Fitness Business Podcast: Leadership, Innovation, and Profit

Christa's energy and passion for boutique fitness shines brightly in this episode of The Fitness Business Podcast. She delivers an important message to all studio owners about how important it is to create and build a strategic business plan. One of the key messages she delivers is how important it is to know your community and to cater to their needs. Christa also gets real and discusses the mistakes that she has made along the way to help our listens to avoid the same pitfalls. Sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy the episode with Christa Gurka.

The Fitness Business Podcast Fanatics share their views on the new direction of the industry, post-covid. They discuss their thoughts and insights on the changes that have taken place, which of these changes they forsee will continue, the new way to market the fitness clubs and boutiques and they shine some insights on how to reignite the fitness industry as a whole.

Named as Canada's most promising young HR leader, Jomana Elwenni is a strategic HR Executive with progressive experience in demanding, global environments in the Fitness, Retail, and Hospitality worlds. Jomana is currently the Director of Human Resources for Orangetheory Fitness Canada. Championing national leadership and management of full range of HR functions for over 110+ locations across multiple groups (Franchises, corporate, and headquarters). She is an innovative HR leader focused on developing and promoting engaged cultures and cultivating teams of natural brand champions.

Most fitness businesses hear the word "referral" and think of member or client referrals, but in this episode, Michael delivers an amazing insight on how to find referrals outside of your fitness walls. He poses the questions...."how well do you view your relationships with other businesses in your community." By creating partnerships with other businesses, gyms can cross market and reach a whole new community and tap into a new lead source. Listen to how Michael encourages gym owners and sales managers to build relationships with like minded businesses!

Life is too short not to love your work. Discover Strength, believes you should be able to build the career you want while doing work that changes lives. Imagine owning a distinguished fitness business, back by a market-tested business model, where efficient, 30-minute workouts are provided to your clients by expert, educated personal trainers. Imagine building a thriving business while doing work that you love, with people you love. If you are curious to know more about buying a strength training franchise, then this episode is for you. Tune in to the podcast and video interview, where Chantal Brodrick speaks to the CEO of Discover Strength, Luke Carlson.

In this episode, Pete McCall discusses the importance of staff training and making your team members better by focusing on individual and team development. He also discusses, that despite budget cuts there are creative ways to continue to educate your staff without spending a lot of money. You won't want to miss this episode, so you can start your journey on developing a 12 month professional development plan for your team.

As the fitness industry comes back stronger than ever in 2021, now is as a great time to reimagine your business: who are you aligned with? Who are you doing business with? Who is cheering you on? Who is your customer and what do they want now? If something or a certain partnership isn't aligning with your goals going forward it may be time to reimagine your business and who you're working with! You're in for an insightful conversation with Vapor Fresh, REX Roundtables, and MXMetrics about the value they're providing their customers and how you can make adjustments to reimagine your fitness business.

Mark Schaefer is a globally-recognized keynote speaker, educator, business consultant, and author. His blog {grow} is hailed as one of the top marketing blogs in the world. Mark shares his new book Cumulative Advantage: How to build momentum for your ideas, business and life against all odds with our Fitness Business Podcast family.

Group Fitness Professionals Ellen de Werd, Rebecca Pinto and Shannon Fable take to discussion about the future of group fitness and what the industry looks like moving forward.

Frank is passionate about creating a little L.I.P. Service, that is, Leadership, Inspiration and People Management. That servant leader mindset is used to formulate actionable and executable initiatives for his clients as explained in this episode.

Looking for a creative way to bring residual income into your gym, group fitness or personal training program? Youth fitness is quickly growing as one of the top "add-on" programs in the fitness industry. With children becoming more sedentary, due to the pandemic, and parents looking for a way to get their child off the coach or away from the video games, now more than ever is the perfect time to start a youth fitness program. Listen to show Simon Bungate and his staff at Clean Shred had been able to achieve this success.

On today's show we welcome Jeffrey Kazmucha. Jeffrey is the founder of AMP Venture Partners. We dive into a number of hot topics including digital innovation, market strategy, and the potential of future CRM's marrying the Doctor, patient and Personal Trainer relationships together. Jeffrey also touches on his beliefs around budding technologies like AR, AI, VR wellness and digital health that will be designed around the betterments of lifestyle, sports, fitness and medical sciences.

Lisa stresses the importance of integrating medical fitness into the fitness community. Personal trainers should take the opportunity to add to their tool box and become a specialist in training clients with chronic disease and health issues. Lisa talks about the opportunities that MedFit Network provides to fitness professionals across the world. Take a listen and learn a new skill!

Have you been considering remodelling your health club or are you ready to begin construction on your new health club? Do you have an in-club design in your head that no architect or general contractor has yet to get correct? If you're wanting to make the designs in your head come to life then, Fitness Business Podcast Episode 347 – The Value Proposition for Creating Unique Spaces is for you! We're joined by Joan Gebhart, VP of Corporate Sales for Creative Surfaces and she walks us through every aspect of the design and build process. She'll cover details regarding the initial design renderings, how she can design with any budget in mind, value engineering, design approval, setting realistic timelines, and lastly - the installation process.

Nathalie brings her positive mindset skills to the Fitness Business Podcast. She shares her 2 step process on how to change your language and begin to talk to your brain (your personal assistant) in a positive manner. Finding the confidence and clarity to unlock your full potential is what this confidence expert is all about!

Kevin Mullins is the author of a unique calendar style book entitled, Day by Day: The Personal Trainer's Blueprint to Achieving Ultimate Success. This book was written to help personal trainers all across the globe build their pt business and their relations with existing clients. Kevin is also the Director of Product Development for The St. James in Virginia, a Master Instructor for the PPSC, creator of his own certification for SCW MANIA, and a 10 year industry veteran with over 20,000 training sessions completed. His life is equal parts hard work, endless imagination, a little luck, and a whole lot of faith. His education is built on a kinesiology degree from the University of Maryland and is supplemented by certifications that include USAW, PN1, and Schwinn Cycle.

In today's episode, Annette gives her professional advice on how to improve a club's ability to connect with the customer and provide a customer experience that's worth talking about. Listen and learn, as Annette teaches us how journey mapping can assist in that connection along with bringing "the customer into your team meetings."

Organic marketing is the base for all fitness marketing in this day and age. Luke preaches consistency and making sure your content speaks to your following. In this episode, Luke focuses on the benefits of organic marketing as well as the biggest mistakes to avoid and if he could offer up one piece of advice it would be, "get your followers to buy into the person, not the service."

Do you ever wonder if you're using your software systems to the fullest extent? Are you confident in the quality of data you're receiving from your current systems? Do you truly feel that you have made your member processes simple enough so that members can engage with your business when and where they want to? The team at ASF Payment Solutions & Club OS joins us this month on The Value Proposition to give you insight into to each company, new features for both, and how they work together to enhance member engagement.

In today's episode Brittany talks about automating processes and getting them to the point where you, the owner or general manager, can step away from the business for a period of time and still have the business run efficiently and effectively. Brittney is a processes guru and loves to share her journey, with other fitness business owners, how she was able to get all of her information out of her head and into a systematic process.

In this episode, Nick answers top marketing questions to help owners promote their businesses for 2021. Listen to Nick's top advice for optimal advertising on social media platforms. Nick also stresses the importance of on-line reviews and gives advice on how to gather more reviews for your future members to read

In this episode: Key data around podcasting, Tips for getting started, How to reach more people with your podcast, How to monetize your podcast. Featuring special guest: Dave Keine

In this episode, Debra walks us through the path that Row House has taken to ensure consistency within its brand. Keeping an "ear to the ground" is the secret to their success and making sure that all employees are educated on the meaning behind #pulltogether. Debra emphasizes the importance of making everyone that walks through the feel welcome and supported. It's a great episode that is truly focused on detailed oriented brand consistency and an education on how to create a strong feeling of community.

Mohit Rajhans, co-founder of Think Start Inc. He has worked with most of Canada's top media organizations, with a focus on major brands. Mohit's strategy and content development work has been featured around the world and he has also spent the last 8 years teaching continuing education at Humber College.

If you're a facility operator who is hesitant to adopt networked fitness solutions – this is just the episode for you! We explore Precor's networked fitness solutions: Preva and Advagym by Sony - and give you a sneak peek as to the types of data you'll be receiving by making them part of your facility. You'll then hear what business decisions you can make with this data and how it affected the bottom line of a Precor customer. Adopting any new form of technology takes staff buy-in, so we dive deep into how to foster that and make your staff your biggest technology advocates. We tie a bow on this conversation with specific ways you can add technology into the sales process and make it truly part of your member journey!

Krishea Holloway started her career with Curves NA, Inc. at the age of 21, opening her first Curves franchise in 1997. Her franchise quickly became one of the most successful Curves franchises! Due to her success Co-Founder, Gary Heavin, asked her to become a mentor to other club owners. She joined the corporate support team in 1999 as a club operations trainer, and has progressively moved up within the company taking on responsibilities as: Sales and Resales Manager, Country Manager for New Zealand and Australia, Director of North America, and most recently, President and CEO of Curves NA, Inc. Krishea holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Hawaii. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for over 25 years. Krishea discusses the highs and lows of rebranding Curves. Being a veteran of the industry, Krishea talks about how she has taken her experience and has applied it to leading a new vision for Curves and the team aroud her.

Adam Sedlack, President of UFC Gyms, is an experienced fitness veteran with a demonstrated history of excelling in the health wellness and fitness industry. Adam, had the honor to be selected by NeV as one of the co-founders of UFC GYM. UFC Gym now is under development in 26 countries around the globe and is known as the world-wide leader in MMA conditioning. Through the growth of UFC Gym, Adam developed an expertise around domestic/international operations and he is highly skilled in Negotiation, Lease Process, Budgeting, Coaching, Marketing, Digital, and overall Operations. Adam also has held the title of Vice President of 24 Hour Fitness. In this episode, Adam shares how his strong communication skills helped UFC Gyms survive the pandemic. He discusses how important it to have different communication styles to meet the needs of all generations and depending on who is surrounding you to adapt and shift to meet your team's communication preference. Please join me along with Adam, for today's episode.

Brent Darden is IHRSA's interim president and CEO. He earned his master's degree in exercise science from Baylor University and began his career as a front desk attendant and fitness floor instructor at the First Baptist Church of Waco Life Recreation Center. He later was employed in a variety of positions in different fitness operating models including a regional multi-club group, a large independent athletic facility, and a niche group exercise studio.

The medical industry is ready for the fitness industry but is the fitness industry ready to look after who they send to us? This is the question that Bob explores in the Thinking Ahead show. As a practicing physician, Dr Bob Sallis has worked closely with the Claremont Club in California referring patients for years. He has seen the direct benefit to his patients and also the impact on the staff, other members and the community. The programs were profitable for the business and life changing, so we discuss what they did and why they worked. As he looks into the future of the fitness industry, he is confident that gyms are a place to improve health but gyms have to be ready for the clientel.

Bo Hanson's career within the sport and the business sector spans over 20 years, delivering leadership, management and coach development. In addition to his own athletic career comprising of four Olympic appearances and including three Olympic medals, Bo has worked for many years with coaches and athletes from over 40 different sports across the globe. Bo's ability to improve the coaching strategies and performance of his clients has resulted in over 18 national championships, Olympic medals and pro team premierships in the last five years alone. Long-standing working relationships and consistent high-quality feedback from his clients are testimony to his ability to understand, connect, design and deliver exceptional work.

Have you been considering going digital and adding an on-demand and live streaming workout platform to your fitness business? Are you looking to compete with direct to consumer fitness offerings in a hyperlocal fashion? Does the idea of going from health club operator to production company make you sweat? If you answered yes, the December Value Proposition episode is for you. Intelivideo exists to help operators hybridize their fitness offerings and to compete in an ever-changing fitness landscape. We'll dive head first into the three pillars of Intelivideo: Technology, Marketing Success & Services, and Content Strategy.

Ben Ludwig currently serves as the Growth pastor for CrosspointNow network of churches across Kansas, acts as the Subject Matter Expert in Sales for Fitness Revolution, sits on the Advisory Board for the International Strength Training Organization and works in a consultant role with the fastest growing fitness franchise in the world F45 Training as well as working a hand in many start up businesses.

Josh Fox is the founder and CEO of Bottom Line Concepts. He has grown the company over the past decade and is proud to have achieved over 300 Million Dollars in savings and refunds for many different organizations. In the day to day operations, his true strength is building relationships as well as managing employees, vendors and an international sales team. He is hands on in overseeing all aspects of the business from meetings, contracts, negotiations, implementation and follow up. Passionate about various charities, Josh gives back to his community and is also an avid animal rights activist and enthusiast.

Bob Burg is the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence, with total book sales approaching two million copies. Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. Bob Burg shares how a subtle shift in focus is not only a more uplifting and fulfilling way of conducting business but the most financially profitable way, as well. For 30 years he's helped companies, sales leaders, and their teams to more effectively communicate their value, sell at higher prices with less resistance, and grow their businesses based on Endless Referrals.

As founding member of group fitness juggernaut Les Mills International and previous Director of Group Fitness Programming for luxury-lifestyle brand Equinox, I have inhaled senior roles in group fitness programming, product development, global training, and people & culture. A prolific writer and sought after speaker and mentor, Emma is fluent in what happens NEXT in fitness and personal betterment. Armed with 25 years of stories you'd rather forget, Emma is a regular contributor to the International business forums, trend panels and women's events. Emma lives in Southern California with her husband Lee and their three life-long projects; Jas, Zoe, and Max. Emma delights in lighting fires under people and projects to catapult them towards their potential as you will experience in person.

In episode 325 of the Fitness Business Podcast, we're going to be learning the Value Proposition for Making Fitness Accessible – we'll be speaking with the Trainerize team to learn about how the app came to be, what the company looks like today, and where they're going in the future! You'll learn how the fitness & wellness solutions they build for their community create a 360-degree fitness and lifestyle approach. With over 20,000 fitness businesses powered by Trainerize, a community of over 200,000 coaches and over 800,000 active users, over 100,000 connected fitness apps and 25,000 workouts completed daily – this is an app you want to know more about – so be sure to stick around and have a listen!

Alan Leach currently serves as CEO, sales trainer, and director of sales and marketing for the West Wood Club, based in Dublin, Ireland. He uses his 32 years of health club and sales management experience to serve more than 36,000 health club members at seven West Wood Club locations in Ireland and Bosnia. Leach has been an avid supporter of the industry for years. At the start of his career, he grew an individual club's membership from 700 to 3,100—establishing the club as one of the most profitable facilities in Europe. He continues to promote physical activity and the global industry as a regular speaker at countless events for fitness professionals.

Rachel Brenke, a multi-faceted entrepreneur who has created businesses from the ground-up that support the life she wants to lead. As a cancer survivor, mom of five, and TEAM USA athlete, her motto is "I get to do this" and get-to-do-this she does. Through her best-selling masterminds, top business podcast and multiple brands, Rachel blazes the way for female entrepreneurs to have a real business and a real life. She walks what she talks and "tells-all" the formulas and methods she has used to build multiple successful real businesses to have a happy, real life.

Viveka von Rosen is Cofounder of Vengreso, the largest provider of full spectrum Modern Digital Sales transformation solutions. Known as the @LinkedInExpert, she's author of the best-selling "LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day" AND "LinkedIn: 101 Ways to Rock Your Personal Brand!". She's been named in Forbes (4 years running) as a top social media expert and is a regular contributor and has been featured in Forbes, BuzzFeed, Inc, CNN, Entrepreneur, Selling Power and the Social Media Examiner.

Eric is a 2nd generation CPA firm owner and the founder of The Fitness CPA. From 2014 to 2017 Eric was the CFO and a board member of a national fitness franchise which he helped to grow to 17 locations across five states. Prior to that Eric worked at a local CPA firm in Boulder, Colorado and a regional CPA firm in the Baltimore, Maryland area. When taking a break from accounting you'll find Eric volunteering with the Colorado Mountain Club, working out with his personal trainer, swimming laps with his swim coach, and practicing yoga.

Team Rockstar Fit was founded in 2008 by Trina Gray, a passionate leader in fitness, recognized worldwide. She's the IDEA Leader of the Year, CEO Award winner and multi-millionaire entrepreneur. Team Rockstar Fit is a top mastermind group for women in fitness in the US, CA, UK and France. We help women partner with Team Beachbody to create a fitness income online. It's fun and rewarding. Trina helps women smash income goals, work for themselves, set their own hours and collaborate with others. There is no need to navigate the industry alone. Partner with a best-selling brand, get coaching from a top mentor and set your career on fire. She works with personal trainers, fitness instructors, studio owners, as well as fitness enthusiasts who want to launch into the fast-growing industry. Women who seek her help do so because they need direction and are lacking the right tools and mentorship to grow. Women work with Trina because they trust her and like her reputation as a woman with integrity and strategy.

A former student-athlete and a 2x Miami University graduate, Bre Robinson currently serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Leadership & Diversity at her alma mater. In her role, Bre serves on the executive leadership team and oversees diversity, equity, and inclusion and leadership initiatives. She's currently a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education Administration program at Bowling Green State University and will earn her PhD in May. Champions For Life, a program at Miami University facilitated by Bre Robinson, is a living testament to the enduring power of the Miami University student-athlete experience. Miami Athletics' alumni have gone on from the classroom and the competitive arena to apply their life lessons in leadership, teamwork, integrity and tenacity to their lives and careers. They began as Champions on game day and have gone on to becomeChampions for Life.

To be the best, you must train with the best products. When you purchase an Eleiko barbell, you're purchasing a premium, best-in-class product that will not bend. You're partnering with a family-owned company that is known for 60 years of strength and innovation. They're a global company that knows strength is a universal language. With the rise of commercial gyms adapting weightlifting programming, Eleiko is motivated and supportive of weightlifting being accessible to so many people – because being strong is essential to living life to the fullest. Join us for this month's episode of The Value Proposition to learn how they make best-in-class products, where their marketing inspiration comes from to drop their dumbbells out windows for testing, and the education component that drives it all forward!

Barry's true passion is getting to know people on a deep level, developing trust, and ingratiating that into long term personal and business relationships. As Vice President with The Elliot Group, Barry co-leads the Strategic BD/Client partner relationships efforts. Barry is sought out for his business acumen with founders, investors, and, leadership teams across the consumer space. Committed to the lifestyle/health/wellness space, Barry spends ample time in this exciting arena. The Elliot Group is an exclusive executive human search company. Our unparalleled network, built over thirty-five years, promises to deliver the human catalysts that positively impact futures. For 38 years, we've been trusted by consumer businesses of all sizes to identify and retain their next generation human capital.

Al Amador is a Principal Consultant for The Table Group and the founder and president of Amador Consulting. Al brings extensive experience from the information technology field as a director of numerous enterprise implementations as well as over two decades of keynote speaking, communication training, teaching, coaching and facilitating. Al's specialty is bringing executive leadership teams together to work on the key areas of; trust, meaningful conflict, commitment and clarity. His company, Amador Consulting, has served domestic and international leaders for over 10 years. Al has a reputation for connecting with both technical and business leadership teams. If you go by the definition in Webster's Dictionary, Trust is defined as a belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, or effective. Trust is everywhere, it is within our families, or marriages, our teams, our friendships, and our workplace. When trust doesn't exist a disconnect will take place and mostly create failure. In my interview with Al, together, we will talk about not only how important trust is, but how to build trust amongst your co-workers–your team.

Lori Patterson, US Army Veteran, 36 year veteran of the fitness industry and mom of three is the CEO of VicteliB and the creator of the nation wide, group personal training program, Boot Camp Challenge®. After finishing my military tour and wrapping up college, I continued on with my career in the fitness industry. I started training clients one-on-one and in groups. And, while I loved my job , I felt something was missing. I thought how can I combine the fun, team atmosphere of group training with the added benefits of personal training AND make it affordable for everyone? And then, it hit me. I would combine the team camaraderie, group motivation and cohesiveness I learned in the Army, with the assessments, nutrition, and sciences from personal training to create a program. And, I did. And, I called it Boot Camp Challenge® (BCC). Boom!. Fast forward sixteen years. The program, BCC, is now being launched in 25 states. We have thousands of campers experiencing our program live and over a million app users from 60 countries working out with us. So, that is my story. And, I feel super blessed to have served my country AND the fitness industry.

Lindsey Leemis is CRM & Technology Consultant for the Fitness Industry. Her focus is around membership sales, marketing & member experience. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM system allows you to manage all your club members & prospects interactions from digital sources, club touchpoints and communication with your team in a single location. CRMs help you streamline processes, connect with context and improve tracking & reporting.

Andrea Isabelle Lucas is the owner and CEO of Barre and Soul Boutique Studios in the New England Area, she's authored a book entitled Own It All and somehow she still finds time to be a voice for equality, diversity and positive self expression….talk about Girl Power!! Boutique owners, I have to tell you….this episode is for you! Andrea offers up her secrets to success, not only surviving while her boutiques were shut down, but flourishing on-line during shutdown! She also shares her plan for continued success moving forward. She credits her Covid business success to her teams' quick response "the change in plan" and calling on the teams' individuals talent and creativity to help her smash it out of the park when it came to on line revenue!

Grant Gamble is a best-selling Mindful Leadership Author of "The Affinity Principle", Business Strategist and Speaker who has worked with hundreds of companies across the globe, ranging from Amazon to startups. He has worked in sectors as diverse as hospitality through to wellness and healthcare.

With its 30-year history, HydroMassage may be more impactful today than ever before! The latest HydroMassage model, the Lounge – offers a VIP, luxury experience to your facility. Learn how to implement the lounge into your facility – where to place it, how to sell it, how to educate your members about it! By listening to The Value Proposition for Promoting Recovery in Your Health Clubs you will hear the science behind HydroMassage – ever wonder what it does and why it works? The team explains their customer service process and how the upkeep and maintenance on a HydroMassage product is incredibly low. You'll hear from club owners and operators about how they use the lounges in their facilities, where they place them for optimum usage and how they designed relaxing spaces! Most importantly, you'll learn about the two R's: Recovery & Revenue. You'll learn the recovery benefits to HydroMassage – do you use this before or after a workout? Our recovery expert takes us through the science of why it helps with recovery and how it makes members happy. She'll walk us through creative ways that club owners market their HydroMassages and give you creative ideas you can easily implement. Do you run 24 hour clubs? We'll walk through access control recommendations for HydroMassage too. The guests will explain how they bundle HydroMassage into their membership options and share how much extra revenue can truly be added to your monthly draft. They'll tell you what pushed them over the edge and 'made them buy' and why you need to call HydroMassage today!