Robert Louw - Wexer & The New Business Model of Fitness

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness industry podcast for over three years and running. I am your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the absolute pleasure of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. Please stop by futurefitness.co to subscribe and learn more. Hey friends, if you follow the show, you may have picked up on my passion for heart rate variability when it comes to recovery, performance, and longevity. I track it religiously and I'm always looking for ways to improve. Over the past few months, I've been taking this new supplement called HRV Plus by mode and method. Over that time, I've experienced significant improvement in sleep quality, faster recovery, and an objective uptick in my average HRV. About two to three points on average. That's a big deal. HRV Plus is the world's first expert-curated, carefully sourced blend of all natural micronutrients to optimize recovery, increase performance, and boost heart rate variability. Formulated by some of the world's leading experts, HRV Plus combines their proprietary hemp extract with omega-3 oil, magnesium, and curcumin extract to target inflammation, improve sleep, and supercharge our endocannabinoid system. I encourage you to give it a shot. Go to modemethod.com and enter discount code Eric15. That's mode ModE Method.com and enter code Eric15 for 15% off. Go get it. All right, we are live. Robert Lau, welcome to the future of fitness. Thank you for having me, Eric. Good to be here. It's a pleasure. And I'm excited for our conversation today and some of the, I guess, mega trends in the industry. Of course, covering Wexer and what you it's been, I think uh you and I talked about. I I haven't checked maybe maybe four or five years since I've had someone from Wexer on the show. So I'm interested in getting updates and learning about you personally. But you know, uh, I think the the big thing that we'll get into uh in a little bit is the shifts in consumer behavior, right, over the last two years and what that indefinitely means. I mean, you've been diving into reports and writing on it, and what does that mean for industry? Like, do we need a whole new business model? Uh and we'll we'll dive into that in a minute. But first of all, let's let's get into your background, Robert. How'd you get to be the uh chief growth officer over at Wexer?

Oh, yeah, that's I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. Um I'm Dutch, I still live in the Netherlands, travel a lot, have the pleasure to be in the US a lot, so love that. But living close to Amsterdam is a is a is a uh a great position to be in, to travel and to to go everywhere. So born and raised here, and um always did a lot of sport. Uh I played handball, which is not a very uh a game that you see a lot in the US, but very exciting game. So uh you love basketball, so I think you will love this as well. Anyway, uh went to a uh uh um a college here that is all about sports education, so you got you will be learned to become a a PA teacher, and um you can also choose some other uh uh uh directions there as well. And I did sports management because I thought I'm gonna work for Adidas or Nike or don't ask me why, don't ask me what, because I love the brands, that was it. And because I did uh that much uh athletic work, we did a lot of weight training and a lot of uh uh already then uh we did a lot of uh of work in the gym. So I thought I'm gonna take up fitness as uh as as other courses. So then you have to do internships, and it happened to be that I had a 4,000 square meter gym in my hometown. Um, and because it was located so centrally, a lot of uh educators in the industry used the facility for training, amongst others les mills in the Banelux Netherlands and Belgium. So um I sticked around there, started to teach fitness classes, did some spinning classes, some RPM, uh wasn't great at it, but I loved it. And and that's where my fitness journey started because I stayed working there after college, had the opportunity to run all the fitness facilities and the group exercise, learned a lot by doing a whole lot of things wrong, and then at some point I decided to start working for a uh fitness chain because this was a uh a smaller one-off or a big gym, but a one-off gym. And I worked for Fitness First in Amsterdam. Um and quite quickly I just pulled into the uh the sales department, which was obviously by far the biggest department within Fitness First at that time, and that was awesome because I learned a lot and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of of great people and and learn the the famous impact eight steps of sales and and all that sort of stuff. And then after a year, I jumped over to the uh uh to the supplier side. So I moved from the dark side. Sometimes we we joke about that within the company because Daniel Wade, our former colleague, moved over to FLG in Australia, says how he's back to the dark side and working for an operator. Obviously, it's great working for operators, but um I've done that, so I tried the supplier side of the business and worked for what is called the HDD group. Um, they are the distributor for Les Mills, amongst others, in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Loved that doing sales there, learned a lot about the supplier side, and then um after eight years doing that, I started to work for a uh a Dutch company called Club Virtual. They now use the nine the name Cycle Masters, and they were actually one of the first in the world to do uh digital fitness, so they uh they started their business shooting awesome uh virtual spinning classes, and they already started doing that in 2018, 2008, and I think I started to work for them in 2015, so that's when I started the my my digital fitness journey. Uh, did a lot of work there two years. Uh, we had clients like basic fit, and uh that was one of the reasons why Wexer had a lot of interest in uh the company. Um, so in 2017, Wexer acquired Club Virtual, or um, Club Virtual still exists as Cycle Masters, they still are a B2C company, they create great content, and as part of that deal, Waxer took over their B2B business. Um, and they are a supplier, a content provider, as we call them on our platform because yeah, still to today they create uh awesome virtual classes, which they have a B2C channel and we do B2B. And in 2017, I started at Wexer, so I could use my my two years' experience at that point in the digital fitness space, and um started off managing the the clients that we had in Europe uh more from the club virtual side of the business, then uh grew up to uh being responsible for the sales in Europe for Waxer, then uh stepped up to the global uh side of things, had the opportunity to do that from a sales perspective, and since a little over a year now, um I'm the chief growth officer, fancy title that uh a lot of uh tech companies now use, which in essence means I'm responsible for everything that is related to growth. So, on-demand marketing, our sales team, commercial partnerships, all of that, which is uh is a huge honor, and and uh and and it has been a great learning curve, and it still is. It's so yeah, that's that's uh as short as I can tell you, my background.

Well, that's a long background, and it's it's it's great that you started from you know the humble and there's oh god, it it started from the ground up as far as being a spin instructor and going all the way up to the executive level. Like you worked at kind of every level, which is is always makes for great conversations because you intimately know you know not only what it takes to you know run the numbers, drive business, but you also know at the consum at what when the rubber meets the road what it takes to change behavior, right? For the consumer, and that's ultimately what we're in is we're in the behavior change game, in my opinion, right? Um so maybe uh before we get into the the consumer behavior and what you've been noticing and and how that's changing the industry, I would love to hear too, just uh what exactly is it that that Waxer does um from a digital fitness side and and everything that you guys have under your umbrella?

Yeah, good question. Um so Waxer is around for a long time, and uh when it was founded, um the founder back then thought he was gonna create a new Facebook of fitness because back then I'm talking what is it 2008-2009, Facebook was blowing up and everyone wants to be the new Facebook. Obviously, that shifted around and and started with him owning a gym chain in Denmark. Uh, thinking, hey, these these group exercise rooms are sitting empty most of the time, so why not put a big screen on and put an instructor on there every other hour? We don't have a live class. Um, he was far too early with that, uh, so it didn't really take off until uh uh years later, but that is still to today the biggest reason to do virtual in-club, not replace live classes, but utilize that that space a whole lot better. Um, that's how the business grew. And and actually, up until 2017, 2018, uh Waxa started to move into the mobile side of the business. Um, so we were so lucky to have solutions and app as well as a web-based solution ready pre-COVID. Um so what we now do and how we label ourselves is a content distribution company. Okay. So we whether you have your own contents, you want to use our aggregated library, which is arguably the biggest uh virtual wellness library in the world, at least independent it definitely is, or you want to add third-party content, you can utilize our solutions or our technology to make that available in club into uh mobile solutions or integrate into your existing mobile solutions. So whether you have an app already or something else, you can just integrate that content distribution uh platform in there.

Yeah, so you guys, it's the majority of who do you serve? Do you mostly serve health clubs and gyms, or like who's the market that you guys uh have as far as a client base?

Yeah, that's a very interesting question for now because the fitness industry obviously has been our bread and butter and still is our bread and butter. We we grew big there, like uh I'm I'm I'm not uh the only one that has a background like I just described. Many of us in the team have that background or or similar background. Um and um obviously we recently been acquired, but up until that point, the the vast majority of our board were uh entrepreneurs in the fitness space. Uh, and and we were founded in the fitness space. So we still have a lot of big and small clients in that space. But what we see lately more and more, especially with uh the flexibility of our technology, as well as the library of content that we have available with our our great content providers, means that we are are very appealing uh for um corporate wellness platforms, uh hotels, um uh telcos. We have in Australia we have a big telco that use us our library. So we're moving more and more outside of the industry. If you look at our our mobile side of the business, the majority of our clients are outside of the fitness industry at this moment.

Interesting. So this is this is the topic. So I'm gonna preface this with a couple conversations I've had recently. And yeah, um one of which came is is most recent is I I was having coffee with someone, I won't say his name, but you know, when someone comes through the Flathead Valley here in Montana and I get the opportunity to meet someone in person, I'd love to have coffee. So anybody's listening if you come, you know, if you come by, please let me know. I'm dying to get out and meet and meet people in person from the industry. Uh but you know, he asked me this question, it kind of took me aback a little bit. He said, you know, do you do you think the fitness industry is dead? And I was like, whoa, that's a that's a that's a pointed question, right? And we so we talked about it for a while. And you know, his point was that um you know, we've always served the same 15% over the last 30 years of the population, whatever that number is, people say 20, 15, whatever it may be. But you know what I'm talking about. You know, it's the same people go from gym to gym, and you know, uh and then I had a conversation with Kelly Starrett, who's in a previous podcast, which will probably have been published by the time this one comes out. And uh, you know, he made a point he's like, listen, you know, in our vertical or people who are in our vertical um fitness professionals all the way up to executives like yourself, we've done a really good job of keeping ourselves fit and healthy and optimizing our own health. Right. But ultimately, uh, and his goal is to, you know, just completely democratize fitness with uh, you know, scalable information and coaching and all that. It's it's obviously a very big uh mission. And then again, I talked to like uh, you know, the CEO of ABC Fitness was recently on as well. And he's very, you know, coming from a different industry, so and looking at this one and seeing the growth trajectory of fitness, he's very bullish on how big this industry can be and how effective it can be with right leadership. So all that being said, is I I want to get to the point of because you've been studying some research and some numbers about how consumer behavior has changed. Are we making a dent? Like are we doing better? Is the trajectory going the right way? Uh is all of this energy, money, and time and you know, uh discussions moving the needle. People age at different speeds, and the date on your license may not represent your inner biological age at all. If you're looking for ways to extend your health span and slow down the aging process, the keys to health and longevity run in your blood. That's why Insight Tracker provides you with a personalized plan to boost your metabolism, reduce stress, improve sleep, and optimize your health for the long haul. Created by leading scientists in aging, genetics, and biometrics, Insight Tracker analyzes your blood, DNA, and fitness tracking data to identify where you're optimized, and more importantly, where you're not. You'll get a daily action plan with personalized guidance on the right exercise, nutrition, and supplementation for your body. Add inner age 2.0 to any plan for a definitive calculation of your true biological age to see how you're aging from the inside out. I was proud to find out I'm a few years younger than I thought I was. For a limited time, you can get 20% off the entire Inside Tracker store. Just go to insight tracker.com forward slash future to check it out, learn more, and get your own. InsideTracker.com forward slash future. On to the show.

Yeah, great question. Um there's obviously not a short answer to that. And um first and foremost, I I definitely don't think our industry is dead. Uh, and and that is not because I love the industry, enough. I don't know if I can can even operate outside. Actually, my whole resume is fitness, so uh I rather protect myself there a little bit. But yes, a lot has changed, obviously. And what I would say, if you talk to a lot of people within the industry and and a lot of big companies that have built to great heights, have people with similar backgrounds like me running them. But what I think is a great thing, uh, the last couple of years is more and more people from outside of the industry come in. Uh, obviously, a lot of money has come in. We have seen IPOs uh more and more, uh, suppliers, so well both on the supplier side as well as the operator side, but but that is the big gym change, right? And if if we look at smaller operators, that is still that um uh in the Netherlands we have have a bunch of judo instructors that that started their own gym like 35 years ago and they still exist, they have they have beautiful gyms, but that is what they know, and and the world has changed, right? So um, and and I think I mentioned it before. The good thing what is happening now is you get we get more and more independent research. Um, and and uh even though there are a lot of people within the industry that sort of categorically ignore research because we know better, because we are the industry, I'm doing this for 35 years, like who's telling me what? Um the industry is changing, right? Because people are changing. And um there's an interesting research from McKinsey that came came out uh recently that say that um throughout the pandemic, or especially now after, a whole lot more people are uh are are interested and and are are working on their health on a daily basis, or at least they want to. And we see a 32% growth in 2022, still 2022, yeah, still on on uh on digital fitness solutions, whatever that may be, without going into too much detail on this uh solution. But what they say is that this is the time for the industry to consider what consumer behavior actually is and adjust their business models. And and and that is my point. We need to redefine what our business model is. Um, and perhaps it sounds a bit weird out of my mouth because I'm I'm I'm working for a digital fitness company, but we were talking about this a little bit in the beginning. I love going to the gym. Um, and and I still think, like we I used the example of us talking, we're seeing each other on the screen. Um you can see me, I can see you, we have interaction, but it's not the same as being in the same room. And even if technology would be so far that I have your avatar next to me here, it would still not 100% be the same. And because the fitness industry has so much to do with motivation, because we give up, right? It's yeah, it's not I'm working out for two weeks and I see the results, right? I have to keep doing uh and keep keep keep giving and and and going and going, and then I'll get results, not at some point all at once, I slowly gradually improve. Um, and that is very hard for people, not going down to that psychological uh side of the business because there are a lot of people that know a lot more about that than than I do, but that motivation, the the those great people that worked in gyms and those great facilities, um, with all the options you have, you can take some of that and have it at home, but you can't replace everything, so therefore, obviously the the hybrid model is is is is great, right? How can we utilize technology to have more um influence on people's lives when they're not in the gym, and and that doesn't mean replacing, that means adding. And um yeah, one big thing obviously where where where gyms struggle here is that is a completely different business. You don't have that knowledge in your company, and that's not a shame, that is what it is, right? And the same for our company as well. I compare it with with selling memberships in the gym like I did back in the day. Selling a membership face-to-face is something completely different than selling a digital subscription online, two different worlds. So you need different people within your company as well to to do that properly. But yeah, there's so much talk about about the different directions that you you can go into. Um but definitely the gyms are here to stay, right? That look where people go. People will gum. And um I think technology would be like how we always say about it, how do you stay relevant in this digital day and age, right? So you need an extension to your gym, not a replacement.

I agree with the sentiment that gyms aren't going anywhere for sure. And the uh you know people just need a place to go. And you know, I think people who are already committed to a fitness, you know, uh habit, I guess, are are they not going anywhere either, right? Uh you know, what I wonder, and this is something that you know came up in a conversation recently, is when you talk about the fitness industry, I think to most people, and it's hard because once again, we're in the vertical, we have been, you've been in it for for longer than I have, and I've been in it for a long time. The what we we tend to maybe not see it the way that a typical I always use Suzy from accounting as my kind of avatar, right? Someone who's never really committed to a fitness program and you know doesn't really know what to do. And I think most of the time when you say the word fitness to them, they automatically assume or it goes to to fat loss. Like we're we've fitness has in most people's minds is a fat loss uh program. Yeah. And my my wish, I guess, would be that we kind of rebrand uh the whole industry overall. And that takes new language, that takes new positioning, it takes new everything, right? That comes along with a rebrand. I'm sure you know how difficult rebrands can be. And maybe that's wellness, right? Maybe that that's what we're terming for or health. I think those are the words that everyone's trying to kind of move towards. So when you look at like traditionally where the fitness industry has been, uh, how can we rebrand and start attracting more people? And I guess the other question I have is are are we already attracting more of these people, more Susies from accounting?

Um on the latter, I don't think so, because our business models haven't really changed that much. We try to, and and there are definitely good initiatives. So probably there are some people uh mad at me now for saying this that listening to the podcast because they have a great initiative, but and and and and and definitely there are, but I I think no. Um, and that also shows, right, if you if you look at how fast the industry is going uh in terms of penetration, um exceptions, but we're that that's slow, right? If you look at the numbers, uh especially over the the pandemic, how much more people are interested in their health in general, um that is something that we need to to to use as an industry. How do we get more people? And I always I almost wanted to say how do we get more people to the gym, but like, do we? Right? Gyms are a knowledge center and they have great people, but it's not all about getting people in the gym, right? The people that want to come to the gym, great, happy days, go as as as much as you want to, obviously. But um it's it's it's not the the higher goal, right? It could also be people come in once a month and you help them remotely to do their workouts, or they come in to have some face-to-face knowledge sharing with people that are in a similar situation, have a cup of coffee or a beer for that matter, whatever they want to do, and they do their workout somewhere else. Like there, there's a lot of options there, but I think a lot comes down to confidence. And we've done a research about that uh a couple of years ago, and and that sets sort of aside six different personas when it comes to confidence, from on a scale from very confident to not confident at all. Obviously, the very confident people are the ones that go to the gym, those are the ones that are on the two front rows in front of the instructor in a group exercise class, those are the ones that are in the functional area doing pull-ups, and and I envy them. Uh, but that like they're there, right? And you don't have to do that much, they will come anyway. But how can you reach those other people? And like you said, right? It's all about being skinny and being fit. A lot of people suicide from accounting thinks you have to be fit to go to the gym, and and and I'm I I saw that somewhere else. It's such a shame because people think that you have to be skinny and fit to be in the gym. Yeah, whereas the best place to go if you want to get skinny and fit, if that's your goal, is the gym, right? Um, so so yeah, that that's that's a shame. And what I want to say on that as well is what obviously the pandemic has been a bad thing. I'm all about thinking, well, like what is the positive that you can get from that? And I think one major thing which can also be utilized by the industry a lot is mental health. It it was sort of a taboo, right? You didn't talk about it, but if you now reach read reports about mental health issues, especially with with the younger demographic, that's that's yeah, obviously that's painful to read, but if you know what exercise can do, uh exercise alone, I don't I don't want to underplay mental health issues because there are a lot of different shapes and forms and and and and and levels of it, but in general, exercise will do so much for you, and that has nothing to do with getting skinnier or or or or less fat or or bulky or whatever, just feeling better. And and if you talk about wellness, perhaps that's the uh the the best thing, like feeling well, like uh I'm I'm a skinny guy, but there can be a lot of people that we perhaps label as too fat, that feel very comfortable, are mentally healthy, are fit. So who are we to say that that that's not wellness, right? And and and that's the good thing about like what I wanted to mention on mental health. I think that's a great thing from the pandemic that those things become much more prominent now. And and talking about new business models for the industry, exercise is medicine when it comes to that. So, so jump all over that.

And that that's a really interesting take because you know what what is the goal of the fitness industry? Like, what are we trying to do here? You know, I mean, everyone's got I've heard great ones from you know, you want to make 1% of the population 1% healthier, right? Things like that. But like, how do you track that, man? Like, I, you know, what what like I and that's the question sometimes I have to say, like, what are we doing here? Like, what are we really trying to do here? And and I agree, I mean, fitness and health are very different. I I was actually came across a photo of me 10 years ago uh training and I had my shirt off. It looked great. Uh and but I remember that time I'm like, I was not that healthy, my gut was a mess, I wasn't sleeping well, um, you know, all kinds of stuff. And you know, I'm probably healthier now with a little bit more body fat, with you know, less training, with more concentration on sleep and stress management, and that that's where we want to get. And I guess that that's the question is every company has to ask themselves. Obviously, revenues and profits and all that stuff are incredibly important, especially when you got investors, you got to keep the investors happy. That's just the way the world works. That's capitalism here in the United States, right?

Yeah, yeah. But in general, like if there is there's there's no profit, there's no investment either. So yeah, you have to start with that's why the business is there.

Yeah. So I guess that you know, when you talk about wellness, right? Because you it come up in uh in some some stuff that you had published recently or saw it on your LinkedIn. How do you how do you define wellness? Like what does that mean to you? Like feeling well, right? And how how can we how can we somehow turn that into a KPI or metric so we can see if we're doing the right thing, if we're actually moving forward as an industry?

Yeah.

Try not to do small questions here, Robert.

No, I get that. Um poo. Um I don't know, actually. It's it's a really good question. It's a hard question. I think it's something that we need to talk about a lot, and and that's the hard part, right? Because wellness will be different for everyone. Um, and therefore it's really hard to to measure that. So I you will you will come to diseases quite quickly, right? Reducing risks on on on certain illnesses because you're you're exercising. Um so I but that's hard. And I think as an industry to to have a key eye on that, I think maybe that's too much to to to ask the industry. Like we need to get people into motion. That's that's what we need to do, right? Get people to move, whether that's very fast or or very slow, it doesn't matter. Move. And um I I think that's what we need to do. And and the great thing, and we talked about a little bit connected fitness, and what is that, and obviously it has something to do with exercise and and adding a digital component to that, and and I let everyone fill in what they want to do. But the great thing about that is you're you're tracking and you're being motivated by data, and you can actually prove that you did things, which opens the doors to to insurance companies. Um, um, and and and obviously because you know there's a direct correlation between exercise and being fit and eating healthy and and and having less risk on a lot of diseases. So, in that space, I I expect a lot to happen in the in the next 10 years, but I think trust will always be a big issue there, right? So, so companies have to trust people, and vice versa, and there's obviously a huge play around data. Who's owning data? Data is the new gold, obviously, so it's being collected and being sold for a ton of money, and before you know it, you see all these weird advertisements when you scroll through your Instagram feed. So um, but we we have so many components now that we can use to to make the world a better place, right? If if we're healthy, it does so much more, or healthy, if we're fitter, if we're exercising, if we move, the world is generally a much better place. It sounds a bit uh a bit weird, maybe whatever we're talking business here and and digital fitness, but that's what I strongly believe in.

Yeah, and I I I believe in it too. And I so here in the United States, I presume that you know the majority of your business is probably in the United States, maybe it's not, but I'm curious, you know, over on your side of the pond, how how is the relationship between healthcare and fitness? Like, is there it's we we have a long way to go here? Um people are actively working on it. I think the medical fitness community uh you know is really probably getting close to to proving out some some nice models, but yeah, how's it over there?

Yeah, I think you we'll see the same happening, right? So costs for healthcare are are going up rapidly. Obviously, over here we have a different um uh way of of how health insurance works and and who pays for that. And if you have your your basic insurance here in the Netherlands, for instance, then almost everything is being paid for, or or you will most likely never end up in debt if you if you have to be be hospitalized or something like that. So but but we see this happening for years now, right? Trying to find to crack the knot on like proving somebody is is actually doing the work to stay healthy, and how can we uh can we um give them something back from an insurance perspective? I haven't seen that much really work other than smaller initiatives. We do have a very interesting there is a company in Portugal that we that we work with, and and they created an app that helps you to um stay fit, they have content in there, they do a whole lot, but that company is is part of an insurance company, so the insurance company is actually pushing that. So that's what I really like about that initiative that an insurance company really is pushing. So there's it's not really collaboration between going to the biggest chain that is in the country, it is uh uh trying to find ways to do it yourself. But uh it's it's hard. I I um I I wouldn't have an answer on that. Uh there are a lot of smart minds out there doing that, but it will be difficult to to really crack that knot and and and find that. I I really believe in looking at yourself, start there, right? Change the world, start with yourself and and and be healthy and and give that to your family and and the people that you're related to, and and and hopefully that helps. But I'm lucky, I'm living in an environment that we don't have to worry about paying our uh can we pay our energy bill, which is a hot topic nowadays. And if you're worried about that constantly, it's hard to to think about like, hey, I need to go out and get my 10,000 steps today. Um so yeah, that you quite quickly go into so many other issues when we're talking about this topic.

That that's such a fascinating point about the psychology of it too, is like if you uh if you're worried about your next meal, if you're gonna have heat in your house, like how you're gonna pay your your mortgage or your rent, fitness comes way behind that, right? And I think that's some of the reasons that we always forget is like, you know, uh it it's not always the priority. Now, should health and mental wellness be a priority? Because it yes, of course, because it helps you deal with all those challenges in life better, right? Yeah, but that that's a really interesting, and I mean you touched on it, you know, you you guys are um over in Europe, you know, you you're going, it's now fall, right? You're going into winter. Yeah, is it uh is it a little touch and go? Are you guys a little concerned about energy and heat? And this is a little off topic, but I'm curious about it.

Yeah, yeah, a lot, a lot. Uh prices are going up rapidly. Um and um if I know the numbers in the Netherlands best, obviously, but uh one in three households over here has problems, uh has finance starting to have financial issues to actually pay for everything. That's not only the energy bill, because that's the overall inflation. Um but but yeah, that's that's a a major issue. And and even if I look at myself, right? I've I've been used to paying around 200-240 euros, which is there's a nice parity now, so it's there's no calculation, so which equals like 200-240 dollars a month on my energy bill. And when my current agreement runs out, I will go up to 700, 750. So obviously, there are a lot of people. I I I now understand, like you read the papers, right? But I now understand what it what it means for a lot of people. If you're if you're going paycheck to paycheck, that's uh that that that's that's a hard thing. So yeah, it's a big topic, I'll be.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. And I think here in the States too, we're all gonna feel it. I mean everybody's feeling it. It's just uh it's a global inflation issue, and that's not what I talk about in this podcast, but I certainly watch it, and I think people it's easy to see the the headlines and you know the numbers uh if you're tracking your investment accounts, if if you got any or your bank accounts. But once you start to really feel that that pain, like you're talking about like $700 a month, it's a tremendous increase, and that affects lifestyle quite a bit, uh, you know, in so many different ways. So gosh, man, I I hope that we just get through the winter okay. You know, I think there's a lot of a lot of people in the states are gonna be feeling the crunch too. Yeah.

What uh so anyway, let's say uh yeah, we'll get on to a more positive thing here. I think the uh Yeah, let's do that. I just wanted to say that.

The you guys had a merger or an acquisition with Core. I want to talk about that. And oh, by the way, I want to give a shout out to Frank O'Rourke. Uh he introduced us over at Ursa, and I'm glad we did. Um Frank's a great guy. Uh and uh really uh enjoyed my conversations with him as well. So tell me about how that worked out with Acquisition of Core and what does that mean for you and uh and your global business?

Yeah, so um for for Wexa, the the the situation that we were in as a company is um we we've we always grew organically and we're very proud of what we achieved that way. But we were in a position where we obviously your product is never ready when you're talking mobile solutions, but our what we call product ecosystem was in a very good place. What we needed most was not a big investment to improve our technology stack or or that sort of stuff. We we we needed uh distribution that was really important, right? We have we have a relatively small sales team, and we just needed more people to talk about Waxer and and get our uh our products um around the globe. And and Core is a great organization that obviously operates globally. Uh they they work with with great teams everywhere, they have have great resellers across distributors across the globe as well. So this acquisitions open this acquisition opened the door for us to uh to train them, to to spread the word and and to to to put the digital fitness uh um products in their hands to to help their clients as well, right? Because if you have this knowledge, if you can help, if you can, can and and I think Frank is a great example on that. He's the way he is with his clients and with his team, it's it's awesome, but really generally helping them to rethink their business models or to then it's this is a great tool for them to also talk about that side of the business. So um, yeah, that's turned out working well. Um and and uh we're working closely now to to get that done, and we're meeting a lot of people, great people on a daily basis. It's it's still a couple of months, it's it's still young. There are so many very exciting projects on the shelf now that we that we want to do because core has great equipment, we have huge and and great technology stack, so uh that there are numerous of really cool things coming in the in the next couple of months, years. So, all in all, a very uh very exciting uh uh acquisition and and we're very happy with with where we are today.

Cool. That's great news, man. Congratulations. The uh I asked this kind of a fun question because you've been in the industry for a while, and you're obviously in technology, and I talk about technology often here uh on this show. But is there any particular segment or part or piece of technology that you're particularly excited about personally? Like, you know, we talk about you know web 3 and gamification and you know, vrh uh wearables, HRV, um, CGM, like all these different things, all this technology is is progressing really quickly. Is there anything that you're keeping an eye on that you think is pretty cool that uh you you'd like to talk about?

Yeah, there's one thing that I I I haven't started to use yet. I haven't made my my mind up yet, but um um because there's just this debate going on, and and I I I keep dragging my feet to actually order one or the other, it's the the the aura ring that's being used a lot and whoop. Um I think two cool features which which do a lot of the same things obviously, and especially the the the sleep tracking side of things. I I use my Apple Watch, but I I don't like to sleep with it. Um uh there are obviously some some great apps that you can use there, but those two pieces of technology I I I I really enjoy, I really like. Um and and talking about tracking and more data, it will probably be a little confrontational because we there was that's where we spoke last as well, Risa Miami. There has been a lot of travel lately, uh, which come with with late nights and all that sort of stuff. And then a lot of the times at the breakfast table with colleagues, it was about comparing their sleep patterns. and and how much good sleep they had and all that sort of stuff. But um that that's something that I'm really excited about. So I I quickly have to make a choice and and and start tracking my uh my activity as well as my rest a little bit more. So maybe next time we speak I I make my mind up and I I got some data to share with you.

Yeah that it'll be interesting. And I I'm guessing, you know, I don't have a uh dog in this fight but I'm guessing you'll probably choose aura because if you wear an Apple Watch already to have two wrist you know the wrist real estate right uh having two things in your wrist it's just more natural to have a ring um on it as well that that tracks all that so it is fascinating. I've been tracking my sleep and my HRV and all that stuff for years. And uh I don't know sometimes maybe I think it's not that healthy that I have too much data on myself. That's an Eric issue. Yeah. So uh as we kind of wrap things up and I cut you off so you can enjoy your weekend on this Friday evening over in Europe. Um what do you need right now? What does Waxer need? Who would you like to hear from how uh how can people reach out to you collaborate?

Yeah so so obviously uh they they can reach out to me personally look me up in LinkedIn and and and send me a message but um a lot of them are are talking to their their uh core territory managers or uh or or somebody else within the core organization and and obviously we we have our website fill in the contact form and and and uh me or my team will be with you with within a couple of hours um and and we're we're generally interested in in talking to as many people as possible right as a company we've we set ourselves a goal to try to be credible to come across credible and be educational so we've we've launched our own podcast this year with with Paul Bowman our our CEO who's who's trying to be you eric but uh but but it's going well we have some great guests and um it's not about waxer it's about sharing knowledge and and and uh and and talking with people in the industry and outside the industry so um yeah we we we love to talk to as many people as possible and hear how their business is going how they think about business models and and they definitely don't have to agree uh but we just yeah really interested in them in in hearing what's happening out there and and we're we're really keen in in sharing what we see happening out there and and obviously talk about our products if if if the interest is there as well. Right on what's the what's the name of the podcast? It's the Wexer Podcast. So it's it's not not very uh not very exciting name but it's the Wexer Podcast. Yeah well it's it's branding too you know I mean that that's really important when these three things yeah and yeah that's what it is right hopefully there are some fun conversations and and people remember the Wexer brand and if they want to know more they'll reach out but um it's it's a great medium and and obviously you've been doing it for years and yeah it's just fun. Right on.

Well thank you Robert for joining me it's been insightful and I appreciate your your open honesty with all of this. I think it's uh you know it's just important conversation and just kind of how I woke up this morning too is like really in this mood of like uh critically looking at what we're doing in as as an industry and and you know being honest about it. And uh you know I I I extremely positive still I think our industry is is has huge potential for growth and it still is and we just got to make sure that we're keeping our eye on the right prize and that's that's uh I guess what what this was all about.

Yeah 100% thank you for having me and um yeah hopefully we talk soon and uh and have more of these conversations. I'm looking forward to it.

Ladies and gentlemen rubber law thank you Eric 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 Cat Box whatever it may be number two please leave us a favorable review. Number three share put on social media talk about it to your friends send it in a text message whatever it may be please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it and we want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly if you'd like to learn more get in touch with me simply go to the featurofitness dot 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 feature of fitness have a great day