October 14, 2025 • 39 mins
This week on Hasta Abajo, the ladies welcome dancer and fitness instructor Jess King! She talks about her Chilean roots, finding her true self and the move that completely changed her life. Jess also tells Cami and Meli the crazy story about how she met her wife and how she was hired by Peloton without having to audition. And make sure you come back next week for part 2 of this amazing conversation!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, everybody. I'm Kamilla Ramon and this is Astava. Maybe
today we have a beautiful, incredible, very special guest. We're
going to get into creativity, energy, adapting to big shifts
in our lives, motivation, all the things.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You might know her from my.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
House, peloton, you might know her from back in the day,
start to so let so you think you can dance
from her DJ sets. Maybe she's coaching you in her
coaching business. Her name is Jess King, and we're going
to get started right after this.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Let's go so you know what that means, drop the beat.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We have somebody I admire so much in the studio
with us today, Jess via Meni Ama.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course, at the beginning of each episode we do
a little like guffesito cheese met ketchup.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
So what did you have for breakfast today?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I had besides chaos.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, chaos, traffic, traffic before six am. There's really something
wrong with us as a culture. Literally anyway, sidebar, I
had sausage, avocado and egg sandwich.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Sounds amazing. You make it?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
No, okay, I did not.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I also didn't make my sandwich today, which was like
a microwaved egg sandwich that I got.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, your sounds better, it does, DELI.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, okay, so today was a little bit different because
you told us that you woke up at like four
in the morning to drive into the city. I think
in general, your life has become a little bit more of.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
A treck lately. But and it has also shifted a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Because you now have two children. Right, so how do
you normally start your day?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I would like to start my day by myself for
the first thirty minutes an hour, and that never happens.
I normally start my day with a child screaming or
waking up to that huge adrenaline rush. Oh, just terrifying.
And then I try to do all the things like caffeinate, hydrate,
(02:28):
and then get out the doors start commuting.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Right and with your kids now, which by like congratulations,
I've read about your journey to become a mom as well.
But how has that morning routine changed like that before
and after? What was your morning utween?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Before? And now?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Obviously now it's a bit more chaotic but also so
lovely at the same time.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Right, Yeah, totally, it's fun. It's chaotic it's interesting, it's energetic.
It's always been those things. The biggest difference now is
the inability to control it, in the unpredictability of it.
So sometimes it could be smooth and easy and chill
and I can be prepared, and sometimes I can't find anything.
(03:11):
A child has intercepted in some way, gotten my intention, broken,
something lost my phone. Very high stress. Yeah, my nervous
system is really shot before nine am.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Usually a lot of our listeners are are moms too,
so they're probably like girls.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, yeah, And so my son Lucien, he's about to
be three loose and my daughter Afisa is she just
turned too. They're eight months apart. So you do the
mask and they're both models, by the way, they're very cute,
they're very high energy. Go figure.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Yeah, I wonder how that happened.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I wonder how that happened. What are you using to
caffeinate yourself these days?
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I mean I'm espresso girly through and through, oh love, Yeah,
and then obviously my cocoa whip goes on top. Anybody
that knows.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
Me, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm like, I need
to I'm going to go by it today.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Wait a second shot an espresso and then the coca whip.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, an espresso coffee like espresso, and then a big
huge dollop of cocoa whip on top.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That sounds amazing.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I'm gonna go get it today. I promise you. That's
a promise.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I mean, it's for yourself. I'm enjoying my own.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No, I know, but that's every time I talked to
you about I'm like, I'm fucking up and I don't
even know what I'm missing yet, but I know that
I'm missing whole.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Foods and literally almost anywhere.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
This is not even paid, like they said her a
fucking fridge full of it, because she's just sosi.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
How many containers?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Was it a hundred?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
A hundred?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Like over over five years ago. I reached out to
them and I was like, I love you, and I've
been posting them on a million things, and I had
noticed it was impossible to get in the store and
it became as like there was a drought in the
Trisa area. And I messaged and I'm like, look, I
can't find this anywhere. I have myself to blame because
I've told my community about you, and they literally buy
(05:15):
it by the you know, five ten at a time,
and now I can't get any for myself. Can you
send me a hundred or can I buy a hundred
directly from you? And they they were like, not at
this time, something about it. It's not in production or whatever.
There's a delay. We'll get it back years go by.
I'm still posting. Then they reach out, do you want
(05:37):
that one hundred cocoa whibs. I'm like, oh, yes, I
do it, And they brought me a freezer. They like
made it look like a z broom on hundred.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Side.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
The freezer is probably maybe thirty cocoa whips left.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And then.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
My placenta and so, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
What are you going to do that? I think I'm
going to pulverize them? Actually?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
What is?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And then you eat it right?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
You put yeah, they make like little capsules for you.
I should have done it right after I delivered and
gave birth, but I've been When they say that like
having a baby changes you, I really want to emphasize
that it is so maybe on the exterior it changes
like your boobs and your skin and like certain things,
(06:36):
but like the real shifts happen inside and for me,
like a bunch of things have been triggered, if you will.
And so by eating the placenta now, especially like during
my cycle, it should help regulate my hormones and bring
them back without having to trying that first before moving
into like any sort of like hormone replacement stuff. But
(06:59):
this is interesting just where I am in my journey.
I'm not advising anyone right on the record, And.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
If anybody like goes to your house, it opens your freezer.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's cocoa, yes out, Oh I know number two.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I love that, love that Okay, So a lot of
our listeners are Latinos too.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
You're you have Chilean roots.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, what what's like your fondest memory or like your
brightest and like most memorable moment that you have in Chile?
Because I know that you've also like gone back to
visit Chile and stuff, and like you have family members
here in the States that.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Are from Chile as well.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So, like, what's like your most Chilean like memory that
you have in your brain?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
The first one that came to mind was my first
trip to Chilean might have been four, and I was
with my Daia and we were traveling southern, like south.
You know, Chile is like this long, long country, so
if you're going to spend time there, you're either going
north or south, right right, Okay, So this trip was selp.
We were going down. I was like spinning around poles,
(08:05):
and I spun around a cactus like my hand like swung,
and I just remember her taking each little like spot
beneath that out like one one at a time. I
have a ton of other memories, like the one time
I was there with my stepfather and he had all
(08:28):
this like crazy tooth pain, and we were like down
close to Chilouette, which is the end of Chili, like
the southernmost habitable point of Chili before you get into
like Patagonia. Okay, so I'm wearing chiloe. There's we find
a dentist off of like this side road, and I
look in the chair and he's like got one foot
(08:50):
on each side of my stepdad standing on top of him, like.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, ripping the two thoup.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And then we would just because you know, the Mountainton's
are there right andes mountains, and so we would just
like scoop ice he would scoop like ice or water falling,
and just like put it on this wild wild have.
My list goes on. And I also so my my
grandfather and my grandmother's side all both in cheat on
(09:19):
my mom's side, and the times that I've spent with
my grandmother's side of the family have always been like
the most treasured and heartfelt and connected.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
I felt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Nice always the willows. They always make you feel some
type of way when you go back and visit. I
think also like being you know, we're both like far
away from our families to the are in Colombia. Hintina,
Like when you go back and like you have those
moments like I feel like they even mass, like they
make you feel like even better, like make you more food,
and then like your pretty most will be like oh
(09:55):
oh when Jess comes into town. Then she gets this
and this and this, and they get mad jealous. But
you know what, I don't fucking have them all year, bro, Relax, Relax.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Clearly, Commy's talking from experience.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And then you're how.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
How you lived your whole life in North Carolina before
you moved to New York, South Carolina?
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Carolina my bad. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
A Carolina bitch, one of them Carolina, They're not the same.
But anyway, why did you move to New York?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The truth of it? For a guy, for a boy,
a man, a person, I can't call him that at
this point. A human okay, a red flag. I moved
here for a red flag.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, I got I got it.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yes, But and I was in that for like two years,
really really lost gosh. So I ended up opening up
a bar on the Upper east Side with him. Wow, right,
real big departure from the list of things you read
off in the beginning, like opens bar on the Upper
east Side. I don't put it on my resume because
(11:11):
nobody cares about that in my industry.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It was not who, it was not me, and I
knew that. And the relationship was super toxic and abusive
and all the dark things. And it ended And that's
kind of no, that's not kind of when that's exactly
when Peloton came into my life, the Box came into
my life. I met Sophia. There was like this like
huge shift and huge change. But when we ended, I
(11:39):
asked myself, like, I really don't have a community here.
I don't have any money, Like, why would I stay
in New York? And I'm like, why wouldn't I? Like,
I'm here, I'm here. I might as well like, now,
get to do it my way instead of with this human?
Would you leave now, other human? I try to leave,
(11:59):
I can't. I have a sick, sick addiction, sick twisted
relationship with this city where like, you know, I have
a real big perspective now because I used to complain
and now we're out. Sophie and I are on Long Island.
We've been there since May. We were like, let's just
give it a year, let's just try it out. And
(12:21):
you know, the commuter is absolutely killing us, and we're
feeling very disconnected from the rhythm and the pulse. However,
there are parts of let's say, our nervous system, parts
of just enjoying the benefit of just being in nature
and back into rhythms of nature and feeling the earth
(12:42):
and going to the beach and going to the farm
and just being out that has a huge, huge benefit
and of value to us. However, when we come into
the city, we're like, we're by Yeah, I'm part of something.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Where is everybody?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
When I'm out there. I'm like, dude, you do I
don't even know where my phone is.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Right, We are the same people, literally.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
She just moved to Miami a year ago and I
lived in the city for six years and it's the same.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And I try to explain it to my husband.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I'm like, you just don't understand, you know, And like
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I land yesterday a like Alardi, I next swort of
got as soon as those wheels hit that tarmac.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm like, I'm here and I'm ready to take over
the city. And like I don't sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, like the maximize my days as much as I can.
What's the same, Like Miami also gives that time to
be grounded, wellness, sunshine, palm trees.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Like you have that, but I do.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I just like you.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I feel like I'm so addicted to not only New
York City as a city, but like the people and
like the community and the opportunity, and I don't know,
there's so much that comes around it that I completely
agree with you and I feel you on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But at least you're a car ride and a train
ride away.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So on a positive.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Note, yes, I and we realized that that's as far
as we can go. We even for a couple of
years we were playing around, like, Okay, should we go
to Austin. Maybe we want to move to a city. Yeah,
you know, Brittany Allen's in Austin. It's pretty progressive. There's comedy,
there's music. Sofia's in music. So it seemed and you know,
(14:19):
for me, I'm like whatever, We're just exploring things like okay,
and it didn't matter any place we thought we might
like or.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
It was like.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
We gotta go. All these people look the same. I
have to go, like there really is to me incredibly
that feels I feel much safer on a train where
everyone looks different than I went on a train where
everyone looks the same. I love it. I feel like
(14:52):
I'm part of something. The perspective is immediate and every day,
and it's just a stark like punching the gut of
our humanity, and it reminds me of my purpose. It
like reminds me that I'm part of that pulse, that
I'm creating that pulse. And there's something really poetic about
New York and I identify as an artist. So for me,
(15:15):
it just It just beats that.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
You mentioned something that you were in this time in
your life that was rough. Really you didn't have really
any friends or a community to lean on. You were
a dancer or a dancer, you are an artist circa
select straight. Yeah, literally right before this Top ten finalist
(15:46):
and so you think you could dance?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
When was all of that? Was that prior?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Or after? Right after?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
That was prior?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
So I was in Myrtle Beach. I went to college
at Coastal Carolina University, and I don't I'll put it
on the record. The last semester of my senior year
is when I got on So you think you can dance?
And I bounced before I walked. Oh okay, because the
(16:12):
show started filming in April and graduation was in May.
I was like deuces, like I don't care what am
I doing with this fine arts degree? Like come for me?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
So then I left and I did the show and
that took up all a year in my life. It
was in two thousand and eight. So yeah, how many
years is that been? Thirteen years? I don't know, fifteen fourteen?
Who cares? Okay, yesterday and placed on the show broke
my ribs on the show, went on the.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Tour, broke your ribs on the show.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I don't know that. Y oh yeah. So I made
top ten and we changed partners. I was partnered with
Will and then I was partnered with Twitch, and my
ribs had really been bothering me. I know now that
I have Ellers Danlos syndrome, which is a connective tissue
disorder which makes me super bendy, hyper mobile. So for
(17:06):
people like me that do have that, yeah, our ribs
can move. So I kept saying, I feel like my
rib is out, my rib is out. They got an
extra They're like, your rib's not broken. I'm like, no,
it's out of where it's to me. And it's a
really grueling schedule. You're sleeping maybe five hours, your call
times are five am.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And also like a rib is so uncomfortable when you're
doing all the things that it would dance.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Lifts and it literally yeah, and that was new to me, right.
I had never really had a partner that was like
doing waterfall lifts with or the death drop lift. Right, Like,
this was crazy. So fast forward. By the time I
got to made it to top ten. The next day
(17:51):
we changed partners and I was doing this waterfall lift
with twitch and I like fell to the ground. I
was like, I cannot breathe, and he basically told Rommy
he like took me to the like an angel, and
he took me ands and she needs to go to
the hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I can't no longer dance with her.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
So okay, So I left the show. I didn't get
to finish competing, but I had enough time to heal
so that I could join them for the tour. And
the tour was life changing. It was amazing. And you
know it's been however many years, we just said, and
I'm always so struck by the parallels in my seat.
(18:36):
We were season four, so we caught ourselves for real,
in my for real family and the castmates and the
faces that I would look up to and depend on
and lean like. We created something together, and I think
and a lot of other people would agree that we
still are hands down the best season that so you
think has ever had, not because we were the best dancers,
(18:56):
but we just created the best community because we love
each other so much. And the parallel between that and
my life now, where I'm surrounded by damn near the
same type cast of people is mind blowing how patterns
repeat themselves. Yeah, and I keep I find myself in
(19:19):
these circles that it's not just work, it's like family.
It's like legit family, and you go through such a
unique experience that no one can understand. No one can
truly understand what you and I do. And we can
try to explain it, you can try to observe it,
but it's just unique to us and that's what we're
(19:43):
bonded in.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And it does feel that way, like in the locker
room or the green room, if we were to like
talk to each other and be like hey, like I'm
going through the shit, like we all take a beat
and we're like, hey, like, let's.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Talk about this, like are you okay? How can I
help you?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You know? And I definitely she like from you. It's
always like a very like nurturing like moment where you
I feel like when I have a conversation with you, you
can see my soul, like my inside whenever I talk
to you, Like I'll walk into the studio, i haven't
even said a word, and I'd be looking fucking cute.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I don't even have ibag, but I'd been.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Going through some ship and she'd be like, your energy's off.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Are you okay?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
What did you say the other day?
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
What I was going to tell you about my song?
She's a fucking boduo ho bro.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
She asked me about my availability, she said are you available?
And I missed the call and missed and I said, hey,
what was it? What did you what it was it about?
And you said, oh, I just wanted you for a
little video thing. And I just looked at you and
I said, was it a music video?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
And you were you know, you said are you making?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Are you making music?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And didn't you didn't even know I are you releasing music?
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was like, who told you?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
She's like, what's you?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Were even like surprised?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
You were like, I'm doing it again, you told me.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
But my brain just goes really fast. I'm a hyper processor.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yeah you will or fortune teller or divergent.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Is like I feel like you're very in tuned with
like the energy in the space too, and it's it's
really nice obviously from you, from the rest of our colleagues.
It's nice to feel supported and that we have that
like sense of camaraderie and family always.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
But yeah, you're you're crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Wait, okay, so before.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
We move on, yea, many have some questions.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
I just want to know because this is amazing and
you two have well, I know Commu's journey into Peloton.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Is wild, by the way, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
But in that time when you were you know, in
that transition and you got to meet the CEO of Peloton, Like,
what was that like of getting that opportunity? And then
I read that you didn't have to audition, Like you're
like the only instructor that did not audition, So like, what, like,
just give us the brief on that, because I think
our listeners would be so intrigued to know how did
you get into this?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I think it's important for everyone to understand how casual
this all was in the beginning, how casual it was.
Just to meet John Foley and to be in the
Peloton office, like it looked like a room like this.
There was a curtain, a black curtain, and a bike,
(22:33):
one Peloton bike, a bunch of Swin bikes, two cameras
and they're beta testing this software. And right next to it,
like per this, there was all the desks where everybody
was working, all ten of them, you know, So like
I didn't Peloton wasn't a thing, so I didn't know
(22:54):
to give a shit in that way. Yeah, you know
what I mean. I you that I kept being drawn
to it. It was the only thing in my life
that was making any sense. I had promised myself a year. Yes,
I go through this horrible breakup before the breakup ended,
And part of why it ended is because I was
working at The Box. Now. I don't know if you
(23:15):
know what The Box is in New York. For those
of you listening that don't know, it is our version
of the Mulin Rouge. It's a provocative cabaret style show.
It's a nightclub. Basically, if you can get in, anything goes.
And I had visited this club before I had moved
to New York. They have a show. It starts at one.
(23:36):
There's a host, she sings, and there's these like dancers
that come out and flank the hosts and they do
these little Sean TuS numbers and then all of the
acts come out. Now I didn't desire to be one
of the acts, but I definitely wanted to be one
of the dancers, and I definitely wanted to be able
to tell my kids that your mom showed her tits
(23:57):
when she was in her thirties at New York Second
See Us Hottest club and that's where she met your mother.
Oh my god, I'm working at this club.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
When did you realize after looking at Sophia that you were?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Like, so I gay?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
I don't know if I've ever realized that. I don't
know if I've ever had that.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
We've had this conversation, but.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Like wake up to like, oh I'm gay, Like that
still doesn't really resonate for me, but immediately and I
was just as confused as everyone else, and look on
my face showed it, like she called me crazy eyes.
Apparently I learned later to everyone else like oh, there's
crazy eyes. Because I would just look at her like
(24:52):
I didn't know what. I didn't know what was happening,
Like why was I wanting to look at her like that?
Why was I feeling this way? What was I gonna
fucking do.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
You about it?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Like?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
It was just a wild kind of confrontation of thoughts
and feelings that I had never had before in real time.
But again, I had promised myself this year of yes,
I was like fuck it, and I walked over to
her in the first rehearsal that I had ever seen.
I didn't even like, you know, scope it out or
like wait and see what might happen next. Immediately, like
(25:24):
immediately walked over and I was like, hey, do you
want to hook up? And she's like what, yeah, she goes, Hi,
my name is.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
You hadn't even met her, don't even know her name?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
No, do you want to hook up? I never I
don't know what I meant that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I practiced that.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I did not know what I was doing. Still to
this day, I would not know how to hit on
a woman. I just I don't I don't know, I
don't know. It's I don't get the game. I'm very awkward.
I think anyway, it worked. We're married, we have two kids, Okay,
so be yourself. But it was not immediate. She was
like I'm in a relationship. I can offer you friendship
(26:05):
and I was like I have enough friends things, and
like was real county about it. And then then things
started to happen on stage where like she would put
me in situation like live situations like Okay, we're on stage,
our hair, my hair's soaking wet, kings of leon sex
on fire, We're sitting on chairs were in like bra
(26:26):
underwear bra. I had on a bra.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Okay, that's important.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
A suggestion of some type of that was irrelevant. Okay,
it didn't matter. Sophia is singing. The move is we
like throw our head back and then we're like whip
our hair forward. And when I threw my head back,
she came and like straddled me, and I could not
whip my hair forward, right, I couldn't keep doing my choreo.
So then she does anyway, puts her hand between my legs. Oh,
(26:55):
all the way between my legs. Okay, live show. There's
an audience. Hello, Okay, so I'm upset about this. How
are you going to do that to me? Also? Thank
you amazing. That was incredible. I'm not mad about it.
All I'm saying is I have to get you back now.
Oh right. So then there was like a cake something
about it. There was a cake, and so then I
(27:17):
like was like, never do that to me again, and
like shove cake in her mouth and then we like
made out.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But then but then her girlfriend was in the audience
at the time, and her girl they were breaking up. Okay,
everyone was. Everyone was in integrity. We're not like that, okay,
lesbians we talk about everything. Anyway. This went on for
a year, this like back and forth, and I'd be like, hey,
do you want to share a cab home and she'd
be like yeah, sure. We get to my place, like
(27:44):
are you coming in? She's like no, bye, I'm like what,
And I've tried everything. We finally started to become friends,
and then we went on a date like a year later.
In that year's time, I had taken that. To answer
your question, now, ten minutes later, this has been the
grass ever I had taken this. My producer at the
(28:08):
box said, hey, there's this thing called he said Peddleton
at the time, but peloton, right. It wasn't a thin gummy.
Nobody had ever heard of it. It didn't exist, The
studio wasn't open yet though. It was just an idea, right,
And I remember taking this meeting and thinking, he's like,
(28:30):
you know, we're going to virtually stream classes. You're going
to be you know, teaching to people live, but then
also to like thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of
people in my performance brain. I'm like, wow, that sounds amazing.
I've never been on a spin bite. He's like well,
we're doing we're beta testing the software. So if you
just want to come and see what it's about, take
(28:50):
some classes, meet some of the other people involved, you
can do that. They're at like eight am. Okay, so
the holidays pass, so now we're looking at January March.
I had moved out of my ex's apartment, moved into
a friend of a friend's apartment, which was a studio,
but it was a six floor walk up on sixty
fourth in York. Okay. I had my dog's zeus at
(29:12):
at time, so every morning you take him down six flights,
go back up, six flights down, six flights, walk from
first to Lex to get to the train, which any
East Side New Yorker would be like, damn bitch in
the snow for real. To go to the Peloton studio
(29:32):
take these classes, not getting paid to do it, just
showing up for something, not sure what it is. So
by the time they got to like April, when they're
like would you like to audition, I'm like for what?
And I'm like, just hire me. I'm showing up, I'm
excellent at this. What do you need to know?
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Real?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Do you want me to go through an audition?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Now?
Speaker 4 (29:57):
After the three months of showing up to these whatever
this is called you Okay, but all I'm gonna do
is just like YouTube something and come up here and
like perform for three minutes, just teach me how to
ride this bike. I'm gonna be great at this. And
they're like.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Okay, okay, yeah, right, all right.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
But it wasn't like I just showed up. It was
like hire me, Like I had been showing up for
four months, just there to just understand what was happening,
to see if I even liked it, to see if
my brain would start doing what it did as a
dancer and choreographer, and like start putting the puzzles together,
to see, like do can I grow here? Will this
(30:43):
be exciting for me? Is this a sound decision? Like
business spirit? Like you know? And again, nothing in my
life had made sense. Everything else had been not a
great decision. So here I was, I'm like, is this
woman decision? How am I supposed to know? Is this
(31:03):
career a great decision?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Like?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
How am I supposed to know? And so I started
to develop a relationship with the feeling of knowing when
I was in alignment and knowing when I was on
my path, and it was just this frequency, this like
higher vibration where everything felt like yes and things would
happen faster, and those insecurities and shadowy feelings that had
(31:30):
been like my constant state started to be whispers. And
that's how I knew I was on the right path.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Like relating to our listeners or even like our journeys,
when you go through something really hard and you get
out of it, like from the learnings that you made
from the courage it took to change something. You took
a year of yes, and you went up to a
woman and said, do you want to hook up? That was like,
that's that's impressive, but that's a yes. But then on
(32:08):
top of that, you showed up and you said it.
You said, I showed up, And so I think it's
not only incredibly inspiring what you've done.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
One more really important piece of that. I also said
yes to therapy, and I had started working with a
therapist to unpack the patterns. Why does this shit keep
playing out? Different situation, same story, Like that's ten years ago.
It had been mostly just with my career. I pretty
(32:39):
much had like a grip. It was my relationships and
love where I was flailing and failing and like making
not just bad decisions, dangerous decisions, stupid decisions. I was
getting hurt. I was hurting other people. I was it
(33:00):
was very dysfunctional, and I just like, I'm pretty sure
this has something to do with the way that I
grew up, you know, being being in a divorce family,
like everything for everyone, And so I started going to therapy.
But then the real major, major shift was when I
started to wake up and started to unpack those things
(33:20):
and learn how to love myself and be compassionate and
become more aware of my experiences and why they were happening.
It all felt like a big puzzle, and I was
very intrigued by understanding all the pieces of my puzzle.
And if I could understand the pieces of mind, then
does the same formula then work on others. So right
(33:45):
at this same time Peloton Sophia the Box, I was
going through this radical transformation within myself, and the three
components that were healing me and calling me back home
were a movement practice. I hadn't been dancing in two years,
so I started moving again. I started working out. Obviously,
I was taking these classes every single day, and I
(34:08):
started nourishing myself. There was a lot of drugs and alcohol,
a lot of no sleep, a lot of nothing green
in your diet, just you know. And I knew better
than that. My mom was a bodybuilder. I was not
an eighty. I knew what I was doing. It wasn't
like I didn't know. It was like, no, bitch, I
knew everything that I ate and everything that I did
(34:30):
not yet I knew what was happening because I love
that bitch.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Oh my god, I love her so much.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
She's very lovable.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
I'm obsessed with her continuing try living with her.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Though I can only imagine, I can imagine, I mean,
I love her, that's too much.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
So the third one, and the third one was that
the therapy piece right. And so I knew now that
because in all my relationships and just the way I
had been up until that point, I'd always tried to
give an advice to people. I always knew what people
should do, and I was not wrong. I did not
(35:11):
have a way of having impact and influence in the
way that actually facilitated change. Nobody wants to be told
what to do, like there's a language to this, and
there is. And I went to the Coactive Training Institute
and got certified to become a life coach, that I
could understand how to create a safe space, hold that
(35:32):
container with someone, ask powerful questions so that they can
understand their own life experiences on a deeper level, and
I mean a deeper level.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
So that.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
In the present moment they can truly understand the why
of their beinging and then understand that they can find
that voice within them that is loving and compassionate to
guide them into a more life loving state. Whether they're
triggered in ego, fear, their traumas are playing out, they're angry,
(36:05):
they're enraged. We all know the feeling of being tight
and being in some sort of fear, doubt and security, sadness, grief,
all those heavy feelings, and we also know the opposite
of that, the feeling of being lifted, loved, elevated, treasure, adored, laughing, pleasure.
(36:28):
And so this coactive model allowed me to go there
with someone and have tools to move with them through
that conversation and being at Peloton. Now, this was the
first time in my performance life that I was given
(36:49):
a mic. So it's a dancer, you know, I'm not
a singer like you got me.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
No.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I auditioned for Broadway, and every single time I'd make
it through the day tansportion and then I cannot think,
I know, feel sorry for me because if I could bitch,
what imagine? I just imagine if I could sing, how
insufferable I would be as a human being. There's a
reason why I can draw. So that's when my Mindful
(37:22):
three business practice, my Mindful three wellness practice was born.
I take clients I don't personally now, but I did
then I didn't. I wore that all the hats, and
but then I started having a nutritionists come on board,
other strength trainers, other life coaches. I expanded my team.
So each client goes through a three month transformation. They
(37:44):
have a life coach, they have a strength coach, and
they have a nutritionist, and they meet with them multiple
times throughout the week and we really just flood them
with the accountability that is often needed, the education that
is often needed, and the unique programming that each individual
(38:05):
needs for themselves. So yeah, and so.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
If you're looking for additional support, mindful three.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Mindful three, and I do. I just started, like my
fourth round of small group coaching calls really really feed
my soul. Like truly, I get nervous in the same
way we get nervous for class. You're like, oh yeah,
or like nervous for a workout and you're like, I
don't want to do it. You know. I feel that
way before these calls and they're really dope.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
That's sick.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
And just having access to your brain is very valuable period.
And I say that as somebody who has access to
your brain, not twenty four to seven, but you give
me a lot of access and I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
That's your friend, of course.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Wow, coming this conversation with Jess King was honestly one
of my favorites I've ever had.
Speaker 5 (38:58):
She's an icon.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
She really is just talent. She's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, honestly, we love her.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
We're big Jess King fans.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
We are very excited how about how this conversation went,
and we honestly were not expecting for it to be
so well. I was expecting for it to be d.
Let's be so freaking for real. I was expecting for
it to be d because I know her, but also
like I want to talk to her about so much
more so for this episode, We're gonna hold it there
and for the next one. This is one of the
(39:26):
things that I was actually the most interested to talk
to Jess about, which is unleashing your creative potential and
her creative process. I said, I need to get into
that brain girl, and she said yeah.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
So keep tuning in.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
This is Astajo and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
See you next Time.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Is an iHeart women's sports production and partnership with Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi, everybody. I'm Kamilla Ramon and this is Astava. Maybe
today we have a beautiful, incredible, very special guest. We're
going to get into creativity, energy, adapting to big shifts
in our lives, motivation, all the things.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You might know her from my.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
House, peloton, you might know her from back in the day,
start to so let so you think you can dance
from her DJ sets. Maybe she's coaching you in her
coaching business. Her name is Jess King, and we're going
to get started right after this.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Let's go so you know what that means, drop the beat.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We have somebody I admire so much in the studio
with us today, Jess via Meni Ama.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course, at the beginning of each episode we do
a little like guffesito cheese met ketchup.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
So what did you have for breakfast today?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I had besides chaos.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, chaos, traffic, traffic before six am. There's really something
wrong with us as a culture. Literally anyway, sidebar, I
had sausage, avocado and egg sandwich.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
Sounds amazing. You make it?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
No, okay, I did not.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I also didn't make my sandwich today, which was like
a microwaved egg sandwich that I got.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, your sounds better, it does, DELI.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, okay, so today was a little bit different because
you told us that you woke up at like four
in the morning to drive into the city. I think
in general, your life has become a little bit more of.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
A treck lately. But and it has also shifted a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Because you now have two children. Right, so how do
you normally start your day?
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I would like to start my day by myself for
the first thirty minutes an hour, and that never happens.
I normally start my day with a child screaming or
waking up to that huge adrenaline rush. Oh, just terrifying.
And then I try to do all the things like caffeinate, hydrate,
(02:28):
and then get out the doors start commuting.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Right and with your kids now, which by like congratulations,
I've read about your journey to become a mom as well.
But how has that morning routine changed like that before
and after? What was your morning utween?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Before? And now?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Obviously now it's a bit more chaotic but also so
lovely at the same time.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Right, Yeah, totally, it's fun. It's chaotic it's interesting, it's energetic.
It's always been those things. The biggest difference now is
the inability to control it, in the unpredictability of it.
So sometimes it could be smooth and easy and chill
and I can be prepared, and sometimes I can't find anything.
(03:11):
A child has intercepted in some way, gotten my intention, broken,
something lost my phone. Very high stress. Yeah, my nervous
system is really shot before nine am.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Usually a lot of our listeners are are moms too,
so they're probably like girls.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, yeah, And so my son Lucien, he's about to
be three loose and my daughter Afisa is she just
turned too. They're eight months apart. So you do the
mask and they're both models, by the way, they're very cute,
they're very high energy. Go figure.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Yeah, I wonder how that happened.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I wonder how that happened. What are you using to
caffeinate yourself these days?
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I mean I'm espresso girly through and through, oh love, Yeah,
and then obviously my cocoa whip goes on top. Anybody
that knows.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
Me, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm like, I need
to I'm going to go by it today.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Wait a second shot an espresso and then the coca whip.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, an espresso coffee like espresso, and then a big
huge dollop of cocoa whip on top.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That sounds amazing.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I'm gonna go get it today. I promise you. That's
a promise.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
I mean, it's for yourself. I'm enjoying my own.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No, I know, but that's every time I talked to
you about I'm like, I'm fucking up and I don't
even know what I'm missing yet, but I know that
I'm missing whole.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Foods and literally almost anywhere.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
This is not even paid, like they said her a
fucking fridge full of it, because she's just sosi.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
How many containers?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Was it a hundred?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
A hundred?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Like over over five years ago. I reached out to
them and I was like, I love you, and I've
been posting them on a million things, and I had
noticed it was impossible to get in the store and
it became as like there was a drought in the
Trisa area. And I messaged and I'm like, look, I
can't find this anywhere. I have myself to blame because
I've told my community about you, and they literally buy
(05:15):
it by the you know, five ten at a time,
and now I can't get any for myself. Can you
send me a hundred or can I buy a hundred
directly from you? And they they were like, not at
this time, something about it. It's not in production or whatever.
There's a delay. We'll get it back years go by.
I'm still posting. Then they reach out, do you want
(05:37):
that one hundred cocoa whibs. I'm like, oh, yes, I
do it, And they brought me a freezer. They like
made it look like a z broom on hundred.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Side.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
The freezer is probably maybe thirty cocoa whips left.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
And then.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
My placenta and so, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
What are you going to do that? I think I'm
going to pulverize them? Actually?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
What is?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And then you eat it right?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
You put yeah, they make like little capsules for you.
I should have done it right after I delivered and
gave birth, but I've been When they say that like
having a baby changes you, I really want to emphasize
that it is so maybe on the exterior it changes
like your boobs and your skin and like certain things,
(06:36):
but like the real shifts happen inside and for me,
like a bunch of things have been triggered, if you will.
And so by eating the placenta now, especially like during
my cycle, it should help regulate my hormones and bring
them back without having to trying that first before moving
into like any sort of like hormone replacement stuff. But
(06:59):
this is interesting just where I am in my journey.
I'm not advising anyone right on the record, And.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
If anybody like goes to your house, it opens your freezer.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's cocoa, yes out, Oh I know number two.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I love that, love that Okay, So a lot of
our listeners are Latinos too.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
You're you have Chilean roots.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, what what's like your fondest memory or like your
brightest and like most memorable moment that you have in Chile?
Because I know that you've also like gone back to
visit Chile and stuff, and like you have family members
here in the States that.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Are from Chile as well.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So, like, what's like your most Chilean like memory that
you have in your brain?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
The first one that came to mind was my first
trip to Chilean might have been four, and I was
with my Daia and we were traveling southern, like south.
You know, Chile is like this long, long country, so
if you're going to spend time there, you're either going
north or south, right right, Okay, So this trip was selp.
We were going down. I was like spinning around poles,
(08:05):
and I spun around a cactus like my hand like swung,
and I just remember her taking each little like spot
beneath that out like one one at a time. I
have a ton of other memories, like the one time
I was there with my stepfather and he had all
(08:28):
this like crazy tooth pain, and we were like down
close to Chilouette, which is the end of Chili, like
the southernmost habitable point of Chili before you get into
like Patagonia. Okay, so I'm wearing chiloe. There's we find
a dentist off of like this side road, and I
look in the chair and he's like got one foot
(08:50):
on each side of my stepdad standing on top of him, like.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Oh, ripping the two thoup.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And then we would just because you know, the Mountainton's
are there right andes mountains, and so we would just
like scoop ice he would scoop like ice or water falling,
and just like put it on this wild wild have.
My list goes on. And I also so my my
grandfather and my grandmother's side all both in cheat on
(09:19):
my mom's side, and the times that I've spent with
my grandmother's side of the family have always been like
the most treasured and heartfelt and connected.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
I felt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Nice always the willows. They always make you feel some
type of way when you go back and visit. I
think also like being you know, we're both like far
away from our families to the are in Colombia. Hintina,
Like when you go back and like you have those
moments like I feel like they even mass, like they
make you feel like even better, like make you more food,
and then like your pretty most will be like oh
(09:55):
oh when Jess comes into town. Then she gets this
and this and this, and they get mad jealous. But
you know what, I don't fucking have them all year, bro, Relax, Relax.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Clearly, Commy's talking from experience.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And then you're how.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
How you lived your whole life in North Carolina before
you moved to New York, South Carolina?
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Carolina my bad. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
A Carolina bitch, one of them Carolina, They're not the same.
But anyway, why did you move to New York?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
The truth of it? For a guy, for a boy,
a man, a person, I can't call him that at
this point. A human okay, a red flag. I moved
here for a red flag.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, I got I got it.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yes, But and I was in that for like two years,
really really lost gosh. So I ended up opening up
a bar on the Upper east Side with him. Wow, right,
real big departure from the list of things you read
off in the beginning, like opens bar on the Upper
east Side. I don't put it on my resume because
(11:11):
nobody cares about that in my industry.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It was not who, it was not me, and I
knew that. And the relationship was super toxic and abusive
and all the dark things. And it ended And that's
kind of no, that's not kind of when that's exactly
when Peloton came into my life, the Box came into
my life. I met Sophia. There was like this like
huge shift and huge change. But when we ended, I
(11:39):
asked myself, like, I really don't have a community here.
I don't have any money, Like, why would I stay
in New York? And I'm like, why wouldn't I? Like,
I'm here, I'm here. I might as well like, now,
get to do it my way instead of with this human?
Would you leave now, other human? I try to leave,
(11:59):
I can't. I have a sick, sick addiction, sick twisted
relationship with this city where like, you know, I have
a real big perspective now because I used to complain
and now we're out. Sophie and I are on Long Island.
We've been there since May. We were like, let's just
give it a year, let's just try it out. And
(12:21):
you know, the commuter is absolutely killing us, and we're
feeling very disconnected from the rhythm and the pulse. However,
there are parts of let's say, our nervous system, parts
of just enjoying the benefit of just being in nature
and back into rhythms of nature and feeling the earth
(12:42):
and going to the beach and going to the farm
and just being out that has a huge, huge benefit
and of value to us. However, when we come into
the city, we're like, we're by Yeah, I'm part of something.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Where is everybody?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
When I'm out there. I'm like, dude, you do I
don't even know where my phone is.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Right, We are the same people, literally.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
She just moved to Miami a year ago and I
lived in the city for six years and it's the same.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
And I try to explain it to my husband.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I'm like, you just don't understand, you know, And like
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I land yesterday a like Alardi, I next swort of
got as soon as those wheels hit that tarmac.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm like, I'm here and I'm ready to take over
the city. And like I don't sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, like the maximize my days as much as I can.
What's the same, Like Miami also gives that time to
be grounded, wellness, sunshine, palm trees.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Like you have that, but I do.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I just like you.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I feel like I'm so addicted to not only New
York City as a city, but like the people and
like the community and the opportunity, and I don't know,
there's so much that comes around it that I completely
agree with you and I feel you on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But at least you're a car ride and a train
ride away.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
So on a positive.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Note, yes, I and we realized that that's as far
as we can go. We even for a couple of
years we were playing around, like, Okay, should we go
to Austin. Maybe we want to move to a city. Yeah,
you know, Brittany Allen's in Austin. It's pretty progressive. There's comedy,
there's music. Sofia's in music. So it seemed and you know,
(14:19):
for me, I'm like whatever, We're just exploring things like okay,
and it didn't matter any place we thought we might
like or.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
It was like.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
We gotta go. All these people look the same. I
have to go, like there really is to me incredibly
that feels I feel much safer on a train where
everyone looks different than I went on a train where
everyone looks the same. I love it. I feel like
(14:52):
I'm part of something. The perspective is immediate and every day,
and it's just a stark like punching the gut of
our humanity, and it reminds me of my purpose. It
like reminds me that I'm part of that pulse, that
I'm creating that pulse. And there's something really poetic about
New York and I identify as an artist. So for me,
(15:15):
it just It just beats that.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
You mentioned something that you were in this time in
your life that was rough. Really you didn't have really
any friends or a community to lean on. You were
a dancer or a dancer, you are an artist circa
select straight. Yeah, literally right before this Top ten finalist
(15:46):
and so you think you could dance?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
When was all of that? Was that prior?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Or after? Right after?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
That was prior?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
So I was in Myrtle Beach. I went to college
at Coastal Carolina University, and I don't I'll put it
on the record. The last semester of my senior year
is when I got on So you think you can dance?
And I bounced before I walked. Oh okay, because the
(16:12):
show started filming in April and graduation was in May.
I was like deuces, like I don't care what am
I doing with this fine arts degree? Like come for me?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
So then I left and I did the show and
that took up all a year in my life. It
was in two thousand and eight. So yeah, how many
years is that been? Thirteen years? I don't know, fifteen fourteen?
Who cares? Okay, yesterday and placed on the show broke
my ribs on the show, went on the.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Tour, broke your ribs on the show.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I don't know that. Y oh yeah. So I made
top ten and we changed partners. I was partnered with
Will and then I was partnered with Twitch, and my
ribs had really been bothering me. I know now that
I have Ellers Danlos syndrome, which is a connective tissue
disorder which makes me super bendy, hyper mobile. So for
(17:06):
people like me that do have that, yeah, our ribs
can move. So I kept saying, I feel like my
rib is out, my rib is out. They got an
extra They're like, your rib's not broken. I'm like, no,
it's out of where it's to me. And it's a
really grueling schedule. You're sleeping maybe five hours, your call
times are five am.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And also like a rib is so uncomfortable when you're
doing all the things that it would dance.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
Lifts and it literally yeah, and that was new to me, right.
I had never really had a partner that was like
doing waterfall lifts with or the death drop lift. Right, Like,
this was crazy. So fast forward. By the time I
got to made it to top ten. The next day
(17:51):
we changed partners and I was doing this waterfall lift
with twitch and I like fell to the ground. I
was like, I cannot breathe, and he basically told Rommy
he like took me to the like an angel, and
he took me ands and she needs to go to
the hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I can't no longer dance with her.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
So okay, So I left the show. I didn't get
to finish competing, but I had enough time to heal
so that I could join them for the tour. And
the tour was life changing. It was amazing. And you
know it's been however many years, we just said, and
I'm always so struck by the parallels in my seat.
(18:36):
We were season four, so we caught ourselves for real,
in my for real family and the castmates and the
faces that I would look up to and depend on
and lean like. We created something together, and I think
and a lot of other people would agree that we
still are hands down the best season that so you
think has ever had, not because we were the best dancers,
(18:56):
but we just created the best community because we love
each other so much. And the parallel between that and
my life now, where I'm surrounded by damn near the
same type cast of people is mind blowing how patterns
repeat themselves. Yeah, and I keep I find myself in
(19:19):
these circles that it's not just work, it's like family.
It's like legit family, and you go through such a
unique experience that no one can understand. No one can
truly understand what you and I do. And we can
try to explain it, you can try to observe it,
but it's just unique to us and that's what we're
(19:43):
bonded in.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And it does feel that way, like in the locker
room or the green room, if we were to like
talk to each other and be like hey, like I'm
going through the shit, like we all take a beat
and we're like, hey, like, let's.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Talk about this, like are you okay? How can I
help you?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You know? And I definitely she like from you. It's
always like a very like nurturing like moment where you
I feel like when I have a conversation with you, you
can see my soul, like my inside whenever I talk
to you, Like I'll walk into the studio, i haven't
even said a word, and I'd be looking fucking cute.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I don't even have ibag, but I'd been.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Going through some ship and she'd be like, your energy's off.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Are you okay?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
What did you say the other day?
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
What I was going to tell you about my song?
She's a fucking boduo ho bro.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
She asked me about my availability, she said are you available?
And I missed the call and missed and I said, hey,
what was it? What did you what it was it about?
And you said, oh, I just wanted you for a
little video thing. And I just looked at you and
I said, was it a music video?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
And you were you know, you said are you making?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Are you making music?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And didn't you didn't even know I are you releasing music?
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was like, who told you?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
She's like, what's you?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Were even like surprised?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
You were like, I'm doing it again, you told me.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
But my brain just goes really fast. I'm a hyper processor.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yeah you will or fortune teller or divergent.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Is like I feel like you're very in tuned with
like the energy in the space too, and it's it's
really nice obviously from you, from the rest of our colleagues.
It's nice to feel supported and that we have that
like sense of camaraderie and family always.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
But yeah, you're you're crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Wait, okay, so before.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
We move on, yea, many have some questions.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
I just want to know because this is amazing and
you two have well, I know Commu's journey into Peloton.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Is wild, by the way, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
But in that time when you were you know, in
that transition and you got to meet the CEO of Peloton, Like,
what was that like of getting that opportunity? And then
I read that you didn't have to audition, Like you're
like the only instructor that did not audition, So like, what, like,
just give us the brief on that, because I think
our listeners would be so intrigued to know how did
you get into this?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I think it's important for everyone to understand how casual
this all was in the beginning, how casual it was.
Just to meet John Foley and to be in the
Peloton office, like it looked like a room like this.
There was a curtain, a black curtain, and a bike,
(22:33):
one Peloton bike, a bunch of Swin bikes, two cameras
and they're beta testing this software. And right next to it,
like per this, there was all the desks where everybody
was working, all ten of them, you know, So like
I didn't Peloton wasn't a thing, so I didn't know
(22:54):
to give a shit in that way. Yeah, you know
what I mean. I you that I kept being drawn
to it. It was the only thing in my life
that was making any sense. I had promised myself a year. Yes,
I go through this horrible breakup before the breakup ended,
And part of why it ended is because I was
working at The Box. Now. I don't know if you
(23:15):
know what The Box is in New York. For those
of you listening that don't know, it is our version
of the Mulin Rouge. It's a provocative cabaret style show.
It's a nightclub. Basically, if you can get in, anything goes.
And I had visited this club before I had moved
to New York. They have a show. It starts at one.
(23:36):
There's a host, she sings, and there's these like dancers
that come out and flank the hosts and they do
these little Sean TuS numbers and then all of the
acts come out. Now I didn't desire to be one
of the acts, but I definitely wanted to be one
of the dancers, and I definitely wanted to be able
to tell my kids that your mom showed her tits
(23:57):
when she was in her thirties at New York Second
See Us Hottest club and that's where she met your mother.
Oh my god, I'm working at this club.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
When did you realize after looking at Sophia that you were?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Like, so I gay?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
I don't know if I've ever realized that. I don't
know if I've ever had that.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
We've had this conversation, but.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Like wake up to like, oh I'm gay, Like that
still doesn't really resonate for me, but immediately and I
was just as confused as everyone else, and look on
my face showed it, like she called me crazy eyes.
Apparently I learned later to everyone else like oh, there's
crazy eyes. Because I would just look at her like
(24:52):
I didn't know what. I didn't know what was happening,
Like why was I wanting to look at her like that?
Why was I feeling this way? What was I gonna
fucking do.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
You about it?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Like?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
It was just a wild kind of confrontation of thoughts
and feelings that I had never had before in real time.
But again, I had promised myself this year of yes,
I was like fuck it, and I walked over to
her in the first rehearsal that I had ever seen.
I didn't even like, you know, scope it out or
like wait and see what might happen next. Immediately, like
(25:24):
immediately walked over and I was like, hey, do you
want to hook up? And she's like what, yeah, she goes, Hi,
my name is.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
You hadn't even met her, don't even know her name?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
No, do you want to hook up? I never I
don't know what I meant that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I practiced that.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I did not know what I was doing. Still to
this day, I would not know how to hit on
a woman. I just I don't I don't know, I
don't know. It's I don't get the game. I'm very awkward.
I think anyway, it worked. We're married, we have two kids, Okay,
so be yourself. But it was not immediate. She was
like I'm in a relationship. I can offer you friendship
(26:05):
and I was like I have enough friends things, and
like was real county about it. And then then things
started to happen on stage where like she would put
me in situation like live situations like Okay, we're on stage,
our hair, my hair's soaking wet, kings of leon sex
on fire, We're sitting on chairs were in like bra
(26:26):
underwear bra. I had on a bra.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Okay, that's important.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
A suggestion of some type of that was irrelevant. Okay,
it didn't matter. Sophia is singing. The move is we
like throw our head back and then we're like whip
our hair forward. And when I threw my head back,
she came and like straddled me, and I could not
whip my hair forward, right, I couldn't keep doing my choreo.
So then she does anyway, puts her hand between my legs. Oh,
(26:55):
all the way between my legs. Okay, live show. There's
an audience. Hello, Okay, so I'm upset about this. How
are you going to do that to me? Also? Thank
you amazing. That was incredible. I'm not mad about it.
All I'm saying is I have to get you back now.
Oh right. So then there was like a cake something
about it. There was a cake, and so then I
(27:17):
like was like, never do that to me again, and
like shove cake in her mouth and then we like
made out.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But then but then her girlfriend was in the audience
at the time, and her girl they were breaking up. Okay,
everyone was. Everyone was in integrity. We're not like that, okay,
lesbians we talk about everything. Anyway. This went on for
a year, this like back and forth, and I'd be like, hey,
do you want to share a cab home and she'd
be like yeah, sure. We get to my place, like
(27:44):
are you coming in? She's like no, bye, I'm like what,
And I've tried everything. We finally started to become friends,
and then we went on a date like a year later.
In that year's time, I had taken that. To answer
your question, now, ten minutes later, this has been the
grass ever I had taken this. My producer at the
(28:08):
box said, hey, there's this thing called he said Peddleton
at the time, but peloton, right. It wasn't a thin gummy.
Nobody had ever heard of it. It didn't exist, The
studio wasn't open yet though. It was just an idea, right,
And I remember taking this meeting and thinking, he's like,
(28:30):
you know, we're going to virtually stream classes. You're going
to be you know, teaching to people live, but then
also to like thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of
people in my performance brain. I'm like, wow, that sounds amazing.
I've never been on a spin bite. He's like well,
we're doing we're beta testing the software. So if you
just want to come and see what it's about, take
(28:50):
some classes, meet some of the other people involved, you
can do that. They're at like eight am. Okay, so
the holidays pass, so now we're looking at January March.
I had moved out of my ex's apartment, moved into
a friend of a friend's apartment, which was a studio,
but it was a six floor walk up on sixty
fourth in York. Okay. I had my dog's zeus at
(29:12):
at time, so every morning you take him down six flights,
go back up, six flights down, six flights, walk from
first to Lex to get to the train, which any
East Side New Yorker would be like, damn bitch in
the snow for real. To go to the Peloton studio
(29:32):
take these classes, not getting paid to do it, just
showing up for something, not sure what it is. So
by the time they got to like April, when they're
like would you like to audition, I'm like for what?
And I'm like, just hire me. I'm showing up, I'm
excellent at this. What do you need to know?
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Real?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Do you want me to go through an audition?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Now?
Speaker 4 (29:57):
After the three months of showing up to these whatever
this is called you Okay, but all I'm gonna do
is just like YouTube something and come up here and
like perform for three minutes, just teach me how to
ride this bike. I'm gonna be great at this. And
they're like.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Okay, okay, yeah, right, all right.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
But it wasn't like I just showed up. It was
like hire me, Like I had been showing up for
four months, just there to just understand what was happening,
to see if I even liked it, to see if
my brain would start doing what it did as a
dancer and choreographer, and like start putting the puzzles together,
to see, like do can I grow here? Will this
(30:43):
be exciting for me? Is this a sound decision? Like
business spirit? Like you know? And again, nothing in my
life had made sense. Everything else had been not a
great decision. So here I was, I'm like, is this
woman decision? How am I supposed to know? Is this
(31:03):
career a great decision?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Like?
Speaker 4 (31:05):
How am I supposed to know? And so I started
to develop a relationship with the feeling of knowing when
I was in alignment and knowing when I was on
my path, and it was just this frequency, this like
higher vibration where everything felt like yes and things would
happen faster, and those insecurities and shadowy feelings that had
(31:30):
been like my constant state started to be whispers. And
that's how I knew I was on the right path.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Like relating to our listeners or even like our journeys,
when you go through something really hard and you get
out of it, like from the learnings that you made
from the courage it took to change something. You took
a year of yes, and you went up to a
woman and said, do you want to hook up? That was like,
that's that's impressive, but that's a yes. But then on
(32:08):
top of that, you showed up and you said it.
You said, I showed up, And so I think it's
not only incredibly inspiring what you've done.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
One more really important piece of that. I also said
yes to therapy, and I had started working with a
therapist to unpack the patterns. Why does this shit keep
playing out? Different situation, same story, Like that's ten years ago.
It had been mostly just with my career. I pretty
(32:39):
much had like a grip. It was my relationships and
love where I was flailing and failing and like making
not just bad decisions, dangerous decisions, stupid decisions. I was
getting hurt. I was hurting other people. I was it
(33:00):
was very dysfunctional, and I just like, I'm pretty sure
this has something to do with the way that I
grew up, you know, being being in a divorce family,
like everything for everyone, And so I started going to therapy.
But then the real major, major shift was when I
started to wake up and started to unpack those things
(33:20):
and learn how to love myself and be compassionate and
become more aware of my experiences and why they were happening.
It all felt like a big puzzle, and I was
very intrigued by understanding all the pieces of my puzzle.
And if I could understand the pieces of mind, then
does the same formula then work on others. So right
(33:45):
at this same time Peloton Sophia the Box, I was
going through this radical transformation within myself, and the three
components that were healing me and calling me back home
were a movement practice. I hadn't been dancing in two years,
so I started moving again. I started working out. Obviously,
I was taking these classes every single day, and I
(34:08):
started nourishing myself. There was a lot of drugs and alcohol,
a lot of no sleep, a lot of nothing green
in your diet, just you know. And I knew better
than that. My mom was a bodybuilder. I was not
an eighty. I knew what I was doing. It wasn't
like I didn't know. It was like, no, bitch, I
knew everything that I ate and everything that I did
(34:30):
not yet I knew what was happening because I love
that bitch.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Oh my god, I love her so much.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
She's very lovable.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
I'm obsessed with her continuing try living with her.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Though I can only imagine, I can imagine, I mean,
I love her, that's too much.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
So the third one, and the third one was that
the therapy piece right. And so I knew now that
because in all my relationships and just the way I
had been up until that point, I'd always tried to
give an advice to people. I always knew what people
should do, and I was not wrong. I did not
(35:11):
have a way of having impact and influence in the
way that actually facilitated change. Nobody wants to be told
what to do, like there's a language to this, and
there is. And I went to the Coactive Training Institute
and got certified to become a life coach, that I
could understand how to create a safe space, hold that
(35:32):
container with someone, ask powerful questions so that they can
understand their own life experiences on a deeper level, and
I mean a deeper level.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
So that.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
In the present moment they can truly understand the why
of their beinging and then understand that they can find
that voice within them that is loving and compassionate to
guide them into a more life loving state. Whether they're
triggered in ego, fear, their traumas are playing out, they're angry,
(36:05):
they're enraged. We all know the feeling of being tight
and being in some sort of fear, doubt and security, sadness, grief,
all those heavy feelings, and we also know the opposite
of that, the feeling of being lifted, loved, elevated, treasure, adored, laughing, pleasure.
(36:28):
And so this coactive model allowed me to go there
with someone and have tools to move with them through
that conversation and being at Peloton. Now, this was the
first time in my performance life that I was given
(36:49):
a mic. So it's a dancer, you know, I'm not
a singer like you got me.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
No.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
I auditioned for Broadway, and every single time I'd make
it through the day tansportion and then I cannot think,
I know, feel sorry for me because if I could bitch,
what imagine? I just imagine if I could sing, how
insufferable I would be as a human being. There's a
reason why I can draw. So that's when my Mindful
(37:22):
three business practice, my Mindful three wellness practice was born.
I take clients I don't personally now, but I did
then I didn't. I wore that all the hats, and
but then I started having a nutritionists come on board,
other strength trainers, other life coaches. I expanded my team.
So each client goes through a three month transformation. They
(37:44):
have a life coach, they have a strength coach, and
they have a nutritionist, and they meet with them multiple
times throughout the week and we really just flood them
with the accountability that is often needed, the education that
is often needed, and the unique programming that each individual
(38:05):
needs for themselves. So yeah, and so.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
If you're looking for additional support, mindful three.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Mindful three, and I do. I just started, like my
fourth round of small group coaching calls really really feed
my soul. Like truly, I get nervous in the same
way we get nervous for class. You're like, oh yeah,
or like nervous for a workout and you're like, I
don't want to do it. You know. I feel that
way before these calls and they're really dope.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
That's sick.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
And just having access to your brain is very valuable period.
And I say that as somebody who has access to
your brain, not twenty four to seven, but you give
me a lot of access and I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
That's your friend, of course.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Wow, coming this conversation with Jess King was honestly one
of my favorites I've ever had.
Speaker 5 (38:58):
She's an icon.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
She really is just talent. She's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, honestly, we love her.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
We're big Jess King fans.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
We are very excited how about how this conversation went,
and we honestly were not expecting for it to be
so well. I was expecting for it to be d.
Let's be so freaking for real. I was expecting for
it to be d because I know her, but also
like I want to talk to her about so much
more so for this episode, We're gonna hold it there
and for the next one. This is one of the
(39:26):
things that I was actually the most interested to talk
to Jess about, which is unleashing your creative potential and
her creative process. I said, I need to get into
that brain girl, and she said yeah.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
So keep tuning in.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
This is Astajo and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
See you next Time.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Is an iHeart women's sports production and partnership with Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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