March 11, 2024 • 58 mins
Sarah Harralson interviews songwriter and fitness coach, Megan Conner about the relationship between fitness and music and why it's important for musicians to maintain their physical health.
Contact her regarding fitness programs here:
https://www.thewanderingworkout.com/
Listen to her music here:
https://www.meganconner.com/
Contact her regarding fitness programs here:
https://www.thewanderingworkout.com/
Listen to her music here:
https://www.meganconner.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hello everyone, Thank you again fortuning into my podcast, Mind Your Music
Business, where I interview a differentperson in the music industry each episode.
So this season, I really wantto focus on health and fitness in the
music industry, and I have areally great guest today to talk to us
about that topic. So Megan Connorstarted off her career after graduating from Baylor
(00:31):
University to pursue acting in New YorkCity, but she quickly fell in love
with the fitness business after landing ajob as a personal trainer. She's taught
at many world class gyms in NewYork, and in two thousand and six,
she had the opportunity to move toNashville to pursue a career in music
while still being involved in the fitnesscommunity. She was able to achieve gold
(00:54):
and platinum records. As a songwriter. She's penned songs for Craig Morgan,
Rascal Flats, Young, and more. And she was voted in Nashville's Top
Running Coach in twenty seventeen to twentyeighteen and the Nashville Fit magazine. And
she's here to talk to me todayabout all things music and fitness. So
Megan, thank you. For beinghere. How are you. I'm doing
(01:17):
so well. Thank you so muchfor having me. This is so fun
to my talking about my favorite thingsall night. Let's go yeah, so
easy. So I love it.As I mentioned to you, I think
I was first introduced to you intoyour music when I was interning at Dan
Hodge's Music Publishing. That was likearound twenty fifteen. I remember listening to
(01:41):
some of your catalog and I justreally want to hear your story about when
you first moved to Nashville. Wasit difficult to get a publishing deal,
and what was kind of the pathto your success in music? Oh man,
So it's a pretty hilarious story howI ended up here. Just like
(02:04):
you said, I was teaching inNew York City, and at the time,
I was teaching spinning, and thiswas before there were spin studios or
anything like that. I was teachingand all these big gyms and we'd have
like fifty bikes in the room andand it was pretty it was pretty wild.
So I would teach at this oneplace called sports Club LA, which
(02:29):
was similar, well, it waspart of the chain with Rebox, Rebok
and sports Clubla, which were thesehuge gyms in New York City and at
this one particular gym, the hewas the CFO of E m I at
the time, back when em Iwas was a thing, and his name
was Colin Finkelstein Finkelstein Finkelstein. Andhe took my class and he was like,
(02:53):
why are you not performing? BecauseI would I would like sing and
and like run around and act likea complete loan bird. And then kind
of one thing led to another andhe was really like, you should probably
move to Nashville. I'm kind ofskipping a lot of the story, but
(03:17):
it's it's okay. And I startedcoming down here, and I mean,
I walked in I will never forgetto Chris Lacey, who still works in
the music industry. So I walkinto Chris Lacey's office with my stack of
papers that are all my lyrics thatI've written on paper and just which I
(03:42):
just I can't even I can't evenimagine. Now I look back and I'm
like, wow, I should tryto get in touch with her and see
what she would think about that.What she thought about now, Oh my
gosh, it's something we can laughat. But everyone told me that I
should move here and just come downif I wanted to be in the music
(04:04):
business at the time, like Ikind of wanted to do the artist thing
and and try that out. SoI decided to come on down. I
knew kind of New York would alwaysbe there, so I did, and
I moved down here, and let'ssee, so long ago, but I
(04:27):
started training at Takes two Fitness,which I believe is still around. So
I did some personal training there.I met some great people. I just
had some fantastic clients that were inthe music business. So I got a
little bit of a foot in thedoor there again. And then so I
(04:48):
did some I was doing some fitness, I was doing a little bit of
teaching, and then I just startednetworking and writing and met Don Goodman and
Rich Elves, which they they wrotelike gosh, what did Don Goodman write?
(05:09):
Man like some of the biggest Ithink it was Alabama songs, very
you know. So I kind ofstarted writing with these like people super you
know, very established older people andkind of learned from them, kind of
had an interesting publishing deal through them, and then one thing led to another
(05:32):
and ended up with Dan and thenended up with a Dan in a New
York publishing deal, which that wasfantastic. Yeah, it's just but it
wasn't It wasn't easy, but Idefinitely had the a little I knew a
(05:57):
couple of people just that we're willingto introduce me to other people. And
yeah, I think that's that's kindof how so by teaching, and I
taught spin and every people would callit spin entertainment because such a goof So
(06:18):
that is how I ended up here. And then I've just I've kind of
I think that the fitness and wecan kind of I'm sure we'll talk more
about all the other fitness things thatI've done in the meantime, but I
just it's always been a part ofthe music as well, because I think
(06:44):
that it's a beautiful marriage between musicand Finness is fitness, it is fitness.
It's it's it's like you you havea goal, you want to run
a race, you do a Band C, you're going to get to
(07:04):
your end goal. Music is everythingopposite that. There's no rhyme or reason.
A lot of times, you canwork super hard, you can do
all the right things, you canbe a great person, you can be
you know, super talented, andstill there's no guarantees. So I think
(07:26):
that fitness has always been a greatbalance for me to be involved in and
to be a part of alongside music. Yeah, and to that point,
I think it's so healthy to haveother interests besides just focusing on focusing on
music or just focusing on acting,because if we focus fully on music and
(07:51):
try to create one hundred percent ofthe time, you know, we're going
to drive ourselves crazy and we won'tbe able to draw inspiration from many thing
else if we have no other interest. Yeah, I agree, and I
think I think you can find somuch inspiration outside of that. I also
(08:11):
think that outside of being just inthe industry, I also think that running
has always been my thing and thathas been such a great creative outlet for
me. I mean, I writebetter when I go for a run.
The days that I go for arun, my brain functions better. You
(08:35):
know, I want to eat better. It's just like it's all this beautiful.
I mean again, it's just abeautiful marriage of these these things.
A lot of times when I'm running, I will find inspiration there. And
yeah, I just I think thatthere's so much good that balances it out.
(08:58):
And just like you said, andI was just having the conversation tonight
with a fellow musician, and Iwas just like, you cannot, you
cannot put your worth into the musicbusiness. You cannot try to figure it
out, because you will. Youwill go crazy and you will be a
(09:20):
very sad human. Yeah, sowhen you were in New York, were
you, uh, trying to focuson acting full time or how did you
kind of transision into wanting to domusic or were you already songwriting? Also
an interesting story. So when Iwas in college, I was I studied
(09:45):
acting. We didn't have musical theater, otherwise I probably would have studied that,
but I tried doing I tried doingmusic. So I took music and
theater for not majors as just forfun. And I hated music theory and
musicianship. I was like, thisis gross, and the acting for non
(10:11):
majors I did. I did it, And then the professor actually ended up
contacting my parents and saying, wereally think that your daughter needs to pursue
this, and we don't go tosay that lightly, you know, because
it's a big you know, Imean, it's the arts. It's a
(10:35):
hard life. So I went forit. And then kind of what happened
is I think it was a sophomoreor junior in college and the musical rent
came to Dallas and everyone went togo audition for I did not want to
(10:56):
go audition for it, and theywere like, just got home minute.
I said, okay, fine,So I did. I went on audition.
I was the only white girl calledback out of Dallas because there's only
one female white part in that cast, well little miss Baylor. Little miss
(11:18):
I was just as green as couldbe and as white as the turf and
snow, and that part is alesbian that shows her but to the audience.
And so anyways, I got calledback. I got called back all
the way and they were like,we love you to be in the touring
(11:39):
cast, and I was like,I can't, I can't, I'm not
ready. So they kept in touchwith me, and they said, well,
we think you need to move toNew York when you're you know,
when you've graduated, when you thinkyou're ready. So I kept in touch
with their casting agency, and thenwhen I moved to New York, I
moved up there, and to behonest with you, I got a job
(12:01):
as a personal trainer. Five daysafter I moved there and I did not
do one audition. I completely regretit, yeah I do, but I
wouldn't be where I'm at now,so I can't, you know, look
back at that too much. ButI'd always like written, you know,
poetry and like song, you knowstuff. And then this was back in
(12:26):
the my space days, and Imet this guy on MySpace. We started
collaborating, you know, and writingsongs. And then and then I moved
to Nashville and I had answered anad up there where you normally go and
you do auditions. I had answeredone to do some country singing, and
(12:52):
so I had recorded five country songsup there, and is kind of what
funneled me down, ended up kindof pointing me in the direction to Nashville,
even though you know, it wasn'tuber country. I did grow up
(13:13):
in Texas, in North Carolina,but that's just kind of the curve that
everything took. So yeah, sothat is how. And then I just
showed up with my little lyric papers. Here we are. So yeah,
(13:33):
it's been it's been quite a ride. So those songs when you recorded them,
was your intention to be an artistor for those recordings to be demos
to pitch to other artists. Sothe guy and he passed away. His
name was Paul Vance. He wroteIty Bitty teeny Weenyello, Pouke It Out,
Bikini, and how to Catch aFalling Star. So he was a
(13:56):
songwriter and he'd written these very manycountry songs, and I guess I auditioned
and he liked me, and hewas like, I'm going to record you
and you're going to be the artist. And so I guess it was to
be an artist, you know.And I look back on those now and
I'm just like, oh my gosh, they're so bad. I don't even
(14:20):
know where those recordings are, thankGod. But but yeah, the intention
I think was to be an artist, you know, when I first moved
here. And then kind of kindof what ended up happening with that is
I did end up meeting Colin,ended up kind of introducing me to the
(14:46):
people at AM. I what wasI'm trying to think of it was.
I'm not going to name throw here, but I can't remember what the label
was because my brain is super tiny, but it was it was a big
one. And ended up working witha producer and and showcasing for them and
(15:13):
and kind of what this was afterI'd moved here and after i'd I'd written
some songs and worked for a while, and and kind of what ended up
happening with that is I have kindof a raspy voice, and and when
I showcased, they were like,where's this. I can kind of control
(15:35):
it, but the producer that Iworked with wanted didn't want me to have
it have it in because he waskind of like, this sounds like Dange
Tucker and and so it just kindof didn't all line up. And at
the end of the day, Iwas kind of like, I don't really
want to be a country artist.I love writing this, but I I
(16:00):
don't want to do this is notwhat defines me, Like I don't want
to be up here singing about Chucksand all these things, like this is
not really who I am. Ilove to write it, and then that's
kind of what swung me into reallyfocusing more on the writing and writing for
(16:23):
other people. And so I wantto go kind of back to the relationship
between fitness and music. So kindof thinking back to when you first came
to Nashville, especially with those firstfew deals, you were probably always busy
writing songs during the day, goingto shows, meeting people. So how
(16:45):
did you make the time to doall of that while being a fitness instructor,
Because I think one of the mostdifficult things as a musician or a
songwriter is making the time, findingtime management skills to balance music career with
(17:06):
making actual time for your physical andmental health. Yeah, I think that's
like, I think that's probably thehardest part. I think it's something that
I still to this day, andthat's kind of what I'm trying to figure
out these days. I think I'mI'm at a better point now at that,
(17:29):
but it really is. I thinkabout having boundaries, and I think
at that point I didn't. Ithink I just kind of just did everything.
And I was young, you know. So you teach all the classes,
and you do all the things,and you sign up for all the
races, and you know, youdo it and you just make it work.
(17:51):
But if you do that and yourun on you know, twelve and
you only have a ten dial,then you're you're going to burn out.
So I think that it is soimportant to try to find that balance and
(18:14):
to draw those boundaries and make surethat you are getting what you need.
If it is hey, I needto have that run. I need to
you know, if I'm going toteach a fitness class at wherever, and
I need thirty minutes before that towork out. Then you go to the
(18:37):
gym, you go to teach yourclass thirty minutes early, and you take
that time in the studio, getyour get your time in, and then
you teach your class and then yougo do your things like it's just And
as you get older, you reallyrealize that you have to prioritize yourself,
(19:00):
your mental health, and especially whenyou're a fitness instructor or personal trainer,
you give of yourself a lot.I feel like I'm always cheerleading. That's
always what I'm doing is giving andgive and giving, giving, and at
the end of the day, Iam exhausted. One thing that I have
(19:25):
learned since from way back when ishow to how my brain works as far
as personal training versus writing. Onthe days that I'm personal training, I
just do personal training. Those daysI give and give and give and give
(19:48):
and give, and I want tobe there for my clients. I want
to give them everything I can andthen I'm done. So those days,
these these days are Tuesdays and Thursdays, I train all day. I started
in the morning, I don't finishuntil start at eight o'clock in the morning.
I don't finish until eight o'clock atnight. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,
(20:14):
I'll teach a row House class.Today I taught a row House class.
I went for a jog and thenI had a writing session. I
feel great like I gave people mytime. I got time, and then
my brain was able to think,you know, and I'm not exhausted.
(20:37):
So I think it's it's about figuringout what parts what works for you,
and what parts of your brain switchingback from the given, given giving to
the Okay, I have to besuper creative and figure out how to write
(20:59):
this song word puzzle and then given, given, giving again is what I
used to do every day, andthat did not work. It could work
some people. So I think it'sjust a matter of figuring out, you
know, what works for you.And that's such a good point because when
you are in a creative songwriting space, you want to be able to be
(21:22):
vulnerable and you know, get awayfrom that mindset. I feel like feeling
like you're coaching other people you know, you just want to you know,
be yourself in that space. Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely I've had
to have a major separation from it, and I've kind of realized that the
(21:45):
fitness, the group training is alittle bit like performing, so that kind
of falls into like the performing writing, Like that's all kind of of a
creative space for me, whereas thepersonal training is more of a it's a
more like one on one coaching.I'm gonna we're gonna sit here and talk,
(22:10):
you know, it's like therapy withsome sweating. Yeah, so that
I think takes a different mental spaceto be in, almost like a therapy
session. And it's a little bithard to like, I think, juggle
back and forth. But that's justthat's just my brain. Yeah. And
(22:34):
I mean for those who maybe aren'tteaching fitness classes but just trying to find
time to do workouts while maybe maintaininga family and maintaining a music career,
sometimes it's just a short matter ofyou know, waking up an hour earlier
so you can get your workout andif it's virtual, you know, just
(22:56):
a gym down the street, whateveryou can do to time. Yeah,
there's so many there are so manydifferent ways these days, especially with what
we just went through with COVID.I know, coach online, So Tuesdays
and Thursdays, I end up I'mcoaching on Zoom half the day to people
(23:22):
in Texas, in Florida, inI mean, we've got Atlanta, Pennsylvania.
I mean there's just there's people everywhere. And then I have people that
come in here. But I meanit, you really can. There's so
many options. Like the excuses thesedays, you can't find many that.
(23:49):
I mean, I'll find a wayto be like, Nope, you could
do it like this, And Imean we all have days where look,
it's not gonna happen. Yesterday wasI was like, no, nope,
I'm not doing I'm not working out. And that's okay. We all need
those kinds of days too. Butyeah, So and I love that you
(24:12):
coach at the Rowhouse. I've beento that one in Sylvan Park a few
times. So much fun, greatclasses. So I have to come back
and take one with you. Itis so fun. I have just like
absolutely loved, loved, loved coachingthere. I have to tell a story.
I'm gonna share this at some pointand for those that don't haven't followed
(24:41):
me yet on social media, thenthey can get it here the story.
But this morning I had a classand there was a seventy seven year old
man in class. He's going tobe seventy eight, and his name is
Jim, and he he was married. He's lost his husband actually in December.
(25:06):
And he came in and I wascrying with him. And he was
previously married and had kids. He'slike, has a great grandchild, and
I mean telling me his entire lifestory. And I'm sitting there in tears,
and he's taken care of his partnerfor two years. His partner passed
(25:26):
away. And you know, thisman came in and made it through this
class. And I'm sitting here like, Jim, you do not need to
follow me. You are here.You know. I didn't get his partner's
(25:48):
name, but you could just tellhe was so he'd been so dedicated to
him and so deeply, you know, just dedicated to him for the last
two years, taking care and Iwas just like, he is looking down
on you. Now it is yourturn. It is your turn. And
I have chills, Like I havechills. This is like, this is
(26:10):
what it's about. And I said, do you know there's going to be
a lot coming at you. Youjust sit back here and you row.
And we went we went through youknow how to do it? And he
made it through the whole class.And and I'm like, you're seventy eight
years old, you are in here, look at what you're doing, like
(26:32):
you are such an inspiration. Andthen this is what I love about this
particular workout is that it's so inclusivethat a seventy eight year old man,
you know, can come do it, or a college rower can can do
it, and you're going to getsomething out of it. So I'm much
(26:52):
more in that space these days.So if Jim can do it, we
all can do it. You cando it. So amazing, It's just
amazing. So I love it.Yeah, So now I kind of want
to talk about where you're at withyour music journey. Now. So you
moved away from Nashville for a littlebit to uh live in Florida, and
(27:17):
now you're back in Nashville. Socan you kind of tell us about why
you wanted that change. I knowfor many of us, especially during COVID,
people were just kind of moving awayfrom Nashville. Uh, it's not
unknown that the modern day Nashville isnot the same as it used to be,
(27:41):
especially with the amount of work andeffort that songwriters have to do now
to just live here and you know, get continuous cuts in a streaming world
that has low pay. You areright, sister, Well, I got
out of my last deal. Gosh, I can't even remember how everything went,
(28:08):
how everything went, but to kindof summarize everything, I got out
of my last deal and then COVIDkind of hit, and with COVID,
I basically had to shut my Iwas training people at my at my home
(28:30):
full time. I did not haveany kind of online anything at that time
besides my run coaching, which wewe should talk about too. At some
point we should go back and we'llhave to talk about the running side of
things, because I have a greatstory about running Boston and that whole thing.
(28:52):
But I think really what happened isthat whole thought of I had been
going on twelve for a very longtime, and I was pretty burnout and
(29:14):
I had to I had to shuteverything down. I mean I had to
shut my fitness business down. Ihad gotten out of my publishing deal,
and I just did not want tosit here in the middle of it,
and so I headed down to Floridaand it was kind of just as going
to be a visit, and thenI ended up staying with one of my
(29:38):
clients down there for supposed to bethree days and then turned into six weeks.
I ended up flipping everything online.I started teaching online classes all that,
and then and then I ended upgoing down to the Florida Keys to
(30:00):
see some friends, and then Ikind of stayed and I came back and
I still had a place here fora while, and you know, would
come back and get my hair doneand see my doctors and do things like
that. But I needed the break. I wanted to get away from here.
(30:29):
I feel like everything kind of brokemy heart a little bit, and
going back to what you said originallyabout the music business and trying to figure
it out, and it really canbreak your heart if you try to figure
it out or define yourself by it. And then with just having to shut
(30:49):
things down with the fitness, Floridawas just sunny and hot, and there
was the ocean. I learned howto dive, and I did not write
a song for a year and ahalf. I just did not feel like
it, and I wrote a bookinstead about running that I'm working on the
(31:18):
finishing edits. Hopefully we'll be outlater this year, but we'll see.
That's a that's a huge undertaking.Oh my goodness. So I was still
writing, but I kind of madethe actual decision to move down there.
And then once I did, Ihad my first single here. So Craig
(31:45):
Morgan released how You Make a Man? And I ended up coming back.
I got to see him play itat the Opry. I got to meet
him there, and he's just adear person and said just the most the
sweetest things about that song and justfelt like it was it's just like the
(32:07):
most perfect song. And he foundout that it was going to be a
single at the Opry. Got totell my co writers that was huge,
and you know, we got tohear it on the radio some places,
and then got to come back andsee him performing at the Rhyman. He
(32:29):
called us all out the three writers, and it was just all of that
kind of sparked things again and said, okay, all right, well,
if this song found its way,you know, maybe maybe a few others
(32:52):
could you know. And he's justsuch a great person and human and did
such a booty job with that song. I'm so proud of that song,
and so that that kind of iswhat got me back here, and I
started coming back a little bit moreand yeah, and then ended up getting
(33:15):
in the room with Kylie Morgan andanother co writer, Jeff Garrison, and
got a song on her record thatcame out last year in twenty twenty three,
and just had a couple of thingsthat happened that I was like,
oh, I don't need to havea publisher, I don't need have everything
(33:36):
that the business says that I needto have success. And then I just
missed the people, I missed theopportunities, I missed being creative, and
so my boyfriend and I decided tocome back here and feel it out and
(33:57):
see, you know, see howit's going. So that's kind of where
we're at now and seeing how howit's going. I just had a very
last minute opportunity and ended up gettinga song on the Super Bowl, which
was just bananas. It's just soI've had a couple of nods that have
(34:20):
said you did the right thing,and we're just we're doing things on our
own terms. We are working onbalance. I'm working with a lot of
new artists that I find intriguing andinspiring and and just not playing by the
rules. Yeah, and I thinkthat's the best way to do it,
(34:44):
because you can truly burn yourself outby always having expectations or wanting to set
a certain timeline for yourself. Justas creatives, no matter where you're at,
I think we all go through upsand downs. And you know,
even though you were in a differentplace, it was probably an intended purpose
(35:08):
for you to be there, andeven though you weren't writing, you were
still pursuing other creative ideas like writingyour running book and being able to be
a resource for others who needed youfor their fitness journeys. Yeah. Yeah,
And I feel like that's also thebeautiful thing about the parallel with fitness
(35:30):
is that I feel like, atthe end of the day, I've been
put here to inspire people. Andwhether that's I'm going to help you,
I'm going to help Jim do aroad class, or I'm going to help
whoever run a marathon, or I'mgoing to write a song that someone connects
(35:52):
with. That, I think,at the end of the day is my
purpose. And I think a lotof times in music, don't. We
don't get that, Like Joe outin Montana doesn't care that I wrote or
he doesn't think that I wrote asong for Rascal Flats. He's not looking
(36:12):
that who wrote that song. Onlypeople in Nashville care who wrote that song.
Nashville only cares about Nashville. AndI think that it's something that Again,
it's it's like I stepped When Istepped away, this is something very
interesting. When I stepped away,I was able to see the business from
a different side. I saw thewhole Craig Morgan thing from a totally different
(36:38):
place than the people that were hereand my other co writers were seeing it.
I saw it. It just itwas It's hard to explain, but
I was definitely on the outside ofit and I could see it from the
outside. I could see it almostas like I haven't even written the song,
(37:00):
if that makes sense. It justit was almost just like I could
I was seeing it not being inNashville, you know, and some of
the other people involved in the songwere very concerned about where it was on
the chart, and you know,when it heard him dropping and I was
like, Yo, we have afantastic song with a fantastic singer that we
(37:27):
got to hear sing at the opry, we got to hear on the radio.
It was our first single. Imean, there's so many things that
it just put everything in perspective ina different way for me seeing it from
the outside, I guess, whichI just don't think that I would have.
(37:50):
I think when you're in the middleof it, it's harder to see.
Yeah. And another you can't beas grateful for it if you love
it. Yeah. And I thinkanother thing too with talking about the balance
and the way that I'm approaching thingsnow as far as writing, fitness all
(38:12):
one day writing, fitness all oneday writing, is it's like when I
had a publishing deal. And I'mnot saying I wouldn't never sign another one
or anything like that, but alot of times when you're in that you
(38:35):
are I say, it's like throwingspaghetti on the wall and you keep throwing
it and you're throwing it and seewhat sticks, if anything sticks, because
you're writing and writing and writing andwriting, and most of these songs are
just going to end up in yourcomputer. And now it's very intentional,
(38:58):
like everything has a purpose. AndI talk a lot about that with my
runners and fitness, it's like everythinghas a purpose, like there's there's a
reason why we're doing this run,there's a reason why we're doing this exercise.
It's it's like if you give everythinga purpose, fitness things and music
(39:25):
things, then then they have apurpose. There's a reason for them.
It's not just like I'm gonna goon there. Oh, I'm gonna go
in there and write another song aboutthe blah blah blah today. I think
so that's something that has become areally big thing. And I think that
(39:45):
again a beautiful parallel in both ofboth of those the worlds. Yeah,
it's a great parallel because with bothinstances, if you're going on a run,
through your fitness journey, going towrite a song through your music career,
you want to have intention for yourend goal for both of those things.
(40:06):
And that's something I want to talkabout next. We hit on running.
So through your company, the WanderingWorkout, you have a running club
and you offer run coaching, whichis so important if anyone's running their first
half for full marathon to have atrainer. I know I needed one when
I did my first half marathon lastyear. My boyfriend is a runner and
(40:29):
he trained me. And it's soessential to have someone by your side when
you're doing something that crazy and intense. So do you offer run coaching from
anywhere? How does that work?And your mind? What's the benefit to
running for you? Oh my goodness. So the whole Oh, this is
(40:57):
like a whole podcast in and ofitself. I love running. I wanted
to name my book I Hate running. Everyone says I hate running, and
I'm like, no, you don't. You do not hate running. You
think you hate running, but youdon't. You either hate running because you
either are approaching it wrong, oryou've had a bad run with it pun
(41:23):
intended, or there's been you've hada bad experience, or just more than
likely you're you're not approaching it right. Basically, the whole book that I
have written is trying to help peopleapproach running in a sense that knowing that
(41:44):
everybody really is a runner and you'reable to if it's of interest to you,
but it's in it's approaching it inthe right way that just like you
said, having a coach or talkingto someone who's a runner, if you're
(42:04):
doing a half marathon or a fullmarathon, even a ten k. It's
so important because running is a highimpact sport. But running has become something
that I just I can't imagine mylife without it. And I almost feel
sorry for people that don't do itbecause I'm like, oh my gosh,
(42:27):
y'all are missing out so much onseeing the world in such a beautiful way.
So I just I love you canrun the same route and never see
the same things. You can rundifferent routes and you know, see different
things. You can you meet greatpeople. There's just so many more benefits
(42:53):
to it than than than negative thingsabout it. To me, a lot
of us creatives do struggle with anxietydepression. I know I have a lot
of anxiety and and it is reallytruly what calms me down and and it
(43:20):
just helps my mind to focus somuch better. So that is really the
purpose of it. And then onceyou once you realize okay, hey,
I can do this, and yourealize okay, I can do this,
and and there's a there's a rightway to do it, then you sign
up for a five k, andthen maybe a ten k, and then
(43:42):
half marathon and then a full marathonand then uh and then you you just
you progress and you do things thatyou never thought you could do, and
it's incredible. I have a clientnow, she's never run ever really in
her life life, and she's trainingto run her first half marathon. She's
(44:04):
done her first five k, andshe's been texting me that she texted me
this weekend she ran her first sevenmiles. She's sent a picture and she's
like, I didn't die. Andit's incredible because people people can't comprehend,
you know, thirteen miles, AndI'm like, well, if you do
it the right way, five mileseventually is not going to feel like a
(44:28):
long like a long run anymore.You know, seven miles isn't going to
feel like a big deal. Butit's just about doing it in the proper
way and realizing all these things alongthe way. You need to eat,
if you're running over forty five minutes, you need to have nutrition, you
need to be drinking X amount oftime. So yes, I do everything
(44:52):
as far as run. Coaching isall online and most of the people I
have right now are actually out oftown, and I I coach people from
wanting to learn how to run ajust be able to run a five k
to I have someone trying to runa sub three hour marathon, which is
(45:14):
like a six minute, fifteen secondmile or something like that. She's insane,
She's amazing. So I believe everybodycan do anything they want, you
know. Yeah, it's just amatter of doing it right, you know,
trying to figure out the best approach, and it all starts with baby
(45:35):
steps, like you said. Iknow, when I was starting to run
again, I felt like I couldn'trun x amount without stopping. So just
listening to music while I did myfirst few runs helped too, And even
just kind of the mindset of well, I'm going to listen to X amount
(45:58):
of songs this time before I stopfor a break and then start running again,
and just building up your goals soyou're not just right off the bat.
Oh I'm really bad at this.I'm not gonna continue. Yeah,
I tell people, and in thebook, I'm I'm like, you know,
what what most people do is theysay, oh, I'm gonna I'm
gonna go I'm gonna be runner,I'm gonna go off for run, I'm
(46:21):
gonna run a mile, you know, and they haven't run a mile and
god knows when. So they goand they try to run a mile as
hard as I can, and thenyou're dying and you hate it, and
I'm like, well then you're not. Then you're gonna hate it. Then
you're done. So it really isabout progressing. Yeah, if you can't
run a mile, that's fine,then walk. Then we're gonna walk this
(46:45):
much time, and then we're gonnajog this much time, and then we're
gonna build until we can run thismuch time, and then we're gonna then
we're gonna build on that until wecan run, you know, half a
mile, and then we're gonna buildon that until we could run three quarter
of a mile. Then we're gonnabuild on that so we can run a
mile, and then we're gonna buildon that. You know, there's there's
like a scientific way to do itand so that so that you you know,
(47:10):
hopefully prevent injuries and and all that. Yeah. So and it's just
I think it's it's again with thegoals. It really is just about believing
that you can do anything. Yeah, I have I have another story for
(47:38):
you, but see if there's anyother questions on that. But I do
have a I do have a crazystory about running if you want me,
Yeah, I want to hear thecrazy story. I was just going to
say, I love the name wanderingworkout because you truly can work out from
anywhere. Now with technology, ifyou're a musician on the road, you
(48:00):
don't have gym access or really badgem options on the road, people could
stream your on demand workouts work outwith you virtually, you know excuses,
and besides that, you offer variouspersonal training programs that can be tailored to
people's workout goals, like you mentioned. So I want to hear your story
(48:22):
and then also just any advice yougive to people who have no idea where
to begin with their fitness journey butwant to do something. Got it?
Got it? I think? Soone crazy story that I have about the
whole running So how I kind ofgot into run coaching because I've just been
(48:45):
doing personal training and fitness group fitnessstuff for a really long time. I've
always I kind of was no,let's rewind, I did not grow up
athletic at all. Okay, sohere's the deal. Let's just combine this.
(49:06):
People. You do not have tobe athletic to be athletic. Okay,
you do not have to be anathlete to be athletic. I was
like a choir drama nerd. Myhigh school sweetheart got me into to running
and I had no idea what Iwas doing. And yeah, so it
(49:28):
just it's just about starting somewhere.It's either take the first step, walk
into the gym. But my mainthing is just ask for help and find
people that motivate you and that inspireyou and go with them. Because if
(49:51):
you're not having fun and you're notlearning at the same time, then there's
what's the point, you know,So be with and do things that inspire
you. And I think that isOh I had another thing, but it
went like in and out of myhead because that is where we are right
(50:15):
now. Hopefully it will come back. But those are just those are a
couple of my thoughts for fitness,things like ask for help, find people,
find people that inspire you, andjust take the first step. Like
(50:37):
don't there's like there really is noexcuse these days. There's there's so many
outlets and so many there's so manydifferent facets and offerings out there. So
but the way that I got intothe run coach was I started running and
(51:05):
then I started doing some like trathlonsand and whatnot. And then I kind
of just realized I could run,but I could run kind of fast ish
and I'm not like a teeny tinygirl, and I was bigger, even
bigger back then, but I couldrun kind of well. I had no
(51:29):
idea what I was doing, butso I would do some like five k's
and ten k's and trathlons, andI would always place in my age group.
This was it in like New YorkCity, and I was like,
oh, okay, so I camehere, how did I'm trying to try
(51:50):
to remember like the timeline of itall. But I ran my first marathon
shortly after my step dad passed awayof liver cancer, and I ran it
for the American Liver Foundation. Idid not train properly. I had no
idea what I was doing. Onlytrained up to fifteen miles, and I
was like, okay, well,I'll just go and I'll maybe I'll run
thirteen and I'll just stop, We'llforget it. I run, you know,
(52:15):
thirteen, and I'm like, I'mgoing to keep going. I ended
up breaking my foot, broke myfoot, crossed the finish line, ran
my first full got a stretsfracture,and was like Okay, that was interesting.
So decided to do another one,and did another one another time,
(52:38):
and did a couple others. AndI was running once and in North Carolina
and I was just running in amarathon and somebody was like, are you
trying to qualify for Boston? AndI was like, well, what's that?
I have no idea what that is. So they were like Boston,
(52:58):
and I was like, oh yeah, no, no idea. So I
finished the race and then I wentand looked up Boston. I didn't know
what that was, and I realizedthat it was like the biggest, best
marathon of all what you want todo if you run marathons. And I
had missed the qualifying time by twominutes. Oh wow. So I I
(53:23):
was like, well, okay,I can do this. So I signed
up for another one and I wentto do it and was running this is
Alabama, and I got it bandsyndrome incredibly bad. I've never in my
life had to quit a race,and I had to quit at mile twenty
(53:46):
two. I could not put anotherput another foot in front of the other,
and anyways finished that, I waslike, I can't ever run again.
So the American Liver Foundation reached outand said, do you want to
run Boston for us? You haveto raise this much money and this year.
And I was like, okay,I'll do it because this will be
(54:07):
this will be my final marathon goingout big. So I raised the money
and I went. I did it. And that was the year of the
bombing. So I finished fifteen minutesbefore they went off, and I was
two blocks away around the corner andI was been over getting my race bag
(54:30):
and it was like the first boom, and then twenty seconds later it was
another big boom, and I,like you immediately knew it was a bomb,
but I thought they were coming fromfrom the sky. So it was
like complete chaos, crazy, thewhole thing. And I was just like,
(54:57):
this is not the whole things,you know, horrific, and and
I was like, this is nothow I want Boston to go. And
and I was like, I'm comingback. I'm going to qualify, and
I'm going to do this. I'mgonna do it again. I'm gonna do
it for me, I'm going todo it for all the people that lost
their lives, for all the peoplethat you know were injured. And and
(55:22):
so I came back and I hireda coach and I I did it.
I went through it and I gotit. I qualified, went back and
I did it and it was amazing. And through that I learned how to
(55:45):
run and properly. That is whatmade me want to become a coach.
So yeah, so that whole crazy, crazy story. Yeah, oh,
Chris, is that your first timehiring a fitness coach? Is not my
(56:07):
first submar fitness coach. I meanthat was my first time hiring a running
coach. Okay. I always saytrainers need trainers. I always think it's
great to have people. You alwaysshould be learning. You should always take
(56:27):
classes, you know, if youcan have another trainer, if you can
have a coach, your own coach, you should always be always be learning.
Yeah. Yeah, and I'm soglad you were able to find someone
to help you qualify for Boston kindof uh, get to the race in
a different way and for everyone,that's a great story. Yeah. And
(56:52):
then now I've been able to dothat for other people, and it's just
like that. I think now thesedays, I get more excited to see
them cross the finish line. Thenyou know, then I ever do cross
crossing the finish line well, knowingthat you helped them achieve that for sure,
so amazing. It's amazing. Well, everyone, please go check out
(57:14):
the Wandering Workout dot com. Ifyou're trying to figure out how to go
about your fitness journey, she canhelp you. She can help you with
running, and you know, mayberunning's not for you. You just kind
of have to figure out what yourjourney looks like in fitness. There's so
many different things to try. Andbesides the Wandering Workout, go stream some
(57:37):
of the songs that Megan has written, so she makes some extra streams.
Thank you again, Meghan for beinghere today and sharing your story. Is
there anywhere else you want to sendpeople to to follow you? I am
an Instagram, girly and Facebook.So Instagram is at Megan Connor m E
(58:00):
G A N C O N NE R and my Facebook is at Megan
Connor. Fitness is the one thatI use the most, so you can
always connect with me there. I'malways happy to answer questions on pretty much
anything. Thank you, Megan,Thank you so much,
Hello everyone, Thank you again fortuning into my podcast, Mind Your Music
Business, where I interview a differentperson in the music industry each episode.
So this season, I really wantto focus on health and fitness in the
music industry, and I have areally great guest today to talk to us
about that topic. So Megan Connorstarted off her career after graduating from Baylor
(00:31):
University to pursue acting in New YorkCity, but she quickly fell in love
with the fitness business after landing ajob as a personal trainer. She's taught
at many world class gyms in NewYork, and in two thousand and six,
she had the opportunity to move toNashville to pursue a career in music
while still being involved in the fitnesscommunity. She was able to achieve gold
(00:54):
and platinum records. As a songwriter. She's penned songs for Craig Morgan,
Rascal Flats, Young, and more. And she was voted in Nashville's Top
Running Coach in twenty seventeen to twentyeighteen and the Nashville Fit magazine. And
she's here to talk to me todayabout all things music and fitness. So
Megan, thank you. For beinghere. How are you. I'm doing
(01:17):
so well. Thank you so muchfor having me. This is so fun
to my talking about my favorite thingsall night. Let's go yeah, so
easy. So I love it.As I mentioned to you, I think
I was first introduced to you intoyour music when I was interning at Dan
Hodge's Music Publishing. That was likearound twenty fifteen. I remember listening to
(01:41):
some of your catalog and I justreally want to hear your story about when
you first moved to Nashville. Wasit difficult to get a publishing deal,
and what was kind of the pathto your success in music? Oh man,
So it's a pretty hilarious story howI ended up here. Just like
(02:04):
you said, I was teaching inNew York City, and at the time,
I was teaching spinning, and thiswas before there were spin studios or
anything like that. I was teachingand all these big gyms and we'd have
like fifty bikes in the room andand it was pretty it was pretty wild.
So I would teach at this oneplace called sports Club LA, which
(02:29):
was similar, well, it waspart of the chain with Rebox, Rebok
and sports Clubla, which were thesehuge gyms in New York City and at
this one particular gym, the hewas the CFO of E m I at
the time, back when em Iwas was a thing, and his name
was Colin Finkelstein Finkelstein Finkelstein. Andhe took my class and he was like,
(02:53):
why are you not performing? BecauseI would I would like sing and
and like run around and act likea complete loan bird. And then kind
of one thing led to another andhe was really like, you should probably
move to Nashville. I'm kind ofskipping a lot of the story, but
(03:17):
it's it's okay. And I startedcoming down here, and I mean,
I walked in I will never forgetto Chris Lacey, who still works in
the music industry. So I walkinto Chris Lacey's office with my stack of
papers that are all my lyrics thatI've written on paper and just which I
(03:42):
just I can't even I can't evenimagine. Now I look back and I'm
like, wow, I should tryto get in touch with her and see
what she would think about that.What she thought about now, Oh my
gosh, it's something we can laughat. But everyone told me that I
should move here and just come downif I wanted to be in the music
(04:04):
business at the time, like Ikind of wanted to do the artist thing
and and try that out. SoI decided to come on down. I
knew kind of New York would alwaysbe there, so I did, and
I moved down here, and let'ssee, so long ago, but I
(04:27):
started training at Takes two Fitness,which I believe is still around. So
I did some personal training there.I met some great people. I just
had some fantastic clients that were inthe music business. So I got a
little bit of a foot in thedoor there again. And then so I
(04:48):
did some I was doing some fitness, I was doing a little bit of
teaching, and then I just startednetworking and writing and met Don Goodman and
Rich Elves, which they they wrotelike gosh, what did Don Goodman write?
(05:09):
Man like some of the biggest Ithink it was Alabama songs, very
you know. So I kind ofstarted writing with these like people super you
know, very established older people andkind of learned from them, kind of
had an interesting publishing deal through them, and then one thing led to another
(05:32):
and ended up with Dan and thenended up with a Dan in a New
York publishing deal, which that wasfantastic. Yeah, it's just but it
wasn't It wasn't easy, but Idefinitely had the a little I knew a
(05:57):
couple of people just that we're willingto introduce me to other people. And
yeah, I think that's that's kindof how so by teaching, and I
taught spin and every people would callit spin entertainment because such a goof So
(06:18):
that is how I ended up here. And then I've just I've kind of
I think that the fitness and wecan kind of I'm sure we'll talk more
about all the other fitness things thatI've done in the meantime, but I
just it's always been a part ofthe music as well, because I think
(06:44):
that it's a beautiful marriage between musicand Finness is fitness, it is fitness.
It's it's it's like you you havea goal, you want to run
a race, you do a Band C, you're going to get to
(07:04):
your end goal. Music is everythingopposite that. There's no rhyme or reason.
A lot of times, you canwork super hard, you can do
all the right things, you canbe a great person, you can be
you know, super talented, andstill there's no guarantees. So I think
(07:26):
that fitness has always been a greatbalance for me to be involved in and
to be a part of alongside music. Yeah, and to that point,
I think it's so healthy to haveother interests besides just focusing on focusing on
music or just focusing on acting,because if we focus fully on music and
(07:51):
try to create one hundred percent ofthe time, you know, we're going
to drive ourselves crazy and we won'tbe able to draw inspiration from many thing
else if we have no other interest. Yeah, I agree, and I
think I think you can find somuch inspiration outside of that. I also
(08:11):
think that outside of being just inthe industry, I also think that running
has always been my thing and thathas been such a great creative outlet for
me. I mean, I writebetter when I go for a run.
The days that I go for arun, my brain functions better. You
(08:35):
know, I want to eat better. It's just like it's all this beautiful.
I mean again, it's just abeautiful marriage of these these things.
A lot of times when I'm running, I will find inspiration there. And
yeah, I just I think thatthere's so much good that balances it out.
(08:58):
And just like you said, andI was just having the conversation tonight
with a fellow musician, and Iwas just like, you cannot, you
cannot put your worth into the musicbusiness. You cannot try to figure it
out, because you will. Youwill go crazy and you will be a
(09:20):
very sad human. Yeah, sowhen you were in New York, were
you, uh, trying to focuson acting full time or how did you
kind of transision into wanting to domusic or were you already songwriting? Also
an interesting story. So when Iwas in college, I was I studied
(09:45):
acting. We didn't have musical theater, otherwise I probably would have studied that,
but I tried doing I tried doingmusic. So I took music and
theater for not majors as just forfun. And I hated music theory and
musicianship. I was like, thisis gross, and the acting for non
(10:11):
majors I did. I did it, And then the professor actually ended up
contacting my parents and saying, wereally think that your daughter needs to pursue
this, and we don't go tosay that lightly, you know, because
it's a big you know, Imean, it's the arts. It's a
(10:35):
hard life. So I went forit. And then kind of what happened
is I think it was a sophomoreor junior in college and the musical rent
came to Dallas and everyone went togo audition for I did not want to
(10:56):
go audition for it, and theywere like, just got home minute.
I said, okay, fine,So I did. I went on audition.
I was the only white girl calledback out of Dallas because there's only
one female white part in that cast, well little miss Baylor. Little miss
(11:18):
I was just as green as couldbe and as white as the turf and
snow, and that part is alesbian that shows her but to the audience.
And so anyways, I got calledback. I got called back all
the way and they were like,we love you to be in the touring
(11:39):
cast, and I was like,I can't, I can't, I'm not
ready. So they kept in touchwith me, and they said, well,
we think you need to move toNew York when you're you know,
when you've graduated, when you thinkyou're ready. So I kept in touch
with their casting agency, and thenwhen I moved to New York, I
moved up there, and to behonest with you, I got a job
(12:01):
as a personal trainer. Five daysafter I moved there and I did not
do one audition. I completely regretit, yeah I do, but I
wouldn't be where I'm at now,so I can't, you know, look
back at that too much. ButI'd always like written, you know,
poetry and like song, you knowstuff. And then this was back in
(12:26):
the my space days, and Imet this guy on MySpace. We started
collaborating, you know, and writingsongs. And then and then I moved
to Nashville and I had answered anad up there where you normally go and
you do auditions. I had answeredone to do some country singing, and
(12:52):
so I had recorded five country songsup there, and is kind of what
funneled me down, ended up kindof pointing me in the direction to Nashville,
even though you know, it wasn'tuber country. I did grow up
(13:13):
in Texas, in North Carolina,but that's just kind of the curve that
everything took. So yeah, sothat is how. And then I just
showed up with my little lyric papers. Here we are. So yeah,
(13:33):
it's been it's been quite a ride. So those songs when you recorded them,
was your intention to be an artistor for those recordings to be demos
to pitch to other artists. Sothe guy and he passed away. His
name was Paul Vance. He wroteIty Bitty teeny Weenyello, Pouke It Out,
Bikini, and how to Catch aFalling Star. So he was a
(13:56):
songwriter and he'd written these very manycountry songs, and I guess I auditioned
and he liked me, and hewas like, I'm going to record you
and you're going to be the artist. And so I guess it was to
be an artist, you know.And I look back on those now and
I'm just like, oh my gosh, they're so bad. I don't even
(14:20):
know where those recordings are, thankGod. But but yeah, the intention
I think was to be an artist, you know, when I first moved
here. And then kind of kindof what ended up happening with that is
I did end up meeting Colin,ended up kind of introducing me to the
(14:46):
people at AM. I what wasI'm trying to think of it was.
I'm not going to name throw here, but I can't remember what the label
was because my brain is super tiny, but it was it was a big
one. And ended up working witha producer and and showcasing for them and
(15:13):
and kind of what this was afterI'd moved here and after i'd I'd written
some songs and worked for a while, and and kind of what ended up
happening with that is I have kindof a raspy voice, and and when
I showcased, they were like,where's this. I can kind of control
(15:35):
it, but the producer that Iworked with wanted didn't want me to have
it have it in because he waskind of like, this sounds like Dange
Tucker and and so it just kindof didn't all line up. And at
the end of the day, Iwas kind of like, I don't really
want to be a country artist.I love writing this, but I I
(16:00):
don't want to do this is notwhat defines me, Like I don't want
to be up here singing about Chucksand all these things, like this is
not really who I am. Ilove to write it, and then that's
kind of what swung me into reallyfocusing more on the writing and writing for
(16:23):
other people. And so I wantto go kind of back to the relationship
between fitness and music. So kindof thinking back to when you first came
to Nashville, especially with those firstfew deals, you were probably always busy
writing songs during the day, goingto shows, meeting people. So how
(16:45):
did you make the time to doall of that while being a fitness instructor,
Because I think one of the mostdifficult things as a musician or a
songwriter is making the time, findingtime management skills to balance music career with
(17:06):
making actual time for your physical andmental health. Yeah, I think that's
like, I think that's probably thehardest part. I think it's something that
I still to this day, andthat's kind of what I'm trying to figure
out these days. I think I'mI'm at a better point now at that,
(17:29):
but it really is. I thinkabout having boundaries, and I think
at that point I didn't. Ithink I just kind of just did everything.
And I was young, you know. So you teach all the classes,
and you do all the things,and you sign up for all the
races, and you know, youdo it and you just make it work.
(17:51):
But if you do that and yourun on you know, twelve and
you only have a ten dial,then you're you're going to burn out.
So I think that it is soimportant to try to find that balance and
(18:14):
to draw those boundaries and make surethat you are getting what you need.
If it is hey, I needto have that run. I need to
you know, if I'm going toteach a fitness class at wherever, and
I need thirty minutes before that towork out. Then you go to the
(18:37):
gym, you go to teach yourclass thirty minutes early, and you take
that time in the studio, getyour get your time in, and then
you teach your class and then yougo do your things like it's just And
as you get older, you reallyrealize that you have to prioritize yourself,
(19:00):
your mental health, and especially whenyou're a fitness instructor or personal trainer,
you give of yourself a lot.I feel like I'm always cheerleading. That's
always what I'm doing is giving andgive and giving, giving, and at
the end of the day, Iam exhausted. One thing that I have
(19:25):
learned since from way back when ishow to how my brain works as far
as personal training versus writing. Onthe days that I'm personal training, I
just do personal training. Those daysI give and give and give and give
(19:48):
and give, and I want tobe there for my clients. I want
to give them everything I can andthen I'm done. So those days,
these these days are Tuesdays and Thursdays, I train all day. I started
in the morning, I don't finishuntil start at eight o'clock in the morning.
I don't finish until eight o'clock atnight. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,
(20:14):
I'll teach a row House class.Today I taught a row House class.
I went for a jog and thenI had a writing session. I
feel great like I gave people mytime. I got time, and then
my brain was able to think,you know, and I'm not exhausted.
(20:37):
So I think it's it's about figuringout what parts what works for you,
and what parts of your brain switchingback from the given, given giving to
the Okay, I have to besuper creative and figure out how to write
(20:59):
this song word puzzle and then given, given, giving again is what I
used to do every day, andthat did not work. It could work
some people. So I think it'sjust a matter of figuring out, you
know, what works for you.And that's such a good point because when
you are in a creative songwriting space, you want to be able to be
(21:22):
vulnerable and you know, get awayfrom that mindset. I feel like feeling
like you're coaching other people you know, you just want to you know,
be yourself in that space. Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely I've had
to have a major separation from it, and I've kind of realized that the
(21:45):
fitness, the group training is alittle bit like performing, so that kind
of falls into like the performing writing, Like that's all kind of of a
creative space for me, whereas thepersonal training is more of a it's a
more like one on one coaching.I'm gonna we're gonna sit here and talk,
(22:10):
you know, it's like therapy withsome sweating. Yeah, so that
I think takes a different mental spaceto be in, almost like a therapy
session. And it's a little bithard to like, I think, juggle
back and forth. But that's justthat's just my brain. Yeah. And
(22:34):
I mean for those who maybe aren'tteaching fitness classes but just trying to find
time to do workouts while maybe maintaininga family and maintaining a music career,
sometimes it's just a short matter ofyou know, waking up an hour earlier
so you can get your workout andif it's virtual, you know, just
(22:56):
a gym down the street, whateveryou can do to time. Yeah,
there's so many there are so manydifferent ways these days, especially with what
we just went through with COVID.I know, coach online, So Tuesdays
and Thursdays, I end up I'mcoaching on Zoom half the day to people
(23:22):
in Texas, in Florida, inI mean, we've got Atlanta, Pennsylvania.
I mean there's just there's people everywhere. And then I have people that
come in here. But I meanit, you really can. There's so
many options. Like the excuses thesedays, you can't find many that.
(23:49):
I mean, I'll find a wayto be like, Nope, you could
do it like this, And Imean we all have days where look,
it's not gonna happen. Yesterday wasI was like, no, nope,
I'm not doing I'm not working out. And that's okay. We all need
those kinds of days too. Butyeah, So and I love that you
(24:12):
coach at the Rowhouse. I've beento that one in Sylvan Park a few
times. So much fun, greatclasses. So I have to come back
and take one with you. Itis so fun. I have just like
absolutely loved, loved, loved coachingthere. I have to tell a story.
I'm gonna share this at some pointand for those that don't haven't followed
(24:41):
me yet on social media, thenthey can get it here the story.
But this morning I had a classand there was a seventy seven year old
man in class. He's going tobe seventy eight, and his name is
Jim, and he he was married. He's lost his husband actually in December.
(25:06):
And he came in and I wascrying with him. And he was
previously married and had kids. He'slike, has a great grandchild, and
I mean telling me his entire lifestory. And I'm sitting there in tears,
and he's taken care of his partnerfor two years. His partner passed
(25:26):
away. And you know, thisman came in and made it through this
class. And I'm sitting here like, Jim, you do not need to
follow me. You are here.You know. I didn't get his partner's
(25:48):
name, but you could just tellhe was so he'd been so dedicated to
him and so deeply, you know, just dedicated to him for the last
two years, taking care and Iwas just like, he is looking down
on you. Now it is yourturn. It is your turn. And
I have chills, Like I havechills. This is like, this is
(26:10):
what it's about. And I said, do you know there's going to be
a lot coming at you. Youjust sit back here and you row.
And we went we went through youknow how to do it? And he
made it through the whole class.And and I'm like, you're seventy eight
years old, you are in here, look at what you're doing, like
(26:32):
you are such an inspiration. Andthen this is what I love about this
particular workout is that it's so inclusivethat a seventy eight year old man,
you know, can come do it, or a college rower can can do
it, and you're going to getsomething out of it. So I'm much
(26:52):
more in that space these days.So if Jim can do it, we
all can do it. You cando it. So amazing, It's just
amazing. So I love it.Yeah, So now I kind of want
to talk about where you're at withyour music journey. Now. So you
moved away from Nashville for a littlebit to uh live in Florida, and
(27:17):
now you're back in Nashville. Socan you kind of tell us about why
you wanted that change. I knowfor many of us, especially during COVID,
people were just kind of moving awayfrom Nashville. Uh, it's not
unknown that the modern day Nashville isnot the same as it used to be,
(27:41):
especially with the amount of work andeffort that songwriters have to do now
to just live here and you know, get continuous cuts in a streaming world
that has low pay. You areright, sister, Well, I got
out of my last deal. Gosh, I can't even remember how everything went,
(28:08):
how everything went, but to kindof summarize everything, I got out
of my last deal and then COVIDkind of hit, and with COVID,
I basically had to shut my Iwas training people at my at my home
(28:30):
full time. I did not haveany kind of online anything at that time
besides my run coaching, which wewe should talk about too. At some
point we should go back and we'llhave to talk about the running side of
things, because I have a greatstory about running Boston and that whole thing.
(28:52):
But I think really what happened isthat whole thought of I had been
going on twelve for a very longtime, and I was pretty burnout and
(29:14):
I had to I had to shuteverything down. I mean I had to
shut my fitness business down. Ihad gotten out of my publishing deal,
and I just did not want tosit here in the middle of it,
and so I headed down to Floridaand it was kind of just as going
to be a visit, and thenI ended up staying with one of my
(29:38):
clients down there for supposed to bethree days and then turned into six weeks.
I ended up flipping everything online.I started teaching online classes all that,
and then and then I ended upgoing down to the Florida Keys to
(30:00):
see some friends, and then Ikind of stayed and I came back and
I still had a place here fora while, and you know, would
come back and get my hair doneand see my doctors and do things like
that. But I needed the break. I wanted to get away from here.
(30:29):
I feel like everything kind of brokemy heart a little bit, and
going back to what you said originallyabout the music business and trying to figure
it out, and it really canbreak your heart if you try to figure
it out or define yourself by it. And then with just having to shut
(30:49):
things down with the fitness, Floridawas just sunny and hot, and there
was the ocean. I learned howto dive, and I did not write
a song for a year and ahalf. I just did not feel like
it, and I wrote a bookinstead about running that I'm working on the
(31:18):
finishing edits. Hopefully we'll be outlater this year, but we'll see.
That's a that's a huge undertaking.Oh my goodness. So I was still
writing, but I kind of madethe actual decision to move down there.
And then once I did, Ihad my first single here. So Craig
(31:45):
Morgan released how You Make a Man? And I ended up coming back.
I got to see him play itat the Opry. I got to meet
him there, and he's just adear person and said just the most the
sweetest things about that song and justfelt like it was it's just like the
(32:07):
most perfect song. And he foundout that it was going to be a
single at the Opry. Got totell my co writers that was huge,
and you know, we got tohear it on the radio some places,
and then got to come back andsee him performing at the Rhyman. He
(32:29):
called us all out the three writers, and it was just all of that
kind of sparked things again and said, okay, all right, well,
if this song found its way,you know, maybe maybe a few others
(32:52):
could you know. And he's justsuch a great person and human and did
such a booty job with that song. I'm so proud of that song,
and so that that kind of iswhat got me back here, and I
started coming back a little bit moreand yeah, and then ended up getting
(33:15):
in the room with Kylie Morgan andanother co writer, Jeff Garrison, and
got a song on her record thatcame out last year in twenty twenty three,
and just had a couple of thingsthat happened that I was like,
oh, I don't need to havea publisher, I don't need have everything
(33:36):
that the business says that I needto have success. And then I just
missed the people, I missed theopportunities, I missed being creative, and
so my boyfriend and I decided tocome back here and feel it out and
(33:57):
see, you know, see howit's going. So that's kind of where
we're at now and seeing how howit's going. I just had a very
last minute opportunity and ended up gettinga song on the Super Bowl, which
was just bananas. It's just soI've had a couple of nods that have
(34:20):
said you did the right thing,and we're just we're doing things on our
own terms. We are working onbalance. I'm working with a lot of
new artists that I find intriguing andinspiring and and just not playing by the
rules. Yeah, and I thinkthat's the best way to do it,
(34:44):
because you can truly burn yourself outby always having expectations or wanting to set
a certain timeline for yourself. Justas creatives, no matter where you're at,
I think we all go through upsand downs. And you know,
even though you were in a differentplace, it was probably an intended purpose
(35:08):
for you to be there, andeven though you weren't writing, you were
still pursuing other creative ideas like writingyour running book and being able to be
a resource for others who needed youfor their fitness journeys. Yeah. Yeah,
And I feel like that's also thebeautiful thing about the parallel with fitness
(35:30):
is that I feel like, atthe end of the day, I've been
put here to inspire people. Andwhether that's I'm going to help you,
I'm going to help Jim do aroad class, or I'm going to help
whoever run a marathon, or I'mgoing to write a song that someone connects
(35:52):
with. That, I think,at the end of the day is my
purpose. And I think a lotof times in music, don't. We
don't get that, Like Joe outin Montana doesn't care that I wrote or
he doesn't think that I wrote asong for Rascal Flats. He's not looking
(36:12):
that who wrote that song. Onlypeople in Nashville care who wrote that song.
Nashville only cares about Nashville. AndI think that it's something that Again,
it's it's like I stepped When Istepped away, this is something very
interesting. When I stepped away,I was able to see the business from
a different side. I saw thewhole Craig Morgan thing from a totally different
(36:38):
place than the people that were hereand my other co writers were seeing it.
I saw it. It just itwas It's hard to explain, but
I was definitely on the outside ofit and I could see it from the
outside. I could see it almostas like I haven't even written the song,
(37:00):
if that makes sense. It justit was almost just like I could
I was seeing it not being inNashville, you know, and some of
the other people involved in the songwere very concerned about where it was on
the chart, and you know,when it heard him dropping and I was
like, Yo, we have afantastic song with a fantastic singer that we
(37:27):
got to hear sing at the opry, we got to hear on the radio.
It was our first single. Imean, there's so many things that
it just put everything in perspective ina different way for me seeing it from
the outside, I guess, whichI just don't think that I would have.
(37:50):
I think when you're in the middleof it, it's harder to see.
Yeah. And another you can't beas grateful for it if you love
it. Yeah. And I thinkanother thing too with talking about the balance
and the way that I'm approaching thingsnow as far as writing, fitness all
(38:12):
one day writing, fitness all oneday writing, is it's like when I
had a publishing deal. And I'mnot saying I wouldn't never sign another one
or anything like that, but alot of times when you're in that you
(38:35):
are I say, it's like throwingspaghetti on the wall and you keep throwing
it and you're throwing it and seewhat sticks, if anything sticks, because
you're writing and writing and writing andwriting, and most of these songs are
just going to end up in yourcomputer. And now it's very intentional,
(38:58):
like everything has a purpose. AndI talk a lot about that with my
runners and fitness, it's like everythinghas a purpose, like there's there's a
reason why we're doing this run,there's a reason why we're doing this exercise.
It's it's like if you give everythinga purpose, fitness things and music
(39:25):
things, then then they have apurpose. There's a reason for them.
It's not just like I'm gonna goon there. Oh, I'm gonna go
in there and write another song aboutthe blah blah blah today. I think
so that's something that has become areally big thing. And I think that
(39:45):
again a beautiful parallel in both ofboth of those the worlds. Yeah,
it's a great parallel because with bothinstances, if you're going on a run,
through your fitness journey, going towrite a song through your music career,
you want to have intention for yourend goal for both of those things.
(40:06):
And that's something I want to talkabout next. We hit on running.
So through your company, the WanderingWorkout, you have a running club
and you offer run coaching, whichis so important if anyone's running their first
half for full marathon to have atrainer. I know I needed one when
I did my first half marathon lastyear. My boyfriend is a runner and
(40:29):
he trained me. And it's soessential to have someone by your side when
you're doing something that crazy and intense. So do you offer run coaching from
anywhere? How does that work?And your mind? What's the benefit to
running for you? Oh my goodness. So the whole Oh, this is
(40:57):
like a whole podcast in and ofitself. I love running. I wanted
to name my book I Hate running. Everyone says I hate running, and
I'm like, no, you don't. You do not hate running. You
think you hate running, but youdon't. You either hate running because you
either are approaching it wrong, oryou've had a bad run with it pun
(41:23):
intended, or there's been you've hada bad experience, or just more than
likely you're you're not approaching it right. Basically, the whole book that I
have written is trying to help peopleapproach running in a sense that knowing that
(41:44):
everybody really is a runner and you'reable to if it's of interest to you,
but it's in it's approaching it inthe right way that just like you
said, having a coach or talkingto someone who's a runner, if you're
(42:04):
doing a half marathon or a fullmarathon, even a ten k. It's
so important because running is a highimpact sport. But running has become something
that I just I can't imagine mylife without it. And I almost feel
sorry for people that don't do itbecause I'm like, oh my gosh,
(42:27):
y'all are missing out so much onseeing the world in such a beautiful way.
So I just I love you canrun the same route and never see
the same things. You can rundifferent routes and you know, see different
things. You can you meet greatpeople. There's just so many more benefits
(42:53):
to it than than than negative thingsabout it. To me, a lot
of us creatives do struggle with anxietydepression. I know I have a lot
of anxiety and and it is reallytruly what calms me down and and it
(43:20):
just helps my mind to focus somuch better. So that is really the
purpose of it. And then onceyou once you realize okay, hey,
I can do this, and yourealize okay, I can do this,
and and there's a there's a rightway to do it, then you sign
up for a five k, andthen maybe a ten k, and then
(43:42):
half marathon and then a full marathonand then uh and then you you just
you progress and you do things thatyou never thought you could do, and
it's incredible. I have a clientnow, she's never run ever really in
her life life, and she's trainingto run her first half marathon. She's
(44:04):
done her first five k, andshe's been texting me that she texted me
this weekend she ran her first sevenmiles. She's sent a picture and she's
like, I didn't die. Andit's incredible because people people can't comprehend,
you know, thirteen miles, AndI'm like, well, if you do
it the right way, five mileseventually is not going to feel like a
(44:28):
long like a long run anymore.You know, seven miles isn't going to
feel like a big deal. Butit's just about doing it in the proper
way and realizing all these things alongthe way. You need to eat,
if you're running over forty five minutes, you need to have nutrition, you
need to be drinking X amount oftime. So yes, I do everything
(44:52):
as far as run. Coaching isall online and most of the people I
have right now are actually out oftown, and I I coach people from
wanting to learn how to run ajust be able to run a five k
to I have someone trying to runa sub three hour marathon, which is
(45:14):
like a six minute, fifteen secondmile or something like that. She's insane,
She's amazing. So I believe everybodycan do anything they want, you
know. Yeah, it's just amatter of doing it right, you know,
trying to figure out the best approach, and it all starts with baby
(45:35):
steps, like you said. Iknow, when I was starting to run
again, I felt like I couldn'trun x amount without stopping. So just
listening to music while I did myfirst few runs helped too, And even
just kind of the mindset of well, I'm going to listen to X amount
(45:58):
of songs this time before I stopfor a break and then start running again,
and just building up your goals soyou're not just right off the bat.
Oh I'm really bad at this.I'm not gonna continue. Yeah,
I tell people, and in thebook, I'm I'm like, you know,
what what most people do is theysay, oh, I'm gonna I'm
gonna go I'm gonna be runner,I'm gonna go off for run, I'm
(46:21):
gonna run a mile, you know, and they haven't run a mile and
god knows when. So they goand they try to run a mile as
hard as I can, and thenyou're dying and you hate it, and
I'm like, well then you're not. Then you're gonna hate it. Then
you're done. So it really isabout progressing. Yeah, if you can't
run a mile, that's fine,then walk. Then we're gonna walk this
(46:45):
much time, and then we're gonnajog this much time, and then we're
gonna build until we can run thismuch time, and then we're gonna then
we're gonna build on that until wecan run, you know, half a
mile, and then we're gonna buildon that until we could run three quarter
of a mile. Then we're gonnabuild on that so we can run a
mile, and then we're gonna buildon that. You know, there's there's
like a scientific way to do itand so that so that you you know,
(47:10):
hopefully prevent injuries and and all that. Yeah. So and it's just
I think it's it's again with thegoals. It really is just about believing
that you can do anything. Yeah, I have I have another story for
(47:38):
you, but see if there's anyother questions on that. But I do
have a I do have a crazystory about running if you want me,
Yeah, I want to hear thecrazy story. I was just going to
say, I love the name wanderingworkout because you truly can work out from
anywhere. Now with technology, ifyou're a musician on the road, you
(48:00):
don't have gym access or really badgem options on the road, people could
stream your on demand workouts work outwith you virtually, you know excuses,
and besides that, you offer variouspersonal training programs that can be tailored to
people's workout goals, like you mentioned. So I want to hear your story
(48:22):
and then also just any advice yougive to people who have no idea where
to begin with their fitness journey butwant to do something. Got it?
Got it? I think? Soone crazy story that I have about the
whole running So how I kind ofgot into run coaching because I've just been
(48:45):
doing personal training and fitness group fitnessstuff for a really long time. I've
always I kind of was no,let's rewind, I did not grow up
athletic at all. Okay, sohere's the deal. Let's just combine this.
(49:06):
People. You do not have tobe athletic to be athletic. Okay,
you do not have to be anathlete to be athletic. I was
like a choir drama nerd. Myhigh school sweetheart got me into to running
and I had no idea what Iwas doing. And yeah, so it
(49:28):
just it's just about starting somewhere.It's either take the first step, walk
into the gym. But my mainthing is just ask for help and find
people that motivate you and that inspireyou and go with them. Because if
(49:51):
you're not having fun and you're notlearning at the same time, then there's
what's the point, you know,So be with and do things that inspire
you. And I think that isOh I had another thing, but it
went like in and out of myhead because that is where we are right
(50:15):
now. Hopefully it will come back. But those are just those are a
couple of my thoughts for fitness,things like ask for help, find people,
find people that inspire you, andjust take the first step. Like
(50:37):
don't there's like there really is noexcuse these days. There's there's so many
outlets and so many there's so manydifferent facets and offerings out there. So
but the way that I got intothe run coach was I started running and
(51:05):
then I started doing some like trathlonsand and whatnot. And then I kind
of just realized I could run,but I could run kind of fast ish
and I'm not like a teeny tinygirl, and I was bigger, even
bigger back then, but I couldrun kind of well. I had no
(51:29):
idea what I was doing, butso I would do some like five k's
and ten k's and trathlons, andI would always place in my age group.
This was it in like New YorkCity, and I was like,
oh, okay, so I camehere, how did I'm trying to try
(51:50):
to remember like the timeline of itall. But I ran my first marathon
shortly after my step dad passed awayof liver cancer, and I ran it
for the American Liver Foundation. Idid not train properly. I had no
idea what I was doing. Onlytrained up to fifteen miles, and I
was like, okay, well,I'll just go and I'll maybe I'll run
thirteen and I'll just stop, We'llforget it. I run, you know,
(52:15):
thirteen, and I'm like, I'mgoing to keep going. I ended
up breaking my foot, broke myfoot, crossed the finish line, ran
my first full got a stretsfracture,and was like Okay, that was interesting.
So decided to do another one,and did another one another time,
(52:38):
and did a couple others. AndI was running once and in North Carolina
and I was just running in amarathon and somebody was like, are you
trying to qualify for Boston? AndI was like, well, what's that?
I have no idea what that is. So they were like Boston,
(52:58):
and I was like, oh yeah, no, no idea. So I
finished the race and then I wentand looked up Boston. I didn't know
what that was, and I realizedthat it was like the biggest, best
marathon of all what you want todo if you run marathons. And I
had missed the qualifying time by twominutes. Oh wow. So I I
(53:23):
was like, well, okay,I can do this. So I signed
up for another one and I wentto do it and was running this is
Alabama, and I got it bandsyndrome incredibly bad. I've never in my
life had to quit a race,and I had to quit at mile twenty
(53:46):
two. I could not put anotherput another foot in front of the other,
and anyways finished that, I waslike, I can't ever run again.
So the American Liver Foundation reached outand said, do you want to
run Boston for us? You haveto raise this much money and this year.
And I was like, okay,I'll do it because this will be
(54:07):
this will be my final marathon goingout big. So I raised the money
and I went. I did it. And that was the year of the
bombing. So I finished fifteen minutesbefore they went off, and I was
two blocks away around the corner andI was been over getting my race bag
(54:30):
and it was like the first boom, and then twenty seconds later it was
another big boom, and I,like you immediately knew it was a bomb,
but I thought they were coming fromfrom the sky. So it was
like complete chaos, crazy, thewhole thing. And I was just like,
(54:57):
this is not the whole things,you know, horrific, and and
I was like, this is nothow I want Boston to go. And
and I was like, I'm comingback. I'm going to qualify, and
I'm going to do this. I'mgonna do it again. I'm gonna do
it for me, I'm going todo it for all the people that lost
their lives, for all the peoplethat you know were injured. And and
(55:22):
so I came back and I hireda coach and I I did it.
I went through it and I gotit. I qualified, went back and
I did it and it was amazing. And through that I learned how to
(55:45):
run and properly. That is whatmade me want to become a coach.
So yeah, so that whole crazy, crazy story. Yeah, oh,
Chris, is that your first timehiring a fitness coach? Is not my
(56:07):
first submar fitness coach. I meanthat was my first time hiring a running
coach. Okay. I always saytrainers need trainers. I always think it's
great to have people. You alwaysshould be learning. You should always take
(56:27):
classes, you know, if youcan have another trainer, if you can
have a coach, your own coach, you should always be always be learning.
Yeah. Yeah, and I'm soglad you were able to find someone
to help you qualify for Boston kindof uh, get to the race in
a different way and for everyone,that's a great story. Yeah. And
(56:52):
then now I've been able to dothat for other people, and it's just
like that. I think now thesedays, I get more excited to see
them cross the finish line. Thenyou know, then I ever do cross
crossing the finish line well, knowingthat you helped them achieve that for sure,
so amazing. It's amazing. Well, everyone, please go check out
(57:14):
the Wandering Workout dot com. Ifyou're trying to figure out how to go
about your fitness journey, she canhelp you. She can help you with
running, and you know, mayberunning's not for you. You just kind
of have to figure out what yourjourney looks like in fitness. There's so
many different things to try. Andbesides the Wandering Workout, go stream some
(57:37):
of the songs that Megan has written, so she makes some extra streams.
Thank you again, Meghan for beinghere today and sharing your story. Is
there anywhere else you want to sendpeople to to follow you? I am
an Instagram, girly and Facebook.So Instagram is at Megan Connor m E
(58:00):
G A N C O N NE R and my Facebook is at Megan
Connor. Fitness is the one thatI use the most, so you can
always connect with me there. I'malways happy to answer questions on pretty much
anything. Thank you, Megan,Thank you so much,
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