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Articles by Jon Feld
Global 25 - HFB October 2026
GROWTH WITHOUT A SINGLE PLAYBOOK Three global fitness leaders show how acquisitions, franchising, corporate benefits, and brand scale are reshaping the paths to growth. BY JON FELD There is no single formula for becoming one of the world’s largest fitness businesses. The 2026 HFA Global 25 makes that especially clear.
From business growth to business transition: How trusted advisors help owners prepare for what's next
Michael J. Cassata has managed enough ownership transitions to know there's one common misconception: Many owners think succession planning begins when they're ready to leave. Instead, that's often when business owners discover that many of the decisions that affect long-term value should have been considered years earlier. "Current market dynamics favor the well prepared," said Cassata, business owner advisory strategist with Rockland Trust Bank Investment Management Group.
Why organizations are rallying around the Greenprint Initiative in downtown Louisville: Q&A with local leaders
Could a shared commitment to health and livability be the key to unlocking downtown Louisville’s full potential? Across Louisville’s urban core, organizations are rallying around the belief that nature should play a central role in what comes next. That shift is rewriting how downtown Louisville evolves as health-optimized urban greening gains traction.
Temple Health leverages AI to expand nurse time for patient care
Across health care, organizations are exploring how emerging technologies can better support the clinical workforce. At Temple Health, leaders see artificial intelligence as an opportunity to strengthen how care teams work, particularly by streamlining documentation and other routine processes that support patient care. Rather than introducing standalone tools, the organization is embedding AI directly into clinical administrative workflows.
Cornerstone Architects co-founder Mark Carlson on launching Austin Studio Architects and beginning a new chapter in luxury residential design
For more than 35 years, Architect Mark Carlson, AIA, NCARB, helped shape the built environment in Central Texas as co-founder of Cornerstone Architects, a firm well known for its thoughtful, high-quality design. Now, he’s forging a new chapter in his career. With the launch of Austin Studio Architects in 2024, Carlson is building on that reputation and channeling his experience into a tailored, design forward practice focused on luxury residential projects.
Rewriting downtown Louisville’s future with health-optimized urban greening
On a hot afternoon in downtown Louisville, the difference between a shaded, tree-lined block and a bare stretch of pavement goes well beyond comfort. It can shape how long people stay, how they interact and even how they feel. That contrast is at the heart of a growing movement rethinking how we approach urban greening. For decades, adding trees, parks and green spaces was framed as an aesthetic upgrade. But in Louisville, a new wave of research and collaboration is pushing that idea much further.
Stiles leaders reflect on the firm’s 75-year legacy and the next era
In commercial real estate, longevity is no accident. It’s forged through thousands of sound decisions, well-executed projects and strong partnerships. For 75 years, Stiles has built its name on that foundation. Founded in 1951 by Howard Stiles as a residential general contracting firm, the company was later transformed by his son, Terry Stiles, into a full service commercial real estate development enterprise.
How the Temple Lung Center is redefining transplant care for complex cases
As Temple’s reputation has grown, it has become a destination for patients from across the country. Ed Cunicelli In medicine, progress is often measured incrementally. A new therapy. A refined protocol. A modest improvement in outcomes. But occasionally, a center redefines what is possible altogether. In 2025, the Temple Lung Center did just that, performing 179 lung transplants in a single year.
How Temple Health is deploying AI and informatics to advance patient safety and physician performance
Temple’s informatics leadership is grounded in a clear and consistent ethos: embrace complexity, lead with discipline, and keep people at the center of care. Ed Cunicelli Health care is more data-rich and technologically advanced than ever before. Physicians today operate in an environment defined by expanding clinical information, rising patient acuity and increasingly sophisticated treatment pathways.
From necessity to opportunity: Empowering DMV professionals to pivot into entrepreneurship - Washington Business Journal
Amidst prevailing economic uncertainty and notable workforce shifts — including recent layoffs among federal employees — professionals across the Washington D.C. area are re-evaluating their career trajectories. For many, this transition marks not an end but a pivot: a deliberate turn toward entrepreneurship. Leaders in the DMV's economic development landscape have a collective chance to meet this moment, transforming what may feel like a necessity into a profound opportunity.
Turn your business credit card into a growth engine
For many business owners, scaling takes more than landing a big loan; it requires making savvy, incremental gains that build toward sustainable success. Business credit cards are seen by many owners as a way of covering short-term expenses, but they’re increasingly playing a more strategic role in long-term growth. The bottom line: when used thoughtfully, this everyday tool can help fuel your business’s growth.
Smart Scaling - HFB_Sept2025
Making the leapfrom one successful location to a multi-unit operation often involves struggles with brand dilution, operational inconsistencies, and a loss of the original club’s unique culture. Fitness Formula Clubs (FFC) Founder and CEO Gale Landers provides a powerful blueprint for how to navigate this expansion successfully, having built a thriving mini-chain in one of the nation’s most competitive markets.
Commercial flying, reimagined: PS Direct launches at ATL, the fastest way to return home after flying - Atlanta Business Chronicle
For many, the airport experience is the most dreaded part of travel — a chaotic ballet of long lines, crowded terminals and unforeseen delays. But what if you could bypass the airport scrum entirely, even when flying on a commercial airline? Such an experience is now available, and it comes courtesy of Los Angeles-based PS, which has created a private, luxury terminal service to transform commercial airline travel.
How AI Is Transforming Fitness Apps
Technology Artificial intelligence and machine learning are taking apps to the next level, offering real-time information that dynamically adapts to your members' needs and desires. Apps have long been heralded as tools that help drive personalized communication and put the club experience directly in members’ hands. Now, AI integration into apps offers the opportunity to take those personalized experiences to the next level.
Sibec: Operator-Supplier Events Purpose-Built for Business
This is a Health & Fitness Association featured article, brought to you by Sibec. For more than 25 years, Sibec has been hosting unique events designed to bring operators and suppliers together for bespoke, one-to-one meetings and networking opportunities in upscale, comfortable settings. For more than 25 years, Sibec has been hosting unique events designed to bring operators and suppliers together for bespoke, one-to-one meetings and networking opportunities in upscale, comfortable settings.
Air Circulation and the Keys to a Healthier Club
This is a Health & Fitness Association featured article, brought to you by Hunter Industrial. Controlling the indoor environment in your club offers a myriad of benefits for operators and members. Airflow is one of those unseen yet key operational aspects that makes a bigger difference than you might think. Maintaining good air circulation and ventilation helps keep members, equipment, and the facility’s environment simply healthier.
Technogym: The Evolution of an AI-based, End-to-End Open Platform
This is an IHRSA-featured article, brought to you by Technogym. Technogym offers insights into its AI-based ecosystem that allows for personalization and engagement. Technogym traces its roots as a wellness leader back to the early 1980s when it was founded by 22-year-old Nerio Alessandri in his family’s garage.
How a Customer-centric Culture Creates Success
Technology Strategy & Finance Supplier Content By focusing on creating consistent, highly positive experiences for the customer, Xplor Mariana Tek has become a leading boutique fitness software solution. We all know that focusing on your customers matters, but embracing a fully customer-centric culture is a competitive differentiator and a proven path to better revenues. According to Deloitte, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than those who aren’t focused on the customer.
Creating a Coaching Culture
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Myzone. Changing the gym’s identity from a convenient space to exercise to one that creates a valuable connection with members changed everything for a multi-chain Anytime Fitness operator. The Anytime Fitness tagline is, “Something different is happening here.” Brent Potter, a multi-club Anytime Fitness operator in Winnebago, IL, has taken that adage to heart. He’s steadily been shifting his chain’s focus from individual exercise to coaching.
3 Top Cardio Trends in 2023
In 2022, we saw the continued rebound of the health club industry. In 2019, the fitness industry hit an all-time high market value of $41.8 billion, only to tumble to $28 billion the next year. But, notes market and consumer data firm Statista, market revenue was back to a much healthier $32 billion for 2022.
Charting the Evolution of a Healthcare Ecosystem
“As we in the industry all know, a user that stays with their routine, whether in a gym or outside, is always more likely to maintain their health club membership,” he says. “Throughout the past years, we have advanced our product to allow facilities to connect with their members.
Step One in the Health Club Member Journey: Your Website
“Some club leaders focus so much on prospects that they lose sight of their club’s most important marketers and ambassadors: their members,” he says. “Are there opportunities for your members to grow stronger affinity for, and connection with, your club’s brand? Are there fitness achievements that can be celebrated via social media? Might there be popular apparel items you could offer members that happen to include your logo?
Creating a Continuum of Care
The third floor offers an indoor track, turf, weight area, recovery space, basketball courts, a clinical space, and locker rooms. When it comes to equipment, Integrated Wellness has had a longstanding relationship with Technogym, which is serving Lake Nona well. Given its target market, the facility’s equipment requirements are varied, with users ranging from a physical therapy patient to professional athlete.
Building a Better Sales Team
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Club Automation. How to gain buy-in for success, find unicorns, and create an optimal employee experience. Membership sales may be somewhat of an art form—selling something relatively intangible is never an easy job. However, developing a clear understanding around goals and the value of what’s being sold, notes Nick Thornton, vice president of sales at Club Automation, can be the foundation for building a successful team.
Taking Sustainability to School
Making Strides Those proposals and their student sponsors are clearly having the intended impact. Over the past couple of years, these student-led sustainability projects have increasingly been gaining momentum. In addition to the institutions previously mentioned, initiatives are now in place at Western Carolina University, Vanderbilt, Stony Brook University, Stetson University, and Wenatchee Valley College.
Partner Integration Makes Club Management Platforms More Powerful
Providers that utilize open APIs make that communication and integration easier. Open APIs define endpoint connections, operation parameters, authentication techniques, and things like contact information, terms of use, license, and more. What can happen if an integration is poorly done? “Any number of things could happen if an integration is not properly done,” says Tony Autin, Jonas Fitness president. “The most common is communication errors that prevent services from functioning as intended.
Leveraging the Health Club Member Journey
“The Experience” To serve and optimize the member experience, Club Automation, Motionsoft, VFPnext, and CSI have collaborated to create The Experience, a purpose-built prospect, member, and staff journey. “The five steps discussed above are included in one core system—The Experience—so your member experience never lags,” notes Nick.
Body Composition Scans Made Easy
The IHRSA ebook, How to Maximize Your Gym’s Data Strategy for Sales & Retention, discusses the fact that biometrics are becoming more affordable and easier to utilize in a health club setting. One biometric tool, the body scanner, has been gaining popularity but tends to have some limitations. Body scanners can be complex and often require that certain pre-test conditions be met.
What Clean Means in Health Clubs Now
The concept of “clean” has shifted dramatically. Jon Feld April 05, 2022 Cleanliness and sanitization have undergone a true sea change in the club environment. While both were a constant part of the pandemic, many of the steps taken to protect members at the time have become permanent standards. Two years ago, it might have been hard to imagine the physical presence of hand-sanitizing or individual cleaning stations, but they’re now ubiquitous.
Flooring Takes Centerstage in Club Updates
As operators seek to refurbish and add pop to facilities, many are looking underfoot. Jon Feld February 24, 2022 Since the inception of the pandemic, expenses related to sanitization and related needs have skyrocketed. Now that memberships are back in the 80% (and rising) territory of pre-COVID numbers, revenues are climbing. In March, IHRSA CBI will include a piece about inexpensive, high-impact club design changes.
The Right Software Streamlines Health Club Operations: A Case Study
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Club Automation. How Franco’s Athletic Club found the membership platform—and app—to meet their needs. Jon Feld January 31, 2022 There are a number of reasons why you might want to consider shifting your club management software. Maybe you’re getting blindsided by unexpected shortfalls in revenue; there might be a departmental conflict arising from not having updated information; or you’re frustrated by re-entering the same data multiple times.
Finding the Right Club Management Software Provider
At some point, growth or other factors might cause you to rethink your club management platform. Here’s what you might want to consider. Jon Feld November 15, 2021 There are a number of reasons why clubs might consider changing software packages. Often, businesses can outpace the ability of a system to scale as they grow.
When It Comes to Member Retention, Knowledge Is Power
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Gleantap. How member segmentation can help you send the most impactful message at the right time using the right message. Jon Feld November 09, 2021 The more deeply you work to understand your members, the more effectively you can engage them with messaging, programming, and services that meet their needs. When you get that right, your club is perceived as an unparalleled, go-to resource for health, wellness, and more.
Bolstering Your Club’s Brand
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Club Automation. In a rapidly changing market, operators need to earn health club consumers’ trust. Jon Feld October 28, 2021 You may not realize it, but among the casualties of the past year might be your health club’s brand. McKinsey reports that 75% of Americans changed brands during the pandemic.
The Binding Connection Between Exercise and Mental Health
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by SportsArt. The benefits of exercise extend beyond physical fitness. It can also be the key to maintaining mental health. Jon Feld October 25, 2021 Recently, we’ve heard several stories about top-tier athletes stepping away from their sports or teams to preserve their mental health. Simone Biles curtailed her participation in the Tokyo Olympics.
Leveraging Your Club Software Platform for Optimal Results
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by ABC Fitness Solutions. The ABC User Summit highlights best practices across the operation. Jon Feld October 20, 2021 On October 11th and 12th—just prior to IHRSA 2021 in Dallas, Texas—ABC Fitness Solutions hosted its first-ever live User Summit.
Evolution of the Health Club Digital Ecosystem
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Life Fitness. Cloud-based software drives increasingly immersive user experiences across the spectrum. Jon Feld October 14, 2021 In July 2021, we wrote about the ways in which connected consoles help propel the member experience.
Why Free Weights and Machines Are Not Mutually Exclusive
How technology and technique have shifted free-weight use beyond the barbell. Jon Feld September 27, 2021 Free weight training has the potential to improve strength and body mass in a relatively short time. Because it works with typical planes of movement, it can also positively impact everyday movement. While it offers important health benefits when done properly, it can lead to injuries, such as sprains, strains, and fractures if not done properly.
Keys to Optimizing Club Software
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Matrix Fitness. Matrix Fitness gives us insight into how technology works to build tailored solutions. Jon Feld September 14, 2021 Club software has grown by leaps and bounds during the past few years. Originating in payment and member information management, the systems have evolved into a breadth of connected solutions that utilize data from every interaction.
Helping Health Club Operators Respond to Lawsuits
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by K&K Insurance. Personal injury lawsuits are scary, but you have more protections—and less reason to be concerned—than you might think. Jon Feld September 07, 2021 Lawsuits, particularly personal injury suits, represent a growth industry in this country.
The Rise of Rowing in Health Clubs
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Octane Fitness. Rowing machines have always had a place in clubs but rowing itself—aided by more versatile programming—is growing in popularity. Jon Feld July 26, 2021 During the past decade, the place of the rowing machine in fitness has shifted. Once considered a tool to aid in sport-specific and cardio training, rowers are becoming increasingly integrated into group training and individual regimens.
Workflow Management Tools Spur Lead Generation and Retention
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Exerp. Having transparency throughout your organization and readily available insights speeds decision-making across the entire business, supporting proactive growth. Jon Feld July 19, 2021 “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” The quote belongs to W. Edwards Deming, the statistician and quality-control expert credited with having launched the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement of the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The point?
The Power of Neutral in Health Club Color Schemes
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Precor. When it comes to design, equipment with low-key colors can play a key supporting role in any visual scheme. Jon Feld July 15, 2021 In multi-hued clubs, equipment can be a focal point and send the right message to your members. While it may seem counter-intuitive, neutral colors can be a great support for the rest of your design. In interiors, neutral tones can be used in a variety of applications.
The Connected Console Drives the Health Club Member Experience
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Life Fitness. Technology continues to bring equipment and the user experience to the next level. Consoles now make interactivity more robust—and easier—than ever. Jon Feld July 12, 2021 In no aspect has digital transformation been as apparent in the health club industry as its manifestation in equipment. Since its inception, coupling technology with machines has always been about improving the member experience.
Apps Offer Clubs a Conduit to the Member-Centric Experience
Technology is playing an increasingly larger role in the member experience. Clubs need a versatile mobile app that prioritizes the member experience and solves basic administrative needs. Jon Feld July 09, 2021 Mobile apps have made—and continue to make—an indelible imprint on people’s lives. In August, IHRSA’s CBI magazine will feature a piece that discusses their benefits on a number of levels.
Fitness Space Design Geared to Outcomes
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Aktiv Solutions. The crux of successful program-driven design lies in the ethos of the facility and—most importantly—the end user’s experience. Jon Feld June 25, 2021 It may seem counterintuitive, but, for Bryan Green, founder and CEO of Aktiv Solutions, the most effective functional fitness spaces are based largely on reverse engineering.
How Health Clubs Can Keep a Lid on Equipment-Based Risk
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by K&K Insurance. Proactive protection is the best kind and your machines represent a great opportunity to cover your business before any accident ever happens. Jon Feld June 14, 2021 “I generally start my sermon on reducing risk by stating that most club accidents can be prevented,” says Lance C. Brenn, claims litigation analyst at K&K Insurance Group, Inc.
A Club Brand with Purpose Resonates with Members
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by SportsArt. Every member shares your fitness values, but having them align with your purpose creates a higher level of loyalty. Jon Feld June 07, 2021 The fitness industry offers a unique value proposition: Your consumer already shares your mindset regarding the importance of fitness. So, how can you draw them closer? In what way can your values help you instill an even deeper loyalty? Let them see your purpose.
Fitness Is Essential: Supporting Clubs and Members
This is an IHRSA featured article, brought to you by Matrix Fitness. Fitness is more critical now than ever. Here’s how the message supports the industry and clubs support the message. Jon Feld June 01, 2021 Karlie Intlekofer, Ph.D., global wellness researcher for Matrix, contributed to this article. American health clubs and studios served almost 65 million members prior to the coronavirus outbreak.
The 'New Normal' Makes Next-Level Cleanliness Crucial for Clubs
As they reopen, fitness centers need to meet heightened member expectations for consistently sanitized environments. Jon Feld May 04, 2021 When it comes to bringing consumers back into retail operations across the board, cleanliness and sanitary environments have become the new bellwethers, replacing more traditional concerns of the past.
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