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Fitness + Technology

Welcome to the Fitness + Technology Podcast for club owners, operators, and fitness professionals! This show is your #1 trusted resource for the accelerating world of fitness technology. We regularly bring you an expert interview with a global influencer at the crossroads of fitness and technology. You’ll get the insights, tools, and inspiration you need to stay connected to the pulse of what matters most for your fitness business in the age of exponential technologies. This podcast is brought to you by the Fitness Industry Technology Council, who is mobilizing resources to drive the fitness industry forward, and representing leading companies and organizations to success through collaboration. This show is supported by Bryan O'Rourke and his family of companies including Vedere Ventures, a boutique investment and advisory firm helping early mature and late stage enterprises, moon mission media a digital marketing firm dedicated to the fitness space, and Integerus Advisors. To learn more visit bryankorourke.com
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Now displaying: April, 2017
Apr 18, 2017

Across our industry space, we're well aware that new technologies including wearables, SaaS platforms, and connected fitness devices found across the world are collecting billions of data points. But the real question that is top of mind for operators, owners, and the industry as a whole, is what we do with all this data?

Specifically, how do we plug-in actionable coaching, marketing, and touch points to millions of health club members across the globe that will actually elicit sustainable behavior change?

This is one of my favorite episodes we've had on the podcast, and I know you're going to love the insight and expertise of today's guest Jan Middelkamp from Europe Active. If you've been curious or hungry for the information that's going to impact your fitness business from a virtual or face-to-face coaching standpoint, this is going to be a powerful episode for you because were diving into the topics and coaching models that will impact both your ROI and club operations.

Jan Middelkamp is Development Director at HDD Group and the CEO of BlackBoxPublishers. With over 35 years of high level experience in the fitness industry, Jan is now working on a PhD in exercise behavior of members in fitness clubs at the Behavioral Science Institute of the Radboud University in the Netherlands.

He also is a board member of EuropeActive in Brussels and the author of over 10 books, including The state of research in the global fitness industry (2012); Member retention in fitness clubs (2013); EuropeActive retention reports (2013, 2014, and 2015); Essentials of motivation and behavior change (2015).

Listen To Episode 023 As Jan Uncovers

  • Understanding "The Essentials of Motivation and Behavior Change" which Bryan O'Rourke was a key contributor to and why Jan spearhead this book to impact behavior change integrations in our space
  • Understanding how behavior change can positively impact attrition rates in health clubs and boutiques
  • Why Jan believes we are just in the "beginning stages" of how behavior change will apply to our fitness industry
  • The landscape and the integration of behavior change models in the fitness industry in regards to clubs
  • Understanding the transtheoretical behavior change model in fitness
  • Uncovering the commonalities and pitfalls to why behavior change models do not come to completion for well-intentioned members in health clubs
  • Why behavior change does not occur in a single stage; the 5 key stages within a successful program
  • Why we need a "cocktail" of behavior change factors to really help people in a sustainable way
  • Unpacking Jan's vantage point on the 3 types of behavior change in regards to habits:
  • Big habit: Working with a trainer 2-3 times per week 
  • Medium habit: Easy to implement, walking at lunch, take the stairs, ect.
  • Light habit: Tiny habits, 10 squats, take the stairs, stand up every 30 minutes 
  • Reductionism thinking and how it does not apply to the current member in our modern industrialized society
  • How to make the health club technology a key ecosystem for the club member's fitness journey 
  • Why Jan believes that smart technology can be a window into the "missing piece" that will give our industry the insights and behaviors that are most pivotal for clients
  • What are the major disruptions when we look at the crossroads of technology and behavior change

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show

  • Jan believes that as we move forward, the health club must be the "fitness technology hub" that pulls all the lifestyle information of the member together in one place. If you look at your member only through the attendance behavior lens, you may have some information but you're missing a lot of other important items you'll need if your clients will have long-term and sustainable results.  
  • For lifelong behavior change, you have to oversee the consumer's habits in total and that's where technology is important. If technology will be used to pull the right information together, we have to include customized solutions to see what members do in other settings outside the club. In the coaching base from the fitness center via personal trainers, we must make the right informational choices based on the data at hand.
  • The current reality is that the researched and validated behavior change models are currently disconnected from the majority of health clubs in the industry. In other words, the application of identifying the specific needs, motives, and goals of the client simply aren't always there. Jan believes if we truly want to motivate someone, we have to understand their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors and plug those into their journey. With the demands of our current society and deleterious health factors on the rise, sustainable behavior change models are the "secret sauce" that owners and operators must pay attention to when we look at this crossroad of technology and fitness.

Power Quotes From Jan

"Technology is great for measuring the base situation and in measuring a client's current status. However, I see a huge advantage of measuring something that is out of your sight as a coach. If you're a trainer working with the client a couple times a week and you also want to positively impact their other lifestyle factors, there are now many wearable technologies to monitor them which I strongly believe in."  - Jan Middelkamp on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"People are not only going to a gym, so if you are a health club owner or operator, we believe at Europe Active that the health club should be the hub of fitness technology. From there, you can coach people in different settings which becomes pivotal. If you only want to pull members into the club you are missing a big part of the health and fitness picture." - Jan Middelkamp on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Jan

Support This Podcast

Thanks To Our Outstanding Sponsors

  • Bryan O’Rourke and his family of companies including Vedere VenturesIntegerus Advisors, and many more. If you are looking for unmatched guidance, capital, insights or a great speaker or facilitator, Bryan and his partners are the go to resource for your organization. To learn more visit bryankorourke.com

  • The Fitness Industry Technology Council, your non-profit resource for reliable technology information supported by forward looking brands who are seeking to drive increased technology adoption in the fitness industry. Make a difference and join FIT-C at fittechcouncil.org today

  • Check out Bryan and his partner Robert Dyer's recent book "9 Partnership Principles: A Story of Life Lessons" which is available now on Amazon.com

Apr 11, 2017

For the second half of our featured series "LIVE from IHRSA 2017," we're learning from two fitness technology professionals in different parts of our industry spectrum. In this doubleheader episode recorded live after the FIT-C roundtable session, we explore two important topics that make a direct impact to your fitness business.  

First up is Geoffrey Little, President of GSL Consulting, to learn about the fast growing segments in both group and boutique fitness operations; specifically the opportunities for monetization and service in the youth market and sports performance.  

Geoffrey worked at MINDBODY for 11 years, from early days through the 2015 IPO and is now a consultant to both vendors and operators in the fitness, wellness and education sectors and works with clients such as Virtuagym, who are exhibiting here at IHRSA

Prior to MINDBODY, he worked in television documentary and media, covering naGo eight sorting out 50ture, science and technology, working with Time magazine, National Geographic, IMAX, and public TV.

Listen To Episode 022 As Geoffrey Uncovers

  • What’s next for the boutique or studio business
  • What are the financial and service gaps to be found in the youth and sport performance markets
  • The history of mind-body software from the beginning and what club operators can learn from their success
  • What does the VirtuaGym technology do for the bottom line of the clubs and member experience
  • How to identify new flourishing segments of the boutique and studio space changing over the next two years
  • Why on the studio side, 20 to 30% year-over-year growth is continuing and what are the factors of how it may stall
  • Exploring the youth sports market and sports performance markets for children and adolescents, and how the spending habits of parents correlate
  • How Goeffrey used years of media experience to be a valued consultant to the fitness industry
  • What needs to be top of mind in regards to technology for club owners

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show 

  • Geoffrey reminds us that golden opportunities are still out there with many more to come when looking at the growing space of boutiques, studios, and specifically sports performance and youth market styled facilities.  
  • With the millions of parents across the country and even more globally, the opportunities that exist for new delivery models in fitness are reflected by the data from the spending habits of health minded and caring parents who are seeking both youth sports and athletic training  experiences for their children and adolescents.  
  • Beyond yoga, cycling, and group fitness classes where the parents can get a dynamic experience enhanced through technology, that same construct can and will apply to the facilities in the future that serve both families as well as individuals. 

Power Quotes From Geoffrey 

"In the FIT-C Roundtable, I shared how I've been waiting for over a decade to see this growth. I've been anticipating some of the giants to come into the business, which is going to continue to grow in both the studio and boutique, and this has now picked up the attention of Google and other big players. They are going to make the ground shake."  - Geoffrey Little on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"The youth market is almost completely separate from the health club market, however, health clubs could benefit with younger children as members. When we look across the data, a youth market that's really booming and getting the investment money right now is sports performance."  - Geoffrey Little on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Geoffrey

Tune in at 16:05 to hear from our featured guest, Kalen Pino of VirtuaGym.

With the mass of technology solutions now available for clubs, what customized software solutions will really help fitness facilities maximize the use of applications and mobile in both new member integration and in providing unforgettable member experiences?  

In supporting and servicing over 4000 facilities, Kalen Pino, the US Sales Manager of VirtuaGym, unpacks the common approaches, best practices, and experience from thousands of conversations with club owners about what’s really working from a technology perspective. He also shares how to create the right ecosystem that incorporates both a real benefit for the club while taking into account the functionality that the member actually wants.  

Listen To Episode 022 As Kalen Uncovers

  • What’s the deeper impact of the IoT for clients, members and virtual fitness technology
  • How to properly listen to your members to elicit better service with the use of technology
  • Why VirtuaGym provides a truly different approach to club owners than other software solutions 
  • How to build the bridge between new technology implementation for a club owner from a mindset standpoint 
  • How to map out the customer journey and differentiate your club to establish "speciality" in your neighborhood
  • How to address technology and change management with your staff
  • The proper way to implement new technology systems into a busy health club
  • What are the common roadblocks for new technology implementation
  • Why there is "no sale without the story and no knockout without the set up" - Gary Vaynerchuck IHRSA keynote
  • What a successful new member journey would look like when sourced digitally
  • Using virtual coaching to establish greater client success rates when tied into a central hub system
  • What to consider when looking at branded solutions: use a third party or deciphering when to build your own

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show

  • Kalen believes that to find balance between what the gym wants from a business and operational standpoint and what the member really wants in function and service essentially starts with smart surveys, not immediate technology.  
  • Part of a new member orientation that most clubs are used to is walking around the member to show off the equipment and services on the fitness floor, but Kalen reminds us to also "show off the technology" and demonstrate how from the minute a member walks in the club they will notice the club's progressive use of mobile technology.
  • No matter what software solution you’re tying in to club operations, having mobile technology for customers to pay membership dues and purchasing services like personal training and childcare are just the start. What separates the  great clubs from the good are software systems that truly work with one another. As referenced from Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynote at the 2014 IHRSA we need to create a story and an experience to draw the members in build trust and then make the sale because there is no sale without the story and no knockout without the set up.  Implementing the jab-jab-jab right hook model with the use of technology is sure to benefit the club and the customer for the long-term.

Power Quotes From Kalen

"Business within the fitness space is and always has been all about the people. The secret sauce of an organization and what they've done in order to be successful must now understand what new technology can amplify where they have already done an incredible job."  - Kalen Pino on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"It all comes down to creating the right ecosystem. Whatever it is that you choose as your technology strategy, you must make sure that it's part of who you are as an organization and part of your DNA." - Kalen Pino on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Kalen

 

Support This Podcast

Thanks To Our Outstanding Sponsors

  • Bryan O’Rourke and his family of companies including Vedere VenturesIntegerus Advisors, and many more. If you are looking for unmatched guidance, capital, insights or a great speaker or facilitator, Bryan and his partners are the go to resource for your organization. To learn more visit bryankorourke.com

  • The Fitness Industry Technology Council, your non-profit resource for reliable technology information supported by forward looking brands who are seeking to drive increased technology adoption in the fitness industry. Make a difference and join FIT-C at fittechcouncil.org today

  • Check out Bryan and his partner Robert Dyer's recent book "9 Partnership Principles: A Story of Life Lessons" which is available now on Amazon.com

Apr 4, 2017

On episode 21 we're spotlighting a few exceptional conversations with some of the top influencers at the crossroads of fitness and technology, live after the FIT-C roundtable meeting during IHRSA 2017 in Los Angeles.

With the options and choices of club software systems on the rise, how do APIs and the ability for cross communication between platforms benefit the health club?

Be sure to stick around for our second half of the show with Josh Donovan from GIVE Fitness -->

In this first segment, were talking with fitness technology expert, Karl Etzel, about APIs (application program interfaces) and how they can help in both monetization and in serving the customer. For health club executives and owners, API functionality is an important topic to consider when purchasing technology systems. 

Karl Etzel is a Transformation Catalyst, Strategic Decision-Maker, and Technical Expert in fitness technology known for his entrepreneurial drive in developing vision and setting strategic direction in the face of fast-changing technology and market dynamics through effectively aligning products/channels/end-users. With a deep background in health and fitness, cloud services / PaaS, online marketing, and SMB enablement, Karl brings a strong professional expertise to the industry space around program management and product management roles. 

Karl is talking with us on the show about API's, or application program interfaces. Simply put, an application programming interface allows software systems to talk to one another. When you as a human being sit down to use a piece of software you use a user interface (UI), and when one piece of software wants to use another piece of software, they use an (API). 

Listen To Episode 021 As Karl Uncovers

  • How the open API can increase revenue for clubs through smart data sharing  
  • Why have APIs become so important in app and web service development
  • Who should know about APIs in the club and how does that relate to their fitness business
  • What are some common mistakes when planning APIs
  • The growing segments of APIs being used to create further developments of niche markets 
  • Why "Agile Development" and live beta testing are now standard practices
  • How API’s enable better business model innovation, which is one of the most powerful and sustainable competitive advantages
  • Why “owning the customer” looses in business vs. "serving the customer" 
  • Security threats and issues to watch for with APIs 
  • Using tethered CRM, POS, and ERP systems with APIs 
  • Understanding the best types of data sets that are commonly used with an API in clubs 
  • Karl's interest in the future of Cognitive Performance 

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show 

  • In the world of fitness tracking, we see many APIs, and there's now many different models emerging that will deliver even more value to the customer. The continued fracturing of the market and development of more niche models are exciting as the type of contextualized data that is being shared helps to monetize and serve customers in a progressive and powerful way.
  • As the market grows and as customers and consumers expect faster innovation that APIs will enable, one of the reasons people are resistant to opening APIs is because they don't want to "lose the customer they own" but the reality is that you don't own the customer, you serve the customer. The people who resist this idea of opening up is born out of a mentality of scarcity. What most people don't realize is how much revenue they can drive with an open API and a new mindset.
  • API’s enable better business model innovation, which is one of the most powerful and sustainable competitive advantages in all industries. APIs make it really easy to innovate and build things quickly. The old-school engineering model of software development is gone and agile development, two week release cycles, live beta testing and rapid iteration are now the norm. For the club owner, karl believes that you don't necessarily want to share your data outward, but you do want to share it among your own systems until you get to a certain scale where population data could make things interesting. The real key with API integrations is to understand your segment in entirety and have a clear picture of what problem you're trying to solve.

    Power Quotes From Karl

"For the club operator, the question you want to ask is, does your solution vendor have an API that makes it easier for me to integrate my system with other solutions? If you are a technology company executive, you should be thinking about how APIs plug into your business at the strategy level. APIs are not just a technical detail that you can leave to engineering." - Karl Etzel on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"APIs make it really easy to innovate and build things quickly. The old-school engineering model of software development is gone and agile development, two week release cycles, live beta testing and rapid iteration are now the norm. For the club owner, you don't necessarily want to share your data outward, but you do want to share it among your own systems until you get to a certain scale where population data could make things interesting. The real key with API integrations is to understand your segment in entirety and have a clear picture of what problem you're trying to solve." - Karl Etzel on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Karl

Josh Donovan: Using Fitness Technology To Give 

In this featured segment we're talking with the Owner of GIVE Fitness in Atascadero, CA Josh Donovan about technology focused member sales and engagement approaches that are changing the way for-profit and nonprofit businesses interact in health and fitness. 

Josh is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and 13-year fitness industry professional who years ago was looking for a way to use his experience and understanding of the fitness industry to “create a different type of fitness product” with a focus on using technology. After meeting Matt Holguin, the founder of Working to Give (WTG), a for-profit company with a singular purpose-driven business model, together, Donovan and Holguin created WTG’s Fitness Division and in 2013, launched GIVE Fitness.

With Working To Give, 50% of its profits are reinvested in the firm to sustain growth, and the other 50% is contributed to the local community. Since its opening, the GIVE Fitness club has acquired over 3,000 members and donated more than $50,000 to Atascadero-area initiatives. A member of the Fitness Industry Technology Council, Josh Donovan believes it’s important for the industry to integrate technology into the prospect and member experience to truly connect with consumers to understand them at their deepest needs and desires.

Listen To Episode 021 As Josh Uncovers

  • What Josh has learned over the past three years when it comes to understanding what technologies help club operations the absolute most.
  • Why GIVE Fitness is a "cashless environment" with no membership staff or sales team and why all sales are integrated through the website.
  • How to use technology to change the way for-profit businesses and nonprofit businesses interact
  • How to sustain nonprofit efforts combined with profitable health clubs in the fitness industry
  • Why being fluid and flexible when creating a culture in your health club is paramount
  • Why using social media in real time is a powerful tool for transparency and trust ability
  • Understanding the GIVE Fitness mission: “To exceed member expectations at every opportunity with fitness facilities that are maintained, affordable, accessible and safe.”
  • Why giving members something they truly can belong to will increase revenue and lower attrition
  • With the obesity epidemic in our country, why the GIVE Fitness ownership deemed it imperative to open up the market in order to make fitness more accessible and affordable to the community of Atascadero.
  • On a larger scale, why GIVE Fitness has established a vision to “Transform the fitness industry by becoming pillars in the communities in which we conduct business. We will do this by generously donating 50% of our profits to programs that strengthen personal character, create value in people and provide opportunities for personal growth.”

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show 

  • Josh believes that you don't use people to get things, you use the things to help people. It's important to understand what your members want and what your members need. The first step when selecting and in using any piece of technology is to have a grasp on who you're serving and why they want you to serve them. 
  • Josh and his business partner Matt are demonstrating that it is possible and profitable to have both a non-profit and for-profit business model using technology to thrive in our ever-changing fitness space. By providing an accessible fitness center for real people to come in, and driving sales through a cashless environment, this outside the box thinking has produced great results for GIVE Fitness.
  • With transparency in business for both nonprofits and for profit companies, in working together they must have a focus on communicating to staff that with all the technology devices out there, how do they use them to really help members? Because this entire process, in the end, is all about the member experience.

Power Quotes From Josh

"The heart of our business at GIVE Fitness is giving. We give 50% of our profits back to the community where we do business, so in order for that to happen we have to be a profitable fitness center first. Hitting member expectations and exceeding them becomes paramount because that has to happen before we have any funds to give. The obesity epidemic is real and it's something that I'm really passionate about. This is why I want to provide an accessible fitness center for people to better their lives, add years to their lives, and truly participate." - Josh Donovan on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"In using new technologies, we had the unique opportunity in starting from the ground up to be intentional around creating our culture and to have it be something very specific. We all live in a world that's real time, so if I post something on Facebook about the gym and then post something about my personal life, our members don't see any differentiation around that." - Josh Donovan on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Josh

Support This Podcast

Thanks To Our Outstanding Sponsors

  • Bryan O’Rourke and his family of companies including Vedere VenturesIntegerus Advisors, and many more. If you are looking for unmatched guidance, capital, insights or a great speaker or facilitator, Bryan and his partners are the go to resource for your organization. To learn more visit bryankorourke.com

  • The Fitness Industry Technology Council, your non-profit resource for reliable technology information supported by forward looking brands who are seeking to drive increased technology adoption in the fitness industry. Make a difference and join FIT-C at fittechcouncil.org today

  • Check out Bryan and his partner Robert Dyer's recent book "9 Partnership Principles: A Story of Life Lessons" which is available now on Amazon.com

021 #IHRSA2017 LIVE: The Importance of APIs, Using Fitness Technology To Give     

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