Rachel has been with Peake Media (the parent company of Club Solutions magazine) for over 7 years. Peake also publishes Box Pro, Mindful Studio, Campus Rec, and Community Rec Magazine, each with highly specific B2B audiences in the HALO sector. Their Mission? "Educate and empower fitness pros in a variety of niches," says Zabonick. Listen to this IHRSA 2019 interview and learn what trends Rachel is seeing, future plans for Peake Media, and more!
Jul 29, 2019•17 min
Jared has been in the HALO sector for over 10 years. He's a native Houstonian and scaled Dynamic Fitness to 3, full service locations ranging from 30-35,000 sq feet. "It was a whole lot harder than what I thought it would be. Overwhelming would be an understatement!" he joked. "It's about learning from each mistake that's made and continuing to move forward." Listen to learn more about Dynamic's model and how they continue to set themselves apart in one of the most competitive cities in the coun...
Jul 26, 2019•16 min
The National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) is, by a large margin, the industry leader when it comes to educating top tier strength coaches who--many times--later go on to work with colleges, universities, and teams nationwide. They've educated over 30,000 professionals so far and operate as a non-profit. "We want to stay at the principle level and make sure that everything we're sharing is evidence based and backed by science," states Nick Clayton, the PT Program Manager. Listen...
Jul 24, 2019•23 min
A 30+ year veteran in the fitness industry, Dr. Kevin Steele earned his Ph.D at Pepperdine and had a personal training business even before there was even a term for it! Dr. Steele taught and coached at the university, and continued in the HALO sector with the legendary Don Wildman, Founder of the Health & Tennis Corporation of America. Dr. Steele later went on to research and scale the first national platform for personal training to 370 health clubs nationwide. Listen now to learn more fro...
Jul 22, 2019•16 min
As the Executive Vice President of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), Graham has been in the HALO sector since 1991. As a former competitive cyclist with a BS in Athletic Training, he notes, "Our Mission, really simply stated, is to get people moving." With over 90,000 certified professionals in 100 different countries thus far, ACE continues to make its mark. As a non-profit, ACE is also self-funded with no external grants--and that puts them in a very unique position in an industry whose ...
Jul 18, 2019•26 min
"The industry is now embracing and accepting the space between medicine and fitness," states Lisa Dougherty, Founder of the MedFit network and--clearly--a woman on a mission! Like many of the best businesses, MedFit Network evolved organically from (an extremely important!) need that had yet to be met. It is now the largest directory of fitness professionals on the Internet who work with special populations. Last year, Lisa took this on the road and started the Medical Fitness Tour and was ackno...
Jul 15, 2019•21 min
"I wanted to become the greatest we could become in one town and through influence, be able to affect the world," says Joe Cirulli. . .and he's done exactly that. Everyone in the HALO sector knows Joe's name. He's been a trusted Mentor, adviser and friend to many of the top people in the industry and is highly respected across the board. He worked for 6 clubs that all went bankrupt before borrowing $1,700 to get his start. Gainesville is now ~80,000 sq feet with over 28,000 members and 500 emplo...
Jul 11, 2019•24 min
Chuze Fitness currently has 25 locations with 8 under construction and is one of the foremost brands in the San Diego area. Started by two families, Nick and Cory's parents were business partners in the hospitality space who parlayed that into the HVLP sector. This highly experienced team only decided to take on private equity on their 14th location. They operate off the maxim, "We want to be the best, we don't want to be the biggest." Learn more about this great brand has firmly secured their p...
Jul 10, 2019•27 min
Club Insider has become the "gatekeeper of the industry's history," says President Justin Cates. . . and anyone who truly knows the HALO space knows he's not exaggerating! If you haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting Justin's Dad, Norm. . .perhaps you haven't been around long enough and you're missing out! Industry icon, Norm Cates, is one of the Founders of IHRSA with 44 years under his belt and began Club Insider in 1993 from the ground up. Justin spent the past 11 years working with his Dad...
Jul 02, 2019•20 min
"Selling fitness has always been incredibly intangible, you're kind of buying it on faith. . .we made it tangible. You can see the vision of your future self," says Daron Allen, CEO of Visual Fitness Planner. Selling memberships used to be "incredibly unprofessional" and has changed significantly from what it was 10 years ago. VFP has been at the forefront of this, with everything now being "API first." It's not uncommon for a facility to have a tech stack of 6-10 companies! Listen to learn more...
Jun 24, 2019•27 min
Sean has been in the HALO sector for over 15 years. He (along with inventor Don Brown) was instrumental in launching the Ab Roller which went on to earn over 1 billion dollars. Flash to the 2007 IHRSA where, with only two prototypes in hand, he debuted the Ab Coaster, which also went on to huge success! The Abs Company never took outside funds and--in this wide ranging discussion--Sean discusses everything from inventory management, media spend, infomercials, thoughts on business partners, and m...
Jun 19, 2019•24 min
Josh McCarter's background goes back to when a T1 line cost "thousands" to install and when AOL was first scaling their dial up service! And through it all he's been adamant that, "Education across the board is super important." MINDBODY became a leader in the online booking field by--among other things--constantly driving this point home. And as far as scaling a successful SaaS model, "It doesn't take a ton of money to create your own buzz and your own authority." Listen now to learn more about...
Jun 17, 2019•37 min
A 40+ year industry veteran, Andrew began his career with Joe Cirulli--where shirts and ties were required for Nautilus instructors. . "which was the only machine available back in the day," laughs Levine. "He didn't want us in athletic wear and we had to watch 50 training videos at the Nautilus HQ. If you didn't pass you weren't allowed to work for minimum wage. And you know what? We all fought for that job." Andrew become an equity partner at his first club at 21 and later ran Synergy Fitness ...
Jun 13, 2019•17 min
Jun 12, 2019•40 min
Jersey Strong used to be called WoW (Work Out World.) The club (which was started by Stephen's Mom) eventually morphed into one of the most well known independent health club chains in New Jersey. Stephen Roma, Jr. began from the ground up and was instrumental in helping the club stay on the cutting edge of sales & marketing strategies. Learn how this family continues to remain on top, how they went through a major rebrand, how they make decisions as a team, advice for those just entering th...
Jun 10, 2019•28 min
How do you avoid standard interview responses? What's a better way to give & receive feedback? How do you get comfortable as the company rapidly expands? What's the 'right' number of clubs for Area & Regional Managers? Shawn started in the HALO sector in 1994 and worked with Joe Cirulli for 20 years at the iconic Gainesville Health & Fitness, ". . . doing every job you possible can!" Currently the COO of 02 Fitness with 30 clubs in Raleigh/Durham area, this wide ranging discussion ha...
Jun 06, 2019•21 min
With 20 years in the fitness industry and a former Danish national karate team member, Rasmus Ingerslev is a pioneer in helping to spread (and change the perception of fitness) in Denmark and other European countries. In 1999, his first venture became the largest club group in the country. Fresh Fitness, his next project, now has 75,000 members. He started the Danish Fitness Organization and helped remove the stigma of fitness as something "just the beautiful people did" to one a lot more approa...
Jun 03, 2019•23 min
"The best ideas are the ones people struggled with themselves, and suddenly had that epiphany of a great solution. If they had this problems, probably someone else did as well!" states Randy Hetrick. A 14 year veteran of the Navy SEALS, TRX (which--fun fact--was initially called Travel Fit) was born out of necessity while deployed. Randy's invention is now part of the DNA of the HALO sector. Learn more about how he got started, the origin of the name, staying true to your brand, what happens whe...
May 30, 2019•25 min
"My motivation is to change the way people look at and experience life," states UFC Gyms President Adam Sedlack. A long time industry veteran, Adam moved 20 times in his career with 24 Hour Fitness. He jokes, "Initially, I thought UFC Gyms was a terrible idea!" Only after seeing a fight camp and the incredible number of people involved in making a fighter "the best version of himself" did he realize this could be fantastic for the layperson as well. In this wide ranging discussion on everything ...
May 29, 2019•26 min
Mike opened his Paramus, NJ location in 1992. As a former finance executive, he and his partner Art mused, "There was just something about bringing the California mystique to New Jersey that made us check out Gold's." Instead of going "out" however, the team decided to go "in." As opposed to growing for growth's sake, 26 years later Gold's Paramus is an integral fixture in the community. "We found the gym to be the perfect vehicle to give back and make an actual difference in people's lives." Li...
May 23, 2019•22 min
"He & she who change the most number of lives, wins," state Don & Tammy Murphy. Don grew up in the industry. It was a family affair, always a part of his life, and he learned it from the ground up. Tammy is a former CPA and finance executive who entered the business a bit later. They continue to make massive strides in their community with two Gold's facilities in Middletown and Newburgh, NY. The award winning facility in Middletown is the only one of its kind in the area with 50,000+ sq...
May 20, 2019•27 min
With 30+ years in the beauty & skin care industry, Denise knows how to build and scale massive consumer brands from the ground up. How do you take a concept from PowerPoint to something on the shelf? "Success is a little bit of magic, a lot of discipline, and a lot of hard work. Everything begins with an idea, inspiration, or concept," she states. In an industry with very low barriers to entry, what can you do? How do you build a moat around your product? How do you deal with the 600lb goril...
May 17, 2019•30 min
Formerly with World Bank and now at Bain since 2011, Chris discusses a (fairly) new type of instrument private equity firms are using these days--an Impact Fund. "We're not pretending our investment of 10-15 million per business will change the obesity epidemic or solve global warming. However, what we can do is help fund scalable models which can be one of the hopefully many things to eventually get to that point," he states. Bain is already invested in game changing brands like by CHLOE and ot...
May 16, 2019•24 min
As a Portfolio Manager in Emerging Markets at Blackrock for over 8 years, Nicholas effectively created his own "HALO portal" within the massive organization. Certainly not an easy feat in a company with over 14,000 employees! How he did it, and how he went about navigating the twists and turns politically is incredibly useful advice for anyone facing similar challenges within their corporate culture. For anyone who thinks, "Something like this could never be done where I work!" this episode is t...
May 15, 2019•19 min
"We launched for a very simple reason: It was way too hard to find a great pair of workout shorts!" laughs Keith Nowack, Founder of Ten Thousand. They're now growing at a fantastic clip and Keith and team team remain, "Focused on profitability and not just raising capital every 12 months!" A former pro soccer player and seasoned entrepreneur & investor, Keith highlights the highs and lows that come with starting & growing a business and offers some tips on how to endure! "Being an entrep...
May 09, 2019•30 min
Macrolease has been serving clients in the HALO sector since 1969. Equipment financing has always been a critical part of the industry and Sal Venuto--VP at Marcrolease--is a 20 year veteran and has seen the evolution first hand. "It's a dynamite industry to be involved with," he says. "Operators are getting much more sophisticated. People call us early on in the process now, even sometimes before they sign their franchise agreement." Listen to learn more about this critical part of the HALO wor...
May 06, 2019•29 min
"Learning how to write is universal. It's never going anywhere," states John Romaniello. John has been named "Top 100 Most Influential People In Fitness." He wrote his first article in 2002 and now, with several e-books, courses, sites, a best seller, and a few thousand clients to his credit, John serves as a writing mentor and business coach. In one of our more philosophical HALO Talks, John discusses content creation, food-culture connection, trends, how he evaluates business opportunities and...
May 03, 2019•38 min
"How we're accessing fitness has evolved. In the past, 2% of gym members were buying other fitness experiences. Now it's over 25%," says Founder and 20+ year fitness veteran and marketing & media executive Joanna Stahl. "I'm going to be in Houston tomorrow, what cycling class should I go to?" It was questions like these she'd get from friends that were never easily answered. Go2Practice was born out of that and now--with 100,000+ gyms on the site--it makes it simple for consumers to search, ...
May 02, 2019•20 min
First Credit is a leading company in the Accounts Receivable space with an impressive, 25 year history. They work with over 4,000 clubs and have integrations with all the main point of sale providers. "This is usually only a $100-$200 bill. It just needs a talk. We're a non-threatening, consultative, member engagement retention model with a soft approach. We never threaten legal issues. We're against arguments!" states CEO Raj Chhabria. With a refreshing difference in an industry that (may) not ...
Apr 29, 2019•13 min
Workout Anytime began in Douglasville, Georgia in 1999 with a converted, 3,200 square foot facility. After 10 months, they had $800,000 in receivables and "knew we were on to something," said Co-Founder John Quattrochhi. "We had no idea we'd be franchising one day either!" he states. They sold their first franchise in 2006 and now have over 100 nationally. The company was built "one brick at a time" and--like any entrepreneur--certainly had their share of setbacks. Listen to learn more about thi...
Apr 26, 2019•24 min
