Welcome back to the Wellness Paradox podcast . I'm so grateful you can join us on this journey towards greater human flourishing . As always , I'm your host , Michael Stack , an exercise physiologist by training and a health entrepreneur and health educator by trade , and I'm fascinated by a phenomenon I call the wellness paradox .
This paradox , as I view it , is the trust , interaction and communication gap that exists between exercise professionals and our medical community . This podcast is all about closing off that gap by disseminating the latest , most evidence-based and most engaging information in the health sciences . And to do that , in episode 137 , we're joined by Amy Boone Thompson .
Amy is the owner and CEO of IDEA , the health and fitness organization , and in this conversation we're specifically going to talk about an amazing mentorship program that her and her team at IDEA are standing up .
But beyond that , we're going to talk about a little bit of where the profession is at , where the profession is going and what all of you should be thinking about in terms of professional development to be ready for the future of the exercise profession .
Any information we'd like to share with you from today's episode can be found on the show notes page , that's , by going to wellnessparadoxpodcom . Forward slash episode 137 . Please enjoy this conversation with Amy Boone Thompson Today . We're delighted to be joined by Amy Boone Thompson . Amy , thank you so much for joining us .
It's my pleasure . I'm so glad to be here .
We were talking before we came on the air that although I've known you for a while and I've known of the great work IDEA has done for a while , I haven't had you on the podcast yet . So , one , I apologize for that , and two , I'm excited to finally have you on to talk a little bit more about all the great work that's happening at IDEA .
But before we get into that , why don't you just give our audience a little bit of an idea of your background to provide some context for the discussion ?
Sure . So today I'm the owner and CEO of Idea Health and Fitness Association . I like to say I've held every job in the industry leading to this point over three and a half decades . I started my career as a personal trainer and it was that experience in an all-women's health club in Northern Virginia that really changed the entire trajectory of my career .
So I'm blessed that I've been able to find meaningful work in the industry , and all those paths led me to this role , which I never thought would become available . But here we are .
Yeah , I love that . I think so many people listening , and myself included . I started as a personal trainer at Valley Total Fitness . I started as a personal trainer at Bally Total Fitness . I'm sure probably you may have worked for Bally's at some point . I feel like everyone in the industry worked for Bally's at some point .
That's growing up in it and it is very exciting that you've gone from that to this role with Idea , which is where I want to go . Next . Tell us a little bit more about IDEO , what the mission of the organization is , who you serve , the things that you do .
Fantastic , thank you . So IDEA is in our 43rd year as an association . In our early days we were a certifier and the organization American Council on Exercise was born and grown here at IDEA back in those days , and then we let it go off on its own to be a not-for-profit . We , over the years , we have had many , many flagship magazines and journals .
We still produce idea fitness journal , which comes out four times a year . We've had a fitness manager . We've had lots of different publications and then we are a membership organization . So our role is today we don't certify professionals . We're here to point professionals to quality certifications . We're here to hold their hand throughout their career .
We support them with continuing education , events , which I'll get to in just one second , and liability insurance , other business resources , social media tools , workout builder anything that keeps you in the industry and thriving and successful . That's what we do .
Most people know us as Idea World because that is our flagship event that we do once a year and it is the world's largest event for fitness professionals with club and studio owners .
Yeah , and I'm glad you mentioned all of what you do as an organization , because I think , even though I've been in the industry for a very long time and I certainly knew of IDEA , I have I traditionally thought of it as a conference organization , and then when you start to drill down on all of the things that IDEA does in terms of career development , resources
for exercise professionals , it's really quite amazing , and we'll get into a little bit more of that . And certainly I definitely want to kind of pick your brain on how you see where the industry is at now and where you see it's going , because you have such a great vantage point .
But one of the driving forces for reaching out on this for this conversation was a mentorship program that you're starting at Idea , and I love this because I think mentorship is the best way to grow professionally . I can't tell you how many mentors I've had during my career . I'm sure you're very much the same . What was the driving force behind this program ?
And then tell us a little bit more about it ? Sure ?
Well , one of our pillars is career advancement and development , and so you know , in our website we have a lot of interactive tools , articles , courses to help someone find a path in the industry . But over the last five to 10 years , those paths have dramatically changed .
There's so many different ways to enjoy a career in our field , with a lot of fitness professionals working remotely , working online , not being surrounded by managers or role models in a traditional club setting . Where I grew up , there really was this people were starving for connection and guidance and feeling very isolated and alone in their journey .
Okay , so all of that's going on and at the same time , some of our previous award winners had come to me with the idea of promoting this mentorship .
So we have Dr Darian Parker , debbie Bellinger and Dr Erin Nishka , who came to us and said we want to do it with IDEA because you are agnostic in the space , you work with every fitness professional globally and we know that we'll be able to have the broadest reach and to be able to help more people . So we embarked on this really early in 2024 .
We did focus groups at IDEA World this past summer . We've done a lot of different calls as well to figure out , how do we structure it , what are people interested in learning about and how do we pick the right mentors to pair with these mentees really to create a unique and meaningful experience .
So to fast forward already , just in this one year , we've already launched a pilot . We have a group going through now and the program will be really two different approaches . One is a group going through now and the program will be really two different approaches . One is a group approach .
So this is it's just like in our business with group training versus private training . Group training option will be more cost effective for you but you'll be in a collaborative group environment and the format will be structured .
So you know you're going to get let's just call it eight weeks of eight different topics where we bring in subject matter experts to support you in that topic .
The alternative is to sign on with a one-on-one mentor and then in this case , we are going to pair you with someone with expertise in that area who really can go deeper with you and help you with whatever that is in your career . So let's just use starting a podcast as an example .
If someone really aspired to start a podcast , we would find an expert to pair you with someone who's walked in those shoes , who's done it . We'd probably call Michael Stark and say can you come be a mentor with us ? Sorry , I said Stark , can you come be a mentor with us ?
And then we would pool these experts that are idea subject matter experts and give you this curated experience .
That's great . I could have used the podcast expert when I started this thing . For sure . You said a couple of things that I think are really noteworthy , to just expand on a little bit . The first thing you said which was not one of the things I was going to say is that both Debbie and Dr Parker are friends of mine .
They've both been guests on the podcasts , so I can vouch for both of those as being incredible mentors , and I'm sure you know Aaron as well . That's a great trio that you have there . But I think what you said about how our workplaces have changed since COVID is so important , and I think that this is obviously not something just our industry is facing .
I think every industry is facing it , and having an organization like Idea that's standing up an external mentorship program , I think is such a resource , and the real point that I want to hit on here is how this expedites the mentoring process , because developing a mentoring relationship it takes time , it takes effort , it takes a lot of trial and error , and the
fact that you're curating it either in a group-based setting or in an individual-based setting is such a cheat code to expediting the process , and I think that's a really , really interesting opportunity .
The follow-up question I had , though , is you did what you should do when you want to start something like this is you did some legwork to hear what people are interested in learning about . Can you maybe give us some insight as to what those learnings were and kind of how that's informed at least the group curriculum that you've started to develop ?
Yeah . So we , in addition to the focus groups we did in person , we also surveyed our membership and we surveyed other membership . And keep in mind , two of our three admins come from academia , so they are really approaching this as learning modules and a lesson plan behind especially the group formats . So some of the insights that came out .
Of course , marketing rose to one of the top needs of our fitness professionals . A lot of our fitness professionals also really don't understand how to design programs for clients and so that kind of jumped out at us like maybe some of us take that for granted that we either got that from our certified body or we got it in our in our collegiate curriculum .
But there's a lot of professionals out there who come to our space and all are welcome , but they have these learning gaps that we're here to solve for . So those are just two examples , but again , the approach will be really to develop the mentors with lesson plans , with learning objectives .
It's not just get on the phone and let's chat about you and where you are , and it really will have some structure behind it . Another really interesting insight is that a lot of people who raised their hand to be mentors also said can you provide a program for me in this area , because I need to learn here .
And what that really screamed to us was that , my goodness , our industry , we are learners and none of us feel like we've got it all figured out , and things are changing constantly .
So even our mentors were saying I'm really good at this thing , but I also want help with this other thing , and so we're going to be setting up programs to develop our mentors , but our mentors will be mentees in some cases , depending on what the subject matter is .
That's amazing . I think that's a sign of a great mentor when they realize they're a lifelong learner and , to your point , our industry definitely embodies that lifelong learning mentality , mentality .
The marketing thing is so interesting because I talk to a lot of fitness professionals and the space is so noisy right now and there's so much competition for voice in the market and the big club chains obviously have that cornered because they have the cash and so I think , providing that .
But the exercise prescription element is interesting and there's a part of me that's surprised to hear that as a gap . But there's another part of me that's not surprised to hear it , because exercise prescription is an art , it's a science .
It takes time to learn and because of that intersection of art and science , it really does take someone who's had the experience of doing it practically , not just academically or for a certification , but who's actually worked with the people .
And so , like I said , at one level I'm surprised to hear it , but on another level , because of that kind of combination of art and science , the mentorship approach to teaching exercise prescription seems very appropriate .
Yeah , I agree . And then there's the customization . So once you have art and science , you have to finesse and you have to see what works , and so there's all of those nuances . But I think you're right .
Like , if someone is lacking any piece of that and maybe feeling up to at some level , we want to kind of step in and provide some guidance and structure and point them to a lot of our courses and our other content . So that's another nuance of the program . Like , idea has over 15,000 articles available to our members and over 900 online courses .
So well before COVID happened , we had this big bank of content . So the other thing that these mentors are doing and our admins is they are looking in our database for relevant content , subject matter expertise to provide as homework .
So you get this curated experience in person or in your group , but you're going to have homework that says , hey , you've got to read this article , you've got to take this course before we report back again , because there's some insights in there that we want to talk about .
That's amazing . Yeah , that is definitely not . Hey , we're all going to get into Zoom and this is just a mastermind group where we're going to talk . The curricular nature of this definitely speaks to the academic in me who teaches college classes at University of Michigan and says , hey , we need a structure to this .
So I guess , from just a practical standpoint , you guys are piloting this right now . I know I've talked to Dr Parker and Debbie and they're very excited about it . What's the plan after this pilot is done ? Give us some insight as to when this might become more broadly available .
Yeah , so it will be available in 2025 , once we're gathering insights as we go through the pilot , from both the attendees , the mentors , the admins and just finessing , and then we'll have the group format available in 2025 . It will repeat throughout the year , so you will go through a cohort and then you could sign on for one-on-ones if you wanted .
If you wanted , we are also working hand in hand with a lot of other professors because , as you might imagine , students are keen to participate in the mentorship , but also those seasoned veterans . Now we're working on content for those individuals as well . A lot of them are saying hey , I want to be in an idea stage one day .
How do I become a presenter , or how do I start a podcast , or how do I pivot my business into this one area ? So that's what will happen in 2025 . If you go to ideafitcom and sign on for our information , then you'll get this information on mentorship . There's also a page there where you can go in and read more about it .
We will have a matching program through our technology where , once you sign on , you'll be able , if you do the one-on-ones , you'll be able to pick your mentor right there in our website , and then , of course we can do a Q&A and make sure we got that right .
But you'll have an opportunity to just do a matchmaking service , if you will , right on the website .
Awesome , what a great resource . The on-demand nature of that definitely is consistent with the world we're in now . We will make sure we link up to that on the show notes page . And again , I can't encourage everyone enough , even if the mentorship program isn't of interest to you .
To Amy's point , there are so many resources that IDEA has beyond just the traditional education conferences that you may have heard of .
And I could just add , our membership prices are so incredibly low . It is $60 a year to get access to the majority of that content and then if you want the CECs with it , it's only $199 a year . So we really want to keep that price low . Then you can add on other things like the liability insurance , other things , but that is the barrier to entry .
It's tiny , so please come over and be part of our community .
Yeah , absolutely , and I've very much admired that about IDEA . It is accessible . We know that memberships add up when you have your membership to your certifying body , maybe you have multiple certifications . These things add up as costs .
And being affordable and accessible I think is important , especially because of all the great resources you provide to professionals that are entering into the industry , that are just trying to make their way , that's right . That are entering into the industry , that are just trying to make their way , that's right .
So , since I have you here and I want to talk about the mentorship program , which I think you've done a good job of framing that two other kind of areas that I want to touch on briefly , because a lot of what IDEA does is professional development for exercise professionals .
Essentially what you do is professional development for exercise professionals , essentially what you do . If you could give the audience a couple of pearls of wisdom or best practices for thinking about professional development , what would those be ?
First and foremost I would speak to the point that we just spoke about earlier is you are always learning , we . There is so much emerging science and understandings about human anatomy and about um mental health and behavioral health and psychology , and the more .
I think one of the real blessings in the last three to five years is that now we are accepting that we all need a holistic approach to helping our clients , and that means that we can't possibly be experts in all of those disciplines , so you need to always be learning .
And then the second piece is surround yourself with a team of allied health professionals that you can learn from and refer to , with one another . So those are . I mean , early in my career I was really really fortunate to work with a club in La Jolla , a sporting club at Aventine , and we had physicians who were our members .
But also we had referring systems set up .
We had a physical therapist who would come over and do screenings and teach us and walk us through how she was coming up with different conclusions , and then if someone was referred to her practice , we would go to the sessions with our client and go to the physical therapy session because she was right across the street .
Those are examples of how you can set up relationships with medical health professionals or any professional that can further support your client . So those are two of the best practices , I think , that keep you learning , keep you curious and also , all the while , supporting your clients to reach their goals with your services .
I'm so glad you talked about the multidisciplinary team approach because that is where we're going as the exercise profession travels down its professionalization path .
Like other healthcare providers , everyone has a role that they play , everyone has a scope of practice that they work in and because exercise professionals have always kind of been on the outside looking into healthcare , we've tended to blur lines of scope of practice and really to not only our detriment but to our clients' detriments and the idea that we should be
seeking out these relationships , working as a part of these multidisciplinary care teams , for the betterment of our clients but also for our learning . And you nailed it .
I have worked with so many great physicians , registered dietitians , physical therapists , massage therapists over the years that have taught me things I never could have learned any other way that that networking and developing those kind of collaborative relationships is such a huge thing . I'm really happy you hit on that .
Yeah , and it's actually one of the themes that we're carrying into our Idea World program this year is we are inviting in more and more allied health professionals to build these bridges .
And so you know we've been talking about as an industry for a very long time is that we need to work more closely together , we need to refer , but we're going to show that through our programming this year and we're going to bring these experts to our fitness professionals at the number one learning event of the year so they can see how they can work together ,
all on behalf of their clients .
Yeah , that's great . Getting people around the table , that's a big first step . And just so our audience is clear , when is Idea World this year ?
Oh yeah , we are July 17th through the 19th and we are in Sacramento , california , which is our state capital . It's our first time in that city and we're just so excited because we get to actually be in parks and we get to be outdoor for some of our programming . But we're really excited for Sacramento . So July 17th through the 19th .
Awesome . And , yeah , I've been to the event before . I think I was there in Vegas , which I believe was in July in Vegas . So I am way more excited about California in July than I was about Vegas in July , so that should be amazing . And again , getting those people around the table is so key .
Amy , before we get to the last two questions here , give us some insight as to where you see the industry going . You have this very unique vantage point , one because of your just career progression , but two because of where you sit in idea . We were just talking about some work you're doing for World Active with the World Health Organization .
You just have your hands in a lot of different areas . What's the big trend that you see in our industry right now that everyone listening needs to be aware of ?
Well , I don't know if it's a good trend . It's actually something that I think we need to be aware of , because we're at a slippery cross point right Crossroads , if you will and that is that we have a lot of people practicing in our profession who don't have the expertise or the education , and so that's always been to some degree .
But when employers aren't requiring the qualifications for the role that people are performing , that's when we're in a really slippery crossroad . And that's what's happening now is listen , I'm for everyone who wants to have a profession in health and fitness to have a low barrier of entry , but to have a scope of practice that they work within .
So everybody should have an opportunity to work in our space , but they should have a clear career pathway of it's just like a hairdresser If you want to sweep the floor , great , here's the qualification . If you wanna cut hair , here's the qualification . Before that , you have to learn how to wash hair . Then you cut hair .
If you wanna color hair or perm hair or whatever , you have to have different qualifications . So it's the same in our environment , but I don't think that we really are respecting our profession in that way right now and we're letting , we're saying "'Hey great , you can sweep the floor . "'why don't you give this client a perm because she needs a perm today" .
So maybe that's a bad analogy , but I think that we're just at this really interesting point of do qualifications matter , certifications , degree , do they matter ? Because that's what the industry is asking themselves . Idea is here to say yes . We're here to say hell . Yes , they matter , and we need to adhere to this good system that we've built . It's not perfect .
We have a lot of area to grow , but at least , if we can agree and adhere to the good system that's been built over the years , we are going to be in a much , much better place for advancing our profession .
Yeah , music to my ears . See the entire podcast series that we just did in conjunction with the ACSM . On the themed issue on professionalization , is that , to your point , we do have to have a standard For entry into the industry . It doesn't need to be a rigorously high standard .
If you're looking to work with an apparently healthy person with some basic qualifications , but qualifications nonetheless , you can do that and then graduate those qualifications up .
I'm not entirely sure if the perm analogy works , because my hair is very simple to understand , but what I do know is that it is true in every field that there are credentials and there are qualifications and , yes , it's a trend .
I think in two ways One , we need to be aware of the people that are saying that is not necessary , because I think you and I and everyone listening would say absolutely it's necessary .
And then , two , the employers that are listening and the people that are running academic programs that are listening , the realization that we need to be employing the appropriate certified professionals .
And just to provide everyone a resource for that , there is the US Registry of Exercise Professionals , which is the coalition for the Registry of Exercise Professionals , usrepsorg . That is the database . And , to your point earlier in the conversation . American Council on Exercise , one of the members of the Coalition for the Registry of Exercise Professionals .
So a great resource and a great point on your part .
Yeah , so that's one not positive trend , but on the positive side , what I'm really excited about is , kind of like we were alluding to earlier , fitness professionals have so much opportunity and opportunity that did not exist for us in prior years or we couldn't see it in front of us . But through technology we have the opportunity to meet so many more clients .
We have so much data at our disposal . So learning and understanding that data how we can further support our clients you , as a fitness professional , can work anywhere in the world with any client in the world at any time on any modality .
Like it is an unreal time for you to think about the possibilities and the people you can serve , and I think that the fact that we're no longer reliant on brick and mortar is really exciting and I think we can help a lot more people . So that's what I'm super optimistic about , and we help fitness professionals regardless of where they choose to work .
I say , in a park or in a boat with a goat , you can teach there and we're here to support you in your business . But I think it's just a really exciting time for us that is yeah .
The idea when both you and I started our careers that we'd be on the other side of one of these webcams doing a training session with somebody was beyond our wildest dreams . And now it's to your point . It's a reality , and I'm sure a number of the professionals that are listening right now do it .
So , amy , just so everyone is clear where to go to find out more about the great work that you and your team at Idea are doing , point us to that website again , and maybe any other resources you think are helpful .
Yeah , ideafitcom , i-d-e-a-f-i-tcom that is our website . That is also all of our social media handles , so follow us . We're active in LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook . We've got communities there .
We are over 275,000 fitness professionals strong in over 80 countries and , again , we are really here to support you , no matter where you are in your journey , if you're contemplating a career or if you are a seasoned veteran , we are here to connect you , to support you and to inspire your path .
Awesome and we'll link up to all of those on the show notes page . Highly encourage the follow of IDEA on the social platforms . That's a great way to get kind of updated content set to you . We follow IDEA as a podcast . I follow it personally and it's just great to see that kind of scroll through your feed , amy . Last question and the podcast .
I'm excited to ask this to you because you know you are an industry veteran who has been contemplating , I think , what I'm going to ask for quite some time . I consider the wellness paradox to be this gap in trust , interaction and communication between medical professionals and exercise professionals In your experience .
If you can give the people listening one piece of advice to close off that gap , what would it be ?
Well , we've talked about a lot of ways here already . I think what I can speak to is that we're really not so far off . We both want the same outcomes . We want the same outcomes . We each have a role in helping those clients , and so there really isn't this as big of a gap as we might think .
In terms of the intention , the gap exists , with us aligning our practices and our businesses and creating and forging those relationships , and they do exist . There are many , many places in the US where we have really strong hand-in-hand referral practices , but we both want the same outcome .
We want healthy individuals with great mobility who are able to enjoy their life to their fullest . And so I think you know , the gap isn't that big in terms of intention maybe just more intention , a little more intention but of how we connect our businesses .
Very , very well said , Amy Boone Thompson . Thank you so much for joining us on the Wellness Paradox . Thank you so much . My pleasure Well , I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Amy as much as I did . If you found it insightful and informative , please share with your friends and colleagues . Those shares make a big difference for us .
Any information we'd like to share with you from today's episode can be found on the show notes page , that's by going to wellnessparadoxpodcom forward slash episode 137 . Please be on the lookout for our next episode when it Drops in Two Weeks , where I'll do our year-end review for 2024 . And don't forget to subscribe through your favorite podcast platforms .
Until we chat again next time , please be well .