Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 21: Ruth Zukerman, Co-Founder Flywheel Sports

Transcript

Episode 21: Ruth Zukerman, Co-Founder Flywheel Sports · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, Hurdlers, Emily a body here. Welcome to another episode
0:06
Speaker 1: of Hurdle. Fresh off the plane from Vancouver, I went
0:09
Speaker 1: to Canada to run a Lululemon Sewee's Half marathon over
0:12
Speaker 1: the weekend, and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this,
0:15
Speaker 1: but that was my first time crossing the border anyway.
0:18
Speaker 1: It was absolutely gorgeous up there, but also admittedly a
0:21
Speaker 1: huge mental hurdle for me. Earlier this year, I ran
0:24
Speaker 1: the Boston Marathon in a complete and total downboar, so
0:28
Speaker 1: of course, why not keep the trend alive for my
0:31
Speaker 1: first race since Boston. It definitely ran there the entire time,
0:35
Speaker 1: and I just kept telling myself all the mantras like
0:37
Speaker 1: you got this, You're strong, You're capable, you can do it.
0:41
Speaker 1: I ended up running a half marathon prpace, so pretty
0:46
Speaker 1: happy about that. One quick shout out to the sponsor
0:49
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1:22
Speaker 1: code necessary Again, that's Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle. Today,
1:28
Speaker 1: I sit down with Ruth Zuckerman, co founder and creative
1:31
Speaker 1: director of Flywheel Sports. After her nineteen ninety six divorce,
1:35
Speaker 1: the former dancer and aerobics instructor felt lost. She worked
1:39
Speaker 1: through the difficult time with the help of indoor cycling
1:41
Speaker 1: classes at the old Reebok Gym on the Upper West Side,
1:44
Speaker 1: and it was there that she transitioned from writer to instructor.
1:48
Speaker 1: In today's episode, the Mobile talks about a client that
1:51
Speaker 1: approached her with an idea that eventually turned into Soul Cycle,
1:54
Speaker 1: how that crazy ride brought her to Flywheel and the
1:57
Speaker 1: hard decisions she had to make a long the way.
2:01
Speaker 1: Rooth's actually releasing her book this week. It's called Writing High,
2:04
Speaker 1: How I Kissed Soul cycle, goodbye. Co founded Flywheel and
2:08
Speaker 1: built the life I always wanted. Definitely go check that
2:11
Speaker 1: out if you're in the NYC area. Also, come check
2:15
Speaker 1: out the Vital Proteins pop up shop. This Wednesday night,
2:18
Speaker 1: September twenty six, I will be there hosting a Feed
2:22
Speaker 1: Your Beauty panel with a few lovely ladies, kicking off
2:25
Speaker 1: at six thirty pm at one nineteen Spring Street. We'll
2:28
Speaker 1: be talking all the things health, fitness, beauty, you name it.
2:32
Speaker 1: Having a good time as always. Connect with the podcast
2:35
Speaker 1: on social at Hurdle Podcast Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and keep
2:39
Speaker 1: those screen grats coming. I'm loving this. While you're listening
2:42
Speaker 1: to the episode today, post a snapshot to your Instagram
2:44
Speaker 1: story with a takeaway you learned, Tag me, tag the pod,
2:48
Speaker 1: and I'll repost it from the Hurdle account. Also, sign
2:51
Speaker 1: up for the newsletter at hurdle dot us. Shoot me
2:54
Speaker 1: an email if you want to say hi or share
2:56
Speaker 1: a hurdle moment. You know the drill Emily at hurdle
2:59
Speaker 1: dot And that's it. Let's get to hurdling today. I
3:24
Speaker 1: am sitting here with Ruth Zuckerman. She is the co
3:27
Speaker 1: founder and creative director of Flywheel. Ruth thanks for coming
3:31
Speaker 1: in today. Thank you for having me. This is a
3:34
Speaker 1: it's kind of crazy. Actually, we were just talking that
3:37
Speaker 1: you've only done two other podcasts before. That is correct.
3:41
Speaker 1: So I feel lucky. I'm a newbie, a podcast newbie.
3:45
Speaker 1: I feel lucky that you're in the studio. I also
3:48
Speaker 1: find it funny because yes, you are a mogul. By
3:53
Speaker 1: the podcast I was listening to this morning referred to
3:56
Speaker 1: you that way over and over and over again. It
3:58
Speaker 1: was a little much. You know what it is. But
4:00
Speaker 1: I guess what I have to ask to that is
4:02
Speaker 1: does that ever like feel kind of crazy to you?
4:05
Speaker 1: It feels insane to me.
4:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I never ever would have expected to be described
4:11
Speaker 2: that way.
4:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now that you.
4:12
Speaker 2: Are, now that I am not gonna lie, feels pretty good.
4:17
Speaker 2: And I'm really trying hard to own it.
4:19
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. Okay, So there's so
4:23
Speaker 1: much ground that we can cover today. I have been
4:26
Speaker 1: for the past year a spin instructor myself, and actually
4:30
Speaker 1: taught my last class yesterday, which is insane And the
4:33
Speaker 1: funniest part which we can both relate on on this
4:36
Speaker 1: is when we spoke on the phone yesterday, my voice
4:39
Speaker 1: was in a serious decline. I woke up this morning
4:41
Speaker 1: thankfully it's back. I think the most beautiful thing about
4:47
Speaker 1: you is that you still teach. Yes, So talk to
4:51
Speaker 1: me about why it is. And we'll obviously get into
4:54
Speaker 1: the background of flywheel, But what is it about teaching
4:57
Speaker 1: that you stuck with because I'm sure that you travel.
5:00
Speaker 1: Obviously there's so much to do with the business. There is, and.
5:05
Speaker 2: You're spot on because a lot of people really do
5:08
Speaker 2: question that and they marvel at the fact that I'm
5:10
Speaker 2: still teaching, and my response to that is always the same,
5:12
Speaker 2: which is, I can't imagine not teaching. That's how this
5:16
Speaker 2: whole thing started was with me as an instructor, and
5:21
Speaker 2: it's such a vital and important.
5:24
Speaker 1: Part of my day every day pretty much.
5:27
Speaker 2: And when I discovered that very early on, my whole
5:32
Speaker 2: motivation to get to where I got to today was
5:35
Speaker 2: just purely because I wanted to share.
5:37
Speaker 1: This amazing experience with as many people as possible.
5:40
Speaker 2: And so, as you're asking, every day, when I get
5:44
Speaker 2: on the bike, I work through whatever stresses I'm experiencing
5:49
Speaker 2: that day that week and figure out ways to kind
5:53
Speaker 2: of talk about it in the class, and sure enough
5:55
Speaker 2: I am tapping into a lot of similar stresses that
5:58
Speaker 2: other people are experiencing as well, So it kind of
6:01
Speaker 2: becomes this joint effort, a community feeling where we're all
6:06
Speaker 2: getting through it together, and it gets me through my
6:09
Speaker 2: day and makes my day better.
6:11
Speaker 1: It makes me so happy to hear that, and I
6:14
Speaker 1: can definitely relate. I think I'm a little anxious about
6:17
Speaker 1: how I aside from my typical workout and running, I
6:22
Speaker 1: was able to really talk through things a lot more often.
6:24
Speaker 1: And it's something that if you don't maybe go see
6:27
Speaker 1: a therapist or something, people don't realize that all of
6:30
Speaker 1: these class goers they walk into the studio and you're
6:32
Speaker 1: providing them a service. But it's so mutually beneficial, so
6:36
Speaker 1: mutually beneficial.
6:38
Speaker 2: And by the way, I very much need my daily
6:42
Speaker 2: spin class and therapy.
6:44
Speaker 1: I do both, and I'm a huge proponent of therapy.
6:47
Speaker 2: But I will tell you briefly that I have heard
6:50
Speaker 2: comments from therapists who literally say to me that their
6:54
Speaker 2: practice is suffering because people have found the spin class
6:58
Speaker 2: and they don't go anymore.
7:00
Speaker 1: Always kind of funny. Oh man, Okay, So let's rewind
7:04
Speaker 1: a little bit because Flywheel was founded in twenty ten. Yes,
7:09
Speaker 1: so it's been eight years now, correct, Where were you
7:13
Speaker 1: in twenty ten?
7:14
Speaker 2: So I was diligently working on this company with my
7:19
Speaker 2: two co founders ex partners, and I was at soul
7:23
Speaker 2: Cycle through summer of two thousand and nine, and that
7:27
Speaker 2: is when I met Jay and David who I started
7:30
Speaker 2: Flywell with, and they introduced this idea to me about
7:35
Speaker 2: bringing technology to the ride and to the experience. And
7:39
Speaker 2: both of them came from a private equity background. Neither
7:41
Speaker 2: knew how to teach a spin class, but what they
7:44
Speaker 2: did know was that this was a good idea and
7:46
Speaker 2: when they introduced it to me, I thought, Wow, this
7:49
Speaker 2: is really an opportunity to take the indoor cycling world
7:52
Speaker 2: to the next level.
7:53
Speaker 1: And for someone who might not be aware Ruth actually
7:56
Speaker 1: was one of the original co founders of Soul Cycles. Wow,
7:59
Speaker 1: so you've been in the spin space for a minute. Yes,
8:02
Speaker 1: And obviously soul Cycle and Flywheel they both have completely
8:06
Speaker 1: different offerings they do. So talk to me a little
8:08
Speaker 1: bit about what someone can expect if they were to
8:11
Speaker 1: walk into a Flywheel.
8:13
Speaker 2: Class from the moment they walk in the door. Incredible
8:17
Speaker 2: customer service. They will feel very taken care of. It's
8:21
Speaker 2: an efficient sign in process with little laptops set up
8:25
Speaker 2: for everybody, and your shoes are waiting for you in
8:29
Speaker 2: your cubby hole, and you are taken into the studio.
8:33
Speaker 2: If you are newer to the experience, we have someone
8:36
Speaker 2: there ready to set you up and show you how
8:38
Speaker 2: to set up the seat and the handlebars, et cetera,
8:42
Speaker 2: so that you will get the most efficient, safe workout.
8:45
Speaker 2: And then the experience begins. The lights go off and
8:50
Speaker 2: there's a spot on the instructor and you are embarking
8:53
Speaker 2: on a forty five minute or our journey.
8:56
Speaker 1: Okay, and what is it about the Flywheel experience that
8:59
Speaker 1: makes Flywheel unique? So what is it about that class
9:01
Speaker 1: experience that someone would be getting when they walk in.
9:04
Speaker 2: First of all, the studio is set up as a stadium,
9:07
Speaker 2: so each row is a raised level, so back in
9:10
Speaker 2: the day when or not back in the day. In
9:13
Speaker 2: many other studios where they don't have stadium seating, you
9:17
Speaker 2: aren't necessarily on the best bike because you might not
9:20
Speaker 2: be able to see the instructor really well. We realized
9:23
Speaker 2: in the very beginning of Flywheel that we wanted a
9:26
Speaker 2: stadium format so that not only the rider has the
9:31
Speaker 2: best view of the instructor. But the instructor also has
9:33
Speaker 2: the best view of the rider and can see that
9:34
Speaker 2: everyone's working out safely. That was really important to us.
9:39
Speaker 2: Beyond that, again we get to the metrics. We get
9:42
Speaker 2: to this little computer which is fixed on every bike,
9:46
Speaker 2: and it finally allows the rider to be accountable, to
9:50
Speaker 2: know exactly where her or his resistance should be, how
9:54
Speaker 2: fast they should be going. And then at the end
9:57
Speaker 2: of the ride, you are left with a total number.
10:00
Speaker 2: It's a points tally about your energy expenditure, and it
10:04
Speaker 2: gives you a mark so that every time you come
10:07
Speaker 2: in you might want to get that number a little higher.
10:10
Speaker 2: And you're finally able to be competitive with yourself. And
10:14
Speaker 2: I feel that when you have an opportunity to be
10:17
Speaker 2: competitive with yourself, that's how we improve, that's how we
10:21
Speaker 2: up our game.
10:22
Speaker 1: And it's really been effective totally. It's funny you mentioned
10:25
Speaker 1: this idea of the stadium seating. I can't tell you.
10:28
Speaker 1: I went to a standard spin class at jim the
10:32
Speaker 1: other day and it wasn't boutique fitness by any means,
10:34
Speaker 1: and I was sitting in the class and I realized
10:37
Speaker 1: that being on that level playing field with everybody else,
10:40
Speaker 1: I felt like I wasn't trying nearly as hard.
10:43
Speaker 2: It's so true, it's so different. Yes, you're much more
10:46
Speaker 2: connected with the instructor when you can really see them.
10:49
Speaker 1: And I mean on this competition note, there's so much
10:52
Speaker 1: research about the benefits of competition and working out and accountability.
10:58
Speaker 1: You push harder, you work harder when you're going at
11:00
Speaker 1: it with a friend or someone you know, and I
11:02
Speaker 1: think that you hit the nail on the head really
11:04
Speaker 1: trying to bring that into the studio atmosphere. Thank you.
11:08
Speaker 2: I do too, And I'll tell you one of the
11:10
Speaker 2: most validating things that I have found in my experience
11:15
Speaker 2: since we started Flywheel is when I and I hear
11:17
Speaker 2: this often people literally go to their doctors with various issues,
11:23
Speaker 2: knee issues, you know, issues from running where the impact
11:26
Speaker 2: has been too much, And so many doctors are now
11:29
Speaker 2: advising their patients to specifically go to Flywheel, And for
11:32
Speaker 2: me that is just so validating in terms of the safety,
11:37
Speaker 2: the efficiency of our workout. And because of that, we
11:40
Speaker 2: get to have a ridership from you know, people in
11:43
Speaker 2: their twenties to people in their mid seventies, and I
11:46
Speaker 2: love that.
11:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get to have these ideas to start the
11:49
Speaker 1: Spin Studio and both with Flywheel and Soul Cycle. But
11:54
Speaker 1: where were you before all of this began? Give me,
11:56
Speaker 1: let's really go back. How far back do you want
11:59
Speaker 1: to go? Out?
12:00
Speaker 2: Far back as you I'm happy to do that. I
12:04
Speaker 2: started out as a dancer. I started taking dance classes
12:07
Speaker 2: when I was eight years old, and I was immediately
12:09
Speaker 2: hooked on it and really took classes two to three
12:14
Speaker 2: times a week through my high school years through my
12:17
Speaker 2: college years. It really was an escape for me. I
12:21
Speaker 2: grew up in a household with a mom who was
12:24
Speaker 2: pretty tough, and I think I really needed this escape.
12:28
Speaker 2: And I also got very into music, the whole music world.
12:32
Speaker 2: I grew up in household with music playing all the time,
12:35
Speaker 2: and obviously through my dance experience and dance classes, I
12:38
Speaker 2: was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music
12:41
Speaker 2: and it really was an important part of my life
12:43
Speaker 2: and still is through college. I graduated college, I moved
12:47
Speaker 2: to New York City decided I'm going to continue my path,
12:50
Speaker 2: my passion and become a professional dancer. Well, not that easy,
12:55
Speaker 2: and especially if you choose to live in New York,
12:57
Speaker 2: where I really wanted to be. So I started going
13:01
Speaker 2: to auditions and I did that for a couple of years,
13:04
Speaker 2: and the rejection and the getting close but then not
13:08
Speaker 2: making it just became a lot for me.
13:11
Speaker 1: I also needed to start making a living. I wasn't
13:13
Speaker 1: making any money. I was.
13:14
Speaker 2: I had various part time jobs, which obviously weren't really fulfilling.
13:19
Speaker 2: I was living on the Upper West Side and it
13:21
Speaker 2: was so different then.
13:22
Speaker 1: Wow, it was.
13:23
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty one, and a boy, has it changed up there.
13:26
Speaker 2: But I lived in a sixth floor walk up on
13:28
Speaker 2: Columbus Avenue in seventy fourth.
13:30
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny, say, I feel like, at one
13:33
Speaker 1: point or another like the walk up above a floor
13:36
Speaker 1: three is a true sign that you're working to make
13:38
Speaker 1: it in don't you think I appreciate that?
13:41
Speaker 2: So, yes, that's where I lived, and I had to
13:45
Speaker 2: give up dancing, and that was a huge hurdle for me.
13:50
Speaker 2: It was a disappointment and I was lost. I mean,
13:53
Speaker 2: what am I going to do now I've given this up.
13:55
Speaker 2: I've been directing myself towards this goal since age eight.
14:01
Speaker 2: I then came upon a small aerobics studio on seventy
14:06
Speaker 2: second Street on the Upper West Side, and I thought,
14:10
Speaker 2: all right, well, let me start taking some classes there
14:12
Speaker 2: because I had to still do something physical and I
14:15
Speaker 2: wasn't dancing anymore. Within a very short time, the owner
14:19
Speaker 2: of the studio said, you know, you should really be
14:21
Speaker 2: teaching here. It was kind of a dance slash aerobics class,
14:24
Speaker 2: and I thought, oh, well, that could be fun because
14:27
Speaker 2: I'll be moving and doing what I like to do.
14:29
Speaker 2: And so I took the job. And that's what really
14:32
Speaker 2: started me in boutique fitness. That was my first exposure
14:35
Speaker 2: and it was this great place. It was this tiny
14:38
Speaker 2: hole in the wall and we had every celebrity you
14:41
Speaker 2: can imagine, and on the upper West side. Oh my god,
14:46
Speaker 2: from James Taylor to Carly Simon to Kevin Bacon to
14:51
Speaker 2: Diane Lane, they all came.
14:54
Speaker 1: That's kind of crazy that you can now say that
14:56
Speaker 1: you've danced with.
14:56
Speaker 2: Kevin I think so, or James Taylor for that matter.
15:01
Speaker 2: So that's where that started, and that led me to
15:04
Speaker 2: step classes, and that led me to a time where
15:09
Speaker 2: I decided to get married and I was twenty six
15:11
Speaker 2: years old. Clearly, you know, it wasn't killing it and
15:14
Speaker 2: making a lot of money, and based on my self
15:18
Speaker 2: esteem level, quite frankly, at the time, I thought, well,
15:22
Speaker 2: this is the perfect remedy. I'll get married. The person
15:25
Speaker 2: I married, uh, was someone who was very driven and
15:28
Speaker 2: I knew would do well financially and would take.
15:31
Speaker 1: Care of me.
15:32
Speaker 2: And that was the direction in which I went. And
15:36
Speaker 2: that was nineteen eighty four. A few years later, I
15:39
Speaker 2: had rather six years later, I had twin girls. Before
15:42
Speaker 2: I knew it, started therapy because my dad was dying
15:46
Speaker 2: and I didn't know how I was going to quite
15:47
Speaker 2: deal with that. And what came out very early on
15:51
Speaker 2: in therapy was that I was really unhappy in my marriage,
15:54
Speaker 2: something I really wasn't even dealing with, but therapy uncovered it.
15:59
Speaker 2: Long SI story longer. I ended up getting divorced. And
16:04
Speaker 2: when I was going through this very traumatic period, I
16:09
Speaker 2: again hadn't been working for a while, and I belonged
16:12
Speaker 2: to the Rebok Club on the Upper West Side.
16:14
Speaker 1: People throw out the Rebok Club right all it seems
16:18
Speaker 1: to be the genesis for a lot of people. That's
16:20
Speaker 1: so interesting to be the thing.
16:22
Speaker 2: It was the thing, and it was this gorgeous, full service,
16:25
Speaker 2: sixth floor gym, had every amenity you could imagine, and
16:29
Speaker 2: including spin classes. And I used to walk by the
16:32
Speaker 2: spin room and it would be dark and there'd be
16:34
Speaker 2: a lot of people in there, you know, spinning those wheels.
16:38
Speaker 2: And I was very intrigued. I was intimidated, and it
16:42
Speaker 2: took me a little while to convince myself to get
16:44
Speaker 2: in there, but I did, and I went in there
16:46
Speaker 2: one day, took a class, and Emily, from the first class,
16:50
Speaker 2: I was hooked. And what I noticed right away was
16:53
Speaker 2: this wasn't just an exercise class. It was an experience.
16:57
Speaker 2: Not only was it any experience allowed me literally to
17:03
Speaker 2: get through this very traumatic period in my life because
17:05
Speaker 2: I saw that there was this mind body component together,
17:09
Speaker 2: working together, and it became a very cathartic experience for me.
17:15
Speaker 2: So that's really how I got introduced to spinning. And
17:19
Speaker 2: I had this amazing inspirational instructor who I loved, and
17:24
Speaker 2: two years in of taking classes every day, he announced
17:28
Speaker 2: he was leaving. He was moving to Florida, and I
17:30
Speaker 2: was instantly devastated. And I looked at my reaction. I thought,
17:34
Speaker 2: this is crazy, Ruth. It's an exercise class. You know,
17:38
Speaker 2: he's an instructor. What's the big deal.
17:40
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just that, obviously, and it came like
17:43
Speaker 1: a crutch for you.
17:44
Speaker 2: It did and you know, a form of therapy, and
17:48
Speaker 2: I thought, one way, what am I going to do now?
17:51
Speaker 2: I didn't I wasn't crazy about the other instructors, and
17:54
Speaker 2: so my decision was, I'm just going to have to
17:55
Speaker 2: start teaching myself. And I told them I wanted to audit,
18:00
Speaker 2: which I did and within three minutes they said, you're hired,
18:03
Speaker 2: and that started my career as a spin instructor.
18:05
Speaker 1: Can we talk about how difficult it is to become
18:08
Speaker 1: a spin instructor? Just I will say this is that I, Uh,
18:12
Speaker 1: when I became a spin instructor, was already a certified trainer.
18:16
Speaker 1: I knew about the body, about weights, about all the
18:19
Speaker 1: things that one would I thought need to know to
18:22
Speaker 1: get on a spin bike. But it's so much bigger
18:25
Speaker 1: than knowing how to set somebody up. And you have
18:27
Speaker 1: to be able to command the room, and then of
18:29
Speaker 1: course you need to make the playlist, and then of course,
18:32
Speaker 1: like Flywheel and the place I was teaching at, Swerve,
18:35
Speaker 1: both use a lot of technology and it's like, oh
18:38
Speaker 1: my god, before before you know it. It's like I
18:41
Speaker 1: remember walking out of that studio after practicing for two
18:44
Speaker 1: three hours a day and wondering if I was ever
18:47
Speaker 1: going to be able to do it. I completely understand that.
18:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I tell all Spin instructors that so much
18:53
Speaker 2: of the game of being successful at it is experienced,
18:57
Speaker 2: so sometimes it just takes time to feel comfortable. And
19:01
Speaker 2: I remember telling people that I think it took me
19:04
Speaker 2: at least a year before I could get up there
19:08
Speaker 2: and not be incredibly nervous.
19:11
Speaker 1: I like, I can really appreciate that, and it makes
19:14
Speaker 1: me think a lot. I mean, I taught for exactly
19:17
Speaker 1: a year and then I taught my last class yesterday,
19:19
Speaker 1: and it's so crazy to think about where I am
19:23
Speaker 1: now versus where I was then, and how much I've
19:25
Speaker 1: grown and we have grown, you know, as a studio,
19:28
Speaker 1: and it's just it's so rewarding again going back into
19:33
Speaker 1: that mutually beneficial experience, Like and I'm sure after a
19:38
Speaker 1: year's time, you know, there were people that looked at
19:40
Speaker 1: you like you looked at your favorite instructor that was
19:42
Speaker 1: on their way to Florida. I hope. So I'm sure.
19:47
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Okay, so you're teaching now.
19:49
Speaker 2: So I started teaching, and I was also teaching some
19:51
Speaker 2: classes out in the Hampton's Eastern Long Island, and by
19:55
Speaker 2: teaching in both places obviously building a following, and I
19:58
Speaker 2: really started I really used those five years at Reebok
20:02
Speaker 2: to kind of hone my method and how I thought
20:05
Speaker 2: a spin class should feel and look like. I started
20:09
Speaker 2: noticing that music was, as you know, such an integral
20:13
Speaker 2: part of the success of the ride. And initially, when
20:17
Speaker 2: we all started spinning, we tended to use kind of techno,
20:21
Speaker 2: you know, music without lyrics and great you know, driving
20:24
Speaker 2: beat and that kind of music. But I was noticing
20:28
Speaker 2: that people were really enjoying music that they knew, music
20:31
Speaker 2: that tapped into an experience, music that they knew the
20:35
Speaker 2: words to, lyrical music, and so I really started curating
20:39
Speaker 2: my playlists.
20:40
Speaker 1: With that in mind.
20:41
Speaker 2: And then I started noticing that the lines for my
20:44
Speaker 2: classes were getting longer and longer, and so I knew
20:47
Speaker 2: I was kind of onto something with that. I also
20:50
Speaker 2: noticed that people who came to spin classes only came
20:54
Speaker 2: to spin classes.
20:55
Speaker 1: You know.
20:55
Speaker 2: Here we were in this beautiful gym that offered so
20:58
Speaker 2: many different kinds of genres of excerpt size, but it
21:00
Speaker 2: didn't matter. All they used was the spin room. So
21:04
Speaker 2: that really indicated to me that there would be an
21:07
Speaker 2: opportunity for a dedicated boutique spin business where that's all
21:12
Speaker 2: we offered.
21:12
Speaker 1: Do you think that's still the case now that people
21:16
Speaker 1: spin and only spin.
21:18
Speaker 2: I think it's changed, and I think that a lot
21:20
Speaker 2: of them do try other genres of exercise, and certainly
21:25
Speaker 2: there's so much offered in the boutique space now, so
21:28
Speaker 2: no question that has changed. But at the same time,
21:33
Speaker 2: a lot of them are still predominantly going to spin
21:37
Speaker 2: class because again, they get something from the mental component,
21:42
Speaker 2: I feel, more than any other genre of exercise.
21:46
Speaker 1: Definitely. Okay, so you see that there's room in the market, yes,
21:49
Speaker 1: for a boutique fitness space.
21:51
Speaker 2: Correct, that's just been exactly And I had a really
21:56
Speaker 2: close friend who took my class all the time, and
22:00
Speaker 2: she was very addicted to spinning. She had just moved
22:02
Speaker 2: here from la and she and I used to literally
22:06
Speaker 2: sit and fantasize about opening our own studio. Neither one
22:10
Speaker 2: of us have the capital for it, and so we
22:12
Speaker 2: would just continue to dream and separately. One day, another
22:17
Speaker 2: woman who took my class frequently approached me. It was
22:21
Speaker 2: in the fall of two thousand and five, and she
22:25
Speaker 2: came up to me and she said, Ruth. I love
22:27
Speaker 2: your class. It's amazing. I love the whole experience. I
22:31
Speaker 2: want to open a spin studio in New York City.
22:34
Speaker 2: I wanted to be all about your method, the way
22:38
Speaker 2: you teach. You know, I have no idea how to
22:40
Speaker 2: teach a spin class. I want you to be the
22:42
Speaker 2: face of the business. I will fund it, and what
22:45
Speaker 2: do you think? And I said, I'm in. I mean,
22:48
Speaker 2: I don't even know if I hesitated.
22:50
Speaker 1: I was like someone walking on you with like a
22:52
Speaker 1: pair of diamond earrings and they're like, do you want that? Exactly?
22:56
Speaker 2: It was a dream come true and I literally was
23:00
Speaker 2: all over it. And from that moment, she and I
23:04
Speaker 2: started planning, and you know, we met in coffee shops
23:07
Speaker 2: and we wrote notes on napkins and talked about our
23:10
Speaker 2: ideas and what we envisioned. And through our conversations it
23:18
Speaker 2: dawned on me, well what am I going to do
23:20
Speaker 2: about my other friend who I talked. You know, we've
23:24
Speaker 2: been planning and we wanted to open our own spin studio.
23:27
Speaker 2: And I'm a very loyal person, and so I approached Elizabeth,
23:32
Speaker 2: who was the person who initially approached me, and I said,
23:36
Speaker 2: you know, I have this friend and I told her
23:38
Speaker 2: the story and I said, she and I talk about
23:40
Speaker 2: have been talking about doing this for quite a while.
23:43
Speaker 2: I think she'd be a great addition to the partnership.
23:46
Speaker 2: She has a lot of great connections with actors because
23:50
Speaker 2: she was a talent agent in LA. She has great
23:54
Speaker 2: a great eye for design. She would be great at marketing.
23:57
Speaker 2: And she said, bring her in. Let's meet her, and
23:59
Speaker 2: I did. I introduced the two of them and they
24:03
Speaker 2: hit it off. And that was really the start of
24:06
Speaker 2: soul cycle. We started. We decided to become a partnership,
24:09
Speaker 2: the three of us and just started digging in.
24:12
Speaker 1: And the name like super Organic, uh it was.
24:16
Speaker 2: It was we we brainstormed.
24:19
Speaker 1: A bit and.
24:21
Speaker 2: Knew that, you know, we wanted to bring some kind
24:24
Speaker 2: of soul into the title because it was such a
24:28
Speaker 2: huge part of the experience. And yeah, and we came
24:31
Speaker 2: up with it and we're very happy with it. And
24:34
Speaker 2: obviously the wheel became ubiquitous and a great symbol of
24:39
Speaker 2: what we were doing. And we opened our doors in
24:43
Speaker 2: the spring of two.
24:44
Speaker 1: Thousand and six. And where was the first studio, ironically
24:48
Speaker 1: on seventy second Street, right across the street from my
24:50
Speaker 1: aerobics studio where it all began, where it all So
24:54
Speaker 1: you started teaching at Soul Cycle.
24:56
Speaker 2: I did, and I in the beginning, I taught pretty
25:00
Speaker 2: much every class. It was absolutely exhausting, but it didn't matter.
25:05
Speaker 2: I was so excited about what we were doing, and
25:07
Speaker 2: I no matter how exhausted I was, I approached every
25:11
Speaker 2: class as if it was my first of the day,
25:13
Speaker 2: as if the room was full, when quite frankly, in
25:16
Speaker 2: the beginning there might have been eight people in the room,
25:18
Speaker 2: but it didn't matter.
25:20
Speaker 1: I really didn't know.
25:21
Speaker 2: How much of my following I would bring over from Reebok,
25:24
Speaker 2: just because again this was another hole in the wall
25:26
Speaker 2: and it was a room full of bikes. We had
25:29
Speaker 2: thirty three bikes. We slapped a mirror up in the
25:31
Speaker 2: front and a photo of a road on the back wall.
25:35
Speaker 2: We put in a desk, we bought at akia, and
25:38
Speaker 2: we called it a business. It didn't really matter. Eventually,
25:42
Speaker 2: I would say I brought about eighty percent of my
25:44
Speaker 2: following from Reebok over, which was incredible.
25:46
Speaker 1: Can you remember how much a spin class costs it
25:49
Speaker 1: this time? Good question? Oh my god, I feel like
25:53
Speaker 1: it might have been twenty five dollars. How much today
25:58
Speaker 1: is a single flywheel ride forty wow, different prices. I mean,
26:02
Speaker 1: that's just, you know, a testament to the crazy growth
26:07
Speaker 1: of boutique fitness. I mean, it's definitely a luxury for sure.
26:11
Speaker 1: And I also think that some of the intimidation factor,
26:14
Speaker 1: aside from the costume getting in, is that oftentimes what
26:17
Speaker 1: you see when you walk through the doors, it's like
26:20
Speaker 1: everyone's got these fancy workout outfits and they look some
26:23
Speaker 1: kind of way you actually, you told Business Insider in
26:27
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, we have created a very kind of supportive
26:30
Speaker 1: and encouraging community of people at Flywheel where it's not
26:33
Speaker 1: about who's prettier, who has more jewelry, who has the
26:37
Speaker 1: better workout outfit. Do you think when when soul Cycle
26:40
Speaker 1: started it was even about that yet? Or do you
26:42
Speaker 1: that's like a wave that we were riding. No, no, no,
26:45
Speaker 1: it was not like that in the beginning. It turned
26:48
Speaker 1: into that, and yes, you know, when we start a
26:52
Speaker 1: flywheel obviously, I learned so much from my soul Cycle experience,
26:56
Speaker 1: and there were a lot of amazing things about soul Cycle,
26:58
Speaker 1: and there were also things that I personally felt could
27:01
Speaker 1: be improved upon. In what you just touched on was
27:04
Speaker 1: really important to me. I wanted to make sure that
27:06
Speaker 1: we created a safe space and a space where people
27:10
Speaker 1: felt comfortable. And that's one of the reasons why we
27:12
Speaker 1: dimmed the lights, so that no one felt self conscious,
27:15
Speaker 1: no matter what you.
27:16
Speaker 2: Look like, what your outfit was like, or what your
27:19
Speaker 2: weight was. You know, we wanted everyone to feel comfortable.
27:22
Speaker 2: So how long did you teach at soul Cycle.
27:25
Speaker 1: I was at soul Cycle until the summer of two
27:28
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, okay, and then what kind of made
27:33
Speaker 1: you start to think that there was there was room
27:35
Speaker 1: for something else? There was room for another.
27:38
Speaker 2: Truthfully, I my partners at Flywheel are the ones that
27:41
Speaker 2: came up with the tech. I have to credit them
27:44
Speaker 2: for it. I did not think of that myself, and
27:48
Speaker 2: they found me and obviously needed me. They were not creative,
27:53
Speaker 2: and they needed that creative person who could put their
27:57
Speaker 2: technology idea to use. And when they told me about it,
28:01
Speaker 2: at first, I was a little skeptical because I thought, well,
28:06
Speaker 2: I don't want to take away from the mindfulness of
28:08
Speaker 2: the ride. I don't want this to become front and center.
28:12
Speaker 2: And they said, you know what, just play with it,
28:14
Speaker 2: get on the bike, see what you think, and That's
28:17
Speaker 2: exactly what I did. I got into a spin room
28:19
Speaker 2: by myself with a bike that they had set up
28:21
Speaker 2: for me, with the technology attached to it, and I
28:25
Speaker 2: took myself through a ride using it. And I instantly thought,
28:30
Speaker 2: this is going to be something amazing because I could
28:33
Speaker 2: still turn the dial to a certain point, you know,
28:37
Speaker 2: to an exact number. You know, my resistance is at
28:40
Speaker 2: twenty five, my speed is at seventy. And then once
28:44
Speaker 2: I got it there, which was the place I needed
28:47
Speaker 2: to be, then I could still close my eyes and
28:49
Speaker 2: go to an amazing place.
28:50
Speaker 1: And for someone who has never been to Soul cycle,
28:53
Speaker 1: there are no metrics like it.
28:54
Speaker 2: There are none. It was always about turn your dial
28:58
Speaker 2: to the right half a turn, turn it off a
29:00
Speaker 2: quarter turn. No one ever really knew exactly where they
29:03
Speaker 2: should be. And look, we're all going to want to
29:07
Speaker 2: err on the side of making it a little easier.
29:09
Speaker 2: So as a result, people would be spinning so fast
29:13
Speaker 2: with not enough resistance and weren't getting the results they
29:17
Speaker 2: really wanted. And so here was an opportunity where our
29:21
Speaker 2: instructors could really curate the ride and direct the rider
29:27
Speaker 2: to a ride that was effective and efficient, and.
29:29
Speaker 1: You could still get that emotional connection absolutely, So Okay,
29:34
Speaker 1: you've tried the tech, you're on board.
29:37
Speaker 2: Then what happens a lot we open, You don't build
29:43
Speaker 2: an empire. We opened our doors in February of twenty ten.
29:48
Speaker 2: We started working on it, as I said, in the
29:50
Speaker 2: fall of nine, so really not a lot of time.
29:53
Speaker 2: We spent a few months working on it, working on
29:55
Speaker 2: our on opening and getting our first space together, which
29:59
Speaker 2: was in the Flat Eye area. And boy, when I
30:02
Speaker 2: think back, we opened on twenty first Street between fifth
30:06
Speaker 2: and sixth and literally our only competition was a private
30:10
Speaker 2: training gym that was across the street, and that was it.
30:15
Speaker 2: And when you think about the Flatirn area now and
30:18
Speaker 2: twenty third Street, for example, it is literally the fitness
30:21
Speaker 2: hub of Manhattan. So it's amazing how it went from
30:25
Speaker 2: where we started to what.
30:27
Speaker 1: It is now. So we were really a pioneer in
30:31
Speaker 1: the area. And I almost feel like that's an understatement.
30:34
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't walk more than like four business
30:36
Speaker 1: fronts before you hit a boxing studio, then you're at
30:39
Speaker 1: a cycling studio, then you're at Orange Theory. It's like
30:43
Speaker 1: Peloton and everything is there. Peloton's opening a treadmill studio. Yes, yeah,
30:48
Speaker 1: I mean Peloton is a treadmill sudio. That's downtown. Rumble's
30:50
Speaker 1: opening a Trumwell studio. It's exactly, there's a studio forevery
30:54
Speaker 1: it's everywhere else, studios everywhere.
30:56
Speaker 2: So yes, and so we opened in feb We started
31:01
Speaker 2: teaching our classes.
31:02
Speaker 1: You know, in the.
31:03
Speaker 2: First few weeks, people started trickling in and it was
31:08
Speaker 2: exciting because again a lot of people in that area
31:11
Speaker 2: had never even done a boutique spin class. So even
31:14
Speaker 2: though I kind of felt like everybody knew about soul Cycle,
31:17
Speaker 2: they really didn't. In downtown. There were a lot of
31:20
Speaker 2: people out there who had never done any kind of spinning.
31:22
Speaker 2: So that was very exciting for us.
31:24
Speaker 1: And if you don't mind me asking, so when you
31:26
Speaker 1: opened your first Flywheel studio, was there still how many
31:29
Speaker 1: soul cycles were there? Really good question. I believe there
31:34
Speaker 1: were three, and they were all in New York City.
31:38
Speaker 2: There was one in Bridgehampton and one on the Upper
31:42
Speaker 2: West and one on the Upper East. Got it, got
31:44
Speaker 2: it very quickly, and we had our first sold out class.
31:49
Speaker 2: It was probably a month in which was crazy and
31:53
Speaker 2: unexpected but amazing. And again, you know, there are advantages
31:57
Speaker 2: and disadvantages to being second in the market. This was
32:00
Speaker 2: a big advantage in that there were a group of
32:03
Speaker 2: people who knew about spinning and then saw what we
32:07
Speaker 2: were doing and thought, oh my god, this is a.
32:09
Speaker 1: Whole new thing. And when I had Sadie Lincoln, the
32:12
Speaker 1: founder of Bar three here on the podcast, she told
32:14
Speaker 1: me that they went in knowing immediately that they were
32:17
Speaker 1: going to create a franchise model. They knew they wanted
32:20
Speaker 1: a lot of studios. It wasn't just going to be
32:22
Speaker 1: a one off in Portland. So when you started Flywheel,
32:25
Speaker 1: did you know off the bat that you were going
32:27
Speaker 1: to have multiple studios, a lot of studios. Did you
32:30
Speaker 1: think about franchising? Where was your head at with that?
32:33
Speaker 2: We definitely knew that we were going to be about expansion,
32:37
Speaker 2: never franchising. We wanted to be company owned. And basically
32:42
Speaker 2: what happened was we started doing well very quickly, and
32:46
Speaker 2: so we decided very early on to ride that wave
32:50
Speaker 2: as quickly as possible and really capitalize on it. And
32:53
Speaker 2: so that being said, we opened our second studio literally
32:59
Speaker 2: in March allowing month. Wow, I know, and I'll always
33:02
Speaker 2: remember it because we opened it on the Upper West
33:05
Speaker 2: Side on my birthday, so I considered it one of
33:08
Speaker 2: the best birthday presents I could have ever received. We
33:11
Speaker 2: actually opened our second studio within the JCC, so.
33:15
Speaker 1: That was a new model for us.
33:17
Speaker 2: It wasn't, you know, an dedicated only space, and it
33:20
Speaker 2: worked really well and people loved it, and we were
33:23
Speaker 2: a little nervous about it, but it was a little
33:26
Speaker 2: smaller and it had an intimate feel to it, and
33:28
Speaker 2: people absolutely loved it. So that was our second studio
33:31
Speaker 2: a month later.
33:32
Speaker 1: And then obviously I kept going from there. The rest
33:35
Speaker 1: is history.
33:35
Speaker 2: And you know, people often ask how did we choose
33:38
Speaker 2: our locations, and the answer is they also came very organically.
33:43
Speaker 2: We opened in Boca in Florida, very early on, simply
33:47
Speaker 2: because one of our writers lived in Boca and in
33:50
Speaker 2: New York and approached us and said, you know, I
33:52
Speaker 2: really feel Boco would be a great market for you,
33:55
Speaker 2: and we thought, okay, let's go check out Boca, and
33:57
Speaker 2: we did. We flew down there, the three of us,
34:00
Speaker 2: and we opened at Boca. So a lot of it
34:02
Speaker 2: was done that way.
34:04
Speaker 1: I feel like an important question to ask is obviously
34:07
Speaker 1: opening in Boca, that means the studios in Florida it's
34:10
Speaker 1: not in New York City. Did you feel any kind
34:12
Speaker 1: of way of letting go a little bit of that control,
34:15
Speaker 1: because at least when you're opening studio after studio and
34:17
Speaker 1: they're all here, it's like, Okay, I can pop by,
34:20
Speaker 1: I can check in, I can see what's going on.
34:22
Speaker 2: Yes, we were very mindful of that feeling coming up,
34:28
Speaker 2: and as a result, we really kept tabs, and we
34:31
Speaker 2: really made frequent trips to all of our locations, and
34:35
Speaker 2: then really started farming out our talented instructors and giving
34:40
Speaker 2: them more responsibilities and sending them to different studios in
34:43
Speaker 2: different regions to check.
34:44
Speaker 1: On quality control. That became an important part of the business.
35:00
Speaker 1: Taking a quick break from today's episode to give the
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36:06
Speaker 1: Let's get back to it. I'm sitting here with Ruth Zuckerman.
36:23
Speaker 1: Something I find really interesting, especially in this culture we
36:26
Speaker 1: live in now, where like eighteen year olds have like
36:29
Speaker 1: mega businesses and they have eight billion followers yes maybe
36:32
Speaker 1: not yes, but a billion followers on Instagram. It's something
36:36
Speaker 1: I think about a lot as I'm trying to figure
36:38
Speaker 1: out my next move is like soul cycle then flywheel,
36:42
Speaker 1: Like this all happened ten fifteen years ago. You weren't
36:47
Speaker 1: thirty years old, That's right, did you? I stutter because
36:52
Speaker 1: I just think about how overwhelmed I feel sometimes and
36:55
Speaker 1: I have like this whole runway, And did you feel
36:58
Speaker 1: like you had a whole runway?
37:00
Speaker 2: You?
37:00
Speaker 1: Did? You? When it started to happen, you were like,
37:02
Speaker 1: this isn't for me right now, Like how could I
37:04
Speaker 1: be doing this at this point? You know?
37:06
Speaker 2: And Emily, I never really thought about my age, and
37:09
Speaker 2: I had obviously found this incredible passion after I let
37:13
Speaker 2: go of dancing with Spinning, and I never ever thought
37:19
Speaker 2: of stopping or looking at my age. I had to
37:21
Speaker 2: keep going because it was something that really drove me
37:25
Speaker 2: and I couldn't imagine not doing it. And yes, I
37:29
Speaker 2: opened Flywheel in my early fifties. And I think that
37:32
Speaker 2: the important message here is that it's part of life.
37:36
Speaker 2: We constantly are reinventing ourselves, right, And I think it's
37:41
Speaker 2: something we should expect, especially as women, you know, and
37:44
Speaker 2: as women are getting more and more powerful in the workspace.
37:48
Speaker 2: We can never underestimate ourselves, and we certainly doubt ourselves
37:52
Speaker 2: a lot. I think it's part of being a woman.
37:54
Speaker 2: But I'm hoping that I'm an inspiration for other women
37:58
Speaker 2: and can be a good example of the fact that
38:01
Speaker 2: we can reinvent ourselves. And I think the best proof
38:05
Speaker 2: of that for me was really when I got divorced
38:07
Speaker 2: and I was a fish out of water. I never
38:10
Speaker 2: paid a bill in our marriage. My husband at the
38:13
Speaker 2: time was in charge of everything, and I allowed that.
38:16
Speaker 2: I mean, that was okay for me. But then suddenly
38:19
Speaker 2: I'm out of the marriage and I have to fend
38:22
Speaker 2: for myself. And when I think back to that time
38:25
Speaker 2: and then to where I am now, I'm really pretty.
38:27
Speaker 1: Proud of myself. That's awesome, I always think. And obviously
38:31
Speaker 1: it's not all about the money. That's definitely not. We're
38:33
Speaker 1: talking about all this emotional connection. It's bigger than that.
38:35
Speaker 1: But I always think about what would happen if I
38:38
Speaker 1: just stumbled into being mega successful. If you could do
38:42
Speaker 1: any you had the day off tomorrow, you could do anything,
38:45
Speaker 1: maybe with your girls, maybe not. Where do you go
38:48
Speaker 1: if money is not an option?
38:50
Speaker 3: Burgdorfs, I'm expecting like Bermuda, maybe maybe Hawaii, well south
39:00
Speaker 3: of Central Park?
39:01
Speaker 1: Okay, well, then let me let me renswer that.
39:03
Speaker 2: I would say Italy, but I would have to go
39:05
Speaker 2: to Bergdorf and Barney's first to get my wardrobe.
39:08
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I took a trip to Italy
39:11
Speaker 1: earlier this year, and I told myself that in my
39:14
Speaker 1: dream life, every other year, I'll go back for these
39:17
Speaker 1: ten days. You can't go wrong, that's the goal. Okay.
39:20
Speaker 1: So I mean, now, how many studios is Flywheel? Forty one?
39:24
Speaker 1: Forty one?
39:24
Speaker 2: And we just literally opened this week in Denver? Oh wow, yes,
39:28
Speaker 2: congratulations and I will I have to get down there.
39:30
Speaker 1: I haven't even seen it yet. Something we haven't brought
39:33
Speaker 1: up though, is that Flywheel is bigger than just the bike.
39:37
Speaker 1: When when Flywheel started, it was just a spin studio,
39:41
Speaker 1: and to my knowledge, you had some extra space in
39:44
Speaker 1: that first studio we did, so that is how fly
39:48
Speaker 1: Bar came to be. So why don't you tell us
39:51
Speaker 1: a little bit about what Flybar is and how that
39:54
Speaker 1: all works out.
39:55
Speaker 2: Sure, we were obviously leased this space on twenty first Street.
39:59
Speaker 2: We had the Sextor room, and we really in the
40:01
Speaker 2: very beginning, we weren't even one hundred percent sure how
40:05
Speaker 2: we were going to utilize it, and through trial and
40:08
Speaker 2: error we ended up at Flybar. But we had yoga classes.
40:11
Speaker 2: Initially they didn't quite take off, and then we were
40:15
Speaker 2: connected with a woman actually from Florida who moved up
40:18
Speaker 2: to New York and had experienced in teaching bar classes,
40:22
Speaker 2: and we met with her and sat down and thought, Okay,
40:26
Speaker 2: what do we want to do in this space? And
40:28
Speaker 2: we love the idea of a bar Method class because
40:31
Speaker 2: it was a great compliment to the cardiovascular workout you
40:33
Speaker 2: get in a cycling class. And the thing that we
40:38
Speaker 2: thought also would be integral to this bar Method class
40:42
Speaker 2: and consistent with what we did in our Flywhee class,
40:45
Speaker 2: was to make music a really important component. We had
40:48
Speaker 2: found that in a lot of the bar Method classes
40:50
Speaker 2: that we had seen at the time, music seemed to
40:53
Speaker 2: always be background and not that important. And again, coming
40:57
Speaker 2: from my background where music was so important to the experience,
41:01
Speaker 2: we wanted the bar Method class to be choreographed to music,
41:06
Speaker 2: just like a spin classes. So that was a really
41:08
Speaker 2: big part of the success, I feel of the Bar
41:11
Speaker 2: Method class. And as I said, this particular woman kind
41:15
Speaker 2: of launched it for us. Eventually she left, and then
41:19
Speaker 2: one of the instructors, Kara Leiata.
41:21
Speaker 1: We are cool. Me and Kara, I've worked together. I've
41:24
Speaker 1: worked with her so many times. I love that, you
41:26
Speaker 1: know Kara, I do. I When I was the fitness
41:30
Speaker 1: editor atself, I shot with Kara so many times. I've
41:33
Speaker 1: used her as an expert in stories, like probably the
41:36
Speaker 1: last time maybe two months ago. Okay, so you already
41:39
Speaker 1: know she's a wonder woman. She's a wonder layer.
41:41
Speaker 2: And Kara was merely an instructor, and we knew we
41:46
Speaker 2: saw incredible talent and potential in her, and she eventually
41:50
Speaker 2: took over the entire program and has made it such
41:54
Speaker 2: a success. And she has such a devout following of people,
41:58
Speaker 2: and many of them only go to fly Bar, they
42:00
Speaker 2: don't even go to Flywheel and swear by her and
42:04
Speaker 2: her team of instructors.
42:06
Speaker 1: I will say that there are few workouts that really
42:10
Speaker 1: make me feel like I just am I can't do it.
42:14
Speaker 1: I feel I go into a flybar class and by
42:17
Speaker 1: like the twelve minute, I'm like, oh my god, there's
42:20
Speaker 1: thirty more minutes to this. By the way, join the club.
42:22
Speaker 1: I can't even do it. I'm marvel at all these people,
42:26
Speaker 1: and all of these women especially. I feel like I
42:28
Speaker 1: would argue that bar is an extremely popular pre wedding situation.
42:33
Speaker 1: All the women are like I'm going to go to
42:34
Speaker 1: a bar. I'm gonna get really chilled my SEPs it's
42:36
Speaker 1: gonna my butt's gonna look great. And I walk in
42:40
Speaker 1: there and they are just like cruising, and I'm like,
42:42
Speaker 1: maybe if I had got married, I would have a
42:44
Speaker 1: reason or reason to sit here and like feel so
42:47
Speaker 1: confident in my abilities. Okay, so flybar, flywheel, Yes, but
42:50
Speaker 1: it's bigger than that. It is because now John in
42:55
Speaker 1: Tennessee can also take a flywheel class. But last year
42:59
Speaker 1: you launched the wheel. We did last fault. So tell
43:02
Speaker 1: me a little bit about why you got into that
43:05
Speaker 1: space and how someone would go about, you know, getting
43:08
Speaker 1: a bike in their own home. Yes.
43:09
Speaker 2: So it's called fly Anywhere because it's literally allowing Flywheel
43:13
Speaker 2: to be anywhere. And we got into it because we
43:17
Speaker 2: really wanted to let people have access to our great
43:20
Speaker 2: flywheel product and actually Flybar product in places where we
43:26
Speaker 2: don't have actual studios. And the other reason why we
43:31
Speaker 2: wanted to do it is because we feel that we
43:33
Speaker 2: have such a talented instructor team and such great content
43:39
Speaker 2: and we haven't seen that anywhere on an at home bike.
43:44
Speaker 2: The caliber caliber of our instructors is really barn on
43:47
Speaker 2: and that's really what we wanted to bring to everyone,
43:51
Speaker 2: and it's been doing great and people are buying it
43:56
Speaker 2: and buying into it and loving the fact that they
43:59
Speaker 2: can have other genres on the tablet as well as
44:02
Speaker 2: the flywheel class and you know, compete with everyone all
44:06
Speaker 2: over the place, and yeah, we're really.
44:08
Speaker 1: Excited about it. So how much does the fly Anywhere
44:11
Speaker 1: bike cost? The Anywhere Bike is sixteen ninety nine with
44:15
Speaker 1: a subscription rate of thirty nine dollars a month. Okay,
44:18
Speaker 1: So I mean, if you think about it, ye, you're
44:21
Speaker 1: paying some people. I mean, gym prices these days are insane,
44:24
Speaker 1: but you can be paying up to two hundred dollars
44:27
Speaker 1: a month to go to a gym exactly. And obviously
44:31
Speaker 1: you have to front the costs for the bike at first,
44:33
Speaker 1: but I think it's a border note. And you mentioned
44:36
Speaker 1: this briefly that you get streaming content with the bike
44:39
Speaker 1: as well. You do, okay, so what does that look like?
44:42
Speaker 1: So in terms of the classes, yeah, what can you
44:45
Speaker 1: do besides spin?
44:47
Speaker 2: We are actually working on all different kinds of genres
44:51
Speaker 2: right now. And actually we mentioned Karra before and she
44:54
Speaker 2: is leading that mission. There will be bar method classes
44:58
Speaker 2: and power class and high intensity training classes and the
45:05
Speaker 2: amount of classes are just increasing as we speak.
45:08
Speaker 1: So it's a.
45:09
Speaker 2: Work in progress. There will be a lot that will
45:11
Speaker 2: be offered. Yes, all of us, Yes, exactly like all
45:15
Speaker 2: of us.
45:15
Speaker 1: Okay, So what I would love to do now and
45:19
Speaker 1: what I tend to do at this part of the
45:20
Speaker 1: podcast is kind of go for some takeaways. So now
45:23
Speaker 1: you know it's been quite some time since this Flywheel
45:26
Speaker 1: machine has started. What would you say is one of
45:29
Speaker 1: the best pieces of advice that you've been given in
45:33
Speaker 1: your career.
45:34
Speaker 2: Let me just say, I think one of the most
45:37
Speaker 2: important ways to succeed in a business, and what I've
45:41
Speaker 2: learned through my experience at Flywheel is to treat your
45:46
Speaker 2: employees really well, to really value them, to let them
45:51
Speaker 2: make mistakes and let them learn from their mistakes as
45:54
Speaker 2: we all learn from our mistakes, and to treat them.
45:58
Speaker 1: As well as you treat your customer.
46:00
Speaker 2: I think that that's been an important lesson for me
46:03
Speaker 2: to play out and it is definitely a reason why
46:07
Speaker 2: fly Will has been so successful. We've always focused on
46:10
Speaker 2: a high touch customer service and then growing this employee
46:15
Speaker 2: team that really felt like family and for me since
46:18
Speaker 2: I come to the business from the creative ent. I've
46:22
Speaker 2: always led with my heart, and I think, again, I'm
46:26
Speaker 2: going to speak to women here in this day and age.
46:29
Speaker 2: You know, we're almost taught to taught how to stand
46:33
Speaker 2: up to men in the workplace and how to be
46:35
Speaker 2: powerful and strong. And I think what gets lost sometimes
46:38
Speaker 2: is that sometimes we can actually draw upon qualities that
46:42
Speaker 2: have been attributed as feminine qualities, whether it's leading from
46:46
Speaker 2: your heart, whether it's nurturing your employees, treating them with kindness.
46:50
Speaker 2: I think that that goes a really long way as well.
46:53
Speaker 1: Okay, so treating your employees with kindness, Yes, like you're
46:56
Speaker 1: offering everyone this advice, but what advice has been offered
46:59
Speaker 1: to you.
47:00
Speaker 2: One of the hurdles that I had to experience in
47:04
Speaker 2: my soul cycle days was not having the best legal protection,
47:08
Speaker 2: and so there were some difficulties that arose because of that.
47:12
Speaker 2: I grew up in a household where my father was
47:14
Speaker 2: a physician and my mother was a psychotherapist. I was
47:16
Speaker 2: never exposed to business, I was never exposed to lawyers,
47:19
Speaker 2: so I really wasn't conditioned to know some of those things,
47:25
Speaker 2: and I learned that the hard way. So I think
47:28
Speaker 2: when someone's going into any business, you start with having
47:32
Speaker 2: a good lawyer and being protected, especially when you're working
47:35
Speaker 2: with partners.
47:36
Speaker 1: It's interesting, you know. I feel like I feel like
47:39
Speaker 1: there's a big barrier to entry for entrepreneurs because they
47:42
Speaker 1: just don't know. I think so too. And it's like,
47:46
Speaker 1: it's like I have this idea, for instance. I mean,
47:48
Speaker 1: I had the idea for this podcast for a year
47:51
Speaker 1: and it was finally when I was like, Okay, it's
47:53
Speaker 1: okay that you don't know everything that it started exactly
47:56
Speaker 1: because I was so hard on myself that it's not
47:59
Speaker 1: going to be effect Who am I going to talk to?
48:01
Speaker 1: Like is this idea really what I want it to be?
48:04
Speaker 1: So many things right, and that's at the end of
48:06
Speaker 1: the day, I can sit down in this recording studio
48:09
Speaker 1: with this microphone and you and we can make some
48:11
Speaker 1: great content and it doesn't need to be that complicated exactly.
48:14
Speaker 1: I think.
48:15
Speaker 2: Actually that's a great point. And I think as we
48:19
Speaker 2: have watched fitness businesses grow, you know, whether it's soul
48:23
Speaker 2: Cycle or Flywheel or many of the others, people tend
48:26
Speaker 2: to think it's more complicated than it is. And the
48:31
Speaker 2: simpler you approach it. I feel like the more successful
48:35
Speaker 2: you'll be.
48:35
Speaker 1: Something that a guest on the podcast Gunner Peterson, he's
48:39
Speaker 1: a trainer in Gunner. He's great. We were speaking last
48:42
Speaker 1: week and he said to me, the one thing he
48:45
Speaker 1: will say about starting your own business is that you
48:48
Speaker 1: do have to think about the things that you would
48:50
Speaker 1: want if you were the client. So yes, like if
48:52
Speaker 1: you have a great personal training background and you can
48:55
Speaker 1: offer this great service, that's awesome, But where are they
48:58
Speaker 1: going to park? Do they have towels for their face?
49:00
Speaker 1: Do they need water? Like little things like that that
49:03
Speaker 1: we were talking kind of more specifically about opening our
49:06
Speaker 1: CrossFit gym. A lot of them are so bare bones
49:08
Speaker 1: and they just throw a bunch of equipment into the room.
49:11
Speaker 1: But it's like there are things you do need to
49:13
Speaker 1: think about, and again that can be so overwhelming.
49:17
Speaker 2: Absolutely in Gunners one hundred percent right. And you know,
49:19
Speaker 2: as we discussed before, I first came to spinning as
49:23
Speaker 2: a customer as a writer, and that really helped me
49:26
Speaker 2: to know what the customer would want.
49:28
Speaker 1: Looking back when you started instructing, what was one thing
49:32
Speaker 1: that you wish you could have? Like you were like,
49:34
Speaker 1: I know that we should be doing it. This way
49:36
Speaker 1: we should be making this change. And do you feel
49:39
Speaker 1: like there's a really good platform now with the way
49:42
Speaker 1: that you work at Flywheel to have an open dialogue
49:45
Speaker 1: about how things should be. Absolutely.
49:48
Speaker 2: I think that that all happens when you establish a
49:52
Speaker 2: comfort level with your employees and a trust level, and
49:57
Speaker 2: that is something that I did from the get go,
50:00
Speaker 2: and that's what allowed me to procure this amazing team
50:03
Speaker 2: of employees who trust me and I trust them and
50:07
Speaker 2: I can impart all of this on to them.
50:10
Speaker 1: Outside of being on the bike. How do you unwind relax?
50:17
Speaker 1: What do you do for fun?
50:18
Speaker 2: I take a lot of baths, I get massage.
50:24
Speaker 1: What do I do for fun? I vacation, I travel.
50:27
Speaker 1: I love to do that.
50:29
Speaker 2: I love to go to the movies and get lost
50:33
Speaker 2: and not think about work. I think it's a really
50:35
Speaker 2: important part of the week. I love to go to museums.
50:38
Speaker 2: I love New York City and I really utilize it
50:40
Speaker 2: and take advantage.
50:42
Speaker 1: Of all the culture. Where are your girls now?
50:44
Speaker 2: They both live in New York, AH, very close to Mom,
50:47
Speaker 2: which is good.
50:48
Speaker 1: Which is good? Do they spin? Of course all the time?
50:52
Speaker 1: Of course they spin. You look back on where you
50:55
Speaker 1: were in two thousand and ten, and you see this
51:01
Speaker 1: woman who has worked through a lot of the repercussions
51:05
Speaker 1: of going through a divorce, and you have the opportunity
51:09
Speaker 1: to offer her one piece of advice. What is that
51:14
Speaker 1: piece of advice?
51:16
Speaker 2: To look back on moments of strength that you have had,
51:22
Speaker 2: even if it was intermingled with moments of weakness and failure,
51:26
Speaker 2: and own those moments as well, and try not to
51:29
Speaker 2: dwell as much on the moments of failure. Dwell on
51:32
Speaker 2: the moments where you succeeded, which will only help build
51:36
Speaker 2: your confidence, trust your gut, and move forward in a
51:40
Speaker 2: positive way.
51:41
Speaker 1: I love asking people this when they come into this
51:43
Speaker 1: studio and you said failure. So now we're going to
51:46
Speaker 1: talk about it. What would you say, is one of
51:49
Speaker 1: your favorite failures from building this business.
51:59
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to go back to I hate
52:01
Speaker 2: to say naivete, but maybe it is. When I started
52:06
Speaker 2: out in my first business at sohol Cycle and not
52:10
Speaker 2: anticipating some of the unfortunate experiences that happened there. I
52:18
Speaker 2: wish I had known how to prevent them, and I didn't,
52:22
Speaker 2: And it literally was one of those times where I
52:28
Speaker 2: had to go through it in order to learn how
52:31
Speaker 2: to prevent that kind of failure in the future.
52:34
Speaker 1: Someone who wants to start their own business, whether or
52:38
Speaker 1: not it's fitness related, they come to you and they
52:43
Speaker 1: feel lost. They're like, I have this idea, but all
52:47
Speaker 1: the excuses start flowing no matter what the business is.
52:51
Speaker 1: What's like one of your best tips for young entrepreneurs.
52:56
Speaker 2: Just to make sure that what they want to start,
53:00
Speaker 2: and you know what kind of business they want to
53:02
Speaker 2: start is something they're passionate about. If they're passionate about it,
53:06
Speaker 2: they're going to be so energized and enthusiastic and driven
53:12
Speaker 2: to get it out there. And if they don't feel
53:16
Speaker 2: that way, and if their motivation is money or something
53:19
Speaker 2: like that, I just feel like it's not going to
53:22
Speaker 2: have legs. And I know it's not a shore fire formula,
53:26
Speaker 2: but I have found in my experience that when you
53:28
Speaker 2: are really passionate about something, you don't care that you're
53:31
Speaker 2: working twenty four to seven, which you have to in
53:33
Speaker 2: the beginning of a business because you're loving it so much.
53:37
Speaker 2: And I really feel that leads to success.
53:40
Speaker 1: It's so funny. I tell this story all the time,
53:43
Speaker 1: but it just really resonated with me as working out
53:46
Speaker 1: with a friend of mine a year or two ago
53:48
Speaker 1: and we were laying on the ground like exhausted after
53:50
Speaker 1: we had finished, and he looks at me and he says,
53:53
Speaker 1: you really love what you do? And I was like, yeah,
53:56
Speaker 1: you don't. And he's like no. And I asked him,
53:58
Speaker 1: so do you make a lot of money? Said nope.
54:01
Speaker 1: And I was like, so why are you doing it?
54:03
Speaker 1: Good question? Why? Yeah, life is too short, too short.
54:06
Speaker 1: You gotta love what you do. You do? Okay, what
54:09
Speaker 1: I would love to know and we'll close here. Okay.
54:12
Speaker 1: Spin instructors all have certain mantras or I would say,
54:19
Speaker 1: like spiels that they kind of love to go back
54:22
Speaker 1: to within their classes. I could definitely reflect on some
54:27
Speaker 1: things that I like to talk about for me, something
54:30
Speaker 1: that a guest of my name, you Pertty, touched on
54:32
Speaker 1: a few weeks back that you can be whoever you
54:34
Speaker 1: want to be, whenever you want to be it. H So, Ruth,
54:40
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about some of your go
54:42
Speaker 1: to spiels. I would love to.
54:44
Speaker 2: I think, actually you just hit one of them, hit
54:47
Speaker 2: that nail on the head, which is yes, when you
54:50
Speaker 2: are in that room as an instructor, you can direct
54:53
Speaker 2: the writers and tell them that in this forty five minutes,
54:56
Speaker 2: let's practice being whoever you really want to be, and
55:00
Speaker 2: let's tap into a wish that you want to fulfill.
55:05
Speaker 2: And we're going to turn the resistance up right now,
55:08
Speaker 2: and we're going to climb a hill, so to speak.
55:11
Speaker 2: And I want you to think about one particular challenge
55:14
Speaker 2: that's confronting you this week, and I want you to
55:17
Speaker 2: use this hill and use the sextual resistance and plow
55:21
Speaker 2: through it in the same way you would when you're
55:24
Speaker 2: off the bike outside of this room, in your office,
55:27
Speaker 2: in your home, wherever you are. That's a big one
55:30
Speaker 2: for me.
55:31
Speaker 1: Wow, I am like so ready to say on this Friday.
55:35
Speaker 2: And it works, and people get motivated and realize that
55:38
Speaker 2: as they're climbing this hill and building physical strength, they're
55:42
Speaker 2: also building mental strength as well.
55:44
Speaker 1: Ruth, I feel so fortunate that we had the opportunity
55:47
Speaker 1: to sit down. Thanks so much for coming out. Oh
55:49
Speaker 1: it's my pleasure. It was a pleasure. Please take a
55:52
Speaker 1: moment to leave a quick review of the podcast by
55:54
Speaker 1: clicking a link with the description to this episode. We
55:57
Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
56:00
Speaker 1: about yours reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
56:03
Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
56:07
Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast Ruth. Where do we find you? Where
56:10
Speaker 1: do we.
56:11
Speaker 2: Find Flywheel Online? You can find me on Instagram Ruth
56:15
Speaker 2: underscore Flywheel. You can find Flywheel on their website. It's
56:21
Speaker 2: flywheel sports dot com and you can get on the website,
56:25
Speaker 2: look at the schedule, see what classes you want to try,
56:28
Speaker 2: what instructors you want to try. The anywhere bike information
56:31
Speaker 2: is on the website, so if you're interested in that,
56:34
Speaker 2: you'll get it all there as well.
56:35
Speaker 1: Perfect I am at Emily Abodi another hurdle conquered. Catch
56:41
Speaker 1: you guys next time.