Escape Your Limits & LIFTS

How to build a community and keep it. This week's Escape Your Limits podcast guest started out from humble beginnings in a family that depended on welfare and food stamps. Today he's earning millions of dollars, following a core belief system of mind, body and action. Starting as a personal trainer in fitness, Dean Aguilar is now the founder of two real estate companies selling over $300m in real estate, as well as being the CEO of Digital Muse, an award-winning marketing agency. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version - https://youtu.be/ceqDJAoBOm4 Dean's family immigrated to the US from Argentina (mother) and Pakistan (father) in 1972. From the age of 13, he began bagging groceries for $3/hr. At the age of 15 he fell in love with fitness and began sharpening his sales skills by selling personal training to clients at a local gym. Dean excelled so quickly, by age 21 he was running an entire fitness facility with 61 employees. Today, whether heading up his real estate agency, his media agency, consulting, undertaking speaking engagements or any other business activity, Dean Aguilar knows the importance of online and social media. It's many of these insights he's sharing in this episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast. Contact Dean for more information at instagram.com/realdeanaguilar Dean Aguilar is CEO of Digital Muse Media, an award-winning, full-service digital marketing agency. His work has been featured in Forbes and Buzzfeed, and the agency was named the fastest-growing brand agency of 2019. If you're looking for some of the latest strategies for growing your business and your personal brand, building a growing virtual community, and discovering trends in the digital marketing space, Dean is the man to contact. Episode highlights - What's causing people to truly appreciate how social media is a truly giant presence in our lives, and how platforms can be leveraged especially during tough times when gaining attention is vital. How you can position yourself to deal with impending uncertainty, and why you should often prepare for the worst in business. Why it's important to stay humble and be prepared to take a step backwards if you need to. Lose the ego and it will benefit your business. What parallels and predictions you can draw from school situations and child attendance, with gym member activity and comfort in coming back to a regular routine. How you can offer the best service and build a real community through digital channels in ways to satisfy members, offering value and longevity in times where your audience can't be physically social. What effect the relationship between bricks and mortar and digital is going to be across difference sectors over the coming months. Why 'pay to play' social media doesn't have to be about selling, and how it's more about connecting and being seen . What social media strategies you can leverage to draw new audiences to your business, and what you can do to keep that attention. Why it's important to be authentic and how trying to be someone else will not serve you well in the long term, whether it's personally or professionally. What you can do to block out space and make time for social media activity and shooting videos as part of your personal brand. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Dean Aguilar…

How to ask the right questions for success. This week's Escape Your Limits podcast is a lesson from positivity power couple Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of best-seller Chicken Soup for the Soul, and his wife Crystal Dwyer Hansen. Together they're sharing important messages from their new book: Ask! The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny. Through understanding how to pivot and perform when faced with any challenge, these are the questions to ask to wake up opportunity during adversity. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video - https://youtu.be/8W35XFkzbSs Inspirational speakers, authors and motivational specialists, Mark Hansen and Crystal Dwyer Hansen are passionate about positivity. Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Mark Victor Hansen has sold over 500 million copies and also holds the Guinness World Record for having the most books in the New York Times best selling list at the same time. Crystal Dwyer Hansen is an international speaker, researcher, corporate consultant, author, and entrepreneur. Internationally-renowned as an expert in human potential, she has invested years of experience and insight into health and wellness. Mark Victor Hansen has worked his way into a worldwide spotlight as a sought-after keynote speaker, and entrepreneurial marketing maven, creating a stream of successful people who have created massive success for themselves through his unique teachings and wisdom. For more information visit markvictorhansen.com Through her years spent as a Transformational Life Coach, and Wellness/Nutrition Expert, Crystal Dwyer Hansen has seen people experience profound and lasting transformation in relationships, career, health & wellness, by tapping into their own inner resources. For more information visit crystalvisionlife.com Episode highlights - What difference the ability to ask will have on your opportunities, business and resulting success. How anyone's success story isn't a one way deal, and is a journey of up and down that can, at times, look like the end of opportunity. Mark and Crystal explain how they have both overcome low points. What tough questions should you be asking yourself in order to get out of challenging situations and get to where you want to be. How you can put down your baggage, let it go and start your life anew every day. What you can do when facing rejection, and what are the factors to indicate you're on the right path. Why it's everyone's duty, responsibility and obligation to fulfill their destiny, become rich and be as healthy and happy as they can. What you can do to pivot and reinvent yourself if you're facing the worst situation you've lived through. The only way is up, but you've got to ask the right questions. What the most common things are that hold people back from their potential, and how to overcome them. Why we're all master askers when we're born, wanting to know who, what, when, where and why about everything. And why we lose that initiative as we age. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Mark Hansen and Crystal Dwyer Hansen…

How to make strategic decisions when dealing with uncertainty. Chris Clawson is passionate about fitness being seen by the world to help with longevity and wellbeing, long after the pandemic passes. In this Escape Your Limits interview, he explains why the fitness industry needs better representation for public perception change, how to thrive in a climate of adversity, and why he rejoined Life Fitness as CEO shortly after parting ways with the company. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video Version – https://youtu.be/g7vjKusw5UI

Behind the scenes with leadership lessons from a pioneer of fitness in Asia. Sincere and reflective, this Escape Your Limits podcast interview with Simon Flint is the kind of honesty that we need in fitness today. Simon is the CEO of Evolution Wellness, a six-brand total port folio making $300m in revenue across 175 sites in six countries. He's leading his 7000 employees with compassion, communication and a camaraderie that will see the companies gyms and studios coming back stronger than ever. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video Version – https://youtu.be/-EbxHtqhulU Simon Flint was born in the UK to hard working parents that instilled a mindset in him of continual growth and progress. He moved to south east Asia in 1994 and has put the hours in that's led to his 26-year veteran career, leading Asia's health and fitness industry. Today as the CEO of Evolution Wellness, created from a $500m merger by the Fitness First Asia and Celebrity Fitness brands, his six-brand total port folio has been making $300m in revenue across 175 sites in six countries, with 7000 employees. Established in 2017, Evolution Wellness is comprised of six brands: Celebrity Fitness, CHi Fitness, FIRE Fitness, Fitness First Asia, Fivelements, and GoFit. The brand reaches as far across Asia as Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The vision is to build a comprehensive wellness ecosystem, and the company is focused on leveraging combined industry knowledge and the team's global experience to extend reach across the vibrant Asian fitness and wellness scene. Episode highlights - How to cope with closures in multiple markets, and then deal with the organisation of some markets opening again, some staying closed, and some closing again after reopening. What can change optimism into pessimism during dark times, and how to manage a business effectively with a realistic mix of both outlooks. How different government approaches can affect business through standards of practice, communication and ministerial level access. Why each member's needs different affects how a gym can react with space concerns and workout offerings if one aspect such as group exercise is prohibited due to COVID restrictions. What the contrast is between trainers leading classes in person or instructing others through digital platforms, and why some may thrive on one medium over the other. How a leadership team and perform at peak capacity during challenging climates through staying resilient and nurturing the team dynamic. What both landlords and gyms can do to help each other and work together for mutual benefit in the future. Why access to senior management and being able to communicate information is vital to the understanding, empathy and mental health of staff and teams throughout an entire business. What trends are set to take over from HIIT workouts and the popular modalities of recent years, and what members are most looking to get back when the pandemic passes. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Simon Flint…

Post-pandemic plans and predictions from a CEO who's seen success all around the world. An experienced and successful multi-brand professional at a global level, Ty Menzies has spent over 15 years forging growth in the fitness industry and founding multiple companies of his own. Today as CEO of Lift Brands, Ty oversees a port folio of five operations: Snap Fitness 24/7, 9Round Kickboxing, YogaFit Studios, Steele Fitness and FitnessOnDemand. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version – https://youtu.be/fYP63YmI_6k Lift Brands is a collection of fitness-minded businesses that share a similar goal: creating comfortable, welcoming services that foster good health and wellness. From individual personalised workouts to group fitness training, each company has its own unique specialty. For both users and owners, Snap Fitness 24/7, 9Round Kickboxing, YogaFit Studios, Steele Fitness and FitnessOnDemand serve as the foundations for a better life. Episode highlights - • Why lots of conversations with lots of people is the key piece to any puzzle in business, particularly around times of the pandemic and restricted access to job inductions, for example. • What happens now that we're out of crisis management and into a triage stage to see how you can move your business forward. • Why the member experience should take precedence when it comes to development in the coming months, and what you can do to enhance it. • How to balance the rules and regulations around the world regarding COVID, and what you can do to work with franchisees in order to maintain safety measures for members. • Why franchisee businesses today are more about the one, two or three-location operators instead of what it just to be with six, seven and eight-location franchisees. • Why it's never been more important to work with every element of fitness in educating the general public about wellbeing. • What the relationship is going to be between bricks and mortar gyms with digital initiatives, and how they'll complement each other long term. • What the different franchise options are at low or high level, for single locations or multi-site operators across the Lift Brands portfolio. • How the fitness industry is going to change over the next 12 months. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Ty Menzies…

Authenticity is key to long term success. A DJ, TV presenter and radio host who found fame on the BAFTA award-winning Made In Chelsea, Ashley James is a regular face in the British media. An articulate social commentator, activist and empowerment coach, she's using her platform for good, campaigning for body positivity, mental health and honesty on social media. This is a lesson in how to stay true to yourself, no matter what others think. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version – https://youtu.be/n-PdgfT-bz8 Ashley James always wanted to be a presenter but didn't realise it was an option for years. Her first mini break can after hustling for a radio job, doing teas and coffees for her local station when she was 16. She went to university and did a graduate scheme with Abercrombie and Fitch. After moving to London and working various jobs, Ashley struggled with money but got her break with her first reality TV appearance on Made In Chelsea in 2012. She also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018. Ashley had been swept up in the world of a celebrity, but soon realised that it wasn't fame that would make her happy. She's since been working hard to follow her passions and show authenticity throughout her personal and professional life. A campaigner for mental health, body positivity and social media honesty, Ashley has appeared on both BBC News and Sky News to discuss topical issues and draw on her own past battles with self-harm, bullying and body dysmorphia. She's DJ'd internationally in Cannes, Ibiza, Marbella, Dubai and Thailand and at the Reading, Isle of Wight, Wireless, Citadel and Mighty Hoopla festivals in the UK. She's even shared the decks with Groove Armada! For more information visit ashleylouisejames.com Episode highlights - Why you shouldn't take negative feedback to heart, but continue to pursue your dreams and passions while taking constructive criticism on board. How changes in opinions surrounding lockdown affected social media activity for influencers and personalities that may have had fear of posting about certain topics. What the beauty is in owning your mistakes and why putting your hands up to something you don't fully understand is often the best way to overcome getting caught out. How to navigate clickbait online, and how to cope when clickbait articles are written about you or your business. Why you need to unfollow and mute people on social media, even if you like them in real life. How to deal with the challenges around body positivity and mindset, and what lifestyle changes will shift old habits or cyclical behaviour. Why it's important to be authentic online, especially when posting images, and why editing photos in certain ways only furthers the damage that our culture of snapshot social media can cause. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Ashley Louise James…

Evergreen business innovation tips from a world leader in sport technology. Whether it's a traditional school education or learning on the job, a growth mindset is key to personal development and discovering your strengths. This Escape Your Limits podcast guest has not only gone from student to teacher, but has educated himself on building a business along the way. This episode is a lesson in what it's like on the frontline of fitness at Loughborough University, with Mike Caine, professor of sports technology. For more information visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Watch the full episode on YouTube – https://youtu.be/fM9c3zqbeS4 Before becoming a professor, Mike Caine was a student of Loughborough University and decided to return later in life as an academic. Studying maths, physics, and chemistry, he started falling in love with one particular field doing a degree in human biology. Mike followed his first-class degree with a scholarship to study for a PhD in sports science, while also starting his own company and embracing opportunities of taking a product to market. During his study, he also launched a business, bringing a class one medical device to market that helped people to improve their breathing. From then on, Mike has embraced life as a professional at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, sport and fitness. Progressive Sports Technologies operates from space in the Advanced Technology Innovation Centre at Loughborough University. Maintaining a small but highly skilled research and development team, they are primed to support unique project requirements through validation, research, and development support to the international sporting goods market and its related industries. Offering both tactical and strategic support, Progressive is an on-demand R&D service to suit requirements, fast. When you need extra resource to successfully deliver your project Progressive is there to assist. Episode highlights - How to find your way through all the opportunities out there, developing your understanding through learning and discovering your passion for a career, post-education. Why you'll need to find your balance between working long days and ensuring that you make time for family and your own hobbies as well as business. Why making money is often not the focus for product development, when there's a chance to make a huge difference in people's lives, especially in the medical sector. How surrounding yourself with the right kind of support, whether that's through colleague, family or friends, will empower you to learn and ultimately succeed in your chosen passion. What different paths you'll take if you're open to trying something you may not have previously thought of, whether it's in a professional sense or anything else in life. What the most important attributes to success are, whether you're an entrepreneur or employee. How important building the right team is, and why complementary skills and interests will build momentum more quickly while also leaving you more fulfilled. Why it's OK to fail and be open about it in order to recognise both your strengths and weaknesses. What's wrong with the current state of education and university access, and what can be done to improve it so that more people can learn, progress and succeed. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Professor Mike Caine…

The secrets of a humble but passionate path to success. Martin Seibold is a resilient business leader who has overcome many obstacles in fitness. Today he's overseeing LifeFit Group's six brands, including Fitness First, Barry's Bootcamp, elbgym, Smile X and The Gym Society. Passionate about the fitness experience and the atmosphere of the gym, in this episode Martin teaches us how to lead in times of crisis, lessons from the rise and fall of one of the biggest fitness brands in Europe, and the highs and lows of reopening after COVID-19. For more information on the Escape Your Limits podcast visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video – https://youtu.be/BaQfYlW4Lm8 Martin Seibold started out working in the family-owned gym of his parents. The facility was the first member of IHRSA in Germany, bought by Fitness First which took on the staff and achieved incredible growth both nationally and around the world.Martin's passion for fitness had been sparked. He joined as marketing manager and, within six years, the business has expanded to over 90 gyms. Martin has been living in the UK since 2006 when Fitness First founder, Mike Balfour, asked him to move, following eight years of success with the brand in Germany. Today, Martin is leading multi-brand strategies and teams around the world in implementing humble growth strategies for the long term success of the LifeFit Group. The LifeFit Group unites multiple fitness brands from the boutique, high-value-low-price and premium segments under one roof, including Fitness First, Barry's Bootcamp, elbgym, Smile X and The Gym Society. The Group is committed to inspire and support its customers to live their best lives through personal, fun and focused health and fitness experiences. For more information visit www.lifefit-group.com Episode highlights - What lessons Martin has learned as a business leader responsible for incredible expansion, and what he'd change if he could do it again. Why looking after people and partners, both internally and externally, is the only way to achieve long-term survival. Expansion isn't the only goal and it's easy to forget how important relationships are to success. How you can diversify your offering in the right places to ensure that the customer has exactly what they want in the right location, and ensuring a sustainable business. Why you need to assign specific teams to specific responsibilities, and not spread your resource over too many different skillset needs. How important it is to take interest in what your teams are doing in order to get the best out of them and support them. What merging cultures, strategies and teams together is like in practice when a business is acquired. Why buy-outs can be awful for members, leading to a worse service offering in the short term at least, but how it can also be used for good. What multi-brand strategies can do to provide flexibility in an offering, and how you can decide which responsibilities are based centrally and which need to be carried out by local teams. Why it's important to celebrate mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but being open and honest, or even laughing about them, means that you can learn from them to ensure that a problem doesn't get bigger. How you can manage and forecast in uncertain times, and what benefits there are to ensuring there's trust between operators and investors when it comes to a business model. Why this is not the time for cutting percentages here and there, but making substantial changes to how you work and the structure of everything that you do. How long will it take to get back to pre-COVID revenue levels after the pandemic passes. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Martin Seibold…

Using AI, this is how to stop someone cancelling their gym membership, before they even realise they want to. Through integrated artificial intelligence and machine learning using years of data, Ian Mullane explains how every fitness operator can stop guessing about gym member activity and actively predict what's going to happen. This episode was recorded before the pandemic. For more information on the Escape Your Limits podcast visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version – https://youtu.be/w5g2arKz57c Ian Mullane has a background in financial engineering and financial software. Not the traditional fitness professional, he's ditched the field of the hedge fund field of corporate life to turn his expertise to another sector. A passion for boxing was keeping him in shape. With some other likeminded enthusiasts, he wanted to open a 20,000 square-foot boxing club in a disused grandstand in the old Singapore Turf Club. His wife had different ideas, which turned out to be much more lucrative, and Ian was left with a 1000 square-foot to play with. Here, Vanda boxing club raised over $3m for charities through white collar boxing events, in one of the first boutiques in the city. Today, Ian is overcoming traditional challenges of attrition and growth using data sets to explore predicability on whether or not members will stay or leave. Through this AI and machine learning expertise, he's able to help operators around the world drive revenue. A revenue acceleration platform for the fitness industry, Keepme.ai is all about smarter member retention using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The platform identifies members who are close to cancelling and win them back before they even plan to leave. Through SaaS expertise, Ian and his team exist to help health and fitness businesses retain more members. Regardless of whether customers are big box or boutique, pay as you go or contractual, Keepme.ai equips them with the ability to accurately target and engage members, implement behavioural science approaches, and allows operators to truly understand the people they serve. For more information visit keepme.ai Episode highlights - What the simple explanations are behind AI and machine learning. Why bringing a huge number of decision trees together with the right algorithm will bring high levels of accuracy in probability for any data set. What the difference is in accuracy between statistical modeling and machine learning predictions. What the importance is for revenue in segmenting data and providing the correct results for each member depending on what they need. How far machine learning and predictive algorithms have moved on in recent years, and what the future holds for people with accurate data sets. Why "dirty data" in the fitness industry will provide challenges for some operators, but what off-the-shelf tools can be used to overcome this. How looking forward and being able to predict what's likely to happen is going to leave you at a better competitive standpoint than people only looking at historical data. The importance of having an API on any software that you purchase, for future developments even if you don't think you need the function now. How you can integrate your predictions with other sources such as purchase data to better understand everything about a member and supplement information. How you can understand what members you will keep and lose, and what members you should be focussing your marketing on to improve retention rates. Why better business isn't always about the upsell, and how downselling members at the right time will keep them in your business for the long term. What partners such as Myzone can do to indicate when you need to intervene and interact with members to avoid their interest dropping off, leading to a member leaving. How Google, Facebook, Amazon and other giants are going to make greater steps into fitness using data and machine learning than many traditional fitness businesses in future. What you can do to predict your own health or apply preventative measures based on data from fitness trackers, accessories and apps. How the offer weighs up for communities between the connected home environment of fitness compared to bricks and mortar. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Ian Mullane…

This is how to take control, turning negativity into positivity for good. Jessie Pavelka is an internationally-recognised health and wellbeing expert, known for his expertise in extreme weight loss. He hosts Obese: A Year To Save My Life and was a trainer on NBC's The Biggest Loser. In addition to his work helping people and businesses change lives, he's the ambassador for Cancer Research UK's Race For Life and England Athletic's Run Together initiative. For more information on the Escape Your Limits podcast visit https://escapefitness.com/podcast Video version - https://youtu.be/ZAS3Cq5e-44 Jessie Pavelka started out as a trainer in the early 2000s. He immediately knew that he wanted to be an independent changing lives instead of working directly for gym chains. It didn't take long before his focus shifted to extreme weight loss with his business partner to help clients better understand their needs making changes beyond the physical alone. Jessie also understood the importance of platform, and continued his journey as a fitness model to develop his personal brand and profile around his passion. In 2008 he got his first break on TV, adding production values and broadcasting experience to his list of abilities. During the coronavirus uncertainties, Jessie Pavelka has been teaching his clients all about control, consistency and connection to cope with everything that's happening in the world. His pathway to a better understanding revolves around the physical, mental, emotional and social needs of us all to feel more grounded and in control. In his business Jessie Pavelka believes that everybody can find true health through the four elements of: Eat, Sweat, Think, Connect. By disrupting your normal, Pavelka can help you achieve more than you dreamed possible. Pavelka Wellness is a wellbeing partner for a range of organisations, including technology giants Cisco Systems, helping employees become more resilient and healthier in a fast moving, dynamic world. Visit https://pavelka.co.uk and https://pavelkawellness.com Episode highlights - How lockdown and the issues around the COVID pandemic have been both challenging and opportunistic, and how anyone can react positively to both elements for a better business. What the uncertainty of the coming months has meant for the majority of people who are looking for finish lines, and why you need to embrace 'different' as much as you can. Why it's important to confide in people in your close circle to let them know how you feel during difficult times, but also to better understand yourself through their support. How you can understand your connection to yourself, connection to your team, and connecting to something greater than you. Identify what they mean to you in your own life, and use that to do better in every relationship. Why building your personal brand and profile in addition to following your professional passion is vital to not just personal development but long term business opportunities as well. How to manage the conflicting values between making work about genuinely helping people and also building yourself as a professional personality. In particular, why the modern world of influencers can fall foul of achieving this. What you can do to as someone struggling with weight or an entrepreneur struggling with burnout to understand the overall value of behaviour, both positive and negative. How you can understand your baseline; the standard of living that you start off with every single day. This is how you stop making things too complex, slow down, simplify and define how you want to live your life at a base level. How to shift mindset from reactive to proactive in business, and what you can do to improve your employees' mindset in addition to holding your own company accountable. Why giving employees creative space for reflection in some level of solitude is much more important than preventing them from breaking up the day and clock-watching. How you can show the human side of your business by not only looking after your people, but also understanding your customers' genuine needs and challenges, too. What you can use to help other people if you've already had a transformation of your own. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Jessie Pavelka…