June 10, 2025 • 30 mins
The Functional Aging Summit, held online June 13–14, is an incredible opportunity to learn from industry leaders about how to train people over 50 and grow your business with this large, lucrative, and underserved population. Go here to learn more: https://functionalagingsummit.com
In this episode of the Optimal Aging Podcast, host Jay Croft talks with Dr. Dan Ritchie, co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute, who previews the upcoming event and shares compelling reasons why fitness professionals should be targeting the active aging market.
Dan and Jay explore how this growing demographic presents not just a meaningful mission but also a strategic business opportunity—with higher client retention, deeper impact, and long-term sustainability. You'll also hear about the advantages of a virtual summit, how you can still access all the sessions even if you miss it live, and the type of career-changing content you can expect.
It’s a no-brainer. Start learning here.
https://functionalagingsummit.com
Guest: Dr. Dan Ritchie
Dr. Dan Ritchie is the co-founder of the Functional Aging Institute and a recognized leader in fitness for older adults. He holds a doctorate in Health and Physical Education and has helped countless fitness professionals elevate their careers by better serving clients over 50.
🔗 Register for the Functional Aging Summit: https://functionalagingsummit.com
📬 Contact Jay: jay@primefitcontent.com
🌐 More from Jay: https://primefitcontent.com
📱 Follow Jay:
Instagram: @primefitcontent
LinkedIn: Jay Croft
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Everybody wants 25-year-old boys to throw
weights around for $10 a monthinstead of going after people
like you know like me, franklywho are a little bit older but
have the time and the money tobe better customers.
So tell us about the purpose ofthe summit in general.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, the purpose of the summit.
Gosh, this is the 11th annualkind of mind blowing to think
our summit's almost becoming ateenager here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hi everybody, I'm Jay Croft and welcome to the
Optimal Aging Podcast, where wediscuss the business of exercise
, healthy living and well-beingfor people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people over age 50and what's coming next, with a
focus on communications, contentand making powerful connections
(01:03):
.
The Functional Aging Instituteis having its annual Functional
Aging Summit online Friday andSaturday.
You can learn more about it andregister at
functionalagingsummitcom.
I think it's a great idea to doit online.
You know, even if you hearabout the summit later after
(01:24):
this weekend, you can still goonline and purchase the entire
presentation, so the informationis accessible to you, even if
you don't get to tune in, so tospeak.
This Friday and SaturdayThey'll have a lot of speakers a
couple dozen from fitness, whowill help you with your finances
, with your training, with youroutreach, everything really and
(01:47):
I'll be speaking about how tokeep your storytelling focus
where it belongs, which is onyour members and not on yourself
.
So I'll be speaking Fridaymorning.
I hope you'll tune in to listento what I have to say, but also
to all the other great speakers.
And, again, you can learn moreabout it at
functionalagingsummitcom.
(02:08):
Now, today, on Optimal Aging.
I have Dr Dan Ritchie from allthose years ago, who has been a
great supporter of Prime Fitcontent and of this show ever
since the beginning, as has DrCody, Seip, Celia and everyone
at Functional Aging, so wantedto have Dan on to preview this
weekend's activities andhopefully you'll all be
(02:30):
encouraged to check it out.
It changed my career, changedmy business for the better, and
it's still one of the mostimportant organizations I've
encountered in helping otherfitness professionals help more
people over 50 live better lives.
So enjoy my conversation withDr Dan Ritchie.
(02:50):
Thanks, Dan.
Hey there, Nice to see you again.
How's it going?
It's all great, Good to see you.
How are you?
I'm doing all right, Doing allright.
It's a nice Saturday morninghere in Atlanta and just about
to head out to start my day.
Yeah, I have a beautiful dayhere in Indiana.
(03:22):
We'll see.
It'll probably rain becausesoon.
We probably should have hadthis conversation a little while
ago, but better late than never, I suppose.
Thanks for joining me to talkabout it.
I never get tired of talkingabout the Functional Aging
Summit, because it was at theFunctional Aging Summit in 2018
in Orlando, where I met you andCody and Celia, and Paolo and
(03:43):
Bina and Rosa and Shelly, andall these people who changed my
life in the course of my career.
And so I want to tell everybodywho might not know what the
functional aging summit is, whatit is and why they really
should tune in as opposed toattend Now, doing it in Orlando
last year we did it in where wasit?
(04:04):
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Los Angeles last year .
Yeah, Salt Lake City the yearbefore that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, so tell us about the summit and why people
should tune in.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We've been making the rounds and this year it's
available to everyone,everywhere in the entire world,
right?
So you don't have to travel,which is nice, you know, one of
the reasons we wanted to do itvirtual again was just to give
more opportunity to more peoplethat can't travel In 2020 and
2021, we were kind of forced todo it virtually, which I know a
(04:34):
lot of us didn't necessarilyenjoy, but we had the most
attendance we've ever had by far, because you know people that
can't travel.
And by far because you knowpeople that can't travel.
I know I heard from single momsin Canada who are like do it
again virtual because I can'tleave my kids, you know, or I
can't leave my studio or I can'ttake three days off of work.
So there's a lot of advantagesto virtual.
(04:59):
There's also a lot of advantagesin that we can get more
speakers than ever.
So if you look at our speakerlineup, it's more diverse than
ever, because the cost of traveland speaking of that is
significant, right.
So we can't always get all thespeakers we want because they're
like oh, those dates don't workfor me, or I can't possibly be
in salt lake city if mydaughter's getting married
somewhere else.
You know it's like so, sovirtual just allows for a
greater opportunity of speakers,networking and and cost.
(05:20):
I mean way more people canattend because the cost of the
ticket is lower and the cost oftravel is zero.
Now I know some people that aretraveling because they're like,
hey, I'm going to make aweekend of it, right.
Yeah so they're Airbnb-ing itsomewhere with their staff or,
you know, they're turning itinto a weekend retreat with
their training team, which is agreat idea, right?
I mean, that works too if youstill want to make it sort of a
(05:43):
weekend event.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Wait, where is the actual weekend event?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Wherever you want it to be, right, jay.
So if your team is in CorpusChristi, texas, and you're like,
hey, let's go to the beach orlet's go to the mountains or
wherever we want to go, right.
So I know Bruno with Still Gotit Fitness has done this in the
past where he'll he'll take hiswhole team to an Airbnb on the
beach or they'll go up in themountains in California.
Okay, Business expense thewhole thing because it's a
(06:09):
conference, right.
So I know we have some peopledoing that because people are
like, oh, I don't get to travel,you can still travel if you
want to.
Um, all you need is a screen toto take in the conference.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So okay, I misunderstood.
I thought there was maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
There is that aspect for people that want to make it
a business.
You know they like the businesstrip, so to speak.
But the virtual also just givesyou a little bit more freedom,
right, you can be at your studioFriday morning and then take in
the sessions Friday afternoonand all day Saturday, you know,
and not feel like you had toleave.
You know training your clientsand that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And does the registration fee make available
recordings as well?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So it's $49 extra to get all the recordings forever.
So I've been encouragingeveryone to upgrade, because
that's the other advantage of avirtual conference.
Right when you were in LA, youprobably remember I mean you
were speaking.
If you were lucky, you probablytook in 10 or 12 sessions,
right, even though there were 30to choose from.
Well, you can't be in threerooms at the same time and, of
(07:11):
course, if you're speaking inone, you're probably preparing
for that before and while you'respeaking you can't be in other
sessions.
If you buy the recordings for$49, you get access to all the
sessions which again a liveevent.
You, you, simply, you're alwayslike, oh, I'm going to miss that
one, or I really want to go tothis one, or the three I really
want to attend, or all at thesame time.
That's going to happen with ourvirtual conference, but if you
(07:34):
have the recordings right, youcan.
Of course you want to.
You want to see Jay's sessionright, Like one's first and
foremost, but then whatever'sgoing on at the same time, you
have the recordings later, right?
So you can watch me later, youknow you don't have to watch,
watch me live, take that one inlater, so that's.
That's a big advantage, I think, because a lot of times, some
(07:54):
of the best sessions, you simplycan't attend because you can't,
you can't catch them all so soI love that aspect.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, let's take a the 30,000 foot view for anybody
out there who might not knowwhat is this about.
You're going to teach peopleabout the opportunity for gym
owners and others in fitnessthat lies.
Tell us about the main purposeof this.
You know that this is such ahuge economic opportunity that
(08:33):
the mainstream fitness industrystill ignores to its detriment.
Everybody wants 25 year oldboys to throw weights around for
$10 a month, instead of goingafter people like you know like
me, frankly who are a little bitolder but have the time and the
money to be better customers.
So tell us about the purpose ofthe summit in general.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, the purpose of the summit.
Gosh, this is the 11th annual.
Um, kind of mind blowing tothink our summit's almost
becoming a teenager here.
Um, you know, when we look back2015, cody and I looked across
the industry and we're likethere are no fitness events,
aging events, healthy agingevents.
There's nothing focused on thismarket.
There were a few fitnessconferences that had a couple of
(09:14):
senior fitness sessions, right,and a lot of times Cody and I
would be on the senior fitnesstrack or but there might not be
one talk in an entire conferenceof 50 sessions on, again,
senior fitness, which Cody and Ialways said is the wrong label,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
People in their 60s don't think of themselves as
seniors at all.
Their mom is a senior.
People in their early 70s, alot of times, have not embraced
that term.
My mother-in-law is 77.
Don't call her a senior.
She might slap you.
Right, that's right.
Just talking about yourMedicare, whatever.
I feel like I'm 37.
(09:50):
So Cody and I said we have tohave an event that really
combines two things, right andso for us, we're really about
two core pillars.
One is how do we train peopleover 50 and train them well,
right?
So there's the functionaltraining aspect.
How do we give them greatresults?
How do we train people over 50and train them well, right?
So there's the functionaltraining aspect.
How do we give them greatresults?
How do we train them safely?
How do we make sure trainersfeel confident to do it?
(10:12):
Not this oh, I don't want totrain old people because I might
break them or kill them.
Right, right, jay Croft, he'ssitting here.
Does anybody think they'regoing to kill him?
Training them?
I mean, it's just, it'sridiculous, right?
I'm in my fifties, you're inyour sixties.
Nobody's going to kill us, Imean, unless they, you know, try
to throw us off a cliff orsomething, do stuff.
They're really stupid.
Training right, but they needconfidence.
(10:34):
The other pillar, which mostfitness conferences do poorly as
a whole, is the business side.
Yeah, marketing, communication,messaging, sales, all the
things that you came to theFunctional Aging Summit the
first time saying hey, I don'tthink I fit here.
I'm a professional writer.
I'm like you, absolutely fithere, because most fitness
(10:57):
people don't know how to writeto people over the age of 50 at
all.
You've probably seen a lot offitness messages over the years
where you're like that'sterrible, right, it's horrible.
So we try to bring both ofthose together the fitness
trainer, the fitnessentrepreneur, the fitness studio
owner.
There's a massive market ofpeople over 50, 60, 70 years old
(11:17):
that aren't being communicatedto, aren't being marketed to,
aren't being trained, aren'tbeing offered any sort of
solution, and that's just a hugemissed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to
grow your business with peopleover 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
(11:55):
the best long-term fitnessconsumers you'll find anywhere.
If you're not focusing on them,you should be.
Prime Fit Content is the onlycontent marketing company
designed specifically to helpyou engage people in this group
and to help you distinguishyourself from competitors in
your community.
It's effective, affordable andsuper easy to use.
(12:15):
Check it out atprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime, like prime ofyour life fitcontentcom.
Back to the show.
It is, and it's that missedopportunity I think gets lost a
lot in these conversations.
Sometimes this used to happen alot when I first started doing
this and it still happens.
Sometimes people will say, oh,you help old people exercise,
(12:39):
that's so nice.
And I want to say yeah, no, Iknow it might be nice, I don't
care if it's nice, you know thatdoesn't matter.
It's just smart business.
I get being nice, I'm nothelping a little old lady cross
the street.
That's not what we're talkingabout you know nobody says.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Nobody says that to the Mercedes dealer, right, you
know it's like, oh, that'sreally nice that you sell
Mercedes to and nobody wouldeven say little old ladies.
You know it's like, oh, yousell Mercedes to bad-ass boomer
women, right, I mean it's like,but if I do fitness for those
same people, yeah Well, isn'tthat sweet that you're taking
care of them?
(13:16):
I'm like there's nothing sweetabout it, right?
Sure, there might be a level.
I always say the trainer doeshave to understand what a 60 and
70-year-old body is goingthrough.
They need to be some level ofcompassion and understanding and
being like hey, I can't justbeat your knees up because
they're already beat up, but I'mnot doing it to be nice, I'm
(13:38):
doing it to serve a populationthat, oh, by the way, has time
and money, they're a greatcustomer and I can give them
great results.
So, at the end of the day,business is about solving
somebody's problem, and thereare a lot of people in their 60s
and 70s that have healthproblems that we can solve
dramatically, all right.
So I think if you're a trainerlistening to this and you're
(14:00):
like I don't like it when Dr Dantalks about money, and so we
would get uncomfortable, right.
First of all, get morecomfortable with money.
But second of all, you willfind it very rewarding to work
with these people because youcan get them life changing
results and they will listen andthey will show up time and time
again.
That's the other thing.
If they sign up for two orthree sessions a week, they'll
(14:20):
do it.
They're reliable, right?
They're not like oh, I can'tmake it because I just ordered
takeout, you know it's like.
No, they have an appointment,they will be there.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yes, exactly, and you know you touched on something
that just made me remember whatI would love as a writer writing
about this all the time is thestories are so profound and so
emotional and genuine.
Get big muscles or help a 30year old new mom lose her baby
(14:54):
weight that's just kind of tablestakes.
You all know how to do that bigdeal, right?
I mean it's important and I'mglad you can do it and, don't
get me wrong, it's great.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, keep doing that stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Keep doing it.
Yeah, but you know the the thericher story, the greater
experience I think is helping arecently retired accountant be
able to play with hergrandchildren.
Or that wonderful story youtell about your client who
wanted to go to the Galapagosislands and she was just so
deconditioned she could barelycheck the mail and you made it
(15:25):
possible for her to go on thisonce-in-a-lifetime trip in her
60s or 70s.
Yeah, those are.
It was 80, she was 80, she was80 yeah, and and.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And.
I still share that story,because it wasn't just that we
got her the glop ghost.
That's the beautiful story,right, yeah, it's that.
We trained her till she was 87.
We couldn't get rid of her as aclient.
Right, joanne, you're stillcoming.
Why would she quit?
Right, and that's that's thething.
That's the beauty of theFunctional Aging Summit is we're
(15:57):
teaching people how to getclients like Joanne, train them
well, and then you have acustomer for five, seven, 10
years.
Right, that is the realbusiness value, right?
That's why I want to sell aMercedes to a boomer woman,
because I know she's going tocome back and buy another
Mercedes in three or four years.
Right, she's a great customerand in a lot of cases, she's a
(16:19):
customer for a long time.
The baby weight example yougave of course, we got to train
women to lose the baby weightand we got to train guys that
want to build big muscles, butif we do that, well, we put
ourselves out of a job.
Right, you lose the 20 poundsof baby weight.
Thanks, I'm good.
Right, like, wait, I just putmyself out of a client.
That's not true with a 70 yearolds.
(16:42):
Right, they need you for therest of their life, which is a
beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So yeah, exactly.
So tell me about some of thefolks who are speaking.
I have, I have um presentedlive at a summit, I have
presented virtually at a summit,and some of the names I know.
There are some people I don'tknow, and so Chi, and you know,
Tai Chi continues to be one ofthe more popular fitness
programs for older adults.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Why is that?
Stress reduction, bloodpressure balance, fall
prevention.
It's gentle, it's low impact,it's just a beautiful form of
exercise and I know a lot oftrainers are intimidated by it.
Diane makes it so simple.
Diane McCaughey, one of ourlongtime board members, is back.
And then we have people whohave never spoken at the summit
before.
(17:40):
Our two keynotes are brand new.
Kurt Mang oh gosh, I don't knowif you've ever met him, jake, I
have not.
This is the other beauty of avirtual summit is, by the end of
the weekend you should go.
Gosh, that's somebody I got totrack down, I got to figure out.
I got to reach out to Celia orDan and somebody email,
introduce me or find Kurt onLinkedIn and you start building
your network.
Kurt would be a great guest onyour podcast, jay.
(18:03):
The energy, the passion, theenthusiasm that just oozes off
of this guy right Is it's goingto come across even in the
virtual keynote, because heloves helping people, he loves
fitness, he loves leadership, heloves passion and he is just
one of the most I mean, justbursting with passion kind of
guys.
And then Kyle Henning, who Ibelieve you have met yeah, I
(18:25):
know Kyle.
I wouldn't describe Kyle at allthe same as Kurt right?
In fact, there's nothing in hiskeynote that is going to like
jump out at you, except for thefact that here's a guy who
basically broke his back at theend of his high school career.
He's planning to go to medschool off to college Now he's
in a wheelchair, still did dopre-med and he talks about that
(18:48):
journey of I became a collegedropout to become a fitness
entrepreneur and my mom wasn'ttoo happy with me and his story
is pretty amazing.
It's equally inspiring, eventhough he's not like this just
dripping with enthusiasm kind ofguy.
In fact, he will tell you youshould not be a fitness business
owner.
If you're worried about being afitness business owner, you
(19:08):
know he's like you've got to bewilling to jump in with full
confidence, regardless ofwhether you're going to fail.
His keynote is tremendous.
Would have been awesome if wecould have had him in person.
He was scheduled to be inperson and COVID, of course,
wrecked that, so we finally hadhim back.
Robert Linkle is back.
He is not.
I don't think he's spoken atthe summit since before COVID
and he's going to be talkingabout Fit Body Forever, which is
(19:31):
a really great business model.
Dr Evan Osar is back, kimberlyWilliams is back, avery Van
Blarikom.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, Shelly's guy.
Have you met Avery?
I have not, but I feel like Ihave because I've known Shelly
for so long.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, he's been to some of the summits in person,
probably already wins the awardfor best mustache, so he's got
that going for him.
But he's from Saskatoon,saskatchewan, and he's the
director of programming atProactive Fitness.
And Shelly Turk came to thefirst ever functional aging
summit.
And this is just kind of awarning, jay.
(20:08):
People come to the summit andthen they're like I never, this
happens every year.
This happened in Salt Lake City.
It sort of cracked me up.
I never knew that I could opena fitness business focused on
older adults.
In fact, in Salt Lake somebodysaid I didn't know there was
anyone else doing this besidesme and I'm like well, I'm glad
we got you out of your littlecorner of the world because
there's a lot of us doing it andnow you've got a bunch of
(20:30):
people to run with.
Avery has really come up andhas developed tremendous
programming for Shelly'sbusiness and his session is
going to be one of our topsessions.
Shelly came to this very firstsummit in Phoenix and she was
terrified to leave her lab jobin Canada, which she hates, but
she knew she had to open astudio.
(20:50):
And here we are, 10 years laterand she's already talking about
succession plans, right.
I mean it's like crazy to thinkthat she's going to be going on
.
Jake Tryon I think it's hissecond time speaking at the
summit.
Fantastic, I mean, you can'tmeet a better human.
Honestly, jake served in theCoast Guard for 20 years.
(21:10):
He's just a tremendous guy andnow owns two studios in the
Houston area and is looking tofranchise his model, tri Fitness
.
And you know you talk about aguy who understands the business
opportunity, realizes hey,these customers have some money.
But his first and primary focusis very you can tell it's very
(21:32):
much driven by the Coast Guard.
He's like I just want to go outand help people, rescue people,
serve people, take care ofpeople.
He builds community like noother.
Yeah, they just they do allkinds of I mean they go for
walks together, they go tocharity events together, they
show up at fundraiser walks inlike groups of 50.
I mean it's just, it's atremendous thing that he has
built.
(21:53):
There are so many other speakers, yeah, you know, to talk about
the business side.
Billy Hofacker, who I know youhave met, you know he will talk
honestly about how most fitnesstrainers don't know anything
about money.
Yeah, and so they mess thatpart up, right, and then they
(22:13):
think they're making money, butthey're not, or they think
they're saving money, and hewill give you some solid tips
from firsthand experience.
Right, I mean, he will probablyshare the story about how his
car was pulled right out of hisown driveway.
Right, he's like wait a minute,what are you doing?
We're repoing your car, buddy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So not a good look for a business owner.
No, so we have a great, greatlineup, a huge diversity of
speakers.
Again, billy's a fitnessbusiness owner, but he's not
going to talk to you abouttraining or any of that.
He's going to talk to you aboutmoney, right, which might be
one of the most importantsessions.
I know some people listeningare like wow, I want to learn
about money, I want to learnabout training.
Then you probably need to belearning about money.
(22:49):
Yes exactly your session, jay.
You're not going to teachpeople about training, but
you're going to teach peopleabout just some.
I mean, some of the simplertips in terms of writing and
communication mistakes peopleare making.
I think people get overwhelmedwith how do I send an email or
put up a Facebook post orcommunicate who I do?
And well, for one they shouldhire you, jade.
(23:11):
Right, let's just give you ashout out.
Prime Fit Content was born outof the Functional Aging Summit.
It's another caution for people.
If you attend, you may wind upstarting some sort of a business
.
Well, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's right, Danger danger.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I don't even know if I should come to your event.
I don't do pushups for olderpeople.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I'm not a trainer.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I'm not a fitness owner.
I'm like I think there'ssomething here for you.
There turned out to be and youhave wind up serving Gosh.
I don't even know how many ofour FAI studio owners over the
years A lot of them, yeah.
(23:51):
I see your emails come outbecause I'm on a lot of their
lists and I'm like, oh,beautifully written email, right
, well crafted, you know.
So we don't expect fitnesstrainers to be professional
writers, right?
Any more than we expectprofessional writers to be
personal trainers, right?
So, um, learning from someonelike you at the summit is super
helpful.
And then, of course, realizing,wait a minute, I can hire this
guy to do all of my writing forme for a fraction of what it
(24:12):
would cost me to you know.
So, yeah, a lot, of, a lot oftremendous resources.
The downside to virtual, jay, isyou don't get to meet everyone.
Yeah.
The upside to virtual is youactually have the opportunity to
network and create a lot ofrelationships, right.
Look people up on Facebook,linkedin, reach out, find
people's emails.
A lot of the speakers will giveyou their contact info.
(24:33):
They want you to reach out.
The sponsors are all available.
They have virtual booths.
They want you to contact them.
So you can still walk away with40 or 50 network contacts,
which is a big value to me,because I don't like it when
trainers go it alone, right?
I don't like it when they think, oh, I'm the only one doing
this in my little corner of theworld?
You're not there are peopledoing it all over the world?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yep, okay.
Well, dan, this is great.
I'm glad that we were able totell the folks about this and
you're going to be speaking onthis.
Is the title of yours worth aplug?
Why now is the best time tostart your fitness business for
the aging market.
You're not too late to getstarted on this.
This is such a great time.
(25:18):
You're still at the cusp of agreat wave of opportunity that's
coming along in our country.
This isn't just a fitness thing.
This is our whole, not just theUnited States.
Really it's the whole Westernworld.
You know, shelly and a lot ofothers are coming from Canada
and you've got clients in UK anddown under, because the social
forces behind this are the same.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It's not.
Obviously, us is our dominantconsumer and market.
That's where we're based, butit's not a US phenomenon, it's.
It's basically the entiredeveloped world is aging and and
in some countries they'recalling it an aging crisis and
aging epidemic, and I call it anaging opportunity.
I mean it's a.
It's a massive opportunity forus.
(26:01):
Canada has already declaredthemselves an aged country.
Right, they're not an agingcountry.
They've already gotten old.
They've already.
They've already announced thatand declared that, and they're
right.
I mean, when over half yourpopulation is over the age of 50
(26:21):
and you're heading towards overhalf your population being over
60, that's an aged country.
I mean, you're going to havemore people not working than
working pretty soon in Canada,but that's a massive opportunity
for those of us that work inthe fitness world.
So this phenomenon is global.
It's the entire developed worldand when you look in the United
States, we're still justbeginning to climb in the 60 and
over population.
(26:42):
Right, it's not like this is afad or a trend that's going away
.
It's going to be here for thenext 30 years and the reality is
we have to realize if I'm notstepping into this market, I'm
continuing to compete for the 18to 49 year old.
That has gotten more competitiveon price, right, yeah, oh,
you're.
You're $19 a month.
(27:02):
Well, the place down the streetis $15 a month.
The place down the street is$10 a month and there's free
donuts on Tuesday, right, well,I mean, how can I compete with
that?
Well, let's, let's go to $7.99.
There are gyms now for $7.99 amonth.
I mean, it's like what?
That's what.
It's cheaper than a sandwich.
I'm like what are we talkingabout?
I don't want to.
(27:23):
I don't want to compete withthat.
You don't want to compete withthat.
The customers that really needyour help are willing to pay a
premium and and, and typicallyhave a lifetime value.
That's longer, right?
They're going to stick with youfor three to five years, so you
can spend more time, energy andinvestment in learning how to
train them, learning how tomarket to them, learning how to
(27:44):
sell them, cause once you getthem, you have them for a really
long time.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So Dan, I want you to tell people where they can go
to learn more about the summitand to sign up for it.
Uh, it's starting on the Friday, the 13th and last for the
weekend right, very ominousright.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Friday the 13th.
There's no spooky, there's nospooky sessions.
Functional aging summitcom.
Functional aging summitcom.
Get your ticket.
I have been warning people itcould sell out.
We do have limited Zoom roomcapability so we have capped it
at 500 participants so it'spossible it will sell out.
(28:20):
So I'm telling people don'twait until Thursday to buy your
ticket, because people are like,oh, it's virtual, I can just
show up on Friday.
You can't just show up onFriday, so you've got to buy
your ticket by Thursday.
It's a great value and ifyou're listening to this and you
might be listening to it afterthe summit, you can buy the
whole event recorded right.
Or if you're like, oh, shoot, Igot a wedding this weekend or I
(28:42):
got a graduation or whatever,you can buy the whole event and
buy the recordings so you canstill take in all the sessions.
So don feel like, oh, I'm gonnamiss out.
That's the other beauty ofvirtual right.
Every year that we havescheduled the summit, jay, when
it's live, people are alwayslike, oh, you put it on my
family reunion.
Oh, you put it on my, mydaughter's wedding.
It's like I didn't put it onyour daughter's wedding.
(29:03):
That was when we had to do it.
And they're always like I'll bethere next year.
I'll be there next year.
You know how many times I'veheard I'll be there next year.
I'll be there next year.
You know how many times I'veheard I'll be there next year.
We'd have a thousand attendees.
Right, we'd have to have agiant ballroom.
You don't have that excuse thisyear because you can buy the
entire event.
Buy the recordings.
Doesn't matter if you're takingthe family trip of a lifetime
or whatever you have to be doingOkay.
So if you're listening to thisgoing oh, I can't, Sure you can,
(29:26):
because you can buy all therecordings and take it in later.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Beautiful and all that is available on
functionalagingsummitcom and DrDan Ritchie.
Thank you once again forjoining me today.
I look forward to the events.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
A lot of fun.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
All right, have a good one.
Thank you for listening to theOptimal Aging Podcast.
I'm your host, Jay Croft ofPrime Fit Content.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, review
and tell a friend.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
I hope you'll share anycomments you have with me,
including suggestions aboutpeople I should interview and
topics I should cover.
(30:04):
You can learn more about mynewsletter and content business
at primefitcontentcom and writeme at jay at primefitcontentcom
and I'm on all the socialchannels.
Again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
Everybody wants 25-year-old boys to throw
weights around for $10 a monthinstead of going after people
like you know like me, franklywho are a little bit older but
have the time and the money tobe better customers.
So tell us about the purpose ofthe summit in general.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, the purpose of the summit.
Gosh, this is the 11th annualkind of mind blowing to think
our summit's almost becoming ateenager here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hi everybody, I'm Jay Croft and welcome to the
Optimal Aging Podcast, where wediscuss the business of exercise
, healthy living and well-beingfor people 50 and over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people over age 50and what's coming next, with a
focus on communications, contentand making powerful connections
(01:03):
.
The Functional Aging Instituteis having its annual Functional
Aging Summit online Friday andSaturday.
You can learn more about it andregister at
functionalagingsummitcom.
I think it's a great idea to doit online.
You know, even if you hearabout the summit later after
(01:24):
this weekend, you can still goonline and purchase the entire
presentation, so the informationis accessible to you, even if
you don't get to tune in, so tospeak.
This Friday and SaturdayThey'll have a lot of speakers a
couple dozen from fitness, whowill help you with your finances
, with your training, with youroutreach, everything really and
(01:47):
I'll be speaking about how tokeep your storytelling focus
where it belongs, which is onyour members and not on yourself
.
So I'll be speaking Fridaymorning.
I hope you'll tune in to listento what I have to say, but also
to all the other great speakers.
And, again, you can learn moreabout it at
functionalagingsummitcom.
(02:08):
Now, today, on Optimal Aging.
I have Dr Dan Ritchie from allthose years ago, who has been a
great supporter of Prime Fitcontent and of this show ever
since the beginning, as has DrCody, Seip, Celia and everyone
at Functional Aging, so wantedto have Dan on to preview this
weekend's activities andhopefully you'll all be
(02:30):
encouraged to check it out.
It changed my career, changedmy business for the better, and
it's still one of the mostimportant organizations I've
encountered in helping otherfitness professionals help more
people over 50 live better lives.
So enjoy my conversation withDr Dan Ritchie.
(02:50):
Thanks, Dan.
Hey there, Nice to see you again.
How's it going?
It's all great, Good to see you.
How are you?
I'm doing all right, Doing allright.
It's a nice Saturday morninghere in Atlanta and just about
to head out to start my day.
Yeah, I have a beautiful dayhere in Indiana.
(03:22):
We'll see.
It'll probably rain becausesoon.
We probably should have hadthis conversation a little while
ago, but better late than never, I suppose.
Thanks for joining me to talkabout it.
I never get tired of talkingabout the Functional Aging
Summit, because it was at theFunctional Aging Summit in 2018
in Orlando, where I met you andCody and Celia, and Paolo and
(03:43):
Bina and Rosa and Shelly, andall these people who changed my
life in the course of my career.
And so I want to tell everybodywho might not know what the
functional aging summit is, whatit is and why they really
should tune in as opposed toattend Now, doing it in Orlando
last year we did it in where wasit?
(04:04):
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Los Angeles last year .
Yeah, Salt Lake City the yearbefore that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, so tell us about the summit and why people
should tune in.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We've been making the rounds and this year it's
available to everyone,everywhere in the entire world,
right?
So you don't have to travel,which is nice, you know, one of
the reasons we wanted to do itvirtual again was just to give
more opportunity to more peoplethat can't travel In 2020 and
2021, we were kind of forced todo it virtually, which I know a
(04:34):
lot of us didn't necessarilyenjoy, but we had the most
attendance we've ever had by far, because you know people that
can't travel.
And by far because you knowpeople that can't travel.
I know I heard from single momsin Canada who are like do it
again virtual because I can'tleave my kids, you know, or I
can't leave my studio or I can'ttake three days off of work.
So there's a lot of advantagesto virtual.
(04:59):
There's also a lot of advantagesin that we can get more
speakers than ever.
So if you look at our speakerlineup, it's more diverse than
ever, because the cost of traveland speaking of that is
significant, right.
So we can't always get all thespeakers we want because they're
like oh, those dates don't workfor me, or I can't possibly be
in salt lake city if mydaughter's getting married
somewhere else.
You know it's like so, sovirtual just allows for a
greater opportunity of speakers,networking and and cost.
(05:20):
I mean way more people canattend because the cost of the
ticket is lower and the cost oftravel is zero.
Now I know some people that aretraveling because they're like,
hey, I'm going to make aweekend of it, right.
Yeah so they're Airbnb-ing itsomewhere with their staff or,
you know, they're turning itinto a weekend retreat with
their training team, which is agreat idea, right?
I mean, that works too if youstill want to make it sort of a
(05:43):
weekend event.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Wait, where is the actual weekend event?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Wherever you want it to be, right, jay.
So if your team is in CorpusChristi, texas, and you're like,
hey, let's go to the beach orlet's go to the mountains or
wherever we want to go, right.
So I know Bruno with Still Gotit Fitness has done this in the
past where he'll he'll take hiswhole team to an Airbnb on the
beach or they'll go up in themountains in California.
Okay, Business expense thewhole thing because it's a
(06:09):
conference, right.
So I know we have some peopledoing that because people are
like, oh, I don't get to travel,you can still travel if you
want to.
Um, all you need is a screen toto take in the conference.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So okay, I misunderstood.
I thought there was maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
There is that aspect for people that want to make it
a business.
You know they like the businesstrip, so to speak.
But the virtual also just givesyou a little bit more freedom,
right, you can be at your studioFriday morning and then take in
the sessions Friday afternoonand all day Saturday, you know,
and not feel like you had toleave.
You know training your clientsand that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And does the registration fee make available
recordings as well?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So it's $49 extra to get all the recordings forever.
So I've been encouragingeveryone to upgrade, because
that's the other advantage of avirtual conference.
Right when you were in LA, youprobably remember I mean you
were speaking.
If you were lucky, you probablytook in 10 or 12 sessions,
right, even though there were 30to choose from.
Well, you can't be in threerooms at the same time and, of
(07:11):
course, if you're speaking inone, you're probably preparing
for that before and while you'respeaking you can't be in other
sessions.
If you buy the recordings for$49, you get access to all the
sessions which again a liveevent.
You, you, simply, you're alwayslike, oh, I'm going to miss that
one, or I really want to go tothis one, or the three I really
want to attend, or all at thesame time.
That's going to happen with ourvirtual conference, but if you
(07:34):
have the recordings right, youcan.
Of course you want to.
You want to see Jay's sessionright, Like one's first and
foremost, but then whatever'sgoing on at the same time, you
have the recordings later, right?
So you can watch me later, youknow you don't have to watch,
watch me live, take that one inlater, so that's.
That's a big advantage, I think, because a lot of times, some
(07:54):
of the best sessions, you simplycan't attend because you can't,
you can't catch them all so soI love that aspect.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, let's take a the 30,000 foot view for anybody
out there who might not knowwhat is this about.
You're going to teach peopleabout the opportunity for gym
owners and others in fitnessthat lies.
Tell us about the main purposeof this.
You know that this is such ahuge economic opportunity that
(08:33):
the mainstream fitness industrystill ignores to its detriment.
Everybody wants 25 year oldboys to throw weights around for
$10 a month, instead of goingafter people like you know like
me, frankly who are a little bitolder but have the time and the
money to be better customers.
So tell us about the purpose ofthe summit in general.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, the purpose of the summit.
Gosh, this is the 11th annual.
Um, kind of mind blowing tothink our summit's almost
becoming a teenager here.
Um, you know, when we look back2015, cody and I looked across
the industry and we're likethere are no fitness events,
aging events, healthy agingevents.
There's nothing focused on thismarket.
There were a few fitnessconferences that had a couple of
(09:14):
senior fitness sessions, right,and a lot of times Cody and I
would be on the senior fitnesstrack or but there might not be
one talk in an entire conferenceof 50 sessions on, again,
senior fitness, which Cody and Ialways said is the wrong label,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
People in their 60s don't think of themselves as
seniors at all.
Their mom is a senior.
People in their early 70s, alot of times, have not embraced
that term.
My mother-in-law is 77.
Don't call her a senior.
She might slap you.
Right, that's right.
Just talking about yourMedicare, whatever.
I feel like I'm 37.
(09:50):
So Cody and I said we have tohave an event that really
combines two things, right andso for us, we're really about
two core pillars.
One is how do we train peopleover 50 and train them well,
right?
So there's the functionaltraining aspect.
How do we give them greatresults?
How do we train people over 50and train them well, right?
So there's the functionaltraining aspect.
How do we give them greatresults?
How do we train them safely?
How do we make sure trainersfeel confident to do it?
(10:12):
Not this oh, I don't want totrain old people because I might
break them or kill them.
Right, right, jay Croft, he'ssitting here.
Does anybody think they'regoing to kill him?
Training them?
I mean, it's just, it'sridiculous, right?
I'm in my fifties, you're inyour sixties.
Nobody's going to kill us, Imean, unless they, you know, try
to throw us off a cliff orsomething, do stuff.
They're really stupid.
Training right, but they needconfidence.
(10:34):
The other pillar, which mostfitness conferences do poorly as
a whole, is the business side.
Yeah, marketing, communication,messaging, sales, all the
things that you came to theFunctional Aging Summit the
first time saying hey, I don'tthink I fit here.
I'm a professional writer.
I'm like you, absolutely fithere, because most fitness
(10:57):
people don't know how to writeto people over the age of 50 at
all.
You've probably seen a lot offitness messages over the years
where you're like that'sterrible, right, it's horrible.
So we try to bring both ofthose together the fitness
trainer, the fitnessentrepreneur, the fitness studio
owner.
There's a massive market ofpeople over 50, 60, 70 years old
(11:17):
that aren't being communicatedto, aren't being marketed to,
aren't being trained, aren'tbeing offered any sort of
solution, and that's just a hugemissed opportunity.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to
grow your business with peopleover 50?
If you are, then you need toknow how to communicate with
them, how to market to them andhow to get them to trust you
with their fitness, well-beingand money.
We're talking about millions ofpeople who are a little older
than the typical market that thefitness industry usually
pursues.
They have more money, more timeand better motivation to make
(11:55):
the best long-term fitnessconsumers you'll find anywhere.
If you're not focusing on them,you should be.
Prime Fit Content is the onlycontent marketing company
designed specifically to helpyou engage people in this group
and to help you distinguishyourself from competitors in
your community.
It's effective, affordable andsuper easy to use.
(12:15):
Check it out atprimefitcontentcom.
That's prime, like prime ofyour life fitcontentcom.
Back to the show.
It is, and it's that missedopportunity I think gets lost a
lot in these conversations.
Sometimes this used to happen alot when I first started doing
this and it still happens.
Sometimes people will say, oh,you help old people exercise,
(12:39):
that's so nice.
And I want to say yeah, no, Iknow it might be nice, I don't
care if it's nice, you know thatdoesn't matter.
It's just smart business.
I get being nice, I'm nothelping a little old lady cross
the street.
That's not what we're talkingabout you know nobody says.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Nobody says that to the Mercedes dealer, right, you
know it's like, oh, that'sreally nice that you sell
Mercedes to and nobody wouldeven say little old ladies.
You know it's like, oh, yousell Mercedes to bad-ass boomer
women, right, I mean it's like,but if I do fitness for those
same people, yeah Well, isn'tthat sweet that you're taking
care of them?
(13:16):
I'm like there's nothing sweetabout it, right?
Sure, there might be a level.
I always say the trainer doeshave to understand what a 60 and
70-year-old body is goingthrough.
They need to be some level ofcompassion and understanding and
being like hey, I can't justbeat your knees up because
they're already beat up, but I'mnot doing it to be nice, I'm
(13:38):
doing it to serve a populationthat, oh, by the way, has time
and money, they're a greatcustomer and I can give them
great results.
So, at the end of the day,business is about solving
somebody's problem, and thereare a lot of people in their 60s
and 70s that have healthproblems that we can solve
dramatically, all right.
So I think if you're a trainerlistening to this and you're
(14:00):
like I don't like it when Dr Dantalks about money, and so we
would get uncomfortable, right.
First of all, get morecomfortable with money.
But second of all, you willfind it very rewarding to work
with these people because youcan get them life changing
results and they will listen andthey will show up time and time
again.
That's the other thing.
If they sign up for two orthree sessions a week, they'll
(14:20):
do it.
They're reliable, right?
They're not like oh, I can'tmake it because I just ordered
takeout, you know it's like.
No, they have an appointment,they will be there.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yes, exactly, and you know you touched on something
that just made me remember whatI would love as a writer writing
about this all the time is thestories are so profound and so
emotional and genuine.
Get big muscles or help a 30year old new mom lose her baby
(14:54):
weight that's just kind of tablestakes.
You all know how to do that bigdeal, right?
I mean it's important and I'mglad you can do it and, don't
get me wrong, it's great.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, keep doing that stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Keep doing it.
Yeah, but you know the the thericher story, the greater
experience I think is helping arecently retired accountant be
able to play with hergrandchildren.
Or that wonderful story youtell about your client who
wanted to go to the Galapagosislands and she was just so
deconditioned she could barelycheck the mail and you made it
(15:25):
possible for her to go on thisonce-in-a-lifetime trip in her
60s or 70s.
Yeah, those are.
It was 80, she was 80, she was80 yeah, and and.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And.
I still share that story,because it wasn't just that we
got her the glop ghost.
That's the beautiful story,right, yeah, it's that.
We trained her till she was 87.
We couldn't get rid of her as aclient.
Right, joanne, you're stillcoming.
Why would she quit?
Right, and that's that's thething.
That's the beauty of theFunctional Aging Summit is we're
(15:57):
teaching people how to getclients like Joanne, train them
well, and then you have acustomer for five, seven, 10
years.
Right, that is the realbusiness value, right?
That's why I want to sell aMercedes to a boomer woman,
because I know she's going tocome back and buy another
Mercedes in three or four years.
Right, she's a great customerand in a lot of cases, she's a
(16:19):
customer for a long time.
The baby weight example yougave of course, we got to train
women to lose the baby weightand we got to train guys that
want to build big muscles, butif we do that, well, we put
ourselves out of a job.
Right, you lose the 20 poundsof baby weight.
Thanks, I'm good.
Right, like, wait, I just putmyself out of a client.
That's not true with a 70 yearolds.
(16:42):
Right, they need you for therest of their life, which is a
beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So yeah, exactly.
So tell me about some of thefolks who are speaking.
I have, I have um presentedlive at a summit, I have
presented virtually at a summit,and some of the names I know.
There are some people I don'tknow, and so Chi, and you know,
Tai Chi continues to be one ofthe more popular fitness
programs for older adults.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Why is that?
Stress reduction, bloodpressure balance, fall
prevention.
It's gentle, it's low impact,it's just a beautiful form of
exercise and I know a lot oftrainers are intimidated by it.
Diane makes it so simple.
Diane McCaughey, one of ourlongtime board members, is back.
And then we have people whohave never spoken at the summit
before.
(17:40):
Our two keynotes are brand new.
Kurt Mang oh gosh, I don't knowif you've ever met him, jake, I
have not.
This is the other beauty of avirtual summit is, by the end of
the weekend you should go.
Gosh, that's somebody I got totrack down, I got to figure out.
I got to reach out to Celia orDan and somebody email,
introduce me or find Kurt onLinkedIn and you start building
your network.
Kurt would be a great guest onyour podcast, jay.
(18:03):
The energy, the passion, theenthusiasm that just oozes off
of this guy right Is it's goingto come across even in the
virtual keynote, because heloves helping people, he loves
fitness, he loves leadership, heloves passion and he is just
one of the most I mean, justbursting with passion kind of
guys.
And then Kyle Henning, who Ibelieve you have met yeah, I
(18:25):
know Kyle.
I wouldn't describe Kyle at allthe same as Kurt right?
In fact, there's nothing in hiskeynote that is going to like
jump out at you, except for thefact that here's a guy who
basically broke his back at theend of his high school career.
He's planning to go to medschool off to college Now he's
in a wheelchair, still did dopre-med and he talks about that
(18:48):
journey of I became a collegedropout to become a fitness
entrepreneur and my mom wasn'ttoo happy with me and his story
is pretty amazing.
It's equally inspiring, eventhough he's not like this just
dripping with enthusiasm kind ofguy.
In fact, he will tell you youshould not be a fitness business
owner.
If you're worried about being afitness business owner, you
(19:08):
know he's like you've got to bewilling to jump in with full
confidence, regardless ofwhether you're going to fail.
His keynote is tremendous.
Would have been awesome if wecould have had him in person.
He was scheduled to be inperson and COVID, of course,
wrecked that, so we finally hadhim back.
Robert Linkle is back.
He is not.
I don't think he's spoken atthe summit since before COVID
and he's going to be talkingabout Fit Body Forever, which is
(19:31):
a really great business model.
Dr Evan Osar is back, kimberlyWilliams is back, avery Van
Blarikom.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, Shelly's guy.
Have you met Avery?
I have not, but I feel like Ihave because I've known Shelly
for so long.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, he's been to some of the summits in person,
probably already wins the awardfor best mustache, so he's got
that going for him.
But he's from Saskatoon,saskatchewan, and he's the
director of programming atProactive Fitness.
And Shelly Turk came to thefirst ever functional aging
summit.
And this is just kind of awarning, jay.
(20:08):
People come to the summit andthen they're like I never, this
happens every year.
This happened in Salt Lake City.
It sort of cracked me up.
I never knew that I could opena fitness business focused on
older adults.
In fact, in Salt Lake somebodysaid I didn't know there was
anyone else doing this besidesme and I'm like well, I'm glad
we got you out of your littlecorner of the world because
there's a lot of us doing it andnow you've got a bunch of
(20:30):
people to run with.
Avery has really come up andhas developed tremendous
programming for Shelly'sbusiness and his session is
going to be one of our topsessions.
Shelly came to this very firstsummit in Phoenix and she was
terrified to leave her lab jobin Canada, which she hates, but
she knew she had to open astudio.
(20:50):
And here we are, 10 years laterand she's already talking about
succession plans, right.
I mean it's like crazy to thinkthat she's going to be going on
.
Jake Tryon I think it's hissecond time speaking at the
summit.
Fantastic, I mean, you can'tmeet a better human.
Honestly, jake served in theCoast Guard for 20 years.
(21:10):
He's just a tremendous guy andnow owns two studios in the
Houston area and is looking tofranchise his model, tri Fitness
.
And you know you talk about aguy who understands the business
opportunity, realizes hey,these customers have some money.
But his first and primary focusis very you can tell it's very
(21:32):
much driven by the Coast Guard.
He's like I just want to go outand help people, rescue people,
serve people, take care ofpeople.
He builds community like noother.
Yeah, they just they do allkinds of I mean they go for
walks together, they go tocharity events together, they
show up at fundraiser walks inlike groups of 50.
I mean it's just, it's atremendous thing that he has
built.
(21:53):
There are so many other speakers, yeah, you know, to talk about
the business side.
Billy Hofacker, who I know youhave met, you know he will talk
honestly about how most fitnesstrainers don't know anything
about money.
Yeah, and so they mess thatpart up, right, and then they
(22:13):
think they're making money, butthey're not, or they think
they're saving money, and hewill give you some solid tips
from firsthand experience.
Right, I mean, he will probablyshare the story about how his
car was pulled right out of hisown driveway.
Right, he's like wait a minute,what are you doing?
We're repoing your car, buddy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So not a good look for a business owner.
No, so we have a great, greatlineup, a huge diversity of
speakers.
Again, billy's a fitnessbusiness owner, but he's not
going to talk to you abouttraining or any of that.
He's going to talk to you aboutmoney, right, which might be
one of the most importantsessions.
I know some people listeningare like wow, I want to learn
about money, I want to learnabout training.
Then you probably need to belearning about money.
(22:49):
Yes exactly your session, jay.
You're not going to teachpeople about training, but
you're going to teach peopleabout just some.
I mean, some of the simplertips in terms of writing and
communication mistakes peopleare making.
I think people get overwhelmedwith how do I send an email or
put up a Facebook post orcommunicate who I do?
And well, for one they shouldhire you, jade.
(23:11):
Right, let's just give you ashout out.
Prime Fit Content was born outof the Functional Aging Summit.
It's another caution for people.
If you attend, you may wind upstarting some sort of a business
.
Well, I didn't.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's right, Danger danger.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I don't even know if I should come to your event.
I don't do pushups for olderpeople.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I'm not a trainer.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I'm not a fitness owner.
I'm like I think there'ssomething here for you.
There turned out to be and youhave wind up serving Gosh.
I don't even know how many ofour FAI studio owners over the
years A lot of them, yeah.
(23:51):
I see your emails come outbecause I'm on a lot of their
lists and I'm like, oh,beautifully written email, right
, well crafted, you know.
So we don't expect fitnesstrainers to be professional
writers, right?
Any more than we expectprofessional writers to be
personal trainers, right?
So, um, learning from someonelike you at the summit is super
helpful.
And then, of course, realizing,wait a minute, I can hire this
guy to do all of my writing forme for a fraction of what it
(24:12):
would cost me to you know.
So, yeah, a lot, of, a lot oftremendous resources.
The downside to virtual, jay, isyou don't get to meet everyone.
Yeah.
The upside to virtual is youactually have the opportunity to
network and create a lot ofrelationships, right.
Look people up on Facebook,linkedin, reach out, find
people's emails.
A lot of the speakers will giveyou their contact info.
(24:33):
They want you to reach out.
The sponsors are all available.
They have virtual booths.
They want you to contact them.
So you can still walk away with40 or 50 network contacts,
which is a big value to me,because I don't like it when
trainers go it alone, right?
I don't like it when they think, oh, I'm the only one doing
this in my little corner of theworld?
You're not there are peopledoing it all over the world?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yep, okay.
Well, dan, this is great.
I'm glad that we were able totell the folks about this and
you're going to be speaking onthis.
Is the title of yours worth aplug?
Why now is the best time tostart your fitness business for
the aging market.
You're not too late to getstarted on this.
This is such a great time.
(25:18):
You're still at the cusp of agreat wave of opportunity that's
coming along in our country.
This isn't just a fitness thing.
This is our whole, not just theUnited States.
Really it's the whole Westernworld.
You know, shelly and a lot ofothers are coming from Canada
and you've got clients in UK anddown under, because the social
forces behind this are the same.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
It's not.
Obviously, us is our dominantconsumer and market.
That's where we're based, butit's not a US phenomenon, it's.
It's basically the entiredeveloped world is aging and and
in some countries they'recalling it an aging crisis and
aging epidemic, and I call it anaging opportunity.
I mean it's a.
It's a massive opportunity forus.
(26:01):
Canada has already declaredthemselves an aged country.
Right, they're not an agingcountry.
They've already gotten old.
They've already.
They've already announced thatand declared that, and they're
right.
I mean, when over half yourpopulation is over the age of 50
(26:21):
and you're heading towards overhalf your population being over
60, that's an aged country.
I mean, you're going to havemore people not working than
working pretty soon in Canada,but that's a massive opportunity
for those of us that work inthe fitness world.
So this phenomenon is global.
It's the entire developed worldand when you look in the United
States, we're still justbeginning to climb in the 60 and
over population.
(26:42):
Right, it's not like this is afad or a trend that's going away
.
It's going to be here for thenext 30 years and the reality is
we have to realize if I'm notstepping into this market, I'm
continuing to compete for the 18to 49 year old.
That has gotten more competitiveon price, right, yeah, oh,
you're.
You're $19 a month.
(27:02):
Well, the place down the streetis $15 a month.
The place down the street is$10 a month and there's free
donuts on Tuesday, right, well,I mean, how can I compete with
that?
Well, let's, let's go to $7.99.
There are gyms now for $7.99 amonth.
I mean, it's like what?
That's what.
It's cheaper than a sandwich.
I'm like what are we talkingabout?
I don't want to.
(27:23):
I don't want to compete withthat.
You don't want to compete withthat.
The customers that really needyour help are willing to pay a
premium and and, and typicallyhave a lifetime value.
That's longer, right?
They're going to stick with youfor three to five years, so you
can spend more time, energy andinvestment in learning how to
train them, learning how tomarket to them, learning how to
(27:44):
sell them, cause once you getthem, you have them for a really
long time.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So Dan, I want you to tell people where they can go
to learn more about the summitand to sign up for it.
Uh, it's starting on the Friday, the 13th and last for the
weekend right, very ominousright.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Friday the 13th.
There's no spooky, there's nospooky sessions.
Functional aging summitcom.
Functional aging summitcom.
Get your ticket.
I have been warning people itcould sell out.
We do have limited Zoom roomcapability so we have capped it
at 500 participants so it'spossible it will sell out.
(28:20):
So I'm telling people don'twait until Thursday to buy your
ticket, because people are like,oh, it's virtual, I can just
show up on Friday.
You can't just show up onFriday, so you've got to buy
your ticket by Thursday.
It's a great value and ifyou're listening to this and you
might be listening to it afterthe summit, you can buy the
whole event recorded right.
Or if you're like, oh, shoot, Igot a wedding this weekend or I
(28:42):
got a graduation or whatever,you can buy the whole event and
buy the recordings so you canstill take in all the sessions.
So don feel like, oh, I'm gonnamiss out.
That's the other beauty ofvirtual right.
Every year that we havescheduled the summit, jay, when
it's live, people are alwayslike, oh, you put it on my
family reunion.
Oh, you put it on my, mydaughter's wedding.
It's like I didn't put it onyour daughter's wedding.
(29:03):
That was when we had to do it.
And they're always like I'll bethere next year.
I'll be there next year.
You know how many times I'veheard I'll be there next year.
I'll be there next year.
You know how many times I'veheard I'll be there next year.
We'd have a thousand attendees.
Right, we'd have to have agiant ballroom.
You don't have that excuse thisyear because you can buy the
entire event.
Buy the recordings.
Doesn't matter if you're takingthe family trip of a lifetime
or whatever you have to be doingOkay.
So if you're listening to thisgoing oh, I can't, Sure you can,
(29:26):
because you can buy all therecordings and take it in later.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Beautiful and all that is available on
functionalagingsummitcom and DrDan Ritchie.
Thank you once again forjoining me today.
I look forward to the events.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
A lot of fun.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
All right, have a good one.
Thank you for listening to theOptimal Aging Podcast.
I'm your host, Jay Croft ofPrime Fit Content.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, review
and tell a friend.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
I hope you'll share anycomments you have with me,
including suggestions aboutpeople I should interview and
topics I should cover.
(30:04):
You can learn more about mynewsletter and content business
at primefitcontentcom and writeme at jay at primefitcontentcom
and I'm on all the socialchannels.
Again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
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