The Business Side Of Fitness Vanessa Severiano

Customer experience can make or break a brand.

As Judy Turchin, founder of JPT Partners LLC and former COO of Eqinox puts it, “if you are not in touch with your customer, you've lost your way on the journey.”

Today on The Business Side of Fitness Podcast we chat about all things related to customer experience including:


What separates an outstanding customer experience from an okay one
How organizations can measure their success (hint: it’s not just about revenue)
How often businesses should recalibrate their customer journey
The first thing she looks at when reviewing a marketing strategy
Tips on building your own business
Opportunities for the fitness/wellness world in 2023 and beyond

Tune into the conversation here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has more than two decades of experience creating, developing and growing healthy lifestyle brands. Learn more about mentorship with Vanessa here:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Judy Turchin is a dynamic, people-centric executive with expertise in omnichannel customer experience and engagement, global operations, sales and marketing. Judy has a 25+ year track record in direct to consumer health/wellness/fitness, financial services, real estate and law. Over the past 10+ years Judy has held various C-suite roles including Chief Operating Officer, Office of the CEO, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for various global businesses.

Ms. Turchin is the Founder of JPT Partners LLC, a global advisory firm that partners with companies and leadership teams to tackle their most critical strategic issues including customer experience, brand/marketing, operational excellence, real estate growth and programmatic employee wellness.

Learn about Judy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyturchin

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Gyms and studios can be hesitant to work with aggregators and marketplaces.

The concern is often cannibalizing their current membership base, when really the role of these marketplaces is audience development.

Today on The Business Side of Fitness Podcast, Massimiliano Sardi, Vice President & Head of Partnerships at Gympass shares, “90% of the time, it's a new customer, a new member going to them.”

Gympass helps the fitness and wellness industry access a new group of people while bringing incremental revenue to gyms.

Massi goes further to explain:

-The strategy for bringing Gympass to the US market and how it was received

-How corporate wellness has changed over the last few years

-Which markets have rebounded the fastest (may surprise you)

-How to structure valuable partnerships

-The KPI that’s impacted the most by Corporate Wellness programs

Tune into the conversation here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has more than two decades of experience creating, developing and growing healthy lifestyle brands. Learn more about mentorship with Vanessa here:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Massimiliano Sardi  hails from Italy. He’s a Columbia alumni. The first part of Massi's career was at Google's EU HQs in Dublin Ireland. Later he moved to management consulting in the US, where he started to work with HR clients; in late 2017 when Gympass expanded to the US, Massi joined Gympass to work on the US launch, building the team both on the client side working with HR clients and on the partnerships side working with fitness partners - Currently Massi leads the US partnerships organization and digital partnership globally as Gympass moved it global HQs to the US.

Learn about Gympass here: https://www.gympass.com

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Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe to The Business Side of Fitness wherever you listen to podcasts.  Your support means so much and helps more than you know!

We’ve all heard that content is king, but let’s face it; content without a solid strategy behind it is just noise.

Erika Shannon-Hathaway knows all about laying out a content strategy that works.  On todays episode of The Business Side of Fitness Podcast, Erika shares the same methodology she used, which helped to take MYXfitness from 0 to favorable acquisition by BeachBody and then public via SPAC  in under two years.  Wow!

Tune into today's episode to learn more about the relationship between content, product and brand along with:

What startup life is REALLY like

Shifting from in front of to behind the camera

The early days at Soul Cyle

Tune into the conversation here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has more than two decades of experience creating, developing and growing healthy lifestyle brands. Learn more about mentorship with Vanessa here:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Erika is a seasoned fitness expert who has been in the industry for over 16 years. A former professional dancer and theatrical General Manager, she got her start in fitness as a General Manager of Teacher training for Patricia Moreno’s intenSati method, eventually becoming an instructor herself. She grew into fitness production and content strategy as the industry landscape shifted and moved toward streaming and connected fitness. Erika has worked for Equinox, SoulCycle, Daily Burn, MYXfitness and Beachbody, and is driven by her passion to instill connection and confidence through the power of movement.

Learn about Erika here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikashannon/

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Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe to The Business Side of Fitness wherever you listen to podcasts.  Your support means so much and helps more than you know!

Every startup dreams of becoming a global brand, but not many make it.

Today on the Business Side of Fitness Podcast, Star Sage, Director of Business Development at Hyperice shares what it’s been like to go from startup to megabrand over the last 8 years.

Star attributes some of the success to relationship selling.  She says, ” I think in our industry,  we have such a luxury that we are selling something that is good for people. I think we forget that sometimes. And that's something that I remind my team, I remind myself daily, and then that enthusiasm is exuded into when I am selling the products and building those relationships.”

In this episode you’ll learn:

What it’s like to scale a startup brand

How the company established credibility before wellness became mainstream

When the time was right to shift from education oriented marketing to brand marketing
How Hyperice plans to continue innovating in the future

Star’s sales tips

Tune into the conversation here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has more than two decades of experience creating, developing and growing healthy lifestyle brands. Learn more about mentorship with Vanessa here:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Star Sage’s  passion lies in the health & wellness and consumer technology. Currently, Star is the Director of Business Development for Hyperice. Star joined the Hyperice team over seven years ago, before Hyperice launched its first product in market. Since then, Star has focused on Hyperice’s brand and product(s) positioning, through B2B&B2C marketing, PR, and strategic planning across industries worldwide. A firm believer in the power of partnerships, Star formed integral relationships in fitness (Equinox, Barry’s Bootcamp, Orangetheory), hospitality (AMEX Lounges, Marriott), Corporate Wellness (EXOS, Google), Esports (NRG, OWL), Premium retailers (Best Buy, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s), Star focuses and develops the relevant engagement for companies to the everyday consumer.

Based on the valuable partnerships Star has formed and continues to develop, her true skills lies in finding potential sales opportunities, igniting a fast-paced focus for a team, and delivering valuable return to businesses and entrepreneurs.

Learn about Hyperice here: https://hyperice.com/

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Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe to The Business Side of Fitness wherever you listen to podcasts.  Your support means so much and helps more than you know!

“Life is a game. And the best storyteller wins. That simple. If somebody tells me that their sales are slow, then I tell them, well tell a better story. “

Storytelling really is the name of the game - in business and life!

And nobody tells a better story than today's podcast guest, Roger Harvey.

This man has impacted so many people and molded many careers in the fitness industry including mine.

We have known each other for over 20 years and I’m still learning so much from him!

Today’s episode is jam packed with stories everyone can learn from:


Crisis management
Using the word family in business
What is means to truly be a leader
Understanding and managing expectations
Developing staff
The role of vulnerability

Tune into the conversation here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has two decades of experience creating, developing and growing brands in the fitness & wellness industry. Learn more about 1:1 mentoring with Vanessa:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/consulting

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Roger Harvey is an experienced Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the health wellness and fitness industry. Skilled in Operations Management, Coaching, Team Building, Leadership, and Marketing. Strong consulting professional with a Bachelor’s Degree focused in Movement Science from University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Past roles include, but are not limited to:

13 years Chief Operating Officer at Crunch

2 years Chief Operating Officer at Shecky's Media

5 years Chief Operating Officer at Cyc Fitness

18 months Chief Executive Officer at Switch Playground

14 months Chief Executive Officer at NYSC

Learn about Roger here: www.whatisrogeRradio.com

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Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe to The Business Side of Fitness wherever you listen to podcasts.  Your support means so much and helps more than you know!

The fitness business is a passion fueled business, but…there's a big difference between a hobby and a business.

Not many people can turn their passion into a viable business, but Eric Posner, CEO and Co-Founder of Swerve is one of those people.

Today on The Business Side of Fitness podcast, Eric shares the grit that got him and his team within striking distance of their 10th year in business.  While several virtual fitness brands are laying off workforces and recalibrating projections, Swerve is raising capital.

“Ultimately, the reason why we started Swerve in the first place was not because of the dollar. We did it because we love bringing people together and harnessing community and connecting one another in a way that's positive for your life. That's why we chose this path of uncertainty, over being in a corporate job that paid really well.”

Tune in to today’s episode to hear Eric dish on:

-Innovating from a brick and mortar model to a digital b2b model

-What it takes to have staying power in this industry

- How the team approach to fitness positively impacts utilization

And much more.

Tune in here: https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Vanessa Severiano has two decades of experience creating, developing and growing brands in the fitness & wellness industry. Learn more about 1:1 mentoring with Vanessa:

https://www.vanessaseveriano.com/consulting

ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST

Eric Posner is the driver of Swerve’s finances, investor relations, sales, and partnership growth strategy. Eric has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard, and experience as a Division I Lacrosse player under his belt. Posner previously held a position at Investment Bank HSBC. In 2019, Eric was named by Industry Wired among the most influential people in the health & wellness industry.

Learn about Swerve here: https://swervefitness.com

**SPREAD THE WORD

Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe to The Business Side of Fitness wherever you listen to podcasts.  Your support means so much and helps more than you know!