265: Peloton Halts Roll-Out Of ‘Invite Friends’ Feature Plus Our Interview With Erica McLean
- Is Peloton stock is set to rebound?
- Invite Friends feature rolls out…and then rolls back.
- Jenn – Reestablishing a routine.
- Sam Yo & Eirk Jager now teach Power Zone classes.
- Robin Arzon talks to PopSugar.
- Tunde appears on NBC Boston.
- Ally Love is featured in the Style section of The Times (UK).
- You can now book classes in the studio.
- Test classes for The Guide leak online.
- Peloton hires Zwift’s lead gaming designer.
- Business Insider writes about the struggles of Peloton recruiters.
- Peloton will be at Essencefest.
- Angelo answers if all sugars are created equal.
- The latest artist series features Rush.
All this plus our interview with Erica McLean.
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Peloton Halts Roll-Out Of ‘Invite Friends’ Feature Plus Our Interview With Erica McLean
I guess we should start this episode with a recap of our last couple of weeks. We have not been talking about this but I had some blood work come back that was less than positive. It was mysterious and so they kept going back for more blood tests and more blood work, and it kept escalating. They thought that I might have prostate cancer. I had to get an actual prostate biopsy, which I can’t recommend highly enough. We’ve been waiting for that prostate biopsy results, and it came back clean. We can all now breathe except for people who hate us.
Who cares about them? I’m so relieved we got good news. There were a couple of people who knew, and I have to send a special shout-out to Dr. Jonathan Bradlow, who was a wonderful support system.
Especially before I was going in for my biopsy, I took some medicine that I was like, “I don’t know if I should have taken that.” I’m like, “Do we know a doctor who can tell me if I just signed my death warrant?”
He stopped everything to answer because that’s the guy he is, so thank you. He has been super nice checking in on Tom all week and seeing how he’s doing.
I’ll also say for the men out there, it’s not that big of a deal. Don’t let it scare you away from having things checked out.
If you did have it, then you would have to deal with that. It has a very high survival rate.
If you catch it early, you do the things. Anyway, that was our week. It had a happy ending, and who doesn’t like a happy ending with their prostate?
Who knows how often you’re going to have to have this conversation?
The doctor still hasn’t called to tell me these results. It just showed up online.
If we read them wrong, we’ll have an awful update next episode.
I’m bad at reading medical charts. You will find out when there is no episode.
There will still be an episode because you’ll want to make jokes. Who are we kidding?
It will just be you and John Mills, and Crystal is starting to Tinder. We both ended up on Tinder. What pray tell do you have in store for people?
You brought up John Mills. He is not able to join us. Our schedules, usually we’re good about being able to make it work last minute, but this episode, it’s a no go.
He had a last-minute meeting. We were pressed for time because I’m going to go see Thor tonight. I’m not still talking about my prostate biopsy. I’m feeling a little Thor. He will return next episode.
We have our interview with Erica McLean, brought back by popular demand. Those of you who tune in to the interviews every week might know that Erica McClean is our tarot reader. Lots of you have been like, “Bring her back.”
She gave a frighteningly accurate reading of Peloton back in our last episode of 2021. One of her predictions was lots of Peloton instructors are going to be pumping out babies. We were even like, “Statistically, if someone got married, you’re going to have 1 or 2.” She’s like, “No, not 1 or 2. It’s going to be a bunch. They’re going to start their own band. That’s how many babies you’re going to have.” She is back to do more Peloton tarot card readings.
We get deep into the weeds. You’ll want to tune in to that. We also have some discussion on the Forbes article about Peloton and the stock market. We have some things to talk about with Peloton. They have had an interesting week. It’s not even bad. It’s just all over the place. It’s a little scattered. Usually, this is where I say there’s so much going on with the instructors. There’s nothing going on with the instructors. There’s very little going on with the instructors. We will not be talking about that. Dr. Jenn is here and we talk about re-establishing a routine after you are coming back to fix it. We also have a discussion with Angelo and he talks about, are all sugars created equal?
Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart, and TuneIn. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, maybe leave us a review. Be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. You can also find us on Patreon now. If you’d like to listen to these episodes ad-free and maybe get some extra bonus content, you can do that over at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. For as little as $5 a month, you can get these without any ads. I would say, if we get 5,000 people signed up, I will ride the bike. I picked that number because I assumed it was unobtainable.
He was like, “I don’t see it ever happening,” but it’s there.
I’m like, “For that, I’ll do it.” Also, you can find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. It’s a great way to stay up to date on late breaking news in between episodes. You can sign up for our newsletter at theclipout.com. Finally, you can find us on YouTube, YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can watch these episodes if you are so inclined. There’s all that let’s, let’s dig in. Shall we?
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Forbes Magazine had an article, Peloton Sell Off Continues. Is The Stock Finally a Buy? I was glad that they didn’t say a good buy and spell it “Bye.”
It’s not that for sure. I do still feel like Peloton is going to be around for a while.
It’s too established of a brand. Even if this stock price were to drop even more and somebody wanted to swoop in and buy it, they’re not shit-canning the branding of Peloton at this point. They will incorporate it. It’s not going anywhere.
I agree. First, this article talked about the different factors weighing Peloton down. They talked about how the demand for at-home fitness is on the decline. They also talked about how the revenue fell. People are headed back outdoors into physical gyms. They talked about all of that. Of course, the price has plummeted.
The other thing they talked about though is that the core customer base is super loyal. The churn is incredibly low and the valuation is very compelling. The stock trades at a mere one-time consensus FY 23 revenue is down from over six times pre-pandemic. There is a lot of room for this to go up. They are saying that Pelton’s valuation should be around $25 a share, which is very much ahead of the $9 that we have now.
However, it’s still below what the initial IPO was. I’m not sure if it’s good, but it’s not great news because, on the one hand, it’s positive, but it’s still below IPO. On the other hand, there are other factors. There are other companies out there saying, “We give them $42 a share.” What I take from all of that is it’s anyone’s guess.
Isn’t that always the case?
It is, but I still like following it.
I hope so because we have to talk about it every week.
That’s why we bring in John to talk about that.
Invite Friends, the feature that is replacing video chat started rolling out and then started not rolling out. It unrolled out.
It was so weird because you could invite a class and you could go through all these steps. I don’t think we have all the screenshots here. We just have one, but it went through four different things. First, you pick a class and then you pick the people you want to send it to. You then pick the time that you want to do it. Finally, you pick a reason, which was my favorite part. You got to say, “Just because milestone rides, century rides, birthday celebrations, etc.,” That’s my favorite part.
Not everybody had it, but I thought that was similar to how they roll everything else out in stages. It’s gone now. No word. They never came out and said it. I don’t know if this was one of their test pushes and then they were like, “We’re not done yet. Just kidding.” No clue, but at least we know what it looks like now.
That’s interesting that you can have reasons. I also wonder if that triggers some sort of potential notification for the instructor teaching the live class.
I would hope so.
Especially, I wonder if that will become a metric for who gets a shout-out. If it’s your milestone ride, now we know who has milestone rides, “Here’s a milestone ride for somebody who has 100 people riding with them versus a milestone ride for somebody who has two people riding with them, so I’m going to give the shout out to the hundred person.”
That just took a turn.
Is that disconcerting for you that it’s going to be a popularity contest?
Yeah. I don’t want that to be the case. If I were the instructor and I saw two people, I would want to put it for the two-person because they need more encouragement. Not that they don’t have friends, but they’re probably new and they probably haven’t established their people and their support system yet, so let me support them. That’s what I would choose to do. It will be interesting to know how the instructors will be using that. Honestly, I hadn’t considered that at all. I thought, how cool would it be that I’m doing a birthday ride and invite all of my friends at the exact same moment, rather than just posting and hoping they see it. I like that idea.
This is a microcosm of our relationship. She’s like, “That’s cool,” and then I’m like, “Let me ruin it for you.”
You’re generally the more optimistic of the two of us. I’m generally the negative Nancy. It’s interesting that you do manage to ruin the things that I am positive about.
The Peloton Tread+ might, in the future, start to dwindle a little. Share on XSome of it is because I don’t consider that ruining it. I look at that from a marketing standpoint. If I can say the name of the person that’s going to make 100 people happy or 2 people happy, I’m going to pick 100. You will look at it and go, “That’s sad that poor person has only two people. We should say their name.” I immediately go into marketing mode and get very cutthroat. I’m like, “Here’s what you do have that person with two friends. Let’s go with the person that everyone is going to be like, “Yay, they said my friend’s name,” and then you get sad about it.
I do because I would be the person with two friends. That makes me sad.
You had more than two people on your birthday. Anyway, that was out there and then now it’s not.
We feel confident that it will be back.
It seems like they put a lot of work into it to be like”You know what? Nevermind.” I mean, it’s not a rower.
That rower is coming. John Mills did show up then. The rower is coming too, I think.
I don’t even know if it’s breathing hard. We’ve had reports that Lanebreak is finally starting to work with Apple Watch.
I haven’t been Lanebreaking lately, so I wouldn’t know. I’ve been super focused on my runs and my Tonal. I’m hearing Apple Watch now connects with it. You can keep all of your metrics on the screen, just like what you do with any of the other classes. That is awesome. I love that. I am actually curious to have that work because I feel like my heart rate is up high during Lanebreak classes. I push hard in those classes. I love them.
This is Lanebreak adjacent, I supposed, but Peloton has hired Wes Salmon. The reason that that’s relevant is he worked at Zwift and he was their lead game developer. That seems like a pretty solid poach and an indication that they are committed to doing more things like Lanebreak.
Especially in the middle of a hiring freeze.
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought about that.
Maybe the hiring freeze is over and they just haven’t announced that. That’s possible, but either way, it is absolutely a solid hire and very exciting. For people who are road riders and they enjoy their Zwift, this will be exciting news as well. They will be very hopeful that Peloton will put Zwifty things in there for them. I’m very excited about that.
This seems like a good get to me. It sends a signal that even though Lanebreak doesn’t necessarily generate the same amount of chatter as an instructor does, maybe it’s more popular than we realize if they feel the need to go and hire somebody to do more things like that.
#InnovationIsBackAtPeloton. That is a long hashtag.
There won’t be room for the rest of the tweet. Also, you said that people were encountering an unexpected paywall.
This is interesting. If you try to get to your scheduled class or let’s say you marked a class, you scheduled it, you go to your app or you go to your bike, and you try to get there, you can’t. It brought you to a paywall to pay $12.99 as if you were not a member.
Guess what? I snuck down last night. I was going to surprise you. I was going to ride the bike for the very first time and I hit this paywall. I don’t even understand what was going on, and then I just stopped. They missed their window.
This person goes on to say that it did not happen for on-demand classes. It was specific to scheduling classes and it messed up some people when they were trying to get to a pre-show on time. There were some other people that also said it was only iPhone-related. The people that fixed it had to completely remove Peloton from their phone and reload it. I was sent screenshots of people talking about another group. It was pretty widespread. When Peloton was asked, they said, “We don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything is working fine.”
“Our app downloads are through the roof.”
It was so weird.
Can you now book classes in the studio?
You can’t though.
You now can’t book classes in the studio?
This got posted. It was on the Peloton studio page. You could book it if you had credits in your account and you got a confirmation saying you were all set. Let me be clear that the class did not exist on the schedule. However, it was just a test. Now it’s password-protected, which hints Peloton should have started with that in the first place. Have you not met me? We’re going to find it.
Now it is password protected. You can’t get in there. The theory originally was it was a test class. The second theory was it’s an on-demand class. It’s being filmed to drop later. I think that was more hopeful. This clearly is coming. We’re almost there where people are going to be able to go and book a class and be sold out instantaneously. At the moment, we’re not quite there yet. We’re so close. They’ve been testing things lately.
It feels like it’s a week of finding things that maybe we weren’t supposed to see, but there were some test classes for the Guide.
Here’s the weird thing. They’re still there. I don’t get it. We have two new instructors, Austin Cagley and Emily, I can’t remember her last name. You can watch them do their test class.
Do you think they’re instructors or do you think they didn’t bother to have an instructor do the tests and then these ended up out there?
Austin specifically listed on his LinkedIn that he already works at Peloton as the Global Director of Fitness. I find that very interesting because that indicates here he works there. It says Los Angeles and New York City. That is very interesting because it doesn’t list one or the other. A long time ago, people have been talking about, could there be a California studio? This raises so many questions. They had six different classes. Most of which was Emily, and then there was one that was Austin. It might have been flipped the other way, but there you have it. The classes are still there and you can still take them.
It does seem interesting that if they’re not going to be instructors that they would leave these classes up there.
It does. We’ve seen test classes before over the years, but they usually disappear pretty quickly. I don’t know what to think of that.
Have the test classes over the years always been with instructors or have they been with non-instructors?
They have always been with people who will be instructors. That’s not true. Sometimes they’ll do test classes and there’s no instructor at all. It’s just a placeholder. It’s the functionality they’re testing. There have been times that it has not had the person that became an instructor, but when they have shown an instructor in the past, that has been an instructor long-term. I do find it very interesting.
Business Insider had an article about how recruiters from Peloton are suddenly not so in demand.
This was talking about several different companies. We only care about the part that is specific to Peloton. They talked about one specific recruiter that came from Peloton. The whole point of this article was, “We used to be heroes.” The person they talk to from Peloton, the day they started, there were 30 to 40 other recruiters starting that same day. Recruiters, not people. That was in 2021. They were getting so many calls from external recruiters like a ridiculous amount, then one day it all dried up.
Somebody pulled the switch.
They said that in early 2022, the startups suddenly stopped hiring and inbound requests from external recruiters were also slowing. They started looking at that particular recruiter. They started taking strategic calls about potential new jobs. When Peloton laid them off in February, they were able to land a recruiting role in another high-profile tech company.
I guess, especially as you said with the hiring freeze, you don’t need a lot of recruiters around.
That totally makes sense. People think that there’s going to be a huge rebound in 12 to 18 months and a huge demand for recruiters again. Those who stick it out are going to be the ones who are going to benefit instead of people who are leaving the industry.
Peloton announced that they will be at Essence Fest 2022 in New Orleans.
They didn’t give people very much of a chance to be part of it. It was only a few days’ heads up. It’s in collaboration with United Health Care. There are going to be Peloton instructors. It’s a festival so it’s going to bring the energy and there’s going to be people from the community. It starts on July 1st, which is a Friday.
Race over to Essence Fest if you live in New Orleans.
There are some fun events. The Black Girl Magic Meetup and Happy Hour are happening. There was Centering Our Voices, Social Determinants Impacting Maternal Health. That was on Sunday, July 3rd. There were a couple more that were in the email, but I don’t think I took screenshots of them. That’s pretty cool. I think that’s neat.
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Joining us once again 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, or her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She has written four bestselling books including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn.
It’s good to have you back and we need your help again. From The Clip Out group, we have Brandy Cooley-Debolt. She says she needs help getting back into a routine and putting her physical health first. What thoughts do you have about that?
I have many. It sounds like getting back to making herself a priority is what the issue is.
That is definitely what I hear as well.
The first thing that I think is it sounds like at some point she was her priority and I wonder what changed. Did she have a child? Did she get a new job? Did she move from working from home to the office? Is there some transition that is making this more difficult? In which case, it’s important to look at what was working before that we can borrow from and use now, and what is not working right now that needs to change.
One of the key things that I find with a lot of people, especially working moms and women in general, and I hate to over-generalize and stereotype, but we tend to be a little more oriented towards helping those around us, our kids, our partners, others, our parents, all that sort of stuff. Sometimes we can put ourselves last on the list. I know I’ve done that plenty of times myself. I would want to have her look at where can she cut back on some caregiving of other people that may be crossing the line from appropriate and good to maybe overkill. Also, look at where can she schedule time for herself, whether it’s her Peloton lockout or doing something that she likes that is relaxing and helpful to her.
I think it’s important. I always try to encourage all of my clients and everyone hates this when I first say it. I’ve never had one person answer it quickly and easily. I’m going to challenge your audience to come up with a list of ten things minimum to start with. I like a hundred things ultimately, but ten things that you can do that don’t involve drinking, drugs, acting out, gambling, sex, and anything that can’t involve another person. You don’t have to rely on another person to do it. It’s healthy and it’s something that helps you soothe yourself, calm yourself, and it is a good healthy outlet for you.
If there’s anything in my twenties taught me, it’s that you don’t have to rely on another person for sex.
I always encourage that. Outside of that, it’s important to have some things that you can do that help you to recenter and nourish yourself. Right now, I’m going to admit this, it’s completely nerdy. Maybe there will be someone out there that would be like, “Me too,” and it will feel less nerdy. I’m into crafting. I’m all about crafting. I’ve been making cards for my daughters. I’m nerding out.
You don’t have to apologize for being nerdy. I’m literally wearing a Monkees hoodie right now.
I love the Monkees so I’m doubled-nerdy.
Your parents wrote songs for them.
They wrote quite a few songs for them. I once stalked Davy Jones in a recording studio but that’s a whole other story. It’s important to have these outlets that help nourish and re-energize you, and also help you let go of your day. I’m a big believer in flow. What I mean by flow, I’m not talking about menstruation for a woman.
There is this guy whose name I never pronounced correctly. It’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He is Czechoslovakian. He is the psychologist who came up with the idea of flow. Flow is that mental state that when you’re doing something where time starts to pass quickly, you don’t even notice it. It becomes effortless. You’re totally caught up in the moment. To me, that’s one of the healthiest addictions that you can have.
Getting into things that get you into that flow state is a great escape from whatever is stressing you out and whatever that lack of self-care is. Of course, I always love a good Peloton meditation. I happen to love Ross Rayburn because he’s like, “Your mind may be wandering now.” I’m like, “Yes, it is.” “You may have a lot of things on your mind right now and you’re trying to get focused on what are they.” I’m like, “Yes, how did you know?” I’m a big fan of meditation.
Everybody should have a list of 100 things that they can do. I do have on my No More Diets app 100 or maybe under 115 things on the self-care list. People can take off from the list. They can add things on. They can move it to prioritize things at the top that they like the best, and ones that they don’t like at the bottom. If you can’t think of anything, check out my app and check out this list because I spent a lot of time working on it. It is some very healthy outlets. If you don’t already do them, try some of them.
That’s good for the flow thing too because now I’m going to use that. When everybody is like, “That last episode was almost two hours long,” flow.
You should focus more on the moment.
I will then tell them to kiss my grits because what’s more flow than that.
Good point, Alice.
I’m loving all the references. There’s a lot
That’s the only sitcom ever based on a Martin Scorsese movie. Make sense of that.
That I didn’t know.
It was based on the movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which was directed by Martin Scorsese. You would never think that you could adapt one of his movies for a sitcom. It has never been done. Anyway, now that I’ve sidetracked everything, thank you so much for all of that. Until next time, where can people find you?
On social media at @DrJennMann and I post my Peloton workouts, especially the ones I do with your wife. I have to say now that Crystal and I do our long run together virtually, when she’s not there, I struggle.
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We have some new Power Zone instructors for people to choose from.
We have one from the UK, Sam Yo. We have Erik Jager from Germany. That’s pretty cool. It says the seven faces of Power Zone training. I assumed it was seven instructors, but now I’m thinking that refers to seven zones, not instructors. I started second-guessing myself. There are more instructors. Enjoy them. If you do the Power Zone thing, this is a great addition. People are so excited, especially since I’m hearing so much feedback about Sam Yo, not as much on Erik, but I think that’s because we don’t hear from a lot of German people on the show.
I think that the community is still excited. I don’t mean to leave him out, but Sam Yo gets a lot of love from all the different people who take his classes. I am sure both of them will make excellent additions. I did hear a couple of complaints that there were no women added. Also for the record, people were saying that Kendall talks a lot about Power Zone training, and people seem to think we will have more women being added soon.
We will see. Jess King talked to PopSugar about her pregnancy journey.
As we hear so many times, it was not as easy as she might have anticipated it was going to be. She says she had no idea what she was up against. I know she has in the past talked about how the body image has been very difficult for her as she has struggled to come to terms with that now that she’s pregnant.
I get that. That makes sense. Especially when your whole brand and business is based around fitness, whether it’s fair or not, you expect yourself to look a certain way. You’re used to looking a certain way. I’m sure that is jarring.
I’m sure it is. I can’t imagine. I would never be in that spot, to begin with, having been in a place where I’m like, “That’s my whole brand.” I never looked that good, to begin with, is what I’m saying. That’s not a hit on her. That’s on me.
While we were discussing things found on PopSugar, Robin Arzon, talked to them about her eyewear collab.
I did not realize that it was indicative of her Latin heritage and that it included a nod to them, which is what the article is talking about. It’s just my lack of knowledge, not anything negative there. I didn’t know that. I thought that was interesting, but I’ve seen a lot of buzz about this.
Tunde was on NBC Boston, their morning show, talking about her new book.
She was featured and they said that she found her voice in the book Speak, and there was a whole video and interview. I don’t feel like there’s a ton of information that people don’t already know, but we love to watch instructors up there. I definitely think it’s still worth watching.
Boston is a major market, so good for her for getting the info out there. Ally Love was featured in The Times, which is the UK Times, not the New York Times, just to be clear, in their style section.
This was behind the paywall so a lot of people couldn’t see it. One of our listeners, Alexandra was kind enough to do screenshots. Thanks, Alexandra. In general, this was a very positive thing for Ally. I did see some negative remarks about it. However, there are negative remarks about everyone and everything these days. I’m not trying to lean into that, I saw a lot of people comment on the fact that she’s a 30-something instructor and she does not reveal her age. People were like, “Really?”
At some point, we’ll figure it out because you’ll start saying a 40-something instructor. I’m a Mass Communications major and even I can do that math.
Maybe she’ll be 30-something forever. You never know.
I wonder if it’s like Jack Benny. Jack Benny always said he was 39. Whenever he was asked how old he was, he said he was 39, so much so that when he died, the New York Times obituary, I’m going to have the dates wrong, said something to the effect of, “Jack Benny. Born in 1899 died in 1974 at the age of 39.” That’s not a great story.
It is. I love that.
Do you want to know another great Jack Benny story? After he died, he gave a large sum of money to his favorite florist. He said, “Send roses to my wife every week until she is no longer able to receive the roses.” There you go. Jack Benny, ladies and gentlemen. It’s old-time radio hour here on The Clip Out.
That’s so sweet. I’m a little in love with Jack Benny now.
He’s pretty awesome. He probably has the best comedic timing in the history of the medium.
I have a thing for funny guys.
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Joining us once again from MetPro here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions. It’s Angelo.
It’s great to be back.
We’re so glad you’re here. I have a fun question for you. It is from Nathan Worman. He says, if I get sugar from fruit versus from a soda, does that matter? Is sugar just sugar regardless of where it comes from?
Nathan, it depends. I want to say yes, it matters and get sugar from fruit, not from soda, and then the conversation ends there because that will honestly serve you best. If I said that and nothing else, that would serve you best. The truth is it’s a little more complicated than that. It’s like the studies that say, “A glass of wine at night has not been shown to cause weight gain,” and then in small parentheses at the bottom, “compared to drinking the equivalent in grape juice.” The thing is drinking grape juice right before you go to bed at night is terrible if you’re trying to lose weight. Likewise, it’s deceiving.
Calorie for calorie, does it has a massive impact? No, but the way your body absorbs and utilizes fructose from fruit versus high-fructose corn syrup and the type of sugars that you’re going to get in sugary treats, colas, etc. is two totally different things. The addictive nature of it and the impact on blood sugar, energy, and your overall stable energy profile throughout the day is going to be worsened by the soda pop and largely improved by the fruit, especially if it’s in combination with other macronutrients that are protein and fats. No, it’s not exactly the same thing. It is possible to eat the same amount of sugar in apples as it is to drink the same amount of calories or sugar in soda pop, but the impact on your body is going to be two different things.
What I’m hearing is drink orange soda. That’s a fruit. It’s orange soda.
It’s a practical takeaway. Here’s exactly what I tell my clients. If you were my client, Nathan, and you are working with me and you say, “I like soda. Can I have soda pop?” My answer is, “You cannot live off soda pop. I don’t want you keeping it in your fridge.” If you go out to the movies a couple of times a month and you splurge and have soda pop, whether it’s regular or diet, that’s acceptable. If it’s in your house on a day-to-day basis, you’re going to drink it daily. Especially if your goal is body composition, it’s going to undermine your efforts. Keep it to occasional and not daily and you’re going to do good, Nathan.
Go ahead, Tom.
What?
He got this big grin on his face.
That’s because you don’t want to see our garage, Angelo. It’s embarrassing.
I also say that any steps towards that healthy and clean living lifestyle are good steps. You guys, I can trace the footprints a mile long. That’s great progress.
When you see one set of footprints, that’s when Angelo was carrying us.
It’s a good thing. You’ve lost weight so he can lift you now.
It was like, “Did Angelo kills somebody? Why he’s dragging a body?”
The Q and A for you guys definitely get the least predictable takeaway. Thank you, Tom.
That’s what I do. When we go to the grocery store, every time we check out, somebody’s like, “Are you having a party?”
“No, This is just a week in our house. It’s diet.”
Any small change you make, it all adds up, but that’s another episode.
I always tell people when it comes to my soda intake, “You don’t go to an AA meeting and tell them to stop smoking. You let them have that, ‘You’ve given up enough. We’re not going to force more upon you.’”
One thing at a time.
Thank you very much. If people would like fitness and nutrition information tailor-made for their personal goals, where can they find you?
Come visit us at MetPro.co/tco for The Clip Out.
Thank you.
—
We have an artist collaboration not only of someone that I’ve heard of but someone that I actually listened to.
Do you still listen to them to this day? I have never heard you purposely listen to them.
I don’t sit down and say play Rush songs, but I have a playlist. In my rock playlist that has got 1,200 songs on it, there is ample Rush.
It has been a while since we have had so many people excited about an artist series.
Rush has a very rabid fan base. They’re no longer together because their drummer passed away. When they were in an arena act, they would play at 15,000 to 20,000 people a night.
Explain this to me. Don’t they have some of the longest songs ever made? How are we doing classes that are 20 and 30 minutes? Can you explain that to me?
I guess DJ John Michael is going to do remixes.
A lot of people wouldn’t know what to do without their Peloton Tread life. Share on XThey are going to be 30 seconds long.
If you do Temples of Syrinx, it’s a twelve-minute song or something. Not all of the songs are quite that bad.
They’re known for their long songs.
They have Freewill, Spirit Of Radio, and Tom Sawyer. Those are probably more in the 4 to 5-minute range. A lot of their bigger songs are very long. They are a prog rock band. That’s what they do.
How is that different from rock?
Prog rock is more like the thinking man’s rock. That’s going to be like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. If you want to get deep, you can talk about Nektar and that stuff. That’s prog rock. Styx and Kansas started this prog rock, then Journey did as well because Journey was Santana’s backup band.
They then ended up on a boat.
With the Journey, the label was like, “You need to have hits so this noodle on your guitar thing needs to stop now.” They went out and got Steve Perry and then they had it. That’s why some of those early Journey songs are so long. They were still shaking off that prog rock thing. They were like, “We want hooks and choruses.” They still have 7 and 8 minutes songs where they take two shorter songs and bump them together. Rush is prog rock.
I got to say I’m not excited. I don’t care. It does nothing for me, but here’s the deal. I’m okay with that because they don’t all need to be for me. They shouldn’t all be for me. I especially want to call out all of you that complained about Barbra Streisand, come on. Barbra Streisand is as much a legend. You may not appreciate her but she’s as much a legend as Rush.
She’s a legend, just in a different genre.
I don’t appreciate Rush, but I know a lot of people do. I also thought it was cool that this came out on Canada Day because all the people from Canada were excited about it like, “We finally got one.”
That’s one of their big ones and Barenaked Ladies.
It’s got to be hard on Peloton’s part because they have to make these deals to coincide with whatever the artist wants. I’m sure it’s very difficult to figure that stuff out timing-wise, whenever they’re not releasing something. I don’t know. Maybe Rush is releasing something.
Unless they have some re-issues, they are done. They’ve seemed to be pretty adamant so far about they’re not going out without their drummer. I believe he was the primary songwriting force of the band. They’ve been pretty adamant thus far that they’re not going to do it. Also, he’s notoriously one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock and incredibly technically proficient. Also, it’s like good luck finding a guy to replace him. You can, but it’s going to have to be somebody next level like the guy from Dream Theater or something like that.
I can have appreciation even if I don’t enjoy their music. I don’t hate them. I just don’t appreciate it in the same way that other people do. I think that’s cool.
We have to walk past an autographed Rush poster to get into our studio every week. It’s not just signed Monkees stuff in this house.
It’s cool. I love that people are excited. That’s neat.
—
Joining us is Erica McLean. Erica, how is it going?
I’m doing good.
We should probably remind people. In our last episode of 2021, we had Erica on to do a tarot card reading for Peloton. She got some stuff right like there would be babies aplenty.
There have been babies aplenty. Also, marriages were in your mind, and that has occurred. We’ve had people say, “That tarot card lady you had on, you need to bring her back because we want to know what’s going to happen next.”
Bring me back anytime.
Before we get to Peloton stuff, the thing that we need to know what you didn’t predict was Crystal ruining our Hawaii trip by getting COVID.
She didn’t do a tarot reading for me. She did a tarot reading for Peloton.
We have a replacement trip planned for August 2022.
She’s going to pull a card. Do we get to go on the next trip? Am I going to ruin this one?
Let’s see what they have to say.
It’s going to happen. The time that the trip does arrive, you’re going to be like, “I was expecting for something crazy to happen or for someone not to feel good, but here we are. Everyone is doing great, and we’re going on our trip.” I don’t think anything out of the ordinary will happen. I got the four of cups where generally that card could mean boredom or not anything crazy, but that’s my intuition with that. There is no major craziness that is happening. You have a good trip and go, and nothing out of the ordinary crazy will happen.
This is a trip I want to be boring. That’s perfect.
I don’t know if it’s a trip or relaxation, but I feel like that’s what they’re going to get. It’s not going to be exciting like crazy nights partying. It’s going to have a fun time.
I will cancel the insurance plan I bought, and if things go wrong, we’ll bill you. We should get to the stuff that people want to know about, not just us using our powers for selfish reasons.
We’re in the second half of 2022. Can we look at 2022, the rest of it, and the first half of 2023? Can you tell us all the things?
I don’t know if you have any questions in particular, but I’ve definitely been getting some downloads about what might happen. I do have some feeling that in the fall, maybe early winter, there might be another Peloton instructor leaving. I feel like it could be a male instructor. I almost see a three around it. I don’t know if there are three people. I don’t even want to say not getting along because I like to think of them all getting along generally. I don’t know if it’s a problem with management or a problem of not maybe treated fairly or money, but I do see that someone may be walking away in October, November or December. That was bold. It’s something that has literally been on my mind for the past few days. I’m going to go out and say it. I’m not mentioning names here.
Are we talking bike? Are we talking tread? Are you talking about yoga? I don’t know if you have any sense of that. I’m trying to narrow it down a little.
I’m sensing bike. I do have a person in mind, but I don’t want to give out names. I don’t want to put anybody on the spot, but I am sensing bike. It could be a tread, a yoga or a strength. Everyone stays, but it has been something that definitely has been downloading in my mind. Another thing that I was getting the message of is expansion with studios. I don’t know if there could possibly be an opening of a new studio or an expansion. It’s more like London when I think of that because it has only been a few years since they opened their doors. They might get a little bit bigger. I feel like maybe they may incorporate some yoga and other stuff in there, and maybe call for some more instructors. I definitely do see that as well.
We all know that the stock price has been struggling. Do you think there will be any sort of a rebound for them in a business sense?
I did get some hints on business. I said this last time as well, but I do see a female coming in like stepping up almost. I almost want to see like fixing up everything. Maybe getting everything a little bit better to where it needs to be so that the business ends could be better. You understand what I’m saying there.
You did say that last time. I remember that. Barry brought in the new CFO. I can’t recall her name. I’m trying to think of it, but he has worked with her before and spoken very highly of her. Maybe that’s where it’s coming from. Maybe that’s what we’ll see.
What we’re going to see now with the studio opening is people are going to get more involved. There’s going to be a little bit of uplift on everything. The stocks will get a little bit better. I do see feminine energy getting it off a little bit more and bringing it back up to speed.
What about the actual stock price itself now? Is that something that you ever have gotten a sense of? Can you tell up or down from here? I know you said fixing things up.
Let me get a card for this one. I honestly think it’s going to be an in and out. It might come up a little bit and go down a little bit. I don’t know if it’s going to get better or stay steady. At times, you may see an increase. At other times, you may see a decrease. Maybe around December is when it shifts a little bit. It’s like, “Are we up? Are we down? Where are we?”
I have an interesting question. I heard that potentially there could be another instructor relationship budding. We might have two instructors.
I have a feeling about that too. I haven’t heard anything. That’s the first time that I’m hearing that from somebody else in Peloton because for a while, I’ve been suspecting. I thought of it and was like, “I want to know.” Once again, I won’t be mentioning names. I don’t want the instructors to be like, “Shut your mouth,” but I do suspect another relationship. Let’s put it this way. They attended Selena’s wedding.
That’s narrowing it down.
Do you think that they attended Christine’s wedding as well?
I’m not going to say yes because I don’t want to give it away, but it could be a yes, it could be a no. There are two people getting a little friendly. It could be a good thing. Some people don’t like to have that workplace love, but this relationship may surprise people.
If we’re talking about the same one that I’m thinking of, it absolutely would surprise people.
Maybe we’re thinking of the same people. Don’t be surprised if you hear another relationship sprouting up.
Are we done with the babies for a little bit?
No, we’re not done with the babies. I’m sorry to tell you this because this is the question that I asked the tarot the other day. That has been on my mind. I even told one of the groups I ride with, and they asked me. They’re like, “Everything is pregnant, pregnant. What’s going on?” I’m like, “Get ready. There are a couple more that might show up in 2023.”
That means somebody could be getting pregnant now.
The conceptions could be happening now. It could be at the end of 2023 too. I would not be surprised if there are one or maybe two other pregnancy announcements.
We might need to change the name of this show from The Clip Out to The Pull-Out.
That’s probably a good idea.
Tom, what else do we want to know?
Let’s get deep into this and see. We all know that Rebecca and Andy, who I love, are together. This is an amazing match, and this match may be forever. I don’t like to call people out, but RK is a former Massachusetts girl. I’m a Massachusetts girl. I love her. They’re great together. I think it could be.
Do you think of potential marriage in their future?
There’s marriage material there, yes.
What about whenever it comes to the rower? There have been some murmurs because they pulled down some information off the internet. This is just my instinct, but I feel like everything is all good. It just potentially changes the marketing plan. I want to know what the tarot cards say.
The rower is a long time coming, and I got the eight of pentacles. It’s a good card. It’s a hard-working card. I think that they’re trying to perfect this rower, especially when there were some issues with the tread and stuff like that. It’s not that they are similar. They want to come out with this product and it be amazing, and for everybody to want it. It’s taking a little bit longer but on their end, it’s smart.
There were some things that they may have missed while putting together the rower and all of that stuff. They’re going over. Maybe there was some stuff that they were like, “This isn’t right. We need to go back and dot all our I’s and cross all our T’s to make sure it’s where it wants to be for us to get it out there.” I do see it coming. We’ll hear more stuff over the summer about it. They’re just fixing it and have to work with it.
What about the Tread+?
I love the Tread+. I have the Tread+. Here’s my thing with the Tread+. This has been stressing me out all week. There has been a couple of times where it hasn’t worked properly for me. I had to get a new monitor. The volume is not working. I’m like, “I’ll go on my 1,500 run.” I feel like there are a lot of problems with it that people are experiencing. In a way, Peloton likes that because I feel like they almost want to have not the Tread+ but the other Tread in its vicinity if you understand what I’m saying.
What they’re trying to do is once all these Tread+ are out of warranty, they want to like, “This is broken or whatever. You have to buy a new monitor. You have to pay for this.” People are going to be like, “Screw that. I’m just going to trade it in and get the other Tread.” The Peloton Tread+ might start to dwindle a little in the future. That scares me too because I’ve had anxiety about it. I don’t know what I would do without my Peloton Tread+.
Who knows? Maybe they could ramp it up a little bit and whatever, but I feel like a lot of people are going right to the opposing Tread, which Peloton Tread+ rules. Why wouldn’t we want the Tread+, but if there is a chance that they do dismiss that, everybody with Tread+ will be able to get the other Tread somehow, whether it’s at a discounted price or a trade-in. Looking forward, in the end, it will be more optimistic.
What about the rower? Let’s say it comes out. What are the cards telling you? Are we getting any new instructors? Are they going to be instructors we already have?
Peloton is already on top of that. I feel like they’re trying to find people and training people. I see Adrian Williams on the rower. I don’t know why I see him on that rower. There could be a few potential new instructors. They’ve already come together and found them. They’re being trained now. That’s also another reason why the rower has drawn back a little bit. It’s because this training is taking a little bit more time than normal. When this comes out, they want it to be right.
Peloton is training a few potential new instructors. If the training is taking a little bit more time than normal, it’s just that when the Peloton Rower comes out, they want it to be right. Share on XThey want the instructors to be trained properly, to be able to talk through the whole workout and feel comfortable. I feel like that’s going to be something that maybe will go live. Maybe they’ll do on-demand or not in studio rides. It’s only going to be a short time before they are bringing people in to do the rower at the studio. They want to make sure everything is up to par.
What is the card you’re holding that told you that?
This one is the two of cups. This is when people come together. They work out deals or opportunities. It’s like employees or friendships that come together. This also is a big Leo card. I don’t know if you guys know any Leo’s. Leo is the lion. Their birthday is in August. This could potentially be telling us that maybe August is when the tread rower is going to come out. Maybe these people in their chart are Leos or have a Leo somewhere in their astrology chart. That’s something that I also dive into, but this is a very good card. It’s a card of friendships and opportunities. I see these people coming in. Once they do come in and start instructing, it’s like, “I could never imagine this person not being here.” They’re going to fit in so well with the other instructors.
Will we see any more breakout moments for Peloton instructors like Cody had?
I’ve been getting Cody vibes a lot. Something is coming up with Cody. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if we’re going to hear of something else that he’s going to take part in or something like that, but don’t be surprised if you hear some news from Cody. He’s got something else up his sleeve. As far as other instructors go, I still see somebody walking away from Peloton. I still see someone leaving Peloton for another opportunity, and it’s not Chase. We know he already left.
It’s something else that’s going to take them on the path that they need to be on. As for anybody else, it’s male energy. If it’s somebody else that goes to whether it’s Dancing with the Stars or whatever it is, I see it almost as a male energy. It could even be almost like a Dennis Morton type of guy like daddy energy. Someone like they called Daddy Morton. It could happen. If it does, it’s a male figure.
When you go through that, do you get any sense of anything going on with all these lawsuits? Any updates on those? Got anything in the cards?
Also, about going places, Robin Arzon is going to expand whatever she’s doing. We all know she wrote a book and has dabbled into a few other things. I still think that Robin is going to eventually have another baby. I’m going to say it. Including with Peloton, she’s going to set off with Peloton and other things. We’re going to see Selena get big into strength in Peloton, and maybe new balance and stuff like that with Peloton. We’re going to see that. With the lawsuits, I see everything being happy. This is the sun. This is my second favorite card. This is the best card you can get. It might be quiet for a little bit. We might not hear a lot about that. We may in the winter or 2023, but in the near future, things might calm down a little bit with that.
Do you think Peloton will be making any acquisitions? I know that seems crazy because their stock price is so low, or is it being acquired?
As nervous as probably Peloton is about all this stuff, they are sitting back and looking at all the other stuff that they have done and are proud of that. Whether there are things that do take place, I’m not sure. All I know is that they’re more so looking towards all the other great things that have happened. They do have a lot of other great things in store. I don’t think they’re as worried because of that, if that makes sense.
What about going to the studio? We know that they’re reopening. Are people going to continue to have good experiences there? Is it going to be difficult to get in? Is it going to be easy to get in? Anything like that?
It’s going to be a competition. This little man is the page of swords. He likes to compete. I feel like there are a lot of people out there emailing Peloton, putting in their two cents and being like, “I should be in the studio because of A, B and C.” A lot of people have a lot to say. Peloton is going to keep things under control. They know who they want in the studio. They’re going to keep the Friday, Saturday and Sunday that they’re going to do it. Even in September, they’re going to keep it like that. They already know who they want. Let’s put it that way. They know who they want in their studio. I don’t see them opening it. Even though they say they’re going to open it up, they’re going to be very selective with it, if that makes sense.
That does not surprise me if that were to be the case.
There are a lot of people that have a lot to say. There’s almost like a hounding of Peloton. There are people calling and stalking instructors. It’s to the point where it’s like, “You’re going to get there. Chill out.” There’s no patience. Patience is a virtue. We all need it.
Are there any things that you’ve picked up on that we haven’t asked about that you want to put out there?
I know the last time I talked about Becs Gentry, I said she was going to get engaged. I think I have said this. I was talking about Becs Gentry. She and Austin are soulmates. They are soulmates. I love them together. They might get engaged if they were going to the Canary Islands, which obviously didn’t happen. Those two, whether they get engaged or not, are stuck together forever. They’re perfect soulmates. I even tag Becs and Austin with that. It’s like, “You guys are amazing. You’re soulmates.” I see them together.
If there is a marriage, it might almost be like a quiet marriage. I don’t think they’re those people who want to show off and have this big crazy wedding. They are simple people and they love the love that they have for each other. I talked earlier about they are spreading around. We have Peloton London and Germany too. There could be other pop-ups of other Peloton studios throughout the world.
There’s Australia too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be an official opening of another studio in Australia.
Even down the road, there could even be another opening. Maybe even in Canada or somewhere else in the US, it’s like an open opportunity. As the year goes by, there are going to be more opportunities. The way it’s going to be run, the people they have in charge want new and more. They want to surprise their members. It’s going to keep moving forward and continue to surprise us.
There may be pop-ups of other Peloton studios around the world. Share on XThank you so much for coming in and doing another reading for us. You got so much right last time, and people were clamoring for it. We thought we’d bring you back in.
We appreciate you doing this. Thank you.
Thank you. Anytime.
Before we let you go, remind everybody of your leaderboard name, where they can find you, and all that stuff.
If they want to do some tarot readings with you, where do they go?
If you want to find me, I’m @FitMomErica on Instagram and on my leaderboard on One Peloton. I’m also at @EricaMcLean on Facebook. DM me. I do readings all the time. People have reached out from my previous time with you guys, and I will gladly read you.
Thank you so much for doing that for people. It’s fun. A lot of people enjoy it and have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of hearing your last tarot reading. I know they’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this one. It has been great. Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you. I love the community. Peloton is amazing.
—
I guess that brings this episode to a close. 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 or 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. Don’t forget our Patreon and our YouTube channel. We’re in all the places. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep peddling and running.
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- Peloton Sell Off Continues. Is The Stock Finally a Buy? – Forbes Magazine article
- Business Insider – Recruiters from Peloton, Klarna, and Carvana describe going from ‘hero’ to ‘expendable’ in less than a year
- Dr. Jenn Mann
- The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy
- No More Diets
- @DrJennMann – Instagram
- PopSugar – Peloton’s Jess King on Her Pregnancy Journey: “I Had No Idea What I Was Up Against”
- PopSugar – Robin Arzón’s Eyewear Collab Features This Subtle Nod to Her Latinx Heritage
- Speak
- The Times – MEET ALLY LOVE, THE PELOTON INSTRUCTOR WHO GETS STOPPED BY FANS IN THE STREET
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About Erica McLean
Girl mom. Wifey. 90s ‘er. Tarot/Medium Prepared not Scared Runner,RN, Exercise Physiologist #peloton obsessed #fitmomerica.
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