Latest / The Uplifters / Episode 62: Jennifer Maanavi Is Proving That Flubs, Flops, and Pivots Are the Secret Sauce for Lasting Success
Transcript
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: An uplifter is a compelling leader who tries to breathe life and hope into people around them.
- 0:12SPEAKER_03: Who listen and care and guide and help.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: Whose way of being in the world inspires.
- 0:20SPEAKER_00: Who uplifts with humor and understanding.
- 0:23SPEAKER_00: Who leads by example.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: Don't judge.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: Vulnerable.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: Bold.
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: Determination.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: Who are here to create a better world.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: Who can learn and teach.
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: Who encourages you.
- 0:36SPEAKER_03: Who shines their light to lead other people.
- 0:40SPEAKER_03: Who uses their best self in order to help others.
- 0:42SPEAKER_03: I found the life that I liked and I worked toward that.
- 0:46SPEAKER_03: We are all uplifters.
- 0:47SPEAKER_03: Big love.
- 0:51SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the Uplifters podcast.
- 0:52SPEAKER_03: I'm Aranza Savas,
- 0:54SPEAKER_03: and today I'm joined by Jennifer Manovey,
- 0:56SPEAKER_03: who is the CEO and founder of Physique 57,
- 1:01SPEAKER_03: a global bar,
- 1:03SPEAKER_03: fitness,
- 1:04SPEAKER_03: and media company that hopefully everybody's tried already.
- 1:07SPEAKER_03: Jennifer, thank you so much for being here today.
- 1:10SPEAKER_03: My pleasure.
- 1:11SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me.
- 1:12SPEAKER_03: I'm so glad we met.
- 1:13SPEAKER_03: Me too.
- 1:15SPEAKER_03: So Jennifer, tell me, how did your journey to founding and leading Physique 57 even start?
- 1:21SPEAKER_03: It
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: started with this epiphany,
- 1:24SPEAKER_01: which I think we know now,
- 1:26SPEAKER_01: but we didn't really know then that exercise leads to better mental health.
- 1:31SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know that.
- 1:33SPEAKER_01: And I don't even think we use the word mental health back then.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: So I don't even think I called it mental health.
- 1:38SPEAKER_01: I think I just realized like, wow, when you work out, you really feel good.
- 1:43SPEAKER_01: Went to college.
- 1:43SPEAKER_01: I went to business school.
- 1:44SPEAKER_01: I had a career in financial services and I really enjoyed it.
- 1:48SPEAKER_01: And I thought perhaps I'd end up in financial services for the rest of my life.
- 1:52SPEAKER_01: And after graduate school,
- 1:54SPEAKER_01: I had a little more time on my hands and I started working kind of a pretty long schedule,
- 1:58SPEAKER_01: but regular schedule.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh, you know, I think people exercise after work.
- 2:03SPEAKER_01: Like, I think that's a thing.
- 2:04SPEAKER_01: When was this?
- 2:06SPEAKER_01: That was 2000.
- 2:07SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 2:08SPEAKER_01: That was 2000 when there was gyms and there was some yoga studios and a little bit
- 2:12SPEAKER_01: of like private kind of high-end Pilates.
- 2:14SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't in the day-to-day for everybody.
- 2:17SPEAKER_01: It was for a lot of people, but not for everyone.
- 2:19SPEAKER_01: And it was like kind of popular.
- 2:21SPEAKER_01: I'll just put it that way.
- 2:22SPEAKER_01: And I lived in New York City.
- 2:24SPEAKER_01: And I specifically remember I had just finished school and I said to a friend,
- 2:30SPEAKER_01: so like,
- 2:31SPEAKER_01: what do people do when they don't have homework?
- 2:33SPEAKER_01: Like, I kind of forgot.
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 2:35SPEAKER_01: what to do with my time.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: Like I leave work around 7, 7.30.
- 2:39SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you do after that?
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: She said, well, I think people exercise.
- 2:43SPEAKER_01: And she mentioned a studio that she'd been to that she did not like, but she thought that I might like.
- 2:49SPEAKER_01: I had danced growing up, which she knew.
- 2:50SPEAKER_01: And she said, I didn't like it, but maybe you want to try this place called the Lottie Burke Method.
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: You use a ballet bar.
- 2:57SPEAKER_01: It's very much of a strength training class.
- 3:00SPEAKER_01: Focus on the core, focus on alignment, great for posture.
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: I found it to be too hard, but if you want to try it, go right ahead.
- 3:09SPEAKER_01: I said, okay.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: So I went pretty soon thereafter.
- 3:11SPEAKER_01: I tried it and within,
- 3:13SPEAKER_01: and I am not exaggerating,
- 3:15SPEAKER_01: within 10 minutes,
- 3:16SPEAKER_01: I knew that I would do this method for the rest of my life.
- 3:19SPEAKER_01: It just had everything that I thought a safe and effective exercise method should incorporate.
- 3:27SPEAKER_01: And the instruction was terrific.
- 3:29SPEAKER_01: The exercises were terrific.
- 3:30SPEAKER_01: The pace was perfect.
- 3:32SPEAKER_01: It was hard, but it wasn't like, you know, maniacal, like some other bootcampy things were.
- 3:37SPEAKER_01: And I thought this is perfect for women's bodies.
- 3:39SPEAKER_01: This is just great.
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: So lo and behold, I did do that form of exercise for about five years.
- 3:45SPEAKER_01: And then I was working at Morgan Stanley.
- 3:47SPEAKER_01: And one day I went to that same studio that I had been going to all those years.
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: And they told me that they were closing down.
- 3:55SPEAKER_01: And to make a long story short, what else could I do but start a new one?
- 4:00SPEAKER_01: And that's really what I did.
- 4:01SPEAKER_01: And it took me just like two or three days to determine that.
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: Like once it really sunk in that they were closing down and I went through like
- 4:10SPEAKER_01: what that meant for me and
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: what that meant for the community there.
- 4:14SPEAKER_01: I thought if anyone's going to start it, like it might as well be me.
- 4:16SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know that anyone else is going to do it.
- 4:19SPEAKER_01: And to go back to the original question about mental health and people feeling good,
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: what I had found from working out at this particular method and probably with other
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: methods too,
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: that I just felt more confident.
- 4:31SPEAKER_01: I felt happier.
- 4:32SPEAKER_01: I felt stronger.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: This was really kind of how I stayed kind of strong and positive and empowered at a
- 4:41SPEAKER_01: time when I was in my late 20s and I was working on Wall Street.
- 4:45SPEAKER_01: Not many women,
- 4:46SPEAKER_01: not,
- 4:47SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 4:47SPEAKER_01: you're not naturally uplifted,
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: to use your favorite word,
- 4:51SPEAKER_01: by women around you.
- 4:52SPEAKER_01: So you had to do it yourself.
- 4:54SPEAKER_01: And I felt that feeling strong and flexible and
- 4:57SPEAKER_01: in control of your body really helped me do all of those things in a work environment also.
- 5:04SPEAKER_01: So when I started it, it wasn't like, hey, I just want everyone to have amazing biceps.
- 5:09SPEAKER_01: It was more about I want women to have a place where they can go and feel comfortable,
- 5:13SPEAKER_01: safe,
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: welcomed,
- 5:15SPEAKER_01: adored by the staff while they're getting stronger and fitter and healthier and
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: feeling better.
- 5:21SPEAKER_03: Wow, how beautiful.
- 5:23SPEAKER_03: And it sounds like it was really born out of your own personal need and your own
- 5:28SPEAKER_03: personal experience,
- 5:28SPEAKER_03: which the best things usually are.
- 5:31SPEAKER_03: So true.
- 5:32SPEAKER_03: And yet, though you had worked at Morgan Stanley, you had experience in the business world.
- 5:38SPEAKER_03: Doesn't sound like you had any experience starting a business.
- 5:41SPEAKER_01: None.
- 5:42SPEAKER_03: Zero.
- 5:45SPEAKER_01: I had no experience, but what I did have was the confidence to start it.
- 5:51SPEAKER_01: I felt like, and that's why I use this phrase sometimes.
- 5:54SPEAKER_01: And even with some younger people that I work with or get to know, it's like, why not you?
- 6:00SPEAKER_01: I was 33.
- 6:01SPEAKER_01: I had a one-year-old.
- 6:04SPEAKER_01: I had a good education.
- 6:06SPEAKER_01: I had like 10 years of business experience.
- 6:08SPEAKER_01: That's not a lot by the way,
- 6:09SPEAKER_01: but it's something I had worked with and been with very smart people for a very
- 6:14SPEAKER_01: long time.
- 6:15SPEAKER_01: I was like,
- 6:15SPEAKER_01: well,
- 6:16SPEAKER_01: if we were to find someone else to start a bar studio,
- 6:20SPEAKER_01: is there someone remarkably better out there?
- 6:23SPEAKER_01: Who would that be even?
- 6:24SPEAKER_01: Because it was such a new category.
- 6:26SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't even like there was the perfect resume.
- 6:30SPEAKER_01: This is before boutique fitness was even a name.
- 6:33SPEAKER_01: So if you're starting something brand new,
- 6:36SPEAKER_01: There's no assumption of what that skill set should be other than good common sense,
- 6:41SPEAKER_01: some patience,
- 6:42SPEAKER_01: matched with a supreme sense of urgency,
- 6:45SPEAKER_01: the willingness to like roll up your sleeves and figure things out,
- 6:48SPEAKER_01: a love for the product and a love for other people.
- 6:51SPEAKER_01: Like, well, I have that.
- 6:52SPEAKER_01: So like, I think I could get this done.
- 6:56SPEAKER_01: So I just did it.
- 6:58SPEAKER_03: Wow.
- 6:59SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think the urgency component is really interesting.
- 7:02SPEAKER_03: Why do you highlight that specifically?
- 7:05SPEAKER_01: I don't believe you need to have a sense of urgency to be successful at all.
- 7:08SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that.
- 7:09SPEAKER_01: I think if you want to like bravely enter a space that you're not familiar with, you have to just go.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: And I'll just give you an example.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: And I hope this is not sounding at all condescending or judgmental in any way.
- 7:23SPEAKER_01: But I went to Columbia Business School and they had some great groups for like entrepreneur groups.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: This is when entrepreneurship wasn't such a popular thing as it is now.
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: So they would have these special groups for women to start
- 7:34SPEAKER_01: businesses.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: And what I found is like, let's say we met every month.
- 7:38SPEAKER_01: I think we met every month.
- 7:39SPEAKER_01: Some people never showed progress.
- 7:42SPEAKER_01: Like they would come in January and then in February, they were still testing or something, something.
- 7:49SPEAKER_01: And then they would come March.
- 7:51SPEAKER_01: They were thinking, testing.
- 7:53SPEAKER_01: You know, go doing pros and cons like people like I already started my business.
- 7:58SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just have to go.
- 8:00SPEAKER_01: And I tell some people that I mentor,
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: if you go to a cocktail party once and you tell someone that you're going to start
- 8:05SPEAKER_01: a business,
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: if you run into them again,
- 8:07SPEAKER_01: you better have made significant progress.
- 8:09SPEAKER_01: If you run into that person and you say, well, I'm still thinking about it.
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: You are completely instantly disregarded.
- 8:15SPEAKER_01: And that's just how it goes.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's and like, I don't know what else to tell you.
- 8:19SPEAKER_01: Like, that's the truth.
- 8:20SPEAKER_01: If you want to start a business and you're going to go public with that concept and that dialogue,
- 8:25SPEAKER_01: You got to go.
- 8:25SPEAKER_01: Or otherwise, they just think you don't really want to start that business.
- 8:29SPEAKER_01: So you got to start it.
- 8:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 8:31SPEAKER_03: And I think it comes from a really good place.
- 8:34SPEAKER_03: People want to do things well.
- 8:36SPEAKER_03: They want to be successful.
- 8:38SPEAKER_03: They want to feel like they have it all figured out.
- 8:41SPEAKER_03: And I think what your story tells us,
- 8:44SPEAKER_03: but it certainly very much jives with my own life experience and the work I do with clients.
- 8:49SPEAKER_03: It's about learning through doing. 100%.
- 8:52SPEAKER_01: One, I mean, I mess things up all the time.
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: I've been doing this 18 years and I just really messed something up on Friday and
- 8:59SPEAKER_01: it got fixed a couple hours later.
- 9:00SPEAKER_01: 18 years, I'm really messing things up.
- 9:02SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine how much I messed up 18 years ago.
- 9:06SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like, you know, the drop down menu, I clicked the wrong thing and yada, yada, yada, yada.
- 9:12SPEAKER_01: I basically took down one drive for my whole company.
- 9:14SPEAKER_01: Like it happened.
- 9:15Yeah.
- 9:17Oops.
- 9:17SPEAKER_01: It happens.
- 9:19SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
- 9:20SPEAKER_01: It just happens.
- 9:21SPEAKER_01: I'm a human.
- 9:22SPEAKER_01: I'm totally human.
- 9:23SPEAKER_01: And my staff is human.
- 9:25SPEAKER_01: And we're all just human.
- 9:26SPEAKER_01: And every mistake can be fixed.
- 9:28SPEAKER_01: And some may be a little more expensive to fix, but it's all fixable.
- 9:32SPEAKER_01: And the mistakes you make, I mean, let's not even call them mistakes.
- 9:35SPEAKER_01: It's just like the learning experiences.
- 9:37SPEAKER_01: I didn't even have a company name and I was hiring people.
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: Who's to say that was a good idea?
- 9:41SPEAKER_01: Like who's to say any of this was a good idea, but it worked.
- 9:45SPEAKER_01: And I'm really,
- 9:46SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 9:46SPEAKER_01: and I just give people a lot of,
- 9:48SPEAKER_01: I understand wanting to figure things out and not rush,
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: but there is that fine line.
- 9:53SPEAKER_01: There really is that fine line.
- 9:54SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you just have to move at a pace,
- 9:56SPEAKER_01: maybe faster than you're comfortable with,
- 9:59SPEAKER_01: but you'll learn it.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: You'll learn how to work in a faster pace.
- 10:02SPEAKER_03: And you'll find support.
- 10:03SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 10:04SPEAKER_03: Right?
- 10:04SPEAKER_03: Like by saying,
- 10:05SPEAKER_03: I don't know what the name is,
- 10:07SPEAKER_03: you were able to have lots of great conversations with people who had ideas about
- 10:12SPEAKER_03: this name and to probably find a much better name than you might have found holed
- 10:16SPEAKER_03: up in your basement alone,
- 10:19SPEAKER_03: pondering names.
- 10:20SPEAKER_03: 100% right.
- 10:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
- 10:22SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a great point.
- 10:24SPEAKER_01: Like as you're going and you are trying to figure things out and if you have a nice
- 10:28SPEAKER_01: support team or even strangers half the time,
- 10:31SPEAKER_01: sometimes they'll just give you good,
- 10:33SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 10:33SPEAKER_01: good suggestions,
- 10:34SPEAKER_01: good advice.
- 10:35SPEAKER_01: So it is never about knowing everything.
- 10:38SPEAKER_01: It's just having like a good sense of what direction you want to go in.
- 10:41SPEAKER_01: You know,
- 10:42SPEAKER_01: I think what's probably better is to know what you definitely don't want to do,
- 10:45SPEAKER_01: like especially morally,
- 10:47SPEAKER_01: ethically,
- 10:47SPEAKER_01: et cetera.
- 10:49SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't mean you have to know exactly what you want to do.
- 10:51SPEAKER_03: So this idea of learning by doing sounds like it made you uniquely well-suited for entrepreneurship.
- 11:01SPEAKER_03: Because again,
- 11:02SPEAKER_03: there are people who are just extremely uncomfortable with that and get analysis
- 11:06SPEAKER_03: paralysis and find it very difficult to move forward.
- 11:12SPEAKER_03: What are some of the other hurdles you've seen entrepreneurs face over the years or
- 11:18SPEAKER_03: that are qualities that you feel like made you sort of uniquely well-suited?
- 11:23SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you for asking that because I think that's a really important question.
- 11:28SPEAKER_01: I started Physique 57, which is a boutique fitness studio a long time ago.
- 11:32SPEAKER_01: And as I was saying before,
- 11:33SPEAKER_01: like before boutique fitness was a term,
- 11:36SPEAKER_01: it was more just like there's a place where these people go do things.
- 11:39SPEAKER_01: That was pretty much the category we were in.
- 11:42SPEAKER_01: And then in, so we started our first class in 2006.
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: And then by like 2011,
- 11:48SPEAKER_01: 12 is when you had just more of this boutique studio where you would pay a class
- 11:54SPEAKER_01: price and you would take a class and you would leave and it wasn't a gym membership.
- 11:57SPEAKER_01: And so that concept was really new.
- 11:59SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I just want to back up to that is when the trend took off,
- 12:04SPEAKER_01: a lot of people benefited.
- 12:05SPEAKER_01: Like even if you,
- 12:07SPEAKER_01: it was a time when there was so much demand that the supply didn't have to
- 12:11SPEAKER_01: necessarily be perfect.
- 12:13SPEAKER_01: And there was maybe like 20 studios in New York opening every year at a minimum.
- 12:18SPEAKER_01: It was just like everyone was opening a boutique fitness studio.
- 12:20SPEAKER_01: And I'm proud of my team and I'm proud of the brand for withstanding it and for
- 12:25SPEAKER_01: still being here because a lot of those brands are not here anymore.
- 12:29SPEAKER_01: And I look back to some of the reasons why and I know all those founders very well,
- 12:35SPEAKER_01: but I think some people expand it too quickly and they think that they have the
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: special sauce and that they're just awesome and that anything they touch is going
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: to be perfect because they did it once.
- 12:46SPEAKER_01: I'll probably be able to do it again.
- 12:48SPEAKER_01: And then they raise a lot of money and then they get a big ego and then they start
- 12:52SPEAKER_01: treating their teams poorly.
- 12:54SPEAKER_01: And then they think they're famous.
- 12:56SPEAKER_01: And then they think they're all a whole bunch of things.
- 12:58SPEAKER_01: And they're really just not all those things.
- 13:02SPEAKER_01: And what I would say in a more positive light,
- 13:05SPEAKER_01: is every day is a new day.
- 13:06SPEAKER_01: Like every day that I come to work,
- 13:09SPEAKER_01: whether I'm at the studio or just in my office,
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: I think our whole company just is very humble.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: And the idea is like,
- 13:16SPEAKER_01: whatever we knew yesterday that might've been successful,
- 13:18SPEAKER_01: who knows if it's successful today.
- 13:20SPEAKER_01: We have to just be smarter and better and client focused every single day.
- 13:26SPEAKER_01: and not rest on our laurels.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: And I think that really,
- 13:30SPEAKER_01: that really helped us to be successful because even though,
- 13:32SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 13:33SPEAKER_01: there was a time,
- 13:34SPEAKER_01: even when we started our DVD business,
- 13:36SPEAKER_01: believe it or not,
- 13:37SPEAKER_01: we had a DVD business.
- 13:38SPEAKER_03: When we started our DVD business.
- 13:40SPEAKER_01: Yes, a long time ago.
- 13:42SPEAKER_01: I know that's like 2008.
- 13:44SPEAKER_01: We got a call from QVC.
- 13:46SPEAKER_01: We were on QVC.
- 13:48SPEAKER_01: Even when we launched the DVDs, we sold in all 50 states in 30 days.
- 13:51SPEAKER_01: We had a lot of success really early in a lot of ways.
- 13:55SPEAKER_01: And we had four big studios in New York.
- 13:57SPEAKER_01: We had LA.
- 13:57SPEAKER_01: I have a handful of studios internationally, Dubai, Bangkok, and India.
- 14:01SPEAKER_01: But we never said like, wow, we're so good.
- 14:04SPEAKER_01: Let's have 100 studios or let's just have 200 because we have the special sauce.
- 14:08SPEAKER_01: I just don't know what that special sauce is that people sometimes think they have
- 14:12SPEAKER_01: because every market is different.
- 14:13SPEAKER_01: Every group of employees is different.
- 14:16SPEAKER_01: Not everything is repeatable.
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: Not everything can scale.
- 14:19SPEAKER_01: A lot of things can.
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: And that's awesome.
- 14:21SPEAKER_01: But not everything can.
- 14:22SPEAKER_01: And I think you have to think about what is making your business so successful and
- 14:27SPEAKER_01: maybe just doubling down on that and improving profit margin,
- 14:31SPEAKER_01: increasing revenue of just what you have
- 14:33SPEAKER_01: could be a better choice than trying to replicate yourself all over the place.
- 14:39SPEAKER_01: And that can very much be eco-driven.
- 14:41SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's so much P&L driven.
- 14:43SPEAKER_01: And I think we have very much focused on having profitable studios, but not that many.
- 14:48SPEAKER_01: Right now I have 12.
- 14:49SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, at one point we had 15 or 16, like that's fine.
- 14:53SPEAKER_01: Like that to me was totally fine.
- 14:55SPEAKER_01: And I never wanted to quote unquote, blow it out.
- 14:57SPEAKER_01: Blowing it out is okay.
- 14:58SPEAKER_01: But a lot of those studios have unblown themselves, have reduced themselves over time.
- 15:03SPEAKER_03: When you think back to some of the big pivots or shifts that you made along the way
- 15:09SPEAKER_03: because you found that what was working was no longer right for the moment,
- 15:14SPEAKER_03: what were some of the scariest moments there where it felt like there was a U-turn
- 15:19SPEAKER_03: or a big shift that impacted how you did business?
- 15:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've had a few.
- 15:24SPEAKER_03: We don't need to have a 10 hour podcast, but I've had a few.
- 15:27SPEAKER_03: It's great though, isn't it?
- 15:28SPEAKER_03: To be able to say I've had a few and here I am.
- 15:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: I've had,
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: I think one,
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: I think the first one,
- 15:34SPEAKER_01: which is hard for probably most of your younger audience to know is there was a
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: time when DVDs like Blockbuster,
- 15:41SPEAKER_01: like was a big thing.
- 15:41SPEAKER_01: Like you had these DVDs and you use them.
- 15:44SPEAKER_01: And that business was a seven figure business.
- 15:46SPEAKER_01: And it like instantly went to like nothing, right?
- 15:49SPEAKER_01: because people weren't buying DVDs anymore.
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: And just to take a second on this,
- 15:54SPEAKER_01: one of the problems with that is you already own physically these DVDs and you have
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: them in a warehouse in Michigan,
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: for example.
- 16:03SPEAKER_01: So you have a whole setup and supply chain for these things that no one wants anymore.
- 16:10SPEAKER_01: And oof, oof, I know.
- 16:12SPEAKER_01: So it's one thing to say,
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: yes,
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: we transitioned from DVD to online,
- 16:16SPEAKER_01: which was awesome,
- 16:17SPEAKER_01: which we did in 2012.
- 16:19SPEAKER_01: But what, you know, part of the story that's not told is this inventory story.
- 16:23SPEAKER_01: They had to like figure out how to unload all of these DVDs and you can't sell them
- 16:27SPEAKER_01: in all different countries because there's different specifications.
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: So that was like a fun, a fun and funny story for another day.
- 16:33SPEAKER_01: But we had to figure out what to do with like 10,000 DVDs.
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: So that was like one thing that that business dried up.
- 16:40SPEAKER_01: And then
- 16:41SPEAKER_01: What you have to do is think through what you're going to do next.
- 16:43SPEAKER_01: And I had a wonderful young person on the staff who was telling us about this
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: concept of quote unquote digitizing content.
- 16:51SPEAKER_01: Who knows what that even meant back then?
- 16:52SPEAKER_01: I was like, what?
- 16:53SPEAKER_01: Are you speaking English?
- 16:55SPEAKER_01: And this is like 2010, 2011.
- 16:58SPEAKER_01: And she's like,
- 16:59SPEAKER_01: yeah,
- 16:59SPEAKER_01: you like do a video,
- 17:00SPEAKER_01: but instead of putting it on a DVD,
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: you put it onto your website.
- 17:03SPEAKER_01: And it took me a couple months to like even understand what she was talking about.
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: And this is a long time ago.
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: And I mean,
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: this just to give you some reference,
- 17:11SPEAKER_01: even when we opened in 2006,
- 17:12SPEAKER_01: people were not comfortable making reservations for class online.
- 17:16SPEAKER_01: If that's when people didn't want to put their credit card into websites.
- 17:19SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: we've gone so far,
- 17:22SPEAKER_01: but let's not forget that some people were like,
- 17:23SPEAKER_01: I'm not giving my,
- 17:24SPEAKER_01: I'm not putting my credit card in a laptop.
- 17:26SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 17:28SPEAKER_03: That's crazy talk.
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: Everyone's going to steal it.
- 17:31SPEAKER_01: So a couple years later,
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: there's this concept of watching things on TV that live in the cloud,
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: in space,
- 17:40SPEAKER_01: and you're like,
- 17:41SPEAKER_01: what are you talking about?
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: What?
- 17:43SPEAKER_01: But finally, I was like, okay, I don't really understand what you're talking about, but I'll do it.
- 17:48SPEAKER_01: And then we took those DVD, that content from the DVDs and we put it on our website.
- 17:52SPEAKER_01: And then you have this paywall, this new concept.
- 17:54SPEAKER_01: And then we did really well.
- 17:55SPEAKER_01: So now we've had,
- 17:56SPEAKER_01: so the video on demand platform that we have in addition to the studios has been
- 18:00SPEAKER_01: around for 12 years.
- 18:02SPEAKER_03: Wow.
- 18:02SPEAKER_01: So it's not a product of the pandemic.
- 18:04SPEAKER_01: It's something we did for a long time.
- 18:05SPEAKER_01: I would not have done that
- 18:07SPEAKER_01: Obviously, had DVD, this has not gone away.
- 18:09SPEAKER_01: So I was happy for that change.
- 18:12SPEAKER_01: And then the second big one was ClassPass,
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: which maybe some of your viewers know,
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: which is this aggregator of class inventory.
- 18:19SPEAKER_01: And now I think it's going into restaurants and spas as well.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: And that was a complete,
- 18:24SPEAKER_01: it took like maybe 16,
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: 17 months,
- 18:26SPEAKER_01: but that destroyed the boutique fitness business.
- 18:30SPEAKER_01: So what you earned from maybe 30 or 40% of your clientele was now half.
- 18:35SPEAKER_01: Wow.
- 18:36SPEAKER_01: And, you know, consumers don't always understand that.
- 18:38SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
- 18:39SPEAKER_01: They don't need to.
- 18:39SPEAKER_01: It's really the business's responsibility to adapt.
- 18:43SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so my profit margins really, really got squeezed.
- 18:46SPEAKER_01: And the relationship with ClassPass and studios was always acrimonious.
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: It was always, and still is, not great.
- 18:54SPEAKER_01: So that was a huge shift.
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: And that's when a lot of things on your P&L had to be disrupted.
- 19:03SPEAKER_01: And that was tough.
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, there's the pandemic when all my studios closed.
- 19:07SPEAKER_01: There's that.
- 19:08SPEAKER_01: That little thing.
- 19:10SPEAKER_01: That little thing.
- 19:10SPEAKER_01: Heard of it?
- 19:11SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 19:11SPEAKER_01: And we lost 90% of our revenue in one day.
- 19:14SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 19:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 19:15SPEAKER_01: So that, and that, you know, everyone's got a pandemic story.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: I'm not suggesting mine's worse.
- 19:19SPEAKER_01: Everyone's healthy, like, you know, on the family side, but that was certainly a big change to us.
- 19:24SPEAKER_01: And I had to fire like 95 people in one day, closed my studios permanently.
- 19:28SPEAKER_01: And now we've rebuilt from there.
- 19:31SPEAKER_03: And who are you now as a brand that is different than who you were pre-pandemic?
- 19:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a great question.
- 19:38SPEAKER_01: So we were, we had just started selling franchises.
- 19:41SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say we were a national brand because it's still a niche business.
- 19:44SPEAKER_01: So it was not a household name,
- 19:45SPEAKER_01: but if you liked bar fitness,
- 19:48SPEAKER_01: you kind of knew there was this place in LA and New York that did it really well.
- 19:52SPEAKER_01: We had these big studios, two classes going on all the time, day and night.
- 19:55SPEAKER_01: We had these international studios.
- 19:57SPEAKER_01: So the difference,
- 19:58SPEAKER_01: so then I decided just to become,
- 20:00SPEAKER_01: and I don't say just because it's still an endeavor and it's still a big job,
- 20:04SPEAKER_01: is to become a more regional brand.
- 20:06SPEAKER_01: And so we left LA and stopped franchising.
- 20:10SPEAKER_01: So now,
- 20:11SPEAKER_01: which is working out really well,
- 20:13SPEAKER_01: we are in Philadelphia,
- 20:14SPEAKER_01: Hoboken,
- 20:15SPEAKER_01: Brooklyn,
- 20:15SPEAKER_01: New York,
- 20:16SPEAKER_01: two studios here.
- 20:17SPEAKER_01: and another license in New Jersey and just staying tight to this region.
- 20:23SPEAKER_01: And it just saves on marketing and saves on so many things.
- 20:27SPEAKER_01: We're doing really well being a like tightly run, well-run company.
- 20:31SPEAKER_01: New York City regional brand.
- 20:33SPEAKER_01: And I still have the international studios,
- 20:35SPEAKER_01: but it's just become more efficient to stay local and grow the business smartly here.
- 20:44SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
- 20:45SPEAKER_01: How is that different?
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: When you have studios on different coasts or entertain the idea to have studios in
- 20:52SPEAKER_01: other parts of the country,
- 20:53SPEAKER_01: it's fun.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: It's ambitious and it makes you feel like you have a bigger brand and a larger target market.
- 21:02SPEAKER_01: When we decided to just stay regional, it means that you don't really have to do a lot of things.
- 21:07SPEAKER_01: I'm happy if we are in Vogue or US Weekly online, like that's still good.
- 21:12SPEAKER_01: But I don't really have to do that anymore.
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not trying to get Los Angeles celebrities anymore.
- 21:17SPEAKER_01: You just sort of give up some of your aspirations, which can be disappointing.
- 21:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:24SPEAKER_01: But there's so many aspirations you can have just right here.
- 21:26SPEAKER_01: I mean, New York City is humongous.
- 21:28SPEAKER_01: So it's not like I'm saying I'm going to go be in some small town.
- 21:30SPEAKER_01: Like we're just going to try to nail New York City and the surrounding area.
- 21:34SPEAKER_01: There's a few people who live here.
- 21:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
- 21:37SPEAKER_01: So it's just become a more defined growth strategy than like we could go anywhere.
- 21:43SPEAKER_01: Like I used to travel to Dallas.
- 21:44SPEAKER_01: I would go to Miami.
- 21:45SPEAKER_01: I would...
- 21:46SPEAKER_01: Check this out.
- 21:47SPEAKER_01: I was just sort of checking things out all the time.
- 21:49SPEAKER_01: And it was fun.
- 21:51SPEAKER_01: And it was worth it when I was doing it.
- 21:53SPEAKER_01: And then I realized it's not worth it.
- 21:55SPEAKER_03: I think one of the scariest things about the type of journey you're describing here,
- 22:00SPEAKER_03: which is life in general,
- 22:02SPEAKER_03: is that it has lots of big twists and turns.
- 22:04SPEAKER_03: And that requires making lots of big strategic decisions.
- 22:08SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
- 22:09SPEAKER_03: So what informs the big decisions that you make?
- 22:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you.
- 22:15SPEAKER_01: I think what is really important is to be very,
- 22:20SPEAKER_01: very quiet and really,
- 22:22SPEAKER_01: really think about the true demand for your product.
- 22:27SPEAKER_01: And so,
- 22:27SPEAKER_01: for example,
- 22:28SPEAKER_01: during the pandemic,
- 22:30SPEAKER_01: we did very,
- 22:31SPEAKER_01: very well selling digital content to partners,
- 22:35SPEAKER_01: even China.
- 22:36SPEAKER_01: We sent,
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: which was probably one of my hardest endeavors because no one spoke English and I
- 22:41SPEAKER_01: don't speak Chinese.
- 22:42SPEAKER_01: So these corporate wellness entities were interested.
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: It was interested.
- 22:47SPEAKER_01: So if you wanted female oriented content, fitness content, like we were on the short list of phone calls.
- 22:54SPEAKER_01: So that is demand based on, I was like a macro demand.
- 22:58SPEAKER_01: situation going on in the world.
- 23:00SPEAKER_01: And we were ready to roll because we had been doing video on demand for so long.
- 23:05SPEAKER_01: So we had all this content, packaged it up, sent it out.
- 23:10SPEAKER_01: And then around the world, when people started
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: you know, quote unquote, going back to the gym or going back to the office, etc.
- 23:17SPEAKER_01: Those big companies that were buying content, understandably, didn't need as much.
- 23:23SPEAKER_01: Also, what was becoming more popular and still is, is breathing, yoga, meditation.
- 23:30SPEAKER_01: And so it was like, well, we're not going to do fitness, but we're partnering with XYZ to do meditation.
- 23:36SPEAKER_01: And you can resist that and like go down screaming like,
- 23:41SPEAKER_01: no,
- 23:42SPEAKER_01: I'm going to sell this content to everyone in the world and hire people to sell all
- 23:45SPEAKER_01: this stuff.
- 23:46SPEAKER_01: Or you can say like, that is the way the world's changing.
- 23:49SPEAKER_01: I was in Saudi Arabia for a conference and a company that two years ago would have
- 23:55SPEAKER_01: definitely purchased my content,
- 23:57SPEAKER_01: definitely would have been a great meeting,
- 23:59SPEAKER_01: like 90% sure that that would have all gone really well.
- 24:02SPEAKER_01: This time it was like five minutes long and they said, no, we don't do fitness anymore.
- 24:08SPEAKER_01: You know, like that's like, okay, you know, I got it.
- 24:12SPEAKER_01: So if you take away your ego and you take away how great your brand is and you take
- 24:18SPEAKER_01: away how great your product is and you just sit with the fact that those phone
- 24:22SPEAKER_01: calls aren't coming in anymore,
- 24:23SPEAKER_01: you have to say like,
- 24:24SPEAKER_01: okay guys,
- 24:25SPEAKER_01: like that's just not going to be a business for us.
- 24:27SPEAKER_01: And the revenue is going to evaporate.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: Be realistic.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: It's just gone.
- 24:34SPEAKER_01: And then you say, okay, so what next?
- 24:37SPEAKER_01: So then I opened a new studio.
- 24:38SPEAKER_01: I went back to bricks and mortar.
- 24:40SPEAKER_01: I moved one.
- 24:42SPEAKER_01: So then you say, let's just agree that that revenue stream is diminished.
- 24:49SPEAKER_01: So now what?
- 24:50SPEAKER_03: So what's working and what's not working and lean into what's working in the moment.
- 24:54SPEAKER_01: The sad thing is you have to change roles.
- 24:58SPEAKER_01: There is a collateral damage to doing that, but
- 25:02SPEAKER_01: you know, you got to do that.
- 25:04SPEAKER_01: What other, you know, what some people could do is say, we're going to try another market.
- 25:08SPEAKER_01: We're going to make better videos.
- 25:09SPEAKER_01: We're going to put more money into advertising.
- 25:11SPEAKER_01: Like you could totally do that.
- 25:13SPEAKER_01: And maybe that would work, but you can also just say what's next.
- 25:16SPEAKER_01: And put money there.
- 25:17SPEAKER_03: One of the things I have observed in Uplifters is that over and over again,
- 25:22SPEAKER_03: what you hear is people who are willing to ride the waves of change and to find
- 25:29SPEAKER_03: some peace and some opportunity in what is instead of trying to force what they
- 25:35SPEAKER_03: want to be.
- 25:36SPEAKER_01: I have three children.
- 25:38SPEAKER_01: You cannot force anyone to do anything, even if they're your own children.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 25:44SPEAKER_03: Even yourself, you can't force.
- 25:47SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
- 25:48SPEAKER_01: You really can't force it.
- 25:49SPEAKER_01: And what I'll also say,
- 25:50SPEAKER_01: just from a business perspective,
- 25:52SPEAKER_01: in order to be able to ride the wave,
- 25:54SPEAKER_01: I just want to give some advice.
- 25:57SPEAKER_01: You do need to have a cushion, like cash on the side.
- 26:01SPEAKER_01: And you can call it rainy day,
- 26:03SPEAKER_01: or you can call it like,
- 26:05SPEAKER_01: this is for when I get the heads up that I need to do something different.
- 26:09SPEAKER_01: I guess that is a rainy day.
- 26:10Yeah.
- 26:11SPEAKER_01: Because...
- 26:12SPEAKER_01: if you're relying on that revenue so much that it's actually paying the payroll or something,
- 26:18SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 26:18SPEAKER_01: that's just scary.
- 26:19SPEAKER_01: So I would just say,
- 26:20SPEAKER_01: like,
- 26:20SPEAKER_01: if you're running a business and you expect twists and turns,
- 26:23SPEAKER_01: which you should,
- 26:23SPEAKER_01: like just having that extra money,
- 26:26SPEAKER_01: it's sort of the same because when all the signs were coming in that either like
- 26:32SPEAKER_01: the studios aren't,
- 26:32SPEAKER_01: well,
- 26:33SPEAKER_01: this pandemic was different because we like basically had no money except for the
- 26:36SPEAKER_01: government money.
- 26:37SPEAKER_01: But other times when we've had to make these shifts, it was like, phew, like at least we can.
- 26:41SPEAKER_01: Like when the DVD money went away,
- 26:43SPEAKER_01: at least we had studio money saved that we could put into the online business to
- 26:47SPEAKER_01: let that go.
- 26:48SPEAKER_01: So you just want to put yourself in a situation in your business where you can ride
- 26:53SPEAKER_01: these waves and not panic or obviously go out of business.
- 26:57SPEAKER_03: Right.
- 26:58SPEAKER_03: And not backing yourself into a corner where you don't have choice.
- 27:02SPEAKER_03: And yeah, such a great point.
- 27:05SPEAKER_03: So you're a mom of three.
- 27:08SPEAKER_03: You lead this big company that is facing all of its own twists and turns.
- 27:15SPEAKER_03: How do you find or create any sort of balance or personal well-being along the way?
- 27:24SPEAKER_01: It is a challenge, but it's not such a challenge.
- 27:27SPEAKER_01: I think that there's something called work-life flow.
- 27:32SPEAKER_01: I'm not even sure it's a balance.
- 27:33SPEAKER_01: It's just like someone once said to me when I was working at Morgan Stanley,
- 27:37SPEAKER_01: and she was a very successful managing director or something,
- 27:40SPEAKER_01: and she had four kids.
- 27:42SPEAKER_01: And I think I was just pregnant at the time.
- 27:44SPEAKER_01: I asked her the same question, like, how do you do this?
- 27:47SPEAKER_01: And she said, everyone gets my attention, just not all at the same time.
- 27:53SPEAKER_01: And I thought that was so good.
- 27:54SPEAKER_01: And so there are times I kind of look back and I almost feel bad, like during the pandemic,
- 27:58SPEAKER_01: I actually worked more than I've ever worked.
- 28:00SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, my kids are home, but they have a dad and they have aunts and uncles.
- 28:03SPEAKER_01: It was like, let's all just everyone help everyone.
- 28:07SPEAKER_01: But this mama right here has to make sure we don't completely go bankrupt.
- 28:11SPEAKER_01: I got things to do.
- 28:13SPEAKER_01: So I worked every day, sometimes 12, 15, 16 hours a day.
- 28:16SPEAKER_01: So I'm working in an empty, dirty fitness studio during the pandemic.
- 28:22SPEAKER_01: But like, that was actually fulfilling to me because like, I have to save this business.
- 28:26SPEAKER_01: Like we just lost everything.
- 28:27SPEAKER_01: And then it was like, alert, alert, three kids at home.
- 28:30SPEAKER_01: Can somebody help?
- 28:32SPEAKER_01: So I hired an adorable babysitter, a musical theater, 20 year old who was like, let's put on a show.
- 28:38SPEAKER_01: So she, so you just have like- That was my mom in my case.
- 28:43SPEAKER_03: Every night I would walk out of my office and there would be a performance of
- 28:47SPEAKER_03: Hamilton starring my mother and my two daughters.
- 28:49SPEAKER_01: It was great.
- 28:50SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
- 28:51SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
- 28:52SPEAKER_01: So under that concept of everyone gets my attention,
- 28:55SPEAKER_01: not at the same time,
- 28:56SPEAKER_01: you can then like sort of fill it in with other people.
- 28:58SPEAKER_01: Like I went on care.com, found some adorable musical theater person.
- 29:02SPEAKER_01: I was like, I have to go work for like two years straight.
- 29:05SPEAKER_01: If you could just do fun stuff with my kids for two years, that would be awesome.
- 29:10SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of how that went down.
- 29:12SPEAKER_01: And so I wake up early.
- 29:14SPEAKER_01: I do a lot of exercise or just even like administrative things in the morning,
- 29:18SPEAKER_01: like,
- 29:19SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 29:20SPEAKER_01: permission slips,
- 29:20SPEAKER_01: things like that.
- 29:21SPEAKER_01: I get a lot done before everyone wakes up.
- 29:23SPEAKER_01: And I actually find that relaxing.
- 29:25SPEAKER_01: I don't find that to be a burden.
- 29:27SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know, I'm up at 530 and it's quiet.
- 29:30SPEAKER_01: And so I just try to find quiet time.
- 29:32SPEAKER_01: And I exercise almost every day.
- 29:34SPEAKER_01: And I get energy from people.
- 29:36SPEAKER_01: And I also like to be alone sometimes.
- 29:38SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, it all kind of works out.
- 29:41SPEAKER_01: But I'm very cognizant of the flow.
- 29:44SPEAKER_01: Like, I definitely know, like...
- 29:46SPEAKER_01: you know, when I have to go take a break.
- 29:49SPEAKER_03: I think that awareness is really important, but I also hear in you an appreciation, right?
- 29:57SPEAKER_03: That these are things that you get to do,
- 30:00SPEAKER_03: that you want to do instead of feeling obligated or forced to do them,
- 30:05SPEAKER_03: which would create a sense of resistance.
- 30:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I really everything I do.
- 30:09SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of things, you know, just volunteering.
- 30:11SPEAKER_01: There's some other stuff.
- 30:12SPEAKER_01: And I really love it all.
- 30:14SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't find that I'm doing many things that I like.
- 30:17SPEAKER_01: I don't like going to the grocery store like that.
- 30:18SPEAKER_01: I can't stand.
- 30:19SPEAKER_01: So I'm pretty aware of like my boundaries, like what I will and will not do.
- 30:23SPEAKER_01: And it's worked out.
- 30:24SPEAKER_01: And with technology, I mean, it's amazing how much we can do.
- 30:29SPEAKER_01: Like walking down the street, like you can just get stuff done.
- 30:32SPEAKER_01: So thank goodness for that.
- 30:34SPEAKER_03: Yes.
- 30:34SPEAKER_03: In some ways, it's made our lives so much simpler.
- 30:37SPEAKER_03: And in some ways, it's so much more complicated.
- 30:40SPEAKER_03: I know.
- 30:40SPEAKER_03: I know.
- 30:42SPEAKER_03: Well,
- 30:42SPEAKER_03: Jennifer,
- 30:43SPEAKER_03: I am so excited to talk to you and to hear how you have grown your life and your
- 30:48SPEAKER_03: business along the way.
- 30:50SPEAKER_03: For folks who want to check out Physique 57, where do you send them?
- 30:55SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
- 30:55SPEAKER_01: So we have studios in and around New York and surrounding areas.
- 31:00SPEAKER_01: And then what is the most easily accessed is the on-demand platform.
- 31:05SPEAKER_01: So if you just went to Physique 7 or Google Physique 57 bar, it shows up.
- 31:11SPEAKER_01: And then you can just try out, and it can be 14 days free.
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: You can try out any of those videos.
- 31:16SPEAKER_01: And I'm on LinkedIn under Jennifer Manavy.
- 31:19SPEAKER_01: We have websites.
- 31:20SPEAKER_01: Zeke has Instagram.
- 31:21SPEAKER_01: I know we haven't talked too much about like mentoring and helping other women.
- 31:26SPEAKER_01: That is really what I love to do, even outside of Zeke, you know, helping other entrepreneurs.
- 31:31SPEAKER_01: realize their dreams and like get things off the ground.
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: And I just hope that someone was inspired by this conversation because I think we
- 31:38SPEAKER_01: all have so many pent up plans and thoughts and we just,
- 31:42SPEAKER_01: just give it a try.
- 31:43SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Jennifer.
- 31:45SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 31:46SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
- 31:46SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
- 31:47SPEAKER_01: It was so great to talk to you and thank you so much.
- 31:51SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to the Uplifters podcast.
- 31:54SPEAKER_03: If you're getting a boost from these episodes,
- 31:57SPEAKER_03: please share them with the Uplifters in your life and then join us in conversation
- 32:03SPEAKER_03: over at theuplifterspodcast.com.
- 32:07SPEAKER_03: Head over to Spotify,
- 32:08SPEAKER_03: Apple Podcasts,
- 32:09SPEAKER_03: or wherever you get your podcasts and like,
- 32:13SPEAKER_03: follow,
- 32:13SPEAKER_03: and rate our show.
- 32:14SPEAKER_03: It'll really help us connect with more uplifters and it'll ensure you never miss
- 32:21SPEAKER_03: one of these beautiful stories.
- 32:25SPEAKER_00: Big love.
- 32:27SPEAKER_00: Painted water sunshine with rosemary and thyme.
- 32:31SPEAKER_00: Dwell in love perplexing though you find it vexing.
- 32:36SPEAKER_00: Toss a star and hover.
- 32:38SPEAKER_00: Be your own best lover.
- 32:40SPEAKER_00: Relish in a new prime.
- 32:43SPEAKER_00: Plant a tree in springtime.
- 32:45SPEAKER_00: Dance with idle hindsight.
- 32:47SPEAKER_00: Bring the sun to twilight.
- 32:51SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 32:52SPEAKER_00: Whoa!
- 32:54SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 32:55SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 32:56SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 32:58SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 32:58SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 33:00SPEAKER_00: Lift you up.
- 33:27SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
- 33:28SPEAKER_00: I cried.
- 33:32SPEAKER_00: It's that little thing you did with your voice.
- 33:37SPEAKER_00: Right, in the pre-chorus, right?
- 33:43SPEAKER_00: I was like... Mommy, stop crying.
- 33:44SPEAKER_00: You're disturbing the peace.