When lockdown hit,” says Talilla Henchoz, “I wanted to give back and to help keep people happy and healthy.”
Henchoz, a trained PT, started offering daily live workouts on Instagram for friends and family.
“I turned up to sweat alongside hundreds of people every day for three months,” she says, “until I realised I wanted to offer more – that there was an opportunity to create a new fitness solution based on exercise progression. People were doing workouts online, but they weren’t getting the kind of development in terms of their achievements that they needed to keep motivated, so we tuned into that.”
With her background in the fitness industry (she’s the daughter of Patrick Henchoz, founder of Esporta Health and Fitness Clubs), Henchoz also saw a need for a fully rounded online community to support people through the pandemic and beyond.
The Club V concept
She set about creating it based on the five pillars of sustainable health – body, mind, nutrition, community and sustainability and called it Club V (five).
“My vision for Club V is to build bodies for life,” she says, “My approach is not just to offer another fitness plan designed to ‘burn fat’ and ‘detox’, but a way to hit the reset button and create sustainable, long-term change.
“We want to develop positivity and a supportive community where members feel as though they belong. These are the main drivers behind the club.
“COVID has landed a lot of people in a lonely, negative place,” she explains, “Club V enables members to share and support each other, with a weekly live workout schedule, monthly challenges, recipe booklets, health brand discounts, and content from five health experts; a nutritionist, yoga and pilates instructors, a psychologist and personal trainers. We’re providing an all-inclusive offering.”
Launched on 1 July 2020 off the back of her popular Instagram feed, the club is delivered through a private Facebook group using Facebook Live and already has approaching 1,700 members across 40 countries, paying up to £19.99/month.
Members sign up and pay on the website and are then invited to join the Facebook group, where content is delivered and the content archive is stored.
The number is growing daily and Henchoz decided to cap it at 1,700 to maintain standards. There’s little attrition, so Club V is setting up a waiting list.
Over 25 per cent of members tune in live for workouts, with the rest – many of whom are in different timezones – joining the playback sessions, which include HIIT, strength, low impact, core, yoga and pilates. Sessions are tailored to all abilities.
As part of this new subscription community, Club V showcases and works with industry brands such as JBL audio, WIT Fitness, Grenade Supplements, Yogi Bare and Remedy Kombucha to offer discounts and prizes to support members’ training.
Building a community
Since launching, some members have formed their own WhatsApp groups and meet-ups and made true connections, while getting stronger together every day, says Henchoz. “I believe we can push harder in a team, and that’s what the Club V community focuses on. Growth and accountability all delivered within an online club, where members can share their progress and journey.
“Club V is a family,” she continues, “A safe space for members to connect from all over the world and form relationships. A judgement-free zone where they can share and grow together, which provides routine and stability – an opportunity for people to check in with their mind and body every day.
“We celebrate the highs and lows, and keep it real,” says Henchoz. “Our ethos is focused on what our bodies can DO, not what they look like.
“The power of our community and the collective support between members has been overwhelming,” she adds, citing multiple testimonials from members whose lives have been changed by Club V.
Henchoz, formerly head of brand at 1Rebel in London and a marketing consultant, is using these skills to develop the range of Club V.
“We’ve recently launched our ‘Help to Move’ Initiative,” she says, “which gifts a free membership to someone who can’t join for financial reasons. This is to stay true to why I started the club – to help people through this difficult time.”
The next level
Now Henchoz and the Club V team are looking for additional support from fitness industry experts to help improve their current platform and support the projected exponential growth. “People in Club V trust me, and I want to do the best for them,” she says. “I want to connect with people who can help us progress and improve the Club V offering.
“We want to launch an app, for example” she says, “and we want to make sure we’re using the right platform – we want to refine and continue to develop the offering and to take it to the next level.”
Find out more: www.weareclubv.co.uk
