Beyond Activ 2025 | Executive Fitness Business Insights & Industry Soundbites from ATFW

Welcome to a special edition of the ATFW Podcast: Executive Fitness Insights from Beyond Activ 2025. In this first Soundbite Session, we took the show on the road to Dallas to capture the quick takes and sharp insights that are driving today’s fitness and wellness conversations.

This episode features perspectives from:

• Adam Zeitsiff, CEO of Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy
• Bryan O’Rourke, seasoned CEO and Board Director
• Chris Craytor, CEO of ACAC Fitness & Wellness Centers and WELLD Health

Across these conversations, leaders weigh in on the biggest themes shaping our industry:

• The adoption of AI in fitness businesses — separating real-world applications from hype.
• Why some operators will succeed while others fail to adapt in the current cycle.
• The challenges of overvalued companies in a market still finding equilibrium.
• Shifts in consumer demand and member behavior that every operator needs to prepare for.
• The leadership mindset required to navigate uncertainty and capitalize on new opportunities.
• And of course, a playful take: if the fitness industry were a cinematic this year, what would the title be?

These fast, punchy soundbites cut straight to the point — offering both practical insights for executives and big-picture perspectives on where fitness and wellness are headed.

This is just the opening scene. Stay tuned as we roll out more ATFW Soundbite Sessions from Beyond Activ — spotlighting the leaders, innovators, and decision-makers steering the future of the industry.

Transcript

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the juice is it worth the squeeze and we're going to see people that are going to successfully adopt and deploy it and some that are going to try and fail uh we're also in the midst of a serious hype cycle uh and that hype cycle means that a lot of these businesses are likely overvalued right now this is all things fitness and wellness hosted by Chrissy Van together we're uniting industry thought leaders and fitfluencers on the mission to inspire innovation and encourage people to live a life fit and well on the ATF W podcast we dive deep with leaders shaping fitness and wellness and this time I took the show on the road to beyond active in Dallas to capture the energy on the ground the quick takes sharp insights and even a few playful predictions that's the idea behind today's ATF w soundbite sessions short conversations where leaders cut straight to the heart of the themes dominating the industry joining us this episode we have Adam Zaytsev CEO of Dominik Doss Gymnastics and Ninja Academy Brian O'rourke who's a seasoned CEO and board director and Chris Crater CEO of ACAC Fitness and Wellness Centers and Weld Health before we get to it be sure to hit like and subscribe we have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry thought leaders and influencers I'm your host Chrissy Van and this is ATF W obviously I've had a lot of conversations today that have kind of been centered around Gen Z and above we know that there's a huge influx of that generation getting into the gyms other people talking about active aging but you have really transitioned to specialize with a subset that needs a lot of attention so elaborate a little bit about our youth of today are they physically active enough where is the lack yeah unfortunately Chrissy today kids are spending about seven hours a day between school and home on screens so they're very sedentary they're inactive and they're doing only 25 minutes of physical activity a day compared to seven hours of school or home based screen time so kids are not getting active they're building a sedentary lifestyle and sedentary kids become sedentary adults and that's a real problem in this country both for our country from a national security perspective and just in general for the future of our growth as a as a nation and so we're trying to here at Dominique Dawes Academy build something that allows kids to get off the couch have some fun and try to stave off this 30% obesity epidemic that we're gonna see by 2030 here in the United States 30% of our kids are gonna be considered obese so obviously you're very familiar with traditional operations so talk to me a little bit because there's one thing to have an idea and a concept it's another to get people to add that to the kids schedules I mean anyone that has children knows some of those extracurriculars and whittling around they really need to understand the why before the sign up so tell me a little bit about the experience and why it works yeah you know parents are always looking to keep their kids busy I've got 25 year old and I've got a six year old so I know the range in between and I think it's important especially in this day and age with the screen time but also things like ADHD and things that are keeping kids really hyperactive to get them out and get the energy out so parents are looking for that and they're looking for classes that most importantly their kids come off the floor and they're smiling and they're sweaty and they're happy and sometimes mom and dad are looking down at their phone but when they look up and they see Sally laughing and having fun or little Johnny having a good time on a ninja rig they love that so you've got a bit of a convenient class schedules and you've got to have a good product that really is focused on getting the kids happy and active and strong and not trying to build some kind of tremendous world class athlete well talking before this I understand path of growth is the name of the game for you right now so talk to me about how this sector in space is growing yeah I mean there's a real big focus on on child activity centers youth fitness right now private equity is really getting involved we're private equity back now so the growth in this market over the next five to 10 years is tremendous we've got three gyms in in Maryland right now we've got one opening in Ashburn Virginia and we've got leases signed up and down the East Coast Charlotte Atlanta Florida even in my home state of Texas obviously we're here at Beyond Active the name of the game is networking I'm curious we're about 3/4 through the day so far so what conversations have been dominating with your colleagues when it comes to either positives or pain points yeah I think a couple things I think one of the things that we found is there's still that push pull or how does health and fitness whether it's adults or kids and healthcare kind of come together and work together that's been a big topic of conversation how do you work with doctors to get them to trust you as a health brand and I think this whole technology thing I mean AI is overused but it what it's doing is making technology come back to the forefront people are having a hard time understanding how do I actually use this how do I make money with AI or save money and not just say that I've deployed something so those have been most of the conversations I've heard so far do you have any hands on experience and what that looks like in your capacity or operations because I I it's exactly that I mean AI it's been such surface level conversation then you have all these companies that have come up and obviously there's legitimacy to many because it's very buzzword there's also some smoke and mirrors that are very well funded I believe that we have in the space so what's kind of your temperature check on what is an ROI or moving the needle right now yeah I mean for me there's three things there's employee facing and there's lots you can do to improve productivity for employees uh automatic reporting analysis suggestions from AI and how a personal training team can be more efficient how they can close more deals how they can drive more results for their uh customers from the executive perspective really understanding churn and why and how and predicting it AI is really good at that and I've seen a lot of customer facing things you've got your standard stuff like my AI customer service agent there's also the AI sales agent and then there's more just the kind of a overall AI concierges about this event that event and anything you can do to make the customer get the information they need quicker AI has been helpful so those are kind of the three areas I'm seeing right now brilliant and you got a little heads up on this but Fitness Industry 2025 gets movie of the year what's the title and why I would call it die hard because no matter what happens to this industry covid drugs Glps this industry never dies it will continue to grow it will thrive and that's exactly what's gonna happen whether it's adults kids the health and fitness industry in this country is here to stay but Brian I'm so glad that you had the time today we're at Beyond Active 2025 and off camera here we were kind of talking we get to these conferences and there's a lot of high level recovery longevity the buzzwords so which would you say is getting the most interest right now or which sector when it comes to MNA activity or investment in the space cause time and time again I'm hearing a lot of people say the momentum now is here and we're in the upswing so what do you foresee that looking like well the presentation on the Americas and South America in particular this morning was very interesting on Brazil as one example and there are other emerging markets that are significant you know the Middle East I mean a bunch of different countries that are emerging so there's lots going on there in the capital formation side of course there's a lot of dry powder private equity and venture capital looking at not just the fitness space but a lot of different spaces and yes consolidation has been a real thing and we've seen very large transactions recently with EOS Crunch and others I think there'll be an opportunity as this industry matures to see further consolidation but I also think we're at an point of s curve reinvention where these different types of models are emerging nothing that you haven't seen before in other consumer industries retail travel bunches of different industries where not only is the bricks and mortar component a big part of that and then reaching economies of scale through consolidation but also reengineering and reimagining consumer experience when it comes to digitization so I think it it you know businesses have to ask themselves the questions how can they best compete and so I think you're gonna see a whole menagerie of different scenarios of playing out in the next 24 to 36 months well when you talk about this reimagining and we were kind of speaking to this off camera here that you come to these events and everyone's talking about how do we diversify our offering what do we have to do to get more people in the door I'm curious with your hot take here should we be staying in our lane or should we have the multi swim lane approach it depends on what degree of risk different companies are willing to take on how good they are at their core business and where they see that risk in return uh you always uh run the risk of diluting what you do when you try to do other things so that's comes down to strategy and those are choices and it comes down to saying what is the best thing given my business model and the marketplace we always have to be uh aware of change uh but there's an old saying in the south uh pigs get fat hogs get slaughtered so people need to be very careful as I know they are with respect to making those decisions AI I know it makes our eyes roll at this point because it feels incredibly buzzy and one thing in my experience I found a lot of people talking about it no one really getting granular about it in regards to the ROI for an operator and I I understand that we do need to automate but what is hype what is not well as a person who was talking about the revolution of technology starting almost 20 years ago and discussing what this is going to look like back in 2016 and 2017 pretty widely um I anticipated this but I don't like to label it AI cause honestly llms in their demonstration of what they do are a very there are one component of a whole platter of other technologies and you can have really cool tools the question is what are you gonna do with them um and so it's a novelty it's very powerful novelty but you know the the juice is it worth the squeeze and we're gonna see people that are going to successfully adopt and deploy it and some that are gonna try and fail uh we're also in the midst of a serious hype cycle uh and that hype cycle means that a lot of these businesses are likely overvalued right now we're going to that hype cycle and then we'll go through a plateau of productivity once that corrects like any new innovation and any new technology obviously in the near term in my own companies we've been deploying the technologies for a couple of years now and you know with respect to cost and automation agentic technologies um those are gonna offer us some cool things um the collection of data and being able to interpret it so you're taking action instead of just looking at reports like fitness KPI and other brands are doing so I think we're in early days and we'll just have to see what ends up really being um demonstrated as a kind of best practice we're getting to that point where the evidence will be shown very soon versus the thing that people are just talking about you know you highlight there 2016 2017 you were in the arena you were having this conversations so I'm curious what's exciting you most now what is what is the rumbling seed that no one's talking about yet that's sparking something in you that you see that maybe we don't uh well I don't I don't pretend to think there's one common seed and I don't get really excited per se anymore because I've been around for a long time so only two things I really get excited about is my wife and Christmas everything else I take with a grain of salt because I think there is so much and what anyone needs to be very careful of is not getting too caught up in the hype uh because we go through these cycles don't get too far over your skis as they say and uh make sure you're being measured in taking risk with these new technologies but there's a whole plethora of things you hear all the terms and buzzwords we'll have to see what ends up happening in the coming uh the coming years I think I'm a big believer in execution and uh execution around the customer so I think there's a great opportunity for innovation but we'll see what sticks fair enough well if 2025 fitness industry had a movie what would the title be Secret Life of Walter Mitty and you know I have to say why you'll have to watch it to understand hahaha Chris first of all so happy to have you that you were one of my first podcast guest way back when yes and obviously the fitness industry consistently evolving so in 2025 we're here at Beyond Active what are the conversations that are dominating the space here last year it was everything AI but let's get a little bit more granular than that yeah I think what I'm finding is a lot of club operators are really excited to one see each other we all love to get together and talk I think we're seeing a lot more activity in terms of mergers and acquisitions in the industry you're seeing a lot more people looking to consolidate and you're seeing a lot more investment I think a lot of the big operators are looking out there and saying that we're a hot sector again and there's a lot of areas in which people are investing their capital and a lot of capital still sitting on the sidelines so I think a lot of the club folks I talked to are really excited about the opportunities to continue to grow and expand their businesses now when you talk about that investment where are you seeing the biggest appetite yeah I think where you're seeing the biggest conversations around brands that have a very distinct and defined identity that creates a lot of opportunity for rapid expansion so those companies that have really done a nice job of establishing themselves and being kind of the best in their particular field or their particular segment are winning and you're seeing a lot of attractiveness for those brands likewise you're seeing people who are single club operators or maybe of a small regional chains maybe looking to exit as the owners and founders look for new opportunities and so you're still seeing some of that by smaller growth or smaller activity but really on the big side of the industry is those folks who have really established themselves with a consistent brand and for yourself obviously being in the operator space so as we look into 2026 what would be your biggest advice for operators out there something that they really should be concentrating on that if they miss they're gonna get left behind uh that's interesting I really think and this is maybe a a straight answer but really being being solid on your operational uh foundation you know operational excellence never goes out of style and I think it's really easy to chase that new next shiny thing oh I need to be in this or I need to be in that and you're seeing what someone else is doing and you're like oh my gosh I wanna do that too right but I would just say that the most important thing is to be really good at what you do and really make sure operationally that you have a great foundation we've had a good run in the fitness industry for the last couple years a lot of growth we have no idea how long that's gonna continue and so those foundational elements are really what's gonna set you up for success even if the market does go against us at some point AI it's a buzzword what's hype what's not where should the focus be yeah I mean I love AI it's gonna be integrated into everything we're doing right whether we like it or not and I would encourage club operators to find ways to integrate it in ways that make sense for them so your existing providers whether on the member management side or even CRM tools are already building these things so you don't have to but if I'm looking at how I deploy AI for ourselves it's how do I actually reduce the burden of our internal team and how do I use AI for our internal purposes to run a more efficient operation okay fitness industry the documentaries coming out on Netflix in 2025 what's the title yeah I don't know about documentary but I'll call it fast and the furious because I feel like there's always another sequel to this industry there's always some other thing that's gonna happen I feel like we're just when I think they're out of movies there's one more to write and it also changes so rapidly and it's super fun I never get tired of it it's been a good ride I knew there was a reason why I wanted that question thank you you've just listened to the all Things Fitness and wellness podcast hosted by Chrissy Van be sure to hit like and subscribe we have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry insiders and influencers together we're on a mission for everyone to live a life fit and well