Gyroscope app with Aaron McGurk

Lisa: (00:00)
I’m a Hair Mineral Analysis Expert. I have a background in Functional Medicine, and I educate people using HTMA testing and maximize health, erase debilitating symptoms and gain energy. I’m a multi time Kettlebell Sport World Champion and I’m constantly searching for high performance pros from all over the world to bring you this Human Optimization Podcast, my name is Lisa Pitel- Killah. Welcome to a brand new episode of the Human Optimization Podcast. I’m so excited to have Aaron McGurk here with us today. He is the head coach on an amazing app called Gyroscope. If you haven’t heard of it, you need to check it out. And especially once you hear what it does. He heads up their premium memberships where they help you form healthier habits and meet your goals through matching data with a professional health coach. Aaron’s background includes Olympic Weight Lifting and CrossFit, he’s worked with National level athletes, as well as Weekend Warriors to help them achieve their goals at all levels. So welcome, Aaron. So good to have you with us today. We have so much to talk about today with this app, it’s been around for a little while and just kind of organically growing and you want it to grow even more because I think it’s pretty incredible.

Aaron McGurk: (00:48)
Yeah, it’s pretty phenomenal. Just the amount of data and things that we’re taking apart. And once you have that, just the amount of life changes that you can make with it, it’s pretty phenomenal.

Lisa: (00:58)
Yeah. So, let’s talk about the app and how it came to be, because I know there’s a little bit of history of how they started with just data collection, but then there’s a lot more behind that.

Aaron McGurk: (01:08)
So it’s really interesting, the founder and CEO started off, well, basically this was just a way for him to track trips, vacations and going out, and things like that. So he actually started just with tracking photos and videos and displaying them amazingly, just making a really nice thing. And it all started as website based, so it wasn’t actually an application, it was just a website. He basically started from that and then started integrating things like different applications to track your locations and things like that because he wanted to be able to go back and find things that he had done or track a trip and stuff like that. And then he really just started taking a deep dive into different types of analytics and things that you could track. Almost anything that you track from a time, like he was tracking his heart rate with the phone camera. You can tape a little phone camera to your finger or to your wrist and track your heartbeat. And then he started tracking blood tests and he just started really doing the deep dive and realized, I think at the time that there was nothing that really harmonized all this, there was nothing that brought it in and created almost like a dashboard or display for your entire life. And so that’s kind of what spurred the whole idea which is really interesting story to hear, but, where it led to, I mean, this has been really impactful.

Lisa: (02:42)
Yeah. And I mean, when I saw it, I couldn’t believe how much information you can get from it. Right.

Aaron McGurk: (02:49)
It was pretty daunting….

Lisa: (02:50)
It was incredible. And just with the food and I mean we’ll talk about all that tracking and all that good stuff so that people understand what they actually can be part of. So let’s talk about all that information. Like what different types of information can you get from this?

Aaron McGurk: (03:06)
Yeah, I mean I don’t want to do the laundry list, but basically anything from steps to your location, to your heart rate, HRV.

Lisa: (03:17)
HRV is a big one. Knowing how much stress your body is under.

Aaron McGurk: (03:21)
It’s really interesting the things that I’d been reading on HRV and stuff like that. I mean my job is to be a professional researcher now, which is really, really cool. But you know, we’re tracking things even as cool as your DNA testing and blood levels and stuff like that. So basically anything that you can automatically track and then we have stuff that you can manually track as well, like weight, body fat.

Lisa: (03:47)
And so there are different versions of the app. So tell us about those and kind of what makes each one of the new unique coaching attached.

Aaron McGurk: (03:55)
Yes. So, basically at its base version, you could just sign up for the app right now. You can create a profile and start tracking anything you have. Most of our integrations happen, through iPhone, through Apple, but basically you sign up and can start conglomerating all your data, all your information in there, and then, we have a pro version where all of a sudden you’re able to integrate a lot more. There’s a couple of extra features, which I know we’re going talk about but, once you go through there, there’s an opportunity to potentially even bump up to the program that I’m in charge of, which is Gyroscope X, and that’s basically where we’re looking to, as you said, pair somebody up with a personal coach. And the really cool thing about it is that for me as a wellness coach being able to see you. Some of my best clients, some of the best members in the gym, you know, you maybe see them for six or seven hours a week and you only have so much impact over their lives and what they can do. And you’re hoping that they’re doing the things that you’re asking them to do, but you don’t know.

Lisa: (05:10)
We don’t know. We are, we are so helpful and, but we don’t always know.

Aaron McGurk: (05:15)
We take their word for it. You just don’t know that’s the reality. But in this, and what’s so powerful about it is that I’m able to see this person’s 24-7. I’m able to see their entire life in terms of food, in terms of their weight, body fat, their steps, their heartbeat throughout the day in one location, all these things. And it’s shared. And I can provide some really impactful insights and some make some really powerful life changes just based off of that.

Lisa: (05:45)
Absolutely. Yeah. And you have to think, I mean, you know, we always talk about consistency, especially as coaches and consistency is the key is you to making those changes. And again, I’m a big believer and I think you are too, is that you know, we’re not making changes to lose fat that are short term or any of those crazy things. We want to be able to do it and be able to sustain it and be able to use it in cycles or whatever you’re doing and how it fits into your life and your goals. And that’s really important. And I think this really, again that 24-7 for you to track and giving all that information like that’s incredible,

Aaron McGurk: (06:24)
You have this data and that’s the main difference between the pro membership and the X membership is that you have all this data that’s fantastic, it’s all displayed there so beautifully and so easy to access because that’s one of the things that these people have all these different applications going out there and it’s not necessarily it as well, but you have this data and then what do you do with it now? Right. So that’s one thing I think that from its inception to now, we’ve really come so far, even in just the pro membership option, we’re starting to come up with so many proactive features that are helping people to make these slight changes. Whether it’s notifications, whether it’s little nudges to go, Hey, you made this goal try and keep up with it.

Lisa: (07:12)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (07:13)
Or, a reactive type notification saying you’re not sleeping as much. Things like that. So there’s all these different features built around it, but when we go to the X now it’s really like, okay, you have an actual professional looking at your data, telling you the things that you don’t know.

Lisa: (07:33)
Right.

Aaron McGurk: (07:33)
You know, because that’s the biggest blind spot as we all know. What we know, but we don’t know what we don’t know. So, now we’re actually going out and we’re being even more proactive. We’re taking this data and we’re turning it into actionable items plus we’re also getting the human element in there with the context of your life story and things like that. So I’ll have a one-on-one meeting with all of my clients and get their backstory of what they’re about and their motivations.

Lisa: (08:01)
Incredible. I mean, I think that’s just such an amazing platform and to have that support and access to people that maybe they wouldn’t be able to get access to as professional coaches too. I think that is really awesome.

Aaron McGurk: (08:16)
Yeah, absolutely.

Lisa: (08:17)
So let’s talk about nutrition. This really intrigued me, because everybody uses, what do they use….My Fitness Pal, super popular. I totally understand that. But it can be a bit time consuming.

Aaron McGurk: (08:31)
That’s one point of friction, right? It’s tough because you already have the not knowing what you’re doing with the nutrition and people not necessarily knowing what are right choices and things like that. But then you want to add in the layer of the friction of having to weigh and measure things, the database in My Fitness Pal is open source and you don’t know if these things are actually correct or accurate. Also just having to keep up with that habit of trying to log in each item and how do I do it if I have a actual recipe? A meal.

Lisa: (09:08)
Right, right. That’s the hardest part. If people are just, I’m going to eat a little piece of chicken maybe and then I have this and then that’s easy but then make a recipe that maybe you enjoy and you’re like, I don’t know what to do.

Aaron McGurk: (09:20)
The funny thing about the logging in and doing the piece of chicken that ends up probably being the best way to eat right because you want to have whole foods, you want to have separated things, you know, but at the same time you’re absolutely right. Like, it’s how do you, how are you going to log, you know, a chicken cacciatore or something like that.

Lisa: (09:48)
And you may not know what the nutritional value is and they may not be in the database. So it makes it difficult. So tell us how to.

Aaron McGurk: (09:54)
So it was a really ingenious solution to this issue, which is kind of taking a step back and realize what’s something that can create the most impactful results and it’s just simply taking a photo, a picture speaks a thousand words. But in the same token, you can get an idea of quality. You can get an idea of portion control as well as just the element of logging. As a coach, you’re trying to get these clients to keep a food log purely for posterity, right? Just to know, “Hey, what did I eat?”, because.

Lisa: (10:33)
It builds awareness.

Aaron McGurk: (10:34)
Did you ever read that study about asking people when they did food surveys and it basically asked people with a 24 hour recall, you know, what did you eat? And it was horrible. Just horrible.

Lisa: (10:48)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (10:49)
Not getting it most days, or most of the time. And so this is just something where you can at the very base on the program show that you can take a picture and log it and have it there just purely to look back on and keep yourself accountable.

Lisa: (11:04)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (11:04)
There’s an interesting thing that also happens when you take that picture. You know, do I want to know.

Lisa: (11:13)
I don’t know if I want my coach to see that exactly.

Aaron McGurk: (11:18)
Exactly. And then when you go to the pro membership, now all of a sudden we’re going to populate your macronutrients for you, for these foods. Give you your total calorie intake.

Lisa: (11:31)
Which blew my mind!

Aaron McGurk: (11:31)
I mean, you can get a lot again from the photo, which is amazing. And so we’re, we’re going to provide your macronutrients for you. Plus you’re gonna have a coach that’s looking at your food, looking through it, basically telling you, ” Hey, this is great, this is great but let’s try and curb this”, maybe switch this, you know, simple things as switching like regular yogurt for Greek yogurt and all these different types of ways and really making some really long lasting changes, which was an easy change.

Lisa: (11:59)
And easy changes. It doesn’t have to be tough. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Right? We’re already in this, I always call it the stressful rat race of society, right? We’re all really busy and running around. So I’m just trying to keep it simple and I think that what’s happening.

Aaron McGurk: (12:14)
Most often we are looking to add rather than subtract. We’re looking to, what I find myself is trying to get these people to eat more protein and that doesn’t necessarily mean meats and things like that.

Lisa: (12:26)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (12:26)
But just getting them more protein in general. Because if you’re looking at a most people’s caloric intake and then their macronutrient intake, you’re easily gonna hit your fats and your carbs. I’ve never had a problem hitting fats and carbs.

Lisa: (12:41)
Does anyone?!

Aaron McGurk: (12:45)
Well that’s the good stuff, right? But it’s the protein that you’ll fall short on. And if you have weight loss, if you’re looking to make impactful weight loss reduction proteins, the number one thing you should be going for.

Lisa: (12:59)
Well, we have to remember, I talk about this all the time; amino acids, right?! Brain function, everything, you know, training; it all takes amino acids.

Aaron McGurk: (13:05)
Do you want to talk about hormonal response to types of foods that you’re eating. It’s all based around proteins and fats. And then you have obviously the carbohydrates with the insulin and the GLP-1 and stuff like that. But you need to get in those types of foods to tell your body that it needs to be full and that that is getting full or else you just get these manufactured foods that are like purposely meant to past drive past these hormone signals that tell you you’re full.

Lisa: (13:43)
I’m not full yet, I’m just gonna keep eating. Yeah, that’s exactly true.

Aaron McGurk: (13:46)
Yeah, exactly.

Lisa: (13:48)
So you touched a little bit of on HRV. So let’s talk about sleep and HRV because I think a lot of people, and I mean regardless of what you’re doing, whether you’re training or not, it doesn’t really matter you still need to know how your body’s functioning on a daily basis. So a lot of people use HRV systems, but this one’s actually completely integrated in the app as well.

Aaron McGurk: (14:09)
Yeah. It’s automatically syncs. So, you know, thankful to our integrations with Apple and Apple watch and stuff like that, that’s all auto-populated. So, this is the part of the app where you can get so much from it just from tracking and just being on top of your game, just with your smartphone. But once you get an Apple watch or a Garmin or a Fitbit, then all of a sudden you can start tracking things like, well, mainly with the Apple watch, you can track the HRV, but with heart rate for the other wearables. HRV, I mean, we know the impact of that in terms of gauging stress and getting an idea of your sleep quality, as well and your recovery levels. So it’s really, really impactful. Just in terms of being able to look at it some really cool studies about it too, that we could talk about if you’d like.

Lisa: (15:06)
Yeah, absolutely. I think HRV is really important. I think that a lot of people really don’t understand the science behind it or what, how they can benefit from and how they can use it for themselves.

Aaron McGurk: (15:18)
Yeah. So, I mean, it’s, it’s funny you’re catching me really freshly on this topic.

Lisa: (15:22)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (15:23)
I’ve just, just done the deep dive on, on this. I always joking with my teammates, you know, my main job is to basically get a sense of, uh, the scope of what we’re, we’re, we’re tracking. So we have to obviously know the data behind it and the research behind it and things like that. But, when I’m doing these deep dives on these topics, I feel like I’m in the matrix where I just, you know, I did that like bulala, and I know kung fu kind of thing. That didn’t get as good of a laugh from my teammates, but with HRV what’s really impactful about it is, it’s basically how to read it; it’s reading the space between your heartbeats. And have you already gone over with your viewers about what HRV and what it is?

Lisa: (16:10)
No we’ve never touched on it.

Aaron McGurk: (16:10)
Okay. So let’s just do a quick skim about it so basically it’s the space between your heartbeats and it’s the timing between heartbeats. You would think that our heartbeat would be very regular, but actually it’s irregular and you want it to be. The more irregular it is, is an indication that you’re actually less stressed, that you’re in more of a parasympathetic state, which is just the different types of nervous system. So when you are more stressed, when you’re in a fight or flight response, when you’re exercising, then all of a sudden it becomes very regular and obviously it picks up. But, when we’re chronically stressed, then our heartbeat again is more regular. And so that’s when you’re going to get shorter, lower scores in your HRV.

Lisa: (17:02)
Right.

Aaron McGurk: (17:03)
So you’ll see markings from 80 to 100 to 200 and then lower scores of like 30 to 50. This doesn’t really make sense now, but once you understand it and track it, it will.

Lisa: (17:17)
Yes. And on those days, you just need to kind of take a step back and don’t do a whole lot.

Aaron McGurk: (17:26)
Yes, yes, yes. Exactly.

Lisa: (17:28)
Extremely stressed.

Aaron McGurk: (17:29)
Yeah. And then there’s the discussion of talking about getting into the conversation of, you know, the chronic stress versus the acute stress, right? We have things that will stress us for a short amount of time, but we generally tend to bounce back like exercise or alcohol and effect caffeine and some of these things like the foods that we eat. Some of these things will have an effect for 24 to 48 hours. But if you’re talking about the people that are chronically drinking, drinking too much caffeine, trying to up all the time and all of a sudden it starts to take a hit because that 24-48 hours keeps rolling over, rolling over and yeah.

Lisa: (18:13)
Right. And your body never gets a chance to kind of get back into balance. Right?

Aaron McGurk: (18:17)
Yeah, exactly.

Lisa: (18:19)
Yeah. And it’s interesting because we were talking about caffeine on the last podcast when we were talking about Power Foods 101 and just intelligently using caffeine and how to do that. So I find a lot of people kind of take it over that line.

Aaron McGurk: (18:35)
You know, for me, I always get the crooked eye because I don’t drink coffee, but you know, when I need it, all of a sudden it’s like it’s this, it’s the super thing that is caffeine. Right. For me it hits me like a brick and I’m just, I’m burning it up.

Lisa: (18:50)
This is when he’s going down the rabbit hole of research, that’s what’s happening.

Aaron McGurk: (18:55)
That’s totally what happened.

Lisa: (18:57)
I’m sure. That’s amazing. Yeah. So we touched a little bit on the coaching aspect and I think this is something that really makes Gyroscope super cool because people have access to coaches. Like I really think that, like how can someone get involved? How does that work? What’s the process of onboarding?

Aaron McGurk: (19:22)
So right now for Gyroscope X we are still in an invite only basis. So we’re keeping it very intimate because we want to make sure that we’re developing it. We’ve gone from where it started to where it is now, we’ve already, come so far in terms of features and we’ve come so far just in terms of our process. And so, right now we have good little testing group that we’re working things out on. And basically when you sign up as a member, you have the option to sign up through the website and through your app as well. So you can sign up and then you would get access to a coach. You would get basically weekly insights from that coach. And we try to base those around obviously what you’re interested in, but we try and make them educational. So we come at it from a couple of different approaches because the natural idea behind a coach was that it’d be very reactive.

Lisa: (20:21)
Yes.

Aaron McGurk: (20:23)
That the coach would be able to see what you’re doing and they can poke and prod and all those things. But you know, obviously you don’t necessarily want to do this just to get poked and prodded. And so we’re trying to come at it from not just a motivational but also an educational perspective. And that’s where we have the most impact because now all of a sudden I’m able to take you from beginner to expert in certain topics and you know, who are the most successful people in the gym, the ones that have been there the longest, that have been able to soak up the most information from their coaches. And those people become so empowered to make positive life changes and to really just go 180 degrees in terms of where they thought they were to where they are now.

Lisa: (21:05)
Yeah. And usually those are the same people that ended up helping others and sharing that education which is really incredible when you see that unfold. And we’ve seen it in the gym situations. I know I have many times and I’m sure you have to.

Aaron McGurk: (21:21)
Yes, absolutely. And so, what they can expect to basically once they sign up for X is these weekly insights. They have an exclusive chat, that you’re sharing with your coach, you’re getting insights on food, on your workouts, all sorts of stuff like that. So really an opportunity to make this holistic change, to sustainable daily life habits and you’re getting all the fun stuff of like I can send you workouts or provide you motivation and all those things that you would get from a normal coach with the added power of Gyroscope and all this other stuff.

Lisa: (22:02)
Yeah. And again, I know you guys have probably haven’t seen this yet, but I’m just saying you need to check out this app because the amount of information, again, I’m gonna say it again, is just so huge for just how your body operates everyday!!

Aaron McGurk: (22:17)
It’s never been displayed like this. Right. You have probably a best comparison is Apple Health and you know, really it’s the difference between just being able to see data points and go, what am I looking at? It’s just so beautifully displayed too. Charts, graphs and trends. When you can see those trends over time and things like that, like we can easily see we’re heading into Christmas and New Year’s and stuff like that and to just see all those trends is amazing.

Lisa: (22:50)
January you get back on track. That’s it.

Aaron McGurk: (22:55)
I was, I was joking the other day December’s a write off because most people are going, “Oh, I want to make a change and this and that”. Oh, January, I’ll just, and then December ends up being the biggest month of debauchery to your body. So you can trend all that and it’s really cool. We will do yearly reports so you can look back.

Lisa: (23:20)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (23:21)
So you can go back and you can look at your trends, just as a summary, you can see how many steps you did for the whole year. You can see how many workouts. We’ll give all these cool data points around and all of this as well as pictures, integrations with Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all sorts of stuff like that. Locations where you were, what you’re doing, pictures related to your locations. It’s wild.

Lisa: (23:45)
That is incredible. And I think one of the coolest things is, again, just the food, right? When you can take a picture of your food and you’re in the coaching program, you don’t have to pick, I ate this and it weighed this much like that. Just so easy.

Aaron McGurk: (24:03)
Yeah. And it’s amazing. And the other thing to note that’s super important is that you can basically share as much or as little as you want, which is really important because a lot of people, I got this sense when I was first starting, I’m such a tech dummy. When I first joined on just all the things that you’ve got and you think, who’s looking at this, right? What’s your number one thought that you’re thinking? Who’s looking at this? Who can see this? You know, how is this dangerous? How can this harm me? And the reality is that we have so many integrations where you can share or not share as much, or as little as you want. We take data security very, very seriously and privacy very, very seriously. So we don’t sell off your data to third parties. And we’re very, very, very serious about that because as a company, and we’re all seeing what’s happening with Facebook and things like that, you can have your brand completely dragged through the mud. So for us, that is one of our top priorities to make sure that people know that when they’re joining in with us and they’re providing all this information, like their heart rate, blood tests and DNA tests and all sorts of stuff, it is private. Plus location is huge, that staying local and they can choose to share as much as or as little as they’d like. So that’s just important to know.

Lisa: (25:27)
I think that’s super important because I wouldn’t be surprised, because the more information and data that we get, we always do want to know kind of who’s looking at it, what are they going to do with it? Am I going to have a problem? And totally think that that is really good.

Aaron McGurk: (25:43)
Yeah, absolutely. It can’t be understated. That’s for sure, especially in this day and age when our online presence has never been greater. And so what you have out there and knowing that it can’t come back. This is very important as well.

Lisa: (25:56)
So, in the age of social media, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter we just have to, it just takes one bad experience, right. To kind of skew that out. So tell us, just let’s talk about downloading the app because I mean, if I was you and you’re listening or watching, I’d already be looking. Oh my gosh. So let’s talk about how to download it.

Aaron McGurk: (26:29)
Yeah. So basically Gyroscope, you could just Google Gyroscope app. The website is gyrosco.pe.

Lisa: (26:39)
Right. And I’ll put that in a link in the description.

Aaron McGurk: (26:42)
So Gyroscope you go in, you fill out some quick basic information, name, age, things like this. Then you can download the mobile app from them and then from there you can sign up for your Pro membership. You can ask to be signed up to the X membership as well but we always suggest people start just getting that data in first because the most impactful people that we’ve had in the X, are the ones that are regular Gyroscope Pro users. Showing that adherence and then showing that data cause then we have a real story board in front of us. Right.

Lisa: (27:23)
Yes.

Aaron McGurk: (27:24)
So signing up on the app is really seamless. We try and make it as easy as possible. And then basically once you join the app, you’re looking at it and you’re just thinking, okay, well what type of integrations do I have? We integrate with all sorts of different apps, like Strava, Runkeeper, we have integrations obviously with Fitbit and Garmin and Apple watch. So if you have these types of things, then you can really optimize what the app does.

Lisa: (27:59)
Especially with the Apple watch, right?

Aaron McGurk: (28:00)
Especially with the Apple watch. And the reason is that is not because we don’t like the other ones, it’s unfortunate that they just tend to be a little bit more close sourced. They tend to try and make their own network and don’t necessarily want to make it as easy. For instance, I was trying out the Garmin not too long ago I was trying to go to Garmin watch, and one frustrating point was that you actually, your information was getting pulled to drive to go and you would think that that would be an issue on our part, but it’s actually because you need to go into Garmin and open your account before they’ll pull all that information. Then as soon as you do that it’s automatically sent. But unfortunately it’s just an extra step, it’s their user interface and we don’t have control over that unfortunately. But all these other ones, we tend to promote the apps that tend to work seamlessly. And then anything, you mentioned our integrations with Apple, anything that syncs HealthKit comes to us.

Lisa: (28:56)
Oh yeah. Okay, good.

Aaron McGurk: (28:58)
So, yeah, so if there’s an app that you’re using that that syncs with HealthKit, then we’ll be able to pull it in as well.

Lisa: (29:04)
Excellent. Good. And so if anybody has, let’s say they have a few different apps that they use and they want to integrate, they have problems that can they contact?

Aaron McGurk: (29:14)
Oh yeah, no, absolutely we’re a super intimate company and so, just in terms of feedback, we even have beta programs where people will take screenshots and videos. Once you join X as well you get access to the Facebook group and people are putting on questions on that all the time and you’re getting feedback as well from the CEO himself, he’s answering these questions very intimately and trying to figure these things out. And the reality is that we’re dependent on that feedback. We need to have that feedback to know where some of the bugs, what are some features that we can be rolling out in the future, how can we be more effective and what are people looking to, what are the things that you’re looking at? You’re going, “you know, I wish I could…” And that’s really what makes up the life source of how to make this more user appreciable.

Lisa: (30:11)
Yeah. Well being definitely very innovative and staying intimate. Right.

Aaron McGurk: (30:17)
Yeah. Being able to answer these questions. I mean the guys are even talking about publishing their phone numbers and stuff like that to have people text them, which is insane but they want to do that.

Lisa: (30:31)
But still super cool. Right. I mean to be able to reach out and actually talk to the person who created the app!

Aaron McGurk: (30:36)
Yeah.

Lisa: (30:40)
Wow. Okay. So talked about how to sign up. I hope you probably already have, I mean, I would have anyways!! So we talked about the art of using it, getting used to it, and then if you want to have a coach, obviously some really amazing coaches on board and some great feedback that you can get to build some great, good healthy habits, whether it’s exercise or nutrition. I think that’s awesome too, that it’s all about optimizing in a holistic fashion.

Aaron McGurk: (31:07)
Well, this is the thing you have, there’s so much out there already, and the online fitness community is only growing. And the online business of health is only growing. But what you’re seeing is you have all these different applications, these different services that are hitting one part of the health world.

Lisa: (31:28)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (31:29)
And nobody’s, because it’s a daunting task, nobody’s trying to come at it from a holistic perspective. And I think we really hit the mark as best as you could right now in terms of being able to bring all that in.

Lisa: (31:42)
Yeah.

Aaron McGurk: (31:42)
And to be able to make the changes and the prompts and the notifications and the insights and all these things; to be able to integrate that. I mean it really is second to none in my opinion.

Lisa: (31:57)
Excellent. Wow. So Gyroscope download the app!!! Again, if you’ve got an Apple watch, super integrative, but also works with Garmin, Fitbit and of course as soon as you sign up and get going, there’s a Facebook community. Super innovative and I just think it’s going to be the next greatest app ever.

Aaron McGurk: (32:18)
There’s so many places that we’re already going with it in terms of talking about some of the features and things that we have. Like, once you join on you not only have your own data but you have the ability to share these things like sharing cards and things like that.

Lisa: (32:40)
I was going to say challenges would be a huge thing for challenges. Who’s going to be able to do this or that, you know?

Aaron McGurk: (32:46)
Yeah, exactly. So you can get on the step leaderboard, either local or with friends, you can add friends on as well, there’s that component. If we’re both on Gyroscope, I could challenge you to a week of fitness basically, where we’re basically squaring off on steps. We’re squaring off on a mindfulness meditation and sleep,and workouts. And so basically you’re given points for all these things and then it populates them. We’re, banging it out.

Lisa: (33:18)
Yeah. And there’s a winner at the end of the week and that doesn’t matter though. It’s just walking and getting sleep!!

(33:32)
And then we also just rolled out, what’s called the Game of Life.

Lisa: (33:37)
Okay. Talk about that. I want to hear about this.

Aaron McGurk: (33:39)
So, the Game of Life, it’s basically where we’re making real applications. We’re trying to make all this stuff actionable, on a scalable level. So we’re having people sign up for the game of life and then they have different weekly challenges. So, right now it’s six weeks long. The current season, we have six weeks long where you’re getting three challenge per week. And it can be anything from, hitting two to three workouts. For example, this week it could be a step challenge for the day, for the week, over the whole season. We even have a go visit a park, get outside kind of things. We have meditation challenges. It’s super cool.

Lisa: (34:18)
Yeah, wow.

Aaron McGurk: (34:21)
So we’re really just getting like, anything that we can be tracking, we’re centering challenges around it that are very fun.

Lisa: (34:28)
That is really neat.

Aaron McGurk: (34:29)
Well, that’s the thing, right? That’s kind of our goal for the rest of this year in 2019 is changing this from being just something that’s like, Oh, it’s really cool having all this data to now all of a sudden we’re making it actionable and we’re prompting you to make it actionable.

Lisa: (34:44)
So. Wow. Yeah. That’s pretty amazing. That’s great. Well, I know I’m going to be using Gyroscope, I hope you are too, because again, I think if you’re not, you’re totally missing the boat on something that is filled with info about you and the challenges and everything else. Just to get healthy habits, be a better you; don’t wait until January. Yeah, do it now. And you know what? And then next December you’ll see if you’re better at Christmas or worse!

Aaron McGurk: (35:17)
And so many of these different features, but probably one of the most powerful ones I haven’t even mentioned yet, which is the health score, and I’m jamming this all in last minute, but the health score is basically a conglomerate of all your data. So, you know, we’re gauging off stress, we’re gauging off your activity level, we’re gauging off your sleep and all these different data points that we’re taking in and we’re providing you a score out of 100.

Lisa: (35:46)
Wow.

Aaron McGurk: (35:47)
So it really ends up being like your own health and holistic report card.

Lisa: (35:55)
Yeah, exactly. It’s like a report card.

Aaron McGurk: (35:57)
And so you’re, you’re able to see the different areas and actually from that health score, and this is a Pro feature but, it basically will give you automatic feedback on what you’re doing well and what you’re doing, you know, what you’re doing okay. And what you need to work at. And so again, adding that actionable element to it. One amazing thing though is, it kinda blew my mind, was it actually told me when I was going to get sick. It was, it was insane. It was obviously basing it off of my HRV, which we split the importance of that, like sleep, it realized I was low on sleep and then I’d been filling out mood scores. So we have this cool like Tinder, like mood score thing.

Lisa: (36:42)
Oh yes, that’s the one I didn’t know how to use.

Aaron McGurk: (36:44)
That’s a good thing! But, basically conglomerating all of that and my resting heart rate and things like that. It said, you know, watch out, get more sleep right now cause you could get sick. And little did it know within a week I came down with a cold. It was insane. So these are the things that we’re stepping to and the future is only limited by the technology that’s out there. So you know the things that we’re going to be developing. I can’t imagine how to start to imagine where we’re going to get to. It’s amazing.

Lisa: (37:21)
Yeah. That is amazing.

Aaron McGurk: (37:22)
Yeah.

Lisa: (37:23)
And again, to have that info and then just be aware, I always say it’s about awareness, everything you’re doing because that’s really what brings things to light. And we become aware whether it’s aware of how big your portion sizes or that you’re not getting to sleep early enough or whatever the case might be. It’s about building.

Aaron McGurk: (37:41)
You don’t know what you don’t know. And once it’s there in front of you, it’s really hard to ignore. And especially most of us want to make these changes, but we just don’t know where to start and that’s where we’re stepping in.

Lisa: (37:54)
And that’s where people get into that overwhelmed mindset. Well, I want to make all these changes. Where do I start? And they’re like, well, I don’t even know where to start. So I’m just not going to do anything.

Aaron McGurk: (38:03)
And that’s where just on the Pro- level, the health score is amazing because it’ll just simply show you what are you doing well, and what are you not doing well and what are some immediate changes that you can be doing. And then we’re starting to roll out information behind that and once we start telling people the why behind that, it’s going to become more powerful. So you know, just in terms of like you said, you don’t know where to start. We’re already trying to set you on a path for success, which is awesome.

Lisa: (38:32)
And it makes it super easy.

Aaron McGurk: (38:33)
Yeah. Exactly.

Lisa: (38:35)
Excellent. So I mean, so much information, you’ve got to check out the app, Gyroscope on all platforms, check it out, test it out. And again, there’s a Pro- version, there is an X- version. There’s real life coaches that can help you get on track, stay on track, be consistent, build healthy habits. And I can’t wait to see what the future brings for this because it is already so unbelievably amazing that it’s going to probably blow my mind!!

Aaron McGurk: (39:10)
I believe it’s going to be pretty amazing to watch.

Lisa: (39:13)
Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and chatting, so you know what, if you liked this podcast, make sure to give us a like and subscribe so you know when the new episodes come out. If you’re listening on your favorite podcast host then give us a thumbs and we’ll see you next time. Thanks for listening to today’s show. Head on over to killah.org to gain access to some amazing resources that will help you gain energy, rid yourself of debilitating symptoms, and be the best version of you. Remember to give this podcast to like and follow me on Instagram @coach.killah. I’m here every two weeks with a brand new episode of the Human Optimization Podcast. Until next time….