Future of Fitness

Jim Adams is the host of the Masters in Fitness Business Podcast. A native of St. Louis, Jim is a fitness expert, entrepreneur, and popular speaker who knows what it takes to overcome adversity and follow your passion. Years ago shortly after high school, a near-death experience changed the trajectory of Jim's life forever. He became weak and frail. Doctors told him he should accept this new reality. But Jim refused. Instead, he fought back with strength and determination. And, he started doing something he'd never done before: he began to work out. He continued working out in college while pursuing his degree in social work. Each semester, as he supplemented his core classes with electives, his destiny seemed to shift into focus as he found he was naturally gravitating toward classes like kinesiology, nutrition, and body building. After college, he began his career in social work. But when a friend opened a training studio and asked if he wanted to work with him, Jim couldn't resist. As much as he loved the field of social work, he realized his true passion was fitness and training. LINKS: https://trainerjim.net/ https://www.facebook.com/mifbpodcast @mifb_podcast https://catalyststl.com/

Vincent Miceli founded Verb in 2018 and has been helping people with accountability, goal setting, improving their lives for close to 6 years. Vincent has been involved in the health and wellness industry, founding and operating The Body Blueprint, for nearly a decade. He is inspired by getting people feeling better and accomplishing whatever goals they have. Vincent attributes his nearly 100LB weight loss to clear goals he accomplishes in short sprints. His mission is to help people understand their habits and daily behaviors by identifying what they do repeatedly. By using the successes of the thousands of clients he has worked with, he can help people recognize what is and isn't working very early on in their journey.

Chris Duffin is an inventor, thought leader, and serial entrepreneur in Health and Fitness. He has Co-Founded multiple prominent brands the largest of which, Kabuki Strength where he serves as Chief Visionary Officer, is a globally recognized brand. Chris has invented multiple 'game-changing' products improving human biomechanics under load, as well as systemized approaches to assessing and correcting human movement dysfunctions. These tools and methods are used by nearly every top professional and collegiate team penetrating over 90% of those markets alone. His other companies including Bearfoot Shoes focusing on foot mechanics, Build Fast Formula in nutraceuticals, Kabuki Strength Lab a gym and performance center, as well as his Best-Selling motivational book detailing his incredible upbringing. Chris is arguably one of the strongest pound-for-pound humans in the world having been the ONLY person to Squat and Deadlift over 1000lbs for reps holding the Guinness World Record on the Sumo Deadlift. Having been a world record holding powerlifter and the number one ranked lifter in the world for 8 years straight Chris went on to perform numerous unduplicated feats of strength to raise money for charities in exhibition events. In addition to being one of the most respected strength educators in the industry he has an extensive track record of success in business. With an MBA and Engineering in his background he spent nearly two decades running or turning around manufacturing companies in Aerospace, Automotive, Hi-Tech, and Heavy Equipment fields. Now retired from competing, he is known for his industry-changing innovations and education in the strength and clinical worlds. He's a leading speaker on topics related to strength, human movement, rehab, mindset, goal setting, leadership, and motivation. Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

Elias Arjan began his career studying business and fitness. After a few years as a personal trainer, he transitioned into acting and performing where he toured the world for six years with a solo show. Elias has also appeared on TV as an actor, performer and interviewee. After honing his skills with his touring comedic show, Elias was invited to use his skills to do business presentations. A new speaking career was launched and Elias founded Business Brain a few years later in 2012. To date, Elias has a personal sales history of $50 million in selling from the stage. Elias currently divides his time between speaking, business training and supporting nonprofits to raise funds at charity auctions. Elias remains an avid fitness/sports enthusiast and is regularly is invited to speak on the future of wellness and biohacking. www.futureoffitness.co

Max Shank is the founder of Primal Athleticism, 5 Minute Flow, Simple S3 Shoulder Solution, Ultimate Athleticism, and the Max Shank Show host, he is a well-known figure in a variety of physical practice communities worldwide. He is on a mission to help people live better with less effort. www.futureoffitness.co

Jeff and Mikki Martin are a husband and wife duo with more than a decade of experience training kids to be great movers who are set up to be athletes for life. They are the founders of the Brand X Method, the industry's premier youth coaching education course. Links: https://thebrandxmethod.com/ https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Jeff Byers is the CEO of AMP Human, it is dedicated to pioneering the creation of a completely new and trusted category of human performance tools. After retiring from pro football in 2014, he lost about 80 pounds quickly, discovered endurance sports, bought his first road bike in January of 2017, and worked with his partner to create AMP. Links and Resources: https://amphuman.com/blogs/news/meet-the-man-behind-topical-edge https://amphuman.com/ https://www.instagram.com/amphuman/ https://twitter.com/AmpHuman https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWQPVggGnUkoYJtE45Idnrg

Badal Shah is a multiple exit entrepreneur that serves as the Chief Executive Officer for The Anthos Group, a health and wellness company that he co-founded. Mr. Shah was instrumental in the launch of global brands TIDL Sport and CytoCx, owned by The Anthos Group. He is passionate about supporting consumers globally with better wellness solutions attacking pain. Links: www.TIDLsport.com www.futureoffitness.co

Emma Barry advises the innovative edge of fitness and places executive talent in purpose-led fit tech, well tech, and health tech scaleups. Emma is an international bestselling author of Building a Badass Boutique and keenly courted speaker and facilitator for business forums, trend panels, and podcasts. Emma is a founding member of Les Mills International and former Director for Equinox. Her impatience with the status quo, infectious energy, and innovative flair unlocks and activates the greatness in others. Emma delights in digging for game-changing insights and setting souls on fire. Links: https://www.goodsoulhunting.com https://www.buildingabadassboutique.com www.futureoffitness.co

Kelsey Ramsden is the Co-founder and CEO of Mindcure. She has over 15 years of experience founding, scaling, and operating innovative companies across Canada and the Caribbean. She has built multiple 8-figure businesses from the ground up and has twice been named Canada's Top Female Entrepreneur. Kelsey also serves on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario, where she is also a faculty member teaching Design Thinking. Kelsey holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. She is an accomplished keynote speaker and published author. Links: https://www.mindcure.com/ Connect with Kelsey www.futureoffitness.co

Chris Ashenden is a native of New Zealand, he is a serial entrepreneur, a health and fitness expert, investor and world traveler. Chris's own wellness journey strikes right at the heart of Athletic Greens' belief that you can't achieve your best self without nurturing your body with the essentials. Links: www.futureofitness.co Connect with Chris

Jim Huether is the Chief Executive Officer at Hyperice. He earned his MBA in Finance andMarketing at Loyola Marymount University, joining Hyperice in January 2014 after serving asExecutive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Xenith, LLC, a sports health and technology company at the forefront of head protection​. Prior to Xenith, LLC Jim ​led as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development andStrategy for the Sports Concussion Institute and held senior Marketing and Finance roles atAnschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Smith Barney, Citigroup. Under his leadership, Hyperice has grown explosively, placing on the Inc. 500 for five years in a row while defining the international standard for Sport Recovery and Movement EnhancementTechnology. In 2020/2021, Hyperice has inked partnerships with pro-sports leagues to optimize player performance including the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA TOUR and UFC, pro sports teams including English Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur, the New Zealand All Blacks, theKansas City Chiefs, the Seattle Seahawks, Kaulig Racing and most recently the Los AngelesLakers, and introduced its next-generation HyperSmart Technology set to revolutionize recovery and movement. A continuous learner with a real passion for business, Jim prides himself on the team-first culture he has built at Hyperice and looks forward to the Hyper-Connected RecoveryEcosystem that will usher Hyperice into its next and most exciting era. Links: www.futureoffitness.co https://hyperice.com/ Connect with Jim

Dr. Gil Blander is internationally recognized for his research in the basic biology of aging and translating research discoveries into new ways of detecting and preventing age-related conditions. He leads a team of biology, nutrition & exercise physiology experts, and computer scientists at InsideTracker, and has been featured in CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, Financial Times, The Boston Globe to name a few. Dr. Gil Blander received a Ph.D. in biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his Post Doctoral fellowship at MIT before finding InsideTracker. The InsideTracker platform analyzes key biochemical and physiological markers and applies algorithms and large scientific databases to determine optimal zones for each marker. The system then provides nutrition, exercise, supplements, and lifestyle interventions that empower people to optimize their markers, increase vitality, improve overall health, and athletic performance and extend healthspan. Links: www.futureoffitness.co https://www.insidetracker.com/

Adam Sedlack is an experienced with a demonstrated history of excelling in the health wellness and fitness industry. Highly skilled in Negotiation, Lease Process, Budgeting, Coaching, Marketing, Digital and overall Operations. Had the honor to be selected by NeV co-founders of UFC GYM. UFC Gym now is under development in 37 countries around the globe and is known as the worldwide leader in MMA conditioning. Through the growth of UFC Gym, expertise around domestic/international operations and development has been achieved. Links: https://www.ufcgym.com/ www.futureoffitness.co

Stuart Brauer is a 15-year student of strength and conditioning, and he was fortunate to find CrossFit in 2006. Since then he's dedicated his life to building a fitness business simply based on the pursuit of excellence. From humble beginnings making three figures and running park workouts to owning a million-dollar gym, he's now ventured into business consulting for gym owners looking to chase their dream. He also helps owners solve their business problems through direct coaching and create entertaining + educational content for micro gym owners in the fitness industry via the handle WTF Gym Talk. Links: www.futureoffitness.co https://www.wtfgymtalk.com/

Dr. Mike T. Nelson spent 18 years of his university life learning how the human body works, specifically focusing on how to properly condition it to burn fat and become stronger, more flexible, and healthier. He has a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology, a BA in Natural Science, and an MS in Biomechanics. He's also an adjunct professor and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine. He's been called in to share his techniques with top government agencies, athletes at the top of their game. The techniques he's developed and the results he gets for his clients have been featured in international magazines, in scientific publications, and on websites across the globe. Links: https://miketnelson.com/ www.futureoffitness.co

Justin Marston is a serial entrepreneur, having built two enterprise software companies and a marketplace. Now he's focused on e-fitness with Tribe - a platform empowering local and grassroots fitness creators to do interactive workouts with their members and fans. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmarston/ https://www.tribe.fitness/ Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

Rick Mayo is an accomplished fitness business entrepreneur and founder and CEO of the Alloy Personal Training Franchise system. Rick's business journey began with his original personal training studio which opened in 1992 and is still going strong, having delivered exceptional fitness experiences to tens of thousands of clients in the Roswell, Georgia area. In 2010, as a result of his success, Rick started Alloy, a personal training business platform. As a result of Alloy's combination of customized client programs, business systems, and technology tools, some of the leading health club and gym brands adopted the Alloy model and it rapidly grew to serve over 1,000 licensed fitness facilities worldwide. With years of experience deploying the Alloy systems under their belt Mayo and his team took the next logical step by launching the Alloy Personal Training franchise in 2019 to deliver a turnkey franchise opportunity encompassing the entire personal training business model from build-out design, through equipment, business systems, technology platforms. marketing, and more. By providing with the right tools and knowledge, Rick Mayo and the Alloy Team have helped countless people unleash their potential, paving the way towards both personal and professional success. www.futureofftitness.com

In this episode, we're still with Natalia Karbasova, founder of FitTech Summit and with Sami Asikainen A serial entrepreneur. Deep experience managing cross-functional teams, Go-to-Market, building complex products, scaling and innovation. He'd built, exited and helped grow multiple companies in tech and health ranging from startups to post series A. Tune in as we discussed Carbon Trainer, fitness technology and the future of the gym. www.futureoffitness.co https://www.carbontrainer.com/ https://www.fittechcompany.com/

This episode is the second part of three series for FitTech Summit, and again, I am with Natalia Karbasova, founder of FitTech Summit and we are both excited to dive into Joel's wealth of knowledge when it comes to the area of recovery and regeneration. Joel Jamieson is widely considered one of the world's foremost authorities on strength and conditioning for combat sports, having trained many of the sports best athletes since 2004. He is the author of the bestselling book Ultimate MMA Conditioning and is a contributing writer to several top magazines and a frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars all over the world. https://www.fittechcompany.com/

This episode is the first of three part series for the Future of Fitness, just about the FitTech Summit and all the fascinating interesting things that are happening right now, as far as fitness technology and to give a little background on what the FitTech Summit is. In this episode, we have Natalia Karbasova, founder of FitTech Summit and Andreas Gall. Andreas Gall is a media expert with 30 years of experience. He is a trained radio, television and sound engineer and held various leading positions at radio stations. He joined Red Bull Media House in 2007. Worked there as Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Technology Officer. What all his stations have in common: He always experimented with his fascination for audio. So it's no coincidence that his latest projects also revolve around this topic. This year he founded his own company: Human-Centric-Innovators to enhance human uniqueness – with the help of symbiotic technology tools and solutions. Links: https://www.fittechcompany.com/ Connect with Natalia Connect with Andy

Brandon brings an edgy fitness approach to the valuable experience he's earned as a professional athlete, personal trainer, gym owner and now Co-Founder and Chief Concept Officer of MADabolic. Convinced that strength & conditioning was essential to his hockey career, he immersed himself in the fundamental elements of Power Lifting, Interval Weight Training (IWT) and Plyometrics. He has also practiced the unusual movement patterns of Muay Thai, Boxing, Aikido and Foundation Training. With MADabolic, Brandon has merged his formal and informal fitness education to co-create a uniquely distinct and effective product. While his various certifications and hands-on experience are markers of his expert qualifications, his enthusiastic approach to living and spreading the MADlifestyle speaks just as loudly about his passion for fitness.

Growson Edwards is the Founder & CEO at CIPIO.ai. He is a technical expert and a true professional. He has a unique sense of business objectives and the latest technology and knows how to blend both. Growson is a highly trusted resource and advisor when it comes to leveraging technology to achieve strategic business objectives. Connect with him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/growsonedwards/ https://cipio.ai/ Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

Eamon Lloyd is the Senior Director - Head of Partnerships UK, Ireland & Netherlands at Gympass. They are on a mission to make Wellbeing Universal, and with it forge long-term operator partnerships, which see true mutual benefits. They are the UK leaders in corporate fitness sales, uniting employees from their corporate partners with a curated network of fitness facilities. He works side by side with our operator partners to achieve outstanding results. Every partnership is bespoke and all marketing and attention is focused on the inactive employee so rather than taking from the existing pool we attract new members to facilities. Like his colleagues at Gympass, he is extremely passionate about getting more inactive people to exercise and believe we have the best solution on the market to positively impact the membership penetration rate. Links: https://site.gympass.com/us/corporate Connect with Eamon Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Jonathan Puskas is a former World Record holder (cycling) and accomplished Operations and Human Resources executive with two decades of experience in Human Performance supporting organizations ranging from non-profit start-ups to Fortune 100 companies including Intel, Microsoft, Nike, adidas, Google, and the U.S. Navy. Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.com

David Freeman is a health and fitness professional that has been in the fitness industry for 15 years. He is the National Digital Performer Brand Manager| LT Inclusion Council Director with Life Time The Healthy Way of Life Company. He has been featured on the cover of Experience Life Magazine as an innovator within the health and fitness industry, and was featured in Men's Health and Men's Journal, as the subject matter expert in helping change lives around the world and grow Life Time's performance brand, Alpha. David attended the University of Richmond where he played football, and went on to play professionally overseas where he first found his calling and purpose as a fitness professional Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

This week we have Andy Peat, he has had an extraordinary journey in fitness. He's been a franchisee, sales manager and CEO at Lift Brands, which manages the Snap Fitness franchise chain. While he admits franchising has its challenges, he's an advocate for a business model that provides easy access to business opportunities. connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

Juliet Starrett is an entrepreneur, attorney, author, and podcaster. She is co-founder and CEO of TheReadyState.com, which has revolutionized how athletes think about human movement and athletic performance as well as former CEO of San Francisco CrossFit, one of the first 50 CrossFit affiliates. She is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Deskbound and co-host of The Ready State Podcast. Before turning her attention to The Ready State and San Francisco CrossFit full-time, Juliet had a successful career as an attorney, practicing complex commercial litigation at Reed Smith for nearly eight years. In recent months, Juliet and Kelly have taken a stand for kids' health with StandUpKids.org, which seeks to get stand-up desks into schools across the country and promote healthy movement, exercise and lifestyle in today's youth with goals of combating the obesity epidemic, and instilling healthy lifestyle and diet practices. She also talks about their mission to help - to Relieve Pain, Prevent Injury, Improve Physical Performance

Street Parking was founded by Julian and Miranda Alcaraz in 2016. Miranda – after 15 years in the fitness industry, 8 years on CrossFit HQ seminar staff, and 8 years competing in CrossFit. Julian – after 10 years in the fitness industry, and 5 years competing in CrossFit. Both having trained and competed at the highest level – the CrossFit Games – they found themselves in new territory – busy. Julian was running a business and Miranda had settled into a full time job. At the time the couple was dating and lived over an hour away from each other. They noticed something interesting. The workouts they would post on their social media from HOME – with simple equipment – was what people who followed them responded to most. An idea was formed. Post the simple workouts we are doing at home – so people can follow along. Charge a fee that is totally doable for most people. Create a community where we can push and motivate each other. The first ever workouts were posted in November 2016 (just a few days before Miranda found out she was pregnant with their baby boy). Memberships went up for sale the week before New Years. Within the first month, Street Parking had 700 Members. Miranda has had huge success in the fitness industry and now in business. Her current business, Street Parking, has over 10,000 members and she started in less than two years ago! Street Parking is a workout program designed for people who have limited time and/or equipment. Let's listen to how she accomplished this in such a short time. Listen, subscribe and share!

Conor O'Loughlin is the CEO of Glofox. Having played professional rugby for an 8 year period with Connacht, subsequently built out a web and app development business which provided tech services on a consultancy basis. Through this business Conor and his co-founders (Anthony Kelly and Finn Hegarty) recognised how the fitness industry has evolved and specifically how the challenges around managing these businesses were facing could be solved using technology. Let's listen to his journey, the idea of Glofox, how they'd deal with COVID and their mission to become the number one operating system for the fitness industry. check out: glofox.com connect with us: futureoffitness.co

Marc Zionts is an executive, athlete, and environmentalist and has been successfully leading companies since 1987. Zionts is the Executive Chairman of Precision Nutrition, a BV Investment Partners portfolio company. We talk about building resilience in coaching like partnerships with clients to optimize health, well-being through developing and sustaining positive mindsets, the tools that need to use to help health coaches automate their business and much MORE! Relevant Links: https://www.instagram.com/precisionnutrition/ https://www.facebook.com/insidePN https://twitter.com/insidePN https://www.linkedin.com/company/precision-nutrition/ Connect with us: www.futureoffitness.co

Kelly Starrett is a CrossFit trainer, physical therapist, author, and speaker. His 2013 fitness book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, was featured on The New York Times bestselling sportsbooks list. He is a co-founder, with his wife Juliet Starrett, of the fitness website MobilityWOD. He created The Ready State Virtual Mobility Coach. It's like having a virtual Kelly Starrett in your pocket. And it's already helped tens of thousands of people resolve pain, prevent injury, and improve their physical performance. In this episode, we'll get Kelly's thought processes behind "Stepping Into The Gap" Relevant Links: https://thereadystate.com/ The Ready State Youtube Channel Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Reed Davis, Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP) and Certified Nutritional Therapist (CNT), is an expert in functional lab testing and holistic lifestyle medicine. Over 20 years ago, Reed Davis recognized people were caught in a "cycle of trial and error" and he committed to being the last person they needed to see. While working with top leaders in alternative medicine, he ran thousands of labs on thousands of people and learned to identify "healing opportunities." Using all-natural, drug-free protocols, Reed made observations about who got better and who didn't, codifying which "general principles of health building" would outperform "specific treatments" being provided by standard and even alternative medicine. And through this work, he then developed the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Certification Course and D.R.E.S.S. for Health Success Protocol® to educate and empower as many people as possible about how to get well and stay well naturally, so they, in turn, may empower others to do the same. Resources and Links: https://www.facebook.com/FunctionalDiagnosticNutrition/ https://twitter.com/FDNtraining https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7xDnEKCe9gKeWZ2vbE3C8w https://www.instagram.com/fdntraining/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/san-diego-natural-health-&-fitness-ctr/ Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Robb Wolf is a former research biochemist, a 2X New York Times/WSJ Best Selling author of The Paleo Solution and Wired To Eat. Robb has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world via his top ranked iTunes podcast, (The Healthy Rebellion Radio, The Paleo Solution Podcast) books, and seminars. Robb has functioned as a review editor for the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism (Biomed Central) and as a consultant for the Naval Special Warfare Resiliency program. He serves on the board of Directors/Advisors for: Specialty Health Inc, The Chickasaw Nation's "Unconquered Life" initiative and a number of innovative start ups with a focus on health and sustainability. Robb holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and is a former California State Powerlifting Champion (565 lb. Squat, 345 lb. Bench, 565 lb. Deadlift) and a 6-0 amateur kickboxer. Wolf has provided seminars in nutrition and strength & conditioning to a number of entities including NASA, Naval Special Warfare, the Canadian Light Infantry and the United States Marine Corps. Resources and Links: https://robbwolf.com/ The Healthy Rebellion Radio Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Dan Uyemura and I talked about our own ways on how we use social media, how to be more creative with online fitness/health marketing strategies than ever and get useful social media strategies for 2021! Dan is a lifelong web application developer turned gym owner that saw a glaring hole in the gym management software space and decided to fill it. He believes customer experience is the primary thing most small business owners don't pay enough attention to, and has a personal mission to help gym owners build better businesses and help more people in their communities. Resources and Links: https://www.facebook.com/pushpress https://www.facebook.com/danielsan (personal) https://instagram.com/pushpress https://instagram.com/danielsan (personal) https://www.linkedin.com/company/pushpress https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuyemura/ (personal) Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Tune in as Ian Mullane explains his software solutions for Brick and Mortar. He is the Founder and CEO of Keepme, launched in 2019 - a business dedicated to increasing the revenue of health and fitness operators utilizing Artificial Intelligence, an AI-powered sales and marketing CRM platform for the fitness industry. Resources and Links: https://twitter.com/keepme_ai www.keepme.ai https://www.linkedin.com/company/keepme-ai/ Connect with Ian Connect with us: https://www.futureoffitness.co/

Coach McQuilkin is the Director of Training and Education for Power Athlete, a worldwide strength and conditioning organization focused on empowering performance. Chris has led over 100 clinics across 16 countries spanning 6 continents introducing the Power Athlete Methodology to athletes, sports medicine professionals, performance and sport coaches. Resources and Links: https://www.facebook.com/chris.mcquilkin https://twitter.com/TexMcQuilkin Instagram: @mcquilkin Connect with Chris Connect with Future of Fitness: www.futureoffitness.co

Natalia Karbasova is founder of FitTech Summit and CEO of FitTech Company and Founder of FitTech Summit. Previously, Natalia was with Hubert Burda Media, one of Europe's largest media companies, for 9 years. She worked as personal assistant to the company owner and one of Germany's top billionaires, Dr. Hubert Burda, looking into global digital trends. Later on, as Burda's Creative Evangelist, she successfully launched several innovation initiatives like hackathons, rapid prototyping labs, pitch competitions and startup conferences. She founded the FitTech Summit while still at Burda and spun it off 2020 to run it as an independent company. She has been into track-and-field athletics for 8 years and is a certified fitness coach. Resources and Links: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fittechsummit www.fittechsummit.com Connect with Natalia

Mike Fantigrassi is the Senior Director of Product Development at the National Academy of Sports Medicine. (NASM) Mike is a results-driven leader with diverse expertise and an extensive network of contacts within the fitness industry. He has a proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. He has an extensive background in education and training program development/presentation. Mike is passionate about fitness, education, and helping others develop new skills that result in growth and success. He is fascinated by emerging health and wellness technology and fitness startups that are driving positive change. What is Mike's history? (0:47) Mike went to college at Florida State University. Like many people at that age, Mike was unsure what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He was particularly drawn to fitness and, more specifically, nutrition. Mike fumbled a bit with his choice of career. He wanted to go to medical school and then physical therapy school before settling for chiropractic school. Still, to fulfill the prerequisites for that, he had to get his undergraduate degree in food and nutrition. That was the earliest version of the personal training undergraduate degree that someone would get to prepare to do personal training with a strong emphasis on nutrition. Mike had not wanted to go in the direction of dietetics and Clinical nutrition, but he did get to do was be a fitness trainer on Florida State University's campus for a year and a half. At the time, they had just opened up a large-scale recreational weight training facility that was state of the art. One of the best things that Mike went through was two weeks of training with the gym manager and everyone else who was involved. It was Mike's first exposure to learning how to be a good trainer. You can read about that stuff in textbooks but having the experience of being mentored and knowing you are receiving quality information is irreplaceable. Once Mike graduated, he did a bit of coursework that he had needed to complete. After that, he moved to South Florida, where he had grown up and started working as a personal trainer for Gold's Gym. He did that for a bit before transitioning into making sales for a gym that was going to open but never ended up opening, and from there, his journey just continued. What steps have fitness professionals taken to educate themselves amidst everything that has happened this year? (7:11) The beauty of COVID and Mike believes that anybody in the fitness industry selling education content saw a bump in their sales because of the third recession mike has had the experience. He started working for NASM in 2010 on the heels of the 2008 recession, which laster until 2010. During these times, you see people jumping careers; people went from personal training to real estate and vice versa. However, during times of uncertainty, people tend to invest in themselves. Mike read an article that MBA programs are filling up; it is becoming difficult to get into different education types. Mike went through an MBA to help him with the business side of things they do at NASM. 2020 has been a record year for NASM. It has been the best year they have ever had, and Mike believes a lot of it came from COVID and then executed many things they had wanted to do for a long time. In particular, they wanted to utilize instructor teams that they have built up and maintained for a long time and push out a lot of content for their audience. This year alone, they have done 125 different types of webinars and broadcast. They have multiple things they do on their Facebook page that gets plenty of engagement, which Mike believes audience members are hungry for. What are the most significant differences Mike thinks fitness professionals need to understand doing virtual vs. in person? The difference is something that Mike and NASM are trying to address through their product. One of the things they were going to do before COVID was to get their instructor team together once a year. This year in April, they were going to do media training with them. Everything from audio to on camera and how to read off of a teleprompter, unscripted stuff; because they had noticed the trend approaching. COVID accelerated that trend. They looked at two platforms on which you can do virtual training. Mike did a lot of the research himself, and there was someone else coaching him too. They found that when virtual training is done right, it is surprisingly effective. Mike was surprised at how much he enjoyed remote coaching. He has also seen people struggle to adopt online coaching because they treat it like a regular session, leaving the coach and trainees disjointed and detached from the session. Mike says online coaching is a skill set that you need to develop. You cannot do the same things you can do in person, and you have to understand that. You have to know how to make the experience enjoyable for everyone involved. NASM NASM is the world lead

Dan John has coached for more than 30 years. He's helped hundreds of athletes pack on double-digit pounds of rock-solid muscle. As an athlete, John broke the American record in the Weight Pentathlon. He is the author of several books, including Intervention. How has Dan's 2020 been? (0:57) Dan does believe in the COVID virus. He says he is one of the few people who trust science lately. His whole career has always been a dance between technology and theology. Just the other day, Dan was at a cafe, and a young 30 something-year-old white American couple were refusing to wear masks and giving the waitress trying to reinforce the state of Utah's law a tough time because of it. Dan believes the problem lies with ignorance. Which is to ignore, and many people are choosing to ignore common decency to take care of the elderly. Dan himself is 63 with a history of a severe lung disease called pleurisy. Dan finds it increasingly frustrating that he knows so many people taken by the virus, and yet it is still so hard to get people to wear their masks. Dan says it goes back to Dicken's A Christmas Carol where you know the girl has wanted and the boy has ignorance and Dicken tells us that we were both but mostly the boy, which is the most disappointing thing about 202 to Dan. Dan has had an online presence since 1998. His new project Brian Walton has a thing called Workout Generator. You do not need any plug-in equipment; you don't even need equipment. It will spring out workouts for you based on what you need and have available. Dan has been able to finish writing a book this year, and he is working on Powell's set sleeves and redoing EZ Strenght. They are deep in the project currently. He says it has been a good year, but he feels that they could do better. What is Dan's routine? (5:36) Monday through to Friday, at 9:30, he opens his garage, which is his gym, and people from all around the world will come and workout with Dan. When Dan was getting ready for the Olympic lifting meet three days a week, he would snatch overhead squat. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are whole-body workouts, so push, pull, hinge, squat, and some loaded cores. Tuesdays are 'buns and guns' where they do hip thrusts, many deadlifts and arm workouts, etc. Thursday is for doing Tim Anderson's original strength workout. That is more or less the big picture of Dan's Monday to Friday. He does not generally work out on the weekends because it is how life has worked out for him. Almost every day, Mike leads them through the training. They have suspension trainers, and they use their body weight to stretch and move things around. They do original strength almost every single day. They try to do good workouts. Many days Dan will strap on ankle weights of 5 pounds each and grab 3-pound dumbbells before going for a run of a few miles. The work of Leonard Shorts works Back in from the '80s. Dan believes heavy hands are the gentlest, which means if you put weights in your hands while you walk or run, you pump them subconsciously. His legs counter his hands during these exercises, and he pumps slightly higher than his shoulders. It gets his heart rate where it needs to be in his target zone, and if he does it correctly, they can have a fantastic conversation. How does Dan track his heart rate? (8:49) He bought the Phil Maffetone heart rate tracker. It is the one that connects to the IRS, and it gives you GPS tracking. He has been using it every three or so weeks and, during his testing of the product, has found that he is quite happy with it. Whenever Dan feels like testing his heart rate or feels strange, he likes monitoring his heart rate to ensure it stays in his targeted zone. Dan always has a target zone where he can still talk, but his breathing is stable and within his target zone. Dan also utilizes a chest strap. The strap is excellent, but you have to keep looking down at it. You have to open your phone while you are swinging weights, and it becomes a bit of a hassle. For most lesson centers, Dan believes in the talk test. Say, for instance, you are walking with your 89-year-old grandma, and you're walking with her, and suddenly she gets quiet. You might feel fine, but you have blown off her walking talk. Another point that Dan uses it for is, for example, when he does the 0.2-mile loop around his block 15 times, all he has to do is what is called the MAF test, which is the max aerobic function. Dan John University Here you will find Dan's most famous programs along with a customizable workout generator built to suit your needs. You pick the equipment you have, the schedule you want, and the appropriate difficulty. Along with the custom workout generator, you'll also have access to Mass Made Simple, the Humane Burpee, and many other popular programs. Resources Connect with Dan: Website Dan John University: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Don Moxley is the Director of Applied Science and Brand Development at Longevity Labs. His message statement is, "Understanding and directing individual changes that alleviate suffering and contribute to the betterment of well people." He was Captain of The Ohio State University Wrestling Team, where he earned a Big 10 Championship in 1985. What is Don's background? (1:27) Don is an exercise physiologist by training. He spent 25 out of the last 35 years as an adjunct or assistant professor at some academic preparation level or universities. Don has always had one foot in the fitness industry, whether in sales, marketing or education roles or even applied sciences. His last job in the human performance section was as a sports scientist for Ohio State, working closely with the wrestling program. He was there from 2015-2018. The coach at Ohio wanted Don there, but the athletic department did not care much for his presence. Don made the athletic department make decisions they did not want to, so he exited when he received an offer to enter the cannabis industry. While working in exercise science, particularly in the recovered space, they worked with heart rate variability, which is used to measure athlete readiness. In the process of doing this, a couple of the pro guys in the industry asked Don what he thinks about cannabis. Don did not know much about cannabis at the time, but if his NCAA athletes tested positive, they would get kicked off the program. Cannabis has been stigmatized so much that it is hard to find excellent and accurate information on the subject. However, with some push and resources from friends of his and an incredible offer, Don decided to enter the cannabis industry. What does Spermedine do, and what is it responsible for? (8:24) Spermidine triggers an interesting intracellular process called Autophagy. It is a word seen in the health and fitness community. It is associated with fasting and intermittent fasting that triggers autophagy. Looking at Spermidine's experimental models for extending longevity, the one universal model is calorie restriction. If you want increased longevity across the board, calorie restriction is the critical factor to do that. But it is a challenge in itself, and you cannot starve yourself to immortality. Autophagy ends up being the critical process so that when there is a calorie restriction in your environment, your cells recognize this and they begin a process called intracellular cleaning, That cell could have a protein that misformed and is no longer functional, but it is sitting there, gumming up the rest of the process. During autophagy and intracellular cleaning, that non-functioning cell gets used up and makes space for new functional cells. Spermidine acts as a trigger for autophagy and intracellular cleaning, therefore helping people live healthier, longer lives with the simplicity of a product they can readily purchase. How has COVID affected Spermidine? (21:18) Looking into Spermidine and the research that is out there already, Autophagy's process contributes to immunity drastically. Don has a paper that had been accepted and is in final edits right now for a world-renowned journal that shows spermidine supplementation to human sells stops COVID transmissions by 85-92% Immunity is a big deal, especially in these times. Dirty cells do not promote immunity, so when we start to look at the process of autophagy, its relationship to immunity becomes more significant. We live in extremely energy toxic environments where the process of autophagy is rarely allowed to happen within our bodies. With the pandemic, people realize they have realized they have to look after their metabolic health. The relation between poverty and COVID is high. People in populations that are heavily crowded within inner cities are not crystal clear and clean suburb classes. Even COVID has also affected them; they have not been hit as hard as the already lower class populations have been. Metabolic health could, however, be a problem found within both populations. People need to start paying attention to all the intracellular activators they have to help them fix and improve their immune systems' metabolisms in the process. Spermidine SpermidineLIFE® is the world's first naturally extracted and clinically tested dietary supplement to promote cellular renewal. The active ingredient, spermidine, is considered key to slowing down the cellular aging process. As the body ages, spermidine levels decrease, along with the self-renewing power of its cells. Resources Connect with Don: LinkedIn Spermidine: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Jim Crowell is the Founder at JWC Advisory Group, Founder and Investor at Boost Capital, and former CEO of Opex Fitness. He is a board member of The Brand Q Method. Jim is a strategist who loves to learn and help others improve. How did Jim get to where he is now? (1:35) Jim went to Penn State where he played tennis for them. Jim had been an athlete his whole life and loved the idea of training and fitness. He enjoyed training tennis because it had been his college sport and he enjoyed going to tournaments and competing. He loved the idea of getting better at things. Being a hedge fund trader had taught him how the world works and how money flows etc. Towards the end of that career, Jim felt that he wanted to be a part of the health and wellness industry. Leaving the hedge fund business, Jim opened a CrossFit gym with a friend of his in Pittsburgh. They did well and opened a second gym. After 4 years Jim sold the business to his business partner at the time. Gym moved to Arizona to work with Opex Fitness. He worked himself up to the role of CEO and helped them build a global coaching education, a gym licensing business, remote coaching, and one on one sessions. Jim left Opex in 2020 and has been advising and investing typically around the fitness and wellness area. Jim loves the idea of being a part of the evolution of fitness because he believes fitness is a very immature market in many verticals. What does Jim consider to be a mature market? (4:00) Setting COVID aside, consider going to a restaurant. You have a good idea of what type of restaurant model will work. Technology is being put into restaurants too. We are seeing this now especially because of COVID. People are eating from home a lot more but in terms of successful restaurants, considering COVID lifts and the vaccine is out, people will want to go back out to restaurants. Restaurants have a fair amount of competition and the restaurant owners either have competitive advantages or they have to run extremely efficiently to survive. There's an efficient market in fitness right now. You are seeing so many new things come out and you are seeing brand new markets that do not have competition yet. A lot of legacy brands like Equinox have immediately shifted to an online ecosystem. So where people thought there was no competition there is now becoming competition. We are seeing jockeying for who is going to take the lead in the big categories. Jim believes in the big categories there are always a few that win and by win he means they get higher margins because they have competitive advantages. It's the companies who create sustainable competitive advantages that have the most likelihood of success. What should an investor be looking at in 2021? (40:50) Once you put investors on your LinkedIn profile, you will get a whole bunch of stuff coming through to your profile. Some of them might be interesting but a lot of it won't be worth looking at. Jim's friends like to invest in early but not launch products that have shown traction and can scale. These are not highly competitive markets unless the product has shown that it has better traction in a significantly large market. Looking at the technology side, it is where most investor's minds are going. You have to differentiate and you have to be simpler and more valuable. If you are brick and mortar in terms of gyms, investors are only looking at you if the price is depressed and they think they can get a return based on that. A lot of investors are looking to buy into franchise concepts, corporately owned concepts out of bankruptcy right now. Technology obviously has scale. It is where people are going. There are opportunities for the investors to get into companies that just got obliterated by COVID but still have good assets on the book. You have to know what you want and what your return profile will look like. If investors aren't direct experts in the industry they need to have conversations about what real value and real barriers are. JWC Advisory Group At JWC Consulting they offer you a complete service in Compliance which includes but isn't limited to Food Safety, Health and Safety, Human Resources, and Internal auditing to enable you to perform better and safer. From creating systems of excellence conforming to international standards ensuring product and process safety to training your people to work in a safe way, assessing how you're doing, and helping you perform even better in the future, they are there to assist you at every step of your safety journey. Resources Connect with Jim: LinkedIn JWC Consulting: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer is CEO/Co-Founder at eGym GmbH. Prior, he studied Business and Technology Management at Columbia University in New York. With eGym Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer has taken fitness training into the digital age. Before his keynote at the ISPO Digitize Summit, he talks about the digital transformation of the sports industry and his company as a positive example. How did Philipp get to be the founder of eGym? (0:48) Philipp was born and raised in Germany before moving to the U.S for University. He attended Columbia Business School in New York City. When he started there, his friends told him he needed to wear his Columbia T-shirt every day and at least two times a week take the shirt to a gym. That was the first in Philipp's life that he ever went to a gym and he did not understand the product. He would press the quick-start button on cardio machines and it would just go, not according to his own goal or body. Whenever he left the gym, Philipp was never sure whether he was successful or not because there was a lack of data. During that time, and speaking to his friends and other people who go to the gym, a lot of them had the fact that they weren't very successful in common. They also said the experience does not feel great and most of them said that they've been in and out of gym memberships because of New Year resolutions. So many people understand that they have to go to the gym but the product just doesn't work for them. Philipp believes that with technology he can fix a lot of that and he believes technology will also help make the fitness industry much larger than it is. That is why he started eGym. Where does Philipp see the greatest potential for technology within the fitness space? (4:09) When Philipp thinks about the gym, he sees it more as access to tools. You sign up for your membership and you have access to all the machines and weights etc. About 80% of people go to the gym with a training goal in mind. Philipp compares access to tools vs access to solutions. For example, imagine a restaurant where you cannot order a salami pizza already made, but you have access to all of the tools or 'ingredients' to make your salami pizza. This is how gyms are providing service, if you have a training goal, you still only get access to the tools. In gyms, you need to find your way on your own. And so Philipp believes through technology, gyms can turn from access to tools, to access to solution providers. Philipp imagines a gym where every piece of equipment knows you, knows your training goal, and your current state of training. Every piece of equipment would set itself up for you automatically and guide you through an ideal, perfect workout for you. When you leave the gym you also see the data that is meaningful and makes sense to you. It makes you understand the progress you have made while training. 80% of people do not just want the solutions and what they need is a personalized experience. You hear a lot of, what could be the digitization of gyms? How could digital technology be used for gyms? And it turns into a lot of different rabbit holes. Philipp firmly believes that the digitization of the gym means personalizing user experiences. He believes this is where the biggest impact of the technology lies. What future does Philipp see in the industry? (29:26) There is no question that 202 has been a tough year for the fitness industry. If politicians decided that gyms are now on a zero revenue level they could shut down gyms again. Sometime in 2021, there should be a point where gyms are allowed to reestablish themselves and get their finances in order. Philipp is excited because the gym industry has never been dependent on the economic cycle. Whether it was 2001 or 2012, it has always been a great time for the gym industry. There might be a recession because of Corona but it's not problematic for gyms, the industry keeps growing by about 4-5% yearly. The growth in the industry was large because of health awareness and Philipp feels that 2020 has made people more health-conscious than ever before. A lot of people are wondering about their immune systems and this has woken people up to want to live healthier lifestyles. Stats from a McKinsey study shows that in China people were already living a lot more health awareness than before. A lot of people in the gym industry have been frustrated about politicians locking them down. Everyone understood gyms as being an aesthetics kind of thing but not people's views on it are shifting from aesthetics-focused to more health-based workouts. And so Philipp believes in the future that the growth of the gym industry will be exponential and easily surpass their steady 4-5% growth rate yearly. eGym EGYM is a global fitness technology leader providing fitness and health facilities with intelligent workout solutions. EGYM makes exercising smarter and more efficient with its comprehensive suite of connected gym equipment and digital products that integ

Jerred is a Strenght and Conditioning Coach and founder of End of Three Fitness. He is a former Physical Training Leader and Fitness Program Manager with the U.S. Airforce Special Operations Command., and he's been featured in WOD Talk Magazine, Sweat RX Magazine, Life Hacker, The Huffington Post, The Art of Manliness, and more. He currently coaches and programs for hundreds of athletes from military operators to stay-at-home moms. How did Jerred get to where he is now? (0:39) Jerred did not start with the common path most people take to become a coach. Jerred wanted to be a fighter pilot since he was very young, and fitness was intertwined with that dream. Starting early in highschool, Jerred always had a passion for fitness. However, he also wanted to fly, and fly something fast. He spoke to his dad around the time he was to be off to college. He told him about how he wanted to do both fitness and flying, trying to get some fatherly advice. His father told him he can coach or be a fitness trainer at any point in his life, but you can't be a fighter pilot any time in your life because of their age limitations. So Jerred decided to be a fighter pilot and pursue his goal of fitness later in life. He spent four years doing ROTC in college and he got accepted into a program called Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training. He completed the program and ended up flying, 2 years later he ended up injuring himself in an aircraft. He got a bad hernia which ended up making him need surgery and physical therapy and after that he was not allowed to fly a high g-force aircraft anymore. After the flying door got closed in his face, Jerred had only one other door open and that was fitness. He started getting certifications, writing, reading, and blogging. Pretty much anything he could do to pursue his goal of going full fitness entrepreneur. Jerred says there's a surprising amount of entrepreneurship involved in making fitness your career. A big part of Fighter Pilot training is the long hours, training days would usually go up to 16 hour days. So knowing how hard the hours were, Jerred has started working out from home prior to leaving for his training. He had no money so he built all the equipment he needed to stay fit in his garage with minimal capital involved. He ended up sharing these DIY fitness equipment online and that was how he started getting traffic for his fitness business. Jerred was not passionate about building the equipment, he was only passionate about fitness itself and so he dove into the coaching and programming side and built up his audience slowly but surely to get to where he is now. What has the pandemic changed about the concept of a garden gym for Jerred? (9:24) Jerred says garage gyms are definitely pickup up popularity. There is a bit of a divide between what people were interested in when it comes to real gyms and garage gyms. Jerred thinks both are good in their own ways and even though they are different Jerred does not think any trainer would say "I only cater to garage gym athletes" and this is because you can do any fitness you would do at a facility in your garage, living room, or wherever you want. Home gyms and garage gyms have grown in popularity exponentially over the last year because of the pandemic. Home guy people are a bit more limited in terms of space for their workouts within their living room or bedroom etc. Jerred has noticed that his business is now attracting a certain type of person and then there were others that looked interested but Jerred's style turned out to not be what they are looking for. Rogue fitness has escalated immensely and they are struggling to keep up to date with all the production they need to do, to the point that they are skipping out on old annual traditions like matte black Fridays. If Rogue can catch up with all of their resources, Jerred believes that garage gyms are going to become a staple for the fitness industry from here on out. End of Three Fitness End of Three Fitness is a fitness and conditioning business that has one person, and that is to make you a better human. They use their study and application of doing as they call it: Better humanology. They focus on garage gym athletes, the 'other' guy/girl, and humans around the world get better and healthier. Resources Connect with Jerred: Twitter End of Three Fitness: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Joe Sanok is the founder of Practice of the Practice Podcast the #1 podcast for counselors. He is also a keynote and TEDx speaker as well as a business consultant and writer. He has been featured on Huffington Post, Forbes, GOOD Magazine, Reader's Digest, entrepreneur on Fire, and Yahoo News. He has published 5 books and has been named the Therapist Resource's top podcast, consultant, and blogger. How did Joe get to where he is now? (0:44) Joe was trained as a traditional therapist. After getting his Masters in counseling and psychology he first worked at non-profits and community mental health. He tried out counseling private practice as a contractor to help pay off his student debt and found that he liked it. He started his own practice when he moved back to Northern Michigan and saw it as his 'side-gig' until one of his interns mentioned that they would love to work at his practice. He was hired at the community college in Traverse City and it was during that time he started listening to more and more podcasts. Listening to people like Pat Flynn and Lee Dumas inspired him and he ended up starting his own podcast in 2012 called Practice of the Practice. In 2014 he was reevaluating his job at the community college and decided to quit and rather do his counseling and podcast full time. Once his podcast really gained momentum, Joe sold his practice and is now completely location independent, they live in a camper house and travel the nation while podcasting on the road. How did Joe's podcast start out? (5:57) Joe did not have a clear plan when he started his podcast. When new podcasters ask Joe for tips on starting their podcasts, he will tell them that having a clear place and clear arc for your p[odcast is important. Joe's first few episodes were really just him reading a book and then telling his audience what he learned from it. He also gave his audience thoughts on how to apply what he learned from the book to private practice. Sometimes he would reach out to someone to be a guest on his podcast but mostly he said it was him just trying out different things with zero plan, trying to see what worked. Listening back on his first episodes now, he admits they are pretty terrible but he learned by doing. Who does Joe primarily work with? (20:51) Joe says about 80% of their audience are counselors, therapists, psychologists and coaches are increasing in number every day too. A lot of their audience wants to do better at digital marketing. Membership communities, eCourses, and some fitness people are also appearing and working with Joe now. Joe gives special mention to Melissa from the Bom Bom podcast. She is a fitness instructor but she tackles the topic of the mom mindset where many women put everyone else's needs, wants, and health before their own. She tries to teach women that if you care about your own wants, needs, and health then you will be a better mom and person overall. What's been one of the biggest challenges for Joe as a business owner and entrepreneur? (22:29) Thinking back to 2012 when he started Practice of the Practice that year was very difficult for him. His daughter was born in 2011 and it became clear soon after that she had some serious heart conditions. During the first year of her life, they didn't sleep more than an hour at a time, having to constantly check up on her, feed her and change her diapers because her medication was to stop fluid from building up around her heart so she was going to the bathroom every hour and a half or so. They struggled to get her enough calories and her growth rate was stinted. She was in an out of the hospital the first year of her life and eventually she had open-heart surgery. 2 weeks after his daughter's surgery, Joe was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. His wife had a miscarriage, his grandmother passed away and his best friend's wife got breast cancer sometime in the months of Joe going through his own treatments. Despite how difficult the year was, it acted as a clarifier for Joe and made him realize that he did not want to sit in a community college doing counseling for the rest of his life. The Practice of the Practice Podcast Practice of the Practice covers everything it takes to make your service-based private practice successful. Learn amazing ways to grow your referral count, save tons of money, and have a lot of fun in the process. Resources Connect with Joe: LinkedIn Practice of the Practice: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Omar Yunes Marquez has developed and grown businesses in the US and Latin America since 2000. He is currently Partner and CEO at 54D, an international wellness brand aimed at changing personal habits and empowering its members through a focus on exercise, nutrition, and recovery. He has an entrepreneurial background and experience as a multiple-franchise restaurant owner and real estate investor. In the past he has also acted as CEO for the Union de Credito Mexicano, a regulated financial entity in Mexico focused on providing financing to small and medium companies. What are the hallmarks of success for 54D (8:26) 54D is always striving to achieve new goals. Their entire business model is designed around members achieving their goals. They are not a gym with a monthly or yearly membership or even pay by the class. They want you there for a specific time long enough to achieve the result that you want. Their program started as a program that really went against the grain of the fitness industry, which was focused on having a consistent, measurable revenue in the long term. 54D went for a 9-week program. 54 Days of training broken into 6 days a week. Which is how they got the name 54D Instead of breaking up everything like most fitness programs where you would for example maybe do 20% training and 80% nutrition you have to do 100% for Training, Recovery, and Nutrition. Focusing on achieving that goal over a 54 day period and every time their clients achieved that goal and saw the results they would spread the word of 54D to their friends. That's what Omar attributes to their success. What were some challenges that Omar faced? (18:37) Even though 54D is in Latin America, Columbia, and the US, Omar said that everybody who is a client in the business has the same drive to feel good about themselves. So Even though the people are very different across the countries, they knew that the basic wants and needs, fears, and love were the same for their clients and that was to feel accomplishment and to get rid of what was physically or mentally bothering them with the 54D Program. This allowed 54D to have some certainty when they moved to the US as well. However, they also chose a good spot, Miami, to start off with because of how big the Latin American community is there. They originally invited 90 random people into the program for free, which was surprising as their program usually costs $3900. So while it was challenging expanding their franchise to the US, they found that business was roughly the same. Even now with COVID, they have members in 57 different countries and all of those members are striving towards the same goal. How have they changed their business this year? (27:46) The main thing is, is that 54D went online. At the start of the lockdowns around March in Miami, they were streaming online classes for free. That was their first time online as they have never before been on YouTube or Instagram. They started online wanting to help people cope with being at home for such extended periods of time. They decided to offer these classes for free people they felt that it wouldn't be fair towards people will less money to go crazy at home with nothing to do. So even though they could make a lot of money from these online classes, but they decided to help people out rather for about 4 months of free classes. After reestablishing the price of the classes, they were pleasantly surprised to find that most of the members stayed. 54D 54D is a program of human transformation which aims to align patterns of behavior, achieving physical, mental, and emotional changes in only 54 Days. Resources Connect with Omar: LinkedIn 54D: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Joel is a best-selling author and one of the world's foremost authorities on strength, conditioning, and energy programs. His strategies have been used by thousands of elite performers and top athletes worldwide, including the Navy, SEALS, UFC Champions, and dozens of teams from the NFL, NBA, MLS, NCAA, and more. What's been different for Joel these last 2 years? (4:20) Joel's personal goal has always been to help as many people as he could on the conditioning side of coaching. He says this goal has grown quite a lot in the last two years. Back when COVID hit Joel thought that it was going to be a very hard period for his business. However, things actually picked up significantly for online education as more and more people were looking for certification. People have realized the industry is changing and that remote training is going to become a large part of training in the coming years. People will have to apply themselves more than ever and try and learn as many new skills as possible. How does Joel's certification equip coaches to kind of deal with the new world with remote coaching and things like that? (7:05) Joel was receiving a lot of emails at the start of COVID lockdowns from people who couldn't access their gyms and wanted to stay in shape. Sending out a mass email asking if anyone would be interested in a free 30-day conditioning training video, he received a massive response. Keeping a limit of 300 people to ensure quality support for everyone involved, they sold out spots in two days. Conditioning training is a good skill for online coaching because you do not need a whole lot of equipment like if you're doing something like strength training. Joel received many positive reviews from people saying that they have managed to stay fit and healthy thanks to his conditioning training. What has surprised Joel within his specific niche? (16:40) Joel was surprised that so many people use conditioning for the goals they are working towards. The more people you encounter the more you learn about niche sports that are often overlooked that other people might take super serious. Seeing his training being implemented in these sports surprised but pleased Joel. How is the fitness industry going to be different? (32:56) Joel believes all of the new technology is going to help people make better decisions, have better habits, and a better idea of how to improve their fitness. He believes we are going towards better personalization through technology and more of a holistic approach to health and fitness. The reason fitness use to break down for so many people was that there was little personalization within the programs. 40-50 people were doing the same program and now with remote training, it's easier to work out individual programs for people as they can enter their nutrition, medical histories, and physical disabilities for the coaches to see. Morpheus Morpheus is the first fitness technology guaranteed to accelerate your recovery and make you more fit, It helps you shift your body into the recovery zone and accelerate your results when training. Resources Connect with Joel: LinkedIn Morpheus: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Shane is the founder of Dark Horse Rowing, the leading educator of indoor rowing education and career training for fitness professionals and athletes. Shane has a BA in Business Administration, a certified CrossFit Kettlebell Certificate, a CrossFit rowing certificate and is CrossFit Level 1 Certified, Concept 2 Master instructor, and a certified ACE Group Fitness Instructor. How did Shane get to be where he is now in the business that he created? (3:26) Shane was never the best student or athlete in high school. But he loved sports too much to give it up and eventually his grades and sporting abilities approved. When Shane started University he overslept for baseball tryouts and ended up trying rowing and fell in love with it instantly. Going to championships during his university years, Shane ended up being introduced to CrossFit through Stefan Rochet. So from there, Shane's rowing team was using CrossFit as strength training for their rowing. Coming out of University, Shane was too light to be a heavyweight rower and too heavy to be a lightweight rower so he was stuck in purgatory so to speak for a bit. Jumping over to CrossFit, Shane says he luckily fell into the lap of Invictus a decently competitive gym. Competing in CrossFit and simultaneously coaching rowing made Shane realize that there was a desperate need for people to learn how to use the rowing machine. This led him to teach several CrossFit Rowing seminars over several years and through that and enough exposure he ended up creating Dark Horse Rowing. The Business of Rowing (8:15) There has truthful not been a lot of research done on the rowing market. British rowing did some market research three or four years ago which was more to show what their future goals were. But looking at the number of machines sold, it's about 4 million and that's just Shane's guess. These machines last forever, Shane calling them lifetime machines. But then there's the water rower and hydro which are new players to the game and all of the inexpensive amazon rowing machines, Shane estimates that they're actually sitting at close to the ten million. And that was talking pre-COVID, which has essentially now cause the purchases in rowing machines to spike. So the rowing industry is growing in popularity swiftly. Is rowing a standalone fitness offering? Can people completely devote themselves to rowing alone and stay healthy and fit for the majority of your life? (17:18) Shane says rowing is such a diverse exercise. It is low impact and risk-averse. Meaning there is little risk of anything negative happening to you. You can train your strength, your conditioning, your lactic threshold, and even your coordination. Is it the one thing you should choose? That depends because the thing you choose to stay healthy and fit is ultimately the thing that you will love doing every day for the rest of your life. Shane says yes it can keep you healthy and fit for however long you pursue it, but so many other things could also do that for you. So find what works for you. What does Shane envision gyms are going to be like in 2 years? (34:10) Any gym that physically exists is going to realize that an online feature will become a wholly integrated part of their business. This is because too many people at this point have tasted what home fitness can be. Many people however will still enjoy that experience of going to the gym and engaging with people. So, therefore, physical gyms will still exist but will start to rapidly integrate online and digital training into their business models. Dark Horse Rowing Dark Horse Rowing was the pursuit of Shane Farmer's passion for fitness and rowing. They strive to create the best possible experience for athletes so they can continue to provide support for a lifetime. Resources Connect with Shane: LinkedIn Dark Horse Rowing: Website Connect With Eric: LinkedIn

Jonathan Goodman is the founder of the Personal Trainer Development Center and author of multiple bestselling books for personal trainers. In addition, Jon founded the first-ever certification for online fitness trainers, the Online Trainer Academy. When Jon started Online Trainers Academy, how did he know we were going to have a pandemic in 2020 that would turn every one online? (1:18) Jon thought this was funny but says he did not know. However, it is not inconceivable to assume that there was going to be some large scale interruptive event in the future. The world changes very quickly and historically, in unpredictable ways. Anyone who was paying attention from a few years ago would've noticed the upward trend in technology-driven business. But what ultimately led Jon to turn towards online himself was an injury that put him off his feet for two weeks, effectively killing his income for that time period, and that got him thinking that he had to build something else. The Concept of Anti-fragility. (3:48) One of the key elements of anti-fragile is the concept that the more chaos ensues, the stronger things that are anti-fragile get. Jon encourages making yourself familiar with the concept of anti-fragility if you want to set yourself up for the future. You need to understand anti-fragility, asymmetrical risk and you need to understand how to mitigate loss and maximize gain. What's going on in the online training game? (16:38) There are a lot of people doing it that have no idea what they are doing. These people are hacking together not well thought out solutions and doing horribly because of it. Jon relates it to you going to a gym after googling a bit and bringing a video camera and now you're going to train people. Big training companies have thrown together online training programs and Jon's own clients have said that the models fall short and are terrible. You have to really do the research and spend the time to understand the core of online training for example: What works from a financial and business standpoint. What works for actual training clients as humans. How to get people to want to do the workout and to continually adhere to the workout? What does Jon think is going to be centralized within actual gyms? (22:26) Gyms are going to radically change, there is no doubt about that. The fitness industry is relatively young. In the past gyms have sold personal trainers as people who are not commoditized but treated and paid them like they were commoditized people and the truth is more personal trainers are commoditized. To be a truly great personal trainer you need to exhibit a lot of traits that are very hard to find in any single human for example: You need to be in good shape, energetic, motivational, empathetic, great at science programming, and interested in entrepreneurial aspects along with about 15 other things. However, with collaborative pairing and work, you can take multiple people with different skillsets and put them together to form something unique and powerful. The PTDC The Personal Trainer Development Center creates solutions for fitness and nutrition professionals. They do this by helping you do a better job, build a better business, and live a better life at every stage of your career. They have the World's Premier Certification for online training and are an internationally recognized leader for education and guidance within the fitness industry. Resources Connect with Jonathan: LinkedIn The PTDC: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn

Vanessa Severiano has been a leader in the fitness industry for 18+ years. She has extensive experience in creating, managing, and developing brands in areas of sales, marketing, branding, and operation. Vanessa understands firsthand what is required to ensure a successful outcome for a wellness business. How did Vanessa get to where she is now? (1:19) Vanessa started out about 19 years ago just after graduating from college. She had two degrees in English Literature and interpersonal and organizational communication. Interpersonal and Organizational Communication is about how to speak to others and clearly communicate management styles. Burnt out from School, Vanessa didn't want to work in a cubicle and started researching cool companies. Her first job was at The Crunch in 2001 which was a very work hard/play hard environment. In 2005 she moved to Miami and started the first two Equinox locations in Florida. Being a single move of two kids at the time, Vanessa pushed herself to limits she never thought was possible. After that, she ended up working for David Barton Gym for several years and then got a great opportunity to be a part of a start-up in Miami. Starting from zero members, zero-brand and zero identity was thrilling and took several years to build up but now she is where she is today. How does Vanessa tackle problems while helping businesses build themselves? (9:41) When coming into an organization that already exists you need to understand the history, understanding what's been happening and what has been successful. And then you can start focusing on what needs to happen and change to make the unsuccessful portions of a business successful. Coming into a new organization also poses the problem of people resisting change whether it is beneficial or not. You have to create that relationship and comfort level with those people. Connecting with other people, empowering them, and learning from them too. Solving problems in a business is a very collaborative process. Having good communication and speaking to the clients about what they also want is very important. Where most fitness professionals fall short withing their sales and marketing tactics and strategies. (11:56) Talents are individual and what you're good at is what you're good at but others might not be but they are good in something completely different that you are not good at. It's important to focus on yourself and your talents, no one is good at everything. It's important to collaborate with others to combine different strengths together. Business owners should invest in themselves and in a mentor to try and bring as much value as they can to clients. The key to having great relationships. (22:08) Effort, value, and respect are important to bring into a hopefully long term relationship, whether it's a business or romantic relationship. Nobody likes a one-sided relationship so you have to be willing to give, to provide value and support for the other person. Recognize that people communicate differently and adjust your way of communicating with individual people. Meeting people halfway is a big part of forming healthy relationships. They don't maintain themselves and putting in equal effort is important. What is something positive that will come out of this pandemic for the fitness industry? (25:11) Brands will be forced to provide more value to clients and the members and consumers of fitness technology. This is because there is a lot more competition out there at the moment from lower-priced options. Clients stick with a certain service or product because it gives them tremendous value and therefore as a company you have to make sure to maintain that value for your consumers. With the recent and rapid growth in fitness technology, Vanessa hopes and believes that it will get more people moving and being active. VannesaSeveriano.com Vanessa Severiano aims to help fitness and wellness businesses create outstanding brand experiences. Resources Connect with Vanessa: LinkedIn Vanessa Severiano: Website Connect with Eric: LinkedIn