Future of Fitness

Pat Rigsby is a dad, husband, business coach, author, and entrepreneur who has built over 25 different businesses, including two Entrepreneur Franchise 500 award-winning franchises. He got his entrepreneurial start by opening a personal training business and health club. With no money to get these businesses off the ground, he was living with his family in the basement of a shared home. Before long, he started to have some real success (including moving out of the basement) and looked to expand his businesses. Over the next few years, his small personal training business grew to a network of successful businesses ranging from franchises and certification companies to info-marketing and real estate.

As a young athlete, I had a successful career playing lacrosse eventually winning a National Title in college. Throughout that focus on sport, I was introduced to first general weight training, then competitive Olympic Weightlifting. Throughout college, I would train teammates in only lifting and off-season training and become perpetually obsessed with self-educating on all things fitness. As a serial inventor, I had the idea for PUSH about 5 years ago and decided then that I would join the team when I returned east. Now I am focused on leveraging technology to change the way the world does fitness.

Many years ago Ali Watts left the corporate world in Sydney, Australia, to follow her passion — helping people transform their bodies and minds through nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle. At the start of 2018, she moved to Manhattan from Hong Kong to spread that passion even further.   As an integral part of her own journey as a personal trainer and yoga teacher, Ali realized that to achieve true longevity and optimal health, women really need a holistic approach—addressing the three pillars of lifestyle, nutrition, and fitness simultaneously.   Among other things (like being a badass fit chick) she runs Ali Fitness -a fitness and health coaching company, a popular podcast about bringing health into fitness and an S & C gymnastics studio — www.transformgst.com. Her goal is to help as many people as she can be fit and healthy for the long term.

Fares Ksebati is the CEO of MySwimPro, a technology company that creates apps that help people improve their performance and health. MySwimPro has received international accolades including App of the year by Apple and featured in Sports Illustrated. The company has global partners and an international investor base that spans 36 countries. Fares is the founder of World Swim Day, a global initiative that empowers people to be more active through swimming. He competed on Wayne State University's varsity swim team and continues to compete. He is a 3x U.S. Masters swimming national champion, USA Triathlon Certified Coach and American Swim Coaches Association Fellow.

Jake’s love for Strength and Conditioning started in college where he was lucky enough to play for an intern under some world-class strength coaches. During his time as a college strength coach, he started to compete in Crossfit and left to run a CrossFit gym. This move opened his eyes to the business side of fitness. Since then he has co-founded Gymbuildr, Fitness Culture, and his most recent project FitHive. 

Nate Klemp, Ph.D., is a writer, philosopher, and entrepreneur. Along with Eric Langshur, he is the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Start Here: Master the Lifelong Habit of Wellbeing (Simon & Schuster: North Star Way) and is a regular contributor to Mindful Magazine. He is also the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at LIFE Cross Training (LIFE XT), a company devoted to training the skill of happiness and promoting well-being. Prior to creating LIFE XT, Nate worked as an assistant professor of political science and philosophy at Pepperdine University. Nate holds a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, where he graduated with honors in Ethics in Society, and a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Princeton University. Nate is also the author of The Morality of Spin: Rhetoric and the Christian Right, a book with Roman and Littlefield Press on the ethics of rhetoric and spin.

Nicole is a former fitness studio owner turned Authentic Marketing Mentor for Fit Pros. She successfully started, ran, and sold her boot camp for a 6 figure profit in just 3 years and ran an online weight loss coaching business. She has dedicated the past 5 years to serving other fitness business owners as a coach. Her specialty is building businesses from $0 to over $10k/month in less than 6 months in both the online and brick + mortar space. Nicole now teaches the precise strategies she used to create her success in both her brick and mortar fitness studio and in her online coaching business through her company, Authentic Conversion. After seeing so many Fitness Professionals struggle to earn a living, despite being in the business of changing lives, she’s passionate about showing them there’s a better way to impact more people, earn more money, and work less hours. She’s determined to show fitness professionals that the freedom they crave is much closer than they can conceive!

Aaron is the founder of the movr app - an accessible training platform and movement108, a boutique movement studio in Vancouver, Canada. He's committed to delivering accessibility in movement. Discovering new ability and awareness in the body is a daily pursuit both personally and professionally. Aaron plays soccer, hikes and loves spending time with family. Movement is a lifestyle and Aaron aspires to embody this - day in and day out.   Where you’ll find him: Working with the movr team, coaching classes, personal training sessions, leading our Bell Sound Kettlebell Course, hiking in the woods or having a nap.

Mark has been in the fitness industry for 24 years and has worked in big box gyms as a trainer, fitness manager, and regional VP. He has started four companies and helped launch Massage Envy. Mark worked as a success coach at NPE for four years working with fitness business owners. His newest venture is with RedLine Xpress and developing micro-franchises to help new and struggling trainers to create rewarding and profitable businesses.

Ariel Garten is the Founder of InteraXon, makers of Muse: the brain sensing headband. Muse is the award-winning headband that makes meditation easier.