Ep.22 - Neal Spruce of dotFIT

Building the biggest organisations on a mission to save the world, CEO of dotFIT Neal Spruce has few people that can match his passion. From a tough background, his journey has led him to success through huge names such as 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym, NASM and more, all in a bid to bring fitness to every household.

Watch the full episode on YouTube – https://youtu.be/gsNjTYfIskY

Sports and fitness saved Neal Spruce from an outlaw life of motorcycle gangs. Once on the right path, he turned his life around by winning bodybuilding competitions, where he expanded on his nutrition knowledge and developed the correlation of how nutrition is 100% responsible for what you can do for your body.

To fund his bodybuilding passion, Neal worked as a mechanic before he was spotted during a Mr Western America competition and offered a job at Gold’s Gym under a sponsorship deal.

Here, Neal would hand write a diet plan for new members before they even joined – pioneering the importance of nutrition and selling it at point of sale. All of this was based on the fact that members wouldn’t stay members without a diet plan because, in practice, they wouldn’t see the results they wanted. It was a groundbreaking approach. By the time Neal left his position, the programme had been progressed through 535 gyms.

Already on a profitable path but not feeling fulfilled, Neal’s success story took an even bigger upturn upon him meeting lifelong business partner Mark Mastrov, who bought many successful Gold’s Gym locations, leading to the famous franchising of Gold’s. Between them, they launched 24 Hour Fitness, one of the first big box gyms that dominated the industry.

With Mark, Neal built the business to bring in $400m a year in personal training and $100m a year in nutrition. When 24 Hour Fitness was sold in 2005, it went for $1.68 billion, with the nutrition component valued at $700m. Nutrition had never been more valuable.

It was a unique model, with both partners putting together the perfect package that had nutrition at its heart. This has been the case with every venture they’ve been a part of since.

Whether talking about Gold’s Gym (Neal’s initiative named Nutritionalysis), Apex Fitness, NASM personal trainer certification, 24 Hour Fitness or more – there’s a lot more – nutrition has been at the heart of every opportunity and output.

Today, dotFIT is Neal’s research development company specialising in fitness and nutrition programmes and products for health, weight control, sports and fitness professionals.

Neal argues that nobody is qualified to buy a dietary supplement on their own unless they’ve gone through particular schooling that’s a requirement for dotFIT employees. On top of that, all the raw ingredients in dotFIT products are required to pass rigorous third-party screening to validate purity and potency.

Unlike many suppliers, all of Neal’s ventures integrate products with exercise and programming. He’s also passionate about battling competitors that are cheating the system with protein spiking, and teaching the difference between mass market supplements and practitioner products.

Everything he does is nutrition-centric from years of experience and education that he’s always building on further.

Episode Highlights: 

• With two professional sportsman sons, Neal has found the secret to passing on his knowledge and incredible work ethic to his family as well as living the life of hard work and fitness himself.
• Discover how Neal found just how important nutrition is when it comes to performance and endurance, and how he pioneered nutrition at point of sale when it comes to gym memberships.
• If you’re going to do something, aim to be the best at it. It’s advice that’s served Neal well throughout his life, and also the reason why he doesn’t ski…
• Learning the history of how some of the biggest fitness chains such as Gold’s Gym and 24 Hour Fitness came about and what caused the developments and success of each brand.
• Find out an innovative approach that works for the trainer, works for the business and works for the client, and how you can implement a strategy that lasts.
• How does someone so successful define success? And how arrogance can lead to regret, regardless of finance.

 

Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Neal Spruce, nutrition guru and CEO of dotFIT….

 

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