Monique Nadeau is the Co-Founder of EatLove a company whose, "best-in-class technology delivers personalized, on-demand meal guidance that adapts to all lifestyles and food preferences and helps guide the 200 decisions we make around food each day." As a former investment banker, Harvard University graduate with an MPA in Economic Policy, Nadeau is well aware of the critical importance of nutrition and the obesity crisis currently facing America. "I've always been attracted to people who want to...
Aug 02, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 348
InTouch Technology is a business very familiar to the Milkie family. As the current CEO, Mary spent 15 years on the vendor / CMS side, and has about 30 years total in the sector. She owned health clubs prior and worked in nearly every position. InTouch recently secured additional investment capital and is now branching out into the consulting and call center side. Mary provides some very valuable intel into the changing landscape of the CRM world. Regarding pricing she states, "I've been in the ...
Jul 29, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 347
"I'm a tech guy / ex-athlete who became a big believer in this idea that food can get you sick, and food can also become the best medicine that you have," states Ari Tulla , CEO and Co-Founder of Elo . On their site they mention their vision is to "transform food from the cause of disease to medicine." Ari is a serial entrepreneur and was an early investor in the (now very popular!) Oura ring . When it comes to nutrition, where there's so much information changing (it seems!) weekly. Tulla says,...
Jul 26, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 346
Robbie Bent is the CEO and Co-Founder of Othership . As one of the first employees with Ethereum, Robbie is extremely well versed in community building and galvanizing people around a particular cause. When it came to what is now Othership (with a brick and mortar location in Canada and a highly successful app,) he built this community initially in his backyard which grew to 400 people (and then a few thousand) with ~$20,000 a month in revenue. His initial entre to breathwork was, "As a way to c...
Jul 20, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 345
In one of our most important podcasts released to date, we're proud to talk with Dr. Laurie Whitsel , Vice President of Policy Research and Translation of the American Heart Association & Senior Advisor to the Physical Activity Alliance, a non-profit that, "Brings together stakeholders in the physical activity communities for us to speak with one voice on significant policy and systems changes," states Whitsel. Joining her is Integrity Square's own Chief Political Architect and policy vetera...
Jul 14, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 344
A veteran of Techstars in 2019 with an app that has 10,000+ five star reviews (along with the the US Air Force as a client!) Tom Kiss, Co-Founder and CEO of Ate-The Mindful Food Diary and Coach , has made tremendous strides in a relatively short period of time. Formerly a consultant who was often on the road, he entered the HALO sector out of a personal need and frustration. "I had a wakeup call in the form of a panic attack, and realized I had to do something, and my trainer friend introduced m...
Jul 07, 2022•23 min
Integrity Square and TSG go back a long way. . . and we're excited to finally welcome Pierre LeComte , a highly seasoned private equity executive to HALO Talks. TSG began in consumer packaged goods but, "Just realized over time, what we were was brand investors. We really liked to back brands that were on trend and were riding consumer demand waves," states Comte. He continues, "We realized that could happen in a lot of different categories, not just historically food and beverage . . . but that...
Jun 28, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 342
Mohammed Iqbal is the Founder & CEO of SweatWorks . . . the company quietly behind the tech of a lot of larger companies you're no doubt familiar with--CrossFit, Spartan Race, and many more. They are, "The leading digital agency in fitness design and technology to create meaningful wellness journeys for everyone." Iqbal spent 7 years at Sharp and, while there, worked on the iPhone with Apple's team which strongly impacted him in many ways. Originally from Dubai, he moved to NJ in 1991. "I do...
Jun 20, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 341
Carolyn and her husband Paul owned three private training facilities in Orange County, CA which catered mostly to higher level athletes. Nutrition was (obviously!) a significant part of that, and in 2013 they founded Balanced Habits™ as a way to bring scalable, personalized nutrition programming to the fitness industry. "It became something we were known for. It carried us through the financial crisis and really is what put us on the map . . . Fitness and nutrition go hand in hand, and for whate...
Jun 14, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 340
Becky initially began her career in ocean conservation focusing on coral reefs. "I wanted to save the world and see the world. . . and when I found Joyride, I found this authentic community and wanted to be a part of it!" After moving full time into the HALO sector, she quickly realized there were no cycling studios in the San Antonio / south Texas region. She saw a need, jumped in, and become the first cycling studio to open in the area. Now, as the Founder of her newly launched, Amp Studio and...
Jun 07, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 339
"Culture can never be something where you just check the box. Once you've built that culture, you're not done! It takes every single day," states Joel Goldberg , speaker, broadcaster and author of Small Ball, Big Results . The parallels between sports and business are undeniable, and Goldberg shares some 'in the trenches' stories with Pete on everything from recruiting, finding the right roles for employees (athletes) and more! He also provides some real life examples (involving athletes you pro...
Jun 02, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 338
Wellness 4 Every 1 aims to increase awareness of the inequalities in the wellness industry and provide opportunities for diverse communities to have access to quality arts and wellness programming, as well as a space for social and emotional well-being. Their programs are currently in 100 public schools nationwide, with 150 classes weekly (new programs are added all the time) and impacting over 10,000 students! How do they know it's working? Among other things, "Every year the schools expand the...
May 27, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 337
Kory Angelin has been in the HALO sector for over 10 years. He began as a trainer and worked his way up with organizations like 24 Hour Fitness, Lifetime, Equinox, F45, and is currently the COO of Volofit . "I think I've been in every position along the way," he jokes. On the culture of an organization, he says, "A business is made or broken starting with the owner or ownership group. You're setting the tone at the top . . . the relationship between you and the customer, even before they become ...
May 17, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 336
Katie Webb was in digital partnerships for 11 years while also working as a fitness trainer and group exercise instructor. She ending up spending a lot of time at GNC and slowly started to learn the supplement industry. "I couldn't really find any formulas that were leveraging food ingredients over ingredients I've never heard of (never mind the 300 grams of caffine!) and a lot of my female clients felt the same." That frustration eventually led to her starting Aila , the Scottish/Gaelic word me...
May 10, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 335
Rachel Raymond served as COO for five years at Indigo Ag --one of the fastest growing companies in the space--and it was there where she found inspiration to start Purpose , "A mental wellness company that leverages the science of the microbiome to help us improve our mood." One of their biggest goals is to help the consumer gain visibility into their mental wellbeing in a way that best serves them. "What you eat impacts how you feel. That's intuitive," she states. "But one of the many reasons f...
May 03, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 334
A computer scientist by training, Ross Lauder , Founder of Single Focus Talent , went through an IPO with Hubspot and has ". . . worked the roles I hire for!" he states. Single Focus is a boutique executive search & career specialist for the SaaS / computer software & technology driven industries, with a focus on sales, operations and leadership roles across the EU and USA. Lauder also hosts the Global Tech Leaders podcast. "You've got to go inches wide, and miles deep . . . and there's ...
Apr 22, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 333
Dr. Michelle Segar is author of the forthcoming The Joy Choice-How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise which will be released April 26, 2022. Her extensive academic research (and time "in the trenches" as a health coach) focuses on creating and maintaining sustainable "self-care" behaviors such as exercise, eating well, getting enough sleep, etc. Anyone who is in any way connected to the HALO sector needs to read this (heavily cited, well-researched & extensively docume...
Apr 18, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 332
Formerly in finance at investment banks and a hedge fund, Paul O-Reilly-Hyland is currently the CEO and Founder of ZEAMO . Zeamo, "simplifies and enhances the relationship between fitness partners and fitness consumers with a digital-first approach that meets the evolving needs of the fitness industry while staying true industry partners." Currently in 2,000+ clubs, they conducted a test with McKinsey in 2018/early 2019. Currently with 100 employers on the platform (some with 40-50K employees!),...
Apr 12, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 331
We're pleased to announce the recent merger of The Athlete Book into GamePlan ! "This is a huge strategic initiative for us," states Max Wessell, Chairman of the Board. The industry leader in the space, GamePlan was founded nearly 14 years ago with the idea of helping athletes get jobs. Currently with 300+ athletic departments, over 100,000 athletes averaging ~1,400+ e-learning courses a day, GamePlan counts the NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL and others as partners. "We help an athlete move through their en...
Apr 05, 2022•31 min
Many in the HALO sector already know Lee Hillman . What they may not know however is that prior to entering the space, he was a partner in one of the Big 4 accounting firms. He left in 1991 to serve at Bally's as the CFO, even before it was solely a health club business. He worked with Bally's until 2002, helping grow it to nearly a billion dollar company and is now and an Owner/Partner in Power Plate . Lee has also been a director for public and private companies and is a self-professed "turnar...
Apr 01, 2022•30 min•Ep. 329
Dr. Layne Norton jokes, "I describe myself as a meathead who loves science or a geek who lifts heavy things!" A highly prominent figure in the direct-to-consumer fitness and nutrition space, Norton attended the University of Illinois (perennially in the top 5 for Nutritional Sciences) where he earned his Ph.D. He went on to earn his pro card in natural bodybuilding, and became a world record holder in powerlifting, all while authoring, "conservatively over 100,000+ posts on bodybuilding.com and ...
Mar 25, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 328
Now with 15 years in the HALO sector Founder of YBell Fitness, Aaron Laurence, found his calling and career relatively late at 35 years old. He jumped immediately into small group training. "The one challenge I faced was around the equipment I was using," he states. "Setting up a whole lot of stuff in the morning for 30-40 people was quite a bit of a challenge!" Host Pete Moore has stated many times that the best businesses / solutions are often born from a Founder's frustration, and the YBell's...
Mar 22, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 327
CEO & Co-Founder of Boutique Fitness Solutions , Julian Barnes joins a rare club of HALO Talks guests making their second appearance! ( First one here .) We're proud to join him at BFS's 4th Summit, April 28-30, 2022 at the Westin Times Square . In a quick "state of the industry" after 2 years of COVID, Barnes tells us according to IHRSA, 30% of the studio market is now closed unfortunately. He discusses why that is and more importantly, what those studios who've remained (and in some cases,...
Mar 18, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 326
Jared Hanley is the CEO and Founder of NatureQuant , a company that "quantifies" nature in a sense. In a nutshell, their tech assesses and promotes nature exposure. Hanley's background was in finance using big data, analytics, and machine learning . . . but he's always been passionate about the outdoors. "I wondered why do we feel so good when we get outside? I wanted to apply my skill set in that area. Nature never had any real data attached to it, it never had any kind of measurement, and I th...
Mar 11, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 325
Keith began his career in the HALO sector from the ground up working as a commission-only salesman at a Powerhouse Gym in Augusta, GA. He slowly became interested in the tech side of the business as well--which was "pre-Windows" era when you had to connect computers with coaxial cables! Trawick became an evangelist for technology in the sector as the years went on. He states, "Tech companies now are trying to be too many things to too many people . . . Organizations should be allowed to have the...
Mar 08, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 324
Benj has had fascinating career path into the HALO sector. Currently the General Manager of the College Park Athletic Club , he's always been into sports as a kid (thanks in part to his Dad who coached in high school.) He lived in Sweden for a year and eventually became a Pastor for 7 years at a small church in Michigan. After returning east, his friend gave him a job in the club business, and he hasn't left since! On navigating COVID, Ecker states, "We're a program driven club as opposed to mem...
Mar 04, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 323
The former CEO of In-Shape, Schuler now serves as the CEO of the California Fitness Alliance , an advocacy organization working to galvanize all subsets of the fitness industry in California. "It took this crisis to realize how important advocacy is, how hard it is to get heard in an industry that's just trying to get people healthy . . . and how much of a disconnect there is with policy makers," she states. The well-represented Alliance is also looking at other powerful, highly effective organi...
Mar 01, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 322
Ntiedo has had quite a career both in corporate America and as an entrepreneur. Originally from Nigeria and the Bahamas, he learned six computer languages before age 11, eventually made his way to McKinsey, founded FitGrid (originally called YourGuru ) and, along with Julian Barnes ( his HALO Talks here ), co-founded Boutique Fitness Solutions, Etuk became interested in the HALO sector because his group ex classes helped cured him of his plantar fasciitis! However, he saw a big need that wasn't ...
Feb 25, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 321
Joining us for his second appearance on HALO Talks ( first interview here ), Founder and CEO of Flexit-- Austin Cohen-- chats about rolling out their new virtual personal training platform mid-COVID and how it's been an "absolute game changer" for both their B2B and B2C customers. Virtual personal training "fits into a real white space in the industry," he states. Flexit built out their own system with features specific to the modality. Suffice to say, it's definitely not ZOOM . . . and they did...
Feb 22, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 320
Conor O'Loughlin, CEO & Co-Founder of Glofox , is a former professional rugby player who is taking his lessons learned on the field and finding great success in the business world. Glofox raised a "humble" $2M initially, and recently received another round for a total of nearly $25M. With a fast-growing team of approximately 200, Conor and his (initially) small team bootstrapped everything, started as a basic "professional services" company, and evolved from there. Any entrepreneur (at any l...
Feb 18, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 319
