Hey, Peloton fam! 🚴‍♂️ Ready to catch up on all the latest Peloton news and fitness tips? This week’s episode is packed with everything you need to know about our favorite fitness brand.

 

Key Highlights:

• Peloton’s New Marketing Campaign: Fresh vibes for our favorite rides.
• Is Peloton the New Religion? Let’s explore this intriguing idea.
• Peloton + Amazon: Video game advertising? Yes, it’s happening!
• Early AFO Class Release? Did Peloton slip up?
• Meet & Greet with Leanne Hainsby-Alldis: Don’t miss out!
• Quick HIITs for that burst of fitness knowledge.
• MetPro/Angelo talks hydration—how much water should you really be drinking?
• Andy Speer & Rebecca Kennedy tie the knot. Plus, Rebecca’s new Pilates sessions!
• Tunde’s Signature Energy Drink launch—get that boost!
• Cody Rigsby shines in Self Magazine.
• Robin Arzon shares wisdom with Men’s Health.
• Keith Urban kicks off AFO with an in-studio concert—what a treat!
• TCOTop 5 moments of the week.
• This Week at Peloton:
• Flow Into Fall brings another quirky class-booking day.
• Peloton x Lululemon Member’s Weekend classes now on-demand.
• Set The Barre program review—what we loved.
• Peloton Apparel drops the NY Lifestyle collection.
• Store Closing news in Durham, NC (The Streets at Southpoint).
• Hack Your Protein tips from TCO.

 

Join us as we ride through all these exciting updates and more. Whether you’re a seasoned member or new to the Peloton community, there’s something for everyone in this episode. Turn up the volume, hop on your bike, and let’s get started!

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Peloton’s Latest Marketing Shift Plus Our Interview With Dana Bennett Cooney

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We have a fun interview with our guest Dana Bennett Cooney. She produces animated films including Thelma the Unicorn. This is a fun conversation.

Also, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The good one.

I’m very excited for this interview. We also have a bunch of news coming out about Peloton, their new marketing campaign, and this weird article that says, “Is Peloton the new religion.” No, not from the cult aspect. We’ll explain. There’s also a new video game advertising coming up that is going to involve Peloton. We will be talking about all of that. There was a little oopsie by Peloton and we’re going to talk about that.

We have a visit from Angelo. He’s going to talk about how much water should you be drinking. We have instructor news. We will talk about the big wedding that happened. We have instructors covering new modalities. We’re going to be talking about that and a fun new artist visit to the Peloton Studio. I think that’s about it.

Also, all our standards, like class recommendations point you in the right direction of ways to best use your Peloton membership. Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and 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 super helpful and greatly appreciated.

You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Check out our Patreon if you’re so inclined. It’s a nice way to support the show. It’s only $5 a month. You get all sorts of bonus content. We record an extra episode every week of 20 to 25 minutes of things we didn’t have time to get to in the main episode. For instance, we’ll be talking about an instructor that some people think their energy has been flagging.

We’re going to talk about that. We’re going to dig deep.

Yeah, and see what the take is on that and why it might be. You’ll get stuff like that. You also get ad-free episodes. When we get them early, you get them early. It’s a nice way to help support all the costs that go into something like this that has become a much larger undertaking than when we first began. You can also sign up for the newsletter at TheClipOut.com. You can watch all of these episodes over at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Hopefully, that will exist. We’ve been having some issues with our video team, but we think those are now under control.

It might take a while to get it up but they should be back on track.

Fingers crossed. To our YouTube viewers, we apologize. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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Peloton has once again shifted its marketing strategy.

Did you read this article?

Yes. They’re shifting their marketing strategy to let people know that it’s more than just buying a piece of equipment. I think that they are hammering down on app membership and the different modalities that it’s more than a bike.

That needed to happen for a long time. I feel like we already knew that.

I think because they’re pouring money into it. They’ve been saying that for a while.

There is a marketing campaign like, “We will be doing those things.”

They’re going to get aggressive about you don’t necessarily have to buy a $2,000 piece of equipment to engage with Peloton and it’s more than just cardio. It’s more than just a bike or a treadmill. There are all these other things you can do with it. Don’t think that I bought a bike but I still have to go to the gym to do all this other stuff.

I’m letting my eyes slide over this very quickly. It says that when they did the earnings report call in August, Karen Boone had said. “We have sixteen modalities but not everyone knows all of the modalities we have.” That’s true. People have no idea. I still find people who think that Peloton is just a bike. It’s amazing to me.

It is funny watching the evolution of Peloton over the years since the beginning. We are the originators. People did not know what Peloton was, and then people finally knew what Peloton was, but then it was like it was a bike. They started introducing all these other things. People would use Peloton and bike interchangeably like, “I’m going to get on my Peloton. I’m going to ride my Peloton.” They’ve had a lot of difficulty breaking away from that in the average consumer’s mind.

No doubt. I remember even the original name for the OPP was the Official Peloton Page, but they also had one for a moment. That was the Official Peloton Riders page, and then they changed it to the member page. They started adding other modalities. They wanted one place that everybody could go instead of having all these different individual places, which makes sense but is fascinating for evolution.

There’s an interesting article asking whether Peloton is the new religion.

This is coming from a Presbyterian website. It’s called the Presbyterian Outlook. It says Pedaling to Spiritual Fitness: How Peloton and Boutique Studios Fill the Void of Modern Religion. It’s interesting because they’re saying that it goes beyond the physical training, but you get this community, meaning, and transformation. I’ve said that since the beginning. That’s why people call it a cult.

I know you’re saying that it’s not the normal cult talk.

It’s kind of.

It is but I don’t think people have necessarily connect the two that it is checking that box for a lot of people even if they don’t realize it.

How many times have you said that it’s funny how so many people tried to be at home and get away from people by buying the bike, and then have a much wider community because of their Peloton equipment? It’s so true. This podcast is a great example of that because, at this point, we know people all over the world. It doesn’t matter what state or city we go to. We could find people who have a common interest and that’s pretty cool. That’s the power of the Peloton.

We’ve run into listeners in Hawaii and Alaska and little towns in Alabama. It’s everywhere.

We were in Washington DC at a show. One guy came up to us and he had started a podcast because of our podcast, and nothing to do with Peloton.

He didn’t steal our podcast. Thank you for that.

He had an original idea.

I think that it does fill that. For a long time, that church was a community. As people have moved away from religion, for good or ill, depending on your take, they still crave that sense of connection. This is providing it.

That’s why some people find that using Peloton doesn’t quite do it for them. They need to be in person. I am not one of those people, but I understand the people that are. They are the people who can’t have a conversation and connect with somebody in the same way over the internet that I can. I’m grateful that we have so many different options for both. I get the person’s point and I understand where they’re coming from. I thought it was weird that they were comparing it to a flat-out religion. I found it fascinating.

 

It doesn’t have to be either-or. You can do both. It’s okay.

I hope that you do whatever makes you happy.

Peloton is partnering with Amazon Ads for video game advertising.

Amazon Ads is launching a new experience on the gaming platform Fortnite that is going to offer marketing opportunities.

It’s called The Glitch. It looks like it’s designed for you to engage with products within that gaming world. For instance, if your character needs to regenerate their strengths or their health, you can have Domino’s Pizza to refuel.

They are going to hop on their bike and regenerate their energy. We don’t know because it says that these inaugural brand partners, Domino’s and Peloton, are going to be revealed. If your kids out there play Fortnite, we need to know how this works.

If you do too much refueling on the Dominos, you can hop on your Peloton, which we all know Peloton would be like, “No, that’s not what we do. That’s not how that’s happening. I don’t know exactly. They gave the Domino’s example in the ad, but they did not give a Peloton example. The interesting thing is I don’t know how you would incorporate Peloton into a video game. We were doing what we saw earlier. We’re assuming that it would be a bike.

It could be a treadmill. You could do little workouts, but will the instructor show up? We don’t know.

All the equipment is stationary. Why would you get on a video game onto a bike and then not go anywhere on the bike within the world of a video game?

I was seeing in my head what you were saying about Domino’s Pizza. You would eat it to fulfill your energy, but maybe you would get stronger by going over to the bike and doing some exercises or going over to the tread or lifting some weights and they are Peloton branded. That’s what I was picturing. I have no idea what it’s going to be but that’s what my brain wants it to be.

It’s very interesting. I know that they’ve been trying to crack this nut for years on how to generate advertising revenue from video games. You see it in the app-based games. You got to watch a commercial to play a game, but those are free. Video games are expensive. For a brand-new game, you’re talking $60 to $70. If you want the downloadable content, the DLC, that’s going to be another $50 or $60 sometimes, and then they’ll create more as the game progresses.

I think they know that they’re going to have a harder time than being like, “We’re going to stop the game so you can watch an ad.” Even if they did go down that road, I think advertisers would be reticent to use that as a platform because they know that they would probably enrage the people, especially a good chunk of video game audience.

Not that they would know it, but they should.

It’s young men who are going to end up swatting the Peloton corporate offices. They’ve been trying to figure out for years how to get advertising in video games. I know when Obama was running for office the first time, I believe he was the first presidential campaign that advertised in video games, and then I think there was a big racing game and they had ads on billboards that you were driving past.

I remember that. I haven’t seen the Obama one specifically, but I had seen racing games have real ads on the billboards for sure.

Most games don’t lend themselves to that, especially if that game is set in a different time. How do you put modern advertisers into something like Fallout? With Fallout, all of its brands are deliberate riffs on old products.

Things that actually existed.

It’ll be interesting to see what this looks like. We will have to keep an eye on that.

If anybody out there has kids who play Fortnite and you’re going to keep an eye on this, let us know. I’d love to hear it because I’m not going to start playing Fortnite and our kids don’t play Fortnite. They’ve never been Fortnite fans. I don’t know why.

They have not. We’re lucky.

I guess so.

Someone reached out to us with what they think is a leak.

It happened and it was. That has been taken down since now.

Peloton has accidentally released an AFO class early.

It’s unprecedented. This has never occurred for AFO. It has never happened. On this Monday, there was a Matt Wilper’s Post Malone class that was 30 minutes, and it was listed as a premiere on 9/23. This person realized that when they were looking at the schedule for next Monday, it was the same class. They were like, “Didn’t I see that for next month? Isn’t that part of AFO?” They went to go and look. Sure enough, it was the same class. They took a screenshot of the class while it was still up. It had been taken on the 23rd. You can see there in the in the screenshot that it did exist. It has since been taken down. Peloton realized, “Oopsie, we premiered that early,” and then they took it back down.

I know you said that this hasn’t happened before. Maybe but not with AFO. This is not a common occurrence and you have to wonder if this is maybe related to Staffing cutbacks. They have fewer people with eyes on things. They have newer people with eyes on things.

There are so many issues coming up. We will talk later about yet another weird day for people to go in and sign up for classes. It happened again over the weekend. I don’t know whether that was a mistake. That could have very well been on purpose, but there have been a lot of things that have happened. There have been answers given via the chat that were wrong for people. I mean factually incorrect.

They are telling them an instructor no longer worked there.

There have been classes not showing up on time. There have been classes not listed on the schedule that were taking place. It has been crazy. The wrong instructors were shown. It’ll say Aditi Shah but it has a picture of Alex Toussaint. It’s been a lot of little things like that. I do think it is related to cutbacks and it’s sad after where this company has been. As sad as that is, at least they’re still trying. They are still trying to make things happen.

We talked about some of these instructors who are gone for months at a time. Anna Greenberg, for example, has now been gone for three full months. These are looking like three months at a time that these instructors don’t work for Peloton. That’s a furlough, guys. That’s happening. That has to have been savings. There are so many instructors that people are not even catching this stuff. People who don’t listen to this podcast have no idea. That’s what’s happening. For real, there are a lot of people who don’t know. They’re like, “Where did my instructor go?” Their instructor will be back because everybody signed all those contracts. Their instructors aren’t going anywhere during this contract cycle.

Nobody is going to work there forever.

At the same time, it is a lot of little things that are adding up. I do think that they need to watch their quality control.

Leanne Hainsby Alldis will be hosting a meet-and-greet shopping event.

It’s going to be on October 6th. It is going back to another collaboration for breast cancer awareness month. Leanne has a very personal connection to breast cancer awareness. In 2023, they had a thing where they released her new clothing line, but there’s going to be a new release of apparel this 2024. You’re going to be able to hear about that collaboration that Leanne has and that Peloton has. You will be able to do it right at the London Studio store. It’s on October 6th, but it will start at 10:00 AM, local time.

Let’s take a quick look around the world of Peloton for things that people might have missed. Instructors got to meet Nelly Furtado.

That’s the great thing about Peloton, it meets you wherever you are. Share on X

Isn’t that neat? She came to the studio. I believe that might have also been part of All For One.

It would make sense. Rad Lopez is running the Bronx 10 Mile.

He did run. It happened. He did that. He had a lot of Peloton fans out there. There was also an adorable picture of him and a little four-year-old out there cheering him on. He stopped to kneel and talk to the little kid. It was cute.

Peloton celebrated National Fitness Day in the UK.

It was nice because they had a whole little session where all of the instructors had a nice picture together. Ben Alldis wrote a nice post about what fitness means to him specifically and how it’s something that affects his whole life, his cancer diagnosis, finding fitness and everyday life, balancing those two, and hope for the future. It was a nice post. It’s something that all of us who use Peloton for whatever reason and in whatever way we all have in common.

New dance cardio classes have dropped.

I think five new ones dropped. It was Hannah Corbin, Jess King, and Rebecca Kennedy. They have a bunch of new classes between the three of them. Pretty exciting stuff if dance cardio is your thing.

Finally, Tunde is celebrating five years with Peloton.

Five years. It’s crazy, We talked about this a little bit in our bonus episode and it’s funny to think that we interviewed her right when she started. That was in the middle of COVID when that started.

It was about a month before everybody was like, “This is real. We’re going to shut everything down.”

It’s crazy to think that so much has happened since then.

Stick around. Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Angelo and he will talk about how much water you should be drinking. There are a lot of myths around that topic.

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

It’s great to see you.

Good to see you. We have a question from Andy. She says that she often doesn’t drink enough water. I know your question is how much drinking is not enough. I don’t know about you, but every single client I talk to always tells me they drink tons of water but the answer to how much varies so significantly. Sometimes people will be like, “I drink 30 ounces a day.”

Up to 6 ounces.

That’s not a lot of water. Some people truly are drinking a lot of water like 120 ounces a day. Having said all of that, how much water should people be drinking?

That’s a great question. There is some debate because they’ve done research that now shows you don’t necessarily need as much water if you’re not active. That doesn’t help anyone because what we’re supposed to be is we want more water. Many people don’t get enough and they don’t know what as much water means.

Back to Stacey Sims, you know how much I love her, but in one of her books, she was saying this. I don’t know if this applies to men, but I know it applies to women. As you get older, your hormones keep you from having as much of a thirst response. It’s not as accurate anymore. I did not know that.

This is anecdotal, but anecdotal working with thousands and thousands of clients. It’s even worse with guys as we age. My old guys have no thirst. They don’t make a habit of it. What’s interesting is once you get used to drinking a little bit more water throughout the day, give it a week and you will not know how you survived without it. If you fall out of the routine, that thirst starts to go away. You want to create a habit around it, but people want to know, “Tell me how much I should drink.”

There’s a whole bunch of generic research and anecdotal research that says 64 ounces is a good starting place. The problem with that is some of my athletes in one session of training require 64 ounces to replenish during their training. As a general rule, we suggest to people when they start with MetPro to start with 64 ounces and increase if they are big, hot, or sweaty.

What if you’re not hot, but you’re cute?

I have this guy coming to me and he weighs 280. He’s a big boy. He’s a powerlifter. That 64 ounces is like a pixie cup. What happens is our bodies regulate. We sweat, and so it is temperature-dependent. I’m sitting in a 117-degree temperature in Northern California right now. It’s insane. When we’re in environments where we’re sweating more or we are simply hotter, or if we are more active, we need more water.

As a general rule, if you’re not that active, at least try and aim for those 64 ounces. Far more interesting than me just throwing out a random number, if you come back and say, “How about if I get 60 ounces, is that okay? How about if I get 75?” I’m fine with that. Start somewhere and build from there. Far more interesting is what the strategies are to help someone remember and build the habit of drinking regularly and get hydrated better.

There are a lot of techniques and they even sell those fancy reminder cups now. What I like to do is I recommend my clients get a 32-ounce water bottle because it keeps it simple. You have to fill it up twice. If you’re active, if you’re sweating, or if you’re in hot temperatures, you probably need to fill it up a lot more than that. If you start with, “I have a water bottle. I have to get through it, and I know that I have to fill this up twice,” now it’s easier to make a habit out of it.

That’s a great place to start. If that doesn’t work, set a reminder on your phone. Resolve to do that for a week or two until it’s a habit. You’re going to find you feel better, you digest better, and you have less cramping. Some people tell me they sleep better. There’s a whole host of benefits to not getting too little water.

It’s fascinating that men have trouble with thirst since they’re the ones most likely to fall for the thirst traps.

That took a turn. It’s fascinating because, Angelo, I know you talk to a lot more people than I do, but whenever I talk to clients, men never track how much water they’re drinking. They never know how much they’re drinking. I’ll be like, “How much water do you drink?” “I don’t know. I just drink water. I just drink it.”

In general, we don’t accessorize as well. My female clients are a lot better at having their water bottles and that sort of thing. My guys are like, “I drove here so I must have a car around here somewhere.” We can do better, Crystal.

I expect better.

I consume all my fluids in the form of Coke Zero.

I know. I don’t even bother with you. I don’t even know how you’re alive.

One day after play practice, I went down and grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator to the little theater and I walked out. Brian was like, “What?”

He was like, “Are you okay? You’re drinking water.”

 

I was like, “It’s all they had. I’m going to power through.”

Not everybody does, but I can feel it in my joints if I have diet sodas more than once here or there. If I am traveling and I end up having a diet soda for more than a couple of days in a row, my joints start getting inflamed. The old neck injury starts flaring up. I know some people can eat drywall and nails and feel great. It doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t thrive off of what it was designed for and that’s water. At least include water also.

You can’t make soda without water.

Don’t be like Tom. That’s all we’re saying.

It’s soda water. I just put a little aspartame in there for the effort.

Do you know what would drive him crazy?

Anything you eat or drink?

No, because I eat MetPro stuff. When I work out, I drink soda.

He does. It drives me nuts. How can you be hot and sweaty and drink a soda? How can you reach for that soda? It’s so gross.

The carbonation alone while working out.

It’s great.

I know some people like that.

If people would like good advice and not what I do, where can they find you and/or Crystal?

They can find Crystal and me at MetPro.co/tco.

Thank you.

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Andy Speer and Rebecca Kennedy got married, or should I say, Rebecca Kennedy Speer.

We do not know yet if she’s taking his name.

I’m going to call him Andy Kennedy Speer because I’m a feminist.

That’s fine. They got married. Lindsey did an amazing article, breaking down the entire thing. She has everything from where they went dancing, what they all wore, and what the food spread looked like. She compiled all of the people who were there, and the pictures, to be able to put together an amazing timeline of events. We have all of that for you on TheClipOut.com. It’s called Rebecca and Andy’s wedding in Italy.

That’s great to have everything compiled in one place for people because I’m sure lots of people want to see that stuff.

Lindsey does a great job of going back and showing their romance. She put together an article talking about their love story, which she also references in this article. If you want to know all things Rebecca and Andy, this is the place to get there.

One-stop shop.

Yes, including everybody from Peloton who attended

Just because Rebecca Kennedy is off getting married doesn’t mean she can’t have more work thrown at her. She’s now doing Pilates.

Her first live class for Pilates is going to be on October 7th. That’s fun to have her as a Pilates teacher because it’s always nice to see whenever a modality is added to their list of people. It also goes back to what we were talking about last week. These are the furloughs while they’re starting to add and move people around because they’re trying to make it more robust so that when somebody is out, they’re still able to have enough content.

It’s not quite as noticeable.

Either way, I’m happy for Rebecca, and Andy. I mean Rebecca for the Pilates. We are very happy for their wedding. Congratulations to both of them.

In the last episode, we talked about Tunde teasing a new project. A lot of people thought it was music because it looked like she was singing into a microphone. It was a silhouette and I was like, “That is not a microphone.”

I thought we had this conversation on the bonus episode.

We might have.

I could be wrong. It might have been on the main episode, but I remember that. Sure enough, Tunde sent out in her monthly newsletter that she had joined up with Accelerator to come up with her very own signature flavor Passion Fruit. It has her little lipstick kiss on there and signed Tunde.

If you like the energy drinks, there you go.

There you go, zero sugar.

Cody Rigsby was featured in Self Magazine.

Peloton is the bike to nowhere, and yet it takes you everywhere. Share on X

This whole article is about how Cody Rigsby hypes himself up. He talks about tongue scraping, meditation, and his best confidence hacks.

If you want all that, it’s over there in Self Magazine. We’ll have the link in the newsletter.

We sure will.

Not to be outdone Robin Arzon was featured in Men’s Health Magazine.

She was talking about the LatinX essence of reinvention. She talked about her path into training, her heritage, and her ultimate goal for the industry, which is to have more inclusiveness, which is an amazing goal for anybody in any industry.

It was interesting to see a woman featured in Men’s Health.

It wasn’t like how “hot” she was. That wasn’t the goal of the article.

The pictures, at least the one I saw, weren’t like, “Let’s show off this lady’s rack.” It was very much a feature of Robin Arzon.

The first thing that occurred to me was that’s fascinating that she is such a badass that they’re going to interview her for Men’s Health Magazine.

The real magazine. That’s the main and that’s the brand that launched. I know they have Women’s Health, but this is the core brand.

I think it’s great and she has lots to show people. It’s about mental toughness. That’s great.

‐‐‐

Not an artist series, but it’s adjacent. Keith Urban kicks off AFO with an in-studio concert.

It was with Hannah Corbin. No surprise there. She has the country series that she does. It was an actual live concert. He played a concert in class.

I watched a little bit of the video. He’s walking around with the guitar, singing, and hugging sweaty bike riders.

That’s that’s pretty cool, then he stuck around to take pictures with everybody who got to be there.

I saw that he gave away the guitar to one of the people in the class.

It is pretty sweet.

Can I tell a Keith Urban story?

Okay.

Keith Urban played in The Family Arena years and years ago before I started working there. We have this special room where we host all the meet and greets. I made a project for myself one day where I went through our archives of photos and picked some of the bigger names who have played the Arena and then had pictures printed out big, blown up, and hung on the wall of other big-name artists that have played there.

How I would do that is I would open up a folder of somebody big with photos from their concert when they played there. I would go through and grab pictures that looked good, and then when I was done, I started winding them down. For most acts, easy top, or whatever, I would end up with 1 or 2 pictures. There were two artists and I ended up grabbing twenty pictures of them because it was like this person was incapable of taking a bad photo. Every photo looked like it could be the cover of a magazine or an album. I was like, “This dude does not take a bad picture.” It was crazy.

I get that because he’s sweating and playing music, going around the studio, talking to people, and hugging sweaty people. It doesn’t it doesn’t even look like he did anything. He makes it look like he’s fresh as a daisy,

When I say perfectly posed, it makes it sound like he’s fake.

His hair fell naturally perfectly.

Everything worked perfectly to make this guy photogenic. I didn’t want nine photos of somebody holding a guitar up with their head back or a microphone with their head back. That’s why I was grabbing more if I could find him. I had so many pictures of the dude. I’m a straight guy but the dude is beautiful.

No arguments here. He is beautiful.

Do you know who is the other person that was like that?

Who?

Taylor Swift.

I knew you were going to say it. I can feel it.

Every single picture of Taylor Swift looked like it could be an album cover. It was in 2006 when she played at the Arena. Naturally, there’s something about her that every picture of her looked amazing.

Some people have superstar persona and their presence. I think Keith Urban and Taylor Swift are both people like that.

It’s not like I didn’t have other big names. I had other huge names but there’s something about those two that was next level in terms of how they are photographed.

I also wanted to say that the person who got the guitar was Wendy B., and she got it for 5,000 workouts. That was very special.

 

Coming up after this, we’re going to tackle the TCO Top Five. If you’re trying to figure out what to do next on your Peloton platform, we can help you out.

‐‐‐

It’s time for the TCO Top Five, where we listen to you, and then tell other people what to do.

I like this whenever we have the crowdsource of favorites because it is a constant source of where people feel the best motivation comes out.

Number one is your favorite Pilates class.

This class was taught on January 26, 2024. It was a 30-minute Pilates class taught by Kristin McGee. We miss Kristin. She left Peloton. Mindy Jensen said that Kristin’s Pilates class was a ball. This was her first time taking a ball class and using a ball. This class activated all the muscles so much more. She felt it the next day. It made her miss Kristin even more. She was such an asset to the Pilates and yoga team.

Up next is your favorite row.

This was taught by Alex K., and it took place last Thursday the 19th. It was the 30-minute music of Marvel Row. Sam Yo was the mastermind behind that. Sarah Lester took this class and she said, “I forgot how good the Marvel music is, and it’s a great workout.” She also tried to get Tom O’Keefe to at least listen to the row since Alex drops an interesting Marvel fact with every song. Sarah said she also thought she found an Easter egg in this row, saying that Alex may have dropped a hint that he is coming to the tread.

Number three is your favorite strength class.

This was Katie’s debut strength class that she taught on September 20th. Kazi125Gen took this class and she said that it was well-balanced. It was a challenging class with a fun playlist and best of all, Katie brought amazing energy. Tons of good reviews came in for the class. People loved Katie for being in the strength.

Number four, be afraid, your favorite Power Zone rides. If this isn’t an unstackable, sweet baby Jesus, what must the unstackable be?

It’s not because it was an endurance ride. Power Zone Endurance. It was 30 minutes. Matt Wilpers taught it on September 3rd. Katie Bromley loved it because she learned from it, as well as getting a good workout. She said it was in all Zone 2 with different cadences. The music was great. Matt was informative about where to be and why while spinning. It was her favorite class in quite a while.

Number five, your unstackable. Hit them.

It was a 90-minute Badwater 135 scenic guided run with Susie Chan. It’s intense. Joanna Davis said that this was her favorite class and it was an unstackable. Susie guides you along the famous Badwater course in her words, and fun choices in music make this class fly by. Every so often, I would think, maybe I could do the real Badwater and then Susie would casually mention that she’d been at it for 37 hours, and I snap back to reality. She is a legend and the class is so fun.

I guess let’s take a look at This Week at Peloton. We’ll start with new metrics classes.

Just a reminder, metrics classes are like minimal talk and all directions on what you should be doing, so increase speed and music. People seem to dig these classes. That’s why they are making more.

That makes sense because there’s always somebody like, “Why don’t you shut up?” It’s like, “Okay, here are some classes where they shut up.”

Exactly.

We also have a new outdoor greatness run.

Alex Toussaint leads these and they are 20 minutes long. That’s great if you want to jump on, get an on-demand class, lace up, get out there, and go.

We have Discover Yoga, which a lot of people need to do so you can keep yoga instructors.

Every Monday through November 11th, Peloton is going to be putting out new classes designed to elevate you from foundational poses to confidently flowing sequences. Check out the Collections tab and you’re going to be able to find the Discover Yoga and there will be new classes every Monday.

We also have new scenic classes.

On the 25th, there are going to be classes that are going to be guided by Sam, Brad, Matty, and Kirsten. I’m not sure where these are going to be taking place, but there are going to be five new classes.

Peloton is asking you to kiss its grits with Flow Into Fall.

Peloton dropped another note that you can book the studio on Monday, September 23rd. You can go in and start booking classes for yoga with Aditi and Denis. On October 11th and October 19th, some classes were briefly up that you could jump into and they still were going to be open. That also means there are going to be more of these classes hitting throughout the fall, which is nice. There you go. Flow Into Fall.

If you missed the Peloton Lululemon Member’s Weekend, fear not. Those classes are now available on demand.

They sure are. They are going to be on all Peloton devices and the Lulu app. You can go back and enjoy it if you weren’t there in person.

We also have a new program review over at TheClipOut.com and it’s all about Set The Barre.

The entire program was reviewed and it was awesome. It’s low impact but high energy. This was written by Helper Bee Tina and she did a nice deep dive into what the benefits of barre are, why you might want to do it, and what her personal thoughts were about it.

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Peloton Apparel has dropped an NYC Lifestyle Collection.

I thought this was so fascinating. Do you remember the Peloton City Collection?

Yeah.

Each city that Peloton had its flagship stores in, even when they didn’t have a flagship store, had a City Collection, but some cities not only had a t-shirt that said Saint Louis when they had one. It also featured the cityscape on the leggings, the shirt that went with it, and the bra. There’s usually a three-piece collection. I find this interesting because this feels like a throwback to that, but there are a lot fewer stores these days.

At the end of the day, producing is a lot of math and planning. Share on X

This particular collection is only about New York and it has a very different vibe to it. It appears it has more items. I don’t think that it’s going to be the same in the feel that it was for those original collections, but it makes me think back to that. I found that fascinating. It’s going to be launching tomorrow. By the time that you hear this, it will already be out. This is a very limited edition drop. This is one of those that like if you want it, you need to buy it the second it drops. It will not stick around.

Don’t wait for the inevitable clearance because it won’t be coming, or if it will be on such select sizes. It might probably not work out for you. Speaking of store closings, we got one.

Durham North Carolina no longer has The Streets at Southpoint.

If you’re at The Streets at Southpoint Mall, no Peloton for you. We have an interesting article over at TheClipOut about how to hack your protein.

Helper Bee Nikki put this together. Nikki, like myself, is a certified personal trainer and has a nutrition certificate. She has all kinds of certifications. This isn’t like a person just putting their own.

This isn’t like, “I’m telling you these things.”

She has a lot of ideas that are going to give you ways to approach your protein that’s not just chicken or eggs. That tends to be where a lot of people are. She gave a lot of ideas. She gave me some recipes. She gave links for where to shop for things if you want to. This is not about caloric needs. This particular article does not tell you how much you need to eat. That is not what this article is about. I just wanted to put a little disclaimer out there because we are not trying to be doctors. It’s a great article and I highly recommend it.

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Finally, we have two birthdays. The first one is Tobias Heinze on 9/27. The following day is Leanne Hainsby Alldis. I’ll have to update our internal Peloton birthday calendar. Her birthday is on September 28th. If you see them around the break room, wish them a happy birthday.

Tobias no longer works for Peloton, but I’m sure he would appreciate a happy birthday. Leanne is still at Peloton. I’m sure she also would appreciate a happy birthday. Happy birthday to both.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Dana Bennett Cooney. She’s our guest of the week. She works in the animation industry. It’s a fascinating conversation. You’re going to want to stick around.

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Joining us is Dana Bennett Cooney. Dana, how is it going?

Thanks for having me.

Peloton Journey

We’re so glad to have you. When I first saw your post in the official moms’ group, I saw it was about Thelma the Unicorn, which was over on Netflix. You got to produce that, which is how I found out that you were a Peloton user. That is why I asked you and you were nice enough to say yes to be on the show. Since it’s about Peloton, we’ll start there. I’m curious how Peloton originally came into your life and how you decided, “This will be a good fit for me.”

We had been thinking about getting a Peloton for a little bit. My brother and sister-in-law have one and they love it. Last summer, my husband had some fairly serious health issues. As part of his recovery, he needed to exercise. He wasn’t exercising no matter how much I nagged him. Finally, he said, “I’ll ride a Peloton.” I said, “Okay.” We got it right around Christmas. We set it up on the first week of January and we’ve been addicted ever since. We’re fairly new to the community, but it’s awesome. I love that moms’ group. That moms’ group is amazing.

He’s enjoying it.

He loves it.

That’s awesome because I have a similar journey. I didn’t start exercising until I was 50. I didn’t go down the Peloton route, believe it or not. I use a Tonal. I still hate it. I get zero enjoyment out of it at all, but I do it. I love the fact that he loves it. I wish I could get there, but I can’t.

He doesn’t like cardio. That’s his thing.

That’s the worst. You’re working hard and you’re sweating. There’s only one time you should be there.

That’s the part that I love.

It gives you endorphins. We have Dr. Jenn Mann on all the time. She’s a sports psychologist. She always talks about the fact that it takes a while for endorphins to kick in for everybody. Funny enough Tom’s have never kicked in.

At the beginning, she’s like, “It’ll happen.” I’m like, “It’s been five years.”

That’s how I feel about running for sure. I never have gotten that runner’s high. I hear you a little bit, Tom.

Were you an exercise-type person before Peloton and you pivoted to this or was it a new journey for you as well?

Since right before COVID, I have been experiencing some shoulder pain. Instead of going to go through PT and all of that, I was like, “Maybe I should start exercising. Maybe that would help.” I was doing all of those HIIT videos on YouTube and things like that. I got into it, and then COVID hit, so I kept it up. I then started to develop all this hip pain. It was getting bad this past winter. I figured, “Maybe the Peloton will help that too”, and it did. My hip pain is gone. My shoulder pain is gone. I love the Peloton.

That’s amazing.

Do you feel like the pain went away? Sometimes if people lose weight, that stuff goes away. Other times, you’re using it more and better so that’s what made it fixed.

That’s what it was because I probably had bad sneakers. All the HIIT exercises, I’m probably a little too old to do and my body was pushing back a little bit. It’s lower impact. It’s all of that. I wish I could say I’ve lost weight doing this but I haven’t.

That’s okay.

You don’t look like you need to lose weight.

That doesn’t have to be the goal.

That’s very sweet.

It’s interesting to figure out where people come into Peloton from a fitness level. Some people are super fit all the time and they’ve always been a fit person and they needed to find something that now fits their lifestyle. I’m not a person who is exercising my entire life. I had dribs and drabs, things I had tried before, but nothing ever stuck before I got to the Peloton. That’s the great thing. It meets you wherever you are, which is awesome.

I love all the stuff that they offer on the app. I do all the yoga stuff, all the Pilates, and some of the strength training. It’s robust. I like it.

That’s awesome. You said you don’t love running, but do you run?

No. My fitness before was I used to do dance cardio, but I’m not a good dancer. The ones on PopSugar were not super challenging, so I could keep up with those. I sit all day long is the problem. My step count, if I didn’t do the Peloton, would be maybe 100 steps. It would be so terrible because I work 10 or 12 hours a day and I’m right here all day long every day. That’s why I’m so grateful for these at-home solutions.

When we first got it though, we didn’t realize the ceiling requirements in our basement. I’m not very tall. I’m only 5’4”. The ceiling in our basement is under 6 feet. The rest of our house is spoken for. We have it in our bedroom. We have a big bay window in our bedroom. It faces the front of the house. When my husband and I are on it, our neighbors are driving by, honking, especially for him because he has a health issue. They get so excited when they see us on what they call the Bike to nowhere. Where did I read that? Was that from you?

Peloton has even said that. It’s the bike to nowhere, and yet it takes you everywhere. It’s so crazy.

Film Producer

You’re a big-time movie producer. First off, as someone who reviews a lot of movies, we’ve done 800-and-something episodes of Reel Spoilers. What does a producer do? I don’t know.

There are different types of producers. I’m an executive producer at Mikros Animation, which is a technicolor animation studio. In the past, we did the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We’ve done some of the SpongeBob movies. We’ve done Captain Underpants. We did Paw Patrol One. We’re doing Paw Patrol Two. We did Paw Patrol 1 and 2. We’re on 3. We’re doing that now. The Tiger’s Apprentice was another one. Those are all movies that my studio has done.

Thelma was my first actual producer credit, so this one is very near and dear to my heart. What I do on a given day can change. Some days, I’m staring at Excel spreadsheets, schedules, and budgets. On other days, I’m in a ton of conflict resolution meetings. On other days, I’m in recruiting meetings or dealing with our client or in-client director reviews, which are so much fun because it’s an opportunity for all the artists to show all their work. Every day, I meet with our production teams and the other producers on the film.

Every day looks different, which is what’s so exciting about it, but every day is also the same in that there are a lot of problems that need to be solved, there are a lot of people who need support, and trying to find creative solutions to problems both internally and with the client. It’s fascinating. I’m so lucky to get to do what I do.

The client-side team on Thelma was unbelievable. We had the best directors to work with. We had the best producers. They had a lovely production team. That one was so much fun. On top of it, the team at Mikros is a dream to work with. I get to travel for work. Three of our studios, one is in Montreal, one is in Paris, and the other is in Bengaluru, India. My travel is pretty nice and fun. I haven’t been to India yet, but I’m hoping on my next project, I’ll get there. I went to Montreal all the time on Thelma. On past shows, I went to our Paris office, which is amazing. You can’t complain about that.

The teams are so much fun to work with. It’s a very close-knit feel. Even though I’m remote, they welcomed me right away into the family. They are people that I hold near and dear to my heart. They’re so talented. That is the coolest thing to watch the artist take something 2D. We get artwork from our clients. They’re like, “This is what we want the character to look like. This is what we want this environment to look like.” They build it and make it look so cool. The animation team animates it and brings it to life. It’s this unbelievable process that I get to watch. It’s cool. I’m very lucky.

Which Turtles movie did you do? Is it the Michael Bay one or the new one?

The new one.

The good one. I was like, “The Michael Bay one. That’s good for you,” and then like, “You did the good one. Right on.” As a comic book nerd, that is the most accurate portrayal of the Turtles ever put on screen. That’s the good one. It’s the only time they’ve ever been done properly.

I love the 1990 film.

You love it because you were a kid.

It’s nostalgic.

If you saw it as an adult without nostalgia, you’d be like, “This is not good.” I deal with this because I’m the oldest guy on the movie show. I’m fifteen years older than everybody else. They were kids when that came out and they love it. I was like, “That movie is trash.”

I believe you said hot garbage.

I was like, “That movie’s bad. I get it. You watched it when you were a little kid. It’s all you had.” I like that ’70s-era Spider-Man where he’s climbing on a wall and they turn the camera sideways on the sidewalk. It’s awful but it’s all we had. That’s all nerds had back then. That’s not good, but yours was good in case you were curious.

It was great. It was fantastic. I wish I could say I worked on that movie, but my company did, and they did a phenomenal job. They’ve won some awards and gotten a lot of recognition for the work that they did on that film. We don’t create the story. The story is done by the client, as well as the artwork, but then we do all of the execution.

It sounds very project managery.

I was thinking that too.

I’m a project manager by nature. I’m hearing this and I’m like, “This is very similar to what I do but in a way cooler environment.”

At the end of the day, it’s a lot of math and planning.

You’re problem-solving and making sure everything is done on time. It also sounds like making sure it’s done on a budget. Is that part of your purview as well?

 

Yeah.

I figured with the spreadsheets, that sounded like it.

All that good stuff.

That’s a lot of work to get done.

Working On Films

How is it working with Netflix in terms of they never like to tell you if a movie is working? They keep the data close to the chest.

Didn’t they start releasing it this 2024? Isn’t that a thing? Did I read that?

They release it in weird ways that are hard to parse. At least that’s my understanding of it. I was curious how much feedback you get in terms of whether or not something that goes to Netflix is doing well.

Once it releases?

Yeah.

I don’t know that we got a ton of information other than the first couple of weeks, it was number one in the kids’ slots. We have people situated all over the world, so we could see that. The overall metrics, I don’t know.

I’ve done my part. I’ve watched Thelma the Unicorn.

Did you like it?

I did like it. As far as liking cute animals, that hit the mark for me, especially the unicorn.

The music is also fantastic. It’s Brittany Howard. That was all original music. She’s incredible.

I’ll ask a deep question. Do you say to an artist when they’re in a movie like that, “Write all of the music for this movie?” Not necessarily you, but is that how that conversation takes place?

That’s the part that I’m not involved with. Pam, our producer, and Lynn and Jared, the directors, were the ones having those conversations. She toured with some of that music and wrote most of it. We went through some rounds on the songs, testing what works and what doesn’t work. I’m pretty sure she wrote it all, but I’m not 100% sure.

Do they test that with children? Are they bringing in seven-year-olds and being like, “Listen to this.”

They have different ways of how they do it. They do some audience screenings to test things, but then internally, they’re testing to see what’s playing in different executive reviews and things like that throughout the company.

I can’t even imagine. People are mean enough, but kids are even meaner.

Kids are brutal.

It would be soul-crushing to read the reviews from a seven-year-old.

Most movies do a friends and family screening and they get the feedback. In some of the movies that I’ve been in, it has been pretty funny the things that kids will say. The things that the parents miss, the kids get, and things like that.

Can you share with us maybe what’s next on your slate or what’s sitting in your inbox?

I can. It’s very exciting. We got the award for the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the sequel to Mutant Mayhem. We’re super thrilled about it. The early stuff that I’ve seen and heard about is very cool. If you like the first movie, you’re going to love this one. I can’t say too much about the story, but it’s the same creative team, so it’s going to look cool. It’s going to be funny. It’ll be exciting. Down the road, I might be able to share more. Certainly, in two years when it comes out, I can come back on the show and talk more.

You’re invited.

We are super excited about this.

You’ll live in our past guest updates.

Every time there’s an update on this movie, we’ll be talking about it on the show. I was curious how long a movie like Thelma the Unicorn or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Two is going to take. It’s two years.

Our production schedule will be roughly a year and a half, give or take, and then there’s usually a time when they have to post for a month or two and then it’ll be released. We are not starting for a couple of months. From development to final, it could be 5 or 6 years. Some take nine years. The development process takes a long time. Production is usually 1 year and a half to 2 years if things are going well. If things aren’t going well, it takes a lot longer.

I thought they would’ve pulled the trigger a little faster on this one because it did well and people loved it.

There was the strike. All the budgets have to be approved. All of that stuff gets approved before they give the green light to go ahead and start working on it.

When you’re producing something like this, you as a person, do you work on only one movie at a time? I would think they’re so time-consuming that that’s all you can do.

Yeah.

What do they do if a person leaves in the middle of it? Is that forbidden? Do you have to sign a contract that you cannot end your contract early?

I’m not. In some companies, you are under contract. It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t leave projects early, but it happens. Where I am, there are multiple producers on the project. We have heads of the studio. There are a lot of people who are watching things and making sure that everything’s going well. Certainly, on the client side, there are a couple of producers, executives, and things like that. Generally speaking, people tend to stay on the projects until they’re done.

 

If they want to get the next project.

Exactly.

That makes perfect sense. That is super exciting.

Inside The Peloton Community

Pivoting back to Peloton, what is your leaderboard name?

It’s OnlyZuul1518.

Is that a Ghostbusters joke?

Her first name is Dana.

There is no Dana, only Zuul. I tend to not comment on people’s names because I’m always like, “Whatever joke you’re going to make about somebody’s name, they’ve already heard it.” When we first started, I was almost like, “There’s no Dana. There’s only Zuul.” I almost said that and I was like, “She’s probably heard it a million times.” You’ve heard it a million times because you did it to yourself.

With my first daughter, when I was pregnant with her, my birth announcement was I had a T-shirt made that said Dana and it pointed up towards me, and then it said Zuul with arrows pointing to my belly. I’ve been writing this joke for a long time. As long as you promise not to tell my neighbors, I’m going to be Dana Barrett for Halloween this 2024. I’m saying it now on this show, so I have to do it. I want to cut my hair with that perm look, short and curly with bangs. I already have the dress. He’s going to go as Rick Moranis’ character with the helmet. I waited for him once when I was a kid. I was shaking, pouring his water. My boss said to take me away from him because I was so nervous.

Was he a nice person?

Yeah. I was only around him for 30 seconds because my boss said, “Don’t go to that table anymore.”

I’m curious. Do the Peloton instructors get it? Are they giving you shout-outs? You deserve shout-outs.

I don’t usually do live classes.

You’re busy.

No, I like the auto-resistance thing. My workout window is very specific. I pick my classes based on the playlist. Sometimes, the ‘80s rides are good, and sometimes, they’re cheesy songs and not my jam. That’s why I tend not to do those. I’m coming up on my first massive major milestone. I’m going to hit 100 rides. That one I might do a live ride for.

The instructor most likely to get it would be Sam Yo.

That’s true.

I’ll see if I can schedule Sam Yo. I love him. He’s so sweet.

Do you ever message him on Instagram? He’s super responsive.

I am not a social media person. I’m so bad. People try to friend request me on Instagram and I’m like, “The joke’s on you. I don’t post anything ever.”

I got to find out when you’re doing this if you do. I will try to connect you two so that he knows you’re riding. He is the sweetest instructor. He’s so nice. If it’s possible, he will give you a shout-out because he’s that kind of guy.

That’d be awesome. I do have a question though. Do I do the live ride when it’s my 99th and then my actual 100th is the live ride, not the one after?

Correct.

It’s the 100th. When you log on, it’ll be like, “You’re ready for your 100th ride.” That’s the moment you log on. Don’t accidentally take a cool-down ride or a warm-up or you’ll get roasted.

Don’t do meditation.

She can do meditation.

Will that be okay?

That’s okay.

I took that ride where Cody called out a guy.

He roasted a guy.

I was cracking up. I love him too. He’s another one of my favorites. He’s so good.

Cody did two classes back-to-back. The guy hit 3,000 rides in the first class and then he deleted it and then went back in for the thing. Cody was like, “Double dipping? Seriously?”

He was like, “I already called out your name.”

Especially back-to-back. Take it through. Do you have a preferred instructor?

I choose my music, but I like most of them. I love Ally. I love Cody. Cody is my favorite. If I need a good laugh, I ride with Cody. Sam if I need a little motivation or inspiration. I took Alex’s R&B ride, and that kicked my butt. I was like, “R&B. It’ll be mellow. I’m a little tired this morning. It’s a Monday.” That one was so hard. I usually rotate between Cody, Jenn, and Sam. Hannah has been coming up a lot more for me with the ‘80s rides.

 

I was going to ask about Jenn because she’s all over the place with music but in a good way.

I love her sing-alongs. Those are always good.

Those are epic.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us and for giving us the scoop on not just a new movie but a nerd one in the best possible way.

Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun.

Before we let you go though, if there’s anywhere you would like to point people to, any projects you would like to highlight, or anything that you would like to say, “Go check this out.”

You’re like, “Go watch this thing,” on whatever platform.

Watch Thelma if you haven’t seen it. You should also look up the Blue Sky library on Disney+ and go watch every single Blue Sky movie, which includes all the Ice Ages, Ferdinand, Peanuts, all the Rios, and Nimona. If you haven’t seen Nimona, you should see that one. That one’s also on Netflix. That’s a great one. That one’s got an interesting story because we were in production on Blue Sky when we were closed.

The producers and the directors retained the rights and got it made at another studio. It was picked up by Annapurna, but another double negative did it. They did a great job. It was up for an Oscar in 2023. It’s fantastic if you haven’t seen that one. It started at Blue Sky. You should watch that one and Thelma. Go to my IMDb page and watch all of those movies.

That’s fair enough. For people tuning in, Thelma is over on Netflix.

Thank you so much for talking with us. It was a lot of fun.

Thank you. This was great.

Thank you.

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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 also find me on all the socials and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon where for $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content, and we like you a little extra. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running and rowing.

Bye.

 

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