Dave Appel - A Tsunami Is Coming: What Gym Owners Need to Know About Peptide Deregulation

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[00:02:49] All right, here we go. Dave Apple, welcome to the future of fitness, my friend. Thank you, sir. I'm excited and grateful to be here. Oof, man, this is going to be a meaty interview. You've been at the forefront of trying to integrate, you know, medicine, specifically peptides and hormone replacements into the fitness community. And as we were just talking, like there's a tsunami about to happen on this industry when it comes to peptide deregulation and all the things are changing.

[00:03:16] And that's just, that's good. That's bad. It can be awful. If you're at the wrong end of a lawsuit, it can be great if you know how to leverage it properly. And, you know, everything I've been talking about with, you know, including a recent interview with Jim Lall from Lifetime, you know, there's a lot going on in this space. And I feel like many of our people in our industry kind of have their head buried in the sand or worse, they're trying to act on it in a half and half measures, which could be terribly detrimental to businesses.

[00:03:44] So long story short, we're going to get all that, like what's going on in this world and how you guys are doing it at Corb. So before we give that, just give a brief history. I know you've been in the fitness industry for a while, gym owner, coach, all those things. Then we're going to get into all that stuff. Yeah. 35 years ago, started my journey into this, got out of school, was a teacher, ended up with Polar, learned about heart rate, kept it going, started my own thing, started a CrossFit.

[00:04:13] We just turned 13 years old, which is pretty amazing. And my wife was like, did you think it was going to be like this? I'm like, man, I had no clue. All I knew that I was in it and that I didn't know how to get out of it. And, you know, and now I'm here where I'm sitting at something that's very exciting for me because it's like we can really impact.

[00:04:34] We've impacted thousands and tens of thousands of people, but the people that we can impact moving forward, I think is the one where it really starts to tip the scale of what is wellness? What is health? Fitness is really irrelevant to this group. It's about, I want to, I want to be healthy. I want to walk up a flight of stairs and not to go sit down for 10 minutes because I'm exhausted. Like, it's so exciting where we're headed.

[00:05:03] It is, man. And I feel like, you know, I've been talking about integration of medical medicine and fitness for so many years. And I tried to, as a gym owner, you know, both of us were CrossFit gym owners. You still, you're still brave enough to own yours. You know, I was always working on partnerships with the local medical community. Like, how can we offer these services? How can we collaborate on specific people, especially people who had a lot of weight to lose? I'm like, I want to work with medical professionals in that arena because this is how we help them, especially behavioral change and things like that.

[00:05:33] Like, I don't want to do this alone. It's a complicated thing, right? When you've got to get someone to lose 200, 300 pounds. And you want to make sure that you're taking the right steps. And I think as fitness finds its rightful place into the health paradigm, we're kind of figuring that all out right now. You know, what you guys are doing at Corb is really important. Like, you're removing barriers for fitness operators to leverage these things, right? To do it properly with the right partners. And, you know, that's probably another good place to start.

[00:06:01] Maybe give us an overview, like, with what your role is at Corb and how you guys are doing it. Maybe start with some examples of some of the chains you're working with. So, I'm the chief health and wellness officer with Corb Health. We're at, I consider us a telehealth wellness company. You know, we work in the market that we can right now. So, we're not going to do anything that the FDA says we can't. Right now, we're really running hard with the GLP-1s. We do some testosterone replacement. You know, we integrate what's there, what's available.

[00:06:30] Samorlan is really one of the only peptides. And, you know, when I came on with the team, it's been almost three years now. It was, I had a vision. I kind of, I saw where this was, the potential of where this was going. And it seems like overnight, it just started to, like, rip. Oh, and it started ripping on the negative side of stuff first. You know, like, oh, it's going to decimate the fitness industry.

[00:06:56] But in that, I do a lot of education with our patients, which was the most enlightening, eye-opening experience because I was so disconnected from this demographic of people. You know, you live where you're at. The people that come into the gym, that's what I lived in. And so, you know, not that everybody was a CrossFit athlete and a games athlete and this and that. They were just people, they were at least moving.

[00:07:21] And then when I started to really understand, like, the disconnect that a lot of these folks have from their body, it's kind of living an out-of-body experience all their life. They know they're in pain. It's not like they don't know what's wrong with them, but there's no hope. It's kind of this, like, man, what am I going to start? I've started, I've tried all of it. So with that, you know, I really am running the health and wellness division where we're trying to integrate and work with large-scale or small-scale fitness facilities.

[00:07:50] Our two big partners right now are InShape Fitness in, you know, California. And they're crushing it. And they've adapted and adopted it into the ethos of their organization. And they're educating. And we do tons of podcasts. And I'm going to go out there and do kind of, they're going to invite people in. Like, they want people to understand that it's okay to be open about it here. They want it. They want people to express that.

[00:08:19] That's why they partnered with this. They partnered with a company that has, it's a care-first model. You know, you're not going to get a text message that says, hey, checking in. Did you lose any weight? Do you think the dose needs to go up? It's like, no. They have no clue. So we take all of that on. And then we've also partnered with Fitness 19. And I know that faction is kind of split up. But we work with mainly the kind of the West Coast division of that. And, you know, they're integrating it. It's a little bit different.

[00:08:47] It's that kind of the, is it HLV, HVLP? HVLP. So, you know, we're trying to figure out the model that works within that system. So it's, for us, it's fantastic because we have kind of both ends of the spectrum. We're working in that, the middle, which I heard Mark Mastroff just talk about, like nobody's there. And I feel like InShape really lives in that. You know, these people, it's a community.

[00:09:13] And then, you know, Fit19, they have a lot going on and a lot of growth, but it's kind of like they kind of go in and do the workout and then they're leaving. So how do we get to them? How do we really get the traction that we're looking for? So, you know, and I'm doing these, you know, working with y'all and doing these podcasts and just talking to a lot of people. And it's been exciting. You know, I thought there'd be some negatives and everybody really is more, more interested.

[00:09:43] Because everybody's heard about it, but a lot of conversations with people that are like living in it and working with the people very closely, that I don't think is getting as talked about as much. So that's, that's what I'm doing. Yeah, I love it. I love it. You know, I want to, I want to talk about maybe like the consumer experience and what they're seeing. I think there's a lot of people out there who have played with or are currently on either, you know, a GLP-1 peptide hormone replacement therapies.

[00:10:11] And there, there's just this overall stigma still, right? I was just talking to another podcaster, Stu about this yesterday, Stu Brower. And, you know, there's just, there's just a stigma about it still, but as more and more people becomes more and more normal for all these treatments, you know, I would say like preventative health or optimal health, you know, protocols to come on board. It's, it's just going to, that, that noise is going to go away. But when you think about people like a member who's, you know, curious about these things or maybe as engaged with initially, maybe they're scared to bring it up.

[00:10:41] Like talks about that, like that psychology of those types of members and what we can be serving, how we can be serving them better. If they're in the gym already and on it, the, the conversation is going to open up a little bit easier. They're, they're, they're probably, they're, they're already kind of toes in both in the water on both of them. Um, I think the ones that are not, but they know that they need to, to start this other

[00:11:07] aspect of the journey because, you know, and everybody's saying this, the drug alone is it's not the magic bullet. If you don't do other things, which has changed the way that you eat and take care of yourself and then exercise to a certain degree, nothing's going to change that. You're going to be on it for the rest of your life in a way that it's not really designed to be, you know, if you're a max dose, just kind of willing, white knuckling the experience of like, I'm just going to continue to keep eating however I want to eat.

[00:11:37] Like, I think again, the factions of people, some people are like, I can only do that for so long. Right. And then others, which there's a guy that I'm not sure if you've heard of Jamie Seltzer, New York times did a piece on him and he talks about, he's like, man, I weighed 600 pounds and I've did it all been in and out and all over the place. And with the assistance of these medications, I was able to start to, to feel like I wanted to go to the gym.

[00:12:07] And that I think is the part right now where I see the major roadblocks. I want to go to the gym. Except for everything is very, very glaringly not for me that the advertising, the marketing, the verbiage, the, the communication styles of everything around those boxes do not scream, come in here and let's get you healthier.

[00:12:34] It's come in here and let's get you more fit. Let's get you into the class. It's going to, you know, get your heart rate up or I'm, we used to have a class called pain cave and I'm like, you know, talk about, talk about marketing, anti-marketing campaign. But again, it's like when you're in it, you're not really thinking about this. What are the words? What are all the other things that really are the enticers to get them to, to step one foot

[00:13:04] in? And, you know, the more that I'm in it now, it's, it's becoming to me that the winner of this is going to be the one that takes this on and adopts it into a totally new revenue stream. It's, Hey, come on in and sit down. Let's just talk. What are you doing? How are you doing? What I'm not, don't try to sell me on the first five minutes of me stepping into the place. Tell me why I should be in there.

[00:13:30] Have a conversation with, with me on where I'm at, get to know what I'm looking for and try to slowly incorporate and to get them interested in what's going on and why not just selling a personal training package. They're not, I don't think that demographic is really understanding in a sense of, well, one-on-one personal training. Like what am I spending 75 to 150 bucks an hour for with you? Like, what, what does that mean?

[00:13:59] Are you going to continue to keep health to me? It's, I keep saying it's, I'm going to sell an hour's worth of training at 15 minute increments. And I just want you to come into the gym four times this week for 15 minutes. Like it's a philosophical change. That is going to take some time, but the people that start to unlock this a little bit differently, I think that's where the six they're all good.

[00:14:24] They're all going to go there because it's, Hey, they just want to talk to me. These guys are really opening the doors, rolling out the carpet for me to just to come in, have a conversation. It's not a traditional sale. You know, we, you can't use the same things that you would pitch you and I, you know, we've lived in it. We've been in it our whole life. It's fit. Yeah. We want fitness. Fitness is an extension of us. It's a part of our livelihood, right? But 80% of the population is.

[00:14:55] So we cannot continue to talk to them using the same terms that we speak to somebody that has suffered and willingly suffered. You know, it's a, it's a very different package that you're going to be pushing. And I think that the companies in this space are doing an amazing job of it. Like, it's really cool to see who they're putting on their websites and how they're expressing. Like, it's okay.

[00:15:25] You know, we, this is for you and this is how we want to help you. So I don't know if I answered the question or not on that. You know, I know it was a, it was a, it was a beautiful ramble. Well, the, if you could, if you could do this right, like if you could just recreate the model that you envision for the future, let's say like in five, you know, whatever that looks like in five years. I know there's a lot of stuff. We're going to talk about the regulation changes and what that means and why you got to walk this very carefully and why companies like yours are important because this is

[00:15:54] your job is to follow the regulations and make sure that everything is, is according to those. But if you, I don't know, you know, it's what is it? 2026. Let's say 2030. You can imagine the gym of the future, which is actually focused on preventative health. Like, what would that gym look like to you? How would it be different than the gyms we have today? Everything is set up in pods. It's, I have my free weight section and all that for the people that just want to come in and do their thing.

[00:16:22] But I'm also going to have these setups that, that nobody's going to work out alone. I'm going to bring people together. I'm going to coach them all as one group. I'm going to have one trainer working with five to 10 people instead of one person, one hour. And we're all going to be sharing and talking and matching them up accordingly. You know, it's like, again, really it's matchmaking, you know, be the Tinder. Hey, what, what do you like? What do you, what do you do?

[00:16:51] What do you, you know, what are the things that excite you? Okay, cool. It's 6am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's the group that I'm going to put you with and really find what it is that they want. But I think none of the fitness stuff really matters. It's more the personal. What am I going to do when I come in there? Who's going to be looking at me? Where are their mirrors? How, how bright is it? It's like, no, man, we're going to come into the pod, whatever that looks like.

[00:17:19] It could be a machine with 15 different movement exercises on it. But it's like, if the coach does it right, then you've been in it. I think CrossFit nails it in a sense that when you walk in, somebody's in control. Yeah. From the minute it's go, hey, we're warming up. This is exactly what I want you to do. Not, hey, just get on the treadmill for five minutes. Not that I'm, I'm not downplaying what anybody else does. I'm just saying the structure starts from the minute the class begins to the minute that it ends.

[00:17:50] I feel like through that, there's a beginning and an end to it. So they're like, okay, hey, I'm done now. Fantastic. This is what we did. I'll see you on Thursday and we're going to do this other piece. But hey, you know, you guys are all more than welcome. Maybe come in here, hit the sauna, grab a coffee together. Like continue to grow this bonding of meeting people. You know, the, the, the other things that get left out.

[00:18:16] And I have a good friend that actually I opened my CrossFit with who he's started his own. It's called the hope foundation. And he's just like, loneliness is like this, the number one. I don't know what, what you would call it, but people are suffering from loneliness. So to come into a gym with thousands of pieces of equipment, huge, I'm going to wander around and not have a clue. I might be there. I might come in three, four times.

[00:18:46] That's on it. You know, maybe I'm a little bit more motivated. I'm going to come in 10 times until somebody talks to me, looks at me funny, or I get in my head about what's actually going on and forget why I'm there. The diversion of that, you don't even, you wouldn't really even have to change the space. It's just like, Hey, at nine o'clock, I'm going to be standing at the front door. I'm going to be right there waiting. When you come in our group, we're going to walk over and get started together.

[00:19:14] The concierge level, almost style of it. But it's, it's not about to me, it's not about that you're paying to get that. It's that I want that experience to be that because I'm so vested in you having a great time meeting new people and starting to make health and wellness, something that isn't about my knees hurt, the pain, all the other, whatever stigmas that come along with you on the journey that got

[00:19:43] you, you know, plus size or plus plus size. Like, let's really just come in here and go to work. And we've been saying hard work at our, our facility for 13 years. It's now everybody says it. Right. And, and people are like hard work. I'm like, yeah, but you don't think about it that way. Do you? And everybody's like, no, we, we come in and we kind of share. We all shared the same experience together and I can bond with these people.

[00:20:13] You know, that to me is 2030. That's the evolution and revolution of where this, the potential of this has to go. And, and I'm sure there are a lot of people already in those spaces that want that now. So where, when you look at that model, where is the med is, is the, is the medical aspect of it in the building? Is it done via telehealth? Like how you guys do it alongside, you know, the, the gym membership, like where do you think that's going?

[00:20:43] Cause I've seen some really cool models, right? I mean, I, I like interviewing companies, even if they're just a single location that are doing this right now. I think of like an phone training systems. I think of Monarch, I think of carbon health, like, you know, they're doing it and they're all doing it a little bit differently, but kind of similar. It's like they're separated the medical and the fitness, but they're integrated in some way. Like they're, they're, they share doors. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Like when you look at it, is it all going to be on one roof, like a lifetime? Right. Who does it that way?

[00:21:12] Or what do you think is going to win? Or is there room for multiple models here? I think it's multiple models. The, the fitness. One of the things that I never believed that my elders in my life said is it all comes back around. And I remember like, holy shit, they're right. Yes. And I remember when I first moved to Chicago and I'm trying to find a gym I wanted to join. And at that time as a college student, you know, Bally's was the place.

[00:21:41] If you had a Bally's key fob, you were the cool kid. You in it. We're right there again. We're right back in to, well, I'm a member here. It's a status symbol or you have, it's financial more than anything. I have the ability to go here. So that's where I'm going to go. Good, bad, indifferent. I think that the places like lifetime and what you're saying with Monarch and some of these other facilities where they've built the whole structure and they have the ability to bring

[00:22:09] it in and have it be kind of another door that you can go in is fantastic. Does some of these larger big boxes where these companies are managing two, 300 locations, are they going to be able to, to rip it that way? Probably not. And, and I think that's where we start to see the wheels start turning in a lot of operators minds of like, how do I train all my trainers? What, how do I do this? Well, I don't want them talking about, you know, this, or I don't want them giving the wrong advice.

[00:22:38] And it's like, okay, hold, hold on a second. Like, let's look at this in a different way when you, it's okay for them to talk about supplementation, but it isn't okay for them to have as long as we educate them, which if you're putting these things out in front of people or as a facility, everybody needs to be trained on them. And the funny part to me is that most of the people are on some kind of medication anyway. So wouldn't we really want to know that somebody's on something that could have them just fall

[00:23:08] out and we don't have a clue? Yes. It's almost like the entire screening process also needs to change. Now, the way that we operate, we it's, it's face to face. So there's a lot of, I consider it a very, uh, it, it resembles a personal training experience. The more, the longer I'm in the program, the more I start to divulge to my coach on our

[00:23:33] case, it's our providers that you're meeting with month to month and our providers hold them accountable. Hey, what are you doing? Are you changing this? Well, Hey, just because you've not changed the way you're eating, I'm not going to ramp up the amount of medication. It, so it's hand in hand. Now we've got to get to the other side of that. And I think that's the, one of the biggest blockades is like, this isn't, we're not going to be on the floor diagnosing like that.

[00:24:00] That's not ever the goal here, but it is to be like, Hey, it's a very excellent point to make. Yeah. Did the, your, your doctor knows has been, has your doctor ever told you need to go start exercising? Yes. Okay. Why? Why did they say that? Don't it's not, it has nothing to do with being overweight. Let's say it's just like, yeah, my doctor's been, well, tell me what your doctor said. Reframe it. Don't just be like, Hey, sit down. Okay. Eric. So you're looking to lose weight.

[00:24:28] You know, like if that's my opener on that and you're like, dude, no. No, it again, it's reframing, getting to know them more, but getting to know what the hell is going on on the inside. Somebody else brought that up to me of like, most people are on medication anyways, but now just this new one that's coming out. And while it's been out now, this is the one that's terrified everybody, man, some of

[00:24:56] these other medications would scare the hell out of me way more than somebody losing weight. It's like, this is an accelerator to them getting well and continuing on. If you change somebody's life and you know it, cause we lived it in the boxes. If you change somebody's life inside those walls, they're never going to leave. And every single person that they know, they're going to tell where it happened and who was the person that they worked with. That could be a coach.

[00:25:25] It, you know, it doesn't have to be soup, this granular thing. It's like, no, these guys had the thing set up for me. I walked in. It was exactly what they said it was going to be. There was no, Hey, smoking mirrors. If I walked in all of a sudden, they're trying to, to sell me all these other things. It was like, Hey, let's have a conversation. There's two things that pop in my head and recent like anecdote. Well, not so recent, but this, this separation between fitness and health is so stupid.

[00:25:55] Like we have like this, this wall between us, like, like they don't interact constantly. Right. Like they're not attached at the hip. Like, which it's really, you think about it. If you actually stop for a second, this is like, this is so dumb. Like I remember when I was a CrossFit gentleman, this, this will probably ring a bell for you, David. It was like, we had one verified case of rhabdomyolysis. Right. Which if anyone knows back in the CrossFit days, that was like a big deal. Like you hear that word, like, Oh my God. Right. Like, Oh no.

[00:26:25] Yes. And luckily everything worked out. The guy turned out fine. But what happened was like, we, it wasn't, it wasn't an abnormal workout. There was probably in the workout about 50 pull-ups overall over a period of 12 to 13 minutes, which shouldn't by definition, most likely give someone rhabdo. But we found out later that he had been traveling. He was also on a heavy dose of statins. Right. And statins were one of the precursors. Now, if we had known that, right.

[00:26:50] Or if there was ways, if there was communication between the two easily avoided, right. A conversation that could have been had, we could have been flagged. Things would have been great. Right. And that's like someone like on one side. And then on the other side, I recently got my annual with my doctor. It was yesterday. And we sat down and you know, our conversations are super short. He's like, everything good. Everything's great. Blood work. Yep. Check. Great. Okay, cool. Why am I here again? But the point is like, we started talking. He's like, so what do you do again? I'm like, well, and that's always hard to explain.

[00:27:20] I'm like, well, I host a podcast in the industry and I do some consulting. Like, oh, well, what podcast? My future of fitness. Or who do you talk about? Okay. But we started walking this. He's like, so you must be pretty educated on these things. I'm like, I like to think so. So yes. You know, like I talk to people like Dave Apple about peptides, right? I talk to people like Jim Lall. I talk to Stacey Simms and I feel educated. And then I'm like, you know what the dream is for us as an industry doctor? That someday you will write a prescription to send someone to the gym.

[00:27:50] And he like, kind of looked at me like, yeah. I was like, that doesn't excite you? Like, what? Like, really? Like, I was like, okay. And he's like, all right, I guess our meeting's over now. I'm like, well, all right, bye. So it's like, there's just, there's just no, I don't know what it is. Like, why has it been like this for so long? I don't, I don't know, but it makes no sense and it needs to end. And I think this is where we can really start to make concert efforts. This is kind of a bridge, like these opportunities, right? The peptides and the blood work and like all these things.

[00:28:17] So it's, it's starting to happen really, really effectively. And I commend you guys for doing it. I think it's really exciting. And one of the things that I think we all have to be aware of too, is on the fitness side is the regulations. So maybe give us up to date on peptides specifically, like hormone optimization has been around for a while. I don't think we have to, I don't know. Maybe is there anything we need to worry about there? Not, not as much as these others. Okay. I think it still does come down.

[00:28:47] It still does come down to the care. And that's the thing that has really made this overshadowing dark spot on all of these. GLP-1s are a peptide. Insulin is a peptide. TRT to a certain degree is a peptide. These are naturally reoccurring, you know, amino acids in our systems. We just have something else. It's kind of deviating the usage of them. How they are classified and how they're talked about, again, complete disconnect.

[00:29:17] So a lot of people think about medicine. Oh, I take medicine if I'm sick. I go to the doctor if I'm sick. I get labs if something, if the potential of something negative is being there. So the stigma around all of this stuff is very, I feel negative. It's scary. Man, I don't need 500 biomarkers checked. That's a lot. There's got to be something in that that's going to fall off.

[00:29:45] But so I think it was two and a half years ago. All of the peptides people are talking about, especially like BPC-157 and TB-500, these regenerative style of, you know, helping to fix and mend soft tissue and connective tissue. Everybody's like, I want it. I want it. I want it. So what that has created is this black market, in a sense, of people just getting it wherever

[00:30:10] they can and then taking it however they deem they should take it, unless they have the money to go to somebody that, you know, has been doing it long enough where they're just flying under the radar. So there are 14 that RFK says of these 19 that are going to become off of the Schedule 2 list. So the FDA, a couple of years back, a decision was made that we needed to put all of these

[00:30:36] in a class two, which meant that compounding pharmacies were no longer allowed to compound these peptides. And, you know, I think from the outside perspective, depending on how you're looking at it, it's like, well, why? There wasn't really a why. It was more like, well, because, move on. And if you look at it, there are 350 plus derivatives of these peptides being blended and put together by big pharma.

[00:31:05] Not again, not a slam on them. That's their job. That's what they're trying to do is to create new things. But when they pulled these off, it just made people start to search even deeper and further into where can I go about getting them? Yeah. Um, that is the stuff that I think is really the scary stuff about this, because right now I read, it's probably a month back, read a two tried, which isn't even on the market yet.

[00:31:34] Everybody seems to be on it. It's like, oh, the wonder, it's the wonder peptide. Fat loss and you keep your muscle. Is that like the get ripped? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I've heard about it. Yeah. But it's also starting to be reframed. That's a biohacker tool. Ozempic, the semaglutides, those are weight loss. So the stigma, it's like re-stigmatizing these as they come out. Now this one's cool. And that one's, you know, that's for that other group over.

[00:32:03] I'm, I'm enhancing over here. I need this because I, I work out hard and da, da, da, da. So seeing that already makes me laugh. But at the same time, kind of scares me because people are getting it from, from who knows. Nobody really knows where they're really getting it. So if the compounder is compounding these, they're, they're not in the. The Future of Fitness podcast is proudly brought to you by eGym.

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[00:33:03] and communities. Now, what really excites me is how eGym brings this ecosystem together with WellPass, their corporate wellness platform. By combining their strength equipment with AI-powered software and their corporate wellness platform, WellPass, they're leading the shift to proactive, preventative health. Isn't that what we all want? That's why we're here. The result, members feel more confident and motivated. Trainers have better tools to support people. Operators see stronger retention and growth.

[00:33:31] And employers benefit from healthier, more engaged teams. This isn't innovation for show. It's progress you can see, measure, and repeat. To learn more, please visit eGym.com. I don't know. They don't get an A. They don't get a smiley face sticker from their teacher because it's not, it shouldn't be happening. So now people are getting even more confused. Well, I can get it over here.

[00:34:00] I can go to my local med spa or this person's a wellness doctor. They're doing it. Why can they do it? And it becomes this very oblivious, ambiguous space. And there's no regulation. There's no regulators. There's nobody to talk to it about. You're chat GP and GPT-ing your dosing of this after you got it from who knows, it just showed up in the mail. And you know what I'm saying? Because I may be familiar with that. Yeah.

[00:34:31] Those are the things that I think will continue to make people, they'll see the price and they'll go, well, I know a friend that's taking it and I'm just going to go, what, Hey, what's the website that you want on? Yeah. Peptide Sciences shut down maybe a month ago, just overnight. Boom. Gone. One of the largest resellers of peptides in the country. Gone. Gone. So, you know, yes, I may have had one of the vials that said not for human consumption

[00:35:00] and tried to figure out the math on reconstitution and all this stuff. It, when you start doing stuff that is really the mixing of it, the care that it takes to get the formulation exactly how it needs to be, then is it the real thing? What else is in there? Is, do you know that it's clean? Do you know that it's 100% what they said it is?

[00:35:33] This is the scary part. People want this so bad that they're going to go about getting it wherever. And it's not steroids in the locker room, you know, and, and Hey, that's the guy you go to get the juice. At least those are all legit for the most part. You know, unlike this, this kind of like, Oh, Hey, yeah. It showed up wrapped in paper towel in a head. That it was wet because of the ice cubes that they packed it with.

[00:36:00] Now I'm being a little bit facetious on this, but I want to know if I'm injecting something into myself where it's coming from. And you, that this is, you know, where we briefly talked about this. I think this is the part that, that if I'm bringing that into my system and I'm giving access to this through my facility, it better be the best.

[00:36:25] And I bet I need to know exactly what the care looks like because I don't want anything less than I would provide them. I want to make sure that if I'm offering something in my facility, a drink or whatever it is that it's okay for them to take. I'm not just going to be like willy nilly giving stuff out. We, you know, my, my wife operates the, our, our facility now, and she's always forwarding me these emails.

[00:36:51] And the last one we got was like, Hey, we're a peptide seller. It is great opportunity for you guys. Buy it in bulk, keep it in your refrigerator, hand out the, the vials when somebody wants to buy it. And I'm this, I'm with Corb at this time. And I'm just like, Oh, are you serious? That can't be legal. Nothing. This was the, this was the pitch in the email documentation sent.

[00:37:17] And when I saw that, I was just like, wow, this is truly the wild west. Regulation does have to come in to kind of keep the boundaries and the guidelines. Otherwise, unfortunately with these things, it's not that we're injecting things that could potentially kill you. Maybe it could, if they really go over the boat with it, but I've heard of people, you know, and I mentioned this all the time. I get, I'm on a Facebook group that has over 60,000 people in it, that they're trying to

[00:37:47] find the cheapest GLP one. And somebody was like, Oh, you know, Hey, I miscalculated. I just took instead of, you know, 20 units on it. They just filled the whole thing up and injected and got sick and all this other stuff. Who are they going to call? I mean, when I get sick, I'm not going onto my Facebook group and be like, Hey, somebody saved me. I need help. There's nobody there qualified to do that.

[00:38:12] Like that is the area that all of this lack of guidelines and rails and just letting us kind of, it's the old gym mentality in a sense. Hey, yeah, those guys over there take it. That's cool. Yeah. But what happens if I want, if I take it, like, I don't know what the hell is going on. It, it's too gray.

[00:38:39] And I don't think it's too big of an opportunity. And with the GLP ones, but the peptides moving forward is really going to be the thing that's going to open it up. The tsunami that you referenced at the beginning. When everybody in your facility for the most part is there with a look and feel that they're, they're driving for. And they start to hear about these other things that can help to get you there faster.

[00:39:06] They're, they're going, they're going to get there and they're probably, they're already there. They're already getting it. So it do it right. I guess is my. So, I mean, what I hear and what I've been, the way I've been presenting this is that if I'm, if I'm a listener to this, I'm a gym operator, coach, trainer, executive. I have three options at this point. Well, four. I could do nothing. I can do nothing.

[00:39:36] I could change nothing. Right. And you could miss out on this opportunity. You could miss the next evolution where this is great. That's your choice. After that, you got three. You can build, buy, or partner. Now you look at someone like lifetime. They're going to build it, right? They're going to build this in-house. They have the resources. They have the capability to do that. Great. That's the lifetime way. Most of us are not lifetime, right? Buy. You can go out and you can actually find someone who's doing this effectively. You buy the company, you bring insight, you partner with them.

[00:40:06] Maybe that makes sense for you. If you've got a war chest, right? Maybe 24 hour fitness now has a lot of money. Maybe this is something they want to do, right? They go out and buy it. Or, or, which is what we're talking about right now, you partner, right? So you find someone like Corb Health, right? And you can partner easy, frictionless, right? So maybe talk about like, what does that business relationship look like when you work with a Fit19 or an InShape or some of the newer partners that you guys are bringing on? What does that, what does that relationship look like?

[00:40:33] From a operator perspective, even though it's a much smaller scale, it is the only thing that I could potentially add without an investment and start generating, generating revenue off of one communication. Like that, that alone to me is the, that's the barrier of entry. Can you send out comms to your people?

[00:41:00] And that's if, whether you decide to even do these other things that we're talking about, that's going to enhance it. That's going to make more money on the things that kind of your bottom line that makes sense to you, increase in personal training or, you know, these classes and that, those classes. But it's, I want to get in to the weeds with them because I will be there to do as much as they will allow me to do to get in front of as many people, whether that's the staff or the members.

[00:41:29] You know, I want them to know that they're human beings behind this company and why we're doing it. So I'm as compelling and compassionate about this and I want to share it with all of them because it's not, I'm just not trying to get them to do this, to pedal it out on, for a revenue stream.

[00:41:49] I see that the potential of this will, will grow and change the potential for change across the United States with this integration in the right way could really pivot us away from this sick model that we've lived in for, I don't know, 40 years now. I mean, nothing has changed. Yep. We're getting bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. Fantastic. Okay.

[00:42:18] Well, what are we doing to get smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller? That isn't even a conversation. So I, I think that the, it's so blue sky, the opportunities are unbelievable. Now, right now, GLP ones are number one thing. So if, if you want to offer it because you want to make sure, like you just said, you partner, you buy it or you build it. You partner with somebody, you vet them.

[00:42:46] I hope that, you know, they're, they're telling you what's going on. Is there any indemnification with this? Like what, if something happens, who, who's doing what? How am I held accountable? All this other stuff. It's like, you know, no, that's, that's why you partnered with us. We're a medical facility. We own and operate a company that staffs all of these professionals, two chief medical officers that work for our company.

[00:43:11] We have 15 providers that are all highly qualified and passionate about this. It's like, they're going to educate and then they're going to prescribe. They're not going to prescribe and then educate. We, we turn people away. If you don't meet the criteria, like I had mentioned earlier, we're not going to just push raising the amount to try to get weight loss to happen without any behavioral change. And that's so cool.

[00:43:39] At first, you know, when you step into something new, it's kind of like, oh, it's sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. But then you, you have this other faction of it that these are the, these people are having this communication like you and I are with all these thousands and thousands of people. They're there to help change them and help them. So they're, they're vested in it. They're vested at a level that is very different than a lot of things that I've really consumed in this. You know, it's not a doctor relationship where it's like, Hey Eric, what are you, what are

[00:44:09] you in here for today? Okay. Sounds good. Do your blood work before you leave and see you in nine months. It's like they're learning about what's going on. There's expectations set. Telemed to me is the future of medicine because it's the opportunity for you to learn what you're doing, have time, dedicated time with these people. You know, when, when you meet with your provider month to month, it's not like, Hey, we got this new program over here. You should jump in it too.

[00:44:39] It's like, where are you at? We're going to focus on what's going on. You know, we're going to build. We started an A and now we're on B. Okay. Let's talk about that now. Are you eating more protein? Yeah, I'm trying. You know, I'm, I really struggle with snacking. Okay. Well, here are some other things. So we point them in the direction, you know, and that's the awesome part that I get to deliver for this. Cause I've lived it and love this is like, I'm telling our providers, Hey, check this out.

[00:45:06] Here's these new, this new protein bar that is actually good for you. And here's this other snack. And here's all these things. And, you know, we created trying to do our best to create a community platform on the back end for people. And we host webinars. It's like, it's not a one and done. It can't be just the diagnosis and then the prescription. Cause then you're just going to, they're just going to leave as soon as, if that's the model, they're going to leave when they go find the price lower.

[00:45:36] But we have people that come over because we're partnering with very, you know, health and wellness, the gyms and stuff is just one faction of our business. So we're working with large industry where, you know, they're, they're offering it as a employee perk because insurance isn't covering it. And they, they want to, yes, there's an incentive, a little incentive to them, but 90% of the people that we partner with, they want to have that available to the people that work for them.

[00:46:04] But they also want to make sure that it's not just kind of like, here's a PDF. Good luck. You know, you signed up and this is what's going on. It's like, no, what, what's really going on? What are the percentages of weight loss that we're seeing? What's the length of stay that we're seeing? We have an extraordinarily high length of stay. And I always feel like as soon as I say that. Do you mean retention? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:29] And I feel like I have to put asterisk because it's, it's a good thing because we slowly take them to get to where they need to get. And then once they get there, they have a conversation and they start to talk. Okay. How are you feeling? Is this something that are you ready to start backing the meds off because you're feeling confident or do we need to stay there a little bit longer?

[00:46:54] You know, those are not decisions that you can just, you shouldn't be making those on your own or based off of a Google chat or chat GPT or whatever else is out there. You really have that ability to have those in-depth conversations. And, you know, that's the, again, I think with Brock, you know, he started this to be able

[00:47:15] to provide accessible medications at a cost that were exceptionally lower than what is out there. And, but not only that, you're not just getting it for a lower cost. You're getting the service. You, you're getting real service. And every year when I get to meet these folks, I just am in awe that they're so passionate about it.

[00:47:40] Like they do not want to do anything that is going to divert them away, their, their patients away from the end goal. So with that, you know, and, and we're not on the tech side. I've gotten to the point now too, where it's like, I think the inundation of an app and the biometrics and all this stuff, it's like, man, there's so much data swirling.

[00:48:05] If, if I'm, I'm in it and it's too much, if I'm trying to get into it, you can't overwhelm me with 75 different things. It's just like, come on in, just come in. We're just going to talk for 15 minutes. We do. That's also, I think a very big compelling perk of ours is that first 30 minutes that you come into the system, you get to sit, you're not paying anything upfront.

[00:48:33] You talk with the provider, you get to ask them questions and you get to feel that, oh, okay, this is, this is care. They're not selling me. They're not those, those providers are not salespeople that the last thing they want to do is come across as if they're trying to sell you something. And that's, that's so valuable because it makes the patient at the end go, yeah, I'm not, I'm not just another cog in this system that these, these folks that I'm

[00:49:03] meeting with are really dialed. They want me to get to the next level of whatever that is. And they always share the success stories, you know, people, the PCOS is a big one that people trying to get pregnant and they can't, then they start to lose weight. You know, it's crazy in three years, it's, it's had all these other things tagged to it. Oh, Zimpic, semaglutide is the baby drug. People are taking it. Now, all of a sudden people are having babies that maybe they weren't thinking about, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:49:31] The weight loss aspect of just this though, the, the GLP one, I think at the end of the day, who knows by 2030, we'll, we'll stick with the 2030. It's, it's going to become like aspirin. Hey, everybody should take an aspirin a day because it does so many beneficial things for you, no matter where you're at in your, your health journey.

[00:49:57] And the, the business relationship, it's, it's a simple like rev share marketing. Like how, how do you guys, what's the business relationship between you and the operator community? Yeah. So it, it's a rev share, you know, it, everybody that every person that comes in from the campaigns that they run, you know, we don't get into the comm side of it. We're, we're kind of working to flush this out in a little bit better way of like, what's

[00:50:21] a deliverable that's a more touches that it's not just necessarily emails or texts, but every person that comes in every time that they, every month they come in, there's no memberships. There's no sign up for 18 months. It's month to month. Every time they come in and they stay a month and there's a piece that goes back to them. So it just continues to grow. Our folks stay within, in the program for around eight to 10 months.

[00:50:48] And again, it's because it's a slow progress. We do everything we can to mitigate all those side effects. And for in shape, for instance, they were ecstatic on the success of this email because email was kind of a dead channel for them. And if you think about it, okay, I get emails from my, my club. Well, how many of you open them? Well, now when they start to put things that are more of value to the end user, they're

[00:51:18] starting to see higher open rates. Sure. So it's, it's, it's kind of a win-win across a variety of different, different boards, you know? And we also do that on the backend. When we have these larger partners, we use this social program on the backend where I've created kind of this place. It's like a Facebook with lots of content and places for you just to kind of dig in and mill around, but you get invited to it.

[00:51:42] And if you, for in shape, for instance, you know, they have their own separate entry into it where we can put in, Hey, we know that you're going to be told that you need to increase your protein intake, go back to the front desk at your gym because they have these products. And so again, we're, we're there facilitating all of it, trying to help get them to go back

[00:52:06] into the system and then make those purchases there instead of jumping on Amazon and, you know, going through that rigmarole of like, which one's good, which one's bad? My friends on this one, what does it all look like? It's like, no, go, go back in there and have that conversation with the person that runs the supplement plate, you know, at that, the gym that you go to. So we try to be as full circle with this as possible. Yeah.

[00:52:34] And Dave, I, if I was still an owner operator, I would be all over this. Like, to me, it's just, I just, why not? Like, why not? Literally, why not? There's no capital expenditure on the front end, right? Like it's, it's not, you can re-engage your email list. You can help people get to their goals faster. You can retain them more. You can make more money. You just have a more differentiated service offering probably in your, in your region, right?

[00:53:02] You educate yourself, you educate your, your membership, you educate your staff on, on where this is all going. So I commend you guys for putting this together. And I hope more and more and more people, you know, engage with it. If people want to get ahold of you, well, let me ask you the first question. Always ask this is what do you need help with? You know, from an industry perspective, you know, are you guys looking to looking for more people to hire? Are you looking for, you know, obviously you're looking for more clients and more partners, right? Anything else specifically that you'd want people to reach out about?

[00:53:31] If you're a personal trainer and you want to know more, I've been saying this for three years now. Nobody's jumped on this space. Nobody has said, I am the number one weight loss coach in the country. You get your GLP one. If you're on it, come to me because I'm going to help you because I'm listening. You know how people can, they'll create an Instagram page and be a yogi, Pilates and all this other stuff.

[00:54:00] But nobody is really taking this torch. Like if you're out there and you have a passion for helping people, contact me. I want to talk to people that are like, man, we're thinking about it. And I don't know. And it's there. There are people in your circle right now looking for somebody to go ask questions to. And like we said earlier, you don't have to be in the weeds on it. You don't have to diagnose them, but it's, Hey, you're on this.

[00:54:30] I know. Cause I, everybody now, every governing body offers a certificate. Now I think ACE, ACSM, Nesta, who all of them do. So I've learned what can offset and what I need to do on my end. Let's talk about it. This is what it needs to look like. That this is a, an rare, rare opportunity.

[00:54:54] I think for trainers to really expand their reach way outside of what the, the average offering is now. We're the hardest to get as personal training clients. I think, you know, it's like, yeah, I'm good. But you know, I, if you're out there and you're doing this already and you want to be that person, but let's have a conversation, man.

[00:55:23] You could partner with us if you wanted, but I'm here. I, I've been in this, I really want to share it because I, the more that do it, the more people are going to find that, Hey, it's, it's okay. Let's build this community. It's the biggest one that we could build right now in the United States. I love it, man. If people want to get ahold of you, Dave, where would you like them to go? LinkedIn, probably the easiest, you know, I'm living and breathing on there on a daily basis.

[00:55:51] We're in the process of kind of updating our website to have a page there. If you're an operator or, you know, you're at scale and you really want to think about bringing this in all of this. I'm, I want to have a conversations with everybody that's thinking about it, whether you think you should or think you shouldn't let's talk wherever you're at. You, everything that we talked about is kind of the same flow of this. You could tell me I'm wrong. I don't, that's fine.

[00:56:18] I mean, but I'm, I'm here and the door's open for the conversation and I will be at your facility to help you be as successful as I possibly can. As long as you're open to new things and new thoughts about what this looks like, because it's not the same box. Right on, man. Well, Dave, do me a favor. Keep me updated on this stuff. If stuff, you know, if things, you hear any major regulations come down or anything

[00:56:48] there and if she needs to know, shoot me a note and I would love to disseminate that to the audience as well. And yeah, I really enjoyed it. Great stuff. Keep up the great work. And ladies and gentlemen, Dave Apple. Thank you, Eric. I appreciate it. Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone. And I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Fitness. If you did, I'm going to ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way.

[00:57:18] 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. And 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 or get in touch with me,

[00:57:46] simply go to thefutureoffitness.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.