Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 121. Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor

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121. Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When you're feeling anxious, and of course you can do
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: meditations and focus on your breathing, but wherever you are,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in whatever space you are, you just rely on your
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: senses and you name a couple things that you can see,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a couple things that you can hear, a couple things
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that you can smell, a couple things that you could
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: potentially taste, and by doing that, you rid yourself of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the anxieties and the depressions of the past and can
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: really focus on the present.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily Abadi here bringing you Episode one twenty
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: one of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I sit
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything up from
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: their big wins to how they've gotten through some of
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: life's toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and what really takes to follow your passions. My
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: mission is simple to inspire you to be your best self,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: move with intention, and have some fun along ther way. Wow, big, big, big,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: big Wow. What a launch week for season three. I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: am so overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of love
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: all of the social shares of the Coach Vennett episode
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: from last week. You guys just completely blew me away
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: or in my heart insert all of the goodness that
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I can say right here. So thank you, so so
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: so much for being a part of the Hurdle community.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And if you're new to the podcast, welcome, thank you
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: for joining us. You are now a hurdler. On that note,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: for episode one twenty one, this week, I am chatting
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: with the ever lovely Jess Simms. She is a Peloton instructor,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a force, a good friend of mine. You know, it's
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: always fun when I have the opportunity to sit down
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: with friends. In this episode, it was a blast to record,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and actually it's interesting I was thinking about as we
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: recorded this to sit down with Jess. Jess and I
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: live in the exact same city, but in different areas,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and during a pandemic, it can literally feel like we
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: live in completely different states. So we haven't had a
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: chance to see each other irl with all the stuff
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that's going on, but it was so nice just to
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: catch up for today's episode, and of course we talk
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: about how she found Peloton, actually leaving a career as
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: a teacher and an educator to get into fitness full time.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: But we also speak about current events and get into
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: a pretty lengthy discussion about color, about race and her
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: perspective's really interesting. She talks about being raised what she
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: refers to as colorblind with a black father and an
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Italian mother. We talk about that there isn't just one
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: black experience, and depending on your skin tone or where
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you grew up, among so many factors, that all plays
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: a part into your culture and your mindset and so
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: many other things. So I do want to take a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: moment to say thank you to Jess for your honesty,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: for your vulnerability. I learned a lot from you. I
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: loved having you on the show, and something tells me
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that the hurdlers are gonna love this one as well.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Before we get into it today, I do want to
• 3:22
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• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Before I get into today's episode, I have a favor
• 5:14
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  Speaker 2: been having a ton of fun working on that as well.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: If you have anything that you see during the week
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: that you think is awesome that I should about, I
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: include highlights of the week every week in that newsletter
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  Speaker 2: as well as the five minute Friday episode, so feel
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  Speaker 2: free to shoot them over to me either on DM
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: on social media. You can always reach me at Emily
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: at body or at Hurdle Podcast. And of course I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: am always available to you over email. It's Emily at
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Hurdle dot us. And with that, let's get to hurdling today.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Jess Simms. She's a peloton
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: tread instructor. I feel like there are so many more
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: awesome things I can say about you.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: You are so sweet, hi am. It's so good to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: catch up with you.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I know, I feel as though some background, Jess and
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I are gal pals. Let's start off with how's it
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: going over there? It's like we're in two different places,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: but the same place, when you're in Manhattan, but like
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: forty five blocks from one another.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, I mean that's kind of the question one of
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the years, how are you? It's kind of I mean,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I'm good one minute, I'm sad, the next, I'm hopeful,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the next, I'm sweaty, the next. It's it's, you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: every kind of emotion you feel in one day. It's
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: kind of it's a special experience. How are you?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm good. I think that lately for me,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: and I won't make this about me, but I think
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the thing that I've been dealing with lately is accepting
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: that certain days aren't going to be as productive as
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: maybe I once was, and understanding that that that doesn't
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: mean that I'm not a productive person anymore, that just
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: might be how like that certain particular day is, and
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: separating the distinction between I'm not productive and I'm not
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: feeling productive, if that makes sense.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: That makes so much sense. And honestly, the first months
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that we were in quarantine, once you know, the not
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the I guess like the the novelty of it, once
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that started to wear off, I had that exact same
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: feeling and thought process where I kept on saying to myself, like, Jess,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you used to get up at six am every day
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and you had to work out in and finish your
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: programming by noon, and now you're just kind of walking
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: your dog at ten or eleven o'clock in the morning
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and haven't even eaten breakfast yet. And so I feel
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: like I've had to I think I've read some I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: probably on Instagram or something, where someone said stop trying
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to be normal during abnormal times. And so I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: that is exactly what you're kind of talking about right now,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: is allowing yourself to do things that you never have
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: done before because it's different times.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you, like me, have been writing
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: this out solo, with the exception of Sienna your job,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: but you are so so engaged with the Peloton community
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: on the regular. So I mean, talk to me a
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: little bit about that to kick us off, talk to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: me about what it's been like. You know, you have
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: almost one hundred thousand people following you on social media,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: but aside from that, I mean, you have the hundreds
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: of thousands and thousands of Peloton members that are looking
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to you every single day. So how has that dichotomy
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: been being technically alone but showing up and being surrounded
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: by so many.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: That's such a great question, and honestly, it's been. I've
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: always known that Peloton is amazing and we're doing really groundbreaking,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: incredible things because just side note is we're global. We're
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: in Canada, we're in Germany, and we're in the UK,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and we have a global pandemic. And for the first
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: time ever, at least for as long as I've been alive,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: we can all say the world that we're going through
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: quote unquote the same thing, obviously varying degrees and experiences,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: but we're all experiencing this pandemic. And so Peloton allows
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: us to connect to our members. These are members. They're
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not one time drop in folks you know that come
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: into classes. They're members. They've committed to this. They've committed
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: to us, and we as instructors have committed to them.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And so that's been really amazing and helping me not
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm alone because I'm literally not. And then
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to add a whole nother layer to it, once we
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: closed down Pelton Studios, New York, we started teaching live
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: from home and that has been the coolest experience because
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I'm always in people's homes. I'm always in their homes.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: You know, Folks have Pelton bikes and treads and everything,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and that's in their kitchens and their living rooms and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: their bedrooms and their basements and their home gyms outside
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: when they go for you know, outdoor runs and walks
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and things. But now I'm inviting the Peloton community into
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: my home. So there's been this level of intimacy that
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I have personally never felt, and I know, because our
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: members have been absolutely loving the classes Live from Home,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: this level of intimacy that has never been felt before
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and has been so special and so necessary for me,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, as someone living by myself.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's really interesting, especially because I've been
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: revisiting this idea lately of like trans parency and vulnerability,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: and it's like before you had the opportunity to be
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: like transparent with your audience, for sure, but you almost
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: got to decide when you wanted to get vulnerable. And
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: now that you're in your home and you're letting them
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: into your space and like you can't stop Sienna from
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: running into into the frame, and they you're going to
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: see like how you deal from that and maybe like
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: a little bit more of who you really really are
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: when you're like, all right, well this is how it
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: is now.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, I mean that's exactly it. I mean, Sienna was
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the star of the show. I just I just finished
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: my last Live from Home last week, and I can't
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: even begin to tell you the number of dms that
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I have gotten because I brought her on the camera
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the last class, and you know, she did her whole
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: sign out and things like that. The number of people.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: That's one said, oh my gosh, I'm so sad. I'm devastated.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: The word devastated was you several times that Sienna will
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: no longer be in classes, And then some things just
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: made me laugh hysterically, like someone said, oh my gosh,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Siena was my number one motive. I'm going to miss
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: her so much. And I'm like, girl, I'm the one
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: doing the burpies with you. Sienna's sleeping on the couch
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: next to the mat, Like, don't get it twisted. I'm
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: your motivator, not Sienna, but no, you're You're so right.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: It's funny. When I first started, I was so nervous
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: because Sienna she's very vocal and so and it's unpredictable
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: when she's vocals, like she's like me as a sassy
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: thirteen year old, where one minute she's fine and the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: other minute she's like, girl, give me attention. And so
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I said to the team, I said, y'all, like she
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: might come in and they're like, well, it's live from home,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: it's relatable, it's real. Lots of our members have dogs,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and so she comes on, she comes on and without
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it was the most incredible. She didn't I think the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: first two classes she only came on right on cue
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: as the stretch started. What a nugget, right, and like
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: people were like, oh my gosh, we thought that someone
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: was in the apartment with her and like, let her
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: go on set, you know when you were done, And
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, no.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: She knew her role.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: It was her cue. Okay, down dog, boom, the dog
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: comes on set.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: The dog is there. I love it. I love how
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: life is just like has this funny way of playing
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: out lately. And obviously, I mean, you didn't just start
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: teaching live peloton from home overnight. So let's stile it back,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: let's bring it back. I know that you grew up
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: right outside of Boston, north of Boston and Peabody, so
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: talk to me about what your upbringing was Like.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I am the middle child of three. I
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: have an older brother who's about twenty months older, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: then I have a younger sister who is about six
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: years younger. And I was a busy body, a shocker.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I say that, and people are like, yeah, and so
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: we could figure that out. I played every sport I played,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: from I did figure skating to tennis too. I did dance,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I did tap chats in ballet, I did softball, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I got really serious about soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, which
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: is what I pursued in high school. And I definitely
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: got the athletic side from my father. My dad is
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: or was college basketball player as well, and he still
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: holds records at the high school that I went to.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: He was just incredible, just the workhorse of the team,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the leader of the team. And he's the youngest of
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: six and so yeah, I just I was constantly being
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: shuttled from one practice to the other games, the next
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: practice in the next game, and I was super involved.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I loved learning, which, of course we'll get into my
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: first career, and so I was involved in student council
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and mentorship programs and leadership programs and things like that.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it was. It was a very busy but
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: really fulfilling childhood.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I always think about that, like when you start off
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: busy and then you get to your adulthood and you
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: like keep that. Some people are like, oh man, I
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: was so used to being shuttled around to so many
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: different sports, and then they get older and they're like,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I am good. And then other people and I think
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: you and I are definitely part of this team. Are like,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: all right, how can I keep doing as many things
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: as possible and keep being busy and feel like there's
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: just no time for rest.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it's so funny you say that, because when I
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: was it was when I was an operations director at
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a school here in Harlem. The social worker at my
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: school was incredible. I absolutely love him and I will
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: never forget this very calm, the opposite of me, very
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: very centered. And he's had gotten to this conversation with
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: him and I said, I'm such a busybody, even in
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: my adult life. And he said, well, Jess, like you
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: have a really high threshold for a stimuli and that's
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a beautiful thing. You do have to be careful, you
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: know that you don't run yourself to the ground, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you need to take breaks, and you need to reflect,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and you need to make sure that you're not trying
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to escape everything in your life and that you're taking
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: time to deal with things that need to be dealt with.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: But accept the fact that you thrive under pressure and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: under healthy stress. And when he said that to me,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, that makes so much sense.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you probably get this question a lot. What
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: do you think helps you stay productive when you do
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: start to feel overwhelmed.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Movement is medicine for me. And so right now it's
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: beautiful because at Peloton, you know, I teach classes, but
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: then there's a lot of behind the scenes work that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't see. There's the programming of
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the classes. There's the playlisting, there's the meetings to talk
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: about upcoming content, to review previous content. There's photo shoots,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: there's so many different there's my own workouts, there's physical therapy.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: There's so many elements to my role. And I do
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: realize though that when I'm feeling really anxious and if
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I'm feeling you know, stressed, some sort of movement and
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: or meditation really helps me. I've gotten into meditation quite
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: a bit, honestly, probably since right after college, I would say,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: And that's that's a saving grace for me for sure,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: because it helps me. As an anxious person. I worry
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: a lot about the future, and then I also dwell
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: on the past of some things, Like it's hard for
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: me to let some things go because I am also
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: such a perfectionist. So you know what, the concoction of
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: all the messy things in life. And so when I
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: am finding myself stuck on something in the past or
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: worrying about something in the future, I have to find
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: my ground and I forget where I learned this. But
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: when you're feeling anxious, and of course you can do
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: meditations and focus on your breathing. But wherever you are,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: in whatever space you are, you just rely on your
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: senses and you name a couple things that you can see,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a couple things that you can hear, a couple things
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: that you can smell, a couple things that you could
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: potentially taste, and by doing that, you rid yourself of
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the anxieties and the depressions of the past and can
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: really focus on the present.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what your meditation practice looks like
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: now and if it looks different now than it used
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: to look, because I think that's also something that a
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: lot of people struggle with. It's like, I can't find
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: one that feels right to me. I'm not sure how
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: to do this, it feels like I'm not doing it right,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: That's so it's really transformed quite a bit. When I
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: first got I was really stressed, right when I so.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I graduated college in twenty ten, and two weeks after
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I moved down to Houston, Texas, not knowing a single
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: person down there. And it was a whirlwind and an experience,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: one of the best experiences of my entire life. But
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: nonetheless it was a whirlwind. And I went from playing
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: college basketball and doing two three days and you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: training year round, to becoming a teacher. And I wanted
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: to be a really damn good teacher, so I put
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: my heart and soul on it, and you know, we
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: pulled all nighters. We you know, went to workshops, and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: we taught kids summer school that first summer. And I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: will never forget. I graduated in May, and I think
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: from May to Christmas, I think I worked out twice,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: maybe three times, and I lost myself. Not I don't
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: care about weight game, because that's that's never why I've
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: ever worked out or ever will work out. But I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't myself. And I'll never forget when I called my
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: mom one of these days when I was teaching and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I was super stressed and I was beside myself, she
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: said two things to me. She said, one, read the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: book that Caroline, my sister in law. My brother's wife
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: got you, which is the meditation book Wherever you Go,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: There you Are. She bought me that book, I think
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: for graduation actually, so wherever you go, there you are, meditate,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: read a chapter. And the beautiful thing about that book
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: is like at the end of the chapter it says
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: like try it out or something. So there's actual actionable
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: items to do, and some are meditation based and some
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: are just like thought based where you don't actually have
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: to because I think that the word meditation is scary
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to a lot of people. And then the other thing
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that my mom said was have you worked out? And
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: usually the answer was no, but it eventually became yes.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So back then it was reading a chapter in this book.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't even fully really meditate back then, but it
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: was this book that kind of grounded me and had
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: me focus on one my breath and to the present.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: And then after that it kind of evolved. I downloaded
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a few different apps, and I would meditate kind of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: ad needed. But now with the Pelton app, we have meditations.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I absolutely love our instructors and I meditate every night
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: for sure. And then I'm still working on trying to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: figure out another proactive meditation, because I find that when
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I reactively meditate, when I'm already like in a state
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of I'm anxious, I'm nervous, I'm this, I'm that, I
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: really struggle to meditate. So the proactive meditation of you
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: know this pause every day at noon, every day at two,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: every day at six, that is something that I feel
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: like works for me.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I remember I went on a date with someone once
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: that told me that he set alarms every two hours
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: to do like a mental check in with himself. I
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: don't know if, I don't know if i'd be successful
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: with this, so.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: That's really interesting. I don't think that would work for
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: me either, just because similarly, I'm awful at drinking water,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and so I used to put alarms in my phone
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: every two or three hours that said like, have you
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: had any water yet today? And at first it worked
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: for me for like less than a week, and then
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: after that I'm like, oh, just snooze that shit, like
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: come on all right next now, Yeah, I'll do it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I'll do it in ten minutes. So I don't think
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that would actually work for me either. Honestly, you mentioned
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: moving down to Texas. Talk to me about what that
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: transition was like for you and what you were going
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: down there to do. I, as I mentioned, I played
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: college basketball, which is a winter sport, so you kind
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of really don't have an off season. You're training in
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the fall and then the spring is it kind of
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: goes into the spring and then it's off season again.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: And so I did that, and I double majored in
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: psychology and Hispanic studies. And I'll never forget I walked
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: into the gym one day and you know how at
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: colleges they have those bulletin boards that just have a
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: bunch of flyers. This flyer said Teach for America, and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: it had like a few statistics about the opportunity gap
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of kids that grow up in low income areas compared
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to kids that grow up in more affluent areas. And
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I just really peaud my interest. I'm half black, half white.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: My dad is black and my mom is full Italian,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and I was starting to come into my blackness around
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: that time as well. And I feel like there's no
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: sugarcoating it. I was raised color blind. That was as
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: an athlete, and by playing basketball competitively, I was finally
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: around people that looked like me and more diversity, more
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: people of color, and I loved that, and I felt
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: at home with those people more so than I've ever
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: felt before in my life. And I could not, for
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the life of me. If you asked me back then
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: why I wanted to do teach for America, I really
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: couldn't have given you an actual answer because I didn't
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: study education. I had an idea that potentially I could teach,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: but I never pursued in any way, shape or form.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: But I saw that flyer. I did some research and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I'm doing this. And so this
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: was back in twenty ten. Our two thousand and nine
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: is actually when I applied. I applied in one of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the first early deadlines, and I did a mock lesson.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I had a bunch of interviews. The whole interview process
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: was very rigorous, and I'll never forget. I got an
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: email and then a call saying, oh my gosh, congratulations,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: you got it. It's in Houston, Texas. And so I
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: called my mom and my mom was like, oh my gosh,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: this is so great. Congrats, But you're not going to
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: go to Texas right, Like that's yeah, you can't, Like
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you don't know anyone down there. You wouldn't do that.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: It's a bummer you didn't get one of your preferred locations.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And I was like, nope, I'm going and she was
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: like wait what, And so yeah, I graduated and within
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: two weeks, I packed up my entire dorm room, moved
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: back to Peauty, packed up a bunch of bags, flew
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: my mom flew down with me to Houston, helped me
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: get settled, and I actually lived at Rice University because
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: with Teach for America, they put you through, for the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: lack of a better term, like a teacher boot camp
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: where for a couple months you are all on one
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: campus and you're essentially kind of getting an undergraduate degree
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: in a few months, and so it's a lot of work,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and you're also doing summer school. So I taught a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: remedial seventh grade summer school math and while also becoming
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a teacher in learning, behavior management, studying diversity, because I
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: loved Teach for America for this, but there was a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: huge emphasis on understanding diversity and doing a lot of
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: self exploration in order to be able to go into
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: these communities and serve in a way that was appropriate.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Honestly, did you feel a little bit overwhelmed at this
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: point because I feel like to be a woman that
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: is half black and you're like coming into your own
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: you're like trying to figure out the right way to
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: like speak to young teens about their race and their diversity,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Like it just seems like it would be a lot
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: to take on.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Oh. Absolutely, And I was actually placed in elementary, so
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: at least I was with younger kids. But for that
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: summer school, I was with seventh graders, and some of
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: my peers that teach for America were with high schoolers,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: so twenty two twenty three, they were, you know, working
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: with kids that are eighteen, nineteen years old. So yes,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: it was definitely I don't know if overwhelming was the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: right word. It was challenging, but it was so eye opening,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Like I will never forget that summer. I was sitting
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: down at a table with it was all boys, and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: we were having these conversations and there was there's a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: lot of diversity at the table and someone asked me,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: They said, what are you? Because I get that question
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: all the time, and I explained it. I said, my
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: dad is black and he has he's a little Portuguese
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: as well, but he's black. And my mom is full Italian,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and I will never forget this little boy just he
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was in the middle of eating, he like put his
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: food down, and he looked at me and he said,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: but how did the black person meet the white person?
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: This is in twenty ten, And I was like, wow,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: that was such a profound and life changing moment and
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: question for me. My response was at a bar, like
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: because that's literally where they met. But I was like, wow,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: there's still so much separation and so much lack of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: diversity within communities that that's actually a really good question.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And if I had spent a whole life in Peaberty
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: and in Connecticut, where I went to school, I might
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: never have known that that's other people's experiences.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, of course, so many of
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: us are like finding our own ways to do the
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: work right now. But some of the conversations that I've
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: been having with my friends, I mean, I grew up
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: in a town that's eighty percent white. I went to
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the University of Connecticut sixty percent white. Like, I definitely
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: have been exposed to and interacted and have friends and
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: all the things with individuals of all races. But I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: certainly come from a fair amount of privilege and to
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: like that young child's question, Like, it's so interesting because
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: some people that I grew up with, like the conversations
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: that I'm having lately are did we have any black
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: teachers when we were growing up? And the answer to
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: that is actually no, I had not one black educator
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: until I got to Yukon. I didn't have I had
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Hispanic teachers, but I had no black teachers at Trumble
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: High School. None. None. And that's crazy because I never
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: took a step back. I had black classmates, like I
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: had dated black men, Like it's been something that like
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: I have integrated into my life, but like, because of
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the system, I had very little interaction.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's incredible that you've been able to like sit
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: back and reflect on that. And I mean, I grew
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: up and I don't know the numbers of Peavity. Boddy
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: was definitely predominantly white, and I had one black teacher
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and a substitute teacher and he was the father of
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the only black, other black family in pevoty.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Mm, that's so interesting and it's so interesting also what
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: you said before about like being raised not thinking about color.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's I mean especially right now. It's really
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: great because I'm able to have these these difficult conversations
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: with my family, and it's important for me to like
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: state this is that when we have these conversations, we
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: end up taking things a lot a lot of times
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: personally right because this is hard stuff, this is life, identity,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: family stuff, and we have to question things that we
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: have gone along with for so long. And so having
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: these difficult conversations with my parents has been tough because
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, y'all, I love you, and I had a
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: great childhood and I'm so grateful for so much. But
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I was raised colorblind, and that's not okay because by
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: not knowing who I am fully, I have never really
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: felt like I fit in anywhere. I don't feel That's
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the thing about when you are biracial oftentimes, is that
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: you fit in everywhere. Like if a company was to
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: do a campaign and they could only choose one person,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: they would likely choose someone that looks like me, because
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: I pass for anything really. But at the same time,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I fit in nowhere because I don't feel even I
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: did something on Instagram not too long ago where I
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: said exactly that, I said, I'm not completely white so
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I'm drawn. I'm playing on both of these sides where
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I'm mourning the losses of my brothers and sisters and
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: feeling scared and worried for my own family. But at
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: the same time, I have to check myself and understand
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I'm lighter skinned, I have light skin privilege, and that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: affords a whole different experience for me. That's why it's
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: so important to highlight the different black experiences because oftentimes,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: when especially white people talk about black people, it's like
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the black experience, but it is so complex, it is
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: so multifaceted, and there's really no two that are the same.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: When you were growing up in the Boston area, can
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: you remember any times where you were made to feel
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: some kind of way because of the color of your skin.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I was never so first, I had someone in
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: school when I was in and this is so wild
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to me that I remember this, because I don't have
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: a great memory, but I had someone say Jess's dad
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: is black and beautiful, and when I was in first
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: or second grade, and I was like, okay, Like it
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: was weird because I think one of my teachers was like,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: oh no, it's a compliment, and I'm like okay, but
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: like the black part, I wasn't told about my blackness.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, okay. And then when I was
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: playing softball, a little girl came up to me and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: she said, are you mulatto? And you're gonna laugh because
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: this is like the best part of the story. I'm
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: like a Milano cookie, like I love Mulana cookies, like
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: I grew up here. I was like yeah, And I
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: went over to my mom and I asked, I said, Mom,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: am I a mulatto? And she my mom is barely
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: five feet she is the most non intimidating looking like woman.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: And she comes right over to this little girl's mom
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and flipped out on her.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and right at the softball field. And I don't
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: remember having a follow up conversation with my mom. I
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: don't remember hearing the word mulatto again until sixth grade
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: when I opened up a textbook and I saw European
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and African descent. So I was like, oh shit, I
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: am why did my mom get so upset? Is this
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a negative term? Like? I was so confused. And then
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: when a friend of mine got really upset with me
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: in high school, she screamed at me saying how nappy
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: my hair was, like out of nowhere, And then this
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is what I'm saying about all these bizarre times that
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I just remember so vividly. I was on the phone
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: with a guy at my friend's house in high school,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: probably ninth tenth grade, Yeah, probably tenth grade, and I
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: was distracted by my friend who I was at her
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: house where I was talking to her, and to get
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: my attention on the phone, he was like, Hey, African American,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to you. What And I was like, I
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: just remember being stunned. I don't even I think I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: probably just hung up because I was so stunned that
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I guess it stuns me because I'm like, I've never
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: had a conversation about black people or my own blackness
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: with any of these people that have said these things
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to me, So I just wonder what are they thinking
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: about or what are they talking to others potentially about
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: that they've never said to me, but feel comfortable saying
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: things like that to me.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as you said before, something that I think is
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: really valuable is this idea that there is one black perspective.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: There's not one black perspective, like there's not one type
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: of runner. There's not one type of woman, there's not
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: one way to like be in love or god. I mean,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: this can go on for every single thing in the world.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: But it's interesting to me, and this is why these
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: conversations are so valuable, the idea that, like, we can
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: have the same type of conversation with so many different
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: people and every single time you will get something new
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: out of it.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And I mean, especially with the Black community,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like everyone's trying to pigeonhole us and say
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the black experience, well, there's racism doesn't exist because you know,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I there's a person at my job that just got
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: promoted to CEO and he's black, or oh, there's not
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: systemic racism and poverty and systems working against black people
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: because look at all the black celebrities and athletes that
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: have so much money, they don't all have poverty. And
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: it's like we cannot those are exceptions to the rule,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and so we have to stop thinking that we understand
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: a group of people based off of one or two
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: or three people that we know or don't even know
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that we know of. And I think it's really important,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: like you said, just with everyone affording the same generosity
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: of spirit and knowledge about black people is that you
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: know everyone is different. I will never yes, I am black,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: but I will never know the unique experiences and challenges
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: that dark skinned black women experience. And I talked about
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that with my teammate Toun Day from Peloton when she
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: did a little Instagram live not too long ago, and
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: she literally asked me and it stumped me in front
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: of everyone. She was like, when you walk into a room,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: how do you think people perceive you? And I literally
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I said I don't know. She's like, well, what do
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: you mean you don't know? And I said, well, if
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I walk in with you, a dark skined black woman
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and another black person, I'm black. But if I walk
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: in with a bunch of my white friends, I would
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I would assume that people would think
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: that I'm white or that I'm Hispanic Latino. And so
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: she was she was like, she kept on prying, well,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: how do you think that people? I was like, I don't.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: That's the struggle about being biracial is that you really
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: don't know how people perceive you. They people perceive me
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the way that they want to perceive me, the way
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: that it and it sounds really negative, and I don't
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: want it to be negative, but people perceive me the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: way that they want to perceive me. That how what
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: what would fit in with what they want out of
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that situation in that moment.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that can also go hand in
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: hand with like the personality side of things.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I've done exercises before where someone asks you like, how
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: do you think that people would perceive you or label
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: you if they only had one minute with you and
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: they met you at a party, And then ask yourself,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: what do you want people to perceive you or how
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: do you want people to perceive you if they meet
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: you for a minute at a party, And the answers
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: to those questions can actually be very different, right, because
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: that's when you take a step back and you ask
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: yourself like are you being true to who you are?
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Are you holding back? Are you trying to make up
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: for something? Are you presenting in a certain way because
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: you want to be liked? And it's like who is
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: it that you want to be? And are you being
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: true to who it is that you are? And like
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: living your values to the outside world. Let's bring it
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: back to Texas. How does Texas go for you.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Also, I'm a chameleon. I love wherever I am. I
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: bloom more unplanted. I loved growing up in PEBT. I
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: loved Hertford and West Hartford where Trinity was. I loved Houston.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: And as I loved Houston, I thought it was very
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: different than what I expected, because, believe it or not,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: I had only been to New York City my entire
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: life twice for basketball, so never for pleasure, never to
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: you know, move around and do the touristy thing. Ever,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and so when I was told that Houston is the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I think it was the fourth largest city in the US,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: I was thinking something like New York City. But it's
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: very different. It's an urban sprawl. It's very spread out,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: and yes, everything is bigger in Texas. There's like ten
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: lane highways. The food is amazing, the happy hour scene
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: is amazing. People were so kind, and I absolutely loved
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it down there.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: I love it. Okay, so your teaching experience must be
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: pretty great because you go on to continue on this path.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So I was hired to teach fifth grade math,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and so I did that the first year, and then
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the second year I did third grade, and I taught
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: everything which was a really cool experience because I was
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: hired to teach math and that was my least favorite subject,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and the principal hired me specifically because I said math
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: was my least favorite subject, because he told me that
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: since I didn't like it, I would come up with
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: fun and interesting ways to teach it to the kids
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: for other kids who don't like math. And I was like,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: oh wow, Tooche, all right, I get that. And so
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: then I taught reading and I got to do science
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: and social studies and all that other good stuff down
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: there for my second year, and so I was one
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: hundred percent planning on staying for a third year. But
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: then I was recruited to open up which I thought
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: believed it was to open up a brand new elementary
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: school in Harlem with just kindergarten. So there were only
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: eighteen people on staff. There were five kindergarten classes, two
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: fully certified teachers in every classroom, and then you know,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: support staff. And so I moved up to New York
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: to be closer, you know, toward to my family and friends,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and I taught kindergarten and that was if you ever
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: want to test your patients, you should be in a
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: room with twenty seven four and five year olds from
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: seven o'clock in the morning until five pm daily. Wow.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Highly recommend And it's funny. Is this always cracks me
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: up because my roommate in New York who was also
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: at the same school I taught fifth grade, third grade,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: kinder she did the opposite. She did pre K three,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: pre K four, and then kindergarten, which is five years old.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: So when we started after our first day, I'll never forget,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: I'm like, Jen, that was so hard. These kids are
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: so not independent, and she was like, what do you
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: mean these kids are so independent? This is so great,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: And it was just really funny to me because I'm like, girl,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you say get in line to five year olds and
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: it's like hurting cats. It's like trying to get them
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: like come here, kids, come here. This is what a
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: line is. This is what I mean, stand on this tape.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: So it was such a great experience, and I ended
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: up staying with the network that I was at, and
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: I taught or after kindergarten, I was an operations director
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: at the middle school, and then I did that for
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: two years and then I moved back. This was really
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: special for me. I moved moved back to the Boston
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: area and I went to the city where my dad
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: was raised, Lynn Mass and I opened up a KIP school,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the same exact model as I opened up in Harlem.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: As an assistant principal.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what a KIP school is.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: So, so the school that I was at Harlem and KIP,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: they're both charter schools, so they are public schools. There's
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: it's a lottery system to get in. You apply, but
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: there's no like, there's no things that you have to meet,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: no tests or anything like that. We take anyone. It's
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: literally just a lottery system and it's publicly funded. The
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: difference is that there are some private investors that also
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: give more money. And so the main difference between a
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: charter school and a public school is we have an
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: extended school day. So the kids, I believe they got
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: in at seven and like I said, the school day
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: was for five year olds till four thirty or five
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: pm plus after school if parents chose to keep from there. Yeah,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: And the school that I was at in Harlem is
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: just a charter school here in the city. But KIP
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: is all over. It actually started in Houston, which was
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: kind of cool, and it started by Teach for America alone.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you go back to Lynn and you're running
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: the ship over there, and then how long does that last?
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: For l ol?
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: That lasted. So I moved back in June end of June.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I started July, and I quit in December of twenty fifteen.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Why'd you quit?
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So? It was a dream job, Emily. It was the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: best run experience school that I've worked at. The principal
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: was incredible, the teachers were incredible, the kids, the families.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I felt so connected to all of them. And guess what,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: I was still unhappy, and so I started to really
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: do some reflection and I realized, Okay, Jess, in six years,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: you've held five differferent roles, fifth third, kinder ops director,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: ops director, assistant principle. You worked for Teach for America
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: every summer in between those years, so you had even
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: more experience. You got your masters when you were down
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: in Houston. I went to the University of Saint Thomas
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and I got my master's in teacher leadership. And you're
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: still not happy. And so I started to think, and
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I had this really groundbreaking conversation with my boyfriend. At
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the time, he was in fitness and I saw how
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: fulfilled he was and how much he loved, you know,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: teaching these classes and connecting with people in his classes,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and so I love that. And I mean, I, like
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: I said, my whole life was about movement, and I
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't doing movement stuff, or at least not primarily. That
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't my primary role. I can tell you about all
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: looking back, all the things that I did that I
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: didn't even realize I was doing. But I was just like,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I can't quit teaching, Like I'm supposed to be a teacher.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher. And he was like, yeah,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: you're you're supposed to be a teacher, but you just
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: might be in the wrong setting. And I had this
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: like mind blown. I was like, wait a minute, you're right.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: So I ended up leaving that kid school in December
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen. And you're gonna laugh. My old school
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: fired their principal in Harlem and begged me to come
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: back just until they found a new principal in the
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: following school year. So when I moved back in December
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen. In January twenty sixteen, I became the
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: principal of my old school in Harlem, Cash Cat Yes,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: And so I did that from January to June, and
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: everyone knew as soon as I came back. Because here's
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: the thing. I love the kids in the family so
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: much that like I would never I could never abandon them.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: And I didn't have a job. I was coming back
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: to New York City to literally do the fitness grind,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: and so I said, let's do this. And so during
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that six month period, during all my free time, you
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: can't see me, I'm using air quotes. During my free time,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: I studied for my NASM Personal train assert. I started
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: on Instagram because I didn't have one. I had a
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: very you know, I never used my personal Instagram. I
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: probably posted maybe ten times. I started a fitness Instagram.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I got a photo shoot. I went to a ton
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: of different boutique studios to kind of get a feel
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: for the studios, to see one what studios I loved
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: and what, you know, discipline I wanted to teach, And
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: two what made a good instructor good great? Because there's
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: there are at every studio, as you know, there's always
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: like the top instructors, and so I was just very
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: curious about what made them great. And you know, so
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: I started to really observe. I'm a sponge, so I
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: was just learning and learning and networking, introducing myself to instructors.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: And yeah, that summer I started working at a boxing
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: studio and then a few months later I started training
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: at a high intensity interval training studio and I did
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: that for two years, and I started also, I did
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: this high program for a company that was starting to
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: do some online stuff, some camera stuff, and so I
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: did that and then tell a.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Fime taking a break from this week's episode to talk
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: about my sponsor, Green Chef, with a launch of season three.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: Things have been really hectic for me. When the pandemic
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: first started. I feel like I was doing so so
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: good at going through cookbooks on Sunday in my kitchen
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: and meal prepping. But lately it just that planning feels stressful.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: And that's where Green Chef comes in. I am obsessed.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: So first things first, what is it? Green Chef is
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: a USD A certified organic company that makes eating well
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: easy and affordable, with plans to fit literally every single
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: type of lifestyle. They have four different meal plans of
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: flitting Paleo, plant powered keto, and what they call BA Living.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: You pick which one you want to go with, and
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: then all of the ingredients to make delicious, delicious meals
• 45:06
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• 45:10
  Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago. My box had Oh God,
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: wanted to have Italian breaded pork chops, yes please, red
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: miso steak sturfry, and a roasted zucchini and corn flatbread,
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: which was perfect, perfect for summer. You know, obviously I
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: cannot garden in this small New York apartment, but if
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: I could, the stuff that came in that box, it
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: tasted like I literally just picked it right from my garden.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: So delicious. I haven't eating as well or had such
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: flavorful meals in such a long time. And it's even
• 45:42
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• 45:44
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• 45:47
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• 45:50
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• 46:01
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• 46:06
  Speaker 2: and for more details. So talk to me about what
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: that transition was like for you, going from being a
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: school principle to getting into fitness and did you feel
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: right from the get go that you were doing the
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: right thing.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So, I mean I knew I was doing the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: right thing because I was having so much fun, but
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I was also so uncomfortable. I'm I'm I'm a leo.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: So people hear that and they're like, oh, you love
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: being the center of attention. Actually, never, I actually don't
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: love being the center of attention. I like to bring
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: other people up and I love to put others in
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: positions to succeed. And I realized very early on when
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I started teaching boxing, like this is nerve wracking, but
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: people help, I'm starting to change people's lives. Like the
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: messages I was getting on Instagram and then that in
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: person chats were just really transformational, and I was like, Wow,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: this is huge, just as incredible. And people ask me
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: all the time, do you miss teaching? Do you miss teaching?
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: And I say, y'all no, because I'm still teaching. Do
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I miss the kids and their families and the other teachers. Absolutely,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: but I don't miss teaching because I am teaching. I'm
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: just teaching my preferred subjects.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: Now right right, Okay. So you make the transition into
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: fitness and right off the bat, do you find that
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: there's like a pretty big learning curve. I mean, I
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: think that that's one of the things that so many
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: people who message me are concerned about. It's like, Hey,
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: I so admire that you have the opportunity to like
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: work in an area that you're so passionate about, that
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: you love what you do. I would love to make
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: xyz career pivot, but I'm so scared to be a
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: new fish in the pool, so to speak.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I get that question quite often too, and I say,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: it's a grind. Like you, I would never take it back. Obviously.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: It's the best decision I've made in my life is
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: to make this career change. But do not get it twisted.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: The happy, amazing photoshoots and the fun things that I
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: put on Instagram, that is a very small percentage of
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: actually the work that has gone into it. In the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: two years that I taught in those boutique studios, I
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: worked seven days a week. I worked every single morning
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: except for Friday mornings. That was my only morning off
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: out of seven days. And the only nights I didn't
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: work were Saturday and Sunday nights. If I didn't work,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't get paid. You get paid per class. It
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: is a grind. So if you got sick, you know,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: and had to take days off, that's lost money. If you,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: god forbid, went on a vacation, that's doubly lost money
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: because you're spending money and you're not making any. So
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I always felt like I was kind of it was
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: a rollercoaster. It was I was like, okay, cool, I
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm making a good amount of money. I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: feel this is good, you know, really starting to feel
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: good about this, and then you know something would happen
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: and it's a step back. So it's you got to
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: know it's going to be a lot of work, and
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: so you have to love what you're going into and
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: be ready to work for sure.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: So you are ready to work. You're working a lot,
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: and when does peloton come into the picture.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: So this is like my favorite. This is one of
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: those stories I think back to and I'm just like, oh,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: it's just it all happened for the right reasons. So
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: a year into me being in fitness, so I was
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: just at those two studios, still learning a ton, getting
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: a ton of other certifications. Rebecca Kennedy, who's our master
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: instructor at Peloton, she would take my classes, my boxing
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: classes really often, and so we would chit chat here
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: and there, and then she reached out to me and said, Hey,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I'd love to grab coffee and chat with you. So
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: we grabbed coffee and she told me all about Peloton,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: and she all the perks, all the amazing things about it.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: And I sat there just with the biggest smile on
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: my face and I'm like, this is incredible, and I'm
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: not ready for it. I felt really deep in my
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: heart of hearts that I wasn't done learning the places
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: that I was currently at. I also wasn't working out myself, because,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: as you know, when you are training other people, you
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: put them first, and I didn't have the energy or
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: the discipline at that point in just a year of
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: prioritizing my own workouts. So I didn't feel comfortable for
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: those reasons. And then also I wasn't running the thought
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of running on a treadmill on camera was like a
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: nightmare to me, so I politely declined whatever whatever. Fast
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: forward a full year, so it was July of twenty
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: sixteen or twenty seventeen where we chatted for the first time.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: July twenty eighteen. I was like, Okay, I've been at
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: these places for two years. And then, as I mentioned before,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I had that really great opportunity where once a week
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: I was on camera. I was teaching thirty minute hit
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: classes and I loved it, and I was like, okay, Wow,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I actually could see myself doing this camera thing full time.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And one thing that I really realized about myself in
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen is that I am here to bring the
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: greatest impact on this world, on this planet, and I
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: started to feel that same sense of when I was
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: afraid of leaving the classroom to be an administrator. I
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: was like, this is so deficit. I can't leave twenty
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: five kids to go, you know, just only work with teachers.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: But then I changed my perspective and I said, Wow,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: instead of impacting twenty five kids on a daily basis,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: I'm impacting twenty five teachers who each have twenty five kids.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: So by taking a step out, I am making a
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: bigger impact. And so with Peloton, yes, we have people
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: in the classroom for most classes, but the main audience
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: is at home. So the main audience I don't see
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: on a daily basis, and that scared me at first,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: but then again that same parallel of taking that step
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: out of the classroom, it's the exact same thing with Pelton.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: So now my impact it's not just New York City.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: It's the rest of the US. It's the UK, it's Germany,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: it's Canada, and it's growing. We're a global company, and
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: so thinking about the impact that my workouts, my words,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: my programming has on people is like the ultimate blessing.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: I remember when I sat down with Ali and she
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: had the same reaction when Robin talked to her about
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: coming to be an instructor. She said to her, girl like,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: I got other things to focus on. I'm all set,
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: And Robin was like, no, you don't understand. Like this offer,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: this idea, you coming to do this, This is going
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: to help you do everything that you want to do. Yes, okay,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: So you you change your mind, You're like, hey, this
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: could be a cool thing. So is the offer still
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: on the table? How does it work out? Yeah?
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: So thankfully I didn't go through with the audition the
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: first time, just because I was my heart wasn't in it,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and this is not something that you can go in
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: with half your heart in it. And so I reached
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: back out to her grabbed coffee, and the first question
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: she asked me was why now, And I literally said
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: those things exact same things that I said to you.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Is I felt, but I've outgrown the places that I'm mad.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I'm ready to move on. I feel ready to be
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: in front of a camera, and I've gotten into a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: nice routine of working out on my own. So I
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: felt good about myself and body and mind, and so
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: she said, okay, cool, So she brought me in for
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: an audition. I taught a twenty minute full body boot
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: camp and that was it. And then that wasn't it.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: I'm totally lying. There were millions of interviews false advertisement. Yes, no,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: there were lots of interviews and things after, but it
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: was that one twenty minute boot camp that I taught
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: that was the audition.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: Amazing. And so talk to me about where you were
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: when you found out that you got the job.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: So it was, oh man, where did okay? Well, I
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: got the actual the official offer at the Peloton Cycling
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Studio by the CEO, and I felt good going into
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: it because this was like the final I had already
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: met with him one other time, and so the fact
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: that I was meeting with him again, I was like okay.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: And I knew that he was handing out the contracts
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: and so I was like, Okay, this is good, this
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: is good. This is good news, I think. And so
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: I got like a brand new lou Lemon outfit and
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: like went over there and I was like so excited,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and I got down to the basement offices and yeah,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: they offered me the job. And it was the most
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: exhilarating thing. And I guess the other thing too, which
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: is worthwhile of noting. So I auditioned in July, end
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: of July, I want to say. And then I turned
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: thirty August fifth, and so that weekend I went out
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: to the Hampton's and I just had I journaled and
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I actually reread the pages. I wrote like five or
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: six pages on my thirtieth birthday and I just wrote
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: and it was really cool to see now two years later,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: how happy, not even just happy, but how centered I
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: was at that time in my life. I felt very
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: confident in who I was and what I wanted to
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: offer and what my skill sets were and where I
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to go. And I really think it's because of
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: that timing that I got the job. I really don't
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: know if I auditioned the year before when I had
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: the original meeting with Rebecca, I don't know if I
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: would have gotten it. So I think that that's like
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: a really cool thing that looking back, I'm really proud
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: of myself for being self aware enough to know justs,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: this is not your time. It's not to say that
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: this will never be your time, but it is not
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: your time right now. Keep doing what you're doing and
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: then reassess.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: And I think that can be hard for a lot
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: of individuals, just this idea that sometimes the timing might
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: not be right, but that doesn't mean that an opportunity
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: can't come back around or you could run at it
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: at another time. It's up to us to have that
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: persistence and to go back at things that maybe at
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: one point or another, just like this opportunity for you
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: wasn't the perfect fit.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, that's perfectly said.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: And like you know it in your gut right, like
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: you knew it in your gut that you were ready then,
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: and you weren't ready before. So it's almost like would
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: have been doing yourself a disservice even if they offered
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: you the opportunity beforehand, Like you would have been doing
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: yourself a diservice because you weren't. You weren't ready. But
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: I see, I hear myself saying that, and then I'm like,
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: but sometimes the best things happen when you're not ready yet.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: True. But here's the thing. Even when I auditioned, I
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't really ready. I wasn't really running a ton still,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: so I wasn't completely I wasn't completely ready. But I
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: need to think about this, how the exageration, because the
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: meetings that I had, because I believe exactly what you're saying.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: It's there's never a good time like that you should
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: just jump and dive in. But I knew in my
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: heart and soul in that first conversation with Rebecco, I
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: was like, this opportunity sounds amazing, but it's not for
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: me right now. This is so so cool. Wow, oh
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: my gosh, they do this, this, this and this and
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: this is your schedule and this is your that this
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: is not for me right now. I just I just
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: had that gut feeling and it wasn't that it wasn't
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: that I wasn't ready in the sense where I couldn't
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: do it, but it wasn't the best time for me.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: I hear you. I hear you totally. And this sounds
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: actually quite similar to a situation I dealt with last
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: week where I had the opportunity to move into a
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: dream duplex in Brooklyn with the backyard, and I knew
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: that I wasn't in the right place yet. I'm moving
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: into a two bedroom hopefully next year, because I want
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: to be able to use it for my business and
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: I want to have guests over, and I want to
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: make it my recording studio in my office in the
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: whole shebange. But right now I don't need that. So
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: for me to go despite how unbelievable the opportunity was,
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: and the fact that you could literally park five vehicles
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: in the backyard like sounded great, but it's just not
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: the time. It's just not the time.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: It's just not the time, and you have to trust yourself,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Like I could have persuaded myself to go through with
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: the audition, but it just wasn't the time for me,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: and I think that that second year at those studios,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I was able to do so many things to set
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: myself up for success. At Pelton. I was able to
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: really discover my teaching personality because you know, of course,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: like when you're on a microphone, your personality is the same,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: but it's amplified in some ways. I was really able
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: to hone in on the queuing that I was giving.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: So now as a Pelton instructor, when I don't have
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: any people in the classroom, it's so funny. Some of
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: the best feedback that I get from our members is
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: when they say, how did you know that I wasn't
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: hinging my hips pushing my hips back in my deadlift
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: at that exact moment. And I'm like, well, one, because
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: I taught boutique fitness and I saw that constantly. So
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: there's that experience. And then also now at pelt Out,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: this is the blessing in the curse. I'm doing the
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: work out with you. So when I say these cues
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: and these motivational things out loud, they're not written down,
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: they're not rehearsed, they're not practice. It's what I also
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: need in that moment.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: So when did you officially start there?
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: So I started write after Labor Day. I started a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Pelton September tenth for training, and then I had my
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: first class right after the New York City Marathon, so
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: like the first week of November.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: So you're coming up on two years. Then, Yeah, a
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: little celebration is in store.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: It's so cool because there's like double celebration. It's like
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: celebrating when I got the job. I think it was
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: September tenth, and then when I started teaching classes, So it's.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: Double amazing amazing. Okay, So what would you say in
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: that first two year period? Has been one of the
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: biggest lessons that you've learned as an instructor.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Be yourself. Be yourself, especially in fitness, but really in
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: any industry, there's a lot of comparison, and there's a
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: lot of Oh, what are the really successful people doing,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: and how do I be more like them? I'll never forget.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: When I went in for the audition at Pelton, I
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: ran into Dennis Morton, who teaches cycling and yoga at Pelton,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: and he said to me, he has never worked at
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: a place that has asked him to be more of
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: himself more Dennis Morton than ever before, and when he
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: said it to me, I was like, wow, that sounds
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: really cool. But then in the first year learning, yes,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: of course you need to brush up on your queuing
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and make sure that that's good and your timing and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: look at the cameras, this and that. But you have
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: to stay true to yourself because that is what is
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: that makes you most relatable and that makes you the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: most welcoming to people. Are when you are yourself unapologetically,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: you are inviting other people to be unapologetically themselves. And
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: I think that that's the ultimate lesson that I have
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: learned so far at Pelton.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: For sure, when you look back on the interactions that
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: you've had with your members, what would you say one
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: of the greatest lessons has been from that over the
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: past two years.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: I would say the biggest lesson is that sweating is
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: so much more than a workout. What we do at
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Peloton is so much more than a workout. I will
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: leave the quote unquote stage to go downstairs to the
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: locker room and be down on myself because you know,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: I mess up, I skipped something, or I did this,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: I did that, and I beat myself up and then
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: I pick up my phone, or if this is a
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: class where there are a lot of people in there,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: I go and talk to them after. But then someone
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: will say to me, Jess, that was the best class
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: I've ever taken. I am recovering from, you know, so
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: many rounds of chemo. My partner just lost his job,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: my child is experiencing bullying. I just had a baby,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: and I've really lost myself, and that workout helped me
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: find myself. And that, Emily is like, that is why
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: I do what I do, because it is so much
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: more than a workout. What we do on the bike
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: the tread than that transcends fitness. It's mental practice for
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: doing hard things. It's reminding yourself. I can't half asked
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: this last push up because Jess says, how you do
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: anything is how you do everything. So if I have
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: asked this push up, that means I'm going to half
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: ask helping my kid with his homework tonight, and that's
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: not the kind of parent that I want to show
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: up to be. So just really, really understanding that what
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: we do is so much more than fitness has been
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: the ultimate.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: Lesson we mentioned being alone, traveling solo, spending time just
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: with ourselves. I think that's something that a lot of
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: us have been exposed to, more so during this pandemic,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: but something still that many struggle with. So for someone
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: that comes to you, and I know that they do
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: because they come to me too, someone that comes to
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: you and they say, how are you so good at
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: being by yourself? What is it that you tell them?
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: And do you offer them any advice?
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I think that Why am I so good? Because
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I practice? This is why I used to not like
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: running is because I was like, that's so boring, just
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: being alone with my own thoughts for thirty minutes, what like,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: no TV, no music, no distraction, no stopping, just running straight.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: That's too much time to be alone with my own thoughts.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: And then I also didn't like running because there's also
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: more of a punishment as an athlete growing up, you know,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: you relate to practice, you lost, you ran, And so
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: I've had to teach myself that, first of all, running
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: is a beautiful time to be with yourself and really
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: really important actually, And that has translated into other parts
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: of my life, and I've realized that in order to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: be a better partner, in order to be a better friend.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: In order to be a better dog mom, I have
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: to not escape by realities. I have to stop running
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: from things that make me uncomfortable or stop running from
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: things that worry me. I need to create some space
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: to tackle those things, because if not, I'm just delaying
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the inevitable. And so I think with quarantine specifically, it's
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: so funny that you bring this up when people ask me,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: like the first two months, even now, when people are like,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: how are you dealing with the quarantine? I know you
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: live by yourself. I'm like, yo, this is my My
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: life is not much different than before. I spend a
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: lot of a loan time, and I love my apartment
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: and I love my dog. And so I think that
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: what I would encourage people to do is stop looking
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: for distractions and catch yourself when you're wanting get distraction.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: I've had some great conversations with some friends that love
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: a good distraction, and they've distracted themselves with meeting friends
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: to go shopping, or meeting friends to grab a drink,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: or doing something that completely disrupts what their mind is
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: trying to have them do. And I just say, like,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: stop delaying the inevitable. Tackle it. Break it up into
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: small chunks if you need to. If there's like a big,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: massive thing that's weighing on you, don't think all you're
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: going to take it down one day, break it up
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: into smaller chunks and see what you can do. But
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: do it, even if it's for an hour a day
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: where you sit down with that pen and paper and
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: you start breaking it down. Do it because it's going
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: to catch up to you. It's going to You might
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: think that you've mastered it or gotten away from it
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: in one area in your life, but guess what. It's
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: going to sneak up and be like, guess what, I'm
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: still here, So you got to tackle it.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: I was literally having a conversation with a friend of
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: mine last night who was saying that he was also
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: struggling with the whole productivity situation, and I said to
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: him that often when I feel like I'm not being productive,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: it's because I'm not getting to a place where I'm
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: allowing myself to deal with the other shit that's blocking
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: me from getting to what I have to do. So
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: if I'm like not processing a tough conversation that I
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: had with my friend and I'm trying to do busy
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: work like that busy work isn't really going to do
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: much for me, and I probably won't get all that
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: much of it done because I'm still in the back
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: of my heart, in the back of my head, not
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: tackling the really big elephant in the room to enable
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: me to be productive.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, like what if that's exactly the beauty of
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: this quarantine time? And then we cannot take this time
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: for granted and wish it to be over because there's
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: so much time to grow here. We are so conditioned
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: to be so productive and do this, do that, and
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: human beings. We're human beings, We're not human doings. And
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: so we have to take a step back and question
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: all those quote unquote normal things that we were doing.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: Of defining being super productive every day as normal, maybe
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: that's not normal. Maybe that was the normal that you
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: had before, and that was running you into the ground
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: and forcing you to run away from the things that
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: you've needed to dive deeper into. Think about that we
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: are supposed to be. We are not supposed to be
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: doing doing, doing doing. We need to be Yeah, when
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: you're just being, you're allowing yourself to work through things
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: that will eventually allow you to do things better.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: Right now, when people go to your social media page,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: they see a peloton tread instructor. They see a woman
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: who they might ask themselves, what is her race? I
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: wonder what she is? They might see your great dog. Yes,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: when you look in the mirror, what is it that
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: you see looking back at you?
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: Oh? Can I tell you? I struggle looking in the mirror.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: I really do. I really struggle because I pick myself apart.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: I am learning to greet myself with the same compassion
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: that I give to others, because that is one of
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: my number one qualities, is that I'm very compassionate. I
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: really feel for people, and I understand that the stories.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: There's so much behind your story. And so I think
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: that when I look in the mirror now, I see
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: someone who is doing her best, someone who is still
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: definitely a work in progress, but still someone who she
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: loves very much.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: So so many people are looking to you constantly for guidance.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: You're this woman that's constantly working on herself. You think
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: about right now, reflecting over this time where you're giving
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: and giving and giving. But how is it that you
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: give back to you?
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: Oh? Ha, that's something that's tough, but it's something that
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: I do prioritize. I am very social and very outgoing,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: but I also know that my energy is finite, so
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: I spend a lot of time alone, which sounds sad,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: but I actually really thrive off of it. I have
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: a sassy dog that is my companion that makes me
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: less alone, but I really allow myself to decompress and
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: fill up my own cups so that I can continue
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: pouring into others. And so that might look that looks different,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: you know, that could be having a great conversation with
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: a loved one, That could be I love food, so
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: food is always something that I allow myself to indulge in.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: So a home cooked, great meal, going out to dinner,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: different things that allow me to not have to put
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: on a face and have real authentic conversation is something
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: that is definitely really important to me to help me
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: kind of feel reinvigorated, and time away helps me make
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: more of the time that I have with.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: Something that I think is really valuable. From what you
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: bring to the table is obviously so much motivation to
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: not just the Peloton community, but then of course the
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: people that are running into you on the social media channels.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: Where are you finding your motivation from to show up
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: day in, day out.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: My motivation comes from our members, for sure. It's we
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: are really big on milestones at Peloton, So we celebrate
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: you know, your fiftieth class, all the way up to
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: however many classes you take. I think in my class
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: this morning, someone's celebrated their eleven hundredth strength and so yeah.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: So when like, no, lie, whenever I'm feeling like, oh,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: like I'm tired or this and that, I pick up
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: my phone, I look at my DMS and there's someone
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: that is just so looking forward to this class. Because
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: if you think about it, I have no idea what
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: everyone else is going through. I think that's another huge
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: thing that not Pelton has taught me because I knew
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: this before, but it's definitely reinforced in a new and
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: special way. You don't know what other people are going through.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: So the thirty minutes that they have chosen, that's the
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: other thing too, it's a choice. They don't have to
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: take my class. They want to. They get to those
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: thirty minutes that they are taking for themselves. It needs
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: to be a really great thirty minute class. It needs
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: to be a really great forty five minute class, whatever
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: that class is. Someone is showing up and that could
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: be their only bright spot in their day or their week,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: and so I take that responsibility very seriously. And that's
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: all the motivation I need. I could be having such
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: a tough day myself, but I think about that, and
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: I think about how good I will feel because working
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: out again is something that helps me in every way
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: of my life. Yeah, those two things are just members
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: alone is what motivates me.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: You, my friend, have an opportunity right now to offer
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 2: the Jess who is coming to terms with the fact
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: that she's not exactly all that happy with her career
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: path a piece of advice. Looking back on that hurdle moment. Now,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: what do you tell her?
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: I tell her to really do some reflection, Grab a
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: piece of paper, grab that notebook and pen, and write
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: down what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: makes what is something that you would do if money
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: was not an issue, something that you would do for
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: free that just invigorates you, and do that. It might
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: not be exactly what you want and that moment or
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: in ten years, but it's something that is going to
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: put you onto a path towards what you want, So
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: don't be afraid of that. Do the reflection, figure out
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: your why, figure out what makes you tick, and then
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: don't do what you should do, do what you must do.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: I think that was another thing that really helped me
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: as I read that book, The crossroads between should and must,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: and our lives are full of shoulds. You should do this,
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: you should look like that, you should try this, you
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: should do that. And it's not about the shows. It's
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: about what is your calling? What is it that you
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: must do and do it?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being just so rad.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Oh I love you.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: I wish everyone said that to me when we were
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: done recording.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: They should, honestly, they really should.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: Please take a quick moment and leave a review by
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: at Hurdle Podcast. Jess, how do they keep up with you?
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: How do they stay in the loop? Give me the details?
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: Well, please pick my classes on Peloton. My name is
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: Jess Sims, and then also follow me on Instagram at
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Jasim's Fit. You can get workout stuff, you can laugh
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: because I post a lot of funny things, and then
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: you get to see the cuteness of my sassy dog daughter.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: I am so grateful for you. Thank you, so so
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: so much.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Emily. I really appreciate you.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: I am at Emily Body at Hurdle Podcast, Another hurdle conquered.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.