The Fitness Disruption Podcast with Dr. Ted Vickey

Podcast 201: Embracing the Future: Trish Madden on AI, AR/VR, and the Hybrid Fitness Revolution

• Dr. Ted Vickey • Season 2 • Episode 201

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Step into the future of fitness with us as we chat with the remarkable Trish Madden, a dynamic force in the industry with a storied career that spans dancing, gym ownership, and even teaching a step class at the White House! Discover her passion for reshaping the fitness industry through the power of certifications and continuing education credits (CECs), ensuring professionals stay at the top of their game. Trish shares her innovative vision of technology taking over the mundane admin tasks, freeing up trainers to forge deeper connections with their clients.

Explore the transformative impact of digital platforms on fitness businesses, debunking the myth that digital fitness is losing steam post-COVID. We delve into the booming hybrid model, combining the best of in-person and online classes to offer unparalleled flexibility. From leveraging AI and AR/VR in personal training to real-time feedback on form and nutrition, Trish offers an insider’s look at the cutting-edge trends. Plus, get a sneak peek into the upcoming IDEA World Health and Fitness Convention, where the latest innovations like AI and ChatGPT will be front and center. Tune in for essential insights on thriving in the ever-evolving fitness landscape!

Announcer:

Welcome

Speaker 3:

to the Fitness Disruption Podcast with Dr Ted Vickey. From presidential push-ups to wearable wonders and award-winning academics, he's been called the most connected man in fitness. We will explore the intersection of fitness and technology. From cutting-edge apps to the latest in powerful prompts this is your go-to source for staying ahead of the fitness tech curve. Fitness and technology from cutting edge apps to the latest in powerful prompts this is your go-to source for staying ahead of the fitness tech curve. Spend just 30 minutes with us and we guarantee you'll learn something new, no matter if you're a new personal trainer or an established fitness brand. Ted and his guests have insights and tips for you to use today. Ready to be disruptive, it's time for the Fitness Disruption Podcast.

Ted Vickey:

Here's your host, dr Ted Vickey. Thanks, Paul, and welcome to the Fitness Disruption Podcast. Today I have, I'll admit it, a very special guest. Some of you know her as Trish Madden, some of you know her as Trish Murphy Madden, some of you know her as just plain old Murph. But Trish is here and we're going to talk about a couple of different things Certifications and the importance of certifications, cecs and a little bit of fitness tech when it comes to VR. So how are you today?

Ted Vickey:

I'm so good. Thank you for having me. I love being here,

Ted Vickey:

Ted

Speaker 3:

.

Ted Vickey:

My pleasure. You know, I ask all of the guests a question. See what the answer is. My question is if there was one thing in the fitness industry that you wish could be replaced by technology, what is it?

Tricia Murphy:

Oh boy, I mean, I think I might be repetitive on this one, but for me it's the admin piece. I wish somebody could just read my mind, send the emails, type out the emails, do the replies, so that I could just do what I love to do. That is like the bane of my existence. All the admin.

Tricia Murphy:

I think there's a book coming out soon that'll show you how you can do that, but that is one thing that you and I've talked before in other podcasts. Allow technology to replace the things that we aren't good at as humans or we don't like doing, and it gives us more time to be with our clients. There's a word before trainer it's personal, so it gives us the ability to be personal, and I'm glad to see you got the memo today about the steel shirts, so we're good to go for the podcast.

Tricia Murphy:

you gotta, you know, you gotta look sharp well, I realize that I have a bunch of fun shirts in my closet so I'm gonna wear them for all the podcasts. So people gotta check in every week because they have to see what shirt I have on and this is my good luck shirt.

Speaker 3:

This is my sarah alexander shirt. I wear it for all the important things in life. Melinda Gates wore not this shirt but one of her shirts. I always say if it was good enough for Time Magazine cover it's good enough for all of us.

Ted Vickey:

Give us a little background for those on the podcast that don't know. I don't know how they can't know you, but don't know you.

Speaker 3:

Well, I've been in the industry about 30 years. I started as a dancer in high school and college and when I was sort of ousted out of the ballet because I really wasn't going to make a living as a dancer, maybe as an instructor and I actually still continue to teach dance. On occasion I bumped into a just rock star, an instructor named Carrie Anderson, and she introduced me to the world of aerobics 30 years ago and she was the first person that ever really opened my eyes to any of that. And I was dancing, I was taking hip hop classes in her studio. So I never really looked back. I kind of just I should have gone into sales and marketing. I had a Fulbright scholarship in marketing in college and theoretically that's where I should have gone to and instead I just said to my parents I'm going all in on health and fitness and just have never.

Speaker 3:

You know, my career has evolved. I owned a gym for seven years and I've done projects with companies like Puma. I've worked in programming. I really live in the space of education, probably more than anything else education probably more than anything else. And now and then I, about 15 years ago, worked in direct response infomercial campaigns and got behind the camera as well as being in front of the camera, and I've been in production now for gosh 15 years, so I do a lot of directing and producing and get hired to do castings often. So I both have my hands in production and I have my hands in education equally, but at the end of the day, I teach, you know, three times a week right here at my, my little studio slash living room. So I am I'm definitely a every person, as I call it, instead of an every man.

Tricia Murphy:

Fantastic and you know, I am so glad that I grew up in an age where there wasn't social media, because there's a picture, there's a video somewhere of me teaching step class at the White House and it was probably the worst step class they've ever had. But my motto was. You can never cancel a class. These people are here to take class. You gotta teach it. I was the last one there.

Speaker 3:

I had to teach it well, and you have to remember, this step started as a really simplistic, you know, like fitness class. Right, it was like up, up, down, down, up, up, down down and people loved it then. So I have a feeling, even if you weren't the best, I have a feeling they were just stoked to have the workout and now you have some good fodder for your looking back reference.

Tricia Murphy:

Well, the weekend after I happened to be at the beach and I was dancing yes, I did dance back then and I was on a pair of stairs doing up, up, down, down. I turned around, there were like 10 women doing it behind me and all my friends were jealous. So I guess I lucked out in some respects. But I want to ask you about you said that you teach in your living room. Did you do that before COVID or was that because of COVID?

Speaker 3:

I was because of COVID.

Speaker 3:

So Seattle I think you probably know this Seattle was the first.

Speaker 3:

We were the first state to go on lockdown and I had sort of watched this coming down the road boy back in February is when I really became hyper aware of what I thought was going to happen, and at the time I was teaching, but I was also running one of the largest education programs certification organizations called Savvy, our Fitness at the time and I said to our CEO listen, we have to figure out a way to go virtual in case, all you know, 15 of these educations are canceled.

Speaker 3:

So by March 28th of that year of 2020, we taught our first certification online and I was teaching that same week online, and so we were one of the very first and I have, oh, roughly 35 people that still take classes on a very regular basis with me virtually, and my mom, who was never a group fitness person, who's you know 80 now takes classes. So for me, going back to person means my active agers are the people that I was really excited about teaching would no longer have classes. So that's why I still teach virtually is that I can still connect with my students and they keep coming and they keep paying virtually. So it's really worked out.

Tricia Murphy:

So that was going to be my next question Are you seeing a trend that people still want to have that flexibility? You know the excuse I don't have time, I can't make it. Well, you know, if you got to just pop on your iPad and take a class with you, there's no excuse anymore, right?

Speaker 3:

No, and it's both now.

Speaker 3:

So most of the people that pay for I own a platform called Homeroom Fit, Most of the people that pay for I own a platform called Homeroom Fit and most of the people that pay for Homeroom also now are back in person.

Speaker 3:

To some extent there's a little bit of a hybrid of doing both and I try to keep it affordable so they can do both. I do feel like there's been an overexpression of like digital isn't as popular and I actually think if you were to just survey some of the more independent instructors like myself or independent brands, we see sometimes the same number as we did during COVID and I hate to say it, but I do think it's instructor and content driven. So my students are not coming in an on-demand experience. Very often they want to be there in person, see each other, see and connect with me. I want to be able to see their movement, give them feedback. So I think it grows as you grow in skillset and I think some of the on-demand platforms that are seeing a decline might have just had such a rush of growth that they're just seeing a settling versus digital not doing well. I think it's a settle versus anything else.

Tricia Murphy:

Well, you and I have talked before. My opinion is that the traditional model of personal training is broken. You can make more money by only doing one of two things work more hours, which we don't want you to do, or charge more, which, if you get to a point, you're going to charge yourself out of the market. So I think, with all this technology, like what you're doing with the wearables and being able to monitor rather than be with the person, there is a way where you, as a personal trainer, a health coach, can really make a nice living if you put your time and effort into it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I also think the, if you look at some of the apps where these, these trainers have, you know, four week programs for 99 bucks I actually pay for them all the time there's several apps where you can just select the trainer that you kind of connect with and then for four weeks you follow a program and they have communities still on Facebook and that's even young people on Facebook, I think believe it or not. I think the people who are making really good money right now in the digital space post-COVID, are the ones that are offering these you know, standard four to eight week programs. I have, I mean, most of my friends that own a Peloton are doing one of those programs in addition to their Peloton and in addition to a gym membership. So I think I think that's where money can be made.

Ted Vickey:

You know.

Speaker 3:

All you have to have is a hundred people paying 99 bucks. The program I'm in right now, the gal, has 260 people paying 99 bucks a month and it's the same. I'm getting the same content and I'm doing the workout because I love the challenge. I'm happy for 99 bucks. That's a great deal for me because I don't want to have to create my programming right now. It's just not my in my bandwidth right now. So anyway, I think there's a lot of people making money in the digital space that we don't necessarily hear about.

Tricia Murphy:

Well, you know, math isn't my strong suit, so I just figured it out. So she's making about $25,000 a month doing this.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Tricia Murphy:

That's, that's incredible and it kind of uh, I was going to ask you the question. You you've, um, you've been in history for a long time. You're on social. You've educated thousands of people. One of my pet peeves is, you know, you get on facebook or instagram and these commercials pop up. I'll teach you how to make $10,000 a month using my proven system. Other than your instructor here, do you know many people that are making $10,000 a month, like those commercials are promising?

Speaker 3:

Not unless they're really good at what they do.

Ted Vickey:

I mean.

Speaker 3:

I think it's one thing in life to have a great system. If it was just all about systems, we, a lot of us would be rich every day, and systems are important. I have a lot of systems in my life and I I create value in organizations by creating systems. But at the end of the day, it's really about how talented you are at creating content and what your persona is. Who are you to this person? And if you don't know who you are and you're just throwing out exercises, you're not making 10,000 a month. But if you're a persona and you know how to connect with people and you understand the woes of gaining muscle mass or losing weight or whatever the goals are, you could be making 10 000, and I actually think there are quite a few. I don't think it's it's the number we think it should be, but I I think there's definitely people doing very well I've always thought that those are more, more gimmicks of you know, clickbait or whatever they call them these days.

Tricia Murphy:

So you heard yeah, us too. If you're going to try it, be careful. Yeah, I also know you do a little. You do a little bit of work with VR and AR and things like that. So you're kind of looking into the future where this is going as well. Is there an opportunity for trainers using technology in that space?

Speaker 3:

Oh, absolutely, when you give somebody a program and they walk into a gym, right, you know, say they're not a fitness, you know, enthusiast like you and I are, say they're new to exercise and you're handing them their workout for the day and it's, you know, single leg deadlift, a glute bridge with the, you know, with all these machines, imagine if you could let the trainer see your form or let AI help improve the form of your clients. There's so many ways for us to make you a better personal trainer, even if you're not teaching one-on-one. It's like you can make passive revenue while AI tells your client what they're doing really well and how they can improve. Of course, as you know, there's many, many, you know, there's some. We still have room to grow in terms of accuracy. Right, there's a lot of AI programs that I always tell this story.

Speaker 3:

But when I worked for a very, very large brand, we were working on a trainer in the pocket sort of campaign, where a trainer could give you instant feedback on your pushups, and I kept getting this really weird feedback and I had to say finally to our head of testing did you test this on a female with breasts? Oh, sugar, you know like no, we didn't. So I was getting this response of you're not going low enough. But if I went lower, every time I went lower I could feel almost like a shoulder impingement and I was like that doesn't make sense. And then we figured it out. So, again, you know AI isn't perfect, right. But if you can coach AI to give really just like when we teach group fitness we're coaching and cuing for the masses.

Speaker 3:

So if you can coach and give AI enough fine-tuning that it's looking for those really standard form fixes, it's a really big tool, right. And the other thing it might do is say hey, I noticed you haven't weighed yourself in a week. We're going to weigh once a week. If that's part of the program, like whatever it is, it's fantastic. And then I mean the assistance of programs that can take a picture of your food and tell you how much you ate and how many. You know what your nutrients were and what your caloric intake was. I mean these kinds of things have changed how we make people successful. All we have to do is make people successful and they'll come back to us and they'll pay us whatever we want to be paid forever.

Tricia Murphy:

They'll keep paying $100 a month and you're right, they will keep coming back. I think that the nutrition piece now again scope of practice. I'm a personal trainer. I don't get into the nutrition piece, but I was invited one year to CES. I had to sign this NDA and went up to this dark room and there was a guy up there with a little pointer pen and it was like a laser pointer. He pointed it at a piece of fruit and up on the screen it popped. This is an orange and it had all the calories and everything else.

Tricia Murphy:

Now you've known me long enough. I'm skeptical. I brought my own piece of fruit because I figured they had it all programmed and it was just a guy pushing his foot button and it was changing. I had a Macintosh apple. It knew it was a Macintosh apple. I said how does this work? There's some sort of DNA that he called a scent that it's released. It's not used in food now, it's used in grain. When they import grain, they measure it to make sure that it's the grain that they bought. So you know, imagine that when it comes to to fitness, there's, there's. You know, as we've talked before, we could record this in a week and all the tech we talked about is outdated already. Right, right, uh, you've got something coming up. Uh, pretty soon in la.

Speaker 3:

You want to talk about that real quick oh yeah, this year the ideal world health and fitness convention takes place july 12th, or actually 11th through the 14th. Our pre-cons happen on the 11th. You're speaking at it, hello. Lots of great stuff and I'm so excited about this year's event. We're really seeing some traction on people wanting to come back into person events, which is really exciting, because I feel like the past few years we've still had this trepidation about people wanting to come back in person and be surrounded by people. So it's kind of fun to see. It's fun to see sold out sessions like that. To me, opening a report yesterday, I was like wow there's sold out sessions.

Speaker 3:

That's so exciting. That's like going back in time. It's really fun, really really fun. The event is intended for group fitness directors, group fitness instructors, personal trainers, club owners. It's been the sort of the Super Bowl of fitness since the beginning of time, started by Peter and Kathy Davis and then now currently owned by Amy Boone Thompson, and the goal of this event was to bring together instructors and trainers and club owners from the world. So you'll see people from all over the world and lots of different languages, and it's a time for us to kind of come together and talk about what's really happening in fitness right now. Like what you're talking about? What's the title of your session?

Tricia Murphy:

I'm talking about AI and chat GBT and how you can use it to expand your fitness business, and I've got another one on golf fitness and AI.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean your session at ACSM was standing room only there in Chicago and it was just so fun because there were so many takeaways. So the goal at a conference like this, if you've ever been to a fitness conference, is to immerse yourself. You just come in and you pluck your body down for three days and you just say teach me, let's learn. And then all of a sudden it sparks so much for you as an attendee you start thinking about your own approach and maybe what your spin is on on all of it. You just kind of come back to your clients and your clubs totally inspired. It's really, it's really fascinating how, how much you come back motivated and excited about your job, which that's the best part. Motivated and excited about your job, which that's the best part.

Speaker 3:

I've been going to this conference for 26 years, 27 years, something like that. In 1999, I took I owned a gym at the time. Wow, that's a long time ago. I took, I owned a gym at the time and we all went, every employee of mine went, all 10 of us. We shut down the gym and I had no money, so I sold my couch at the time and my bed frame so that my team could go to Idea and we all shared one room not appropriate looking back, but it was where we were at. You know, I was 24 years old or something. I was a 24-year-old entrepreneur. I was like I didn't care and it was the best time. In fact, I posted something about IDEA last night on my socials and two of the instructors that no longer teach are like okay, I'm coming. Those are two good memories, I'm coming back. So it's really a special event and it's just a time to kind of gather and celebrate.

Tricia Murphy:

I think that's the piece that we've all been missing for a while. You get some great education, but you also get to meet some great people. You get to make some relationships that you'll have for the rest of your life, and I hear there might be some award winners that are going to be that idea as well.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes. Well, this year the we have this big inspiration award, um, and the incredible Gilad. If you remember Gilad, you remember that guy he is one of. I mean, he's just. First of all, if you've ever had a good conversation with Gilad, he's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet in your life and he's always been there. You know he.

Speaker 3:

He has shown up for his viewers and fans and followers day in and day out, still has a show that he records for ESPN and is really truly the first super trainer as far as I'm concerned, and we have a lot of people coming up to see him get the award from Kathy Smith and other just massive names in our industry that are just coming to celebrate Gilad and his inspirational award. So it's one of those shows where you'll see I always see Tammy Lee Webb, who was the Buns of Steel creator, who I love. Billy Blanks from Taibo will be there, and then current superstars like Lacey Green from Adi and you'll almost always. They're not easy to spy, but a lot of the Apple Fitness Plus on-air trainers are there doing you know they come for education as well, so it's fun to see all the famous faces along with. You know just every all of us that are in it every day, teaching every day in Kansas or Seattle or Texas. It's just fun to kind of connect with people who do what you do.

Tricia Murphy:

Well, I'm going to give a bonus point. If anyone sees this and they send me a tweet, or what do I say? Send me an X. Now my dad taught Billy Blanks in high school. There you go, what Mic drop, erie, pennsylvania. That's where Billy Blanks is from. Yeah, that is crazy. I went up to Billy a couple years ago. Hey, billy, my dad had you. What kind of teacher was he? He just gave me that. Look like you don't know. I know what my dad's like. He was one of those teachers you hated when you had, but you love when you, when you graduated, because he taught you so much.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, not everybody needs the favorite teacher to you know, you, don't you remember the favorite teacher in? The teacher that taught you the most? It's the ones in between that are like yeah, that's great, I love that.

Tricia Murphy:

If people want to get a hold of you, how can they find you?

Speaker 3:

I am on socials. I'm Murph like the dog, madden like the game. Murph Madden on Instagram, trisha Murphy Madden on Facebook and on LinkedIn you can find me. You can also take classes with me, if anybody ever wants to, at homeroomfitscom, which is my fitness platform. But, most importantly, I'm going to be at Idea in less than two weeks, two weeks from today. We'll be there making some magic happen, but at or bar above I. I co-operate a bar program with lauren george and some other incredible educators, so I'm around if you want to. You know chat and talk fitness, or if you want to talk fashion or you know artwork, I'm always happy to talk all those things I hear you're a good golfer too, so if you want to golf, that's what we're talking about right, isn't that happening isn't?

Tricia Murphy:

that a thing. We're going to get that guy Cedric Bryant. He's going to come play with us.

Speaker 3:

Cedric would kill me. So, by the way, I'm not a good golfer. I show up only to have my 13 year old daughter just crush me, and that's okay. But I love to play, but I like to play anything. So you know, if you like, tomorrow I'm going for a long hike, I surf, I golf, like whatever anybody wants me to do. They all know that. I'll just say yes. So if you ask me to do something, it has to be something fun. Tonight I'm gonna go see elton john cover band and dance my tailbone off. But just ask and and I say yes.

Tricia Murphy:

Wear your Apple watch. I'll watch your calories.

Speaker 3:

I was just thinking that, cause I didn't get to do cardio today.

Tricia Murphy:

So I'm an average but average golfer. Well, I'm going to drop down right now. You're going down next time.

Speaker 3:

I'll golf with you both. I just want to set your expectations Low Got it? Low, low, low.

Tricia Murphy:

Thanks for being here. I'll see you in a couple of weeks and.

Speaker 3:

Stay. I can't wait to. I cannot wait for your presentations. They're going to be amazing. I love the one at ACSM. It was literally mind blowing, so that's why I had to have you at Ideas. Thank you, I appreciate it. Okay, take care.

Ted Vickey:

Well, that's a wrap for this episode of the Fitness Disruption Podcast with Dr Ted Vicki. Don't forget to connect with Ted on X, instagram and LinkedIn. If you love the mix of fitness and tech as much as we do, make sure to subscribe, write us a review and spread the word. Got a topic you want us to cover or a guest you'd love to hear? Let us know. Stay tuned for our next podcast for more tips, tricks and trends. Be disruptive, stay innovative and, most importantly, keep making waves.