Dr. Ryan Greene - Monarch Athletic Clubs: Where Medicine Meets Movement - Fitness 2.0

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 futurofitness.co to subscribe and get weekly summaries dropped into your inbox. Now on to the show. All right, here we go. Dr. Ryan Green, welcome to the Future of Fitness.

Thank you for having me and been looking forward to this.

Me too. I uh I really like what you're doing. I know it's very early uh stages for you guys at Monarch Athletic Clubs, and but the how you're pulling everything together, uh basically it's like this is what I want. I want that. I want if there's one here, I'd be a member. Hands down, without a question, I'd be there, right? It's all the things that I I value, all the things I enjoy. And you know, the way you're approaching and even just the conversation you're having about the thought approach to you know the community and uh mental health and men's health and all these different things, like I think you're hitting you're seeing things clearly about where things are going, and you're building that thing for the future. So we'll get into all the stuff that you do, but let's start with this, Dr. Green. If you'll mind, just give us a little bit of background. How'd you get to be the founder and CEO here?

Yeah. So I grew up in the Midwest and uh went to University of Illinois, super interested in health, made my way into exercise physiology and uh realized that I didn't want to take orders from people. So like going into medicine and being like the top dog seemed to resonate with with me, which is probably a a trauma issue that I should deal with, but it is what it is. I'm working on it. If we have time on this, yeah. I just um I've told people too, like growing up, I I caddied every summer. My dad made me get a job when I was 13. And fortunately, over 10 years, I had thousands of conversations with people in every walk of life. And the only thing that actually sounded interesting was like actually being able to help people, meaning like via medicine. Med school was kind of the route that I wanted to take. Uh, did a master's degree after undergrad because I just needed some time to like mature, focused exphys, nutrition, and immunology. So, how does movement impact the immune system? And then went to medical school in Denver, Colorado, and then did a surgical residency out at Dartmouth. And it was there where I kind of had my eyes opened to the business of medicine, which you know, it is what it is, but I recognized innately there's an intuitive piece of me that's like, this isn't healthcare, you know. Like I think healthcare is you know keeping people healthy. And obviously that's not what we were doing. I don't need to beat that phrase to death that we have a sick care system, so I'll leave that there. But then, like, what do you do? Because you're so deep in debt and you're so far down the river. I did a fellowship at Mayo Clinic and it was a little bit more academic clinical research, still kind of in the sports world. I was doing a lot of hand research. And just the same thing. I was like, man, like this is spending the rest of my life appealing for grant money, you know, having other people tell me, like, yeah, your your ideas worthy or not, didn't really resonate. So while I was at Mayo Clinic, I was bored and to be honest, depressed because I was just like, I can't believe this is where my life has led. I'm like living alone on a mattress on the floor. Like, I just was like, this sucks. I can't believe I'm here. But it was interesting because around that time, the conversation of recovery was kind of like the next big thing, which is oh my God, LeBron, Derek Henry, like all these guys. The my thought kind of molded into, okay, like if we look at human beings, meaning athletes, as the peak of human potential, like these guys are the we were squeezing the maximum amount of our ability. I was like, damn, they are paying a lot of money to have a lot of people basically tell them what to do. And that's how they're getting to where they are, their chef, their trainer, their whatever. Then I was like, okay, well, what hope do I have to get to anywhere near that level if I don't also have a team of people that is helping me? Um, and so the idea started to formulate as like, what would it look like if you created a space that had all these like fundamental aspects of health? And, you know, the universe and its infinite wisdom connected me with my now business partners who were thinking about kind of creating a higher-end training club. And I was fortunately able to help them see that like we have a massive healthcare issue in this country and it's extremely expensive. And if you can just get people to you know do simple things consistently, like there's a massive opportunity there, not only from like a success standpoint and like changing people's lives, but also from a cost saving standpoint. Because if you think about it, five trillion roughly is spent on three things pain, heart disease, and diabetes. And so if you can keep people, if you can keep people out of those categories, one, like you save that individual a ton of time and money and quality of life. And then also for a for a society as a whole, like you start to decrease this insane burden that we've introduced purely with poor lifestyle decisions. So yeah, we created Monarch based on this idea that you know, if you move every day, if you take care of your body so you can continue to move, you pay attention to factors that we know are going to contribute to quality of life, that's muscle mass, that's strength, that's markers of inflammation, and then obviously nutrition, which is kind of where the medical comes in. And then surround yourself with people that are, you know, generally high quality and also moving towards a similar target. So you create that sense of community, you'll probably have some success. So, you know, we opened West Hollywood in 2020, pandemic hit two months after we opened. Fortunately for us, you know, we're designated as a medical facility, so we got to stay open. Yes. Yeah. Total divine intervention there.

You yeah, you totally saw that coming.

Well, I didn't see a pandemic coming, but I I knew that if you were I knew that if we were medical, that like there were doors that we could open that other people couldn't, that like Equinox and Lifetime Fitness couldn't open. I had no idea that it literally would come down to like are you considered essential or not essential to our daily lives? And uh, we fell in in the favorable bucket. So that allowed us to grow. And then we have since opened two additional clubs, one in Brentwood, one in Playa Vista. Playa Vista is four weeks old now, so our our newest one. And then we have five more that are in various stages of build-out or or you know, lease and and pre-opening design. So yeah, I think you know, for us, it's uh it's gonna be a slow burn. I I I think you know, when it comes to health, like I've I have six years of data, and and I can tell you like it's not gonna be a supplement that fixes it, it's not gonna be a peptide that fixes it, it's not even gonna be a dashboard that collects all your data. Like I am seeing people who simply still do not understand that like in order to get to where they want to go, like it's compounding. You have to do simple things consistently over a long period of time. And health, we've created this kind of adversarial relationship with, which is like if work or family or potential revenue earning opportunities are weighed against do I take the time to go exercise or do I you know stick with my sleep routine or whatever that is? We're working with high-performing individuals who like more often than not, like they tend to prioritize you know the former versus the latter, if that makes sense.

Makes total sense. Makes total sense. So maybe walk through in 2020 you guys opened the first iteration of Monarch. Maybe the best way to describe that if if I was a potential member or a member, I just signed up, right? What is that experience like? And and who and who were you targeting if anyone specifically?

Yeah, so our major demo is primarily people like early 30s to late 60s. We have a couple people a little bit older than that, a couple people a little younger. But our our price point on the surface has, you know, initially there's a little bit of a gut check, which is like, oh my gosh, $1,500. Like I've never spent that much money on a gym. And we've really had to and continue to have to remind people like, this is not a gym, it is a piece of a larger, you know, health concept. A part of that money, you get a trainer every day. You can have a physical therapy session every day, you can meet with the medical team whenever you want. You're getting your blood work done quarterly, like it's all covered through your insurance. So there's way more value pathed into this one spot. We have saunas, we have cold plunges, you know, we have recovery devices, therabody, hyperized, things like that. So we've basically taken like, all right, well, you don't need to be a member of a recovery studio anymore. You know, you can probably discontinue your gym membership that you may or may not have been using because everything's all in one. And we're not like replacing concierge medicine, but we're definitely augmenting it. And a lot of people are like, well, I never really see my primary anyway. So like, can you help me out with all these things? So there's inherent value there, but initially people are like, wow, I've never spent this much money on my health before. And you're like, Is that monthly? Yeah, that's monthly.

Wow.

Good for you. Yeah.

Okay.

But I'm like, you have, it's just in different buckets, and we're just condensing it all for you. So that's just off this off the top. Once people join, everyone goes through an onboarding experience. So, like, come as you are, we're not turning anyone away. There's only one person I can think of that we've turned away that just like literally had some mental health issues that like I knew it was going to be difficult for our team to navigate. And so, in that instance, I said it's gonna be way better for you to work with like one-on-one with one person and issue. So, anyway, but other than that, we've never we've never turned anyone away. You meet with the medical team, you know, history, lifestyle assessment, body composition, blood work, if they choose. And we're looking at everything that function health is looking at for the most part. We just know how to have it build through insurance. They go meet with the physical therapy team because we have them do, you know, our members do a joint-by-joint assessment. Some people come in with injuries, that's part of the reason why they're there. Or we may discover, hey, there's some things that we need to think about when we're when we're doing your training. Some people come in and they have like such a low training age. Our physical therapists, which are typically also CFCS, you know, strength coaches, they just happen to wear, you know, two hats. Sometimes they'll say, hey, like we're gonna keep you within the physical therapy department because you need a higher level of oversight than a traditional strength coach may be able to provide. But once you do those two things, then you do a two-day assessment with our strength and conditioning team. Day one is all about movement patterns. Do you know how to squat, hinge, push, pull? Are you feeling things in the right places? They're videoing members so that like they can show them, like, hey, this is what happens when you squat normally or with heel lifts or whatever with queuing, so they can visually see, like, oh yeah, like that's not a great looking movement that I used to do and think was a squat or a push-up. And then day two is performance. So, you know, grip strength, VO2 max via watt bike, so sub VO2, we're not specific. Like most most of our members wouldn't tolerate like a proper metabolic cart, so we're doing sub-max for them, or they just would abstain. We do a lot with Vauld, like force plates, so we're doing uh isometric strength, power, counter movement jumps, push-up test, pull-up test, or ring rows, whatever you can do, just so we have some benchmarks of you know, like validated strength. So every quarter when the member has the opportunity to be just like reassessed, we can demonstrate, hey, like your progress with this program is not purely vanity and aesthetics. Like, you know, you couldn't do a push-up three months ago, now you can do three or a pull-up, or you look at your grip strengths improved, or your VO2 max has improved. So we want to provide them like other opportunities to understand that like health is not an aesthetic journey, like there's other things that matter. And then we do blood work quarterly if they choose. We check in, you know, my belief is supplements are meant to supplement, you know, lifestyle. So you weren't meant to be on a supplement the rest of your life other than maybe vitamin D. And you know, we have the ability to check are these protocols effective? Because if they're not, like let's not just keep taking things because you think you should. Um, and then within the medical space, we have the scope that we can do peptides and hormones and IV therapy services. And obviously, like and peptides is a is a wild time right now. Like, there's a lot of people slinging peptides that have no concept of like oh yeah, how to measure, how to monitor, is this person even appropriate to receive this peptide? So we we do all that just because I I do believe it is important and I do believe in in the in the power of a peptide, but like it's got to be used in the right situation. So that's kind of onboarding and then the life cycle of a member. Like, absolutely their day-to-day is more or less training and physical therapy. We typically have one medical professional per site, one to two physical therapists, depending on club size, and then you know, a certain member to trainer ratio that we've kind of honed down over the last six years to figure out you know, typical utilization. And, you know, by I think exercise is one of the most important things that you can do. So we're not ashamed of the fact that the majority of our space is movement oriented because I think it's probably the best medicine. But we do have all those other pieces that are available, and then in our locker rooms, heat a hot element, a cold element, and then your traditional amenities. Areas that we're moving into, we we created this a program called Monarch Mind because I I've come to appreciate over the last six years half of my job is objective, the other half is intangible, meaning like part of people's health issues truthfully is energetic, it's emotional, it's spiritual, depending on how you define that term. And like I personally know how to help people with that, but like I think there's a piece of the ecosystem that we can build out. So we have a former strength coach actually who went back and got you know his master's degree in in counseling and therapy, who offers a complementary, we call it cognitive performance. So every member has the opportunity to meet with him if they want. And should they want to do additional work, they can, you know, obviously arrange that. Um, but we wanted to offer people something to like at least we we found that when there's like significant cost to things that we know are gonna be effective, but people might not understand, they're not going to do it. So like we wanted to at least give them a taste of, hey, like this, even if you do one session a month, like that's probably gonna be helpful. But if you want to do more, you know, you'll get it at a at a better rate. My my vision with Monarch Mind is is I do think that as we expand, everyone talks about community, but I think community is deeper than just like people doing run clubs and things like that. Because at the end of the day, like I think community is more like let's be honest and vulnerable about the fact that like we all have problems. Most of us have probably similar problems, and how can we actually like connect and make deeper connections with people we see on a regular basis and build that support system? And I do think the movement into this like community-driven fitness is helpful, but like it's it's deeper than that, and I think we have the opportunity to create programming around that, and that's kind of what I've been noodling on as of late is like what does it look like if we do men's work or you know, you know, have women's groups talking about menopause and perimenopause or you know, young moms opportunities to like just talk about how hard it is to try to take care of yourself and all this other stuff that's happening, and so you know, I don't necessarily want like want to turn into a uh a therapy unit, but like I do think because I as I don't know if I were shared it with you, or I actually ran into one of our members here at this eudaimonia conference I'm at, and she's like, all women talk about in the locker rooms is not a like about the sauna and the cold plunge, they're just talking about childcare, they're just talking about like where where are where are you sending your kids for childcare? So like clearly, like you know, I think there's more that we can do to like help support our membership there, and then so we're gonna hopefully expand that. Yeah.

Yeah, well, and it's funny on the men's side of it too. It's like what a men talk about, very little, right? Actually, yeah. Like in my locker room at the gym I go to here, it's like you're gonna you're gonna hear talk of sports, uh, depending on what season it is. It's gonna be skiing, hunting, or whatever. Yeah, right. And uh that's kind of it. Right. That's kind of what we do.

But there's but there's more. And like, and that's what I that's what I see like when people come in from a medical standpoint. I'm like, I know why your weight's struggling and your sleep shitty, and you know, like your testosterone levels are whatever. You work a lot, you may work a lot because you want to avoid going home, or there's you know what I'm saying? Like, there's other things that are happening, and the more we get to know our patients, which I think is a unique aspect of what we're doing, because our clubs are typically around 300 to 350 members by design, like historically, those are sizes of communities that have thrived. Yeah, you just you learn, you realize that like there's way more than just you know, surface level discussion. To be fair, like I'm walking this journey with everyone else, which is like I love my dad, but all we talk about is University of Illinois Athletics, and uh you know what I'm saying? And like it's just like but it's uh I think it's a larger discussion. So that's that's one of the things that we're we're working on as well.

And going back to the service offering that you guys have so at this rate, $1,500 a month, is it basically like I walk in, I can work with whoever I want personal trainer. So it's it's all it's all encompassing. Like, what about stuff like if they do want to get peptides or HRT, TRT or supplements? Like, is that a la carte or how is that all about?

Yeah, yeah. So I mean members book sessions. So to your first point, is we we designed our system so that once a member joins and we understand what their goals are, a coach is assigned to build their program based on the information we have. That coach can shift if you know we find, hey, Eric's working a lot with you know, coach so-and-so, they may shift programming responsibility. No one has an issue with that. Everyone programs. The reason we did that is we didn't want your health program to be dictated by an individual schedule or geography. So we believe, like, okay, the same training you did this morning is probably similar to something I did. Like, it doesn't matter if you're in Montana or you're in South Florida. So we built that so that our members could hop from unit to unit and feel like they could still get an excellent training session. They just may not know the trainers as well, but like I don't think people really care as long as they get their workout in. There is a piece to it. So that is like the members can book the sessions in advance. You can't just like show up at 9 a.m. and be like, I want to get a training session in. Like, you do actually have to plan it in in advance, which I don't think is unreasonable. In terms of the peptides you were talking about, yes. So I have a a visceral, like the price gouging that's occurring in the in like the peptide and all this other space. Yeah, and it's just I think what's happening too is like especially with peptides, like it's not a surprise that you can go on a website and get a peptide. So we have people be like, why is this place charging me $500 for BPC, thymus, and beta? Then peptide sciences has it for $78. And I'm just like, well, I don't know, but try to go through a pharmacy that like is legitimate and you have some level of like quality testing. So we basically charge what the pharmacy charges us because my whole perspective in this, as I've mentioned, is like health outcomes are built on compounding. So if people are having to choose, like, is it worth getting an IV when I'm kind of run down if it's $300 versus $99? Like, I would rather you do it and not worry about the cost than have to consider like, is it worth the cost? Same thing with peptides. Most peptide protocols need to be three to six months. If you're getting charged $500 to $1,000 for something that costs $150 to $200, like if people don't see the results very quickly, they typically abandon the protocol because they're just like, it's not worth an extra $1,000 a month. So for us, like our revenue is generated with the monthly membership. Everything on top of that is like we're trying to get you the absolute best price so that you actually stick with it versus having to make a decision is like, is this worth the the price point?

So the people are walking in your doors, obviously have to have some level of uh fluency. Is that a word? Affluence affluency. When are they coming in? For? Like what are the major goals that you're seeing? Is it better performance? Is it, you know, is it just like everyone else's problems and goals, or are they they have something different?

Uh weight management, energy, fatigue, pain. A lot of people, we get a lot of like moms who just are in a really emotionally unsettling place because their bodies have changed post postpartum and they don't like how they look or feel. We don't get a ton of like weird, we don't really work with like athletes, to be honest. Like most of our people are coming in, are just like, you know, I've been trying to do this myself, hasn't been working. You have everything in one spot. That's what I've been looking for. I'm willing to make the investment. But yeah, it's it's more like energy and life style stuff versus like we're not getting people coming in who want to like optimize for a high rocks race or something like that. Like that may you know, we may have some people training for a triathlon or something, but we're definitely dealing with like a broader swath of the population that's just like I never used to feel like this, and now I don't like how I'm living, which um is interesting. Definitely interesting.

Yeah. So you with that uh with that type of clientele, you uh you obviously have to pay attention to where you're opening. Yes, right, the specific markets. So give us some insights, like as you expand. You mentioned three open, five in the works. Yeah, what type of markets are you looking to get into?

Yeah, so um obviously LA is a great place to prove concept. It's perfect. Next is gonna be South Florida. So we have a South Beach, Miami location opening eight to nine months from now, just kind of depending on the construction timeline. It's basically LA. Most people migrated from here to there. I'm actually in South Florida right now, so from there to here. And yeah, for us, it's an opportunity where we're basically getting a location that's being built into a very nice office building. So it's an opportunity to plant a flag for very little cost for us. And considering what I saw during the migration of COVID and then the fires in LA, like a ton of people moved from here down here. So I think markets similar to LA are interesting for us. Uh, we're doing Scottsdale, we're doing Boston. Scottsdale is basically like a mini LA. Boston's got a lot of very expensive, a lot of affluence, a lot of health tech. So people kind of in that world. We're not like dead set on you have to do the New Yorks and like all the major markets. We've learned, especially from my business partners who are in the restaurant world, that like there's a lot of whether you want to call them like tier B or tier two cities that have people who had the same level of enthusiasm for like getting healthier, but don't necessarily live in such a densely populated urban environment. So like Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Chicago, like, you know, there's people there that have resources. They just the flashy concepts have passed them by. They've gone, you know, to the traditional market. So yeah, we're not opposed to kind of being non-traditional and where we go because we've we've seen that some of these higher-end concepts. I I saw an article about all these like social clubs opening in what were considered like tier two and three markets, because people are like, all right, well, Soho House isn't going to come here, so like let's create our own Soho House. And they're paying a lot of money. So yeah, like the pipeline right now is you know, those those places that I I mentioned, but moving forward, like you know, we don't have to necessarily be in those top-tier spaces.

Dr. Were you surprised at all in the early times of this model that people are willing to pay that much? Did you did you kind of like did you kind of hope as you slid the contract across the desk? Like was there how did that feel to know that people are actually like, yeah, they'll do it.

Intrepidation. Yeah, I think uh I think I think the battle we're still fighting is so people are willing to spend a lot of money to take care of themselves. They've just created a difficult network to fully integrate because no one's really done it, what we're doing. Like there's been places that have training in physical therapy, but no one's done like longevity and the nutrition, the unlimited personal training. But if you look at the market, you have uh high value, low price, which a lot of people, you know, they just assume if they go to a 24-hour planet fitness, like that's enough. It's clearly not enough. Like, look at our health outcomes. You have boutique fitness, which is at its moment, but now class pass is kind of like cannibalizing. And also, I think people are realizing like you need to have some level of consistency with something that you're doing to actually see results. You can't just hop from like yoga studio to yoga studio. If they haven't figured that out yet, they will. But then you have this emergence of like the equinox and the hume and the high mat, where, and I'm not trying to disparage them, but like they spend a ton of money on build out and they have beautiful spaces. But just because you have a beautiful space, like doesn't yield like result, you know what I'm saying? Like, they're still hoping that a lot of people are going to join, but not necessarily use. And I think that's where like me, just as a human being, is like like, yes, there's a cost associated with what we do, but when you think about the value of what you actually get and the fact that we can show you your life is getting objectively and subjectively better across all the categories that are going to impact you at some point, you know, the the delta that's people still have a hard time understanding is like, well, if I'm paying $400 a month for an equinox, like that should mean that I'm getting you know a high return. And it's just not because like that's just not what they do. And that's totally okay. So yeah, we're still having to, I mean, our sales team's great in terms of like helping people understand the value. And once people actually get in, like if someone comes in for a tour, our conversion rates exceptionally high. But, you know, like you're you are totally correct. Like, most people are gonna try to find the path of least resistance, which means like you know, I can get away with a hundred bucks a month at my local fitness club. Like, it's it's just we've proven that that's not going to work. So it's yeah, it's just it's gonna be a mindset shift. And I think that's where I'm like, I have to battle myself to be honest, and just be like, don't go and play the other people's games. Like you have incredible value in what you're doing, like let them be what they're gonna be, and then continue to do what you're going to do. And we're also not in the space where like we're charging an insane amount of money. Like, if you pencil out what a personal trainer costs in where you live or where I live, it's probably between 80 to 100 an hour. Like if you do that four days a week, you know, you're getting pretty close to like what we're charging on a monthly basis purely from a personal training standpoint alone. So yeah, I it's I've had to check myself a couple times because like you know, it's it sucks when I see people like you know choose work or travel over taking care of themselves because it feels like I'm losing a family member, and I also have to work on that because like you know, we have 500 something members. Like I pretty much know every single person that's a member at the club, and so it sucks when you see people just you know discontinue for whatever reason.

But I yeah, I I get that, and I don't think it's a bad thing. You know, I've gone back and forth because you know, as a CrossFit gym owner back in the day too, community was everything. Yeah, right. Literally, they felt like they were like your friends, yeah. You hung out with them on the weekends, and then someone will come in and be like, hey, I have to cancel. And you're like, yeah, and then it was days, yeah, days of emotional being emotional distraught. So and I don't think that's a horrible thing. I think it's just the trade-off of having a really good community.

Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, totally.

And when you do the math, like I was thinking about this as you were talking, like if someone is a member of an Equinox and they get, you know, a couple personal training sessions per week, and they maybe have a telemedicine right account and a couple other things like that stuff adds up really quick to 1500. Easy, like really quick, very easy. And so I mean, that's you know, those people, there's a lot of people out there like that. Yeah, and you don't need a ton of them for what you're doing.

No, no, no. I mean, you know, I helped out with the Life Force team when they were launching their telemedicine platform, and like those are great guys. But yeah, that's like what is that, 1990 bucks a month? Equinox is what it is. If you use training, you know, or you have you know a sauna membership, pause, whatever, you know, like you pack all that together, you're probably spending a thousand a month in some way, shape, or form. You know, I would contest that you know, having a team that's yeah, like fully integrated and knows exactly what you're doing and communicates about you versus you trying to kind of like pull the pieces together. There's probably some significant value there. So yeah, I I do think we're gonna be fine in terms of like our long-term success. But yeah, I mean, we're it's still we're only six years in. We've got you know decades of of people thinking, I don't know, I mean, 40 years ago, people thought Jazzer size was gonna take them, you know, across the line in terms of health. So like clearly we have seasons of like what's popular and and um helping people realize it's like you can do all the cool stuff you want, but like if you're not hitting the fundamentals, we can pretty much guarantee how your how your trend is going to go from a life standpoint.

And do you see a path forward where uh the cost does come down for this? I mean, obviously it's got a lower your your cost, not your margins, right? You have to keep your margins up.

Yeah, so we charge what we charge because like labor and rent. That's the truth of the matter. So, you know, if we were to come to where do you live? Montana. Whitefish. Whitefish. I mean, if we I don't know if we'd ever go to Whitefish, but it's a little small. It's a little small. But if you go to a place that doesn't have the economics of an LA, like we're not charging $1,500 a month. It wouldn't make sense. People wouldn't bite. So if you go into a wealthy suburb of Chicago where I grew up, like maybe we're charging $700 a month, $800 a month, because the economics are different. So yeah, we're not opposed to like shifting the pricing model depending on the on the market.

You know, I'll switch gears a little bit here because you you said something prior to recording that you articulated with something really well that I've been talking about for quite a quite some time. I call it the now what problem, but you said it much better. So basically, diagnostics without integration is just data. Yeah, right. So everyone has data flowing everywhere. Yes, right? From where you name it, data, right? My my mattress sends me data. Yeah, right. But none of it actually changes my life because it doesn't really give you any actualities to like what to do. So explain what you you said by that and why that's such a critical recognition in our industry.

Yeah, I think um, I mean, I'm at I'm at this conference, Eudaimonia, which is has been amazing. And there are more people and exhibitors in this longevity world than I ever thought possible, and it's continuing to grow. Here's the problem everyone wants you in their vertical, and I get it because that's their business. But we've proven that exercise alone is not going to solve your health problems. Started to get people to understand that diagnostics are important, like metrics matter, especially when it comes to aging, hormones, things like that. But the data alone means nothing unless you have someone or something that can do something about it. And what I mean by that is like in this country, at least for right now, there is a huge barrier between just getting your blood work done and finding someone who's going to interpret it and necessarily see it the way you see it. I had a patient the other day send me his 80-page whoop report, which by the way, like it's amazing that they're able to integrate your wearables plus this new lab panel. But it was 80 pages of like, these are the tweaks you need to make, these are the supplements you need to think about. And I'm like sifting through that. And I'm like, I'm gonna tell you the truth. Like, this is the one thing that you need to pay the most attention to because the rest of this stuff is like you had one blood draw at one data point. Like, you need to have more continuous monitoring before you just, you know, do a fire sale and get like a whole new set of supplements. You know what I'm saying? Or we have people that do their blood work and they go to their primary care and they're like, well, we can't use this because it wasn't done in our lab, so we needed to do this, and then we're not able to prescribe these things. So, like, there's so many barriers to that. Yeah, I so I think we are in a place where a lot of people are able to gather a lot of information, but they fail to appreciate that like a lot of the things that they need are going to require some sort of medical professional to help them make sense of this all, right? Because you know, we were talking about peptides offline, extremely concerned at how easy it is for people to gain access to these compounds. I think they're amazing and I think they have incredible benefit. But like, you know, it seems like you can get them from anywhere, and there's no consideration of why are you taking it, how long should you be taking it, who's monitoring if you've exceeded a protocol limit that you're actually taking time off? Who's looking at do you actually have any like cancer history or potential risk where like taking these certain things actually might be detrimental? Like it doesn't exist. So yeah, I it's it's an interesting time because like the longevity space is moving so much faster than traditional medicine, which is always how it happens. We just we have like way more access to information and and things than you know, like legitimately direct to direct to your door pharmaceuticals than than ever. And yeah, I just find it interesting because like we, you know, like him and hers has had their struggles as of late. Mental health ketamine companies like seemed promising, but inevitably, like sending ketamine lousages to people's homes probably was not gonna end like super well. I didn't even know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, it's uh it's an interesting time. I think I don't think we're gonna get rid of humans because I think you know there are there are other things that that an AI model specifically can't necessarily understand about like the human condition and the human experience. And so uh I'm not super worried for for my population of people, but I I do think it's uh a lot of these things are gonna help. It's just like we are in the very, very wild west with with the access to all these things that we have.

It's a fascinating time to be alive, man. Crazy. I um, you know, just with with all these technologies moving forward, AI just recorded this week with Dan White Murray from PushBress, who's a technologist, very deep in AI, and we were talking about how that's affecting gym owners and people like everyone, right? And his his thought too was that deal with over the next 10 years, a community slash mental health health slash connection, yeah. Put those all into one bucket, and obesity, maybe some of the biggest challenges that we have. And who's more uh suited uh than our industry to to address those, right? Like we're actually as this whole technological thing moves forward, we're actually in really good shape as an industry. Yeah, you know, and I thought that was kind of cool. But you know, I it's it's inevitable. Like if people are I do it, if I order peptides, you know who I talk to first? I talk to ChatGPT, right? And then I talk to someone who I know and trust, be like, hey, does this sound right? Right. Or where where would you get this? And then I go from there. And I think that's starting to become the norm. It's just what it is.

Yeah, totally. Hopefully, you talk to people that are are medically educated. I I have good references. Yeah, again, like I I am totally not opposed. I align with the fact that I think over the next decade or so, especially with the amount of AI integration that is going to come, I think people are gonna be left with a lot of time on their hands and they're gonna have to question is like literally what is my purpose here? Why did I come here? Because all the things that I used to fill my time and and state were my quote unquote purpose, like may or may not exist, especially with the amount of automation that's gonna occur. So I do think there's a huge mental health opportunity upcoming. And then also, again, like throughout you you mentioned a point which was like it's an exciting time to be alive with so many things that are changing. I obviously didn't live 100, 200 years ago, but I'm assuming that like at every stage in human evolution, they considered it an exciting time to be alive, meaning like train to plane, you know, advent of car versus, you know, like I'm sure people were just beside themselves when those things are happening. And the reason I say that is like regardless of the evolution, the fundamentals of human existence have not changed. You need to sleep well, you need to eat well, you need to hydrate, you need to move your body, like regardless of aesthetics, and you need to connect meaningfully with other people. And I don't think that's going to change, and I definitely don't think that's going to change even with the advent of AI. So I am extremely bullish on spaces where people can gather and hopefully you know have a more integrated experience, AI informed for sure. Like let's let's make this more efficient and effective. Your doctor should be able to look at your sleep patterns and your body temperature changes and your CGM and like basically when you show up, like understand what your life's been like the last three months versus asking you asinine questions every single time that mean like nothing. Like it's crazy. I totally get it. But I do think we still haven't figured out you know what's what's going to get people from trying to like circumnavigate these things that we've needed to do our entire human history. And that's where I'm kind of interested in building out our insurance model because like right now, especially with health and wellness, didn't mean to drop that on you at the last part of the podcast, but you know, one of the like it's very clear based on our user data, like again, if you show up to the gym but miss a work meeting, there's a penalty for that potentially, it could be loss of employment, right? Or if you don't pick up your kid from school because you're going to work out, there's probably some penalty. But if you don't continue to go to a gym or do a program or get your blood work done on a regular basis, there's no penalty. And I think that's the other thing that we need to solve for, which is why do our costs continue to go up even as people are trying to do more and more to keep themselves healthier? And I that's where I'm investing a decent amount of energy and thought into like, okay, what would it look like to create a performance-based insurance product? And like CrossFit has like their crowd-funded healthcare program right now, which is kind of similar to these like religious health equity programs that have been around for a long time and done incredibly well. But like, what would it look like to have a more traditional model that you know is a little bit more stable, but also utilizes data that's like very evidence-based and objective, but can also then say, like, all right, for someone like you, like you shouldn't pay what an another you know 40-something year old male pays because like you clearly are lower risk. So, like, why you know what I'm saying? I think there's an opportunity there which will will help everyone in the long run.

Awesome, man. Give us give us a little insight. So five years from now, 2030, where do you see monarch athletic clubs?

Uh you know, hopefully we'll have at least 10 to 15 clubs on the board. And all corporate, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes, all corporate. Yeah, I would love to really have um I'd love to have the community aspect built out to a greater degree, meaning like more than just in-person experiences, have things built out that are also community building. So we've been thinking about what does it look like to have retreats so that people can step out of their day-to-day environment, still be connected with people that you know are part of the community and share a similar ideology, but be able to go to beautiful spaces for resets or you know, potentially something that they they can't necessarily get at home. So expanding that kind of model. And then I think we have an interesting opportunity, especially on a global scale, working with like high-end hospitality, meaning like the Amans and the Four Seasons and things like that. How can you take what we're doing and integrate it into these large-scale networks where we're basically acknowledging the fact that like people are gonna travel, but now if you travel, can you travel more intelligently? So when you're you know like that, right? So like if you're going to New York, like you're gonna pay, maybe you'll pay a little bit extra to stay at a four seasons or stay close to it because you know they have you know a monarch club in their facility that's multi-use, you know, guests can use it, but then it's also like you know, functional clubs. So I've been thinking about that a lot, and it seems like there's a movement in health tourism where these hotels are recognizing like their amenity profile needs to shift from you know passive, just it's there to be there to something that's actually usable. So yeah.

I love it. Last question I always ask, Dr. Green, is what what do you need help with? And that's in the spirit of like, you know, uh, like people are gonna reach out to you. What would you like to hear from them about and how would you like them to get in touch?

Yeah. I mean, this may be something that you help me with, but I do think I think the message that we the West, the message that we have, there's a digital aspect of like expanding our scope and reach that I think is important. And so, you know, anyone that can help podcast platforms, PR, things like that, um, you know, recognizing we're we're not a multinational company, that we're still very much in startup mode, super helpful, you know, just getting getting the word out because I think what we're doing is important and that you know it's a message that needs to be heard.

Right on. Right on. Well, yeah, we'll talk. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Ryan Green. Thanks, man. That was great.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minutes. 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 or get in touch with me, simply go to the futureoffitness.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.