TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

247: John Mills’ Latest Video Banned From OPP plus our interview with Erica McLean

Last Updated: March 4, 2022By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

  • The NY Post reports that Peloton was delivering rusty bikes.
  • The Peloton website teases the New York studios reopening.
  • Protocol.com writes about laid-off warehouse workers.
  • Peloton suffered an outage this week.
  • Peloton partners with Vitality in the U.K.
  • The New York Times interviews new CEO Barry McCarthy.
  • Jessica Kleiman exits Peloton.
  • John Mills joins us to discuss his video that was too hot for the OPP.
  • We discuss Peloton’s plans for fixing the supply chain.
  • Hydrow is suing iFit over their rower.
  • Jess Sims is the in-arena host for the Big East Women’s Tournament.
  • Dr. Jenn – How to stop staying up late.
  • Alex Toussaint was the MVP of the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
  • Robin Arzon was on the CBS News.
  • Robin provides insight on whether or not classes are scripted.
  • Tunde was on The Today Show.
  • Angelo has tips for how caretakers can still take care of themselves.
  • The A Tribe Called Quest classes are finally here.
  • There’s a new apparel drop.
  • Peloton Apparel has extras for people who make certain purchases.
  • Denis Morton reminisces about his White Stripes ride.
  • The German instructors are celebrating 5th Season.
  • German instructors have a new IG frame.

All this plus our interview with Erica McLean!

—

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

John Mills’ Latest Video Banned From OPP plus our interview with Erica McLean

We got our photo shoot.

We shared one. We will have more of those coming for people. Those are fun. The dogs snuck into a few.

She’s so cute, our little podcast puppy. She’s so adorable the way she jumps into the frame. I’ve got some good ones. I can’t wait to share them with you guys.

We can update the website. It’s been a few years since we’ve done that.

Between the two of us, it’s been almost 75 pounds.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

I don’t even want to talk about this rusty stuff but we got to. Studios are going to be reopening. We have some more updates on that. There was an outage that caused outrage. The new Barry dude is on Mad Money. We’ve got a visit from John Mills. He has been stirring up some things. He had a video banned. We’re going to talk about that. We’ve got some supply chain stuff to chat with him about some NordicTrack news. All of our instructors are everywhere. We have a visit from Dr. Jenn. This time it’s how to not stay up late. We have a visit from MetPro about how to be a caretaker and still take care of yourself. We’re going to talk about Artists Collaborations and a bunch of In Case You Missed It stuff.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart, TuneIn. Wherever you find your podcasts, you can find us. Presumably, you already know that. Also, while you’re there follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe you drifted in and checked this out for the first time. You should keep checking it out. If you like it and you want to help us out, it doesn’t cost you a thing if while you’re on your podcast server of choice, maybe leave us a review so people that come along after you, know that we got the goods.

You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. It’s a great place to start conversations and engage with not us, but also other listeners. It’s like the OPP, only less so, in a good way. You can always watch these on our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Finally, don’t forget, we have a newsletter. You can sign up for that at our website at theclipout.com, where you can stay up to date on things. You can get all the links and things of that nature sent to you in a weekly digest. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

—

The New York Post has an article about how Peloton hid rust and corrosion on bikes that were sold to customers. This is them repurposing a tidbit from the Financial Times article that was roughly the length of a Russian novel. This was buried in there and they pulled it out so they could beat up on Peloton.

To that point, it was not only repurposed by the New York Post, but several different outlets. The reason I mentioned that is because a lot of people say, “The New York post is very sensationalist.” I have no doubt, but here’s the thing. The information that it’s based on is accurate and real. It came from the Financial Times and it’s based on actual reports that they obtained. This isn’t like somebody said a thing. That matters because if this really happened, we need to hold Peloton accountable. My understanding from reading this is that there was a direction that it was okay to send out bikes if they were lightly rusted. However, bikes that were very rusted were also sent out. They didn’t do much about that. It was also labeled Operation Tinman. That’s pretty tacky. the operation name is pretty tacky.

They name it after something that rusts.

It says, “We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re doing this on purpose.” Even if the bikes that went out were only lightly rusted, the fact that this is named Operation Tinman is gross to me.

Years and years ago, long time followers of the show will remember that there was a guy claiming that his bike was rusted.

It looked like it had been at the bottom of an ocean for 50 years.

It looked like he had traveled forward in time and found a bike that was 300 years old, and then brought it back in time to show to people. I cannot fathom how anyone could have gotten their bike rusted that quickly.

Not only that, but it became a huge issue. This was back in 2017, for anybody who’s counting. I know we have a lot of new followers so I want to make sure they know this happened years and years ago. It turned into a whole thing. They put together a special website for it. It was called rust bucket or something like that.

They were trying to lean on the pressure to publicly shame Peloton for this sole rusted bike that we were all given side-eyed to like, “That doesn’t seem right.”

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The thing is I still feel that way even hearing this now. This sounded like this report is from 2021. This is not something that happened from 2017 to 2020.

I also tend to lean in the same place that they are not connected because if they were, you would think we would have heard lots of reports of this in the five-year period.

It’s not that I’ve never heard another instance of it, but I have seen more instances of it in the last twelve months. There was a huge swath of time between 2017 and 2022 where I heard nothing. All of a sudden, it started coming up again. It was happening regularly enough that I believed it this time. For whatever its worth, this is another thing Peloton has got to deal with. Regardless of whether you like it, you lump it or whatever, it happened. I don’t know what else to tell you. It sucks and I hope they get their shit together.

Is there any indication as to why suddenly this is an issue?

No, there isn’t. I’m not hearing anything. There have been some theories that have surfaced. One is that they were using bikes that came back. They were repurposing them and pushing them off as new. I have no proof whatsoever that that is a thing.

It’s just the theory out there.

Maybe they sat in a warehouse for a long time. If there’s no liquid, how is it happening?

With everybody waiting ten weeks for Peloton, how is anything sitting in a warehouse for any amount of time?

I got nothing. To me, it does not make sense. The only thing I can think of is the long shipping times to get from Taiwan over to the United States. They were on an ocean on a boat for God knows how long in the middle of the worst of it. Maybe that had something to do with it. It’s a total guess. I don’t know. I hate to even give that theory because I’m tired of people grumping at me like I’m the one causing all of this. I don’t even care. Isn’t that awful?

It’s like you’re getting a lot of attention no matter what. You’re reporting the story and then people are mad at you because they don’t think it’s true or “How dare you say that?” You’re like, “I’m just telling you what people are saying.” That’s the whole purpose of our existence.

For the people that are like, “I want to talk about the happy stuff.” Me too. Peloton, get your shit together so we can go back to talking about happy stuff. I would love that.

We do have happy stuff.

There is a lot of happy stuff coming up. We just started with this because it’s rust. What are you going to do?

If anybody does want to check out the original version of the rusted gate or rusty gate. That was on episode 32 of The Clip Out. That’s how long ago it was. That came out on December 1st, 2017. That’s how long ago we’ve been reporting on this. We’ve been at this for a bit now.

That was a great story though. That got crazy.

We reported in the past episode that the studios were getting ready to reopen soon. In the middle of all that, look what you came across buried on the Peloton webpage.

This came from one of our listeners. They saw this over on the Peloton Studio page, “Coming soon.” What’s interesting is that it was up briefly in the middle of the Homecoming website. It’s no more but it will be back up shortly. It was an FAQ mentioned. That was it, then this pops up. The one on the FAQ said September of 2022. I lied, it said Fall of 2022. The reason that’s important for anybody new is that Peloton has a very strong history of calling Fall all the way up until December 20th.

They are very calendar-based and literal with their definition of Fall. They had told you that you would get your Tread in the Fall of 2018, and you got it on December 19th.

It’s either that or December 20th. The point being is that even though they said fall, we cannot assume September. I made that mistake with the Tread. Do not do that guys. At any rate, here’s the thing. It says opening soon. The Fall is not soon. That’s six months away,

Maybe considering how long we’ve been dealing with the pandemic, that is soon.

I’m taking bets. Is it really the Fall or do we think it’s going to happen sooner? I’ve got everything going from people. I’ve heard everything from people, it’s going to be Homecoming. They got people saying it’s going to be sometime in March because it’s two years to the day that it closed. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I don’t think that’s how these things work.

That’s how time works. It’s interesting. We will see if Fall is soon. Let’s find out, guys.

A website called Protocol.com has an article about what Peloton warehouse workers really think about all those layoffs.

First of all, shout out to St. Louis. Of all the warehouses in the country they could have focused on, it’s St. Louis.

That’s probably because of The Clip Out.

I’m sure. I thought this was a great article. For anybody who’s like, “More negativity,” this was a fairly positive article in that no one was happy about it, but they all saw the writing on the wall. They loved their jobs and they are hoping to get good jobs that are going to replace what they had at Peloton. They all loved their jobs of delivering Peloton to people. I send good thoughts out to these folks. I hope everybody does get a new job very soon. Some of these people that were interviewed have already had interviews for jobs and it’s looking good, so cross your fingers.

Based on data, there’s never been a better time to be looking for a job. You never want to get laid off but it seems like it’s a good job market. If you’re a worker, maybe they can start delivering some Tonals. When we look back, we will tell our grandchildren two stories. One, what we did during the pandemic. Two, what we did during the great Peloton outage of 2022.

Do you think it’s going to start with Peloton or the pandemic?

Probably Peloton because we’ll be very concerned about clicks.

It’s been a while since there’s been a big outage for Peloton. I don’t think it was a Peloton thing because Slack was out too across the world.

I saw somebody say it was related to the AWS system.

It was like the node or whatever technical term. I don’t remember what the technical term is. I just know that there are places each company lives. AWS, I’m pretty sure they shared the servers and they become virtual servers. If they share a virtual server together, then both of them could have been affected by it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a terribly long time, but it did cause a lot of stress for people who had never experienced it. I saw that there were some people that didn’t know it was down for hours. They were trying to fix their bike. They were on the phone. Mei was one of those people. She was on the phone for a long time trying to get it fixed, poor thing. How did customer service not know?

You would think they’d be like, “It’s system-wide. It’s not on your end.”

We’re all charged on and we’re back. It came back up a few hours later.

For our UK listeners, Peloton has expanded their partnership with Vitality, which I guess is some sort of HMO. I don’t know if they have those because they got socialized medicine over there.

It’s insurance of some kind. I don’t know all the details about it, but they had some cool stuff here. It’s going to be part of Vitality at home and they are going to offer Vitality members extended free trial access to the Peloton app. They were already doing that. Now, they are going to be launching the first of the kind partnership for Peloton in the UK, where they will be able to buy the bike, Bike+ or tread, and get rewarded with up to 40% cashback based on the number of Peloton workout days that they record on a monthly basis. You can get up to €630 back. That’s on the bike. It was double that for the treads. That was from one of our listeners as well. Thank you very much.

The New York Times has an article about Peloton’s new CEO and the tough road ahead.

There’s a lot to unpack in this article. If you have not read it, please sign up for our newsletter and get this because there is a lot to read here. The thing that struck me as probably the most intriguing is the proposed pricing changes? Barry was saying that he would like to see the price of the bike upfront be lower, but then raise the monthly fee from $39 to let us say $79 or $80. A lot of people took that to mean that it was like if you buy the bike on finance. He was raising it in line with that, but the difference is you never stop paying it. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. Maybe he was saying that you do that for a couple of years, and then it goes down. I did not interpret it that way at all.

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

I wasn’t sure how to interpret it. It was vague and it sounds almost like they are moving towards a cell phone model where you get the new iPhone and you use that. If that’s the case, they need to keep making new versions of the bike to get people to keep re-upping at that price. What do you do with the old bikes when you come and get them? Initially, when they were rolling out the Bike+, I thought they were going to get this influx of bikes that they would have a resale program on. That didn’t come to fruition because people could sell them so easily on the open market rather than returning them to Peloton for a credit. There are so many questions with this trial balloon that he floated. It’s hard to make any sort of realistic assumptions about what it means.

This is the new world we’re in. I no longer have any feeling about where we’re going to go with it. Before I would be like, “This is what I feel like based on the past.” I don’t have that feeling anymore.

My feeling on the path that they will take is whatever is going to generate the most revenue for them. If they think they can get $80 and keep paying it even when your bike would have been paid off, that’s what they will do if they can get away with it.

It’s still less than the cost of a gym and you’re still having multiple people on it. There’s a good point with that. Even if this goes into place, I don’t think it’s going to affect people that have already bought the bike. He specifically said, “Going forward.” If you’re on the fence and this is keeping you from buying a bike, I don’t think it should. You should buy it before this happens.

I’m not saying that they will never raise the price for people who already have a bike. Obviously, subscription prices go up like Netflix or Amazon. I don’t think that they could get away with upping the price to that level if you’ve already purchased your bike outright.

It doesn’t seem likely but that’s where we’re at. That’s the thing. We don’t know what this guy is going to do. At the end of the day, he wasn’t just a leader of other companies. He was a CFO. He is laser-focused on money. It is a very different world. There were a lot of zingers in this article. I did not like it at all. It was very aggressive. We are a family and I’m a fan of, “We’re not a family. We’re a team. If you don’t catch the ball when we throw it to you downfield, you’re out of here.”

I’ve never liked when people say, “We’re a family,” because you’re not a family. I don’t know about your family, we’re both Irish but I come from a very large family. I have 41st cousins just on my dad’s side. As large as our family is, we’ve never laid off 2,800 of them. When people say, “We’re a family,” I’m like, “You’re a family as long as the company is chugging along well, but as soon as there’s a problem, you’re not a family anymore.”

That’s a fair point. The one that got to me the most was the whole, “Jill was a problem and John already fixed it.” I didn’t like that. It was tacky.

There was some inartful phrasing in some of the things he said. I think that’s his shtick. He’s tough love and that’s what they’re going to do. I think he’s saying, “Batten down the hatches and justify your existence. This is the paradigm we’re working under now.”

I don’t know that I love this version of Peloton. I loved the version that had a heart. Speaking of Tinman, this company doesn’t have a heart right now. I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m not in love with this version.

You’re going to have to separate your definition of Peloton. There’s the front-facing Peloton of when you’re on the bike, and then there’s the corporate Peloton. You don’t have to like NBC to like The Office. I think that’s what you got going on here.

I’m not there yet. I’ll be honest. I don’t know if I can ever get there.

As I said, I think that’s where we’re at now.

It would be nice if they would let us interview him. I would like to ask Barry a few questions.

I don’t think that is going to happen. I’m not saying every episode, but Foley listened to the show sometimes. I promise you, Barry has never heard of us.

They’re keeping us away from him.

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Unless he’s got a Google alert on his name, but he’s popping up in so many places at this point. He’s like, “I’m going to start reading the New York Times and the Washington Post. I’ll get to The Clip Out later.” Speaking of Barry, he’s going to be on Mad Money. It will have already occurred by the time you read this. That makes me worried. I’m like, “Are we going to have to rerecord a segment because he’s going to say something?”

Barry, for God’s sake, don’t say anything sensational. Could you just keep it calm? That would be cool. It’ll be interesting. I’ll be reading for updates.

We have another top-level Peloton person moving on.

This might have been previously announced, but she posted such a nice little email here. Jessica Kleiman, we were privileged enough to meet her. She was very nice to us. She says that she closes out her chapter at One Peloton after an incredible four years. She wants to thank all of her teammates who have made this the best job she’s ever had. It’s been fun, uplifting and inspiring. It’s also been challenging, emotional and stressful, particularly during the constant roller coaster of 2021. I can’t even imagine, but she would not have done it any other way. She will miss being part of the Peloton team and seeing all of her amazing global communication colleagues’ faces every day. She remains a passionate member who will be cheering from the sidelines. She looks forward to recharging and reconnecting with friends and family. Good for her for getting some time to herself.

—

How cool was it to see Tonal in the Super Bowl?

It’s so cool. Serena Williams, are you kidding me? Many other athletes are using Tonal these days. How many pounds are you up to, Tom? How many have you lifted? You’re well over 2 million now.

I’m 2.4 or something like that.

I get to lift again. It’s in the middle of my program. I am doing 4 Weeks to Fat Loss 2. I love that it’s like having a personal trainer and it tells me exactly how much I’m going to be lifting, then it changes the weights automatically for me. It also increases the weights automatically for me.

Sometimes it decreases the weights automatically for me.

That’s true because sometimes the program that you’re doing will be set up to give more reps. Because it’s more reps, it will give you a lighter weight. It’s amazing.

That’s a positive outlook to have on that. No matter what your experience level is, Tonal has thousands of personalized workouts from strength training to HIIT, yoga bootcamp, barre, and more to help you unlock your strongest self.

If you would like to try Tonal, you can do so for 30 days in your own home. Tonal is so confident that you’ll love it, they offer a full money-back guarantee. You can get Tonal from $63 a month and 0% interest over 48 months.

Visit Tonal.com for a limited time to get $100 off. When you use promo code The Clip Out at checkout. Tonal, be your strongest.

—

Joining us once again is John Mills. How is it going?

How is it going? What’s happening?

You’ve been a little bit of a troublemaker.

Look at you. I didn’t know you were like that.

I didn’t realize it was going to create problems. When I first made that parody, it was a good thing.

For people that aren’t watching, so they know what we’re talking about, you made a parody video about Barry McCarthy’s staff meeting. You incorporated a footage of Morgan Freeman’s first staff meeting from the classic movie Lean On Me.

Didn’t you repurpose an original parody? Isn’t this from one of your original ones? I don’t remember what the joke was in that one other than it was hilarious seeing all the different instructors.

The original parody was the Chase Tucker parody. It started with me taking a Chase Tucker class. The class was so difficult and he was such a great instructor. I start wondering who trained all these instructors to be so great. I think back in time and that’s when the real meat to the parody starts. It shows John Foley going into Morgan Freeman or Mr. Clark, and trying to get him to train his instructors. He finally convinced Mr. Clark to do it, then all this other scene kicks in where he’s talking to the instructor and he’s a hard ass and all that. That was the original parody. Since the New York Times dropped that article and Barry McCarthy was talking direct. That’s a good way to say it. He was very direct. I thought that aligns very well with the ending of that Chase Tucker parody.

You then tried to share it in the OPP.

They denied that. I understand. I guess it could have started something.

No, because if you’re going to go out there in public and you’re going to say that stuff on news networks, you need to take some shit.

How many shitty things do people say about Peloton in the OPP?

This is hilarious and it got cut down.

Everywhere else I posted it on Instagram, my group or page, or my personal Facebook, everybody is cracking up. No malice or hate from it, just a lot of laughter.

I wonder if that is because there’s already this feeling of fear over at Peloton right now. They denied it because they are afraid that Barry is going to see it and blame whoever let it go up. I don’t know that he has a sense of humor. He might have a sense of humor. I’m saying I truly don’t know whether or not he has the sense of humor to appreciate that. If you had done that exact same thing for John Foley, he would have laughed at it. We don’t know what to think of Barry other than what he puts out there in the interview.

He’s very direct. That’s everything that I’ve seen so far.

I’m not picking up on a sense of humor from Barry. How about you?

They may have known something I didn’t. That’s why they didn’t let that go on the OPP.

They’re like, “They’re firing people left and right over here. I don’t want the risk.”

I don’t blame them. That does make us give a little side-eye compared to some of the stuff you see in there. You were also talking in your group about all the rescheduled deliveries that are afoot.

I wrote it out as I assumed as I heard it in my head because you have to translate these things. This is a blog post at Peloton. Barry McCarthy was very direct. It sounded like he was saying, “Whoever did logistics before, they screwed up and now we’re going to fix it.” That was a little harsh. That’s what I got from it.

Let me read it for everybody. This is the first one. I won’t read all of them, “As many of you may know, our previous leadership team made certain decisions during COVID regarding the supply chain and operations that did not work. We’re sorry for what happened and now stand committed to taking a better approach.”

He then goes on to be very open with, “People are going to get rescheduled and you’re going to see some delays and we’ll compensate you for it.”

They’re hitting the reset button, which they got too much faster than the pause button.

To me, it was another indication of what I’ve been hearing from Barry, which I know not everyone likes. As an investor, I’m liking it.

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

I get it, John. From an investor, it does make sense. This dude is all about brass tax. He is going to get in there and he’s going to say what he thinks, and it’s going to be all about making money. As the person who fell in love with this company, I don’t like it.

I’m the pragmatist here. Given what has been going on, there are things that they need to adjust.

You can adjust it without being snotty.

You can but at this level, he needs to send a message top-down that says this is how he’s doing it. I get that it’s going to rub some people the wrong way. I think it’s purposeful. When he hears people saying that they’ve been rubbed the wrong way, he’s like, “Good. Rub your ass on the way out.”

He’s supposed to be on Mad Money.

We’ve talked about that a bit in the opening segment. We were begging him not to say something that would force us to come and rerecord the segment.

Based on what I’ve been reading, that could happen.

He’s going to be like, “I think these bikes pedal the wrong direction.”

“Starting tomorrow, they’re all $1,000 more. You will be paying $200 a month for membership fees. The end.”

“Barry, how come all the sales are on the payroll?” “I told them to get all that out of here. We’re starting all over.”

“We’re hitting the reset button on that too.”

“We’re hitting the reset button on apparel too.”

“I’m also an instructor now.”

“I told them to get me some shoes back.” We don’t know what he’s going to say.

“I got my magic pants all picked out.”

There are no magic pants anymore. The love is gone. The magic is gone. I am distraught.

We should pivot a little bit to Hydrow because they have a rower out. Hydrow slaps iFIT with a patent lawsuit over NordicTrack rower. Do they own the right to paddles? What is going on? I don’t know.

From what John wrote here, they changed barely anything in their design. All of a sudden, Hydrow has an issue with everything. Did I sum it up pretty well?

You summed it up right. It was already odd. I posted about this, that NordicTrack released a new rower. They say it’s the RW 900. I’m like, “Didn’t they already have the RW 900?” I go look it up and sure enough, they already have that one. Why is it a new rower? It’s the same model. They added a few new features and rereleased the same thing they had already released. That rerelease is what got Hydrow to then go, “That’s patent infringement. We’re suing you.”

If it was already out, how can they do that? I don’t get patent law. I swear they’re making this up as they go along.

I don’t remember exactly what those features were, but it seemed like four very basic things. There’s nothing that I was like, “This is awesome.” It seemed like very simple things. Anyways, we got another lawsuit now.

Patent law is like buying a lottery ticket. It’s like, “Maybe you win and if you wait, you make a lot of money. If not, we’re on a retainer, whatever.”

When I saw it, I thought Peloton is about to come out with a rower. Is Hydrow about to start suing Peloton?

That’s where I went to. Is there any way that they put out a rower without one of the rowing companies being like, “We invented strokes?”

The only thing I can think of is they’ve been working on it for so long. Is it possible that they filed patents before everybody else got them out on the market?

It could be but here’s the other thing that is all odd to me. One of Peloton’s manufacturers, Rexon manufactures rowers for iFIT and a bunch of other people. They have their own rower patents. They produce their own rower. Out of the same manufacturing plant, these rowers are being manufactured for a bunch of different people, which I don’t know where the Peloton rower is being manufactured. I’m assuming it could be through Rexon as well. How does this work? What is patentable? They are all coming from the same place.

“This gets the blue screws. This one gets the red screws. That’s how we keep them non-patented.” This is getting crazy. That will be interesting.

We should start a betting pool like an over-under on how long it takes before Peloton gets sued after they released their rower.

I’m thinking that might happen.

I think they were making it up. If it was already out on the market. I don’t even have a horse in this game. I don’t care about Hydrow. I don’t care about NordicTrack. I have zero passion for either. If it was already out and all they did was add features, I don’t understand.

Maybe one of those features was patented.

To John’s point, they were all simple.

You can patent simple things all the time though.

That’s true. I was also thinking that it’s possible that iFIT is having financial issues right now. They’re struggling and they have a lot going on with them. Do some of these corporations use the courts to put pressure on companies that are already struggling?

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I can’t think that they would do something like that. That’s not fair.

I sense some sarcasm a little bit.

That would not surprise me at all. Kick them when they’re down will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back here.

You throw enough money at it and kill it financially when they’re already in that very vulnerable position.

You never know. Finally, you noticed an announcement for the Big East Women’s Tournament.

I had to use yours because you so nicely put all of the information in one place. Everyone else had just the photos. I was like, “I love John’s announcement because it’s so complete and concise.”

I love Jess Sims. She’s going to be the host. She already is for the New York Liberty in New York. Now, she’s going to be in Connecticut at the Big East Tournament doing the same thing at Mohegan Sun Casino. I and Eric go there often. This is exciting for us but I haven’t gotten tickets yet. I’m not saying I’m going but we may.

He says he probably will but he doesn’t want to commit. Also, he doesn’t know who’s going to hear this and decide they want to see him. He’s going to leave that for a later date.

He doesn’t want to be inundated with fans when he’s trying to watch the game.

I haven’t told Erica that I want to go yet. I don’t want to say I’m going. If I can go, I’m going to be there.

If you get to go, we want to hear all about it firsthand.

I will let you know. I’m all excited about it and I’m excited for her. It’s a different venue at a different location, doing a similar thing, all for women’s basketball still. I think it’s all amazing. Any time I hear advertising and, and press for women’s basketball, I love that. I’ve always been a fan of women’s basketball for the structure. I love the way they play because you get to see much more of the fundamentals.

I wouldn’t know because I watched zero sports, but I love that you’re excited about it. It sounds like a great thing.

Does anybody throw a bucket of confetti on the audience? That’s my question. If not, then that’s not the basketball I’m into.

He only likes the Harlem Globetrotters.

When I moved here to Connecticut many years ago, I decided to go to a UConn women’s basketball game. I went with a friend of mine and Erica was there. We get there and the game starts. They do the national anthem and all that stuff. I sit down and everybody is still standing up. I’m like, “What’s wrong with these people? The game has started and they’re playing.” Someone told me, “John, stand up. You’re not supposed to sit down until they score.” I knew nothing about UConn women at the time. This could be forever, but they are good too. They scored quickly, then the whole arena sat in.

That is a cool thing to show support.

Is that unique for that team or is that a women’s basketball thing?

I believe it’s unique to UConn women. I have never been to any other arenas watching college basketball but I learned that in 1998. I was the lone person in this crowd of 12,000 people sitting down.

These days you can just say it’s a political protest. You’d be like, “You’re the one who’s in the wrong.”

I learned and every time after that, I stay center and look for someone else who’s like me.

You’re the nicest person ever. I bet you search them out and you call them over. You’re like, “Just so you know, that’s frowned upon here.”

Thank you so much for joining us, John. Until next time, where can people find you?

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

—

Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and Sports Psychology consultant. She was also a five-year national team member in rhythmic gymnastics, and does Sports Psychology for USA Gymnastics. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

We have someone that needs your help. I’m curious how you answer this because I know it’s something you struggle with too.

Is this about buying Peloton apparel?

No, that’s a great guess though. He says that he is staying up too late. He says, “It is like the working parents revenge for a lack of free time. Unfortunately, it’s highly ineffective too. What do I do?”

I was interviewed for a story about what they now call bedtime revenge. This is particularly common with working parents who at the end of the day, you finish your work, then you have all this time with your kids. You have time with your partner and then you’re exhausted. You want some time for yourself. The only time to get it is once everyone is asleep. This is something that I struggle with myself. I love that nighttime when everyone is asleep and I can have me-time. Also for me, it’s a very creative time. I wrote 3 out of 4 of my books between the hours of 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM. I totally get this.

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

I did a masterclass on sleep where Matthew Walker, who hosts the class is a sleep expert. He scared me pretty bad because he talks about the importance of sleep. I love very little sleep. I can operate on 3 to 4 hours of sleep for a decade or two. What he talked about is how these toxins build up in your brain that makes you more likely to be vulnerable to Alzheimer’s, dementia and all kinds of neurological degenerative diseases. That is certainly an issue to be aware of. Also, he even cited some research that talked about how when they have people getting the flu vaccine who has slept less than six hours of sleep at night that the vaccine was not as effective.

He looked at a lot of different studies that scared me. If you need motivation, I do recommend the masterclass on sleep with Walker, or if you want to be scared. In terms of how do you get that time, I do recommend looking at your schedule. Also, looking at where you can get alone time and how you can make boundaries with your family. You love them all so it’s hard to just say like, “I need time for myself.” I remember after I gave birth to my kids when they were toddlers and little babies, I had a ritual. When I needed time to myself, I would get in the bathtub and I would watch Sex in the City in the bathtub. My bathtub is still my thing. I like watching a show on the top with my Rosemary Epsom salt.

For me, not too great self-care. He needs to figure out what are his top ten self-care activities that rejuvenate him, and where can he fit them besides 2:00 in the morning. Can he carve out time on the weekend if he doesn’t get time during the week where he can have some alone time? What this usually is about is alone time. There is one other factor. I learned this from Matthew Walker and I get no money from his masterclass for any of this. This is not an ad, but what he said is 25% of people are night owls, 25% of the people are morning larks, then the other 50% are somewhere in between. I think they are normal. I’m a night owl. If left on my own devices, I’ll be up between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM. I would sleep until 10:00 and 11:00 in the afternoon.

A lot of the time, we’re fighting our natural biology and we have to acknowledge that. If you don’t have kids or if you have a super flexible job, you may want to alter your schedule so that it can work with your natural biorhythm, if that can also work with your family, your lifestyle and your loved ones. If not, like most people, then you got to work with it and try to be consistent about having a bedtime. Maybe what you do is you curtail the bedtime so it’s not 3:00 in the morning, instead, it’s midnight so that you have some time to yourself, but it’s not excess.

That’s compromising with yourself.

Thank you so much for all that. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on social media @DrJennMann. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat. I also have an InStyle magazine column every week called Hump Day With Dr. Jenn, where I give advice about sex and relationships.

—

Alex Toussaint had quite the showing at the 2022 ruffles NBA All-Star celebrity games.

In the last class that he did before the game, he said, “I’m going to win that thing.” He did and not only did his team win, but he was also the MVP of the whole thing.

I saw a couple of clips. He knew what he was doing.

I saw John Mills posted that he was running the whole thing. He was moving the fastest on that entire court. He would zoom down and zoom back. I don’t know what was happening because we don’t watch sports. I know he made it look good.

There was running and baskets being made. There were points being scored. That seems to be a net positive. Congratulations to him. It did seem like people were surprised at how good he was. They expect him to be in shape but it wasn’t just about in shape. He was good at basketball at an elite level.

He crushed it. Congrats to Alex and the whole team.

I had the same reaction from people when I competed in that hot dog eating contest. They were surprised. They were like, “We knew that you were a glutton but this is more than we could have ever hoped for.”

This is next level. It’s good, Tom. Congrats.

Robin Arzon was featured on CBS morning news.

Was it morning or evening?

I thought it was morning.

There were two separate things. What happened was she did this news thing and then she posted that she’s on CBS News. She then posted on her Story that she was going to be on the app that night. The next image that you were going to pull up is what that story is showing. It’s a replay of this. I’m getting it now. I got it.

They probably recorded it for the app, then it got enough hits. They’re like, “Put it on the actual news.”

If it’s Robin, they knew that was going to happen. At any rate, she had a great interview and talked about her backstory of how she got into fitness, and how she had never been an athlete when she was younger. Now, look at her go and be that fitness icon to millions. It is very impressive.

While we’re talking about Robin, she also had a post that you found interesting.

You might remember from some of our past conversations that instructors have told us in various ways that they script their rides. Robin did a very big post saying she does not script it. She said that during a recent interview, she was asked if Peloton instructors script out their classes. She said, “What we do is quick notes and bullet points as reminders for things we might want to include. We do not script out the entire class.” I find that interesting because I have heard the exact opposite from other instructors.

You even came across a ride where it was live and the closed caption seemed to be showing up before the instructor was saying the words. That leads me to wonder if perhaps Robin Arzon has been around long enough to where they changed the process, but they are not going to change it for her. They’re like, “What you’re doing works and we’re not going to mess with it.”

 

She helps the content be decided for the other instructors because she’s at a higher job title. I would think she would be on the same page as to what they are doing. Even if she does it differently, you would think that she would at least be aware that they are doing it differently. As far as the words being different, it’s also possible that there’s some kind of delay now. Are the live classes not truly live anymore?

Were they slightly time-shifted?

I was taking a tread class the other day and I wasn’t paying attention to what the caption said. The clock in the studio had a different time remaining than what I did. It was off by three seconds consistently the entire time. That could make the caption show up a little off.

Also, maybe there are some instructors that choose to script out their entire classes. They feel more comfortable knowing it’s all been decided and they don’t have to riff and say something that they would regret later.

It’s weird because one of the examples that I was given for those classes being scripted was when Robin announced her pregnancy. That was the example given for it being scripted. I think it’s so weird. Just fascinating little things I find.

Tunde was featured on the Today show.

She got to do a whole interview talking about her book and her past in fitness, and how she was not an athlete when she was younger and look at her now. That’s very cool.

—

Joining us once again is Angelo from MetPro to answer all of your nutrition questions.

Thanks for having me back.

Thank you for joining us. We have a special question for you. It’s a little more philosophical. It comes from Karen De Adonto. She says that her nutrition struggle is how to take care of herself and her body while she’s taking care of her wife who has esophageal cancer. How does she find the strength to do it all? She’s working out every other day but the nutrition piece isn’t good. She’s doing Blue Apron meals two times a week. Otherwise, she’s just trying her best.

First off, I have incredible respect for any caretakers out there. It’s taxing both physically and emotionally. Good on you to at least recognize the importance of including yourself in that equation. Priorities have to be a priority. The first thing is you have to give yourself a little bit of a pass and recognize that in your life and your priority hierarchy, it’s not going to be perfect and that’s okay. Beyond that, a lot of the same beneficial life hacks for my clients that have very particular goals, either weight loss or health or fitness goals, will still apply. It comes down to brevity. What you want are strategies that are going to produce the outcome of you getting clean and healthy meals frequently without it being a cumbersome task that’s a large time sink.

Since you already doing Blue Apron, I think you have a great path there. What I would recommend is to standardize it. Have certain meals throughout the day that you prepare for yourself and certain meals that you can mentally take off your plate. You don’t have to have that bandwidth. You don’t have to do it this way but I’ll give you a for instance. For instance, with some of my clients, I have them using either a chef, a meal prep service, a Blue Apron or similar, or they’re just going to the higher end grocery stores with a nice deli section where there are pre-made proteins, vegetable medleys, quality carbs, getting a pound of this and a pound of that, and keeping it in the fridge at home. There are a lot of little ways to be time-saving.

I often have a client and I’ll say, “Here is your lunch. This is your routine. You’re going to get these things prepared for you. We’re going to take it off your plate so you don’t have to think about anything and your lunches are taken care of. I want you to make your own breakfast and while you’re making your breakfast, set aside an afternoon snack for the day.” I like that because it’s very time managed. Most people are able to eat a clean and healthy breakfast without it being a cumbersome task. If you’re having breakfast and preparing a mid-afternoon snack, it won’t take long. It won’t be too difficult. You can add that to the docket in the morning.

I’ll tell you what my routine is in the mornings. I have some oatmeal that I microwaved. I put a little splash of water in the bowl, my oatmeal in it, then I throw it in the microwave. I put a little bit of Stevia in it. I liked the way that tastes. I have a vegetarian protein shake that I use. I have those two items together. I also have a few almonds sitting out in a container on my counter that are always right there. The reason I do that is because it takes me exactly 90 seconds to have that breakfast ready to go. While I’m putting the oatmeal in the microwave, I’m grabbing a bite of my almonds and I’m putting my protein powder into a little cup and mixing it up. I use the same spoon that I mix the protein shake to eat my oatmeal. I have it down to a science and it takes me 90 seconds.

Why? Because my schedule is such that the first part of my day, I’m rapidly responding. I have clients that have questions. I have some special needs that pop up, some diet adjustments programs. I’m busy the first hour or two after I wake up. That’s why I have a routine around brevity in the mornings. I’m not saying that you need to go and have that same breakfast, but find a routine that’s consistent for one meal a day.

For an afternoon snack, it’s a matter of having the ingredients in your house. I recommend keeping it simple. Personally, I like to do apples, nuts and jerky. Some people do fruit and nuts, and that’s a great combo because it’s quick and simple. Think about snacks that are not only healthy but also, you want the attributes of being quick to prepare or pack with you. You want them to be low perishable. That’s especially for people who are on the go and outside of their houses. You want something portable and it’s not highly perishable. You can keep it in the car in the glove box or whatever, and that is not messy and have a lot of cleanups.

Do I love cottage cheese and strawberries as an afternoon snack? Yes, I do. That’s a great afternoon snack. Do I recommend it? Not for clients that are on the go. I want them to have something a little bit quicker and a little bit less cleanup. Something like an apple and a handful of almonds works well. If you have that strategy, then what you can do at dinner is give yourself a little bit of breathing room and say, “I am going to not eat something unhealthy for dinner.” Instead of defining exactly bite for bite what that needs to be right now, just be resolved to have a clean and consistent dinner wherever you’re at. Whatever ingredients you’re using, avoid sugars, a lot of fried stuff or general junk food.

If you do that, now you have a whole routine in place just by hitting breakfast and afternoon snacks. You’ll be amazed at how that will give you energy throughout the day because you are a busy person and you need to keep your energy up. You need to take care of yourself. The answer is not just eating.

Thank you very much for all of those tips. We greatly appreciate it. If people would like stuff tailored for them, where can they find you?

MetPro.co/tco.

—

I feel like we’ve talked about this a few weeks in a row, but there’s an artist collaboration with A Tribe Called Quest.

It’s finally happening because it got bumped. We found out about it a little bit before because they had also put out a teaser as they did with Taylor Swift. Everybody figured out who it was, then they bumped them for Mary J Blige. Now it’s finally their week. There are six different classes. People are super-stoked including John. We should have teased him while he was on. He says he’s going to every single class. He is so excited about it. I’m so happy for him. It’s so cool whenever they mix up the artists like that so that you have different people being excited about different collaborations.

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

It’s also nice to see that Peloton is letting people say tribe again.

We don’t have a picture of it but I should also mention that Pete Tong has also collaborated. It was with some of the instructors from the UK. He is a huge deal in the UK. He has been in club music for a long time. He is like the god of music over there. It was very exciting for people who grew up listening to that kind of music. On that point, it’s cool that they have such a variety.

—

We have a new collection that has dropped in Europe and will be hitting here shortly.

It already hit. I did include this for a reason though. I thought it was interesting. This is the first time in a long time that there has been unique apparel. The Gingham check is very different from anything that they have done for a long time. There was a lot of stuff that dropped but this one caught my eye in particular. People are buying it up very quickly. I’m seeing it all over Instagram with the instructors. All the instructors are wearing it. They are very excited about it. I thought it was interesting.

While we’re speaking of apparel, by the time that this is published, it will be the last day. If you read this on the day it comes out, then you will want to go jump over to your computer and buy this right away. If you spend $150 in the Peloton store online, you get a Peloton mug. If you spend $250, you get a Peloton mug, a sweat towel set and a water bottle.

Denis Morton had a bit of a throwback post.

He talked about how it was his favorite ride from April 2021, a 30-minute White Stripes ride. He says it was one of his favorite bands and one of his favorite rides. I thought it was a fun post

The German instructors want you to know that the 5th Season is upon us.

What is the 5th Season you ask? It is a carnival. It’s called the 5th Season in Germany. Peloton put together some workouts with Marcel and Eric that are going to be unique classes. Those are coming up very soon. We have one on the 24th of February. By the time you read this, it will have happened. That is a run and there’s also a ride with Eric coming up as well. If you want to celebrate the 5th Season, you can do so. You can party yourself.

Finally, there’s a new Instagram frame for German instructors.

I feel like this is strange. It looks so different from the American way. I don’t know if that means that they are going to update the American one because a while back they had where you could edit it and do things to it, then that feature went away. I thought it was going to come back but it hasn’t yet. I don’t know what it means, but right now there is a different frame if you have the German instructors.

I wonder if it’s going to roll out or if they are going to come up with different looks for each country. There’s an instantaneous identifier that this ride is American or this ride is Australian, etc.

It’ll be interesting to see what they will do with that.

—

Joining us via the magic of Zoom tube is Erica McLean. Erica, how’s it going?

It’s going good.

We’re glad to have you here. We have to go back to the archives. How did you first find out about Peloton and when was that?

It had to have been about a few years ago. One of my good friends from college was and still is Peloton obsessed. I’ve been a teacher and a trainer, exercise physiologist for a long time. I’ve been to gyms and training facilities. I never really did much home workouts. My friend was just harping on me, “You need to get a Peloton.” I did. I started off with a bike and immediately was obsessed. Ally Love was like my best friend.

Does Ally know that?

I DM her all the time. They came up with a tread and I’m a huge runner. A lot of people asked me, “Are you going to get the Peloton Tread because you love to run?” I had another treadmill but I wanted the Peloton Tread. My husband surprised me, got me the tread, and I’m hooked. I have my Becs Gentry, flocking flamingos with me. Peloton, I love it.

Do you have the Tread or the Tread+?

I have the Tread+.

Big collector’s item.

It is a collector’s item. Who knows when it’s going to be back on the market? I have no doubt it will be. It’s the big question mark. I love mine. I wouldn’t give it up for the world. What is an exercise physiologist? I saw that, I hear you say it, but I don’t know what it means.

In a nutshell, it’s just like a Kinesiology-type major. A lot of athletes and a lot of people in the science field don’t want to be doctors, but they commit to being or want to be exercise physiologists, sports trainers and stuff like that. Matt Wilpers would be a dope exercise physiologist. He’s just amazing at what he does. You could either go the training route or you could go to the hospital route where I ended up going.

I did cardiac stress tests for both inpatient and outpatient. Big Papi was there for the community over at one of the hospitals in Boston. I was there, training and teaching at the same time. I’m like, “I should just become a nurse because I’m in the hospital.” From there, I went to becoming a nurse and combined everything together.

 

Are you still a trainer? Do you still train people?

Since COVID hit, I stopped. I was training a lot of people in my home gym. When COVID hit, it put a damper on it. I was at a training facility as well and they closed down. Since then, I haven’t trained people myself, but I’m just a big, huge activist with fitness and all of that good stuff. It’s in my blood.

You’ve always been an active person?

I think I have undiagnosed ADHD. I can’t sit down, so yeah.

Use it to your advantage, right?

Weaponize it.

That’s a good way to twist it because some people don’t know what to do with all that energy. Might as well get it out with exercise. That’s fabulous. We got to switch gears to these tarot readings. Tell me about that. I need to know the background. Where did this start? How did you get into this?

I wear many hats, other than all the things that I do. Ever since I was young, I’ve had tarot cards. My great aunt was a tarot reader and I was just super fascinated with all that stuff. But then, you grow up, you go to college, you start off in the real world and you’re just too busy. When COVID hit, I was still in the hospital, taking care of patients. Being so much spiritual in tarot and this sounds so weird and woo-woo. You’re going to be, “Erica, you’re the weirdest person ever.”

Mediumship stuff came, which happened when I was younger, too. It was just telling me, “You need to do a different route. It’s time to spread your wings and make a different career.” I left the hospital and I focused more on tarot stuff and spiritual stuff and took classes and all of that stuff. I dove right in there. That, along with fitness, has been my saving grace through this pandemic.

Explain to me how a class works for tarot. As much of what people read and interpret from the tarot is that it’s a bit subjective because it’s how you interpret the reading. How do you take classes on something like that?

There are many different tarots. I have the Golden Girl Tarot, the Disney Villain Tarot. You name it, I have them. They consist of a bunch of cards, major and minor arcana. You just have to be familiar with the card spread and know what the cards mean. Everyone and a lot of readers have different interpretations of the cards. The longer that you read them, the more these certain cards mean to you. It might mean something different to one person than the other.

With the tarot cards and my intuition that I just feel I have, things that I just think of and whatever, in my readings, I’ll go off on that and give my clients a little knowledge about what could become with the future or what problems. I keep it all positive because I’m so anti-negative. Every reading that I have is mostly positive and it’s happy reading.

What if you see something that is not? Not everybody has happy things in their future.

That hasn’t happened to me yet because I keep such an optimistic outlook on the whole thing. If it did, I would never say anything negative to somebody because it’s not my job to. The whole reason with the tarot is it’s a way that you could go. It’s a path that you could take if you choose to do one certain thing. You always want to remind the person that you’re reading that this is just what could happen if you do X, Y and Z.

They still have control.

Exactly. That’s what everybody needs to know. I feel it was so woo-woo back in the day and people were scared of it. I’m seeing more and more people so interested, people DMing me. I even have reality stars DMing me. They’re like, “Can I have a tarot reading?” I’m like, “Sure.” I feel everyone gets so excited and it’s something not as weird. It’s not like I’m pulling out an Ouija board and being, “Let’s see what we have here.” It’s like not that.

All I know is what I see in the movies and stuff. I feel with tarot cards, it’s always the bad cards that mean good things and the good cards mean bad things. Somebody pulls out, then it’s like, “It’s death.” There’s a corpse hanging upside down. They’re like, “No, that means rebirth.” Everything’s cool, and then you get the one that’s butterflies and they’re like, “You’re screwed.”

I like the death card. The death card is all about rebirth and starting anew. When I get that, it’s exciting. That’s what I tell people when they’re freaking out and they’re like, “What card is that?”

That just sounds like something you say to make people feel better. It’s like, “When it rains on your wedding day, that’s good luck.” No, it’s not. Good luck would be it not raining.

Along with the cards that I get an intuition, I’ll think of things. When I was younger, I’d be like, “Why am I thinking of that,” or I’ll have random dreams. Things have come true after my dreams. I’m like, “What was that?” I feel like with the cards, give me a little bit of help. I take it with a grain of salt if you know what I mean.

How do you do tarot readings online? I thought you had to touch the cards and do a thing. We know nothing about this. I’m sorry you have to educate us.

Some of my close friends lately, since things have died down, would come to my house, or I’d go to friends’ houses that they’d have a couple of people over. That’s as much as I do. I won’t have a stranger in my house. I do a lot of Zoom and FaceTime. The thing is with the cards and a lot of readers will tell you this, that some people don’t even like other people to touch their cards.

They would rather pull them themselves because it’s what they think they should pull. When I’m one-to-one with someone, I let them pull. It really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Some people might tell you it does, but for the most part, it’s not a big deal.

 

Could you do a reading for Peloton? Is that a thing? Is that possible?

Yes. I have things come to me all the time and I’m like, “This is going to happen.” I’m like, “Crap, that did happen.” Things that I think of, something that I was thinking, and I don’t want to of go out and say it, because if it doesn’t happen, I don’t want to be like, “Erica McLean said this and it didn’t happen.” Things will just come to me, especially when I’m running. It’s almost like meditation and I’m surprised. I do have a lot of things, outlooks for it. As I said, I’ll look back and I’ll be surprised like, “I totally called that.”

Let’s hear some Peloton predictions. Come on.

If this doesn’t happen, it will happen in the future. Becs Gentry is one of my girls. I love her and I try to take her live runs. I was taking her 45-minute endurance. I’m like, to myself, “Becs is getting engaged. She is going to the Canary Islands this weekend or for Christmas.” All day, I could just have this feeling that this was going to happen to her. Whether it happens in the Canary Islands or a New York bar, I don’t know, but I feel it’s something that’s going to be happening so soon. She’s right there. I feel there’s a lot of good news coming for her.

I have a feeling that there’s just so much more coming for them. They were talking about the rower. I do think that’s something that’s going to come to fruition. I do see that. I feel there’s going to be a lot more stuff, maybe even on the Treadmill. I know they went into the boot camps and they have that. There might be something else and I can’t put my mind on it, but I just feel it’s such a big thing. Everyone has one.

I’m going to draw some cards too, just to help me, but I feel there’s almost going to be, not another type of boot camp but something else. It could be compared with yoga. I see a lot of new things. First of all, John Foley, I’m always rowing him, being like, “John Foley, just hire me on the Tread. I’ll teach a class. I’ll teach the dopest ‘90s class because I love the ‘90s.” I also don’t know if there’s going to be another partner coming in. I see another female type of energy coming in to make everything prettier and more attractive. Not that it’s not attractive, but come out there and there are more people.

Do you see that as specific to the Tread or Peloton in general?

I’m seeing Peloton in general. I do think the Tread is going to have a lot more acknowledgment. I just have that feeling. I just think more and more people that I talk to are just getting. My cousin just got the Tread. One of my best friends just got the Tread. It’s such a big commodity. I think that the Tread+ too is going to make its way back. I do at some point.

We’ve got the Tread+ coming back, some female energy and something new coming with the Tread. What else are you thinking?

This year 2022 when we go back, everything in Peloton is just going to flow easily. You know how we had that whole thing with the Tread+ and how they stopped selling them because of the tragic accident that happened? It was just a wonky year for Peloton for everyone but I feel 2022 is going to be a dope year for them.

As I said, more things are going to happen. They possibly might get the Tread+ back. The things are going to flow. You’re going to find exciting new things happening with the instructors, new things coming up. There are going to be more engagements. A couple of instructors might have babies. I just see fun, exciting stuff happening that the community is super psyched about.

Do you have any instructors who might be on that list? We have a lot of instructors that have gotten engaged and who either got married or will be married in the next year. Is there anybody on your list? I know people are really rooting for a Ben and Leanne baby. That’s going to be the most beautiful baby.

They’re going to have a baby. I pictured them having a boy, but not until the end of 2022, like getting pregnant. They need to get married and have their fun, go on a super fun honeymoon. You’ll hear the news about a baby for them, maybe either 2023 January or February-ish. The same thing with Ally Love. She’s still enjoying her time. She’s got so many things that she’s good at. I think in 2023, you’re going to hear something about that as well.

Sometimes I feel Robin’s not done either. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had another baby. It might not happen, but I could see she’s an amazing coach. The things that she says are that you get out of a class and you feel amazing mentally, too. She’s fit the role as a mother is doing a super job and just loves it. It is a possibility. I could see it being on the table for them.

When you say 2022 is going to be a dope year for Peloton, are you thinking that some of this legal stuff will go away that’ll smooth itself out? Maybe the stock market might go back up or is that a possibility?

I’m seeing them having a better year all around and less negativity.

It’s been a rough one. That would be good.

I think 2022 is going to be a great year for them. I do see that there might be an instructor that I don’t know who. You may hear of an instructor walking away and taking on a new career. I don’t know if that’s here, if that’s in London or where it is, but you might see someone just stepping down.

We’ve got Robin and her husband potentially having a baby. We’ve got Ben and Leanne potentially having a baby or getting pregnant at the end of 2023.

I don’t see them rushing.

Ally Love, same thing, sometime in 2023, we’ve got a more positive stock market, more positive news just for Peloton in general and potentially an instructor walking away. Are you getting a feeling of Tread, bike or anything like that?

When you asked me, the first thing that came to me was the Tread, but then I’m thinking, “No. Bike.” I don’t know if it’s someone that does both. I don’t know because I don’t guess on this one. I don’t see it being bad, walking away because they are mad at something. There’s something better that they know that they have to go and accomplish.

Tom, do you have any other specific questions for her about the readings?

I don’t. Will we finally get a Monkeys Artist Series?

I feel like that’s a no.

Monkeys? I would love the Monkeys. I don’t know. I want to write to John Foley and tell him, “You need to make the Monkeys, whatever it is because I love them.”

You do that. You reach out to him. Let us know. That would be great. Maybe Tom would take a class. Would you take a class if they did it?

I’d probably not.

She could use that as leverage with Mr. Foley.

I don’t want to sway. I have to remain impartial. They need to choose because the Monkeys are wonderful, not to get to me. I’m sure they’d give a crap.

Probably, but I’ll try. I’ll reach out.

What about the guide coming out? Do you have any thoughts about that? Any feelings?

The thing with Peloton to me, basically it’s the bike and the Tread. We have our tonal. A lot of people are doing that. People will use it because you’re talking about the new strength thing that’s coming up, right?

TCO 247 | Peloton New Year

 

Yeah.

People will use it. My friend that I had told you about, she’s always trying new things. I know for sure she will. People will use it, but I don’t think it’s going to be as such of a hot commodity as the Tread.

Personally, I agree with that. We’ll continue with the interview, but if anything comes back, if you feel any feelings, feel free to tell us. For people who don’t know, what’s your leaderboard name?

My leaderboard name is FitMomErica.

Do you want to know something funny? I always see your name. You know what I always think it says and I have to do a double-take?

What?

Fit Mom of America.

People say that to me. I’m like, “Can I change my name?”

No, it’s great. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just your brain wants to make patterns. It’s like Fit Mom America. Every time I see it, that’s what I think and I’m like, “No. That’s Erica.”

There are so many people who have said that to me, but I can’t change it now because I’m in too deep. They know me, the instructors, I hope.

They do if you’re DMing them. They know you. You have the Instagram name the same, too. You really can’t change it.

You got to maintain your branding.

You don’t have to change everything. That’s too much stress. Was that just because you’re a fit mom and your name’s Erica? Was there anything else to that?

That wasn’t even my Peloton name. That, I had as my Instagram name, because on my page, I do a lot of fitness stuff. At the time, I was teaching and training. People would always go to my page and they would try different workouts. Sometimes I would do live workouts. It just stuck. When I was at Peloton, I’m like, “I’m just going to use the same name. I don’t want to confuse anybody.” I just stuck with that name and then here we are.

I like that Instagram informed Peloton instead of the other way around. We don’t hear that often. What about instructors? You’ve named a few. Which would you consider to be your all-time favorite?

My bestie that I would love to go out and just have a martini with is Selena. I love Selena. I am part of the Selena squad. You might find me on that as a hashtag. Another instructor who I love is Matty Maggiacomo.

Matty is the best. I love Matty so much, his energy. I don’t care how bad of a day I’m having. If I take one of his classes, I am laughing by the end. It’s amazing.

I love them all, but those two. I could have any type of day, just a day I don’t feel like doing anything, I put them on and it’s like, “We’re going, let’s go.”

That’s funny that they’re both runners that, that push you in that way. Do you have a favorite on the bike as well?

Matt Wilpers is like my secret boyfriend, even though I’m married. He’s like a little carebear. I love him. He’s the one person with who I tend to take a lot of classes with. Robin and Tunde. Robin’s energy is massive and Tunde is just dope. I love her.

Tunde is another one that no matter how bad of a day you’re having, you come out, not necessarily laughing as I do with Matty, but feel you can accomplish anything. She makes you feel so empowered by the end of a class. She’s fabulous. There are so many great instructors.

Do you have any advice for people that are just entering the world of Peloton?

They don’t even know what they’re in for. Are they ready? They might be nervous. Every new person is with Peloton because of the leaderboard. They’re scared. “What if I’m not where I’m supposed to be?” New people need to just shut that off. Slide it away. Bye-bye. Start off slow and do your own thing and take as many different people’s classes as you can because that’s how you’re going to find out who you love and who drives you. That’s super important. It’s all about consistency. You just show up, you get better.

That’s very good advice.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your holiday to join us. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you in all the various places.

You can all find me @FitMomErica on Instagram. That’s basically where I am. On the leaderboard, the same thing FitMomErica. High five me, I’ll high five you back.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. I hope you guys have a great holiday.

You too.

—

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

We have a very special interview. You might remember a while back we talked about the show The Sex Lives of College Girls. One of the show runners, the writer of the show, Justin Noble, is a huge Peloton fan and he is joining us. I’m very excited about that interview. It was a lot of fun.

We talk about his show. We talk about him working with Mindy Kaling. We also talk about how that title makes you feel weird when you Google it. You got to do some explaining to your wife sometimes why you’re googling college girls and sex. I’m glad they finally came up with a show called that. Thank you, Justin. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and anywhere on the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or 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 to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can watch all these in HD glory. Also sometimes when the show is delayed, the YouTube channel comes out first. Just a little tip here at the very end of the show where nobody listens. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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