Latest / Impact Ready / 108. The One About Spin

Transcript

108. The One About Spin · Impact Ready

• 0:00
  Hello team, Welcome to the show. So excited that you're here
• 0:02
  today. Today I want to talk about an
• 0:05
  experience that I had over the course of a decade.
• 0:08
  That really was the experience that inspired me to talk a lot
• 0:11
  about impact. It's it's really what shaped my
• 0:14
  drive to have more purposeful impact in the world.
• 0:19
  And it was sort of my test kitchen for how to harness
• 0:24
  powerful impact for almost 10 years.
• 0:26
  What I'm talking about is my stint of time where I was
• 0:30
  teaching spin. I was a spin instructor at a
• 0:32
  studio in Portland called Burn Cycle, and it was started by a
• 0:36
  friend of mine from growing up. She asked me to join the team.
• 0:40
  I'd never taught spin before. I loved it.
• 0:42
  I was going to classes all the time, but I'd never actually
• 0:45
  taught. And so when I joined this team,
• 0:49
  I had no idea what I was doing. I had never really taught group
• 0:53
  fitness before. All I knew was that I loved the
• 0:56
  modality, I loved the music, and I thought it would be really fun
• 0:59
  to work out with a group of people.
• 1:02
  The reason I want to talk about it is because it is the
• 1:05
  definitive period of time where I found my voice, where I tested
• 1:10
  and played around with ideas that I hoped would motivate or
• 1:14
  encourage people, where I came out of my shell, where I learned
• 1:17
  to be more comfortable with myself.
• 1:19
  I mean, listen, here's the thing.
• 1:21
  When you are on a stage, you can't hide.
• 1:25
  And when you are on a stage in front of 50 people, over the
• 1:28
  course of thousands of classes, you really start to get to know
• 1:31
  yourself. You get to know other people.
• 1:34
  You get to know what moves people and inspires them.
• 1:37
  It was the place where I feel like I learned the most about
• 1:42
  how to truly impact people on a a literal and figurative level.
• 1:47
  So I want to talk a little bit about what it was like to be in
• 1:50
  those experiences. And then I'll share with you the
• 1:53
  three big lessons that I still carry with me every single day
• 1:58
  as a result of being in the studio so many times with people
• 2:01
  and and really just absorbing all the energy that people had
• 2:04
  to give. When I started teaching spin, it
• 2:07
  was in 2013. This was sort of the height of,
• 2:10
  of the, the fever of spin, the fever of cardio.
• 2:14
  It was the high intensity interval training.
• 2:18
  And my God, it was freaking electric to be in some of these
• 2:24
  spin classes in some of the bigger cities in New York, in
• 2:26
  LA, in San Francisco, these studios were the place to be.
• 2:32
  I, I think you guys probably remember this, it was the
• 2:35
  frontier of spin and there were studios like Soul Cycle and
• 2:39
  Flywheel that were really leading the charge, just rising
• 2:42
  to popularity and like a, to like a crazy, crazy degree.
• 2:46
  And during that time we would travel as a studio, as you know,
• 2:51
  as a little team. We would travel to these
• 2:53
  different cities and take other people's classes.
• 2:55
  We would learn from some of the best instructors in the country.
• 2:59
  And that's where I really learned how to be effective on
• 3:03
  the bike, be effective as an instructor.
• 3:05
  And also I wanted to teach like the pros.
• 3:08
  I wanted to teach like these people who made it look easy and
• 3:11
  natural. And as a result, they were just
• 3:14
  really, they were able to really authentically connect with
• 3:17
  people. And it was so freaking fun.
• 3:20
  I mean, the energy in those rooms, it's like you could blow
• 3:23
  the roof off those places if you are ever in some of those
• 3:27
  classes in the early 2000 TENS, 2000, 14 to 17.
• 3:33
  I mean, God, it was just, it was so fun.
• 3:36
  And I recognize that there's like a specific kind of spin
• 3:40
  person who gets really excited about this stuff and is a little
• 3:43
  bit crazy about it like I am. There's a lot of us out there.
• 3:47
  You might not be one of those people, but if you are, you
• 3:51
  totally understand the first. I remember the first time I ever
• 3:54
  went to a Soul Cycle class, it was probably 2014 around there.
• 3:58
  And I went with my best friend Alice, and she lives in LA and
• 4:03
  she was dating her now husband, Kieran, who I absolutely adore.
• 4:07
  And I remember it was four of us taking a class and it was so
• 4:11
  hard and it was so hot. It was so fun, but it was really
• 4:15
  hard. And we were all kind of dying in
• 4:18
  the class. But as we walked out, like
• 4:20
  where's Kieran? He'd left because he had to go
• 4:23
  throw up in the bathroom. And we're all we're all laughing
• 4:26
  and like kind of checking in on him, but also being like, Oh my
• 4:29
  God, dude, did you hear that Skrillex remix?
• 4:31
  Like it's so good. It's so much, It's so awesome.
• 4:34
  Then we're like, oh, Kieran, right, You good?
• 4:35
  OK, great. So I recognize this is kind of a
• 4:39
  this is a thing. And if you're a spin person, you
• 4:41
  get it. If you're not, totally
• 4:42
  understand. No judgement on me.
• 4:45
  Hopefully with all these different studios, often it was
• 4:52
  writing In Sync. That was the goal.
• 4:54
  And when you are with a group of 30 to 60 people in a room and
• 4:58
  you're all writing In Sync together, it just creates this
• 5:03
  incredible alignment of energy and lists the room.
• 5:06
  It is palpable to be in a room where everybody's writing
• 5:09
  together versus everyone kind of doing their own thing.
• 5:13
  And prior to me teaching, I was coming from the big box gym spin
• 5:17
  classes. So LA Fitness 24 Hour, I would
• 5:21
  take spin classes everywhere, but nobody was writing to the
• 5:24
  beat in music. Nobody was.
• 5:26
  It was not this type of spin class.
• 5:28
  There were a few instructors who kind of got it, but this was the
• 5:31
  advent of something totally new. And it was like Catching Fire.
• 5:35
  So when we were in those rooms and all writing together and
• 5:39
  feeling the rhythm music, it's dark, it's loud.
• 5:42
  It's just creates this environment where you can tap
• 5:45
  into a different part of yourself.
• 5:47
  You can tap into a flow. You can really start to feel
• 5:51
  powerful in a different kind of way.
• 5:53
  And in those dark rooms on the stage with all these people
• 5:57
  riding together, this is where I learned about impact.
• 6:01
  This is where I learned about the power of body language,
• 6:04
  about voice tonality, about the emotion and the feeling that you
• 6:08
  can create with the power of music.
• 6:11
  About how impactful it is to hold space and not say anything
• 6:16
  at all. The power of having a little bit
• 6:18
  of drama, maybe jumping off the stage, acting the part so that
• 6:23
  you can open up something in people so that they can sort of
• 6:26
  let go a little bit more and be who they really want to be in
• 6:30
  that space. Whenever I was teaching, I tried
• 6:33
  to create a culture of come as you are, use this place to heal,
• 6:37
  use this place to feel empowered.
• 6:39
  Whatever you need today, you take it and you make this part
• 6:43
  of your experience. I wanted people to walk in
• 6:46
  feeling a certain way and walk out feeling better.
• 6:49
  That was always the goal. I also remember failing a lot on
• 6:54
  those stages. I remember, you know, when you
• 6:57
  teach thousands of classes to groups of 50 people, you are
• 7:00
  bound to do some stuff that doesn't work, say things that
• 7:03
  don't land. And there's so many different
• 7:06
  experiences where that happened. You're always bound to say
• 7:09
  something a little bit stupid every once in a while.
• 7:12
  And that happened in many occasions.
• 7:14
  I remember this time. Oh God, am I going to tell this
• 7:17
  story? Yes, OK, I'm going to tell it.
• 7:19
  So there was a moment in class where it was a moment that I was
• 7:23
  trying to create for people, a moment of inspiration,
• 7:26
  encouragement where and I was describing to them, there's a
• 7:29
  balance between giving energy and then you also have to be
• 7:33
  able to receive love and receive energy.
• 7:35
  And you know, you can't just be the person who's serving all the
• 7:38
  time or trying to show up all the time.
• 7:40
  You have to fill your tank and etcetera.
• 7:42
  You get the idea. I've talked about this before.
• 7:44
  So I was describing this idea of the class and of course, I'm
• 7:48
  teaching and trying to fit my moments of inspiration in
• 7:51
  between the drops. And so it's like shorthand.
• 7:54
  And so at one point I started saying give, receive, give,
• 7:58
  receive. And at what I realized 10
• 8:03
  seconds into this, Oh my God, what am I saying?
• 8:05
  This sounds so sexual. I have to stop saying so.
• 8:09
  All that to say, 10 years of teaching, you're bound to say
• 8:12
  some really stupid stuff. And that was definitely an
• 8:14
  embarrassing moment. And that happened in many
• 8:16
  occasions. There's times where you bump
• 8:19
  into a flywheel and you gash your leg open and you're trying
• 8:22
  to stop the bleeding while you're teaching.
• 8:25
  There was a time where I spilled an entire mug of coffee on my
• 8:28
  computer during a class and had to try to mop up this coffee in
• 8:32
  my keyboard with my towel. I mean, there's just so many
• 8:36
  things that can go wrong in a situation like that.
• 8:39
  But all those little mistakes and failures, that's really the
• 8:41
  beautiful part of it all too. You get this instant feedback
• 8:45
  when you are in that situation because you can feel it in the
• 8:49
  room. Did that work?
• 8:50
  Did that inspire people? OK, Nope.
• 8:52
  That didn't create the response I wanted.
• 8:54
  That didn't get people working together, that didn't get the
• 8:57
  the woos or the cheers that I was hoping for.
• 8:59
  And so it's just this like test kitchen of being able to see how
• 9:03
  do I get people aligned? How do I get people who are
• 9:07
  coming in at 6:00 AM in the morning because I taught the
• 9:09
  morning classes, 6:00 or 7:00 AM, coming in tired, you know,
• 9:12
  not really looking forward to their day, feel maybe feeling a
• 9:14
  little irritable, not in a space of joy or excitement.
• 9:18
  How do I transfer that energy and turn it into something where
• 9:23
  people are working together? There's high energy, there's a
• 9:26
  lot of hope and a lot of compassion and self acceptance
• 9:29
  and also self authority. Really feeling empowered to be
• 9:33
  the captain of your own ship. That's what I was going for.
• 9:36
  And that's so often what we were able to create in these spin
• 9:39
  rooms. It was really just, you know,
• 9:42
  trying things. Just test, test, test, see how
• 9:45
  they worked, see what moved people, learn how to build on
• 9:48
  it, curate it, and really make it fun.
• 9:52
  So I want to share with you 3 top lessons that I learned when
• 9:56
  I was teaching spin. And I've thought about this a
• 9:59
  lot because these experiences were so important to me.
• 10:02
  It was really such a joy to be able to be moving with people in
• 10:06
  that way. And because I always tried to
• 10:09
  infuse my classes with a little bit of inspiration, I've thought
• 10:11
  a lot about what is it that really worked for people.
• 10:15
  What did I learn from my clients who are showing up every single
• 10:19
  week, every single day? Some of these people I was
• 10:21
  seeing more than I was seeing my own family.
• 10:23
  Because you'd ride with the regulars 4 to 6 * a week.
• 10:27
  That's a lot more than I would see my friends or my own family.
• 10:33
  And you get to create this bond with people.
• 10:36
  So I want to share three things that I really still take away
• 10:40
  from that experience, that 10 years of being in those dark
• 10:43
  rooms with people. The first thing is you get what
• 10:46
  you put in. And what I always said is you
• 10:49
  are responsible for the energy you bring into the room.
• 10:52
  And the reason I started saying that is because so often people
• 10:55
  would come in in these early classes and they would say, oh,
• 10:58
  Steph, I really need you to pump me up today.
• 11:00
  I really need your energy today. Like, this better be a good one.
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  You know, like, I really need this today.
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  When I started thinking, I knew exactly where they were coming
• 11:09
  from. I knew that they were just
• 11:10
  expressing that they were excited to be there in a way and
• 11:13
  that they were hoping to walk out feeling better than they
• 11:16
  walked in. But I started to communicate to
• 11:19
  people, hey, listen, it is not my job to give you energy.
• 11:23
  It is not my job to pump you up. It is not my job to make sure
• 11:27
  that you have a good day. Ultimately, you are responsible
• 11:31
  for the energy you bring to the room, and we started to create
• 11:35
  this culture in class of, hey, you have to be in charge of you.
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  And if you're dragging the class down because you're bringing bad
• 11:43
  energy or you're not trying or you're just not really giving a
• 11:47
  shit, that's a problem because we're all here, we're all
• 11:51
  showing up. We're prioritizing This time,
• 11:55
  especially in the morning, 6:00 and 7:00 AM.
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  There's a certain kind of client who shows up regularly for those
• 12:00
  classes. And we called it the first
• 12:03
  sacred hour of the day. The first sacred hour of the day
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  where you are investing in you, where you are prioritizing your
• 12:10
  health, your mental health, just really showing up for yourself
• 12:14
  before you start to prioritize other people's agendas.
• 12:19
  And it was so important for me to communicate that because I
• 12:22
  wanted to make sure that I was responsible for the energy I was
• 12:25
  bringing in the room. I started to visualize as I was
• 12:28
  driving to class at 5:30 in the morning, I started to visualize
• 12:31
  how that class would go. I started to see people smiling
• 12:36
  and being excited and really writing together and like really
• 12:40
  feeling energy in the space. So that when I showed up, I made
• 12:45
  sure that I was the best version of myself so that I could bring
• 12:48
  it for the team, for the clients and every class.
• 12:52
  I would say, guys, you're responsible for the energy you
• 12:56
  bring to this space. And it made a huge difference
• 12:58
  because as soon as that clicked in for people, it changed the
• 13:02
  whole environment. We had better experiences, we
• 13:04
  had better classes. People left feeling really
• 13:07
  elevated and lifted and it made a huge difference.
• 13:11
  So that was the first one. You get what you put in.
• 13:14
  Secondly, the thing that really would strike me is that lifting
• 13:18
  other people up, it costs you nothing and it gives you
• 13:22
  everything. And this would often come up in
• 13:25
  classes where there was just kind of low energy in general.
• 13:27
  It's always bound to happen. It's not a big deal.
• 13:29
  It just happens. There are just some days where
• 13:32
  people come into a studio tired, beat down, irritated, low
• 13:37
  energy, whatever it might be, they're dealing with life and
• 13:40
  then they're showing up for an exercise class.
• 13:43
  But I always thought, what if it could be more than that?
• 13:45
  What if it was better than just an exercise class, but it was an
• 13:48
  experience and you were able to not only lift yourself up, but
• 13:53
  have the ability to elevate the rest of the group?
• 13:56
  Because lifting other people up is really just a matter of
• 14:00
  connecting with somebody. Maybe giving them a high 5 or a
• 14:02
  fist bump, smiling at them, encouraging each other, giving a
• 14:06
  couple cheers or woos. Like that.
• 14:08
  Stuff that cost you nothing and it made the world of difference.
• 14:13
  It gives you so much. When you give energy to other
• 14:17
  people and there is a change that energy increases the the
• 14:22
  frequency and the vibration in the room increases.
• 14:25
  Holy crap, that gives you so much.
• 14:28
  And what did it cost you? Nothing.
• 14:30
  You know, it really is just it's such a minimal input for a huge
• 14:34
  output for huge gains. And so that was always a big
• 14:37
  lesson to me and something that we said a lot.
• 14:39
  Hey, invest in the people around you, lift them up.
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  It costs you nothing and it will give you everything it will
• 14:44
  make. It'll totally change your day.
• 14:47
  So that's number two. The last one is that you're so
• 14:52
  much stronger than you think, especially when you are working
• 14:55
  with other people and you're aligning with other people.
• 14:58
  The way that I said it was simply you're stronger together.
• 15:01
  We are stronger together team. And I say it still all the time
• 15:06
  because what I would witness is that when people were riding In
• 15:09
  Sync, I mean, this is just quite literal.
• 15:12
  When people were riding In Sync, the energy would shoot through
• 15:15
  the roof. People started riding harder,
• 15:18
  they rode better. They were smiling.
• 15:20
  They looked powerful on the bike versus when everybody's doing
• 15:25
  their own thing. And it was sort of, you know, a
• 15:27
  cacophony of movement, like popcorn.
• 15:31
  That was a disaster. Energetically, it, it didn't
• 15:33
  work. People didn't feel as good.
• 15:36
  You could tell that there was just like, resistance and
• 15:38
  friction and irritation within the class.
• 15:41
  And maybe not everybody picked up on this, but I'm looking out
• 15:45
  on the faces of 50 people and also a little bit empathic.
• 15:49
  So I'm feeling all this energy coming up at me.
• 15:53
  It's a huge difference when you ride together, when you work
• 15:57
  together in life, when you team up together, you are stronger
• 16:02
  together. And I've seen this over and over
• 16:04
  and over in every realm of life. I know you've seen this.
• 16:08
  I know you've felt this. It's one of the most powerful
• 16:11
  ways that we can speed up our progress or increase our power
• 16:15
  is to team up with other people, is to work together, is to put
• 16:19
  our energy and our brains and our hearts together.
• 16:22
  And we forget that because I think we always just think I
• 16:24
  should be able to muscle my way through this or pull myself up
• 16:27
  by my bootstraps. The reality is it's nice to have
• 16:32
  that independence. It's nice to create that
• 16:34
  self-confidence and pride when you can achieve things on your
• 16:37
  own. But man, you are better,
• 16:41
  stronger, faster when you are with people and when you are,
• 16:46
  especially when you are with the right people and you are truly
• 16:49
  connecting with them in the right way.
• 16:51
  So that was a huge lesson #3 is stronger together.
• 16:56
  And you know what? I'm going to add one more.
• 16:58
  I know I said there were three lessons, but I think actually
• 17:00
  one of the biggest lessons I've learned is actually, you know,
• 17:03
  being in those dark studios, working really hard with people,
• 17:06
  witnessing their energy and their effort, seeing them
• 17:10
  breakdown in tears on the bike, seeing people go through really
• 17:13
  hard times and still show up to class because it's their safe
• 17:16
  place. Really having gone through quite
• 17:18
  a few hard times myself when I was teaching those tears and
• 17:22
  having to show up professionally, I think the
• 17:25
  biggest lesson is to show your heart is to show your heart and
• 17:29
  be the most authentic version of you.
• 17:32
  It just, it is the way to connection.
• 17:35
  And I was so honored to have had the opportunity to be teaching
• 17:40
  and to have so many different days where I could show up and
• 17:45
  look at somebody and say, you're doing a good job or look at them
• 17:48
  and say, it's OK that you're having a hard time and you're
• 17:51
  supposed to be here. You're meant to be in this
• 17:53
  class. I'm so glad you're here.
• 17:55
  And then having that type of energy turned back on me when I
• 17:58
  was having a hard day and people would say, I'm so glad you're
• 18:01
  here. And thank you for showing up.
• 18:02
  Thank you for being on the stage.
• 18:03
  Thank you for teaching. Thank you for giving energy.
• 18:06
  It's, it's what it's all about is to show up authentically with
• 18:10
  an open heart, keep that heart energy open so that you can take
• 18:14
  in the good energy from other people.
• 18:16
  And you can find some of these beautiful moments that happens
• 18:19
  when you connect with others in times that are challenging or
• 18:24
  just times of joy and times of working together.
• 18:28
  There's so much that can be created out of those situations.
• 18:32
  And that has got to be the top lesson that I learned is to show
• 18:36
  my heart because I wasn't always good at that.
• 18:38
  I was pretty guarded for a really long time and all of my,
• 18:42
  you know, Co workers by other instructors at the studio, they
• 18:45
  encouraged that. Clients encouraged that.
• 18:48
  My wife who I taught with at burn cycle encouraged that.
• 18:50
  It was just such a such a cool experience to be able to have
• 18:53
  that. And so that has got to be one of
• 18:56
  the bigger takeaways. I wanted to share this stuff
• 18:59
  because it's universal. It still holds true to this day
• 19:04
  even though I haven't taught for a couple of years.
• 19:07
  Teaching was one of the greatest gifts of my life.
• 19:09
  It was one of my greatest teachers, best tools that I
• 19:13
  could have asked for to help me understand the power of impact,
• 19:17
  the power of people and energy, how to use it, how to influence
• 19:21
  it, how to lift people up. Cannot even think of a better
• 19:26
  experience in a better environment to be able to learn
• 19:28
  that. And it's something that I am
• 19:30
  eternally grateful for. They were truly some of the best
• 19:34
  days of my life where being in that studio with people and in
• 19:37
  connection with people like that, where everyone's writing
• 19:40
  together and it's just, it's just hitting.
• 19:42
  There's nothing like it. I think if you talk, if you talk
• 19:46
  to any retired spin instructor, they will say the same thing.
• 19:50
  I've had this conversation with people all over the country who
• 19:53
  used to teach spin who I took their classes.
• 19:55
  We all have the same conversation.
• 19:57
  There is nothing like the group energy in a fitness class,
• 20:00
  especially when everyone's In Sync like that.
• 20:03
  So I just wanted to share. These lessons, this, the power
• 20:08
  of impact, the ability to have a test kitchen, to be able to
• 20:10
  understand what moves people, what actually changes the course
• 20:16
  for people in their day. And it's those things be
• 20:19
  responsible for the energy you bring into the room, lift up
• 20:22
  other people. It's no cost to you, but it
• 20:23
  gives you so much. And then, of course, stronger
• 20:26
  together. Truly, truly, we are so much
• 20:28
  Better Together. So I just wanted to share those
• 20:31
  insights with you. I hope that you can apply some
• 20:33
  of these today. They're universal.
• 20:35
  You can layer them on to any bucket of your life and get a
• 20:39
  huge impact out of that. I hope that you have a wonderful
• 20:42
  week. Thank you for being here and as
• 20:43
  always team, thank you for being ready to impact.