HALO Talks: Elevating Wellness

Dan Rubenstein is the CEO of Pups Pet Club , a pet care company with five locations in Chicago and Brooklyn. He has over 20 years of experience in the space, and is passionate about providing the best possible care for dogs.  Dan took an interest when he had to find care for his dog while he was working. He eventually found a service that took his dog to a park to run around, but they didn't liste...

Sumner Hanna is a professional fitness instructor, former professional dancer, and Founder of Sumner Leigh Athletics. She's been teaching SoulCycle classes for over seven years and is currently also trainer with CLIMBR . Growing up as a professional dancer paved a way for a life of sweat and creativity for her. She worked on tours, TV shows, and music videos before eventually immersing herself in...

In a world where tennis courts are king, one man struggles against the odds. He trudges forward daily doing his best to build a pickleball empire and overcome the obstacles of a competitive market and multiple naysayers. (Admit it. . .you just read that in the "in a world" voice, right?) ;) Our job is done here! Moving on . . .  In this episode, you will learn: 1. The potential for pickleball to g...

Eric Casaburi is the founder of Serotonin Enterprises , a company that provides anti-aging solutions through hormone replacement therapy, nutritional coaching, and fitness programs. He is also a franchise consultant and has over 20 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. In his second appearance on HALO Talks, he chats with host Pete Moore on what he's been doing since he founded R...

Swerve Fitness (which initially began as a successful brick and mortar space with three locations) now offers a, "Live streaming, groundbreaking fitness experience to gyms around the world, all built on the power of team sports." Eric Posner and his team have come up with a great "hybrid" that helps facilities fill in studio dead time, doesn't influence their existing staff placements, provides un...

Alex Dzierbicki has held a variety of positions in the  hospitality and HALO sectors. At one point, he owned three gyms, worked in private equity, moved on to the franchise space, and now works for the highly regarded Cultivate Advisors, where all advisors must possess a minimum of at least 10+ years of business ownership.  When asked about the importance of perspective, he states, "The broader th...

Brandon Cullen is a former professional hockey player and one of the Founder's of MADabolic . (Fun fact: MAD stands for Momentum Anaerobic Durability.) Along with his partner Kirk Dewaele, "The duo founded MADabolic after noticing a hole in the fitness market. There were no high-quality group fitness training systems for people who prioritize strength, value structure, and demand results…everyday...

April Berg is the Co-Founder & Customer Experience Director of the Aruna Project , an incredible organization which empowers women through employment. The Project, "Creates lifelong freedom marked by holistic care for victims of human trafficking. Products are crafted in freedom by skilled Artisans who are finding their voice, experiencing independence and growing with a sisterhood of others who h...

"My purpose is to help others," states Roger Harvey succinctly. This long time, highly-seasoned HALO executive served as the COO of Crunch for 13 years (from 3 studios to 27 in 1993-2006), as a COO and CEO in the boutique space, a consultant to a good number of brands, and most recently as the CEO of New York Sports Clubs. He was charged with the "minor" task of taking a 50 year organization (from...

Matt Spielman is Founder of Inflection Point Partners and author of the newly released book, Inflection Points-How To Work and Live With Purpose . (Check out a quick one sheeter here as well.)  Matt notes, "I transitioned from Executive to Executive Coach . . . and the part that really drew me in was seeing the people on the team grow, develop, thrive, giving them stretch opportunities, the promot...

Struct Club  brings structure to music-inspired fitness instruction. By providing software for gyms, studios, and their instructors, Struct Club's simple app & unrivaled programming database streamline the entire process of delivering impeccable group exercise classes.     In 2018, Amira incorporated Struct Club out of Harvard Business School, where she both got her MBA and began teaching indoor c...

"Red light therapy has been around for 60 years but 'more' isn't always better," states Perry Kamel, the CEO of DNA Vibe , the innovative new company revolutionizing red light therapy and the way its administered. "More" was the direction the industry went down (and arguably is still going down) once people realized the modality had positive effects. "It's absolutely about precision, not power . ....

Virginia Carnesale is the founder of Shop Stage. Her story of surviving breast cancer is incredibly inspirational for others going through what she did, and was the push needed for starting Shop Stage. Her inspiration was based on her experiences as a patient, and her life long background in retail. While the company is only about five months old as of this podcast (Sept 2022), she and her team ar...

As a very active kid, Bryan Clay (Founder of the fast-growing franchise Eat The Frog Fitness and 2008 Olympic decathlon gold medalist), found himself with an ultimateum by his Mom: Track and field or swimming . . . and he chose track and field because, "There was no way I was going to wear a Speedo!" he jokes. Clearly, it turned out to be the right choice. "The track became my sanctuary," he state...

Daniel Tobon is a self-described "hard 48." He joined the military at age 17 immediately after high school and served for 7.5 years. Due to a serious back injury, he later went on to get the, "most boring job I could" and became a lawyer. (Ha!)  Tobon currently heads up iVIK Holdings. iVIK is a 100% USDA and EU certified organic cannabis production facility. They're also white-label, vertically in...

Alessandro Biggi & Francesco Brachetti are best friends since college and grew up in Italy. They started Avocaderia- the buzzy new restaurant (now with 4 locations.) They have far from the "typical" background of hospitality entrepreneurs. Both studied and worked in the finance world but eventually, Alesandro came to the idea of,"Healthy comfort food that's good for you but enriched with healthy f...

" Remedy Place is the world's first social wellness club," states Dr. Jonathan Leary , Founder. There is an incredible amount of buzz around this company, and for good reason! Leary has been working on this concept for a solid 10 years, and their new location in New York City's Flatiron district just recently opened. (Their first is in West Hollywood, CA.)  "It's a whole entire club that's centere...

Jeff Riney is currently the COO of the beautiful new St. James Club and has been in the industry since 1995. He got into the HALO sector, "By chance. . .and to avoid your classic 9-5 job. I started with selling memberships." Years later, the flagship St. James Club is a monster, 450,000 square feet facility with literally everything under one roof. It's a hybrid member/non-member model with all br...

After playing Gaelic games professionally for nearly 15 years, JP and Dermot started Gaelic Performance, a firm which sold equipment into the highly niched Gaelic sports market. Sandbags and other products didn't really hold up and they ended up developing a much more sturdy and versatile product called the RAM and started RAMfit (Recycle And Move.) There's a heavily green ethos to the company and...

In this episode, we're pleased to present an informative and enlightening interview with Ben Ludwig , a growth pastor, and a fitness coach with a rather unique background.    "If you ask most people that are in ministry, that was never their original plan. For me, fitness was always my 100% go to. I started as a person trainer back in the day and worked my way up just through my passion for helpin...

Who doesn't love good, healthy food? Better still, who doesn't love the option to have it delivered while also knowing that the restaurant (not Big Tech!) is getting their fare share of the profits. Today's episode of HALO Talks is made livelier and healthier by Josh Morgan , the founder of Sesame Order, a new marketplace created by a restaurant veteran squarely with other restaurant professionals...

A former college athlete who moved into a fitness career (and became a pro MMA fighter!) industry veteran Emre Ozgur is now the Founder and CEO of a buzzy new brand with an extremely unique concept, Safe Sweat .  "When we started really working on this, initially it was a concept for the pandemic, but the reason we decided to push forward is because there is a very large demographic of underserved...

Recorded in NYC at the Boutique Fitness Solutions Summit in April 2022, Katy Richardson, Founder of Neighborhood Barre, a (barre studio franchisor) talks with Pete Moore about her (briskly growing) portfolio of 23 studios, which still remain self-funded. Katy was also the recipient of the highly regarded Pinnacle Business Award in the Young Entrepreneur category in Knoxville, TN. As a former cheer...

Monique Nadeau is the Co-Founder of EatLove a company whose, "best-in-class technology delivers personalized, on-demand meal guidance that adapts to all lifestyles and food preferences and helps guide the 200 decisions we make around food each day." As a former investment banker, Harvard University graduate with an MPA in Economic Policy, Nadeau is well aware of the critical importance of nutritio...

InTouch Technology is a business very familiar to the Milkie family. As the current CEO, Mary spent 15 years on the vendor / CMS side, and has about 30 years total in the sector. She owned health clubs prior and worked in nearly every position. InTouch recently secured additional investment capital and is now branching out into the consulting and call center side. Mary provides some very valuable...