Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode Eight: Chinae Alexander, Lifestyle Content Creator

Transcript

Episode Eight: Chinae Alexander, Lifestyle Content Creator · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hurdle, a podcast that talks to top
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and badass humans who got through a tough time
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in their lives a hurdle of sorts by leaning into wellness.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: My name's Emily A.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Badi.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a certified trainer, run and spin coach, also a writer, editor,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and podcaster.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Living in New York City.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, I sit down with Shaney Alexander, an
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Ultimate Girl Boss, entrepreneur and social media influencer extraordinaire with
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: wait for it, one hundred and thirty eight thousand Instagram
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: followers in counting. I know it's real, who stumbled upon
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: one of her many hurdle moments after losing seventy pounds.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: On today's episode, I'll talk to her about her astounding
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: social empire, how Arnold Schwarzenegger helped her drop the weight seriously,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and why that major accomplishment actually made her less confident
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: than ever before quick thanks to the sponsor of today's episode,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: All Time. If you're looking to run injury free, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: really who isn't, then putting on a pair of Ultras
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• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the brand is called Ultra a L t R. You
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: can find them at Ultra running dot com. And before
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: we get going, really exciting newspeople, Hurdle is featured in
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Health Magazine's April issue this month. So for anyone who's
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: listening in for the first time after finding me over there, thanks,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I'm really happy to have you here. Also, big moment
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: drum roll, Hurdle is having its first ever Salon talk
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: in New York City on May eighth at the Arlow
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Hotel in Nomad. Really really excited, total understatement to bring
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: together some of the pods, past guests and future your
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: guests to sit down and chat for our panel on
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: self love. If you're interested in attending the event, head
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: on over to hurdle dot us slash featured scroll to
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the bottom and sign up for the newsletter and that'll
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: keep you in the loop with all of the details
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to come. Also, feel free to shoot me an email
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: telling me just how amped you really are.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I get it. I am too.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: To Emily at Hurdle dot us. It's gonna be awesome,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and that's it. Let's get to hurdling.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I am sitting here with Shane Alexander she I can't
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: even convey how excited I am for our conversation because
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be pretty badass. From the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: outside looking in, you find Shane online and you'll see
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: at a quick glance that this woman has built herself
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: quite an empire on Instagram alone. She's got one hundred
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and thirty six thousand followers. That's obscene in the best
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of ways. Today, thanks for coming in today.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, and it is obscene. And I
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: actually am pretty shocked every day that anyone wants to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: listen to me or watch me do anything, so always
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: deeply humbled about that.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you are a lifestyle content creator, I am.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Why don't you give me the rundown on who you are?
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Give me a little spiel and then we'll get into it.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I speel. You know, it's like the hardest thing
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: interviews and people are like, what are you? What do
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you do? And I'm like, oh my god, if I
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: only knew, but I'm yeah, I say I'm a content
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: creator because I create content on all sorts of platforms.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So do Instagram and Instagram happen very accidentally for me,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: but that's my main platform. But I also do YouTube
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and this year working on a podcast and a book,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: so you'll have to come on my podcast cross pods. Yeah,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: but basically what I focus on. I started in fitness
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: just kind of sharing my fitness life. But I realized
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that really wasn't holistically who I was. It was about
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: twenty percent of my life. And just like it is
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: for most of us that aren't working in fitness, you know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: we just enjoy it. We like working out. So for me,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it was about how do I present online and offline
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: really who I truly am, and how do I speak
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: to primarily women, about finding who they really are and
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: speaking really honestly about who they are, not only to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: you know, the world through social media, but just in
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: their daily lives of how do you live your fullest life?
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And you say that you started in fitness, meaning that
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you started with some sort of online social presence, Yes,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: in fitness.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: That was focused on sharing a fitness perspective. I actually
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: was interviewing for a job at class Pass and in
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: social media, and I totally didn't get the job, but
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I started the Instagram account for that job interview, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: then about a year ago, in January, I basically decided
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: to start completely pursuing my personal brand. I was an
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: entrepreneur before that. After the class past thing didn't work out,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I started my own event planning company. It was amazing.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: But then I really the Instagram thing started growing kind
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: of without my prodding, it just by organically posting and sharing.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: So I really this year had to make a decision
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to focus. And you decided at that time actually to
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: change your social handles. Yeah, right, yeah, because I figured
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: if I'm going to be doing I was starting to
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: get asked to do speaking things and you know, wonderful
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: recordings like this podcast and books and really, you know,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I wanted my handle to reflect really myself, and I'm
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: like out here trying to be like millennial Oprah. So
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that's like the goal for life. So you know Oprah,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Oprah goes by Oprah. You know, she doesn't have a
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: cheesy Instagram handle. So I got to go back to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: my name, Shane, and what was your og Insta handle?
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Og insta handle? It up in like literally thirty seconds.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: It was get fit Brooklyn, which actually I thought was
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: so cute, but then I was like, wow, this does
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: not reflect I mean, it has a nice it has
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: a nice ring too. Yeah right.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: What I'd like to do actually is kind of rewind
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit, because it's not like your interest for
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: fitness kind of happened overnight to my understanding. So why
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: don't you tell me a little bit about your personal
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: wellness journey and what really compelled you to start this
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: type of online community of sorts.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: In high school and college, I was never the athlete.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: My version of fitness was in college going to the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: rec center at my school, which was a very very
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: bougie rec center, and I would smell like whiskey, and
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I would be literally just walking on the treadmill and
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I would smell the whiskey coming out of my pores,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and I'm like fitness, and then I'd go eat like
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: a burrito. So it wasn't like a great balance of wellness.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't describe myself as a wellness oriented person at
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: that time. But then I moved to New York. Two
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: years into New York, I was pretty overweight, but I
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: never really felt overweight. I never felt bad about myself
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: at that time, and so I really my body wasn't
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: hindering me in any way, and so I think it
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: actually was the best thing that ever happened. Was I
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: had a bet with a guy friend basically, and he
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: was like, Yeah, I think I'm going to try to
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: like go on this diet and like work out a lot.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, I'll do it. And mostly because
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I am competitive person and because I wanted and not
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: really competitive against others, more competitive against myself, and so
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I was like, can I do this? This is not
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: something I've ever done. And then the next day I
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: changed my life. I lost seventy pounds. I just became
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: like a different kind of I say, an athlete, and
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: I even struggle with that word, but it's true. I mean,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I train really hard. I trained six days a week.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I love it. I have a passion for it. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I always go back and forth of like why is
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: it hard to say the word athlete? It is hard,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: you know, And I think it's because we don't believe
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: that we're deserving of that term. I totally agree.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think we're so surrounded with these images
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and conventional media that show us that athletes are people
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that literally every single day they dedicate their entire day
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to their craft and their sport. But that doesn't mean
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that the everyday person can't be an athlete of their own.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I'm an artist, and that's like how I relate most
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: is a creative, not a traditional like fine artist, but
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: a creative. And so I would never tell someone that
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: paints in their spare time that they're not an artist.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: So why would I say someone that fitness is a
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: passion and they train really hard and they work hard
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: toward their goals. Why would I not call them an athlete?
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: And so I always have to like kind of reprogram
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: my brain that way of like you need to get
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: over your own bowl of not believing these things about
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: yourself because they weren't always in your story and your framework.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: And so so, yeah, I became an athlete.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Do you say that you really made a pivot and
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: changed your routine? What did that look like for you?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: At first?
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I had no idea about anything fitness related, and most
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: people would probably go to like something that they can
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: grasp really easily, like running or group classes or something
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: like that, and I was like not into it. I
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: was like I still hate running to this day, and
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: so I'm just like, Okay, what do I do. I
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: don't want to run, and I definitely don't want to
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: go to a class where I'm like doing zoomba or
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: some crap. It's not me. I was like, this is
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: not definitely not me. Like dance cardio still the veine
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: of my existence. So I was like, what do I
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: like to do? What's something that interests me? And so
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: what interested me was weightlifting, And so I actually went
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: that next day to the Brooklyn Library and I checked
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: out Arnold Schwartzenegger's Guide to Modern Bodybuilding. It's his Encyclopedia
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: of Modern Bodybuilding. It's this huge book. I the lady
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: that was checking me out was like, thought I was insane.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I'm also immediately impressed that you have a library member
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: like a library Oh.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah at the time I did. Now I'm kind of like,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: you know, on that kindle beat. But I mean that's
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: one of those things.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Literally every day I walk by one of the libraries,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: often by Brian Park, and I say to myself, I'm
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: going to go there with a piece of mail and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get a library car.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It is pretty amazing, though, like of course, I didn't
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: want to become a bodybuilder. That was never the goal.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: But it really talked a lot about form, and it
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: talked a lot about like the basic mechanics of weightlifting,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: and it's a really male centric book, but I was like,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: I don't want to let this stop me from like
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: embracing you know this, because our bodies are our bodies.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: But I remember taking it home and I would like
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: take photos of my phone of the pages of what
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I wanted to do with the gym or learn, and
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I would read it and I take my phone to
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: the gym and I would do the exercise, I would
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: learn it. And so for me, really and same with food,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I followed like kind of a lower carb diet. I
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: learned about kytosis. I was learning about the body and
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: what worked for me, and I tried a couple different things,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and that just happened to be the thing that my
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: body and still is the thing that my body best
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: is suited towards. But what was the key to unlocking
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: fitness for me was learning. And I think learning is
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: a really empowering thing, and I think that's why so
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: many women don't go into the gym or feel comfortable
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: going into weight room because they don't feel equipped with
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the knowledge that they're going to do it right. And
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: we as women always want to do it right. We're
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: so where we strive for this perfection rather than bravery
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: or risk and just getting into it. Each year, I've
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: really in the past couple of years especially, I've tried
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: to learn a new sport quote unquote, and so last
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: year I was terrified of spin class. I'd never done
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a cycling class in my life. I was like a
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: gym rat. I was like, first of all, had never
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: done group fitness really besides yoga occasionally, and the idea
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: of a spin class to me was horrifying. And I
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: remember going to Whole Cycle, the first class I ever did.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I felt so incredibly terrible at it, and I was like, oh, well,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: feeling terrible that means you have to learn. And so
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: again that learning piece kicked in for me, and I
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: sat in class three days a week and I learned.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: And it's very interesting that you went back after feeling
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: so terrible, because I think that's the barrier to entry again,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: this idea of not feeling like you're perfect right off
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the bat. I mean I felt that way for sure,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: without a doubt. When I started CrossFit a couple years ago,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I walk in and you look at a bar bell
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and you see all these people lifting this insane amount
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of weight over their head, and you're like, Okay, A,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I am definitely not capable of that right now, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: b do I even want to be capable of that.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So to get over your own self, to get out
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: of your own way and to go back into glass,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I think shows a lot of strength and confidence that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: you're not going to give up right away.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think we shy away from these things
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: that we're not good at because we don't believe that
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: we ever can be. And I think the fear of
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: the fear of really like coming confronting the point of wow,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: I may not be able to do this and that
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: will be like very disappointing for me in the long term.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Like that stops us. So you know, it's creating really
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: manageable expectations of like it's not just hard the first time,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: it's hard the first ten times, and you won't be
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: good until time thirty, like and that's okay, And that's
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: what's so great. Circling back to the fitness community on
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Instagram and why I found it to be such a
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: special place is it was all these people cheering people
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: on at different stages in their journey, whether that be
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: someone that's a marathon runner to someone that is starting
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: their first work at home workout. Ever, people have differing
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: views on if the fitness community is positive or negative
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: on social media. I found it very positive and I
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: had really positive of experiences and maybe those are the
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: people that I followed or followed me, but really waking
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: up to seeing a lot of other people striving for
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the same things at the heart of bettering themselves was
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: super motivating for me. And I found this pocket of
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: the internet that became this really safe, fun, motivating, creative space,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: and I was learning, they were learning, and we were
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: all sharing our kind of feelings about it, which was
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: really magical. Definitely magical.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So you lose the seventy pounds, which we share that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: exact same number in common out Nope, we've ever talked
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: about that. So you lose the seventy pounds and you
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: find yourself in this place where you've now learned a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: whole lot about yourself and about fitness, but you might
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: not be as happy as you had hoped.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about that. I think
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: we all have in our minds that when we meet
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: our goals or at least the fault schools we have
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: in our head that we will feel good and we
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: will feel better than we did before. And what was
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: so crazy is I started out at two hundred and
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: twenty five pounds not feeling bad. I felt good, you know,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: and that was that was a thing. I was like, Well,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: when I hit my goals or whatever it was, of
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: course I'm going to feel so much better. And what
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I found was that my self esteem and my self
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: worth and my critique, my inner critique, was so much
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: greater when I after I lost weight, my finished and
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: I've probably gained back ten pounds since then. Of like
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: sanity weight and like in wine and like pizza, pizza,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: and like having a sane life. That wasn't so crazy.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: But I found myself at that that leanas state being
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: so overtaken by my concern of myself. First of all,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: just always thinking about myself, what every external thing, how
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: that was going to affect my body, how you know,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I needed to get my workout and I needed to
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: have you know, these priorities. But then also I was
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: just like I became like selfishly, very addicted to people's
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: praise of me and of walking into a room and
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: having people say, oh my god, you look amazing, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, wait, wait, I didn't need this before,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Like I walked into a room and felt amazing. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: didn't need a choir of people saying you did such
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: a good job, you look so great, You've made such
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: great progress. And I really had a step back and
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: be like, what is it currently that I don't need
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: to gain the seventy pounds back? But what is it
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: currently that's stopping me from being as happy as I was?
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: And it really took a pretty pretty like violent shaking
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: of myself internally and being like wake up, Like wake up,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: find the girl in the two hundred and twenty pound,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: five pound body. Find her. She can live in this
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: smaller body, but you have to find her again because
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: she was happy, she was content. And there's no way
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: that you can go on the internet and talk every
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: day about self love and about you know, a deep
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: appreciation for oneself and pride in what you look like
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: and what you feel like and feel like absolute crap
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: on the inside, right torturing yourself and so you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: over the next like I probably took two months and
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: did an internal deep dive and was just like I
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: have to get back to that place. And I think
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: it was a lot of I think sometimes we think
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: that to kind of fix ourselves internally, we have to
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: turn inward. And really what helped me was turning out
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: more outward to people and being like what is important
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: besides me? Like, what are the things in my life
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: that are you know, I don't want to be the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: person that brings her tupperwaar to a dinner party. That sucks.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Like that person sucks. The tupperwak around sucks. Yeah, like
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the tapperware sucks. Like I'm just gonna say the topperware sucks.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And like I understand that sometimes these things are necessary
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: to like be healthy and to meet your goals, but
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying I didn't want to give up my life,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you know, to be a role model for people. I
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: wanted to be a role model for people because I
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: was being true.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Right, So, aside from leaving the tupperware at home, what
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: else did you find you needed to do to really
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: be true to that girl that was two hundred and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: twenty five pounds in your new body, I.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Think going back to the things that I really truly
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: loved about myself. You know, what if the things that
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: make me me? You know, I don't want to lose
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: my uniqueness. I don't want to lose my creativity in
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the way I live or the way I think. I
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: don't want to just be put on a pedestal. I
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: want to be down with people. People don't need to
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: aspire to be like you because of the things that
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: you've done, Like people might aspire to be like you
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: because they relate to you and they can see a
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: little piece of themselves in you. So for me, it
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: was like, how do I go back to a place
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: that's true? How do I get out of a mode
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: that's performative for others? How do I get to a
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: place where I'm back to the person that walks in
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: the room and feels her inner praise rather than outer praise.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's actually why I don't really talk
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: about my transformation anymore on social media. I don't really
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: post frenchformation photos. I don't really talk about that because
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I don't want anyone to feel like that's what they
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: have to do to find worth change from a place
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: of love, which is what I think I did initially,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: is so much more lasting and meaningful than change from
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: a place of negativity where you hate yourself. Right, And so,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: one thing I've really been committed to on Instagram particular
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: is sharing kind of like all aspects of life, the
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: hard stuff, the heartbreak, the laziness, the lack of motivation,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: the hangovers, the really awesome stuff, the huge career making things.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: And I think when you can tell a fuller story
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: and talk about your pain, your joy, your worries, your sadness,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: but also like your pride of yourself. You know. My
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: favorite thing is I probably run into two to three
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: people from Instagram a day and running around New York.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: And what is so amazing is that people always have
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the same reaction. They go and then they realize that
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: they don't know me, and it's such a beautiful moment
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: because I think what I've wanted to do was create
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: a friendship with people in relationship with people online, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: so when they have that moment of I saw my
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: friend and then they it clicks into reality of I
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: don't actually know this person. That to me, that moment
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: is exactly why I do what I do because there's
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: a familiarity, there's a relationship, there's a care there of
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: It's not like a celebrity moment like oh my god,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: oh my god, it's a friend. It's like they want
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: to talk to you. Yeah, And they often feel really
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: embarrassed by that, and I think it's beautiful. It's like
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: my most favorite thing about doing what I do. I
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: think one thing that's challenging is that I have I'm
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: an EmPATH, so I always feel very empathetic for people.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I get about three hundred messages a day on Instagram,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and I answer all of them. Wow, I try to,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: even if it's like I'm working on them for two weeks,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I will get to the bottom eventually, you know. Some
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: of them are like cute shirt, and some of them
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: are like I am going through divorce and I don't
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: know what to do. And some of them are I'm
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: a kid and I hate what I look like. And
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: some of them are people going through mental illness struggle.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I talk to a lot of them every day, which
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: is like such a crazy thing that I talk to
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: probably one hundred people every day consistently that chime in
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: every day. They check on me. We have little conversations
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: during our day and people trust me in that way,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: and that people want to connect in that way. It
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: makes me so humble. People want to be my friend
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and they don't even know me, but they trust me,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: and I think that's like so amazing. I try to
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: set people up for whatever type of help I can
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: give them, but understanding my own limitations as a human
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: person that has their own life and their own struggles,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: their own joy, That's been a challenge, but I think
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I've learned how to manage it. You know, you want
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: to help everybody, and I think dealing with the fact
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: that you can't is a challenging thing.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: What's one of the most rewarding interactions you've had recently?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: It's so insane because I am not nice enough to
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: ever do this, but the messages I get on a
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: daily basis of people writing me these long notes of
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: just saying thank you so much for impacting my life
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: on a day basis, and you've helped me more than
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: you ever know. There's so much underneath there that I
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: know they want to say and they don't really have to,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: and we kind of can share this moment of being
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: like wow, like this is a very symbiotic relationship, Like
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I get as much inspiration from people as they might
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: for me. For the most part, I've encountered like human
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: kindness and a really raw form on a daily basis
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: for about two and a half years, and it makes
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: me feel hopeful, it makes me feel empathetic, it makes
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: me feel more caring for the world in general. That's
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: why I'm like passionate about causes that affect women because
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I know women like I know them. I talk to
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: them all day every day. They tell me the most
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: personal things, and like when you get to celebrate someone
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: that's come and reached a goal or has changed their life,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: or cry with someone that's had like the worst experience
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: of their life, but they've come to you a stranger,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Like that is a crazy thing. That is a crazy
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: thing in our world that people have trust for someone
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: that they don't even know. And I'm so absolutely bowled
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: over by it. Every day I wake up with so
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: much that's you know, I was talking to someone the
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: other day and they're like, how the hell do you
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: have as much energy for it? How do you get
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: up and answer the messages? How do you go to
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: the meetings, how do you constantly write things how do
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you put it in? And I'm like, I have this
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: bucket and as a whole at the bottom, and energy
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: seeps out, but faster than the energy can seep out,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: it's being refilled by people and the energy online, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: so you know, I never feel like my bucket is empty.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Taking a break to quickly give the sponsor of today's episode,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Ultra a little bit. Just earlier this month, I snagged
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: myself a pair of a new sneaker of theirs called
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: the Solstice, part of their recently launched Fast and Like collection.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: If you're the kind of person who wants one option
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to wear from a workout class to Aarons and brunch,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I'd say the Solstice is a great bet. Plus well,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: at ninety bucks, they're hard to beat. If you're less
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of a hit up boutique fitness class sort of human
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and more of an outdoor adventurer type, then they've got
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a different shape and style for whatever you're craving, whether.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: You want to run trails or just hit a few sprints.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Ultras got options again, that's a l t R.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Find them at Ultrarunning dot com. Let's get back to it.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I am sitting here with Shine Ali Xander. We've been
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: hearing all about the wonderful compassion that she feels from
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: her growing, bustling life on social media and the people
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that she gets to interact with lately and regularly. How
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: has things changed for you since you've pivoted a little
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: bit onto doing more YouTube content. I think that's a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: really interesting part of your entire social presence.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: YouTube is strange. You know, you think that you're going
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: to start up a YouTube account and then all of
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: those one hundred and thirty six thousand people are just
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: going to march on over to YouTube and follow you there,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And that's been a humbling experience because that is not
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: what happens. You play this little pride game. And I
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: played this little pride game in my head where I
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: was like, no one's watching these dudios? Why am I
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: even making I'm like, you make them because you make things,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: because you are a person that makes things. You're creator,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and I was a person who made things before. And
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: your kind of like, your value isn't dependent on how
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: many views you get or anything. So I'm going to
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: keep creating YouTube videos. It's been really fun. It's been
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: a learning process. I'm so terrible at editing video. That's
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: been also a thing that I need outsource video editors
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: love me now. Yeah, but it's been really interesting creating
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: like different kinds of content. I love creating content about
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: beauty and doing Q and as and things like that.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I think video is our future of how everything will go.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Which the writing side of me is really sad because
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I love to write. I know you love to write.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I feel that it's like a sad I'm like, I
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: keep trying to keep it around. That's why I'm gonna
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: write a book. And I'm still like I will write,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: but video is definitely where it's at. So it's been
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: fun totally.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: What would you really say, like as a snippet or
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a day of the things that you execute for wellness
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: in your life, Like what does wellness look like for
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: you right now?
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I think it's funny because people always are like,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: do you meditate? I'm like, I have a really extensive
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: skin carroteene that I do and so that's my meditator.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I'm like, does that count? I really I've tried meditating.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: It's just not my thing. And I think I think
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: the really big thing with wellness is really find out
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: what works for you. Like, there's all these wellness trends,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: there's all these ridiculous things. If you don't If making
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: a fifteen like ingredient latte in the morning with adaptagens
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: isn't your thing, don't do it. Drink a black coffee
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: and move on with your life. I saw you tried bulletproof.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Oh I drink bulletproof. Bullet proof. I love bulletproof coffee.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: But my first experience with MC tea oil, I was
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: always doing coconut oil in the butter and I use
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: the actual MC tea oil did not measure. Almost literally
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: lost my shit in then uber and I was like,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, I need to regroup on this
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: bulletproof coffee trend. But you know, I think the fun
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: thing about wellness is there's so many things to try,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: and like it doesn't have to look the same for everyone.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: So while someone's sitting on their meditation pillow at home,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: I am doing a lot of serums, you know, I
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: am doing I'm doing this. I'm doing all the serums,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: you know, And for me, that is a meditative, really
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: kind of like process that is just dedicated to me.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: It's me time. I listen to music, and I do
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: skincare in the morning and skincare at night. I love
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: making my coffee in a slow way in the morning.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I like do a pour over coffee. I was just
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: gonna sayur over is totally on your agenda. Yeah, it's
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: like relaxing. To me, it is a purposeful way to
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: start my morning. And to me, that equates to wellness.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Some people are like, drinking coffee is that wellness. I'm like, well,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: that's you're not your wellness, it's my wellness. And then
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: every day waking up and exercising obviously, that's you know,
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: really important to me. And it what I find is
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: I always try to have hobbies, whether that be athletic
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: or not, that I find if your body is moving
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: and your your mind is having to focus on doing
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: an activity. And I've found this through exercise, and I've
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: found this in like ceramics, like I was doing ceramics
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: last year a ton. But when your body is moving
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: and your brain has to use a percentage of itself
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: to focus on the physical activity, it actually clears a
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: lot of the noise out of your brain and you
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: can It doesn't mean you don't think because I do
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: some of my best thinking, like in the middle of
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: a soul cycle class or in the middle of a
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: heavy workout. But I think it clears just enough amount
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: of the noise for you to actually think deep thoughts
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: and the really important stuff kind of floats to the top.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And so people always ask me, like, how do you
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: have all these long captions that you write or long
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: things that you write every day? How do you come
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: up with them? And really, I start with usually an
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: idea of what I want to say or something that's
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: really like pressing in my mind, and then I usually,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: like during exercise or another activity similar, I ruminate over
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: it and I just let it spin and I let
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: it spin and I let it spin and I focus
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: on it, and then I it Usually as soon as
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: I finished exercising, I know exactly what I'm going to say. Yeah,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: And that's how I create ideas. And so for me,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: it's like that's a huge part of my wellness life
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: is thinking, clearing out noise from my head.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: What's like something else that's totally absurd that you're into
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Cardi b Oh, she is kind of absurd. I love
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: her so much. And here's why, Like people are gonna
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: be like, why do you like an ex strapper that
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: was on a terrible reality show.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I also feel like we need a beat to establish
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: for those that are not Cardi B familiar, Cardi B
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: is also a singer.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I know it's kind of crazy that people won't know. Yeah,
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: let me get the backstory. So Cardi B was on
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: a reality show. She used to be a stripper in
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: the Bronx. She's like New York born and bred. She
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: is now a very popular artist in the music industry,
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and she kind of this past year just kind of
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: blew up. And here's what I really like about her.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: She is certifiably herself. She is one hundred percent herself,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: and I have never seen someone that's in the public
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: eye be so themselves almost to a fault, like almost
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: to where people would be like, you are ridiculous human being.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: But it is not for anybody but her. You know.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: It's an uncurated, crazy in a good way, kind of
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: just spotlight on a human And I love that she
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: kind of hasn't been around long enough to find this
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: very curated personality. I love that no one's media training
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: her to change her. Yeah, is no, She's just insane
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: and she's just like insane in such a great refreshing way.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, people have their complaints with her,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: people have like things to say about everyone, but I
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: love that she's just so incredibly herself and I think
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: she's like she is like a version of modern feminism.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I don't think she's like the ultimate feminie certainly, but
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I love that, like her version of feminism is doing
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: whatever the hell she wants to do. If we could
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: all just be like a little bit of Cardi B,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: just a little, I mean, like maybe we should get
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: her like long claw like nails like, but I'm like,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: oh man, if we could just all have a little,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: just a pinky nail version of Cardi B in us,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: that would be amazing.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Aside from Cardi B, who else do you find that
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: you look up to on the regular.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I used to look up to a lot of people,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: but I found myself looking up to people to compare
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: myself to them. Comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: And so I am always so inspired by the people
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: that are doing all the things that I'm doing without lights,
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: camera action, and they don't have the reward of an
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: audience of one hundred and thirty something thousand people clapping
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: for them. They don't get to do the photo shoots,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: they don't get the gifts, they don't get the special experiences.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: They're doing it because they that's who they are. And
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: I think I get really inspired by that, So I
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: really like, you know, then this was part of the
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: process of me kind of coming off a pedestal and
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: coming back down to earth. It was this thing of
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: being like, Okay, what inspires me. It's having to be reinspired,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: it's having to change what inspires you, you know, rather
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: than looking up and looking out.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Definitely, I do want to take a beat quickly at
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: least to touch upon some of the brands that I
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: know you work with. I know you're an Adidas Global Ambassador.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Why don't you tell me and explain a little bit
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: about what that means for you being part on that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: team with them.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it's just such such a huge deal,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Like it's such an honor to be backed by a
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: brand that so believes in you. And and I never
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: really thought I would feel so strongly about a company,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: like it's a company who cares, right, It's just it's shoes,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: it's clothes, like whatever, but I realized through working with
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: them over the last two years, like it has been
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: so much more than that. For me, it was finding
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: people that wanted to elevate voices and the fact that
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: they even care that my voice is one of the
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: ones elevated is so insane to me. But what I
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: find most beautiful is from the top down, from the
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: CEO who I've met. I remember we I went to
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Germany and I met the CEO and the first thing
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: he said to us was I want to apologize. His
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: name is Casper and I and we were all kind
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: of like apologize. What's why would you apologize? You're the
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: CEO of the best sports brand in the world. And
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: he said, I apologize that we don't have more women
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: working in high up positions and I want you to
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: know that I'm working on it. I'm new here. And
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: I was like, day okay, Casper, I see you and
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: I and I was like, that is the kind of
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: company from the top down that I want to represent.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Is someone that in a moment of being able to
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: have all this pomp and circumstance of like welcome to
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: this big HQ in Germany, the best sportsman in the world,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: the first thing he started out with was an apology
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: that we weren't represented and then he was going to
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: work on that, and that to me was like, that
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: is the type of ethos that needs to be within
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: the brands I work with.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Right, So, you're doing you're doing photoshoots with them, You're
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: doing you're you're obviously giving them feedback on their product whatever,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: some of the other things that you do with them.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: I do speaking appearances on behalf of them. We should commercials,
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: do a lot of events. And one thing that I've
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: really loved that they've empowered me to do is host
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: events where I can invite people that are you know,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I hate saying followers online, friends online. And what it's
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: created is this like amazing opportunity for me to sync
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: up with the people that follow me and I just
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: love that so much, and they want to do more
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: of that. And it's not about I want people to
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: meet me. It's that I am so excited when they
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: meet each other. Yeah, and it's so hard to make friends,
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: you know, as an adult woman, I think in cities
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: all over the world, and I actually have meetups kind
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: of all over whenever I travel as much as I
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: possibly can and I just invite people to come out
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: to dinner or come grab a drink or something like that,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: because really I'm passionate about women becoming friends, and I
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: think so many people don't know how to make friends
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: as an adult because you either have those college friends
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: they don't relate to anymore, or you have your work friends,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: and it's really hard to meet people with interests you
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: know that you share. And so I love that they
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: empower me to do that and to connect women. And
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: what is some of the most special things are I
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: hear people all the time and they write me messages
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: and they say I met one of my friends at
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: one of your meetups, and I'm like, holy hell, that
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: is amazing. That is exactly what I want in the world.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I have two more questions I want to ask you.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: The first question is you do a lot on the regular.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: You work with a lot of brands, you interact with
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. There's just a lot going on.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Things can't be perfect all the time.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: So do you have this is un borrowing it from
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: faris do you have a favorite.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Failure my life? Honestly, every success I have is the
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: child of a couple of failures. Failure isn't failing. It
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a definite point, and it's kind of like,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: you know, at a bowling alley, there's like bumpers on
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: the sides of the bowling the bowling lane, and the
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: ball kind of hits the bumper and you're like, I
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: messed up, but those bumpers are actually guiding you to
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: where the ball needs to go. And for me, you know,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I think my favorite failure was that class pass failure.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: It was the first job I'd applied for in eight years.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I had no idea what the hell I was doing,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: and having someone say no to me for really the
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: first time in my life, but continuing forward being like, well,
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: they said no, but I'm just going to keep doing
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: this thing because I genuinely love it and the fact
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: that I do what I do now and I get
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: to travel around the world and talk to people about themselves,
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: and then I get the opportunity to have a platform
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: to empower people to do things because I messed up
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: and I wasn't good enough at that point for that thing.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I think it's like, how can you separate
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I was good enough at the thing I was doing
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: with the social media thing, but I wasn't cut out
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: for the job.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I will say also, as a side note, that it's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: pretty impressive you made a separate social media profile just
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: for this purposes of the job interview.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a really cool idea. I was like,
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: they're a good idea. I was like, they're going to
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: love this, They're going to totally die. And they were like,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: you have three hundred followers. I'm like, yeah, but I
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: think i'd be good at it. They're like, we can't
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: hire people we think that think they'd be good at things.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: I'm like, totally fair, but you know what the thing is, like,
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: if I would have stopped there and said, my voice
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter, my presence doesn't matter, three hundred people don't matter.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: If I would have said that at that point, and
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: I would have accepted that failure as truth and as
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: a finality, Like, if I would have accepted that failure
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: as failing, then I would never be doing what I
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: would be doing today. I'd probably I'm sure I would
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: be happy, you know, I'm sure I would have found happiness.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think that, you know, just because you don't
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: take a path or you've taken the right path or
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: whatever that the other thing would have been terrible. But
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: I just think I so feel every day free to
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: fail now because I've seen how my failures have been
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: just they've been my navigation.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You started to kind of I'm in on this, So
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you give one other piece of advice,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: one item that you would tell yourself. The girl who
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: got ama globely let go from her job, looking back
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: at that time, right now, what would you say to her.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I did this, and I would repeat it to myself,
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: is think about the worst case scenario. People al don't
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: think of the worst case scenario. Think positively, No, think
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: of the worst thing that can happen to you. And
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: then what I realized was the worst thing that could
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: ever happen to me was a lot of people's normal
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: situation and need to be really grateful for that and
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: coming from a place of gratitude of my worst case
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: scenario is a lot of people's hope. And so also
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: the worst case scenario isn't usually that bad, like you
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: will figure it out. And anytime I get scared still,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: you know about I mean, really, my life is different.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Every day. My finances are wrapped up into how much
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: people want me to be a part of their thing,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: you know, and and I don't have you know, I
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: have a stable income, but I don't have a promised income.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: I don't have promised work. I don't have any of
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: those things. I don't have a promised audience. Instagram could
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: be deleted tomorrow, But I have to say, the worst
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: case scenario is that I would figure it out. And
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: I think if I could go back and tell myself
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: that again and again, of go over your like, go
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: over the most negative thing that could happen, and realize
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: that that negativity is something that you can work with,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: you know. And I think if people just considered that
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: a little bit more, maybe there would be less fear,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: or at least the fear would be more manageable.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. I think this is like the most beautiful
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: note to end on. I'm so happy that I had
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you in here today. I'm so happy to be here,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: so fun. I feel like we could sit here and
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: talk for.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Like ten hours, I know, and then people might stop listening.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: And that's definitely unsubscribed this podcast, But you should subscribe
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: to this podcast if you.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Are, please, if you haven't done so yet, subscribe to
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Hurdle give it a little love in the iTunes store.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Also rate the podcast and leave a quick review by
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Tell me what you.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Love, what you didn't love so much, but ideally you'll
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: be nice, And also tell me who else you want
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: to hear on Hurdle. We all face multiple hurdles in life.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I want to hear about yours. Reach out to me
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: at Emily at hurdle dot us, connect with the podcast
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast, and of course
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: feel free to check us both on social Also, SHANEI
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: where can they find you?
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: On all of the things, Guys, If you want to
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: find me, I'm pretty easy. All of my accounts are
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Shane Alexander. I'm on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and keep an
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: ear to the ground for my upcoming podcast.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: I'm excited for this. You can find me at Emily
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: A body that's a B, B A T E. Another
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: hurdle conquered concord. Catch you guys next time.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: M HM.