Today, host Pete Moore sits down with Michael Pesta, a veteran in the HALO space whose career has bridged the fitness, entertainment, and tech industries. Michael shares his journey from his beginnings at AFAA—where he played a key role in pioneering fitness education and telemarketing globally—to an unexpected pivot into film and music production.
Mike's story started in the mid-1980s, when, as a struggling actor, he agreed to help move boxes at an organization he hadn't heard of—never suspecting it would literally change his life. Michael quickly found himself drawn into the organization’s mission and over time, rose from a casual volunteer to become the director of membership.
Michael is now back in the HALO sector with an innovative focus on telefitness, aiming to bridge the longstanding gap between the fitness and healthcare industries. Pete and Michael discuss the evolution of fitness education, the changing landscape of personal training, the integration of technology, and Pesta's vision for a new era where trainers, healthcare professionals, and clients all connect seamlessly.
Key themes discussed
- Evolution of fitness industry education and certification.
- Partnerships between fitness brands and major companies (e.x., Reebok.)
- Transition from fitness to entertainment and back.
- The rise of telefitness and telehealth platforms.
- The challenges and benefits of online personal training.
- The importance of connecting fitness with healthcare services.
A few key takeaways:
1. AFAA’s Early Days and Industry Impact: Pesta entered the fitness space by chance with AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America), which at the time was a key player in fitness education and certifications. He helped develop their telemarketing division and played a major role in expanding programs globally, including strategic partnerships like outfitting instructors worldwide with Reebok shoes.
2. Adaptation and Collaboration Are Key in Fitness Partnerships: Michael highlighted the importance of partnerships between leading fitness brands and educators. Collaborations with companies like Reebok brought vast exposure and validation to AFAA’s education programs. However, he also notes that how big brands like Nike and Reebok interact with the sector continues to evolve, and education may not always be their current focus, despite massive historical investments.
3. Career Shifts Bring Transferable Skills: After a successful run in fitness, Pesta took a leap into the entertainment industry, producing films and learning every facet of the production business. This gave him valuable skills in production, marketing, and distribution—skills he would later apply upon returning to the fitness and telehealth sectors.
4. The Next Big Thing-Telefitness as an Extension of Telehealth: Michael’s current focus is to create a trusted, HIPAA-compliant platform that not only vets the best personal trainers but also positions them for direct referrals from healthcare providers. This effort aims to solve the industry’s historical inability to connect personal training with mainstream healthcare.
5. Support and Upskilling for Personal Trainers: Telefitness will provide personal trainers with new opportunities for entrepreneurship, offering lead generation, business-building support (like webinars specifically for virtual training), and potential client referrals sourced from both healthcare and consumer channels. Trainers won’t be charged upfront SaaS fees; instead, the model will center on revenue-sharing. The emphasis is on elevating trainers’ roles, including launching specialties like the “medical personal trainer.”
Resources:
- Michael Pesta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-h-pesta-satori-1a9776a5/
- AFAA: https://www.afaa.com
- Classroom Trainer: https://www.classroomtrainer.com
- Prospect Wizard: https://www.theprospectwizard.com
- Promotion Vault: http://www.promotionvault.com
- HigherDose: http://www.higherdose.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership
with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I
mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows
you to convert
(00:21):
call, text, or leave a voice mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales
team, or anyone else in the club instantly. MIT shows a
study that if you contact the lead within ten minutes, chasing them
converting goes up nine times that of the average.
We got the Atlanta clubs on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym,
Mountainside, City Fitness Philly, College Park.
(00:43):
Become one of the next halo companies to
deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the
prospectwizard.com. Get a free thirty day trial. Talk to
my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up and let the
leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them.
(01:03):
This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of having
Michael Pesta who has been in the Halo sector previously,
then when it did a little rant in the entertainment industry
successfully, and now he's on his way back, telehealth beaming
back to us. So, Michael, welcome to your first Halo Talks. Thank
you. Thank you so much, Pete, for having me. Awesome. So start off,
(01:26):
and tell people, you know, how you originally got involved in
AFAA, which, which at the time was one of the largest fitness
education brands, what you did there, and we'll kind of, fast
forward from there. Sure. Not a problem. Well, actually, I was a
struggling actor back then, and I came there just to help them
move some boxes. And before I knew it, there was a
(01:48):
handful of women, really. I was the only guy in there.
And, just went from, that was
in I'm showing my age now, but back in the mid
eighties. So, from there, I actually ended up being
the director of membership, make a long story short,
became this, created a telemarketing division for
(02:10):
them. And that telemarketing became the mainstay for the revenue.
So we built it over time. We put it into about
73 different countries, but it you know, over that time,
it was the first of its kind. So we were the first
really setting standard and guidelines in fitness. I was able to get a front
row seat to that and able to when I left,
(02:32):
I I left, after about twelve or thirteen
years, and I was, on the board of directors,
senior vice president of both the sales and the marketing. But more
importantly, we were able I was able to be a part of something
that was really a movement back then. And it would it
took off, and it just you know, we're just trying to keep up with it
(02:54):
really, but that's how I got started just by moving
boxes. What were you guys what were you what was the what was the
core, playbook for AFAA
at the time? What what were you offering certifications in?
And, you know, given that our industry, I would say, on
average, is probably not the the the fastest one either to
(03:16):
embrace technology or to embrace education.
You know, what what were some of the takeaways from that or some
of the things that you were, positively, you know,
recall from from those, you know, memories, if you will?
Yeah. So the takeaway on that would be
that when you're the first into an industry
(03:40):
and nobody's done it before, you get a chance
to see the hurdles that are in front of you. There was
a lot of challenges that there was,
back then, the technology was one eight hundred.
Okay? And so we had what these things call a t one. So we had
a lot of, you know, technical things
(04:03):
back then, but it wasn't so much as we look at it today, but it
was phone systems and being able to route
calls and so forth. So as we grew, I hope I'm answering your
question, part of part of the struggle there
was figuring out even technology back then, how to route a call to the right
person sitting at the desk. But we were,
(04:25):
new to the industry as far as education was concerned, And the
what stood out was that we got together with
Reebok. So Reebok back then was you know, they were the
big players, and we made a deal with them that we'll
put Reebok shoes on all the instructors who were
at that point, millions every day.
(04:48):
So that was our that the takeaway on that was you
can integrate and cooperate with others in the industry,
even though you're new to it in many ways. So I think that was
my big takeaway would be Reebok with it. And and if you take a
look at what what people like Reebok or what Nike
(05:08):
are doing today, like, Nike, you know, has got a deal with a group called
Fit Labs where they're doing Nike running centers. You've got, you
know, Reebok that used to have a huge partnership with CrossFit. That
seems to be kinda, like, been wiped off the Internet. I don't know if you
if you saw, but they used to be some awesome CrossFit and Reebok commercials,
which no longer seem to be available. But but they
(05:28):
obviously spent millions and millions of dollars. You know, where do you see
companies like that getting comfortable on the education or
actually using their brand in the industry? And, you know, do
you think they're they're a little bit naysayers coming into the industry, some of
them maybe had had good, you know, success in relationships,
some of them maybe were licking their wounds? Yeah. I
(05:50):
think, you know, if the today
as far as today is concerned Yeah. I've really been
looking at how they're doing and so forth. I do know
that they're you know, I do see some of their labs some
some because of COVID have closed down as far as the the
studios themselves. The education part,
(06:12):
has been, from my understanding,
was always there. It may be not as prevalent as it used to
be, but Reebok, used to have a lot of different types of
programs that it produced for fitness instructors or
fitness enthusiasts to put their shoes on. And Nike itself
seems to certainly be out there in many way. Very
(06:34):
influencers, celebrity driven product
today. But education, you know,
seems to have been kicked around a little, over the years,
and I'm not sure where they're really landing today with the education.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So so talk about, you know, when you left the industry and
when you went into, entertainment. Okay.
(06:58):
So, you know, like anything else, right, I was,
after twelve years, I was in my mid thirties by
then. And after putting it into working
really sixty to eighty hours a week. We were working a lot back
then. I couldn't get out of my car one day, to be honest
with you. I just couldn't couldn't do it anymore. And I
(07:20):
put a call into AFA, and I said I can't you know,
I'm taking a few days off. And I went to this place called
Esalon, which is a place up north where it's you know,
where you can get away, but it had a meditation hut. Take a long story
short, I sat in that meditation hut for for days, and
then finally, I sorta came out with a clear picture. I wanted to go
(07:42):
make films, and that's what I did. I put my resignation
in, and I started to go making
films. So I became an independent producer.
I worked for, different companies. I
was I produced family films like soccer mom.
I did music as well. I was a music
(08:04):
producer. A lot of acquisitions. But more
importantly, Pete, it gave me the background
for production. So I learned every aspect of production from writing,
directing, producing, delivering, and so forth. And
so that's when those days back then
were really, you know, make
(08:26):
a film, go go to go to video. Right? The blockbusters of the
worlds and so forth. And one of the clever ideas I
had because of Reebok with Apple was we put,
my producing friend there, we put Ladies
Home Journal into carrying our our
(08:46):
products. So Okay. That worked with,
marketing as far as strategy is concerned. But then I saw the online
coming in 02/1516 into our
industry, so that's why when I left and came back again.
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this
(09:07):
company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards
from retailers that allow you to incentivize your
members without having to do zero down and one month
free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What
you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that
people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.
(09:29):
So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards
vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.
They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be
able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your
club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and
outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them
(09:52):
to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded
properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.
You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is
real.
When you came back, what what what is there anything that distinctly
changed? You know, I got into this industry back in February,
(10:14):
And some of the issues that I had then, you know, I still
have now in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, which are, you know,
there's not as much of an appetite for hours
being allocated towards education. People, like, actually wanna
learn the financial aspects of the business and other
aspects of the business that are maybe outside of their, like, core day to
(10:37):
day, you know, domain. If I'm a personal trainer, there's no reason I
shouldn't have the business acumen to understand how the whole club works. There's
no reason why I shouldn't understand what the, you know, financial
economics are of building a location. Because at some point, I'm gonna get the
itch to potentially do that myself, or maybe I might convince
myself that that's not something as an entrepreneur I wanna do or put
(10:59):
my, you know, risk risk what I'm doing personally
as, like, doubling down on my job. Right? I'm I got a business that
now depends on me, and, also, I got investors that
depend on me. I've got debt that depends on me to pay them back. I
got landlords. You know, things get much more complicated. So have you
seen any cosmic shift? Are you more inclined
(11:21):
to be excited about what you're doing as we get to telefitness
because of, like, the the background on some of the people that are now in
our industry and the technology, you know, savviness versus what
what it was thirty years ago? Yeah. No. It's a good question.
Yeah. No. I'm very excited about it. And what I've been able to see is
(11:41):
that what brought me forward or or back into this industry
is the, you know, the entrepreneurship
for personal trainers today. The education
still needs to be coming forward because what we're
doing with when we first started certified personal
trainers, there were have always been those who wanna be entrepreneurs, and they
(12:04):
want to do their own thing. And I think the online education
today is starting to direct them towards that way.
But more importantly, we're creating now new,
tiers for them to, educate themselves. In other words,
specialty programs are there now. They're just, they're not just counting,
(12:24):
you know, sit ups and telling people how to just to lose
weight. They're going above and beyond that with specialty programs.
And today, one of the roles that we're creating
through classroom trainer, a company I have, is the medical
personal trainer, which will elevate them to interact with,
the health care industry more. So I hope I'm answering your
(12:46):
question where Yeah. Yeah. Education, is
still evolving. The personal trainer role is still
evolving, and them seeking out education to be entrepreneurs
is sort of interacts with what we're doing with
telefitness. Gotcha. You know, and and let let let's
talk now about, you know, telefitness. As you think about
(13:09):
it as, you know, a a solution,
what are some of the things that you
deem that has been successful in telehealth that could be overlaid into
telefitness, and and what frustration did you find
that that this is going to solve? Okay. So good
question. So we you know, one of the things we see,
(13:32):
first of all, with telefitness as a mission, so to speak,
is that we're going out there to be no
different than after to be the world's largest of what we do because
I'm in the position with the relationships we've been able to
gather. The hurdles have been, you know, at first, like,
well, now we gotta go get the trainers. Well, we've absorbed about
(13:54):
50,000 trainers on the sideline right now that we
can incorporate. So to bring it into a tele
mode, meaning a platform that will interact properly,
is, something we're doing right now. We're vetting the the the
groups, for that. So there's a hurdle
there because you've gotta pick the right because we
(14:17):
wanna be that sample golden approval for the
not just the fitness industry. We know the fitness industry.
We have the best of the best to go out to consumer, get
them to come to us. But what we've never done well, Pete,
as a as an industry, the fitness industry, we've never interacted
well with health care. And I in order to do
(14:39):
that, we had to take telefitness,
and I gathered leaders in this industry. So it's not just
myself. I'm leading it at the moment, but we've got together a group
of people that said now is the time to do it. And
we're validating them, verifying them, so they'll
be of that where doctors tomorrow
(15:03):
will feel comfortable to send somebody once point of patient care is
done over to Total Fitness. But the hurdle
spend right now, we got the trainers.
We're vetting the different companies for the platform,
which, by the way, is really interesting because you have a
lot of different players out there. We're ours will be HIPAA
(15:25):
compliant. People will be able to share notes, so
forth. So we're getting through that hurdle. And I guess the next hurdle
is gonna be the finance. I don't you know, we have people knocking on our
door already, but our next goal would be, getting it,
into a beta test, which is gonna be in q one, q '2 of next
year. And tell me exactly
(15:49):
how the process is gonna work. So I'm a personal
trainer. And, obviously, there are a lot of companies during COVID
that tethered themselves to personal trainers. Those companies no longer
exist. Right. Because a lot of the personal trainers said, hey.
I'm gonna go direct either through YouTube or through,
you know, Zoom or through some you know, through through Facebook Live or what
(16:12):
have you. It started to get on some of these SaaS
platforms that were basically helping them run their business. And
then once people went back to the to the clubs, you know, the the
trainers went back also and said, hey. This is kind of like a nice ancillary
part of the business, but, you know, I don't wanna just be doing remote.
So how do you view, you know, the either the ease of use
(16:34):
or, like, the leverage or the scalability that you're going to be
potentially providing and how a trainer kinda
interacts with the tele fitness, you know, platform they're
building? Well, so far, we've taken a temperature with trainers, and
I don't think we'll there will be a scarcity for getting them
to onboard. Right? Because everybody you
(16:56):
know, we'll be feeding them leads. And so and getting
them, so we'll have their schedule and we'll fill the appointment for
so to speak. And we're not gonna just have any trainer just because we have
access to 50,000 plus. Doesn't mean we're gonna we're gonna
take the best of the best and we're gonna feed those who
are and have been through a protocol with us.
(17:18):
So I think they're you know, if I'm answering your question right,
the, trainer themselves would be looking to come on board
because, one, they're now in this club,
so to speak, that is gonna be interacting with health care as
well as your regular clients you would, be able to get to the consumer
part. So I think there's a lot of,
(17:41):
trainers out there who would love to have this business and get the
business to them, and we're looking to to do that.
So so as part of this, like, a lead generation, like, for
for trainers? So I'm gonna be on your system. I'm getting you're you're going into
the medical community. You're going into some of the health care,
insurance providers, and you're basically helping them, you know,
(18:04):
utilize a personal training platform. So
one not only is there a reason to get on because you could
tech you know, scale yourself and your time, but I
am going if I'm speaking for you, you know, I'm I'm joining
this platform, and they're gonna send me revenue opportunities and and and
clients. Correct. That's exactly how it's gonna be.
(18:27):
And more importantly too, we'll be able to you know, once they have
a client I used to run gyms. So and I used to run personal
trainers live. Right? So I knew that that I knew how
to how that all worked. I think I've had every job that you could possibly
have in the fitness industry. And Yep. And one of the things that
they need is is leads. And not only that, but
(18:49):
retaining them. So we'll have a lot of,
you know, follow-up. The the good news about
telefitness is that we will have a system that once the
the session is over with, the user will get an email from us
how did the session go. So there's a lot of that going on,
(19:10):
watching it so that we have the sustainability to
get somebody to come back. So the trainers will have a lot
of, actually, webinars we will give them as well
on how to work with and be online, which is
completely different, by the way, than being in person. There's a
there's a there's a, an art to being a virtual
(19:32):
trainer. Yes. You know, as you take a look at, like,
what the price point is, do you have an idea of what
trainers would be willing to pay either on, like, a monthly
SaaS fee or as a percentage of a new
client onboarding? Well, to get it started, we're not
gonna we're just going to create a invitation and
(19:54):
get people on board. They're not gonna pay anything. There's no the
trainers were only will only receive x amount
for their participation. So just like a club, we're gonna do
a rev share with them. Got it. So they won't
have to to pay anything.
This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.
(20:18):
We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose, higher dose
dot com. They are the leader in workout
recovery products, infrared technology, LED
light masks, neck enhancers, and other
products such as PMF mats and sauna blankets.
If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train
(20:40):
yet, your time and your stop is now. You gotta
get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end
up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and
going into one of their locations for $200 per
month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an
expert in workout recovery if we are already the authority in
(21:02):
workouts. Higher dose, check it out. There's a
wholesale code, and we look forward to helping
you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your
members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy,
and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.
(21:24):
And then from a standpoint of of you building a business, maybe
like getting into your brain as an entrepreneur, You know, you're talking
about a q '1, q two kinda beta test.
You seem like you have a a methodical way
about building the business, whereas if I'm
an entrepreneur, I'd probably tell you let me tell you what's happening next week. Let
(21:47):
me tell you what's happening in two weeks. Let me tell you what's happening in
thirty days. You seem to have, like, a longer term view on it,
which is refreshing, you know, to basically say, hey. If I'm gonna build
this business, I'm not gonna learn everything I need to learn in thirty, sixty, or
ninety days. I gotta, you know, plot this out. And once
we're ready, then we'll scale it. So do you have any you
(22:08):
know, if someone was to say, you know, how does how does Pesto think
about the business or building a business, are there certain things that
outside looking at yourself, you'd say, like, this is how, like, I'm I'm
kinda built.
Yeah. So the as
far as working with trainers and getting them wanting to
(22:30):
participate, you mean? Well, just just like the fact that, like, you're, like, on a
multiyear plan. You're not on, like, a multi day or multi month, you know,
road map Yeah. As an entrepreneur. Yeah. So the
business application for them will be, you know, we will
have typically what they're used to. In a gym, they'll have
prepaid sessions that we've already, accumulated
(22:53):
for them. They just have to show up and do it. But But more
importantly too that they're gonna be able to you know, there's
a there's benefits to everything, and and and,
and one of the benefits is being online is
it costs your cost down. You're not driving around a lot.
We're sending you the the business at hand. And
(23:15):
keep in mind that we're gonna have AI. So we
have the, once you receive a
client from us to the trainer, the trainer themselves
will be able to we they've already been pre
they filled out an application, the user. So they've already gone
through, and they're gonna get a client that's already been
(23:37):
prescreened for the type of training that they do.
Gotcha. So they'll have those notes there. So we'll and we're gonna
have different programs for them, how to build their business, you
know, more importantly. And eventually, we will, but not at
the beginning, Pete. We're going to refer out to a a
(23:57):
trainer who's a a a tele fitness trainer at
their location as long as we can verify where they
work it at and so forth. Gotcha. Gotcha. So
in closing here, you know, one, welcome to the halo sector or welcome
back to the halo sector. If there's, you
know, prospective, partners that that are listening to
(24:19):
this or prospective employees or or clients,
you know, you'll give us your, give us your elevator pitch on, like, what
what what's the benefit of working with you exclusively in your
team and why? Okay. So what the
benefit will be for anybody who's running HR
departments or, you know, are in the health
(24:42):
care sector, we, meaning telefitness, will
be a solution, I believe, for preventive care.
That's our main goal here right now. So Okay. There are
HR departments that need their employees to be, you know,
active, to be alert, to all the benefits that come along
with being healthy or being fit, we'll be able to get
(25:05):
in there because many of your people today, whether
point of patient care is done with with a doctor's office, they don't know where
to go, we could be that solution. For those who are sitting
in an HR, in an office, who feel intimidated to go
into a gym or even to talk to somebody about their
fitness needs, we can do that. And as far as it goes with
(25:27):
the the the, rest of the,
basic consumer, you know, they'll have verified
trainers, not somebody online like a YouTube who can
be anybody. This is a verified group of people
who that they can rely on. Awesome. Yeah. Well,
sounds good. We'll have all the information in the show notes. Look forward to,
(25:50):
seeing how the beta test go, and I know you're talking to a lot of
big players. They're in development. So, congrats
on, on the entrepreneurial move back to this, chapter
of your life. I look forward to seeing you in person. Thank you so much,
Pete. Thank you, Dave. Thanks, guys.
I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership
with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I
mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows
you to convert
(00:21):
call, text, or leave a voice mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales
team, or anyone else in the club instantly. MIT shows a
study that if you contact the lead within ten minutes, chasing them
converting goes up nine times that of the average.
We got the Atlanta clubs on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym,
Mountainside, City Fitness Philly, College Park.
(00:43):
Become one of the next halo companies to
deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the
prospectwizard.com. Get a free thirty day trial. Talk to
my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up and let the
leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them.
(01:03):
This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of having
Michael Pesta who has been in the Halo sector previously,
then when it did a little rant in the entertainment industry
successfully, and now he's on his way back, telehealth beaming
back to us. So, Michael, welcome to your first Halo Talks. Thank
you. Thank you so much, Pete, for having me. Awesome. So start off,
(01:26):
and tell people, you know, how you originally got involved in
AFAA, which, which at the time was one of the largest fitness
education brands, what you did there, and we'll kind of, fast
forward from there. Sure. Not a problem. Well, actually, I was a
struggling actor back then, and I came there just to help them
move some boxes. And before I knew it, there was a
(01:48):
handful of women, really. I was the only guy in there.
And, just went from, that was
in I'm showing my age now, but back in the mid
eighties. So, from there, I actually ended up being
the director of membership, make a long story short,
became this, created a telemarketing division for
(02:10):
them. And that telemarketing became the mainstay for the revenue.
So we built it over time. We put it into about
73 different countries, but it you know, over that time,
it was the first of its kind. So we were the first
really setting standard and guidelines in fitness. I was able to get a front
row seat to that and able to when I left,
(02:32):
I I left, after about twelve or thirteen
years, and I was, on the board of directors,
senior vice president of both the sales and the marketing. But more
importantly, we were able I was able to be a part of something
that was really a movement back then. And it would it
took off, and it just you know, we're just trying to keep up with it
(02:54):
really, but that's how I got started just by moving
boxes. What were you guys what were you what was the what was the
core, playbook for AFAA
at the time? What what were you offering certifications in?
And, you know, given that our industry, I would say, on
average, is probably not the the the fastest one either to
(03:16):
embrace technology or to embrace education.
You know, what what were some of the takeaways from that or some
of the things that you were, positively, you know,
recall from from those, you know, memories, if you will?
Yeah. So the takeaway on that would be
that when you're the first into an industry
(03:40):
and nobody's done it before, you get a chance
to see the hurdles that are in front of you. There was
a lot of challenges that there was,
back then, the technology was one eight hundred.
Okay? And so we had what these things call a t one. So we had
a lot of, you know, technical things
(04:03):
back then, but it wasn't so much as we look at it today, but it
was phone systems and being able to route
calls and so forth. So as we grew, I hope I'm answering your
question, part of part of the struggle there
was figuring out even technology back then, how to route a call to the right
person sitting at the desk. But we were,
(04:25):
new to the industry as far as education was concerned, And the
what stood out was that we got together with
Reebok. So Reebok back then was you know, they were the
big players, and we made a deal with them that we'll
put Reebok shoes on all the instructors who were
at that point, millions every day.
(04:48):
So that was our that the takeaway on that was you
can integrate and cooperate with others in the industry,
even though you're new to it in many ways. So I think that was
my big takeaway would be Reebok with it. And and if you take a
look at what what people like Reebok or what Nike
(05:08):
are doing today, like, Nike, you know, has got a deal with a group called
Fit Labs where they're doing Nike running centers. You've got, you
know, Reebok that used to have a huge partnership with CrossFit. That
seems to be kinda, like, been wiped off the Internet. I don't know if you
if you saw, but they used to be some awesome CrossFit and Reebok commercials,
which no longer seem to be available. But but they
(05:28):
obviously spent millions and millions of dollars. You know, where do you see
companies like that getting comfortable on the education or
actually using their brand in the industry? And, you know, do
you think they're they're a little bit naysayers coming into the industry, some of
them maybe had had good, you know, success in relationships,
some of them maybe were licking their wounds? Yeah. I
(05:50):
think, you know, if the today
as far as today is concerned Yeah. I've really been
looking at how they're doing and so forth. I do know
that they're you know, I do see some of their labs some
some because of COVID have closed down as far as the the
studios themselves. The education part,
(06:12):
has been, from my understanding,
was always there. It may be not as prevalent as it used to
be, but Reebok, used to have a lot of different types of
programs that it produced for fitness instructors or
fitness enthusiasts to put their shoes on. And Nike itself
seems to certainly be out there in many way. Very
(06:34):
influencers, celebrity driven product
today. But education, you know,
seems to have been kicked around a little, over the years,
and I'm not sure where they're really landing today with the education.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So so talk about, you know, when you left the industry and
when you went into, entertainment. Okay.
(06:58):
So, you know, like anything else, right, I was,
after twelve years, I was in my mid thirties by
then. And after putting it into working
really sixty to eighty hours a week. We were working a lot back
then. I couldn't get out of my car one day, to be honest
with you. I just couldn't couldn't do it anymore. And I
(07:20):
put a call into AFA, and I said I can't you know,
I'm taking a few days off. And I went to this place called
Esalon, which is a place up north where it's you know,
where you can get away, but it had a meditation hut. Take a long story
short, I sat in that meditation hut for for days, and
then finally, I sorta came out with a clear picture. I wanted to go
(07:42):
make films, and that's what I did. I put my resignation
in, and I started to go making
films. So I became an independent producer.
I worked for, different companies. I
was I produced family films like soccer mom.
I did music as well. I was a music
(08:04):
producer. A lot of acquisitions. But more
importantly, Pete, it gave me the background
for production. So I learned every aspect of production from writing,
directing, producing, delivering, and so forth. And
so that's when those days back then
were really, you know, make
(08:26):
a film, go go to go to video. Right? The blockbusters of the
worlds and so forth. And one of the clever ideas I
had because of Reebok with Apple was we put,
my producing friend there, we put Ladies
Home Journal into carrying our our
(08:46):
products. So Okay. That worked with,
marketing as far as strategy is concerned. But then I saw the online
coming in 02/1516 into our
industry, so that's why when I left and came back again.
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this
(09:07):
company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards
from retailers that allow you to incentivize your
members without having to do zero down and one month
free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What
you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that
people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.
(09:29):
So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards
vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.
They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be
able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your
club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and
outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them
(09:52):
to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded
properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.
You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is
real.
When you came back, what what what is there anything that distinctly
changed? You know, I got into this industry back in February,
(10:14):
And some of the issues that I had then, you know, I still
have now in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, which are, you know,
there's not as much of an appetite for hours
being allocated towards education. People, like, actually wanna
learn the financial aspects of the business and other
aspects of the business that are maybe outside of their, like, core day to
(10:37):
day, you know, domain. If I'm a personal trainer, there's no reason I
shouldn't have the business acumen to understand how the whole club works. There's
no reason why I shouldn't understand what the, you know, financial
economics are of building a location. Because at some point, I'm gonna get the
itch to potentially do that myself, or maybe I might convince
myself that that's not something as an entrepreneur I wanna do or put
(10:59):
my, you know, risk risk what I'm doing personally
as, like, doubling down on my job. Right? I'm I got a business that
now depends on me, and, also, I got investors that
depend on me. I've got debt that depends on me to pay them back. I
got landlords. You know, things get much more complicated. So have you
seen any cosmic shift? Are you more inclined
(11:21):
to be excited about what you're doing as we get to telefitness
because of, like, the the background on some of the people that are now in
our industry and the technology, you know, savviness versus what
what it was thirty years ago? Yeah. No. It's a good question.
Yeah. No. I'm very excited about it. And what I've been able to see is
(11:41):
that what brought me forward or or back into this industry
is the, you know, the entrepreneurship
for personal trainers today. The education
still needs to be coming forward because what we're
doing with when we first started certified personal
trainers, there were have always been those who wanna be entrepreneurs, and they
(12:04):
want to do their own thing. And I think the online education
today is starting to direct them towards that way.
But more importantly, we're creating now new,
tiers for them to, educate themselves. In other words,
specialty programs are there now. They're just, they're not just counting,
(12:24):
you know, sit ups and telling people how to just to lose
weight. They're going above and beyond that with specialty programs.
And today, one of the roles that we're creating
through classroom trainer, a company I have, is the medical
personal trainer, which will elevate them to interact with,
the health care industry more. So I hope I'm answering your
(12:46):
question where Yeah. Yeah. Education, is
still evolving. The personal trainer role is still
evolving, and them seeking out education to be entrepreneurs
is sort of interacts with what we're doing with
telefitness. Gotcha. You know, and and let let let's
talk now about, you know, telefitness. As you think about
(13:09):
it as, you know, a a solution,
what are some of the things that you
deem that has been successful in telehealth that could be overlaid into
telefitness, and and what frustration did you find
that that this is going to solve? Okay. So good
question. So we you know, one of the things we see,
(13:32):
first of all, with telefitness as a mission, so to speak,
is that we're going out there to be no
different than after to be the world's largest of what we do because
I'm in the position with the relationships we've been able to
gather. The hurdles have been, you know, at first, like,
well, now we gotta go get the trainers. Well, we've absorbed about
(13:54):
50,000 trainers on the sideline right now that we
can incorporate. So to bring it into a tele
mode, meaning a platform that will interact properly,
is, something we're doing right now. We're vetting the the the
groups, for that. So there's a hurdle
there because you've gotta pick the right because we
(14:17):
wanna be that sample golden approval for the
not just the fitness industry. We know the fitness industry.
We have the best of the best to go out to consumer, get
them to come to us. But what we've never done well, Pete,
as a as an industry, the fitness industry, we've never interacted
well with health care. And I in order to do
(14:39):
that, we had to take telefitness,
and I gathered leaders in this industry. So it's not just
myself. I'm leading it at the moment, but we've got together a group
of people that said now is the time to do it. And
we're validating them, verifying them, so they'll
be of that where doctors tomorrow
(15:03):
will feel comfortable to send somebody once point of patient care is
done over to Total Fitness. But the hurdle
spend right now, we got the trainers.
We're vetting the different companies for the platform,
which, by the way, is really interesting because you have a
lot of different players out there. We're ours will be HIPAA
(15:25):
compliant. People will be able to share notes, so
forth. So we're getting through that hurdle. And I guess the next hurdle
is gonna be the finance. I don't you know, we have people knocking on our
door already, but our next goal would be, getting it,
into a beta test, which is gonna be in q one, q '2 of next
year. And tell me exactly
(15:49):
how the process is gonna work. So I'm a personal
trainer. And, obviously, there are a lot of companies during COVID
that tethered themselves to personal trainers. Those companies no longer
exist. Right. Because a lot of the personal trainers said, hey.
I'm gonna go direct either through YouTube or through,
you know, Zoom or through some you know, through through Facebook Live or what
(16:12):
have you. It started to get on some of these SaaS
platforms that were basically helping them run their business. And
then once people went back to the to the clubs, you know, the the
trainers went back also and said, hey. This is kind of like a nice ancillary
part of the business, but, you know, I don't wanna just be doing remote.
So how do you view, you know, the either the ease of use
(16:34):
or, like, the leverage or the scalability that you're going to be
potentially providing and how a trainer kinda
interacts with the tele fitness, you know, platform they're
building? Well, so far, we've taken a temperature with trainers, and
I don't think we'll there will be a scarcity for getting them
to onboard. Right? Because everybody you
(16:56):
know, we'll be feeding them leads. And so and getting
them, so we'll have their schedule and we'll fill the appointment for
so to speak. And we're not gonna just have any trainer just because we have
access to 50,000 plus. Doesn't mean we're gonna we're gonna
take the best of the best and we're gonna feed those who
are and have been through a protocol with us.
(17:18):
So I think they're you know, if I'm answering your question right,
the, trainer themselves would be looking to come on board
because, one, they're now in this club,
so to speak, that is gonna be interacting with health care as
well as your regular clients you would, be able to get to the consumer
part. So I think there's a lot of,
(17:41):
trainers out there who would love to have this business and get the
business to them, and we're looking to to do that.
So so as part of this, like, a lead generation, like, for
for trainers? So I'm gonna be on your system. I'm getting you're you're going into
the medical community. You're going into some of the health care,
insurance providers, and you're basically helping them, you know,
(18:04):
utilize a personal training platform. So
one not only is there a reason to get on because you could
tech you know, scale yourself and your time, but I
am going if I'm speaking for you, you know, I'm I'm joining
this platform, and they're gonna send me revenue opportunities and and and
clients. Correct. That's exactly how it's gonna be.
(18:27):
And more importantly too, we'll be able to you know, once they have
a client I used to run gyms. So and I used to run personal
trainers live. Right? So I knew that that I knew how
to how that all worked. I think I've had every job that you could possibly
have in the fitness industry. And Yep. And one of the things that
they need is is leads. And not only that, but
(18:49):
retaining them. So we'll have a lot of,
you know, follow-up. The the good news about
telefitness is that we will have a system that once the
the session is over with, the user will get an email from us
how did the session go. So there's a lot of that going on,
(19:10):
watching it so that we have the sustainability to
get somebody to come back. So the trainers will have a lot
of, actually, webinars we will give them as well
on how to work with and be online, which is
completely different, by the way, than being in person. There's a
there's a there's a, an art to being a virtual
(19:32):
trainer. Yes. You know, as you take a look at, like,
what the price point is, do you have an idea of what
trainers would be willing to pay either on, like, a monthly
SaaS fee or as a percentage of a new
client onboarding? Well, to get it started, we're not
gonna we're just going to create a invitation and
(19:54):
get people on board. They're not gonna pay anything. There's no the
trainers were only will only receive x amount
for their participation. So just like a club, we're gonna do
a rev share with them. Got it. So they won't
have to to pay anything.
This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.
(20:18):
We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose, higher dose
dot com. They are the leader in workout
recovery products, infrared technology, LED
light masks, neck enhancers, and other
products such as PMF mats and sauna blankets.
If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train
(20:40):
yet, your time and your stop is now. You gotta
get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end
up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and
going into one of their locations for $200 per
month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an
expert in workout recovery if we are already the authority in
(21:02):
workouts. Higher dose, check it out. There's a
wholesale code, and we look forward to helping
you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your
members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy,
and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.
(21:24):
And then from a standpoint of of you building a business, maybe
like getting into your brain as an entrepreneur, You know, you're talking
about a q '1, q two kinda beta test.
You seem like you have a a methodical way
about building the business, whereas if I'm
an entrepreneur, I'd probably tell you let me tell you what's happening next week. Let
(21:47):
me tell you what's happening in two weeks. Let me tell you what's happening in
thirty days. You seem to have, like, a longer term view on it,
which is refreshing, you know, to basically say, hey. If I'm gonna build
this business, I'm not gonna learn everything I need to learn in thirty, sixty, or
ninety days. I gotta, you know, plot this out. And once
we're ready, then we'll scale it. So do you have any you
(22:08):
know, if someone was to say, you know, how does how does Pesto think
about the business or building a business, are there certain things that
outside looking at yourself, you'd say, like, this is how, like, I'm I'm
kinda built.
Yeah. So the as
far as working with trainers and getting them wanting to
(22:30):
participate, you mean? Well, just just like the fact that, like, you're, like, on a
multiyear plan. You're not on, like, a multi day or multi month, you know,
road map Yeah. As an entrepreneur. Yeah. So the
business application for them will be, you know, we will
have typically what they're used to. In a gym, they'll have
prepaid sessions that we've already, accumulated
(22:53):
for them. They just have to show up and do it. But But more
importantly too that they're gonna be able to you know, there's
a there's benefits to everything, and and and,
and one of the benefits is being online is
it costs your cost down. You're not driving around a lot.
We're sending you the the business at hand. And
(23:15):
keep in mind that we're gonna have AI. So we
have the, once you receive a
client from us to the trainer, the trainer themselves
will be able to we they've already been pre
they filled out an application, the user. So they've already gone
through, and they're gonna get a client that's already been
(23:37):
prescreened for the type of training that they do.
Gotcha. So they'll have those notes there. So we'll and we're gonna
have different programs for them, how to build their business, you
know, more importantly. And eventually, we will, but not at
the beginning, Pete. We're going to refer out to a a
(23:57):
trainer who's a a a tele fitness trainer at
their location as long as we can verify where they
work it at and so forth. Gotcha. Gotcha. So
in closing here, you know, one, welcome to the halo sector or welcome
back to the halo sector. If there's, you
know, prospective, partners that that are listening to
(24:19):
this or prospective employees or or clients,
you know, you'll give us your, give us your elevator pitch on, like, what
what what's the benefit of working with you exclusively in your
team and why? Okay. So what the
benefit will be for anybody who's running HR
departments or, you know, are in the health
(24:42):
care sector, we, meaning telefitness, will
be a solution, I believe, for preventive care.
That's our main goal here right now. So Okay. There are
HR departments that need their employees to be, you know,
active, to be alert, to all the benefits that come along
with being healthy or being fit, we'll be able to get
(25:05):
in there because many of your people today, whether
point of patient care is done with with a doctor's office, they don't know where
to go, we could be that solution. For those who are sitting
in an HR, in an office, who feel intimidated to go
into a gym or even to talk to somebody about their
fitness needs, we can do that. And as far as it goes with
(25:27):
the the the, rest of the,
basic consumer, you know, they'll have verified
trainers, not somebody online like a YouTube who can
be anybody. This is a verified group of people
who that they can rely on. Awesome. Yeah. Well,
sounds good. We'll have all the information in the show notes. Look forward to,
(25:50):
seeing how the beta test go, and I know you're talking to a lot of
big players. They're in development. So, congrats
on, on the entrepreneurial move back to this, chapter
of your life. I look forward to seeing you in person. Thank you so much,
Pete. Thank you, Dave. Thanks, guys.
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