386. Peloton Announces New CEO Plus Our Interview With Tori Phillips

The Clip Out | Tori Phillips | New Peloton CEO

 

  • Peloton Welcomes New CEO: Meet Peter Stern, the new face at Peloton! What changes might he bring to the fitness giant?
  • Earnings Call Recap: A deep dive into Peloton’s earnings call – what do the numbers say about the company’s performance?
  • Peloton Member Month: November is all about celebrating members! Discover what’s in store for Peloton enthusiasts.
  • Black Friday Offer-Match: Peloton guarantees the best Black Friday deals—here’s how you can benefit.
  • Pace Target Survey: Peloton is quietly gauging user interest with a new survey – could this mean more personalized workouts?
  • App Update: The “Weekly Streak” notification is now “Day Streak.” What does this change mean for your workout goals?
  • Friend Checkmark Debut: Peloton introduces a new way to connect with friends. How will it enhance your fitness community?
  • Power Zone Bar Rumors: Is it staying or going? We discuss speculation about this popular feature.
  • Becs Gentry on Good Morning America: Catch up on Becs’ latest appearance and her inspiring fitness insights.
  • Christine D’Ercole’s 10-Year Ride: Celebrate a decade of cycling excellence with Christine!
  • Susie Chan at International Running Expo: Don’t miss Susie’s upcoming event – a must for running buffs.
  • Jenn Sherman on The Torch Cover: Peloton’s very own Jenn graces the cover – discover her story inside!
  • Latest Artist Series Featuring Mark Ronson: Groove to the top 5 tracks that are setting the Peloton airwaves on fire.
  • TCO Top 5: Looking for new classes to try? Our listeners have some fantastic recommendations!
  • This Week at Peloton: Stay updated with the latest happenings in the Peloton world.
  • Road to 10K Campaign: Details on Peloton’s exciting new challenge – are you ready to hit the milestone?
  • First Live Run On-Demand: Missed the live session? It’s now available on-demand for your convenience.
  • Peloton Apparel Gift Guide: Get a head start on holiday shopping with Peloton’s exclusive gift collection.
  • Partnership with GoodPark NYC: Peloton teams up with GoodPark – what does this mean for urban fitness fans?
  • Stoney Clover Lane Collection: Explore the new vibrant collection exclusively for Peloton members.
  • Peloton Birthdays: Celebrate with Mayla Wedekind (11/09) and Aditi Shah (11/10) – happy birthday to our Peloton stars!

All this plus our interview with Tori Phillips.

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Peloton Announces New CEO Plus Our Interview With Tori Phillips

You did it.

I did it. I finished the New York City Marathon.

And I watched.

I am a slow runner. I know, guys. Please don’t yell at me. I know that it doesn’t matter to a lot of people, but it does to me that I was out there for so long. The reason I say that it matters is because if you had not been out there at miles 19 and 22, that kept me so focused. I was like, “I only have to go X amount of blocks.” I wasn’t thinking about what miles I was on. That made such a difference. It didn’t get hard until after mile 22, and then I was starting to slow down. I was starting to lose steam. There were a lot of hills at Central Park, and I was like, “We’re walking now.”

They were not hidden. They were right there in front of you walking.

I had a great time. The crowds are different. For the people who start later, I feel like everyone needs to know that if you’re going to go do the New York City Marathon and you’re going to finish in seven hours, you need to know that starting at 11:30 is a very different thing from starting at 9:00 AM. I had a wonderful time.

There are still people out there.

I thank so many people for being out there in the dark because that’s when it mattered the most. It really did. The first half of the course was easy because there were so many people out there. The crowd does carry you. What a different experience for someone slow because if the people are what’s getting you there and it’s the energy of the crowd, it’s significantly lessened the second half. As soon as it got dark, people disappeared, which I get. They’ve been out there for hours. I understand it.

There’s only so long when it can remain interesting to watch people run by you.

I don’t fault the marathon setter uppers because they did an amazing job. It is what it is. You can’t make everything perfect for every single person who’s going through it. Even though that sounds like a complaint, it’s not. It’s an acknowledgment because people need to be aware that it’s a different race. I am looking forward to breaking it down more in the bonus episode. There’s a lot to say and talk about.

I’ll tell you what I did while you were running.

I do want to say that if anybody has a dream of doing it as I did, don’t let the fear of it hold you back because the crowd still are amazing. Even though they were lighter at the end, they’re still there.

It’s probably still more than you get at a regular marathon.

Any other city would not have been as impressive or cheered you on. People were standing in the dark in Central Park going, “You got this.”

Even the muggers. They were like, “I’m only going to take half of your cash.”

I know you’re joking but the way that they have the park lit up, the entire marathon route was so well-marked. It was so well-attended. I never worried about that even when it did get dark. It felt very safe. I didn’t even have to worry about getting lost because you know me. There had been other races like in Atlantic City where they lit up the wrong way on that bike race. I did not finish because of it. That’s a real thing in some places. It was the best. If people want to do it, go do it.

Thank you to the people who came up for the meetup.

That was so much fun. Thank you to Janet and Gordon for helping us get it set up at the Copper Still.

Also Eileen for my Monkees button.

Yes, and everyone for coming. I talked so much to everybody. I couldn’t be in all the places at once. I wanted to simultaneously talk to every single person. It was such a fun time and it was so heartwarming to see people that I haven’t seen in years. Some people, I had never met before in my life. We even had a person who happened to see the meetup on Facebook.

He was like, “Whatever this is, I’ll go.”

He did Peloton but he didn’t know about the podcast. He didn’t know about like the community that we’ve all built through Peloton. He didn’t know about any of that. He showed up and he had such a great time talking to all of us. I loved it. It was great.

What do you have in store for people for this episode?

We have our guest, Tori Phillips. We are going to talk to Tori about her Peloton journey and how that has gone for her. We are also going to talk about the new CEO, Peter Stern. We’re going to talk about the earnings call recaps since we were unable to do that last week. We’re going to talk about November being Peloton Member Month. There’s also going to be an offer match guarantee for Black Friday. We have a bunch of other things going on. We’ve been sent some tips on the tip line. Also, we have some rumors to address. We have Instructors In The News. We got to talk about lots of stuff going on for the instructors, all the content, and a couple of In Case You Missed It this week.

Before all that, some 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 is super helpful and greatly appreciated. You can also find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. It’s a way to help the show fund all the costs that go into something like this. It’s $5 a month and you get all sorts of bonus content. Every week, we record an extra episode with another 15, 20, or 25 minutes of content on topics we didn’t have time to get into here. You also get ad-free episodes. If we get them early, you get them early, and our undying affection.

You can also follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Check out our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Sign up for our newsletter. You might have done a marathon but what I did was still put out the newsletter while we were in New York City. We’re the same.

It’s really close.

No medal for me though.

I should go get my medal while I’m recording. When I have to answer the phone here shortly, I’ll run up and get it.

You could sign up for the newsletter at TheClipOut.com. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

At long last, Peloton has a CEO. We’ve had two, but they were interim CEOs.

We had Barry.

We’ve been CEO-less for six or eight months. The interim CEOs I guess get a pay cut.

One of them stayed in. Karen Boone stayed in until January 1st and Chris Brazo stepped down. Now there’s one until January. Peter Stern is the new CEO and president and he is going to be taking over on the 1st of January. That is when Karen Boone will step down. The coolest part about Peter Stern is the interesting marketing approach that Peloton is taking with Peter Stern. Peter has been a Peloton community member since 2616. That’s awesome. I love that all. Also, they did a whole welcome video for Peter. They showed him buying clothes, checking out, and going to classes, which is great.

He was in leggings.

It is the polar opposite of how Barry approached everything. That feels intentional.

Foley was very warm and fuzzy.

I miss that man.

Barry was very much not warm and fuzzy.

It’s like curling up to a stone.

I think they’re trying to get a little bit of that back.

They need it. It’s interesting because not only are they doing that. I know we’re going to talk about it separately, but I think that it’s also intentional. November is this big moment where we’re going to celebrate members and how long they’ve been there. Last year, I was having conversations with people at Peloton about how to celebrate long-term members. That never came to fruition because my contact is no longer there. At the time, Peloton was very much aware of the fact that long-term members were not feeling the love.

That was your idea.

I wasn’t trying to take credit for it.

You were like. “You need to reach out to your long-term members that sang you praises at the beginning.”

We were ignoring them. One person listened, and then that person was no longer there. I think they still took note of it. I think this November thing is part of that. What I think they’re going to get wrong is I don’t think they’re going to focus enough on the long-term members and here’s why. The long-term members have completely turned their back on Peloton. Never more have I seen that in the meetup this weekend. It was very apparent.

Of the people who have been around the longest, there are still some who hold the same love for Peloton. A lot of them have walked away. They’re doing other things because they feel so left out in the cold. They don’t care. They’re disillusioned. It’s a very interesting thing for Peloton to come up against in this climate. I genuinely wish all the luck to Peter Stern and Peloton. Peter, come on the show. Let’s get out there. Let’s talk to the people. You need to be in front of people. You need to talk to the members because that is what John Foley did and it worked. I know they won’t listen but I’m putting it out there.

This was announced as part of the earnings call which happened last Thursday while we were on a plane. That’s why it wasn’t in last week’s episode. By the time we landed, the show was edited and done.

It was too late to go back, and the Wi-Fi at the hotel was a separate disaster. It was bad. It’s been a while since we’ve stayed in a hotel that had that bad of a Wi-Fi.

I recorded an episode of Reel Spoilers while you were doing the marathon. I got done with it in time because you know how long those episodes can be. I switched to using my phone as a hotspot because the Wi-Fi was so bad. It’s 80% of my data for the month.

It’s bad when your internet on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean can get better Wi-Fi than a hotel that’s stationary in the middle of New York. In the earnings call, the big takeaway was Peter Stern is joining Peloton. His background includes Apple Fitness and other large companies that he has worked for. He has a great background. I hope that the energy that he brings is good that it infects people, and it brings back the energy that the OG members had. The long-term members are where the community was built. There’s nothing wrong with the members who are out there now. I love all of the members but the original passion is what made Peloton what it is today.

That was the jet fuel that launched Peloton.

It was and I hope to see it back. Some financial highlights though, the company experienced a net loss of only a million dollars.

That’s not bad for a company of this size.

It was improved by $158 million so it’s huge. The operating income also went up to $13 million and that’s up $145 million from last year. That’s insane. The operating expenses were decreased by 30%. We’re a little bummed about that because we know that was a lot to do with people, and that sucks. I understand that it is a necessary thing if you want to keep businesses going and you have to make cuts. It still sucks and I can still be sad about it. The free cashflow did result in. They had a positive free cashflow of $11 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Peloton is saying that they are expecting to have positive cashflow throughout all quarters in the 2025 fiscal year. As a side note, thank you to Helper Bee Tina for making sure that this article was written and that somebody was listening to the earnings call, and Helper Bee Lindsay for making sure we got an article out for Peter Stern joining Peloton. Thank you both for being all over it. You guys are amazing.

These are our bees of the month.

Also, when we talk about profitability, they said that they are still looking to deliver additional cost savings. They’re still on the plan that they had already announced $200 million in cost savings by the end of fiscal year 2025. They are continuing to execute the restructuring plan to improve the unit economics across products and sales channels. That is hopefully going to bring us to profitable growth. The at-home fitness market has declined 2% in the last quarter. The gyms are back to normal following the decline caused by COVID.

Peloton adjusted the recommended retail prices of the Bike, Bike+, and Row. We’ve talked about that before in the show, They did that in all of the overseas markets, including North America and Germany. They said, “That combined with a shift toward higher-margin revenue streams such as Precorp and bike rental products has pushed their connected fitness gross margin up by 9.2%.” That’s a nice hefty little increase. They are continuing to cut marketing costs. They slash media spending by 57%, which is savings of $64 million. I know they always go for marketing.

It’s like, “Sales are down, let’s ask fewer people to participate.”

They have continued to say they are cutting marketing but they are being more careful about how it’s being spent. They’re being very focused and trying to get more dollars out of it. One of the things that they’re doing is also going to the influencer market. They’re trying to grow that more. We will see how that goes. As the holiday season is approaching, they are going to be increasing their marketing efforts with a keen eye on profitability. They’re going to be using third-party distributors in Germany and they’re going to continue to reimagine smaller store concepts, i.e. those pop-ups that we are seeing. The most recent store in Nashville is going to be one of these tiny little stores. We’ll see how that goes.

We talked about the member appreciation events and the messages throughout November to activate, its loyal customer base and encourage current members to refer and engage their friends and family. Subscription growth and engagement. The company reported a 67.8% subscription gross margin. They said that the most recent All For One event had 26,000 live workouts and 900,000 on-demand workouts in its first week.

They also reminded everyone that they were active, They were testing new software features with the StrengthPlus app, which is going to be mostly in use in the gym. They’re also looking at game-inspired fitness experiences. That’s all going to be targeting personalization, social interaction, and fresh workout experiences. All of them are in the early test stages. Some are going to work better than others because that’s how testing works.

70,000 people have signed up for the StrengthPlus app. Strength is the second most used category for Peloton. The second gaming platform on Bike+ is being beta-tested right now with 100 Bike+ users. They have added more 75, 90, and 120-minute classes. That was all user-requested, and that’s nice. They’re also adding new modalities of classes like walking bootcamps and yoga Pilates classes. That’s all great. In other words, everything is headed in the right direction. Wall Street seems to be pretty happy with it. The numbers went up, then they went down, but they went up at first, so that’s the best you can do.

There’s always fluctuation. As we mentioned earlier, it is also Peloton Member Month. I would like to think that every month would be Member Month.

You’d think but no. There are going to be special classes that they are going to have. They said, “Gear up for annual traditions we love, plus member-focused programming.” We will see what that looks like. We don’t know what is that going to look like ye. There are going to be exclusive surprises, exclusive shoutouts, and so much more all month long. Not to mention, they’re going to be having member stories featured. Feel inspired by remarkable member journeys and triumphs. I have never understood why they don’t do more of this because there are so many amazing people in this community.

The Clip Out | Tori Phillips | New Peloton CEO

 

I know we’ve talked to 380 of them.

We sure have. There are so many incredible people in this community. I am glad. Peloton has been doing more of that in the last couple of years. It’s an endless supply. There are so many amazing stories every day. That is what it’s going to look like. I don’t know where they’re getting the stories from. I don’t know if you have to submit. I didn’t read any of it. I’ve been a little busy.

If there was a submission process, you would think that you of all people would have not seen it by now. Seeing that there was a submission process. I get they’re not going to have you as one of them.

I agree with that too to a certain extent, but in the last few days with traveling and everything, I was not on my social media game.

These people had to have been selected quite some time ago. It’s not like they started this on Monday and rolled it out on Thursday. This has been in the works for a while. They have to get the pictures and the bios.

Maybe they picked people off of so many people. There are so many amazing stories. They contacted them quietly and set it up. That could be. I know they’ve done that in the past.

They are stealing our model.

It won’t be the last. Certainly, it wasn’t the first. There are a lot of times that Peloton has taken that approach. I remember back in the day before COVID happened when the Treads first came out. Do you remember how they had a special delivery? I think it was Ellen’s house and Matty showed up. They filmed the whole thing. It was a whole big thing. I never understood why they didn’t do more of that.

We talked a little bit in the previous episode or maybe it was two episodes ago that there was a Black Friday offer but then it didn’t make any sense because it said November 2023. Now we have the new real one. It’s a price match guarantee because they had this issue a year or two ago where they saw sales plummet in November because everybody was like, “I’m going to wait for the Black Friday deal. They started pushing out like, “Buy your bike, treader, or row with confidence and that if we have a Black Friday sale that’s better than what you purchased it at, we will honor that price.”

The way that it’s supposed to work is that if you see a better offer in a Peloton showroom or on OnePeloton.com for the Bike, Bike+, Tread+, Row, or Guide from now through November 11th, then Peloton will match it. Here’s the thing that they say does not qualify, which I think is about to answer your question. All Peloton purchases made via a third-party supplier are not included.

If Amazon has a good deal, it’s not included.

Purchases made before November 1st. Don’t call us asking for it because you’re not going to get it. Purchases made after November 11th. Don’t even try. It’s not going to happen. Peloton rental purchases. We don’t include it. Purchases for accessories that are all a cart independently of a Bike, Bike+, Tread+, Row, or the Guide. Any apparel found on Apparel.OnePeloton.com. That is all. It is crazy.

Peloton has been quietly doing a Pace Target survey. We have been told.

One of our members reached out to us and said that they had gotten an email for a survey regarding Pace Target classes, asking how many they had taken, what they thought about them, etc. We are very curious to hear what they do with that. I know Matty has mentioned a couple of times in his classes that they are working on walking pacing classes, which will be very interesting because in the marathon that I did, walking is so different for people with long legs versus my little short stubby lives. I’m very curious to see how they do this.

Also, the Peloton app changed the weekly streak meter to a daily streak meter.

I think it’s on the actual machine too. Instead of saying, “ That’s three weeks in a row,” now it’s like, “That’s 21 days in a row,” but if you miss a day, then it will revert back to weeks.

It doesn’t zero you out on days. It just says, “Now you’re doing weeks.”

Isn’t that fascinating?

Yeah. I wonder what’s driving that.

I don’t know. Nobody seems to like it. Everybody is like, “I want my weeks back,” because it’s such a big number for so many of us that it’s like too much.

I know Peloton has a lot of different modalities and you can do yoga or meditation and it still counts, but you also should be encouraging people to workout every single day.

That’s a fair thing. Some people struggle to not overdo their workouts. It can be a disorder for people. I don’t know what Peloton would say anymore. I know what they used to say. It was that the idea is you have active recovery. As you said, meditation, yoga, or stretching. You do not need to be doing a bike class every day for three years in a row. That’s not good. Don’t do that. At the same time, I’ll be honest, I don’t have day streaks. I haven’t had day streaks in a long time. I take rest days.

They’ve also debuted a new friend check mark.

This is bizarre. I say bizarre because of how they did it. Now, when you go to look at classes, you can see a listing and it shows you what your friends have taken. The reason it’s it’s bizarre to me is because it looks like you took it because it’ll show a little figure of a person and then it has a checkmark and then a number. That indicates how many of your friends have taken that class. It looks like the checkmark that you got when you took the class. In the image we’re showing here, the top one is of the friend, and the bottom one shows you took it and a friend took it.

They’re almost identical. If you’re in a hurry, they are not very visually distinguishable. I think they need to highlight one or bold one. Something needs to be a little different because as you’re going through it, it’s going to be too easy to think you already took that class. Is it a big deal? No. We’ll get over it, but it’s an odd thing to change. It’s nice to see how many of your friends took it at a glance but it needs to be more distinctive.

Is the Power Zone barre going away?

That is the question. There have been multiple posts coming up where there were screenshots that had a chat with customer service. How many times have those been wrong?

That is fair.

I put no stock in that at all. They said the instructors have left, so we do not believe anything they say. In this customer service chat, they said that it had been confirmed that a recent update had removed the Power Zone barre for non-Power Zone classes. If you’re taking a Jenn Sherman class, you’re not going to have a Power Zone barre. People are saying they still have it. Is it one of those things that’s like it’s rolling out? It’s going to take a while because there are six million people and it takes a while to roll it out. I don’t know because I don’t trust customer service. There are Power Zone people who have confirmed that non-Power Zone classes have a Power Zone barre in them, but there are people who say that they don’t.

That sounds like a rollout to me.

It does sound like a rollout, so we’re putting it out there but no confirmation. That’s why we’re calling it a question.

Coming up after this, we’re going to tackle Instructors In The News. We’re going to tell you who was on Good Morning America and who’s coming back to celebrate her ten-year ride. Stick around.

Becs Gentry was on Good Morning America or if you prefer GMA.

She was very excited to be there and it is a very exciting thing. She was there talking about the New York City Marathon. She also was talking about the fact that during the marathon, I don’t know if we ever got into the details of this, but she was following the pro women’s field on the marathon course. It’s the pro men and then the women go out. It might be flipped. I can’t remember. When the women go out, they have what looks like a fast little golf cart following the women, and then she’s reporting live. If one runner goes in front of the other runner, she’s seeing it and reporting that as it’s happening. This was a huge deal because that is the focal point of the marathon when people are watching for the pro athlete who’s going to win the marathon. For the rest of us, we’re just finishing a marathon. These people are winning a marathon.

It’s an actual competition.

It’s crazy. This was a huge deal for Becs. I don’t think I made a separate line item for this, so I have to use this moment to say that Becs leaves for her big adventure in ten days. By the time this is published, that will be seven days. She’s leaving to go to the Great World Race which will be seven marathons on seven different continents in seven days. We did talk to Becs a couple of times while we were in New York. She’s nervous.

Your body needs to recover, but there's also some mind-healing as well to catch up with everything. Share on X

How could you not be? She’s very skilled and in peak physical condition, but seven marathons in seven days is a lot, and then you add all that travel. I can’t even imagine what her Google pins will look like of her where she’s been.

It’s like Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

He was going to be like, “Bring your phone into the store. We think something is wrong. It says you’ve been on seven continents in seven days. That can’t be right.”

She better have confirmed her credit card, “You couldn’t have possibly been in South Africa yesterday.”

Becs, if you’re tuning in, don’t forget to call CitiBank.

I have to also say that a bunch of Becs’ Beasts is going to be in Miami, watching her set off for her journey in Miami, and when she crosses the finish line because that’s what the Becs’ Beasts do. What a special group of people. We got to hang out with them a little bit. They had a meet-up on Saturday.

I took the group photo. I was like, “Why would I be in a group photo? It’s only appropriate that I take the picture.”

Their group member Sean had set up the meetup. A special shout out to her because she said a lot of very lovely words for everybody who was running the marathon. She also gave a lot of inspiration and love to Becs for the journey that she’s about to be on. Becs cried. We all teared up. It was a very emotional moment. It was super emotional. I’m so excited for Becs. I can’t wait to see her complete this because I know she will. It’s a pretty big deal.

Christine D’Ercole posted that she will be back soon for her tenth-year ride.

She said that she would be back on 11/21 at 5:30 PM Eastern for her tenth-anniversary ride. She had her official anniversary while she’s been out because Peloton is doing this new thing where they’re gone for twelve weeks at a time or whatever. She is going to be back. It’ll be great to be able to celebrate her ten-year anniversary and we wish her all the best.

We found out that Susie Chan will be hosting the International Running Expo.

This is cool. Guess what, Tom? We’re going to have to do some more traveling.

Are you going to sign up for another marathon in Amsterdam?

I don’t know about that, but it’s an expo. That could be fun.

I’m sure there’s a marathon attached to it. Get all those runners in one place. They’re going to do some running.

It’s going to take place on November 4th and 5th of 2025. The dates were backward from American so I had to stop and think.

They do their time in metric.

It’s going to take place in Amsterdam. How exciting for Susie. That is so cool. Congrats to her.

Jenn Sherman was on the cover of The Torch Magazine. If you are unfamiliar with that magazine, that’s because you were not a member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority.

I wouldn’t have known how to pronounce that. That’s cool that she was on there. That’s fine.

I’m sure that’s exciting. It’s her organization and she’s on the cover of the magazine that gets sent out.

I know the community, especially within her JSS Tribe was super excited about that. They were all talking in the comments like, “I have to get my copy. I got my copy yesterday.” They were all excited. That’s so fun.

The latest artist series is a producer series that features Mark Ronson.

Why don’t you put it in pop culture for us?

He is the actual artist of Uptown Funk. It’s Mark Ronson with Bruno Mars. Everybody thinks of it as a Bruno Mars song. It’s technically a Mark Ronson song.

It depends on where you see it because I think it says Bruno Mars featuring Mark Ronson. I think it depends on where you see it. If you see it on a radio in your car, it’ll look different than if you saw it on the album. I was going to say MTV but that’s silly because no one does that.

They don’t show music videos anymore. It now stands for miscellaneous.

That’s cool. There’s a lot of good hits there.

Sometimes those producers’ series can be fun because it’s fun to see how many songs some of these producers end up creating and how much of that song craft is in the producers’ hands, not necessarily the artist’s hands.

I agree. I think this will be a fun one and I’m looking forward to it. A lot of good fun upbeat songs. Lord knows we could use some fun upbeat songs.

Coming up after this, we’ve got a new celebrity sighting for you and we’ll talk some content and give you some suggestions for classes you should be checking out if you’re looking for things to do. Stick around.

This celebrity sighting is a little older but it slipped by our radar. A listener was kind enough to point out to us that Jeremy Camp is a big Peloton fan. He’s a major artist in the Christian music community.

Has he played at your Arena?

Yes.

This particular member also mentioned that King is another.

They’re newer. Their first big hit was around 2020, but they’re also pretty well known. Although I don’t think they’re quite as big as Jeremy Camp. That’s three siblings. It’s a family.

The Clip Out | Tori Phillips | New Peloton CEO

 

I don’t know that. That was brought to you by Denise.

Thank you, Denise. Jeremy Camp has been talking about Peloton’s for 2 or 3 years now.

Denise was saying that these bands bring their Pelotons on the road. I’m also curious if they have one of those custom-made little cases that have been going around there for a while.

When we did Jeff Dunham, he didn’t have a Peloton but he had a treadmill. I think this was before Peloton had a treadmill, but he had this big giant road case that his treadmill was in, and then we took it in one of the locker rooms and they wielded in and they unfolded it.

There’s a guy who does that for Peloton. We talked to him.

He was doing this for Neil Diamond years ago.

That was years ago. They’re out there. That’s cool. Thank you, Denise, for sharing that. That was via our tip line as well. If you guys have a tip to send over to us, you can go to TCO In The Know. Also, on our website, there’s a little place where you can fill in whatever those tips are. Those are fun to read. I love getting them.

It is time for the TCO Top Five, where you tell us your favorite classes of the week and then we say them back to you. Number one, your favorite Halloween ride.

This was taught by Erik Jäger on October 28th. Sonya Norman nominated this class. She said, “This class was not just my favorite class this week. It was probably my favorite class this year. Just watching Erik ride in a giant inflatable pumpkin costume is hilarious. He increases the entertainment factor by telling a story throughout the ride about being chased by Clausi, the cannibal pumpkin. After being chased by Clausi for 30 minutes, I was drenched in sweat but I was laughing so much. I forgot I was working out.”

Number two, your favorite run.

This was taught by Becs Gentry and it was on 11/1. It was a marathon race prep with Meb. Meb joined her in class for this. Sarah Lester said, “It was her favorite class because it had Meb.” I don’t know how to say his name correctly. I know that I should because he’s a freaking legend and we saw him at the expo. I was so overcome with nerves because I could go up to people all the time and be like, “Take a picture with me.” I could not do it with Meb. I don’t know why I can’t, but he’s such a legend. Sarah said, “Even though this was called a marathon prepper, do not let that scare you off. It could easily translate into a walk run or a walk, and it’s a great chance to run with running royalty.”

Number three, your favorite outdoor run.

All about Marathon weekend. This was taught by Robin Arzon on November 2nd. This was a 30-minute 26.2 celebration run. It was the first outdoor run that Peloton has ever had live. Stephanie loved this run, saying it did not disappoint, “The playlist was classic Robin, but there were some great nuggets of advice in there and it fired me up for the next marathon season.” We’re sensing a marathon theme this week.

Number four, your favorite ride.

This was a 60-minute sweat steady ride with Jess King, and it was from October 28th. Catherine Kimes nominated this ride aptly pointing out that it was more like a square study. However, she admitted that despite how challenging this ride was, she enjoyed it. The music in this class helps you get through the 60 minutes of challenging pedaling, featuring alternative rock and grunge songs. You can sing along with them as you sweat your way through the hour.

Number five, your unstackable.

This was a total strength 60 class that was taught by Andy Speer on November 3rd. Elizabeth Schlossberg suggested this class because it is not a ride. During this class, she said Andy was in the top three hardest TS 60 classes he’s ever done and he’s done all of them. We get it. Elizabeth said, “Andy was even struggling to complete some of the reps as I’ve never seen him before, which I appreciated witnessing actually.” In other words, it was such a hard class that he even struggled. It’s an appropriate unstackable.

Now we turn our eyes to This Week at Peloton. We will start with strength and recovery for runners.

If you did run a marathon this weekend and there were lots of them, not just the New York City marathon, then this will be good for you. There was a 30-minute strength for runners with Matt, and that was on November 3rd, and it became on demand that same day. There’s also going to be a core for runners with Becs this week and that dropped on demand the same day. That’s a good way to stretch out your body and keep it moving.

We also have a new recovery run.

It was taught by Kirsten on November 4th. It was going to drop on demand, so she didn’t teach this live right after the marathon. She completed her first marathon at the New York City Marathon. That was her very first one. This recovery run was very appropriate to drop right after that. A nice gentle run to get the muscles moving again is perfect.

We have not one but two people celebrating five years with Peloton.

We sure do. Samuela and Hannah Frankson both mark their five-year anniversaries this week and they have new greatest hit collections for each of them available on demand. You go over to collections and they will now be there.

We have our first-ever yoga and Pilates class.

Taught by Anna Greenberg. Let me tell you that I took this today. It dropped on demand on November 4th and I loved it.

Did you love not doing a running thing for a change because you’ve been so focused on running?

I did but it was also a challenging class. It was nice to be able to be challenged but not by running,

Makes perfect sense.

I will also say this as a little plug for Mariana. When I was in New York, I got to take a walk-run class with her on Thursday night. I also took a yoga conditioning class with her on Saturday morning before the run on Sunday. Both of those classes were wonderful, but I underestimated yoga conditioning. A 2-pound weight should not do that much damage.

You were damaged.

I was but in the best way. I love Mariana. She’s the best. She’s the sweetest. I love her. Anna has always been very kind to me too. Two wonderful instructors. A lot of good ones.

Peloton has dropped a Road to 10K. You just finished your Road to 5K. Not you because you just finished the marathon. I mean the royal viewer. You just finished your Road to 5K. Now, you got yourself a Road to 10K. I have never been happy.

It’s cool because now Peloton has programs for all major race links. They’ve got one for 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon. I think there’s going to be a lot of people taking this. A lot of people mentioned to me that they were excited about taking it, but it is the official offseason of running for everyone who just ran marathons for the fall, so it might be a bit before we see an official review on this one. It’s definitely not for me.

Also, not for me.

We knew that.

Peloton Apparel has released a gift guide. Is this new?

Don't be afraid to start a beginner ride. Share on X

They come out with one every holiday. Sometime around November-ish, they usually come out with one. They didn’t do one every year. I’d say the last 3 to 4 years, maybe 5 because time flies weirdly since the COVID. It’s been a while.

Speaking of apparel we also have a partnership with GoodPark NYC.

I had never heard of it, but apparently, it’s an apparel brand. Some of their items also ended up on the gift guide. It does make sense. If you’re a fan of GoodPark, then this is perfect for you.

If you’re not a fan of GoodPark, perhaps you like Stoney Clover Lane because they did a collection with them as well.

I’ve never heard of them either. They seem to have bags or whatever. They have little pouches with patches. These are also in the gift guide. If you need a little pouch that you can take your accessories in, this would be good for you or if you need a little patch that looks like a tiny little Peloton with somebody riding it, this is a good place to get that.

I’ve been wanting one of those.

You can also get a Peloton P and a heart. You can get a Peloton rower and a Peloton tread, which I have to say looks like a Tread+ in this patch. The colors are very interesting. They’re very springy, which is weird because it’s winter.

We have two birthdays. Coming up on November 9th, we have Mayla Wedekind.

Happy birthday to Mayla.

On November 10th, it’s Aditi Shah.

Happy birthday to Aditi and Mayla. We’re almost at the end of the year. I don’t know how I feel about that.

Coming up after this, we got our interview with the week with Tori Phillips. Join us, won’t you?

 —

Joining us is Tori Phillips. How is it going?

It’s going great. Thank you for having me.

Peloton Journey

We are so excited you are here. I always like to start with finding out how Peloton came into your life. How did that first happen to you?

It’s around the three-year anniversary of when I got my Peloton bike. It was right between October and November of 2021. I was freshly postpartum. I had my daughter in August, Dylan, and I needed something to help with the baby weight, something to get going again. My husband used to mountain bike. He used to do triathlons. He said, “If you get the Peloton, I’ll ride it with you.” I’m like, “I need to justify the finances of it.” It’s good to say he’s never ridden it.

A man after my own heart. I always picture when you said ride it with you, do they have tandem Peloton bikes? Is that what’s going on?

That would be great. Don’t tempt me to tell him to pay Peloton, but he knew I’d be open to getting it if it was something the two of us could do together. He manipulated me into it with his brain. That’s how I got the Peloton bike. It’s been around for years.

Happy Peloversary.

I noticed I have around 2,500 miles on it.

That’s great. Do you take any other classes on the Peloton platform or are you a bike-only gal?

I started off solely on the bike, and then because I had a yoga background, I tried some of the other classes, but I’m a sucker for the strength classes. I am a strength sucker for them. I am finishing one program I’ve done ten times this week, but the strength and the Peloton bike are probably my main go-tos. I’ll sprinkle in some yoga, stretching, and walking as well.

Weight Loss Journey

A little of everything. One of the things that I wanted to chat with you about was also your weight loss journey. I’m curious where Peloton fits in. Did the weight loss journey start before you got your bike or after? How did this all come to be?

The bike came first on this journey. I would like to preface that many moons ago, I lost 189 pounds through the gym, a very toxic culture. I wanted to be smart about it this time. I’m older, I’m a mother, I’m about to go through some major life-changing surgeries and whatnot. The bike came first, and I gave myself six months. I solely was with the bike for six months. After that, I put on a little bit of weight. I started therapy and started the bariatric surgery process.

It is a huge undertaking. I know it’s a huge decision to do bariatric surgery. Was there a moment where you were like, “I’m doing this?”

I figured it out when I weighed my heaviest. After six months of postpartum, I realized I was at the heaviest weight that I have on record. I can’t play around anymore. I’m about to have my double mastectomy. I am a new mom. I need to get this weight off for so many multiple reasons and I can’t do it on my own. I started that in February, seven months later. After almost a year with the Peloton, I had the bariatric surgery.

You mentioned that you had a baby. Once you have surgery like that, are you done? I’ve never thought about it. Can you still have children after that?

With all of the procedures I have had since having my child, I still can have a child if I want to. The rest is history. I’m still learning.

I never had thought about the surgery in terms of childbearing before. I was like, “What does that process do?”

You’re more at higher risk because they’re concerned about the nutrition. Not only you but the baby getting nutrients. Otherwise, it’s a normal pregnancy.

You mentioned casually like it was no big deal, a double mastectomy. Was that a cancer-prevention decision?

I am BRCA1 positive. It was a preventative surgery. My family’s age of diagnosis is 38. I had the surgery at 38. I turned 39. I’m still in the process of it. I have my final test next month.

That’s a process?

Yeah, it’s a process because you have to let things heal before you can go in. I watch a lot of TV that shows these things. Correct me on anything. They put these little expanders in and then you have to size it back. You let the tissue heal so that it can go back and then it expands, and then you can put the tissue in or the little thing in.

I have a Goldilocks. It’s like what you said. They do them effectively, which is removing your entire chest, just to put it out there, and then you put expanders to help reform the chest with what’s left. That should take about three months. You have your final exchange surgery, which is what they call it, and then they’ll put it in there. I wasn’t that lucky. Within the first week of my surgery in 2024, I had necrosis on my left breast.

We’re going to monitor that. Two weeks in, I developed a double infection on that same chest. I had an immediate surgery. They had to clear out that and replace my expanders. Two surgeries in surgeries in three weeks. That was February. We get to May and I’m supposed to be at the end part of what they call filling. They had to fill my chest every week.

The Clip Out | Tori Phillips | New Peloton CEO

 

My surgeon would come with 50 cc and pop it through my chest, and I have magnets because I have no filling. Right at the end, he goes, “You know what? Your right side doesn’t look right.” I had a third surgery to replace a second failed implant. That was in May, and then in August, I had an extra skin removal surgery. I had to recover from that and I’ll have my final test. I’ll have eleven months in this process.

I know it’s awful. My first thought was, “I’m glad you’re starting in February because you’re hitting your deductible for the year early.” This is the astute observation that husbands bring to the equation.

I will have had five surgeries by the end of it. One year.

Skin removal surgery is also not an easy surgery. That’s a whole thing and it’s painful, isn’t it?

Yes. I had two procedures done at the same time. I had an arm lift and a fertile tummy tuck. In the end, they removed 34 pounds of skin.

Those are no joke.

I had 30 pounds from my abdomen and 2 pounds from each arm removed.

Thirty pounds. That’s like a toddler.

That is my toddler.

That’s like 2 or 3 babies.

I already lost 217 pounds. My body has been through a lot this year. Peloton helped me through it the entire time.

With all those surgeries, there are recovery times. Have there been long breaks or have you been able to still utilize Peloton while you’re recovering?

I would like to say I am in my 80th week straight going on. The weeks that I can’t workout, I would meditate. I’ll be using meditation often, but they want you to walk. After almost all these procedures, they want you to walk. The audio was great for that. I would go on my walking pad and listen to the instructors, or even take the class and have it on my tablet. It’s important to stay active, whether it was the meditation classes, to distract me from the chaos of what was going on within my body, or finally being able to walk. That was great. Until I was able to get back on the bike like I used to.

That’s so much that you’ve mentioned, but that’s not all. You had all of this going on in the last year, but you also had melanoma in the middle of all of this. If all the things you mentioned weren’t enough for you.

All my surgeons and everyone I encountered were like, “You’re a veteran in the hospital.” You have no idea. I’m two years in remission from my last diagnosis. I had it four times, and the very first time was right on my face. I have a scar. On top of everything, I still had to go and get checked by my dermatologist and pray nothing came up. Thankfully, nothing did.

Finding Community

That is so much to take on in one year. You mentioned that you take other classes on the Peloton platform. It sounds like you take a little bit of everything, but what we didn’t ask is, what is your leaderboard name and how did you come up with it?

My leaderboard name is FindingTorikins, all in one word. It matches my other social handles, but there’s a little underscore or period in them. The reason why I came up with FindingTorikins is my mother called me Torikins in 2019. That’s been very hard on me. I wanted to find myself. I was on the hunt.

Do you feel like you have?

No, if anything, right now, I’m very lost. I’ve utilized my platform, especially with Peloton, to get me through this past year, to get me through the surgeries, and the ups and downs. Now that I’m past it, what do I do?

I’ve had times in my life when things have been crazy, and then you get to the end of that and you’re like, “Now what?”

I’m exactly like, “What do I care about my journey” or “What do I want to do?” This and that. I’m still looking for FindingTorikins. I found her physically. Through Peloton, I have found that I enjoy being very active. I’m excited to get on the bike. I’m excited to strength train, and I enjoy how it makes me feel. Now I just have to connect my body and mind to see what I can do with all that.

It makes sense that there would be some lag time on the mind side of things, given all of the things that you’ve been through. Your body needs to recover. I would think that there’s also some mind-healing as well to catch up with everything.

I learned with bariatric surgery that everything moves quickly in either the body or the mind. You’re either going to drop a lot of weight all of a sudden out of nowhere and your brain has to catch up to it, or you mentally make the changes and your body is not physically responding to it. I still do that because I’m only seven weeks post the skin-removal surgery. I am five weeks away from my last surgery. I’m in the middle of these two, and my body is still swollen and still healing. I’m about to do it one more time, right at the time when I will be fully healed. I’m still in limbo, but by January 2025, I could be like, “Next step.”

What is the next step? What does that look like?

She’s trying to figure it out.

I would love to be able to share my story because it has so many different facets, but they’re all interconnected. I would not be successful with my weight loss without Peloton. Peloton would not have come into my life if I wasn’t going to have a mastectomy. It all combines so much, and then how do I focus on it?

That makes total sense. Do you have a preferred instructor?

It depends. For some reason, I am the London strength training person. All my strength trainers are JJ or Ben Alldis. Those are my go-to. I specifically search them out. I do not know why. It might be the British background.

It doesn’t hurt. That’s for sure.

It doesn’t. Do you want to boss me around? Yes, please. If I’m riding a bike, it’s probably either Alex or Tunde. If I want to rock it, it’s going to be Jess King.

If only she could get an accent. That could reset.

That’s right. Alex’s hip-hop classes and the club bangers helped me through a lot. They still do. If I’m struggling mentally and I know that I need to get lost in the ride, I go for the club bangers.

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

Don’t be afraid to change your seat if you’re starting with a bike. Start off slow. Don’t be afraid to start a beginner ride. My first ride was five minutes, and I probably did that for a few weeks before I was able to start up my momentum. Mainly, give yourself grace because you’re going to want to do more and you’re going to want to automatically punish yourself. Don’t do that. Fight that feeling. Give yourself grace and say, “You did what you did,” and make that into that victory. That helps me the most.

Very good advice.

Thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you in all the places.

The Clip Out | Tori Phillips | New Peloton CEO

 

I’m on TikTok and Instagram, and it’s FindingTorikins. On Instagram, it’s @Finding_Torikins, but my name is Finding_Torikins. On TikTok, I believe it’s @Finding_Torikins. Otherwise, type those in and you’ll find me.

Thank you so much. Good luck on your continued health journey. It’s been a lot, so fingers crossed for you.

Thank you so much. I’ll see you all on the leaderboard.

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next time, where can people find you?

They can find me not running outside and on Facebook. You can find me at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe, on all the other socials, and somewhere on that Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find me on Threads. How about that? TomOKeefeJr. I’m a junior, don’t you know?

I do know.

You can find the show at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon. For $5 a month, you get all sorts of content. We like you a little extra.

We do. We’re going to record it right now.

We’ll do that right now so you’ll have that to look forward to. You can do all that at Patreon.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling.

And running.

And rowing.

And lifting, and stretching.

And yoga-ing.

That was the stretching. Bye.

 

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