TCO 12 | Steven Little Peloton

12: Steven Little Chucks Peloton In The F**K It Bucket. Plus, Part 2 Of Our Jenn Sherman Interview

TCO 12 | Steven Little Peloton

 

#LittleGate has hit the internet, and Tom and Crystal O’Keefe are here to break down what it means for the Peloton industry. Such a divisive and speculation-filled issue deserves a good discussion, after all. Also joining Tom and Crystal is Jenn Sherman, a long-time fitness instructor working with Peloton. Jenn discusses life for instructors, and the little nitty-gritties of the job you may not always realize.

Listen to the podcast here:

Steven Little Chucks Peloton In The F**K It Bucket. Plus, Part 2 Of Our Jenn Sherman Interview

This is Crystal O’Keefe.

This is Tom O’Keefe.

My lovely husband. 

Pick a bad day to do that.

You’re in a crabby mood. 

I’m in a crabby mood.

We shouldn’t come back from vacation ever. 

That’s true. Not coming back from vacation is called being homeless.

I know, which is why we come back. I didn’t count on you being all crabby. 

It’s not my fault. It’s Charter Spectrum’s fault.

I didn’t have any internet guys. That means I couldn’t ride the bike this morning. That’s two days in a row. I haven’t been on the bike after being out for nine days. I’ve had one day on the bike in twelve days. Not cool. 

Do you know how long it’s been since I looked at porn? It’s awful.

You poor baby. 

You have your workout. I have mine.

It’s totally the same. I don’t know where to go from there.

Don’t forget some shameless plugs. We’re available on iTunes. You can go there, rate review, subscribe. It helps us tremendously. We do have a new review.

Can you read it? 

It is from Entice18.

I wonder if that’s Nancy Tyce. 

That would make sense. I like Entice. That’s pretty. That’s a good initial combo. I wonder if her parents thought of that. If they thought of that when they named her.

We’re going to need some feedback on this one.

It’s weird on the thing, someone would look at a little baby and go, “She will be enticing.” That’s what I’m saying. Maybe it wasn’t an accident. If she’s married, there’s no way they could have foreseen that.

That would have been an impossibility unless it was an arranged marriage. We are way off-topic now. What is happening?

We are. That’s what we do. We’re still in vacation mode. Her review was, “Great to listen to all things in Peloton. Friends and family are tired of the bike talk.” We understand. “Great interviews, love listening. #GratefulMD.” She’s a doctor.

She’s a doctor who’s enticing. We don’t even know it’s a she, do we? We think its Nancy, but we don’t know that.

If it’s Nancy, it’s fairly safe assumption.

I know, but we don’t know that it’s Nancy. 

No, we don’t.

He’s crabby guys. There may not be as many jokes on this episode. I worry now. I will do my best. 

There’s the review. We also had somebody comment that there are ways besides iTunes to get podcasts which is absolutely true. Part of the reason we don’t mention it is because iTunes is 50% of the podcast market, probably even more. There are ways on Android devices to get podcasts. You can use Stitcher. I believe the Google Play Store now or Google Music or whatever you can get podcasts through their player. You can get them through Podkicker. There’s Podcast Addict. There are lots of different podcasts delivery services and we should be fed out to pretty much all of them. We went through and did all that, however you can find podcasts. If you’re not sure, go to the Google Play Store, type in Podcast Player or something like that. It should give you options. You could kick an old school and stream it off of Acast at Acast.com/theclipout, you could do it that way. You could do it old school and we could call you on the phone and talk about Peloton.

You could come hang out at our house. You had to drive or fly to Missouri. If you want to go old school, we can have a conversation in person.

If you want to go old school, we could pass notes back and forth in class. “Do you like Peloton? Yes or no? Check this box.” I don’t think that was a very well-kept secret.

I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret. 

Anyway, coming up on the show this week, part two of our Jenn Sherman interview in our most recent episode was wildly popular. It’s our fastest downloaded episode ever. Thank you very much for that. Don’t forget if you have friends that like Peloton that maybe aren’t familiar with The Clip Out, you should tap them on the shoulder digitally. Somehow, it sounded dirtier when I said that. You should digitally manipulate them and let them know about the show so you can share it. It’s another feature of Peloton that you can share with your friends to make them go, “Jesus Christ. We get it. We bought a bike.”

You could do that too. 

We have part two of Jenn Sherman interview. We will have a recipe.

One of the appeals of Peloton is getting to have multiple instructors. Click To Tweet

There is no recipe. 

Jenn Sherman only sends this one recipe, that lazy?

She’s busy. You back off to Jenn Sherman. 

She didn’t know that we would split up her interview in the two parts. Make last week’s recipe, but with chocolate or something.

We’ve got some other things to talk about, anyway. 

I believe you’re referring to leaderboard name, Little Gate. Is that what they’re doing? It’s a hashtag. Sometimes there’s a hashtag or the leaderboard name. How am I supposed to keep all this straight?

If it’s a hashtag, then it’s a hashtag. If it’s a leaderboard name, it’s a leaderboard name. 

Maybe somebody changed your leaderboard named to Little Gate.

Even if they did, that’s not what we would be talking about. We’d be talking about Little Gate.

It makes him sound like a Native American, Chief Little Gate.

Somebody’s going to make a meme for that now. There’s a lot of Steven Little memes out there. That would be a good one.

That sounds like I could get offensive pretty quickly.

I feel like Tom Labelle or Colby. I feel like that’s something they would do. If they’re so inclined, make a meme but don’t be offensive when you make the meme. We have some news to discuss. 

Steven Little, I always want to say he’s no more. He’s still alive. He’s not going to be working for Peloton. He will be alive in places that aren’t a Peloton.

Blinked to be exact. Are you familiar with Blinked?

His wife owns it and it’s an app I can’t get on an Android.

That makes it completely inaccessible to me until they roll it out at some point. 

We were on a family plan.

I was letting them know that.

I figured they knew we were on a family plan. It’s getting serious. We took the jump.

We made it that far. He’s crabby. Are we jumping into that? 

He’s going to work.

He’s going to lead the fitness division of Blinked. 

I still don’t fully understand what Blinked does.

It’s a recommendation service. It’s like Yelp. I don’t know because I haven’t used it. That’s how I envision it. If I’m giving you something to think of it similarly to, it would be Yelp.

Yelp for what?

For all kinds of things. Apparently, they’re going to add fitness to their platform and that’s why they have him. I know he would put things on Facebook that he had recommended through Blinked so it could be anything. There were times that he recommended Crickets, for example. That was a big thing. There are times that he recommended restaurants, desserts or fitness gear like a heart rate monitor, things like that. It could be about anything. I wish we could’ve had him on the show. I would love to ask him all these questions, by the way. I don’t understand how that needs an entire division to be headed up. Is that because there’s some money flowing back and forth? As things get recommended, there’s money for that and that’s why it needs to be managed. To me, you could recommend anything. If you need a division to head it up, then that implies in my head that you would be pushing certain products more than you would be pushing others, which means that it’s not being recommended. 

It’s not a review service, it’s an advertising platform.

I’m confused and I would love to understand it better. 

I am also confused.

If anybody out there has used Blinked and you have some insight, we would love to hear that. We did reach out to Steven Little. For anybody who’s asking, get their selves that question.

Before we get to that, we should back up. A lot of people were very upset because he kept disappearing from the lineup of upcoming rides. It was unfortunate because there were some people that had planned home studio rides that are in studio rides. I know Rhonda, who’s a huge Steven Little fan.

There was Megan, she had like a train ride. She was trying to find out, “Do we need to cancel this?

Peloton went silent and wouldn’t answer anybody. They were getting very frustrated, which I get. I also know that Peloton was in a prime position where they knew what was going on, but they couldn’t say anything yet. I’ve been in that position, where I’ve had a concert that’s getting canceled that I know it’s getting canceled. People are asking me. “Is this getting canceled?” I can’t officially tell them that yet. I don’t want to say no and then lie to them and come back two days later and be like, “Now it’s canceled.” You’re like, “I don’t want to do.” You have to hang tight. I also get that if you had a train ticket or a milestone ride that you had built around Steven Little, that it has to be maddening.

I get both sides of that. I felt a lot of sympathy and empathy for fellow writers who were waiting to find out what was going on. I also could understand that, from Peloton standpoint, there are lots of HR considerations. I don’t know what the specific rules are for New York, but I do know that every state has very clear rules about what you can and cannot say. It can be very tough to walk that line. Even if you take the HR considerations out of it, it’s allowing that person to say their piece, their own way, with dignity, and giving that person respect and privacy. That’s tough because here we are in a very public forum. Steven Little and all the coaches are in front and center. We feel like they’re our friends, working out with us and they enjoy working out with us as much as we enjoy working out with them. We feel like we’re entitled to that information, but we’re not. It made me feel sad to watch people get as upset as they did at Peloton. 

Even though I understood in a lot of cases, especially if you were making a special trip, those are the people realized. The other people, “You pick a different rider for a day and you’ll be okay. It didn’t disrupt your life.” At the end of the day, it sounds like it was a choice he made. It’s not something Peloton did. It was a decision for whatever reason he made. If the dude doesn’t want to work there anymore, the Peloton can’t chain him to a bike.

TCO 12 | Steven Little Peloton

Steven Little Peloton: If you are really looking for a shoutout from your instructor, the leaderboard is growing immensely by day, so it’s getting much more difficult to scroll around and give those shoutouts.

 

Nobody would want that, except for Rhonda. There’s a lot of readers who would like him change to a little bike, but that is a different reason altogether. It’s sad that he’s leaving and a lot of people were put on the spot. I’m sure he had his reasons for not coming to people publicly prior to that. He had a lot of soul searching to do. I personally think this has been going on for a while. 

That’s why I said, “Let’s talk about the other part later.” We reached out to him a while back and he seemed very eager to come on the show.

In fact, we were discussing topics like we were good to go. 

Ironically for everyone out there that was so angered by Peloton’s radio silence, Steven Little went radio silent with us and stopped replying. It’s a tactic both sides have used although one a little bit more publicly and affecting infinitely more people in us.

I’m sure he had his reasons for doing that. He didn’t want to share with us his plans because that would be rude to everybody else he hadn’t shared them with which I get. For anybody who might be wondering, based on the timing of the silence, this has been out there for a while. I’d say a few weeks.

It took a bunch of vacations. If you know you’re leaving a job, what do you do? You burn through all your vacation time. That’s not a Peloton specific thing. That’s what people do. “I got two weeks. I’m going to take that and then put in my two weeks or whatever.”

I would like to get on my soapbox for two seconds. I have seen a lot of people guess why he left or think it’s somebody’s fault in particular or of certain reactions, fault. Something happened or didn’t happen at Peloton. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. In my mind, everyone should approach this as it was a decision he made and the company made together if nothing else. It’s none of our business. Let’s not all waste a lot of energy on that. Be nice to each other out there on these discussion boards. Be respectful. There are lots of people that are going to miss this guy a lot. He was a huge part of so many people’s fitness journey. We should be respectful and supportive of that.

He was one of the instructors. When people first came to Peloton, he resonated with them.

He’s quirky and he’s very blunt. He says it as he thinks it. He also doesn’t appear to cater to people or politics. That’s appealing. 

The other thing to remember is that with a finite exception, you didn’t buy the bike for Steven Little. There’s a couple of people that did but, by and large, you bought the bike and then you discovered Steven Little. It’s not the other way around. You’ll find another instructor and there’ll be fun. Think of it like a weekend update. Chevy Chase is going to be on weekend updating. Who could ever replace Chevy Chase? The next thing you know, the quote of the week is, “January girl slut.”

They need some time to process and to mourn. It’s like any loss, they needed some time. They’re out there airing their grievances. You guys go right ahead and do that. Anybody who’s got a problem with that, don’t respond, skim on by it. You don’t need to say anything.

In the meantime, it seems like a lot of people are migrating from heart rate training to Matt Wilpers’ Power Zones.

They are. Peloton does need to pay attention to the fact that so many people seem to love the structured training that Steven Little gave and that Matt Wilpers continues to give. That is not to take away from any of the other instructors.

That’s why you have multiple instructors. That’s one of the appeals of Peloton. If you’re in the mood for a fun ride, they’re out there. If you want something a little bit more structured or scientifically minded and crafted, you had heart rate training, you have Power Zones. You can toggle back and forth. It’s great that they have all these different avenues that people can explore.

It reminds me in response to the huge influx of interest on Power Zone training, they have started a new tribe. Jacque Cincotta, Elizabeth Wiley and I know at least one other person that I cannot remember off the top of my head, they started a whole new tribe. It’s a new page on Facebook, it’s not a tribe, but it’s the Power Zone Tribe page. They discuss all of Matt’s teachings. There are links to his Cadence blog. There are links when he appeared on The Clip Out, his interview about Power Zones. Everything Matt Wilpers related that you could possibly be interested in is out there. It’s a great place to be. For anybody who’s a little tired of some of the drama on the OPP, it is drama free for now. If you are a drama person, take it elsewhere. It’s a great group.

If you’re looking for more information about Power Zone, you can go back to episode two. Matt Wilpers discusses them in depth. We’re talking about all the different things you can do on Peloton. I find it interesting. When we were on vacation, we stopped by a Peloton store. The one in the Cherry Creek Mall in Dever. It’s very fancy. I felt like they were following me around the store, it’s like I was going to put a bike in my trench coat, they are fancy.

They were trying to bike in the car. It’s what they were doing. 

I thought it was interesting, but sometimes I wonder if the people in the store know what they’re doing but get the full appeal of the bike. I noticed that they were pushing like there are these scenic rides you can take.

There are a lot of people that like to do the scenic rides.

I have no doubt. It’s interesting that if you’re on the Facebook page and all the different groups, I’ve never heard anybody say once anything about the scenic rides.

The lady that was in there looking at the bike, I wanted to go over to her and be like, “This is so great. You don’t even know you need to buy this bike right now and here’s why. Forget the scenic rides. Here’s the good stuff.” 

The lady that was in there, she had on her athletic way. She was clearly in shape, not trying to be pervy but she was in shape. She was clearly athletic. I’m like, “This lady isn’t here for scenic rides.” You sell scenic rides to the chubby guy like me like, “You can look drive by donut shops.” To her, she doesn’t want scenic. She wants something that’s going to kick her ass.

I thought that was interesting too but we did walk in midway through the conversation. She may have specifically asked about those. 

She might also have a fat and lazy husband. Is that what you’re saying?

I wasn’t going to say anything. 

You certainly did and say. “What?” Anyway, if you’re looking for someone to replace Steven Little in your training regimen, if not in your heart, you could check out Matt Wilpers.

You could and don’t forget we have those two new instructors started. I believe it’s Dennis and Emma and all the ladies are digging Dennis. 

It didn’t seem like he is a Winchester to Steven Little’s Frank Burns? A new character that’s different but there to fill the same role. It’s not that Steven Little was like Frank Burns.

I know what you’re saying. They both have the chiseled jaw and the rugged good looks. 

Did you say he was hot?

No. 

That’s what it sounds like to me. All I said was somebody was in shape.

He’s in shape. He’s a spin instructor.

When you spend a lot, does it make your jaw chiseled?

If you’re lucky. 

Maybe more rugged.

No workout relies on music as a backdrop the way indoor cycling does. Click To Tweet

Do you want to get on the bike and find out? 

I believe the term you used was rugged, which I know is code for, “Throw me around like a ragdoll.”

You were watching porn. 

Take home rider invasion became hole rider invasion.

We ladies wish.

Next year, you’ll be showing up in your catsuit.

No.

I will.

I would never have that confidence 

I’ll be there in a catsuit.

Will you?

Yes.

You can ride the bike?

No, my tail would get caught in the wheel. There are two new instructors. We’ll be prattling on for a while. Perhaps we’ll discuss in the next episode in more detail about the two new instructors.

We should jump into the interview.

We should. This is a part two of the interview. The first one was part one. It was very popular as well. It’s our fastest downloaded episode ever. It was a little lengthy. We got talking which is great. She gave us a lot of her time and we were very appreciative of that. Without further ado, because we’ve been doing up to place, here is part two of our interview with Jenn Sherman.

I am who I am on the bike. I’m a little bit of an open book, maybe too much information at times but that’s not contrived. That’s who I am. It’s organic. Stuff comes out of my mouth and it shouldn’t. Sometimes, I will watch a class back from time to time. I will tell you, as a little side note, that people might find interesting. I despise watching my rides back. I’m not talking about the old footage from years ago. I’m talking about I despise watching what I did this morning at 8:00. I can’t watch myself. I will do it from time to time because it’s always a good, useful tool to try to always get better and looking at things that I could do differently and whatnot. I’m glad that everyone does love the stories and they love the little bit of chat. The feedback has been great. I’ve continued to be who I am and not make any changes there. When I watch myself back and I listened to myself tell those stories, I want to shoot myself, just so you know.

I’m sorry you feel that way, but we all enjoy it. I have a question. When you talk about how you’re very much yourself on the bike, what do you think of, “JSS is magic?” What does that mean to you when you hear other people say that? 

That has taken on a little life of its own. Has it not? My dear, I will call her a friend. She’s a friend to me at this point, Lisa Getty. She came up with that little hashtag, that little line and it had a little snowball effect. I’m trying to get used to being comfortable with things that make me a little bit uncomfortable. I’m not so good at receiving compliments, believe it or not. When people ask me about the JSS has magic, all this stuff that is starting to happen as this community grows and as Pelo nation gets larger every month, there are more and more accolades and attention. I’m learning to embrace it. Believe me, it’s a blessing. I’m so thankful for all of it. It’s all a little bit uncomfortable. I try to have fun with the JSS is magic. It’s a fun little thing now that I can even joke around and make fun of myself like I’ll say something to a writer and then it’ll be, “That’s so funny that she said that.” I said that thing earlier and then, “JSS is magic.” I know things that I’m magic. I take it all in Jess, but it’s all amazing stuff. I don’t take it too seriously but it’s pretty cool. Thank you, Lisa Getty, for that one.

I’m sure it has to be a weird, surreal experience that you’re going through in terms of, you didn’t set out to be a spin instructors thinking and maybe I’ll become a celebrity of stores.

It’s funny because when I reflect back to that earliest conversation, that very first cup of coffee that I had with John Foley back in May of 2013. He may not remember this. He talked about Peloton and the vision and where he pictured it going. He said, “I want to hire a roster of instructors and you guys are going to be celebrities. How do you feel about that?” I looked at him like, “He was out of his mind.” I looked at him like he was crazy. I’m not in it for any of that. I certainly do not look at myself like that at all. Can I stress that even more? I can’t stress that more strongly. I’m saying that in capital letters with exclamation points, like not at all. I see myself in that light in any way. That said, I’m starting to see what’s happening. It’s strange. It’s surreal going into restaurants, being spotted on the street or being out with my family and getting stopped.

It’s all amazing. It’s not at any level at all, by the way, where it’s uncomfortable, intrusive or bothers me. Let’s set the record straight. For me personally, I can’t speak for any other instructor. It’s happening and it happens frequently, but it is not at any level yet at all where it’s bothersome, annoying or intrusive. It’s all been fun and nice but it’s happening. I noticed it when I was away with my family over Christmas vacation. We got to the airport and someone noticed me on the Chuck in line and then on the TSA line. When I was walking to my gate. I had riders at the gate and on the flight. We got to the resort in Mexico and every single day there were new Peloton riders arriving that were excited to come up and chat with me. That was a real intense dose of, “Holy crap, this is real.” My poor kids that are like, “Mom, you’re so annoying.” A whole lot of that.

Next thing you know, you’re having a private dinner in Rome and Bruce Springsteen walks over to your table and he’s like, “I hate to interrupt but.”

Let me say something about that if I can. I admitted to you on this podcast that I am a little bit of a celebrity stalker. I love my celebrities. I’m as fascinated with celebrities and pop culture as the next person. I’m not going to lie to you, not even for a second. When I think about these celebrities that have our bike, it’s not private info. You guys know that Ellen and Michelle Obama’s got a bike and there’s a ton of celebs out there that have bikes now. That is crazy town. I don’t know who they’re riding with, but there are only ten of us. I’ve got a 1 in 10 shot that someone cool is taking my class and I don’t know it. That thought is a little bit of a bug out. I’m not going to lie. That’s a little bit of a thing. None of them may have discovered me yet. I have no idea. I don’t know. Ellen DeGeneres would like a sing-along ride. That’s all I’ll say about that.

That’s a fair theory. 

I know that she’s discovered it. I don’t know that she has any idea what that is. I am pretty damn sure that she would love a little sing-along ride. That’s what I think.

I joined Twitter because I was doing this podcast. Tom likes to make fun of me because I followed immediately Ellen DeGeneres and Peloton. I’m going to tweet Ellen and I’m going to tell her she needs to take a Jenn Sherman sing-along ride.

I would appreciate that. That’d be great.

Have you had to do any of your classes with famous people in studio?

There’s a tiny bit of that. No one like worth mentioning. If I had someone awesome ride with me but this whole interview would be about that especially for VIPs and celebrities. I’m not saying that none of them will ever come into the studio and take a ride. Most likely, this bike is a dream come true for celebrities. They can’t get out of the house and take a small boutique fitness class in LA or New York or wherever they live. I am sure it’s got to be a reason why they’re loving it and enjoying it so much. I don’t expect that many celebrities will walk into the studio to ride. Although, did you hear that Justin Bieber did come in for a smoothie?

I did hear that. I saw it. If somebody mentioned it and I was like, “What just happened?” They were like, “He didn’t take a ride. He came in for the smoothie.”

He was thirsty and he popped into Peloton and he went over. If you guys have been to the studio, we have that amazing coffee bar in our lounge and he was accompanied with his bodyguard apparently. He ordered a smoothie. I’m telling you everyone that he ordered a PB and Jenn Sherman smoothie, that’s on the menu right now. It’s the best damn smoothie on the menu. I’m assuming that he did order that.

Segueing back into bike stuff more specifically, what is a good way for someone to get a shout out? Is there something you look for specifically? This is something that’s very important for people and they would like to know.

If you ride with me often, you will from time to time hear me call out a screen name that does not deserve a shout out. Let me define what that means. When your leaderboard name is Crystal O’Keefe. If you had chosen CK8146 as your leaderboard name, you can pretty much guarantee you’re not getting a shout out from me. Not for any other reason than it’s not easy to say. It doesn’t stand out. I always say to people, “Come up with something that will catch your instructor’s eye if you are looking for a shout out.” Unique, witty, cool names always stand out for me. When I see a series of letters and numbers she mushed together, my eye doesn’t even see it. Every once and again when I do see one, I will hopefully make a joke and I always say, “I’m half kidding with you, but you should quickly change that screen name to something that’s going to catch our eye.”

If you are looking for a shout out, the leaderboard is growing immensely by day, so it’s getting much more difficult to scroll around and give out those shout outs. I always say to people, “I’m great about reach out to me, let me know what you’re celebrating.” Even if you’re not celebrating or a milestone, maybe I’ve been going through X, Y and Z, and I have found this bike or I’ve had a rough week, whatever it might be. I’m receptive to those kinds of messages and I’m open to any of that. If I get a message from someone and I know they’re going to be riding with me that week, I will take a moment to try to find them on the leaderboard, to give them a little extra love during that ride to try to push them through. It’s reaching out for them.

TCO 12 | Steven Little Peloton

Steven Little Peloton: So many celebrities have bikes now. It’s crazy town.

 

If push comes to shove, they can always change their leaderboard name to something Springsteen-related.

That would work too. By the way, there are several that have Springsteen-type related names. Those people get mega shout outs.

Where does Clip Out Crystal land? Is that a good one or not? 

Do you mostly ride on demand?

I have been lately because I’ve been riding. I’ve been trying Matt Wilpers’ six-week training program. 

You’re a brave woman.

I went straight to advance. I saw that Steven Little started adding in running. I tried to mesh his plan with Matt Wilpers. I’m running twice a week and I’m taking the on-demand classes. I get to do your classes on the weekends. I didn’t get to do it this weekend.

You’ve been so kind and wanted to interview me. Some are going to think that I am saying this is a little suck-up move. You have a great leaderboard name. It flows. It stands out. It’s clever and cute, Clip Out Crystal. That is a leaderboard name that would stand out. Are you not getting shout-outs from my other instructors because I’ll have a talk with them?

I changed my leaderboard name because I thought it was a boring name. To your point, I felt like I needed to change it. I was looking for a good name and then when we decided to do the podcast that was a good time to change the name. 

This is a great name. This one stays.

This one stays, got it. I feel better about it now. 

I can take credit for your leaderboard name too since I came up with the show title. 

Let’s not get crazy over there. 

Give him credit where it’s due because it happens to be a great podcast name. It’s a great leaderboard name. It’s here to stick.

I see that a lot of instructors have their clothing line. Is that something that you see in your future? 

The way it works now with Peloton, we each do our collection. I was the first instructor, you would call me the guinea pig. It was Joe Foley who runs our retail department or area. That’s John’s wife, amazingly awesome person and doing a great job with our boutique and our clothing line. I’m giving her a little love and shout out. She came up with the idea that each instructor would have their own personally designed collection if you will. That began on 2019. It takes time to sit down and come up with what pieces you think you’d like. It’s how you’d like them to look.

It’s what you want them to see if you want any graphic wording or logos and things like that. Every instructor does their collection for Peloton. I believe we have made it all the way around and everybody’s collection. We have all debuted our first collection. In fact, I received an email from Jill not long ago telling me I should start thinking about what I want to do next because after summer, it’ll be time to sit down and start designing my second collection. In terms of my clothing line on my own. I haven’t given that any thought. Anything I’m doing is for Peloton and would wind up and land in the Peloton boutique.

You’ll have to give everyone a heads up when that happens. 

They’ll promote that all over the place.

I can’t wait. I think that you have the most fun rides because you do have such great music. 

That’s a compliment, thank you.

If I’m in a bad mood, your rides always put me in a good mood. I always end up happy. How do you keep the music so fun and entertaining? 

That’s the easiest part of it for me. I can say that quickly and easily that answer comes right to mind. I mentioned when we started talking about Bruce, music is a major love of mine. I had a love affair with music. It’s like the background and memories in my life, connect to music and songs. It’s something that’s been an enormous part of who I am my entire life. The music portion of this whole thing is how I fell in love with indoor cycling in the first place. When my friend took me to my first spin class to a local instructor out by where I live, who played amazing music, I connected to the music that he was playing. There are all kinds of workouts out there. We can go on and on about the many different workouts that are out there but there is no workout that relies on music as a backdrop the way indoor cycling does. The music and the playlists are the most fun and the easiest part of this for me. I don’t want to say it’s what it’s all about for me, but it’s part of what brings me such joy to teaching on the bike. There’s no great ride without a great soundtrack behind it. I always tell people when they ask me a little more and they want to learn a little bit more about playlist thing. For me, you don’t take songs 12, 13 songs and throw that together.

That doesn’t work. There is a methodology to what at least the way I build a playlist taking people on a journey, understanding musicality and rhythm. I do have that as a little talent of mine. I’ve got a whole lot of rhythm. Hearing the beat and knowing breaks in a song. The right time to push and pull back. How certain songs can take you on that incredible climb and get you back down the other side. There’s a lot that goes into it. Maybe not for everybody but for me, certainly. I can agonize over a playlist because I love the music that much. There are days where it comes together quickly. There are days depending on what that playlist is. If it’s a theme ride or whatever it is, I can spend hours on a playlist and pull songs out and throw new stuff back in. It’s sequencing and linking it together. That makes it all work for me. I hope that part of shows. You can see it when I teach on the bike. I’m so lost in the music and the ride itself. It all comes together. It’s all one thing.

It absolutely does.

It reminds me of scheduling music and radio. The good music directors would sit there and be like, “No, you can’t play this into that.”

You are not allowed to give her other job ideas. She is perfect at this job.

She’s going into technology that’s on the upswing radio. I might as well tell her to go like, “Have you ever thought about being a blacksmith? There’s a lot of future in that. You can be the town’s Cooper.” Is there a playlist that’s especially memorable or sticks in your head is something you were like, “Yes. That’s the one that they will talk about in my obituary.”

They are all prizes in my eyes. I take such pride in my playlist. Go back to the days of the cassette tape and I was the queen of the mixed tape. It’s no wonder that I’m doing this for a living and I playlist all day long. It’s something that I did as a kid. I made those mixed tapes. It was like, “If you could score a Jenn Sherman mixed tape, you were psyched.” I could’ve gotten into business. When we did away with the day when the cassette tapes were done and gone and we moved on to CDs. Fast forward ahead, we moved on to iPods. If I could tell you, I would be such a wealthy woman if I charged money for the amount of iPods that I loaded up for friends and friends of friends out of the goodness of my heart. When you ask about the music and how do I keep it so fun and entertaining, it’s because I love it so much. That’s what it is. I’ll admit, I’m selfish. I play what I love and I guess thankfully for my riders, I love a whole lot of stuff. I seem to be me because of when I was born and my age and the music that I grew up with as a teenager that shaped and molded who I am. You’ll hear like, “She’s the rock and roll girl. That gets thrown around a lot.”

I have no issues with that because I love my rock and roll. I am a rock and roll classic, rock and roll chick at the heart of it. What I don’t like about being coined as the rock girl, especially if you’re new to the bike and you’re not familiar with my rides, I love hip hop. I love pop music. I’m doing a Bieber Ride. I’ doing a Justin Bieber ride on Thursday and I couldn’t be more excited. As much as I’m known to be the rock and roll girl, I want to be known as the music girl. That would make me happier because I do love it all. I play it all. It might seem strange to weave together a playlist that can have Chance the Rapper and it can finish up with AC/DC. Somehow I like to think that I weave it together in a way that it works. It’s very easy for me to keep that part fun and entertaining.

It works, I assure you. It’s good. 

The singing on the bike, I might have to curb the singing on the bike. I was trying to think if I might have to.

You can’t stop singing.

As many people that say no, I bet there are so many that don’t even take my rides because I sing. Do you ever think about that? I love the music too much. I can’t help it.

That is job security for the other instructors. 

There you go. 

Certain songs can take you on that incredible climb and get you back down the other side. Click To Tweet

You’re given back.

You don’t have any beyond-the-ride content right now. Why is that? 

I’ve seen on Facebook recently, there have been some people asking about that. It’s gone under the radar, I felt. I thought it went under the radar for a little bit. Maybe it wasn’t under the radar. For no other reason, I haven’t pushed to do it. It’s the first time I’m saying that. It’s more of my decision than any others. That’s not to say that I’m not going to possibly begin to do it, but I feel most comfortable on the bike. That is organic for me. I feel like I’m an expert in that. I would hope to think that people would consider me that I am. There’s no real reason. There’s no real drama around it or I’ve been told that I can’t or I shouldn’t. It’s not something that I have pushed that hard far. That’s pretty much the way I could describe it.

Do you have a bike at home? If so, do you touch it or when you go home, are you like, “I’m done, I’m at home now?”

I do not have a bike at home. I have considered purchasing the bike for my home. People would wonder if we have bikes or we were given bikes. I don’t have a bike at home that was given to me by Peloton. I would be happy to spend every dollar that bike is worth to have the bike at home. I don’t and I have contemplated buying the bike to have it so I could do some work at home and work out some things on the bike. I don’t live in the city so I can’t get over to the studio as easily as some of the other instructors. For that reason alone, it might make sense. You did hit something on the head. I do a lot of riding and I don’t know that I would come home, hop on, clipping and take rides. I don’t know that I wouldn’t because I admire this team of coaches greatly. There’s some amazing content on that bike. We don’t get to take each other’s classes which sucks. We’re all working so hard. I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but we’re pretty tired at the end of the day, especially when we’ve taught back to back classes, etc. All of us are busy with our lives, our families, our spouses, our children, and all that good stuff. I don’t know how often I would be clipping and ride, but it might make some sense to have it here for me to be able to get better at what I do for all of you.

That makes sense.

What would your leaderboard name be then? 

I’ve thought about that. Spin To Breathe, Spin Is Life. Maybe, I’ll play now because JSS and magic and all that stuff has taken off and taken on a life of its own. I’ll play on a JSS Is Magic or something like that. I would have to come up with something creative. Here I am, cool and creative. I would make sure that I did. I’m the first one to tell someone to change their leaderboard name and I’ve got nothing for you. I’m not sure. They would be so much pressure for me to have a cool leaderboard name.

She’d be like JS319.

That is what I should do. Come out with a whole bunch of letters and numbers. That’d be great.

Hit your keyboard at random like FDSA&. 

Luckily, I don’t have to come up with a leaderboard name yet, but when I do, I’m going to run a couple past you and you’ll let me know what you think.

You got it. 

Clip Out Jenn.

That would be such a cop-out. That would be like stealing. You see all these people are up in arms when their screen names get taken by someone else. You see that stuff that goes out on the Facebook page. They took it out. It does get heated. I’m a smart girl. I try to stay out of the heat.

I don’t blame you. Thank you very much for taking the time. I know we occupied a lot of your evening and we greatly appreciate it. 

Thank you so much. 

This was a lot of fun. This was awesome. Thank you, both of you for even wanting to have me on. What did I say to you, Crystal? Who wants to listen to me talk? Nobody. No one wants to listen to me for ten minutes, but here we are an hour and 22 minutes in. Thank you, guys. You made this easy and fun.

You’re welcome. It’s very Pavlovian. Just hearing your voice, my wife has been peddling in her chair the whole time. 

That would have to be a part of my leaderboard name. Now that I’m thinking about it. JFDI would have to be in there somewhere.

That’s a good one. I love all the JFDI, the TSTM, they’re all good. You’ve got some good people coming up with some stuff for you. Those are all awesome. 

That is for sure. It is all good stuff. Thank you both again so much. This was really great.

You’re very welcome. Before we go where can people find you?

There are a couple of places. You can always reach out to me on my personal Facebook page. I know I’ve reached the limit. We discussed that. You can always send me a message there. I check that frequently and I always make a point to get back to people. You can also message me at the Jenn Sherman Peloton page. The Peloton sponsored page also has an inbox. Feel free to write me there. I would love it if you would follow me on Instagram, @PelotonJenn. You can write me a little message there as well and I can always respond there too.

In case you or the readers don’t know, even though you’re at your friend limit, they can still send you a friend request and Facebook will automatically make them a follower of your page so your stuff would still show up in their feed. They wouldn’t be “friends” with you on Facebook.

I didn’t even know that. Look what you learn. Look at you, Tom, so Facebook savvy. That is impressive.

Look who’s in marketing, this guy. 

By the way, we came up with a leaderboard name for you, This Guy.

Somebody out there, please steal it. That way I can say that name has been stolen and I can’t do it now. It gets me out of it. 

I’ve got the power of editing.

Thanks again for joining us. 

Thank you, Jenn. 

Thanks, guys. Thank you so much.

That was very cool that she spent so much time with us.

Yes it was. 

There’s our big Jenn Sherman interview in two parts. We don’t have a recipe this week because Jenn Sherman is so lazy. She only sent one.

TCO 12 | Steven Little Peloton

Steven Little Peloton: There is a methodology to the way instructors build a playlist for taking people on a journey, and it involves understanding musicality and rhythm.

 

You better leave Jenn alone because at some point, she’s going to make you that monkey’s playlist and then you’re going to have to ride the bike publicly in a catsuit with the cheer fairy. There are lots of things rocking up here.

There’s a whole lot of stuff going on in there. She wasn’t lazy. She didn’t know we were going to break it up into two parts. One recipe was more than ample. I was going to eat any of them anyway. There is no recipe this week. We got lazy. We’re still in vacation mode so take that. Before we go, don’t forget, we’re available on iTunes. Go there, rate review, subscribe or wherever you get your podcast. Even if you use an Android Podkickers, ditch your Podcast Addict, Google Play, all of that fanciness. We should be available in all of them. We’ve been very equitable to the Android people which are funny because we are the Android people. That’s what we use. That’s it for this episode. What’s coming up on our next episode? Who are we interviewing?

It’s very exciting. Chris Merrill is up next. He is known as C Teddy but we’ll get more into that. 

Coming up on our next episode, we will have an in-depth conversation with Chris Merrill. That’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in and until next time.

Important Links:

About Jenn Sherman

TCO 12 | Steven Little PelotonJenn Sherman took her first indoor cycling class more than a decade ago and was instantly hooked. As Peloton’s very first cycling instructor, Jenn came to NYC from her hometown in New Jersey, where she’d been selling out studios for years.

Jenn brings a focused intensity to every class she teaches, showing Members what they’re made of with her empowering playlists you just can’t help but sing along to.

 

About Steven Little

TCO 12 | Steven Little PelotonSteven Little has been teaching specialized indoor cycling for 10 years, and has helped launch some of the most recognizable indoor cycling studios in the country — but none have been as exciting for him as Peloton. Steven loves having the opportunity to train people everywhere through a digital experience.

In his own words, “there’s a kind of community that just doesn’t exist anyplace else, and Peloton is the most advanced kind of indoor cycling training of its kind.”