• Daniel McKenna sues Peloton
• Amazon Prime sale includes Peloton.
• Peloton cuts another 500 jobs.
• WSJ reports on John Foley’s repeated margin calls.
• Is Peloton still working on a strength product?
• You can now add customizable widgets to your iOS home screen.
• Jayvee Nava leaves Peloton.
• Self Magazine writes about fat-shaming fitness instructors.
• Jenn: Maintaining your motivation when seasons are changing.
• Chelsea Jackson Roberts had her baby.
• Cody Rigsby dropped by Dancing With The Stars.
• Cody talked to People magazine about his mental health journey.
• Robin Aron was on the cover of Women’s Health.
• Robin visited the White House.
• Ben Alldis and Leanne Hainsby have a house update.
• Kendall Toole sits down with PopSugar.
• Mariana Fernandez completed a triathlon.
• Susie Chan completed a marathon and then taught a class.
• Tobias Heinze will complete in the Manaslu Trail Stage Race.
• Angelo: Dealing with a spouse who doesn’t like veggies and fish (who isn’t Tom).
• Denis Morton on Our Future Selves.
• Allyson Felix is also on Our Future Selves.
• New Artist Series with Daddy Yankee and FKA Twigs.
• There’s a special class coming up with Baby Face.
• There was a new apparel drop.
• Birthdays: Steven Little (10/18)

 

All this plus our interview with Eliotte Woodford!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Daniel McKenna Sues Peloton Over “Wrongful Termination” Plus Our Interview With Eliotte Woodford!

We started to record the episode and then the phone started ringing. We had breaking news, so we are starting over.

Dr. Jenn is back and we are going to dig right into it. Don’t worry, Daniel will be at the top of the show. We’re going to cut to that. We have a lot of stuff to cover though like the Amazon Prime sales. We got a visit from Angelo and we talked about somebody that sounds exactly like Tom because they won’t eat vegetables, but it wasn’t Tom. Dr. Jenn dropped by. We talked about maintaining your exercise motivation when the seasons change. We got all kinds of news about the instructors and instructors who are no more.

With the company. You make it sound like they’re not alive.

I’m so sorry that we made it sound like that.

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 a podcast. You can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. That’s always helpful. We have a new review. This is from Minkis316, “Great infotainment. I’m really enjoying the show. Tom’s brand of humor hits just right. Crystal is delightful and the special guests are great. Sunday, I hopped on the bike without a specific plan and saw that one friend was on. It was Crystal with three minutes until a Jenn Sherman 45-minute ’80s ride. Perfect. I joined and PR-ed the ride with my first strive score over 100.” I don’t know what that means but it sounds good, so congrats.

They work their butt off. That’s what that means.

“Thanks for putting out a quality show and being accessible and engaging for your listeners.” Leaderboard name, RockyMountainMike. Thank you very much.

I assume they live in the Rocky Mountains.

One would assume but you never know. Also, you can find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where for $5 a month, you get ad-free episodes and for a little bit more you can get bonus content. Finally, our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can watch these shows in HD glory. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We Shall.

—

We had breaking news that Daniel McKenna is suing Peloton for having been fired wrongfully, in his opinion.

We say wrongfully because, I’m going to be transparent, we don’t agree with some of his politics. You get to think whatever you think, but so do I. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I believe that including vaccines as part of this conversation was not wise and was not helpful. There are a lot of people that are posting that the lawsuit is about bullying and it’s about discrimination. There was another word that they used, something about his pectoral muscle surgery. It was like taking time off discrimination. That may be true. I would then say why did he include the vaccine information?

It was hard not to read that as anything other than a dog whistle because if you read the rest of the lawsuit, when it comes time for the causes for action, they don’t even circle back to it. It seems designed to rile up a certain segment of people, which it will do. To the lawsuit itself, we should start by saying we’re reading one side’s filing.

It’s important to remember that whenever a lawsuit gets filed, for those of you who don’t know, what happens is if you’re the person instating the lawsuit, you can put in there anything that you are complaining about. It’s literally called a complaint and you are the plaintiff and you get to say whatever you want in that. Right now, that’s the only piece of the puzzle that we have. We do not have Peloton’s response. That’s the next step. You send over the document, and then the other side gets to respond.

At this point, his complaints are they were mean to him about vaccines. A lot of it seems to be based on his PTO requests while he was on medical leave for having a torn pectoral muscle.

The other big thing that he’s complaining about is how Jenn Cotter treated him, and things that she allegedly said. We don’t know what’s true or not true because we were not there. If it was true, we also don’t know in what context these things were said. It’s important to remember all that. For all the people that were yelling at me when I broke the news that we should not be assuming things, right back at you. We shouldn’t be assuming anything.

Especially in a court case, there is going to be a reply and we should probably wait for that. It’s also interesting that his contract had an arbitration clause and he decided to skip that process. He says that because it’s illegal, he doesn’t have to do that part. We will see what the court says.

I don’t think that he’s going to win that aspect of it. He’s still going to have to do arbitration. I could be wrong.

In part of the lawsuit, he talks about how he thinks the other instructors are on his side because they started inserting some of his catchphrases into their class as a point of solidarity. We don’t know how much the other instructors know the full story. We don’t know if they made fully informed decisions or if that was behind it, but perhaps they did.

There is a line in here that I thought was very interesting in regard to the other instructors. I’m reading from the lawsuit and it says, “Unlike other popular Peloton instructors that are known for teaching classes on Peloton stationary bike, the plaintiff’s success relied on enthusiasm, energy and instilling encouragement in members.” Is there a way to read it that’s not next-level douchey? I don’t know how to read that other than I’m the instructor that was good and the rest of them suck.

There are other things in here that say that too, “Out of twenty new instructors that Peloton hired, the plaintiff’s following achieved fast and highest-paced growth.”

If accurate, that’s factual. That’s not an opinion. That’s a metric that can be tracked like who gained the most Instagram followers in a certain period of time, but flat out saying, “Unlike the other instructors, my classes have enthusiasm and energy.” You got to wonder how long they’ll be leaving his catchphrases in their classes after reading that.

It’s still their livelihood. It may not be Daniel’s, but it’s still their livelihood. I don’t know that you can rely on the instructor’s enthusiasm towards his lawsuit if he even has it. We need to talk about his politics a little bit here because I don’t think some of the other instructors were aware of some of the things that he had put on Twitter. I believe that if they were fully informed, they may not be as behind him as this document.

Regardless of where you land on particular issues, it’s safe to say that some of the instructors aren’t going to be fans of someone who is openly not a Black Lives Matter supporter or is not a trans or LGBTQ supporter. That’s going to be a problem for some of these instructors. Whether you like it or not, it’s factual.

It’s cool that Daniel absolutely has a lot of fans. It’s not like I’m saying he hasn’t been successful. I get that there’s a reason and a rationale to put it in here, but I don’t know that if we’re going to pick apart this document to point to things that the other instructors did or did not support him, maybe there are some other things that need to be included as well, which is why it’s one side of the story.

With the Jenn Cotter stuff, I certainly had relationships with coworkers where we give each other a lot of sh*t. If HR were to read any one side of that out of context, it’s going to sound pretty awful. I can’t help but wonder if this is a retconning of that. In my workplace, I’ve had people that I’ve even joked with that some of the things we say to each other are so awful.

I’ve heard you guys say some things. I’ve been on the receiving end and the giving end of those communications at work. It’s also part of how you have comradery. I don’t know if that’s what was happening here or not.

You can have a relationship like that and you can still go too far sometimes, and you got to walk it back even if that is the case.

If these things that were said have the context that it appears to have where Jenn Cotter said things like talking about him coming to work drunk and things like that, then that’s not okay. If there was context there, then it’s unfortunate that that was not also included. I will also say that some of the things that were said were making fun of the fact that he was Irish. To my knowledge, Jenn Cotter is Irish. If she was being derogatory, that does not then make it okay for her to be derogatory. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that proves or at least gives me the indication that it was taken out of context because if she’s Irish, why would she be upset about somebody else being Irish? That doesn’t make any sense.

That being said, there’s also a difference between being of Irish descent and actually being from Ireland. You tend to think that if you’re in a group, you got a little bit more latitude to make fun of or tease that group.

I also think that if other instructors that have worked there while Jenn Cotter has worked there come forward, maybe they no longer work there, it would be interesting because they might have things to say as well.

That’s fair because if this description of her is accurate, then typically for someone who behaves like that, it’s a pattern. It’s not hyper-focused on one individual. You would think that if that’s the case, you would hear more complaints start to come forward as you do in other cases where somebody steps forward and complains about somebody.

As far as him taking time off while he was already on a leave of absence, you couldn’t. You have to take all your PTO before you take your leave of absence. I don’t even understand what the complaint is there.

I’m not sure and it’s hard to know because that’s Peloton’s corporate policy. We don’t know. I know how it works at the places I’ve worked at.

What is he saying that they complained about? What did they even say? I didn’t read the whole thing.

I read a good chunk of it, but it all blurs together. It’s a lot. It seemed to be more like they didn’t like how much work he was missing.

He did miss a lot of work. That’s a fact.

His argument is that these were work-related injuries.

His ear was not work-related.

The pectoral muscle, which are injuries you get from working out.

That’s true but that was his second injury and it hadn’t even been a year. That’s a lot. Other instructors have injured themselves and it has been work-related and there has never been an issue. There has to be more to this story. I’m not even saying he’s not wrong, but there’s something about his time frame that doesn’t make sense. There’s more to the story because there are other instructors that have had issues.

That’s fair and ultimately, New York is also an at-will state so I don’t know how that plays in all this. He’s saying that they didn’t give him any documentation for his dismissal, which seems odd for a company of Peloton’s size. It makes me think that that’s either not correct or there’s a reason they didn’t do that. That seems like a rudimentary fundamental thing for a company to do.

If they were to say, “You did X, Y, Z wrong,” and then did not give him that information to back that up, I would agree. If they said, “You no longer work here. It’s not working,” then he does not owe that information.

Where I work, I’ve seen lots of people get let go and everyone around the office knew why, but they don’t give them a reason because it’s an at-will state. if you give them a reason, you just give them more opportunities to come back and sue you. If you say, “No, thank you. We’re done here,” then it limits your exposure legally.

Let’s talk about what we do know because we’ve talked a lot about what we don’t know. Now we know that Daniel McKenna made $260,000 a year, which I was surprised at because he was one of the newer instructors. I don’t know what number I had in my head, but it wasn’t that.

It’s New York City.

I know. I’m not even complaining. That is information that we have often wondered about and talked about. I’m doing the math and I’m more like, “What does that mean?” That’s entry-level. What does that indicate for somebody like Jenn Sherman or Robin? I’m curious. Robin is very high up in the chain. She’s a big deal. She’s not just an instructor. That’s a fact like his pay. We also know that he was offered a severance package. He would have gotten six months’ pay, so it would have been $130,000. He had to sign NDA and he refused to sign that NDA, which is why we’re talking about this now. Otherwise, we would not be having a lawsuit.

Presumably, he did not get that $130,000 but he’s suing for $1.8 million.

There’s not a lot of proof to back all this up.

It’s an initial filing.

There wouldn’t be proof at this point.

There’s one screengrab of a conversation that seems pretty benign. He’s not claiming it’s a smoking gun necessarily other than, “They seem like they were fine with me.”

It’s weird that with all of these allegations, you chose to include any documentation at this point. if you did, why that? That is more the question mark.

It seemed like an odd thing because it didn’t seem like it established all that much. I’m sure as it goes through the process, if he has more stuff, he will come forward with it because that’s how lawsuits work.

I’m sure this is not the last that we have heard of this saga. No matter what happens, I believe the next steps will be that it either gets dismissed outright or becomes an arbitrated case and then goes through the next steps. Based on how I have seen court cases go down, the judge is not like, “We accept what you said there.” There’s always a counterargument and there’s a very good case for Peloton to be like, “No, we need to go to arbitration because that reduces the amount of time that the court needs to be involved. They are always pro “Let me not be involved if I don’t need to be.” They’re going to be like, “Let’s go do the arbitration first.”

They like to clean up the dockets. My guess is at the end of the day, there’s some sort of check written because of his severance and stuff if nothing else like, “We’re going to write a check anyway.”

If they were going to go through the lawsuit and they feel like they were in the right, and they were already going to give him that money, and they asked him to keep his mouth shut, then he didn’t keep his mouth shut, what is the point of paying him now? The cat is already out of the bag. “You already splashed us all over the news. That’s what you wanted. You got it.” I’m thinking completely logically here. If I’m Peloton, what reason would I have to cut you a check now?

I just figure that it seems like every lawsuit ends with somebody writing a check to somebody, then they both say they didn’t do anything wrong and everybody moves on.

That’s certainly what happened with Lululemon, but the tone of this says there’s an ax to grind and I don’t see this going away with a nice happy ending for anybody.

This is a lot more adversarial. With Lululemon you had one corporate entity versus another corporate entity. This is a lot more personal.

There’s a very different feel to it.

The original Tread feels different. While you're running on it, you hear your foot impact more than on the Tread Plus. The size is just smaller. But other than that, it's still fine. Share on X

It will be interesting to watch it play out. The big takeaway right now is that we know one side of the story.

Based on what I’m seeing on Instagram, that does not matter to a lot of people.

The people that love Daniel McKenna, obviously, they’re going to believe what he says because they have a social relationship with him. He’s their best friend even though he doesn’t know them. That’s what they’re going to do. At the end of the day, it’s not that simple.

—

Prime Day sales stuff, whatever. Prime early access sale.

This is the first time that Peloton has been part of Prime Day. They haven’t been on Amazon. Now it’s on Amazon and there were all kinds of things in this early access sale. They had shoes and apparel. I thought it was interesting that they started with the Bike, the Guide, and accessories, and then they started adding the apparel as the day went on.

They were like, “Now that you got the bike, buy a hat.”

It was a good sale. A lot of people reached out to me and said that they were getting the Guide because it was on sale for $250. They were like, “I cannot pass up at this rate.” There were several people commented the same thing about the Bike being $1,225. There were a lot of people that filled in the dumbbells they were missing. They wanted to do their whole weight set and this was the only thing missing. They jumped in and got that. A lot of good feedback on it. There were a few people that were not happy. People are a little disappointed that it wasn’t in Canada and it wasn’t in the UK.

That’s a legit complaint.

Peloton has always said that they were going to do that. They are going to add to other countries if this went well. My guess is that we’re going to see that very soon.

Do they celebrate Prime Day on the same day in the UK? Is it like Thanksgiving?

I don’t know. That’s a good question.

The UK doesn’t have Thanksgiving but Canada does. Just a quick perusal, I’m like, “These are real discounts.” My flipping attitude at the beginning wasn’t about Peloton, it was about Prime Day. I know. Prime Day is so dumb. Many times it’s like, “Look, I can get a colander for $0.05 off.” It’s always weird stuff. I guess I would have to buy a spatula at some point, but I’m not like, “I can’t wait for Prime Day to get me a spatula.”

It’s particularly great if you know that you have a big thing you have to start shopping for. If we were smart, we would already be buying stuff for Brian’s college dorm room but then again, you don’t know where he is going to be. You don’t know if there’s already a color scheme you got to work around.

That kid cares about color schemes.

If I’m paying for his decorations, there’s going to be a color scheme. This feels a million years old now.

I know. It’s like, “Peloton is slashing 500 more jobs,” that was the big story a week ago. Remember when we thought Peloton was going to be dead in six months?

Can we talk about that? That was interesting because first I posted an article that the Wall Street Journal had posted. I think it was Business Insiders where I picked it up, but it was all quoting the Wall Street Journal. When I look into this a bit further, there are other websites posting other articles like CNBC. Suddenly, I’m getting this whole different vibe. Wall Street Journal was like, “Tell us a quote.” Apparently, Barry said something to the effect of, “We’re going to have that in six months.” When you look at the CNBC side, the actual question was, “When do you expect that all of the changes you have made are going to result in growth again?” He said, “We have six months to prove ourselves.” That’s a very different context.

It went from the actual quote “We expect to see results from what we’re doing within six months” to “We have six months to live.”

I was getting so bombarded. It didn’t make sense to me for one second because I was like, “Wait, why would we be doing this on Prime on Amazon? Why do we put stuff on Amazon? Why are we releasing the rower? If you only have six months worth of fight in you, why even bother with the rollout?”

Put that sh*t on clearance? Let’s get some real discounts going.

That rower, if it’s not even going to be here until December, then that means we have four months with the rower. Hang on tight.

When I saw the headline, I didn’t even click on the article. I was like, “That sounds like bullsh*t.

While we’re talking about that, that was the important takeaway from all the articles. Of course, it’s horrible that they had to let go of another 500 people. This was shocking to me. I hadn’t done the math, but they still have 3,800 people.

They’re saying that this is the end of that.

They’re saying the restructuring is done. There’s a little confusion about that because restructuring is done, but stores have already been closing. I don’t know if that means there are no more stores on the table or if that means they’ve closed some of the stores they want to close if they’re hoping in six months to reassess. I would love to get some more clarity around that, but that’s still a question mark. It’s really sad. There are people that have been there forever that were moved out with this one, and it’s big changes.

Yahoo Finance, I guess this was another Wall Street Journal one originally.

It was. It’s like Wall Street Journal has it in for Peloton all of a sudden. Remember back in the day when they were in love with Peloton?

We’re using the Yahoo version because there’s no paywall. It’s a little peek behind the scenes at what our budget looks like. Goldman Sachs made repeated margin calls to John Foley, which that’s never fun. The only thing I know about margin calls is what I learned from watching Trading Places.

I know that all places that write articles do this, but it cracked me up that that’s the Peloton Diner. It’s not the actual Peloton store in the picture. That looks like the Peloton in France or something where they have a diner that you can go to. I’ve seen it posted by members for years.

That was the photo they had the right to. It’s close enough.

I don’t have a lot to say about this other than we already knew this. Is this new information that he bought the shares and then he pledged the shares as collateral? Maybe that’s the new part here.

A margin call is basically them going, “I better have my money.”

He was like, “No.” Can you refuse to do a margin call? How does that work?

At the end of Trading Places, they got their comeuppance and Billy Valentine won the day. If you can’t make your margin call, you’re out of money.

In the article, there were at least a couple of quotes that he was like, “It has been a bad year.” I don’t think that’s any big surprise to anyone. Financially, it sucks. That is basically how I took that quote. I think they wanted to pick on him a little bit more.

It’s probably what was driving the article for a while back about him selling the house in the Hamptons that he just bought. That was probably driving that. They were like, “Okay, I guess we’re not.”

Just kidding. $55 million and gone.

“I’ll have to suffer in silence over here in my $8 million.” We’ve seen some rumors over the past week about Peloton being back to trying to make a piece of strength equipment.

Pretty much. That does sum it up. We talked about this months ago, but we know that the people who were working on this were disbanded. It was dead and they said that it was going to cost like $9,000. They were like, “We’re never going to make money on this,” so they killed it. What this YouTube video is saying is like what you’re hearing in all these different places. It’s that the Trivium went dark on LinkedIn. What has happened in the past is that Peloton has secretly bought them. They’re thinking that’s what happened here. I don’t think that makes sense. There are a couple of reasons why. One, have you guys been watching the news? Where’s the money?

They bought them with what?

There is no money. If they were in agreement, it would be like what we talked about before, where if Peloton were to do something like that with Tonal, it would be a merger. I think that’s what we would be seeing. I don’t think that’s happening here. If Peloton wanted to go back into strength and double down on that, we would be seeing more instructors being hired. We would be seeing other things in the system or codes that would be indicating that they are still working on that. We’re not seeing that.

We would be needing to see where these financials are coming from. We know that they would have already been bought, which means that they should show up somewhere financially. This doesn’t feel like it’s the right time. I’m not saying they never will. I’m not saying this company didn’t get bought, the Trivium that’s making the platform device. This YouTube video is referring to the patent that Peloton had been working on. It was the one we talked about Cobra. These documents are Cobra, but we know that patents take forever to be approved.

It’s a slow process.

It can take up to two years. If that’s the case, who knows when those were actually applied for and they’re just now getting approved. I don’t think that the patent means anything. It’s old stuff. It has been disbanded. Somebody did something with the Trivium, but I don’t think it was Peloton.

These companies never give up their patents because if somebody makes something similar and they hold the patent, it’s a payday. Once they started that process, nobody ever calls the patent office and goes, “Never mind. You can have that one back.” You can now put customizable widgets on the home screen of your iOS device.

iOS 16, if you have it, they have a new thing where you can add widgets to your customizable lock screen, not the home screen. Because of that, Peloton quickly turned around a widget for that, which I was surprised at because iOS just put this out. It’s very new. I was super excited to see that. I did put it on my phone

Some sad news. Longtime listeners might know Jayvee Nava.

If you don’t, people have asked me, “Who is that?” Jayvee was the face of One Peloton. She was in the community on the OPP. For a long time, she was the sole moderator. That woman put up with a lot and deserves a lot of credit for the stuff that she listened to people say to her. She always tried to help the members. She always tried to be good to people. She took the community very seriously. 2014, that’s how long she has been there. That’s the beginning. She was pretty early in. She went a long way all the way up to VP or Senior VP. I don’t want to take a letter from her.

For people that have been following Peloton for a long time, you know Jayvee Nava and it’s sad to see her go.

That’s the last vestige of the original crew.

Jenn Sherman.

 

That’s true. Tom Cortese is still there. He’s not quite original. He’s newer, but he’s still of that same timeframe as a lot of the instructors. Robin and Cody came not long after Jenn Sherman.

That’s another end-of-an-era moment seeing her leave. We wish her the best. She was the first person in Peloton we met.

She was. I will never forget that. She was also the first person to schedule interviews with us. She worked with us on a lot of things, including HRI. Homecoming was all Jayvee’s deal. Every year, she was the one that did that, her team. That was not all her.

Her leaving makes you wonder if it’s coming back in any form that we’re used to seeing.

That’s a big old question. I’ve been saying that since.

I remember the first HRI that we went to, which was what homecoming used to be called. As soon as we walked in, she walked right over to us. We were like, “We’re going to start a podcast.” She was like, “Okay, sure.”

We were like, “We already interviewed Matt Wilpers.” She was like, “He wanted to meet you. Come on over here.” That was back when the instructors could hang out in the room with you. It was very chill.

It was a very different time.

Good luck to Jayvee.

—

Joining us is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and Sports Psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn. She also has a 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.

Hello.

It’s so good to have you. I’ve got tons of questions. My question of the day is from Christy. Allison. She says she would like to hear about your suggestions for motivation with the seasons changing. The seasonal affective disorder struggle is real.

First of all, it sounds like she is struggling with seasonal affective disorder. She’s feeling more depressed as we have less light. The first thing that she should do is look into therapeutic lights. There are these lights that you can put on your desk while you’re working or as you’re putting on your makeup in the morning or anything like that. That can help.

Studies show that they’re quite effective and it’s a very specific light, and they don’t want to get the name of the light wrong, but you can even get it on Amazon. That’s one place that I would start because that’s going to send your brain different information. Also, you want to make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

You want to make sure that you’re doing all of the basic self-care things like getting enough sleep and getting enough nutrition, you are making boundaries with people, you are prioritizing your physical health, and you’re getting your workouts in. I also think that this is a good time to switch up your workouts.

I’m very much a creature of habit. I only switch mine up twice a year. Once every six months, I switch it up. Most people benefit from doing it more often, and this is a good time. When you’re feeling like you’re getting a little blob, you’re feeling like you’re down, and you’re feeling like you’re in a rut, that’s a good time to start throwing in maybe some classes that you haven’t taken. Maybe a barre class, a Pilates class, a boxing class, something that you hadn’t done before that might spark your interest or at the very least, shake things up.

That’s good advice. It’s a two-pronged approach. If it’s something that she deals with every year, is it worth also maybe talking to her doctor if this is a thing?

Absolutely, and also a therapist. I believe that everybody should have one year of weekly therapy even if you are not someone who’s struggling with mental health issues. It’s good for self-reflection, for learning new tools, and for having someone who is objective. It’s being able to look at your life and be like, “Here are some areas where you could improve.” I always recommend therapy before I recommend a psychiatrist. Although you do always want to rule out anything physical with your actual physician. Before you go to a psychiatrist, it’s important to get talk therapy first and see if learning new tools, having a new perspective, and having a new cognitive shift can solve the problem.

Is this something that would affect people that live in areas where it’s dark all the time? Do they have difficulty when all of a sudden, now there’s too much light or is it just people who want light?

When people live in climates where it is dark for longer, it’s very challenging when it comes to mental health.

It’s not something necessarily people acclimate to. Even if you were born and raised in an environment like that, it’s not like you get used to the inverse. That’s still difficult.

It’s difficult for everyone, but certain people are more sensitive to it than other people. A simple light for seasonal affective disorder on your office desk can make a huge difference with this because it’s sending signals to your brain that are tricking it into thinking that there’s more daylight, which is exactly what it needs.

That’s fascinating. I think I’m immune to this. All my quirks, the benefit is being this because I’m like, “I don’t want to go outside anyway.”

One other thing that she may want to consider doing is a micronutrient test. Most people are deficient in vitamin D, and vitamin D can affect depression and mood tremendously. It’s worth her looking into that as well.

That’s something you can also ask your primary care doctor to do a quick panel.

Some doctors have that kind of technology, others will send you out, and others will say, “I don’t believe in that.” It’s finding the right doctor. Sometimes it’s someone who’s a little more off the beaten path. Also, there are a lot of places now like in my area, there’s a place called Next Health where they can do micronutrient tests where it’s a chain of places. Sometimes you don’t even need to make an actual doctor’s appointment, but your doctor is always the best first line of defense.

My doctor discovered I was low on vitamin D just from blood work because I work in a windowless steel and concrete bunker.

You never go outside.

Also, in this day and age, a lot of us wear sunscreen to avoid skin cancer. That means we’re absorbing less vitamin D from the sun because we’re doing that by helping our skin.

Unlike Dr. Jenn After Dark, the takeaway here is you recommend the D.

I always do.

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

You can find me on all social media @DrJennMann. Also, my weekly column with InStyle magazine called Hump Day With Dr. Jenn comes out every Wednesday.

Thank you.

—

If you’re tuning in to this show, you probably are a fitness person. If you’re looking for something different to add to your fitness routine, maybe think about FightCamp.

It’s awesome. It’s interactive at-home boxing that brings the best workout into the world and into your gym. It makes it fun. There are thousands of workouts by all different kinds of trainers. They’ve added a lot of trainers in the last year. They’ve added a lot of cool things. Now you can add your Apple Watch. You can link it to your app. I used to make sure that people knew this, but now they have Android and Apple apps. You’re to use the app no matter what your phone system is. You also have live punch counting stats that motivate you to push harder and help you map out your progress.

You get to actually punch something.

I love that. I can’t just punch the air. Even when I do a Peloton class, I always use my FightCamp bag right there.

Join the biggest boxing community in the world without leaving your home. FightCamp package start at just $99.

They even offer some great financing options. You can get started for as low as $9 a month. To get everything you need, go to FightCamp.com/TheClipOut to learn more.

—

We have a new Peloton baby.

Chelsea Jackson Roberts had her baby, Noble Antoine Roberts, born 9/21/22 and a rainbow baby. Lots of love to Chelsea’s family. Noble is very lucky to have such a great mom.

I have a question for you. It might be dumb, but I’m a boy. What is a rainbow baby?

It’s sad. It’s a term for a child born to a family that has previously lost one or more children due to a stillbirth miscarriage.

Now I feel bad for asking this sad question.

There are people that don’t know, so it’s not a bad thing to explain. I had to look it up because I wanted to make sure I got the wording right.

Especially with that topic, for sure. Now I have been educated. Cody Rigsby dropped by his alma mater, Dancing With The Stars.

He is back in the ballroom. Gregory messaged me. Gregory was my Dancing With The Stars buddy. Every week while Cody was on, we would talk. He stopped in St. Louis and we met him. He was filling me in on this picture, Team Shangela. I don’t know who Shangela is. Gregory never gets mad at me for not knowing current events. She is one of the top contestants in RuPaul’s Drag Race. She is on a show called We Are Here, which is an Emmy-winning show on HBO. Of course, she’s on Dancing With The Stars this season. She is a fan-favorite in all three. Cody was there and cheering for Shangela.

The Peloton bike isn’t just an excellent piece of machinery. The classes are taught safely. There are good class places and really great workouts. Share on X

While we’re speaking of Cody Rigsby, he sat down with People Magazine to talk about his mental health journey.

I know he shared before that he grew up homeless at times. Part of this journey that he speaks of is financial stability and what role that can play in mental health, which absolutely the two are connected. Anybody who says otherwise is very comfortable with their money.

You can certainly have money and still have a mental health problem, but not having money is going to compound them.

You end up in a cycle where you have resources when you have money. You don’t have resources when you don’t have money. You could take two people to have the exact same mental health issue. One person is going to have money and the resources to get care for that in a way that somebody who doesn’t have money can’t. That is what I mean by that. He talks about all of that in this article. If you want to read for yourself, then make sure that you get our newsletter and it will be sent directly to you.

Christine D’Ercole was on Broadway Podcast Network. It’s a Leading Lady Fitness, episode 13. It’s a whole bunch of different Broadway-related podcasts that talk about mental health.

They talk to her about mental health and wellness. They also talk to her about staying inspired. If you want to check that out, it’s Leading Lady Fitness, episode 13.

Robin Arzon is featured not just in Women’s Health Magazine, but on the cover of the November issue.

Congrats to Robin Arzon. That is such a huge deal. It’s going to hit newsstands on 10/25. She asks everyone to tag her if they get a copy. It’s going to be a lot of text. Congrats to Robin.

Speaking of Robin, she got to visit the White House.

She posted pictures at the White House, but I chose to use this video because it was the behind-the-scenes video of her day at the White House, which I thought was a little more exciting because she showed how she got ready, started off with her workout, and then she went and got dressed, and did all of her makeup. I can’t even imagine these instructors getting to hang out at the White House. That’s crazy. Congrats. She’s having quite the week or quite the month.

Kendall Toole talked to Pop Sugar.

This is Michelle K.

She’s over at Pop Sugar instead of Shape?

She’s mixing it up, but she’s freelance. That’s okay. Every time I chat with Kendall, I’m sure they chat so many times because she’s interviewed her four times. It was great that they got to talk about her collaboration with Spiritual Gangster and Peloton. They also talked about World Mental Health Day. Kendall talked about the emotional roller coaster of finally meeting members in the studio and why she intentionally chooses to get off Instagram occasionally. I get it.

You’re feeling that today.

My phone is mysteriously quiet because it went on do not disturb because we’re filming, so I’m scared.

Mariana Fernandez completed a triathlon.

She posted highlights from the entire day. It made me so incredibly happy to see her. She was so close to the podium. She watched the third person cross the finish line. She was right behind them. That’s how close she was to the podium. She had a great time. I am super excited for her. It’s so cool to see when the instructors are able to participate in things like this and share them. I know we don’t have the music playing and don’t because it’ll mess up the sound. It’ll sound all craziness. The song is Feeling Good by Nina Simone and it’s great to watch the video with that in the background. It’s a great remix of the song. Check out her Instagram if you haven’t already. She’s quickly becoming one of my favorite instructors. Very sweet lady.

If you like it when instructors compete in things, then you’ll like this.

This is crazy because Susie Chan did a half marathon, then went to the studio and taught a class, the class I did for my 500th. I was blown away. Who can run 13 miles and make it look easy? She’s not even sweaty. She’s adorable. Look at her. She pops into the studio and teaches a 30-minute HIIT and Hills class, which I was ready to die at the end of. Congrats, and a lot of the Peloton family was there too. Women and children, First UK were there as well. It’s neat that the instructors do this stuff. I love it. She’s also one of my favorite instructors. I have a lot of favorites. It’s great.

Speaking of instructors doing things, Tobias Heinze is competing in the Manaslu Trail Race.

He says that it’s a dream come true. In less than a month, he is going to participate with his soulmate running around the 8th highest mountain in the world, over 180 kilometers and more than 10,000 height meters. I don’t know what a height meter is.

I think that’s like elevation.

The race will bring them up to 6,000 meters above sea level. He is asking for everyone in Peloton to pop on to the training sessions with him. He’s going to be on the tread training. He wants to share his training with us. He wants to do it with us. Let’s get out there and support him. That’s incredible.

Ben and Leanne have an update on their house.

They’re going to be building their very own Peloton gym in their back garden, which is gorgeous. That’s their garden. “Does anyone have any good recommendations on companies in the UK to work with to make this a reality?” He asked that question in his story. I’m sure he got a million responses. I’m sure they’ve got that covered. It’s gorgeous.

It looks nice. They should put in cameras. That way if there’s another pandemic, they can go out.

I’m sure they will. Hopefully, there’s never another pandemic.

I’m hoping too but I’m just saying.

Let’s not even put that out in the ether. There’s enough going on.

—

Joining us once again is Angelo from MetPro, here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition-based questions. Hello.

Hey, guys.

I feel like this next question we have for you could be about Tom but it’s not.

Is it how to eat if you’re really funny?

Dana wrote in and she said, “Finding healthy foods my husband will eat. He hates vegetables and fish.” Do you see where I’m going?

I get it. Dana, he doesn’t like vegetables or fish. That’s very workable. Tom, are you taking notes?

After me, you’re like, “That’s easy.”

First of all, it sounds like there are going to be lots of good protein options then. Turkey, chicken, and even lean red meat or pork are not going to be the end of the world. You can do some dairy-based proteins. There’s cottage cheese, yogurt, and plant-based proteins. You can do beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. He’s going to have all kinds of options for proteins. If at the end of the day, he’s still not getting enough protein, you can always supplement. You can do the quick egg white thing or you can have protein powder.

There are going to be lots of options for protein. I don’t think you’re going to have any trouble there. My recommendation is to pick two proteins that he likes, cook them and bulk-keep them in the fridge. It’s easy then. Rotate. Right now, my wife and I have made up all barbecue. I’ll do usually one red meat and one lean meat. In the case of your husband, Dana, you do chicken or turkey or something simple like that. Have them in bulk, keep them in the fridge, ready to go. Make it easy. The vegetable deal is a little trickier. I would challenge you to go through the list. I’ve challenged Tom on this and I learned my lesson.

There’s literally nothing.

I bet that you’ll be able to find some vegetables that he may like or maybe some salad. If not, have him stock up on the fruits. He’ll still get fibers. He is going to get a lot of the nutrients. It’s not exactly the same as vegetables. You can supplement with veggie powder and that’s fine. I prefer whole actual natural vegetables, but there are ways around that. Have them stock up on the fruits. My recommendation for the fruits might surprise you.

My clients are coming to me with a specific goal, “Here’s what I want. I want to build muscle. I want to increase performance. I want to lose weight.” That’s about 90% of the clients that reach out to us. I’m going to have specific items for them that I want them to do, but I also need those items to be feasible, time managed, quick and reproducible. I’m looking for portable, low perishability and quick. That means doing things like a small apple, a pair, a couple of plums, grapes, and even berries, if you’re not having to leave them in a cup or in your car in 100-degree weather, can be pretty efficient.

Go with combinations for snacks. You know what your husband might like, Dana, is a combination of some fruit, some nuts, and some jerky. That would be a great combo to get in. That’s going to be very healthy and very clean. It would be right in line with what I might have a typical client regardless of goal using as a very convenient, on-the-go, quick and easy snack. Things like that, you might try. Hopefully, some of those ideas will help you, Dana.

That’s very helpful.

Thank you very much for all that. If people would like this sort of stuff tailor-made to their goals, where can they find you?

Come to MetPro.co/tco. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

—

We have some new stuff regarding the Ashton Kucher series, Our Future Selves.

It’s exactly one month. This week has been the Mental World Awareness stuff that they had taken off a few days for. I tell you that because there were a bunch of encore classes. One of the cool encore classes that they had was the latest episode of Our Future Selves dropped at 7:30 Eastern on Tuesday night. Allyson Felix was the guest. Both Allyson Felix and Ashton Kutcher were on the ride as well as many of the instructors.

 

Many of the instructors were on for the encore portion. It was very special. I hope that you saw that because I posted that it was happening. Also, only a month left to support Ashton and Thorn as he races in the New York City Marathon. That’s going to be very cool for him. This has been a very big successful thing, and I’m so glad they had the opportunity to do it.

Also, these classes are now available to watch on the Bike.

That dropped too. All of a sudden, you can access Our Future Selves on the Bike. If you haven’t gotten a chance to do it, maybe you don’t have a tread, you definitely should check these out. They are a lot of fun.

—

We have a couple of new artist series, Daddy Yankee, which we have no idea about. First, I was like, “Damn Yankees.” That’s not what is this.

I said this to Brian, your 18-year-old. I was like, “Daddy Yankee.” He was like, “I know him.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” I don’t think 40-year-olds are his demo.

Probably not. Also, FKA twigs.

This specific one dropped after we had recorded and it is for the UK Black History Month artist series. They’re both overlapping each other slightly, so I wanted to call out both of them.

FKA twigs sounds like a restaurant, “Do you want to go to O’Charleys or FKA twigs?” It’s going to have an old-timey bicycle on the wall and they sell you pot stickers.

I’m worried that we talked about this on the last episode and I just don’t remember it.

I would remember making FKA twigs jokes. Also, there’s a Baby Face class coming.

It’s by invite-only. People were invited to see Baby Face live in the studio. He is going to be there on Friday, October 21st in the Ally Love class, then at 5:45, Kirsten Ferguson. People got these invitations and they were asked if they wanted to come. In the actual invite, it said something to the effect of, “Don’t pass this on.” That’s why I got the impression the way it was worded that he would actually be in class. If you are a Baby Face fan, make sure you take those classes live. There was nothing better than seeing Lizzo walk into that class. That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. If you feel that way about Baby Face, be in these classes.

—

In the last episode, we talked about CJ Albertson gearing up to try and reclaim the world record for the 50K.

His previous world record had been smashed by somebody from South Africa. They had gotten a world record of 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds. CJ Albertson’s past record was 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 30 seconds. His new one is 2 hours, 38 minutes, and 44 seconds. That’s insane. That dude is so freaking fast. I’m so in awe of his abilities. I don’t even know what to say.

Do you know how old he is?

I think he’s in his 20s. When we talked to him, I know I’m getting old, but he had a baby face. He’s so young.

Obviously, he’s fit and he will be very fit, but when do you reach a tipping point of like you’ll still be faster than most people, but not necessarily at this level?

I seriously have no idea. I would think that he has already reached that point. I don’t know. I’m sitting here thinking about it and I’m like, there are people that I have seen come out in their late 30s and their early 40s and run faster than they’ve ever run before. I don’t know how it’s possible to even run as fast as he does now. To wrap my head around doing that for years to come, I can’t. I don’t know the answer to that. There are people that are much better educated on this topic than I am. Either way, it’s mind-blowingly cool. I’m so proud of CJ Albertson.

—

There was another apparel drop.

It’s actually not. We talked about this already, but I wanted to bring this up because this particular apparel drop is a new style of bra. It has one shoulder but you can wear it with an extra strap on the side. That is a game-changer for some ladies. If you need a little extra support but you like the one-shoulder thing going on, this might give you a little more confidence to try it because now you’ve got an extra strap should you need it. It’s cute because it’s got an extra layer underneath it.

—

Only one birthday and it’s Steven Little. Newer listeners aren’t going to know who that is, but he was a big deal when we first started recording this show.

His birthday is on October 18th.

Happy birthday, Steven Little.

If you’re still following Steven Little out there, wish him a happy birthday.

I am. He’s out traveling to all kinds of places with his puppy dog.

—

Joining us is Eliotte Woodford. How is it going?

I’m so glad you wore your Peloton shirt. I love it.

I thought it was appropriate.

When did you come across Peloton and decide, “I got to have this?”

I had known about Peloton for probably almost its inception. I’m living in Los Angeles. I’m a professional singer and dancer and performer. That means I’m very much health workout adjacent, especially what my interests were and still are. I had heard about it for the longest time. When they came out with the bike, I didn’t think anything of it because normally, I’m on tour. That didn’t make sense for my life, and at the time, I strongly hated indoor cycling. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t get it. The few times I had done it, I don’t know if my bike was fitted incorrectly. I didn’t like it.

It didn’t click for me. I was like, “That’s a cool concept, but it’s not for me.” Cut to a few years, I’m a huge lover of the group Barry’s Bootcamp. I’m connected with that company. I have lots of friends that teach there and stuff and have been going for years. Same thing with my husband. I got him into it. He enjoyed it. I should back up even more. As a professional dancer, I have known Rebecca Kennedy since 2008. She also used to teach at Barry’s Bootcamp. Whenever I was in New York City for work or otherwise, we would meet up. One of the good ways for us to see each other was I would come and take her class and we would catch up.

It was 2018 or something and I was in the city. I noticed, “I didn’t see Rebecca on the schedule. That’s weird. Let me hit her up.” I hit her up and she was like, “I’m not working for Barry’s anymore. I can’t say why.” She was in the quiet period when she was developing everything for the tread. At the time, it has just been announced the tech convention. She was like, “This is what I’ve been doing, just as an FYI.” I was like, “What?” I checked it out. I was like, “This looks awesome. This is way more my speed.”

At the time, I was on a break from touring. I was going to Barry’s all the time, spending way too many dollars. It’s an expensive addiction to have. They were about to open it to sales that week. All this happened in perfect timing. I talked to my husband and I was like, “Look at this. We can do the bootcamp style workouts that we love at home for the price of a singular class. That’s amazing.” I made an appointment the next day at the Pasadena showroom on the tread to try it out. This was the Tread+ at the time. I went and I loved it because it was similar to the bougie treadmills I like to run on. I was like, “This is amazing.” I bought it that day. I got it delivered in November 2018. It was one of the first treads if not the first tread to be delivered in Los Angeles.

Which is saying a lot.

Did you keep the Tread+?

Here’s the thing, I have pain in my heart when I talk about it. Real emotions.

She’s going to break me, I can tell.

No, Crystal, I’m not going to break you because I love the Tread+. I would have the Tread+. Spoiler alert, I had to get the Tread and trade in the Tread+ because we’ve moved during the pandemic, and prior to the pandemic, they offered the service to help you move it or take it down, put it back together, something along those lines. Obviously, during the pandemic, they had to stop that service. They’re like, “You have to take it apart yourself and put it back together yourself. Here are some videos.” We did that. We did a fine job, but then because of COVID, we were building a new house. It sat in the storage half put together for almost a year. I don’t know if that made it weird.

When we eventually did move into our new house, we had to put it together ourselves. I know it was fine until it wasn’t fine. I was in the middle of doing 60 and the tread stopped at some point. I was like, “You got to be kidding me.” It was my first one back. I finished the class on the bike. I was bummed. They tried to fix it a few times. They thought it was a smart chip. It wasn’t bad. They replaced the monitor. At first, they brought the wrong monitor and then they bring the right monitor. It was all these fixes and they deemed it like they couldn’t fix it or they thought the issue was the base, which because of the recall, they can’t replace. They’re like, “You can do the refund and get the new one.” I shed tears because I love the Tread+ so much. We’ve had the normal tread for the past month and a half. It’s the new one. I don’t know what to call it.

We’ll call it Tread minus. How is that going?

It’s fine. It’s wonderful. It’s not the flat belt, so it’s very cushy and wonderful. I did a run on it. I’m always wary of my knees and my joints. I feel like I haven’t felt the difference in terms of impact on knees and joints. Obviously, it feels different. While you’re running on it, you hear your foot impact more than on the Tread+. The size is smaller. Other than that, it’s still fine and enjoyable. If they come out with another Tread+ version B or whatever in the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if I switched to that, depending on what it is.

This is great though because people have been wondering and there are not a lot of people who have done a lot on both. There will be soon but not a lot of people.

If I didn’t have to switch to the Tread, I would have kept the Plus for sure. It was a no-brainer for me. The Tread+ is a better machine. That’s my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think it’s a better treadmill.

That’s why they call it a plus.

If you’re going to have an upcharge like that, it better be.

Crystal, I don’t know what you want to do with that.

She’s keeping it.

People often think you're not as smart if you pursue the artistic route. But it’s completely the opposite. The smartest people are the ones who are successful, because you have to know the business, you have to know how things work.… Share on X

I’m keeping it for now. I get worried that somebody is going to come up with this rationale that’s going to convince me. So far, being that I’m a little older than you, Eliotte, just a smidge, I like to pretend that it’s enough that it matters. My knees hurt, running outside. I’m worried that over time, running on the tread is going to do the same thing. I’m concerned about that. I haven’t heard anybody say that. It’s conjecture on my part. It’s a lot of money to put out there and hope.

I can’t do pavement runs or forever ago. A doctor told me not to do it because I noticed that I would feel great in a run and then 2, 3 days following that, I couldn’t walk. It’s the impact. I’m wary of pavement running for myself. Especially with dancing, I’m trying not to overuse injuries. I’m using the same things over and over again. That’s why tread running became a thing. That’s why initially I was drawn to the Woodway treadmills, which also have flat belts. Obviously, when the Tread+ came out, I was like, “This is for me.” You can keep it.

She’s in the team keep it.

I’m 100% team keep it. There’s no doubt. If yours is working, keep it.

She hasn’t had any problems at all.

No, I haven’t. Knock on wood.

Mine was perfect until we had to move and it sat in cold storage forever.

I should also put this out there as a movie guy. Trigger warning for Bad Boys for Life because it features a Tread+.

You said you didn’t like cycling classes. Have you come back around on that? Are you taking cycling classes now?

Yes and no. I don’t know. I got the Tread+ 2018, and then I had it for at least a year. At some point, I finally took a cycling class I liked, a singular one. I was like, “That wasn’t horrible.” I don’t know what the issue was. I hadn’t any prior. It got to a point where I was locked in. Once we got that Tread+, I was 100% in the Peloverse. I was listening to you guys. I was in all the groups. My husband was like, “Please, shut up. Stop talking.” I’ve read every article on the internet, all the things. I was in it 100%.

Obviously, after a while, there’s the Peloton FOMO that happens. I had tried the bike maybe at a hotel. At some point, I’d gotten a few opportunities to try the bike. I was like, “This feels different than what I’ve experienced before.” It’s a great piece of equipment. I already knew the content and loved how they created the content and metrics, and all the things that are great about Peloton. I was like, “We should probably get the bike. That way we have a low-impact option.”

You don’t want your Tread to be lonely.

You could workout at the same time.

It all worked out. We ended up getting one. We’ve had that. We upgraded to the Bike+ at some point. We have the Tread and the Bike+.

You are taking bike classes as well as tread classes.

Do you remember whose class it was that finally broke through for you?

My issue with cycling classes that are not Peloton is that they ride on feel as opposed to metrics. From a science background, a medical background, physical and athlete, and in tune with my body background, I don’t like how a lot of those classes do things that are unhealthy for you. They turn the resistance way down. You’re out of the saddle and spinning that. RPMs are unnatural and dancing and all that stuff. I was like, “None of this is safe.” What I enjoyed about the bike was not only the excellent piece of machinery but also the fact that the classes were taught safely and had good class plans and were great workouts.

That was a huge difference for me. Since I’ve gone back to class, I was like, “I’m feeling safe in this class. I don’t want to hurt myself. My legs don’t need to be going that fast. They don’t.” That was a huge thing for me. I love a Cody moment. We used to run in the same dance circles. We have tons of mutual friends. I know a few of the instructors from random life stuff. I enjoyed his classes. Robin is a good time as well. It was rooted in good teaching that wasn’t going to kill me. The content and the machinery are top-notch.

That makes total sense to me. A lot of people feel that way about some of the other companies out there. I get it because there are things that are not safe. People don’t always believe that but it’s true.

The whole thing of like, “I should have resistance when I get out of the saddle.” I had never experienced that prior to a Peloton class. I was like, “This makes way more sense. I feel way safer. My knees aren’t going to blow out.”

Never having done it from riding a bike when I was a kid, I would always get out of the saddle when I was going up a hill. I need the leverage. If there was no resistance, what are you pushing against?

That’s the problem thing.

That led me to the bike. Now I like the bike and all things. I like specifically Peloton in terms of how that cycling goes. I can’t say I enjoy cycling now, but I like riding Peloton and taking those classes because I feel they know what they’re doing.

Now that COVID has changed, I won’t say it’s over because I don’t know that it’ll ever be over, but it’s different. We’re free to move about the country again. Hopefully, touring will be back in your life if it’s not already. What is your schedule going to look like? Your job is busy. You’re on the go a lot. How are you going to keep up with all that?

At this point, it’s a practice, discipline, and habit for me. Also, it helps with my sanity. I can’t say that I’m always sane. If I didn’t workout, then we would have issues. I have to workout every day. I feel off if I don’t. As a mover, my body feels achy if I haven’t moved. I typically workout every day on tour. I’m used to that habit. Some hotels have great gyms. Even nice hotels have surprisingly horrible gyms, which is always so hard for me to understand. You spend $1,000,001 on the scent you spray in the lobby, but you don’t have a good gym. I don’t know. It blows my mind. I secretly want to be a gym designer for hotels. It’s not that hard to get it right.

Why is it always some dark hole in a corner? I don’t understand.

I would say about a third of the time if I wander to the gym with you, it’s like, “Is this a mob hit? What is going on?”

Try being a woman and going by yourself. It’s terrifying. You go down this long hallway and you hope for the best. That’s our lives every day.

It’s one of my first things when I get into a hotel. I put my bags on. I go find where the gym is and take a look at it. I’m like, “Let me see what’s possible.”

“Is this happening? Is this not happening?”

The wonderful and great thing about Peloton is we have access to the app when we’re traveling. That is great. I don’t feel like there’s an interruption to what I do because of that. If they don’t have equipment that I can use or even if my schedule is wonky, I’ve done HIIT, cardio workouts, and body weight strength workouts in my hotel room if that’s the only thing that works with the schedule or the place. If there’s equipment, I can use the app and things like that. I feel like the app is an underrated and underused thing, which is weird to me because there’s so much there. You have access to thousands upon thousands of classes.

Barry would love to hear this. You need to send the note to Barry.

Can we hear any fun stories from work? Whatever you feel is okay to share.

I don’t know. I’ve been blessed to do some cool projects. I get to tour a lot with some big names. I’ve gotten to do some fun movies and music videos and television performances. I have done all of the world show performances that you can think of. We finished right before COVID. I got to do The Prom, which was a Broadway musical. Now it’s a movie musical that you can find on Netflix. I got to do it with Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells, Kerry Washington, and the list goes on. I was also blessed to get to do Hairspray Live! a few years ago with Ariana Grande. I’ve gotten to do some fun things. It has been a random path. I’ve tried to be open to opportunities that come my way.

You’re so humble. These are amazing things you’re talking about.

You mentioned you had a medical background. Did you go to school to be a doctor?

I was a pre-med in undergrad in college. I went to Washington University in St. Louis down the street from you, guys. I did my undergrad there. I was going to be a double major in Dance and Biology, but as you guys may know, Wash U is well known for its research and also its medicine at that. If you’re a Biology major, the focus is research. My passion wasn’t research. It was more clinical-based. I wanted to be a doctor. I decided not to major in Biology. I ended up majoring in Dance and Marketing. I did all the pre-med. I did pre-med and then also was a Women’s and Gender minor. I was a little busy. I thought I was going to be a doctor. I love math and science. I’m useless in it now because obviously, I don’t get to challenge my brain in that way anymore.

Have there been changes in math? Have there been breakthroughs? Math is totally different now.

There is new math.

Let’s not talk about the new math. It makes me mad.

I don’t understand, but there’s new math.

It’s frustrating. The way they taught us to add and subtract, it’s all different now.

You’re probably right on the cusp when they change that. Here’s the advantage. When you have children, they will tell you, and this is a godsend, “Don’t help me with the homework because you’ll screw it up.” You’re going to try and teach them the different way and it’s not going to work. Anything that gets me out of helping kids with homework, I am all for it. I don’t understand why people b*tch about the common core or whatever it’s called.

I wish I could do that. I already know I’m not going to be able to. I have a child. He’s only eighteen months, so I have a while before he learns real math, but I’m going to be the nerd that’s going to be reading his textbook so then I know how to do it correctly. I’m going to be reading the textbook.

Since you like math and science, it probably won’t drive you as crazy. I’m like, “You guys told us a certain way and now you changed the way.” Rude. My daughter is doing equations like this and it’s not for algebra. It’s all grouping. This is for adding and subtracting. I’m like, “What is happening?”

It’s extra work for no reason.

It’s to teach you to visualize it so you can arrive at it faster. If you see kids that are good, they’ll like boom, boom, boom. So much of math is memorization and they’re trying to remove that so you can logically arrive at the conclusion instead of I know that eight times nine is whatever eight times nine is. I was a Mass Communications major.

It’s not a bad thing. It’s just hard.

My question is, how were the parents? I know I went to one of the most expensive colleges in America to be a doctor.

I did have a scholarship.

That takes a little bit of pressure off.

You do love math and science because that’s not easy to get, especially at Wash U. You spend all this time and then you’re like, “On second thought, I’m going to go be in showbiz.”

 

What I like to argue is that I’m one of the few people that are using their undergrad degrees for their careers.

I can say the same thing. Mass Communications and I’m Marketing and I’m booking rock bands.

The reason I added the Marketing major is because once I decided I was going to go be a song and dance man, I was like, “I should learn business because it’s a business at the end of the day.” Everyone can think frivolously of the arts. They think that maybe you’re not as smart if you pursue that route or whatever. I argue completely the opposite. The smartest people are the ones that are successful. You have to be. You have to know the business and how things work. You have to be professional. The list is endless.

There’s a lot of savviness that comes with it.

I wanted to learn that side of it. That’s why I added that in. College was a learning curve for my parents. My dad is a doctor. I’m very much like my dad. That contributed to my mind why I thought I was going to be a doctor. I love helping people. It was the perfect storm of everything coming together. For a few years, leading up to mid-college, I felt inside that, “I want to pursue this.” I love it so much. For me, it’s the best drug. There’s nothing like the high of performing. That’s how I feel most myself. There’s something about it that I’m like, “This is the best thing ever.”

I felt that internally for a long time. I first had to admit it to myself which was harder than I thought it was going to be because you decide to do this. At the time, I was a student at Wash U. I was studying what I was studying. I’ve been blessed to be good at school. I had this fear and this anxiety of like, “People are going to think I’m not smart.” As a person of color, I have great pride in the fact that I’m a strong and educated and driven female that is also Black. I take pride in that.

I felt like, “If I was going to approach this, people are going to think X, Y and Z about me,” because I have experienced that. I’ve had many comments in my life and in my career about things that people say to me when I tell them what I do. I thought all this stuff. It took me a second to admit it to myself and be like, “No, I am going to do this.” I chose to start spending my summers in New York, getting established there, training and auditioning. When I first met Rebecca was during one of those summers when we hit off. We were doing a program together at Broadway Dance Center.

Our class was the best class, in my opinion. We had an amazing group of people. That summer changed my life in that regard. I felt like, “I can do this.” It was also my time to educate my parents in terms of there are ways to make a living in doing this. I don’t have to be the poor starving artist mentality. Also, for me, it was a chance for me to see how I fared in the professional world. I had always been a big fish in a small pond. I was like, “Let me see if I can cut it,” and I cut it. That was encouraging in that regard.

I got signed with my agency and I’m still with them to this day. I booked a tour then of my first audition in New York. I booked the lead in the tour. Long story short, I ended up turning it down. Even though I thought going into the summer, that was one of my goals. It was to book a job that wouldn’t allow me not to come back to school. That happened. After talking to people that are wiser than me and people whose opinions I trusted, I came to the decision that this wasn’t what I needed to do.

The shiny thing isn’t always the best thing. I was once offered a job at the Fox Theater, which if you live in St. Louis, you know it’s amazing. I worked at the family arena, which is a great job but is not amazing. I accepted it and then they gave me all the details. I was like, “I’m not going to do this.” It’s not a good fit. It didn’t make sense.

It’s important to take a step back sometimes. I felt I did that. It was hard. Also, I’m a yes-person. It’s extremely hard for me to say no. I’m a people pleaser. Let’s say the parent company over the tour is a large name company that does a lot of family things. It starts with a D and then a ney. They were like, “There’s no way that we could convince you. We can’t tell you not to go back to school to do this. That’s not what we stand for, but can you not go back to school and do this.” It was a whole thing. It was sticky for me to say no.

I found out after the fact that they had gone through rounds of auditions over the previous months trying to find someone to fit this role. They felt I was right for it. It wasn’t right. I can say that obviously many years with it in the rear-view mirror, that was the right decision. At that moment, I felt crazy because I can’t believe saying no to this, letting all these people down, all this stuff. It was the right decision for me to go back for many reasons, including the fact that I met my husband after that.

Disney should appreciate that. That’s what they deem a happy ending.

Now you have your new baby.

Who’s consuming all of their things?

To drive the Disney aspect home, it’s the circle of life.

That is a cool story. As a mom, it feels good to hear because Tom’s son, my stepson, Brian, is graduating. He’s going to a performing arts school. It’s all the nerves and I’m like, “How is this going to work?” Applying to all those places is crazy.

If the drive is there, it’s possible. I like to say there’s room at the table for everyone. A lot of people in the industry either feel that there isn’t, or try to make it feel as if there’s not. They’re trying to make it seem like, “There’s only room for me.” In reality, that’s not what I’ve seen. Obviously, there’s typecast, there are things that are going on, certain things you’re right and certain things you’re not right. I’m tall and curvy, but I’m a trained dancer. I’m Black. I have this type of hair. There are all the different things that go into “my typecast.” I either get a job or don’t get a job based on those things.

I’ve been able to have my career the same thing as someone that looks like me might have a different career and someone that looks completely different from me has a type of career. I feel like there’s room at the table for everyone. I will say that the plum line is that you have to want it. You have to want to put up with all the BS that comes along with this industry and have to drive to do it. College was that time for me to educate my parents and be like, “Here are the things.” Once I graduated, I thought I was going to be in New York. I had done all the FaceTime I needed to do to be established there, so by the time I graduated, I was ready. I had people that wanted work for me and things lined up.

It was my agency that was like, “How about you move to Los Angeles? This is the “youngest” you’ll ever be. It’s on-camera work. Let’s get you in there. If you want to work in New York, we can bring you back over later in life.” I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I’ve done all of these things. I ended up moving to Los Angeles. I had to do all of that over again. Obviously, it worked out. My mom loves to plan. She’s the five-year plan person and I’m very much not, partially because I can’t be in what I do. I don’t know what tomorrow looks like.

That’s what I tell both kids when they’re trying to figure out what to do. I was like, “Have a plan. Be prepared to pivot. There are many little avenues and tributaries that can jet off from what you think is your dream job that you might end up loving that you don’t even know exists right now.”

The opportunities that I’ve had in my career have been so random and have come out of the left field because I’ve been open to them. There’s the preparation. You have to be prepared and you have to step in and then act professionally when the moment arises and do the work that you need to do. If you’re not open to those opportunities, then you’re going to miss them then they pass you by. My mom was like, “You can move. Just show me a budget. The second you can’t afford it, guess what’s happening? You’re not doing this.” The second she said that, I was like, “I’m never not affording this.”

That’s the parent code for, “You can do it, but I am not paying for it.”

I totally get that. I was 1 of 5 children so I’m like, “Don’t pay for me. I’ll work all the jobs that I have to do.” I bartended at night. I was a Starbucks opener for my first year out in Los Angeles so I could have my days free to take classes, audition, and work the jobs that I booked. I did that until I was booking enough to be able to sustain myself and didn’t need those jobs anymore. I never slept, but I got to do what I wanted to. I was young at the time so I could do that. Brian will be fine. If he has the drive and wants to do it, he’ll make it happen.

Eliotte said so. There you go.

The dad in me is like, “Maybe you should get a real job,” and then I’m like, “I dropped out of college to take a job at an alt-rock station. Who am I to talk?” That’s what I say to talk myself off the ledge. My mom did the same thing when I was like, “I’m going to go work at an alt-rock station and drive around Everclear.”

It’s the parent in you. You want the best for your child. It all stems from love.

We always tell them, “All we want is for you to be happy and self-sufficient, not necessarily in that order.”

Do whatever you want to do in life as long as those two boxes are checked.

That’s all I ask.

I’m going to talk to you guys in 15 to 18 years.

We’ll see how we do whenever he moves that. I’m going to be a mess.

My kid is babbling and walking around. It’s way different. I can say that now. I might feel differently in ten years. Come back to me.

Who is your favorite Peloton instructor? I know it has been a while since we talked about Peloton.

I’m not a favorites person. I’m not the person to be like, “My favorite song is this.” It’s not something I can do. I will say that I adore Jess Sims. She was my OG because we started at the same time. When she got introduced to the world is when I got my stuff. We connected early on when she first started back before she got super famous. We don’t chat as much anymore. I love her. I connect with her. I love her strength-type message. That takes up space. I’m a big believer in that. I wish more women lifted.

I wish more women wanted to be strong as opposed to skinny. I could get on a soapbox about that. I love that she is that and her energy. She’s having a good time. Plus, her programming is always top-notch. It kicks your butt in the best way. I like everyone. I also love Adrian. Daniel is a fantastic addition. Kirsten Ferguson, come on. Let’s go. It’s always a good time. Love me some Cody. When I want to have a feel-good time but also got to workout, he’s always good. Robin is great. It’s anyone and everything. It depends on what my workout for that day is supposed to be.

I look at that. I’m a music person so I definitely look at the playlist to see what I want. I loved the feature that they added right before the Guide came out where you can see if it’s a strength workout and what moves are being done. You can see intervals for tread and bike as well. That’s helpful for me to make sure I’m like, “I need to work on these muscle groups today. This move, I don’t need you today because I’ve been repeating that.” Things like that. The fact that I can see what the workout has is helpful. I can choose that workout or add it to my stack or whatever.

I love that, especially for the runs. I like being able to see the links.

It’s allowed me to even focus my workouts even more. Whereas before, “I like this playlist, I’ll take this workout.” I get in there and I’m like, “I don’t need to do more shoulder things. I’ve already burned out my shoulder so much this week.” It’s helpful in that regard.

Do you mind sharing your leaderboard name?

Mine is DoingGr8Sweetie. That’s from an inside joke from one of my friends that I tour with. We always used to run around and say it to each other facetiously like, “You’re doing great sweetie,” when you trip and fall on your face. That’s where it came from. Also, it’s always fun whenever I get a shout-out, they’re like, “You are doing great sweetie.”

That’s a good way to bait them. That’s what you tell your mom when she says, “You wasted to wash your marketing degree.” “No, look at all the shout-outs, mom.”

I’ve amounted to something, mom. My parents got one because I made them and they love it.

That’s great. Do you guys take classes together?

We do. We did the Ashton Kucher, Kim Kardashian class.

You’re not Kim Kardashian like “Why is she on the treadmill” people?

I know what they’re doing. I was excited to see that you guys were going to discuss this because I feel like this is totally in line with what Tom has been saying for years about how it’s the studio. They’re creating shows and it’s entertainment. I totally view that’s what this Ashton Kucher thing is. It’s entertaining. I enjoyed it. I can see if they create more content like this, that could be cool.

Why wouldn’t you want the seventh most popular Instagram influencer interacting with your product?

She’s going to get people in the door. Obviously, in the intro, they show who the other guests are for the season. It’s a good mix. I view it as a talk show. It doesn’t bug me that she’s one of the guests because she’s popular.

You don’t get mad at The Tonight Show when they have her on.

It’s a talk show so they brought her in.

If the drive is there, anything is possible. Share on X

Ashton did a great job of running the conversation.

He was running it.

I highly recommend for people who are trying to do intervals at certain times to take that class because you can let them do what they’re doing. It’s very easy to do your own time at whatever.

I PR-ed in my class, which is interesting. I didn’t even feel winded in a certain way. I didn’t realize I was running at those speeds and the intervals as I was. I was surprised. I was like, “I was probably paying attention, following the conversation.” It worked.

Thank you so much for joining us. We greatly appreciate it. Before we let you go, where can people find you on social media, assuming you would like to be found?

On the leaderboard, you can find me at DoingGr8Sweetie. I’m a high-five giver. I get on. I’m high-fiving you. I like to do it. On Instagram, you can find me at @EliotteNicole. That’s how you can find me.

Thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun.

Thank you for having me.

We’re happy to do it.

—

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, and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

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

 

Important Links

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• Patreon.com/TheClipOut
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• Dr. Jenn Mann
• The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy
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• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

 

About Eliotte Woodford

Eliotte Nicole is originally from San Antonio, TX and a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. Trained in many forms of dance, Eliotte has performed the works of Kenny Ortega, Tyce Diorio, Charm La’Donna, Jerry Mitchell, Michael Rooney, Martha Graham, and many more. She is a Background Vocalist for Taylor Swift and was a part of the award-winning and record-breaking world tours: The RED World Tour, The 1989 World Tour, and The reputation Stadium Tour.

Eliotte has performed on numerous television and award shows with Taylor Swift, Cher, Meghan Trainor, John Legend, Ne-yo, and Pitbull; and in commercials for Ford, Crocs, Nike Training Club, Old Navy, Tropicana Orange Juice, and The Voice’s Super Bowl Commercial.

Eliotte Nicole can even be spotted acting, making appearances on TBS’ CONAN, theater stages, and was also cast in NBC’s Hairspray LIVE. As a choreographer, Eliotte’s work is well respected and has received many awards in both the concert and convention dance worlds. Most recently, Eliotte Nicole can be seen dancing and sharing the screen with Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and James Corden in the hit movie musical, The Prom, and in the second season of Apple TV’s Physical, starring Rose Byrne.

 

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