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[MUSIC] Would you prefer if this was a interview on bikes right now?
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>> Absolutely not [LAUGH].
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>> Have you ever done a class for 600 people? >> Never.
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>> Would you want to try? >> Yes.
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>> Okay [LAUGH] >> Right after this meet in the quad.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Ruth, thank you so much for being here, for coming to Stanford, for being a part of the View From The Top program. We have a lot to cover. >> We do, thank you.
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>> If it's all right, can we just jump right in? >> Let's do it.
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>> So I want to take us back, all the way back.
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You described some very key moments in your childhood.
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Being pivotal to the successes and challenges and the obstacles you ultimately overcame both personally and professionally.
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And a lot of that comes from dance.
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What role did dance play in your childhood?
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>> It played a huge role.
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I discovered ballet classes when I was eight years old.
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My mother decided it would be a good idea.
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She said I was getting a belly. Thanks, Mom.
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>> [LAUGH] >> And so she put me in dance class.
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Little did she know she basically created a monster in that.
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I just took to it immediately and there was something about dancing that just made me feel great, it was an escape.
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And back to my mother, she was a difficult woman.
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She was narcissistic, there wasn't much room for me, there wasn't much room for my voice.
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And so in retrospect, when I look back, it made sense that I got so addicted to dancing, because it became my way of expressing myself without words, without a voice.
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>> And I think, in your story, there's so much grit and perseverance, that I think, explains a lot of where you were able to get.
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And you described overcoming challenges like the relationship with your mother.
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That often get overlooked when we talk about the typical type of challenges here in Silicon Valley, or in leadership, or in entrepreneurship.
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Could we spend a minute just on those types of setbacks?
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What was it like, even in a household and in your relationship with your mother, trying to fit into someone else's definition of success on such a personal context.
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>> Well it had major repercussions for me, because growing up with a mother like that.
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Your self esteem is not going to be very high.
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And if you're always deferring to someone.
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And that person is always telling you that they know more than you do.
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It would make sense, it would be very hard to build any kind of confidence.
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So, that kind of really spelled out my future.
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And I'm a huge proponent of therapy and we might get to that later.
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But it was really the work that I did in therapy that helped me the most in terms of discovering who I am? Why I am who I am?
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And how to build the confidence to which had gotten me to where I have gotten to.
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>> And just staying on that point for a minute.
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You described in your memoir that years later, after launching very successful brands and being a very successful entrepreneur in almost any dimension that you look at entrepreneurship from.
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You were divorced and not yet remarried and every winter, was it, your mother would write a card saying here's to a better year next year. >> [LAUGH] >> Yes.
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>> And I know that seems extreme, but when I read it, I felt that that actually is quite relatable.
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There are people in all of our lives where they demand something that we feel we have to go up hold.
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What was it like struggling through that version of success? That wasn't your own.
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>> I mean, it was part generational.
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I would say for my mother, but actually the words were same thing every year.
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Hopefully this year will be a better year.
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That was after I started soulcycle.
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>> [LAUGH] >> So [LAUGH] when I say generational what she meant every year when she wrote these cards was i hope you find a man.
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And I find it interesting to myself that it took me a long time after divorce to really settle settle into a relationship with a man.
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And I don't know, if I subconsciously knew that I really shouldn't go that route I really need to figure out myself first before that falls into place.
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>> And going right there to that moment in life where you described being divorced with two young daughters, I think they were six years old, is that right? >> Six, mm-hm.
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>> What was going through your mind as the next step, both personally and then professionally, it seems like would follow later.
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>> Honestly, Mike, I had no idea. I was Fish out of water.
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I made this difficult decision to leave the marriage.
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Six year old twin girls in tow.
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I was now a single mother didn't have much on the financial front and had to figure out my life again.
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Having no idea how to even start and that was when I found Spinning.
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>> Walk us through that because today, Spinning is, do we have any Soul Cycle fans or Fly Will folks now. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Wow.
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Thank you, that's amazing. >> So today at it.
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It is part of a lexicon, it's in our culture and society, but what year was it when you started Spinning?
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What was the landscape like because, I imagine, it's very different than today?
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>> So, I was, again, newly out of a marriage, embarking on this entirely foreign new life.
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And when you're going through a trauma, one thing that I learned that's really important is to take care of yourself and stay healthy and strong.
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And so I had a gym membership at what was the Reebok Club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at the time.
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And it was this beautiful full-service gym that offered every kind of group fitness you could imagine, swimming pool, basketball court.
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Really incredible place and I was able to keep my gym membership with the divorce and so I went there every day.
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And I used to see the spin classes going on and I found it very intriguing.
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It was kind of a floor to ceiling glass room, dark.
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Room was full the sound of the wheels club music blaring.
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And I thought, that looks interesting but, I was intimidated and didn't know if I could really get myself in there by myself and try it. But I did.
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And literally within the first class, I knew that this was something beyond exercise, it felt like an experience for me.
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It was a cathartic experience.
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I felt that in the 45 minutes from beginning to end there was almost a mini-transformation.
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I got off the bike at the end of the class and felt empowered, and felt that I could really conquer my day and the challenges that presented themselves.
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>> As a quick time out to that I love how in business school we do cases and courses and six month learning programs to try to have a light bulb moment that you got getting on a bike one day. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> [LAUGH] Immediately.
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>> Sounds like you took the shortcut.
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>> [LAUGH] Thanks for that perspective. >> Any time.
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So, you get into Spinning.
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It sounds like you learned a lot about yourself first.
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It wasn't a lightbulb moment, necessarily, to, I need to go create a brand.
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What did you find out when you did some of the soul searching that seemed to come from getting into the bike.
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>> It really helped me realize how much strength I needed to build.
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And again, there was something about this that allowed me to recognize that this was the way that I was going to do it and it It just showed me the importance of confidence and believing in myself and believing in my ideas.
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And that my mother really didn't know everything.
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>> And that type of learning, I think in a school like the GSP, where there's a very touchy feely mentality to approaching business, that resonates I'm sure with us in the audience.
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But can you break it down to what that actually meant for going later into business and how you applied some of that personal learning into actually making a business around it?
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>> Well, I really focused a lot on my experience and how it helped me.
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And very quickly, I realized everybody has trauma.
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Everybody has problems and challenges in their life.
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I saw what it did for me, and I so believed in it that I just wanted to share my experience with everyone else.
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And I wanted everyone else to have the same chance to empower themselves.
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And so, that was one of the motivating forces in my getting to where I got to with this concept of spinning, so, yeah.
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>> Do you remember that conversation you had where it all of a sudden started to come together with your co-founders at the time or your would-be co-founders in starting SoulCycle?
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>> One of the co-founder's approached me with the idea.
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It was an idea I dreamed about, but never had the capital, and she did.
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And so, she clearly, she was a fan of mine, a big rider in my class, and clearly recognized my passion for it.
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She didn't know anything about teaching spin or what went into it, and so she depended on me to be the face of the business and to provide the method.
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And so she definitely appreciated it.
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>> And as the discussions got going you write and I quote, it had been a quarter century since I gave up on my dream to become a professional dancer.
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This is on the brink of starting a brand at the time, a fledging start up. >> Yes.
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>> What's going through your mind the night before you start SoulCycle?
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>> The night before we opened? >> Yeah.
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>> A lot of pride and appreciation really for everything that lead up to it.
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We hear this a lot, but I lived it, and it's so true that everything we do in our life and everything that creates this path that we take contributes to where we land.
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And you brought up the dance classes before, they so tied in to the spin class that I eventually helped to create.
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And when I say that, what I mean is I was obsessed with music from an early age.
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And through dance classes, I learned so much about music and different genres of music.
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Being a dancer, I choreograph to music.
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I knew how to move to music and, really, to some extent, what I did was I just transfer that experience on to a bike.
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The discipline it takes to be a dance student and to grow up as a dancer and become a professional dancer, that also transferred to the spin class.
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When I started SoulCycle, we decided that people should applaud after the class.
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The instructor puts a lot into it, especially when you're going into a boutique experience, you're paying up for it.
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And you're paying for an instructor spending two hours the night before making his or her playlist.
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And the applause is also for each other, and for encouraging the community.
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I mean, that's just a simple thing that I learned from dance class.
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And the other really key ingredient to the success of boutique fitness is the personal connection that we would make with our riders.
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And again, no different from a dance class.
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If I was in a dance class, and my dance teacher said beautiful job, Ruth, that took me through my day.
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That made my day, and so, in a spin class if you point out someone in the class, if you make that personal connection, they're coming back the next day.
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>> So you start SoulCycle and, plot twist, it works!
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>> [LAUGH] >> What did you learn from that bootstrapping experience?
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Because it wasn't that you went out, you raised a lot of money, figured it out.
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In fact, we can get to the growth part later.
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You were against expanding super fast and getting off to the races.
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You described a moment where in your first center, I believe, they wouldn't allow you to put signage on the outside of the street entrance.
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So you made it a cool have-to-know-someone thing to walk through a gym and get to the back near the exit- >> [LAUGH] >> To find the SoulCycle gym.
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What were the learnings there from doing it yourself and not raising capital?
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>> Well, truthfully, that was completely luck.
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We signed a lease and it was after we signed the lease that the landlord said, by the way, no signage.
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And we thought, my god, what are we going to do?
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And, because we were in the back of the building, you can see us from the street.
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And Elizabeth, one of my co-founders, came up with the idea of just putting this rickshaw outside, painting it yellow and putting the name of our business on it to attract attention.
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But, again, it eventually became just what you said, people had to know about it to to go there, and again, completely unintentional but it took on this kind of cool factor.
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And you had to, you had to know someone to know that it was there.
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And in terms of learning lesson, I mean that one, we had no idea but it worked.
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And it's interesting, I believe a lot in kind of trickle down theory in that the aura that you create in your business has a lot to do with who's at the top and the founders.
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And, eventually, the partnership didn't work out, and the truth is my two co-founders were similar to each other, but very different from me.
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And I feel that the business took on a lot of their personality.
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Interestingly, when I started Flywheel with two men, the dynamic was completely different.
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There was a certain respect that the three of us had for each other, respect for each other's areas of expertise, and we created a very different aura at Flywheel.
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And to summarize it, I would always talk about SoulCycle eventually becoming a very exclusive feeling, having a very exclusive feeling while Flywheel had a very inclusive feeling.
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We were about including everyone, every shape, size and color.
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SoulCycle took on a certain, I'm blanking on the word, but there was like a prestige about going to SoulCycle.
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And, again, no judgement here, it worked, and obviously, SoulCycle became huge.
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And so both personalities worked, but they were just very different.
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>> Can you talk a little bit more about partnership?
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I feel like when you decide to go after something who you go in with is probably the most critical piece.
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This seemed, as you described it, somewhat happenstance, as you were approached by one of the co-founders.
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Where was the tension, ultimately, in terms of thinking about growth, what you all wanted?
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What were the key learnings from that?
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>> Really important question and I get this all the time about choosing partners in business.
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And the bottom line is, obviously, there's no guarantee ever.
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Sometimes, I think about the fact that My two co-founders of SoulCycle are two women who I didn't know for a long time and I thought, well, maybe you should only go into business with someone you do know for a long time.
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But that's not the case either.
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I actually just heard a story of two friends who started a business and knew each other for 25 years and sure enough, they start the business.
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Money gets involved, the relationship fell apart and the business partnership dissolved.
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But what I learned was it really helps to know yourself when it comes to picking partners and the truth is when I made the agreement to go into business with these two co-founders I didn't know myself, I really hadn't done that kind of exploration.
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And what I ended up doing was I ended up with two partners who were very much like my mother.
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And they were two people that I, my knee jerk was to defer to them.
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To really let them overpower me and to not have a voice, I very easily slipped into that role.
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And as a result, the partnership fell apart.
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And obviously, that was a huge learning lesson for me, a huge light bulb moment for me.
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The other very obvious one was, have really good legal protection, when you go into a partnership in a business. And I didn't.
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And unfortunately, I paid a big toll for that.
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>> I appreciate the vulnerability, because that's not often a takeaway that people would want to share, so.
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Going into Fly Wheel, which, a lot of people when they hear your story, they think of SoulCycle, or they think of Fly Wheel, they don't think that you actually were behind both.
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And you described Fly Wheel as your first true business venture. >> Yes.
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>> Can you walk us through that transition of leaving Soul?
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I believe there was a stint as an instructor for soul, >> Yes.
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>> Which must have been weird.
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>> I have to take a deep breath for this answer.
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I, our Separation Agreement was signed and I was packing up my things to leave.
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And one of my SoulCycle co founders looked at me and said, where are you going?
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And I looked at her like she had three heads and I said, where am I going? I'm leaving.
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What do you mean you're leaving?
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We thought you'd just be an instructor is what she said to me.
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And I don't even think I answered and I turned around and started walking out, and she kind of yelled to me as I was walking out and she said, okay, well just promise me that whatever other offers you get will you come back to me?
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Because I'll top that offer and we really want you to be here as just an instructor.
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And I don't even think I turned around and I left.
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And I got out there and here I was now a single mom of two girls in high school.
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You know, not in a very strong position financially and I went out there to see what I was going to do next and the reality was it was still very early in the industry and there were no other boutique businesses at that point.
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So, it really meant that I would have to go back to one of the big box gyms and teach classes for 40 bucks a class, and I couldn't do it. And so I went back.
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I went back to her and I said, okay, well, I got this offer.
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And then sure enough, she topped the offer very generously.
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And I decided to do it, and it was one of the hardest decisions I ever made, and I did it for two years.
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And every day I walked in to teach class, I would have to look at both of them.
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And I always say I probably grew a grey hair every single day, and it was torturous and it never got any less torturous for two years.
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But what happened was is I would walk in and then I would get on my podium and get on my bike and there I was in front of all of my people that I brought in to this business, all the customers.
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And they didn't know what happened, and that helped a little bit.
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Eventually they did, obviously.
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But I would hit the play button, my class would start.
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And all of that negativity would just go away for 45 minutes, because I was just up there doing what I do, which was connecting with my people. They connected with me.
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And we all had this cathartic experience together, and that's what got me through it.
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Lastly, it was the summer of 2009 where I was teaching a SoulCycle class, and it was then that I met my future co-founder of Fly Wheels.
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So If I hadn't been there, I guess that never would've happened.
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>> And right before meeting the would-be founder of Flywheel, was there a moment, because I think we tend to glorify entrepreneurship as a no-brainer, must do, don't look back, was there a moment where you did look back and you think I'm now caring for a family solely on my shoulders?
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This venture didn't work out and it's a painful next two years.
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Did you ever think about what life could have been had you not taken that risk? >> The risk with? >> Soulcycle?
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>> No, because I knew that despite the negativity and the trauma, I learned a lot, and there were so many positive parts of it.
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So no, I didn't regret it at all.
22:15
>> Going into Fly Wheel, you're now at a point where you have pioneered spinning and spin classes, and that sense of community, and you've built a brand around it once.
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What did you feel like you could do different in a space that you defined and built already?
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And now what would be a competitor?
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>> Well my co-founder of Fly Wheel made it very easy because he came up with this idea of attaching technology to the bike and bringing this little computer screen to the bike so that we could finally measure exactly what we were doing on the bike, how hard we were working, what our resistance levels were, how fast we were going.
22:59
And I knew that that would change the experience significantly and I doubted it in the beginning because Soulcycle for me was so much about the mindful component of the ride and I thought, I don't know if we have to focus on numbers we might compromise the mindful component that's so important to me and they just begged me just get on the bike and just go in there by yourself and and work with it and see what you think.
23:29
And I did and in that period of time, 40 minutes, I knew this was going to be a game changer because I could still do the mindful part and have the numbers and I just felt like this was taking it to the next level.
23:48
>> You described that your partners had a different approach about in terms of personality, but there's also a business nugget where they felt that you could actually grow the business by attracting folks who otherwise wouldn't be cyclers or spin goers.
24:03
What was that process like of actually identifying a new market audience where there wasn't one already?
24:10
This business is, this type of business is honestly so word of mouth for the entire time that I was at Soul Cycle and Flywheel, we never advertised once.
24:23
So again, it always came back to connecting with people.
24:28
And I connected with the Flywheel clientele pretty much in the same way I did with the SoulCycle clientele and it was just about making [COUGH] excuse me.
24:38
Making it personal and make making people feel noticed.
24:42
At the end of the day that's what, that's what we all want.
24:47
>> An interesting counter balance to that as you described that empathy should be in moderation when going forward in business.
24:54
Which also runs counter to a lot of the things we hear about especially today and how do you lead with empathy?
24:59
Build a business around empathy.
25:01
You obviously have a product and a service that made people feel a certain way.
25:05
But you also cautioned to use it in moderation, why is that?
25:09
>> Sometimes it can get you into trouble.
25:11
[LAUGH] We, we were very big on empathy.
25:17
And it helped us in terms of the culture we built with our employees, and with our customer base.
25:23
And so I'm going to talk about the positive part first, which is again making everyone feel important, making our maintenance person feel as important as someone on the executive leadership team.
25:36
By doing that, everybody has this desire for the business to be successful, and that's what you want.
25:45
You want everyone to be as motivated as you are as a founder, and sure enough, that was a great way to get that.
25:53
Sometimes when you get too personal, then, it could, you know, the business part can be compromised and you get too much into the weeds and I would recommend that.
26:07
But especially, again, in this business because with instructors, you're dealing with a very creative, ego-driven group, and that can be a slippery slope sometimes.
26:20
>> To zoom out a little bit, you look at the brands that you successfully built and led.
26:24
With SoulCycle and Flywheel I was in the classroom last week, that had a very interesting discussion around.
26:32
The place in society for brands that make you feel certain way.
26:36
And people maybe some folks here in the audience, at least others that I know.
26:41
Have talked about SoulCycle or fire will as, another form of therapy, it's religion, it's like my church.
26:48
At what point did that start to happen where people would share with you that type of reaction?
26:53
And is that okay for a brand to fill that void? >> I think so [LAUGH].
26:59
And it happened right away.
27:01
And the major reason that people started to feel comfortable connecting with me because I can only speak for myself was because of my willingness to be vulnerable in front of people and I found that, if I was vulnerable, it made them feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable.
27:25
And it's when two people are vulnerable that they connect.
27:29
And look, we certainly know in this day and age of living the most efficient life we can and technology and everything going digital, it we need to connect more than ever.
27:42
I mean, it's a human need that will never go away.
27:46
And so that's why I think this business is, this type of business is so important and here to stay.
27:52
>> And that's a nice transition into the industry as a whole.
27:57
You got into the health and wellness space when it was really nascent.
28:00
There weren't the SoulCycles and other brands out there.
28:03
Now on every corner in any neighborhood, especially places like Palo Alto and elsewhere, but a lot of Metro cities now you have a million different options.
28:12
Health and wellness is an $80 billion industry.
28:15
Where is there space for innovation, if at all?
28:20
>> So it's a good question because, in thinking about the future of all this.
28:27
We're seeing what's happening with the industry, we're seeing how it is going.
28:31
Into the digital realm and look in spinning we're seeing about the success of Peloton and the industry's definitely changing and with the amount of choices out there which you just spoke about, it's very different you know when I started SoulCycle and Flywheel those were the days of people taking six spin classes a week so you know what a formula for success in our business is but now, there's so many choices I call it exercise snacking.
29:03
People are, people are not coming to spring class six days a week.
29:06
They're coming twice a week and then, they're going to Barry's twice a week.
29:09
And then they might be boxing or couple days a week on their Peloton at home.
29:14
And, and I don't have the answers actually.
29:17
It's very interesting to me as to where this will go and where this will head.
29:24
Health and wellness, I think, will always be a huge industry moving forward because of the challenges we all have in life in general and people are finally starting to recognize that we need to take care of ourselves and we want to live long lives and, and kind of this is how to do it.
29:40
But i'm very interested in seeing where the fitness industry particularly goes and I do feel like there will always be room for the group fitness part of the fitness industry.
29:55
I think people always will need this human connection that is just spoke about.
30:00
The convenience factor will not go away and people will want to be able to have the option of doing it in their home as well.
30:07
So I think there will be both.
30:10
>> That Peloton story just fascinates me because. >> It's fascinating.
30:14
>> Here you are taking people out of their basement stationery bike and bringing them to their neighborhood gym and giving them a sense of real in person community and now 15 years later you have a company that just went public saying you know what let's bring you back into your basement And take you away from the very thing that you describe people seeking which is community is that here to stay?
30:36
>> Well I'm going to give John Foley a shout out the founder of Peloton, he used to be a big Flywheeler and SoulCycler and, >> But more flywheel. >> Yes, of course. >> [LAUGH] Yeah.
30:49
So I actually was just going to talk about the lawsuit, but I better not [LAUGH].
30:55
>> Come on, bring it back. Sorry I didn't mean to. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
31:00
>> [LAUGH] >> Just between us friends here in the room.
31:03
>> This is definitely going to bite me in the ass some way but, no, I mean, there is a lawsuit going on obviously I won't go into the details, but there is a patent lawsuit going on against Flywheel from Peloton and it's just very amusing to me because John modeled the Peloton bike after the Flywheel bike so that was a big, you know, scratch my head moment.
31:26
But, but what I was going to say was I was going to give him a compliment because he, and we're actually friends. We really are. >> Sounds like it. >> We're on good terms.
31:36
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Scratch my head moment.
31:40
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, he at Peloton they actually did a really good job I think of bringing the community aspect into this at home experience.
31:53
And I was actually Really impressed and surprised by it.
31:57
But, they have built a huge community at peloton I'm sure you've all read about it.
32:03
And it's part of the reason for their success I mean, peloton writers having conventions basically and getting.
32:09
Getting together all over the world.
32:11
So he's actually done a great job of doing that.
32:14
But I'm also hearing a lot in in terms of people missing the group experience, the live experience, and wanting it back and we were actually having this conversation before I came out here.
32:28
But another phenomenon that's taken place is a lot of kind of the bigger businesses and corporations are now getting into this sector and SoulCycle was acquired, Flywheel was acquired.
32:41
And the businesses have changed a lot because they've gotten more corporate and they've gotten less personal.
32:49
And I've heard a lot of complaints about that from riders at both SoulCycle and Flywheel that they miss the way it used to be and they miss the community and the attention that was given to the individual because it's been lost.
33:05
And so that kind of speaks to wanting to bring it back full circle to a certain degree.
33:12
>> To bring the conversation back full circle, one of the things we spoke right before coming on stage about was what lessons you would give yourself as a teenager thinking about the course of your life as an entrepreneur, the business takeaways, you described some of them.
33:31
But also we have a lot of business school students in the audience now and a big reason people come to programs like View From The Top is we're about to go in a lot of different ways.
33:39
And I think the power of storytelling is that there might be a nugget you can share that maybe tomorrow, maybe in five years, or ten years, you look back on it, and think that was actually really helpful.
33:49
That was something, I remember that story I heard in Ruth's narrative.
33:53
Is there anything that you want to make sure you get out, if there's one thing folks can take home?
33:58
>> Yes, that question is often verbalized by saying what would you tell your 16 year old self and that's how I'm looking at it.
34:13
And if I could do that and if I could go back, the message would be to relax that we're not going to have the answers when we're 16.
34:27
We might not have the answers when we're 37, but we put so much pressure on ourselves in thinking that we should know the answer and we don't.
34:41
And I think the comforting piece of it is that every decision we make as we evolve and grow up actually does play a part in where we ultimately land.
34:54
And as I was talking before about my dance classes, I thought I was going to be a dancer.
35:00
That idea fell through and at the moment, when it fell through, I felt like nothing but a failure.
35:09
And I was clueless as to what I was going to do next.
35:14
And again, at that moment, I had no idea what a huge part my experience with dance would play in my future career.
35:23
And so again, it's just everything happens for a reason as trite as that is.
35:28
But it really does, and we learn an enormous amount with every decision we make along the way.
35:34
And there really is no wrong decision.
35:37
>> If it's okay, I'd love to end with a personal question that I think you touch on a little bit, or at least led me to want to ask in your book.
35:44
You describe a very close relationship with your father, who I believe passed away from cancer. >> Yeah.
35:50
>> And you describe a scene where you were at his bedside.
35:53
And he said to you that and I quote, I'm ready to go.
35:58
I've accomplished everything that I ever set out to do and have enjoyed my life fully.
36:03
And then you respond by saying that, quote, in that moment as much as I couldn't help feeling my own sorrow, I was also inspired by his courage and his resolve.
36:13
A lot of times death makes us think about our own mortality in certain ways.
36:19
What did that have on you as you think about the rest of your life?
36:22
>> Honestly, I'm looking forward to the rest of my life and everything that's happened thus far, everything that will afford me in terms of my experiences.
36:37
But that was a moment where I really thought I just hope one day I can say that about myself and I already feel like I can.
36:48
So that feels really good. >> Thank you, Ruth. Let's go to questions.
36:52
I think we have a few from the audience. They were presubmitted. >> Okay. >> Hi Ruth. >> Hi.
37:14
>> My name's Dan Knapp, I'm a first year MBA student.
37:16
And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about some of the leadership principles or lessons that you took from being an instructor on the podium and you carry it into the board room as a CEO.
37:27
>> Yeah, I think I would answer that by again going to back to the empathy piece.
37:32
And I like to share with people that going into business, I had absolutely no business experience, and I was raised in a family of physicians.
37:43
And surrounded by my parent's friends who were all from the medical community.
37:48
So I really didn't have a clue, and so when I look back, and look back at my leadership style, I think, well, what was my leadership style and where did it come from?
38:03
And the truth is, my biggest experience was being a mom.
38:08
And so I looked at how I raised my children and what my style was in raising my children, and the truth is I used a lot of qualities that are typically attached to women.
38:23
And empathy is certainly one of them.
38:27
And I learned that the simple idea of the importance of listening to people would be very important in business as well, and listening to my employees, and listening to what works for them and what doesn't work for them.
38:47
Listening to their despair when they made a mistake, but then encouraging them that you can learn from your mistake and let's see what we can do with that.
38:56
Again, typical ways in which I brought up my children and so, that was really what I drew upon the most in terms of my leadership style.
39:13
>> Hi, my name is Kanna Hammen and I'm an MBA one and I have been to both SoulCycle and Flywheel many times.
39:20
So thanks for bringing all of us that experience.
39:22
You talked about how important it was to help your clients feel noticed, and important, and like they're a part of a community.
39:33
I'm curious about other elements that you wanted to bring into both of these brands as you were thinking about the concepts and how you brought them to life in the brands that you did create?
39:53
>> It was about making people feel comfortable in every way.
39:59
Customer Service, in general, was huge and is huge in this field and in this industry.
40:09
And that has to do with not only making people feel good, but making everything easy for them.
40:18
And starting Flywheel was a huge, sorry, let me rephrase that.
40:24
Being second in an industry was a huge advantage in many ways because I got to see what worked at SoulCycle and continue that and what didn't work and improve upon it.
40:35
So a good way to answer the question is when we started Fly Wheel we wanted to make sign up more efficient.
40:43
At SoulCycle, literally everyone walked in, waited on line and signed up on a list, a paper list. >> They still do it.
40:53
>> And they still do, yes.
40:55
Immediately at Flywheel, we thought we're adding technology to the bike, so let's be consistent, and let's have small, portable laptops set up in our lobby area.
41:06
So people don't have to wait in line, and people can sign up by themselves.
41:11
At SoulCycle, people had to reach for their wallet and pull out some cash for a bottle of water, and shoe rental.
41:19
We made it all inclusive in our price, so they didn't have to pay for anything. It was all done already.
41:27
They didn't have to wait in line to get shoes, we had personalized cubby holes and we saw who's coming to class a head of time and had their shoes waiting for them.
41:34
So again customer service is huge. Hi.
41:42
>> Hi [CROSSTALK] >> I'm Jen, I'm a first year MBA, thanks so much for your time.
41:45
A question I have is around something you mentioned earlier.
41:48
I think a lot of us, an ideal state would be to go to Spain, maybe a few times a week, Palatine at home.
41:56
I think the reality is that's not accessible just based on different income levels.
42:01
So I'm curious how you think accessibility can be incorporated into the wellness industry and boutique fitness particularly?
42:11
>> Great question, and it's something I'm currently actually thinking a lot about, because there's no question, the boutique industry is really not very accessible to everyone,.
42:26
And I think that that's really needed right now.
42:30
And I know I happened to know of businesses that are already in the works where they're coming up with a less expensive bike which will then allow a business that's more accessible.
42:44
A less sorry, a less expensive at home bike as well.
42:49
So I know everyone's trying to think in that direction right now, and then I think it's so important. >> Hi. >> Hi.
43:00
>> My name is Laura, also in MBA 1.
43:03
Thank you so much for being here.
43:04
My question was around the therapy topic you mentioned.
43:07
I think it's so rare to see someone as successful as you talk about how important it was.
43:12
And I'm also a big proponent of mental and physical fitness.
43:15
So I was wondering for people who maybe haven't tried it yet, or even people who have, how would you describe what therapy or other types of mental fitness helped you change?
43:28
Or come to realize, you touched on it a little bit, but maybe if you could talk more in depth about what are some tangible things to help people understand what mental fitness could look like.
43:37
>> I'm going to give you two anecdotes on that.
43:43
I had a very difficult marriage.
43:47
So my ex-husband had anger management issues, we'll just leave it at that.
43:55
And I stayed in it for a long time, way longer than I should have, but I can't really think of it that way because it's who I was at that time.
44:05
There was a reason why I was there.
44:06
And it wasn't until therapy, in fact, my first therapy session where I sat down and my motivation was my father was dying and I had no idea how I was going to go on with that.
44:21
And within the first session I was asked about to describe my marriage, and I did.
44:27
And it was the first time in my life that someone said to me, do you understand that that's actually unacceptable behavior?
44:36
And I think I just broke down in tears.
44:42
That was a life changing moment for me, and that wouldn't have happened if I didn't seek out a therapist.
44:47
And that really started my ball rolling in terms of not only leaving the marriage but starting to really learn about who I am and who I was.
44:59
The second anecdote was another trauma, it was about another trauma which was the dissolution of my SoulCycle partnership.
45:09
And I remember probably a year ago, I mean the dissolution happened in 2007.
45:18
It's 2019, and probably a year ago I sat in a therapy session and I said to my therapist, is there something wrong with me because I can't seem to get past this trauma.
45:31
Like I still get really upset and angry when I think about it.
45:37
Is there something wrong with me?
45:40
And she looked at me and she said, why would you ever think there was something wrong with you?
45:46
Why wouldn't you feel that anger today?
45:49
It was a horrible, horrible thing.
45:54
That was incredibly helpful to me.
45:57
Again, just another moment of putting things, and being able to put things in perspective and have self empathy.
46:06
A lot of us don't really know that we have permission to really feel for ourselves.
46:12
We've all been through traumas.
46:14
We've all had a lot of challenges growing up, and in our adult life, and taking a moment and understanding tat and acknowledging that is huge.
46:27
>> So we have one last thing to do which is somewhat of a tradition here called the Lightning Round.
46:33
>> Yep, you should be scared.
46:34
>> That's a lot of pressure. I am.
46:36
>> But I took the liberty to make a Version two of that game just because you're here and I thought it might been fun.
46:43
We can see how this works.
46:45
It's called who said it best, Plato or SoulCycle?
46:49
>> [LAUGH] >> It's a very simple game.
46:52
So I will say a quote and you will have the option of saying is it a quote said in a Soul Cycle class, or by Plato.
47:03
>> [LAUGH] >> And then if you want, we can then ask the audience to either kind of ask the audience a question.
47:10
They can either affirm or deny if that might be the right answer.
47:13
And then I'l share who said it.
47:15
>> Wait, I have to say one thing before you start.
47:18
>> Who's [LAUGH] I asked the same question I was looking up something before you >> [LAUGH] No, because that, that question brought this to mind.
47:24
Can I see a raise of hands of anyone who saw the Saturday Night Live SoulCycle parody? Okay, thank you.
47:34
>> [LAUGH] >> This was an inspiration for the game.
47:39
>> It was so spot on, by the way.
47:41
>> Okay, question number one.
47:43
Everyone listen up here, this is important.
47:47
Quote, open yourself up to the possibility that the best part of your life hasn't happened yet. Plato or SoulcCycle?
47:53
>> [LAUGH] >> Tricky, right? >> Mike, I don't know.
47:58
>> [LAUGH] >> Not so easy, yeah?
48:01
>> You had to do this in person?
48:02
>> When I wrote these down, I actually couldn't remember who said what, so I had to back, but I had the answer here. Give a guess. >> Plato.
48:09
>> What does the audience think? >> SoulCycle. >> It was SoulCycle.
48:12
>> [LAUGH] >> That's all right, it was just a warm up.
48:16
>> Clearly I'm not giving him any credit.
48:18
>> Yeah, she's got another hour of these- >> [LAUGH] >> So I'm just going to, okay.
48:24
This is a personal favorite, nothing beautiful without struggle. Plato or SoulCycle? >> Plato. >> Plato or SoulCycle? >> Plato.
48:33
>> Plato, correct, we're one for one. >> Thanks.
48:36
>> [LAUGH] >> If you're not challenged, you won't change. >> SoulCycle. >> SoulCycle. >> SoulCycle.
48:47
>> [LAUGH] >> Correct, inhale intention, exhale expectation. >> SoulCycle.
48:55
>> [LAUGH] >> I bet you Plato would have liked that though- >> [LAUGH] >> If that counts for something.
49:03
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. Plato or Soul Cycle? >> Plato. >> Plato. >> Plato.
49:13
>> [LAUGH] >> But a little bit of disagreement there.
49:18
>> Because I said all of these things.
49:20
>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, exactly. Duh.
49:23
>> [LAUGH] >> Courage is knowing what not to fear. Plato or- >> Plato. >> Plato. >> [CROSSTALK] >> Plato. Nice.
49:36
And last one, this is probably the toughest one so okay, if you don't get this right. Tap it back.
49:44
>> [LAUGH] >> Ladies and gentlemen, thank you and let us thank you, Ruth, for joining us today. >> [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]