October 16, 2024 • 41 mins
If you’ve taken a Peloton class or turned on the Today Show, you probably know Ally Love - the energetic, engaging fitness instructor and influencer with a loyal #LoveSquad following. But not many know about the near-death experience young Ally survived, or how it shaped her outlook on life. For our final episode of She Pivots season three, Ally shares how that terrifying accident taught her a lot about herself and life; her time at the renowned dance academy, Alvin Ailey; her big break into Peloton; and her new partnership with Contigo as Chief Hydration Officer. She also gets real about the comparison game and how learning to be happy about others’ successes - and her own - has allowed her to embrace abundance and live a more joyful life.
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Ally, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Ali Love.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. You guys,
it is so bittersweet to say this, but this week
(00:35):
is our final episode of season three. We're just gonna
go on a quick break and then we'll be back.
But what better way to end this season with the fun, funny,
inspiring and empowering Allie Love. Ali's a true champion, whether
it's through her Peloton classes, at her events for Love Squad,
or lending me her iconic yellow suit when we rang
(00:57):
the Nasdaq bell at the start of this podcas cast
season that is true. She led an Instagram friend uber
a suit back and forth to her apartment so I
could look perfectly fun but serious on the three story
billboard in Times Square. If you know Peloton, then you
know Ali Love. She's made a name for herself as
the self love and positivity focused instructor and developed a
(01:21):
loyal following. She wouldn't have been able to capture our
hearts through her love of movement if she didn't find
her way there. After a horrible accident at just age
nine after studying dance at the prestigious Alvin Ailey Institute,
Alie wasn't sure what success looked like, just that.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
She needed to pay her bills.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But in the midst of all the unknown, she dug
deep into herself and decided to start her Community Love
Squad as a way to channel her passion for women
connecting and movement. Little did she know that all that
searching would make her the perfect Peloton candidate. Now, with
over a million followers later and a new water bottle
line with Contiguo, she shows no signs of stopping enjoy.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Ali Love.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I am a Peloton instructor. I'm an on air contributor
for The Today Show and the CEO and founder of
the Squad.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay, so set the scene for us. What was a
little Ali like?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
What did you think you were going to be when
you grew up?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Okay, So I have to say that I think that
I'm exactly the same. So I think when you think
of a little Ali, she's exactly the same as I am. Now,
most people don't get to see that part of me.
But in my personal life, I am quirky. I work
the quirk.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I love I love, love, love, love Emily. I love laughing.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Like if there was a natural drug in life, laughter
would be my number one choice. Like I want to
laugh all the time. I love comedy. I love laughing.
I love joking.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I'm not great at jokes, but I love making them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, so I think I'm pretty much the same, very energetic, enthusiastic.
I get energy from being out socially with people. I
love just having fun and laughing.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Ali grew up around dozens of cousins and extended family,
a big family full of love, joy, and most importantly laughter.
But when she was just nine, Ali went through a
near death accident.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
When I was nine years old, I got hit by
a car. Every weekend, my mom, she's one of ten kids.
We get together with all of our cousins, aunts and
uncles and we eat. We have like a family barbecue
or fresh frye. We went fishing a lot. My family
still goes fishing a lot. And we'd have a fish
fry and so we'd either go to my house, my
grandma's house, or one of my aunt's house and everyone
(03:37):
would sit outside. The grown ups would play cards and dominoes,
and the kids would just play games. And this particular
Saturday afternoon, the ice cream truck the noise, the magical
noise of ice cream.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Asked my mom for a dollar, and I.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Went to the ice cream truck got my favorite ice
cream of Chocolated Claire. The ice cream truck was across
the street. As I'm crossing the street, I looked both ways.
I crossed the street safely back to my aunt's. My
older cousin was like, can you go grab me an
ice cream? In my family, when your older cousin asked
you to do something, you do it. It was no problem,
and I was at the age of nine. The ice
cream truck is literally across the street from the house
(04:11):
in the neighborhood and all the kids are there, so
it was something that was really safe. So I went
back across the street, did the exact same thing, came
both ways. Unfortunately, the timing was just what it was.
The car was parked behind the ice cream truck and
at the time I walked across the street when there
were no cars, that car pulled out hit me. I
flew up in the air, landed on the top of
(04:32):
the car, rolled in the grass. I broke my left femur,
start up my entire body, and broke my teeth, and
I was in the hospital for seven days.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Five of those days I was in.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Traction because normally older folks break their hips and so
they didn't have the equipment to do surgery right away
on a young girl, our young kid, and so for me,
I was in traction. I was losing a lot of blood.
I came very close to a blood transfusion, which was
really scary. We found out my dad is a close donor,
a universal donor, so that was lovely. But in terms
(05:05):
of just like being in that hospital and having that
experience and losing a lot of blood.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I remember one key moment.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That I've shared over the last like four years is
that the doctor came in to speak to my mom
and dad, and they went in the hospital and my
mom came back in and she was like, the doctor's saying,
you're losing a lot of blood, and you know, we
have options, but it's going to be really hard, and
you have to decide if you want to fight. You
have to like decide if you're going to pray and
fight for your life or if you're going to let go.
(05:34):
And I just remember when she asked me that, and
it was more in a way of like her asking
like how did I want to deal with this right?
Like what was coming up for me? And I remember
looking out of the window and deciding, like I was like,
you know what, Mom, I'm going to pray and I'm
going to fight for my life. And we went on
this whole journey and it was really complicated. It created
(05:55):
complications for my relationship with my mom because she was
my primary caregiver. When I got out of the hospital
after the surgery, and I just remember, like I said,
like the H word to my mom.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I was like, I hate you because I was so miserable.
I was.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, we had the surgery, was successful, I was
in recovery, but I was dealing with depression and anxiety
and I had no idea. There were no names at
this time. My mom didn't have this information, and I
was so miserable. I was at home being in a
space by myself all day. So that was a pivotal
time in my life where I learned a lot about myself.
I learned to appreciate life. I learned to fall in love.
(06:30):
I'm very you know, someone who's very spiritual, grew up
religious to fall in love with God. That for me,
my own experience, there's no way God didn't save my
life because nothing was going our way. It wasn't like
we got anything out of the had we paid. My
family took a hit, Like we paid a lot of
medical bills. We didn't come out where Oh the person
was take who hit me somehow was able to like compensate. No,
(06:54):
my mom lost money at work, We lost money financially
from like the fact that we had so many doctor bills.
So it was a lot, and it put our relationship
through the grinder and honestly brought us out on the
other side stronger. The mother daughter connection and bond. And
now I see how similar we are in life, and
how giving you that opportunity to make that decision, because
I never stopped making decisions about my life from that
(07:17):
day forward.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's amazing that you were able to have that revelation
and that switch in your perspective at such a young
age towards your mother. I think it's really incredible, you know,
I think a lot of people are aware of the
fact that you were a dancer, even if they don't know,
you know, sort of how extensive your dance career was.
But to understand this background of how far you must
(07:38):
have had to fight to get your body, not just
physically back in shape to be a professional dancer, which
is unbelievable, but also for you to have the confidence
for your body to be seen.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting was dance came after.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It was actually my savior in a sense where you know,
the doctor told my mom, she's get yourself prepared.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
She's not going to be a runner.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You know, she's probably gonna have arthritis at an early age,
probably in the late teens. She's gonna have authritis because
I had a big metal plate in my hip. And
it was the after being homeschooled and being with my
mom for so long. There was a summer program that
my aunt, my mom's best friend, who like is amazing Ms. Liz,
who was like, Hey, my daughter's going to this summer
(08:24):
program and they offer dance.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Maybe Ali wants to go.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And I fell in love with dance and it was
like dance saved my life. It gave me an outlet.
It was a way for me to communicate because I
didn't have the words of what was going on inside.
And I can imagine any parent, your parent. Sometimes kids,
you know, even with my nieces and nephews, sometimes their
physical response seems to be disassociated with their surroundings, and
(08:49):
that's because they cannot articulate what's happening internally.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And for me, dance was that outlet.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It was that opportunity for me to take that internalization,
the new the confusion, the depression, the anxiety, the unfamiliarity,
the lack of confidence and self esteem and manifest that
in just moving my body and communicate that way. And
I will say I fell in love with it, and
it was something I started to pursue, and it brought
me to New York.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
It's the reason why I am now you know where
I am.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Dance was that catalyst, that of communication, but it also
brought me to a place where now I live and
was I you know, honestly, I'm thriving here.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I love this place. It's true.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
She found in New York City through dance, but more
specifically through the Alvin Alien Institute, a renowned dance academy
founded by the dancer Alvin Ailey, whose mission was to
support black artists and express the black experience through dance.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So Ailey came to our high school. I went to
Newural School of the Arts, which is an art school
in Miami. Fortunate enough to audition and get in, and
they came in and they held an audition, and I
ended up getting into Fordom the ALA program.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So this is your going to school for four years.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
My half my school curriculum is in regular college right
here on Lincoln Center, and then the other half I'm
doing dance classes. So I would have Instead of an
average student who would have like maybe three or four
classes a day, I'm having seven because I'm going to
do three dance classes and then I'll do two to
three to four academic classes. And so I ended up
getting accepted into the a Ley Fordham program. It was
(10:20):
a four year program and bachelor's and fine arts was
my primary. And while I was there, you get to
pick a secondary. And I got curious around psychology, given
I experienced all these feelings for so many years, and
then I got curious on theology growing up religious, knowing
again having this personal experience where I know for me,
God is real and I had that personal experience through
(10:43):
being hit by a car going through the recovery period,
and so I started to get curious around the emotions
as well as like the spiritual aspect of these emotions.
And eventually all of the classes led me into theology,
and I was more curious on why did each religion
think their religion was the right religion, Because as a dancer,
(11:03):
I'm on this like one side of my brain where
I'm creative and everybody's welcome, and everybody is like who
they are and who they are is good enough, and
like you're just amazing, and you can explore all areas
of yourself. And then there's this like pragmatic side where
it's or structured side where folks are like, well, this
is the way you need to live your life. And
I was on this journey in university to reconcile that,
(11:26):
and I thought the only way, which I still believe
the only way to find some.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Answers is to study it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And so I studied dance and I pursue that creativity
and I still as like a foundation for me. It's
like everybody's invited, everybody's welcome, like you should be here,
you belong here, there's a sense of belonging. Anywhere I am,
there's a sense of belonging that I like to create.
And so it's like keeping that fundamental exploration of creativity
while pursuing the understanding of theology of religion, of the
(11:53):
differences of religion and the practical application, and so arriving
at different points throughout my life around like saying creative,
saying knowing movement is so important, and also knowing that
you can have a personal relationship with God, with the universe,
with an outlook of spirituality that is so unique to you,
and still be part of a community and be inviting
(12:14):
and welcoming. And so it was those four years that
really set the stage for my adult life and what
I was going to pursue with Peloton, with Today's Show,
with hosting the Brooklyn Nets, with creating a career, creating
Love Squad, and having to share what I believed.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I wanted to know how Ali thought about success? Being
a dancer or any performer for that matter, is no
easy feat. But like so many young aspiring artists, she
was just trying to make ends meet. When you were dancing,
How did you think about success?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, I think at that time, being.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Young in New York City while I'm having all of
these incredible conversations in class. I think the metric for
success at that time in my life was to live
comfortably in New York City.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I didn't come from a lot of means.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
My mom worked really hard, my dad worked really hard,
and they did a great job at making sure that
we had what we needed. Moving to New York was
really challenging in that I'm setting out as an adult
and it's an expensive city and I don't want to
have eighty seven roommates. So my mind more so went,
how can I take my skill set and position myself
(13:22):
on the beginning of for the beginning of my career
so that I can live in a city that I
love that I can also be very much individual. I
think that's how I show and pay respect to my family,
is like I can take care of myself financially right
some financial independence, and also do something that I love
for me. Now, the metric for success in those pivotal
(13:44):
moments of like, wow, am I close to that metric?
Am I living within the scope of that metric of success?
It's truly now At this point, I still think everybody
has to figure out means to make sure they support
themselves because life changes and everything's getting more expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I don't throw that to the side.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But what I do want to recognize is that the
metric for success for me is that the people that
I surround myself with, my inner love squad, is a
reflection of me, and I'm proud of that reflection. Like
I can see that the people that I have in
my life, that they are good people, and not even
just good people, they're good people doing good things to
make the world a better place. That everything that they're
(14:23):
aligning themselves with is contributing or attributing or supporting or
encouraging goodness for other folks. And to me, that means
I'm aligned in doing what I'm supposed to do, and
I'm that's that I'm aligned with my purpose. When I
noticed that maybe the folks around me aren't a great
reflection of who I'd like to be, then I think
(14:44):
that's where the disconnect happens. And that's where I say, well,
let me recalibrate what success looks like. And maybe it's
not them, maybe it's me. I'm not blaming them, like, oh,
got to get the bad people out of your life. Sometimes
it's not the answer. Sometimes the bad person is you
creating bad situations with good people in your life. And
so I do take that responsibility to say the metric
for success just for me to evaluate the people around me,
(15:07):
the settings that I'm in.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
What are we doing, how are we talking about each other?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
What are we giving back into the world, what is
our purpose together collectively? And if there is some dissociation
the first time, the first thing I look at is myself.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Alie channels those deeper questions into her first venture that
is still thriving to this day. Love Squad, a community
that centers around emboldening women through facilitated conversations in person
and online.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Is the Love Squad? How do I get involved in?
How it was created?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Plain and simply.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
The Love Squad is a website that explores fitness. It
explores street style food, health and wellness. And what differentiates
us is that we say true to who we are. Hello,
Welcome to a Love Squad of the men.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He are so excited that all of you are sharing.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
This with us.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
When we come back, Alie tells us what led to
her big pivot into Peloton. Okay, so, let's bring it
back to as you are putting yourself into this space
and building up your confidence and moving yourself through and
(16:25):
being able to network, what did your career look like
pre Peloton like to set the stage for I mean,
you had a bunch of different jobs already.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Pre Peloton, I was hosting for the Brooklyn Nets, which
I just finished my last season. I host for eleven seasons,
so in arena host means you're on the court, you're
having conversations, hosting, doing all of these things for eighteen
thousand fans, forty one games a season, plus playoffs and
pre season. And I was also an Adidas Goolal ambassador,
so I've been with Adidas. My last year was last year,
(16:54):
so for about eight years maybe nine years wow, nine
years with Adidas, and that means you know, traveling, doing
a lot of projects with them around women empowerment, which
was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And also a dancer, I was gigging.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I was a part of the gig economy, and I
was like auditioning and dancing with like Pitbull and Beyonce
and Wyclef and doing all these jobs. And I also
had a modeling agency, so I was modeling in all
of these campaigns, a lot of things with fitness and
aligned with fitness, and so it was one of those
things where I had to make my days worth it,
because if I didn't, then I didn't make any money.
(17:27):
So you wake up, you know, you call your agent
or you check your email, and you go to castings
and you go to dance auditions.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To try to get you know, book this job.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And so that gig economy was definitely was my primary focus,
along with photo shoots from the modeling agency and doing
things with the ditas and then the night games.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So I was working early.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Mornings and late nights, which I still kind of do,
but it was a part of the journey and I'm
really proud of it. And you know there are many
times in our I'm sure you and anyone's listening, what
we all have to just we have to the return
on the investment.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You have to the investment in first.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
And so it is that sweat equity, It is that curiosity,
is the mistakes, it's the lessons, all those things that
I did over the years to get to a place
where I was like, hey, I want to create this company,
Love Squad where we do women empowerment events where I
can share all these things that I've learned through trial
and error and have a safe space for that at
a very little to no cost, so that access information
(18:23):
is accessible, right, And I think that that was what
we know. We created this small company and we're still
thriving to this day doing events, and I was able
to take a lot of the hard work and manifest
it into a space that I could I paid it
forward and I wasn't just benefiting from it, and I
was able to make those connections of folks coming into
a room and connecting with each other and just feeling
(18:44):
better about themselves and having information access to that information
so they can make better decisions. But by the way,
I want to go back to one piece you slipped
in there, this building the sweat equity and building the
ability to then be able to build your dream of
the love Squad moving forward and building that community where
you passed along later. I think it's an incredibly important point.
(19:05):
It's interesting that actually, even though I've sort of designed
this show for women who are in the second phase
of their career thinking about the second phase of their career,
we know from our data that half of our audience
is eighteen to twenty five, which is super interesting because
I think that means, well, I can guess a lot
of things that it means, but I think they want
to know that there are stories of inspiration out there
and that there's different ways to have success, and so
(19:28):
they want to hear stories but different ways to do it.
And I think that something that often gets not enough
attention is really the way to build skills and the
way to build confidence in your career is there's no shortcuts,
like you just have to work for it and then
and then later on you can get to the point
where you can build a community to pass information down
and pass lessons learn done, which you couldn't have done
(19:50):
had you not worked through the mistakes and lived through
it in the early mornings and the late nights. So
was that contemporaneous with beginning at Pelotonic. Were you looking
for for something that just took up more time so
it was less gig or did that just kind of happen?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I think there were building blocks.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I said this to you earlier, is that you find
your career one of two ways. Some people you know,
at seven years old know they're going to be an
astronaut and nothing's going to stop them. And some folks
are similar to me, where it's like you actually listen
to what people say you're good at and you lean
in on that. And so that's exactly what I did.
I you know, my dance teacher all you early on
was like, you're really good at dancing, and so I
(20:28):
pursue that until a point where I said, wow, I
need to make a decision because on a dancer, unfortunately,
on a dancer's salary in New York, I can't live
here and I want to. And so I started in
that gig economy of you know, having those multiple jobs.
And what ended up happening was from hosting from the
Brooklyn Nets, from becoming Adidas Global Ambassador, mind you, being
an Adidas Global Ambassador. They splid in my dms before
(20:51):
sliding and dms were cool. That's exactly what happened. They're like,
we're looking for ambassadors. You seem like your platform around
women in powering. Now mind you, I had like twenty
five hundred followers, so this platform was not really a platform.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It was just a little circle of folks.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
But they reached out and I became one of the
six Global Ambassadors that really started the ambassador program that
companies you know, emulate to this day.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And so with those.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Things building, they were all building blocks and the visibility
and the connectivity, they all intersected at the work of Community,
they all intersected a conversation and eventually on camera right
everything we started streaming everything. Peloton reached out. I had
a call and they were like, we're looking for instructors.
Would you like to audition. At this point, I'm running
(21:37):
half marathons, I'm doing hot yoga, I'm gigging, I'm still dancing,
and I'm hosting for the Brooklyn Nets. I'm in sport,
I'm doing hosting, and I'm an athlete. Like at this point,
it's exactly what they're looking for for an instructor.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And I was like, oh no, thank you. Facts.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I was like, I don't want to be an instructor,
Like I'm not in fitness. No one cares what I think. Like,
you know, I don't want to teach anyone on anything.
And again it's leaning into what people say you're good at.
They were like great on that phone call, They're like awesome, Okay,
we hear you, will see you on Tuesday. I was
like Okay, I guess I'm being told. And I had
the meeting. I learned about the company. I knew a
(22:13):
bit about the company, but I learned more in depth
on what they were doing and how impactful they were,
and how more.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So that they were just rooted in community.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And I remember the conversation saying, what you do with
Love Squad is exactly what we want to do here
at Peloton, And I was like, oh, wait, this isn't
because I'm the host of the Brooklyn Nets. This isn't
because like, oh you think I run fast for something.
This is because you are aligned with my values. Like
I knew that having get hit by a car, coming
to New York, really going in and working hard and
(22:45):
trying to figure it out, being by myself in New
York City, away from my family, building the Love Squad,
like doing these things, I knew the power of community
and creating that connection and how impactful it could be
for your overall mental health, mental well being, and for
you just to have a good life, that good stuff.
And so I took the conversation seriously when they said that,
in the sense of ah, it's aligned with my purpose,
(23:07):
not just another job. And so I went in it's
a little different now. I had a fifteen minute audition
and the next day they offered me a job and
I became one of the founding eleven instructors, and I
was the first black woman instructor on the platform.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so for me, it was really.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Remarkable because I've seen the company over the last eight
years expand pretty quickly around COVID, but also the companies
thrive in a way and be of service to so
many millions of people, and it warms my heart.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love what we do. I love our members, I
love my instructors.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I love our team so so, so so much, and
I'm very grateful that I said no and they didn't
take no for an answer on that phone call.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
She's been a wildly popular Peloton instructor since twenty sixteen.
Rise and Let's Go her Sundays would love, attracting as
many as sixteen thousand riders every week.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You I am Ali Love Welcome. This is a thirty
minute dance one one hundred rolton.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
It's about to go down and this is my Women's
History Month celebration ride.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
We have twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I'm so thrilled and excited to do this.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
There is no question Ali has skyrocketed. Even one of
my producers raved about only ever taking Ali's classes on Peloton.
But how does she view her successes?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
You know, as of this year, I end up becoming
a director, I'm still an instructor. We end up becoming
like a global lead director. And then I just got
promoted to VP of Instructor Strategy and Development, and I
was able to carve out my path and see where
there are missing holes between partnering teams and how do
we work with marketing, and how do we make sure
we're leveraging instructors and carving out internal progress and what
(24:44):
does progress look like for an instructor because we hold
the title of instructor forever.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You know, when you're in a linear career, you go
from what.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Director to VP to the like you can see like, oh, manager, director, boom,
you can see your path internally at Peloton, it's instructor
full stop. Now, mind you, there's nothing wrong with that,
and many of us, if not all of us, are
proud of that title. However, what I will say is
every human, most times, most people thrive, you know, crazy
(25:12):
progress and what that looks like. So it's not title change,
what does internal roadmapping look like for us? But I
also think we have some good women okay throughout my
career here who poured into me. It's like when you
walk into a space, women are powerful, and like I've
had women that have opened up doors I didn't have.
I don't have credentials, I don't know what I'm doing,
(25:33):
but as a woman, you're so powerful and energetically, like
when you come in and other women come in, if
you just lend out a hand, extend at hand, it
is impactful. And that's what she did. And I've again
been fortunate that I've had many women do that to
me in spaces, and I've always tried my best to
be that person as well as like how can I
(25:54):
support you where you are?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You know, and and it's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
After the break, Ali dives into how she fell into
the mindset that so many of us do, the comparison game.
More soon, Well, you've talked about comparing yourself to others
(26:21):
and how it led you to a standstill and then
not to take steps forward and like not to start networking.
So is there a particular moment that you can remember
where you looked around and you felt that way, like
you were to stand still, and then how did you
change that mindset?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
COVID had done a number. It's done a number on
many of folks.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I didn't recognize that number that was done on me
because I felt like it had sifted me, like wheat right.
It was a little by little by little, and it
was probably around the year of twenty twenty one. I
was actually getting married this year, so it was like
the highlight of my life and one of the lowest
points of my life emotionally, and I didn't recognize why
(26:59):
I felt that way.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And so when I thought.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Of moments that I didn't feel my most confident self,
or I didn't feel happy for other people, I didn't
feel happy for myself.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
It was during that time, and it was.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A hard revelation to have because really, what was the
most important realization within that revelation was that I started
comparing myself to people around me.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
And I'm not telling you like that. It's natural.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It's very natural to anyone who's listening, very natural. But
the reality of it is the ability to number one,
be self aware. Number two, be able to catch yourself
and pivot in that thought that framed you know that
that thought, that mindset quickly is a reflection of overall
for me mental health and mental well being, and the
(27:48):
fact that I could not pivot from the moment of
comparison to the moment of gratitude, to the moment of
recognizing abundance, to the moment of tapping into my worthiness, like, girl,
I'm worthy no.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Matter what I have or don't have.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Wow, I look how long my hair is, how much
money I have or don't have. I'm already worthy. You
that are listening, You're already worthy. With everything you have
and everything you don't have, You're already worthy. I couldn't
get there. I could not get there. And that was
that was literally the realization where I was like, I
think I'm mentally unhealthy because I can't stop the comparison game.
(28:22):
Comparison is the thief of joy, and I would compare
myself to everyone I saw on social media, and then
it makes me feel bad about well, Emily has a
podcast and I don't like.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I started like woe is me?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Pity parties, and then it's a vicious cycle of like, well,
am I just a terrible person? Maybe I'm just destined
to be a loser, and so it was through one
the recognition of that comparison became such a normal thought
for me, and not wanting it to be my reality,
that I saw help.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I went to a psychiatrist.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I went to a psychologist, and I gathered up a team,
and you know, I work at a company that offers resources,
so we have access to therapy when we need it,
and I tapped into therapy and I had to get
myself back to a state of.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Neutral, not even positive. I'm not a positive person. I
always say this.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I practice positivity through positive framing, not positive positive toxic toxicity,
but positive framing. I needed at that time not to
get to positive framing. I needed to get to neutral.
I just needed to breathe, like get above water. And
with the help of those teams, I was able to
kind of like shake off, you know, some of those demons,
(29:30):
some of those grimlins in my mind and move away
from thinking comparison was my way of life and knowing
that it's a part of life, but it's not my life.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, so you actually said something during that I do
live Yesterday's vibe. It's that same question that I wanted
to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You said, just because people aren't rooting for you doesn't
mean they're rooting against you. You kept coming back to this,
and but my kind of follow up thought to it was,
why care what they're thinking about you at all?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Okay, Okay, this is amazing. And the thing is, you
can't stop caring. I know, we say we do. I
know people are like, I don't have two s to
give you do because it's the fact that you have
to say that is a premise, is it, like, it's
a premise in itself that we care. We talk about
what people say. We want to be good. We want
(30:21):
naturally humans, every human, every doggie, every kitty cat wants
to be loved. Okay, and that is fine. And in
order to be loved, you have to be liked. You
have to be liked in some regards. And sometimes we
do get it. If you're married or you're in a
long term relationship. Sometimes you're like, I love you right now,
I don't like you right now, but it's a short term,
(30:41):
like right it's a temporary dislike, but you're gonna like
that person. People divorce or separate because they still love
each other, but they don't like each other for a
very long time. So we need to be liked in
order to be loved sometimes, right, those things coexist. And
again I don't claim to be an expert in this field,
but what I do know is that even when you
(31:03):
say you don't care, you have to tell yourself you
don't care, because it's naturally our makeup is to care.
We care because we want to be liked. Being like
means we're safe, means we're loved, means we're okay. It
says a lot of things, and that's okay. And so
for me, the reason I care what people like are one.
I think it's innately a part of the genetic human
(31:25):
makeup too. My business, and you know, frankly yours too,
is like how many people like fimily like how many
people are going to listen to she pivots. It's because
they like you, they like what you're doing, they like
you a lot of what we do in this world
and our progression in this world, whether you're in a
linear career or a creative career, or you're an entrepreneur,
it's made up of how many people like you or
(31:48):
your product, which is a reflection of you and your thoughts, right,
And that's okay.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like, we got to get okay with that.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
And so what I did was, instead of running to
the I don't give up about anybody and what they think,
because I do deep down in my heart, I really do.
I'm not trying to care what everyone thinks, but I
do care that, like, you know, who I am is
likable and lovable to my standard. But with that, I
was like, you know what, maybe I need to reframe it,
and I have to recognize just because people aren't rooting
(32:19):
for me doesn't mean they're rooting against me. Just because
they follow you and don't follow me doesn't mean that
I'm a bad person or I'm unlovable or I'm unlikable,
right like, just because my colleagues and it's happens at
peloton like, just because so many people take this person's
rides doesn't mean that they don't like me. That means
(32:39):
that what they're getting from this serves them where they are,
And there's a group of people that I serve where
they are, And so it doesn't mean they're rooting against
me and they want me to fail.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
And somehow I'm a failure.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
And so I think instead of for me, I'm not
saying that you know if you're like the subtle art
of not giving up oop fine works for you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Good.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
But what I found for me is it was shifting
my entire perspective instead of coming up with a statement
that I know, deep down in my heart, I still
kind of want you to be my friend. I still
want you to be pleasant and like me. Right, I
want to be liked and I want to continue to
like me. I more so know that just because you're
not rooting for me right now doesn't mean you're rooting
(33:20):
against me, which is so cool, Like it makes sense
for me at least.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Okay, we can't leave without me asking you about your
new collection with Contigo.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh my god, water bottles.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Congratulations on Chief Hydration.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Very interesting. We need to get all those Gotham girls hydrated. Yes,
we got to, Yes, tell us about it. Why water bottles?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Because I on the bike, I talk about hydration station
all the time.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
A couple of team members at Contigo take my classes,
and it was just more of like when they were
looking for someone to start to build a new line around,
They're like, why don't we reach out to Ali Love
And they did, and the reason it's Chief Hydration Officer
is one. It shows that there's a title and there's
a commitment. It's a three year partnership, and it is
so fun and funny. And also it's a play on
(34:05):
like not everything is serious, Like we get so caught
up in like every title everything. It's fun. It's true,
it's something I'm passionate about. It's something I talk about
on the Today Show, multiple ways of hydrating, shaking your hydration,
getting things that really fuel you, that make you feel good,
and so it was very symbiotic in terms of the relationship.
It was important to me when I do partnerships. I
(34:26):
do partnerships with brands that I talk about a brands
that I love full stop. That's true. And this one
with the title was like, well, this is three years.
We want people to know, we want the folks to
know that we're serious about it.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And so the collection is like behind me.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
But two of the prints I did, like a class
Accounts too print with the logo how I love the durable,
like all the things you want in a water bottle,
They're durable, keep things cold and or hot, whatever you decide.
They fit in Peloton right, Like I am not just Peloton.
Other threads because you do. I use the app in
the hotel gyms, and so I went around putting like, oh,
(35:00):
I'm like putting the water bottle in cup holders, like riding,
like how I feel.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So we did a classic.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Hounds Tooth like I think when I moved to New York,
I fell in love with fashion all like to the
next level.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
And I say this, You know, everyone can do fashion.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
You can go into Fifth Avenue and look at a
mannequin and put on that outfit, but very few people
can do style, and so people that rock hound tooth.
Hounds Tooth is like the most stylish, iconic like characters
of New York.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And so I brought this in. There's a sensory part
of it too, so.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
That every pattern on each water bottle is raised just
for appropriate reception, so that like, you know, as we
get a little older, I know, my mom has sometimes
a hard time gripping things. I'm a sweaty betty, so
my hands are so moist when I'm working out, so
that that way you're able to grip it a little
bit more.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And then from the.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Classic to the current, we did a cowgirl print, so
this is like the cowgirl print Cowgirl, Cowboy, and it
was something everything has a pop up.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Orange Orange is my power color.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think it's just like a mix of like being
bold and being fun or you know, or just like
a red and a yellow mix together. But we did
our current, like the current is like the Cowboy. We're
all in that era, Calgirl era. And so it's something
that I'm really proud about and I'm passionate about. I
talk about hydration all the time that again, it's a
perfect fit, and being the chief hydration Officer is something
I take seriously. I want you to hydrate. When you
(36:18):
don't hydrate, you're wondering why you're emotional. Sometimes it's because
you're dehydrated. Your foggy brain because you're dehydrated. You can't
get good sleep because you're dehydrated. Like we forget again,
small changes. We forget breathing, Like, oh, breath is nothing.
It's so important how you breathe. It's so important that
you hydrate. Like these little things in life really do
add to our overall makeup and create those bic shift,
(36:39):
big impacts.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And so I'm very proud of this collection. I encourage you.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I know, folks are like I got too many water bottles.
I got you covered. Now it matches your style. So
I asked this question to all of my guests. But
what is something that at one point you saw as
like a negative or a low point and now you
see it as having really given you the perspective shift
that you needed to launch you you are now. I
think it's it was that moment that we discussed of
(37:04):
wanting to be happy for others, when I've recognized that
I wasn't genuinely like, oh, I don't think I'm happy
for others. I don't think I'm happy for myself, and
that being a reflection of where I was mentally, that
I was mentally unhealthy, and that to me, while it
was a very low point, that for me was has
(37:25):
been so pivotal in my growth and my shift of
again gratitude and my shift of what abundance truly is
and how to recognize it and how to handle public
life when so much what we do depends on numbers. Right,
(37:47):
Those numbers are a reflection of the likes. That's why
they're called the likes if they like you. So when
I talked about that earlier, the way the reason I'm
so passionate about it is once I was able to
shift that perspective. Just because they're not rooting for you,
it doesn't mean they're rooting against you. It's because I
the world can be tough sometimes and it can be hard,
(38:07):
and it's so it's taught to us to be so binary.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It's good or it's bad. They like you or they
hate you.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
And I'm recognizing number one through the work of having
that moment that really really low point that one.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
A couple of truths can be true.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
You can be self aware.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You can also be confident and love who you are
and where you are, and you could recognize that they're
there are people that you know they're not rooting against
you if they're not rooting for you.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Number two, I think for me, the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Is that I'm in a place where I want everybody
to win, Like I am truly in a state where
when I look at you, like coming on this podcast,
I want this podcast to be successful for you.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I want those things for you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I want that suit to make you feel like I'm
willing to give you up when I've never met through DMS,
I'm willing to give you a suit so you feel
your most confident self because that's just who I am now.
I want it to be that person I recognize. I
really was so far away from that person at that
low time. But the journey to get to this point
and I'm still on it, Like I'm not quite there yet.
(39:17):
I'm not like I'm happy for everyone. It's still a
work in progress. But the ability to recognize that self
awareness of those negative thoughts occurring and to shift them
to have that pep talk. It's quicker now, and that's
how I know. That's how I know, Okay, she's still healthy,
she still got it, she's still.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Going, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
So I think right now it is that frame of
reference of yes, I'm in a good place, I'm doing
good things. Small changes create big impact and everyone there's enough.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
For everyone to eat.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
And I really want every like I am rooting for you,
Like if I don't know you, then yes, you may
feel like I'm not like when I see you and
I know you.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
My teammates, I'm.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Rooting for them. I want them to teach the best class.
I want them to be the best version of themselves.
I want the person who's seeking to start a family
to be like I want all the good things for you,
like I want you to be happy and I am
rooting for you.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I love it. Thank you so much, Allie, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Allie still lives in New York and truly does it all.
You can catch her on The Today Show, on Peloton
or at her love Squad events. Don't miss out on
all of her amazing happenings by following her on Instagram
at Allie Mislove. I want to say thank you for
yet another incredible season of she Pivots. When I started
this show, I had no idea the people we would
(40:43):
reach and the lives that we would touch, So thank
you for being along with us. Thanks for listening to
this episode of she Pivots. If you made it this far,
you're a true pivoter, so thanks for.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Being part of this community.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did
leave us away, please be nice and.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
To learn more about our guests, follow us on Instagram
at she Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our
newsletter where you can get exclusive behind the scenes content,
or on our website she Pivots the Podcast Talk to
You Next Week special thanks to the she Pivots team
Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and social media
(41:25):
connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics
coordinator Madeline Sonovak, and audio editor and mixer Nina pollock
I endorse she Pivots
And welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Ali Love.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. You guys,
it is so bittersweet to say this, but this week
(00:35):
is our final episode of season three. We're just gonna
go on a quick break and then we'll be back.
But what better way to end this season with the fun, funny,
inspiring and empowering Allie Love. Ali's a true champion, whether
it's through her Peloton classes, at her events for Love Squad,
or lending me her iconic yellow suit when we rang
(00:57):
the Nasdaq bell at the start of this podcas cast
season that is true. She led an Instagram friend uber
a suit back and forth to her apartment so I
could look perfectly fun but serious on the three story
billboard in Times Square. If you know Peloton, then you
know Ali Love. She's made a name for herself as
the self love and positivity focused instructor and developed a
(01:21):
loyal following. She wouldn't have been able to capture our
hearts through her love of movement if she didn't find
her way there. After a horrible accident at just age
nine after studying dance at the prestigious Alvin Ailey Institute,
Alie wasn't sure what success looked like, just that.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
She needed to pay her bills.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But in the midst of all the unknown, she dug
deep into herself and decided to start her Community Love
Squad as a way to channel her passion for women
connecting and movement. Little did she know that all that
searching would make her the perfect Peloton candidate. Now, with
over a million followers later and a new water bottle
line with Contiguo, she shows no signs of stopping enjoy.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Ali Love.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I am a Peloton instructor. I'm an on air contributor
for The Today Show and the CEO and founder of
the Squad.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay, so set the scene for us. What was a
little Ali like?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Like?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
What did you think you were going to be when
you grew up?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Okay, So I have to say that I think that
I'm exactly the same. So I think when you think
of a little Ali, she's exactly the same as I am. Now,
most people don't get to see that part of me.
But in my personal life, I am quirky. I work
the quirk.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I love I love, love, love, love Emily. I love laughing.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Like if there was a natural drug in life, laughter
would be my number one choice. Like I want to
laugh all the time. I love comedy. I love laughing.
I love joking.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I'm not great at jokes, but I love making them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, so I think I'm pretty much the same, very energetic, enthusiastic.
I get energy from being out socially with people. I
love just having fun and laughing.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Ali grew up around dozens of cousins and extended family,
a big family full of love, joy, and most importantly laughter.
But when she was just nine, Ali went through a
near death accident.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
When I was nine years old, I got hit by
a car. Every weekend, my mom, she's one of ten kids.
We get together with all of our cousins, aunts and
uncles and we eat. We have like a family barbecue
or fresh frye. We went fishing a lot. My family
still goes fishing a lot. And we'd have a fish
fry and so we'd either go to my house, my
grandma's house, or one of my aunt's house and everyone
(03:37):
would sit outside. The grown ups would play cards and dominoes,
and the kids would just play games. And this particular
Saturday afternoon, the ice cream truck the noise, the magical
noise of ice cream.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Asked my mom for a dollar, and I.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Went to the ice cream truck got my favorite ice
cream of Chocolated Claire. The ice cream truck was across
the street. As I'm crossing the street, I looked both ways.
I crossed the street safely back to my aunt's. My
older cousin was like, can you go grab me an
ice cream? In my family, when your older cousin asked
you to do something, you do it. It was no problem,
and I was at the age of nine. The ice
cream truck is literally across the street from the house
(04:11):
in the neighborhood and all the kids are there, so
it was something that was really safe. So I went
back across the street, did the exact same thing, came
both ways. Unfortunately, the timing was just what it was.
The car was parked behind the ice cream truck and
at the time I walked across the street when there
were no cars, that car pulled out hit me. I
flew up in the air, landed on the top of
(04:32):
the car, rolled in the grass. I broke my left femur,
start up my entire body, and broke my teeth, and
I was in the hospital for seven days.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Five of those days I was in.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Traction because normally older folks break their hips and so
they didn't have the equipment to do surgery right away
on a young girl, our young kid, and so for me,
I was in traction. I was losing a lot of blood.
I came very close to a blood transfusion, which was
really scary. We found out my dad is a close donor,
a universal donor, so that was lovely. But in terms
(05:05):
of just like being in that hospital and having that
experience and losing a lot of blood.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I remember one key moment.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
That I've shared over the last like four years is
that the doctor came in to speak to my mom
and dad, and they went in the hospital and my
mom came back in and she was like, the doctor's saying,
you're losing a lot of blood, and you know, we
have options, but it's going to be really hard, and
you have to decide if you want to fight. You
have to like decide if you're going to pray and
fight for your life or if you're going to let go.
(05:34):
And I just remember when she asked me that, and
it was more in a way of like her asking
like how did I want to deal with this right?
Like what was coming up for me? And I remember
looking out of the window and deciding, like I was like,
you know what, Mom, I'm going to pray and I'm
going to fight for my life. And we went on
this whole journey and it was really complicated. It created
(05:55):
complications for my relationship with my mom because she was
my primary caregiver. When I got out of the hospital
after the surgery, and I just remember, like I said,
like the H word to my mom.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I was like, I hate you because I was so miserable.
I was.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, we had the surgery, was successful, I was
in recovery, but I was dealing with depression and anxiety
and I had no idea. There were no names at
this time. My mom didn't have this information, and I
was so miserable. I was at home being in a
space by myself all day. So that was a pivotal
time in my life where I learned a lot about myself.
I learned to appreciate life. I learned to fall in love.
(06:30):
I'm very you know, someone who's very spiritual, grew up
religious to fall in love with God. That for me,
my own experience, there's no way God didn't save my
life because nothing was going our way. It wasn't like
we got anything out of the had we paid. My
family took a hit, Like we paid a lot of
medical bills. We didn't come out where Oh the person
was take who hit me somehow was able to like compensate. No,
(06:54):
my mom lost money at work, We lost money financially
from like the fact that we had so many doctor bills.
So it was a lot, and it put our relationship
through the grinder and honestly brought us out on the
other side stronger. The mother daughter connection and bond. And
now I see how similar we are in life, and
how giving you that opportunity to make that decision, because
I never stopped making decisions about my life from that
(07:17):
day forward.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's amazing that you were able to have that revelation
and that switch in your perspective at such a young
age towards your mother. I think it's really incredible, you know,
I think a lot of people are aware of the
fact that you were a dancer, even if they don't know,
you know, sort of how extensive your dance career was.
But to understand this background of how far you must
(07:38):
have had to fight to get your body, not just
physically back in shape to be a professional dancer, which
is unbelievable, but also for you to have the confidence
for your body to be seen.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting was dance came after.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It was actually my savior in a sense where you know,
the doctor told my mom, she's get yourself prepared.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
She's not going to be a runner.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You know, she's probably gonna have arthritis at an early age,
probably in the late teens. She's gonna have authritis because
I had a big metal plate in my hip. And
it was the after being homeschooled and being with my
mom for so long. There was a summer program that
my aunt, my mom's best friend, who like is amazing Ms. Liz,
who was like, Hey, my daughter's going to this summer
(08:24):
program and they offer dance.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Maybe Ali wants to go.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And I fell in love with dance and it was
like dance saved my life. It gave me an outlet.
It was a way for me to communicate because I
didn't have the words of what was going on inside.
And I can imagine any parent, your parent. Sometimes kids,
you know, even with my nieces and nephews, sometimes their
physical response seems to be disassociated with their surroundings, and
(08:49):
that's because they cannot articulate what's happening internally.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And for me, dance was that outlet.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It was that opportunity for me to take that internalization,
the new the confusion, the depression, the anxiety, the unfamiliarity,
the lack of confidence and self esteem and manifest that
in just moving my body and communicate that way. And
I will say I fell in love with it, and
it was something I started to pursue, and it brought
me to New York.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
It's the reason why I am now you know where
I am.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Dance was that catalyst, that of communication, but it also
brought me to a place where now I live and
was I you know, honestly, I'm thriving here.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I love this place. It's true.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
She found in New York City through dance, but more
specifically through the Alvin Alien Institute, a renowned dance academy
founded by the dancer Alvin Ailey, whose mission was to
support black artists and express the black experience through dance.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So Ailey came to our high school. I went to
Newural School of the Arts, which is an art school
in Miami. Fortunate enough to audition and get in, and
they came in and they held an audition, and I
ended up getting into Fordom the ALA program.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So this is your going to school for four years.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
My half my school curriculum is in regular college right
here on Lincoln Center, and then the other half I'm
doing dance classes. So I would have Instead of an
average student who would have like maybe three or four
classes a day, I'm having seven because I'm going to
do three dance classes and then I'll do two to
three to four academic classes. And so I ended up
getting accepted into the a Ley Fordham program. It was
(10:20):
a four year program and bachelor's and fine arts was
my primary. And while I was there, you get to
pick a secondary. And I got curious around psychology, given
I experienced all these feelings for so many years, and
then I got curious on theology growing up religious, knowing
again having this personal experience where I know for me,
God is real and I had that personal experience through
(10:43):
being hit by a car going through the recovery period,
and so I started to get curious around the emotions
as well as like the spiritual aspect of these emotions.
And eventually all of the classes led me into theology,
and I was more curious on why did each religion
think their religion was the right religion, Because as a dancer,
(11:03):
I'm on this like one side of my brain where
I'm creative and everybody's welcome, and everybody is like who
they are and who they are is good enough, and
like you're just amazing, and you can explore all areas
of yourself. And then there's this like pragmatic side where
it's or structured side where folks are like, well, this
is the way you need to live your life. And
I was on this journey in university to reconcile that,
(11:26):
and I thought the only way, which I still believe
the only way to find some.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Answers is to study it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And so I studied dance and I pursue that creativity
and I still as like a foundation for me. It's
like everybody's invited, everybody's welcome, like you should be here,
you belong here, there's a sense of belonging. Anywhere I am,
there's a sense of belonging that I like to create.
And so it's like keeping that fundamental exploration of creativity
while pursuing the understanding of theology of religion, of the
(11:53):
differences of religion and the practical application, and so arriving
at different points throughout my life around like saying creative,
saying knowing movement is so important, and also knowing that
you can have a personal relationship with God, with the universe,
with an outlook of spirituality that is so unique to you,
and still be part of a community and be inviting
(12:14):
and welcoming. And so it was those four years that
really set the stage for my adult life and what
I was going to pursue with Peloton, with Today's Show,
with hosting the Brooklyn Nets, with creating a career, creating
Love Squad, and having to share what I believed.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I wanted to know how Ali thought about success? Being
a dancer or any performer for that matter, is no
easy feat. But like so many young aspiring artists, she
was just trying to make ends meet. When you were dancing,
How did you think about success?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, I think at that time, being.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Young in New York City while I'm having all of
these incredible conversations in class. I think the metric for
success at that time in my life was to live
comfortably in New York City.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
I didn't come from a lot of means.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
My mom worked really hard, my dad worked really hard,
and they did a great job at making sure that
we had what we needed. Moving to New York was
really challenging in that I'm setting out as an adult
and it's an expensive city and I don't want to
have eighty seven roommates. So my mind more so went,
how can I take my skill set and position myself
(13:22):
on the beginning of for the beginning of my career
so that I can live in a city that I
love that I can also be very much individual. I
think that's how I show and pay respect to my family,
is like I can take care of myself financially right
some financial independence, and also do something that I love
for me. Now, the metric for success in those pivotal
(13:44):
moments of like, wow, am I close to that metric?
Am I living within the scope of that metric of success?
It's truly now At this point, I still think everybody
has to figure out means to make sure they support
themselves because life changes and everything's getting more expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I don't throw that to the side.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But what I do want to recognize is that the
metric for success for me is that the people that
I surround myself with, my inner love squad, is a
reflection of me, and I'm proud of that reflection. Like
I can see that the people that I have in
my life, that they are good people, and not even
just good people, they're good people doing good things to
make the world a better place. That everything that they're
(14:23):
aligning themselves with is contributing or attributing or supporting or
encouraging goodness for other folks. And to me, that means
I'm aligned in doing what I'm supposed to do, and
I'm that's that I'm aligned with my purpose. When I
noticed that maybe the folks around me aren't a great
reflection of who I'd like to be, then I think
(14:44):
that's where the disconnect happens. And that's where I say, well,
let me recalibrate what success looks like. And maybe it's
not them, maybe it's me. I'm not blaming them, like, oh,
got to get the bad people out of your life. Sometimes
it's not the answer. Sometimes the bad person is you
creating bad situations with good people in your life. And
so I do take that responsibility to say the metric
for success just for me to evaluate the people around me,
(15:07):
the settings that I'm in.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
What are we doing, how are we talking about each other?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
What are we giving back into the world, what is
our purpose together collectively? And if there is some dissociation
the first time, the first thing I look at is myself.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Alie channels those deeper questions into her first venture that
is still thriving to this day. Love Squad, a community
that centers around emboldening women through facilitated conversations in person
and online.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Is the Love Squad? How do I get involved in?
How it was created?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Plain and simply.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
The Love Squad is a website that explores fitness. It
explores street style food, health and wellness. And what differentiates
us is that we say true to who we are. Hello,
Welcome to a Love Squad of the men.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He are so excited that all of you are sharing.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
This with us.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
When we come back, Alie tells us what led to
her big pivot into Peloton. Okay, so, let's bring it
back to as you are putting yourself into this space
and building up your confidence and moving yourself through and
(16:25):
being able to network, what did your career look like
pre Peloton like to set the stage for I mean,
you had a bunch of different jobs already.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Pre Peloton, I was hosting for the Brooklyn Nets, which
I just finished my last season. I host for eleven seasons,
so in arena host means you're on the court, you're
having conversations, hosting, doing all of these things for eighteen
thousand fans, forty one games a season, plus playoffs and
pre season. And I was also an Adidas Goolal ambassador,
so I've been with Adidas. My last year was last year,
(16:54):
so for about eight years maybe nine years wow, nine
years with Adidas, and that means you know, traveling, doing
a lot of projects with them around women empowerment, which
was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
And also a dancer, I was gigging.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I was a part of the gig economy, and I
was like auditioning and dancing with like Pitbull and Beyonce
and Wyclef and doing all these jobs. And I also
had a modeling agency, so I was modeling in all
of these campaigns, a lot of things with fitness and
aligned with fitness, and so it was one of those
things where I had to make my days worth it,
because if I didn't, then I didn't make any money.
(17:27):
So you wake up, you know, you call your agent
or you check your email, and you go to castings
and you go to dance auditions.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To try to get you know, book this job.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And so that gig economy was definitely was my primary focus,
along with photo shoots from the modeling agency and doing
things with the ditas and then the night games.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So I was working early.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Mornings and late nights, which I still kind of do,
but it was a part of the journey and I'm
really proud of it. And you know there are many
times in our I'm sure you and anyone's listening, what
we all have to just we have to the return
on the investment.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You have to the investment in first.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
And so it is that sweat equity, It is that curiosity,
is the mistakes, it's the lessons, all those things that
I did over the years to get to a place
where I was like, hey, I want to create this company,
Love Squad where we do women empowerment events where I
can share all these things that I've learned through trial
and error and have a safe space for that at
a very little to no cost, so that access information
(18:23):
is accessible, right, And I think that that was what
we know. We created this small company and we're still
thriving to this day doing events, and I was able
to take a lot of the hard work and manifest
it into a space that I could I paid it
forward and I wasn't just benefiting from it, and I
was able to make those connections of folks coming into
a room and connecting with each other and just feeling
(18:44):
better about themselves and having information access to that information
so they can make better decisions. But by the way,
I want to go back to one piece you slipped
in there, this building the sweat equity and building the
ability to then be able to build your dream of
the love Squad moving forward and building that community where
you passed along later. I think it's an incredibly important point.
(19:05):
It's interesting that actually, even though I've sort of designed
this show for women who are in the second phase
of their career thinking about the second phase of their career,
we know from our data that half of our audience
is eighteen to twenty five, which is super interesting because
I think that means, well, I can guess a lot
of things that it means, but I think they want
to know that there are stories of inspiration out there
and that there's different ways to have success, and so
(19:28):
they want to hear stories but different ways to do it.
And I think that something that often gets not enough
attention is really the way to build skills and the
way to build confidence in your career is there's no shortcuts,
like you just have to work for it and then
and then later on you can get to the point
where you can build a community to pass information down
and pass lessons learn done, which you couldn't have done
(19:50):
had you not worked through the mistakes and lived through
it in the early mornings and the late nights. So
was that contemporaneous with beginning at Pelotonic. Were you looking
for for something that just took up more time so
it was less gig or did that just kind of happen?
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I think there were building blocks.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I said this to you earlier, is that you find
your career one of two ways. Some people you know,
at seven years old know they're going to be an
astronaut and nothing's going to stop them. And some folks
are similar to me, where it's like you actually listen
to what people say you're good at and you lean
in on that. And so that's exactly what I did.
I you know, my dance teacher all you early on
was like, you're really good at dancing, and so I
(20:28):
pursue that until a point where I said, wow, I
need to make a decision because on a dancer, unfortunately,
on a dancer's salary in New York, I can't live
here and I want to. And so I started in
that gig economy of you know, having those multiple jobs.
And what ended up happening was from hosting from the
Brooklyn Nets, from becoming Adidas Global Ambassador, mind you, being
an Adidas Global Ambassador. They splid in my dms before
(20:51):
sliding and dms were cool. That's exactly what happened. They're like,
we're looking for ambassadors. You seem like your platform around
women in powering. Now mind you, I had like twenty
five hundred followers, so this platform was not really a platform.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It was just a little circle of folks.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
But they reached out and I became one of the
six Global Ambassadors that really started the ambassador program that
companies you know, emulate to this day.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And so with those.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Things building, they were all building blocks and the visibility
and the connectivity, they all intersected at the work of Community,
they all intersected a conversation and eventually on camera right
everything we started streaming everything. Peloton reached out. I had
a call and they were like, we're looking for instructors.
Would you like to audition. At this point, I'm running
(21:37):
half marathons, I'm doing hot yoga, I'm gigging, I'm still dancing,
and I'm hosting for the Brooklyn Nets. I'm in sport,
I'm doing hosting, and I'm an athlete. Like at this point,
it's exactly what they're looking for for an instructor.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And I was like, oh no, thank you. Facts.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I was like, I don't want to be an instructor,
Like I'm not in fitness. No one cares what I think. Like,
you know, I don't want to teach anyone on anything.
And again it's leaning into what people say you're good at.
They were like great on that phone call, They're like awesome, Okay,
we hear you, will see you on Tuesday. I was
like Okay, I guess I'm being told. And I had
the meeting. I learned about the company. I knew a
(22:13):
bit about the company, but I learned more in depth
on what they were doing and how impactful they were,
and how more.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So that they were just rooted in community.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And I remember the conversation saying, what you do with
Love Squad is exactly what we want to do here
at Peloton, And I was like, oh, wait, this isn't
because I'm the host of the Brooklyn Nets. This isn't
because like, oh you think I run fast for something.
This is because you are aligned with my values. Like
I knew that having get hit by a car, coming
to New York, really going in and working hard and
(22:45):
trying to figure it out, being by myself in New
York City, away from my family, building the Love Squad,
like doing these things, I knew the power of community
and creating that connection and how impactful it could be
for your overall mental health, mental well being, and for
you just to have a good life, that good stuff.
And so I took the conversation seriously when they said that,
in the sense of ah, it's aligned with my purpose,
(23:07):
not just another job. And so I went in it's
a little different now. I had a fifteen minute audition
and the next day they offered me a job and
I became one of the founding eleven instructors, and I
was the first black woman instructor on the platform.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so for me, it was really.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Remarkable because I've seen the company over the last eight
years expand pretty quickly around COVID, but also the companies
thrive in a way and be of service to so
many millions of people, and it warms my heart.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love what we do. I love our members, I
love my instructors.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I love our team so so, so so much, and
I'm very grateful that I said no and they didn't
take no for an answer on that phone call.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
She's been a wildly popular Peloton instructor since twenty sixteen.
Rise and Let's Go her Sundays would love, attracting as
many as sixteen thousand riders every week.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You I am Ali Love Welcome. This is a thirty
minute dance one one hundred rolton.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
It's about to go down and this is my Women's
History Month celebration ride.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
We have twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I'm so thrilled and excited to do this.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
There is no question Ali has skyrocketed. Even one of
my producers raved about only ever taking Ali's classes on Peloton.
But how does she view her successes?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
You know, as of this year, I end up becoming
a director, I'm still an instructor. We end up becoming
like a global lead director. And then I just got
promoted to VP of Instructor Strategy and Development, and I
was able to carve out my path and see where
there are missing holes between partnering teams and how do
we work with marketing, and how do we make sure
we're leveraging instructors and carving out internal progress and what
(24:44):
does progress look like for an instructor because we hold
the title of instructor forever.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You know, when you're in a linear career, you go
from what.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Director to VP to the like you can see like, oh, manager, director, boom,
you can see your path internally at Peloton, it's instructor
full stop. Now, mind you, there's nothing wrong with that,
and many of us, if not all of us, are
proud of that title. However, what I will say is
every human, most times, most people thrive, you know, crazy
(25:12):
progress and what that looks like. So it's not title change,
what does internal roadmapping look like for us? But I
also think we have some good women okay throughout my
career here who poured into me. It's like when you
walk into a space, women are powerful, and like I've
had women that have opened up doors I didn't have.
I don't have credentials, I don't know what I'm doing,
(25:33):
but as a woman, you're so powerful and energetically, like
when you come in and other women come in, if
you just lend out a hand, extend at hand, it
is impactful. And that's what she did. And I've again
been fortunate that I've had many women do that to
me in spaces, and I've always tried my best to
be that person as well as like how can I
(25:54):
support you where you are?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You know, and and it's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
After the break, Ali dives into how she fell into
the mindset that so many of us do, the comparison game.
More soon, Well, you've talked about comparing yourself to others
(26:21):
and how it led you to a standstill and then
not to take steps forward and like not to start networking.
So is there a particular moment that you can remember
where you looked around and you felt that way, like
you were to stand still, and then how did you
change that mindset?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
COVID had done a number. It's done a number on
many of folks.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I didn't recognize that number that was done on me
because I felt like it had sifted me, like wheat right.
It was a little by little by little, and it
was probably around the year of twenty twenty one. I
was actually getting married this year, so it was like
the highlight of my life and one of the lowest
points of my life emotionally, and I didn't recognize why
(26:59):
I felt that way.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And so when I thought.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Of moments that I didn't feel my most confident self,
or I didn't feel happy for other people, I didn't
feel happy for myself.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
It was during that time, and it was.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A hard revelation to have because really, what was the
most important realization within that revelation was that I started
comparing myself to people around me.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
And I'm not telling you like that. It's natural.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
It's very natural to anyone who's listening, very natural. But
the reality of it is the ability to number one,
be self aware. Number two, be able to catch yourself
and pivot in that thought that framed you know that
that thought, that mindset quickly is a reflection of overall
for me mental health and mental well being, and the
(27:48):
fact that I could not pivot from the moment of
comparison to the moment of gratitude, to the moment of
recognizing abundance, to the moment of tapping into my worthiness, like, girl,
I'm worthy no.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Matter what I have or don't have.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Wow, I look how long my hair is, how much
money I have or don't have. I'm already worthy. You
that are listening, You're already worthy. With everything you have
and everything you don't have, You're already worthy. I couldn't
get there. I could not get there. And that was
that was literally the realization where I was like, I
think I'm mentally unhealthy because I can't stop the comparison game.
(28:22):
Comparison is the thief of joy, and I would compare
myself to everyone I saw on social media, and then
it makes me feel bad about well, Emily has a
podcast and I don't like.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I started like woe is me?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Pity parties, and then it's a vicious cycle of like, well,
am I just a terrible person? Maybe I'm just destined
to be a loser, and so it was through one
the recognition of that comparison became such a normal thought
for me, and not wanting it to be my reality,
that I saw help.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
I went to a psychiatrist.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
I went to a psychologist, and I gathered up a team,
and you know, I work at a company that offers resources,
so we have access to therapy when we need it,
and I tapped into therapy and I had to get
myself back to a state of.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Neutral, not even positive. I'm not a positive person. I
always say this.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I practice positivity through positive framing, not positive positive toxic toxicity,
but positive framing. I needed at that time not to
get to positive framing. I needed to get to neutral.
I just needed to breathe, like get above water. And
with the help of those teams, I was able to
kind of like shake off, you know, some of those demons,
(29:30):
some of those grimlins in my mind and move away
from thinking comparison was my way of life and knowing
that it's a part of life, but it's not my life.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, so you actually said something during that I do
live Yesterday's vibe. It's that same question that I wanted
to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You said, just because people aren't rooting for you doesn't
mean they're rooting against you. You kept coming back to this,
and but my kind of follow up thought to it was,
why care what they're thinking about you at all?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Okay, Okay, this is amazing. And the thing is, you
can't stop caring. I know, we say we do. I
know people are like, I don't have two s to
give you do because it's the fact that you have
to say that is a premise, is it, like, it's
a premise in itself that we care. We talk about
what people say. We want to be good. We want
(30:21):
naturally humans, every human, every doggie, every kitty cat wants
to be loved. Okay, and that is fine. And in
order to be loved, you have to be liked. You
have to be liked in some regards. And sometimes we
do get it. If you're married or you're in a
long term relationship. Sometimes you're like, I love you right now,
I don't like you right now, but it's a short term,
(30:41):
like right it's a temporary dislike, but you're gonna like
that person. People divorce or separate because they still love
each other, but they don't like each other for a
very long time. So we need to be liked in
order to be loved sometimes, right, those things coexist. And
again I don't claim to be an expert in this field,
but what I do know is that even when you
(31:03):
say you don't care, you have to tell yourself you
don't care, because it's naturally our makeup is to care.
We care because we want to be liked. Being like
means we're safe, means we're loved, means we're okay. It
says a lot of things, and that's okay. And so
for me, the reason I care what people like are one.
I think it's innately a part of the genetic human
(31:25):
makeup too. My business, and you know, frankly yours too,
is like how many people like fimily like how many
people are going to listen to she pivots. It's because
they like you, they like what you're doing, they like
you a lot of what we do in this world
and our progression in this world, whether you're in a
linear career or a creative career, or you're an entrepreneur,
it's made up of how many people like you or
(31:48):
your product, which is a reflection of you and your thoughts, right,
And that's okay.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like, we got to get okay with that.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
And so what I did was, instead of running to
the I don't give up about anybody and what they think,
because I do deep down in my heart, I really do.
I'm not trying to care what everyone thinks, but I
do care that, like, you know, who I am is
likable and lovable to my standard. But with that, I
was like, you know what, maybe I need to reframe it,
and I have to recognize just because people aren't rooting
(32:19):
for me doesn't mean they're rooting against me. Just because
they follow you and don't follow me doesn't mean that
I'm a bad person or I'm unlovable or I'm unlikable,
right like, just because my colleagues and it's happens at
peloton like, just because so many people take this person's
rides doesn't mean that they don't like me. That means
(32:39):
that what they're getting from this serves them where they are,
And there's a group of people that I serve where
they are, And so it doesn't mean they're rooting against
me and they want me to fail.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
And somehow I'm a failure.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
And so I think instead of for me, I'm not
saying that you know if you're like the subtle art
of not giving up oop fine works for you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Good.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
But what I found for me is it was shifting
my entire perspective instead of coming up with a statement
that I know, deep down in my heart, I still
kind of want you to be my friend. I still
want you to be pleasant and like me. Right, I
want to be liked and I want to continue to
like me. I more so know that just because you're
not rooting for me right now doesn't mean you're rooting
(33:20):
against me, which is so cool, Like it makes sense
for me at least.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Okay, we can't leave without me asking you about your
new collection with Contigo.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh my god, water bottles.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Congratulations on Chief Hydration.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Very interesting. We need to get all those Gotham girls hydrated. Yes,
we got to, Yes, tell us about it. Why water bottles?
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Because I on the bike, I talk about hydration station
all the time.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
A couple of team members at Contigo take my classes,
and it was just more of like when they were
looking for someone to start to build a new line around,
They're like, why don't we reach out to Ali Love
And they did, and the reason it's Chief Hydration Officer
is one. It shows that there's a title and there's
a commitment. It's a three year partnership, and it is
so fun and funny. And also it's a play on
(34:05):
like not everything is serious, Like we get so caught
up in like every title everything. It's fun. It's true,
it's something I'm passionate about. It's something I talk about
on the Today Show, multiple ways of hydrating, shaking your hydration,
getting things that really fuel you, that make you feel good,
and so it was very symbiotic in terms of the relationship.
It was important to me when I do partnerships. I
(34:26):
do partnerships with brands that I talk about a brands
that I love full stop. That's true. And this one
with the title was like, well, this is three years.
We want people to know, we want the folks to
know that we're serious about it.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And so the collection is like behind me.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
But two of the prints I did, like a class
Accounts too print with the logo how I love the durable,
like all the things you want in a water bottle,
They're durable, keep things cold and or hot, whatever you decide.
They fit in Peloton right, Like I am not just Peloton.
Other threads because you do. I use the app in
the hotel gyms, and so I went around putting like, oh,
(35:00):
I'm like putting the water bottle in cup holders, like riding,
like how I feel.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So we did a classic.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Hounds Tooth like I think when I moved to New York,
I fell in love with fashion all like to the
next level.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
And I say this, You know, everyone can do fashion.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
You can go into Fifth Avenue and look at a
mannequin and put on that outfit, but very few people
can do style, and so people that rock hound tooth.
Hounds Tooth is like the most stylish, iconic like characters
of New York.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And so I brought this in. There's a sensory part
of it too, so.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
That every pattern on each water bottle is raised just
for appropriate reception, so that like, you know, as we
get a little older, I know, my mom has sometimes
a hard time gripping things. I'm a sweaty betty, so
my hands are so moist when I'm working out, so
that that way you're able to grip it a little
bit more.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And then from the.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Classic to the current, we did a cowgirl print, so
this is like the cowgirl print Cowgirl, Cowboy, and it
was something everything has a pop up.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Orange Orange is my power color.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
I think it's just like a mix of like being
bold and being fun or you know, or just like
a red and a yellow mix together. But we did
our current, like the current is like the Cowboy. We're
all in that era, Calgirl era. And so it's something
that I'm really proud about and I'm passionate about. I
talk about hydration all the time that again, it's a
perfect fit, and being the chief hydration Officer is something
I take seriously. I want you to hydrate. When you
(36:18):
don't hydrate, you're wondering why you're emotional. Sometimes it's because
you're dehydrated. Your foggy brain because you're dehydrated. You can't
get good sleep because you're dehydrated. Like we forget again,
small changes. We forget breathing, Like, oh, breath is nothing.
It's so important how you breathe. It's so important that
you hydrate. Like these little things in life really do
add to our overall makeup and create those bic shift,
(36:39):
big impacts.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And so I'm very proud of this collection. I encourage you.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
I know, folks are like I got too many water bottles.
I got you covered. Now it matches your style. So
I asked this question to all of my guests. But
what is something that at one point you saw as
like a negative or a low point and now you
see it as having really given you the perspective shift
that you needed to launch you you are now. I
think it's it was that moment that we discussed of
(37:04):
wanting to be happy for others, when I've recognized that
I wasn't genuinely like, oh, I don't think I'm happy
for others. I don't think I'm happy for myself, and
that being a reflection of where I was mentally, that
I was mentally unhealthy, and that to me, while it
was a very low point, that for me was has
(37:25):
been so pivotal in my growth and my shift of
again gratitude and my shift of what abundance truly is
and how to recognize it and how to handle public
life when so much what we do depends on numbers. Right,
(37:47):
Those numbers are a reflection of the likes. That's why
they're called the likes if they like you. So when
I talked about that earlier, the way the reason I'm
so passionate about it is once I was able to
shift that perspective. Just because they're not rooting for you,
it doesn't mean they're rooting against you. It's because I
the world can be tough sometimes and it can be hard,
(38:07):
and it's so it's taught to us to be so binary.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
It's good or it's bad. They like you or they
hate you.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
And I'm recognizing number one through the work of having
that moment that really really low point that one.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
A couple of truths can be true.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
You can be self aware.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You can also be confident and love who you are
and where you are, and you could recognize that they're
there are people that you know they're not rooting against
you if they're not rooting for you.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Number two, I think for me, the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Is that I'm in a place where I want everybody
to win, Like I am truly in a state where
when I look at you, like coming on this podcast,
I want this podcast to be successful for you.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I want those things for you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I want that suit to make you feel like I'm
willing to give you up when I've never met through DMS,
I'm willing to give you a suit so you feel
your most confident self because that's just who I am now.
I want it to be that person I recognize. I
really was so far away from that person at that
low time. But the journey to get to this point
and I'm still on it, Like I'm not quite there yet.
(39:17):
I'm not like I'm happy for everyone. It's still a
work in progress. But the ability to recognize that self
awareness of those negative thoughts occurring and to shift them
to have that pep talk. It's quicker now, and that's
how I know. That's how I know, Okay, she's still healthy,
she still got it, she's still.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Going, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
So I think right now it is that frame of
reference of yes, I'm in a good place, I'm doing
good things. Small changes create big impact and everyone there's enough.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
For everyone to eat.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
And I really want every like I am rooting for you,
Like if I don't know you, then yes, you may
feel like I'm not like when I see you and
I know you.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
My teammates, I'm.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Rooting for them. I want them to teach the best class.
I want them to be the best version of themselves.
I want the person who's seeking to start a family
to be like I want all the good things for you,
like I want you to be happy and I am
rooting for you.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I love it. Thank you so much, Allie, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Allie still lives in New York and truly does it all.
You can catch her on The Today Show, on Peloton
or at her love Squad events. Don't miss out on
all of her amazing happenings by following her on Instagram
at Allie Mislove. I want to say thank you for
yet another incredible season of she Pivots. When I started
this show, I had no idea the people we would
(40:43):
reach and the lives that we would touch, So thank
you for being along with us. Thanks for listening to
this episode of she Pivots. If you made it this far,
you're a true pivoter, so thanks for.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Being part of this community.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did
leave us away, please be nice and.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
To learn more about our guests, follow us on Instagram
at she Pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our
newsletter where you can get exclusive behind the scenes content,
or on our website she Pivots the Podcast Talk to
You Next Week special thanks to the she Pivots team
Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and social media
(41:25):
connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics
coordinator Madeline Sonovak, and audio editor and mixer Nina pollock
I endorse she Pivots
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