Robots stealing your jobs… soulless machines taking over the world… Is it science-fiction? Or is it happening already now that artificial intelligence, or AI, is here?
Hang onto your C3P0, because that’s the topic we’re discussing this week on Optimal Aging, the show that’ all about fitness, health and wellbeing for people over 50. If you own a gym or studio and want to grow your business by attracting more people in this demographic, then you’ve come to the right place.
I’m your host, Jay Croft of Prime Fit Content.
Maybe someday, software and machines will be able to do everything I can do and everything you can do – but we’re not there yet. I’m not being glib or dismissive about this powerful new technology. Its impact will be far reaching and profound across all industries. And maybe it means the end of the world and I’m just to cheerful to see it.
But I’m really not that cheerful. Just pragmatic. Let's be curious about AI -- and learn how to use it for our own purposes.
Resources
Marc Angelos on LinkedIn
Chat GPT
Jasper
Do's and Don'ts
AI & Fitness Guide
Life Priority Supplements -- Affiliate Discount here
Functional Aging Institute -- Use FAIMM50 discount code
Prime Fit Content – Engage the over-50 market
Robots stealing your jobs… soulless machines taking over the world… Is it science-fiction? Or is it happening already now that artificial intelligence, or AI, is here?
Hang onto your C3P0, because that’s the topic we’re discussing this week on Optimal Aging, the show that’ all about fitness, health and wellbeing for people over 50. If you own a gym or studio and want to grow your business by attracting more people in this demographic, then you’ve come to the right place.
I’m your host, Jay Croft of Prime Fit Content.
Maybe someday, software and machines will be able to do everything I can do and everything you can do – but we’re not there yet. I’m not being glib or dismissive about this powerful new technology. Its impact will be far reaching and profound across all industries. And maybe it means the end of the world and I’m just to cheerful to see it.
But I’m really not that cheerful. Just pragmatic. Let's be curious about AI -- and learn how to use it for our own purposes.
Resources
Marc Angelos on LinkedIn
Chat GPT
Jasper
Do's and Don'ts
AI & Fitness Guide
Life Priority Supplements -- Affiliate Discount here
Functional Aging Institute -- Use FAIMM50 discount code
Prime Fit Content – Engage the over-50 market
Jay Croft, Speaker 1: 0:00
Robots stealing your jobs, solus, machines taking over the world. Is it science fiction or is it already happening, now that artificial intelligence or AI is here? Well, hang on to your C3PO, because that's the topic we're discussing this week on optimal aging the show. That's all about fitness, health and well-being for people over 50. If you own a gym or studio and you want to grow your business by attracting more people in this demographic, then you've come to the right place. I'm your host, j Croft, of Prime Fit Content Now, as a writer and content creator in the fitness industry, I have one foot in the media world and the other in fitness, and both are full of people who are nervous about AI destroying their livelihoods. I'm not one of them Now. Maybe someday, software and machines will be able to do everything I can do and everything you can do, but we're not there yet. I'm not being glib or dismissive about this powerful new technology. Its impact will be far-reaching and profound across all industries, and maybe it really does mean the end of the world, and I'm just too cheerful to see it. But I'm really not that cheerful in general. I'm just trying to be pragmatic about this because, to me, ai is another tool to learn how to use for my own benefit. For you to learn how to use for your own benefit, how much will depend on your business and your needs. But the bottom line today is this AI probably isn't going to destroy your business, unless you roll over and ignore it. If you approach it with curiosity instead of fear, you'll find it can help you in unexpected ways, and that's the approach I'm taking in this week's episode. To help me make sense of all of this, I've invited an algorithmic expert onto the show, mark Angelos, a 30-year veteran of Wall Street, where he used AI and algorithm-driven software to buy and sell stocks. Mark left that career behind and is now in the content game as well. I met Mark this year at a conference where AI was a hot topic of conversation. Most of the folks there were hungry for information and tips and eager to share emerging best practices. I like that approach, so it's the one we're taking here today. Let's dive in. Hey, mark, how are you today? I'm doing all right, jay. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. I'm really delighted to have you share your expertise and your experience on this. So we're going to talk about AI and some common AI tools and uses. There's a lot of nervous people out there when we talk about AI. So before we get to all of that, tell me about all those syllables on your resume that I can't pronounce.
Marc Angelos, Speaker 2: 3:00
The brief on me is I spent 30 years in finance in New York City, so I'm a Wall Street background guy. I worked on the algorithmic trading desks, which is basically AI and algorithm-driven software that hedge funds you use to buy and sell stocks. How that matters now, though, is three years ago I left the business after several decades and I launched a content marketing firm. Ai is one of the four runners in the usage of that tool. It has been the content world Right To your point, jay. I don't think people need to fear it. That's not the right approach. It's just another technology. Speaker 1: 3:35
That's right. It's another tool. So you and I have this content world in common. We met a couple of months ago at the Creator Economy Expo in lovely Cleveland, Ohio. That's right. It was a great experience when we got connected there, and I think I was the only one from the fitness industry there.
Speaker 2: 3:54
You are a forerunner in the space in regards to the fitness industry in general is not on the leading edge, in my opinion, of the content world. You've done a really nice job both in the written, with newsletters, with the podcasting, audio. I think that the ability to leverage media in any business, fitness or otherwise. Obviously I personally look at media as the new front end in business and you've done a very good job of illustrating that. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: 4:22
So let's talk about this concept of artificial intelligence. It's the terminator coming from the future to take all our jobs and destroy our hopes and dreams, Right? Speaker 2: 4:32
No, the big misnomer here, the misconception around AI, is that it's going to replace humans. People aren't going to be replaced by AI. People who know how to leverage the AI tools best are going to replace people who don't. So the question really is back to the age old learning what you know will help you, what you don't know can hurt you. Don't be afraid of the tag. This is no different from a calculator versus an abacus. The concept remains the same. It's just a tool.
Speaker 1: 5:00
That's really why I wanted to have you on today to talk about this for my listeners. There's some anxiety out there about it. I've got a foot in two worlds one in the media and freelance writers content creators and then the other in fitness, and in the one world of writers there's tremendous anxiety about it and I'm choosing to not be fearful. I'm choosing to use it as another tool. I'm not relying on it and I haven't lost any business to it so far. I don't really expect to, but I'm sure going to use it as a tool. It helps me generate ideas. I work alone. It's good to have someone to bounce things off of. I'm using AI as that someone and a few times I've written drafts of articles or scripts and put it through AI and said make this better, I make this more, give this some more depth, or write this in a chatty or tone or something like that, and sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. So that's how I'm using it and it's helpful, but I can't say that it's changed my world or kept me up at night.
Speaker 2: 6:04
Sometimes it works well for you and sometimes it doesn't. You have the expertise to know when this thing is spitting out garbage and when it's actually quite good, and there'll be times when it's both. That distinction right there, that ability, your skills in whatever you do running a gym, making content that doesn't go away when the AI does something. You then need to have the overlay the human overlay of your own skill set to then take this thing and make it what it really should have been. If AI were perfect then, yes, we should all be afraid of the Terminator, but we all know it's not. I think that people have lost sight of the fact that there is still talent and skill involved in things. When I write content for people, I know right away when the thing spits back something I don't like. I think it's horribly worded or whatnot, or I think it's a pretty good thing, but, knowing my client, I need to tweak it a little more this way or that way. That's the difference, that's the magic. There's no push-button solution in anything in life. There's no silver bullet with content, and so AI, while we all say it's a tool you should use, it really doesn't make your job any easier. In one sense. It just makes it quicker. You can do more because you skip a step, and that's the creation process can be done in half the time, yes, but there's still required editing and tightening it up.
Speaker 1: 7:26
And applying your own personal touch. As a writer, my voice is important. Filtering the world through my lens and my priorities and my values is important. It's not just coming up with this generic content that AI will spit out at you in the first time, so that's why I'm not afraid of it. And similarly with fitness if you just want some AI tool to spit out a program for you, I guess you could possibly do that. But I use a trainer because he holds me accountable, because I enjoy his company, because he can tell when my form is off, he can tell when my energy is low. That relationship is really important and I think that's going to be true despite all these tools.
Speaker 2: 8:13
I think that's the magic word you just said. A relationship is really what every fitness, the fitness world, is predicated upon this. As a gym owner, for example, the relationship that people have with you, your brand, your gym, is really what drives your business. It's not that there's machines there that hold the weight rack. I can go left and do my biceps, yeah. So I feel like, from the gym owner's perspective, the three main umbrella topics we'll call them of things where the tool of AI might be of service would be one efficiency. Two new members they can help you find them. Three community building, which I believe is the most important of those three.
Speaker 1: 8:52
Okay, so let's start at the top with efficiency. What are the ways that it can help a gym be more efficient in the business side?
Speaker 2: 8:59
So a gym is a business no different from any other business in some regards. It's got the same departments of sales and marketing and operations, et cetera. All of business is really run off of decision making around inputs and outputs, and AI can spot patterns and trends and help you understand your own business gym or otherwise quicker, right. So for something like you could have predictive maintenance there are AI tools that will tell you when it's time to maintain the machinery, as the machine is out of service, so too is your ability to make money and you don't want them to go down. Obviously, things like customer support there are AI chatbots already in action right now, not just in business, but specifically in the gym world. It's a 24 seven customer support person. It'll answer basic questions about membership signups, what to expect, onboarding employees, the process of having to train someone. There are chatbots now that will do this and help make that process faster. Easier for someone to ask questions who's coming up to speed when you bring them on board. But you as a gym owner are running a more efficient operation because you've got better access to data quicker.
Speaker 1: 10:09
How could AI help your HR operations with a small business like that?
Speaker 2: 10:13
So if I'm training the same person repeatedly, because every six months I have turnover, I have to systematize that process. I now have a machine that will be it's literally an onboarding chatbot. Follow the prompts, a new hire is sat behind the desk and here's what we're going to do. Is what we're going to learn today, and I'm here to guide you. But I don't have to spend as much time because they're learning from the machine in an intuitive fashion. What is the best way to learn how to run my? And I'll design it. I'm the gym owner. This is what I want them to know and how they want them to know it. This is what we do in our gym. We keep it clean. We make sure the machines are wiped down, whatever the process is, instead of me standing over someone every six months a new face and explaining it again, I can just put this down as a systematized thing. It's recognizing Memberships are dropping off. In this month. I didn't realize it. Memberships are booming this time of the year. Every year at this month, there's a huge sign of it'd be great. It'd be the right time to run a special or not run the special. These are things that I might not have the time to step back and notice, because I'm running my gym day to day and so it's a co-pilot, if you will someone to keep an eye on the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: 11:21
So that's the efficiency. What are those other two key points?
Speaker 2: 11:24
So the other one, which I think the lesser the two I'll tackle first is going to be. They call it a marketing lead jam, but it's just membership signups. How do you get more members in your gym so oftentimes people think it's just word of mouth? Obviously, that's a strong one, but social media, as we all know, has been a driver of business for years now. What are you doing in social media to drive more potential members to check out your thing? Ai will help you Schedule posts. What kind of content should I make? What is the most receptive, Well received piece of content from my competitor? These are things that you should be thinking about. What's working in the industry you should be doing and what's not you shouldn't be? Ai helps you identify that pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: 12:09
Okay, and then the third one was community.
Speaker 2: 12:13
So in my opinion, this is the magic bullet like this is the closest you're gonna get to there are people who join a gym and it doesn't matter the money that I can save if I join the other thing. These are my people. I found my community with the gyms right now, building that sense of membership. It's not just a matter of they show up every month, pay them monthly fee. It's that they feel like they're known, that they're Recognized. When they come in, you use their name when you see them, that they feel like they're part of something bigger, because there's an accountability aspect. When sally doesn't show up for the workout she was scheduled for or misses a yoga session and gets a phone call Because hey, we missed you, where were you? That's a very different experience for them and that creates relationship. At the end of the day, this is about relationship. Ai, again, will help you spot these situations that develop that you might not be noticing because you're running your business day to day. So Customizing workout plans, fitness and nutrition plans, helping me adapt my current business to the needs and expectations of my client base slash members.
Speaker 1: 13:17
We're not saying use this tool or use that tool or pay for this or pay for that, but there's a lot out there. This is a brand new thing and there's a lot of interest out there and there's a lot of junk on the internet. I get solicitations all the time hey, you need these five tools, you need this newsletter, you need my Course, my training on how to make the most of AI in your small business. What's your opinion about all of this? For our jamon or listeners who are like ah, great, okay, I know I need AI. Sure, here's my credit card, give it to me.
Speaker 2: 13:52
So we make the joke. In the content world around. All the nft and crypto bros have become AI bros.
Speaker 1: 13:59
They're all, so on the course.
Speaker 2: 14:00
I know all about it. Yeah, we're not advocating anything specific, but I will tell you this. There are tons of AI tools. A lot of them are free. We all know chat, gpt, which, by the way, is free for the three point, the lower end of it. There are paid tools as well in the content world. There's the hoots, sweets and buffers to automate content. There's the my fitness pal apps to help you customize your workouts. You can find them if you look for them and again, I'm not, we're not plugging any of these. Find what works for you and you do that by dabbling and exploring, but you should be dabbling and exploring because other people are too. The business of the gym world is going to change, not overnight and not as radically as people are predicting. But in time these efficiencies will filter through every business, including the fitness world, and you should be aware of them. But I think that every gym owner right now should be going through a couple of different categories, but you should think about how you're scheduling and creating content.
Speaker 1: 14:58
Or I, or someone like me, and I'll do it for you. But there you go, jay, actually.
Speaker 2: 15:03
And this is a plug, because here's the difference when a guy like you is doing it I'm running a gym, for example I frankly don't have time. Number one of course I have the background that we're interested. This is what you do for a living, jay. So once I have a relationship with you and I trust you and I've seen your work, I want you to handle my business there. I use the example of my mechanic when I'd shut my truck off. He's always going to do this and you can do this and you can if you want. I'll tell you how I'm like. I don't care how the linkage works in this, just make, get it to work. It's the same thing with content and gym ownership that you've got a business to run. The content world separate thing, anyway, there's the personalizing of the members experience Doing as a gym owner to customize your fitness routines for each member, for the nutrition plans for each member. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel every time with Sally, with Johnny, with. Once you've got it built, you just got to adapt it, and so in the content world, that's content repurposing. It's the same thing in the fitness world. Chatbots are extreme. I don't advocate them right now, just be aware that they're a thing. I don't think it's a differentiator enough right now that if you don't have a chatbot you're going to lose business. That's not the case. But there are companies the Chatfuel and Intercom and all these other AI providers that will build you a chatbot for cheap. Usually they'll do it in many cases for free, because it's a lead generator for them to get more of your business.
Speaker 1: 16:26
Okay. So a gym owner, listening to this, says, yeah, that sounds interesting, I'd like to do a little dabbling. What do I do? Just go to Google and say give me AI. Do I go to chat GPT?
Speaker 2: 16:37
And on chat GPT, it's free and just describe one of your customers that. Just describe it to the machine. Please build me a personalized nutrition plan for Tom. Tom is a 55 year old retiree who's done well in life and now, but now he's put on a few pounds because he used to be in the finance business and he's got a bit of a gut. Or Jenny wants to get in shape. She's training for a marathon nine months from now. Just describe the person and their goals and see what the machine says to you. You will be shocked because here's the thing. It won't be 100%, but it is a great starter point for conversation between you and your customer. Yeah, I was thinking about your thing. You can be honest. I was playing around on the machinery. This is something I'd recommend, that I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think this would make sense for you? Even if the answers no, they will love you because you're thinking about them. You're trying to help them get to their goals. Right, this is building relationship.
Speaker 1: 17:34
When that chat GPT answers you the first time, you can say this isn't quite what I'm looking for. I want you to do this again, understanding that this person had hip replacement six months ago and is nervous about exercise or whatever. I prefer a more academic tone to my writing, or I prefer a more chitty, chatty tone. Whatever you can have it right, in the style of Sweet 16 magazine or the New Yorker or anything in between. It's not just a one and done. Where you ask it for something, you go back and forth.
Speaker 2: 18:14
You can also use it to segment inside your own membership. As a gym owner. You can say who else has got, who has had hip replacement surgery, who else do I have? Internally, that's training for a marathon, then. That allows you to host classes, talks, content pieces, whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1: 18:31
We could tell people a little bit about a project you and I are working on together. I asked for you to help me to create an online course because I want to help men of 50, 60, 70 years old who know they need to start exercising and eating, but they're just stuck and stuck on the couch and stuck eating crap and don't know how to change. I wrote a bunch of stuff and you and I talked about a bunch of stuff. Then there was a certain component of it that we ran through chat GPT. You liked some of it and didn't like some of it, and you showed it to me. I said I don't like that tone. Give me the substance and I'll rewrite it in my voice. It thought of things that we hadn't thought of. It organized things in a way that I might have got to after spending all day working on it, but it did it right away. Why not use that If a gym owner out there is similarly curious and wants to save a little time or find some efficiencies in the repetitive tasks and in the things that crunch a Lot of data, so that you can make predictions?
Speaker 2: 19:38
Here's a practical tip for any gym owner. Yeah, I would say Go, describe your gym and the runnings of the business to the machine and then ask it what would be some of the common ways to improve this type of a setup, this situation that I've described? Yeah, what are the main obstacles to growth for a gym that looks like in the? Describe yours? And Then work into the next question. Okay, how would you prescribe? We address these? It will. You can work with this thing and bat ideas back and forth, just like we did, jay. You would share a story with me, I'd share some with you, and then we had all, and then you're, you would overlay with some great anecdotes, personal life experiences, which really delivered the message. I think that people aren't using the tool. They think of it as a press button Automation. Yeah, yeah, it's not. It is a an iterative process that you should be playing around with. Whether it's writing a book, building a course, improving your gym, this is a universal Applicating. The ways to apply this thing are endless and people are not taking actions. They're waiting to see. This isn't like the internet, where, when enough people get it, it becomes more valuable. You can use it right, now and again, there's zero cost.
Speaker 1: 20:53
Yes, and if it's going to Help reduce my costs and help me become more efficient that means the saving me time and money Then eventually my competitors are gonna start doing that. They're gonna use it too.
Speaker 2: 21:07
The big three categories I mentioned at the start were efficiency, community building and leads, new man. You can take those three umbrella terms and just say to the machine what are, what are the ways that I can expand my business in these three areas? More leads, more efficiency Built tighter community Okay, now.
Speaker 1: 21:28
We've talked about chat GPT a few times. There are other Sites out there. Are there any that you want to talk about? Again, not advocating for any, but just there are a number of them. At that conference you and I were at in Cleveland, there were some speakers and they gave dozens of sites, some that are great for video and some that are great for Generating graphics and some that are great for research and on. There are a few others for people.
Speaker 2: 21:55
The business term that people use and it's a scary term, so don't let it throw you. But you've heard this J marketing automation, and all that means is your Outbound letting people know that you exist can be automated. A I can help you with this, and that will be things like Content posting, email delivery, newsletter delivery. These are the things where you can use the tool to expand your brand. Who doesn't know about you and should? I'm sure at the top of your head you can think these types of people would really benefit from what I do here. Yeah, everyone that runs a gym has a different background. Some people a nutritionist, some people were bodybuilders. It doesn't matter, but your expertise is what makes you distinctive.
Speaker 1: 22:37
Each of us as individual business owners Can't just rely on whatever it spits out. When I've been using chat GPT, I have said things like okay, I want to write an article for people over 50 about whatever related to fitness that I write for my private content subscribers, and the content comes back Don't hurt yourself. Be very careful, because at your age you could really mess up your back and Boy. It would just all be over then and you'd be headed for the nursing home. I said I what? No, I don't think so. If you keep working and you keep working, and eventually maybe there's something there. It's not a magic eight ball.
Speaker 2: 23:19
But this gets to the expertise again. You know what to ask it and when you should ask us something different. If you said to the machinery if you've gotten in front of a AI tool and you were said what are all the things I should know about my customers that I don't? Or what do most gyms not know about their client base that they should, yeah, you would then know iteratively Okay, it's giving me this information back. Let's build some content or let's address this in an article. This is not stuff that most gym owners will do. The ones who do Will build a tighter relationship, which means, when it comes time in December to re up for the year, mm-hmm. There's no question of these people's mind. In the end, business is always about the human-to-human Relationship, always. I don't care how great your tech is, if I don't trust you, I'm not giving you my dollar, and so every gym owner should be building Relationship. When you're lacking that, I. People know the. This isn't intangible, but people can tell.
Speaker 1: 24:15
Yes, you can. That's one of the reasons I like working with this demographic is because Younger people can't tell. Yet always, by the time you've been around the block a few times, we can tell when you're snowing us. We can tell when you do not give a rip if we are with you or not, tell when you want our business and when you really couldn't care less. And the content that I provide is that's one of the reasons why I Make it available to people is because it shows people over 50. You care about them.
Speaker 2: 24:43
You made a great point, jay before we started going live. You said something like when you're 22 in a gym, you just want to throw weights around yeah but when you're 62, you you're not there to throw it. You want to make sure that you're doing things the right way, that you're part of that. You're getting more out of this than just a place to go sweat.
Speaker 1: 25:00
Yeah, and AI can help, and I think that this is a good place to leave, because you've raised this idea that I wasn't expecting that AI will Help build community and help us have better relationships, because that's the exact opposite of what most people think it will do. So I think we just leave people with the idea that don't be afraid of it, dabble in it a little bit and Keep paying attention, because it's gonna be real important one day soon. Is that fair?
Speaker 2: 25:29
The last two action tips I would say for anyone listening. Number one Play around with it. You'd be surprised at how easy it is and you'd start. It's fun actually. And number two Give some thought to what type of content you're putting out there. If you're not doing yourself, higher guys like Jay get the word out about yourself. That is the one thing that every business should be doing and in the fitness world, frankly, way fewer than you would imagine are doing it. It's one of those industries where it won't be hard to stand out if you do it. What you're doing, jay, and the services that you provide really become a differentiator for any company.
Speaker 1: 26:07
Thank you and mark. I'm going to put into the show notes for people the links to chat, gpt and some of these other Services and sites that we've talked about, some other resources that I think will be Helpful to them, and if people want to reach you, how might they do that?
Speaker 2: 26:23
So I run a content marketing firm named and Victus and my email is mark at and victims calm.
Speaker 1: 26:29
How do you spell all that?
Speaker 2: 26:31
a Nvi, ct, us. I am Mark Angelos NYC on all socials. That's mark with a C.
Speaker 1: 26:37
Okay, and I'll put that in the show notes too, so you can can get a hold of mark if you need his insight and services. Mark, thanks very much. This has been a blast. Thanks for having me, jay, it was an honor. All right see you soon.
Speaker 2: 26:51
Cheers.
Speaker 1: 26:52
Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed the show and I hope you'll subscribe, tell a friend and write a review. All of that helps us grow our audience. I also hope you'll check out the powerful fitness business training and certifications offered by my friends at the Functional Aging Institute. Fai is the leading authority on how to build a business that's focused on helping people over 50 live their best lives through fitness. Their educational services, networking opportunities and coaching are invaluable and the pricing is unbeatable. Just use this special code so they know you're coming to them through me. You can find it on the show notes page and follow the link to learn more. Also, fai president and co-founder, dan Ritchie, was our very first guest on Optimal Aging, so reach back to episode one for more about the Functional Aging Institute. I'm now thankful for FAI's support as another affiliate sponsor of this show, so you'll be supporting me as well as yourself and this great organization. While we're talking about sponsors of the show, I want to welcome Life Priority Supplements as an affiliate sponsor and thank them for their support. Life Priority is owned by former World Series champion Greg Pryor and his wife, michelle, and any gym or studio that wants to expand its offerings to people over 50 should check out its products. I will leave the link in the show notes and, yes, if you use it to make purchases, the show gets financial support. But here's the deal. I would not do this with just any supplement company. I've been using Life Priority products for a couple of years now, since I had Greg on the show in episode 19 and February 20, I like their no-nonsense approach and I am happy to tell you I love their products. Life Priority supports joint health and immunity, improves energy and sleep and lots more of interest to people over 50. Your clients will appreciate you offering this product line for them, investing in your health. Since 1994, life Priority recognizes the importance of sourcing scientifically formulated, high quality supplements for their customers. So follow the link in my show notes and get started with Life Priority now.
A.I., ChatGPT, fitness over 50, prime fit content
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