When Sam Miller , an industry outsider, took up the "minor" challenge of attempting to revolutionize strength testing and training, he ended up manufacturing a device unlike anything else currently available--something which helps unlocks previously inaccessible insights into physical strength--and launching him into a head-to-head battle for content against existing equipment makers. Sam is the CEO and Founder of Proteus Motion , a revolutionary strength testing and training device that provide...
Dec 20, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 378
Joseph C. Maroon , M.D., is a Neurosurgeon and Vice Chairman and Professor of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He's regarded as a premiere specialist in the surgical treatment of injuries and diseases of the brain and spine and considered an authority in sports medicine and concussion management. He's been the team Neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Medical Director of World Wrestling Association, as well as authored over 300 peer-r...
Dec 16, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 377
Nearly 30 years ago, Fit Bodies came up with the unique idea of meeting high end resort's staffing needs by matching them with highly experienced and credentialed fitness professionals who were willing to teach a few classes while they were on vacation. It's a business model that has served the Founder, Suzelle Snoden , quite well over the years. She has over 30 years of experience in the fitness industry, and her company has placed instructors in some of the most prestigious resorts in the worl...
Dec 13, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 376
In this episode, Derek Flanzraich discusses his journey as an entrepreneur and how he is using his new company, Ness , to democratize access to health, in part by using credit cards to incentivize healthy behaviors. Derek Flanzraich initially started as the CEO and Founder of Greatist , a company that later became the the leading health and wellness media company for Millennials. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Ness, a credit card company that rewards people for making healthy choices. Wh...
Dec 09, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 375
"People are more likely to trust a business that has been recommended by a friend or family member, or that has positive reviews online. Nielsen did a survey with 30,000 people and found that approximately 92% of decisions regarding which businesses to patronize are based on other people's opinions, recommendations, and reviews," states Andre Cvijovic - Founder and CEO of Referrizer , an extremely robust marketing automation platform that helps businesses grow by generating leads and increasing ...
Dec 06, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 374
When John Klein, a HALO sector veteran with 20+ years of experience, launches a unique workout recovery franchise, he finds himself confronting the challenges of balancing "art and science" to ensure success while bringing a luxurious, experiential offering to market in highly competitive geographic areas. John's held positions at Town Sports International and Equinox, and is currently the Co-Founder of Pause Studio , a health and wellness franchise with six different service modalities and a te...
Dec 02, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 373
Sue Hitzmann is an exercise physiologist and neurofascial science and research educator with 25 years of experience in the fitness industry. She is a founding member of the Fascia Research Society and the creator of the MELT Method , a system of self-massage and movement to help alleviate chronic pain. She started in the industry in 1988 as a fitness professional and an exercise physiologist. When she realized that what she learned in fitness was not able to aleviate her own chronic pain, she do...
Nov 29, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 372
Dan Rubenstein is the CEO of Pups Pet Club , a pet care company with five locations in Chicago and Brooklyn. He has over 20 years of experience in the space, and is passionate about providing the best possible care for dogs. Dan took an interest when he had to find care for his dog while he was working. He eventually found a service that took his dog to a park to run around, but they didn't listen to him when he said not to take his St. Bernard out in hot weather and--very sadly--his dog Sidney ...
Nov 25, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 371
Sumner Hanna is a professional fitness instructor, former professional dancer, and Founder of Sumner Leigh Athletics. She's been teaching SoulCycle classes for over seven years and is currently also trainer with CLIMBR . Growing up as a professional dancer paved a way for a life of sweat and creativity for her. She worked on tours, TV shows, and music videos before eventually immersing herself in the realm of boutique fitness. She taught everything from Barre, Cycle, HIIT, strength training, and...
Nov 21, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 370
In a world where tennis courts are king, one man struggles against the odds. He trudges forward daily doing his best to build a pickleball empire and overcome the obstacles of a competitive market and multiple naysayers. (Admit it. . .you just read that in the "in a world" voice, right?) ;) Our job is done here! Moving on . . . In this episode, you will learn: 1. The potential for pickleball to generate significant revenue streams from multiple sources, including membership dues, tournaments, an...
Nov 18, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 369
Eric Casaburi is the founder of Serotonin Enterprises , a company that provides anti-aging solutions through hormone replacement therapy, nutritional coaching, and fitness programs. He is also a franchise consultant and has over 20 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. In his second appearance on HALO Talks, he chats with host Pete Moore on what he's been doing since he founded Retro Fitness many years prior. The Serotonin anti-aging platform is a new way to help you look and f...
Nov 14, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 368
Swerve Fitness (which initially began as a successful brick and mortar space with three locations) now offers a, "Live streaming, groundbreaking fitness experience to gyms around the world, all built on the power of team sports." Eric Posner and his team have come up with a great "hybrid" that helps facilities fill in studio dead time, doesn't influence their existing staff placements, provides unlimited classes in a boutique experience with some of the best instructors available . . . and on an...
Nov 08, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 367
Alex Dzierbicki has held a variety of positions in the hospitality and HALO sectors. At one point, he owned three gyms, worked in private equity, moved on to the franchise space, and now works for the highly regarded Cultivate Advisors, where all advisors must possess a minimum of at least 10+ years of business ownership. When asked about the importance of perspective, he states, "The broader that is, the better you will be able to form commonality and pattern recognition skills. So saying, 'Hey...
Nov 04, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 366
Brandon Cullen is a former professional hockey player and one of the Founder's of MADabolic . (Fun fact: MAD stands for Momentum Anaerobic Durability.) Along with his partner Kirk Dewaele, "The duo founded MADabolic after noticing a hole in the fitness market. There were no high-quality group fitness training systems for people who prioritize strength, value structure, and demand results…everyday people, and people past their sport looking to age athletically…people, it turned out, like them ." ...
Nov 01, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 365
April Berg is the Co-Founder & Customer Experience Director of the Aruna Project , an incredible organization which empowers women through employment. The Project, "Creates lifelong freedom marked by holistic care for victims of human trafficking. Products are crafted in freedom by skilled Artisans who are finding their voice, experiencing independence and growing with a sisterhood of others who have overcome." They've employed over 120 women since they began in 2015 (products launched in 20...
Oct 28, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 364
"My purpose is to help others," states Roger Harvey succinctly. This long time, highly-seasoned HALO executive served as the COO of Crunch for 13 years (from 3 studios to 27 in 1993-2006), as a COO and CEO in the boutique space, a consultant to a good number of brands, and most recently as the CEO of New York Sports Clubs. He was charged with the "minor" task of taking a 50 year organization (from 186 gyms going in, to 68) out of bankruptcy--while in the middle of the pandemic--pre vaccines! "I ...
Oct 24, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 363
Matt Spielman is Founder of Inflection Point Partners and author of the newly released book, Inflection Points-How To Work and Live With Purpose . (Check out a quick one sheeter here as well.) Matt notes, "I transitioned from Executive to Executive Coach . . . and the part that really drew me in was seeing the people on the team grow, develop, thrive, giving them stretch opportunities, the promotion discussions and . . . just giving feedback in a constructive way. That was the stuff that really ...
Oct 21, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 362
Struct Club brings structure to music-inspired fitness instruction. By providing software for gyms, studios, and their instructors, Struct Club's simple app & unrivaled programming database streamline the entire process of delivering impeccable group exercise classes. In 2018, Amira incorporated Struct Club out of Harvard Business School, where she both got her MBA and began teaching indoor cycling classes at their gym. Coming from a prior career in enterprise software, she found that instru...
Oct 10, 2022•26 min•Ep. 361
"Red light therapy has been around for 60 years but 'more' isn't always better," states Perry Kamel, the CEO of DNA Vibe , the innovative new company revolutionizing red light therapy and the way its administered. "More" was the direction the industry went down (and arguably is still going down) once people realized the modality had positive effects. "It's absolutely about precision, not power . . . and too much could be harmful," Kamel continues. With some recent coverage on the Today Show and ...
Oct 04, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 360
Virginia Carnesale is the founder of Shop Stage. Her story of surviving breast cancer is incredibly inspirational for others going through what she did, and was the push needed for starting Shop Stage. Her inspiration was based on her experiences as a patient, and her life long background in retail. While the company is only about five months old as of this podcast (Sept 2022), she and her team are doing incredible work helping other women take the guess work out of their cancer treatments, have...
Sep 23, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 359
As a very active kid, Bryan Clay (Founder of the fast-growing franchise Eat The Frog Fitness and 2008 Olympic decathlon gold medalist), found himself with an ultimateum by his Mom: Track and field or swimming . . . and he chose track and field because, "There was no way I was going to wear a Speedo!" he jokes. Clearly, it turned out to be the right choice. "The track became my sanctuary," he states. Clay went on to gain a Fulbright scholarship, compete in the 2004 Olympics, won the gold in 2008 ...
Sep 20, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 358
Daniel Tobon is a self-described "hard 48." He joined the military at age 17 immediately after high school and served for 7.5 years. Due to a serious back injury, he later went on to get the, "most boring job I could" and became a lawyer. (Ha!) Tobon currently heads up iVIK Holdings. iVIK is a 100% USDA and EU certified organic cannabis production facility. They're also white-label, vertically integrated, and run a highly successful direct-to-consumer brand, Relevium . After selling his prior co...
Sep 15, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 357
Alessandro Biggi & Francesco Brachetti are best friends since college and grew up in Italy. They started Avocaderia- the buzzy new restaurant (now with 4 locations.) They have far from the "typical" background of hospitality entrepreneurs. Both studied and worked in the finance world but eventually, Alesandro came to the idea of,"Healthy comfort food that's good for you but enriched with healthy fats which could be cheese, almonds and so on. I realized that it was really hard to find healthy...
Sep 13, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 356
" Remedy Place is the world's first social wellness club," states Dr. Jonathan Leary , Founder. There is an incredible amount of buzz around this company, and for good reason! Leary has been working on this concept for a solid 10 years, and their new location in New York City's Flatiron district just recently opened. (Their first is in West Hollywood, CA.) "It's a whole entire club that's centered around holistic self-care, but it's made to enhance your health and your social life at the same ti...
Sep 06, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 355
Jeff Riney is currently the COO of the beautiful new St. James Club and has been in the industry since 1995. He got into the HALO sector, "By chance. . .and to avoid your classic 9-5 job. I started with selling memberships." Years later, the flagship St. James Club is a monster, 450,000 square feet facility with literally everything under one roof. It's a hybrid member/non-member model with all branded concepts developed in-house. "From a branding standpoint, Crunch and Equinox were really the f...
Sep 02, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 354
After playing Gaelic games professionally for nearly 15 years, JP and Dermot started Gaelic Performance, a firm which sold equipment into the highly niched Gaelic sports market. Sandbags and other products didn't really hold up and they ended up developing a much more sturdy and versatile product called the RAM and started RAMfit (Recycle And Move.) There's a heavily green ethos to the company and the product is made from recycled tires (which are heavily regulated in Europe) and steel from comp...
Aug 30, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 353
In this episode, we're pleased to present an informative and enlightening interview with Ben Ludwig , a growth pastor, and a fitness coach with a rather unique background. "If you ask most people that are in ministry, that was never their original plan. For me, fitness was always my 100% go to. I started as a person trainer back in the day and worked my way up just through my passion for helping people. That's what I thought my career was going to be forever," states Ludwig. Ben and Pete discuss...
Aug 26, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 352
Who doesn’t love good, healthy food? Better still, who doesn't love the option to have it delivered while also knowing that the restaurant (not Big Tech!) is getting their fare share of the profits. Today’s episode of HALO Talks is made livelier and healthier by Josh Morgan , the founder of Sesame Order, a new marketplace created by a restaurant veteran squarely with other restaurant professionals in mind. Currently in approximately 250 restaurants in the NYC area, Sesame is still in beta and te...
Aug 23, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 351
A former college athlete who moved into a fitness career (and became a pro MMA fighter!) industry veteran Emre Ozgur is now the Founder and CEO of a buzzy new brand with an extremely unique concept, Safe Sweat . "When we started really working on this, initially it was a concept for the pandemic, but the reason we decided to push forward is because there is a very large demographic of underserved people that have been saying for years, 'I don't want to work out in the social environment. I don't...
Aug 19, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 350
Recorded in NYC at the Boutique Fitness Solutions Summit in April 2022, Katy Richardson, Founder of Neighborhood Barre, a (barre studio franchisor) talks with Pete Moore about her (briskly growing) portfolio of 23 studios, which still remain self-funded. Katy was also the recipient of the highly regarded Pinnacle Business Award in the Young Entrepreneur category in Knoxville, TN. As a former cheerleader who suffered a severe accident, Katy got into yoga and other lower-impact modalities to aid i...
Aug 09, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 349
