Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 150. Megan Roup, Founder of The Sculpt Society
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You don't need to look outside of yourself for the answers.
- 0:03Speaker 1: Everything that you need to know is in yourself and
- 0:06Speaker 1: lean into that.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, Emily A body here bringing you Episode one
- 0:24Speaker 2: hundred and fifty of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where
- 0:28Speaker 2: I sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about their
- 0:31Speaker 2: big wins, tough moments, and everything in between. On the show,
- 0:36Speaker 2: you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid discussions with everyone
- 0:40Speaker 2: from top athletes and CEOs to aspiring entrepreneurs and what
- 0:44Speaker 2: it really takes to follow your passions. My mission is
- 0:48Speaker 2: simple to inspire you to be your best self, move
- 0:51Speaker 2: with intention, and have some fun along the way. For
- 0:55Speaker 2: today's episode, which one fifty, let's just like take a
- 0:59Speaker 2: quick feat together to recognize how I just love a
- 1:02Speaker 2: nice phone number. Today I am chatting with Meghan Roup.
- 1:07Speaker 2: She is the founder of the Skulp Society, which by
- 1:10Speaker 2: now you have certainly heard of. I'm sure because it
- 1:12Speaker 2: grew seven hundred percent in the last year of all
- 1:17Speaker 2: of us doing at home fitness. Meghan grew up in
- 1:21Speaker 2: California dancing from a young age and went through her
- 1:24Speaker 2: fair share of hurdles on her way to NYU's Tish
- 1:27Speaker 2: School of the Arts. In today's episode, we cover a lot.
- 1:30Speaker 2: We talk about the pressures that came hand in hand
- 1:33Speaker 2: with trying to make it as a dancer, including struggling
- 1:36Speaker 2: with disorder and eating and getting to a place where
- 1:38Speaker 2: she felt truly comfortable in her body. We also chat
- 1:42Speaker 2: about her stint as a Brooklyn Nets dancer and how
- 1:45Speaker 2: her love for dance based fitness actually started as a
- 1:48Speaker 2: side hustle when she was running around New York constantly
- 1:51Speaker 2: auditioning for new opportunities. We also get into a slew
- 1:54Speaker 2: of things that have been going on in her life
- 1:56Speaker 2: for the past year, including marriage, a baby on the way,
- 2:00Speaker 2: what it's like to run her own business and do
- 2:02Speaker 2: everything from literally this woman is a superhero, teach live
- 2:06Speaker 2: classes daily, edit her own videos, manage the company finances
- 2:11Speaker 2: so much, so much work that goes into creating a
- 2:15Speaker 2: quality product on the Sculpt Society, And of course we
- 2:18Speaker 2: chat about what this uptick has meant for her business,
- 2:21Speaker 2: what it's taught her about herself as an entrepreneur, and
- 2:24Speaker 2: really important here the conversation that we have around self
- 2:27Speaker 2: care and listening to your body when you experience signs
- 2:32Speaker 2: of burnout. Spoiler, we both cry in this episode. It
- 2:36Speaker 2: doesn't happen often, but in this case, honestly, it doesn't
- 2:40Speaker 2: really surprise me because there are a lot of emotions
- 2:43Speaker 2: that come to the forefront when you have two passionate
- 2:47Speaker 2: women sitting down to talk about their why. Megan and
- 2:51Speaker 2: the sculpt Society team want to give hurdlers a really
- 2:54Speaker 2: great deal to get in on the action. If you've
- 2:56Speaker 2: yet to try out the app yet, head on over
- 2:58Speaker 2: to the sculpt Society and use code Hurdle two five
- 3:02Speaker 2: for two weeks free plus twenty five percent off your
- 3:05Speaker 2: first month. Make sure you're staying up to date with
- 3:08Speaker 2: Hurdle over on social It is over at Hurdle podcast
- 3:11Speaker 2: on Instagram. I am at Emily a Body. We also
- 3:14Speaker 2: have a super secret Facebook group and a weekly newsletter
- 3:18Speaker 2: that I would love for you to subscribe to. The
- 3:20Speaker 2: Weekly Hurdle. Links to do all this are in the
- 3:23Speaker 2: show notes, and also in the show notes, you will
- 3:25Speaker 2: find a special link that you can click to leave
- 3:28Speaker 2: me a voice message. That's right, I'm encouraging you to
- 3:32Speaker 2: leave me a voice message. Ask me your questions. I'm
- 3:35Speaker 2: featuring them regularly in the five Minute Friday segments and
- 3:40Speaker 2: I would love to connect with you more and here
- 3:42Speaker 2: what you love about the show, what's going on in
- 3:44Speaker 2: your world, and open that up as a way for
- 3:47Speaker 2: us to connect. So pretty please later on, maybe after
- 3:51Speaker 2: you listen, drop me a voice message with that. Let's
- 3:55Speaker 2: get to hurdling today. I am sitting down with Megan Rupe.
- 4:06Speaker 2: She is the founder of the sculpt Society.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Megan, how you doing, I'm good, Thanks for having me, of.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Course, thank you so much for coming on. I'm I'm
- 4:15Speaker 2: excited to have you here today because I oftentimes, as
- 4:20Speaker 2: one would expect, get a lot of messages in the
- 4:24Speaker 2: DMS with requests for me to chat with you. So
- 4:27Speaker 2: here we are finally making it happen. I know you
- 4:30Speaker 2: recently announced something pretty exciting you are expecting congratulations.
- 4:35Speaker 1: I am thank you so much. I am equally excited
- 4:38Speaker 1: as I am terrified. But it's an exciting next chapter.
- 4:43Speaker 2: An exciting next chapter. I'm sure that with that announcement
- 4:47Speaker 2: probably came a fair share of people already looking to
- 4:51Speaker 2: you for advice. How has that been for you?
- 4:54Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been an interesting time, you know. I feel
- 4:57Speaker 1: like everyone in the fitness space is just kind of
- 5:00Speaker 1: trying to just hold space for people and just to
- 5:03Speaker 1: come and to feel good during a very stressful, anxiety
- 5:08Speaker 1: ridden time. So you know, it's definitely can be overwhelming
- 5:13Speaker 1: sometimes in the DMS, I always try and get back
- 5:16Speaker 1: to people because I think it's so important. But I
- 5:18Speaker 1: do think people are turning to fitness and wellness to
- 5:21Speaker 1: feel better during this pandemic.
- 5:24Speaker 2: Before we dive in more to your story, why don't
- 5:28Speaker 2: you give the hurdlers a little bit of background on
- 5:31Speaker 2: exactly what the Sculpt Society is.
- 5:34Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Yeah, So for anyone who doesn't know what the Sculpt
- 5:37Speaker 1: Society is, it is a dance based fitness method. So
- 5:41Speaker 1: I really like to take an athletic approach to the
- 5:45Speaker 1: Sculpt Society. I really simplify dance cardio for non dancers,
- 5:50Speaker 1: and the bulk of the method is really low impact sculpting,
- 5:53Speaker 1: So combining the two to create a really fun, effective
- 5:58Speaker 1: workout with no judge and just really with the intention
- 6:03Speaker 1: to empower women to feel really good in their bodies physically,
- 6:07Speaker 1: mentally and just creating space and holding space in that way.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Can we talk about the word sculpt I'm sure that
- 6:14Speaker 2: people probably ask you this all the time.
- 6:17Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So.
- 6:19Speaker 2: I mean, I feel as though, and don't let me
- 6:22Speaker 2: put words in your mouth, but my guess is that
- 6:25Speaker 2: when you came up with this name, there probably weren't
- 6:28Speaker 2: as many conversations about the word sculpt as there are now.
- 6:32Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, let me tell you. I the word
- 6:35Speaker 1: sculpt like was not around when I came up with
- 6:38Speaker 1: the Sculpt Society, So I thought, I love the name,
- 6:40Speaker 1: the Sculpt Society. But now it's just everywhere. And yeah,
- 6:46Speaker 1: like you said, it feels like just suddenly a word
- 6:49Speaker 1: that's exploded in everyone, especially obviously in the fitness industry.
- 6:53Speaker 3: So suddenly it is everywhere.
- 6:56Speaker 2: For sure, it is everywhere, And I think it be
- 7:00Speaker 2: tough because for some people they hear the word sculpt
- 7:03Speaker 2: and they have like an adverse reaction.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, it was hard for me when
- 7:08Speaker 1: I was coming up with the name for my method.
- 7:11Speaker 1: I wanted something, you know, because it's a blend of
- 7:14Speaker 1: so many modalities, and so for me, sculpt felt it
- 7:19Speaker 1: resonated with me because it's low impact, it's feminine, it's
- 7:24Speaker 1: all of these things combined. But I do think for
- 7:28Speaker 1: some people it can feel intimidating, which is exactly the
- 7:31Speaker 1: opposite of what I want people to experience with the
- 7:34Speaker 1: Sculpt Society for sure.
- 7:36Speaker 2: So I mean, I know just from reading about you
- 7:39Speaker 2: and learning from you over the past few years, that
- 7:42Speaker 2: you haven't always been an extreme fitness person. So talk
- 7:45Speaker 2: to me about growing up. Talk to me about how
- 7:49Speaker 2: life was like when you were young in California.
- 7:53Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I actually moved around a bunch as a kid.
- 7:55Speaker 1: So I was born in California. I lived in Quardlin, Idaho,
- 7:59Speaker 1: for most of my youth. I lived my parents are
- 8:02Speaker 1: from Cape Town, South Africa, so I lived there for
- 8:04Speaker 1: a year, back to Idaho, and then I ended up
- 8:06Speaker 1: in Santa Barbara for high school. But while I was
- 8:09Speaker 1: in Idaho, my mom had found a local ballet studio,
- 8:14Speaker 1: and you know, I really that was my first real
- 8:18Speaker 1: love was at seven, you know, diving into classical ballet
- 8:23Speaker 1: and really sticking with that very regimented, disciplined way of movement.
- 8:29Speaker 1: But loved it so much and so really danced my
- 8:32Speaker 1: whole youth and into high school. In high school, I
- 8:36Speaker 1: was a part of the dance team, which was like
- 8:38Speaker 1: the first taste of different ways of moving outside of ballet.
- 8:43Speaker 1: But I never really was I never went to a
- 8:45Speaker 1: gym in high school. That was never something I really
- 8:49Speaker 1: got into until probably my senior year of high school.
- 8:54Speaker 1: So movement for me at quote unquote, exercise for me
- 8:57Speaker 1: was always around dance. You know, I think exercise was
- 9:02Speaker 1: introduced to me my senior year when I started to
- 9:06Speaker 1: feel a little anxious about what the next chapter of
- 9:09Speaker 1: my life was going to look like. You know, as
- 9:11Speaker 1: we're all applying for college and I'm faced with that
- 9:14Speaker 1: next step of do I pursue dance or do I
- 9:17Speaker 1: go into this traditional route of college. I had always
- 9:20Speaker 1: been really academic in high school, and you know, I
- 9:23Speaker 1: had studied for the SATs and done well, and I
- 9:26Speaker 1: felt this immense pressure to go that traditional route, and
- 9:31Speaker 1: I started to take out some of my anxiety by going.
- 9:37Speaker 3: To the gym.
- 9:39Speaker 1: And so, you know, my first experience with physical fitness
- 9:43Speaker 1: that wasn't dance, I would always say was like slow
- 9:46Speaker 1: torture for me, because it was it wasn't an enjoyable experience.
- 9:50Speaker 1: It just felt a little bit like torture, especially as
- 9:53Speaker 1: I went into my freshman year of college, when I
- 9:56Speaker 1: would say, my relationship with food and my body took
- 10:01Speaker 1: a turn for the worst and I sort of developed
- 10:03Speaker 1: this obsessive nature around that, not really understanding why, because
- 10:10Speaker 1: I had never really had any issues. I'd always had
- 10:13Speaker 1: a very positive relationship with food in my body. But
- 10:16Speaker 1: I think that had changed. And I can say this
- 10:19Speaker 1: in retrospect because I now understand it, But it was
- 10:21Speaker 1: never about food or my body during that time in
- 10:23Speaker 1: my early twenties. It was because I was so unhappy
- 10:28Speaker 1: with the decision that I had ultimately ultimately made, which
- 10:31Speaker 1: was to not pursue dance.
- 10:33Speaker 3: Right.
- 10:33Speaker 1: I was looking for things outside of myself to numb
- 10:37Speaker 1: the anxiety that I really knew, or the sadness really
- 10:41Speaker 1: that I had known that I had made the wrong
- 10:42Speaker 1: decision and I wasn't pursuing what I should have been pursuing.
- 10:46Speaker 1: So I think oftentimes when we look outside of ourselves,
- 10:50Speaker 1: we turned to other things to numb the pain, and
- 10:52Speaker 1: that can be anything from food to alcohol, to drugs
- 10:55Speaker 1: to sex, like whatever it is, whatever your drug of
- 10:57Speaker 1: choice is, And that for me, unfortunately was developing just
- 11:02Speaker 1: you know, an unhealthy relationship and a really negative relationship
- 11:06Speaker 1: with food in my body.
- 11:07Speaker 2: So where did you start With college?
- 11:09Speaker 1: I was at cal Pauly and San LISABETHPO studying English.
- 11:13Speaker 2: Very different than the thought process of studying dance. So
- 11:18Speaker 2: when you first decided to start over there, what encouraged
- 11:22Speaker 2: that decision.
- 11:24Speaker 1: I think a lot of things. You know, Like I
- 11:26Speaker 1: said before, I was I was really academic in high school.
- 11:29Speaker 1: I had done really well. I was in you know,
- 11:31Speaker 1: advanced placement classes, I had studied, I done well in
- 11:33Speaker 1: the SATs, and I think there, you know, all of
- 11:37Speaker 1: my social circle was really academic, and it was like
- 11:42Speaker 1: the cool thing to do, you know, like you're pursuing
- 11:47Speaker 1: a career in academics. And so I felt pressure not
- 11:51Speaker 1: only socially, but also at home. I think, you know,
- 11:53Speaker 1: my parents both immigrated to this country. I think they
- 11:56Speaker 1: saw stability, not in the arts, and so while I
- 12:00Speaker 1: was always supported by them in my decisions, ultimately there
- 12:04Speaker 1: was an underlying pressure just to kind of pursue something
- 12:07Speaker 1: that was steady, and so I was never really shown
- 12:11Speaker 1: the path and the opportunity that could come with pursuing
- 12:16Speaker 1: dance and the arts. I don't think my parents really
- 12:18Speaker 1: saw anything outside of well Megan could do, could go
- 12:22Speaker 1: into a ballet company or a modern company, and what
- 12:26Speaker 1: that looked like. Whereas you know, the world of the
- 12:28Speaker 1: arts and the dance is so big, and there's so
- 12:31Speaker 1: many paths you can take, and I don't think I
- 12:34Speaker 1: was ever really, I never really took it upon myself
- 12:38Speaker 1: to learn what those different paths could take. So I
- 12:41Speaker 1: really only saw sort of two ways. It was like, Okay,
- 12:43Speaker 1: Megan pursues dance and she you know, is in a
- 12:47Speaker 1: company for a couple of years, or she can you know,
- 12:50Speaker 1: take this traditional college rout and have a really stable
- 12:54Speaker 1: career in something.
- 12:56Speaker 2: When did you realize that the path you were on
- 13:00Speaker 2: was not one that was serving you?
- 13:04Speaker 1: If I'm honest with myself, pretty early on, you know,
- 13:08Speaker 1: I can look back now and say that in the moment,
- 13:11Speaker 1: it took me a full year to realize it. But
- 13:15Speaker 1: realizing that I was unhappy, I was causing myself all
- 13:20Speaker 1: this unhappiness with yo yo dieting and binge eating and
- 13:23Speaker 1: just sort of this endless cycle. So I knew I
- 13:26Speaker 1: was unhappy. I just didn't realize why. And it just
- 13:31Speaker 1: took me a really it took me a full year
- 13:33Speaker 1: to figure it out and to ask for help and
- 13:37Speaker 1: to go see a therapist and really, you know, have
- 13:41Speaker 1: the intuition that something was off. I just needed help
- 13:44Speaker 1: to put the pieces together. But yeah, I mean that
- 13:47Speaker 1: behavior happened pretty I started focusing on food and exercise
- 13:51Speaker 1: and over exercising pretty early on in my freshman year
- 13:54Speaker 1: of college. And so you know, if I really like
- 13:56Speaker 1: asked myself, when I knew it was probably the first
- 13:59Speaker 1: day of cal paul.
- 14:02Speaker 2: I know that confronting something that's going on that you
- 14:05Speaker 2: don't necessarily want to confront can feel super hard. So
- 14:09Speaker 2: when you look back on that freshman year, knowing early
- 14:13Speaker 2: on that things just didn't feel right and then noticing
- 14:16Speaker 2: a trend for the worst in your behavior, was there
- 14:20Speaker 2: a certain day, moment, week thing that happened that you
- 14:24Speaker 2: were like, Okay, it's time to see a therapist.
- 14:28Speaker 1: It was probably like a mid binge of like yo
- 14:31Speaker 1: yo dieting, restricting, restricting, and then binging for like the
- 14:34Speaker 1: hundredth time. And I just remember thinking, I am.
- 14:39Speaker 3: So sick of this.
- 14:41Speaker 1: I'm so sick of the amount of time and obsessiveness
- 14:46Speaker 1: that I'm dedicating to food in my body that isn't
- 14:51Speaker 1: there's no end in sight. And I felt so trapped
- 14:54Speaker 1: and suffocated, and I felt like I was drowning in it.
- 14:57Speaker 1: And I knew because I had I'm I mean generally
- 15:00Speaker 1: are pretty happy person. I knew that there was life
- 15:03Speaker 1: outside of this like complete dark hole that I was in.
- 15:07Speaker 1: So I'm just thankful I had sort of that that
- 15:10Speaker 1: moment of being able to sort of step back from
- 15:13Speaker 1: it and knowing that I could change my behavior and
- 15:16Speaker 1: that there was more to life than just being in
- 15:18Speaker 1: this endless cycle.
- 15:20Speaker 2: So what happens after you seek out the help?
- 15:24Speaker 1: I seek out the help my therapist. I mean, it's
- 15:27Speaker 1: probably like day one of therapy and she's like, you know,
- 15:30Speaker 1: asks me all these questions about my past, and she
- 15:33Speaker 1: puts it together pretty quickly, and she's like, listen, you
- 15:35Speaker 1: are focusing and numbing yourself. You're numbing all of these
- 15:39Speaker 1: feelings you're having because you're not pursuing what it is
- 15:43Speaker 1: that you love. You know, you should be doing dance.
- 15:46Speaker 3: And so she puts it.
- 15:47Speaker 1: You know, I'm probably in there for like two or
- 15:49Speaker 1: three sessions, and I you know, it complete completely changes
- 15:53Speaker 1: my path and my my trajectory. I go home, I
- 15:56Speaker 1: tell my parents, you know, it's it's clicked for me.
- 15:59Speaker 1: I need to I need to start over. I need
- 16:01Speaker 1: to leave cal Poly, I need to pursue dance. At
- 16:05Speaker 1: this point, it's the end of my freshman year, so
- 16:08Speaker 1: it's too late to transfer anywhere. I decide that I
- 16:12Speaker 1: need to take my sophomore year, go to LA get
- 16:17Speaker 1: back into quote unquote dancer shape, which is different than
- 16:20Speaker 1: physical shape, like, you know, getting back into the technique
- 16:22Speaker 1: of it. I go, and I continue to take classes
- 16:26Speaker 1: to get class credit at Santa Monica College. It's a
- 16:30Speaker 1: really lonely dark year. Still, I probably still should have
- 16:34Speaker 1: been in therapy. You know, those behaviors don't just suddenly
- 16:37Speaker 1: end because you can put two and two together while
- 16:39Speaker 1: you weren't haavy, right, So you know, that year was dark.
- 16:43Speaker 1: I the light at the end of that year was
- 16:47Speaker 1: you know, getting my acceptance letter to NYU and knowing that, okay,
- 16:51Speaker 1: I was taking baby steps in the right direction. But
- 16:56Speaker 1: I really, you know, I'd say that over the course
- 16:58Speaker 1: of the next four year years, I really did a
- 17:01Speaker 1: lot of self work and read a lot of books
- 17:05Speaker 1: and meditated and really finally came out on the other
- 17:10Speaker 1: end of it. But I think it would have been
- 17:12Speaker 1: a much faster quote unquote recovery if I had been
- 17:17Speaker 1: in therapy the whole time.
- 17:19Speaker 2: And I think what's important here and that you notice.
- 17:22Speaker 2: But still persisted. Is not having that all or nothing mentality,
- 17:27Speaker 2: Like you noticed, even going through these hurdles, that you
- 17:30Speaker 2: were making positive progress all by At times it wasn't,
- 17:34Speaker 2: you know, as fast as you had hoped it would go,
- 17:37Speaker 2: or things weren't going as speedy as you hoped that
- 17:39Speaker 2: they would. And so I mean that's commendable and it's
- 17:42Speaker 2: impressive and beautiful that you continued on your journey regardless.
- 17:47Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I do think gosh, if I could have
- 17:50Speaker 1: gone back in time, you know, I think I think
- 17:53Speaker 1: so many of us could have benefited from talking to someone,
- 17:56Speaker 1: And I think a lot of us just kind of
- 17:58Speaker 1: want to figure it out on our own, which is
- 18:01Speaker 1: good and bad. Sometimes we need to ask for help though,
- 18:04Speaker 1: and really seek out professional help.
- 18:07Speaker 2: So once you do all of this work and you're
- 18:11Speaker 2: working on getting back into dancing shape and you're going
- 18:14Speaker 2: through the motions processing things mentally, where does your journey
- 18:18Speaker 2: take you from there?
- 18:19Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 18:19Speaker 1: So, I you know, NYU's dance program was amazing. It
- 18:24Speaker 1: was like the small conservatory experience, but you know, it
- 18:29Speaker 1: kind of spits you out on the end three years
- 18:31Speaker 1: later and they're like, Okay, good luck.
- 18:34Speaker 3: So you know, I come out of that a much more.
- 18:39Speaker 1: Positive or in a much more positive place with food
- 18:43Speaker 1: in my body. I think through my NYU experience, I
- 18:47Speaker 1: was still struggling to figure out movement though. You know,
- 18:51Speaker 1: I was still like torturing myself in the gym, and
- 18:55Speaker 1: you know, it would be like every mile I would
- 18:57Speaker 1: count the calories that I was burning. Movement outside of
- 19:01Speaker 1: dance was never enjoyable to me. Exercise outside of dance
- 19:04Speaker 1: was never enjoyable for me. It really wasn't until I
- 19:10Speaker 1: discovered dance space fitness that things finally clicked for me
- 19:16Speaker 1: because I had already I'd been working on myself. I
- 19:18Speaker 1: had so much a much healthier relationship with food, and
- 19:23Speaker 1: then it was like the missing link for me was
- 19:26Speaker 1: finding a way of exercising that felt good in my body.
- 19:29Speaker 1: So at that point, you know, I graduated, I was
- 19:32Speaker 1: auditioning like a crazy person, you know, trust me, tons
- 19:36Speaker 1: of highs and lows professionally. Multiple times thought I was
- 19:39Speaker 1: going to move back to California and give up dance
- 19:42Speaker 1: because I was just not booking any jobs. And then
- 19:45Speaker 1: finally started to book some work, worked in a little
- 19:49Speaker 1: bit of the theater, I did a little company work,
- 19:51Speaker 1: and then I was working with the Brooklyn Nets dance
- 19:55Speaker 1: team in for the NBA. So by that point I
- 20:00Speaker 1: had started my side hustle teaching at a local studio fitness.
- 20:05Speaker 2: Two things, first question, talk to me about the auditioning process,
- 20:10Speaker 2: because I would imagine that during that process, just I mean,
- 20:15Speaker 2: this is me completely referencing great movies like but like,
- 20:19Speaker 2: I would imagine that that process would probably cater to
- 20:24Speaker 2: some negative self talk, poor body image, et cetera.
- 20:27Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, listen, you walk into a room
- 20:30Speaker 1: and you see five hundred girls that look exactly like
- 20:33Speaker 1: you because the call she's asking for a five to
- 20:35Speaker 1: seven brunette girl. And it's tough, and it's not like
- 20:40Speaker 1: once a year you're doing this. You're doing this like
- 20:43Speaker 1: day after day after day. And so I think, you know,
- 20:48Speaker 1: dance really teaches you discipline. It's taught me tenacity. It's
- 20:52Speaker 1: taught me how to believe in myself because at the
- 20:55Speaker 1: end of the day, if you're hearing no over and
- 20:58Speaker 1: over again, and you know, that can really get to you.
- 21:01Speaker 1: And I would say most people give up too early
- 21:07Speaker 1: in the dance community because it can be just.
- 21:10Speaker 3: Such a hard lifestyle.
- 21:13Speaker 1: You really have to develop a thick skin, And I
- 21:15Speaker 1: say that now so much more lightly. When you're in it,
- 21:18Speaker 1: it's it's really emotional. And you know, anything I ever
- 21:22Speaker 1: got professionally, I had to audition multiple times. I was
- 21:26Speaker 1: never like I just rocked up to an audition and
- 21:29Speaker 1: suddenly I got the Brooklyn Nets NBA job.
- 21:32Speaker 2: Like that.
- 21:32Speaker 1: I auditioned like three or four times for that position.
- 21:37Speaker 1: So you know, yes, it can definitely get to you,
- 21:39Speaker 1: and then it can get to you in the sense
- 21:41Speaker 1: of like, well is it my body? Am I not
- 21:43Speaker 1: thin enough? I'm grateful by that point I had really
- 21:50Speaker 1: developed a healthy, healthy body image and and you know,
- 21:54Speaker 1: just felt confident in my skin. But had I done
- 21:58Speaker 1: that when I was, you know, in the thick of
- 22:01Speaker 1: the whole, the dark hole, it would not have worked.
- 22:11Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
- 22:14Speaker 2: about a new sponsor for the show, super Coffee. Now,
- 22:18Speaker 2: first of all, what a name, right? I know that
- 22:22Speaker 2: you know that I take my caffeinating very seriously. I
- 22:26Speaker 2: start off every single day with a little espresso. Then
- 22:28Speaker 2: I dabble in a cup of coffee come like nine
- 22:30Speaker 2: am when I'm ready to sit down at my desk,
- 22:33Speaker 2: but come to wish I am always on the prowl
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- 22:40Speaker 2: That is where super Coffee comes in. Admittedly, I was
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- 22:46Speaker 2: that's on the next block. I was getting like iced
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- 24:19Speaker 2: and CBS. When we talk about you finding dance Cardio,
- 24:33Speaker 2: talk to me about what that experience was like for
- 24:35Speaker 2: you and if you remember any details about your first experience.
- 24:40Speaker 3: You know I had never was interesting? Is I had never?
- 24:43Speaker 1: I had never taken a dance based fitness class. I
- 24:46Speaker 1: had auditioned to be a trainer because I, like most
- 24:50Speaker 1: people in the arts or just early twenty something year
- 24:53Speaker 1: olds in New York City, I had multiple jobs and
- 24:56Speaker 1: I was trying to support myself. So I saw this
- 24:59Speaker 1: audition for dancers to teach a dance base fitness class
- 25:02Speaker 1: about oh great, like I can I can exercise, I
- 25:05Speaker 1: could stay in shape, and I can make my rent.
- 25:08Speaker 1: So for me, it was it was more just the
- 25:11Speaker 1: experience of teaching a dance based fitness class to other women,
- 25:15Speaker 1: not only for it to click with me physically that feeling,
- 25:19Speaker 1: but also to be able to share that with other
- 25:22Speaker 1: women and to feel that sense of joy and how
- 25:26Speaker 1: I could pass that sense of joy of movement and
- 25:30Speaker 1: exercise onto them and how that really could affect their
- 25:35Speaker 1: lives as well. So for me, it was just like
- 25:37Speaker 1: this big culmination of all of it. It clicking for
- 25:40Speaker 1: me physically and then being able to share that gift
- 25:43Speaker 1: with other people.
- 25:44Speaker 2: What does sharing that gift with other people look like
- 25:47Speaker 2: for you at first?
- 25:49Speaker 1: At first, you know, because it was in person, and
- 25:53Speaker 1: it was like getting to know you know, you'd see
- 25:55Speaker 1: the same clients every day and you'd have you know, classes,
- 25:58Speaker 1: and I think just seeing a shift in confidence and
- 26:02Speaker 1: other women from day to day from from them taking
- 26:07Speaker 1: your class was filling me up in such a bigger way.
- 26:13Speaker 1: I think at that point than dance was. And I
- 26:15Speaker 1: think for me it was like it was witnessing that
- 26:18Speaker 1: and how I was really being called to do that.
- 26:25Speaker 1: It's not sounds a little booho, but I felt just
- 26:27Speaker 1: such a such an alignment and such a calling like this,
- 26:32Speaker 1: this was this was the next thing in my life
- 26:35Speaker 1: that I needed to be pursuing. And you know, at
- 26:40Speaker 1: that point, I had been dancing professionally for for a
- 26:42Speaker 1: number of years and it had been amazing, but it
- 26:45Speaker 1: just wasn't It wasn't filling me up like it used to.
- 26:49Speaker 1: And suddenly being able to share that with other women
- 26:53Speaker 1: and to see that, like I said, that that shift
- 26:56Speaker 1: in their lives was was just so much more impactful.
- 26:59Speaker 2: You know when you started out, did you think to yourself,
- 27:03Speaker 2: I want to teach this on my own. Did you
- 27:05Speaker 2: think to yourself like, oh, I want to create my
- 27:07Speaker 2: own method, or did you like where were you at?
- 27:10Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 27:11Speaker 1: You know, I was teaching for about two years while
- 27:16Speaker 1: I was dancing professionally, and then I decided to really
- 27:21Speaker 1: commit to fitness. I was also side hustling in fashion,
- 27:24Speaker 1: so that was my third job, but we won't get
- 27:26Speaker 1: into that.
- 27:27Speaker 3: So it took me a while no.
- 27:30Speaker 1: At first, it was just something I knew I loved
- 27:33Speaker 1: and I wanted to do more of. And then as
- 27:35Speaker 1: I continue to really dive deep into fitness, I saw
- 27:39Speaker 1: I saw a real path for me there and I
- 27:42Speaker 1: really took it seriously. I took so many classes in
- 27:47Speaker 1: different modalities from you know, reformer pilates to yoga to
- 27:52Speaker 1: hit just figuring out what I enjoyed and what I
- 27:55Speaker 1: liked and how if I did my own thing one day,
- 27:59Speaker 1: what it would look like. So I started a toy
- 28:01Speaker 1: with that idea. But honestly, it took, you know, it
- 28:05Speaker 1: took a lot of faith and a lot of you know,
- 28:08Speaker 1: time for me to realize, like I was ready to
- 28:11Speaker 1: depart and do my own thing. And that was six
- 28:14Speaker 1: and a half years after I started teaching fitness that
- 28:16Speaker 1: I launched the Scolp Society, and that just you know,
- 28:20Speaker 1: I just needed that time and I also needed to
- 28:22Speaker 1: figure out how I was going to support myself, and luckily,
- 28:26Speaker 1: working in fashion really gave me that financial stability and
- 28:30Speaker 1: really allowed me to actually pursue the Sculp Society and
- 28:35Speaker 1: what that would look like.
- 28:36Speaker 2: I can tell you about the exact moment that I
- 28:38Speaker 2: was sitting on my couch and had the thought to
- 28:41Speaker 2: myself like, this is what Hurdle's going to be, this
- 28:45Speaker 2: is who I'm going to talk to, this is where
- 28:47Speaker 2: I want to go with it. And of course you
- 28:49Speaker 2: know at first where you want to go with it
- 28:52Speaker 2: definitely changes versus years later where I am going with
- 28:55Speaker 2: it and what's happened and where it's going. But for you,
- 28:59Speaker 2: did you have a hurdle moment in Aha moment where
- 29:02Speaker 2: you were like, this is the jam.
- 29:05Speaker 3: I don't think I had a clear moment.
- 29:07Speaker 1: I think I had been daydreaming about it for a
- 29:10Speaker 1: couple of years. So the daydream finally hit a point
- 29:14Speaker 1: where I think I just built up enough trust in
- 29:18Speaker 1: my abilities to want to leave. And then once I left,
- 29:22Speaker 1: then the clear vision happened and I got really excited
- 29:27Speaker 1: about putting the Skull Society together and what that method
- 29:30Speaker 1: would look like, and what the flow of the class
- 29:32Speaker 1: would feel like, and the environment that I would create
- 29:35Speaker 1: and the feeling I would invoke in the woman that
- 29:38Speaker 1: would be in the class. So once that happened, it
- 29:40Speaker 1: was like boom, the vision was super clear.
- 29:44Speaker 2: I think it's two things. The first thing, I'm sure
- 29:48Speaker 2: you get plenty of messages from individuals who are asking
- 29:52Speaker 2: you for your advice about this specific moment, about the
- 29:56Speaker 2: moment when you took the leap of faith, you left
- 29:58Speaker 2: the other thing behind, and you start to put all
- 30:00Speaker 2: of your eggs in one basket. For someone who can
- 30:03Speaker 2: relate to this story, who wants to start their own thing,
- 30:06Speaker 2: and they're scared to put the eggs there, what advice
- 30:08Speaker 2: do you give them?
- 30:10Speaker 1: I think there's a couple of things. I think, you know,
- 30:13Speaker 1: just making sure you have enough experience under your belt,
- 30:16Speaker 1: you know, you know, making sure you have taught for
- 30:20Speaker 1: a couple of years and you are certified and you've
- 30:23Speaker 1: done that work. I also think, my side, I think
- 30:27Speaker 1: a side hustle is so important initially when you are
- 30:29Speaker 1: taking that leap of faith in another business, so that
- 30:32Speaker 1: you are not financially financially strained from your creative endeavor.
- 30:38Speaker 1: Because if I had completely relied on the sculpt Society
- 30:41Speaker 1: in those initial in that initial year year and a half,
- 30:45Speaker 1: I would have completely failed because I couldn't have supported
- 30:48Speaker 1: myself from it. And I think for me, I really
- 30:51Speaker 1: needed to take that stress off so that I could
- 30:54Speaker 1: really cultivate.
- 30:55Speaker 3: The community what I was doing.
- 30:59Speaker 1: And really build that before the financial stress of paying
- 31:04Speaker 1: rent with teaching classes came into play. So I'm really
- 31:08Speaker 1: grateful that I had my job in fashion and was
- 31:12Speaker 1: still able to rely on that, because I think it
- 31:14Speaker 1: really just allowed me to play around with Sculp society,
- 31:17Speaker 1: enjoy it, and build it to a point where two
- 31:21Speaker 1: years into the business, I could completely quit my job
- 31:25Speaker 1: in fashion and go full time.
- 31:27Speaker 2: I love that piece of advice, and I also am
- 31:30Speaker 2: very mindful, and I'm noticing that you speak about your
- 31:35Speaker 2: consumer more specifically her, with so much passion. And when
- 31:42Speaker 2: you are creating your programming, when you are designing what
- 31:46Speaker 2: it is that you're so passionate about, do you think
- 31:51Speaker 2: about the young woman, the girl that you were, the
- 31:57Speaker 2: girl that was struggling and creating something that can help
- 32:00Speaker 2: her every time.
- 32:02Speaker 1: You're going to be really emotional every time I'm talking
- 32:05Speaker 1: to her.
- 32:08Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm like emotional too, because well because that's like
- 32:12Speaker 4: literally what I think about with her all the time
- 32:15Speaker 4: is just like, how can we make someone feel less alone?
- 32:21Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my gosh, I didn't expect a cry. Yeah,
- 32:25Speaker 1: I really am. I really am. You know, what did
- 32:28Speaker 1: she need to hear? You know, she needed to feel
- 32:32Speaker 1: really strong in her body. She didn't need to feel intimidated,
- 32:38Speaker 1: She needed encouragement, She needed to know that she wasn't alone.
- 32:43Speaker 2: I also think something that's really special that you highlighted
- 32:46Speaker 2: when talking about the advice that you wanted to give
- 32:49Speaker 2: someone who may be thinking about hopping out into their
- 32:53Speaker 2: own thing, was you mentioned the importance of certifications. And
- 32:56Speaker 2: I think combined here your passion or her, your passion
- 33:01Speaker 2: for helping her get to where she wants to be,
- 33:06Speaker 2: not only in a physical sense, but in an emotional sense.
- 33:09Speaker 2: That combined with the stress that you have personally on
- 33:12Speaker 2: wanting to validate your craft and wanting to give her
- 33:15Speaker 2: something that's safe, is really important and definitely something that
- 33:20Speaker 2: is really necessary in the world of fitness.
- 33:23Speaker 1: Oh yeah, No, you can't come into it without that
- 33:27Speaker 1: knowledge and that experience, and that just comes with time,
- 33:31Speaker 1: you know. I think I think a lot of people
- 33:33Speaker 1: just think this happened, this was like an overnight thing
- 33:37Speaker 1: for me, and it's me being in the fitness industry
- 33:39Speaker 1: for over ten years and really putting in the work
- 33:42Speaker 1: and the dedication and the education into the craft.
- 33:47Speaker 2: I think we need a quick exhaleing. Okay, all right,
- 33:53Speaker 2: so we're moving on here you said, ten years in
- 33:55Speaker 2: the fitness industry, you have been grinding and building. Talk
- 33:59Speaker 2: to me about one of the maybe first moments that
- 34:02Speaker 2: you really felt as though you were onto something with
- 34:05Speaker 2: the Scolpe Society in its early stages.
- 34:09Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, initially, and I really am truthful about this,
- 34:13Speaker 1: I would be lucky if I got two people to
- 34:15Speaker 1: show up, you know. I think I was in the
- 34:19Speaker 1: early stages of New York. This new concept of incubator
- 34:22Speaker 1: space that had incubator studios had arrived, where a lot
- 34:26Speaker 1: of studios were you know, you could go in and
- 34:28Speaker 1: you could teach your own method and kind of own
- 34:30Speaker 1: your own business within the studio. So I was really
- 34:32Speaker 1: lucky to kind of find two homes to launch the
- 34:35Speaker 1: Sculp Society there. But I mean talk about no one
- 34:39Speaker 1: showing up a lot of the time, or two people
- 34:41Speaker 1: showing up. So where I always went into teaching the
- 34:43Speaker 1: Sculp Society with one hundred percent confidence because I really
- 34:47Speaker 1: believed in what I was delivering and the mode and
- 34:50Speaker 1: like the structure of the class and all that. I
- 34:51Speaker 1: just knew I needed bodies in the room to experience
- 34:55Speaker 1: what I could deliver. So really always brought one hundred
- 34:59Speaker 1: and ten percent even if there were one or two
- 35:01Speaker 1: people there. And I just really also believed in word
- 35:05Speaker 1: of mouth, so knowing that if those two people were
- 35:08Speaker 1: having the best experience, that they would tell their friends
- 35:11Speaker 1: and that word would spread. And it probably took about
- 35:14Speaker 1: nine months for those two people in the class to
- 35:18Speaker 1: suddenly have like a full a full class going and
- 35:21Speaker 1: that was a really you know, nine months into building
- 35:26Speaker 1: the community, that was really an exciting moment for me
- 35:28Speaker 1: where I was like, Okay, I knew I believed in myself,
- 35:32Speaker 1: but I also like, this is this is I do
- 35:35Speaker 1: have something special here with people continuing to show up
- 35:39Speaker 1: in classes, starting to sell out, and that was really excited,
- 35:43Speaker 1: citing in the early days when you know, you go
- 35:46Speaker 1: from from two people to thirty people in a room.
- 35:50Speaker 2: Oh totally, I can totally. Really, I mean, and I
- 35:52Speaker 2: think it's really special that you have the exact same
- 35:55Speaker 2: stress on your product and what you're providing, whether it's
- 35:58Speaker 2: two people in a room or I mean, now, obviously
- 36:02Speaker 2: life is so different. We're talking to, at least on
- 36:05Speaker 2: Instagram two hundred and forty thousand plus people having access
- 36:08Speaker 2: to what you're doing on the regular.
- 36:11Speaker 1: Yeah, which is as my husband likes to remind me,
- 36:13Speaker 1: I started I trust me. I started out also with
- 36:16Speaker 1: zero social media following too, so you know, there's also
- 36:21Speaker 1: just I think, just believing in what you're doing and
- 36:24Speaker 1: that you know, I was quote unquote late to the
- 36:27Speaker 1: Instagram game as well, but knowing the importance of cultivating
- 36:32Speaker 1: that community online which would help you know, the overall
- 36:36Speaker 1: business as well.
- 36:37Speaker 2: Yeah, so then let's segue and talk about the last
- 36:42Speaker 2: year and a half of growing the Scolp Society, because
- 36:46Speaker 2: I'm curious in your opinion as a founder, would you
- 36:49Speaker 2: say that the last year and a half has probably
- 36:52Speaker 2: been the biggest year and a half for your business?
- 36:55Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 36:56Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know, it's it's it's been wild. I
- 37:03Speaker 1: had taken the leap of you know, the next leap
- 37:05Speaker 1: of faith, and the next you know, Scolp Society two
- 37:08Speaker 1: point zero was you know, the classes and the in
- 37:11Speaker 1: real life classes were really going well and it was
- 37:13Speaker 1: so exciting to witness. But I kept on having people
- 37:16Speaker 1: come in and out of classes who didn't live in
- 37:18Speaker 1: New York and the overall message message, which is like
- 37:21Speaker 1: I wish I could take you wherever I was going.
- 37:24Speaker 1: So I already was seeing the digital side of fitness
- 37:28Speaker 1: starting to grow. Peloton was out there. There were already
- 37:31Speaker 1: there had been, you know, the digital side for a while,
- 37:36Speaker 1: but that started to spark, you know, the idea of Okay,
- 37:40Speaker 1: well maybe I should dive into into coming out with
- 37:44Speaker 1: my own platform. And so in November of twenty nineteen,
- 37:49Speaker 1: I launched the SCOLP Society app, which is available on
- 37:53Speaker 1: the web and on app form as well. And so
- 37:57Speaker 1: that was that was a really big leap of faith.
- 37:59Speaker 1: I had saved a bunch of money to put into
- 38:02Speaker 1: the app, and that concept was told by a lot
- 38:05Speaker 1: of people that I was crazy to do it. But
- 38:08Speaker 1: I just saw the digital aspect of fitness as a
- 38:13Speaker 1: new way to reach more people and to expand the community.
- 38:16Speaker 1: And feel so grateful that that was in place before
- 38:21Speaker 1: everything happens in March of twenty twenty.
- 38:25Speaker 2: So what happens in March for you and the scope
- 38:30Speaker 2: of society.
- 38:31Speaker 1: Gosh, you know, everyone who never believed in at home
- 38:34Speaker 1: fitness was suddenly you know, at home looking for an
- 38:37Speaker 1: at home fitness program, and the business just it explodes,
- 38:44Speaker 1: and you know, we grew, We grew seven hundred percent
- 38:47Speaker 1: in the course of eight weeks, and it was.
- 38:50Speaker 3: It was.
- 38:52Speaker 1: Such a silver lining for the business and for me,
- 38:54Speaker 1: and and and just obviously so many more eyeballs and
- 38:58Speaker 1: so many more people to connect with, and you know,
- 39:02Speaker 1: I just I really saw it as an opportunity, like
- 39:06Speaker 1: I said in the beginning, to hold space for people
- 39:09Speaker 1: who were really stressed out and anxious, and really holding
- 39:13Speaker 1: space for them to feel good in that thirty minutes
- 39:16Speaker 1: where they showed up to choose to move their bodies
- 39:19Speaker 1: with me and the School of Society, and really, you know,
- 39:23Speaker 1: hoping that that resonated with them and that they moved
- 39:26Speaker 1: on in their day feeling a little bit lighter and
- 39:29Speaker 1: more empowered.
- 39:37Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
- 39:40Speaker 2: to my sponsor over at Blue Blocks. If you follow
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- 40:00Speaker 2: have been working more than ever, staring at more screens
- 40:03Speaker 2: than ever, and back toward the end of twenty twenty,
- 40:07Speaker 2: I started to experience really uncomfortable symptoms that go hand
- 40:11Speaker 2: in hand with digital eye strain. My eyes were a
- 40:14Speaker 2: little bit sore. I had regular headaches, especially later on
- 40:17Speaker 2: in the day, and I knew that I needed to
- 40:19Speaker 2: do something to take care of my body because I
- 40:22Speaker 2: have a lot to do and some big goals and
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- 41:49Speaker 2: today using the code hurdle at checkout for you. As
- 42:02Speaker 2: you started to show up for more and more people,
- 42:07Speaker 2: I would imagine that at times that can definitely start
- 42:10Speaker 2: to feel a little heavy, especially in the wake of
- 42:14Speaker 2: the pandemic and the heaviness that comes with that. How
- 42:18Speaker 2: were you taking care of you so that you could
- 42:21Speaker 2: take care of others?
- 42:23Speaker 3: Oh?
- 42:24Speaker 1: You know, to be honest, I wasn't. I just felt
- 42:28Speaker 1: so called to show up, and you know, I immediately
- 42:31Speaker 1: started going live on the Sculpt Society app when the
- 42:33Speaker 1: pandemic hit. I luckily had that in place. I had
- 42:37Speaker 1: been working on it with my developers before like COVID happened,
- 42:42Speaker 1: so I had that in place. I immediately start to
- 42:45Speaker 1: go Live. I went live seven days a week for months,
- 42:49Speaker 1: I was doing lives on Instagram. I don't know, there
- 42:54Speaker 1: was just something in me that just felt like it
- 42:56Speaker 1: was my duty in the fitness space to hold space,
- 43:00Speaker 1: to show up and to help people through this time.
- 43:04Speaker 1: So I would say, to be honest, I got really
- 43:08Speaker 1: burnt out by summer. And it wasn't until summer that
- 43:12Speaker 1: I actually felt like I was experiencing the true effects
- 43:16Speaker 1: of COVID and the pandemic and staying at home because
- 43:19Speaker 1: I had just been so focused for those first couple
- 43:24Speaker 1: of months on just continuing to show up for everyone.
- 43:28Speaker 1: So I got burnt out in the summer. I had
- 43:29Speaker 1: to take a little time off and just check in,
- 43:32Speaker 1: do some self check ins. And I think in implementing
- 43:35Speaker 1: small things in my own day was really helpful, like
- 43:38Speaker 1: getting outside of my apartment and doing just little small
- 43:43Speaker 1: things of self care, acts of self care for myself,
- 43:46Speaker 1: having a morning routine, meditating for five minutes in the morning,
- 43:50Speaker 1: just you know, everything I'm telling my community to community
- 43:54Speaker 1: to do, but actually doing it for myself, you know,
- 43:58Speaker 1: was very impact.
- 44:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I can relate with that the sentence everything I'm
- 44:04Speaker 2: telling my community to do, then right, I should be
- 44:08Speaker 2: taking the time to do for myself. I think for
- 44:10Speaker 2: a while I did hit like a really excellent self
- 44:13Speaker 2: care stride in COVID. But as with all habits, I
- 44:16Speaker 2: do feel like some of them ebb and flow and so. Yeah.
- 44:20Speaker 2: I also heard you say on another podcast that you
- 44:23Speaker 2: were on recently, you talked about the fact that you
- 44:27Speaker 2: are editing your own videos. So I would imagine that
- 44:33Speaker 2: taking that responsibility on working on that can be both
- 44:37Speaker 2: rewarding because it's like, look, I can do this all
- 44:39Speaker 2: of myself, I'm so self sufficient, but it can also
- 44:42Speaker 2: be a huge contributing factor to that draining sensation.
- 44:46Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it is probably my biggest flaw
- 44:51Speaker 1: is that I take on too much. So I think
- 44:55Speaker 1: the other thing that was contributing to my overall burnout
- 44:58Speaker 1: was you know, not only was I showing up, coming
- 45:01Speaker 1: up with new content teaching in the morning, but then
- 45:05Speaker 1: all day I was spending answering support emails, dealing with
- 45:10Speaker 1: the behind the scenes of the financial the business, you know,
- 45:13Speaker 1: the accounting, I mean everything that goes into it, editing
- 45:17Speaker 1: the video, like literally every single role I was doing it,
- 45:20Speaker 1: the fulfillment center, my equipment, working with factories, overseats, like
- 45:24Speaker 1: every single thing, and so it. You know, Luckily, I
- 45:27Speaker 1: have a partner who was like, listen, Megan, you you're
- 45:30Speaker 1: burnt out. We need to start allocating some help for you.
- 45:36Speaker 1: And so he really spearheaded that for me, and and
- 45:41Speaker 1: you know, we started to work.
- 45:42Speaker 3: We have a great.
- 45:43Speaker 1: Small team who helps me with support and just small
- 45:47Speaker 1: things that can take things off my plate. However, I
- 45:51Speaker 1: will say I'm still editing videos and still doing small
- 45:55Speaker 1: things like that that I hope eventually I can allocate
- 45:57Speaker 1: workout too. But I will say, as a small business owner,
- 46:02Speaker 1: it is really important that you know kind of how
- 46:05Speaker 1: to do all of the roles because I think that
- 46:08Speaker 1: just helps you understand when you are hiring that role
- 46:11Speaker 1: what is needed. And you know, if I am in
- 46:14Speaker 1: a bind, I know how to go into final final
- 46:17Speaker 1: cut pro and edit my own videos and that that
- 46:20Speaker 1: is empowering in its own way.
- 46:22Speaker 2: You're preaching to the choir. You are preaching to the choir.
- 46:28Speaker 2: I'm so so guilty of this as well. I'm sure
- 46:32Speaker 2: something for you over the past year that was a highlight, however,
- 46:36Speaker 2: was you getting married?
- 46:38Speaker 3: Yes, yes, October Yah.
- 46:41Speaker 2: Let's just reflect on that beautiful moment.
- 46:45Speaker 3: It was. It was.
- 46:46Speaker 1: It was really great. It was not what we imagined
- 46:48Speaker 1: it would be. Obviously getting married during COVID, which was
- 46:52Speaker 1: slightly another probably another reason why I was burnt out
- 46:54Speaker 1: midsummer was trying to plan that wedding. But it was
- 46:57Speaker 1: very small. It was immediate family, only fourteen of us,
- 47:01Speaker 1: and we did it in my hometown of Santa Barbara
- 47:04Speaker 1: and incredibly intimate. You know, I'm an I'm a natural introvert,
- 47:09Speaker 1: so I think for someone like me, it was actually
- 47:14Speaker 1: really good that it was a smaller wedding.
- 47:16Speaker 3: I was really.
- 47:19Speaker 1: Present and in it, and you know, I think sometimes
- 47:23Speaker 1: when there's a large crowd, I can kind of get
- 47:25Speaker 1: outside of my body, if that makes sense. So just
- 47:28Speaker 1: to be really in my body and to be present
- 47:30Speaker 1: felt just so good.
- 47:33Speaker 3: And it was it was perfect.
- 47:35Speaker 2: Yeah, for you when you look back on that wedding
- 47:40Speaker 2: and how it was different than you envisioned, but now
- 47:43Speaker 2: in retrospect, you're saying that it was probably perfect. What
- 47:47Speaker 2: tipit of advice would you offer to the you in
- 47:50Speaker 2: planning mode looking back on it now?
- 47:53Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think you know, and I think
- 47:55Speaker 1: all brides do this. It's just like the small details
- 47:59Speaker 1: really don't mean anything. It's really what is the day about,
- 48:03Speaker 1: you know, and making sure that you know you're concentrating
- 48:06Speaker 1: on you and your future partner and the vows that
- 48:10Speaker 1: you're exchanging and the people that are with you, and
- 48:14Speaker 1: you know, just being in there, because I certainly don't
- 48:17Speaker 1: remember what I ate or what the place setting looked like.
- 48:20Speaker 1: I just remember all of how I felt, and how
- 48:23Speaker 1: it was with Morgan and what he said to me
- 48:25Speaker 1: and what I said to him, and the speeches at
- 48:28Speaker 1: the dinner.
- 48:29Speaker 3: You know.
- 48:29Speaker 1: I think those small details of the flowers and all
- 48:32Speaker 1: of that can feel really stressful and overwhelming, but no
- 48:35Speaker 1: one's going to remember that. And not to not to
- 48:38Speaker 1: spend too much time in that.
- 48:41Speaker 2: Great advice. Okay, so right now, what I would love
- 48:45Speaker 2: for you to do is share with me a big
- 48:50Speaker 2: scary goal that you have for the Scult Society. I'll
- 48:55Speaker 2: give you the no time limit here. I just want
- 48:57Speaker 2: a big scary goal.
- 48:58Speaker 3: A big scary goal. Gosh.
- 49:01Speaker 1: I think the goal for me has always been when
- 49:03Speaker 1: you think of dance based fitness, I want the Sculp
- 49:06Speaker 1: Society to be the first thing that you think of,
- 49:08Speaker 1: just like when you think of beat based cycling you
- 49:12Speaker 1: think of soul cycle, or at home cycling you think
- 49:16Speaker 1: of peloton. I want when people are like, oh, dance,
- 49:19Speaker 1: base fitness, Yeah, the Sculps, like the sculpt Society, I
- 49:22Speaker 1: want that and I want I want to I mean, big,
- 49:26Speaker 1: big goal I want to reach. I want this community
- 49:30Speaker 1: just to burst. I want it to just reach so
- 49:33Speaker 1: many more people.
- 49:35Speaker 2: I like this, So we mentioned obviously a big Instagram following. Now,
- 49:41Speaker 2: when those people come to your page, they see a
- 49:44Speaker 2: woman that's passionate about her craft. They see that you're
- 49:47Speaker 2: the founder of the Sculp Society. They see you working
- 49:50Speaker 2: out alongside your husband and prepping for your soon to
- 49:55Speaker 2: be babe. When you look in the mirror, what is
- 49:58Speaker 2: it that you see look back at you?
- 50:02Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I see someone who just has a lot
- 50:09Speaker 1: to give and wants to share her passion with the world,
- 50:13Speaker 1: and and who is kind and loyal and.
- 50:21Speaker 3: And just wants to share more.
- 50:24Speaker 2: What do you do when you feel I mean, you
- 50:25Speaker 2: talked about over the summer noticing that you really needed
- 50:28Speaker 2: to take like a hard stop and give back to you.
- 50:31Speaker 2: But in the moments that you do feel overwhelmed and
- 50:33Speaker 2: it's not you know, I need to like completely walk
- 50:36Speaker 2: away from two weeks overwhelmed, but just like small doses
- 50:39Speaker 2: of overwhelm, what do you do to manage that?
- 50:42Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, by the way that happens to me
- 50:44Speaker 1: like on the on the daily, you know, I think
- 50:48Speaker 1: for me, it's like stepping away from the computer and
- 50:52Speaker 1: literally just taking a few deep breaths. I think sometimes
- 50:56Speaker 1: I can just like hold my breath and I'm like
- 50:57Speaker 1: on the computer for hours and editing and three emails.
- 51:00Speaker 3: And it's just especially New York.
- 51:03Speaker 1: It's like there's the cycle of work, work, work, and
- 51:05Speaker 1: I think sometimes just stepping away, obviously when it's not
- 51:09Speaker 1: snowing outside, getting outside has been really huge for me
- 51:14Speaker 1: just to breathe and not feel like that massive anxiety
- 51:19Speaker 1: of overwhelm. And I know that can be oh God,
- 51:22Speaker 1: you're telling me to breathe, like please, but really just
- 51:25Speaker 1: like sometimes you know, I'm not even breathing, like I'm
- 51:28Speaker 1: holding my breath the whole time. So I think just
- 51:31Speaker 1: stepping away for a couple of breaths is really important.
- 51:35Speaker 2: And I'm curious as someone who does have a stacked schedule,
- 51:37Speaker 2: because I get a lot of questions about this often myself.
- 51:41Speaker 2: Do you designate certain times during the day for different
- 51:45Speaker 2: things during your week, or how do you organize yourself.
- 51:49Speaker 3: I'm getting better with this.
- 51:50Speaker 1: I certainly have a lot of work to do on it,
- 51:53Speaker 1: but I do think time blocking is really helpful. So
- 51:56Speaker 1: just time blocking out my day of when I'm answering emails,
- 52:00Speaker 1: when I'm creating partnership content, when am I creating sculpt
- 52:05Speaker 1: society content, like just knowing that setting me into a
- 52:09Speaker 1: schedule things I am terrible at and need to work
- 52:12Speaker 1: on and waste so much time doing is scrolling on Instagram.
- 52:17Speaker 1: So you know, I'm certainly not perfect, but I do
- 52:19Speaker 1: think time blocking has been really helpful. I also just
- 52:22Speaker 1: started attempting to sort of batch out content for social media,
- 52:28Speaker 1: and that's been really helpful. I think the idea of
- 52:32Speaker 1: posting day of feels always feels very anxiety driven in
- 52:38Speaker 1: for my grid, So just batching out content ahead of
- 52:40Speaker 1: time has taken a little pressure off. And yeah, I
- 52:47Speaker 1: think again, just kind of scheduling out my day so
- 52:50Speaker 1: I know what I'm set up for and what I
- 52:51Speaker 1: need to achieve. And I'm a big list maker as well.
- 52:54Speaker 1: I love a good list.
- 52:55Speaker 2: Love a good list. Okay, so what excites you right now?
- 53:02Speaker 3: Oh, in fitness or in life?
- 53:04Speaker 1: Oh?
- 53:04Speaker 2: You tell me?
- 53:05Speaker 3: So, Okay, you know what excites me and what terrifies me.
- 53:08Speaker 1: As you know this next chapter, you know, we're looking
- 53:11Speaker 1: to potentially make a move to La.
- 53:14Speaker 3: I'm about to have a baby.
- 53:17Speaker 1: I you know, there's a lot of new things, and
- 53:20Speaker 1: I think it's going to be interesting to watch the industry,
- 53:25Speaker 1: you know, continue to change and develop. As you know,
- 53:28Speaker 1: the vaccine starts to to run, you know, run its
- 53:32Speaker 1: course and we start to kind of go back to
- 53:34Speaker 1: quote unquote regular life. I'm excited to sort of see
- 53:38Speaker 1: that shift in fitness. I'm excited to go back to
- 53:42Speaker 1: teaching in real life a couple of times a week.
- 53:43Speaker 1: You know, I don't think I'll ever go back to
- 53:45Speaker 1: what I was doing before, because that was insane. I
- 53:48Speaker 1: was teaching almost every day, But just being able to
- 53:51Speaker 1: see people and connect with them in a studio setting
- 53:54Speaker 1: twice a week would be really, uh, you know, an
- 53:58Speaker 1: amazing feeling.
- 53:58Speaker 3: Again.
- 53:59Speaker 1: So I think I'm just excited for all of the newness,
- 54:03Speaker 1: but also terrified of the change.
- 54:06Speaker 2: Best piece of advice you have been offered in your
- 54:11Speaker 2: time heading up the SCULP Society.
- 54:14Speaker 3: Oh, gosh. I think.
- 54:16Speaker 1: I think if you're in the room, you belong in
- 54:18Speaker 1: the room. I think for me, oftentimes self doubt can
- 54:22Speaker 1: get in the way and just feeling like I'm enough
- 54:25Speaker 1: as a business owner, as a female, whatever. It is
- 54:29Speaker 1: just kind of that self doubt and reminding yourself that
- 54:32Speaker 1: if you're in that room, like you're meant to be there,
- 54:34Speaker 1: and to own it a little bit more.
- 54:37Speaker 2: I love that. Okay, winding down here, you mentioned before
- 54:42Speaker 2: that one of the pieces of advice you would have
- 54:45Speaker 2: offered your college age self was that so many times
- 54:49Speaker 2: you want to figure it out on our own, and
- 54:51Speaker 2: we just need to really be okay with asking for help.
- 54:55Speaker 2: If you look back on that time right now, one
- 54:59Speaker 2: of your biggest hurdle moments in life, and you had
- 55:02Speaker 2: the opportunity to offer your eighteen year old self some
- 55:06Speaker 2: more words of wisdom, what would those be?
- 55:09Speaker 1: That you don't need to look outside of yourself for
- 55:12Speaker 1: the answers. Everything that you need to know is in yourself,
- 55:17Speaker 1: and to lean into that and to trust it.
- 55:20Speaker 2: I love it, Megan, Thank you so much for your
- 55:22Speaker 2: time today. This was such a fun convo.
- 55:24Speaker 1: I loved it too. Thank you so much for having me.
- 55:27Speaker 2: How did the hurdlers keep up with you? Give me
- 55:30Speaker 2: the details.
- 55:31Speaker 1: Yeah, find me on social I'm at Megan Roup and
- 55:33Speaker 1: I'm at the Sculp Society. If you are interested in
- 55:37Speaker 1: the Sculp Society app, you can sign up on my website,
- 55:40Speaker 1: which is the Sculpsociety dot com.
- 55:42Speaker 3: We've got a two week.
- 55:43Speaker 1: Free trial and I go live multiple times a week,
- 55:47Speaker 1: plus a bunch of on demand content. So it's a
- 55:50Speaker 1: good time over there.
- 55:51Speaker 2: It's a good time over there. I'm ready to join in.
- 55:55Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast
- 55:58Speaker 2: Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys next time.