Anthony Vennare - The Future of Fitt Insider

Hey friends, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness and wellness industry podcast for over five years and running. I'm your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the honor of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. If you like the show, we'd love it if you took three minutes of your day to leave us a nice supporter review wherever you consume your podcast. If you're interested in staying up to date with the future of fitness, go to future of fitness.co to subscribe and get weekly summaries dropped into your inbox. Now onto the show. Since launching in 2012, they've consistently had one mission: facilitate the best customer experiences with the most cutting-edge solution for franchises, studios, gyms, and boxes. Spanning over 4,000 clients in 40 plus countries, Teamup has a vast global network with its roots right here in North America. Whether it's AI, new features, new partnerships, and new markets, TeamUp's sites are set on raising the bar of the industry to enable their customers to perform and operate at the highest level locally, nationally, and overseas. However, the most reliable APIs in the market, you can deliver premium customer experiences and scale your fitness enterprise with the strongest technological infrastructure our industry has to offer. Empower your staff, engage your members, and unlock your next chapter of growth with software design for you. For a limited time, get a very generous 50% off your first month. To redeem the offer, simply contact the teamup sales team and use the promo code the future of fitness. Head to go teamup.com. That is G-O-T-E-A-M-U-P dot com. Hey friends, this is Eric Balzone, and this episode of the Future of Fitness is brought to you by the Podcast Collective. Since our inception in 2023, we have emerged as the fitness, health, and wellness industry's premier podcast placement agency. We're honored to work with many of the industry's most prominent technologists, thought leaders, startup founders, and business executives. Why? Because they recognize that being on podcasts is the most effective way to authentically connect with their specific target audiences and rapidly grow a lucrative professional network. From podcast placements to speaking engagements, go-to-market strategies to investor relations, and media kits to press releases, the podcast collective brings a level of professionalism and deep industry expertise that can only be achieved by spending decades in the trenches. If you are a startup founder, business executive, emerging thought leader, or simply a savvy operator that understands the power of authentic media, learn more at podcastcollective.io and feel free to book a 30-minute strategy session with yours truly. Traditional media is dying on the vine. Podcasts are rising quickly to fill the void. Do not miss the boat. That's podcastcollective.io. All right. We're live. Anthony, welcome back, man. I appreciate you having man. Glad to be chatting. Yeah. Well, you're always busy. Toes always tapping, right? Over at FitInsider UN Joe. But you guys recently had a big piece of news as far as the the rebrand of FitInsider. And I know everything that you guys do is generally very deliberate and thought out. Even just prior to recording, as we were chit-chatting, you know, the thing that kept coming up was, you know, we want to do it the right way. Right. So we're going to be patient, we're going to do it the right way. We're going to get the right team members, and then we're going to unleash it when it's time. So sounds like now's the time. And I'm excited to have you on to talk about what you guys are doing next, what the future fitness fitness fit insider looks like. And there's there's a lot to talk about. And last bit of babble before we get into you again is like I feel that a lot of people across the industry know you from the content, right? You guys have been when when was the first newsletter you guys released? Very first. 2020. 2020.

Technically, the the email of like, hey, here's what I think to like some some buds was 20, that was the end of 2019.

Okay. Well, there you go. So, you know, we've been doing this for six years. You guys have built up a lot, and people know you for the content, but there's so many different legs to what Fit Insider is, and I feel like that's all now kind of coming clear. So let's dive into it. You guys rebranded. Why?

We rebranded and we kind of announced the the broader holding company structure of like what we're doing and all the assets, because like we were saying before, it's really fitness has changed. The name is FitInsider. We thought about changing the name, but then we're like, we can't do that because just what people know where it is. So it's how do we take our brand and in it and let everybody know what we've been building behind the scenes and continue to stand out and be the place that has a different approach to this. With the audience decides it is anything we introduce, anything we do, we we're very deliberate about it. Specifically, it's funny you say, like, do the right thing, like we have a big sign and a big mural that says the right thing is the right thing. Head at our old office, have it at our new space, have it up here at our gym. Ever we are, that's like the kind of saying, and that always has to come through. And the rebrand was it's not fitness, it's not wellness, it's not health, it's not healthcare. What is it? It's everything. Everything is wellness or whatever you want to call it. So we wanted to have the brand and everything look a certain way and be clean and no ads and no pop-ups and nothing. How do we, instead of changing the name or knowing what we're gonna call this whole thing, how do we make this product, this platform? Because we now have reports and press releases and newsletters and podcasts and all this other stuff. It's like if we just make it so clean and well designed that the content shines through, because one week it's mental health and then it's you know, nutrition, and then it's sexual wellness or AI and healthcare and the consumer spending healthcare dollars. As long as the platform looks a certain way and the content shines through, then the name and the everything else, as long as they know it's us, that that's all that matters.

Yeah. Awesome. And and as you and I were talking about, like fitness, and I think about this in my own podcast, the word fitness just doesn't seem to incorporate everything that's going on within our industry as it kind of evolves and morphs into different things and kind of gets swallowed in certain areas, but then takes another thing. It's just it's happening so fast. So anybody who's out there listening who has a really good name for what the rebrand in the fitness industry could be, I will give you a podcast collective hat and a $20 Starbucks card if you email me and we like it. I'll match it. All right, you double down. What was when you guys started your content? Let's go maybe a little bit of a history lesson here too. So you started your newsletter in 2019. I know it was very small, it was just kind of a group of friends that you started emailing, right? As it evolved, what was like the first revenue stream that you guys produced?

So we're lucky that we've had a couple exits in the past. We've built and sold some businesses that we didn't monetize it. We could have early on. We didn't monetize it until 2023 at all. And until that point, it was we had built this model. Originally, it was around all that matters is driving the industry forward because we're always going to work in this industry. And it's still today that's our mission. It's like we're always gonna work in this industry. We know it from being trainers and coaches on the ground, the gym owners and owning dozens of businesses that have done everything we could, and now investing in 50 companies that have done all of these different things. So we're super ingrained in it, and the industry needs a place to drive it forward and say the things and research the things and talk about it the right way and not be self-serving. So it's like, okay, we can do that. And we was like, we essentially said the media, the media, the newsletter at the time before it was anything else, is a nonprofit. We just do it, we pay for it, we done it, that's it. We started monetizing in 2023, and then we started working on this holding company structure, which was like not only if we do media, but we protect the audience in the media, and it's the best content, the best thing, the right thing is the right thing every day, day in and day out, then what's our business around it? And that's where these other services, the recruiting firm, the consulting and research, the events, PR service stuff, like the the performance marketing, the investment fund, like how do we value this? And even that, like, we don't promote most of our things on it. Most people don't even know we do those things. It's but the brand and relationship we've built is how the rest of the businesses kind of scale up from there. So the newsletter was there, it was just running as a weekly send through like me being sick and all of this stuff happening. It was the only consistent thing we did. Then Joe launched the podcast and started doing that, and you know, he's on episode whatever, 200, some now, 300 or whatever, and like that for a while. And again, it was do that, do it well, and we'll figure out the rest. But we don't want to run a media company and we don't want to be the place that does the typical B2B playbook of sell ads, do this, take the money where you can, and that's the model. Like that does that's not going to drive the industry forward and make it bigger and more valuable. And as founders who had previously raised venture capital money and pitched family offices and tried our hardest, we knew that it needed to be taken seriously. We got so many no in 2018, 17, 16, we got laughed at so many rooms for companies that we ended up selling. But like if they were around today, people would be lining up to get into them. And even in 2020, like the amount of money that flew into vent to fitness, they backed so many things that burned down because they weren't good ideas. They were, if you didn't know the industry, they were good ideas, but and then it and then you know this, it scared away meant money again. There was a huge law with connected fitness and at-home stuff, and and then just like hold all the money back out, and like that's not good for our industry. So it's how can there be a place that you can find this and do this the right way and talk about it, especially with how big an industry is, and like that's our goal. So, how do we stand everything else from up from that and build really fun businesses? And now that's why we rebranded as like a holding company.

Yeah, it's uh it's a really weird time in 20. Like you were talking about the connected, and you know, I think you and I had a long conversation on this podcast about just it never made sense. Like, if you had been in the fitness industry for a while and you're like, okay, yeah, I've I've seen behavior change at the root level of like what it takes to get people fitter. And it was just razzle dazzle technology, right? It was like, you know, remember Web 3.0?

Like same thing, exactly.

That was a thing for a while, remember?

Connected fitness at home and all that jazz and all these uh Vidme streaming platforms were just NFTs in my head.

So when you guys start going one direction, like let's talk about like uh fit talent or when you guys fit capital, right? Those were kind of I think the earlier ones that you guys have spun up. Was this due to like did you always have that vision or did you start noticing like the people were asking you for specific things? Like, were you like was it the market telling you, or were you researching the market and looking for it?

It was it was definitely the market telling us. But I got yelled at by a buddy of mine. I was like, Oh yeah, I keep introducing these people to get hired, and you know, we've probably this guy's the CMO CMO here because of this, and this fund is invested two million dollars into this company for this. And he's like, What are you doing? And I was like, What do you mean? He's like, I know like you're not thinking about money right now, and you're just kind of running your thing and you're having fun, but he's like, That's a recruiting firm, that's an investment fund, at least that's SPVs. He's like, You're doing all of this and adding this value, and you're not charging ads on the content, you're not charging to read it, and you're not making money on the other things. So then we started researching all of the services. And talent was the first one where I realized, like, we have a hundred thousand people that read this. We have we had a we had a free jobs board at the time, too, that we just built because we wanted to be cool and be free for people, and it's still free to this day. So we were like, Oh, the jobs board, there's 50,000 people reading the jobs board every month. And then he was like, Yeah, I here's a friend that works in recruiting, like, show him what you've built and explain him what you're trying to do. And then he was like, Yeah, this is a recruiting firm. Like, you've you've placed 20 people last year. That's like a that in and of itself is a firm, let alone your jobs board. So he's like, You have to do this. And then the same thing with investing. We met some family offices and VC funds like Courtzai. We we joined their advisory board and started working with people, and they're like, Oh, you know, really, really big funds like Andreessen and First Round and others that are like the best of the best across all of investing. They have media properties and recruiting firms, and they they do all the services and they invest. And you guys are helping do a lot of this stuff, and you know the industry very well, and you've been in it and research it and publish this. Like, why aren't you doing these other things? And that was really what it what like sparked the whole thing of for us, it was like the best way of oh, we can create content this way and not have to sell out, and we can invest and support people, and we can provide really quality services. And and that was 20 2023 when we realized we're like, oh, this is this is gonna be fun. And this is like a long-term, not like, oh, build a startup and sell it. It's like, oh, we want to do this for a very long time, and we want to be the place that acquires all of the other places, media, properties, services, otherwise. And everything that we're doing now and everything that's kind of come from that has been just listening to the audience and trying to be really perceptive on like what people need, like well worthy. We launched a consumer-facing product last year, and we're really investing a lot into it this year because if you build a company and you're selling to consumers, you need a place to go. And there's no place that is taking the research and information and new study about creatine and new this and that. Everybody writes about them, but nobody packages it for the wellness consumer in a way that isn't selling them something. It's in and there's no ads, there's no like pop-up ads, like go to some of the more established fitness companies, like the men's health and whatever's in the world. Like 17 Google ads pop up and this happens and the site doesn't load, and you have to click it, yeah, affiliate links, and we're like, no, how do we do it? Same thing differently. So it all really just stemmed from continually learning and listening to people, and and just how can we build a more sustainable business long term?

Yeah. It's always a challenge, and you and I have have talked about this on at least once on this podcast, too, is like the challenge of monetizing B2B media is is is unique. Yeah, it's like you can create a ton of value for an industry. You may like create things that you think everyone's gonna love, and then it just goes crickets, right? And then something else will pop because like all of a sudden you'll do something almost by accident. Like someone will be like, Hey, would you do this for me? And like, oh shit, that's business, right? But it's it's a difficult thing. And I admire that you guys have kind of found a path to really not only create the impact that you want to create, but create the lifestyles for yourselves, right? You and your families, like along the way, like you you want to, I'm sure you want to do financially well and doing in the industry that you love. And you've kind of taken the time to really formulate that and now you have a clear target and mission and where you want to go, which is a very powerful thing. Like once you know where you want to go, then it's just a matter of getting there. And but if you have no idea what success looks like or anything like that. So, okay, let's let's back up again and talk about this this rebrand, right? So talk about like the messaging around it, what are all the pillars of what Fit Insider is, and then maybe once you're done with that, tell us like what does the 10-year vision look like? If what does success look like in 10 years for you guys?

Yeah, no, I appreciate that, man. And that's it's so true that you know, when we talked about the PG Media, it's so rough. And the only way I've ever seen to do it is like raise money and scale and build and and do things in a way that you just have to flip it in the end and get to a certain number so you can sell it. And that's where the ads and the things and all that, and it's like we don't want to do that. And at the other side, it's like I think it's also just because it's the the industry's too close to us. I mean, dude, same as you. Like, if you've actually been doing it for as long as you and I have, and you've actually been on the ground and doing things, and I see with your podcast, with like the collective you're doing, you're like, you actually believe in why people work in it and you want to work in it for their mesh mission and the reason, and like you've been the guy that's trained people and coached people, like it's just different. So, like, yeah, we we look at it differently, and we just see the opportunity of like if you don't have your health, nothing else matters. And if someone it's not gonna be the healthcare industry that changed anything, and if healthcare and health is more important than anything, it's gonna be us on the other side, and we're gonna make our way to healthcare eventually, and it's all gonna connect and it's gonna be this whole great thing. But to get there, some like the who's how's how's that gonna happen? And there's so that was our our mission. And really, with my personal health and like my dad, you know, dying when we were super young and and all that stuff. It was like all that that pushed us to that point of like make it fun, make it cool. Why would you not fund these companies if you're funding some another SaaS company that does a CRM? Like, geez, come on, like, why can't we get funding for these things that are making people healthy and the people want it to do? So, anyway, long one way of saying, like, I love it. The system now, the the platform now is really the media drives every everything forward, the fit insider platform, and we're gonna add a second newsletter. So it'll be two cents a week because there's just so much content information, and it'll stay exactly the way it is. We're super research, super quality. We'll add more reports. We're really double down on social, like Instagram content for the industry, LinkedIn content specific for the industry. Like, we're writing content just for LinkedIn, just for Instagram, just for channels. Like, I don't care if you go to the website because there's no ads on it. I don't care what you do. Read our stuff, see the newsletter, listen to the podcast, the events that we talked about, like partnering with some places like Udemonia and others that are gonna, we're gonna be put on events. And again, it's like not the fit insider event or whatever. It's like we're putting on an event, gets people to go there, spend time together because they need to connect, they need to be around each other, they need to meet investors, and they need to just like continue to push this thing forward. The recruiting firm, the consulting firm, all just like hiring really talented people that can provide services that everybody needs. You need to hire talented people, you need to have data, you need to have pitch decks, you need to fundraise the right way. And then we're just out there trying to acquire other companies. If you're doing cool stuff in the space and you're building things and you have a service business or you have a media property or another thing, we have established a certain way that because of how we've kind of built things, we want you to be on our team. We want to build the biggest ship and support all the best people in all the best ways. And it's not about how you monetize or like, are you doing cool stuff? Are you doing it the right way? You have an agency, another competing firm, a competing anything. We can all be friends and we will get you paid and we will put it all on the fifth platform and the fifth ship, and everybody's going the same direction, and and we'll make sure everybody's taken care of. And like that's where the vision, that's why we had we needed to rebrand to match that, but then kind of parse out the talent website and this brand. And that's why the rebrand also has that slash for like fit everything that we're doing, and like, you know, how do we convey all that? And this is honestly the first place that we're talking about it publicly. Like, we put out a LinkedIn post and we put it in the newsletter, but it didn't go into much detail, and um, that is our end vision. And then eventually, too, we are trying to bring capital with family offices and investment groups into the industry that we can then have a fund and a group of people investing. Not that, you know, doing that so that we can take all the data and research we have so that they're backing the real things. Like we're not going to be the ones running it. We're partnering, but we want to make sure they have the right data so they can back the right things early and often and put real money into it. Because every fund out there right now that is health and wellness, they do sports, they do media, they do, you know, gaming, they do whatever, the amount of actual capital dollars or to get dedicated to just fitness, wellness, health, consumer health, longevity, all that is very limited. And a lot of the funding from that is, and then there's like they do biotech and they do other stuff, but like truly dedicated to this is not that much for how big of an impact the industry is and how many wins that there have been and how many phenomenal businesses have been built, it's insane. So, like, how do we do that too? And that's like a big, big thing for us. And what why do you think that is? I mean, we were talking about before we got on. Like, I got left out of every room pitching a company that if we raise money, we've talked about it in the past couple weeks. Like, do we find a young founder, give him the playbook, and do it again? Because everybody looked at fitness as like, oh, it's just like, you know, people work out, whatever. Now it's it's the entire life of people. It's there's I mean, we were the first ones to really write about social fitness and write about high performance lifestyle. And like back in 2020, we're talking about like what does community for fitness mean? And now it's everybody's doing it. Every new company is a community and the run groups and all of this, and it's I think the inflection point of COVID, and then just the the generations aging up of it's why people aren't drinking, it's why all those stats that everybody already knows that you know, probably a million people have said through your podcast and always like people know what that's happening, but the money isn't still matching it on the back end. So, like, how do we change that? And not only just the money, but like the system to help them raise the money, because I've seen some really good ideas with some horrible pitch decks and some terrible research. And then, you know, if you look at the industry and you know, it's great to go to this place or get your thing written here, but like who's reading that? What does that mean? Are there actual investment banks and actual funds and family offices? And is it distilled in a way that is valuable? And how do you how do you distill the important from the not important if everything's supposedly important? Because you can pay it to be important, you can pay it to be important. So it's like, how do you distinguish that? And that's also why we've done what we've done for the industry for everybody to go and say, like, This is a place where you can make make it a thing because I don't understand that if you could if you love health and wellness, everybody needs to be healthy. It's obviously a problem still, no matter how much money is spent on it, it's still a problem for everyone. But then, like, if you have a passion for it, you can work at a bank or you can work in this industry, or you could build a product that for like a SaaS AI thing, or you could do it for this industry. And it's not just like like we've talked about nutrition and mental health, like the mental health can issue, very personal to me, is like men and veterans and others, like mental health issues and things like that. Like all day long, why is that not getting all the funding? It's just stuff like that that just kind of blows my mind. And I don't get so that's where it's like, how do we change that while building a really strong business so that we can continue to support people doing it time and time again?

Yeah, I mean, my gut, my gut says that people think of the fitness industry and they just think of gyms, right? Which typically, if you're gonna open a gym, you take a little small, maybe an SBA, right? And you're up and running. Like it's most of them are bootstrapped, right? But very, very few need like a large capital expenditure for startup phase. But now, as we're kind of emerging into multiple different things, and you know, obviously we're seeing we saw a lot of transactions already this year, right? Big transactions across the industry, which is pretty exciting, I think. But also, like there's the you know, on the on Wall Street, we've we've been in a little bit of an embarrassment over the past few years, which things are turning around, you know, we don't have to name names, but we can if we want. So it's been like maybe some go a little early, like maybe a little prematurely to, you know, to go uh go public. But you know, I feel like that's that's got to change too. And I think like even I've heard a lot of people who are looking for money, and you probably know this extremely well, is that you know, if you say, Oh, I'm a I don't know, a fitness app, right? They're gonna be the the funding's gonna be very small, like the opportunities for funding. If you say we're uh a technology platform that happens to do wellness or something like that, like if you if you frame it as technology versus like fitness as a brand, there's something about the stigma of the industry that I can't quite figure out why people don't really take it super seriously yet.

Well, it's also that, and having I've been on like it's a one with one of our last companies before Insider. I remember I pitched over 100 VC firms, and like they're like, I just got crushed and everything. We were I was joking with some buddies today when we were working out. So with that, it's like, okay, it's the fact that it goes back to like the COVID thing too. Like, so much money was poured in it didn't go anywhere. Fitness apps did get funded and things because, but also they're not some of them don't deserve funding, and the the theories and ideas aren't there and they don't make sense, which is fine. But at the same time, like thoughtful consumer health companies, consumer healthcare, new products, new things. And that's also part of it. It's not just the funding is an issue, but like providing enough data to instill and have this information to where and highlighting the right places so that you can see like what is going on and what's what's happening and why, and also not hyping up this some of the brands that went public and did things in like all of that world, like we didn't talk much about a lot of them or like they hype up stories about how amazing those people are because you knew that that wasn't real. You knew that, I knew that. So what like somebody you have to look around and go, well, who's talking about this and why? It's that type of stuff. So yeah, it's it's it's coming to market and doing it right, and then also you're starting to see it now. We're seeing it with the pitches of companies. Like, there's really thoughtful companies and founders now. When before it was like fitness app, I'm doing a fitness app, or like nutrition, nutrition console, like we're gonna do whatever. Like now you're getting very thoughtful things, and that's also why we've done our best to scale hormone health, women's health, and fertility. Unbelievable space, massive problem, gonna continue to be a problem. Male fertility, women's fertility, like the nutrition around it, mental health, dopamine addiction. I mean, I think there's an entire business to build a company that goes against the supplement company because most supplement companies are bullshit. Like I can name 50 ideas for things, and it's like those that we're seeing now, we're like, oh, these are phenomenal ideas, but the road is harder because the fitness apps got funding and the things that went public were there a certain way, and like things happened. So like it really becomes a problem with all of that, and like that's the thing. So yeah, it's it's really kind of crazy to see all that.

Well, there's like a I think when we talk about supplements, there's there's a snake oil feel to it for a lot of the public. You know, like like no one, it's it it's great. We're in a golden time, it's much better now than it was three, four years ago because I think you are getting people who are getting a lot of good information out there, and you talk about the Huberman effect and like people in the consumer well in the space that are educating for the most part, but even then, right? Like I've there's a lot of people out there who are at the Huberman level where I listen to what they're talking about. I'm like, I don't think hydrogen water is the ticket.

Insane. Insane. Absolutely, people don't walk 5,000 steps and we're gonna focus on hydrogen water. I'm gonna flip my computer. Like, it's so funny, man. Like, that's what I mean. It's so funny. I agree, and that's that's part of it. And that's honestly, it's that exact method of like why we're just trying to do our best the right way and like really support those people. And eventually, more and more, and like we talked about well worthy. Like, I we're really investing a ton of money to I want to find really good science writers and people to highlight stuff and have a lens to where, like, just like with Insider, so many people have gotten mad at us because we won't write about your new announcement or your new thing just because you want us to write, and it's like, sorry, I'm trying to like do value, and then well worthy, same thing. Like in the past week, like we're trying to find the lens there, but like I'm not writing about another mushroom coffee because like you launched a new product, it's cool, but like there has to be a lens here that somebody curates this and says, like, good and bad, somebody has to do it.

One thing I've noticed through the lens that I have of like getting so we work with a lot of great executives in our industry to get them more exposure on pub on podcasts, right? That's kind of the core service of what podcast collected does. So like Jeff's weefall. Stud. Guy's a stud, right? He's CEO of lifetime.

How old is he? He's how can he be so jacked on the club?

I'm not gonna talk about his age here, but the guy is he's a stud.

It's unbelievable. Every time I talk to him, I'm like, dude, I need to start working out more. I gotta start talking to him.

He's like, he gets younger every time I see him and he lives and breathes it, you know. But like we work with him to get him placed on bigger podcasts, and we hustle to get it done. But like, here's someone who's kind of you know, a really kind of an apex executive within the industry, and then try to get him on some of the bigger entrepreneurial or executive podcasts that are out there than a lot of people probably know. It's it's a grind, right? Now, if he came from, I don't know, the pharma industry, right? People or the health tech industry, people will be like, whoa, yeah, this guy's the one I want to talk to. So there's just like we're we're getting through. It's like a slow grind and push to get, you know, more and more notoriety for the industry. But I think it's getting there. So anyway, I think we beat that one to the go ahead.

But you're doing it, man. Like you're right, you're doing it and it's there. But I agree. And we I've talked about this in the past, and I don't always want to harp on it. But I like it goes back to the why you asked of like why we're doing this differently. It's like, I just feel like it's a better model for us, and we want to build such a big system and a ship. And we always talk about like we our goal was to build the roads and the bridges and then ship our own products on them instead of focus on other ways, like advertising other things like that. Like, I'm not gonna charge a tool. Like, I want to ship my own things, and which is which is like also why I want to be the first stop that any place goes if they need funding, if they need, if they want to sell their product, if you're building even remotely close to what we're trying to do, agency service, otherwise, can we partner? Can we do something? Can we invest? Can we acquire it? Like, I and I'm working really hard to go and and bring a ton of funding to our HQ as well. To like, then we can buy all these. So, like, I would love to acquire all the newsletters that cover all of the adjacent. Like, I think we need to 100% buy a CPG newsletter, which we're working on right now. We need to buy uh a newsletter that covers women's health and fertility. We need to buy in a newsletter that covers longevity and like the clinical side of things. We need to buy, I want to get into the biotech stuff too. Like, I want to buy a biotech pharma one and do it the right way. And I want to build or buy like those things and like on the consumer side, like buy those properties as well and scale them up. So, and then same thing with like the agencies of like the performance publishing and the PR type stuff. Like, that's the world I want to be in too. So then it's like not just get on our stuff and have our media, but then how do you get like you're saying, like elsewhere? Like, how do you get people everywhere else to like get it to the rest of the the world of like the non-health and wellness people?

Yeah, yeah. I like what you said, that analogy of you want to build your own roads and ship your own products. That makes a lot of sense in my simple mind. Yeah, thinking when you talk about what you guys are doing. I'm like, oh, I think a lot of small light bulb just went off. Um what is alluded to your your so you know if you and I are hanging out in 2035, you're like, dude, we did it, we crushed it, we're crushing it. That's exactly what I wanted to happen. What does that look like? What would have happened?

Yeah, I mean, we would have there's a company called Industry Dive. It sold a couple years ago. They were like a B2B media platform, and I think they did it really well. They didn't sell out, they did it the right way, and they they had the right systems, like a model of that, but for our our industry, so we have dozens and dozens of properties that cover everything from the B2B side, like every major topic. There is a like Morning Brew does it right now. They have the HR brew and the healthcare brew, like a version of that, but it's an again protected audiences, a nice lens that curates and and researches, and it's not selling you nonsense, and it's not writing about the things and hiring people that don't deserve it, and it's building a trusted media platform and property, and then having the actual monetization be all of the services around it, all of the events, all the community groups, all the products, and then the most important thing will be a massive, massive investment fund partner. So the best fund out there that covers healthcare, biotech, wellness, mental health, physical fitness, opening gyms, all of that brick and mortar, brick and mortar, four-wall stuff, everything. A massive family office investment fund is alongside that. So you want to, you want, like it's this this kind of flywheel of connect, build, sell, grow, whatever you want to do, we do it. And they all run independently. Like it's funny. Our media property, our team, I couldn't even tell them what to talk about. Like there is a lens and there is a thing that they do what they do. And then that's why we don't, like I told you, we don't even talk about our own stuff on our things because it's not important to people. We've rare we're like once a year, we'll throw in like, hey, here's what we're doing. But like everyone's running independently, it's always the right thing, is the right thing, and we're just building that, and then just still running it ideally with a bunch of really good people around us and and and you know, hanging out and working out, that's about it. That's in the woods, hanging, hanging out in the woods, hanging out in the woods along by the rivers and and working out with people and hanging out. That's that's all I want to do.

Yeah, that's great, man. It's beautiful. Have you guys ever thought of like an incubator of some sort? Because when I hear you talk, like, you know, I've been I'm not a spring chicken. I'm 48, been around the industry for a long time. But if you asked me to go raise money for a concept or an idea, I wouldn't know. Honestly, I would, I would, I would talk to some people, I would call you, right? I would call a couple other people. I'm like, hey, this is what I want to do. Like, what would I call Jim Kroll? Right. Like people like that. But I feel like I I have I'm lucky to have those contacts, but a lot of people don't. And maybe people in this industry have been around for a long time who have a great idea and they think they want to start exploring, like, what does it mean to actually you know build a pitch deck and a concept that's investable, right? And then how who do I talk to? Like of what degree? Like, what's the difference between a family office and a you know, a VC or an angel? Like all these different things that I think needs to be educated. I think that's part of of what our industry needs is is really good education on the business side of things. So is that something you guys have considered, or do you think there's a need there for that?

Yeah, we've looked into it a lot, like a venture studio incubator type. It's definitely on the list. The only thing that I don't like about those is they're very expensive to run if done right. Like there's one called Resign Health in the healthcare industry that does a phenomenal job. Absolutely absurd. Like they've launched dozens and dozens and dozens of companies, but I kind of want to build one that is a mixture of adventure studio, you know, con like creation engine with the being open to meeting other people and out there so they can come together. Like you're saying, like there's a level of okay, Eric has an idea, Anthony has a fund, Anthony backs Eric's idea. But then there's like a deeper connection of like Eric's working on a concept. Maybe we pay Eric to work on it a little bit, or like he's out there doing it and he knows when it's broadly available, we come together and we like co-create something together. I like that idea right now, because the other side of the venture studio, like a redesign health, is it's expensive to run and you have to hire EIRs and have the ideas and things. So definitely something there. And that's why we're kind of starting to, and you'll see, like, we're gonna be advertising every which way now over the next few months. Like we've never advertised before anything. So we're gonna be advertising, promoting, sponsoring other newsletters, doing other things. And part of that is like, here's Fit Insider, read and listen. But then part of it is if you're building.

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In any way, come talk. Let's figure it out, type of thing. And then we're working on that. And that's where this like idea level of like, we want people to be like, hey, I don't know. It's not a company, it's not a formal pitch, but like this is what's going on. And we want to be able to be like, I mean, that's where Wellworthy started. Our buddy of ours was like, hey, I have this thing, I want to build a new thing eventually. Because the whole thing with Wellworthy is like have a database and purchasing system and like a marketplace, but then have like a layer of vetting and then also bring in experts to do this. And it's a whole thing. But we were like, I like what you're doing. And that's when we were like, cool, we own it with you. We'll fund it. You work with us, put you on staff, like, let's build it. And we spent six, eight months testing and moving and building, and that's where it is now ready to actually go and be like, hey, me saying, like, this is ours, we're doing this, like, let's go build this together. Who wants to partner and like be on it and write and create? Like, we just put our first job listing out for it last week. So, like, now is the time that it's at the level that it is, and we've tested every which way. Like, now we know where we're going. So that would be huge to do. And yeah, we just gotta again, I'm looking for experts on the capital side, like family offices, funds. Like, I I'm kind of the guy that can this works to bring people together, but like I don't. There's a lot, there's so many people there's so much smarter than me at that that I I need to figure out how to do that.

Yeah. Well, you know what? I think the the advantages that you have in the B2B media is that you're a gatekeeper connector by by nature, right? Just by the nature of what you do is like you talk to so many people, you interview people, and by you, I mean like the collective we of B2B media. And that's always been a tough thing to like, it's a great thing to have, but it's a tough thing to monetize, at least for me. Like, I connect people because I like it, right? Like, hey, if I see an opportunity for a collaboration, I'm gonna make that connection if I think it's worthwhile. But I always thought that was, you know, that that's always an interesting thing. Everyone wants to talk to you, right? Like everyone wants to talk. But rarely is it like he wanna pay you for something.

And that is part of one, I like I said, we've made a lot of people mad because we even if they wanted to pay us, we wouldn't say we wouldn't take their money. And the other part of is like we don't want to ask people for things. We don't want to be the place like, hey, do you want like no, we're not asking anyone for anything of all the people we've ever had on the podcast and everywhere else, and like same thing with like so recruiting. We have a very big list of clients for recruiting consulting with big names. I'm not I'm not cold emailing people saying, Hey, or I'm not like going through our list being like, hey, do you need this? It's like, do you see it? Do we chat about it? Do you like how like that way? Because it's yeah, and and that's it is hard. And I I think that's why everybody kind of gravitates to a certain way of like, because you know what I've seen in the media of the past, you paying per intro, getting paid per intro. Like that is a very, very common thing. I just spoke to a founder who runs a newsletter that we are looking at exactly saying, I'm not doing it. Or like like me coming and be like, hey, let me give you Frank five grand, put me on your podcast and let me sell something. You'd be like, No, I'm not doing that. Exactly. So I just spoke in the newsletter, great guy doing stuff. They're they're generating pretty good revenue. You're making you know, plus a hundred thousand dollars a year getting paid for intros that runs out eventually, and that's just not what we want to do. And I know that's not how you are either. So it's like, yeah, what do you what do you do from there? Like it's it's it's it's a difficult thing, and that's why I think I'm really excited that we have taken the amount of time not monetizing, not doing, and then being thoughtful. And like I went on a war path and spoke to every media founder person, research, everything we could figure out, and like I think we landed on what is gonna be the future of both funding, investment funding, like actual venture capital and other things. Like you we're seeing it now. You need media, you need access, you need services, you need value, you need to be able to do more. And on the up, the flip side of it, the future of B2B media of like if if all content is so easily accessible, but you don't know where it's coming from or if you trust it, it's just coming through Chat CPT or other sources, or whatever Google decides to serve up that day, where do you go for an actual lens that is there and not selling you? Because they're all gonna end up selling you things anyways. Where do you go? That what's that value? I think that value is unpull going forward. So, like, that's what we're trying to do. And same thing with you, like the fact that I trust Eric and Eric does this and he is this guy. There, if you keep molding it, like that trust and value and knowledge and connections that you can get to those people and they like you and will respond to you and want to just not even do we want to do that, it's like, dude, let's go hang out. Like, I feel like meet, you and Sean still have to go do something together. Like that level of like, if there's doing stuff like that, it's worth more than any intro you're gonna get paid to make. It's just you gotta like mold it a little bit.

You know, and I started gonna when I go to these events, I started focusing really on like if I'm gonna go to a dinner, I want who are like the three or four people that I really just want to hang out with. And versus like this big, this big thing. And I'm so much happier, man, when I go to the events, I have such a better time and I'm still productive, right? But it's it's interesting, and I don't want to pass judgment on anyone who makes connections for a living. You know, there's value in that, but I think it's a short-lived strategy to the market. It's kind of uh, you know, people are gonna know, people are gonna figure it out. Uh you know, you're not doing it for a particular type of value that you know, this is this is transactional. And that's that's that's what I would warn people over time. Because I, you know, I've thought about it, I've dabbled in it, it didn't like it, it just didn't feel right. Yeah. And then it just comes across disingenuous or inauthentic. I get those words wrong, but you know, I don't know.

That's Joe's world. That's not my world. He's the speaker on that. And it's funny you say, like, the events, I can't, I that's why we don't go to anything. Like, I just can't. I can't. I'd rather just like get a group. One thing we're really working on is like a community group version idea that can bring really cool people together. We don't know the model, trying really trying hard to figure it out of like bring really good people together to hang out and work out. Why are we not all doing that? Why are we going to hotels and talking? No one wants to hear you talk about your idea. Can we all just hang out and work out and give space? So I I we have uh right here, like the I don't turn and think because we're on a podcast, but like there's a gym with people in like we're in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is a small city, and it kind of goes back to the other question of like if I was gonna open something today, like in Pittsburgh, there is like the amount of people that we get together, we work out. If you want to pitch us and talk to us, and you come here. And I the a buddy of mine who's made so much money and a super, super successful guy. Like, he has all this stuff, he's here, everyone wants to pitch him all day. Come work out with us, spend time with us. Like, don't sell yourself, don't pitch me. Like, let's hang out, let's go get coffee together, like, let's spend time together, and we will know pretty quickly if we're all supposed to be working together or not. Like, that is the level of like, okay, cool. I want that to be a thing. How I don't know how it is a thing yet, but that's my end goal.

Yeah, that it sounds amazing. I don't know how to make it a thing yet either. And I've even pitched this to my wife because I've been thinking about it so much. Like, what do you think about this? About like having a small executive retreat here in Montana, because everyone wants to come to Montana now. It's you know, and for good reason, it's fucking awesome here. But like, you know, have like three days of like, you know, just some executives within you know, within our industry who are maybe, you know, maybe not exactly maybe just people who are really interested in in authentic relationships of, you know, we'll do a day of fly fishing, then we'll hang out, right? Maybe we'll go jump in the lake. Yeah. Tell your wife it's a great idea, dude. Every guy, every guy I've told Sarah and every woman too, they're like, Yeah, dude, I saw. Amazing. We'll sponsor.

We'll do it together. Let's do it. Because, like, we were just talking as a group today about fly fishing. We're like, we need all need to go fly fishing.

Yeah. Have you ever been?

No. I fish a ton regularly and feel like walk off the dock, throw a thing in the water. But like I've never done fly fishing and I've heard it's unbelievable.

It's yeah, it's also really frustrating when you start. Oh, well, that's great too.

Yeah, yeah.

It's funny. It'll you'll lose.

So start that. Start that for sure. Just just my throwing my little vote on that.

Okay. All right. You guys heard it here first. So last question I have for you, and this is the fun one I always enjoy because I I think it kind of tells a lot of things. But if as a former gym owner, you know, if you're gonna maybe you and Joe, or just you, I don't know. You choose. If you're gonna start a gym today, what would it look like?

Definitely would have to be a Joe. We do everything together.

Good answer.

Honestly, it would be what I was just talking about. Like, I I have a very deep passion for men's mental health, been through a ton of my life, and and like a lot of my buddies from the Marines and other places like have had major struggles, the healthy cancer shit. Like, there's nowhere to turn if you're doing it and it's all on you, I feel like a lot of times. And I've had a ton of like close calls on like the mental health side for myself with things. I have a passion for that. So like here we started working out with a group of people, and it's like such a diverse group of people, and they come sometimes. We put out a call on Saturdays, you know, core group does Monday, Wednesday, but then Saturdays, and everyone else, and the amount of things that these guys are sharing and how they're reacting and what they're doing, and then it's just changing their lives, everyone's healthier. Like, I've had husbands or wives of these guys come up to me and like that we meet and they're like, Oh, you're part of the workout group. Like, Mark is so different because of this thing, or like, you know, there's a buddy, buddy Casey, Mark, Tim, other places, like they're they're awesome dudes, and it's like something like that, like a community group gym that is based around being together, but then also it kind of taps into that business thing. Like, we've had we're starting a new thing. A couple dudes are like start because we spend time together and we like each other and like we want to support each other. And this guy is super successful and we want to lift people up, and and that's what he does. He like helps other people. So it would be a version of that, like a can like a like a modern day country club type thing, not crazy expensive. 100% you have to put an application and like go through the process and put the work in, and more work and personality and like person base than it is something else. And it would be also like be able to surround yourself with smarter people because the one thing like every I always say, like, I don't do anything, everyone on the fit team is absolute killers, and I'm like the the dead weight that like weighs this down and gets caught up in meetings doing dumb stuff. Like, and that's what I want to be. I want to be around like really good people that are trying to be helpful, everyone's trying to improve themselves, find progress and momentum, and just be a community. So, like, I don't know what that business model is. That's why I really like like Dane from the Athletic Clubs. Have you had him on before? You should get him on. They're dude, they just raised money from Ann from Sol Core. But like Dane, I sat down with him a couple times in New York, and like it's about squads getting like you have the same work out essentially like the same workout squad over and over again. Like, that's when you join a gym, you get paired with people, and like that's your crew, and you work out together. Super cool. Just something community fitness, social type thing, and like be healthy, make businesses, make friendships, do stuff. Like, we'll we go get coffees now, we play Scopa, which is like an Italian card game. Like, we do that a couple times a month. Like, just shit like that. That's it. It's all that that's like if I could again, a lot of the things I'm saying, I feel like aren't thoughtful businesses, they're just like trying to bring people together and do cool stuff.

Yeah, it's like a I mean, I hear elements of CrossFit without breaking yourself, right? Yeah, which was a it was a problem, I'll admit. You know, I walked with it.

Crossfit's OG though. Yeah, I was just on a I had a reporter to call me the other day about like a story on high rocks, and I had to be like, listen, CrossFit and the Spartan races, and like with a lot of the community groups, social fitness, fitness competition, like yes, CrossFit was OG there, like 100%. Gotta give them props.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I was, you know, you and I were really, like, I think I started in in 08, and some of the work outside was doing back then was just absolutely so dumb. So dumb. Like the dumbest. Like the world, just yeah, I I can't even, I can't even agree. But anyway, so elements of like that community function, but that's what CrossFit did the best, right? Show that the power of community and getting into action and doing hard things together, bonds. Like I'm, you know, the the people next door who are building this, which you can see, this house over here, those are like members of people who joined my gym in 2010, right? We were still friends. They bought the lot next to us and building a house next door. Like, you don't get that anywhere else. You don't get that in a normal gym, right? And it's still like, I don't know how many marriages and babies came from our gym, but it's a very powerful thing. But I if you take the best element to that, maybe tone it down a little bit, right, from the training perspective, but also have that wellness and that community center feel. And like, you know, you can make it very specific to you know, men's health as well. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Like it's it's rare nowadays to have a place where men, and I could tell you right now, like for men who get into their middle age who especially relocate, it becomes really hard to find those groups. Really hard.

Yeah, and I think we're lucky in the health and wellness industry. Like we have some of that, but like you meet some guys in other areas that don't. Like, this is their first time really working out, they've never been a part of this group. It's like they know drinking, they know drinking, or they know this club, or they know this thing, but like in sports, and this, and then you start to see how this opens up, and you're like, oh, this is pure magic, like this is crazy. The transformation. So, yeah, I agree. It's something there, and it's funny you bring up the gyms, like, yeah, we I feel like we still go on vacation and meet and stay at houses of people that from our gym back in 2010. So, yeah, dude, it's crazy.

Yeah, it's really cool. Well, man, we've we've been chatting for a while. I guess one more question for you is like, if you look at the state of the industry now, how do you feel? Do you are you more excited than ever? Are you approaching with caution? Do you think we're in a golden era? Do you think there's anything we need to be aware of or uh cautious of? Like, what yeah, what do you what do you feel right now?

Yeah, I mean, the big cautionary thing is like the luxury of fitness and like the so much stuff that is happening that is purely luxury and so expensive and so insane, whether it be supplements or certain gyms or certain offerings or clinics or this $20,000 a month gym and this like cool, like it, but like why is that the stuff that gets written about? Why is that the stuff that gets not just like it's in the New York Times, it's in this, like cool, awesome, I get it. But we are we are always forgetting that fitness is walk more, eat healthy, eat less, drink less. Like, that's what we're trying to do here. Like, so that is the thing that I I hate that we sometimes get, and people always like we'll write posts and put stuff out, and they're like, Well, this is a luxury, it's like like the stats we go out, we put out, and people say, like, it's because of it. It's like, yeah, I know, and we've said it a million times. Same thing with like the food that people eat and the access, like most people in America, certain areas, like they don't have access to so like who's working on that? Highlight them, build towards that. If you're founders, build those things. So, like that, and then how do you connect healthcare and sick care, whatever you want to call it, to health, fitness, and active lifestyle? Because that is the future. Yeah, that is but so that's the exciting part, like the funding and the brands and the amount of people and the new generations focused on this, and like for every bad there is about people talking about iPad kids and being on their phones, there's they're not drinking, they're doing like there's there's a lot of wins. And I think it's it's such a binary thing of like good and bad, yes or no, this diet or that diet. Like the whole goal is just to get people to be healthier, live longer, feel better, just have a good time. And like, like that's what we're here for. I think that sometimes gets lost. So I feel really good about the industry. There's so many passionate, amazing people that are building in it. And I just hope that they keep building in it and more people building it, and and always like a call to arms. Like, if you want to do it, you can make money in it. You can work at a company, you could build things, you could do things, you can get a really solid job. If you're a designer, developer, you're a podcaster, come work in the healthfulness industry. There's money in it now, and there's things here now. So, like, get everybody in here. We need new people too, man. Like, talk about events. You go to events and places, it's the same people. It is, I want to run through every wall that I see when you see the list of people talking at the same event since I owned my gym in 2010. Like, get some new people, get some fresh blood, get some different things, and let's talk about and get different things going on. So the answer again, I feel like I ramble so much on things like this, but like I feel good about it. I'm excited, I think there's amazing people building in it, and it's really about the core mission of it more than anything, and that we gotta make sure that everybody is getting brought along so that everybody can be healthy and do this thing.

Awesome. And I'll just sprinkle a little bit of like political will that seems to be possibly happening right now, right? For the next three and a half. I don't know, right? I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. But Anthony, it's it's always a pleasure, man. Thanks for coming on and talking about what you guys are up to. And obviously, there's insider.fit.co, which is where I'm sure you want most people to go and sign up for the newsletter. I've been you know on your list forever. You on LinkedIn as well. Any other place you you want people to go or anything specifically you want to hear from people?

I mean, just anything we talked about. If people want to chat, hit it, hit me up. LinkedIn message. Also, Instagram, we we've really revamped and put a time the time into like platform specific. We have Julia making phenomenal Instagram videos about the news. So you don't even have to read the newsletter anymore. Like, or you have to go these places. We have the stuff coming out. So the fit insider Instagram and fit.co. So Phil has like everything, the different services, the different newsletters, whatever else. But yeah, man, I really appreciate it. This has been awesome. The chat as always. And like I said, we got to get together actually in person and let's do that fly fishing.

Yeah, hell yeah. Right on. Well, man, that's a wrap. Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Veneri. Thank you. Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minute. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it, iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it. We want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more, get in touch with me, simply go to the futurofitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the future of fitness. Have a great day.