John Ford — A Digital Strength Training Routine for Beginners

John Ford is the CEO of eGym North America and was prior the CEO for Netpulse. eGym takes a modern approach to fitness by incorporating technology that can track and present compelling data to its users. By understanding the data and how each person improves week over week, it encourages them to keep going on their fitness journey.   John and Kelly sit down to talk about how eGym works and why it's become so effective for beginners to get hooked. John is highly focused on those who are just starting their fitness journey because he understands that it can be wildly intimidating for a beginner, who has no clue what they're doing, to get started. Not everyone understands the importance of a personal trainer to help keep you motivated and this is one of the reasons why you often see a high turnover right after the month of January. What we really have is not an exercise problem, but a behavioral science problem, and John explains how eGym can fix that.   Key Takeaways: [:52] Kelly introduces her guest for this episode — John Ford. [2:51] How did John go from accounting to the fitness industry? [4:54] What was the transition from NetPulse to eGym like? [6:15] Where does John see eGym headed? [7:55] It's tough for new beginners to get familiar with a gym. It's intimidating. [9:25] How does eGym work? [12:35] People can now see their progress in real-time through the eGym Fitness App instead of just guessing, which inspires them to keep going.   [14:58] The machine can sense when you're fatiguing and your muscles are starting to fail. [16:39] John is working towards partnerships with equipment manufacturers. What has that process been like? [22:07] Where does John see where the future of fitness equipment is headed? [26:19] The unhealthy 50% of Americans are driving the entire cost structure of the healthcare industry, which is why it's critical to make the beginner process super simple. [27:04] Unfortunately, giving everyone a personal trainer doesn't scale. [28:08] Users don't have to be tech savvy to use eGym's equipment.   Mentioned in This Episode: eGym John on LinkedIn Matrix Fitness Life Fitness Netpulse ABC Financial Virtual Active