TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

225: Peloton Launches the London Studio plus our interview with Claire Werner

TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

 

John Mills joins us to discuss the latest Apple Fitness announcements.

Jayvee Nava was featured in Ad Week.

Buzzfeed asks, “Will Cody Rigsby be the first “internet star” to become mainstream?”

Tonal now has live classes.

Dr. Jenn – Preventing a splurge spiral.

Details on Peloton’s new apparel line.

The London studio is open for business.

Record Industry revenue is up and Peloton played a role.

Outside Business Journal writes about Peloton’s impact on diversity in the industry.

What are Cody Rigsby’s chances of winning Dancing With The Stars?

Bustle has tips on dressing as your favorite Peloton instructor for Halloween.

Peloton expands further into corporate wellness.

Peloton has been scouting North Carolina for manufacturing sites.

John Foley will participate in the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.

Financial Post talks to William Lynche about Peloton becoming the biggest fitness brand in the world.

PopSugar has the best 2000s themed rides.

Angelo answers if alcohol has a nutritional impact beyond additional calories.

The new instructors all now have groups.

Jermain Johnson’s first official Peloton video.

Alex Toussaint is voicing a Google Nest.

Robin Arzon is on the Meditative Story podcast.

Adrian Williams was on the Hurdle podcast.

Robin Arzon to host the Poderistas – Latinas Making A Difference summit.

Self Magazine talks to Jess King about Hispanic Heritage Month.

Chelsea Jackson Roberts hosts Wanderlust Fest.

Chelsea also pops up on the UK site Stylist with meditation tips.

Daniel McKenna and Chase Tucker team up for a new video.

Yahoo compares the new SoulCycle home bike to Peloton.

The latest artist series features Ed Sheeran.

Peloton celebrates Latin Heritage Month.

Birthdays – Anna Greenberg (9/18), Robin Arzon (9/20)

All this plus our interview with Claire Werner!

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

Peloton Launches the London Studio plus our interview with Claire Werner

We need to start by saying that for years now, I’ve made fun of you because of all your legging purchases.

How about that, Tom?

Mine was driven by need, not by want.

You act like I haven’t changed sizes over the years.

Does it count with leggings? I feel like leggings cling to you.

That’s ridiculous. Haven’t you bought a new size of underwear?

No, I don’t know that. Keep in mind that I was wearing the same underwear like forever.

That sounds awful. That’s because your mom bought you so many pairs.

Every year at Christmas, my mother would buy my sister and me among other things. She bought us fun stuff too, but she would always buy socks and underwear whether we needed it or not. I had so much underwear. My mom was dead legit for ten years before I bought underwear because I had so much of it.

You were still opening it when I met you and your mom had already passed.

You never met my mother like that. Now, I had to go on a spending spree because none of my clothes fit me anymore.

I wish that you would have put the pictures up here of the closet.

I’ve been looking for it so here we go. For people watching us on our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut, this is a picture of my section of the closet. This is the one section I’m allowed to possess in the closet.

That’s not true. There’s a section above it too. You stinker. Also, your hoodies. You are lying to these people.

TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

 

This is the section I’m allowed. All of these hangers you’re seeing used to have shirts on them.

They used to be all extra larges. Now you have made the jump. You are officially in a large. For those of you who are not watching YouTube, you should. Tom, you should include these images when you send out the newsletter.

I will try to remember to do that. That’s a big ask.

I’ll post them in the group.

To give people an idea, since we’re doing this, here are all the shirts that you can see. These are all shirts folded up that I’m holding on to in case. There’s a safety blanket, but they’re there.

That’s a Peanuts pillowcase over in the side.

That’s from when I was a child that I can’t get rid of. What I was thinking we should do is we should try and find a nerd who used to be 2X and has dropped down to X. I can gift him all these nerd shirts because they’re very nerdy.

Everybody comments everywhere we go about your shirts. You have honed this collection for so many years and now you have to start all the way over. If there’s somebody out there that loves the sarcasm on your t-shirts and you have gone from a 2X to an XL reach out to us, we would like to give to you some shirts.

We can send you a whole bunch of nerd shirts. While we’re doing this, if anybody’s ever wondered how many hoodies I’m in possession of, I have all the hoodies folded and stacked in my closet. This is the other section that I’m allowed for my hoodie storage. There are all my hoodies.

They’re in rainbow order because when we had our professional organizer come in, they helped you put them in color order.

My shirts had been the same way as well.

It’s beautiful and that’s a lot of hoodies. You all know how expensive hoodies are. Whenever I get all the shit about my leggings, you remember this moment.

Okay but then I’ll be done once I’ve replaced all my stuff. I will never buy another thing. Do you remember when you throw something away and you’re like, “There’s a pair of leggings at the bottom of this bag that I forgot I bought?” I’ve never done that with a hoodie or a t-shirt. Look at that face. John Mills needs to make a gift out of that. I get this face so much in real life. I don’t know that people ever see this face typically on the show but I get it almost every day. I like the face. I actually make strong attempts to get her to make that face at me because I enjoy it.

Tom, we’ve got a lot to cover here.

There are a lot of reasons to go watch our YouTube channel. You saw my hoodie collection. You saw how many nerd shirts I own, and you saw Crystal make the face. We’re three minutes into this thing.

We can wrap it up now.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

There is so much. We’ve got to talk about the new UK studio opening. We’ve got to talk about the new clothing drop that happened. We have a Dr. Jenn dropping by. How to prevent a splurge spiral.

I coined that phrase. I haven’t Googled it but I was like, how do I describe when you have one cookie and then you’re like, “I already ruined my day. I might as well have 50.” That then turns into two days and then a week. I was like, “Splurge spiral.”

We also have Angelo for MetPro dropping by. What happens nutritionally to your body when you drink alcohol? We have the answer. It’s not the calories and it’s nutritional. We’re not going into blood alcohol content.

It’s more like assuming that it’s cool for you to drink, what is it going to do to your fitness and nutrition goals?

We have all of the new instructor groups that are out there. We’re going to talk about those. The instructors are pretty much everywhere. They are everywhere this week. You can find out where that everywhere is. It’s right here. We will quickly touch over all of those.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this much.

Comradery is the driving force of a workout. Share on X

There’s one other time maybe that we hit this number but it’s a lot. I didn’t even include everything.

Is that all of it?

I think so.

Shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. You can also leave us a review. That’s always super helpful for the people that come along after you so they know that we’re worth checking out. We have a new review. This is from Cindy from Trumbull. I don’t know what Trumbull is.

I wonder if that’s a city in another country.

I think it’s from the Music Man. There’s going to be Trumbull right here in River City.

I don’t think so.

She says, “I love this podcast. It’s not enough to do Peloton workouts every day. I need more Peloton in my life and The Clip Out is my perfect weekly fix of all things Peloton. The best thing about the podcast is that it has great hosts. Crystal and Tom are so authentic and they’re humorous and witty banter with each other. Their regular guests and community members reflect their fun nature and love of Peloton. I recommend this podcast to all Peloton lovers.” Her leaderboard name is LikesToBike14.

I’m going to be looking for you out there on the leaderboard.

Thank you very much for that. Also, don’t forget, if you’re looking to help us out, the easiest thing you can do and the simplest thing you can do that doesn’t cost you a dime is to share an episode on social media and let people know that you dig it. It’s a great source for Peloton info because if you love Peloton, chances are you have friends and/or family who also love Peloton that might want to check out the show. You can find us on the aforementioned YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, follow us as well.

For those of you who mentioned us on the OPP, thank you.

That was very nice. Thank you so much. We have a Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. There are going to be so many articles thrown at you with instructor appearances and Peloton news. if you’re trying to be like, “How am I going to find these all?” It’s very simple. You sign up for our newsletter at theclipout.com and you will get a weekly email with all the links right there. It’s super easy for you to find. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

Joining us is John Mills from Run, Lift and Live. John, how’s it going?

How’s it going? What’s happening?

I didn’t have the video up and there was a delay. I thought, “Is everything okay? What is happening?”

He was revving. He’s got his new grandpa shirt on. He’s mixing it up. I love it.

I mixed it up a little bit. You know that I tell grandpa jokes periodically.

We’re all about the YouTube channel. You won’t get that joke if you’re not on the YouTube channel. That’s one more reason to go check it out. Let’s jump into this. Apple announced Apple Fitness stuff.

I wasn’t impressed. I’m not going to lie. I think I’m starting to suffer from Danielle Verwey syndrome.

She was making you suffer and I was like, “That’s harsh.” She always seems so pleasant to me.

TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

 

For those who don’t know, what was that syndrome is that John makes these wild predictions and you believe them even if it’s for two seconds. When something happens contrary to it, you’re majorly disappointed.

John, are you a Russian bot?

There’s a possibility I’m doing that on purpose.

I will tell you this, before we start, we asked him, “Are you a Russian bot?” Without even thinking he said, “Nyet.”

My point is that John, you thought maybe they were going to start doing live classes because Peloton’s announcement was that the Peloton opening for the UK studio was going to happen around the same time. I thought that was a pretty wise thought process. I’m watching this and I was like, “Really, that’s it? You’re adding Pilates and guided meditation? Peloton had that for months.”

I take these pieces from abstract areas that may not even apply, and then I try to formulate an opinion that then generates conversation. I took the fact that they called it California Streaming and that there was a possibility that the Apple event was aligning to content streaming. I then took the fact that Tonal was about to do live stuff. I just threw that into a pot and then added some seasoning and then went, “I think they’re about to do live classes,” but that was wrong.

I don’t think Apple cares. Unless and until you see an actual health product from them like they create their own bike, their own elliptical or their own belt thing that you get in and it shakes you like Curly from The Three Stooges, I don’t think they care. I think their thought process is it needs to be good enough.

I agree with that. It aligns with what we said, I don’t know if it was in 2020 or whenever, but when they initially announced Apple Fitness+, the thought was that they just want to sell more Apple Watches. Maybe this is another subscription thing that might get you to buy more Apple Watches.

Especially since they bundle those subscriptions.

I think it works into that realm. I do think that Apple feels that from a connected fitness perspective, their structure in that world is that the watch is the hardware, the Fitness+ is the digital app, and that is your connected fitness pairing. We can compete in this arena because we got so many people with that offering. I do think they feel that way. I also wonder if the announcements were more about them trying to do an old West cut them off at the pass type deal.

You notice a lot of it was about, “We’re going to be available in fifteen more countries.” Now it’s 21 countries or whatever it was. By the time Peloton gets to these countries, they already have watches and Fitness+. It’s a possibility that they’re trying to play but they’re throwing, “We can’t beat them right here. Let’s go way over here and cut them off before they get there.”

I still don’t think that that’s going to be an effective strategy because I feel like they don’t have a product that can stand on its own. It’s something that’s bundled in. It’s like, “I want unlimited data. I want Apple Music and Apple TV.” Of the four other things, they can pick, it’s sure Apple Fitness. I don’t think there are many people that are like, “I bought this so I can get Apple Fitness.”

I definitely agree with that.

Even if people have Apple Fitness, when Peloton hits their country, I don’t think it will affect their decision, one way or the other, to buy Peloton. I feel like perceptually, people don’t feel as if they’re spending money on Apple Fitness. It’s something that’s already baked into something that they were going to buy anyway. In their mind, it’s not an additional cost. I don’t think it slows down Peloton when they go into those new countries and territories, because people are like, “It’s there,” or whatever.

Where they do have footing is for people who are on the end where they would only get the Peloton digital app. Peloton digital app might get them in the rest of the way to the bike, but this keeps them from having to do that. I think that if you’re already an Apple user, it already exists. John, you summed it up. It’s good enough. It’s not fabulous. It’s not the instructors we have at Peloton. It’ll do.

If you get these Apple diehards in one of these other countries that already have an off-brand or a different brand of competitive bike and tread, and they fall in love with the Apple Fitness instructors for whatever reason, you now have to wait like, “Do I want to spend a couple of thousands on Peloton hardware or am I good? I don’t want to spend anything.” There may be a group of people that are there but I hear what you’re saying.

I don’t think that it’s enough to do any major damage to Peloton’s ever-encroaching growth.

I also think that Apple is trying to compete with Garmin. There are a whole lot of people out there that have Garmin watches. They like to do outdoor biking and outdoor running. They can then use that to have their heart rate on their indoor bike. I think that Apple is going after that market because of all their new bike. Tom, they now added a bunch of bike things for outdoor biking. When you’re riding your bike and you’re like, “How far have I gone?” It freaking tells you. I’ll tell you what, I still want a new Apple Watch. They have enough things. It’s smaller and thinner and it looks cool. I don’t need it but I absolutely wanted it.

What I don’t get though about the outdoor is it said that it now has a feature that knows if you start riding outdoors like, “That person is riding.” It’ll also detect if you crashed or you fell. How does that help me? What’s it going to tell me? “You crash.” What am I missing?

It will call 911 for you.

If you have emergency contact set up, it will call them too. If you don’t respond and you fell, it will be like, “Erica, this guy just fell. Do you want to go find him?” It will drop a pin and lead her to where you’re at.

One of the big driving forces of Peloton is the social aspect. Share on X

Here’s how advanced it is too. That is if she says, “Yes, I want to go help.” If she says no, it will help her set up a Tinder account. They’re three moves ahead.

I like that. I was all lost. I was like, “That’s not going to help me if this watch keeps telling me that I crashed. I know I crashed.”

We had a story about that not too long ago.

It was a Peloton employee that it happened to.

He had a head injury. He wasn’t entirely with it.

He fell in the bathroom at the hospital and they located him. The only reason he’s alive is because of his Apple Watch like legit.

If you want to buy an Apple Watch, you can use promo code The Clip Out.

I wish.

Somehow we’re trying to get to Apple. We were trying to.

That’s my confusion. That’s how we got it.

Adweek featured Peloton’s own Jayvee Nava

Don’t you love seeing Jayvee? I’m at my job. I’m all stressed out and I see a picture come up in the ad or a big smile, then you all of a sudden get a smile.

She’s been part of the community since day one for me. It’s amazing, but I will say this article, that quote they put out there. First of all, this is a great article. What I’m about to say, you should still read the article because it’s talking about the success of Peloton, the community and everything. There was one issue that I had with it. John, you posted on Facebook about how there are all these tools for social media, and that people can use them to make social media better. This quote came from Jayvee and I was like, “Why don’t you guys make the OPP better?” You can, there are so many tools on Facebook now. There are keywords. There are things that can keep people from posting and yet it’s still so mean over there.

I’m not as familiar with the mechanisms to manage that stuff. I found it interesting that Jayvee was clearly acknowledging that there’s somewhat of a conundrum with this. I think that the interviewer asked her if she had any questions for marketers, what would be her question? Her question was like, “What is the business’s responsibility in managing what’s going on in these social spaces and how should we be doing that?”

It’s almost making it a conversation, not so much that she was saying, “Here’s my opinion.”

When I posted it, people under that statement had the same perspective of like what you said, there are all these tools that you should be able to do it. There are ways to do it, which is where I wasn’t as clear there her position in what are those tools and what are the contention points of why you may or may not want to do certain things? That’s not my arena but it was what got struck me. It was that she recognized it as there is a little bit of a conundrum. That’s what I was posting about. I found that interesting because you hear it from the community but I never heard it from Peloton.

Peloton very rarely talks about it. I remember a long time ago I had a conversation with Jayvee and she explained to me that there are many rules that people have to break before they can kick them out. The terms and conditions is you can’t just kick a person out. It has to be based on something. They get a certain amount of time that they’re kicked out, then they can apply to come back.

Does this have to be in the OPP, not for their actual Peloton membership?

TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

 

This is on Facebook. Sorry for any confusion there. That’s a good clarification, Tom. If they then break that rule within the community again, then there’s another set of processes. I think that’s where it comes from that it’s so difficult to police, but there are also so many new tools that Facebook has put into place with keywords and things like that. There should be more policing than there is. I will say on the other hand that a lot of the rules that Facebook has put into place is about original posts, not comments to posts, which still does not fix a lot of the problems. It still takes a lot of policing. With literally a million people on that, it’s hard. It’s terrible over there. I can’t even stand whenever somebody posts something so generic and it turns mean.

That is why you should go to Facebook.com/TheClipOut and like the page and join the group, or Run, Lift and Live.

Both keep it very nice.

We try. It was very interesting. It also talked about her journey from studio lead into community head. It talked about how that came about from a Peloton perspective, the only organic nature of how that came to be. Jayvee, seeing that and then taking over that, and trying to figure out how to incorporate the community and their social interactions in with feedback so that Peloton could be better. We talked about that in the past as well, how the community came up with the Facebook group and then Peloton. She talks about that, which I found also fascinating. It was nice to hear. It’s also nice to hear from Jayvee.

When we went to our first HRI, which is what they called homecoming before homecoming, we were in the door for 30 seconds and Jayvee was on us in a good way. She was super helpful. She didn’t laugh at us when we said we were starting a Peloton podcast.

She led us right over to Matt Wilpers.

Instead of an attorney, which she probably regrets to this day.

Jayvee and that crew are in my heart.

It’s very different at corporate now, but the people that have been around since the beginning have a special place in my heart. I know you feel the same.

I saw an article that we thought you’d have some interesting take on. It’s from BuzzFeed and it says, “Will Peloton Cody Rigsby be the first internet celeb to reach mainstream fame?”

This threw me. I know we talked about the ascension of bike celebrities into this different stratosphere but this aligned him to internet and social media celeb. I never thought of that like that.

I think it’s fair. I never thought of it through that prism but if you step back and think about it, Peloton is an internet channel. You get it through your wifi. It’s not a traditional network television or even cable television. It’s like YouTube that you watch on a proprietary device that only services fitness. I do think it’s fair to classify him as an internet star. It’s a different kind of internet star, but it is a constantly shifting landscape.

I didn’t pull up these screenshots. I wanted to save it for when we have the first episode of Dancing With The Stars, but I went out to the Dancing With The Stars Instagram page. John, I think this is right up your alley. If you look at all of the different contestants’ number of likes when they first put these out, Cody had 2,000 likes compared to every other contestant who had no more than 200. Some only had 38 to 50. I haven’t checked those numbers again. As I said, I was going to save that to actually show the screenshots. My point is that is amazing. It looked like Cody had gone out and said, “Like my photo from Dancing With The Stars.” He did not do that.

The thing is when you talk about the level of engagement, it’s what shows. He’s got 860,000 Instagram followers but JoJo Siwa has got ten million.

JoJo was one of the ones that had the most, comparatively and it was still only 200 at the time. This may have changed but that’s fascinating.

I’ve got two thoughts on that. The first one is I would have never thought that. I would have thought we would have gone out there and Jojo Siwa and the others would have had thousands and thousands, and Cody would have been down here. We would have been trying to fight to get him up. This is surprising. That is not what I would have expected. The second point though, the people that are following Jojo Siwa probably don’t watch Dancing With The Stars, I’m assuming.

I think that’s their business model with some of these people they pick. People always make fun of Dancing With The Stars because sometimes you see the names on there and you’re like, who is that? I think they are deliberately picking people who have strong fan bases that they can then pull into the Dancing With The Stars ecosystem. A lot of that’s very deliberate. People think they don’t know what they’re doing, but the show has been on the air for twelve years. Maybe they got it figured out. I think that’s very purposeful.

I’m this old dude sitting on the couch at 7:00 at night. If you tell me Cody Rigsby is on the next channel, I might just go, “Okay.”

That is exactly it, John. They’re going to have all these Peloton people watching. That’s what Tom’s pointed. They have all these JoJo fans watching now.

They’re hoping they’ll do the same thing.

If you're just doing something to create an audience, people will sense that. There has to be some fulfillment in it. Share on X

I think they will.

Would a JoJo Siwa fan who was about to go call her friends and go do something and they are about to go out somewhere decide that she’s going to hang out with his parents and watch Dancing With The Stars?

They will watch it in their room on their phone.

They will stream it the next day. It’s no longer just about ratings. They do ratings now in a way. One of the metrics they take is air date plus seven. You have seven days to watch it on your DVR for it to count in the final ratings.

That’s rating but I’m curious how this works with the actual voting because you get to vote when you’re at home.

That’s a little bit more time-sensitive.

It will be interesting. I’m not saying you’re wrong about her fans but I do think that’s their whole idea. That’s their whole point. They want them to watch.

It seems like we’re seeing some type of a dynamic already that us old folks are like, “Really?” We’re out there liking Cody, but Jojo Siwa fans aren’t.

Nobody was. That goes across Cobra Kai guy. He didn’t have any more likes either. Nobody had more than 200 at the time. That’s ten times the difference. I’m very curious to see if that holds up. I need to check the numbers before this episode is published to see. I don’t want people going out and being like, “This is totally wrong.”

I will also say that Jojo Siwa fan base is the sort that will see something like that, then they’ll rally the troops and be like, “Everybody, hit this page and make sure our girl is where she needs to be.”

They’re like the Beyhive. You say anything about Beyonce and the Beyhive is coming.

Peloton is like that. Are you kidding me? I remember when Jenn Sherman’s daughter, Carly, was up for a soccer award. She posted about it and everybody in the JSS tribe went nuts. I mean, insane. We were voting daily and I think Jenn Sherman was like, “Please stop. It looks like we have bots. Stop it.”

Maybe Peloton is a fanatical thing. It’s something specific to us.

We’re a little bit crazy.

We’re just a little nuts.

Just a smidge. Thank you so much for joining us, John. Until next week, where can people find you?

They can find me on Facebook in my group or page, Run, Lift & Live. They can find me on Instagram @RunLiftAndLive or at RunLiftAndLive.com.

People have heard us talk about Tonal before, but you might get a kick out of this. They now have live classes.

It starts on October 20th. There’s going to be a live leaderboard. There’s going to be shout outs. It’s going to be different every time. Every class will be different. I am freaking excited. I cannot wait.

That’s one of the things that people who come from Peloton to Tonal, that’s a little bit of a culture shift for them because everything is on-demand over there at the moment. A lot of the Peloton people who have made the shift or added it to their regimen are going to be super excited about finally having live classes.

Tonal helps you train smarter so you can get stronger and faster. You have an entire gym and a personal trainer in your home.

It’s the smart home gym that knows your limits and then pushes them higher. They have a patented digital weight system. It senses your strength and adjusts the weight automatically in real-time. You can get the most out of every workout.

The future of fitness is not dumbbells. It’s digital weight. Tonal uses a revolutionary system of dynamic resistance powered by electric motors for strength that you can feel. They have more than 170 exercises so that’s an entire gym. Tonal can deliver 200 pounds of resistance with a sleek design that can fit nearly anywhere.

Tonal uses seventeen sensors to provide real-time feedback on your form and technique, allowing you to get the most effective workout every single time.

Tonal is so confident. You’ll love it. They offer a full money-back guarantee.

You can now get a Tonal from $63 per month at 0% interest over 48 months. Visit www.Tonal.com. For a limited time, get $100 off when you use the promo code The Clip Out at checkout. Tonal, be your strongest.

Joining us is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn, hello.

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Thanks for having me.

We’re so glad you’re back. We’ve got somebody that needs your help. This is from Angie. She says, “How do you not go completely off the rails when you aren’t ‘perfect?’” For example, she already blew her plan for the day by eating two Oreos, so she might as well eat ten more and start over tomorrow or next Monday. “This all or nothing mentality is my biggest issue and it continues to haunt me.”

Do you know what I call that? My 30s.

I get this. I used to be like this. I did a lot of work on myself in order to overcome that. I call that diet mentality or that all or nothing, “I blew it. I ate something off of my plan. Now I’m going to go crazy and eat tons of food that I consider it to be ‘off-limits.’” I’m not saying me. I am saying her. I’m a big believer in what’s called intuitive eating. It is about learning to listen to your body even when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re satisfied. Tune in to what your body wants and what it responds well.

Sometimes it is those Oreos. Sometimes we need to have something a little sweet, whether it’s because we’re just having a craving or because right now life isn’t very sweet. We need a little sweetness in our food and we’re not getting it in our reality. We have to conceptualize food differently. When you’re looking at following a plan like a “diet,” I’m very anti-diet. I have an app called No More Diets specifically for this reason.

I had an eating disorder for a decade. I thought I would never ever be free of it. I thought I would always be counting my calories, making plans and breaking the plans, and thinking about what I was exercising. Now I’m not like that at all. I eat whatever I want. I’m vegan but I eat any food. There’s nothing that I don’t eat a vegan version of. I love ice cream, cookies and all that sort of stuff. I’ve learned to tune into my body and find that happy balance of eating those kinds of fun foods when I want those foods and having that be a positive experience

It sounds like she may be depriving herself too much. The studies show that the more you deprive yourself of these kinds of foods, the more likely you are to be out of control when you are around them. She made me re-evaluate and look at her relationship with food and what’s going on that she’s feeling so out of control. When I felt that way when I was in the midst of my eating disorder, I felt like I could never have a healthy relationship with an Oreo cookie. I could never have that stuff in the house and not go crazy.

What I had to do was legalize food and allow myself to eat all of these different foods, and give myself open season on them in order to not have that scarcity mentality of, “I eat it. I’ll never eat it again. I’m going to take those out of the house.” I talk about this a lot in my No More Diets app because it takes people through the process of intuitive eating. I’ve got videos on the website or on that app. I have got food journals. I have the hunger scale from 0 to 10 on how to rate your hunger and figure out when it’s trying to eat as opposed to following the clock. This is someone who needs to tune into her body and work on the big picture of changing her relationship with food.

I like the scarcity mentality. It reminds me of when you’re twenty and you’re drinking.

You never know when someone’s going to buy you another beer.

It’s a Tuesday and you’re like, “I don’t know where I’m going to get my next beer. I’m going to drink this beer now.” When you turned 21, you leave a six-pack in your fridge for six weeks.

I read a terrible headline that somehow fits. They said in this women’s magazine decades ago when intuitive eating was first gaining a lot of press that intuitive eating does for food what marriage does for sex. You can eat whatever you want but you don’t necessarily need that quite as much.

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That’s great.

Also, a good analogy, unfortunately.

As a therapist, it’s probably not a good one for me to be spouting, but I definitely see the humor in it. When you can’t have something, you want it more, you obsess about it, you think about it, and you lose control of it. It’s important that this person works on changing her relationship with food, whether it’s by using my app, working with a nutritionist or dietitian who understands intuitive eating. It sounds like where the problem is not about forgiving herself or not forgiving herself as much as changing her relationship with food.

Hopefully, that helps Angie.

Thank you very much. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on social media @DrJennMann. I post all of my Peloton workouts on my Insta Stories.

Peloton announced its new apparel line. We have greater insight as to what to expect from it.

There are four different kinds of fabrics that they created. I had a lot of people ask me, “What is different about this line? Peloton has been putting out clothes for years. What’s the deal?” The deal is that they designed the apparel and they developed the apparel. You’re probably not going to see collaborations anymore. If you do, they’re going to be a lot farther in between.

There are four different fabrics. The Cadent fabric is a polyester-spandex blend with a micro peak finish designed for comfort and motion. You then have the Lite Lines fabric. It’s designed for moisture control while remaining lightweight. The Move Mission fabric is high-performance activity and compression. The essential fabric is soft, silky and designed to be super stretchy. It’s going to have men, women and gender-neutral styles.

There are going to be accessories. That’s all available online at Apparel.onepeloton.com. Some Peloton showrooms will have it as well. The prices are going to range anywhere from $15 to $118. I placed my order for this new line and it is still not shipped. I did check again. That’s a little bit of a bummer. I’m a little confused by that because if they developed and designed it, shouldn’t they also be housing it? Maybe they’re not housing it. Maybe it’s not in their warehouse or something. We’ve got a whole new shipment we got to deal with. From what I’ve seen, nobody is getting it. This isn’t just like my shipment has not shipped. No one has seen the new line yet. I hope they get that taken care of real soon.

That will blow up quickly.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard more already.

UK studio is live.

That was the big day. As we mentioned earlier, it coincided with the big Apple news. It was weird because I thought Peloton will drop all these new classes the same day. It didn’t happen. I had to apologize to Gayle Fine. I was like, “It’ll be fine. They’re going to drop a bunch of classes that day. It’ll be a surprise with all the instructors.” No, they had two live classes from the bike studio. I don’t know how many they had from the tread studio. I did not check.

If you’re watching the YouTube video, it’s interesting because the lighting is so different in the UK studio than it is in the New York studio. In the New York studio, it’s a lot darker. In the UK studio, it appears to be more like what happens in the strength studio. I don’t know if that’s what we can expect in the US as well in the future but it’s different.

There’s an interesting article from Yahoo about recorded music revenues climb 27% and vinyl sales skyrocketed 94%. I don’t get you people but whatever. The reason we’re discussing it here is because part of what was driving that was Peloton.

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They said that streaming accounted for 84% of all revenues is up by 26% year over year to $5.9 billion due largely to new licensing deals with companies like Facebook and Peloton.

Just a friendly reminder for people who’ve been around for a long time when everybody was like Peloton is stealing from these poor music artists. We were here and we’re like, “Nobody knows how to price it. They’re going to sue each other. They’re going to both punch each other in the face. They’ll work it out and then Peloton will give them a shit ton of money.” Here’s the moment where they’re getting their shit ton of money just like we said. Please send all apologies to @ClipOutCrystal on the Gram.

I found an interesting article from Outside Business Journal, which I believe is a business journal for outside companies that deal with the outdoors. It’s an opinion article and it says what the growth of the Black Peloton community can teach the cycling industry. It’s a nice look at what Peloton has done to foster the Black community embracing Peloton in the way that they have. It talks about how they had specially curated classes and they reach out to that community instead of having four white guys in a boardroom say, “I wonder what Black folks might like.” They reach out to that community and have them do that. It is reflective of that community instead of being crafted for them. It talks all about how good they’ve been at doing that.

They’re good about that because they also have all these hashtags now. During these classes, Peloton will often shout out hashtags of classes that are happening that are related. During Black History month, for example, whenever they were doing that, they would shout out hashtags like the Black Girl Magic tribe. They do that across the board for different classes. For example, if they’re having a special veterans day class, they’ll shout out their hashtags for veterans. They try to be inclusive in a lot of different ways. That’s nice that Peloton has been consistent with their efforts. It’s wonderful that it’s getting noticed in the greater area, not just in the Peloton community. It’s happening outside of the Peloton community. That’s cool.

This whole opinion article was like other people in our industry need to look to what they’re doing as a model for how to do it more effectively.

I love that message. It’s true.

GoldDerby.com has an article where they predict or give you the odds on who they think will win Dancing With The Stars. Who did they predict?

They think that Suni Lee is going to win. If you go down to where they have the odds you will see that Cody Rigsby is in the top five. There are Suni Lee, Jojo Siwa, Melanie C, Cody Rigsby who comes in at number four. The odds is 13 to 2. You can see the rest of it when Tom sends out the newsletter. This will be very interesting. A lot of people are saying that Cody is going to win.

If they already have them that high, if he comes in and does well and uses this platform to create new fans, that could flip quickly.

I have no doubt that he will. He has a huge personality.

Bustle.com has an interesting article about seven ways to dress up like your favorite Peloton instructor. We talk about Peloton getting more and more mainstream but I didn’t think we’d get to this.

I have news for you, Tom. People have been dressing up for Peloton instructors for years.

Now people know who they are.

It’s an article written with the ideas telling you how to go about doing it.

John Mills has been doing this forever. Bustle is a little late to put a little hustle in their bustle because John Mills has been doing this for a long time.

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They probably stole the idea from him.

Reuters has an article about how Peloton rides into the corporate law firm wellness market. I guess they’ve signed up more companies like United Healthcare.

It’s O’Melveny & Myers. They are the first law firm that is hitting the ground running with Peloton’s new corporate wellness.

That’s throwing a little something out there for all the HR directors. That one is for you. BizJournals has an interesting little article, “Triad site, two Chatham mega-sites were under consideration for Peloton’s 2,100-person job manufacturing facility.” They were sniffing around North Carolina looking for a manufacturing plant.

They were looking in a lot of places. I thought it was interesting that it’s starting to come out where I think there are some places that are a little salty that they didn’t get it.

It’s the same thing when Amazon was opening distribution facilities and all these companies were kowtowing to them trying to get all those jobs sent there.

On Wednesday, September 22nd at 12:25 PM. Eastern, there will be a Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. Attending that will be John Foley.

That will stream over on One Peloton’s website. FinancialPost has an article about Peloton shoots to become the biggest fitness brand in the world. They sat down with Peloton president, William Lynch.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take to be official. Just like what we were talking about with Apple. They’re not because it depends on how you define it. Are you defining it by subscribers? Are you defining it by dollars? Are you defining it by being public? There are many different ways you can define it but they will win.

Especially in terms of when people think fitness, I don’t think they think Apple. It’s baked in and it’s there but people go to Apple because they want a phone or a computer. They don’t go to Apple.

It’s an afterthought, not the main driver.

Finally, for this segment, Yahoo had an article breaking down the best 2000s-themed Peloton rides. If you want classes with Britney or Evanescence, it’s out there. If you want to check it out, it’ll be in our newsletter.

Joining us once again from MetPro is Angelo. How’s it going?

It’s good to see you again.

It’s good to see you too. We have another question for you from The Clip Out community. This one comes from Stacey Rivere and she would like to know, does alcohol affect your body or diet more than just the added calories, sugar or carbs?

An answer that’s not going to be, “It depends.” Stacey, the answer is yes. It affects your body more. Unfortunately, I know that is not the answer that most people were hoping for but there’s a few unique qualities about alcohol that make it horrible for weight loss. Let’s cut through that. A lot of people enjoy a glass of wine or a beverage from time to time and it is not impossible. Even a lot of my clients, I tell them, “Don’t drink alcohol.” They say, “Go jump off a bridge,” so we find a compromise.

The key is to understand that not all alcohols are equal and they are going to affect you a little bit differently. When it does come to the calories, sugar, etc. scenario, for a gram of protein and a gram of carbohydrates, there are 4 calories, a gram of fat is 9 calories, a gram of alcohol is 7 calories. This is a little bit tongue in cheek but I tell people it’s not as bad as drinking a glass but almost. It doesn’t work quite like that because you’re not drinking straight alcohol. If you have an entire glass of that, then you got a bigger problem.

You got a bigger problem than the scale.

What we’re looking for is what goes in the alcohol and the time that you’re drinking alcohol. “Can I have a little bit of champagne?” Sure, if you have it with breakfast because then you’ll have time to burn that off. Nobody wants to drink champagne with breakfast. Most people are talking about having some alcohol in the evening and they’re winding down. That creates a triple threat. You’re getting the calories, then you’re getting all the hormonal and biological responses to the alcohol, but then you’re also getting it at a time in the day that not eliminates but undermines some of the efficacy of attempting to partition your carbohydrates.

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A lot of people on a weight-loss strategy will thin the carbs out back half of the day. There’s a whole lot of science in that and why we might take that approach. It doesn’t have to be done that way. It’s just one approach. Having that infusion of either sugars, carbohydrates and/or alcohol at night right before bed makes it difficult for your body to get into that fat burning zone in the middle of the night. It’s not impossible but it makes it a little harder.

It gently undermines that. There are a few things that lead up to it. With that, not all alcohols are created equal. Starting with the worst of the worst. It’s going to be your mixed drinks or the fruit drinks, the ones I actually like, the margaritas and pina-coladas. Now you have the trifecta of body fat because you have the alcohol, the sugar and the salt. If you want to see how to wake up to extra 3 pounds of you, that’s it.

If only there was a way to deep fry one of those.

Have that stuff if you enjoy it, just have that occasionally. Put it on the calendar, have it on special occasions. Don’t let that be your go-to if you have goals of weight loss. The second tier is going to be your beers and your wines. I know there’s research that a little bit of wine can be good. It has some health properties. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about if you’re trying to lose the last 5 pounds, don’t add a glass of wine right before you go to bed at night. It’s not going to work. When it comes to those nuances, it definitely can impact. We know the impacts of beer. That seems to pack it on pretty fast.

The tier below that is going to the “diet beers,” the lower calorie, lower carb alcoholic beverages. Your straight hard alcohol, particularly the clear, hard alcohols tend to be the least impactful. They are still not healthy. That isn’t a scale to measure health or wellness like, “Angelo said to go drink hard alcohol every night.” I know that might have the opposite effect on your wellness, but from a body fat accumulation to a beverage imbibed ratio, that’s probably going to be your best bang for your buck as far as optimizing cleaner alcohols. It can give you lower calorie alcohols or it’s going to be your clear, hard alcohols in small amounts. You can mix it with a low calorie or non-calorie containing beverage. That typically works pretty well for some people.

It’s not a matter of never, it’s a matter of what if you say, “I have a little bit each night.” It’s better than having a lot each night. If you’re drinking every night and you go, “Now, I’m going to drink Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” that’s going to be an improvement. Find those small steps where you can grab onto something that’s sustainable. Remember there are few things that humans get more pleasure from than good food and drink. You should have something you enjoy, whether it’s alcohol or any other indulgence, occasionally. Don’t let it be your every meal routine. That’s the key.

Thank you so much for joining us. If people would like this information personalized for them so they can use it to achieve their own fitness goals, where can they find you?

MetPro.co/tco.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

If you’re looking to keep tabs on all the new instructors, they all have Facebook groups.

I haven’t found one for Callie Gullickson. I don’t know that she doesn’t have one but I haven’t found one. The newest instructor that started a couple of weeks ago, Marcel Dinkins has one. It’s called Marcel Dinkins Peloton Fan Group. There’s Daniel McKenna. You can find his under Daniel’s Irish Yanks. Kirstin Ferguson’s is called Kween K’s Peloton Clique. If you’re looking for any of these, they will be in the newsletter. Look there. We have Bradley Rose’s Rebels. I couldn’t find one for Callie and the two newest instructors that started, Jermaine Johnson and Susie Chan. We don’t have groups for them yet. I’m sure it will not be long.

As soon as we get them, we will share them with you. VeryWellMind.com talked to Ally Love.

That’s a podcast, for those of you who don’t know. The topic of the podcast is how to choose progress over perfection. You can find that at VeryWellMind.com. Jermaine Johnson had his premiere run. It was live and they did a video. They always do these videos. I love these videos. I heard a lot of people are saying that if you are from London, it is very emotional to watch because it has scenes of London in the background. That’s pretty cool. He not only has a great voice and a great accent but what a great instructor. We haven’t gotten Susie Chan’s video and we won’t probably be able to add it because it probably won’t post until after we’ve already sent all this off. We’ll have to show that next episode. It’s very cool. There are so many new instructors.

Google Nest has a new ad showing what pets do at home when you’re not there. That’s not why we’re sharing this article with you.

You’ll have to go to the website and check it out. There are five videos that are voiced by influencers and one of them is Alex Toussaint. I challenge you to go out to this website and find the ad that Alex voiced.

Adrian Williams was on the Hurdle Podcast with Emily Abbate.

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This is a real popular one with Peloton listeners. I’m sure that’s why they chose him. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to run with Adrian, he’s a great coach. This is a good time to hear his backstory and where he came from. Definitely check out episode 175 of Hurdle.

While we’re talking about podcasts, Robin Arzon was on Meditative Story.

I listened to this one and it’s very different. When they say meditative story, they mean that literally. Robin tells the story of her very first ultra-marathon where she did 100 miles. She went from the Upper Keys to the Lower Keys in Florida. Her whole family was there. She tells the story and then there’s this meditative music playing. She talks about how she got through it like the mantra she told herself. The host will tell you how to use them while you’re listening, how you can take those different mantras and apply them in your everyday life. It was a very interesting little podcast.

It’s very different. While we’re talking about Robin, she’s going to be the keynote speaker at Poderistas Summit.

I believe Poder means power in Spanish. I kept looking at it and I was like, “I don’t know about this.” The name of it is called Poder in action. I believe it’s Poder-istas and so power-istas. She’s going to be kicking off the Latinas Making A Different Summit. That is super cool and perfect timing since it is Latin Heritage Month. That’s awesome.

Speaking of Latin Heritage Month, Self.com sat down with Jess King to talk to her about what she draws from her Latina culture to push forward.

They also have advice for Latin folks who are getting started with their fitness journey. Check out that article. When we send out the newsletter it will be in it. While we’re on the subject of Jess King, I’ve had about a billion people messaged me all saying, “What is the deal with all the instructors over at Mykonos?” There are a ton of instructors over there. We’ve got RK, Jess King is there with Sophia, her fiance. DJ John Michael is there with Brian. Andy Speer is there. Adrian Williams is there. Everyone’s like, “Is Jess King getting married?” No, she’s not. They all have a friend named Mona who is getting married. They’re all over there. They have been posting stories non-stop. I guess it’s a new thing where we have two-week long weddings now. I don’t know. I’m not young and getting married.

Don’t worry, when Jess King gets married, you’ll know because it’ll be in People. That’s how it works now. Chelsea Jackson Roberts hosted the Wanderlust Festival. There’s a picture of her at the festival.

This is cool because it was at Prospect Park and there’s Chelsea posing with a billion Peloton fans. She got to host it. She was the emcee. She called herself the Vibe Intention Facilitator. I love her.

Coming from the other side of the pond, Stylist has an article, “Zen Buddhist koans transform your meditation practice – here’s how to use them.”

Sam Yo contributed to this article. He’s a former Buddhist monk so he knows things. He talks about how these koans are helpful. He gives advice in this article. You’ll definitely want to give that a look. That’ll be in the newsletter that Tom sends out as well.

Finally, new instructor Daniel McKenna and Chase Tucker, not a new instructor, but still a country music superstar, had a video that they made together.

I loved this. I can’t remember the name of this place but it’s in New York City. It’s very famous. There are pictures taken all the time. It’s right outside Hudson Yards like it’s in the same area. They went over and they did a workout right in the middle of the area, in front of this cool building that looks like a beehive. Daniel McKenna also had, at one point, a GoPro strapped to his head. It was like they were taking footage from all different angles. They did the workout right out in the middle just because they could. It’s a lot of fun. Daniel McKenna has a lot of energy and a huge personality. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot from him. I predict it.

We have a new artist collaboration and it’s with Ed Sheeran.

Peloton timed this so that it kicked off at the same time as the new studio opening over in London. They see it as a UK artist. It’s interesting because there were so many of them. There were eight different classes and it’s been a while since we’ve had one of these artists series that have had so many options. There 2 or 3 rides, multiple strength classes, multiple stretches, and tons of options for people. If you haven’t yet, make sure you check these out. I love Ed Sheeran

Peloton is also commemorating Latin Heritage Month.

You’re going to be seeing all kinds of Latin inspired classes. There’s going to be yoga flows and there’s going to be special classes. Just keep an eye out for all the cool stuff that is coming. You never know, maybe they’re going to launch some more Spanish classes or something. That would be very cool. I know there’s more coming. That would be very cool if they did that.

That would be good timing.

Finally, happy birthday to Anna Greenberg. She celebrates her birthday on September 18th.

Make sure you say happy birthday to Robin Arzon on September 20th. The new mom is going to celebrate her birthday. I wonder what Athena’s is going to get her.

I hope for her husband’s sake that he thought to do that.

I’m sure he did that. He’s too in the public eye to not.

Is that how it works?

I do think it is.

Joining us is Claire Werner. Claire, how’s it going?

I am well. Thank you for having me on this show.

Claire, I’m going to start with an easy question. How did you originally come across Peloton and when?

In my husband’s old job, they were one of the investors prior to the IPO. I knew about Peloton a long time ago. I remember my husband telling me, “It’s this concept. You ride in your house.” He would keep saying, “It’s for busy people, people who work a lot so that they can exercise any time, jump on, go and get classes.” I was working out at a privately owned spin studio. I remember saying to him, “Isn’t it the best part of spin class, a comradery and being in the room?” Being this close with somebody and feeling all of that.

If you saw this spin studio where I used to go, it’s a size of a large closet and then they had 22 bikes. It was privately owned. It was this little, teeny tiny space. It was in the back of a boutique and they had this little space made. I don’t even think they soundproof the walls or anything because if you were in the boutique and they were having a class, you could hear everything. Maybe it was in the back. You have to know that it’s back there.

The first rule is don’t talk about the spin club. Your comradery is the driving force or their workout, all these people you get to meet and this group of friends you made. Fast forward, that place was closed. We ended up moving. We were in Virginia and we moved to Atlanta. I remember coming here and my best friend at that time had a Peloton. Her husband had gotten her one in 2018. We moved in 2019. I remember her saying to me, “Now that you’ve moved, you got to get a Peloton.”

I was thinking to myself, “I’d love to get a Peloton, but at the same time, I just moved to a brand new city and I know nobody. Should I be working out in my house?” I quit my job. We were trying to get the kids settled in and everything. I wasn’t working at the time. I joined a gym and went to a couple of privately-owned studios with spin classes here that were great, but I wasn’t doing it regularly. One day, randomly, my husband walks in the house with a Peloton bike. He had found it either on Facebook Marketplace or next door from a pastor at a church who was 60 something years old. This was in February 2020. Her kids have bought it for her in Christmas 2019. She rode it five times and she didn’t want it. She was like, “I want this out of my house.”

My husband saw it, bought it from her and brought it home. He wheeled the Peloton in the house. I’m like, “What is this?” He’s like, “I know you like to do this and then you don’t do it as much as you normally have.” When I was going to the studio, I was going five days a week. I still belonged to a gym at that time. That was February of 2020 and then everything went to hell in a handbasket in March 2020. I was like, “Thank you because I have this stuff.”

It was like the universe cranked it in my favor. It was like, “Here you go.” I was like, “This is fantastic.” Slowly but surely, being in the house every day, I started riding it every day. It was like, “We’re here all day long, all together.” I did not have to do homeschool. It was the reality. I’ve been riding since February 2020, but I had been doing indoor cycling for a while prior to that.

Do you feel like you ride more now than you did when you were going on a regular basis? It’s a good amount for most people.

A lot of it there was extremely social. Think about it. If you’re in a room with 22 bikes, you get to know these people well, the regulars and all the instructors. It was a group of people. It’s a big drive with social.

I’m the opposite. I’m the person in the room that doesn’t talk to anybody. I’m just riding my bike.

Normally, I would be, but given the way this was all set up, it was like if you started going there regularly, they were people who were regulars that were like, “Who are you? You come here a lot.” You need to know all the other regulars. It was weird when you walk into the room. You got to the point towards the end where if there were too many new people, their instructors would let a couple of us help size people up for bikes like new riders. They would let us go in and they were like, “You know what you’re doing, so help this person get on their bikes, get the shoes on and everything.” I ride it more now because it is so nice to be able to go down into my basement and hop on my bike at 3:00 in the afternoon, in the morning or whenever.

It’s amazing to have that ability. You don’t have to get there early to get a good bike. It’s always a good spot.

My best friend and I used to joke that we were in The Muppets where there are two old men that used to sit up on the balcony. We used to joke because we would sit in the corner together and we’d have the same two bikes every time. We always used to joke that it was like the two of us were in the corner and when someone’s sneaking in, we’re like, “Who is it?”

Did you guys heckle everybody, too, as they came in?

No. Everybody knew we were there. There was a new instructor who knew we were there. It was funny for us. We were always nice about it. We weren’t fighting.

Do you have to kick everybody out where you’re like, “You, off my bike?”

No, I don’t do that. Afterward, it would be like, “Do you know that person sitting on my bike?” There’s a scenario like that. There are lots of people who come here regularly. It was odd.

You went from not having a Peloton to having a Peloton, riding it all the time. At some point, you started a blog about your Peloton rides. How did that come up?

We say, “When it keeps the rage away, it keeps everything bubbling,” especially something like this pandemic where nobody knew what’s going on. I would ride a lot. I knew people who started getting bikes and people would reach out to me because my husband would be like, “My wife loves to cycle. She’s on that Peloton all the time.” People would reach out to me and would be like, “What classes do you like? What classes are you doing? What are you doing?” I’d be like, “What do you like?” When you get a Peloton, especially with the way Peloton has cranked up and exploded, now it’s like nobody doesn’t have a Peloton. I wish there was a concierge for Peloton.

When you go into your spin studio, there was interaction with the instructor and with other riders. You could pick somebody’s brain like, “You should come back on. Please stay because this person teaches that and we like them. If you like this kind of class, this is the person you should ride with. Maybe you should avoid this person.” With the ramp-up of Peloton, I find that there isn’t a lot of that or you go to these message boards where somebody throws that softball out there like, “I got my Peloton. What should I do?” They get 500 answers. I was like, “If that was me, that would stress me out.” How many do you need? Do you read the full twenty?

That’s why my advice is always to try everybody.

You’d read some of these comments and the person would be like, “I’m brand new. I’ve never done a Peloton class.” I’m going to be like, “You should take a class with Kendall.” He was like, “Are you joking? This person should not take a class with Kendall.” People want to keep doing it if they feel successful at it. It’s not like I’m saying that you shouldn’t ride with Kendall if you’re a beginner.

Some of her metal rides, they’re intense. For example, you’re just saying that not everybody should go straight to a Kendall Metal Ride in day one.

You would see somebody who would comment with that like, “I took her metal ride and I loved it.” I was like, “That worked for you. Do you know if that will work for this person?” Do you know what I’m going to do? People constantly ask me what I’m doing, what I’m riding. I would talk about it all the time. My husband was like, “You talk about this all the time.” He dared me. He kept saying, “You should write a blog.” I was like, “People are so mean on the internet. I don’t want to deal with the internet people.” I remember him saying, “I bet you, you won’t do this.” I went to Substack. It’s more like a newsletter than a straight-out blog. It keeps the audience a little bit more niche and a little smaller. It’s like baby steps wading into the waters.

You don’t want to start like a Kendall-level blog post.

You want to do like a Hannah Corbin beginner post. That’s what you want to do.

I was wading my way in and then I was like, “I’m just going to write about what I do, what I like and sprinkle in little nuggets about cycling and indoor cycling, not like road biking.” My husband does that. I do not do that. It’s just little nuggets of things. Sometimes it’s not bad to hear that you shouldn’t be putting your back in when you pedal. If the instructor said two cranks, I want to do two cranks. If they said to do this, I wanted to do this. There were times where my body was like, “No, please stop.” The other part of me, like the angel and the devil, was going, “No. This is what she said to do.” I would love it if someone said to me, “If you want to ride at X cadence, find a resistance that matches that. Don’t necessarily feel like you have to ride in the resistance range that the instructor prescribes. Some instructors prescribe narrow resistance ranges and some prescribe wide ones.”

You wanted to be able to give people that advice but while also showcasing the rides that you were taking.

Yes.

When you talk about classes that you take, what are you including? What kind of details are you putting in the post?

While I ride, I take little shorthand notes. I tried to do it on my phone and voice, but I could not do it electronically because my fingers were slipping. If I try to do it with the voice thing, the instructor’s voice lives on there. I was like, “This is so messy.” I would just keep a pen and paper next to the bike and I jot down notes during the rides. The things that I’m like, “I want to remember this,” then I write the highlights.

When you say highlights, are you including the layout of the class?

Yes. This class started with a ten-minute warm-up, but it was only a true four-minute warm-up. The other six minutes were spent up in cadence, sprinkling in little pieces of things you’re supposed to do during class or more work. I think of warming up as just sitting and pedaling. I don’t think of it as increasing cadence. That’s the way I think about it. We then go right into a hill. We’ll map it out a little bit. If you read it and you think, “This class sounds awesome. I’d love to take it,” or if you feel like, “No way, Jose.”

Are you also highlighting the music? If they have some funny quotes or stories that they’re telling, are you including that as well in your highlights?

There are certain things I like to include. I’ll highlight if I loved or hated the music. I will usually take it off. “This class for this playlist alone. It might not be in your wheelhouse, but this class has an awesome playlist. Put this class on. Crank down your resistance and ride. You will not regret riding with all this music.” Speaking of Kendall, Kendall did one that I rode. It was the 2000s or ’90s. It’s a pop ride. I don’t know if you took this ride, the one where she talks about how her mom used to make them listen to Cher before they can jump into the pool. I put the playlist in that. I was like, “Ride it for the playlist.”

It was a California vibe, summer music. It was great.

The music was so good. Sometimes things that you’ll look at and you’ll say, “This is not for me.” Maybe it is. A lot of times, I will get those difficulty ratings and I’ll say, “You saw this difficulty rating, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that difficult.” Sometimes I’ll glaze over it or give a broad generalization. Some of it is interesting to hear the first time. Cody says some things, like, “Hit me and I die,” I don’t want to ruin that for anyone. I don’t want them to hear that and be like, “He’s crazy.”

That’s why I was wondering because if people come looking for the blog, they have to have an idea of what to expect because it’s the difference between what Tom does with his movie podcast where it’s spoilers. That’s the whole point. If you have not watched the movie, you need to know that going in. It sounds like your blog has details such as the layout of the class and highlights about the music, but it’s not going to ruin the experience for you and spoil big things that are happening within the class.

If you’re like, “I want to take this class and I don’t want it ruined,” hop past that one because I lay them out like a diary. If that one was not for you, then we’ll move on to the next. I took that HIIT and Hills ride that Robin did where she talks about the story about how she got her start at Peloton. I thought that was so inspiring and how amazing she is or was even pre-Peloton. She was always that girl. Hearing the story of how Robin got her start at Peloton is inspiring or something along those lines. We’re telling the story.

You didn’t lay it out in detail. That’s great. People can get their own feedback and they’re prepared for that. They’re excited. They’re looking forward to it, but they don’t have everything given to them. Do you get feedback from people like, “I want you to add more of this, and I want you to take out this?” Do you hear from people with that kind of thing?

From my husband. He has opinions. I’ve only been doing it for a short time. A lot of the people who read it, I know. They will not necessarily comment on the blog. They’ll say, “Take this. If you haven’t tried this one, you should highlight this.” It’s nice to see that you either help somebody or at least enjoyable for somebody to read. It’s a lot of work. You’d be surprised.

We will not be surprised.

I’m in good company when it comes to that. It’s a strangely large amount of work that I piece together.

I bet it’s rewarding, though.

It’s rewarding in a sense. We left Virginia and I quit my job there. We moved to Atlanta. What my husband and I agreed was that we’re going to get the kids settled and everything. We’ll let a year go by and then I’ll start thinking about what I’m going to do. The pandemic hit. We don’t know what’s going to happen if they’re going to be in school or not. “There’s so much change. Should we change anything?” I found myself wanting something of my own. I know a lot of women and men, people who end up being the stay-at-home caretaker or the person who’s not a superstar in the home, wanting something of their own.

I was looking for something of my own. That’s why he kept pushing me to do it because he’s like, “If nothing else, you feel like you have something of your own, you have something that is yours, that you do, that you have a product, that you feel proud of.” He had provided that for me and I am grateful for that. I have a lot of friends who say the same thing. “You can only do so much volunteer work at school.” You can’t even do that because of COVID.

Is it just by classes or do you do other things?

I usually do Bike Bootcamp. I try to do more strength from the HIIT cardio. I’m not much of a yoga person. I should do more. We don’t have a tread because when I finally convinced my husband to get a tread, they recalled the tread. He discovered Adrian Williams and he was like, “I want to get a tribe.” I was like, “Where were you a year ago? Where was this person a year ago?” Hopefully, once that starts back in production, you can get a tread and then I can add tread classes to it. I always say with the Bike Bootcamp, I feel like not enough people do it. I have one friend I know who does it and that’s it.

They just don’t fit in. I don’t do bootcamps that often because number one, we have a Tonal, and two, when I do bootcamps, I do them on the treadmill because I enjoy the running.

That makes more sense than running. Bike Bootcamp makes more sense because there’s no changing your shoes. It flows better together. For Bike Bootcamp, you have to prepare yourself that the flow is weird. It is very strange. The first time I did it, I’d written about it. The first time, I didn’t hate it. I was like, “Why did they bring this on? This is terrible. I can’t see my screen. This is not for me.” My one friend who does them, she’s like, “Keep trying it,” and then I love them. I did one.

I guess that means the bike you got was a regular bike, not a Bike+.

It is. My bike is a gen three. It was purchased in November 2019, right before the plus came out. That was awesome. For getting the bike right before the pandemic, I’ve lost out on everything.

That is the most important thing to have a bike, not a Bike+. I love the Bike+, but I would be just as happy, honestly, with the original bike that I had. I loved my bike. We’d sent that bike to a good home, to a nurse that needed it. We got most of our money back out of it after having it for four years. I think we did great.

People were paying up.

They were, especially at the peak of the pandemic. How often do you update your blog?

It’s twice a week. The schedule I try to keep is Wednesdays and Saturdays. Sometimes it becomes Thursdays and Sundays. Sometimes it’s Wednesday and Sunday. I try to do four days in one and three days in the other. I try to divide it out that way just so it’s not so long where people are like, “This is a lot.” It’s dumping. I’ve seen that if you’re going to do content like that, you’re supposed to keep it coming, so people keep wanting to come back to read. I’m trying. It makes me feel good. It’s something for me.

If you were getting fulfillment out of it, that’s what makes a difference because if you’re just doing it to create an audience, people sense that.

It’s so shallow. You feel it. We would not still be doing this show if the only reason we started this was to have lots of people read. That would not have been the thing. It grew, but it grew slowly over a long time. I feel like lots of people start things that you can tell they started to make money and an audience. You can feel it. It’s great that that’s important to you. It comes through.

It’s that passion that will eventually draw the audience. Did we say the name of the blog?

We did not. Tell everybody the name of the blog and where they can find it.

TCO 225 | Peloton Blogging

 

It’s Who What Ride When. That just came to me. My husband was like, “How did you come up with that?” “I really don’t know.” I was thinking about like, “What am I trying to do here? This seems to go together.” It was weird because I kept thinking to myself like, “I have to name this.” That’s the hardest part. If I can’t name it, I can’t get started. I’m thinking to myself, “I got to name this thing.” That ended up coming to me oddly enough. It’s all in Substack. If you go to Substack and you search Who What Ride When, it will come up or it’s ClaireWerner.Substack.com.

While we’re talking about names, what is your leaderboard name?

It’s ClaireSpinsATL

I think I know how you came up with it.

My husband had a different leaderboard name and then he saw mine, liked it and changed his. His name is SpinsATL. I was like, “We’re those people with shared Facebook page. Please don’t do that.” He’s like, “I like it. I’m going to be changing it.” He changed it.

As long as you’re not sharing a Facebook page. Whenever I see that I’m always like, “Which one of you messed up?”

You know there’s a story there.

A story that you don’t want to share, but yet oddly, they did.

It’s surprising the things that people will share on the internet and don’t realize they’re sharing. Something like that where it’s like, “You all know we know.” People freely share things too, which I’m blown away by.

I’m often surprised why, especially with some Peloton groups that are out there. You know anybody can screenshot that.

There’s only that one same person who comes into the comments and goes, “You realize that your entire profile is public. I can see your name, your husband’s name, all your kids’ names and where you lived.” That voice of reason that comes in there and it’s like, “I told this person we have to do that.” Why does somebody have to be the mom leaker?

They’re like me and they cannot do it. It comes over us. That’s why. I’ve stopped doing it on Facebook because you just can’t. I get attacked enough.

If there is one thing that the internet hate, it’s the voice of reason. Besides sharing too much on the internet, do you have any advice for people just getting their Pelotons?

The piece of advice people seem to always give is to get your bike size correctly, which is important to make sure. Even if a bike like mine where my husband says it’s new to me, make sure to go to YouTube or somebody shows you how to set the bike up so that you don’t hurt yourself. Cycling is one of those things that doesn’t hurt and then it hurts real bad. I’ve had that happen to me where all of a sudden, it’s like, “I’m fine.” You get those endorphins going and you’re like, “My hip hurts. Why?”

The other thing that I always think of is your shoes. I feel like nobody talks about the shoes. Shoes are so important, making sure that your shoes are fit correctly, that you like the way they feel on your feet. Spinning shoes aren’t comfortable by any stretch of the imagination. They’re not too tight. You feel they’re going to fall while you’re on those pedals. To me, that’s something that is so easily overlooked. Don’t be afraid to go untidy. I don’t use Peloton shoes. I use these shoes that I’ve been using for a bazillion years. I tried using my Peloton shoes and I was like, “I don’t like these.” I went back to the ones that I like that fit me.

Probably the most important thing is listening to your body. When you’re in the class and you so badly want to do the class, make sure that if your body is telling you, “Please stop. Please don’t. This hurts,” that voice is telling you that for a reason. When you would go to a private studio or wherever, you’d be like, “Here’s my $30. I’m here and I want my workout. This is it for me. I want to come here and I want my workout.”

You have your Peloton. If this isn’t working, you jump off to something else or walk it off for an hour. You come back to it tomorrow. What’s so nice about the Peloton is that it’s available to you all the time. Be patient with yourself. We’re not all going to get Kendall Metal Ride. I took one of those rides. I’ve been riding for a long time. I thought I was going to pass out at one point. I was like, “It is really hard.” I don’t know how she’s calling out these numbers. My brain was going, “This isn’t correct. These numbers aren’t right.” She’s saying them, but she doesn’t know.

I was thinking about that metal ride. She can’t mean what she’s saying on this thing, but this is insane. Talk to people. We talked about the groups. I feel like everybody has one. Before, you needed to seek somebody out. Now it’s like, “Throw a stone and that person has Peloton.” Talk to them, see what they like, tell them what you like or what kind of exerciser you are and see if they have any recommendations. That’s pretty much all I’ve got. That’s a lot for a beginner or you could read the blog. I don’t want to shamelessly plug, but you can read that too.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you on the internet if you would like to be found. You have a blog, so I’m assuming you would like to be found.

The blog is ClaireWerner.Subsstack.com. You can go into Substack. The blog name is Who What Ride When. I am ClaireSpinsATL on the leaderboard. I have an Instagram page for Who What Ride When. I’m trying to get better. I sometimes post what I eat, but sometimes I’m like, “Do people care about what I eat?” I don’t know the answers to those questions. I don’t want to be a content machine. It’s very disingenuous, but at the same time, I want to keep the momentum going. That’s it for me.

Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

I guess that brings this episode to a close. What pray tell do you have in store for people next episode?

We are going to talk to a medical student extraordinaire, Gabby Brauner.

Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, the bike and the tread @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter at @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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