(33) John Ross - Find Out What Your Clients Are Made Of with InBody

Everybody, welcome back to the Future of Fitness podcast. This is Eric Malzone, your host, and this is episode number thirty-three. And I get to talk to John Ross. He is with Inbody. So Inbody is an amazing piece of technology that is now available for the Fitness Pro and has been for a while. And I'm going to give you two really good reasons why you should listen to this podcast and take something away from it. Number one, if you are a fitness coach and you've heard something along these lines of, hey, Eric, I've been working with you for three months, and I check my weight every other day, and nothing's happened. I'm still the same weight, or even worse, it's gone up a couple pounds. And you know, as the coach that all these amazing things have happened. They've lost fat, they've gained lean mass, they've dropped water weight. This is how you prove it. You get one of these things, you can actually prove it. And number two, you can monetize this thing very easily. The ROI will get back to you in a very quick fashion. We've seen it happen so many times with our clients and me personally as well. So without further ado, get into it. Listen to what he has to say. Contact John if you have any questions. I'm not a salesperson for Inbody, although I'd be a darn good one. And uh yeah, this is episode number 33, John Ross with InBody. All right, everybody, welcome back. It's Eric Malzone here with the Future of Fitness, and today I have a treat. I am talking to John Ross. John is with the uh with Inbody, and he is the Midwest Regional Manager. So uh John, welcome aboard. It's great talking to you. Appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you, Eric.

It's uh pleasure to be here. Right on. So um I've I'm a fan of Inbody. I I used uh I use the machine um when I own my my facility quite often for my clients, and uh it actually became quite addictive for myself. I was actually looking at it in the corner of my office, be like, well, I wonder if I changed in the last four hours. Um so go do another reading. But uh I really like the the technology of it. Um I really like the price point, but if you could give our listeners a little bit of input on what inbody is and and the technology behind it, and uh yeah, let's start with that.

Sure, sure, yeah. Well, inbody is a body composition scale. Uh we use an advanced form of BIA technology, that's bioelectric impedance analysis. Uh the difference between inbody and all other BIA devices, though, is that we do what's called DSM BIA, that's direct segmental multi-frequency BIA. Uh in layman's terms, we are basically measuring each segment of the body, all five segments, each arm, each leg, and the trunk independently. And that allows us to eliminate the need to use any preloaded data or uh any assumptions based on age or gender or other demographic information. So consequently, we retain an accuracy correlation across the spectrum of body types. Um we're actually correlated at 98% with uh DEXA and underwater Wayne, which are the two gold standards. And frankly, we've just got a much easier method for measurement. Nobody has to get in a swimsuit or you know, jump into a tank.

Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I mean, we um I would always we we would have the DEXA scan truck come out or the water, you know, the dunk tank come out, but it was um it the accessibility of having it just on site and and having that ease with an in-body machine was just not even close to the you know the challenges that come with with having someone come out and do the testing for you. Um where uh why is is this such a great tool for fitness professionals? And um, you know, you I know you work with a 321 go project and Clay and that group there. Um, you know, how have you been seeing facility owners um use this technology and and why why should they care about it? Why should they consider it?

Yeah, great, great question. Well, first of all, uh in order to show progress or success, we have to have some sort of measurable output. And um in order to actually validate your programs and show that you know what you're talking about, uh those measurable outcomes have to be um reproducible and consistent. And so what we're doing is giving these gym owners a valuable tool to onboard new clients because they're able to run a test right away. Uh it's really quick. Um, and they can utilize the results then to show their understanding of the physiology behind working out and training and how that can be customized based on these results. And it really brings another level of kind of expertise to the trainers and the club owners. Um beyond that, it's a very monetizable device. Uh, it's everybody uh is bringing in additional revenue uh with the new device. Um and it's uh a valuable way to retain your members too.

Yeah, I think it's great. And you know, it's most fitness pros will know that um, you know, the last thing we want to hear from our clients is oh, you know, I I I check myself on the scale and I've actually gained weight, right? That's enough. That's enough to uh for the fitness professional just to just to pass out out of frustration because we all know that they're gaining lean mass if if the um you know if the program is working correctly or if it's that type of program, they should be gaining lean mass, and therefore you can't really see it. So uh this is this is a huge part of it, um, is showing people, right, with proof on a third party. It's not like you're doing the calipers or you're doing any of the measurements on your own. There's no way to to mess with this, right? It's just it is what it is. And uh showing progress just brings that much that much more um oomph behind it. And then uh having that physical printout, I think, is really powerful as well. I know it sounds simple, but having that and then um being able to track over time because I know with the newer versions of of the 570 and a couple others, you're able to uh see that graph. I had an old version. Um, what are some interesting ways, John, that that your clients are um monetizing the the in-body?

Yes, kind of the obvious is uh setting a non-member fee. Um we have people now that are actually interested in uh coming in on not interested in maybe a membership or uh or personal training, but they uh do want to know their percent body fat and they're willing to pay a premium for that. Um so that's that's kind of a direct way. Um but also affordable so you can actually take it out and set it up on site at um you know health fairs or other community events. I have some clients taking them to high school athletic programs or uh even private athletic programs for you. Um and not only are you providing a great service to these people and providing them with actual valuable data that they can use, um, but you're in a way also able to kind of market for your services as well. And if you see somebody that you know uh you feel like you can help, you just drive them back through your your door. Um the biggest growing market for our clients, though, is going to be uh in third-party employee wellness programs. Um I have a lot of clients that are going into local corporations now, um, meeting with the HR directors or the owners themselves, even, and they can assess you know 200 employees in a day. Now, again, this is great marketing to drive back through your your personal training programs, or if you offer nutritional counseling, um, it's it's a really easy way to uh increase your membership there. Um but I have companies that are willing to pay uh top dollar just to get these assessments done and then utilize the data as a motivating factor to help drive down their healthcare costs as well.

Uh yeah, that's that's some good stuff. I think uh there's not a single uh fitness professional or facility owner who doesn't want to get into corporate wellness, right? Um that that is uh it just changes the game, you know, completely from going to the consumer to a business like that. Uh so that's a really that's a really great uh bit of advice. And um, you know, I I think uh the nice thing about the in-body is that it starts a conversation. So one of the things that we struggle with as trainers is you know, almost everybody comes into a gym or comes to a trainer because they want to lose weight, right? 90%, right? So we always have to with the struggle is giving people what they want until you learn the right to give them what they need. And I think this this tool actually bridges that gap in that conversation how that makes it happen faster. Because now you sit down like, okay, great, you lost weight, or you know, we're gonna have, we're gonna drop this percentage of body fat down for you if you do everything I tell you to do. Uh but um let's look at the lean mass, let's look at your water weight, let's look at these other risk factors within your health, which you really need, but you don't know you need it. So um what are some of the ideas or the features within that in body that help facilitate that conversation?

Yeah. So you had mentioned earlier, uh, talking about um the frustration of someone trying to lose weight but gaining a little bit of weight in terms of muscle and not understanding that dynamic. Well, uh, one of the the coolest features I think on the in-body is that our basal metabolic rate um is directly connected to in body mass. And so the way that this works is that we have somebody that comes in and wants to lose weight, we set them up with a customized fitness program, maybe some nutritional programming, and they follow it to a T for the first month, they're excited to come back in and retest, and then they see that their scale weight hasn't changed at all or it's increased a little bit because of that muscle gain. Uh, we want to use this opportunity then to quantify that muscle gain. We can we can quantify that. We can also show and quantify any fat loss, but with that muscle gain directly connected to the basal metabolic rate, we can say that you are definitively now burning more calories naturally in a 24-hour hour period. Meaning you're burning fat faster. Um, so you've already made a positive change in your body composition just by increasing your basal metabolic rate. Regardless of what your scale weight says, you're headed in the right direction. We can turn that frustration then into a real motivating factor.

Yeah, that's awesome. And I think you know, just side note is every um myself and then every gym owner I've talked to who who, or the large majority who do have one of these machines in their facility, um, it's monetized within like 30 days, you know, especially with the payment plans that you guys offer if you still offer those. Um so John, where do you see because the the name of this podcast is the future of fitness, right? Where do you see this technology going? What's the next step when it comes to to you know, inbody and and what your whole field? Because I'm I'm guessing it's gonna be a wild ride.

So yeah, I mean, we've we've actually come a long way even in the last uh couple years with the uh the outputs that we've provided. Uh we're gonna continue to evolve those based on our relationships with the major players in the industry, and that's the fitness industry, uh also healthcare and weight loss and and so forth. Um so we're looking at different types of metrics now, utilizing this data in a more uh focused way. Uh one of the latest things that we are adding is called a skeletal muscle index. It's a uh measurement of the lean body mass appendicular. So that's uh each arm and each leg, and it's uh basically uh over your uh height. So it's kind of like a BMI, except we're using muscle mass instead of uh total weight. This number is actually uh uh the cutoff. You can have a cutoff now for people that are sarcopenic. Sarcopenia is known as skinny fat. It's when people are maybe uh the ideal weight for their height, but they um have less muscle than than is uh desired. Um sarcopenia is a major health concern now moving forward because it's associated now with osteoporosis, which has all kinds of other major health implications if left uh untouched. So just one example is this SMI value that allows us now to actually diagnose sarcopenia and use that as a way to um provide better health care because we can get uh some sort of reimbursement through those diagnosis codes and actually use that again as a motivating factor for those that uh have those kind of concerns.

Uh that's great. Yeah, it's it's it's really gonna be interesting. I mean, stuff with like what you guys are doing and wearable technologies and and all that, how technology and fitness are now just melding, right? Um, and then hopefully the health health and medical professions will all get on board too, so we can all be one big happy family. Um, that's the dream, right?

Um yeah, so uh what yeah, we'll get everybody with an inbody and then we can uh all speak the same language.

Yeah, it would be great. That would be great. So I think you guys have made it pretty easy for that to actually happen. Like, give me an idea, you know, people are listening today and they want to, you know, they want to invest in in an in-body. And I do mean that when I say investment, I mean it truly is an investment because it will um it it's almost a no-brainer, I would say. But what what are s how do people um is there do you guys have payment plans for it or how what are you guys up to now? I know when when I bought mine it was it was there were some pretty good deals going on.

Yeah, so um we do have payment plans. Uh probably the most popular right now is uh a 24-month uh zero percent interest plan. Um there's really it's really a low initial financial liability, um and there's no penalty for an early payment. So uh what I'm recommending all my clients do is uh go with the 24-month plan and coordinate the implementation of the in-body with some sort of challenge. Uh nutritional challenges are big, but you can do weight loss challenges, muscle gain challenges. We even have uh an in-body challenge kind of um uh turnkey solution for you if you don't have anything in mind already. Um and what I'm seeing is most of my clients are running this first challenge in the first maybe two or three months and bringing in enough revenue to have the in-body pay for itself that first month. At the same time, they're introducing other members and new participants to the metrics and getting them excited about repeat testing. So they're building in kind of uh additional revenue, you know, just from that first challenge.

Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, for full disclosure too, well, I I have no skin in the game with you guys, but I obviously I'm a fan. But we're also, you know, we've developed a whole um social media funnel that we'll be launching, you know, basically at the beginning of at the end of this year, the beginning of of January, just because that's when everyone's looking for weight loss, right? Um, we'll show people um you know how to how to turn this into a revenue stream really quick. And I was talking to one of our clients, uh Butch um at a rec room cross fin. He's you know, this is a strong red of you know, revenue stream for him. He um, you know, I'm I'm very impressed with what he's done with it. And you know, he uses it both for marketing and both for internal clients to increase his his average client value. So it's just it's a huge asset, and that's why you know I want to get you on the show because I think it's really something people should know about. Um, John, if people are interested in getting one of these, where do they go? Or should they contact you, or if they have questions, what where do they go?

Yeah, uh you guys can email me. It's john.ross at inbody.com. Uh that's probably the easiest way. Uh, you can also visit our website, it's inbodyusa.com. Um, but uh yeah, check us out. It's uh it's a great investment, it's a great revenue generator, um, and we'd love to tell you more about it, sure.

Yeah, and it's a great differentiator too. So um, John, thank you for your time, man. It's been uh it's been a pleasure and I love what you guys are doing. So um keep it up and uh I'm sure we'll we'll be tracking what you're up to next. Hey Fitness Fans, don't leave yet. This is Eric Nelson, your host, and I have an extremely special offer just for you. If you go to fitnessmarketingalliance.com forward slash assessment, you can claim your complimentary digital marketing audit. Are you a modern fitness professional? Do you have some sort of online advanced? Do you have a speaking specific that you want to form auditors in like how you start to find out all the detailed psyches?