Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 226. Rad Lopez, Peloton Instructor

Transcript

226. Rad Lopez, Peloton Instructor · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: When no one's cheering for you, you have to be
0:02
Speaker 1: able to know how to cheer for yourself.
0:19
Speaker 2: What's going on Hurdler's Emily A. Baddi.
0:21
Speaker 1: Here.
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Speaker 2: You are listening to episode two hundred and twenty six
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Speaker 2: of Hurdle, a wellness focus podcast where I connect with
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Speaker 2: everyone from your favorite athletes to top experts and industry
0:32
Speaker 2: CEOs about their highest highs, toughest moments, and everything in between.
0:37
Speaker 2: We all go through hurdles in life, and my goal
0:40
Speaker 2: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
0:43
Speaker 2: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
0:46
Speaker 2: towards your own big potential and of course have some
0:50
Speaker 2: fun along the way. I am so so amped that
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Speaker 2: for episode to twenty six, I am sitting down with
0:58
Speaker 2: Peloton instructor radlope Bez. When I say that this was
1:01
Speaker 2: a long requested episode, that would be an understatement. I
1:08
Speaker 2: heard your calls, and I always hear your calls. So
1:11
Speaker 2: if there's anyone else, if you ever want to hear
1:13
Speaker 2: from Unhurdle, I am all ears. Feel free to shoot
1:17
Speaker 2: us a dm over at Hurdle podcast, or of course
1:21
Speaker 2: shoot an email over to Hello at Hurdle dot us,
1:25
Speaker 2: Rad and I sat down Irl in the Hurdle studio
1:29
Speaker 2: to chat all about it all, literally, from how his
1:33
Speaker 2: upbringing has influenced him to work mega mega hard to
1:38
Speaker 2: how he got this job at Peloton. We dial it
1:42
Speaker 2: back and talk about growing up in the Bronx, sadly
1:46
Speaker 2: losing both his father and his stepfather, and ultimately what
1:50
Speaker 2: it was like for him to navigate an upbringing with
1:55
Speaker 2: a single mother working constantly to put food on the table.
2:00
Speaker 2: So chats about how he found himself as essentially a
2:04
Speaker 2: janitor at a gym and how that job influenced him
2:09
Speaker 2: to get his personal training certification. He shares how he
2:13
Speaker 2: first came into one of his favorite activities, boxing, what
2:17
Speaker 2: it was like to teach it to others in his
2:20
Speaker 2: first foray into group of fitness, and ultimately the way
2:25
Speaker 2: that he found Peloton. Again. Loved this convo, so appreciative
2:30
Speaker 2: that Hurdle brought Rad and I together. Irl. We had
2:35
Speaker 2: a blast. Like I said, make sure you're following Hurdle
2:38
Speaker 2: over at Hurdle Podcast, I am over at Emily a
2:41
Speaker 2: Body and if you're listening to this in real time
2:43
Speaker 2: in your local to the New York area, I'd love
2:46
Speaker 2: to have you at a really special conversation I am
2:50
Speaker 2: hosting on November two at MoMA PS one, six thirty
2:54
Speaker 2: pm surrounding the topic of runner safety. Details about that
3:00
Speaker 2: are in the show notes, and if you can't make
3:02
Speaker 2: it to that event, no sweat if your local. I've
3:04
Speaker 2: also got a hurdler huddle happening on Saturday, November fifth.
3:08
Speaker 2: The event bright slash. Registration is not live just yet,
3:11
Speaker 2: but stay tuned to my social I will share it asap.
3:16
Speaker 2: Last little bit of housekeeping here if you are not
3:18
Speaker 2: yet subscribed to the Weekly Hurdle I would love to
3:21
Speaker 2: land in your inbox every Friday with so much of
3:24
Speaker 2: the same stuff you love from the show, inspiration, motivation,
3:28
Speaker 2: I share some of my gear picks, lots of goodies
3:31
Speaker 2: in there. So the link to subscribe to the Hurdle
3:34
Speaker 2: newsletter is in the show notes. All right, that's it
3:37
Speaker 2: for now. With that, let's get to it. Let's get
3:41
Speaker 2: to hurdling today. I'm sitting down with Rad Lopez. He's
4:01
Speaker 2: a peloton instructor. How are you doing today, Rad?
4:04
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm doing good. I'm just just off of
4:07
Speaker 1: my first live Spanish strength class, which was really good.
4:12
Speaker 1: I'm just really excited to be here.
4:14
Speaker 2: How did that feel for you?
4:15
Speaker 1: It was new, It was definitely a new experience stepping into,
4:19
Speaker 1: you know, speaking Spanish in the fitness world. It was
4:24
Speaker 1: definitely a new experience, but one that I'm super proud of.
4:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, what what makes you proud about that?
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Speaker 1: Just, you know, being able to represent my heritage, being
4:35
Speaker 1: able to represent the Spanish speakers on the Peloton platform
4:39
Speaker 1: is really important to me. Yeah.
4:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you because you grew up in a Spanish
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Speaker 2: speaking householder I did.
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Speaker 1: I did, Spanish was out my first language. Spanish was
4:48
Speaker 1: my first language. Now I think, you know, unfortunately Spanish
4:52
Speaker 1: has kind of taken a back seat just because like
4:55
Speaker 1: the people that I, uh normally interact with are all
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Speaker 1: English speakers. But I'm happy to be back in the
5:01
Speaker 1: Spanish speaking spotlight.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, speaking spotlight. Say that five times fast. I'll
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Speaker 2: try that later, maybe in Spanish. Okay, So, fresh off
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Speaker 2: of your first strength class and honestly kind of fresh,
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Speaker 2: still on the very.
5:19
Speaker 1: Very fresh, still on the Peloton scene. But it's been
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Speaker 1: a ride. It's been a ride for sure. For sure.
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Speaker 2: When you reflect on your time so far at Peloton,
5:28
Speaker 2: you think about maybe one of the biggest lessons that
5:31
Speaker 2: you've learned. If we're going to jump right in here,
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Speaker 2: what do you have to offer me.
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Speaker 1: One of the biggest lessons. I love that question because
5:39
Speaker 1: you know, that's one of the things that has been
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Speaker 1: at the forefront of what I'm trying to accomplish right now.
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Speaker 1: And I think that that's just giving myself some grace,
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Speaker 1: giving myself space to not have done as well as
5:52
Speaker 1: I have wanted to do, you know, whether it's a class,
5:55
Speaker 1: whether it was a meeting, or whatever it is, I
5:58
Speaker 1: giving myself space and the grace to you know, have
6:03
Speaker 1: that room to improve. Because growing up, I was always
6:06
Speaker 1: really really hard on myself to do better and be better,
6:10
Speaker 1: and even when I did a good job, I would
6:12
Speaker 1: always dwell on the fact that I could have done better.
6:14
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, one of the biggest lessons
6:17
Speaker 1: now is just allowing myself to grow, you know, giving
6:22
Speaker 1: myself that grace.
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Speaker 2: That's interesting that that's the first thing that you take
6:27
Speaker 2: away like the biggest thing that you've learned so far,
6:30
Speaker 2: because it would insinuate that you feel as though maybe
6:33
Speaker 2: there's been an extreme need for grace. Would you say
6:36
Speaker 2: that's the case?
6:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. For sure, definitely, because I'm always beating
6:43
Speaker 1: myself up, you know, always beating myself up, because I
6:46
Speaker 1: do want to show up the best way that I
6:48
Speaker 1: know how to, you know, So for sure, Yeah.
6:51
Speaker 2: What does showing up in the best way you know
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Speaker 2: how to look like for you?
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Speaker 1: Being able to deliver deliver the best product? And I
7:00
Speaker 1: possibly can, whether it's a class, whether it's you know,
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Speaker 1: my performance, my form, you know, the energy level, whatever
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Speaker 1: that that is.
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Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, I feel as though I can relate
7:13
Speaker 2: to what you're saying, like, I obviously want to show
7:15
Speaker 2: up the best that I can as well as often
7:18
Speaker 2: as I can, especially when I'm in front of people.
7:21
Speaker 2: Sometimes I interpret the best that I can to actually
7:25
Speaker 2: be in a way that looks effortless.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I see that, I can see that.
7:31
Speaker 2: For you, even talking to camera, I'm sure that that
7:35
Speaker 2: took time to get used to, especially now. I mean
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Speaker 2: at least now you have people that are starting to
7:40
Speaker 2: be in the studio in your classes. But previously, when
7:43
Speaker 2: it was just you in a room and you had
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Speaker 2: to make it look effortless and also seem natural, were
7:47
Speaker 2: there challenges that went with that?
7:49
Speaker 1: There were there were I think stepping in front of
7:52
Speaker 1: the peloton camera was a lot easier just because the
7:56
Speaker 1: pandemic kind of prepared me for that, right, I think
7:59
Speaker 1: we had to, you know, being in the fitness industry,
8:01
Speaker 1: we had to there was such a pivot that we
8:03
Speaker 1: had to make, not being in the studios, not being
8:06
Speaker 1: in front of a live audience. We had to pivot
8:08
Speaker 1: towards like, you know, streaming platforms, whether it was Zoom,
8:12
Speaker 1: whether it was Instagram Live or whatever. It is stepping
8:14
Speaker 1: into into that stage and into you know, just being
8:17
Speaker 1: at home and setting the phone up to record us working. Now,
8:21
Speaker 1: I think that really prepped me for what was to
8:25
Speaker 1: come in regards to being in front of the camera
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Speaker 1: and you know, not getting live feedback at the time.
8:32
Speaker 2: So I want to go back to your upbringing. You
8:36
Speaker 2: mentioned growing up Spanish speaking household, growing up in the Bronx.
8:39
Speaker 2: So you've been in New York for a while. Talk
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Speaker 2: to me about how being active played an integrole role
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Speaker 2: as well in your upbringing.
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Speaker 1: Being I would say being active would be the best
8:50
Speaker 1: way to phrase it, because fitness, you know, and what
8:54
Speaker 1: and what my perception of fitness is now in regards
8:58
Speaker 1: to the physical aspects of it, It was ever really
9:00
Speaker 1: a thing. Right growing up in the Bronx, fitness wasn't
9:04
Speaker 1: at the forefront of our culture. It was more like
9:08
Speaker 1: play sports, be the strongest, be the fastest. It was
9:11
Speaker 1: always more like a competition, you know. It always like
9:14
Speaker 1: the Hunger Games. Almost like I did my push ups
9:17
Speaker 1: so that I could be like the strongest in my
9:19
Speaker 1: class or the strongest, you know, when I was on
9:21
Speaker 1: the baseball field or whatever. But fitness, you know, when
9:25
Speaker 1: it comes to it being a form of well being
9:29
Speaker 1: and being just a form of taking care of your body,
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Speaker 1: that wasn't the message. So to me, it was more
9:36
Speaker 1: about being strong for the sports that I played, it
9:40
Speaker 1: was being about it was more about being the fastest
9:43
Speaker 1: on the field, being the fastest on the basketball court.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, when you know. I did an interview a few
9:49
Speaker 2: years ago for Men's Health with a couple of guys
9:51
Speaker 2: that are based in the New York area, and a
9:53
Speaker 2: couple of them grew up in Queens and it was
9:56
Speaker 2: like for them when they would go running, and I'm
9:59
Speaker 2: talking like maybe like seven eight years ago, like when
10:01
Speaker 2: they started running, it wasn't normal like in their neighborhood
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Speaker 2: to see like some guy going running down the street,
10:07
Speaker 2: and everyone would always be like, what are you running from?
10:09
Speaker 1: Yea, yeah, yeah, what are you doing here?
10:11
Speaker 2: So it's interesting to hear like your sentiments about that.
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Speaker 1: That couldn't resonate it anymore because, like you know, I
10:17
Speaker 1: remember just when I started boxing, I would run maybe
10:21
Speaker 1: two three miles every night around the Bronzoo and there
10:25
Speaker 1: was no one around. There was no one around running,
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Speaker 1: There was no one around, like you know, just doing
10:32
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. And I almost felt like the
10:36
Speaker 1: odd one out being somebody like you know, within my
10:40
Speaker 1: community that felt like it was important to me. So
10:45
Speaker 1: yeah I could could I can see where you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: I can see that.
10:48
Speaker 2: Why was it important to you?
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Speaker 1: Again, just relating it back to sports. I wanted to
10:55
Speaker 1: be able to perform as a boxer, to be able
10:58
Speaker 1: to perform on the base ball field, on the basketball court.
11:02
Speaker 1: It was always around sports, less about less about my
11:07
Speaker 1: well being and my body feeling good and my you know,
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Speaker 1: being mentally healthy. It was more around the sports than
11:13
Speaker 1: anything else. Look at you into boxing, love telling the story.
11:17
Speaker 1: As a kid, me and my family would always gather
11:20
Speaker 1: around the TV. We'd have these big family gatherings around
11:24
Speaker 1: big boxing matches, and you know, the adults would always
11:29
Speaker 1: be mingling and doing their thing and having their drinks
11:31
Speaker 1: and listening to music. And then as you know, as
11:34
Speaker 1: a child, that'd always be the only one in front
11:36
Speaker 1: of the TV watching every one of the matches. And
11:38
Speaker 1: what intrigued me about boxing was the beautiful just merging
11:46
Speaker 1: the two fighters, the two boxers, just like dancing around
11:50
Speaker 1: the ring. But it was also a very dangerous sport,
11:53
Speaker 1: you know, and like the combination and the marriage between
11:55
Speaker 1: those two things really really, you know, intrigued me into
11:59
Speaker 1: the sport. You know, it really drew me into the sport.
12:02
Speaker 1: And then when I was sixteen, I found a boxing gym.
12:06
Speaker 1: One of my best friends took me into a boxing gym,
12:08
Speaker 1: and the rest was history. But also, boxing just taught
12:11
Speaker 1: me so much about life. It taught me so much
12:14
Speaker 1: about myself beyond what boxing is, you know at first glance,
12:19
Speaker 1: which is that you know, folks think it's violent. Boxing
12:24
Speaker 1: teaches you so much about yourself. Like it taught me
12:27
Speaker 1: that I need to be a little more resilient when
12:29
Speaker 1: times got tough, right. It taught me how to win
12:32
Speaker 1: and taught me how to lose. So yeah, boxing made
12:35
Speaker 1: me a lot more mentally stronger, a lot.
12:38
Speaker 2: More mentally stronger. When you were getting into boxing. You
12:42
Speaker 2: mentioned around like sixteen or so, what was going on
12:45
Speaker 2: in your home in your personal life.
12:46
Speaker 1: In my personal life, I think nothing was ever really
12:49
Speaker 1: going on in my home, you know. I think my
12:50
Speaker 1: mom did a really good job at kind of shielding
12:53
Speaker 1: us from the struggles that she would go through. But
12:56
Speaker 1: you know, as a you know, personally, I just wanted
12:59
Speaker 1: to be more. And when I was boxing, I think
13:03
Speaker 1: that's what I took into it because I always wanted
13:06
Speaker 1: to be more. I always wanted to get to know
13:10
Speaker 1: more about myself, kind of like learn myself a little more.
13:13
Speaker 1: Boxing is a lonely sport, you know, it's not like
13:14
Speaker 1: a team sport, So I just wanted to discover who
13:18
Speaker 1: I was and kind of like to see what characteristics
13:22
Speaker 1: I possessed when I got uncomfortable, and that I think
13:25
Speaker 1: that was the gist of it.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, growing up, what did you see yourself doing? Like
13:31
Speaker 2: did you see yourself going to college? Did you see
13:33
Speaker 2: yourself working in a certain industry? Like what were you
13:35
Speaker 2: thinking at first?
13:37
Speaker 1: Growing up in the Bronx. I just wanted to make
13:39
Speaker 1: it out, you know, I'm grateful for having grown up
13:43
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, because I had a very clear example
13:47
Speaker 1: I didn't, you know, growing up, I didn't have a
13:49
Speaker 1: role model, I didn't have someone to look up to.
13:52
Speaker 1: But growing up I did have a clear example of
13:55
Speaker 1: everything that I didn't want to be. Growing up in
13:57
Speaker 1: the Bronx, there was a lot of violence and like
13:59
Speaker 1: you know, just criminal activity all over the place. There
14:02
Speaker 1: was a lot of drugs. Drugs was such a normal
14:06
Speaker 1: thing to witness, and seeing people on drugs was so normal.
14:11
Speaker 1: It's like part of our daily lives. Walking to the
14:14
Speaker 1: fifth grade, I see someone stumbling over, like bent over
14:18
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk or something because they were on some
14:21
Speaker 1: kind of substance or whatever. And that was such a
14:23
Speaker 1: normal part of my life. But I would see it
14:26
Speaker 1: and I would be like just repelled from it. That
14:30
Speaker 1: was not what I wanted to do. That was not
14:32
Speaker 1: what I wanted to be, right. I didn't want to
14:34
Speaker 1: stay where I grew up because it was there was
14:38
Speaker 1: just nothing to come of it. You know, I go
14:40
Speaker 1: back now and I still see the same people right
14:42
Speaker 1: doing the same thing that they were doing fifteen years ago.
14:45
Speaker 1: And you know, there was something that taught me a lot.
14:50
Speaker 1: I knew that I wanted to be in a space
14:53
Speaker 1: where I inspired people, where I empowered people. I wanted
14:57
Speaker 1: to be on a stage at that times. I wanted
14:59
Speaker 1: to be a rap like I wanted to be someone
15:02
Speaker 1: in sports. I wanted to be so many things, you know.
15:06
Speaker 1: I think that the the the anchor there is knowing
15:12
Speaker 1: what I didn't want to be. I wanted to be everything,
15:14
Speaker 1: but what I was a normal part of my life,
15:18
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and now going back and let me
15:21
Speaker 1: just preface by saying, there are so many beautiful things
15:25
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, so many beautiful people in the Bronx,
15:28
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of things that I go
15:31
Speaker 1: back to now just to visit and I'm like, shit,
15:35
Speaker 1: like that these are the things that I was numb
15:37
Speaker 1: to in the past. You know. It's like I remember
15:40
Speaker 1: being on the phone with one of my friends in
15:43
Speaker 1: Toronto a long time ago. I was I was in
15:47
Speaker 1: my teenage years and they were like gunshots out out
15:51
Speaker 1: of my window and they were like, what was that.
15:55
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that's just gun shots outside of
15:57
Speaker 1: my window and they were just like what you know,
16:00
Speaker 1: And I was so numb to it, right, So, yeah.
16:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting to hear you say that growing up
16:08
Speaker 2: you didn't have a role model, especially because I've heard
16:12
Speaker 2: you already once in this conversation, and from what I
16:15
Speaker 2: know of you outside of this conversation, speak pretty fondly
16:18
Speaker 2: of your mother. We talk about the relationship between you
16:22
Speaker 2: and your mom, Yes, the relationship between me and my
16:25
Speaker 2: mom is and I say I didn't have a role
16:28
Speaker 2: model because it was almost like my.
16:31
Speaker 1: Mom was very busy making a life for us, right.
16:36
Speaker 1: My mom was super busy working twelve hours a day,
16:39
Speaker 1: you know, busting her ass so that we had everything
16:43
Speaker 1: we needed, you know, so a lot of my day
16:47
Speaker 1: was spent you know, in school or in my head
16:51
Speaker 1: or you know. So the relationship with my mom didn't
16:56
Speaker 1: really start to come into fruition until later in my
17:03
Speaker 1: teenage years, where I started realizing, like, oh, all the
17:07
Speaker 1: things that she's done, all the efforts that she's put forward,
17:10
Speaker 1: like it's not it hasn't been easy, right, so, you know,
17:14
Speaker 1: growing up and developing an understanding for all the struggles
17:17
Speaker 1: that she's been through and all the things that she
17:20
Speaker 1: sacrificed to get us to where we are today, and
17:22
Speaker 1: not only that she was a provider, not just for
17:26
Speaker 1: us but for our family back in the Dominican Republic,
17:29
Speaker 1: for her parents, for some of her brothers and sisters,
17:32
Speaker 1: for everyone that needed it. So it was was It
17:36
Speaker 1: was when I started to realize how much she's done
17:40
Speaker 1: and what she's sacrificed and all the things that she
17:43
Speaker 1: must have been feeling, that my relationship with my mom
17:47
Speaker 1: started to really get stronger.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:51
Speaker 1: Right, it was just seeing things from her point of view.
17:56
Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's really special that you have the opportunity
18:01
Speaker 2: to kind of turn that relationship around a little bit
18:03
Speaker 2: and get closer. Do you still have family in dr Oh?
18:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, ninety percent of my family's back into Dominican Republic.
18:11
Speaker 2: How are they doing now with everything that's going on
18:12
Speaker 2: down there.
18:13
Speaker 1: They're doing well. They're doing well. I'm super grateful that,
18:16
Speaker 1: you know, the hurricane didn't really impact them much. But
18:20
Speaker 1: they're doing well, good luckily. Yeah.
18:22
Speaker 2: Got you happy to hear that?
18:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you.
18:24
Speaker 2: So you revisit and kind of re examine the relationship
18:30
Speaker 2: you had with your mom now, you said us other
18:33
Speaker 2: family members.
18:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, me and my sister. I grew up with, you know,
18:37
Speaker 1: with my mom and my sister, and I'm very grateful
18:40
Speaker 1: for you know, growing up with women has taught me,
18:45
Speaker 1: you know, in ways to be super empathetic. It's taught
18:50
Speaker 1: me to be soft in the areas of my life
18:54
Speaker 1: which I need to be softer, and you know not
18:56
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't grow up with a lot of machismo,
18:59
Speaker 1: which is something that I'm proud of because I feel
19:01
Speaker 1: like it makes me a more well rounded human being.
19:05
Speaker 2: What would you say, the areas that you feel as
19:07
Speaker 2: though you need to be.
19:08
Speaker 1: Soft are good question. I knew that was covering just being.
19:14
Speaker 1: It's helped me so much within my community, within my
19:17
Speaker 1: community a poloton, within my community in the past. It's
19:20
Speaker 1: helped me so much just because I am very understanding
19:23
Speaker 1: of human emotion. I feel I'm very understanding and accepting
19:29
Speaker 1: of people from all walks of life. I understand that
19:31
Speaker 1: not everyone comes not everyone comes from the same place,
19:34
Speaker 1: not everyone is built the same, not everyone can do
19:37
Speaker 1: the same things. So I think that's a really strong
19:41
Speaker 1: part of it. I understand that everyone's one hundred percent
19:44
Speaker 1: looks different. I understand that some people could be having
19:46
Speaker 1: bad days and they're all not going to be sunny,
19:49
Speaker 1: you know, in those senses. I think, you know, it
19:52
Speaker 1: taught me to be really empathetic.
19:53
Speaker 2: When you talk about being empathetic and having compassion, who
19:57
Speaker 2: would you say in your life holds that same space
20:00
Speaker 2: for you?
20:03
Speaker 1: Good question.
20:05
Speaker 2: Why do you think You're struggling with the answer to
20:07
Speaker 2: that question?
20:07
Speaker 1: Because I'm so in my head oftentimes about myself, about
20:11
Speaker 1: my performance and about my career and about the things
20:16
Speaker 1: that I'm doing. Like I said before, like I'm always
20:18
Speaker 1: so hard on myself that it's hard sometimes to step
20:21
Speaker 1: outside of that and kind of see who who's holding
20:24
Speaker 1: that space for me?
20:25
Speaker 2: You under you know, I also feel like sometimes when
20:28
Speaker 2: you're so in it, like when you're like you are,
20:31
Speaker 2: you have the great support of Peloton, but you're also
20:34
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur a bit so to be the person that
20:38
Speaker 2: is like carving your own way. You talked about like
20:40
Speaker 2: working so hard to get to where you are, and
20:42
Speaker 2: obviously we'll get into that as well. But when you're
20:44
Speaker 2: so in it, sometimes it's hard to step out and
20:46
Speaker 2: be like, he does support me, correct, Yeah.
20:49
Speaker 1: And you know, support, compassion and support for me they're
20:52
Speaker 1: a little different. But I have a great support support
20:56
Speaker 1: system and my friends and you know, my mother. I mean,
21:00
Speaker 1: I taught my first Spanish live class today and I
21:01
Speaker 1: called my mother this morning and I'm like, Yo, Ma,
21:03
Speaker 1: how do I say bicep curl? Or how could I
21:06
Speaker 1: structure this thing that I'm trying to say in class?
21:09
Speaker 1: And my friends are also very very supportive. I have
21:13
Speaker 1: three really good friends. They're almost like my brothers, Sean, Keifer,
21:18
Speaker 1: and Alfredo. I've known them for seventeen years and they
21:22
Speaker 1: do a really good job at supporting me. And you know,
21:25
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful for everyone that plays that role in
21:27
Speaker 1: my life.
21:28
Speaker 2: Interesting support and compassion, yeah, different define compassion for me.
21:32
Speaker 1: That compassion, to me, it's more of an understanding. It's
21:36
Speaker 1: more of a holding space for me to not be
21:41
Speaker 1: at my best. Support is more to me of someone
21:46
Speaker 1: who has always just been I mean, I guess kind
21:49
Speaker 1: of they're the same, but someone who's always cheering for you.
21:52
Speaker 1: But you know, I think compassion there's a bit more
21:55
Speaker 1: emotion there.
21:56
Speaker 2: I think someone can support you without being compassionate.
21:58
Speaker 1: Correct, Yeah? Correct?
22:00
Speaker 2: You say as you got older, late teenage years, were
22:04
Speaker 2: you in more situations where you didn't really feel supported?
22:09
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, you know. And this is not to discredit
22:12
Speaker 1: my mom's work, but so much of my life I've
22:15
Speaker 1: spent just supporting myself, just pushing myself to be better.
22:19
Speaker 1: Just you know, it's almost like I felt like no
22:21
Speaker 1: one would understand. Yeah, it was what it was that
22:24
Speaker 1: I was trying to accomplish, what it was that I
22:26
Speaker 1: was trying to do, I almost felt like no one
22:28
Speaker 1: would understand. And you know, it's very interesting how I
22:33
Speaker 1: You know, when I was in my room as as
22:36
Speaker 1: a teenager, I'm doing push ups and I'm like talking
22:39
Speaker 1: to myself, I'm like, you can do this, Like do
22:42
Speaker 1: one more doing squats. I would like same thing, you know,
22:45
Speaker 1: with whatever it was with being in school, it's always
22:47
Speaker 1: like you can do this. You know. I almost always
22:50
Speaker 1: had to like amp myself up to do things because
22:54
Speaker 1: and again not to discredit my mom, but my mom
22:56
Speaker 1: was just so busy trying to put food on the
22:59
Speaker 1: table that it would have been impossible for her to
23:04
Speaker 1: do all of the things, you know, like kind of
23:07
Speaker 1: like understand what her children are going to And it
23:10
Speaker 1: also didn't help that I was I was a little
23:13
Speaker 1: closed off, you know, I was. I was always very loving.
23:16
Speaker 1: I would always be very supportive of my mom, but
23:18
Speaker 1: when it came to some of the things that I
23:21
Speaker 1: were going that I was going through. I wouldn't. I would.
23:22
Speaker 1: I didn't want to tack that on to everything that
23:26
Speaker 1: she was going through already. You know.
23:28
Speaker 2: Do you think that was learned behavior from anything being
23:30
Speaker 2: closed off?
23:32
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I come from that might have came from
23:35
Speaker 1: just growing up with two women. I almost felt like
23:39
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be understood, you know, Like I'm pretty sure
23:44
Speaker 1: that in some cases my sister wouldn't have understood, like
23:48
Speaker 1: if if I was like upset about something, or like
23:53
Speaker 1: if I was upset that I didn't hit an RBI
23:56
Speaker 1: double or whatever, like you know what I'm saying, Like
23:58
Speaker 1: my mom or my sister wouldn't be able to like
24:01
Speaker 1: give me advice on how to swing the bat a
24:03
Speaker 1: little better, you know. So that's why I was always
24:07
Speaker 1: very to myself. I showed up in the areas that
24:10
Speaker 1: I needed to show up, and it was always more
24:12
Speaker 1: like an outward way of me showing up. It was
24:15
Speaker 1: never me taking anything in. You know.
24:17
Speaker 2: Did you have any mail role models?
24:19
Speaker 1: Yes? So what got me into baseball was my stepfather,
24:24
Speaker 1: my sister's dad. He was he was very into baseball.
24:29
Speaker 1: We would go to his games every so often, and
24:32
Speaker 1: just like watching him play kind of inspired me and
24:35
Speaker 1: I always wanted to make him proud. I always wanted
24:38
Speaker 1: to make my parents proud, and that was that was
24:41
Speaker 1: it for me. Just trying to make them proud kind
24:44
Speaker 1: of pushed me into or not pushed me. It paved
24:48
Speaker 1: the way for me to get into some of these sports.
24:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you feel like you did that?
24:52
Speaker 1: I did. I did in more ways than one, you know,
24:56
Speaker 1: And and the human that I am today and thecomplishments
25:00
Speaker 1: that you know I've accomplished today, I think I have.
25:05
Speaker 1: I think I have.
25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, talk to me about that relationship with your stepfather.
25:08
Speaker 1: Let's get into the fathers.
25:10
Speaker 2: Let's get into the father Let's.
25:11
Speaker 1: Get into the fathers, because I feel like that's something
25:13
Speaker 1: I don't usually talk about.
25:15
Speaker 2: There we go.
25:17
Speaker 1: So, my father passed when I was three months of age,
25:23
Speaker 1: and he passed of lung cancer. And I didn't really
25:29
Speaker 1: get to know him, but I know a lot of him.
25:31
Speaker 1: I know he was a very charismatic man. He provided
25:34
Speaker 1: for his family. Everyone always like looked up to him
25:38
Speaker 1: and looked forward to him being around. And then, you know,
25:43
Speaker 1: when I was also young, my mom married my sister's
25:47
Speaker 1: dad and they had my sister, and he passed when
25:54
Speaker 1: I was eight, so my sister was three. But you know,
25:59
Speaker 1: I learned a lot from I learned, you know, to
26:02
Speaker 1: and that's the thing too, like being being being part
26:07
Speaker 1: of an immigrant household. We could only learn it so much.
26:13
Speaker 1: It was like, go to work, provide for your family,
26:16
Speaker 1: do the best you can, try not to complain. And
26:21
Speaker 1: that was pretty much, you know, the gist of it.
26:24
Speaker 1: That was pretty much the gist of it. And so
26:27
Speaker 1: my really, you know, my relationship with my father's were
26:30
Speaker 1: short lived. And to think about just like to think
26:34
Speaker 1: about what my mom had to go through, not once
26:37
Speaker 1: but twice, it's like it puts a lot of things
26:41
Speaker 1: into perspective to you know, have lost my father quickly
26:44
Speaker 1: after me being born, to have lost my stepfather quickly
26:48
Speaker 1: after my sister being born, Like I can't even imagine
26:52
Speaker 1: that kind of pain. And you know, a vulnerable moment
26:57
Speaker 1: here is I was recently in Cuba. Recently in Cuba
27:01
Speaker 1: with two of my guy friends. We were out there
27:03
Speaker 1: for work and we had been out one day and
27:08
Speaker 1: you know, we got back to the house and you know,
27:10
Speaker 1: I love listening to the music that my mom listened
27:13
Speaker 1: to back in the day, like the music that she
27:15
Speaker 1: raised us on. She'd be cleaning and you know, she'd
27:18
Speaker 1: have this music on and at the time, I'm like,
27:21
Speaker 1: I'm like, ma, like what could you put on some
27:23
Speaker 1: like hip hop or something, And you know that wasn't
27:26
Speaker 1: gonna happen. My mom's minigan. She has no idea what
27:28
Speaker 1: hip hop, what hip hop is, so she would listen
27:31
Speaker 1: to like her her ballads and like her love songs
27:34
Speaker 1: and all that. And I was in Cuba and one
27:37
Speaker 1: of those songs randomly just came onto my shuffle, and
27:41
Speaker 1: you know, we were all just chilling, just hanging out,
27:44
Speaker 1: and I was giving this more thought and I was
27:46
Speaker 1: listening to the words of these songs, and it's like
27:53
Speaker 1: to think of how she took those songs. Like we
27:59
Speaker 1: think about love songs and we're dedicating them, or like
28:02
Speaker 1: we're thinking about someone right oftentimes, or if you're not
28:06
Speaker 1: thinking about anyone, you're probably just being hopeful. But like
28:13
Speaker 1: to think about my mom singing these songs, and I'm like,
28:16
Speaker 1: who were you thinking of? Yeah, whether it was my
28:19
Speaker 1: dad or my sister's dad, they're not here right, Like
28:22
Speaker 1: you went through loss and getting back to this vulnerable moment,
28:28
Speaker 1: I went into the bathroom and the way that I
28:33
Speaker 1: held these tears in to just think of the pain
28:40
Speaker 1: that she must have been going through.
28:41
Speaker 2: Was tough, right, Yeah, it's really special, and I hope
28:47
Speaker 2: that maybe you shared that with her.
28:50
Speaker 1: Yeah I did. I did, Yeah, I did. But my
28:53
Speaker 1: mom is so much like me, and I'm so much
28:55
Speaker 1: more so much like my mom that she's like what
28:58
Speaker 1: She's like, don't think about that. She's like, what are you.
29:01
Speaker 1: I'm like, Mom, I'm having a moment, and she's like, yo,
29:07
Speaker 1: I can't even believe that. I'll recount that to her
29:10
Speaker 1: and tell her that from my perspective, and she's like,
29:14
Speaker 1: I am in disbelief that I actually went through that. Yeah,
29:17
Speaker 1: Like she can't believe that she got through that, you
29:19
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Yeah, she's like, what do you
29:21
Speaker 1: She's like, don't think about that.
29:22
Speaker 2: She's like, she's like, we're moving forward, eyes ahead, is ahead.
29:27
Speaker 2: But she's better for going through it, right, And you're
29:30
Speaker 2: better now for getting to a place where you take
29:33
Speaker 2: the time to think about what she must have been feeling. Correct,
29:36
Speaker 2: And that in turn brings you two closer together and
29:40
Speaker 2: really makes for a really impactful and dynamic relationship.
29:44
Speaker 1: One percent, like I couldn't have I think me and
29:48
Speaker 1: my mom are like best friends, and it's like, you
29:50
Speaker 1: know sometimes and I understand everyone's situation is different, but
29:53
Speaker 1: it almost pains me a little when someone's like, I'm
29:56
Speaker 1: not close to you know, my parents or whatever. But again,
29:59
Speaker 1: I understand everyone's everyone's situation is a little different. But
30:02
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I'm really happy that me and
30:06
Speaker 1: my mother's relationship is where it's at now. It's evolved
30:09
Speaker 1: over time, yeah, one thousand percent. And sometimes I tried
30:12
Speaker 1: to explain that to my sister too, because we were
30:15
Speaker 1: we were raised. We're like five years apart, so what
30:19
Speaker 1: I'm realizing now might take her two or three years
30:22
Speaker 1: to realize, you know what I mean?
30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you getting into your twenties, talk to us
30:30
Speaker 2: about what was going on in your life college.
30:32
Speaker 1: I also dropped out of college before I got back
30:34
Speaker 1: into it because I needed to help my mom around
30:37
Speaker 1: the house. Right. It was like in my early twenties,
30:40
Speaker 1: it was the struggle between not really knowing what I
30:45
Speaker 1: wanted to do. I remember, you know, I was working
30:47
Speaker 1: as as a bus boy at some restaurant here in
30:52
Speaker 1: the city, and I didn't have a clear direction yet.
30:55
Speaker 1: I moved up to being a waiter started doing a
30:58
Speaker 1: little better. After that, there came about a union job
31:02
Speaker 1: that culturally we learned to cherish and because it was safe,
31:07
Speaker 1: it was a safe bet, right, we have benefits, we're
31:11
Speaker 1: well paying. So I dropped out for that because I
31:15
Speaker 1: felt like, Okay, I need to step up. I need
31:17
Speaker 1: to help out around the house. My mom's single doing
31:20
Speaker 1: it by herself, doing you know, busting her ass, and
31:23
Speaker 1: I didn't want, you know, I didn't want her to
31:25
Speaker 1: be going through that alone. So I dropped out of college.
31:28
Speaker 1: I started working.
31:29
Speaker 2: Did you ask her how she felt about that? Or
31:32
Speaker 2: did you make the decision without asking?
31:35
Speaker 1: So she sold it to me. She's the one who
31:36
Speaker 1: she sold it to me. She didn't exactly tell me
31:39
Speaker 1: to drop out. She didn't tell me to stop my studies,
31:41
Speaker 1: but I was like, I saw how important this job
31:45
Speaker 1: was to her. Yeah, And in order to have this job,
31:50
Speaker 1: it needed to be a full time thing. So at
31:53
Speaker 1: the time I didn't have the mental capacity or the
31:55
Speaker 1: mental drive to stick with school and hold a full
32:02
Speaker 1: time job that was very taxing on my body, like
32:05
Speaker 1: moving tables around, and you know, I was a porter
32:09
Speaker 1: for like this big country club and it was very taxing.
32:12
Speaker 1: So I'm like picking up chairs, picking up tables, putting this,
32:15
Speaker 1: putting that over there, setting up for parties. And I
32:18
Speaker 1: was like, I can't, I can't. I you know, I
32:21
Speaker 1: not that I couldn't, but I just didn't almost didn't
32:23
Speaker 1: want to. So I was doing that, you know, helping
32:26
Speaker 1: out around the house. This country club had a gym,
32:29
Speaker 1: so I moved into the gym department doing maintenance. I
32:34
Speaker 1: was like cleaning up bathrooms. I was cleaning up and
32:36
Speaker 1: picking up sweaty towels and you know, cleaning up sweaty
32:39
Speaker 1: floors and you know, just doing that work. And I
32:43
Speaker 1: was inspired by some of my friends there who some
32:45
Speaker 1: of my friends there who were the trainers, and there
32:48
Speaker 1: were people looking out and training you know, everyone that
32:51
Speaker 1: was there. And I was inspired by that, and I'm like,
32:53
Speaker 1: I have a background in sports. I think that could
32:55
Speaker 1: very well do this, you know. I was like, this
32:57
Speaker 1: is this is what I want. I want to be
32:59
Speaker 1: in the well this industry. And I got my fitness certification.
33:02
Speaker 1: I started working for this private company making house calls
33:06
Speaker 1: and I'd be getting up at like three am to
33:09
Speaker 1: make it to this client's house at five. And it
33:13
Speaker 1: was it was it was fun because I loved making
33:18
Speaker 1: a positive impact on someone's day, on someone's life. I
33:21
Speaker 1: loved not only training someone to be better physically, but
33:25
Speaker 1: also better mentally. And you know, I think working out
33:28
Speaker 1: in the morning just sets you up for a day
33:30
Speaker 1: of success. You know.
33:31
Speaker 2: I love the way that you said I got these
33:33
Speaker 2: fitness certifications like it was like walking to Walmart and
33:36
Speaker 2: picking up like a bag of Like it doesn't. It
33:39
Speaker 2: doesn't not like that, like you as someone who just
33:42
Speaker 2: also stated I didn't really have the capacity for school. Yeah,
33:45
Speaker 2: getting your fitness certifications isn't you know it was tough.
33:49
Speaker 2: Wasn't that hard for you?
33:50
Speaker 1: It wasn't hard because I knew what I wanted. Bringing
33:54
Speaker 1: this back to boxing, Boxing is a sport of taking
33:57
Speaker 1: the wins with the losses, taking the good days with
33:59
Speaker 1: the bad, taking the struggles. You know, when you're when
34:03
Speaker 1: you're in the heart of it, when you're in the
34:04
Speaker 1: think of it, it's going to be tough. And think
34:06
Speaker 1: of boxing workout. And I knew that holding together a job,
34:11
Speaker 1: full time job, getting my fitness certification, it wasn't going
34:14
Speaker 1: to be easy. But I knew what I wanted, so
34:16
Speaker 1: I went for it. I darted towards it. I spent
34:19
Speaker 1: however many hours I did trying to get that certification,
34:21
Speaker 1: and I did you know, it led me to where
34:23
Speaker 1: I am today. And I knew that with growth comes
34:28
Speaker 1: the ability to get out of your comfort zone, something
34:30
Speaker 1: that I also learned through boxing. If I wanted to
34:33
Speaker 1: get better, I needed to get through the tough times.
34:37
Speaker 1: I needed to get through the tough the times where
34:39
Speaker 1: I felt like quitting.
34:41
Speaker 2: The stress here is on the concept that having a
34:44
Speaker 2: goal helped you do hard things. A lot of people
34:48
Speaker 2: when they feel lost or uncertain, are frustrated. If you
34:52
Speaker 2: ask them what it is they're working toward or why
34:54
Speaker 2: that specific thing is important to them, often you may
34:58
Speaker 2: find a theme which is that they can't articulate why
35:01
Speaker 2: it's important. So knowing your why helped you go to
35:04
Speaker 2: where you want to be?
35:05
Speaker 1: Correct? Yeah, correct? And I just you know, I just
35:07
Speaker 1: really had a desire to get ahead, you know, I
35:11
Speaker 1: wanted to I had a desire to not be you know,
35:15
Speaker 1: a statistic of you know, where I grew up, which
35:19
Speaker 1: was super important to me. That's something that I think
35:22
Speaker 1: was embedded in me from the time that I from
35:24
Speaker 1: as long as I can remember. So I knew that
35:27
Speaker 1: in having direction, I had somewhere to get. I don't
35:30
Speaker 1: know where it was. I didn't know where that was
35:32
Speaker 1: going to land me, but I knew that I wanted
35:34
Speaker 1: to get as far away from where I was, you know.
35:37
Speaker 1: And not only that, I wanted to bring everyone with me.
35:40
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring my mom, my sister, and my friends.
35:42
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring everyone with me.
35:49
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38:54
Speaker 1: I was still a very timid person. I failed to
38:57
Speaker 1: mention that throughout this whole time, I was super timid.
39:00
Speaker 2: I still get timid vibes from you.
39:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, this whole time, I'm super timid. So like the
39:05
Speaker 1: one on one space and only training one person, I
39:09
Speaker 1: was like, I can do this, I can do this.
39:11
Speaker 1: And then I stepped into a place called shadow Box,
39:14
Speaker 1: which merged so many of the things that I liked,
39:19
Speaker 1: which was boxing, empowerment a show, getting to like instruct
39:26
Speaker 1: and command a room. Music halfway to being a DJ,
39:31
Speaker 1: because like you're picking your playlist and all that. It's
39:33
Speaker 1: like I loved it, right, So I went there to
39:38
Speaker 1: kind of gather some information to see what I could learn,
39:41
Speaker 1: and I just never wanted to leave. I was like,
39:44
Speaker 1: I love this. How do I become a part of it?
39:46
Speaker 2: Was that your first foray into group fitness?
39:48
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And you know, being I
39:53
Speaker 1: think being a boxer was what saved me and what
39:56
Speaker 1: got me that position there because I speaking in front
40:01
Speaker 1: of forty people was so scary. It was so scary.
40:09
Speaker 1: But I knew that in order to get that position,
40:11
Speaker 1: in order to get to where I wanted to be,
40:13
Speaker 1: I needed to get over this hurdle, right, I needed
40:17
Speaker 1: to get over this feeling of being uncomfortable. So I
40:23
Speaker 1: did it. You know, I would talk to myself in
40:24
Speaker 1: the mirror. I would like coach myself in the mirror
40:27
Speaker 1: and like, look at what I was doing and just
40:29
Speaker 1: training myself to be a public speaker. And it was
40:31
Speaker 1: tough growing up. I was, you know, and even today,
40:34
Speaker 1: I'm like oftentimes very soft spoken, and I would speak
40:38
Speaker 1: like under my breath, and you know, I would speak
40:40
Speaker 1: very under my breath, and it was hard for folks
40:43
Speaker 1: to even know what I was saying. So like, getting
40:45
Speaker 1: into that space really allowed me to evolve.
40:48
Speaker 2: I love the visual of you talking to yourself in
40:52
Speaker 2: the mirror. I think that a lot of us, in
40:56
Speaker 2: different scenarios need to have that talk in the mirror moment.
41:00
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not always because we're trying to talk in
41:02
Speaker 2: front of a group of forty people, but sometimes you
41:05
Speaker 2: need to look at yourself and hype yourself up and
41:07
Speaker 2: be your own biggest hype man so that you can
41:09
Speaker 2: go after whatever it is that you're after.
41:12
Speaker 1: I do that often. Still. I will walk past the
41:15
Speaker 1: Maria in my apartment and I'm like, you got this,
41:18
Speaker 1: like like, damn boy, you got a new haircut.
41:22
Speaker 2: Now the question is is this is this vocalized or
41:26
Speaker 2: is this just like.
41:26
Speaker 1: No, this is vocal. This is vocal Okay.
41:31
Speaker 2: Okay, So your neighbors definitely have heard you whiping yourself up.
41:34
Speaker 1: Yes, on the peloton bike, I would for sure for sure.
41:39
Speaker 2: So you get into a place where you feel as
41:42
Speaker 2: though and you do start to command a room a
41:45
Speaker 2: bit better. What else did you learn during your first
41:49
Speaker 2: foray into group fitness?
41:51
Speaker 1: How different everyone is? Like I had an idea that
41:53
Speaker 1: everyone was different, but that experience really showed me. I
42:00
Speaker 1: put it in my face, how different everyone is, how different,
42:04
Speaker 1: how how everyone's not capable of the same things, and
42:07
Speaker 1: that's that's a thousand percent okay. But it showed me,
42:12
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of gave me a visual for
42:14
Speaker 1: what that looked like and the different personalities that I would,
42:20
Speaker 1: you know, encounter. Being a waiter also did that for me.
42:24
Speaker 1: But that kind of really put things into perspective how
42:27
Speaker 1: people are when they get a little uncomfortable, whether they
42:30
Speaker 1: choose to keep going, whether they choose to stop, you know.
42:33
Speaker 1: And I became very accepting of all of those things.
42:36
Speaker 1: And it taught me how to motivate different people, how
42:40
Speaker 1: to motivate different from how to motivate someone that comes
42:46
Speaker 1: from one background in comparison to another. You know.
42:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned at the top of this how important
42:53
Speaker 2: it felt to you to get out of the Bronx.
42:58
Speaker 2: When did you get out?
42:59
Speaker 1: I got out when I got the shadow box, I was,
43:04
Speaker 1: you know, I was a little more financially free so
43:08
Speaker 1: we're like, I could move out of the Bronx and
43:10
Speaker 1: I just kept hustling to be able to maintain that.
43:13
Speaker 2: How did that feel for you?
43:15
Speaker 1: It felt it felt good, It felt really good.
43:18
Speaker 2: Did you take the time at the time to really
43:21
Speaker 2: appreciate that win?
43:22
Speaker 1: Yes, I did, I did. It was a quick it
43:26
Speaker 1: was very quickly.
43:28
Speaker 2: I quick win.
43:30
Speaker 1: It was a quick one. It was a quick pat
43:31
Speaker 1: on the back, and it was more like, let's keep going.
43:34
Speaker 1: Kobe has this phrase that he said in an interview.
43:37
Speaker 1: It's like they were asking him, all right, so you're
43:41
Speaker 1: up three to one in the playoffs or I think
43:43
Speaker 1: that's how it went, and he's like, they asked him,
43:47
Speaker 1: were you happy about it? And he's like, why should
43:49
Speaker 1: I be happy? The job's not finished. We haven't gotten
43:52
Speaker 1: to the championship yet. And that's something that I often
43:57
Speaker 1: iterate to myself.
43:58
Speaker 2: You also stress to the importance of always growing, always thinking,
44:04
Speaker 2: always along these same sentiments, thinking about what's next. So
44:09
Speaker 2: when you're at Shadowbox, do you have a concept or
44:12
Speaker 2: an idea of where it is that you want to
44:15
Speaker 2: go with this new found appreciation for that environment and
44:20
Speaker 2: new found appreciation for the skill set that you're developing.
44:24
Speaker 1: It's an interesting it's an interesting point. I do have
44:28
Speaker 1: an I did have a very high level of appreciation
44:31
Speaker 1: for that because it was making me a better person,
44:34
Speaker 1: not just for myself, but also for my family, for
44:36
Speaker 1: my community. So the skill set that I was developing there,
44:39
Speaker 1: I knew that I would take with me wherever I went.
44:43
Speaker 1: It's a very important one just to be able to
44:45
Speaker 1: build community, to be able to genuinely and I stress
44:50
Speaker 1: the word genuinely make people feel seen, because I you know,
44:54
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about that. You know, it was that so
44:58
Speaker 1: many of the things that I put forth now, well
45:00
Speaker 1: it's something that I didn't grow up with, you know,
45:03
Speaker 1: like encouraging to the ability to be encouraging, the ability
45:09
Speaker 1: to empower people even when they don't feel at their best.
45:12
Speaker 1: And again it's not an app that I'm putting forward.
45:14
Speaker 1: It's something that I do very genuinely because I think
45:18
Speaker 1: about who I was as a kid, who I was
45:21
Speaker 1: growing up, and oftentimes I wish that I had what
45:25
Speaker 1: I am today for that kid, you know. So I
45:29
Speaker 1: do all of these things very in a very genuinely
45:32
Speaker 1: and wholehearted way. You know, this space, this fitness space
45:38
Speaker 1: has always been more than just fitness for me, right,
45:41
Speaker 1: it's you know, going back to this word, it's empowerment.
45:45
Speaker 1: It's just allowing people to be themselves and be comfortable
45:49
Speaker 1: where they're at right, really showing up. And it's more
45:55
Speaker 1: than just like let's get muscles, let's you know, it's
45:59
Speaker 1: so much more that. It's like, you know, every time
46:01
Speaker 1: someone would be like, oh, you're that fitness instructor, I'd
46:06
Speaker 1: be like, I am, but I'm so much more than that,
46:09
Speaker 1: Like I want to be able to show up for
46:11
Speaker 1: people in ways that they need it, you know, in
46:13
Speaker 1: whatever way they need to be shown up for. You know,
46:15
Speaker 1: it's because I'm almost actually I am oftentimes speaking to myself.
46:24
Speaker 2: I hear that.
46:25
Speaker 1: So it's like when I'm in class and there's a
46:27
Speaker 1: moment where I feel like, shit, I can't do another rep.
46:32
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my I'm talking not only to you,
46:35
Speaker 1: but also to myself, right, And this is I'm being
46:38
Speaker 1: the person that I wish that I had growing up,
46:43
Speaker 1: and I want everyone to be able to develop that skill.
46:46
Speaker 1: Something that I see in class often is when no
46:49
Speaker 1: one's cheering for you, you have to be able to
46:52
Speaker 1: know how to cheer for yourself.
46:54
Speaker 2: I remember when when Calli was on the show, she
46:57
Speaker 2: said that if you're constantly lifting, only thinking based on aesthetics,
47:02
Speaker 2: then that is not a sustainable way to keep that
47:05
Speaker 2: as an integral part of your life. Like your why
47:08
Speaker 2: needs to be so much bigger than how you look.
47:11
Speaker 2: It's got to be about how you feel. When you
47:13
Speaker 2: focus on feeling, that's when you'll really see the benefits
47:17
Speaker 2: of the work. And so this sentiment really makes me
47:20
Speaker 2: think about that. So talk to me about when Peloton
47:24
Speaker 2: came into the mix.
47:25
Speaker 1: Peloton came into the mix. You know, I was given
47:28
Speaker 1: the opportunity to audition for them in twenty eighteen, and
47:34
Speaker 1: I was so devoted to my community, with the community
47:39
Speaker 1: that I had built that it almost felt it was
47:42
Speaker 1: almost heartbroken to have parted ways with them when at
47:46
Speaker 1: that time and everything, I feel like everything happens in
47:49
Speaker 1: due time, you know. And then in twenty twenty, I
47:52
Speaker 1: got another opportunity to you know, step into the role
47:56
Speaker 1: that I am now, and I was like, this is
47:59
Speaker 1: the next step, Like I love this. You know, where
48:01
Speaker 1: I was at the community before I was shadow Box,
48:04
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I'm here till the wheels
48:06
Speaker 1: fall off. Eventually, you know, sadly the wheels fell off,
48:09
Speaker 1: and I felt like I was ready to step into
48:11
Speaker 1: a new role. I felt like this was my moment
48:14
Speaker 1: to grow. I felt like I, you know, I developed
48:17
Speaker 1: a lot of skill where I was at and then
48:19
Speaker 1: you know, this is my moment to step into a
48:20
Speaker 1: bigger spotlight. Poloton came to me and I auditioned for them.
48:24
Speaker 1: I gave it my best, and you know, every every
48:28
Speaker 1: through the audition process and all that, I had this
48:32
Speaker 1: Peloton towel that I would like rub. A couple of times,
48:36
Speaker 1: I'd just be like I'd set it on my couch
48:38
Speaker 1: and it was very neat, and it was just a
48:40
Speaker 1: way of me manifesting like this is where I'm going
48:43
Speaker 1: to next, this is what I'm going to accomplish next.
48:47
Speaker 1: And you know, I was I was given that opportunity
48:50
Speaker 1: and I'm very very happy to be where I'm at now.
48:53
Speaker 1: And it's almost like all my worlds came It was
48:57
Speaker 1: just a melting pot of all of my world It
48:59
Speaker 1: was being on a worldwide stage, being able to empower
49:04
Speaker 1: on a global scale. All my worlds came together just
49:09
Speaker 1: being in you know, the fitness space and it's almost
49:14
Speaker 1: like a sport. You know, it is a sport. All
49:17
Speaker 1: of my worlds came crashing together, and I can be more.
49:20
Speaker 1: I can be more grateful for where I am today.
49:22
Speaker 2: Talk to me about how it felt to be the
49:24
Speaker 2: timid guy that was suddenly on a world stage.
49:30
Speaker 1: I was told, I was told not long ago by
49:32
Speaker 1: one of my colleagues that I'm like, I'm very mysterious,
49:38
Speaker 1: and that was something that came to me. It wasn't
49:41
Speaker 1: a surprise. Being on the Piloton stage kind of allows
49:46
Speaker 1: me to shine and be a little bit more vibrant.
49:49
Speaker 1: But I I'm also very true to being a little reserved,
49:53
Speaker 1: and you know, I just like to not that I
49:56
Speaker 1: like to be to myself. I just very selective with
49:59
Speaker 1: what I share.
50:01
Speaker 2: Go back and answer the question, though, how did it
50:03
Speaker 2: feel as a timid guy to step onto the world stage?
50:08
Speaker 2: Takes a large swig of water. You need to think
50:11
Speaker 2: about the answer to this question.
50:14
Speaker 1: You know, aside from being very timid, I'm also I've
50:18
Speaker 1: learned and I've acquired the skill of being very confident.
50:23
Speaker 1: So when you know, stepping onto the stage, it always
50:28
Speaker 1: takes a little bit of time for me though, to
50:30
Speaker 1: understand that I know what I'm doing that. I know
50:32
Speaker 1: what I'm saying in order for things to click. So
50:34
Speaker 1: when that confidence kicks in, I'm like, oh, I I
50:39
Speaker 1: you know, and I say this humbly but still very confident.
50:42
Speaker 1: I'm also like, I deserve this, I you know, like,
50:46
Speaker 1: this is what I've been working for, this is what
50:50
Speaker 1: I deserve. Like I've put in the sweat, I've put
50:54
Speaker 1: in the hard work, the tears to be here. Right.
50:58
Speaker 1: So I'm very confident in what I deserve and I'm
51:02
Speaker 1: very confident in stepping onto that spotlight. So going onto
51:06
Speaker 1: you know, being on peloton as the shy guy, when
51:09
Speaker 1: it comes to knowing that I deserve to be here,
51:13
Speaker 1: I fully step into that power. I fully step into
51:17
Speaker 1: that role, you know. Aside for outside of it, I'm like,
51:20
Speaker 1: you know, still a little reserved, but I'm very aware
51:23
Speaker 1: that I belong where I'm at today.
51:26
Speaker 2: There's a lot of power in that, in taking that agency,
51:30
Speaker 2: and it can be difficult, even if you're the most
51:33
Speaker 2: confident person in the world, to every day show up
51:37
Speaker 2: and say I deserve this. I'm here with purpose. I've
51:40
Speaker 2: caught myself sometimes talking about the show. We're in season
51:44
Speaker 2: eleven right now, and I'm like, I don't I can't
51:47
Speaker 2: believe that we're here. And then I have a moment
51:49
Speaker 2: where I'm like, stop downplaying all of this hard work,
51:52
Speaker 2: like stop downplaying how much has happened to get to
51:56
Speaker 2: this point and own it and owning its still for
52:00
Speaker 2: me is like a regular challenge no matter how competent
52:04
Speaker 2: I am.
52:04
Speaker 1: Same, Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's like, you know,
52:07
Speaker 1: I almost I almost feel like I'm contradicting myself because
52:09
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, no, that wasn't enough, right, right, But
52:13
Speaker 1: I know the level that I can. I know that
52:19
Speaker 1: I can show up at a very high level, you know.
52:22
Speaker 1: And again that just goes back to me putting in
52:24
Speaker 1: the work. That just goes back to me, you know,
52:26
Speaker 1: as a fourteen fifteen year old in my room doing
52:29
Speaker 1: push ups and talking to myself to do another one. Yeah. Right,
52:32
Speaker 1: So I think all of all of that is a
52:35
Speaker 1: sum of who I am today. It's you know, pushing
52:41
Speaker 1: myself forward as hard as that, that's as hard as
52:43
Speaker 1: that's been because I also I've also you know, in
52:46
Speaker 1: the past, I had a habit of being like, dude,
52:51
Speaker 1: work harder, you know. So it's like a sum of
52:54
Speaker 1: all of that that has given me the confidence to
52:57
Speaker 1: be able to instill cofidence in others.
53:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, how do you counteract that work harder voice? Because
53:06
Speaker 2: I'm sure that a lot of individuals listening to this
53:09
Speaker 2: can really relate to that sentiment the what you're doing
53:13
Speaker 2: isn't good enough, what you're doing isn't good enough. You
53:15
Speaker 2: can do more, you can do more. And that person
53:18
Speaker 2: can still be despite having that voice in their head
53:21
Speaker 2: like already working really damn hard. So how do you
53:24
Speaker 2: counteract that? How do you have more grace with yourself?
53:26
Speaker 2: Something that I know you're working on?
53:29
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that's that. It's definitely something that I'm working on,
53:31
Speaker 1: and I'm still working on that, you know, Like, I'm
53:33
Speaker 1: not trying to paint this picture of I'm an extraordinary
53:38
Speaker 1: human being totally right ever, because I feel like we
53:40
Speaker 1: all go through things, you know, we all have our issues.
53:46
Speaker 1: I still, I don't want to say, struggle with that.
53:50
Speaker 1: I still dance with that. I still dance with being
53:53
Speaker 1: confident and still knowing that I could do more. I
53:56
Speaker 1: think that's just my growth mindset, the fact that I
53:59
Speaker 1: want to be better. Yeah, but consciously I have to
54:03
Speaker 1: make sure that I give myself that grace. You know,
54:06
Speaker 1: I have to take a step back and say, hey,
54:08
Speaker 1: you did the best that you can do. How about
54:11
Speaker 1: next time we just find a way to better prepare
54:14
Speaker 1: ourselves and add what a hint of this that'll make
54:19
Speaker 1: that class better? Add this quote or add this movement
54:23
Speaker 1: or you know, I think just allowing myself that grace
54:27
Speaker 1: to not downplay how much of a success it could
54:33
Speaker 1: have been, just like add a little bit of more
54:37
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And you know, it doesn't mean that
54:41
Speaker 1: I'm bad, doesn't mean that it was terrible. It just
54:43
Speaker 1: means that maybe it could be a little better.
54:45
Speaker 2: You know, what I'm hearing you say is that it's
54:49
Speaker 2: important to celebrate small wins, and it's also important to
54:54
Speaker 2: take a step back and like appreciate and observe before
54:58
Speaker 2: jumping to any sort of conclusion.
55:00
Speaker 1: Correct. Yeah, Correct.
55:02
Speaker 2: When someone goes to your Instagram page, they see a
55:04
Speaker 2: Peloton instructor with something like upward of one hundred and
55:08
Speaker 2: fifty thousand followers. He's into boxing, he's active, he's got
55:13
Speaker 2: a great smile. You're welcome. When you look in the mirror,
55:18
Speaker 2: what is it that you see looking back at you?
55:22
Speaker 1: Dark circles, growth, like, you know, I'm thirty one now,
55:32
Speaker 1: and I feel like I still have so much such
55:35
Speaker 1: a long road ahead of me, you know, And I'm
55:37
Speaker 1: proud of what I've become. I'm proud of where i
55:42
Speaker 1: am now. I'm proud of the ground that I you know,
55:44
Speaker 1: the ground that I'm on now. And but I always
55:48
Speaker 1: see growth, and not in a negative way, Like it's
55:51
Speaker 1: not like it's not like I look at myself and
55:56
Speaker 1: I'm downplaying who I am or I'm not happy of
55:59
Speaker 1: what I like and what I see in the mirror.
56:01
Speaker 1: I just love being able to keep striving forward, you know.
56:06
Speaker 1: And I'm excited for the future, and I'm excited for
56:09
Speaker 1: what I have yet to accomplish, right, and I know
56:13
Speaker 1: that this is just the beginning. Yeah, I have to
56:15
Speaker 1: remember that it is okay to be a beginner. It
56:17
Speaker 1: is okay to step on the first square and look
56:21
Speaker 1: at the road ahead with appreciation and with gratitude. And
56:25
Speaker 1: it's important to stop and smell the flowers. And that
56:27
Speaker 1: is what I see in the mirror, the excitement that
56:31
Speaker 1: I have for what is to come and the things
56:35
Speaker 1: that I haven't experienced. And it's crazy to think about
56:39
Speaker 1: your best day, you haven't experienced your best day yet.
56:42
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, you see opportunity, opportunity, Yes, right now
56:47
Speaker 2: you have an opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice.
56:52
Speaker 2: Let's call it. When you decided to take a step
56:56
Speaker 2: back from school, work, full time support, your mom, really
57:00
Speaker 2: starting to come into your own, you have an opportunity
57:03
Speaker 2: right now to give yourself a piece of advice. Knowing
57:06
Speaker 2: what you know now in that hurdle moment, what do
57:11
Speaker 2: you tell yourself?
57:14
Speaker 1: You know, I don't really have a word of advice,
57:18
Speaker 1: you know, for my younger self, because I'm so appreciative.
57:24
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for every step, every thought that I've
57:28
Speaker 1: had up till this point, because without it, I wouldn't
57:31
Speaker 1: be you know who I am today. It could have
57:35
Speaker 1: changed the course of my trajectory. So I'm just so
57:38
Speaker 1: appreciative of every step and every thought and every action
57:42
Speaker 1: that I've taken till this day because it's made me
57:46
Speaker 1: who I am and it's gotten me to where I
57:48
Speaker 1: am today. So my advice to myself would just be
57:53
Speaker 1: have fun.
57:54
Speaker 2: Keep going, have fun.
57:55
Speaker 1: You're doing, You're doing just fine.
57:57
Speaker 2: Keep going. Anything you want to say to all of
57:59
Speaker 2: your loving peloton fans that are listening to this right now.
58:04
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for giving me your time, so
58:08
Speaker 1: appreciative of it. It's like it goes such a long way,
58:11
Speaker 1: and I'm so appreciative of for everyone that has tuned in,
58:16
Speaker 1: for everything that I've ever done, for everyone that has
58:19
Speaker 1: showed up to my classes. It means the world to
58:22
Speaker 1: me from you know, a kid in the Bronx, very
58:25
Speaker 1: shy kid from the Bronx that has always wanted to
58:30
Speaker 1: do better and be more like Here we are, Thank
58:33
Speaker 1: you so much.
58:34
Speaker 2: Here we are all right? Rad? How do the hurdlers
58:36
Speaker 2: follow along with you? How do they keep up with you?
58:38
Speaker 2: If they don't yet already? Give us the details so.
58:41
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram at rad Lopes are
58:45
Speaker 1: a d loopz and you can also catch my classes
58:49
Speaker 1: on Peloton. On the Peloton platform, you can download the app.
58:53
Speaker 1: If you have the bike, you can also just the
58:56
Speaker 1: bike or the tread. You can also just flip over
58:58
Speaker 1: to the strength category l and you can find me there.
59:01
Speaker 1: Let's have a good time.
59:01
Speaker 2: Let's have a good time. I'm over at Emily a
59:04
Speaker 2: Body and at Hurdle Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you
59:08
Speaker 2: guys next time