Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Equinox Cofounder Lavinia Errico on Practical Woo and Mourning a Success

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

If you’re running a small business or a side hustle, there are a million things you HAVE to do... is giving your brand an astrological birth chart one of them? When Lavinia Errico was launching Equinox with her brothers, their answer to this question was yes. In this conversation, Nicole and Lavinia talk about the role "practical woo" can play in business. Plus, they talk about the early days of building Equinox, what it was like for Lavinia to be pregnant when the company was scaling, what she thinks of the business now and what's next. Follow Lavinia and her new business, MoveJoy, here.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to

line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at airbnb.com slash host. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no

maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A.

Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. If you're running a small business or a side hustle, you're going to do a lot of things. You're going to incorporate the business. You're going to give it a name. You're probably going to give it a website or a handle on social media. But are you going to give it an astrological birth chart? According to Lavinia Errico, co-founder of Equinox, you should. I see a lot of influencers

talking on social media about spirituality, but far, far fewer entrepreneurs talking about it. So today, Lavinia and I are going to talk about where what I'm calling practical woo should come in. And if you're on the fence about all of this, don't worry, because I can be skeptical too. So you'll definitely hear your voice in this conversation. We talk about the early days of scaling Equinox, what it was like for Lavinia to be pregnant during the launch of the company, and what she thinks of the business now. Lavinia is also building a new business, MoveJoy. So we talk about what it's like to have a second business baby after the huge success of your first. Here's Lavinia. Lavinia, welcome to Money Rehab. Finally. I'll go with you anywhere, darling.

Anywhere. Any rehab. That's true. When was the first time we met? You remember the story much better than I do. We met when we were doing that event. I was hosting a panel. Around women empowerment. Makes sense. It was at the BMW, the Beverly Hills BMW. There was some part of it, and right now, especially with Pregnancy Brain, there there was a spanx part of the story that

i remember you sat down and it was in the morning and you were it was a prep meeting or something no no you said it from the panel you said something like cool i never expected to be at eight o'clock in the morning standing here with spanx and Louboutins in the middle of a dealership. I was like, wow, we're going to keep it real today. We're going to be friends. And we were, and we stayed instant, but we've done a bunch of panels since then. Yeah, we have. There was one time we did a panel with other female founders and you really like meeting beforehand. I do. I love that. And we did dinners with the founder of Sugarfino, which was super nice. So great. And Paige.

Paige from Paige Denim. She was a doll. She was awesome. And then we did another panel with some other female founders. And I was hosting that whole day. And I was really stressed out. And I remember you came. And I was like, Levin is here. And you saw it, like you felt my vibe. You were like, I'm off. And we went into

a closet or a little hallway and we just started breathing and changing. I'm like, we got to shift the energy. We can't go on that stage with you like that. We had to shift the energy and we went into this little closet and just started bouncing. It was so kind of you to see me in that moment. And then we went and just did our little thing and then went on stage. And are you naturally good at managing stress in those situations? Like, how have you evolved to know when to? First of all, for me, movement always changes my energy. And that's why I'm such a believer in movement, right? Because it just shifts the energy. I have a tendency to have a little bit

of anxiety and I had it as a child. So over the years, I just use a lot of different things. So breathing, dancing, like if you're going on panels or you're anxious or stressed, what would you? Usually I'm a way there. Like I'm in my car. I put on certain music that lifts me up and I even do the breath work a little bit when I'm driving, even though my breath coach would say, don't do it when you're driving. But I do. Because it almost makes you high, right? It makes you high. So when you get that rush, you feel so good. I know when I was on, I used to put a little band, a little elastic band. And if I felt myself like in a place where I couldn't excuse myself, I would just take the

band and hit the band. And as soon as it hit, it would be like, come back. You're good. That was a DBT thing that I learned in dialectical behavioral therapy, like to put the band or sometimes I put my nail and it shifts or it makes you feel like I'm alive. I feel I do this. Yeah. But now I just like if something happens right between here, I just squeeze it in with my nail and all of a sudden it just brings me back. It's something to just stay calm.

You've gone through all the woo. A lot of woo woo. All of it. And I'm so not. I'm really this Italian Jersey girl. From Jersey. Who's so grounded, who can grit through it, grind through it, shovel it out. But I've also liked that woo.

I enjoy some of it, like I do. And I'm like, hmm, not sure I believe at all. But what I know is it feels good. So once it feels good, I'm like, okay, I might not drink all that Kool-Aid over there, but I got something out of it. I feel like almost everything I do, there's always one pearl that I can walk away from. And the truth of it is that's the way I like to spend my time. I'm not the woman that loves to go shopping. And I like personal development. I like spiritual development. That's my happy place. When I go to your house, which is also your happy place,

there is a lot of woo representation. There's a lot of crystals. You have the biggest supplement display outside of one of the vitamin stores that I've ever seen. There's Buddhas. You go through a lot of it in different colors that you gravitate toward and like and all the astrology and the Kabbalah but what i think of you is this practical woo you will call bullshit like you are very you're bs star and i don't know if this is a jersey thing or like people from jersey but you'll be in like the yoga or the breath and this and that and you'll try all the things right but every once in a while they're like no and like the jersey girl comes out yeah because that's who i. Like that's really at the root.

Like I said, I don't buy into it all, but I enjoy it. I know when I'm being a tourist, I'm being a tourist in something. And I know when I'm walking my walk of spirituality and of personal development, like I know my core values. These are my core values. core values. These are my core values. And then everything else is enjoyment and pleasure and recreation and just something to do to be in community with like-minded people that are also engaging in more conscious things, right? I'd rather do that than just constantly talking about, I don't know, things that sometimes- So superficial.

Every place they traveled and where they ate and the ritzy, bougie hotels they stayed at. That's fun. And I have that in my life too, but I can't stay in that energy for too long. I feel like I have ants crawling on my back after a while. It's like, get out of here. I need something a little deeper. Can we swim in deeper water a little bit? I love swimming in deeper waters with you because you're really tapped into your intuition in a way I haven't seen before. It's like not

a platitude or trite when people are like, just follow your gut. If I want to know what you think about somebody, you will for sure tell me. And you feel it because you've done so much work on yourself. Thank you. I do think that at this stage of my life, it's become a little bit of a superpower. But it's taken you a while. It's a girl. Sister. I'm in the sixth decade of life.

If I don't have it by now. And by the way, I still remain a student. I always hear you doing some other adventure, like some breath workshops, manifestation shops, some other energy thing. You've gone through a lot of it. And you've also used some of it in business, like the astrology stuff. But I've been doing this. I mean, to be truthful, I've been doing this since I'm very young. This isn't new. Like

I've had an interest in astrology as a kid too. I remember doing my first sweat lodge. All my friends, like a bunch of people were going to Florida for spring break. And I was going up to Never Sink New York to do an Indian sweat lodge at 17 or 18 years old. And people were like, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't even know, but it sounded amazing. And I think I was the only one in that tent or teepee that was under 45. And I loved it. I never felt so alive, so connected. And that was probably the beginning of knowing that's my lane. Like I felt this feeling of that's my lane. And you didn't at that point, I'm sure you didn't know how that was going to apply to business life. You worked a corporate job first when

you and your brothers started Equinox. Yeah. And you were doing both for the same time. My first real job, I worked for Lancome and I got into kind of like their executive program and moved up with them. And I learned so much. Like that's a big part of why I know every young person wants to be in a startup, in a startup, they want to be an entrepreneur, but the training in those corporate situations are unbelievable. And the training I had first in sales, and I always say every single person needs to know how to sell. If you're a doctor, some of the doctors that I see, the ones that are doing so well are the ones that are comfortable selling, where the other ones that are not comfortable,

their practices aren't doing as well. So I don't care what you're doing. Everybody should be comfortable talking about what they do and asking for the sale, right? I did that and worked with them creatively and so many levels. And then from there, the controller left. I'll never forget when she called me. I didn't even know who she was. And she's like, Lavinia? She left a message on my, we had answering machines in those days. Ah, yes. Do you remember that? Yes, of course.

And she's like, Lavinia? She says her name. I'm the controller in Longcomb. I want to talk to you. Can we meet for breakfast? And I was like, sure. And she's like, I've been at Longcomb. Now I'm leaving and I'm going to

Fred Hayman 273 and so he had originally founded Giorgio Beverly Hills and he was starting a new fragrance he sold that fragrance I think to Ava and I was creating a new fragrance she goes and I'm tip one name with me and we never met and I'm like and she goes in it's your And I'm like, and she goes, and it's your name. I'm like, why did you take me though? Like, why? She goes, because every six months, you're the vice president and the regional coming in here telling us we had to give you a raise and why we had to give you a raise. And now I want to hire you. And she knew how much I was making. And she dove. How much was it? I think I was making like $35,000. So she's going to give you $70,000 plus bonus potential. And you'll be able to make $110,000. And it was like, that's a lot of money then.

You know, like. You were 20 something. I was 26, I think. And then I started with that. And that was a whole other, because again, it was a startup. Like 273 was a startup and you learn a lot in that place and how crazy it was and they just throw you out there and I didn't have a lot of the background that I really needed for that job because I was more like sales out there with the creating doing these video makeovers and

getting out and more on the sales side of it running running the team, you know, and things like that. And so now I had to do both. You just put on your big girl boots and you do it. And that two years was probably the best training that I could have gone into to prepare me for Equinox. And you were on another one of our network's shows, our friend Nellie's show. You were talking about this idea that you felt like you and your brothers you started Equinox with didn't make any mistakes. Why do you think that? It's weird because when we opened up our first gym, which, by the way, wasn't Equinox. It was like our proof of concept outside of Equinox.

When I look back now and I look at what we what we did, like, we did it right. It's kind of like weird. Girl, own it. Yes. It's weird. Everything from maybe the only mistake we did is that we didn't fill the pool in because there was a pool. It was an existing gym. We did a major renovation.

We gutted the whole thing. The only thing we did was we kept the pool. And I think that might have been the only mistake we did. We should have just covered that pool up and got rid of it because that pool was such a nightmare. The women, the old women would come out and they would be like, the pool's too cold today. And it was just like every day was something. And I never realized that every day is a science project with a pool because for whatever reason, all of a sudden you walk in and the pool's green. You're like, what do you mean

the pool's green? Like, why is the pool green? I don't know. Maybe somebody peed in it. The pool was our biggest nightmare. But other than that, even the way we built it out and the way my brother Vito, especially the way he designed it. And like we put in the best floor, like it was a Neo shock floor, which I mean, nobody had even put in floors like that. And how he even found that sometimes I'm like, it was just the best, like the equipment was amazing. Everything was just amazing. Well, you went into it like low pressure. You didn't go into it thinking it was a billion dollar business. You're like, let's do this proof of concept with cool floor and cool stuff. And like, why not? Just for creating a gym that we wanted. And I think that, well, first of all,

we were all very active. I was a dancer growing up. My brothers were athletes. My parents turned our basement into a gym. I think we had one of the first universal equipments in a home. I don't even think it was designed for a home in those days. I think it was designed to be in a gym and my father bought it. I guess we wanted it. My brothers wanted it. And that became the place we all hung out at after school. And I went to. And when I come back, that was like the way we hung out with each other was in the basement who was working out. Somebody was hitting the drums. Like I was practicing dance. Like it was just this, we were six kids. And your twin brother. Yeah. My twin brother.

And your other brother. So all three of you started it. Yeah. And then how long did you get pregnant with Zach? I got pregnant with Zach. Oh, let's see. We started, I believe Westchester was around 89 and I got pregnant in 93. Unexpectedly. Unexpectedly. Yeah. And what was your time like? I mean, just startup mode, but on steroids. Oh, yeah. When I got pregnant, it was a shocker. But I knew I felt it was so right. I knew it was God.

I knew it was God. And, you know, look, it was a little dicey. It was like, oh, your third partner. Like, pregnant? Are you kidding? Are you really going to be able to carry your weight as a pregnant woman? Like being pregnant and having a baby? Maybe you should think this through. Maybe this might not be the best time to be having a baby. And maybe it was even a little bit more forceful than that, but I don't

want to think about that. So it was definitely talk about life and transition and how, what are you going to do? That's why for women, we so have to know who we are. Like we have to know who we are because I look back now and if that would have been 10 years before and that would have shown up like that, I wouldn't have kept my child because I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it. And every day I have to admit, I say, thank God I did it. Thank God I did it because it wasn't so hard. It was really hard and not because of me, but because I also had a partner that did not believe that I could carry my weight as a third partner and be a mom. Not your partner as in like your son's dad. No, no, no, my brothers.

But I want you to understand something. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you.

Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host, so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself.

Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can

overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working towards your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions And now for some more money rehab. But I want you to understand something.

To have that conversation in those days wasn't, today it would be awful. It would be mean and horrible. But in those days, that's how they looked at women. It wasn't like he was a bad person for thinking like that. And I know that even though it was painful for me, so painful, but I don't, I'm not, there's no animosity about it because I understand where it was. We were opening up. We already signed 895 Broadway, which was our second, the really big gym and the really big club. And so it was a lot.

It was, but I don't know why, Nicole, I don't know why I was so confident. It was God. It was, I was so confident. I got this. It's not going to be easy. I don't know if I realized how hard it was going to be though. How hard was it? It was hard. Number one, being pregnant. And my pregnancy was relatively easy. I did have a little hiccup in the beginning. I couldn't work out for like three weeks. I had a little tear in the placenta in about my 14th week.

Hold on. Like when somebody says I couldn't work out for three weeks, that sounds like delightful for me. But for you, can you explain how significant that was? No, I mean, I worked out every single day of my life. Because you were addicted to working out. Yeah, I was over the top. Because, you know, I was a dancer. And at 12, I made this professional group.

Because, you know, I was a dancer and at 12, I made this professional group and I heard one of the girls say, too bad she has her body more like a soccer player than a dancer. I was a dancer too. They always say stuff like that and it stays with you. Yeah, because in those days, it was, you had to be emaciated. Like your arm had to look like it was coming out of the socket. You had to be so skinny. I had more of an athletic body. I remember asking my older cousin, like, what does that mean? I heard one of the girls have a body like a soccer player and she's just ignore it. She's just saying

that you're more muscular, but I knew I was muscular. Like I was 12. I wasn't this small petite girl, but that began the beginning of my issue around my body and just trying to work out so hard that I had a body like somebody else. So yeah, part of that was over-training, over-working out. Thankfully, I was always good with my food though. Thankfully, because I watched a lot of dancers become, went anorexic with the food and then they had no nutrients. And today I know women who are in the hospital paralyzed because they, for years and years and years, just ate lettuce and their bodies, literally. Like I always ate, like I ate my protein. I ate my chicken. Years ago, we didn't always put fat on it.

It was like, I'll have a salad with no oil. I'll have chicken with no skin. So you didn't have a lot of fat, but you ate hamburger and you ate food. But you were working out like multiple times a day in the middle of the night. Always twice a day. Before we opened Equinox, and I still had it in my apartment, I had a stationary bicycle. And if I would come in out from dinner, and if I felt like I ate too much, I would get on that bike for an hour, an hour and a half in a rubber suit to just sweat it out. Yeah, it was part of my journey. In those days, I felt like my currency was my body. I felt like my currency was my beauty. Like I'm really like, that's why

I do what I do today because that is not our currency as women. That's not our currency. It's not our beauty. It's not being a size two. That doesn't bring us wisdom. That doesn't bring us our knowledge. That doesn't bring us how frigging fabulous we are. It has nothing to do with the size of that. And it sounds like the pregnancy journey helped in that growth. It did too. For sure. Because I helped with my growth around my body image as well. Yeah. You just have to. You have to. And so did you slow down while you were after the placenta thing? I never slowed down work-wise. But you felt like you had a chip on your shoulder too. You were like. I had to prove my worth. I had to prove that I can do this. So I was definitely grinding it out,

have to prove that I can be a mom. I can work through this pregnancy. I've got more energy than anybody. It was nonstop. And thankfully I have a lot of energy. Like I just am that person. That's probably why I felt like I could do it because I never get sick. I'm never homesick. I'm very lucky. I have a very strong constitution. So when you delivered, I had a C-section right away. I had a C-section and trying to get under those abs. Yeah. Yeah. I remember my doctor and they're pulling because they pull up. And the doctor said, the assisting physician surgeon said, oh my God, I've never done a C-section this difficult. And my doctor who knows me well said, Lavinia, Lavinia, everything's fine. It's just that you

have a ridiculous amount of muscle mass on your abs and we have to literally pull it all apart. Everything's fine. So the baby comes down and super healthy and everything's amazing. But the healing of that C-section because of what they had to do and all the fashion, all the stuff was brutal. And I couldn't walk for the week, even though I would be trying. brutal and I couldn't walk for the week, even though I would be trying. But yeah, so I had Zach on a Monday, left the hospital on Thursday and had my first marketing meeting on Monday

at nine o'clock in the apartment. And then never stopped working. I just kept going, working, working. And I'm not proud of it. It's not something I say. It's just, that's what had you. Until you guys had your big exit and sold. And in Boss Bitch, I think you have a story about the aftermath of that, where you were forced to slow down, but you also went through some serious depression during that time. What did it feel like? A death? A breakup? I remember walking.

We sold the business in December. And we had to clean out our desks. And a lot of our staff didn't know we were selling. They thought we were raising money. So now we had to say our goodbyes. And oh, God, they were like family. So then we have Christmas. And then we go on vacation.

We come back. Randy goes to work. My ex, I take my son to drop off because now I'm going to be doing drop off every day. And I remember walking off of the playground or the blacktop, I think they called it in New York. And as I'm walking out, it's like the entire, everything just went like this, out, it's like the entire, everything just went like this, honed in. And it was like my ears muffled. And I was, I didn't know what was happening. I kind of thought, am I having a stroke? Am I having a heart attack? I kept walking slowly because in case I was going to fall, I wanted to be able to catch myself on the way down. I got home and Maxine was there, who was like my son's nanny. And I said, Max, I don't know, something's wrong.

She goes, what's wrong? I go, I don't know. I told her what happened. She goes, I think you should just go into bed. Maybe you're, I don't know, everybody's always dehydrated. Maybe you're dehydrated. I call my mom, told her what happened. She goes, you know, Levin, you've had a big month. I think just relax. You're going to be fine. And the truth of it is, I felt like that for probably three months. And the hardest part was, how do you tell people? You just had this big exit. It was all over the papers. Everybody knows how much. People are like, oh my God. I felt like one person I said something to as a joke, they were like, just go to Chanel. Go on a shopping spree. That'll make you feel better. So it was just like, how do you explain that? And then I realized what I learned in my therapy was that I was going through identity paralysis.

And it wasn't just identity from Equinox. It was that my whole life, my identity was all my accolades, all my successes, being a good student and being a good dancer and making the professional group and becoming a rock head and getting it to USC. Like my whole life was that my whole identity was also all the things on the outside of me. And now I didn't know who I was and now I have nothing. I mean, because it was what, from one day to the next, there wasn't an earn out there wasn't staying on and helping with transition. It was basically.

And we wanted it that way. We had a couple of different offers where it wouldn't have looked like that. It would have been like, you have to stay on. You have to earn it. You got to stay on five to 10. We were like, no, we're leaving. We're walking out the door. And I went through the deep, dark seat of the soul of having to look at like all of that stuff.

The truth where how so much was driven by ego. So much, everything I did was like to succeed was from my deep insecurity. Of deep insecurities and how to work through that. And until you get to the nothingness, and it takes time and it's a journey, but when you get there, it's like all of a sudden you feel so good. Wasn't there an astrologer or something that you were seeing that said we're going to go through this dark period and you went back to check your birth certificate to verify? I did everything with astrology. Because I've done it at your house and you're like-

People don't know this, but we built our whole business on astrology. Like Equinox opened on the Equinox at 8.05 AM because that was when the astrologer told us to open. That was the magic time for us. So Equinox had its own chart from the day that we opened. I think at that point, because when we signed the leases, we weren't doing Equinox. We weren't doing astrology at that time.

But by the time we opened, so the astrology, so that was the birth. So that's how they looked at the chart of Equinox. Probably now I would look at the chart like what I did with my new business. The chart was the day I put together the LLC. So I literally had that chart done before. As a birth. As a birth, when you're birthing. The time and the date. Exactly. Wow. So I chose it on the day I wanted. So with Equinox, we were very lucky that there was a very auspicious time on the day that we were opening because we did open on the autumnal Equinox and that 805 was the magic. So Equinox had its own chart. Then me, Vito, and Danny had our own chart. And then we had the chart of equinox together and we used it a lot.

Like we signed leases on the astrology. We opened clubs on the astrology. We hired people doing their astrology. So we definitely did that. Do you still keep tabs on what's going on there? No. You saw that they went viral to do $40,000 a year membership for health and longevity and stuff. What do you think?

I think it has its place. These wellness programs right now are huge. I mean, we have the one Tony Robbins is doing with the hotel person. That's going to be about $35,000 a year. All of these very high-end wellness places are showing up everywhere. Very high-end wellness places are showing up everywhere. I have friends that are working with functional medicine doctors that are spending $165,000 a year for the membership with the doctor, and that includes some stem cells. Every day, I'm hearing more and more stuff in that.

It'll be interesting to see what they do for that $40,000 because, I hate to say it, a lot of the really good stuff that's going on out there isn't FDA approved. I don't know if they'll do it because they're a big company. There's definitely a market for sure. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. And now for some more Money Rehab. And now with MoveJoy, which is your new venture, how do you think about that compared to Equinize? I've heard, and I'm sure you have, Elizabeth Gilbert talking about Eat, Pray, Love being her big thing. And then, you know, the books after were hard to compare to that. Do you think of them in comparison or separately?

I think of it very separately. First of all, I want you to know, like the way I look at it is, I'm not doing this for a legacy. I already have one. I have a really good legacy and it's great. I'm doing this really as it's really my mission. It's my ministry. That's how I feel about it. I was talking to somebody this morning on the phone and she takes my class all the time and she's really gone through some really hard times. And she said, you know, what you do is so different than anything I've ever done before.

And it literally makes a difference every day in my day. Even if the shit hits the fan and we all know every day shit's going to hit the fan, I can handle it so much better because my energy is better. Because sometimes, listen, I have my moments where I go like, am I really going to do this? I haven't really launched. I'm in a beta. Am I really going to do this? And I'm like, I know that when God gives you a gift and you don't use it, that is an issue. We have these gifts. When I hear somebody who has a beautiful God-given voice and they don't sing, now that doesn't mean they have to be a professional singer, but sing. That's your gift. You've been born with this gift. And I've been saying this to people for years. You have a gift. You have to use it.

And now I'm not going to use the same to myself. Take your own advice? Yeah. I have to use my own advice. I've been mentoring with that orientation, that message. I can't not use it on me now. And I do have this gift, especially for women 50 plus, to really change the way I really feel like I understand as a woman all we've suppressed. I really understand how every emotion, every emotion has an energy attached to it. And all of those emotions live on our physical body. And we suppress, we hold it in. Body keeps score. Body keeps score. There's books on it. The medicine's showing it.

We know it. But there's not a lot of things out there that are helping you release that. Even working out. When I look at women for all my years, when I look at the women going to the equinoxes of the world, right from the beginning, people would say to me, I'm not going to equinox till I lose 20 pounds. I want to look beautiful. And we definitely had that, but we were young when we created that we were young. It was all about being fit and beautiful and models. And yeah, that was our energy. We did that. We definitely did that today. We would evolve even though we hope so. And we were evolving along the way, even by the end, by we shifted, I had a little breakdown ended up falling. I realized, wait a minute, I'm like

under 35 years old. If I'm not, I'm fit. I'm like, if this isn't health, what's health? So that was like, we started that and we ended up opening the wellness center. So we were already changing out of that. I still look at the classes that are out there now. I look on this Instagram and I see the people that are trying to inspire women and they're out there in their little shorty shorts and their bra tops and their eight packs. And it's no, that's not inspiring women. That's shaming women, especially a woman who's going through menopause and her body is changing, is that really going to inspire her? No, she's going through some stuff, right? So it's like, how do we really inspire women to really love their bodies? Like to really say, I love my body. I love my body. Now that doesn't

mean we don't want to change it a little. That doesn't mean we don't want our body stronger, healthier, leaner. Yes, we can have that. But we start with so much love for it instead of shame. So much shame, disgust. When I watch women, I listen to them. I want to get rid of the cellulite on my legs. I want to get rid of my muffin top. I want to get rid of my back fat. I want to get rid of my arms. My arms, I'm like, stop, stop, stop. Let's connect a little bit. Let's love your body. Look at,

there were some people that can't get out of bed. You mentioned a couple of emotions, shame and disgust, but the emotion that you resonate with your Instagram is your company is joy. And you've done so much of this work on your own joy. And I know that you inspired me by going into the stairwell to move my body and find like a little moment of joy that way to shift it. And that's what you're giving to others because you did it the hard way and you spent a lot of money at trying to figure all of that out for yourself and you're giving it back. That's what I feel like I've spent years and probably I've had access to some of the best healers, doctors, innovators in this field. And I studied with them. I practiced with them. We

collaborated together on things like I learned so much. I learned so much. And then, of course, I danced professionally. So my body has moved in that way. I've done my certifications for different movement modalities myself. And I did teach for years. But for me, it was more for my own practice, for my own knowledge. Until we can change, we have to move to change. You want more life in your body? You

want more life? Want more vitality? You got to move. Like you got to move. So before you do anything, you have to learn how to move. And over 75% of our country is deconditioned, overweight, or obese. 75. Everyone, the equinoxes, the soul cycles, the orange theories, all of it, the Tracy Andersons, all of them are fighting for the same 25%. They're all fighting for that same 25%. There's really not a lot of people that are going after, really going after the decondition market. Like I feel like since Richard Simmons got off the radar, he was the one. No shame. He's not asking you to take a picture of a person you admire and put it up on your mirror and look at that picture every day. I can speak from personal experience.

I've had meatballs at your house. I've had spaghetti. You live this idea of true balance and self-acceptance. And it's taken you so long to do that. And you've inspired me for this last decade so much that I'm so excited for you to be able to do it in such a scale in a way that helps others through this. Yeah. Levin, we can talk forever and we have, and we can, we'll continue next decade and beyond,

but we end our episodes by asking all of our guests for a tip. Listeners can take straight to the bank for money, for anything. Maybe you can give the tip that you've given me around Kabbalah because anytime I've moved over the years, I've always sent you the listings and you do like a math thing and you're like, oh, maybe this one, maybe not this one. Can you explain what you do? There are certain numbers that are just not as great to live in, to reside in a home. And that would be, and I'm not even sure I can tell you every reason why for those numbers, but I did have an amazing teacher, Dr. Leverie, that talked a lot about that. And I understood, and that would be a four. So you don't want to live in a house of a four. You add all the numbers. You just take

the address. Oh, not the zip code. No zip code. And it's only the numbers of where the house is. So if it's 2020 Main Street. 2020 would be a four. Because you add them together. Yes. So you just add the two and two and that would be a four. And yeah, that number shows a lot of chaos, a lot of craziness. Now, they do say if two people live there and they were very spiritual and real integrity.

Like two people that had so much integrity in their life and they communicate powerfully. Like you could do well there, but it takes that. Think about it. 2020 was when COVID. That happens to be a year when things like that happen. And the other two numbers are an eight and a nine, those two numbers. But the advice that I really would love to give people, and maybe I feel this way more now because of what I personally went through, is around money. Like when you have a

money manager, you have to know you've got to stay on that. You've got to be so diligent, do your homework, know those numbers and really know them because I definitely got blindsided with mine. And that is like a thing that I have now. You got screwed by somebody. I totally got screwed by him. I think in the beginning he was really good. I think his heart was in the right place. And then I think life and he needs to make more money and had a bigger family and wanted to do bigger things. And so I think he was doing unscrupulous things with his clients' money. And I unfortunately was going through a really hard time because my husband of the time,

as you know, had cancer and stage four. So I basically said to him, look, I'm not going to be able to be in the statements, be in the weeds. Yeah, I have to do this. But I trust you because we'd already been together about 10 years. I trust you. I felt like he was like my third brother. Went to all his kids' weddings. And then I find out five years later at about the same time when

that happened, he started. So I just really, now I'm with a team and I follow it and I look at it and I'm aware where he would come and he would present me with this great book and show me like, oh, even the forensic accountant, when he would go through, it was like, this guy's really smart. So of course me, who's not a numbers person, I just thought I had, oh my God, he's making me so much money. I'm doing so well. And then I learned he was actually making himself more money than he was making me. So now I really want people to like, if you have a money manager, you've got to still bring somebody else with you who knows that. And you could, that can mentor you on that or look through that for you as well.

I think it's really important because I'm more creative. My lane isn't. If I would have known, I would have had you, my darling. Look at this for me. I need time. Is there a question or something? Because he stole money from you. Yeah.

And you know what? We hired a lawyer. I had the lawyer and the lawyer basically said, Lavinia, what he did was unethical, but it wasn't illegal. There's a lot of gray areas of what's legal. And if you go to court, he's probably going to win because it wasn't illegal, but it was really unethical. So would you be really clear and intentional about asking about fees or specific questions to ask? Understanding what the, and even ask him, what are you making on that?

How much are you making on that? Channel your inner Jersey girl. Yes. But I didn't- Just ask like plain questions. Yeah. Like I didn't even think about that stuff. Wait a minute. Every time you sell that and you do that, how much are you making? You don't win or lose. You win or learn. And I learned. And it was a bit of an expensive lesson. I win or learn. And I learned. And it was a bit of an expensive lesson. I'm learning and I'm learning more. And it's actually fueling me. What's part of what's fueling me to be bolder, to be bigger, to give back even more, especially when I see women get screwed. I got screwed. I don't like that. And I'm smart and I have money. And you still can get that.

You just know everybody else is getting screwed. It bothers me like so much. Jersey girl's coming out. Watch out. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Levoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening

and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.