December 20, 2022 • 23 mins
Host Caroline Hendershot is joined by Peloton instructor and author Emma Lovewell. Lovewell tells her story of growing up on Martha’s Vineyard and the big jump of moving to New York City (0:22). She also gives a sneak peak into her new book, _Live Learn Love Well: Lessons from a Life of Progress Not Perfection_, as she tells the story of how a $50 Craigslist job posting eventually led her to Peloton (2:13). Hendershot and Lovewell then discuss how resisting fear and being persistent leads to growth (5:51). Loverwell gives more insight on how she felt when she first started instructing Peloton classes and how she has grown along the way (10:02). The two also dive into how the Peloton experience is shaped for all groups of people and how the company has built a strong sense of community and teamwork for people all over the world (13:06). Lastly, Hendershot shares on the New York Jets and the fan experience as Lovewell prepares to attend her first NFL game (19:40).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to another episode of New York Her. I'm your host,
Caroline Hendershot. Today we have a really special guest. Her
name is Emma love Well. She is a Peloton instructor
and author. Emma, thank you so much for joining us.
I'm so excited to have you on. Thank you, Caroline.
I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me,
of course. Okay, so we were just talking off camera
(00:25):
a little bit. I think you're the first person that
I've ever met that was born and raised on the
island of Martha's Vineyard, Like so crazy. I just think
that there's so much that comes with that. What was
that like growing up on in island. Yeah, I think
I didn't realize that it was strange until I left
the island because I was born there. I didn't know
(00:46):
anything else, no fast food or malls or um, you know,
the regular stuff, until I went to college and then
all my friends were like, wait, you've never been to
a Wendy's. You've never into Taco Bell, like, you know.
The idea of like going to a mall just to
buy like one thing was like so foreign to me
(01:07):
because growing up on the island, you would take a
boat off island and do like an entire day of
shopping at the mall, you know. But it's in retrospect,
I'm very lucky that I grew up there. Moving from
island of ten thousand people to the New York City,
was that a big adjustment for you? Yeah, And even
(01:27):
when I would just visit, like I'd go home for
the weekend or something and I'd go back to New
York like that, that transition time was really long, like
even just to acclimate myself. Um, and then it got
short and shorter the more times I would do it.
But yeah, it's very it's it's very overwhelming to be
(01:49):
um in New York City after living on an island.
But I loved it. I was like so energized by it,
like the energy in the city and you know, like
everybody is so driven and creative, and I was like
I was thriving off of that, right. I feel like
you either thrive off of it or it's like so
overwhelming where it's like, Okay, this isn't what I wanted.
(02:11):
I gotta I gotta leave. But I okay. So I
read this really interesting thing about you that you took
a Craigslist job for fifty dollars and that's why you
say that you're here in your current position where you
are today. So explain to me, at what point did
that come in the career, that fifty dollar Craigslist job. Sure,
And I'm I write about this story in my book
(02:33):
that's coming out, my Second Live Learned Love Well Lessons
from a life of progress not perfection. So I'm giving
you a little taste of what is in the book. Amazing.
Yeah um, but yeah. So I moved to New York
to pursue dance and I set pretty like realistic goals
for myself where I was like if I don't you know,
(02:54):
I didn't have a lot of confidence, to be honest.
When I moved to New York, I was like, I'm
gonna try this whole thing out. I had done an
internship before when I was in college, and I ended
up booking a music video. Gig Um. I was in
a Bi York music video, and I was like, I
was like, oh wait, like maybe I'm good enough to
do this. And so I was like, I'm gonna move
to New York City, I'm gonna pursue dance. I'm gonna
(03:15):
give myself one year if I don't make, you know,
headway in a year, like I need to reconsider my
career path. So about a year in I ended up
signing with a major dance agency, and I was like,
this is my sign that I'm doing what I was do,
like I'm going to keep going, And so I did
that for six or seven years. Auditioning was brutal, that's
(03:36):
very competitive. Um. I got to dance with Snoop Dog
with the Rolling Stones. I was in a number of
music videos and movies Step Up three D like also
you know, um, and I had a great time. I
was bartending on the weekends to make ends meet. I
was going on Craigslist looking for jobs like constantly, and
(04:01):
there's like casting networks and there's all these different websites
you go to try to find, you know, creative jobs.
And so one of the jobs I found was it
was looking for like a model of fitness models, a
woman who felt comfortable in the gym and who could
show her abs. And it was for a personal trainer's website.
So he wanted to like act like he was training
(04:22):
me in these photos. And it paid fifty dollars and
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna like submit
my photo and fifty bucks can get me like a
nice dinner, you know. And so I end up getting
it and I go to the photo shoot and like,
thank god it's legitimate, because like you really just don't know, um,
the amount of things that I said yes to and
(04:43):
was like I'm just going off the vibes here. And
the photographer was amazing, the personal trainer was awesome. You know.
Ended up making some friends there, and the photographer was like, hey,
have you ever considered fitness modeling? You know you need
to be able to take direction. Well, um, you know,
dancers are great for fitness modeling. And I was like,
(05:04):
let me, you know, let me take him seriously, and
so we did a test shoot. I end up putting
together portfolio submitted to Wilhelmina Models and ended up signing
with will Almina. Because of will Almina, I ended up
booking a modeling job of kicks for a kickstarter campaign
for Peloton m HM. And so that's how I met
the CEO and the small team at Peloton in two
(05:26):
thousand twelve, and I was just like an actor model
for the day, and um, you know, years later I
reached back out to the CEO and I was like, Hey,
I'm a fitness instructor. Now, like, are there any job
opportunities there? And he was like, yes, come an audition
and then the rest is history. Wow, that is so crazy,
(05:46):
how like full circle that that life comes but that
moment specifically. Okay, so this is a little twofold You
mentioned saying yes to a lot of different crazy jobs.
How do you feel like that mindset has helped you
grow in your career? Because I feel like, at least
for me personally speaking, it's hard to say yes two
(06:09):
things sometimes because you're either not sure you'll you'll be
good at it, it might make you nervous you don't
know enough about maybe the sport or the opportunity or
the job. So how do you almost switch your mindset
to being more open to that and how does it
How has it helped your career? Yeah, I mean it's
it's a game of numbers, right, you know the Wayne
(06:30):
Gretzky quote. You miss a d percent of the shots
you don't take. It's like, especially in the dance world,
like you have to go to a hundred auditions before
you book one. I mean hopefully not, but oftentimes it's
like that, and so it's just a numbers game, and
the more you do something, the better at it you get,
and the more confident you get at it. So it
was sort of like I was training myself to like
(06:51):
be better at the auditioning process too, and um, you
know the obviously like there is this idea I remember, like,
you know, celebrity musicians and artists being like, come and
be in my music video. We won't pay you, but
you'll get exposure. And that was like so annoying. And
that was so for screening because you're like, you should
(07:11):
be paying these artists for their work. Um, but if
it paid very little, sometimes I'd be like, you know,
I'm just going to do it because it always ended
up I'd meet somebody or like have a great story
to tell, or it would leave, you know, go into
another opportunity, to another job. And so yeah, I was
(07:32):
like just saying yes as much as I could, trying
to meet as many people as I could, and um,
that's it's just like opening doors constantly. Do you feel
like all of those auditions and that practice you kind
of got from that helped boost your confidence naturally where
you just realized like Okay, I I am a good dancer.
(07:53):
I can do these things by saying yes and just
getting that more experience. Yeah. Um, I mean, I think
repetition creates growth and confidence, and you're trying to learn
how to like trust yourself too. So when you're going
to an audition and you know that you can get
rejected and you can still get up the next day
and go to another audition, like you're creating trust and
(08:16):
within yourself, which I think is how you create confidence. Um,
knowing that, like I can be told no, and like,
I mean, another hard thing is I had so many
girlfriends that were dancers too, so we'd all go to
the same audition together. And some of my girlfriends went
up booking the job and I wouldn't. That's super hard
to because you're like, I'm like they're my friend and
I want to be happy for them, but like I
(08:36):
also want the job and I need to pay my bills,
and so it was like this really interesting dynamic and
learning experience for me. Or you just have to like
move with grace and be kind to yourself because you're
constantly being told no and you're not good enough, so
you have to be your own advocate and be like, no,
I do believe in myself and I can keep doing this.
(08:57):
I think that's that's something that I've experienced. It's too
I think it's probably the most difficult thing to keep
believing in yourself sometimes because when you get told no
so often, you almost start to let those thoughts creep
in that that maybe I can't do this, maybe I'm
not cut out for this. And keeping that faith in
(09:19):
yourself I think is one of the hardest things to do.
But when you do and it does pay off like
it has for you, it's like the most worthwhile thing
because you're like, Okay, I knew it. I knew I
was good at this, Like I knew I could make it,
and so I'm sure that there's like sometimes I have
to um, like even with dance, like now I'm so
(09:40):
like out of practice. I haven't really danced in a
long time, but I'll go take like a beginner dance
class sometimes because I'm like, I literally just want to
move and I need to like feel good about myself.
I'm not going to take a super advanced dance class
and really bad about myself. Like set yourself up for
some easy wins because the easy wins are going to
also help propel you forward and get you excited and
(10:02):
more confident. Definitely. Okay, so you joined Peloton and you
go to teach your first class. What was that like,
Because I mean you were a fitness instructor before that,
so you had taught classes, But like, what was that
transition like from going from just like a smaller studio
to then one of like these major New York City ones. Yeah,
(10:24):
I was wild. I was teaching fitness classes to you know,
fifty people. I was teaching cycling to fifty people in
a room and loved it. Um. I remember my first class,
my premier class, and there were twenty three hundred people
on the leaderboard and the um the record was a
(10:44):
thousand at the time, so I knew that like for
my premiere, like twice as many people were showing up
and I did not give a single shout out because
I was like completely overwhelmed seeing And now that's a
small number. Now, you know, we've had fifty thousand people
on the leaderboard. I think is just maybe the record now. Um,
(11:04):
but yeah, it was really insane to know that there's
fifty people in the room and there's thousands of people
at home tuning in with me, and um, I think
I probably blacked out. I don't know. I mean, it's
really overwhelming but very exciting at the same time. And
like you said that, there's so many people out there
(11:26):
that are also taking the class, not just the ones
in the room. Does is that ever intimidating or do
you just kind of try and focus on what's in
front of you and the people in the room, because
I know you give those shout outs every peloton instructor
does to the people riding with you virtually, But does
that ever become an intimidating factor of like, whoa, there's
(11:48):
a lot of people following along right now. Yeah, And
also like sometimes I think about who is following along too,
because there are professional athletes, they're a limp fiends. There
are there's you know, somebody who's taking their first fitness
class ever that's taking the same class that you know,
(12:09):
an Olympic swimmer is taking, you know, and there are
politicians that take And I'm just thinking of like, yeah,
my influence is huge in this moment um, so I
take it really seriously. Uh, you know, for the most part,
but you know, but I have to like also not
put so much pressure on myself. That's like, if I
(12:32):
just make, you know, make sure I'm having fun, then
I think other people will have fun. As long as
I know, you know, I'm playing music that speaks to me,
I think it will draw in my people and people
will people enjoy watching people enjoy themselves. So I think
I just try to keep that in mind. But definitely
there are times where I think about, like the range
(12:53):
of people with different fitness experience and how they're all
taking the same exact class at the same time I'm
and I think that just helps me be a better
instructor um and just be able to speak to all
different types of people. How do you modify and create
a class four people of all those different fitness levels
(13:15):
where you have like an olympian or a professional athlete
on one side and then someone who's taking their first
class ever maybe on the other side, all within the
same class. Yeah, it's all in. It's all in language,
and people want to feel seen and acknowledge. So if
you just acknowledge that there could be somebody if this
is your first class ever, like welcome and you're doing great,
(13:35):
just feel free to modify as you need it. All
it takes is just like one comment to acknowledge that
that person exists out there and um, and then also
it's like if you need to challenge yourself more like
go ahead and increase your resistance. And I think that's
why we do a pretty good job at Peloton of
giving a wide range of cadence and resistance to say
like this should feel like this. You should be breathing
(13:57):
really hard right now. This should be hard, or this
is a recovery, this should feel easy, because yeah, you're
going to get all different types of experience out there.
That's actually my favorite thing that Peloton classes due because
I feel like I'm really bad giving. Like if someone's like, go,
I'm like, I don't know what that is. Like I
(14:19):
know myself very well and I have no idea what
that is, and I feel like I usually end up
going a lot faster when I'm at then versus if
someone told me to go all out. So when it's like, Okay,
you should be able to have a conversation at this pace,
but you should be like breathing heavily through it, and
I'm like, oh, that's great, Like it's it's like something
that is so easy to imitate, and you can even
(14:42):
like try it yourself as you're going, which is like
my favorite part. Sometimes I'll like talk out loud and say, okay,
like can I hold a conversation at this pace? I'd
say that in my low impact classes. I'm like, right now,
you should be like breathing kind of hard, but you
should be able to say like, hey, I'm a how's
it going, what's up? I'm well, how are you doing?
You know, I say that, I'm like imagining thousands of
people at home being like, hey, Emma, what's up? But no,
(15:06):
but it's so helpful. Um. But what I feel like
is maybe the most impressive thing about Peloton is the
community it's created. Because those little notifications that come up
that are like, oh, high five someone for their or
their tenth thride or their first ride, and and yet
(15:28):
still have competition on the leaderboard. I think that balance
is so impressive that it does help me feel like
there's people around me even when I'm taking it alone
in my apartment or alone at the gym. Even so,
how do you feel like that has kind of brought
a sense of community but also like a team aspect
back into your life? Oh yeah. I think people who
(15:50):
were like ex athletes, ex college athletes or whatever thrive
off of Peloton and the leaderboards. Um. But yeah, we
need that like push, Like if I don't have someone
yelling at me, like I'm not gonna push myself as hard,
and if I don't see people that I'm competing with
on the leader board, I might not push myself that hard.
(16:11):
But it also just depends on what you need, Right,
some days you want that push and some days you don't,
so you can tie the leaderboard. There's also ways you
can filter, so if you want to only race against
people your age group, you can do that. And so
I think what was really cool that Peloton realized early
on is that the community kind of created itself and
(16:34):
then Peloton was like, oh wow, like like there's you know,
this Facebook group with hundreds of thousands of people and
that was started by members. Are Um Homecoming, which was
called home Writer Invasion initially was created by members who
were all like, let's all go to the studio at
the same time, and like hundreds of people showed up
to the studio and then pelotons like, who whoaa, we
need to like help manage this. So it's like the
(16:56):
people were like, no, we're here for it, we can
create the community, ay, and the Peloton is like cool,
like let's let's figure out the best way to do this.
Um So. Yeah. On Facebook and social media, there's tons
of groups of people who are like you know, Peloton moms, um,
physician assistants, lawyers, doctors, um, peloton teachers. Like, there's very
(17:19):
niche and specific groups that you can join, and I
think that has it's it's really cool for people and
I see people actually meeting up for the first time
in real life at the studio where they'll be like,
we've been friends on social media for a year, riding together,
and we've decided to come to the studio together to meet. Um.
So it is really cool to see how community builds
(17:41):
itself within peloton. Yeah. That's that I think is another
great point you bring up, Like the hashtags. I've I've
been able to like click those sometimes and been like, oh,
I didn't know that all these people use this hashtag
and like I can relate to it. So it's so
funny how just like simple things like that have really
brought people together. Okay, one of my last questions for you,
(18:04):
I know it's a live format for you. Have you
ever had a moment where you're like either like stumbled
on your words or made a mistake and you're like,
oh man, this is live, Like what am I doing?
And it's like so overwhelming where you're like, oh, no,
what have I done? Kind of thing. I love talking
to my colleagues about this because we the only people
(18:24):
who really know what that's like. Is like us, you know,
we all share stories with each other about like I
accidentally like saying this lyric to a song that's like
totally inappropriate, or like, you know a lot sometimes the
leaderboard names like some people like try to get you,
like they do like the whole Bart something where they
try to make you say something like stupid. Um. So
(18:46):
I've definitely done that. Um. But you know, I think
I just try to like laugh it off, you know,
I or I make fun of myself. I I'll either
call it out or sometimes I just completely like pretend
that it didn't happen. I'm like, maybe no one noticed.
But yeah, that's the exciting thing about live is like
you could say anything and um, you kind of just
(19:07):
gotta figure your way around it or through it or
out of it. Um, but yeah, we we probably all
have embarrassing stories. Yeah. I almost feel like for me
the quicker, you acknowledge it and you're like, that wasn't right.
Mess that one up. But we're just going to move
past it. Like the Quicker, you just get it out
of the way. It's like, Okay, everyone's human. We all
(19:28):
make mistakes here. Um, yeah, that's that's uh. Like they
I mean, they like it. They think it's funny. They
like seeing just be human and exactly humanizes you. Yeah,
it helps. Um. Okay, So I know you are coming
to a Jets game very soon. It's your first NFL
game now, I know that it's December, so it's gonna
(19:51):
be really cool. What am I supposed to wear? Just
like all of the everything here, you gotta you gotta
wear green and white. Obviously, gotta gotta rip the home colors.
But I would just layer as much as possible. I
have found that on the sidelines, I try and walk
up and down as much as possible to keep moving
(20:12):
so that I'm at least staying somewhat warm. But when
you're sitting in those seats and you don't get a
lot of movement, I think that's that's going to be chilly,
But dance exactly exactly. The more you get up in
cheer and then sit back down and get up in cheer, yeah,
maybe that will help. What are you most looking forward
to about going to your first NFL game? Because I
(20:34):
know you don't necessarily know what to expect, but it's
got to be so exciting looking forward to your first one. Yeah,
how big is the stadium? Actually? Do you know how
many seats? You know, I don't know how many people
it fits like number wise, but it feels even bigger
because it's a little bit of a bowl. So you go,
it goes down a little bit more than you would think,
(20:55):
and then it comes up, so it feels it always
feels really big to me. I think there's two things
that I like when I go to stadiums or you know,
big concert venues. This you know, related to Peloton. Sometimes
I do like to find out how big it is,
and then I imagine, you know, I'm like, oh, twenty
people are in here, Like that's like me teaching a
class on a Saturday and having twenty And sometimes I
(21:17):
look around and I'm like, I'm having all these people
working out with me. Right now. So that's all fun.
But also I'll say, my partner and boyfriend, Dave what
played football in college and we've never been to an
NFL game together. He has, but we've never been together.
I'm like excited to see. I feel like I'm going
to see another side of him that is going to
(21:37):
like unleash when he's in that environment. And I'm really, um,
I think I'm gonna be highly entertained by how excited
he is going to be in that Yes, I will say,
not only are football fans just like such die hards
and fanatics, Jets fans especially are just so so passionate,
(21:59):
and I think that's what makes a The Jets have
a home field advantage whenever they play at MetLife Stadium.
But be it what, it's what makes coming to games
so fun because you're just in this stadium with all
these people who are screaming and yelling because they care
so much, so that makes it really special. But um, Emma,
(22:20):
thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Loved
getting to hear about your fitness journey and how you
got all the way to Peloton and even a little
sneak peek about your book. That's coming out soon sooner
or later this year. So thank you so much for
hopping on. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much
for having me, and maybe I'll see you at the game.
(22:40):
I'll come find you awesome. Thanks so much for tuning
into another episode of New Yorker and learning all about
our guest, Emma love Well. Make sure you rate, review,
and subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks again, and
we will see you next time on New Yorker. Ranta
(23:01):
me
Welcome to another episode of New York Her. I'm your host,
Caroline Hendershot. Today we have a really special guest. Her
name is Emma love Well. She is a Peloton instructor
and author. Emma, thank you so much for joining us.
I'm so excited to have you on. Thank you, Caroline.
I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me,
of course. Okay, so we were just talking off camera
(00:25):
a little bit. I think you're the first person that
I've ever met that was born and raised on the
island of Martha's Vineyard, Like so crazy. I just think
that there's so much that comes with that. What was
that like growing up on in island. Yeah, I think
I didn't realize that it was strange until I left
the island because I was born there. I didn't know
(00:46):
anything else, no fast food or malls or um, you know,
the regular stuff, until I went to college and then
all my friends were like, wait, you've never been to
a Wendy's. You've never into Taco Bell, like, you know.
The idea of like going to a mall just to
buy like one thing was like so foreign to me
(01:07):
because growing up on the island, you would take a
boat off island and do like an entire day of
shopping at the mall, you know. But it's in retrospect,
I'm very lucky that I grew up there. Moving from
island of ten thousand people to the New York City,
was that a big adjustment for you? Yeah, And even
(01:27):
when I would just visit, like I'd go home for
the weekend or something and I'd go back to New
York like that, that transition time was really long, like
even just to acclimate myself. Um, and then it got
short and shorter the more times I would do it.
But yeah, it's very it's it's very overwhelming to be
(01:49):
um in New York City after living on an island.
But I loved it. I was like so energized by it,
like the energy in the city and you know, like
everybody is so driven and creative, and I was like
I was thriving off of that, right. I feel like
you either thrive off of it or it's like so
overwhelming where it's like, Okay, this isn't what I wanted.
(02:11):
I gotta I gotta leave. But I okay. So I
read this really interesting thing about you that you took
a Craigslist job for fifty dollars and that's why you
say that you're here in your current position where you
are today. So explain to me, at what point did
that come in the career, that fifty dollar Craigslist job. Sure,
And I'm I write about this story in my book
(02:33):
that's coming out, my Second Live Learned Love Well Lessons
from a life of progress not perfection. So I'm giving
you a little taste of what is in the book. Amazing.
Yeah um, but yeah. So I moved to New York
to pursue dance and I set pretty like realistic goals
for myself where I was like if I don't you know,
(02:54):
I didn't have a lot of confidence, to be honest.
When I moved to New York, I was like, I'm
gonna try this whole thing out. I had done an
internship before when I was in college, and I ended
up booking a music video. Gig Um. I was in
a Bi York music video, and I was like, I
was like, oh wait, like maybe I'm good enough to
do this. And so I was like, I'm gonna move
to New York City, I'm gonna pursue dance. I'm gonna
(03:15):
give myself one year if I don't make, you know,
headway in a year, like I need to reconsider my
career path. So about a year in I ended up
signing with a major dance agency, and I was like,
this is my sign that I'm doing what I was do,
like I'm going to keep going, And so I did
that for six or seven years. Auditioning was brutal, that's
(03:36):
very competitive. Um. I got to dance with Snoop Dog
with the Rolling Stones. I was in a number of
music videos and movies Step Up three D like also
you know, um, and I had a great time. I
was bartending on the weekends to make ends meet. I
was going on Craigslist looking for jobs like constantly, and
(04:01):
there's like casting networks and there's all these different websites
you go to try to find, you know, creative jobs.
And so one of the jobs I found was it
was looking for like a model of fitness models, a
woman who felt comfortable in the gym and who could
show her abs. And it was for a personal trainer's website.
So he wanted to like act like he was training
(04:22):
me in these photos. And it paid fifty dollars and
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna like submit
my photo and fifty bucks can get me like a
nice dinner, you know. And so I end up getting
it and I go to the photo shoot and like,
thank god it's legitimate, because like you really just don't know, um,
the amount of things that I said yes to and
(04:43):
was like I'm just going off the vibes here. And
the photographer was amazing, the personal trainer was awesome. You know.
Ended up making some friends there, and the photographer was like, hey,
have you ever considered fitness modeling? You know you need
to be able to take direction. Well, um, you know,
dancers are great for fitness modeling. And I was like,
(05:04):
let me, you know, let me take him seriously, and
so we did a test shoot. I end up putting
together portfolio submitted to Wilhelmina Models and ended up signing
with will Almina. Because of will Almina, I ended up
booking a modeling job of kicks for a kickstarter campaign
for Peloton m HM. And so that's how I met
the CEO and the small team at Peloton in two
(05:26):
thousand twelve, and I was just like an actor model
for the day, and um, you know, years later I
reached back out to the CEO and I was like, Hey,
I'm a fitness instructor. Now, like, are there any job
opportunities there? And he was like, yes, come an audition
and then the rest is history. Wow, that is so crazy,
(05:46):
how like full circle that that life comes but that
moment specifically. Okay, so this is a little twofold You
mentioned saying yes to a lot of different crazy jobs.
How do you feel like that mindset has helped you
grow in your career? Because I feel like, at least
for me personally speaking, it's hard to say yes two
(06:09):
things sometimes because you're either not sure you'll you'll be
good at it, it might make you nervous you don't
know enough about maybe the sport or the opportunity or
the job. So how do you almost switch your mindset
to being more open to that and how does it
How has it helped your career? Yeah, I mean it's
it's a game of numbers, right, you know the Wayne
(06:30):
Gretzky quote. You miss a d percent of the shots
you don't take. It's like, especially in the dance world,
like you have to go to a hundred auditions before
you book one. I mean hopefully not, but oftentimes it's
like that, and so it's just a numbers game, and
the more you do something, the better at it you get,
and the more confident you get at it. So it
was sort of like I was training myself to like
(06:51):
be better at the auditioning process too, and um, you
know the obviously like there is this idea I remember, like,
you know, celebrity musicians and artists being like, come and
be in my music video. We won't pay you, but
you'll get exposure. And that was like so annoying. And
that was so for screening because you're like, you should
(07:11):
be paying these artists for their work. Um, but if
it paid very little, sometimes I'd be like, you know,
I'm just going to do it because it always ended
up I'd meet somebody or like have a great story
to tell, or it would leave, you know, go into
another opportunity, to another job. And so yeah, I was
(07:32):
like just saying yes as much as I could, trying
to meet as many people as I could, and um,
that's it's just like opening doors constantly. Do you feel
like all of those auditions and that practice you kind
of got from that helped boost your confidence naturally where
you just realized like Okay, I I am a good dancer.
(07:53):
I can do these things by saying yes and just
getting that more experience. Yeah. Um, I mean, I think
repetition creates growth and confidence, and you're trying to learn
how to like trust yourself too. So when you're going
to an audition and you know that you can get
rejected and you can still get up the next day
and go to another audition, like you're creating trust and
(08:16):
within yourself, which I think is how you create confidence. Um,
knowing that, like I can be told no, and like,
I mean, another hard thing is I had so many
girlfriends that were dancers too, so we'd all go to
the same audition together. And some of my girlfriends went
up booking the job and I wouldn't. That's super hard
to because you're like, I'm like they're my friend and
I want to be happy for them, but like I
(08:36):
also want the job and I need to pay my bills,
and so it was like this really interesting dynamic and
learning experience for me. Or you just have to like
move with grace and be kind to yourself because you're
constantly being told no and you're not good enough, so
you have to be your own advocate and be like, no,
I do believe in myself and I can keep doing this.
(08:57):
I think that's that's something that I've experienced. It's too
I think it's probably the most difficult thing to keep
believing in yourself sometimes because when you get told no
so often, you almost start to let those thoughts creep
in that that maybe I can't do this, maybe I'm
not cut out for this. And keeping that faith in
(09:19):
yourself I think is one of the hardest things to do.
But when you do and it does pay off like
it has for you, it's like the most worthwhile thing
because you're like, Okay, I knew it. I knew I
was good at this, Like I knew I could make it,
and so I'm sure that there's like sometimes I have
to um, like even with dance, like now I'm so
(09:40):
like out of practice. I haven't really danced in a
long time, but I'll go take like a beginner dance
class sometimes because I'm like, I literally just want to
move and I need to like feel good about myself.
I'm not going to take a super advanced dance class
and really bad about myself. Like set yourself up for
some easy wins because the easy wins are going to
also help propel you forward and get you excited and
(10:02):
more confident. Definitely. Okay, so you joined Peloton and you
go to teach your first class. What was that like,
Because I mean you were a fitness instructor before that,
so you had taught classes, But like, what was that
transition like from going from just like a smaller studio
to then one of like these major New York City ones. Yeah,
(10:24):
I was wild. I was teaching fitness classes to you know,
fifty people. I was teaching cycling to fifty people in
a room and loved it. Um. I remember my first class,
my premier class, and there were twenty three hundred people
on the leaderboard and the um the record was a
(10:44):
thousand at the time, so I knew that like for
my premiere, like twice as many people were showing up
and I did not give a single shout out because
I was like completely overwhelmed seeing And now that's a
small number. Now, you know, we've had fifty thousand people
on the leaderboard. I think is just maybe the record now. Um,
(11:04):
but yeah, it was really insane to know that there's
fifty people in the room and there's thousands of people
at home tuning in with me, and um, I think
I probably blacked out. I don't know. I mean, it's
really overwhelming but very exciting at the same time. And
like you said that, there's so many people out there
(11:26):
that are also taking the class, not just the ones
in the room. Does is that ever intimidating or do
you just kind of try and focus on what's in
front of you and the people in the room, because
I know you give those shout outs every peloton instructor
does to the people riding with you virtually, But does
that ever become an intimidating factor of like, whoa, there's
(11:48):
a lot of people following along right now. Yeah, And
also like sometimes I think about who is following along too,
because there are professional athletes, they're a limp fiends. There
are there's you know, somebody who's taking their first fitness
class ever that's taking the same class that you know,
(12:09):
an Olympic swimmer is taking, you know, and there are
politicians that take And I'm just thinking of like, yeah,
my influence is huge in this moment um, so I
take it really seriously. Uh, you know, for the most part,
but you know, but I have to like also not
put so much pressure on myself. That's like, if I
(12:32):
just make, you know, make sure I'm having fun, then
I think other people will have fun. As long as
I know, you know, I'm playing music that speaks to me,
I think it will draw in my people and people
will people enjoy watching people enjoy themselves. So I think
I just try to keep that in mind. But definitely
there are times where I think about, like the range
(12:53):
of people with different fitness experience and how they're all
taking the same exact class at the same time I'm
and I think that just helps me be a better
instructor um and just be able to speak to all
different types of people. How do you modify and create
a class four people of all those different fitness levels
(13:15):
where you have like an olympian or a professional athlete
on one side and then someone who's taking their first
class ever maybe on the other side, all within the
same class. Yeah, it's all in. It's all in language,
and people want to feel seen and acknowledge. So if
you just acknowledge that there could be somebody if this
is your first class ever, like welcome and you're doing great,
(13:35):
just feel free to modify as you need it. All
it takes is just like one comment to acknowledge that
that person exists out there and um, and then also
it's like if you need to challenge yourself more like
go ahead and increase your resistance. And I think that's
why we do a pretty good job at Peloton of
giving a wide range of cadence and resistance to say
like this should feel like this. You should be breathing
(13:57):
really hard right now. This should be hard, or this
is a recovery, this should feel easy, because yeah, you're
going to get all different types of experience out there.
That's actually my favorite thing that Peloton classes due because
I feel like I'm really bad giving. Like if someone's like, go,
I'm like, I don't know what that is. Like I
(14:19):
know myself very well and I have no idea what
that is, and I feel like I usually end up
going a lot faster when I'm at then versus if
someone told me to go all out. So when it's like, Okay,
you should be able to have a conversation at this pace,
but you should be like breathing heavily through it, and
I'm like, oh, that's great, Like it's it's like something
that is so easy to imitate, and you can even
(14:42):
like try it yourself as you're going, which is like
my favorite part. Sometimes I'll like talk out loud and say, okay,
like can I hold a conversation at this pace? I'd
say that in my low impact classes. I'm like, right now,
you should be like breathing kind of hard, but you
should be able to say like, hey, I'm a how's
it going, what's up? I'm well, how are you doing?
You know, I say that, I'm like imagining thousands of
people at home being like, hey, Emma, what's up? But no,
(15:06):
but it's so helpful. Um. But what I feel like
is maybe the most impressive thing about Peloton is the
community it's created. Because those little notifications that come up
that are like, oh, high five someone for their or
their tenth thride or their first ride, and and yet
(15:28):
still have competition on the leaderboard. I think that balance
is so impressive that it does help me feel like
there's people around me even when I'm taking it alone
in my apartment or alone at the gym. Even so,
how do you feel like that has kind of brought
a sense of community but also like a team aspect
back into your life? Oh yeah. I think people who
(15:50):
were like ex athletes, ex college athletes or whatever thrive
off of Peloton and the leaderboards. Um. But yeah, we
need that like push, Like if I don't have someone
yelling at me, like I'm not gonna push myself as hard,
and if I don't see people that I'm competing with
on the leader board, I might not push myself that hard.
(16:11):
But it also just depends on what you need, Right,
some days you want that push and some days you don't,
so you can tie the leaderboard. There's also ways you
can filter, so if you want to only race against
people your age group, you can do that. And so
I think what was really cool that Peloton realized early
on is that the community kind of created itself and
(16:34):
then Peloton was like, oh wow, like like there's you know,
this Facebook group with hundreds of thousands of people and
that was started by members. Are Um Homecoming, which was
called home Writer Invasion initially was created by members who
were all like, let's all go to the studio at
the same time, and like hundreds of people showed up
to the studio and then pelotons like, who whoaa, we
need to like help manage this. So it's like the
(16:56):
people were like, no, we're here for it, we can
create the community, ay, and the Peloton is like cool,
like let's let's figure out the best way to do this.
Um So. Yeah. On Facebook and social media, there's tons
of groups of people who are like you know, Peloton moms, um,
physician assistants, lawyers, doctors, um, peloton teachers. Like, there's very
(17:19):
niche and specific groups that you can join, and I
think that has it's it's really cool for people and
I see people actually meeting up for the first time
in real life at the studio where they'll be like,
we've been friends on social media for a year, riding together,
and we've decided to come to the studio together to meet. Um.
So it is really cool to see how community builds
(17:41):
itself within peloton. Yeah. That's that I think is another
great point you bring up, Like the hashtags. I've I've
been able to like click those sometimes and been like, oh,
I didn't know that all these people use this hashtag
and like I can relate to it. So it's so
funny how just like simple things like that have really
brought people together. Okay, one of my last questions for you,
(18:04):
I know it's a live format for you. Have you
ever had a moment where you're like either like stumbled
on your words or made a mistake and you're like,
oh man, this is live, Like what am I doing?
And it's like so overwhelming where you're like, oh, no,
what have I done? Kind of thing. I love talking
to my colleagues about this because we the only people
(18:24):
who really know what that's like. Is like us, you know,
we all share stories with each other about like I
accidentally like saying this lyric to a song that's like
totally inappropriate, or like, you know a lot sometimes the
leaderboard names like some people like try to get you,
like they do like the whole Bart something where they
try to make you say something like stupid. Um. So
(18:46):
I've definitely done that. Um. But you know, I think
I just try to like laugh it off, you know,
I or I make fun of myself. I I'll either
call it out or sometimes I just completely like pretend
that it didn't happen. I'm like, maybe no one noticed.
But yeah, that's the exciting thing about live is like
you could say anything and um, you kind of just
(19:07):
gotta figure your way around it or through it or
out of it. Um, but yeah, we we probably all
have embarrassing stories. Yeah. I almost feel like for me
the quicker, you acknowledge it and you're like, that wasn't right.
Mess that one up. But we're just going to move
past it. Like the Quicker, you just get it out
of the way. It's like, Okay, everyone's human. We all
(19:28):
make mistakes here. Um, yeah, that's that's uh. Like they
I mean, they like it. They think it's funny. They
like seeing just be human and exactly humanizes you. Yeah,
it helps. Um. Okay, So I know you are coming
to a Jets game very soon. It's your first NFL
game now, I know that it's December, so it's gonna
(19:51):
be really cool. What am I supposed to wear? Just
like all of the everything here, you gotta you gotta
wear green and white. Obviously, gotta gotta rip the home colors.
But I would just layer as much as possible. I
have found that on the sidelines, I try and walk
up and down as much as possible to keep moving
(20:12):
so that I'm at least staying somewhat warm. But when
you're sitting in those seats and you don't get a
lot of movement, I think that's that's going to be chilly,
But dance exactly exactly. The more you get up in
cheer and then sit back down and get up in cheer, yeah,
maybe that will help. What are you most looking forward
to about going to your first NFL game? Because I
(20:34):
know you don't necessarily know what to expect, but it's
got to be so exciting looking forward to your first one. Yeah,
how big is the stadium? Actually? Do you know how
many seats? You know, I don't know how many people
it fits like number wise, but it feels even bigger
because it's a little bit of a bowl. So you go,
it goes down a little bit more than you would think,
(20:55):
and then it comes up, so it feels it always
feels really big to me. I think there's two things
that I like when I go to stadiums or you know,
big concert venues. This you know, related to Peloton. Sometimes
I do like to find out how big it is,
and then I imagine, you know, I'm like, oh, twenty
people are in here, Like that's like me teaching a
class on a Saturday and having twenty And sometimes I
(21:17):
look around and I'm like, I'm having all these people
working out with me. Right now. So that's all fun.
But also I'll say, my partner and boyfriend, Dave what
played football in college and we've never been to an
NFL game together. He has, but we've never been together.
I'm like excited to see. I feel like I'm going
to see another side of him that is going to
(21:37):
like unleash when he's in that environment. And I'm really, um,
I think I'm gonna be highly entertained by how excited
he is going to be in that Yes, I will say,
not only are football fans just like such die hards
and fanatics, Jets fans especially are just so so passionate,
(21:59):
and I think that's what makes a The Jets have
a home field advantage whenever they play at MetLife Stadium.
But be it what, it's what makes coming to games
so fun because you're just in this stadium with all
these people who are screaming and yelling because they care
so much, so that makes it really special. But um, Emma,
(22:20):
thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Loved
getting to hear about your fitness journey and how you
got all the way to Peloton and even a little
sneak peek about your book. That's coming out soon sooner
or later this year. So thank you so much for
hopping on. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much
for having me, and maybe I'll see you at the game.
(22:40):
I'll come find you awesome. Thanks so much for tuning
into another episode of New Yorker and learning all about
our guest, Emma love Well. Make sure you rate, review,
and subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thanks again, and
we will see you next time on New Yorker. Ranta
(23:01):
me
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.