Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 58: Anna Kaiser, Founder AKT
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: New Week New Hurdle. Hey guys, Emily Badi here, you
- 0:04Speaker 1: are listening to another episode of Hurdle, a podcast that
- 0:08Speaker 1: talks to everyone from top CEOs to entrepreneurs and athletes
- 0:12Speaker 1: about how they got through tough times hurdles of sorts
- 0:15Speaker 1: by leaning into wellness. On today's episode, I'm chatting with
- 0:19Speaker 1: Anna Kaiser. She's the wonder woman behind AKT, the Anna
- 0:24Speaker 1: Kaiser Technique. It's a dance based cardio, fitness and wellness
- 0:28Speaker 1: brand and she's got some pretty impressive clientele, from Kelly
- 0:32Speaker 1: Rippa and Alicia Keys to Carly klaus Or. On that
- 0:36Speaker 1: in a little bit. First things first, shout out to
- 0:38Speaker 1: today's sponsor, Athletic Greens. I'm sitting here in my living
- 0:42Speaker 1: room with a bottle of it right now. That's my
- 0:45Speaker 1: shaker bottle, mixing up the magic and it's part of
- 0:49Speaker 1: my routine that I've come to really look forward to.
- 0:52Speaker 1: With twelve servings of fruits and vegetables, this drink's got
- 0:55Speaker 1: everything I need to start my day off in the
- 0:58Speaker 1: right direction. They are offering Kurdle listeners a special deal.
- 1:03Speaker 1: It's twenty travel packs a seventy nine dollars value, absolutely
- 1:08Speaker 1: free with your first purchase, just head on over to
- 1:10Speaker 1: athleticgreens dot com slash hurdle Again, that's Athleticgreens dot Com
- 1:15Speaker 1: slash hurdle to grab yours today. Now let's talk about Anna. Anna,
- 1:23Speaker 1: like I said, is a powerhouse. She these days is
- 1:27Speaker 1: on the brink of opening something like three hundred new
- 1:31Speaker 1: studios nationwide, and she's overcome a lot of hurdles to
- 1:34Speaker 1: get here. In today's episode, we sit down and talk
- 1:37Speaker 1: about her first rain into the fess industry. After what
- 1:41Speaker 1: I have to say is a super impressive career as
- 1:44Speaker 1: a professional dancer, working with everyone from Shakira to some
- 1:47Speaker 1: of the best choreographers and stints on Broadway and the
- 1:50Speaker 1: whole thing. We talk about one of her first teaching
- 1:53Speaker 1: jobs in the fitness industry that landed her in the
- 1:55Speaker 1: hospital with a dreanal fatigue and searching for purpose, and
- 1:59Speaker 1: she offers up a lot of really great advice about
- 2:02Speaker 1: following your passions, and she tells me a hilarious story
- 2:05Speaker 1: about her first time training one of her favorite alist clients,
- 2:09Speaker 1: and we just have a really genuine, warm conversation that
- 2:13Speaker 1: I think you guys are all going to really enjoy
- 2:15Speaker 1: as always you know the drill, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at
- 2:18Speaker 1: Hurdle podcast. As some you know, I celebrated a birthday
- 2:22Speaker 1: over the weekend, so huge thanks to everyone for your suite,
- 2:25Speaker 1: dms and messages. Another year older, hopefully another year wiser
- 2:30Speaker 1: and looking forward to the good stuff that's to come.
- 2:34Speaker 1: If you have a hurdle moment of your own to
- 2:35Speaker 1: share or just want to say hi, send some love,
- 2:38Speaker 1: hit me up over email. It's Emily at hurdle dot us.
- 2:43Speaker 1: And that's it. With that, let's get to hurdling today.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I'm sitting down with Anakiser. She is a celebrity trainer
- 2:58Speaker 1: and the boss lady behind AKT.
- 3:01Speaker 2: Hey, Hi, thanks for having me Emily, thanks.
- 3:04Speaker 1: For coming in. I love when you say celebrity trainer
- 3:08Speaker 1: and people are like, well what does that mean?
- 3:09Speaker 2: Yes?
- 3:10Speaker 1: Known for babes, some total babes, Carli Klaus, Alicia Keys,
- 3:15Speaker 1: your besties with Kelly Rippa eleven years Wow.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Why did you be meek?
- 3:19Speaker 3: Through a friend, she had been doing bar and running
- 3:24Speaker 3: and she was plateauing and not getting results, and so
- 3:26Speaker 3: she said to her, from what are you doing?
- 3:28Speaker 2: You look amazing? And so we were introduced.
- 3:32Speaker 3: We worked out on Thanksgiving Day, after our first workout,
- 3:38Speaker 3: she went home. Mark handed her a glass of wine
- 3:40Speaker 3: and she woke up two hours later and she was like,
- 3:43Speaker 3: this is the workout for me, but everyone and all
- 3:47Speaker 3: the guests had gone home.
- 3:49Speaker 2: He said, I just didn't want to disturb you. You
- 3:51Speaker 2: were so pusful you obviously needed it.
- 3:54Speaker 3: So we've been together ever since. It's our eleventh year,
- 3:57Speaker 3: four or five days a week.
- 3:58Speaker 2: Wow. And I love her.
- 4:01Speaker 3: I think she's such a strong woman, mother, boss, businesswoman,
- 4:07Speaker 3: very smart, very tenacious, and has a sense of humor
- 4:11Speaker 3: through it all. Can we just all have a sense
- 4:13Speaker 3: of humor about life? It does need to be so
- 4:15Speaker 3: serious all the time.
- 4:16Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear that. All right, So before we dive
- 4:19Speaker 1: into your backstory, what I would love for you to
- 4:22Speaker 1: do is tell me a little bit about what AKT is.
- 4:24Speaker 1: For those that don't know.
- 4:26Speaker 3: So, AKT is really the marriage of dance and hit training.
- 4:31Speaker 3: It's a luxury boutique fitness studio that has four different
- 4:35Speaker 3: class offerings under one roof, so you have a tone class,
- 4:39Speaker 3: a circuit class, bands class, and a dance class. The
- 4:44Speaker 3: content for each of those classes stays the same for
- 4:47Speaker 3: three weeks, so that you get better every.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Time you come, and then we throw something new at you.
- 4:53Speaker 3: That means that any dance class you take in Nashville,
- 4:56Speaker 3: California and New York is the exact same class, exact
- 4:59Speaker 3: same strength, exact same dance that you're learning, so that
- 5:02Speaker 3: there is a level of quality control that doesn't exist
- 5:05Speaker 3: anywhere else in the industry. We're also the only concept
- 5:09Speaker 3: that guarantees results because we are able to offer every
- 5:13Speaker 3: muscular contraction, the right combination of strength, to cardio's stamina, endurance,
- 5:17Speaker 3: everything under one roof. It is not based in a
- 5:20Speaker 3: single modality.
- 5:22Speaker 1: Right guaranteed results. So, I mean that's interesting. I feel
- 5:25Speaker 1: like as someone who hears that, they're like, well, I
- 5:28Speaker 1: have to go to a KT. Then if they're going
- 5:30Speaker 1: to guarantee me results, what happens if somebody doesn't get results.
- 5:33Speaker 2: I've never seen that happen. I've never seen that.
- 5:36Speaker 1: I don't know what happens.
- 5:37Speaker 2: You know, sometimes it's lack of commitment.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sorr. Are you saying that someone comes to
- 5:42Speaker 1: you four times a week for those results or what
- 5:44Speaker 1: are you telling your clients out?
- 5:45Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, four or five times a week because you
- 5:47Speaker 3: need to get everything in one place. No one has
- 5:50Speaker 3: the time and the money to run around to five
- 5:53Speaker 3: different boutique studios. The consumer is not educated in how
- 5:57Speaker 3: much of what they should be doing. That's not you
- 6:00Speaker 3: should be worrying about. That's not what you should be
- 6:01Speaker 3: spending your time on. You should just have to show
- 6:03Speaker 3: up because that's eighty percent of the equation. So go
- 6:06Speaker 3: to a place that gives you exactly what you need,
- 6:09Speaker 3: takes the guests work out, and literally all you have
- 6:11Speaker 3: to do is show up and have fun.
- 6:13Speaker 2: So if it's not fun, it's not worth doing now.
- 6:15Speaker 3: And you know, four days a week out of one
- 6:18Speaker 3: hundred and sixty eight hours is not very long. It's
- 6:21Speaker 3: like two to three percent of your week, and it
- 6:24Speaker 3: really changes everything.
- 6:25Speaker 1: I did a lot of quick math in my head
- 6:27Speaker 1: right now just to be like one hundred and sixty
- 6:29Speaker 1: eight hours two percent. Okay, okay, I got it all right.
- 6:31Speaker 1: So guaranteed results. I like that. It sounds nice, But
- 6:36Speaker 1: obviously you didn't just come up with this method that
- 6:39Speaker 1: guaranteed results overnight. So why don't we wind it back
- 6:42Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about your backstory and where
- 6:44Speaker 1: you come from. So where did you grow up?
- 6:46Speaker 3: I was born in Canada, and then I moved to
- 6:48Speaker 3: Switzerland for my father worked for Credit Swiss, and then
- 6:53Speaker 3: we moved to California when I was in third grade.
- 6:56Speaker 1: Okay, Switzerland, do you go back?
- 6:58Speaker 2: I do?
- 6:59Speaker 3: I mean, the other half of my family is still
- 7:00Speaker 3: over there, so I wish that my Swiss German stuck around,
- 7:05Speaker 3: but unfortunately you can't really learn that to dialect. So
- 7:09Speaker 3: we were really good with English and French. But they're
- 7:12Speaker 3: still in Geneva and Zurich, and so when we get
- 7:15Speaker 3: time to go over there, we love it.
- 7:17Speaker 1: Everybody has something that they dream about doing when they
- 7:20Speaker 1: grow up, Like, it's kind of crazy when I think
- 7:22Speaker 1: about the fact that I did dream of being a
- 7:23Speaker 1: journalist when I grow up, Like, I don't know, you
- 7:25Speaker 1: can think about being like an astronaut or something cool,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and I'm like, I want to be a journalist. So well, congratulations,
- 7:34Speaker 1: did it? So I can be done now and retire
- 7:37Speaker 1: to some islands. So what did you want to do
- 7:39Speaker 1: when you were younger?
- 7:40Speaker 2: Oh? Many different things.
- 7:42Speaker 3: My very first love was opera. I wanted to be
- 7:45Speaker 3: an opera singer in third grade.
- 7:47Speaker 2: I remember that very.
- 7:48Speaker 3: Vividly being a goal of mine, and so my mom
- 7:51Speaker 3: enrolled me in a in a.
- 7:53Speaker 2: Choir, which was not the same. I didn't want to
- 7:56Speaker 2: sing in a church choir. That was terrible.
- 7:59Speaker 3: I wanted to be a soloist, singing the Magic flu
- 8:02Speaker 3: E Queen of the Knights Aria. And then around eleven
- 8:07Speaker 3: I realized that that probably wasn't going to.
- 8:09Speaker 1: Happen because you didn't have the pipes.
- 8:13Speaker 3: Yes, didn't have the pipes. Oh, definitely not. No, it's terrible.
- 8:17Speaker 3: I really wanted private singing lessons, but it wasn't an
- 8:21Speaker 3: option at that point because most of the professionals said,
- 8:25Speaker 3: you can't do that until you reach puberty, otherwise you're
- 8:27Speaker 3: going to ruin your voice. So you should get the
- 8:29Speaker 3: basic training in coral and choir and chords.
- 8:33Speaker 2: And learning how to sing and hold a pitch and
- 8:35Speaker 2: sing with a group and harmonies. Nope, could not hold
- 8:39Speaker 2: a pitch, eyes with a group.
- 8:42Speaker 1: All right, So the choir, chorus, opera singer dreams go
- 8:46Speaker 1: out the.
- 8:46Speaker 2: Way, go out the window.
- 8:47Speaker 3: And then then I actually wanted to be an entrepreneur.
- 8:50Speaker 3: Oddly enough, I kept coming up with ideas in the shower.
- 8:54Speaker 3: What were products that I wanted that I couldn't get
- 8:57Speaker 3: and how could I start creating those and my mom
- 8:59Speaker 3: actually helped me put some of those ideas together and
- 9:02Speaker 3: pitch them to the school.
- 9:05Speaker 2: It set the groundwork for.
- 9:08Speaker 3: Knowing that I was capable of taking an idea to fruition.
- 9:11Speaker 3: And I have to I have to give a round
- 9:14Speaker 3: of applause to my mom for supporting that. I mean,
- 9:16Speaker 3: as silly as any of those ideas were, she was
- 9:19Speaker 3: really able to lay the groundwork for me to give
- 9:21Speaker 3: me the confidence to say, no, you can do something
- 9:24Speaker 3: that's not traditional and you don't have to go into
- 9:29Speaker 3: an office every day. Let's figure it out, you know,
- 9:32Speaker 3: let's solve a problem. Let's be creative. And I want
- 9:36Speaker 3: to make sure that that continues in our culture. Is
- 9:39Speaker 3: let's not fill you know, let's step out of the
- 9:42Speaker 3: box a little bit. Let's not just walk into an
- 9:45Speaker 3: office and take a job because it's going to pay
- 9:47Speaker 3: us X amount.
- 9:48Speaker 2: To allow us to survive. But what do you really
- 9:52Speaker 2: want to do? What excites you at the end of
- 9:54Speaker 2: the day, And.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Let's step out of that box and come up with
- 9:56Speaker 3: a creative solution that's not just going to make your
- 9:58Speaker 3: life more fun, but it's going to fill a void
- 10:00Speaker 3: that's going to help our communities and the world.
- 10:05Speaker 1: At large totally all right, So you start to have
- 10:08Speaker 1: some ideas that excite you.
- 10:09Speaker 3: Yes, And also I get very involved with dance. My
- 10:14Speaker 3: father died when I was twelve, and I was unable
- 10:16Speaker 3: to talk about it.
- 10:18Speaker 2: Couldn't talk about it.
- 10:18Speaker 3: The only way that I could express myself was through movement.
- 10:22Speaker 3: So I got really busy because I didn't want anyone
- 10:25Speaker 3: to talk to me about it. So I after school,
- 10:30Speaker 3: I would stay and get involved with extracurricular activities. I
- 10:34Speaker 3: started dancing three four hours a day. I would drive
- 10:37Speaker 3: to LA to work with the most prominent choreographers in
- 10:41Speaker 3: the industry at the time. It was about forty five
- 10:43Speaker 3: minutes each direction, and I didn't care. I just made
- 10:46Speaker 3: it happen. I would get up and be at school
- 10:48Speaker 3: at seven o'clock in the morning and work for an
- 10:51Speaker 3: hour with the dance company. I really just threw myself
- 10:54Speaker 3: into it, and I had a lot to learn because
- 10:57Speaker 3: I didn't come from a background that had honed my
- 11:02Speaker 3: ballet technique to the place needed to be in order
- 11:05Speaker 3: to be a successful dancer.
- 11:07Speaker 2: You really do need to learn.
- 11:10Speaker 3: How to dance appropriately and then develop the muscles and
- 11:14Speaker 3: the bone structure to support that so that you can
- 11:16Speaker 3: be successful in a lot of different types of dance.
- 11:18Speaker 2: I didn't have that background, so I had.
- 11:19Speaker 3: To work really really hard to develop into a technically
- 11:24Speaker 3: trained dancer.
- 11:25Speaker 2: So I did. I threw myself into.
- 11:27Speaker 3: It, and then my summer between junior and senior year,
- 11:34Speaker 3: I had an incredible mentor who started the dance department
- 11:37Speaker 3: at my high school. We did everything from choreograph to
- 11:42Speaker 3: raise money for the show, audition, take classes together, rehearse.
- 11:47Speaker 2: I mean, it was truly a dance company. She was incredible.
- 11:50Speaker 3: She said, go immerse yourself in the summer program, interlock
- 11:54Speaker 3: in Michigan for eight weeks and really learn the basics
- 11:59Speaker 3: of what you need to know, and then let's figure
- 12:01Speaker 3: it out if this is something that you want to do.
- 12:03Speaker 2: So I did that, I came back, I kept working.
- 12:06Speaker 3: I really really loved it, and I thought maybe this
- 12:08Speaker 3: was something I wanted to do in college.
- 12:10Speaker 2: So I applied to.
- 12:12Speaker 3: I think of fourteen colleges, I got into twelve ten
- 12:17Speaker 3: with full rides. I was all set to go to
- 12:20Speaker 3: UCLA for business and I had auditioned for the UCI
- 12:23Speaker 3: dance department, which at that point was top ten next
- 12:26Speaker 3: to Juilliard, really really well known dance department. They only
- 12:30Speaker 3: were going to accept forty people. Everyone flew in from
- 12:32Speaker 3: all over the nation to audition. I I just thought there.
- 12:37Speaker 2: Was no way.
- 12:37Speaker 3: It was a long shot, but I really wanted to try,
- 12:40Speaker 3: and so all set to go to UCLA. Got a
- 12:43Speaker 3: one sentence letter in the mail. I opened the letter
- 12:47Speaker 3: and it said, congratulations, You've been accepted to the UCI
- 12:50Speaker 3: dance department, and I just started balling.
- 12:54Speaker 2: I could not stop for like an hour.
- 12:56Speaker 3: I started crying. My mom looked at me, had no
- 12:59Speaker 3: idea what to say. She was a single mom raising
- 13:01Speaker 3: two girls. She had just gone back to school for
- 13:05Speaker 3: marriage and family therapy.
- 13:06Speaker 2: And I had a choice to make.
- 13:08Speaker 3: I could go to college for business or I could
- 13:11Speaker 3: go to college to be a dancer. And she looked
- 13:15Speaker 3: at me and she said, maybe you should do this.
- 13:18Speaker 3: Maybe this is a calling for you. I feel like
- 13:22Speaker 3: we need to support this dream and now's the time
- 13:25Speaker 3: to do it.
- 13:26Speaker 2: So she did. She supported the decision, and.
- 13:28Speaker 3: I went, and I have that was the best decision
- 13:31Speaker 3: I've ever made in my life. It was an incredible,
- 13:34Speaker 3: incredible four years and I learned so much.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Can we talk about the stress that happens on your
- 13:39Speaker 1: body when you're dancing. I mean, obviously this kind of
- 13:41Speaker 1: goes hand in hand with what you're doing now as well,
- 13:43Speaker 1: working out so often. But what kind of stress were
- 13:45Speaker 1: you're putting your body under at that time dancing so frequently.
- 13:50Speaker 3: Well, you know, my body was built to support that,
- 13:55Speaker 3: so I didn't have I could. I couldn't do enough, honestly.
- 13:59Speaker 3: Sometimes I was in the gym at midnight, like working
- 14:02Speaker 3: on my stuff, coreographing, working out, working through some of
- 14:06Speaker 3: the ideas in my head. Then I would get up
- 14:09Speaker 3: and we would take class and rehearse for six to
- 14:11Speaker 3: eight hours a day. But it's not It's different, you know,
- 14:14Speaker 3: because you're in a room rehearsing stop and go, stop
- 14:17Speaker 3: and go, stop and go.
- 14:18Speaker 2: You're not just going for six to eight hours. It's
- 14:20Speaker 2: more about the mental endurance than the physical endurance. I mean,
- 14:24Speaker 2: because while you're doing that, you're also developing the strength
- 14:27Speaker 2: that you need to do it, and totally you know,
- 14:29Speaker 2: you continue down that path.
- 14:30Speaker 3: But it was I mean, at one point I was
- 14:32Speaker 3: performing Paul Taylor's Esplanade and the skin on the bombs
- 14:36Speaker 3: of my feet had come off completely and I had
- 14:38Speaker 3: to wrap my feet in tape and gauze to be
- 14:41Speaker 3: able to continue doing it, because you couldn't wear shoes
- 14:44Speaker 3: to do it, so.
- 14:44Speaker 2: You to keep going.
- 14:46Speaker 3: There was a crack down the center of one of
- 14:48Speaker 3: my feet. I mean, there were definitely moments when that
- 14:51Speaker 3: were challenging, but I loved it so much it didn't matter,
- 14:55Speaker 3: and that was part of the plight of the dancer.
- 14:58Speaker 3: You have to get through those and the strong will survive,
- 15:01Speaker 3: and you learn more and more as you do.
- 15:04Speaker 1: So you're dancing and dancing, you're graduating college and then
- 15:08Speaker 1: I'm guessing this just leads you to New York. It
- 15:11Speaker 1: does as all dancers too, well, not all dancers.
- 15:14Speaker 2: But I had done the la thing. I did not.
- 15:17Speaker 3: Want to be an industry performer in music videos and
- 15:21Speaker 3: that wasn't interesting to me. I wanted to be an artist.
- 15:24Speaker 3: So I moved to New York to dance for modern
- 15:28Speaker 3: dance companies.
- 15:29Speaker 2: And that was at that point.
- 15:32Speaker 3: I had been dancing for companies for five years. I
- 15:35Speaker 3: actually danced for Donald McHale for three of those years,
- 15:38Speaker 3: who just recently passed. He was one of the one
- 15:42Speaker 3: of the founders of modern dance in New York City,
- 15:44Speaker 3: with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. They still perform his
- 15:46Speaker 3: works to this day. I was so blessed to be
- 15:49Speaker 3: one of the youngest people to be accepted into his company,
- 15:53Speaker 3: and he was one of the greatest mentors I've ever had.
- 15:56Speaker 3: So he was one of the people that pushed me
- 15:58Speaker 3: to move to New York City and continue my career
- 16:02Speaker 3: as a concert dancer after.
- 16:04Speaker 2: Five years of that.
- 16:05Speaker 3: And again, you're taking class in the morning and you're
- 16:08Speaker 3: rehearsing for six hours post class, so at this point
- 16:11Speaker 3: it's about seven and a half hours of your day.
- 16:13Speaker 2: You have to go home, get ready.
- 16:14Speaker 3: Every day as an audition, there's four hundred people waiting
- 16:16Speaker 3: to take your spot.
- 16:17Speaker 2: It's just a lot of pressure. And then it.
- 16:20Speaker 3: Stopped being fun. It started feeling like work, and I said,
- 16:23Speaker 3: you know what, I want to have fun again. So
- 16:25Speaker 3: I went out, I auditioned, I booked then international tour
- 16:27Speaker 3: of fame. I went over to Europe and danced there,
- 16:30Speaker 3: came back. Actually booked a DVD for Denise Austin in
- 16:36Speaker 3: two thousand and three. It was her first customizable DVD
- 16:40Speaker 3: back in the day before.
- 16:41Speaker 2: We had on demand online anything.
- 16:45Speaker 3: And that was my first Foray into fitness really from
- 16:49Speaker 3: on the professional side of fitness, and then I went
- 16:51Speaker 3: on to do the Disney movie Enchanted with the choreographer
- 16:55Speaker 3: the de Mulin Rouge. I helped in the pre production
- 16:57Speaker 3: of that. It was shot in New York City. It
- 16:59Speaker 3: was such an in credible.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Moment to be a part of TV commercials.
- 17:03Speaker 3: I mean, I pretty much should any anything in everything
- 17:06Speaker 3: I wanted to do as a dancer. I was so lucky,
- 17:08Speaker 3: so blessed, and I've worked my ass off, to be honest.
- 17:11Speaker 3: My last job was dancing and choreographing for Shakira. I
- 17:16Speaker 3: was helping her create the Sheebel.
- 17:20Speaker 2: Video for the Bahamas in the Bahamas for six weeks
- 17:22Speaker 2: and then we went to La to shoot the video.
- 17:26Speaker 3: Hair and makeup, heavy wig. You know, shoes on plex
- 17:30Speaker 3: on a plexiglass stage. Hurry up and wait, hurry up
- 17:32Speaker 3: and wait, hurry up and wait for twelve hours. Finally,
- 17:34Speaker 3: four o'clock.
- 17:35Speaker 2: In the morning, I am standing on that stage.
- 17:36Speaker 3: They're like, all right, you guys, are up. I have
- 17:39Speaker 3: three chances to get this right. Four o'clock in the morning.
- 17:42Speaker 3: And I just looked around and said, you know what,
- 17:44Speaker 3: this is my last job I've done everything I've wanted.
- 17:47Speaker 2: To do, and now is the time to move on and.
- 17:52Speaker 3: Do something, figure out what the next step of my
- 17:55Speaker 3: life is going to be.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Did you have any interest at that time to get
- 17:58Speaker 1: specifically into fitness.
- 18:01Speaker 2: Yes.
- 18:01Speaker 3: So while all of this exciting dance stuff was happening,
- 18:04Speaker 3: I also paralleled that journey with my journey in fitness.
- 18:07Speaker 3: So I moved to Norry Sitting in two thousand and
- 18:10Speaker 3: two started dancing, but the same time I also started
- 18:12Speaker 3: working at the Rebox Sports Club New York, which at
- 18:15Speaker 3: that point was the premiere gym. There were no boutique
- 18:18Speaker 3: fitness studios. If you wanted to be in fitness, you
- 18:20Speaker 3: had to work at a gym, and that was the
- 18:21Speaker 3: place to work. So I started teaching dance fitness, a
- 18:26Speaker 3: ballet body strength class kind of like a bar class,
- 18:31Speaker 3: and then a yogas stretch class, And I remember I
- 18:35Speaker 3: walked into the group ex director's office and said I
- 18:38Speaker 3: want to teach her.
- 18:39Speaker 2: She looked at me like I was crazy.
- 18:40Speaker 3: People worked for years to teach at that gym, proved
- 18:44Speaker 3: themselves and develop the following and I.
- 18:46Speaker 2: Was so confident.
- 18:48Speaker 3: So she didn't give it to me at first, But
- 18:51Speaker 3: then there was a sloth that opened up at nine
- 18:52Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning, and she said, all right, I'm
- 18:54Speaker 3: gonna give you a chance.
- 18:55Speaker 2: What do you want to teach? So I said, all
- 18:56Speaker 2: I'm going to teach ballet body.
- 18:58Speaker 3: And after five weeks I walked back into her office
- 19:01Speaker 3: and said, no, I'm terrible.
- 19:03Speaker 2: This class is not building. I'm so sorry.
- 19:06Speaker 3: I have so much to learn, and she just laughed
- 19:08Speaker 3: and said, that's fantastic, thank you for coming to me.
- 19:12Speaker 3: You know, will continue talking as you learn more. So
- 19:16Speaker 3: I got better and better and better, and then I
- 19:18Speaker 3: was actually given classes on the schedule dance, fitness, strength.
- 19:22Speaker 2: And yoga inspired stretch.
- 19:24Speaker 3: And then while that was happening, I was also getting
- 19:27Speaker 3: certified and wanting to learn more about the body.
- 19:29Speaker 2: And continuing my journey and education.
- 19:31Speaker 3: So I was certified in National Commy of Sports Medicine,
- 19:34Speaker 3: Corrective Exercise, pre post natal yoga, pilates. I went back
- 19:39Speaker 3: to study with the cadavers at Mount Sinai and really
- 19:42Speaker 3: understand the body from the inside out and how to
- 19:45Speaker 3: prevent injuries. I did everything as a consumer too. I
- 19:48Speaker 3: did pilates until I couldn't do another hundred and I
- 19:50Speaker 3: was so bored. I did yoga until sun Salitation A
- 19:54Speaker 3: and B series just were not interesting to me anymore.
- 19:58Speaker 3: I really didn't get anything out of that and didn't
- 20:00Speaker 3: enough cardio, and I felt like that yoga it was hard.
- 20:04Speaker 2: To find a good yoga teacher. They were allowed disingenuous
- 20:07Speaker 2: yoga teachers. And then I.
- 20:09Speaker 3: Went to powerlifting because I was dating a powerlifter and
- 20:12Speaker 3: I lost my neck.
- 20:14Speaker 2: And then I went to.
- 20:15Speaker 3: Spin with you know the people that started Flywheel back
- 20:19Speaker 3: in the day on the pod and she was at
- 20:22Speaker 3: Rebox Sports. Yes, we were both there at the same
- 20:25Speaker 3: time teaching and I couldn't fit into my jeans. I'm
- 20:28Speaker 3: a small person. That didn't work for me either. And
- 20:31Speaker 3: while I was trying all of these things, I always
- 20:33Speaker 3: went back to dance to reset and get back to
- 20:37Speaker 3: where I wanted to be overall functionally with strength and
- 20:41Speaker 3: cardio and the creative inspiration that dance springs. So while
- 20:46Speaker 3: all these things were happening, I was booked to to
- 20:52Speaker 3: do the Beach Body in Sandy Video that was back
- 20:55Speaker 3: in two thousand and nine, and that was my first
- 20:57Speaker 3: introduction into interval training, which I loved, and it was
- 21:01Speaker 3: really such an effective and efficient way to train but
- 21:04Speaker 3: it was built for a man's body, at least the
- 21:07Speaker 3: way they were doing it at Beach Body. So it
- 21:09Speaker 3: got me thinking, if there was a way for me
- 21:12Speaker 3: to combine all of these things I loved with dance
- 21:17Speaker 3: in an interval style format, so you really did get
- 21:21Speaker 3: that efficient and effective workout, but in a much more
- 21:24Speaker 3: fun way and built for a woman's body, a much
- 21:29Speaker 3: leaner figure overall. That would be transformative, That would be revolutionary.
- 21:35Speaker 3: No one's doing that, So I set out to create that,
- 21:38Speaker 3: all right. So and that was Oh, by the way,
- 21:40Speaker 3: that was the exact same year that I ended up
- 21:43Speaker 3: on Stave with Shakira, So my two worlds sort of
- 21:46Speaker 3: dovetailed and collided.
- 21:48Speaker 1: Okay, so around this time is when you actually just
- 21:51Speaker 1: start dancing a whole lot. Yes, yes, so what happens then?
- 21:57Speaker 3: Yeah, I was booking everything right and left I started working.
- 22:00Speaker 2: That was also right.
- 22:02Speaker 3: When the boutique boom happened, and I started working with
- 22:05Speaker 3: different boutique fitness studios, one of which was a dance
- 22:09Speaker 3: based studio or aerobics in a really hot room, and
- 22:13Speaker 3: I was sweating and doing so much aerobics that I
- 22:17Speaker 3: ended up in the hospital.
- 22:18Speaker 2: My drenals failed.
- 22:21Speaker 3: I I was shaking, I couldn't move for four days,
- 22:24Speaker 3: and I said, something's got to give. This is not okay,
- 22:27Speaker 3: this is not healthy, and I need to figure out
- 22:30Speaker 3: a better solution because it's not just me. This is
- 22:33Speaker 3: affecting a lot of people. So and it was really
- 22:35Speaker 3: the breaking point for me. I had done everything in fitness,
- 22:38Speaker 3: I had done everything in dance, and I wanted to
- 22:41Speaker 3: find sustainable solution that I was excited about that was
- 22:45Speaker 3: creatively fun and stimulating, but also smart and based in
- 22:48Speaker 3: sports medicine and effective and different than anything else that
- 22:52Speaker 3: was being offered in fitness.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Taking a quick break from today's episode to give my sponsor,
- 23:03Speaker 1: Athletic Greens a little bit of love. I had an
- 23:06Speaker 1: interesting question this week from a listener and they asked
- 23:08Speaker 1: me how I felt about taking Athletic Greens on an
- 23:11Speaker 1: empty stomach. And it's something I never really thought about before.
- 23:14Speaker 1: Athletic Greens. When I take it pers thing in the
- 23:15Speaker 1: morning without eating, usually after exercise, it doesn't upset my
- 23:19Speaker 1: stomach at all. And that's a little bit different from
- 23:22Speaker 1: other vitamins or supplements that I've taken personally in the past.
- 23:26Speaker 1: When I take Athletic Greens in the morning. You know,
- 23:28Speaker 1: I feel fresh, I feel energized, and I just feel
- 23:31Speaker 1: like it's an essential step to my routine that gets
- 23:34Speaker 1: me ready to take on whatever crazy curve balls the
- 23:37Speaker 1: day throws my way. They're offering hurdle listeners a special deal.
- 23:41Speaker 1: It's twenty eight travel packs a seventy nine dollars value,
- 23:44Speaker 1: absolutely free with your first purchase. Just head on over
- 23:47Speaker 1: to athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle again, that's Athleticgreens dot
- 23:51Speaker 1: com slash Hurdle to get yours today. Let's get back
- 23:55Speaker 1: to it. A lot of things go into creating a method,
- 24:05Speaker 1: creating a way, opening a studio. So at the beginning,
- 24:10Speaker 1: did you feel just so overwhelmed or was it more
- 24:14Speaker 1: of this sense of excitement.
- 24:16Speaker 2: Oh? No, it was definitely excitement. I didn't. I didn't.
- 24:20Speaker 3: There was no pressure, there was no timeline. I just
- 24:23Speaker 3: wanted to play and figure out what that was. And
- 24:26Speaker 3: so I was living in an apartment building with a gym,
- 24:30Speaker 3: and I would invite friends over a few times a week,
- 24:33Speaker 3: and I would give class.
- 24:36Speaker 2: I would rent the space out downstairs.
- 24:38Speaker 3: And I would always give a different class and try
- 24:40Speaker 3: and figure out.
- 24:41Speaker 2: I took feedback. It took a lot of feedback.
- 24:43Speaker 3: Would switch it up, try something new, switch it up,
- 24:46Speaker 3: try something new. And then one of my friends moved
- 24:49Speaker 3: to New Canaan, Connecticut b Market New Caan, Connecticut.
- 24:52Speaker 2: And said, I'd love to meet some people out here.
- 24:55Speaker 3: Would you mind calming and teaching a class and we'll
- 24:57Speaker 3: get some girls together. So that class turned into a
- 25:01Speaker 3: class every week, which turned into two classes every week,
- 25:03Speaker 3: which turned into three classes every week, and I started
- 25:05Speaker 3: to hone the class model for this concept. It changed
- 25:10Speaker 3: dramatically from the first day I taught to the end
- 25:14Speaker 3: of that year, it really became what it is today,
- 25:17Speaker 3: which is a dance based interval workout where I was
- 25:21Speaker 3: able to combine everything that I loved on the strength
- 25:24Speaker 3: and dynamic flexibility portion of the workout with the excitement
- 25:28Speaker 3: of dance and dance cardio.
- 25:31Speaker 1: And that's pretty applicable to everything in life, right because
- 25:33Speaker 1: I feel like so often we have this idea of
- 25:35Speaker 1: where we think we're going to go and what we
- 25:37Speaker 1: need to do to get there, but it doesn't always
- 25:40Speaker 1: happen as we plan.
- 25:41Speaker 2: No, absolutely not.
- 25:44Speaker 3: And I love the organic growth of it because that
- 25:47Speaker 3: really is the way fitness thrives is getting into your community,
- 25:53Speaker 3: figuring out what the community needs and filling that void,
- 25:56Speaker 3: and then also doing something that you love really important.
- 25:59Speaker 3: So I was able to to sort of cultivate that
- 26:01Speaker 3: in a small B market community, and then at the
- 26:04Speaker 3: end of that year, I said, you know what, it's time.
- 26:08Speaker 3: I want to take this to New York. I want
- 26:09Speaker 3: to try this in name market. So I found a
- 26:12Speaker 3: space in Tribeca and baited in a NA market for
- 26:14Speaker 3: a year, and again from day one to the end
- 26:18Speaker 3: of that year, that workout changed dramatically. It was not
- 26:21Speaker 3: the same workout I went in with, but I needed
- 26:24Speaker 3: those two years to hone the class model, figure out
- 26:27Speaker 3: what it was. And then I said, okay, now it's time.
- 26:31Speaker 2: Let's build a space.
- 26:32Speaker 1: What are you using money wise to support yourself while
- 26:35Speaker 1: you're in this like incubation phase, because I think that's
- 26:37Speaker 1: something that holds a lot of people back when they
- 26:38Speaker 1: have these big ideas. They're like, well, how am I
- 26:40Speaker 1: going to support myself while and building this big thing
- 26:42Speaker 1: which isn't bringing in that much money, And then I
- 26:44Speaker 1: also need all of this money to build this other
- 26:45Speaker 1: thing that I want to do.
- 26:46Speaker 2: It's just a Yeah, that's a lot, you know. I know.
- 26:51Speaker 3: So I had saved up a lot of money before
- 26:54Speaker 3: doing that because I was working everywhere five jobs at
- 26:58Speaker 3: once as you know, along that journey. And then also
- 27:03Speaker 3: I was making money teaching and training.
- 27:05Speaker 2: But it was enough to survive.
- 27:07Speaker 3: That's and that was all that mattered at that point.
- 27:09Speaker 3: I didn't want to lose money, but I needed to
- 27:11Speaker 3: be able to survive. So, yes, if you're building something,
- 27:14Speaker 3: you probably have to do another job or save work
- 27:18Speaker 3: really hard up into that point to save up so
- 27:20Speaker 3: that you do have the creative space and time to
- 27:24Speaker 3: not feel stressed and to work within those parameters to
- 27:27Speaker 3: build something new.
- 27:29Speaker 2: I don't I mean, I think there are very few.
- 27:31Speaker 3: People that can just go into an incubation period and
- 27:34Speaker 3: not work another job and not have to build something
- 27:38Speaker 3: up into that point.
- 27:40Speaker 2: So I did both.
- 27:41Speaker 3: I saved money and then I also worked my ass off,
- 27:44Speaker 3: like sixteen eighteen hours a day.
- 27:47Speaker 1: So the studio you built, your first studio was not
- 27:50Speaker 1: in Dribeca.
- 27:51Speaker 3: No, it was on the Upper east Side. Yes, yes,
- 27:55Speaker 3: we found a beautiful space there. I had clientele that
- 27:59Speaker 3: was coming down to Tribeca from the Upper east Side,
- 28:02Speaker 3: and I actually my very first space I found was
- 28:05Speaker 3: in Soho and I had the plans, I had the
- 28:08Speaker 3: architect the space, and six months.
- 28:10Speaker 2: Later it fell through.
- 28:12Speaker 3: The landlord had issues with the building and so I
- 28:15Speaker 3: lost all of it.
- 28:16Speaker 2: And we talk about that a little bit.
- 28:17Speaker 1: I feel like, I mean, I say this all the time,
- 28:20Speaker 1: but I feel like, whether you're an entrepreneur, you're not.
- 28:23Speaker 1: There are so many things in life that you get
- 28:25Speaker 1: excited about, like a little twinkle if something comes to
- 28:27Speaker 1: you and you're like, oh my god, this is going
- 28:29Speaker 1: to be so great. And it's almost as though I've
- 28:31Speaker 1: kind of coached myself to not allow myself to get
- 28:34Speaker 1: that excited until it's signed on the dotted line. Yes,
- 28:36Speaker 1: And I don't know if there's like if that's sad
- 28:39Speaker 1: that I do that now, or if it's smart.
- 28:41Speaker 2: Or oh it's one hundred percent smart.
- 28:43Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 28:44Speaker 2: I was the same way I signed on the dotted line.
- 28:47Speaker 3: I had the plans, everything was happening, it was in
- 28:51Speaker 3: the right area, it was very exciting, and then it
- 28:54Speaker 3: fell through. And you know those things are going to
- 28:56Speaker 3: happen over and over again when you're starting something new,
- 28:58Speaker 3: even if you've put ink to paper and you think
- 29:01Speaker 3: it's gonna everything's going to fall into place.
- 29:03Speaker 1: How do you lift yourself up after a hurdle like that?
- 29:06Speaker 2: You just keep going.
- 29:06Speaker 3: You have to keep going. You can't stop. At that
- 29:09Speaker 3: point then it's almost worse than never starting. So went
- 29:13Speaker 3: back to the drawing board, continue to teach classes in
- 29:16Speaker 3: the rented space, and started looking for more space.
- 29:20Speaker 2: I mean, space in New York City is tough. It
- 29:22Speaker 2: is certainly a hurdle no matter what business you're in.
- 29:25Speaker 3: And I you know, I've had multiple leyes fall through
- 29:29Speaker 3: and you just keep at it.
- 29:30Speaker 2: It takes a lot of time.
- 29:31Speaker 3: It was a huge part of my life and journey
- 29:34Speaker 3: that I don't really talk about that often, but you know,
- 29:37Speaker 3: starting a business is a really big undertaking.
- 29:40Speaker 1: So from when you signed that original lease to when
- 29:43Speaker 1: you actually opened your Upper east Side location, how long
- 29:46Speaker 1: of the time period is that?
- 29:48Speaker 2: Almost two years? Wow, you're in nine months.
- 29:51Speaker 1: It's a long time to feel like you're in limbo.
- 29:53Speaker 2: Yes, it was, Yeah, it was a long time.
- 29:55Speaker 1: So you open the Upper east Side studio, how long
- 29:57Speaker 1: between then? Spoiler alert Upper east Side and and then
- 30:00Speaker 1: you go to open your.
- 30:01Speaker 2: Sale akat Nomad and AKT East Hampton.
- 30:04Speaker 3: Two years after so I opened up east Side in
- 30:07Speaker 3: January of twenty fourteen, and I opened AKT East Hampton
- 30:12Speaker 3: summer of twenty fifteen, and AKT no Mead Fall of
- 30:15Speaker 3: twenty fifteen.
- 30:16Speaker 1: Okay, so we're just rolling right along now and then
- 30:19Speaker 1: spoiler alert round two. I mean, there's so many more
- 30:22Speaker 1: to come at the moment.
- 30:23Speaker 3: Yes, So last year March twenty eighteen, I partnered with
- 30:28Speaker 3: Exponential Fitness to franchise AKT. So now I can actually
- 30:32Speaker 3: scale the concept to hit the rest of the US
- 30:36Speaker 3: with an incredible operations partner that has approven track record
- 30:40Speaker 3: in scaling luxury boutique fitness and understands how important quality
- 30:45Speaker 3: control is, and bring something brand new to the market
- 30:50Speaker 3: for the very first time. There have been no other
- 30:52Speaker 3: dance concepts that've scaled nationally ever, were the very first
- 30:56Speaker 3: one scary.
- 30:57Speaker 2: No exciting.
- 30:59Speaker 3: So now let's see, it's been eight years since I
- 31:03Speaker 3: originally set out to create AKT and finally we are
- 31:07Speaker 3: able to bring it to markets outside of New York
- 31:13Speaker 3: City for the very first time.
- 31:15Speaker 2: It's really exciting.
- 31:16Speaker 1: It's exciting.
- 31:16Speaker 2: We're ready, We're ready, We're ready.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I was doing some research before you walked in and
- 31:21Speaker 1: you told Elle Ones that someone told you that to
- 31:25Speaker 1: find true happiness you need three things. Yes. Someone to love, Yes,
- 31:29Speaker 1: something to do, Yes, something to look forward to.
- 31:31Speaker 2: Yes.
- 31:32Speaker 1: Who do you love?
- 31:33Speaker 2: Oh? So many people.
- 31:36Speaker 3: And I love my family, my husband, my baby boys
- 31:42Speaker 3: two and a half.
- 31:43Speaker 2: I love my clients that I get to see every day.
- 31:46Speaker 2: I love my team. I have the best team ever.
- 31:50Speaker 3: I'm happy every time every day I go into work.
- 31:55Speaker 2: You're something to do, something to do? Yes, my work.
- 32:00Speaker 3: I am admittedly a workaholic, but it's because I love
- 32:02Speaker 3: it so much, and I try and find a way
- 32:06Speaker 3: to bring a little bit of my personal life into that,
- 32:09Speaker 3: a little bit of my work and my personal life
- 32:10Speaker 3: at all and all of our laps. And then something
- 32:13Speaker 3: to look forward to right now is this expansion. It's
- 32:17Speaker 3: my growing family, it's my growing team. It's giving so
- 32:20Speaker 3: many men and women the chance to be business owners
- 32:23Speaker 3: and entrepreneurs all over the United States with the amazing
- 32:26Speaker 3: support of Exponential and Akta and all of our background,
- 32:31Speaker 3: both on the creative and the operation side.
- 32:33Speaker 1: I'm a workaholic too, but in the last couple of years,
- 32:36Speaker 1: I've really worked more on giving back to myself and
- 32:39Speaker 1: finding those smaller aspects of self care, which might not
- 32:42Speaker 1: be traditional self care to everybody else. So how do
- 32:45Speaker 1: you give back to yourself aside from moving your body?
- 32:48Speaker 1: Because I think I feel about running as you feel
- 32:50Speaker 1: about dance, and so I run and that's how I
- 32:53Speaker 1: get back to myself.
- 32:54Speaker 2: But what else do you do? It's such a great question.
- 32:57Speaker 3: My husband and I always joke about the fact that
- 33:00Speaker 3: that I have the best job because I run indorphins
- 33:02Speaker 3: all day long and most people don't get the opportunity
- 33:05Speaker 3: necessarily to work out every day because life is very busy.
- 33:08Speaker 3: But outside of that, I've recently found acupuncture to be
- 33:11Speaker 3: very helpful to balance the yin and the yang, and
- 33:16Speaker 3: also you have the opportunity to meditate while you're getting
- 33:19Speaker 3: acupuncture done and allowing your body to relax and reset
- 33:23Speaker 3: on both physical and spiritual level too.
- 33:26Speaker 2: I found it to be really helpful, So I love that.
- 33:28Speaker 3: I also think that time alone, time to think, where
- 33:33Speaker 3: you put the phone down, you walk through the park
- 33:35Speaker 3: and you think big picture and you're just out in
- 33:37Speaker 3: the world taking it in and thinking is so overrated.
- 33:41Speaker 3: I mean, we really need to do more of that,
- 33:43Speaker 3: or just sit at home with a cup of coffee
- 33:45Speaker 3: and think like, don't keep yourself busy with all these
- 33:48Speaker 3: things that can keep us busy. Now, I mean, we
- 33:50Speaker 3: have everything with us at all time, smartphones, but allowing
- 33:54Speaker 3: yourself that space to think about your day, about the
- 34:00Speaker 3: next step in your job, your journey, your life, your family,
- 34:03Speaker 3: whatever it is, whatever comes to mind or not, or
- 34:05Speaker 3: just being still. But those things are really important to
- 34:08Speaker 3: help balance the kurdles that we go we handle every.
- 34:10Speaker 1: Day totally all right. And then I mean you're constantly
- 34:14Speaker 1: providing a source of I guess, calm, relaxation and outlet
- 34:20Speaker 1: for the people that come into your studios. Where do
- 34:23Speaker 1: you draw your inspiration from to provide inspiration to them?
- 34:28Speaker 2: Music.
- 34:28Speaker 3: Music is one of my biggest sources of inspiration. It
- 34:31Speaker 3: gets me moving, drives me. If there is a day
- 34:34Speaker 3: or a moment where I feel like it's hard to
- 34:36Speaker 3: get myself going or hard to create, I get into
- 34:39Speaker 3: a space and I put music on and then.
- 34:43Speaker 2: I'll have a friend in the room that could also
- 34:46Speaker 2: give back energy. So it's not just.
- 34:49Speaker 3: It's not just an empty open space that needs to
- 34:52Speaker 3: be filled, but there's conversation happening, there's energy moving and
- 34:55Speaker 3: then I play. But you have to give yourself time
- 34:58Speaker 3: to play. It's not just going to calme. I never
- 35:00Speaker 3: know when creative.
- 35:01Speaker 2: Inspiration is going to hit.
- 35:02Speaker 3: That's one of the hardest parts of the job is
- 35:04Speaker 3: I can set time aside and try and walk into
- 35:06Speaker 3: that room and make it happen, and sometimes it doesn't.
- 35:08Speaker 3: Sometimes I'm a genius and it happens in ten minutes.
- 35:12Speaker 3: You just never know, and you sort of have to
- 35:14Speaker 3: keep yourself open to that.
- 35:16Speaker 1: A popular question that I get often is how do
- 35:18Speaker 1: I find the motivation to work out? And a lot
- 35:20Speaker 1: of the time that is by teaming up with a
- 35:22Speaker 1: friend or someone that can hold me accountable for what
- 35:25Speaker 1: we have going on and also make the whole thing
- 35:27Speaker 1: more fun. So for someone that also might be struggling
- 35:29Speaker 1: to find the motivation. I mean, you're talking about clientsele
- 35:31Speaker 1: coming into your studios four times a week to get
- 35:34Speaker 1: guaranteed results, Like what do you say to them to
- 35:37Speaker 1: make them to help them keep going when it feels tough.
- 35:41Speaker 3: A lot of boutique studios in New York City don't
- 35:44Speaker 3: allow space or haven't put space aside for the community.
- 35:48Speaker 3: Really having that home base where you can come you
- 35:52Speaker 3: can meet members of the community.
- 35:53Speaker 2: It's just as important as the workout.
- 35:56Speaker 3: Some people are just interested in getting as many people
- 35:58Speaker 3: in the room as possible getting them out. I really
- 35:59Speaker 3: want to create a home where you could come and
- 36:02Speaker 3: meet people and hang out before and after class, beautiful locker.
- 36:05Speaker 2: Rooms, infrared sauna, make some friends.
- 36:08Speaker 3: You know, it's so much more fun when you go
- 36:10Speaker 3: and you support one another. And it's so hard to
- 36:12Speaker 3: meet people in the city or even over the age
- 36:15Speaker 3: of thirty in general, because we're all so busy doing
- 36:18Speaker 3: different things. That's the place they come to work out
- 36:21Speaker 3: with their friends and dance with their friends. They walk
- 36:22Speaker 3: out of that class and they're running on doorphins and
- 36:25Speaker 3: they feel so focused and excited to hit the ground running,
- 36:29Speaker 3: and they inspire one another. We have so so much
- 36:33Speaker 3: networking and sheeoing happening, and I love walking into the
- 36:37Speaker 3: studio and seeing those conversations happen and people are inspiring
- 36:40Speaker 3: each other. So that's a huge part of staying motivated
- 36:44Speaker 3: and inspired to show up is the community. And the
- 36:47Speaker 3: way you feel after a fantastic workout that gets your
- 36:51Speaker 3: heart going and your mind focused and spinning.
- 36:55Speaker 2: Is that's the benefits of that are huge.
- 36:59Speaker 3: So that's one part of it, and then also having
- 37:01Speaker 3: them notice your results. Friends are saying you look amazing,
- 37:04Speaker 3: and that's.
- 37:06Speaker 2: A huge motivator. Two to keep yourself going. But it's
- 37:08Speaker 2: not always about results on a physical level. It is emotional,
- 37:13Speaker 2: it is spiritual.
- 37:14Speaker 3: It is a stress relief and an anxiety relief for
- 37:17Speaker 3: women who.
- 37:18Speaker 2: Are busy working moms. I mean, there's so much going
- 37:22Speaker 2: on in our lives. Be Able to go into that studio.
- 37:23Speaker 3: For an hour and think about nothing but what you're
- 37:27Speaker 3: doing in that moment is so liberating and you just
- 37:29Speaker 3: come out ready for whatever comes.
- 37:32Speaker 2: Your way that day.
- 37:34Speaker 1: You have an opportunity right now to offer the Anna
- 37:38Speaker 1: a piece of advice who maybe is leaving that hospital
- 37:41Speaker 1: and she's like, Wow, what am I supposed to do now?
- 37:45Speaker 1: I'm so tired, I'm confused, I'm spent. I need some
- 37:50Speaker 1: help here. What do you tell her?
- 37:52Speaker 3: I tell her to take a break and sleep first
- 37:55Speaker 3: of all, and then create some time in her life.
- 37:59Speaker 3: Stop all the running around, stop the five jobs, take
- 38:03Speaker 3: a minute and get back to what you love and
- 38:07Speaker 3: get back in the studio. Use all of those years
- 38:10Speaker 3: of education and passion and love for what you do,
- 38:15Speaker 3: and just play. Give yourself three months and just play
- 38:19Speaker 3: and take the pressure off and balance balance your life
- 38:23Speaker 3: a little bit.
- 38:23Speaker 1: Anna, thanks so much for sitting down with me today.
- 38:25Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Emily so fun.
- 38:28Speaker 1: Please take a moment to leave a quick review by
- 38:30Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
- 38:33Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
- 38:35Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at hurdle
- 38:38Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
- 38:41Speaker 1: at Hurdle podcast. Anna. Where do they find you? Where
- 38:44Speaker 1: do they find Akt? Give us the lowdown.
- 38:47Speaker 3: Website, vakt dot com, Social, VAKT Studios, or the Anakheiser
- 38:53Speaker 3: and I can't wait to talk to you.
- 38:55Speaker 2: Awesome.
- 38:55Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
- 38:59Speaker 1: next time.
- 39:02Speaker 3: P