Quarterly Report: Q2 Big Five with Andy Beckman of Garmin, Life Time Sheds Members on Purpose, Peloton's First Profit Ever, Xponential's 5x Problem

In some Italian city there's supposed to be a hundred centenarians and turns out there's like ten and the families have just been collecting the money.

Le leave it to us Italians, right? Yeah, Alex. What do you think?

Well, yeah, but it wasn't just the Italians, like the Japanese had some you know, you kept your grandfather in the in the attic and his body was like decomposing, and uh the state the somebody shows up to to verify he's still alive and there's a decomposing body. The hype cycle around fitness, wellness is is always there, and we just have to be a little skeptical about it. Uh, there isn't some truth to the living in a in a hilly Italian village and walking up to church every day is is good for you and may extend your life. Absolutely true. But to then, you know, expand that into a whole industry around, you know, blue zones and videos and seminars, and uh, it's it's pretty typical.

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Well, I know we have a short time with Andy and delighted to have you, Andy, and always excited to be here. This is one of my favorite things I do every quarter, so thank you again. And we've been on a whirlwind Star at Summer Adventure Tour. We did a river trip on the Kalamath River in Northern California, followed by hiking the Haute Route in Switzerland, and then hosting some water polo players at our house and dropping our daughter off at Cal, where she is starting her college career and becoming empty nesters. So Kelly and I have been biking at night after work at 6:30, and then eating protein smoothies for dinner. So after 21 years of raising our kids and cooking dinner and uh doing that whole thing, we're having a little moment of being like, maybe dinner is not a thing for us anymore. So that's what's going on in Star Headland. What about you guys?

Yeah, Alex, how about you? So we always go to the Northwoods of Wisconsin, late to late country in in the summer. And there's a there's a great bike uh race ride called the the Liney ride, named after the line and Kugel beer. And uh the founder of Family sponsors it. And so you know, it's a 40 or 60 mile bike ride, and then a lot of beer right after that. And that's always a hide point for me. And then I launched, we launched, or I launched, I'm hosting and producing a local podcast here in Jackson on business local businesses. So I'm I'm ta I'm doing sort of a deep dive uh one hour interview with the founders, owners, CEOs of local businesses and trying to celebrate and sort of put a highlight uh or a spotlight on successful local businesses in a in a mountain town where it's really hard to run a business for for a m a multitude of reasons. Yeah.

Well, I've got to interrupt you, Alex, and say I listened to the first episode as I know Eric did as well. And congratulations. You know, we don't even live in Jackson.

It was excellent, Alex. And uh I learned a lot being in a small mountain town as well. Um, you know, I could I really felt a lot of what you were talking about, and the the real estate guy did a really good job of uh you know breaking down brokerage in a small in a small high-end area like like where you live. So yeah, congratulations. I think you're really gonna enjoy the journey. I can tell already. It's it's gonna be a lot of fun for you.

Yeah, it's a I I was I was at the lunch event, I was thanking all the people who would help. And I and I it struck me in the in the age of artificial intelligence how many humans are needed to produce a little podcast. Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's authentic media, man. And uh uh looking forward to many more. So yeah, my summer's been pretty um, you know, I I realize in Northwest Montana, you get about nine good weekends in the summer and you got to make the most of it. So it's been packed with river trips, uh, fly fishing trips, some ventures up to British Columbia. But uh yeah, just just getting outdoors and enjoying the sunshine we can because it will go fast and soon. So it's it's been a lot of fun. And I'm just fired up to have Andy Beckman here. Uh I've had so many conversations with Andy. I know we all have met Andy. Alex made this maybe the first time you've met him, but Andy, what how's your summer been? You're having a lot of fun, and thanks for joining us. There's a lot of things we want to cover for you with you in the last in the next 15 minutes or so.

Yeah, no, I'm excited to be here. Big fan of the podcast, uh, longtime listener, first time on the podcast. So excited to excited to be here for sure. Summer's been great. It's gone extremely fast. We have three children, and uh one was at a summer's camp all uh all summer helping out there and and kind of leading leading the effort there. And then the two boys, our two youngest, were at home. One is in college, he runs at Kansas State, and so he spent a lot of time putting in all the miles, and then uh my wife and I spent a lot of time chasing our youngest, who uh he's really into golf. So spent a lot of time at the golf course and and following him. And probably the highlight was my parents had their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. So we actually went down to Bentonville, Arkansas and got to enjoy everything in Northwest Arkansas. If you haven't been down there, it's uh it's a really special place with all the all the investment they put down there for bike trails and mountain bike trails and golf and and everything. So it was it was really wonderful.

Well, uh Andy, if you listen to this podcast, you know we're all huge fans of Garmin. Well, Juliet and I are for sure. And we've been trying to we've been trying to uh get Alex on board, and I think we've done we've done some pretty good work with Alex, but we'll see how that turns out. You know, I think first and foremost, we we want to know like all and we we cover this and we're like, God, Garmin is crushing it. And I think as Juliet says, slay all day would be the term that that we like to use here. But maybe let's give us some insights. Let's start with this. I'll start with a question. You guys can dig in, Alex and Juliet, but like you, you you lead Garmin Health, right? Like, what is Garmin Health exactly? What is that that division that you're in?

Yeah, so Garmin Health, uh great question. Uh, we like to consider ourselves kind of a small startup inside Big Garmin. You know, our whole main goal is we want to help to provide an an infrastructure or provide an opportunity for partners that are out there to basically take their their solutions further. So it's really utilizing Garmin wearables that that you can get off the off the shelf today, consumer off-the-shelf products, and uh basically using APIs and and SDKs, so basically integration pipelines, to be able to take the data from our wearable and get it into the partner's application so that they can take that data and make make awesome stuff with it. So mainly providing you know positive outcomes. So a few different areas where that that falls in is uh employee wellness, employee benefits. Uh, we do some in the insurance space for like dynamic underwriting. So everybody here could probably qualify for cheaper health insurance and life insurance rates based upon how active you are. We do a lot in the research and clinical trial space, uh, which is really exciting spot. And every day there's there's new people coming coming in. Some of the more exciting things, but also probably the longest uh timeline to get set up is uh what we call remote patient monitoring and chronic condition management. So a lot in the weight loss area, diabetes area. There's even some Parkinson stuff that's happening right now, which is really exciting. We also work in the kind of military space or DOD space from a actually during COVID, there was a a pilot study that we did with the Defense Innovation Unit that was tracking even sickness. So they could actually take the data from a Garmin wearable and in this flight squadron being able to predict um basically people that were gonna have COVID roughly 48 hours before they started showing symptoms, so they could actually quarantinely quarantine them early and then keep everybody else um, you know, kind of for sickness free, so which is kind of cool. Uh, we're also doing a lot in the physical fitness space uh with the military and then also look into some fatigue stuff as well, which is really cool. Um and and then we kind of have this we have a gym and fitness space also. So all the you know, the benefit of Garmin and Garmin wearables are the long battery life. So you can lift weights with it, you can sleep with it, you can you know go about your entire day. So the longitudinal data that you can get with it, as well as the long battery life that you can get with it. I mean, we're we talk in uh days and weeks and months from our battery life versus ours. And uh from a research perspective or a being able to pull in all the data perspective, you know, that's super important. Uh so gym and fitness applications are getting to be really strong. And then we have kind of this catch-off, which we call innovations. And uh there's kind of two companies that we work with there that come to mind. I guess there's there's plenty there, but uh so it looks at uh heat stress for like agricultural workers. So what they were actually able to determine is by wearing garments and and tracking this data and then putting that up against their algorithms, the partners' algorithms, they can actually found out that you could work for six hours in the heat and be more productive than actually eight hours overall. So uh so just mind-blowing stuff. And then the other one, um, there's a company that uh we work with that they actually look at drowsy detection, uh drowsiness detection. So if you think about over-the-road trucking, um, they have an application, they're taking data streams from the Garmin and dropping that into their algorithms, and they can actually alert the driver to say, hey, you know, you're getting tired, you probably should pull over before something bad happens. So, you know, that that fatigue management or that drowsiness detection is really, really a growing area, you know, not only over-the-road trucking, but also like in a mining, uh, mining application where there's you know, they're working 24-7 shifts and whatnot. So Yeah.

So wow. Okay, I don't know if that was a long answer, but no, that was great. So that was great. Alex, what uh what questions do you have for Andy today?

Well, so that that was a great, a great answer, and it it just triggers in me the the thought that I Which wearable you should get. Well, I'm always blown away by how much Garmin is doing, how many new products, how many upgrades, how much a service side. And it just it's it's just a remarkable company in its ability to juggle so many different things. And how do you is that has that always been the case? Like you've been there 20 years. Has it has it become is it different now than it used to be? I guess it started out in one sector and then but now they I don't know, it's a hundred new things a year, it's it seems like.

Yeah, it's uh so I guess maybe back to some of the you know, maybe backtrack a little bit. Yeah, Garmin started in 1989. Two guys were at Allied Signal, which is now Honeywell, basically, and uh it's right when the government GPS satellites, they were gonna open that up for consumer use or kind of remove part of the DOD, part of that. And so they thought, hey guys, we think this is a thing's gonna be hot. And at the time, Allied Signal said, I don't know. So they actually you know decided to go start their own company. It was two guys, uh Gary Burrell and Min Cao, uh M-I-N-K-A-O. And uh that's basically how you get Garmin. Also, they they decided to take the first three letters of each name and and put those together. So that was back in 1989. We got started in our first product was actually for aviation. So it was kind of a transponder that helped people to find the uh nearest airports, and then that moved into marine, and you know, so that was back in 1989. I started in 2008, and uh back then 80% of our revenue was coming from the portable navigation devices from you know from your car for your car navigation. So really revolutionary, you know, basically removing the paper map. It's it's really hard to believe. And and back to you know, things that have changed, you know, now that you can get Google Maps and Apple Maps on your phone for free, we used to sell portable navigation devices in the car for 1,500 bucks back in the early 90s. So, you know, so I Alex, back to your, I guess, original question, a lot has changed from a you know, 80% of our revenue was in those portable navigation devices when I started. And I successfully been able to bring that down to nearly a minuscule amount uh per nah it wasn't. I don't think it was me, but maybe it was. I don't know. But but yeah, then we changed that into that, you know, the leaders made a strategic change and have decided to go down towards these wearables and whatnot. So that's really uh been a big thing. But I but I think probably what hasn't changed throughout this whole entire process is uh just the mindset on the customer. The one thing, and and maybe I've told you this before, Eric, I just I can't remember, but the one thing I think that stands out at Garmin is we want to fuel people's passions. And the people that are actually working on the devices are people that are passionate about a certain hobby. So, you know, we have, let's see, last year we launched a horse, a wellness device. So basically for track, because we have people that have horses and they want to be able to track the health and wellness of their horses, they're expensive animals and and being able to track that. We have we launched a uh a not a canoe, not dang, a kayak. Kayak, yes, kayak trolling motor, because we have people that have trolling motors and you know they make a business case and then you know you run it through the product development process, and if the execs like it, they say, yep, let's go for it and and and move on. So uh it's a very entrepreneurial spirit at Garmin, but I think the other thing too is you know, we're based in Kansas City, so we have strong Midwestern values, and we we recruit from Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, can you know, obviously Kansas. So a lot of you know, I grew up in a town of 500 people. I, you know, I I I know you know what what the small town values mean to me and and you know, we try to project that you know onto the world and in places where we can make an impact. So right on.

Love it.

Juliet, what uh what questions do you have? Yeah, please. Yeah, Andy, since we are on the Future of Fitness podcast here, I do have a fitness question. And you know, we're able to see and talk about every quarter how much the fitness side of Garmin is exploding. So I do have a two-part question. The first is was that uh like a conscious plan on the part of Garmin whenever that began to say, okay, we're gonna sort of put so much energy and attention into fitness. And to Alex's point, whenever I need to repair my own Garmin, I think the same thing. I think, oh my God, I have to go like the amount of devices that are available out there is it it also simultaneously blows my mind. So tell me a little bit about the the thinking around this huge growth around the fitness side of Garmin that seems to just continue to be exponential each quarter from from my perspective. And then I know we talked the the big news in Garmin is that Garmin acquired training peaks and train heroic. I totally understand there's not a ton that you're able to share there, but we'd love to know what you can because it's it's a it's a huge deal. And you know, that news came out, and Alex and Eric and I probably shared it via email within like 10 minutes of it hitting the airwith. So so whatever you can share with us and our audience about that would be great.

Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I guess as far as fitness, I think there's a few things at play here. One, you know, we've always been for the runner. You know, we launched our first wearable back in 2003. And and really, you know, back to my earlier comment about we had some people that were really excited about running. And back then we had an outdoor handheld, uh, which is probably about, I don't know, maybe this big, maybe this wide. And some engineers are like, you know, what'd be weird? What if we turn this thing sideways and put it on our wrist and go for a run? Because they wanted to track their speed and pace and distance. And then all of a sudden, boom, we have we have a wearable. So we were making wearables back in 2003 before wearables were was even a term that you know just rolls off the tongue today. So so I think from that perspective, we've seen a real surge. And I think the industry would also say this is running, is it's having a moment over the past call two or three years. Um so that's that's really um you know something that's really driving that. I think from uh the other thing that we're seeing as well is we're starting to see some really consumer adoption for a lot of our wellness products. So a lot of our smartwatches. So our vivo active and our venue products are really becoming compelling. And I think we're starting to get the word out maybe a little bit more. And then um places like your podcasts and whatnot, you know, where people are starting to ask questions. And I think, you know, even this like self um self-help movement or you know, this longevity movement to some degree, people are wanting a trusted device that that they can rely on the data, they can wear it, they can they can allow it to fit into their world from that perspective, meaning, hey, I like to kayak, great. What wearable tracks kayaking? Boom, Garmin does. And hey, I like to lift weights also. What can I do? You know, do I want a separate device to be able to lift weights and kayak? No, I don't think I do. I want, you know, I want something that does it all. And then, you know, Garmin, like I said earlier, is is really focused on that user experience. So uh the people that are building these things, it's all a, it's they're making it for an audience of one. It's what it's if it's what I want as a person that's performing in this hobby or application. So you continue to make those like step-level gains of like, you know what, I really like it there, but let's tweak it maybe just a little bit. So there's a constant improvement happening uh that goes against launching a product and and the overall process that we do to come up with a new product, launching 70 to 100 products a year is mind-blowing for a lot of people. It's not just in fitness. Obviously, you know, we have aviation, we have marine, we have outdoor, we have fitness, and then we also do uh auto OEM. So a lot of different categories to be a part of. But but the fitness growth, I think, is we're probably taking some share in in some places, mainly because we're getting some people looking looking at Garmin as they're going on their own personal health and wellness journey. In regards to training pre training peaks and training heroic, yeah, unfortunately there's not a ton I can ton I can share that hasn't already been publicly shared. Um I can say that we're extremely excited about Garmin Forever's had the wearable and now having that ability to uh utilize coaches and can and connect with our users in a in a in a better way, I think will be very exciting for the industry. Not a lot of changes to share right now. Um, you know, future roadmap definitely everybody's trying to like, hey, what you know, what do we, you know, every time you you know marry or however you want to, you know, say you you you can date forever, right? And everybody puts on a they everybody you know puts it out, but and when you get married, then you really start to learn, you know, how how things go, I guess, to some degree. So but no, the the team over there has been so great and uh and everybody's working well together and real excited about what we have. Uh you know, I know AI is you know, we see it as a way to enhance, and I'm sure you you probably appreciate this, uh Juliet too. But you know, that human connection as a coach, there's just something about that that you can't you can't replicate, in our opinion. So we're really excited about what uh what can happen with uh you know as as that application grows and and how we continue to work together. Awesome.

Well, congratulations, and you know we're gonna be watching it, Andy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're uh we're excited. We're excited. I you know, it I wish I could share more, but yeah, we're we're there's gonna be some really cool stuff that's gonna happen here over the next few years.

So nice, nice teaser. Well, Andy, thank you so much for joining us, man. Thanks for joining us.

We're just waiting on Alex to get a watch so you guys can have a true, authentic conversation.

So I have a lot of bike. I have the bike computer, the varia, the Garley Connect.

So I'm what do you think uh what do you think of the variable Alex? It's a it's a must have. I would agree. It the amount of confidence that you get. Yeah. So for for those listeners that may not know what Very is, this is basically a it's a it's something that you put on your it's a tail light, it's got a radar with it. And you know, up on your bike computer, it will tell you if cars are coming basically a football field and a half back. So one and a half football fields back, 150 yards. Whoa. Uh if a car is coming up behind you. And so in instead of constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering if you hear a car coming, you can see it up front and front in front of you. So that's really really cool.

All right. Well, you may have just slow me on another one. Thank you, Andy. Excellent.

Thanks, Andy. Thanks, Andy.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate it. Thanks. Good luck to you guys. Appreciate your time. Yep. Bye-bye.

All right. Well, that was fun.

That was so fun.

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And uh Yeah, I wouldn't call I wouldn't call exponential big. Okay.

Yeah.

The big four plus the shrinking one.

Yeah. Okay. Well, here we come. We're coming with some some punches right away. I like it. Well, let's start with lifetime. Always a pleasure, right? So my headline for this one is uh they're not just growing the membership they want, they're actively getting rid of the one they don't, which I think to me was one of the standouts here. So some quick numbers on them. Revenues 866 million, so that's up 13.7 percent. Net income 101.4 million, up 40.6 percent. Uh diluted earnings per share, uh, 0.45 dollars, so 45 cents. Adjusted EBITDA, 246.5 million, up 16.8. Adjusted net income, 109.8 million, up 30.6 percent. Comparable center revenue up 9.1%, so that was 11.2% a year ago. Center memberships 860,000, so that's up 1.2%. Average center revenue per membership, 993, so that's up 11.8%, something that we track consistently on the show. They opened five new centers in Q2, 195 total as of June 30th, uh, on track for 14 more in 2026. And the first half revenue was one, how do you say this, 1,654 million? So do some math on that. Like, what's a total? That's a lot. Uh, that's up 12.8%. And from Barra McCrady, uh, the the quote is we delivered strong second quarter results. That focus is translating into higher engagement, increased utilization of our in-center offerings, and continued optimization of our membership mix. That was kind of the tricky term that I I stuck on. But we are on track to open 14 new clubs in 2026 and continue to see the significant demand for a premium athletic country club model. Okay, so a lot going on here. Who would uh who'd like to start? Juliet?

Take it away, Alex. Well, okay, I do have a I've got I'd like to I'd like to go to Alex School if I could here. So it's time for school, Alex.

Professor Alex.

Professor Alex. I have a specific question though for you on the school. I noticed that Lifetime got two ratings upgrades this quarter. Can you tell us what that means and what that signals? Time for school.

Yeah, so as their cash flow improves and their and they reduce debt, their their balance sheet is is stronger. And the ratings agencies, basically the the groups, the third-party groups that rate the debt that is uh incurred by lifetime and carried on its on its uh balance sheet improves in terms of the quality, the likelihood of getting your money back. So the the higher your rating, the less expensive your debt. So if you have a really good, you know, it's like buying a car. If you have a really good credit score, you're gonna get a better rate than if you have a low credit score. So traditionally they've had a lot of debt and they've been fairly low rated. Over the past three, four years, they've paid down debt and their cash flow has gone up. So now they're becoming higher rated. And that's a really just a really positive development for them because they do need a lot of capital. You know, they're spending about a billion dollars, I want to say, in CapEx uh in 26. Some of that can be funded out of their internally generated cash flow, but some of it needs to come from borrowing and and from sale lease backs. And anyway, so it's a positive thing, and it just means that going forward they can they can borrow for less and and get raised more capital at cheaper rates. I you know what I was gonna say sort of facetiously about the quarter was it they're just executing at an incredibly high level, and it's getting a little boring. It's a little boring. They're just doing they're doing everything they say they're gonna do. There are no surprises, and uh they're hitting all their targets and their numbers and their their new units, and so there's really uh no drama around around lifetime. You know, the best news for shareholders is that their stocks up, I want to say, I looked at it, it's up about 60% year over year. So in the last 12 months, it's up 60%. So if you bought the stock a year ago, you'll be a very happy shareholder. If you bought the stock even longer ago, you'll be you'll be even happier, perhaps. But yeah, so it's it's just a really good, great performance, great execution. The strategy seems to be, you know, holding together. And you know, the only the only thing that continues to sort of bother me a little bit is the amount of capital that they are spending. If you spend a billion dollars a year to grow, uh that's just a scary amount of money to me. Yeah.

They're they're throwing it back in.

Better work.

All the all the units better work and it better continue to go the way it's going because of the capital, the amount of capital that they need to spend or that they want to spend. I'd like, you know, I'd like to see them buy back more stock. I think they bought back 60 million in the quarter, uh, which is basically that's returning money to shareholders.

Um and I'd like to see them do more of that, but you know, they have their growth strategy and varama sticking to it.

Juliet, any uh observations you'd like to to tag onto there?

I think it was great. I I think that they but the other observation I had was just that they continue to sort of downward their quality medical membership and any sort of low cost membership in favor of anything, you know. I don't know whether is it because the customer doesn't go to a planet, but how is it out of time? What is that I don't know?

Right. So that's the qualified medical memberships, which is down 18.9%, you know, so 108 to 82, 108,000 to 88,000, but every other membership category went up 4.2%. And then that, you know, average uh value of the client went up. So they're they're they're building this high end. It's kind of goes like the whole K-shaped economy thing that we've been talking about within this this industry is like the higher end is gonna continue to get higher end, and those people are gonna have no problem spending more money, right? And that's okay. Lifetime's not unapologetically unapologetically saying we're we're totally cool with that. We want these people and we're gonna run with it. So just in an observation, but you're right. I mean, they just keep executing like every time, like they they come in and we look at these reports and like, well, we almost expect it. Like I'm I'm waiting for something.

It's getting a little boring. Unless they're a shareholder.

Yeah, unless you're a shareholder, then yeah, it's pretty fun. Here's one thing I want to notice on this. So they're they're guiding to end the year with fewer members than they have today. So I don't know if you picked on this. So current count is 860,000. The 2026 guidance is 838 to 848,000. So they're actually planning to shrink membership, but they're just sticking to this game plan of like, we're gonna shrink, but we're gonna grow the average client member, which was another signal to me is like, okay, they're really executing on a plan here. Then maybe they're just coming out and saying distinctively, but it's happening.

Not yeah, not all members are equal. Yes, right?

If you have if you have discounted memberships and those are churning at a certain rate and you're not replacing them, or you're replacing them with higher value members, then your overall revenue per member is going up, and your overall revenue is going up. So I think that works. Yeah, yeah.

Well, uh any final thoughts on on lifetime? So let's move on to our friends at Planet Fitness. So headline that I have for them is they said they'd come back in 2027 and it's just not 2027 yet. So revenue 365 million, that's up 7.1%. System wide same club sales up just 1.7%. So relatively flat. System-wide sales, $1.4 billion up $66 million. Net income attribution is $67 million for $87 per diluted share. Uh adjusted EBITDA, $158 to $158, $52 million. So that's up $5.1 million, excuse me. Adjusted net income, $68 million, down $4.1 million, 23 new clubs, which are 21 franchised, two corporate, uh, that's 2,930 total with 21.5 million members. That's something about uh that's probably a take for you, Alex, is 200 million of buybacks, class A shares. So 4 million class A shares. The fiscal year 2026 guidance, same club sales down relative 1% ish, uh revenue up 7%, adjusted EBITDA up 6%. So the quote from Keating, the CEO, is we are moving quickly with several actions to clearly communicate our differentiated, welcoming, non-intimidating environment in the immediate term while we work in parallel to develop a new marketing campaign that sets the brand up for success with a broader audience in the coming months, unquote. So I think we had talked about this, like they kind of abandoned the couch potato, right? And now it seems like maybe after the Q1 2026, they're like, oof, maybe we shouldn't have done that. And maybe they're changing their language again and going back towards the couch potato and you know, couch potato being our terms, although it's I think everyone knows what we're talking about, right? People who are new to fitness, right? Novices to fitness. So where, yeah, where would you guys like to to start on that one? I have some other observations as well.

So uh the they yeah, they made they made some strategic mistakes, uh, including the one you just pointed out about going away from their historically core member of the new exerciser. And uh so now they're in a little bit of uh they're they're they're in trouble. They're in trouble. The same store sales are at a at the lowest they've ever been. So around 2% same store sales, uh except for COVID, the COVID period is is the lowest same store sales they've reported. And that is, you know, that's a a kind of a basic metric on the health of the business. Is it is it are the clubs continuing to add members, add revenue, uh, or have they kind of flatlined? And when you flatline, the problem is expenses keep going up and your revenue doesn't keep pace and uh often, and then you know your profitability starts to go backwards. So it was interesting they're they're gonna try in certain regions uh to go back to the $10 a month uh original price point. And uh I they haven't started that yet. I think they'll do they're gonna do that in September. We'll see how that goes. Um, but that's an indication to me that the the price increase didn't from 10 to 15 on the basic membership uh have slowed down sales more than they expected. And I think part of the expectation was that the competition would also raise their rates. So the the the the crunches and the EOSs and the other HVLPs, but apparently that didn't happen. So now they're doing a U-turn going back to 10. They're calling it a promotion, so it's it's a limited time, and in only in certain regions. So we'll see how that goes. You know, that's that's kind of a nightmare scenario for for companies to to, especially in the in the in the membership business, because you've sold a bunch of memberships at $15, and now you know you're you're you've lowered the price to 10 for new members, and your existing members are like, but I just was joined last month at 15, and now so it's kind of a nightmare. Um, I'm sure that it's the last thing they wanted to do, but it shows you that they're uh they're taking some dramatic steps. They're trying to improve retention, and they talked about a mystery shopping program, which I'm kind of shocked they didn't have one already, right? Like that's pretty basic in retail brick and mortar type service businesses. And then they're talking about a hundred-day program to try to get new members to to have to to to to use the club on a consistent basis so they kind of get habituated to coming. And that's a pretty basic thing, also. I I guess in the past they they didn't feel the need or they didn't have the resources to do it. You know, it's a pretty high-touch program. I don't know that Planet is set up with the quality of employees that you need and the training to to you know to uh to work with new c new members in a way that really uh gets them, you know, habituated to to come into the club. So TBD on those things. And, you know, they bought back, you you mentioned $200 million of stock at about $50 a share. So that effectively sets a floor to the market. It sort of says if the price is around $50, we're gonna be the the company's gonna be stepping in and buying it. And it sort of supports the $50 price point, which is the $50 stock price, which is where they're they're currently at $54, but they're down about 50% year over year. So, so the the board has said, you know, at $50, we think it's a good investment, we're gonna buy it. So yeah, that's sort of my my recap.

That was excellent. That was excellent, super insightful. And Julia, you're always been a huge fan of Planet. What's what's your take on this, Corbett?

Well, first of all, can you guys hear me? Because I'm having internet issues. It's so annoying.

We got you back. We got you back. Happy to have you back.

Glad to be back, glad to be back. Sorry about that. And of course, right when I come back, my neighbors, Gardner's there too. So, you know, I'm a bit of a dumpster fire of audio over here. So I apologize. But yeah, you know, I've been a little these last two quarters, I have to say, after just being a universal fan of Planet Fitness and just thinking they can do no wrong as a company, it's been a bit of a disappointment to see that this price increase didn't work for them. I agree with Alex that that it is a true nightmare scenario to have to go backward. No company wants to raise prices and then have to go backward. I mean, to me, that as a business owner myself is it and it is a it is a true nightmare scenario. So and I agree, I literally pulled out of all of their documentation this non-intimidating message quote. And I thought, okay, you know, they're trying to just go back to the couch potato audience and sort of like Alex said, do a complete U-turn. So I was a little sad to see this. I was hoping they'd be able to raise their prices to $15, which I will say, as being a prior gym owner myself, it's still as bonkers to me that that a business that actually has walls and equipment can operate with anyone paying $15 a month. And I know that their whole, their whole business model is low price, high volume. I totally get that, but it still is such a low price point to me that it is too bad, I think, that their customer base wasn't able to absorb a $5 price increase.

Yeah. I mean, I I can't even get lunch around here for $15 anymore. Right.

And that's like a a like, you know, these are large, these are large, you know, one of the things that but remember, remember, guys, it is a competitive marketplace. So if EOS or Crunch is down the street charging, you know, have uh selling a basic membership for $10, you know, we can debate whether that's a good, you know, that's a good thing for EOS and Crunch to do or whether $15 is is still too cheap, but that's the reality of the marketplace.

Right, right.

There was a couple of things I want to point out and get your guys' take on. So one of the things is the the national advertising fund revenue. So that jumped 10.1 million, right? But also the expense rose 10.1 million. So that came, so it's a net zero, but it did increase total revenue by a significant amount. Seems like I don't know, that feels a little tricky to me. And then a lot of their so they had a $12.5 million gain on selling their equity stake and Bravo fit out. It's an Australian franchise. So there's a there look like there are some things going on, you know, that are kind of one-time uh options to to boost revenue, which obviously shows some signs that maybe they're just trying to put a band-aid on things for the moment. Did you guys look at that? What do you what are your takes on those two aspects of this?

I mean, I think when sales slow down, uh you increase marketing spend. That's that's in a lot of cases. Um so that's you know not a great sign, right? Because it increases c customer acquisition cost. And but yeah, I think they hit their franchisees with higher marketing percentages. And then and then at the at the franchise or level, at the HQ level, they spend more on marketing. So that that makes sense. You know, selling, they've they've historically bought and sold franchisee assets. And I I'm not sure why they they sold the one in Australia. They may be yeah, they they may have had a a change in strategy in terms of ownership versus franchising in in that marketplace. But I haven't seen a you know, a concerted effort or a strategic change in terms of how many corporate owned units they want to have. It's been historically around 10, and I don't know the magic around that number, whether it makes sense or doesn't, but that's sort of been the been the strategy. And I think as far as I know, they're sticking to that.

Right. Well, we'll see. Right. We'll see if the new old strategy works with communications and the targeting and the marketing and and how they uh how they go about it. But it's gonna be an interesting I'm I'm excited to see next quarter and see how it all plays out. And I'm especially interested in Q1 2027 to see how that that goes out with the busiest uh quarter of the year from them. Okay, so exponential fitness. Here is the headline. Alex said we wouldn't be talking about them in three months. Here we are, and the debt question finally has an answer. So they're still here, they're they're still moving one direction or the other. So some of the numbers, revenue is 66 million, that's down 13%. North America system-wide sales is 437 million. That's that's relatively flat. Uh North America same store sales were down 6.8% versus positive 2.4% a year ago. Quarterly run rate AUV is 659,000, down from 686,000. Net loss of 4.8 million. So that's versus net income of 1.3 million a year ago. Adjusted net income 0.8 million versus 14.5 million, adjusted EBITDA 21.9 million. That's down 22% from 28.1 million. The selling general administrative cost 32 million. That's up 33%, driven primarily by legal expenses, which we covered last time when they're in some legal trouble. 67 gross news studios opened, 53 franchise licenses sold. So the uh quote from Nuzo, the CEO says uh CEO Nuzo says While our second quarter results were below. Expectations. We continue to make progress against the priorities we believe are most important to strengthening exponential for the long term. So he's taking a long-term view or positioning it that way. Okay. Who wants to go?

Well, I'll chime in that I thought it was very interesting that they have an entirely new leadership team. We've talked a lot about leadership changes over the years in this quarterly podcast, but it's usually like one person. Um, but if I'm not mistaken, it seems like the entire leadership team is is new here. And I can't tell and would love your opinion about whether that's like a desperate move. Is that a move of desperation or is it something that shareholders should think is a stabilizing force? I I don't know. It it in some ways seems like the whole thing seems seems not stable. It isn't stable. And then this, in a way, seems further destabilizing to completely change every single human that is running this organization. But I I don't know. What do you guys think about that?

I mean, it's kind of a sinking ship, right? So who who wants to job? Who wants to stay on it and you know, and who wants to join? The the company is clearly for sale, that always creates a revolving door. Uh, you you know, if if you don't want to be the last person on the sinking ship, really, but you know, by the same token, you know, there's opportunity, there's always opportunity, so so they can attract some people. But you know, the Pilates business is down five percent. That was their crown jewel.

Yeah, yeah.

And that and it is their crown jewel. It continues to be. But what does that say about the Pilates category? It's it's it's gotta be saturated and and just too much supply and uh demand maybe, I mean, demand still seems strong to me from you know my own anecdotal observations, but maybe demand supply is too high and demand is coming down a little bit. You know, overall it yeah, my prediction was wrong, but I'll I'll double down on it and say on the next call, we will not be talking about them as a public company. Fair enough.

Yeah. It's been really hard for me to get a read on the boutique sector overall and the Pilates specifically. Like, you know, I there there's just a lot of there's just a lot of activity and noise and new brands coming and going. Um, you know, I talked to a lot of people in boutique and I get mixed signals all the time that it's there's significant headwinds or that it's you know it's got a renaissance coming happening right now. I I don't know. And maybe it's neither, maybe it just is what it is, right? But one of the things that I I'm I don't know why this gets, but their their net debt, and this is just to the point of like it's just not that healthy, right? So their debt to uh adjusted EBITDA is is the ratio is at five, five, five X, which I don't know, never run a company at this scale, but that's not kind of the it's not what you're hoping for, right?

Seems bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's uh that's a uh a scary level.

If their cash flow was was stable or growing, you'd be less concerned, but the cash flow is gonna is coming down. Now they do have they do have some there there is some noise in those numbers, I think, because they've had a lot of these one-time problems where they've had to pay off class action lawsuits and government investigations. And so that may that may be noise in that number as you look back 12 months. So maybe, you know, so so maybe it's not quite as bad as all that. But yeah, yeah, the balance sheet is is ugly. They they need to make a a sale, they need to sell Club Pilates for a billion dollars, pay off debt and and go private, basically. I I and and and maybe sell off the other the other uh brands as well to uh if they can. I mean, they've sold off a bunch already, so there seem to be buyers at at you know bargain basement prices. So yeah, it's kind of a uh a bit of a death spiral that's happening. But the Club Pilates asset is still is still really valuable, I think.

Yeah, they they paid more to their lenders last quarter than the its entire business earned from operations. Yeah, and that's uh that reminds me of my 20s, essentially. That was kind of my life in my early 20s. So my credit card was bigger than my income. It's like how did that happen? But uh yeah, I mean they cut their guidance, so I don't know. Anything left on on this one, you guys?

Juliet, you got any other well I I think that that's the our discussion about Pilates is a perfect move into Peloton because you know they they just purchased a connected Pilates company, and I thought that was a really interesting move, especially as I also anecdotally feel like Pilates is saturated. So yeah, so uh you know, I think maybe we just tell us the the good news and bad news about Peloton, Eric.

Yeah, all right, let's do it. Peloton. Well, so I actually just released something this morning on like a 12-minute segment on YouTube or 15-minute segment on Peloton kind of story. And a lot of it was pulled from our conversations here because I am I was just frustrated with how many people take shots at Peloton. I've communicated that over the years. Like people just love to tear down Peloton. I'm like, well, actually, there's actually there's there's something cool going on here. So we can we can talk about that. So headline first profitable year in company history, right? And they're guiding to shrink. So interesting way to do it, right? So here's some quick numbers. Q4 revenue is 607 million, up 1 million from year over year. So, you know, effectively flat. Fiscal year, so also this is their fiscal year, right? This is the ending of their fiscal year. Um, fiscal year revenue is 2.5 billion roughly. Net income, 63 million, full year, uh, first full year of profitability ever. Adjusted EBITDA for the year, 468 million. That's up 16 per free cash flow for the year was 378 million, up 54 million, 17%, net debt 93 million, down 80%, total debt 1.3 billion. Q4 gross margin was 56.7%, so that's up 260 basis points, and fiscal year 52.6%, up 170 basis points. The quote from Stern, the CEO, is fiscal 2026 was a defining milestone as Peloton delivered its first full year of net profitability. While multi-year transfer transformations take time, our financial discipline has fundamentally reshaped our business and where we remain focused on our evolution into a connected wellness platform. What do you say about Peloton?

Well, I mean, I think Alex is gonna have some really interesting insights here. But what I will say is we have been following, I don't know when we started this podcast, Eric, but we've been following Peloton for a long time, and it often has not been positive news. And I think we all share the feeling of rooting for this company to dig out of a very deep hole it was in years ago. And I I will say I didn't feel extremely optimistic in quite a few of these. I thought maybe Peloton was gonna go the way of exponential is going now several times during these quarterly podcasts. So I was delighted to see this. And I also um am rooting for this company. I think it it uh it it's it it is cool to see that some things are going well from a numbers perspective, and you know, I hope that continues for them. So what do you think, Alex?

I think that they have done really they've done a great job cutting expenses. Um a certainty. That that's absolutely true. And I think that that that's all we really know for sure that they that management has done a good job on. We the jury's out on whether they can figure out how to return to growth. The jury is really out on that. It they've they've tried a bunch of things over the years. They continue to spend 50, 60 million dollars a quarter on RD. And I mean, I I think you know, some of that software, some of its hardware. You know, maybe I I don't use the product a lot, so I can't really say that the software upgrades are are meaningful uh to the membership base, but presumably there's a benefit from those software upgrades that that translates into low return and and happier members and more engagement. Subscriptions are down nine percent for the year. So over the last 12 months, they've lost 9% of their uh subscribers. You know, some would say that's what you know, what you call a melting ice cube in the in the business world. Basically, at some point, there's nothing left. And so this so obviously that's the worst case, but the 9% loss is the worst they've ever had for a fiscal year. Now they did raise prices during the year, so they managed to eke out a little bit of revenue gain, and uh they are generating a lot of cash. So, you know, 300 and over 350 million of cash after paying taxes and debt service and you know, all their expenses. So that's a really healthy amount of of free cash flow. So it gives them, and and you pointed out net debt was was down 80%. And there's they have a billion, over a billion of cash, and you know, over a billion of debt. So the net the net number is whatever you said, 90, 90 something million, which is which, you know, when you're generating 350 million of of free cash flow, it's really almost insignificant, almost, you know, nothing. So it gives them the ability to do acquisitions to continue to spend on RD. They're talking about a series of new new hardware products a year from now. So for holiday season 27, you know, they sort of tease that they might have a strength product, think tonal, that type of thing. I don't know if they're gonna buy tonal or or invent their own kind of similar strength, whether whether it's similar or not, I don't, I don't know. But so they are in full, I'd say, stride towards new uh, you know, new products. They're also pumping up their commercial business unit. So they, you know, they own pre-core, they're gonna start selling Peloton branded products into gyms. They already sell them in hotels and and sort of amenity facilities, but I uh do you guys think that's a big that's a a big opportunity? I you know, I think it's it's something, but I don't, I don't, I wouldn't say it's big. So, you know, it's it's uh it's we're waiting for Planet Fitness in 27 to see how their uh they come out of this. And I think it's a it's a wait and see for Peloton as well. And uh, you know, it comes down to the quality of the of the uh of the new products and the demand and the acumen around what they're gonna, you know, the RD and are they spending their R and D money correctly, which is always, you know, it's a prediction of of the future, which we can't we can't do.

Well, you know, if I'm if I'm a Peloton on the leadership team there, I'm I'm starting to feel pretty good because now I can get to what the fun part of the business, like okay, how do we get back to growth, right? Versus just plugging holes in the ship constantly and trying to figure it out. Like they've done a really job to get to this point and now they can focus on growing, right? And and and doing some innovative things. And I think that'll be exciting to watch. And, you know, like I've I said in a couple different things, is like, you know, Peloton got a lot of heat because they are simply the best in class. Like when you looked at connective fitness throughout the the pandemic and what happened there, like Peloton did it best, so they're gonna get the most heat when the whole thing drops. So there's a lot of brands that are simply not around anymore, right? Like, I don't know, where's mirror at this point? I don't know. You know, so yeah. So I I don't yeah, exactly, right? And there was a lot of uh there was a lot of push behind mirrors. So anyway, I'm excited for them. You know, I I know we've talked about Garmin with the Andy already, but we should probably get into some of the numbers and before we move on to some of the news. So the headline for Garmin is the fitness segment is now bigger than outdoor aviation or marine, and outdoor is going backwards. So quick numbers, consolidated revenue two 2 billion up 11%. So it's a record second quarter for them. Gross margin, 62 up 360 basis points. Operating income, 616 million, that's up 30%. Operating margin, 30% up 440 basis points, free cash flow 276 million, so that's versus 127 million, cash and marketable securities, 4.37 billion. Um, they raised their fiscal year 2026 guidance, so revenue at 8 billion, and it just keeps moving. The fitness segment specifically, which we had addressed with Andy, revenue is 757 million, so that's up 27, 25%. Yeah, I mean, they're they're leading, they're bringing out new. I have the circa, I've been trying it. They're they're new, faceless wristband wearable. I quick take on that. It's excellent. You know, I think it goes along with like if you're looking for a great entry product into wearables, it's $200. There's no subscription fee. Um, the battery life is incredibly good. The only thing I think that's the room for improvement with Garmin is their actual software and how that user experience is compared to an Aura or some of the other ones I've worked with in the past, right? But there's no subscription fee. So there's gonna be a trade-off, right? So anyway, I like it so far. But yeah, what do you guys? Oh, sorry, the quote from the CEO. We delivered another quarter of outstanding financial results with double digit revenue growth and robust margin expansion. Our performance in the first half of 2026 was very strong, giving us confidence to raise our full year 2026 consolidated revenue and EPS guidance. Yeah. What's what else? What else can we say about Garmin?

Yeah, I mean, I just cannot, for me, it's a wait and see because I know Andy's not allowed to share yet insider information, and they're probably still working that all out on the acquisition of training peaks and train heroic, but I cannot wait to see what happens here and how they approach the partnership and relationship and what that means for Garmin customers and how that expands Garmin customers universe. I agree on the software front, although I always have the same feeling to the extent that we all in fitness and in life feel subscription fatigue. It is so nice to own a product that you don't also have a subscription for. And so I'm willing, I I I actually have that conscious thought often that I'm willing to sort of say, okay, sometimes there's a few creaky things from a software perspective, but I'm also not paying a monthly fee as a customer. I love that about the company. So I'm just all eyes on this acquisition because that came out of left field for me. I just didn't think that would be a way, a direction they would go as a company. You know, I just have I think of them so much in the hardware universe that it did not occur to me that they would acquire these two companies. So I just am mostly excited to see what happens here. Really fascinated.

Alex? Yeah, I mean, the they're currently at up like 24% year over year on their stock price. And the the the market cap is around $55 billion. So so that company's worth on the stock market about $55 billion, which is you know, five and a half times more than lifetime. And I I think I think we said this at the last on the last call that the wearables business, that's the sort of hardware, software, techie type business, is just a better business model than than brick and mortar. I mean, the returns on capital, the they generate higher growth without investing anywhere near the capital that that you have to in your brick and mortar business. So that's less capital, higher growth, higher returns. It is a just a beautiful business model, and they keep executing. And I for the life of me, I can't figure out how they do so many things. That whole, you know, Andy talking about the a wearable or a a device for horses.

Too, Alex.

I was like, wow, they can yeah, they can pull that off. That's amazing.

70 to 90 new products a year. And uh I have some friends who don't have kids but have horses that they joke, like, yeah, we put two two horses through college because they're just so expensive. So I think if there's a market for it, people will buy it. Wow, I love Garmin. Okay. Well, we got a limited amount of time here. I want to get through the news. Maybe we could do some quick takes on these headlines, you guys. So, number one, uh Alex, you sent this over and then it hit me from a couple different places too. But Proctor and Gamble buys Thorn for 3.8 billion. What's your reactions on that? Juliet, you're more of a supplement expert.

Yeah, I think the big question, which is on everybody's mind, is you know, Thorn is known. And I I think there's only a few supplement companies that live in this category where I would describe supplements overall as a low trust category. That market is unregulated. There's a there's a lot of products that are made in somebody's bathtub. When they most of these products on the market on Amazon are tested, they don't have anything in them that they say are in them. Um and Thorn has been uh an outlier there. You know, they've had their a lot of their many of their products over the years and to this day continue to be NSF for sports certified, which is the highest level of certification you can have on supplements. And for me, as a consumer, is like a must-have. Like I will not buy products that don't have this anymore because I want to know that I'm taking the thing that it says it is on the label. And I think that that's the only way as a customer to assure you're getting what you are hope, you you think you're getting and what it says on the package in this unregulated market. So um, so I guess Thorn to me is known as you know, a higher trust brand in a low trust category. And there's not that many of them. Like there are a handful, in my opinion, of brands who meet this standard. And Thorn was one of them. And I'm not saying that Procter and Gamel acquiring them is going to mean that the quality of their products is gonna go downhill, but we certainly have other examples in the industry of, you know, corners being cut once when they're spending $3.8 billion. You know, that that's not just free money. They need to make back that money. How are they gonna do that? And what I know is that a lot of these standards testing, like NSF or sports certified, is very expensive. So my concern is that the quality of the product will go downhill under Procter and Gamble's umbrella. And we don't need any more low-quality supplements in the market, like we have those already. So I think to me, that's the big open question about this brand being acquired for that much money. What do you guys think?

Yeah, well said. You know, I use Thorn almost exclusively as my supplement company, and I take a good amount of supplements, like most people who are obsessive as I am. But you know, I I interviewed, and you mentioned this in the email, Alex. I interviewed Jeff Byers from Momentous, who great guy. I really enjoy having him on. And he said, you know, one of the things he said in there is like in a category like this, to your point, your your brand is your moat, right? You have to have brand authority, you have to build up a strong brand. I mean, they canceled a huge the FedOJ line because it didn't meet their quality standards. And it was very, very profitable. It actually sunk their their company into being non-profitable for the quarter because they they were that focused on keeping the brand quality high. So something like this, I have the same concerns. You know, I love Thorn. I hope nothing changes, but it feels inevitable that something will with something like this. So I don't know. Alex, any any thoughts on that one?

I am just curious about how they grow the business. You know, is is demand uh really growing? Um you know, may maybe it is. You know, are there new products that they're thinking about, you know, that to innovate into? You know, it doesn't, I don't know, it seems to me that there's a there are a few core products that everybody kind of agrees on the benefits of. And, you know, I guess creatine's emerged over the last few years as being a very core as a core product, and maybe there are others that are coming, but I think that the they gotta grow that business into into a five, ten billion dollar business, probably. Um they have to think they can. And I'm just curious, like, is is there enough demand or is there enough new product? Is there enough untapped demand? Procter Gamble's known as a marketing uh wizard of a company. Um so can they market Thorn in a way that that taps into that that demand that that they haven't gotten yet? So it's you know I I think a lot of Procter and Gambles, I haven't studied it that closely, but I bet if you go back and look at their acquisitions, they're they're batting averages probably not. Yeah, I mean it's decent, I but it's just really hard to to it's it's about a thousand. So I don't know if this is gonna be a a good one or not for them, but they certainly paid up. And if you're the most shareholders or any other shareholders in a in a supplement brand, you're very happy that they did.

Yeah, right. Well, next uh next headline. Uh so New York City clicked to cancel lands October 1st, and the FTC case is still live. So uh you had talked about this, I think Alex, or we both talked about it, like all talked about it. Like, you know, what does this mean for you know, warning notices were sent to Equinox, Pure Gym, Planet Fitness? The the city mourned nearly 200 gyms in February. What's what's your your take on this so far? Do you think it's gonna be the the standard moving forward across the country?

I think that it's the right thing to do. You know, if you can join a club with a click, you should be able to cancel with the click. I don't I don't get the argument that it's health clubs are different and you know it shouldn't be it shouldn't be that easy to cancel. I don't I don't I mean uh I've never you know, I come from the health club business. We we you know, we try to make cancellation relatively frictionless, but the industry standards historically have been that there's a lot of friction. And I I don't so I you know, I don't think it's great for um uh you know, I don't love go uh a lot of government regulation around the way people run their businesses. I would hope that people could run them in a in an ethical way without and in a member forward way, uh, without the government's heavy hand coming down and saying this is how you gotta do it. But, you know, and I think I I've been I've been uh historically I praised Planet Fitness for being a click to cancel company. I think that you know they've they've seen a little bit higher churn because of it. And but ultimately, members should be able to get out of their contracts it easily if they're if it's a month-to-month deal. If they're committed to a year, I get it. But if it's a month-to-month deal, it really shouldn't you shouldn't have to send a certified letter or appear in person at the club when you've moved from Denver to Chicago and you're like, yeah. It it's uh anyway, that's my uh that's my my view of it. Yeah, I'm curious what you guys think.

I'm actually just shocked that it's not a thing. I mean, it just feels so old school to think that you'd have to go in in person to cancel your gym membership. I mean, this just seems like it is from 1995. So I I'm with Alex. Like I think it to me should and is should be the standard. I'm actually surprised it's not the standard. And I agree, I think it would be nice if everybody just did the right thing and and clicked to cancel as a thing. It shocks me that it's not the thing. Um and I agree, it's it's insane to me that we have to have government regulation telling companies to do this, but it seems like it's the right thing to do. So I I I I agree with it. And if it the only way to get people to do the right thing is to regulate them, then so be it. Yeah.

Well, I'm gonna rip through these last ones here, though, because I want to get the last take on the longevity article that you sent over. So Woo gets a Medicare pathway. The FDA backs off. So that's really interesting, I think, for a lot of them. Like we're a partner with Eli Lilly in shipping, you know, GLP1 insights. So this wearable integration into medical care is continuing to happen. Google kills the Fitbit brand and launches a $9.99 month AI coach. So Fitbit app is now Google Health, and they have the new hardware, the Fitbit Air. Uh, it's a screenless Whoop style band or Garmin Circa, depending on what you're what you're into. So premium went from $79 to 9 to $99.90 a year. The uh GLP1 pill landed, so FDA approved Lily's Foundaleo. These names. Uh Foundo. So it's the first true GLP one pill, you know, $50 a month for eligible Medicare and $149 a month for self-pay. So that's on the market now. You know, we had talked about needles and the hesitation for people to use them. So that barrier is slowly being eliminated, if not quickly. So then the article you sent us, Alex, something is very wrong with modern longevity. And one of the quotes I love here is like, what's true is often boring. What's interesting often isn't true. And, you know, this whole thing about basically, you know, some of the oldest people in the world, um, you know, that the there's a little bit of fraud in the longevity section, and it's kind of a hit for blue zones, especially, I think, where it's like, well, all these people who are saying they're really older, they're actually been dead for a couple decades, and people are just collecting money on their family members. It's a really interesting article. I suggest everyone, but yeah, I mean, if the last few minutes we have here, fire away. What did you guys think after after this article?

Yeah, Julia, go ahead.

I mean, I loved it. I saw it as well, and I really enjoyed it. And I've heard this critique before. So this wasn't new news to me, especially when it comes to the blue zones, that there there have been, there has been a lot of chatter over the years about how the the data around blue zones is is probably not fully correct. I think there might be some. I I don't think that that means there's not anything to be learned from blue zones, by the way. I do think there's still some there, there, and and I am fan of I'm a fan of some of the work that's being done in communities with sort of the blue zone concept and ideal. But yeah, I it does actually make me laugh a little bit to think that there's, you know, in in in some Italian city, there's supposed to be a hundred centenarians, and it turns out there's like 10 and the families have just been collecting the money. So I thought that was actually pretty funny and not surprising. And I loved the article. What did you think, Alex?

Le leave it to us Italians, right? Yeah, Alex. What do you think?

Well, yeah, but it wasn't just the Italians, like the Japanese had some, you know, the the you you kept your grandfather in the in the attic and his body was like decomposing, and uh the uh the the state the somebody shows up to to verify he's still alive and there's a decomposing body. I I don't it just you know the hype cycle around around fitness, wellness is is always there, and we just have to be a little skeptical about about it, you know, and that's that's it's it's not that uh there isn't some truth to the living in a in a hilly Italian village and walking up to church every day is is good for you and it it may pr it may extend your life. Absolutely true. But but to then expand that into a whole industry around blue zones and videos and and and seminars and you know that's that's a little uh it's it's pretty typical, but we just have to have to be a little a little more discerning and skeptical about what we you know what we evangelize, I guess. And and I think you know the there there's another there's the other side where it's people are would would say, oh, it's all genetics and you really can't do anything about your longevity or your health, or you know, it's gonna be determined by your by your parents. And that's that's going too far in the other direction. So I think it's we're we gotta be in the middle somewhere. It's not exciting, maybe, but you know, and and I I like the the idea that you can eat your ice cream, right? And and and people who eat ice cream regularly have a longer life health span or lifespan, according to some study.

And I yeah, I uh I think you gotta, you know, the thing the thing that it made me think about as one of my favorite memes, which I continue to think is hilarious and it continues to get shared with me, is there's an image of some old Italian guy who's like way too tan, and he's got a cigarette in his mouth and a huge ass glass of red wine, and he just looks stoked, and he is side by side with super pale, strange-looking Brian Johnson. And the whole point of the meme is like, which one of these people do you want to be? Right. And it's like obviously anyone was like, I want to be that stoked Italian guy, like smoking a cigarette and drinking a huge glass of wine in my 80s, and I'm really way too tan. But that's what the article brought up for me is that meme, which I do think is hilarious.

Yeah, the the other, I mean, uh what we might talk about next time is peptides and and the the the you know the the hype around peptides is at an all-time high, right? And I mean, I'm hearing from friends that their 15-year-old sons are are buying stuff on the on Amazon or and you know it's products that have no testing behind them, that the ingredients might or might not be what they claim, but they're like, Yeah, well, my friends, my friends are all doing it, and look at how look at how ripped this guy is. So I just yeah, we gotta we gotta be careful about the peptide thing, I think. Really careful.

Yeah, we definitely talk about that.

Yeah, I agree. And you know, that this type of thing's been around forever. I mean, you know, I as a young man, I remember seeing some guys looking to cut corners with, you know, injecting whatever, right? I think there was like hot sauce 44 in college, something like that. There's always been something, right? There's there's always been uh a way to do it. But I would love to talk peptides. I mean, there's uh talk about it a lot.

Yeah, and then there are some like some products that live up to the hype. Absolutely. Like GLP1s. GLP ones, yeah.

It's it's working. Well, uh, you guys, that that's a wrap. This is always a pleasure. We got a lot covered today, and uh, we'll see what happens next time with Exponential and some of these ones we're watching. But uh really appreciate you guys. It's always a pleasure. Uh Alex, Juliet, thanks for.

Yeah, and I just want to say thank you, Eric, and thank you for teeing up um Andy for us on today's episode, as that was a total delight. I know. So thank you. Thank you for hosting us as always.

Yeah, and I I do want to say I'm excited for the Aura IPO, which uh they're saying might might be September. So the next time we talk, we we should we should be able to look at that.

Cool. Love it. All right, you guys. All right, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Yep, you too.

Have a great day.