halo cape and we are going to, to get rolling. So Marcus, give us, give us the abridged version from, from being a star basketball player, solid athlete and strong pledge back in the day to where we are now. Yeah, I think strong pledge is a little gracious. So you know, it's funny, Pete, one of my, my best memories for back in the day for us is when 94,
when we run, we won the fraternity championship, right? And I think, you know, just back in that moment, you know, fraternities, basketball, that stuff, it was about coming together, right, as a group and a unit and just doing the extraordinary, which was for us at that time doing what we did was extraordinary. And I think just carrying that forward like you, I've been a lifelong, you know, I'm a native New Yorker, lifelong athlete. I've always just enjoyed being in and around
sports. Tennis, basketball, baseball, you know, suffering, you know, lifelong jets fan, but prideful Yankee fan at the same token. And then so, you know, going through college, I got into sports earlier in my career, was working with some athletes, sports celebrities doing marketing, promotion, all that stuff. And it was about that time playing a lot of basketball. Just pick up basketball Saturday, Sunday mornings, Thursday afternoons, you know, at the gym, what we all kind of did. And then
it hurt my knee. And it wasn't really enough to like require surgery. I'm like, I just need to take a break from basketball. And prior to that, when I was growing up, my dad was one of the OG kind of triathletes in the northeast that had what was called the Bud Light Triathlon series, right? Imagine that today, triathlon series sponsored by a big beer brand. Right now it's Athletic Brewing, you know, the big beer sponsor of Ironman. Anyway, he was doing
triathlons, you know, up and down the east coast. And this is back on steel bikes and the cables and they were just winging it, right? Having a good time trying to figure out this thing. Originally, you know, triathlon had his roots in Kona in the mid to late 70s. Everyone saw it on TV, this grandiose event, you know, originally Maui, then Kona, Hawaii. But then, so, so I, so my, to cut this story short, I hurt my knee. And then my dad's like, you know, let me just send my bike. Maybe you
go out for some bike rides, say, great, we're not cycling. I'm like, oh, that's fun. You know, cover a lot of ground. Don't have to worry about running. You know, it's, it's, it's outdoors. You get to enjoy everything. I'm like, you know, maybe I'll start swimming now too. Low impact. I started swimming. Finally my knee started getting better. Doing some rehab and stuff, I said, let me, maybe I'll
try and put this all together. So in 2008, I did my first half Ironman in Eagle man outside of Washington D.C. about an hour east on the Maryland coast. And then really from there I just kind of got immersed in the culture of endurance sports, primarily Ironman, Iron distance triathlon races. I've raced everything from sprint all the way up to the full distance Ironman. I've done the world champs a few times. What's the Eagle man, by the way? What is it?
Yeah, what is it? What's that? It's a half Ironman. It's a half Iron Man. Yeah, they have a full race out there now, but okay, so over the course of the last 17 years, I've been kind of my, my passion project, hobby, right, to keep me active has been triathlon, endurance sports and Ironman triathlon. Along the way, I'VE traveled the world, done events all over the world. I've met amazing people and just kind of as the last handful of years. And the growth in
this sport's been phenomenal, right? I mean, we can go some of the data a little later, but it's just been the growth in endurance sports from 5Ks, right? You start out running a 5K all the way to ultra events. Now ultra running, ultra cycling, you know, has just been explosive. And I've kind of witnessed that firsthand. And I said, you know, what can I do as a practitioner? My background's in marketing, health tech marketing, to kind of
vector all this together, right? Coming out of post Covid, when now, you know, we've just seen the ability for people to gather in a community setting, right? Whatever your hobby is, whether it's, you know, whether it's for art or whether it's for running or triathlon, you know, being able to get back together and experience these types of things in person is something
that I'm passionate about. So, you know, initially, you know, attending, you know, your Halo talk session, Halo Academy, I think it was 20, 23 when I first, you know, when I, when I attended that session, I'm like, there's got to be something out here that, that for endurance
athletes that's missing. So I, I kind of took a look around and lo and behold, there is currently, despite all the boutique gyms and, and, you know, lifetimes that exist across the country, and Lifetime has been a partner for, you know, triathlon, et cetera for years. There's no specific boutique gym and performance center that caters specifically for two endurance athletes. Meaning, you know, from 5K to Ironman and everything in between, how can you vector performance, community and training
all catered specifically to towards the endurance athlete? I mean, it's interesting you say that because a lot of groups that were popping up pre Covid were trying to kind of slice up a, a race. So it's like, okay, you're training for this. Okay, we'll be like your cycling, you know, go to, will be your running, go to like the, you know, Mile High Run Club and, and a couple other ones.
And then you had people doing swimming kind of basically where wherever they could find a pool in New York City, which is somewhat limited, but there actually wasn't a place that even like, you know, an equinox lifetime wasn't in the city at that point that basically says, hey, we could actually have the programming and we actually have the modalities and the amenities, you know, and the physical plant that can allow you to do
that. So, you know, when you came to me and said, hey, I want to try and figure this out, you know, the first thing I said to you, which, you know, for our audience here is like, figure out if there's a frustration that someone has already solved, you know, and then you can either go and buy that or, you know, parlay that into something where, you know, maybe you're affiliated with it or an investor, but once you find that there isn't something
there that you need to solve yourself, which is the way to solve, start a business and then now turn that into like, you know, an action plan, a business plan. So I'm glad you took the time methodically to figure that out because as a lot of people listening on here, you know, sometimes entrepreneurs start a business, get it in their head and then realize like, hey, that kind of already existed, or maybe there's some history that I
can learn that why these things don't exist. Maybe the niche is too small to, to, to say yay or nay on the go. So, you know, called endurance. Ohana is what you're going with. What's the basis for that? What's the genesis of the word ohana? Which I think I. Why don't you do it? Sure, yeah. So endurance. Right. As I mentioned, covers everything from the 5k all the way to your 250 mile trail race and everything between. Ohana is the genesis, the Hawaiian word for community and togetherness.
Right. And you know, this is about community and like you said, you know, you brought up and, and you know, as, you know, to kind of a little plug here for the Halo Academy, going through the different gyms and the opportunities and we looked at, you know, equinox, footprint, the lifetime, and I'm a member at lifetime and it's a great facility and it has Most, you know, 90% of the amenities that I would need as endurance athlete, but it's not catered
specifically to my fulfillment of performance. Specific for endurance athletics. Right. So that's kind of the niche we're going after, but needless to say, so it's the endurance ohana. It's bringing together the best of what endurance sports can put together. So with that, our facility is going to be focused on kind of five key areas. There's the swim and we're not going to do initially building a pool. We're going to do kind of the Michael
Phelps swim spas, the two current pools. Those are actually great ways to kind of not only learn how to swim, but if you're a high performing swimmer, to get much better. So we're going to have an arena style bike studio, cycle studio. So much like, you know, you, obviously there are a ton of cycle studios out there. This is going to be very specific, very tech oriented for indoor training to emulate that outdoor environment. This is Pete Moore. I want to let you in on a little secret. There's
this company called Promotion Vault. And what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and one month free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value and that doesn't discount your own products and services.
So here's the deal. There's something called Rewards Vault. The Rewards vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions, you are going to get those answers, you're going to be able to target those members and you're going to reward them inside your club, inside your spa and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues and to be rewarded properly for
the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault, your answer, trust me, this is real. When I'm riding an indoor bike, I'm riding an indoor bike that's kind of, you know, somewhat standard for indoor cycling. Would you, you know, I've seen guys do it on like Zwift, I think, like, you know, Zipper, you know, I'd see him like on those, take his actual bike, put it on one of those frame holders and actually do it on the bike that,
that you're having. And it also, people in New York sometimes have like a storage issue with like having all their gear, you know, at, at their place, maybe would want a house there. So my question is on the bike side, you know, obviously you got technology, which is awesome and you got to filter that into probably like how you're moving through different areas. Like doing a golf simulator where let's play pebble beach, right? It should be amazing. Something else about
baseball gonna come back to you on having done that. Is this like I'm riding the bike, my bike, Am I riding a bike typical of that or am I riding into a cycling bike like into, you know, like Pete Moore did this whole cycle. So, so you bring up a good point there three kind of different ways that you can approach the indoor cycling okay. The first is your standard, you know,
cycle studio, lifetime fitness. You have the standard bikes that are fully adjustable, not fully adjustable, but adjust the height, kind of the forward motion so you can get a decent fit on a stationary bike. They have power, they have Bluetooth connectivity, and they have a comfortable enough seat where you can be on there for a while. The second part is, as you mentioned, our good friend Zipper, who and I do the same, I have a. It's called a rear
hub trainer connect connected trainer. So Zwift Garmin Wahoo is another great trainer where you literally take off your rear wheel and you attach your bike. So whether you have a road bike or a time trial triathlon bike, you attach that so you have, you know, your, your seating and your position is already set. You attach that to the trainer and that connects to a Bluetooth platform like a zwift or a Ruuvi, etc. The third
option is kind of a hybrid of that. So Zwift and Wahoo actually developed a bike that now simulates like a road bike, but it has its own attached trainer. So what we're doing is because we're catering both to kind of an endurance enthusiast, but also a professional crowd. Those folks who want to be on their own equipment, we're going to have two options available. We're going to have the Zwift Wahoo bike already in the studio. About half of the studio will be that
and half of them will be rear hub. So if you want to come in and do your five hour Ironman training ride on your bike, you'll be able to do that and everything will be tethered to a screen. What's really unique and what's part of, you know, the impetus for doing this is obviously during COVID a lot of us were indoors. But if you're in a New York, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago during the winter months, you're still. Even during the summer months, because of traffic and safety
issues, folks are doing a lot more riding indoors. But the experience has become so incredible, you know, that you can literally emulate your entire ride. You can ride the entire Ironman Hawaii course on your trainer. And except for the wind on your face and the sun, you know, glaring down your back, you get every element of that course in terms of being able to see maybe who's in front of you, who's behind you, the elements of going up a hill,
coasting down a hill, so you be able to. We can bring that environment indoors and people love doing that. Now the difference is I do it in my Basement. Maybe Zipper and others do it in their basement. That's no fun, man. You know, we all enjoy that community. That's what, you know, soul cycle is. It's you get in that studio with everyone else, you're motivated
peloton. So this is about bringing the elements of community, support, enthusiasm, energy and a high, you know, high output, high velocity, high energy environment. We're going to have a DJ booth, kiosk, a ton of LCD screens that you'll be able to see and do all your data and you'll get the same feel, but you'll get that cycle studio environment. So that's a
cycle studio part of it. So, so a couple things. One is I think we should say Zipper at least like 12 times, shout out to Zippy, next thing. No problem. Yeah, we'll put up a screenshot of him right now, maybe with his whole family like him. And I like kicking field goals.
The thing that I, that I've been seeing recently on the technology side of simulations, which I'm finding fascinating, is there's a, there's a pitching machine now that basically has each one of the pitchers and like in the, I guess maybe like somewhere like between the locker room and the, and the, and the bench, you know, the, you know, the clubhouse, you can
actually like go in and take swings against like the guy who's pitching. It has all of his like mannerisms and release and yeah, you know, everything else that they used to like talk about all the different types of balls that they're throwing and rotations. I mean, it's incredible. So just all this technology is basically moved into the racing space as well is what you're saying.
Yeah, for sure. And the endurance space and they have what's called Zwift now and Zwift Academy and you can do indoor riding competitions that have indoor types of triathlons, super sprint series, we're literally, you know, super series where you're literally indoors, you're riding your trainer, it calculates, you know, your variability speed based on your weight and all different factors. What's great about the indoor training experience. Right. Ultimately this is a high performance
center. And the indoor training experience enables you to become more proficient ultimately at your chosen sport. Right. So whether it's cycling, running, etc. So if I want to become a more efficient or better cyclist, yes, I can get out on the roads, but you have a stoplight, you have got. Hit by a car, so. Yeah, exactly. Right. And you have all those. So you can, you know, if you have a race coming up and many, you know, folks that are at the amateur up to the professional level are doing
that. I actually trained. I did Ironman Arizona in November. I did about half of my rides indoors on the Ironman course. So I literally knew every marker, every turn, every. And once I get on the course, I'm like, I felt like I rode the course, you know, 100. How'd that go for you? Had to go on a time standpoint. Went with two of my good training buddies. They both qualified for Ironman. Nice. Next year. I missed a slot by one, but it is what it is. So let me ask you a question.
Obviously guys like us and like Zipper, you know, we're looking at like, what time do you think you would have gotten if you did not have the simulation? How many minutes do you think you were benefited from by actually doing the course prior? Wow, that's a good question. So in terms of helping with the adaptation, there are two things that I focus on. Basically it was a three loop course, right? So it was pretty much straight the first ten miles
and then there's an eight mile steady climb. And I was able during my indoor rides to emulate the power output that I was exactly, exactly on the outdoor, on the uphill portion of the climb. So once I got to mile 10 or 11, I marked it, I had it on my bike. I knew, boom, I hit it. I hit my target wattage on my output and it worked like a champ, man. I mean, it's crazy stuff. So it's that type of preparation and now especially the, you know, amateur, elite, amateur, professional
levels where literally every minute counts at an Ironman race. I missed my, you know, world championship slot. I think it was about 90 seconds. Give or take, because I feel like that is like, that's one of the selling points with, with endurance. Ohana is like, I will shave 10 minutes off of your best. You know, something like that. Because, you know, a lot of things in the fitness industry over time. Some of this you kind of, you know, got from our, our Halo Academy. Though it used
to be Gold's Gym used to show you a before and after picture. Okay, this is where you are today. This is what Gold's Gym does for you. Okay? And that before and after that sold a ton of memberships back in the day. Now all people talk about is like, oh, I got these classes, I got this, I got that. It's like, dude, actually what do I want to do? I want to look really good in the mirror. How quickly that is that gonna take?
Okay, like, what do I have to pay for. Okay, so, know, as you get older and you know, like, Zipper's got a family and everything, I kind of like this. It's kind of funny I keep mentioning him, you know, at some point you're just saying, like, hey, like, what am I going to talk about? Like, this is like one of the most important things I'm doing right for you. You're like, the next 90 days, what I've been doing, I'm going to ask you, you're gonna be like, oh, I'm going to like three bar mitzvahs
and like, you know, I'm taking a. A business trip. No, you're gonna be like, dude, I'm training for this. Okay, so. So it's kind of like the most important thing to you outside of your core nuclear values and things that you have to do personally now, it's like, hey, I can shave like 8, 10 minutes of your time or whatever that is, get you into the best condition. My question to follow on with that is like, what is this worth on a monthly basis to someone?
And what are you going to charge? And how many days a week do I need to come? So we'll get into that in a second. I think just to kind of take that, extend that point further, you know, because, you know, you've been. You're an industry icon relative to this. And, and it's not. Performance is not. For example. So it's, it's. Yes, it's what do I do on race day on that bike? But how did I get there? Right? So. And to talk about that, and
I'll bring it forward in a second. So, yeah, so I trained on the indoor trainer, but guess what? What did I do to actually recover from that session and enable me to get better the next day and go or go out for my run? So what we're putting together and you know, where wellness has evolved so much in the last five to 10 years now, there's a sauna, cold plunge shop on every corner right here in Atlanta. You know, is that we're also bringing in the recovery part of this.
So if you're interested in performance, if you're, you know, we. The Z word again, right. If you are an endurance enthusiast and you love performing well at Ironman distance races, you know, now as an athlete, it's, yes, it's about how do you perform on the given discipline, but it's, what are you eating? How are you fueling for nutrition? What's your recovery? So we're going to have a recovery
Room, we got cold plunges, sauna. All the latest hypericis is going to come in and outfit their typical thing, strength and mobility and conditioning. So strength is such an important part, especially as we age guys like us to become stronger, be able to adopt physically to the demands of a particular sport, especially those, you know, longer and ultra endurance events. So it's being able to put all those components together in a
facility. And yes, the cost, it's a premium cost because this is such a, a passionate group of individuals who are generally have high discretionary income. These events themselves cost a lot. The target right now is going to be in the high to 300, you know, range per month as a membership. But that is. Yeah, yeah, that includes access to swim, bike, run, strength conditioning, recovery. Like, you know, we're going to have a podcast, content
creation studio, you know, a quiet area. So just like, you know, you go to a lifetime now or an equinox, you go there on a 2 o' clock on a Tuesday, the place is packed. You're like, wait, what happened? This didn't happen in 2005, 2010, because now these are destinations, right? People spend their day there, they do their wellness routines, they get some work done, right? Maybe they have some meetings, they take their meetings there and a coffee instead of going out and boozing,
you know, that night. So it's really about creating a destination for those people who are passionate about endurance sports can do everything they need to do. This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called higher dose higherdose.com they are the leader in workout recovery products. Infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers and other products such as PEMF mats and sauna
blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You got to get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturated your market. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for 200 bucks per month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery. If we are already an authority in workouts, higher dose,
check it out. There's a wholesale code and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And hey, let's get people happy, healthy and sweating. And the recovery should be just as good as the workout. Just as a couple of, you know, free advice items or things that I think would be super cool. Because obviously we look at all these things, you know, on a daily basis and I'm kind of cherry picking like what's
working or what I think is interesting. Or you know, as an example, EOS Fitness, which is one of the largest regional club chains in the, in the, the Sun Belt, they have, they put in posing rooms, okay. So you can basically go on there, take pictures of yourself, you know, have areas where you can do selfies or like do videos of you doing a, you know, Olympic squats. So they're like catering towards like, hey, these
people actually probably have a social media presence. Not necessarily like for financial reasons, but because, hey man, this is what I'm doing and I want you to, to know about it. It's important to me. What could be really cool is to be able to have people, you know, maybe you could like videotape them while they're going through each one of your programs. Just like 30 second snippets. They could post it up on their social and it could also
say like, who's a member of endurance Ohana, right. And they would have to check it off as a public view. But like, here's all my stats, here's what it was when I started, here's what it is now. And another thing can be like 300 bucks a month plus, you know, like, you know, $100 per minute that you, you off your last race or something. Like, like you're like an incentive
based like boutique studio. They'd probably be more than willing to pay it. My other comment is, and I don't know if this would apply to Colorado, but there have been, there was a business that a buddy of mine said, hey, I'm thinking about investing in this. All they do is pick up people's stuff for marathons, triathlons and box it up and ship it and
then have it set up. There's like an entire business. So I wonder if there's like a storage and there's like a drop ship and there's you know, like, hey, I'm going to pack your kit for you as part of that. That can be a really interesting adjunct to the business. Yeah, you mentioned. So the last part, it's funny, there was, there was a company called Tri Bike Transport, right. Because getting your bikes, you know, the run gear is easy, wetsuit you can stuff in your bag. But the
bike obviously. And that's where you spend your most time on most of these races, especially iron distance events. So they had a few companies. One of them, Tri Bike Transport, got into financial issues and last year bikes were left all over the world at world championship races. People had trouble getting them back. Now with the soft cases and stuff and the transportability is
much better. But we are going to have space, of course in Colorado, here, in Atlanta, elsewhere, where people will be able to leave their bikes and all that type of stuff. So being able to accommodate right to that kind of fluid customer. And back to your point too about the technology piece, because technology, like any business these days, is an underpinning of what we'll be doing. We are going to onboard a technology platform that'll integrate with a lot of the other tech platforms
out there, people able to track their progress. We are going to have kind of those selfie areas. We're also going to have a content creation studio. So because a lot of folks, even amateurs like doing pods and all the content creation. So it's not just about what's happening today. It's taking a look at, you know, the future state of, you know, the customer and saying, okay, in an ideal situation for the passionate endurance enthusiast, what does that customer base need? And we've built that
from scratch and we're incorporating, you know, all that into endurance Ohio. Could you do me a favor? Just remember, investigate one more thing to me and this has nothing to do with zipper. I'm just trying to hit the cap. By the way, could you think about doing a locker room that is not like a locker and a locker, you know, a bench and a locker in front of me. Make it seem like I'm a professional hockey player, dude. And have this whole thing set up for me where this is my chair, this
is my place, you know, and there could be a locker part of it. But I feel like being like a, feel like you're a professional athlete and I'm probably not going to get there in this, this lifetime. Although I, I like to reference, I do have four years of eligibility left and I'm open to nil deals pretty much in any category that would, that's something like, I think people feel like, ah, like I want to
walk in here and feel like I'm like a professional athlete. That could be one of the ways for me, at least for me I'd be get a chuckle and like get energized by it. So you know, what's, what's. So you bring up a great point. So we've thought really carefully about kind of the experience, right? And you know, experience is such a, an important part of everything, you know, that you do now, whether it's, you know,
Going to the store, your experience, online shopping. So what we've developed is even the entrance is you're going to feel like you're walking through the start gate. So we're going to have LCD all the way through. You're going to scan your little badge on your check in kiosk and you're going to go through and say, Pete, we notice you're training for the iron Roll championships and all of a sudden vignettes and motivational videos and all that stuff will be queued up.
So as you're walking through the facility, just you, Pete, you'll have that direct communication modality, right? That entire throughput. And then when you leave at the end of the day, you're going to feel like you're walking through the finish line, let's say the Boston Marathon, what have you. So you're going to get that experience of you walking in through the start line. You have your training experience, you're motivated, you have a great
day. You know, you're rested, you're recovered, you come out, you're like, man, I just made it through the finish line because experience is such an important part of it. So we're thinking everything awesome. So, so we, we can talk forever. But, but let's close out here, you know, and give props to zipper. So as I'm walking through the US Open, if you are a tennis player and you walk through the tunnel, right before you get in onto the the main court, there's a big sign and it says, pressure
is a privilege. Okay, so I love what you're doing. You're basically saying people like, hey man, look, don't change the way you think about sports. Don't change the way, you know, you think about like, oh, I just have to watch something to win or lose. Like I could actually perform on a team level or, or a personal level. And we'll have all the information up here for everybody. Marcus, love that you're kind of pivoting
into this full time. You always got the passion and just for everyone to remember here, like thinking about what you're building and why you're building it and what the square footage is and what that experience is like. I feel like you got that all kind of like Jerry rigged a program pre programmed in now. So look forward to checking it out. Be in Colorado, Marcus. Info will be up there and you know, to endurance. Ohana go Halo. Thanks Marcus. Appreciate the time guys. Awesome. Sam. Sa.