Escape Your Limits & LIFTS

Nick Mitchell, founder of Ultimate Performance, shares his journey from a career in law and investment banking to becoming a global leader in personal training. He discusses the importance of building a supportive environment for trainers and emphasizes authenticity in a culture focused on results. Nick tackles the challenges of fat shaming versus acceptance, highlighting the need for health awareness. He also explores the role of technology in personal training and the emotional complexities of managing diverse teams globally.

This episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast is a branding and marketing special, with Amanda McVey of Upgrade Labs in partnership with ukactive and Sweat 2020. Sweat 2020 will reveal business tips and success stories – equally as applicable for start-ups and established brands alike – from entrepreneurs pioneering fitness in urban spaces around the world. Please join us on the 20th February at 85 Brick Lane, London E1 6QR to discover emerging opportunities in the ever-changing and challenging landscape of boutique fitness. For a special member rate on tickets, visit https://www2.ukactive.com/escape-fitness-sweat-2020 What is Sweat 2020? Sweat is an event held in London on the 20th of February attended by hundreds of influential entrepreneurs and operators from the health and fitness sector. If you've never been before then it's a great networking opportunity to discover new ideas and insights from thought leaders initiating the latest fitness trends, business strategies and success stories. This year, the agenda will be centered around: Reinventing space and the importance of programming Reinvestment, sustainability and growth How to ensure tech can give operators the maximum return PLUS a special panel discussion on the baby boomer market hosted by Matthew Januszek and a select panel of guests, which will be recorded live and released as an episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast at a later date Take advantage of our specially negotiated member rate on tickets at https://www2.ukactive.com/escape-fitness-sweat-2020 Highlights Why it's important to target individuals on the leading edge in order to forge your own entrepreneurial path in any fitness sector. Seek to be above average and believe there's another way towards health than tradition. How your marketing message needs to change in order to suit an ageing demographic and appeal to a huge sector of the health and wellbeing What you can do to motivate clients and consumers to take action from your marketing, and how stories can inspire lifestyle change in anyone. Why the baby boomer market needs to be all about efficiency. They understand the benefits of fitness and recovery to longevity, but are busy with family, careers, and other responsibilities that take up time. How you can design programming to give members and clients transformative results through clever use of time that makes any time spent on looking after yourself more effective. What you can do to listen to customers and base marketing messages on exactly what you hear from who's walking through your door. Why consumer behaviour around purchasing can be more surprising than what you expect when you start out on your business journey. What tech platforms and outlets work for the ageing population interested in fitness, or the time-poor baby boomers that may not traditionally adopt social media and digital opportunities. How campaigns and PR work compare with organic growth in different sectors, and which you should concentrate on for brand awareness or conversions.

Sharran Srivatsaa has gone from fighting with a raccoon in a dumpster for food, to scaling a real estate business for 10x success and billions of dollars. This is the ultimate story of struggling against all odds and overcoming a lot of obstacles. Within this Escape Your Limits interview we break down some of the key business strategies, skills and habits that Sharran's used in several of his companies. They're just as relevant to large-scale businesses and start-ups alike, from following a process and goal setting to advice on how to find a mentor and what the best routes to success are for your skills. Watch the full episode on YouTube Sharran Srivatsaa arrived in the USA from India with just $100 in his pocket. After a hard struggle, he forged an impressive entrepreneurial career starting several businesses, advising and building multiple companies. Even more importantly, Sharran has grown one company from $300 million to over $3 billion in revenue in fewer than five years. Sharran Srivatsaa is the CEO of Kingston Lane, a push-button technology execution platform for real estate. Sharran is a serial entrepreneur, sought after keynote speaker, and a respected thought-leadership resource for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, SUCCESS magazine, Huffington Post and Forbes. One of the central components of the 'Kingston Lane Machine' is lifetime nurture for leads because this allows a consistent cadence of value added communication across channels that warms clients up and, as a result, makes future interactions more joyful and stress-free. Imagine your leads being nurtured for life… and you only talk to them when they are ready and you literally have to do nothing and let the machine handle the cadence of communication. Episode highlights - Why many think that scaling any venture is set-up by design, but is often a necessity to discover the best direction for business development. How raising standards can be applicable to anyone in any life set-up, even just from starting your day earlier to raise efficiency. Deciding on your minimum standard and sticking to it is the only option to finding a way to succeed. How you can short circuit the business belief system using a why, how, what framework. What Sharran Srivatsaa's formula is to 10X a business and why doing fewer things will lead to doing great things. It's all about the singularity of focus. How to back yourself for a big reward if you're at the point of putting everything on the line with any company. Why building your sales team is going to be the primary driver in building your business and improving growth rates. Why holding employees accountable will drive each one's singularity of focus. For example reporting daily on how many appointments you had and how many you have booked. How can you combat a creative approach if you're not an operator-type entrepreneur, in order to put processes in place for definite growth delivery? Why you need some level of support system in place to put employees in their right position. This will prevent frustration and ensure better productivity through enjoyment of work and fulfillment. How tennis got Sharran out of India and started him on an education journey that started with him having no money, fighting a raccoon for food in a dumpster, to incredible wealth and opportunity, without even being a money motivated person. How to overcome missed opportunities, failure and mistakes through learning as you progress and surrounding yourself with great advisors. Find or build your support system, whether it's a mentorship, being mentored, or working within a mastermind group. Why you can break any business down into three pieces: traffic, systems and skills, and what these mean to your success. Why understanding your cost per lead is the most important to converting opportunity into revenue, and what "break even cost per lead" will do to improving your growth mindset. How many clients does it take you to get one sale? Then, work out how much you can spend on average to generate leads. Why daily calls may be the answer to progress in your business, as long as you respect the time restraints of when a meeting is booked. What goal setting will do for your life, and how it's all about being precise and targeted on what you can achieve. Your goals have to change you. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Sharran Srivatsaa

This episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast is an inspirational story for athletes, entrepreneurs and the public alike. With a never-say-quit attitude, Amanda McVey, VP of Upgrade Labs, is revealing the secrets of longevity and wellbeing through application of technology and pioneering research. Part of the Bulletproof family, Upgrade Labs at the Beverly Hilton is where you'll discover the world's first human upgrade centre, from the birthplace of biohacking and Bulletproof Coffee. Watch the full episode on YouTube. Amanda McVey used to work on Wall Street; she's always had a start-up mentality and spent a lot of time in the finance space. In addition to her professional life, she was working out a lot of evenings and weekends but was also a dancer. Movement has always been part of her life. She had everything you're 'supposed' to want – great job, great location, big salary – but wasn't happy. Following an a-ha moment, she pivoted her career and moved to Equinox on minimum wage. She'd realised that happiness isn't about chasing pay checks. Following long-term experience as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor with Crunch and Equinox, Amanda got into boutique fitness and developed her career to the point of helping build facilities herself. She oversaw the global master trainer team at POUND Rockout Workout – the world's only cardio jam session inspired by drumming. Travelling around expos, Amanda soon realised how much technology was going to influence the future of fitness before discovering Dave Asprey and finding a new hunger for further career progression. Amanda McVey has always been somebody who follows her gut and isn't afraid to make her own template for her future success, through a fearless application of passion and a need for moving forward. Upgrade Labs is the brainchild of Bulletproof Founder and "father of biohacking", Dave Asprey. With more than 15 different technologies in two signature locations dedicated to improving mental and physical performance and recovery, Upgrade Labs is the first to offer state-of-the-art biohacking equipment to the public. Facilities include an atmospheric cell trainer, full-body detox massage and lymphatic drainage tech, adaptive resistance machines, cryotherapy, brain training, light therapy techniques and more innovative wellbeing treatments. Episode highlights - How the general public now has access to the technology that was previously only available to the 1% for improvements in health and wellbeing. Why high-tech 'earthing' through pulsed electro magnetic field therapy will give you more energy, remove inflammation and make you feel recovered with every use. How you can supercharge your mitochondria through red light therapy for increased energy and youth restoration. Why you may not even like treatments like cryotherapy, but including them in your routine will bring big benefits for your body. Where biohacking came from, and how it helped Davey Asprey on his own journey before realising he could use a computer hacking approach for his own health benefits, and to pioneer a new sector. Hear the origin story of Bulletproof Coffee. How to remove 'brain fog' that comes through poor nutrition and other fatiguing influences. Why starting out with an unconventional business model disrupted a market before it had even been fully established, and how the biggest opportunities arise from passion and understanding of potential. What is biohacking and how it's a challenge to find specifics that make you better. Why your cells may be incredibly complex, but they're also very simple when it comes to basic needs of water, oxygen, light and other elements that allow them to thrive. How Upgrade Labs is split into three groups… The future of fitness, with facilities billed as a workout in 60 minutes that can replace a week's worth of exercise, recovery and beauty, or self-health, brain and cognition therapies. What further progressions can be implemented to pull in data through technologies and use machine learning to offer huge benefits for members with both workout and recovery facilities. How a cold HIIT workout combined with compression will send a signal to your brain through lactic acid build up that initiates the release of multiple hormones to benefit your body. What the challengers are with building a brand that leads the market, and how you need to be educators instead of piggybacking on other trends. How the role of a trainer is going to shift in the future with the onset of recovery technology and new innovative approaches to fitness. What goes on at the Upgrade XP conference and how experts on human biohacking, behaviour and brain activity from around the world come to and educate and learn together. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Amanda McVey…

The third and final part of our CES special from Las Vegas sees Matthew Januszek speaking to three icons bridging the gap between contemporary fitness and the technology of the future. Hear how thought leader Emma Barry, Emmett Williams of Myzone, and David Shaw of Growth Fitness Design see the years to come. Discover what you'll be seeing more of, such as clothing sensors and even Bluetooth digestibles that you swallow for recording bodily metrics. And how will the industry use all this big data collected? We have the key info to lead a happier and healthier life but we don't know how to implement the knowledge – that's the difference. Watch the full episode on YouTube. Emma Barry is a global fitness authority that consults to the fastest-growing segments in the sector: boutique studios, budget clubs, digital workouts and fit-tech start-ups. A founding member of group fitness programming juggernaut Les Mills International, former Director of Programming for Equinox, Emma has held senior roles in group fitness programming, product development, global training, people and culture. Emmett Williams is group president and a founding partner in the global wearable technology brand Myzone – a hardware, cloud-ware, and software mix that drives exercise adherence for the end user, and customer engagement metrics for the network partner. David Shaw has been involved with tech for years, through a military background having worked on infrared, night vision, thermal imagers, computer and laser systems. Today, he's CXO of Growth Fitness Marketing & Design, a boutique firm specialising in creating the next generation hospitality, multi housing, and corporate fitness center guest workout experience. Episode highlights - How everyone gathering so much data is a huge trend, but there are still many key players and consumers alike that don't really know what to do with it once they have it. Why you need to acknowledge that you're going to lose audience attention once they leave your facility if you don't have a digital offering, but the gamble is in not setting budget to keep their attention may mean you lose them forever in the long term. Why behavioural change is so important and how fitness not only has a big share of global wallet for the industry, but how all what so many companies are doing is still not shifting the needle on true health. How technology has changed over the years and how companies are applying it to benefit commercial fitness spaces or the service that operators can offer. The fitness giants that have lead the technological trend at CES, why they're no longer attending and who has taken their place. Why the sleep and recovery trends are on the rise through wearables and measurement of numerous different metrics. How proper sleep hygiene not only recovers the brain and the body depending on the type of rest, but has been found to be causal to lower health risks such as dementia and Alzheimer's. What the developments are going to be between traditional fitness and the tech industry, and which sector will be influencing the other in the years to come when it comes to commercial and consumer fitness. How companies and club operators need to follow up their data initiatives of benefiting the consumer/customer, by implementing a regression analysis with other data to correlate information and then predict future behaviour. How wearables and sensors have become smaller, more integrated in clothing, needing less power but still detecting more. Why CES may not be the first thought for gym owners and operators when it comes to show attendance, but how it leads innovation and unveils niches that will trickle down into any aspect of the industry in the years to come. How VR and AR is going to influence the fitness industry, and how the tech even affects perceived exertion during a workout. Why tech companies are concentrating more on the consumer rather than appealing to the trade.

Part two of our CES special from Las Vegas sees Matthew Januszek speaking to some of the most innovative and exciting exhibitors that are leading change in the fitness tech space. The entrepreneurs in this episode explain all about the pioneering technology that's helping with measuring fat, monitoring bodily metrics, embracing sexual wellbeing, improving mindfulness, embracing mindfulness and bringing effective strength training to your home. Watch the full episode on YouTube Crowdfunded through Indeigogo, Bello is a device for measuring belly fat to find out what's inside our bodies using light variations. The scanner sends data to an app displaying your fat percentage and the amount of subcutaneous fat compared with visceral fat. From this data, the app will also give you recommendations on what kind of exercise to undertake and what kind of foods to eat. The HEALBE GoBe2 smart band is the first consumer tech product to track calorie intake without any manual log in, using impedance sensors to monitor diet at a cellular level. It uses four sensors measuring calorie intake and hydration, heart rate, emotional tension and stress level, and movement or activity. Algorithms collate everything into useful information for the user and big data for the company Ti Chang, co-founder of Crave, is an industrial designer currently working on sex toys and products for women for pleasure; it's the company's first year at CES following relaxed event legislation coming into effect. Her products not only have a practical application, but convey an element of luxury and act as conversation pieces that are vital to removing stigma, getting people talking about what had previously been seen as taboo. You'd never think that killing jellyfish could help improve your sleep, but Guirec Le Lous, founder of Urgonight, says this is the key to concentrating the mind through tech. His headset and app encourages daytime brain training with a feedback device to help you gain better sleep at night through neuro feedback. Find your way to a meditative state that brings better sleep – everyone has a different approach and technique to training their brain. Core is a mental wellness and a fitness-inspired approach to breath training and meditation. CEO, Sarah McDevitt, embraces bio feedback and trackable stats from a physical product and app combination that syncs audio, vibration and instruction to improve concentration and mindfulness. Billed as "The world's most intelligent gym and personal trainer," Tonal is revolutionising the way people work out, combining electricity and magnets to bring all the benefits of serious strength training into the home. Ashley Hennings, director of PR, talks to Matthew about how AI is bringing personalised pacing and weights to workouts, taking the guesswork and intimidation out of lifting. Tonal monitors multiple metrics as its algorithm learns your specific progression journey. Episode highlights - Why most smart scales use bio impedance analysis (BIA) technology and how your levels of hydration will greatly change your results, rather than using light to identify fat stores. How being able to track abdominal fat in particular can better combat chronic diseases and inflammation, and why this type of fat is a better indicator of health and wellbeing than fat anywhere else on the body. How your diet and macros change your blood, and how tech can detect this sending over 100 signals per second to register differences in blood sugar and glucose with up to 90% accuracy. What effect smart technology's integration with bigger partners such as Apple Health and Google Fit will have on your own analysis and understanding of your body and exercise habits. How to promote products in an incredibly stigmatised market without falling foul of the expected stereotypes. The journey that CES has been on as a consumer exhibition and why this is the first year that elements of sex tech for women have been allowed on the show floor. Why shame and stigma have no place in the world of pleasure. Conversely, why pleasure is not a luxury. It should be a human necessity like eating and sleeping. How to use meditation for recovery. We're living in a state of elevated sympathetic nervous system. Creating an environment of parasympathetic nervous system through tech can lead to improved tissue repair, digestion and other 'rest and digest' states of wellbeing. Why we all need to realise how connected mental and physical wellness are, and how you can improve memory, decision-making, empathy and self-awareness for big business leader benefits. Why meditation is a very simple concept that's still incredibly challenging. How mental wellness is a journey for everyone, and not just about struggles and illnesses. How AI and machine learning can have a long-term benefit of influencing 'real' studies, and why this will change the game of how we source information about ways that people really work out. Why it's not the tech itself that is forging progress with this new emerging market, but the software that has allowed entrepreneurs and disruptors to implement new algorithms and approaches to working out with the hardware such as magnetic resistance. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with these technology experts from CES 2020…

In the first of our three-part Consumer Electronics Show technology special from Las Vegas, we speak to Julie Sylvester, producer of fitness and wearable tech summits for Living In Digital Times, official partner of CES. This episode is a who's who of fitness technology, from the start-ups that have evolved to the huge brands we know today and the people behind them. Learn what caused this growth and how entrepreneurs implemented their insight for the benefit of both bodies and business. Watch the full episode on YouTube As conference producer, Julie Sylvester seeks out new and established companies who are at the forefront of innovation in the field of sports, fitness and wearable technology. The conferences she's been a part of with Living In Digital Times have fostered introductions that have led to key partnerships in the field of fitness and wearable tech. From a decade of experience, Julie knows everything there is to know about the sectors that help you understand whether workouts are actually effective or not. Celebrating decades of events, awards and exhibits that herald and tap into the future at CES, Living In Digital Times helps companies understand what it means to be a consumer in today's digital world. By identifying and exploring trends, desires and needs in specific consumer technology marketplaces, LIDT connects the dots to life's technology by providing context. Markets include health, finance, retail, family, fitness, and fashion – representing nearly every part of life touched by technology. Episode highlights - How CES has evolved and where it came from in the early days compared with the Vegas tech fest behemoth that it's become today. How fitness tech has evolved from the early days of GPS and step trackers to the vast and diverse connected training opportunities that are available today. How the little companies were driving innovation and progress in the market to start with before bigger companies came in and started a bidding war over all of them. What's interesting to investors today compared to yesteryear and how you can gain interest from the people that can help you scale your business. What's going to happen with all of this big data collected? Who will collate it and what will it mean for our future? Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Julie Sylvester…

Both controversial and cunning in the ways of behavioural science and sales, Benjamin Dennehy is an expert in challenging beliefs around money. These secrets of selling from the UK's most hated sales trainer will allow you to not only discover new predictors of success and recruit the right candidates for any sales roles, but battle against money concepts, subservience and tired belief systems in an industry where profit is king. Chances are that your "best practice" is not the best practice. In this episode you'll learn why. Watch the full episode on YouTube Benjamin Dennehy grew up in New Zealand before travelling to the UK for life experience, working in pubs. When the time came to get a "real job", he studied in law but fell into a role as a recruitment consultant. His recruitment record was abysmal – recruiting nobody in six months. However, his aptitude for lead generation and setting up appointments was through the roof. So began a new direction. Fast forward through years of sales development and prospecting, Benjamin is now working with people that have the desire, motivation and ambition to change. Benjamin Dennehy is an engaging sales speaker, interim sales director and sales trainer who will explain that the barriers cemented within your selling process ARE your parents' fault! Dennehy brings an antipodean brutality and charm to the sales experience many have never encountered before. His 'no holds barred' presentation will educate, inspire, motivate and help sales people to understand why they struggle with many of their daily sales frustrations. Episode highlights - Why you need to play to your strengths, even if you don't realise you're good at something until you start doing it. When you need to make the decision between working for someone else or making money for yourself, doing what you do best in a self employed role. How to avoid creating pitch briefs for prospects, where you're essentially working for free and giving them your ideas. Why so many sales people don't know why people buy things, which is imperative to understanding purchase behaviour and reasons for spend. How to understand what emotions drive purchases, and how your sales technique can be altered to appreciate this new truth. The real reason for purchase is often very different from what a prospect tells you it is. Hear about what the purpose of selling is and what you need to amend in your pitch or approach to make your prospecting universally appealing to any customer. How you can gain more control in your prospecting calls, and why at times you should even be looking for the hard "no" if they're not the right person you need. How you can get past the gatekeepers and what you should be saying to the real decision makers. Why you need to emulate the person you're trying to get through to. Why you need to learn how to ask questions in a way that doesn't upset people. How it may not be confidence that's causing lack of sales performance and what you can do to remedy the situation through a change of beliefs. Why comparing sales techniques, including training and daily approach, with other industries such as healthcare or the legal system will change your mind on how a salesperson should be behaving. Why price shouldn't be an issue and how the best salespeople can unveil how you can get around the "you're too expensive" dismissal. How a great salesperson wouldn't necessarily be a great manager, and why this career path and promotion may be detrimental to overall results for a business. Why some sales-related positions in a business really shouldn't have a sales target placed above them. The need for management skills sometimes outweighs the additional budget needs or cost. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Benjamin Dennehy…

Larry Domingo and Gino Lombardo are leading the future of the wellbeing market with a gym and recovery studio in one business. 6th Sense Fitness + Recovery not only offers traditional functional fitness benefits, but they're leveraging technology such as cryotherapy, compression, and other parasympathetic treatments that allow you to rest and digest compared to when you're working hard the rest of the time. This episode of the Escape Your Limits podcast will offer everything to help you recover quicker by dealing with inflammation, oxidative stress and similar conditions that follow tough workouts. Watch the full episode on YouTube Larry Domingo has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years. Now working as a boutique consultant, he is also founder of PrePostFit, providing innovative products backed by evidence-based science to the fitness industry and facilities such as 6th Sense Fitness + Recovery. Gino Lombardo is general manager of 6th Sense Fitness + Recovery and is passionate about guiding members to reach their full potential. Full of positivity and enjoyment of all things to do with both nature and movement, his approach is that 'you don't have to do it, you get to do it!' 6th Sense Fitness + Recovery is all about redefining wellbeing through looking after both body and mind. A gym space combined with wellbeing facilities such as cryotherapy, infrared sauna and photobiomodulation, 6thSense is leading a trend for providing everything a member needs under one roof. 6th Sense is a diverse selection of high-end services, group classes, and nationally certified trainers, providing you with a personalised fitness experience that is enhanced by modern-day technology and fused with scientifically backed methodologies, to help you train smarter and recover faster. Episode highlights - What facilities are up and coming with innovative technology to help you build, perform and recover in equal measure. How recovery studios and modalities can help the general public just as much as professional athletes. Why bigger budgets are being spent year on year for recovery of professional sports teams to give them the edge and get results, and how this is going to trickle down into general public appreciation soon. Why tech and apps will allow you to get to know yourself better and understand when you need to work hard or when you need to rest. Who the big players are in the recovery and rehabilitation market at present. How recovery facilities will help trainers differentiate themselves in a competitive fitness market. What's causing us to be constantly stimulated in the world today and how you can combat these environmental factors to get into a parasympathetic state that will improve every aspect of your life. What it is going to take to make recovery more mainstream and ensure that facilities are not too ahead of the curve for success. How operators should be pricing these recovery facilities and how often members need to be using them. What demographic recovery operators currently appeal to, why this is going to change and how levels of affluence around a location are important to any facility. Join Matthew Januszek in conversation with Larry Domingo and Gino Lombardo…

Host of the Escape Your Limits podcast, Matthew Januszek, takes a look back on the 12 months of 2019, identifying trends from every episode and how they'll make a difference in fitness. Whether it's finding what areas of the market are set to explode in the coming years from our guests' insight, or what you need to do in order to grow your business in any industry as an entrepreneur or business, this episode will set you up for 2020 and beyond. Watch the full episode on YouTube. Highlights – A look back on 12 months of the Escape Your Limits podcast, sharing information about what's happening in the immediate fitness industry and peripheral sectors that will change how we all work together. How competitive the fitness industry is and why the majority of businesses are fighting in the same market, often to their own detriment. Why finding your 'blue ocean' will bring innovation and increased business through appealing to a whole new range of people. What recovery really means, and why it's not just about preventing your muscles from aching. Mental recovery is just as important in any fitness regime. Why it's important to share conversations with as many people as possible to give a broad view of the fitness industry, rather than a small-scale perception through controlled information and agendas. How many people's lives have been taken over by the need for instant gratification, whether it's on social media, with financial progression or with dietary decisions. The importance of working together and finding partnerships to collaborate and benefit both parties, whether it's a venture, a product development process, or sharing an audience or customer base. Tips on staying relevant with your customer and how to overcome the challenges on technology advancement, purchasing trends and finding the right team to discover market trends. Timing your business proposition so you're not late to the game or too far ahead of the curve. There's a fine line between strategic innovation and bad planning. Why there are many times when you'll question yourself, but it's important to not let those doubts influence your decisions too much. Use feedback, both positive and negative, to drive you forward and push for more. What's coming from the Escape Your Limits podcast and Escape Fitness in 2020 and beyond. Join Matthew Januszek looking back on 2019 about the trends and topics covered in this year's Escape Your Limits podcast episodes…