The Bossticks - How To Get Fit From Home Ft. Mark Mullett and Ashley Mills Of Obé Fitness

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

#445: On todays epsidoe we are joined by Mark Mullett and Ashley Mills Of Obé Fitness. The co-founders join the show to discuss how they transitioned from Hollywood agents to entrepreneurs who cracked the code of fitness from home.  This Episode Is Brought To You By OBE FITNESS To Get 2 Months Free of Obé Fitness click HERE or use code SKINNY2 at www.obefitness.com when signing up. To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) Check Out Lauryn's NEW BOOK, Get The Fuck Out Of The Sun HERE  This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  Produced by Dear Media 

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to by Obey Fitness. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. We're not in the fitness business. We're in the best life business. And we want to deliver that to as many people. as possible, so come join us. And so from a casting perspective, we've always found folks who, of course, they're of course they're good at programming a workout, but their ability to reach across that screen and inspire you to do more and feel a certain way and live your best life is off the charts. Really figure, like, what is your brand? Why does it matter? And who are you

looking to influence? And I think it's really important now as like the platform has evolved. We want to make sure that people coming in, they have that storytelling piece. And obviously, we will continue to cultivate it with them. Welcome back, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. That clip was from our guests of the show today. Ashley Mills and Mark Mullet, the founders of Obay Fitness, keeping up the wellness, fitness, health theme that we just, you know, had last week,

just in an episode all about Lauren and I's health and fitness routines. And so what better time than to talk about this platform that we love so much that you can do from home, do really from anywhere, which we're going to get into on this episode. So who are Mark and Ashley? Mark and Ashley are former Hollywood talent agents who just had a love for fitness. And with their jobs that they had, you know, formerly as talent agents, they thought, hey, why can't we just spin out and create this amazing brand together, which they did? It's actually a really incredible story.

And it speaks to the power of really kind of chasing your passion. They've built a massive platform that celebrities and influencers and regular people, just like you and me use all the time. And like I said, you can use it anywhere anytime. So it's a really incredible story of just entrepreneurship. health, fitness, how to take care of your body, how to take care of your mind. And we love this platform. With that, let's welcome Ashley and Mark to the show and be sure to listen for a special code just for our listeners at the end of this episode, only available here. It's the greatest

offer that they've ever offered to anyone, I'm sure, take my word for it. With that, Ashley and Mark, welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. No, it's like, yeah, that's cute with like your furry pen. I like that. By the way, with euphoria, that whole aesthetic is back and ready to go. Do I need to see that? I haven't either. But between Paris Hilton relaunching, you know, pink jumpsuits and all things, euphoria, I think we're heading straight back into clueless. I love it. So about clueless. My next launch of product is so clueless vibes. So I'll take that. Yep. I'm really into your place. And you had a Paris moment back in the day. We called you Laris.

I had a Paris moment. I was called Laris in high school. That's not a joke. That's a real thing. That's amazing. Also, don't mean to brag, but Paris pulled me in the bathroom one time when we were blacked out drunk and said, you're hot, you're hot, you're hot, you're hot, you're hot, you're hot, you're hot, and we started, almost had like a little kiss.

And of all the things that has happened since that was her peak, that was Lauren's peak. That was a year. Your life has never been the same. It's been down there. When I was in college, so when I was in college, I wasn't out, you know, as a gay man. And I had this like pin up in my room of Paris and Nikki Hilton. And my fraternity brothers were like, yeah, she's hot. And I'm like, yeah, that's hot.

Like they didn't get, they didn't get what was going on in my brain. And my dad always used to be like, you really have a crush on this Paris Hilton, don't you? I'm like, yeah. Like they didn't get the why behind it. You know what I mean? You should have been friends with me. Totally. I would have been like totally on your level.

She's totally my type to go out and party with. You know what I mean? I'm like they didn't get it. but I was an early adopter. Paris Hilton, I feel like, is doing Obey right now with the way she looks at her age. She's ageless. She's ageless. She's iconic.

And she's built a mega business. Yeah, it's very, very impressive. A mega business. Like, she has stayed true to who she is and her brand. And she has found ways to get it out there in front of new audiences all day, every day. Yeah, she's really practiced the art of longevity and not sometimes she's a little bit absent. and then she'll come in hard and be present. It's very powerful.

And I like the mom's on the circuit now too. The mom's popping push. She's ready. I love fucking Kathy Hilton. I'll tell you, she is the reason I tune into Housewives of Beverly Hills. Kathy Hilton. Okay, can we just,

we're just going to take a tangent before we get into this. If you observe Kathy Hilton's house, she has, you know that like blue and white? I don't, it's a pattern. It's a blue and white pattern. Like Patricia Alchus. It's like,

it's like white. It's like white shine in your house. It's like chinoiserie. Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's a little chin. Oh, yeah. So she has like the sugar holder in the blue and white with the spoon that matches with the coffee cup with the tea thing that goes under it with everything.

And she's like, it's just like a casual coffee like situation. And then at night she's drinking out of these Baccarot $5,000 glasses eating like caviars like an appetizer. I just. But it's just. casual. But then she has the TV tray dinner with her husband and her. They eat off a TV dinner tray. Yeah.

The just supposition of it all is incredible. It's amazing. It's like it's like it just comes naturally to her. It's like, of course I'm having caviar with my scrambled eggs on a Monday morning. I love it. On the TV dinner tray. You know what I mean? As she's petting the dog and like putting on an eye mask.

I love it. I love Kathy Hilton. I'm here for it. Kathy Hilton open invite to come on. Yeah. Okay. Let's go way back. I want to talk about both of your child.

hoods. So maybe we'll start with you. You can give us a little background of where you came from and then how you guys intertwined and met. Absolutely. So I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, single mom, small family, a lot of stuff happening, a lot of, like, you know, kind of early experiences that were really difficult. And so I became, like, very young. I became kind of like the caretaker of my family. I always sort of, like, just figured stuff out. I lost my brother when I was 14 and, like, at a really terrible car accident, like just a lot of like early, early hard beginnings. That was kind of like the early part of my life. I was super active. I did a lot of like, I didn't know it was fitness at the time, but like I was cheerleading and riding horses and dancing and all of this stuff. And that

was sort of like my, you know, I really like expressed myself and sort of like work through my emotions. So did you have any other siblings besides your brother? No, it was only my brother. And my mom was a single mom. It was a, you know, obviously a very difficult experience. And And my family just had a lot of challenges. There was a lot of, there was like addiction. There was like other stuff that was happening. I grew up pretty fast. So fitness became sort of like an outlet for you to express yourself.

Yeah. It was like a place to sort of like go through those emotions. You know, when you have like trauma like that early on in life, you have to figure out what those outlets are. And my grandmother was amazing. She like put me in therapy and she did a lot of like really great stuff for me. But fitness became the thing and the place that I could like escape to, you know, not feel like all of those intense emotions. And when I did feel them, like I worked them out of my body.

So you didn't know that it was necessarily fitness or exercise at the time because you were so young. Fourteen is young. Yeah. But so looking back on it now, it's like no wonder I started a fitness company. Yeah. Isn't that funny how it all makes sense when you look back on all the hardships that you've had and it almost like points you in the direction that you're in? Absolutely. I mean, that's like to look back at your brother too and almost like he helped point you in the direction that you're in. No, it was, It was a gift. Yeah. What about you? Your childhood sounds like interesting. Yeah, I mean, other than, you know, assessing over Paris Hilton and Clueless, which we already covered. Yeah, you know, I grew up in small town USA. I grew up in Syracuse, New York.

And I'm 38 years old now. So I am an old millennial. I'm a product of the 80s. And I kind of grew up in like white picket fence land. But, you know, I grew up heavy. And that was a thing for me. Like I, you know, we even have these moments where you blink in life and you're like, oh my God, I just remember. this moment. Like I'll blink and I remember being, you know, in the in the local clothing store, like the local men's shop called Charnies. And I remember walking in with my dad and the clerk saying, oh, he's husky. Take him over to this section, the husky section. Like I remember it. Like I didn't fly in 2002. No, it wouldn't fly. 20? But whatever, whatever, you know. But those moments like were my childhood and I had this great life and I played sports and an incredible family and a lot of friends.

But like, I remember moments relating to fitness, body image issues. Like, it was a whole thing. And it was when I really started playing sports, especially in high school, I was playing football, I was playing lacrosse. And when I really found the gym when I was in 11th grade and I was like, wait a minute, I can make a change here. Like I can work out. I can, you know, go for a run.

I can learn how to lift weights and I can begin to go on a different journey. I can control how I look. But I remember growing up, like my mom would. would pack us these lunches and she would like put in like a little Debbie oatmeal cream pie with a massive peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of Cheetos. And if she listens to this, she's going to think that I'm saying something bad about her and I'm not. But that was how we ate. And that's that was sort of my childhood. And I also remember, you know, watching my mom specifically working out in our living room to Richard Simmons and then like and then like, you know, making

cabbage soup soup for the cabbage soup diet. You know what I mean? And going on those snack well roller coasters of life. This is so 80s. It's bringing me back. It's so 80s. And, you know, Ashley and I, they were talking about lays chips with Olean in it, which caused anal leakage. Um, you know, like, I, I, when I look back at growing up, I look back with the most fond memories of family of, of, of, of, of incredible moments, but they were sort of marked in time as it relates to food, weight, how I felt. I can close my eyes and be at the eighth grade birthday party at a friend's lake house swimming with my shirt on. You know what I mean? Like, because I didn't want to be, because I didn't look like my friends. And so I just mentioned all that

because that's how I grew up and that caused fitness and body and how I look at myself and how others look at themselves to be part of, I think, who I am both personally and professionally now. Growing up in Sarah Cues with the white picket fence, as you said, and you know you're gay. What's that like? Because that's like a different, I feel like nowadays, it's, It's like whatever. Like, you know. Yeah, no, now it's whatever. But in the 80s and the 90s, it was a different conversation.

Totally. And frankly, it wasn't, it wasn't a conversation, right? Which is fucked. Yeah. And by the way, like, to be honest, and I'm not proud of this, I've never really talked much about that. I've never gone to therapy. Like that's its own separate permutation of things I should be doing for myself.

But maybe that's why I, you know, ate like, you know, everything in sight. So much so that my mom would actually like take bags of chips. and those sorts of high calorie snack boots and hide them from me so that when I got home from school, I wasn't demolishing a whole bag of Cheetos. I wasn't demolishing an entire box of ho-hoes because trust me, I would. I wonder what role that played. But to answer the question more fully, you just kind of live with an inner quiet pain. And it's tough. It's really tough. And listen, I have an incredible support system around me. I have an incredible husband. My parents are the bomb. They were accepting from the minute we began to have that comment.

conversation in my mid-20s, I'm grateful and I realize it's not like that for a lot of people out there. I feel really blessed in that regard. But those moments in time where, you know, in high school and it's time to play spin the bottle and like you're supposed to be really excited, but like, you're kind of not. Or like, what's it called? Five minutes in heaven or seven minutes in heaven. Seven minutes. And hell. Seven minutes in hell. I got to take that bra off. I don't know. You know what I mean? It's just, it's a different lens. And it's painful. It is painful. I can imagine not like it's almost like having this secret and you can't tell the people closest to you. Did you not have anyone you could talk to you about it?

About that? No. No. Now listen, in retrospect, I'm sure my parents would say, oh, you could have talked up. That wasn't where we're at. And it would have, it wouldn't. When did you come out to your parents? I came out to my parents in my mid-20s because I had met someone who I'm still with now married to Keith. He's an incredible guy. And we were together for like three years. And I kind of. I kind of I moved right in. I liked this apartment. And I moved right in. And, you know, two years into being together, he's like, you got to talk to your parents. He's like, I'm a family person, you're a family person. And we can't all be together. This is ridiculous. You need to talk to your mom and dad. And I'll never forget it because we were in the Hamptons. It was like a really hot August day.

And I made, so we went out there on like a Thursday or something. And I said, mom, come down to the city from Syracuse. So she drove down four hours and she came on Saturday morning. I took a jitney, a bus. from the Hamptons back to New York, so nervous, like trembling, trembling. And we met up in Central Park to have this fun day together. And the minute we started walking, we sat down on a bench. And I'm like, Mom, I have to tell you something. And she's like, what? And I was like, I'm gay.

And her eyes got really wide. And then she leaned in. And she goes, I love you, which is so the right thing for a parent to do. And I know inside she was having her own circus, like her own emotional roller coaster. Oh, my God. How did I not know this? Do I even know my son? Am I going to have grandkids?

this back to the white picket fence land, like what you picture your life to be and your, sort of the generations in your legacy to be are suddenly very different. And it was a really great day, but I know it was an emotional day for both of us. And my dad was still, you know, upstate. And I said, I'll call dad now. And she said, let me, let me handle that. Let me, let me handle him. And my dad's an incredible guy. I was so nervous. And she went home and she told my dad. And I was so scared. I was standing in a CVS. And my dad called me. And, And oh, God damn it, I've got to pick up this call. And I don't want to have this call.

And I picked up my dad who's like the most Elfid guy on the planet was quivering. He couldn't even get it. It goes, Mark? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, I had a conversation with their mom. I'm like, yeah. And he goes, and he broke. He goes, and I told her the day you were born, I didn't know I could love like this.

I didn't know I could love like this. And that feeling hasn't changed one bit today. I didn't know I could love like this and I love you. And again, like my dad is like that dad. You know what I mean? He's a real like, you know, fix the tire, play football. Like he's that guy. And I'm not saying that to generalize a stereotype,

but I didn't know that conversation would go down that way. And it did. And again, I know it's not like that for a lot of young people out there. Your parents had no idea. I mean, they say that. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, sometimes it's a duck. I don't know. And again, I hate to generalize.

But like, I don't know. I don't think I'm like unattractive. I was never bringing a girlfriend home. Yeah. I mean, I had girlfriends and I was, you know, intimate with girls. But like, I was never bringing a girlfriend home. Like, I wasn't even talking about them. And so I thought maybe that would, would indicate something to them.

But I guess not. Listen, I'm not a parent, but I'm guessing when you're a parent, you know your kids inside and out, but maybe there's some things you don't see. I think, too, that generation. And I know it's like, not the best to say that generation, but I'm just talking about, like, my parents' generation

and probably yours. Like, it was more of, like, a sweep-it under the rug generation. Right. Our generation, I feel like, is like, let's talk about it. Like, let's just, let's throw it out there so we can take the air out of it. That generation was like,

let's tuck it nicely in the drawer and hope that it doesn't come out. No, it was a weird. I feel like we got caught in a weird period of time as millennials where the generations before us went through a lot of real heavy shit. I mean, like they went through real serious wars and came back with a lot.

Like, even the people that came back from a lot of those experiences, like, you didn't talk about it, right? So it was just like away. And then during that time, speaking of food and all these things, it was kind of like the era of mass marketing and mass food production. And so we also got caught in this like, not too, I'm not crying about it. But it was just this weird period of time. Thanks for the Twinkies, mom.

Yeah, but I mean, they probably feel like, hey, we're doing the right thing. And like, you're not supposed to address these things. I guarantee their parents weren't talking about any of this stuff, right? Like, it wasn't even possible. So you're in. In your 20s, when you come out, are you and Ashley friends at this point at CAA and WMA? Not yet at that point. Again, just to, I want to book in that.

Like, I am so grateful to be surrounded by people who have, who have supported me. And I really kick myself for not having that conversation with them earlier. And, you know, life unfolds in various ways and it was what it was. But my parents have been incredible. And I'm really, I feel, I feel fortunate, too, because it opens. opened up other conversations in other areas of my family, cousins who came out or in years to follow, you know, they're friends, kids who came out. But it wasn't as weird or it wasn't as crazy or it wasn't as awkward or wasn't as scary for those friends to tell their friends that

they have a gay kid because that conversation already happened. Don't you think like nowadays to like coming out? It sounds so so. It's like it's like it's like it's like it's nothing. It's like do I have to come out that I'm straight? I agree. But it's like it's like it's a lot. It's like it. It's not a non-event for everybody, you know, depending on the family dynamic and whatever else layers in. And that's that's a, that's a really tough one. But how did Ashley and I meet? So at that point in time, I was an agent at William Morris, a big talent agency. I'm sure you were a great agent.

God, do you want to be my agent? Oh, God. Literally, if we were in a time machine, hell yeah. But I was an agent William Morris straight out of school. You know, it's so funny. It's like you wear a suit and it's so like slick and savvy and fun. But it was incredible. And I met some of my dearest friends and really honed a skill as far as working with talent and working with production companies and working with content creators that were informing sort of pop culture.

And it was awesome. But Ashley, you were doing that separately in a different place. Ashley, who's worse, the talent, the brand, or the agent? Who's the hardest to work with? I'm glad I didn't get that. I asked my manager this all the time. I'm like, is the talent the worst or is the brand the worst or is it just all fuck? It's all fucked. It's all hard. It's all hard. And I think you have to be a lot of ego. A lot of ego. And I think, you know, one of the things that I learned early on and being an agent was just like setting expectations, documenting everything, over communicating so that when those things got fucked, it was very clear what fucked them. Right? That's smart. That's smart. So were you doing the same job as Mark was? Yes. So it's super interesting. My mom and I used to watch Oprah every day when I was growing up at like 3 o'clock. It was like the thing that we did. And it was like,

like such a meaningful time. And I remember like growing up in Ohio, Oprah was like the way, it was, she was like my view into the world. It's how I learned about everything. And so when I went to SMU in Dallas, Texas, I was graduating from college. I was going to do consulting. And the 22-year-old like altruistic side of me was like, I can't do consulting. I need to do something that's actually going to like affect the world. I'm sure I could have affected the world with consulting, but like really wanted to do something different. And so I thought about Oprah. And so I decided, you know what, I'm going to move to L.A. My dad lives in L.A. at the time. I'm going to sleep on his couch. I'm going to figure out how to get into the entertainment business. And so I like went

in through a temp agency. I interviewed at CAA. I met my first boss. I interviewed with him and I told him about how Oprah really inspired me. And he hired me. I started the next day. He was doing this deal for Oprah for the big give, which was this show on ABC, this like philanthropic show. And so within week one of working for him, I was connecting a call between he and Miss Winfrey. And it was like the biggest like, aha, you're in the right place, you're doing the right thing, moment that could have ever happened for me. And so then, you know, fast forward many years. I grew up in the LA office. Then I moved to New York.

And Mark and I were competitors. We, like, fought over clients. And so- What kind of agents were you? Like, what were you, who, what kind of talent were you representing? We were focused primarily in the lifestyle category. So we were representing a lot of on-air talent who held them shows for HETV and Bravo and the Food Network and, you know, obviously selling stuff to big panel shows.

Give us a name. Give us a little juice. Yeah. I mean, so like the Bethany. Frankles of the world and Dr. Oz and the Canon and a lot of people on the food network and HGTV and then a lot of production companies that were creating. I mean, we started talking about housewives of Beverly Hills. Like we were working with companies that were creating those shows and that was really cool. Which was avant-garde at the time. Yes. Okay. It was just, it was sort of the

beginning. So anyway, we were, we were competing for clients. I always knew like who people were meeting with at William Morris because it was always Mark. And so we had this like kind of interesting relationship. We didn't really know each other, but we saw each other at events. And then Mark started It was like one of those big stories where you leave, like, you can't jump agencies. That's like not a thing. At least it wasn't a thing at that time. And so he left Willie Morris. He came to CIA.

On day one, we just sort of like locked eyes and connected. And we just knew that there was like something special and we were going to do stuff together. So we started working on clients together. We, you know, learned that we both had this like love of fitness. So, you know, it was the time when like boutique fitness was was really growing. And Mark had represented the founders of SoulCycle. And I was working with them. And he'd worked with a lot of other folks in the, in that space.

we would go to LA on business trips and we would go to, you know, whatever the class de jour was and like fall in love with that talent and talk about it. It was just so clear that there was going to be a path for us together and that fitness was going to be at the center of it. But I remember meeting you that first day because, you know, as Ashley said, like when you go from one competitor to another in any business, right, it's a little, it can be a little dramatic, a little bit of a thing. And a little, you know, I'm glad, I'm really glad that I did it. At both companies, I had incredible experiences, incredible companies with incredible, you know, corporate cultures and friends that I will have for the rest of my life. So I'm really grateful. But

I remember being in a meeting and I looked across the table at you and we hung out afterwards and kept talking because I could tell that you kind of like to dish. Not like, you know, nothing, you know, salacious, but, you know, here's the lay of the land here. And here's sort of the cele, you know, in and out here and all that stuff. And you, you had the 4-1-1. And so we hung out after that meeting on like a Tuesday. And then by Thursday night, I think we were closing down the boom boom room at 4 in the morning in New York.

You know, and you know, about that place. Yeah, that was still a thing. Yeah, I think it's probably still a thing. But we don't, you know, we don't close anything down at 4 in the morning. We get up at 4 in the morning. But that was sort of our instant bond. Because you had been there since 21 years old. Like you knew where everything was

and you knew how to tell me what the right pathways internally were. You're the perfect people to ask. What are the fundamental differences between CAA and WMA? Maybe selfishly. I'm asking. Yeah. You know what? I would just say there.

This is some dicey water here. I would just say they are two incredible agencies that. This is so politically correct. Give me a little. Give me a speck of juice. Here's what I will say is that at CAA, the culture is like really paramount. At least when I was there, the agent there really take care of each other. And that's like the, that's the corporate culture.

And so you're supposed to, you know, all of your colleagues back before you call clients back. And like that kind of, I know for me, like I learned a ton from people. It didn't feel like there certainly was competition, but it didn't feel that way. And that's one of the things like at Obey that we've tried to create is like making sure that our employees and our talent. We're careful about like what we do internally because we want to make sure that there is that culture of like of camaraderie and like truly working together to create sort of like a shared vision for what it is that you're working on. So I can't speak to the William Morris part of it. But I will say as I guess I feel I sound like I'm

drinking the Kool-Aid, but I did. I thought you were getting me out of that question just there. I'll say this, Lauren. I was really excited about. I could say this probably. In the seat that I sit in, I've got to work so far with a bunch of incredible agents at CAA. Shout out guys. I have not yet had the pleasure of working with any at WME. Hit me up because right now W. W.A's going to lagging in the fight, right? But you work with the UTA.A. I don't really see any, of course, you TAs my partner, but I don't really see any representation so far from WME. Okay. That's just me. I had, I really, and I say this very authentically, I had amazing experiences with both. And I think you know, the caliber to which both companies look out, you know, for their clients and really,

really fly the flag of their clients to get their, you know, their talent out there, their word out there, their whatever IP they're working with out there is really impressive. From a culture perspective, strong culture at both places, super collegial, super kind. And I'm really grateful for both experiences. I would also say that the, you know, just just thinking of there was a week. I think the thing that's really interesting about agencies is each agent is sort of like an entrepreneur within the company. That's cool. Because you have to build your own book of business. You have to like figure out how to navigate internally to get the things done that you want it. Totally. And so I feel like for me as like an entrepreneur, it was so fundamental. And even when we like think about

bringing people on to our teams, if they have talent agency experience, that is like such a home run because you know they're going to have the work ethic. You know that they're going to like, you know, wake up in the morning thinking about the business and go to sleep thinking about it. not like in an unbalanced way, but like in a way where you know that they're going to be results driven and like make sure that stuff happens. Here's the difficulty that agents, I think, face. And I want to be thoughtful how I say this. You have to be very entrepreneurial and you have to be such a hustler to be a good agent

and you have to get deals done. But at the same time, it's difficult because you fall into this weird gap of like short-term deals and transactional deals versus long-term deals, right? And so I can imagine if you're a new agent at a highly competitive place, like I got to get a deal done. Any deal, any reason, doesn't matter with the long-term. expenses because you've got to put numbers on the board. And that can sometimes be short-sighted. And so the ones that I think are really good are the ones that are able to put numbers on the board, but with long-term vision for their clients so that they can continue to protect the growth.

I also think as an agent, one of the most important things that I think as talent is that they understand building brands. Yeah. Yeah. That's really important. Yeah. And that's the long-term game. You know what I mean? Like if you're if you're focused on that individual or that company's or that brand, if they're a corporate client, their brand and what it looks like one year out, five years out, ten years out, and the consistency and the evolution they're in, you're still looking out for sort of those short-term wins on the board, but you really are looking out for that long-term strategy. And, you know, Ashley, to your point about, you know, people have worked in that environment, you're so right. Like, it's people who are scrappy. They're their team-oriented,

they're quick thinkers. And they have this yin and yang as it relates to both creativity and business acumen. And to your point about, you know, what it's like for a young agent, Michael, like, it's the kind of thing where both companies really emphasize teamwork. And so if you are a young agent there, they will bring you into the fold. They will say, you know what, while you grow your business, sit and learn here, come into this meeting, work on this client's account, you know, and help them grow. And you really, you kind of all boats rise that way. Give us some truth bombs, like some behind the scenes truth bombs. Like maybe clients that you had to, you have to be. You to deal with like there's this book okay it's called waiter if you guys haven't read it everyone

to read it it's by an anonymous source and it's i was i was a server a bartender a hostess all the things for like 10 years and i read this book and it was so relatable because like it talked from the waiter's perspective give us your waiter perspective as an agent like what are little behind the scenes truth bombs oh little truth bombs you know i just you know back to the the the waiter of it all and i will i will I will check that out. I think that, you know, the people who, the people who are nicest and most collaborative with a young person who technically has nothing to offer them are actually usually the most successful.

That doesn't surprise. Yeah, that's true. And they have the least airs about them. And they probably are, you know, making a ton of money and have this illustrious career. But they bring people up with them. And I think sometimes when you come across people who are, and this is in life in general, right, who are a little dismissive or a little condescending, they're hiding something.

They've got something to prove. And so I felt that in that business as well. Like people who are iconic and have made big names for themselves and grown businesses in multiple areas of that world agency and otherwise were actually really nice people and wanted to see that new crop of folks coming and succeed. I feel like those people also could like sniff out the bullshit. Like they could, they can totally see a salesman if the salesman is just being a salesman and they're not being

strategic. Right. I think Robert Green came on this podcast and he wrote 48 laws of power. and he was in your guys' world, not now, not fitness, but as the agency world. And he wrote about like all the Machiavelli shit that went on behind the scenes in Hollywood. And it was super interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think in any business there's, you know, there's the, there's, you know, a little bit of

politics that go into any, again, any business behind the scenes. But again, our experiences were really awesome. But I also think that I don't know enough about, I obviously know the. book, but I don't know enough about his story. But I remember there was this character who founded CAA named Michael Ovitz. And he was like, he was massive at the time. And like that was his style and his approach. And so I would imagine a lot of that came from there. But the founders of CIA actually were, again, like the Kool-Aid I'm drinking here. But they like made like a very conscious effort to make it about the collective. So that that sort of behavior, well, I'm sure it existed.

It wasn't as sort of like pronounced. I just want to get the insider scoop with this. Do you guys have any schmoozing tips that you learned as agents? Like, for instance, always say someone's name or like how to win friends and influence others. Like, what were your little secrets that you guys had? Mark Millett is like the greatest host and the greatest schmoozer. I can tell Mark. So, come on, Mark. Let's hear. Let's hear your tips. You can't even keep a straight face. No, I don't, um, no, I don't, I'm a little schmoozy, I guess. But I think that if you have to read a book on the schmooze, chances are it might. It's got to come natural.

Yeah, I think it's got to come natural. And I think it means you have to like people. And you have to like, you know, the game of a ping pong. Like any, you guys play ping pong, you know, on the other side of this desk every week. And if somebody's not hitting the ball back, kind of sucks for everyone. And so you've got to, but in order to do that, you've got to be confident in yourself. And you've got to naturally be interested in people. One thing that I do.

One thing that I do is I usually enter a room with a story. So like it didn't happen today because I was staring at the Slack Village down there and focusing on how like hot I was in this room. That is a fucking great tip. And I, but I do that. Like if I entered. You came in with like six jackets. I had six jackets on and I'm like, why is it so hot in here? Is that their thing?

They like mince and heat. Listen, we just had Dr. Phil on and it was a total disaster. We almost sweated the guy out of the fucking roof. I said to your coworkers, I was like, oh, we got to figure this. this happened really. Michael just tried to tell you a story because you just told him that he needs a story and so he tried to. No, no, I just told you. I was like, oh, he's telling you the story about Dr. Phil. No, no, I'm now insecure about the hot, the heated room. Anyways, keep going. Go ahead. And what, well, he's probably wearing a suit and tie. No, he came in super, like, listen, he came in

like full, like just like casual dad sneaker's jeans and a tissue. Casual Dr. Phil. I like it. But listen, you don't want to, you don't want to burn out Dr. Phil, right? You just not, it's not, it's not, it's not, you don't want to sweat him out. Yeah, yeah. So you always come into everything. If you come in with a story. Like if you're entering a dinner, like, you know, quickly know what's going on in the world, duh. But also that something interesting happened on the way, something weird happened with the elevator.

Did something, you know, did something happen with the Uber driver? Like, I just think that if you come in and you're like, hi, my name is Mark, it's so nice to meet you. Where are you from? It's such a snooze or hi, my name is Mark, where are you from? And the weather's been so great today. Throwing a little exaggerative. What do you mean? Like thrown a little exaggeration too.

Like if the Uber driver was like doing something weird, make it a little weirder. Yes. Always. Like by the way, you're like, it could be like, it could be like, oh my God, Uber was five minutes late. He took us to the wrong address. But he had, you know, 30 air fresheners in there. It's like, isn't that toxic? I'm freaking out.

I smell like cherry ice. What is cherry ice? Like, you know, it's a little Seinfeldy, I guess. But I think that I think that if you come to the table with something that's interesting instead of just, hi, I'm from New York City and the weather. really it's just, I love now that it's a little, it gets darker later. It's so great. It's like, no shit you like that it gets darker later. We all do. So coming in with something is a good way to do it. And I think that if you are a young person starting out in a business and you're looking to get people's

attention who are running the company or your boss or whatever, just have something else to say, have an opinion. Yeah. My definition of hell is sitting in a room small talking for the rest of my days. It's the worst. If we're literally, if we're sitting around and it's a weather. I think I turn rude, actually, I'm like, it's like, we know that it's sunny. Yeah, we know that it's sunny. It's why I get up from dinners most of the time after like about an hour and 15, because if it turns a small talk, I'm like, let's end it on a high note. Let's not, let's not digress into.

Just a side note, I'm done with dinners. I like a leisurely lunch. Oh, I love that. Oh, not a lunch person anymore. Leisurely, leisurely long lunch on a Saturday where you're in bed by seven o'clock is a couple of glass of wine. Yeah. Yeah.

Not right now. No, a couple glasses of wine. You know, like rosé, little cheese. You're in bed by seven. I'm into a leisurely lunch. Totally. Okay. But back to the dinner.

Also, don't be the last one to leave. Ever. Ever. Ever. Non-negotiable. That is, that's a good tip. Can we go off on that for me? That's a party thing too.

Never be the, oh my God. Do not be the, by the way, back to Kathy Hilton. I saw something on Instagram where she said, if dinner's at my house at seven, don't be the person who comes at $6.55 or $7. I'm making sure the powder room set up. I'm lighting. She's so right.

So do not come directly at seven. I'm judging at the house. I'm judging. It's last minute. But what time? What time should you arrive? You should start to 7.10 to 7.20. A 710 is like a 710 to 720 is like the sweet spot in my opinion.

People are going to get mad. 730 is late. So you really, you've got to figure that out. And by the way, if it's a business interaction, absolutely be five minutes early. Whoops. Don't make some. Yeah, Lauren's been applying that thing to everyone. F-Y-I.

You know what? That would have been a risky, coughing like that would have been risky about four months ago. Yeah, seriously. People have moved down. Now it's like we don't even flinch. But if it's business on time, but leaving,

you cannot be the last one to leave. And then if it's a dinner of like 12, and like it's between you and someone else, like the race is on and get that coat on and leave because you just can't be the last one. You know that awkward feeling of people over? And they're like, oh, maybe we should let you get to bed.

But they're hoping you say, no, let's have another drink. And you're like, yeah, we want to go to bed. Yeah. Go. Also, like, you want to leave kind of quick. You don't leave early. It creates scarcity. Leave people wanting more.

You want to always. The Irish goodbye. Let's end this podcast. If you just walked out, I think it was the coolest thing we ever did on the show. Grab a handful of mince on the way. You just literally just walked him like, holy shit. We just had the coolest fucking guest we ever. Love it.

No, the Irish Goodbye. You don't even say, you don't even say anything. You just leave. Michael does that all the time. Always. Especially if my friends are drinking and they start to go. Oh, yeah. They want me to like entertain them.

I'm like, as soon as they're looking away, I bolt. But in that environment, you don't want to be a buzzkill. That's why you're Irish goodbying. Like, you're giving your friends the benefit of letting them continue the party without that moment of, shoot, am I supposed to end the party too? I was at a wedding on Saturday. And it was like, do we say goodbye to the host or do we leave? And the answer is, we leave.

Like, they're dancing. Let them enjoy their night. Don't let them think that people are starting to trickle out. That's the worst. That is the worst. These are really good tips. Okay, be honest, you guys. Why and when did you decide to leave?

Like, how did the conversation? Tell us the first conversation. Who started to sort of poke who? How did fitness come up? Like, when does this conversation start? It's a great question. So we loved fitness and we, you know, obviously this was like a shared part of our relationship. And we started, I don't remember the exact moment when we, do you?

I mean, yeah. I do. Did you plan a coup? Were you both like, okay? No, but like, I don't always talk about the timeline. But no, it was five years ago. No, it was, it was in. I don't remember the one conversation, though, where we were like.

Yes, you do. I remember the conversation where we decided this is what we were going to do. But like, no, that was the more of the conceptual conversation. It was that weekend at my house. Go for it. Mark, as I told you, he's a great host. And we were at his house in the Hamptons. And it was like a snowy, I don't know, March day.

It's like the last snow of the season. Yeah. And we were. Thanks for telling us the weather. You don't want those kind of tips for me. I don't give a shit if it was snowing. No, I'm just trying to set the scene. Anyway, but we had had this really like wonderful boozy brunch

and there was a fire and we sat next to the fire and we were just sort of like talking about what we wanted to do with our lives and we knew that we loved being an agent but like it wasn't the long-term path and we really wanted to build something. So in that moment we were there. He was with his partner Keith and my husband, J.C. was there. and we decided, like, looked at each other and we're like, we want to do this.

And then we had the accountability of our partners to like actually do it. And we had their buy-in. So it was like, guys, there is no excuse at this point. They were both supporting. They were very supportive. And it was like a big gamble. Like it wasn't, you know, digital fitness wasn't something that people were excited about. What years is this?

Just so I just contextualized? This is, um, 2000. 14. Okay. No, 15. Here's the question that I feel like no one talks about as a founder. Maybe 16. From the conversation with the fire to actually the business execution, what did that look like, that space?

Are you poster boarding? Are you brand storing? Are you texting each other every day? Are you guys holding on to some of your income before you make the leap? Give us the nitty great. Yeah. I think they're in a job or in a role. I have an idea for a business. But this is a scary time. No one talks about the granular. The leap's the scary part. Yeah. I think it's a really great question. So it was sort of like the debt creation. What did we want this thing to be? What? did we want it to look like. We started like pulling like reference images. We started meeting with talent.

I remember you were working out with Megan Rup at the time. And so we reached out to Megan. And so she was on board and really excited about it. And so yeah, we were starting to like figure out like what was this brand going to be. And then at a certain point, we were spending a lot of time on it. And it felt like we've got to like,

we've got to figure this out. And we have to go raise money. And people are going to know if we're raising money. And so that was sort of the thing that, you know, was the catalyst for us to make the move. Well, we kind of jumped into it right away. And that itself was a bit of a balance. But I think, you know, we had the respect for our current jobs to not do too much until we were out.

Right. Like we are. So what we were doing was we were still working our normal 60 hour work week or whatever it was at the other job, which was great and doing right by our clients and all of that. And then on the weekends or at night, a lot of weekends, we were, you know, figuring things out and working. on decks that we called PowerPoints back then and things like that. But, but, you know, to Ashley's point, like the accountability of it, the fact that we had each other was important because I don't know if it was just one of us. I don't know if that push would have necessarily been there. Like, it's hard to start a company. How does one raise money that's never raised money? It's a really,

it's really, because I feel like that needs to be talked about more. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, so what we did was we raised the seed round. And I, I remember I called a friend of mine who had invested in a lot of companies. And I said, so what do we do? Just put together like an Excel model, like what we think revenue will be. And she's like, no, you need a deck. Do you know what a deck is? And we, of course, had seen presentations and pitches over the years, but like a true deck.

Like, this is the business. This is who we are, what we're doing, where we're going and how we're going to monetize it over time, and why it's going to be relevant for the next five decades. And we put one of those together. And it's so funny. We were doing it again. We were in the Hamptons. It was another lunch situation, lunch.

And my friend Andrew was with us. And Andrew actually, he's developed a lot of the area down here in Austin on Congress. And he was working on that deck with us. He was like sort of sitting there and you had a friend with you who was really proficient with PowerPoint. And we were beginning to get that deck done. But then we made a list and said, wait a minute. Who are the people in our lives that we can talk to about this, including just getting advice? So, you know, the old adage, you know, if you want money, ask for advice.

If you want advice, ask for money. it's kind of true, but we truly also wanted advice. It's like we're first time founders. Here's how much we think we need to raise. Here's what we're going to do with it. How do we do that? And we had a lot of yeses and we had a handful of nose. And those nose are crushing.

But what I learned during that process, especially when you go out to friends and family and you're asking for money, which is, by the way. Oh, terrible. By the way. I mean, that's a tough one. That's sweaty. Remember, we had a meeting with a friend of mine.

It was our first meeting. I'm sweaty-ish. I run cold and I'm sweaty-ish. I walked into that meeting, sweating in a way that was so bizarre, so Guinness Book of World Records weird. Fairmony. Parenthony. And I'm sitting in front of my friend. Ash is like looking at me and it was pouring. I had a little paper towel that I grabbed and was starting to ball up and crumble up all over my scrub. It was nasty. But that's how nerve-wracking it is when you're vulnerable. You're saying, this is what I'm going to do. And this is, by the way, can I have a couple bucks to do it. And so when you are friends or your family or anyone, but especially friends and family

when they invest in you in a company, they're investing in you. They have to like the idea, of course. But they have to believe that you or you and your partners are the right people to get it done. And that's pretty darn cool. But it's not easy. What was your first round? It was a seed round.

We raised like a million seven. That's a lot to raise for your first round as new founders. That's incredibly impressive. I also attribute that too a little bit to a New York hustle. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's a little bit of the New York. It's a hustle.

You know what though? That is the unlock that I've found is that so many people and now sometimes people ask this kind of advice even from me and it's like they get so caught up in the deck and the presentation and the number and all these things. I fucking hate it. But he's good at it. You know what people do to me?

They say, oh, I bet you're good at it. But they go, oh, you like, he lays his dick on the table. I want everyone to know. I hate it so much. You are very good at it. No, but you have to go and you have to put yourself in this kind of like weird position where you're asking. I hate asking for things. But anyways, people get so caught up and all this stuff and they don't realize that like at the end of the day, what most people are making a decision on, especially in the beginning is the people.

And they don't spend enough time telling their personal story. They tell the business story and the business doesn't exist yet. Right. But if you're like, hey, this is who I am. This is how I got here. This is why I think this. Like, that's what people are investing in. Yeah.

You're totally right. And I remember when we were actually raising money, someone was like, we were showing people our deck. and it was not a great deck. Like, we were not deck makers. And the agency business, all you do is talk on the phone. You don't, like, create any materials. And so someone sent us the fire festival deck. And it was like this beautiful thing.

And it was like, the pigs in the water. That was all hat, no cab. I mean. Totally. No, but I remember looking at that deck. And I was like, how are we going to create this? Like, we don't have to do this. Anyway.

But that, but totally. And but that's why your investors matter so much. We made, we made a rule in the beginning that, we wanted to be surrounded by people who would continuously lift us up, lift the company up, and be happy to know that each other are involved to really create that web, that mesh, that family around the business. And so we're really proud of the folks who came in. But even in those early days, you know, one of my close, close friends who invested in the company, she was going through our PowerPoint. And she literally, we're sitting in her apartment. She took out a

red pen. And she's like, power. I still, deck, deck. She was looking through our deck. I still called a PowerPoint. I know. But It's a sign of being, you know, geriatric millennial, I think. But she literally was like, if you're going to send this out, your punctuation and your spelling and your grammar should probably be accurate. You know, and I was like a writing tutor in college. I was so embarrassed. But she literally with her red pen went through and corrected that. And then you have another investor who's like, let me help you with the model.

And then you have another one that's like, let me introduce you to so and so. And those are the people that you want to be surrounded by who truly lifts you up. And Ashley and I are so grateful for that. So when did you launch? So we launched in March of 2018. We did a beta. So from January to March, we were, I think we were filming like three days a week, 12 hours a day. We were in the studio at 5 a.m. every morning. The first class, live class was at six, sort of getting everything together. We had no team. It was us. I think two other folks on the team. And then we had the folks that sat at production. But it was like super, super lean. And so we were in the studio writing names on a whiteboard so that we could shout people out at home. And there was like no one in these classes. Like, of course. Like we had, we had just, I think we invited like 200 of our friends and family. And we were like, please, hopefully you guys are going to engage with something. And so, yeah, we did that for three days a week, for 12 classes a day. And then we launched in March of 2018. And we launched with live only.

And so the thought there was that we were going to be able to create community and we were going to be able to create accountability. And so we didn't have like a fancy tech infrastructure. But we asked people, we kind of like came up with this idea of the sweaty selfie. Like selfies were a thing, but like the sweaty selfie wasn't. And so we asked people to tag us in their sweaty selfies and send them so that we could like really create that sort of like two-way connection. And I think that was like a really important kind of like a brand pillar that we started initially so that we could like really understand like how people were going to connect. So that was March of 2018. Our launch, I remember like we gave the exclusive in air quotes of the

story to a digital publication. And we were like, oh my God, this is going to be huge. And then the story came out and it was like nothing. You know what I mean? It was just like not a launch. Like there was no pomp in circumstance. We didn't have a party. We didn't do any of that. stuff. But it was really like one foot in front of the other trying to figure it out. And we really like used our relationships and the people in our worlds to hopefully post about us and love the product. And so we give a lot of stuff away for free. We have a lot of accounts out. And we were just like, hey, please try this product and tell you what you think of this. And then like early on, we had some like really great people who were posting on Instagram about us. And that really

was a thing that kind of like catapulted the business and got us all of those early users. If you were to describe obey, like quickly wrapped in a bow, super consumer friends, way. What is it for people that don't know? Yeah, I mean, we really are a first of its kind entertainment network. So we are the platform that is going to give you the most variety every single day across fitness and beyond. Classes that require no equipment, a little bit of equipment, one hour, 45 minutes, 10 minutes, we're going to give you some way to move every single day because our goal at the end of the day is to really give you those tools to discover and crave daily movement and find the results that matter for you. And those results for each individual are very

different, right, with what you're looking for. But it's really about that variety in that community. Our instructors are so fun, so cool, and so smart as it relates to how to program a routine and make it fun. I've never been in a situation where I actually leave a workout with a huge smile on my face. Like legs like jelly, right? Arms, arm sore, but feeling great. And we really, really specialize in that, bringing that fun factor into fitness with the results as well. And you can do this anywhere. Yep. So what a good time.

I mean, like, talk about timing. Yeah. So that's what I was just going to say. February 2020 happens. Do you guys look at each other? Let's be honest here and think, holy fucking shit. We could not be in a better position. Let's forget about like what, like what was happening in the world.

Yeah. But like everyone is home. I mean, was there an. A-ha moment, or was it just slow? Oh, no. It was, it was the fastest thing I've ever seen. We thought the site was broken. Yeah, we, Mark and I used to have this, like, dashboard that we looked at every day to, like, see the free trials coming in and what have you.

And I remember it was, yeah, it was like, I want to say it was March 14th. And all of a sudden, like, we set our team home. Obviously, we were watching the news, like, you know, getting every piece of toilet paper and, like, frozen pizzas and whatever, like, feed ourselves. Why did we all do that toilet paper thing? We could survive about that. I have to be honest. I didn't do the toilet paper. I'm not going to get you didn't do it either.

I'm acting like that. No, no, no, but I'm saying, why did the way I didn't, I didn't do the 12th. I was like, we need other things to survive. Yeah. Well, I think in New York is that really was like the epicenter of it all. It was just like this like mad scramble. It was, it was wild to be in New York City. And I lived on the Upper East Side and like the, I lived on 74th Street.

And the, the, the ambulances would go up and down and up and down the street all day. And it was so terrible because they were taking people to Lennox Hill where they had like, you know, this giant truck that they were using like as a place to put bodies. Like the whole thing was super crazy. But that is a little dark. But going back to what was happening is like we were fine. Like our dashboards were like wild and crazy. We were like, is this really happening?

Is there a data issue? Like what is what is happening in the world? And we saw so many people posting their sweaty selfies and we're like, no, this is real. Like people really need our product. And it was like it was this time where I felt like super called to serve because, you know, every day we were like cheering on the healthcare workers and all of that. It was like, what can we do to provide more value to our members right now to give people the tools that they need. I remember we were deemed an essential service very early on because we had

a very democratized product. Like you didn't need, you know, an expensive piece of hardware to work out with us. We were this, this, this platform that really was for everyone. We introduced kids programming. We introduced meditation. We introduced seniors. We were like, how can we make sure that people who are at home have the tools that they need to like figure this out and go through this experience? Do you have a program for two year olds right now? We do we actually did a, we did a partnership with kids bob. And so it's like really fun kids programming. So it's everything from like kids yoga to really teach them how to like manage their emotions to, I remember we did Easter programming where we had you know, these like big Easter eggs on the screen and you had to like go get them. We are this like

Willy Wonka factory of fitness. Like we want to make sure that we're creating content that engages people every single day because what we want to do is we want people to move. Like that is so core and fundamental. If you think about, you know, you have little kids, when you think about your kids like what is the successful day. They moved a lot. You took them to a class, a place. You took them to a class, a play something, they had fun, they ate well, and they slept well. We're the same thing. We're just adults. It's like we make it all so complicated, but like we want to make sure that people have the tools to do those things that they need to do in order to make their lives better. And I, you know, I think obviously you grow up and fitness becomes a different thing. Like it becomes something about

just like losing weight or whatever the case may be. But for us, it's like getting people to just like really fall in love with movement again and then crave it so that they do it every day. It's so funny you say that I just did this post and people said it was controversial, but I was saying like if you do the list of priorities of importance. And I said fitness is above actually my mental health and my family and my kid and my business. And I said, the reason being is if you take care of yourself physically, you can get into a better mental state easier,

which means, and if you're in that state and you're in shape, then you can take care of your family and your kids. And then you perform better in your business. And people are like, this is fucked up. You perform better in the bedroom too. No, but everywhere. Like look at those muscles. Things are great.

Well, I mean, I could be in a better position. But I was probably, I was definitely guilty of how, The blood is pumping. Backwards, right? Like, everything was backwards. First, I put the fitness last. And so what I was trying to point out to people is like, because people wrote in and said like,

hey, how could you put this before family or this or that? It's not attainable. I'm like, well, if you do this first, the other stuff actually gets better, easier and more effective.

But we just like don't think like that. So I'm curious to have such a big difference. You guys go from from people are working out in gyms to they're not. There's no in between. Right. Like, how did you guys pivot and manage all of that? Yeah, I mean, we had to really grow our team. So on the business side, it was a really, really small team.

And we had to get more folks in the door so that we could actually, you know, do what we needed to do to hold up the infrastructure. And as Ashley said, serve, you know, our community. And that's exactly what we did. I think that a lot of people found this idea of working out at home for the first time in March and April of 2020. I think there's a stat out there that says like 60%. of consumers in America worked out at home for the first time in those two months. That's crazy. And they realize that there's tremendous value there, right? They realize that you save so much time, save so much money, you get those results, you have a good time. And in the case of Obey,

you also make a friend along the way. You know, we can't underscore that piece of it enough. You know, community for us is paramount. And I think that a lot of companies out there, you know, the water company, the mint company, they're like, our mint community is so strong. It's like, No, it's not. Our community is everything. Our members are incredible, all walks of life, all over the world. And they really bond over living this best life together and lifting each other up. You know, Ashley and I have met some of the coolest people ever along the way as part of Obey. And I really think that, you know, that is such an important part of who we are and how they really continue to get to know our instructors and lift them up. And so I just say all of that because

during that time, those scary, scary months, especially March and April of 2020, they felt lonely. And I think a lot of people were able to find, you know, connection through working out with each other, through, you know, a product that we ended up creating called workout parties, which is basically, you know, a zoomification of a workout experience. You can actually see each other and work out at the same time. We are just getting started on the community front. Some of the best friends I've made in my life have been through fitness experiences. We want that for everyone around.

the world. It's a great friend to have. Besides Obey, what do you guys do for your morning and nighttime wellness? This could be anything from adding chlorophyll to winding down with red light, like anything random. That's a great question. So I will say, and this obviously is an obey answer, but like this morning, I woke up. I was like tired. You know, there's like I traveled yesterday and I did a 10-minute meditation and I did a 10-minute express class. And for me, that is like the thing that I need to get my brain started. You know, Michael, exactly what you were talking about. Like, if I don't have movement in my day in the morning, like, I just, I don't wake up. Like, I can have the coffee. I could have all the company, like coffee in the world and I could be jittery shaking, but my brain

is not together. I think the mindfulness piece is, is hard for me, candidly. Like, I want to do it every day and I don't do it every day. But, like, I have to get in the workout part. So for me, that's the thing that I do every morning. I have little kids. So, like, my day is, you know, it's chaotic. It's wild. It's not like it used to be very regimented and it was wonderful before. But it is no longer. You know, I said, oh, remember when I used to just live alone? And I just would open my eyes when I wanted to and there was nothing to fucking do but make my goddamn lemon water. Puts around, judge my house, light my goddamn candle, write my to do list for 45 minutes. We have what we have. Check off nothing on that. We give each other now. We each get our own

hour in the morning. I get between six to seven. She gets seven to eight. That's right. We can't not recommend it. But you know, I actually do get six to seven too because I'm sleeping. Half the hour while I'm sleeping. I need to talk to my husband. I think I got short change because everyone's still asleep when I'm like, if I get up at five, five, thirty six, like I'm like if I got my hour, but they're also asleep. The smartest negotiation I've ever made. I love that. Yeah. And then at night, I try and get my bed or my kids together in bed by seven 30. And when that happens, I like have an hour to an hour and a half by myself. where I like watch TV and do the things that like I don't get to do ever,

just to like relax and unwind. 7.30 I keep hearing from mothers. That's the time. Okay. Last night was 9.30 for us. What's the 7.5. No, Michael, it's 9.30 the night before. Michael, you're going to get defensive. What's the 7.30 thing?

All I can tell you is just from my experience, but like being disciplined around 7.30, it's like it's the right time so that your kids are going to sleep until 6 the next morning. But also for you, there's enough time left in the day that you can actually spend time with yourself and not do anything or do the things that you need to do. Like my older one, my husband told him, you can go to bed at 8.30. And I was like, that's the worst decision. And we switched it back to 7.30. Because if he's awake at, if he's still awake at 830, he's asking me a million things.

Mommy, I need water. Mommy, I need this. Mommy, I need this. And it's like, that doesn't help me wind up. Our daughter learned about a rice maker. And it's just, she literally demands rice. Rice means hungry. Got it.

So at three in the morning, rice. Imagine, imagine your death. asleep with 5 to 8 8 Hertz music playing sound bowls everyone's asleep it's pitch black there's a salt rock lamp maybe you have cold water by your bed everyone's relaxed and all you hear is

rice we travel oh my gosh one crunchy spicy tuner roll coming right I know I'm like well I started keeping rice by the bed people are gonna like I swear to fucking God rice is by my bed now

I'm like yeah we have to travel we have to go back and forth sometimes to LA. Yeah. And so when we go there, we don't have a place her anymore. So we, you know, hotel. And she'll just like stand up and like, rice, rice, right. Oh my God. Oh my God. She needs some, she needs some Obey Easter eggs. Yes. I'm going to get her on. You should do that. And then the meditation is great too. Okay. So seven, teaching teaching, teaching your kids to manage their emotions is super important. Here's my only question about seven 30, little tangent. Yeah.

If I want her to sleep until seven or seven 30, I don't want her to wake up at six. So that's my, that's my, That's my theory of keeping her up till nine. I get it. There's also some like little tricks. So there's a clock that you can buy that you can like sort of train your kids to understand. And it's, if it's red, they can't get out of bed and they can't scream for you. And then if it went as soon as it turns green. So if like you want your kid to stay up until 7.30 or to sleep until 730, like you just set it so that it doesn't turn.

And kids like routine. They like, they like a regimented schedule. So get that clock. Well, we're going to get the clock. Does it come in pink? I don't know. I'd love you. You can create it. That can be one of your next products.

Okay. And what are your wellnessy things that you do? To be as successful as you guys are. You have your planner in front of you. Oh, yeah, I've got my planner. It says MM. Don't forget it. Did you take Liz's meditation this morning, prioritizing you. Yeah, I took that this morning too. Wow. I love it. Yeah. You know, that's like not to get on a tangent, but back to the Willy Wonka piece of it, it's like a candy store. Like you literally sign in to obey in the morning and there's five new things to do. What do I do? I do. I'm pretty routine driven. And so for me, it's about getting up between 6 and 6.30 in the morning. I used to work out in the morning. Now I don't. For some reason, my body just said, you know, it's not my scene. So I work out at night. But honestly, I look at every week as a little bit of a roller coaster. Every week is like an audio mixing board. And you just have to sort of tweak the dials. And so for me, I try to eat well. I do my best. I think I do a pretty decent job at it. Certainly go off the rails. Sometimes I exercise pretty much every day or at least six days a week. I carry my sneakers with me everywhere. I don't go anywhere without a pair of sneakers.

It's in every bag because you never know when you're going to get that chance to fit in a quick workout, go for a walk, go for a run. But yeah, listen, I don't have kids. I have a couple of ferns that I water once a week. You know, my routine is pretty manageable. But, you know, when you're running a business, it's always on. And so I think to balance work and fitness and a family is not an easy task. And each day, the priorities might shift around a little bit. We got to get you guys ice rolling in the morning.

Yes. Because let me tell you something, New York is the puffiest state for me. Out of all the states. Wait, why? When I go to New York because of- You mean the city or the whole, the entire state? Okay. The city, Michael.

When I go to New York City, pollution, there's so much pollution there that I'm perpetually puffy. Like my face is puffy. My neck is puffy. Like my fingers are puffy. My rings don't fit. Plus, you're drinking a lot. Yeah.

But you got an ice roll in New York City. Okay. You can't not ice roll in the morning. Like we got to, we'll make that part of our routine. Is that like the jade roller that you keep in the fridge? It's, it's better. This is hers.

Yeah, she has an amazing ice roller. Yeah, I've got to do it. Like, you need to be meditating. Let me tell you about marketing here. We just literally negged the entire city of New York. This isn't marketing. This is true. I'm sorry.

I'm ready. Give me 30 of them. Okay. The entire city needs this. Yeah. In New York, I literally take two. ice rollers and roll both sides of my face. It's an ice rolling city. I'm sorry. It is.

This isn't marketing. It's the truth. But I think the lifestyle piece of it in terms of the alcohol and all that. It's very real. Ice roll while you're doing your obey meditation and then move to your workout and ice roll after to cool down. I love it. I love it. I'm in. Okay. I love you guys this story. I think it's incredible. I think it's such an awesome digital platform to promote, especially right now. Question, question. If you're going to start, if you're jumping in the first time, Pilates. I've already tried. it. The Pilates is really good. Because there's so many things. And I think people get overwhelmed myself. If I was jumping in like, hey, you're just getting started on the platform. Maybe one for

meditation, one for fitness. Yeah, give us only one. No, but meditation fitness. I would, if I were telling a new person, I would say try something in Express that speaks to you. Like 10 minutes is not a huge commitment. Express is the 10 minute. Yeah. Those are the 10 minute classes. So if you just choose an express class and see what you think and see how you like it and just do that today, don't do anything that's going to make you sore, don't like overdo it. And then tomorrow show up again and do another 10 minute thing, whatever is speaking to you, whatever mood you're in. So if you're feeling like a meditation, do a meditation.

If you're feeling like a skull, class, great. If you're feeling like you just want to stretch, just do something that is like very simple, that is manageable for you. And what happens is those endorphins start and you start feeling really good about yourself. And it's what you're talking about in terms of, you know, one thing that you do leads to other good things that you do. And so we find that like when people, when they keep coming back for even for 10 minutes, they start making other good decisions in their lives.

Well, it's like habit stacking. Exactly. It's like you do the 10 minute express class. And then with that, you're already on the app. Let's do the meditation. And with that, you're already like by your ice roller. Let's ice roll. Let's have some coffee.

Like you do your like habit stacking. Well, listen, I got to get my stretching under control. I'm going to report back to you. I'm going to go on the platform. I'm going to figure out the stretching one because I can't, I can't do it. I try to do it as much as I can. But I try to go to these yoga classes. And it's just when they start waving the smoke around and,

petting my hair. Yeah. I already do that enough in the morning. Telling me that, you know, butterflies are going to sprout from the earth and wrap their wings around me. I can't do it. I just, I need to do it alone. Also, what's cool about your platform and I've actually done this is I've done a Pilates class.

This is weird. You guys might think this is weird. I've done a Pilates class. I've used your platform multiple times on mute and put a podcast on. Oh, interesting. Sometimes like I just want like, like I just want to listen to a podcast, but I can see the workout in front of me. Yeah.

I've done it where it's not on you. But I'm just saying like if you want to also habit stack a podcast on there, it's cool because you're not at yoga hearing about butterflies. You can just mute and do the workout still. A little multitasking. Yeah. I think that, you know, when you're doing that and when you're trying out, you know, class types and taking those expresses, you're also sort of interviewing what instructors

you like. And, you know, I can't emphasize enough that our talent are the best in the biz. One of the reasons that we decided to enter this category was we felt that we were in rooms in New York and L.A. from a fitness perspective with folks who needed audiences way bigger than the 40 individuals on mats in that room, right? People who are true rock stars with a true gift and really have something to say to the world, not for the world. And so from a casting perspective, we've always found folks who, of course, they're, of course, they're good at programming a workout, but their ability to reach across that screen and inspire you to do more and feel a certain way

and live your best life is off the charts. And so when you go around, you end up and you take multiple classes, you end up realizing, wait a minute, I love these three instructors. I love these four instructors. I didn't know that I ever wanted to take a bounce class, but I love doing it, right? Like with with with with with with with Dorian. And so I think that that part is really important and really part of our secret sauce as a company as well. Yeah, you can curate it to what to what you want and what you feel like. No, and I love that you're giving people and professions that didn't necessarily have the scalability before scalability. When I say that, I mean Oprah vibes lifting people up. A lot of these people work so hard.

like you said, they can only get 40 people, 30 people, 50 in room. Now you can get thousands. And they can really scale their platforms. And I think people who are drawn to this kind of work, they want to know that their work has impact. And so to be able to talk to people all over the country and like they've all had these sort of like life transformational moments. It's like, it's so incredibly powerful for our instructors. And I feel like it's one of a really important kind of like retention mechanism because they feel so connects to the audience. And they give themselves because it's not just like they want to make money, but they also, they want to know that people at home are experiencing this with them and that their content matters.

Let's do this. What if there's someone listening who's an instructor who wants to be cast? Tell us how that happens. The best thing to do is to email us at VIP at obaFitness.com and send all of their materials. The things that we look for and instructors are the given is that they can program a great workout. So they need all of the necessary certifications depending on what modality they teach. And then the X factor is really like, what is your unique point of view?

and like why do you care? Like what, who are you trying to speak to and why are you trying to speak to them? And so in the early days, we really worked with those initial instructors on like defining their point of view and really, you know, using what we did so well as talent agents to make sure that we were pulling out their story. And I think it's really important now as like the platform has evolved. We want to make sure that people coming in, they have that storytelling piece. And obviously we will continue to cultivate it with them.

Really figure it like, what is your brand? Why does it matter? And who are you looking to influence? Look at that. pulling the conversation full circle. You guys are talent agents and now you're back to where you are as talent agents. I love it. That's right. We're going to do a giveaway. So we're giving away a free year of obey. All you guys have to do is follow at obey fitness on Instagram and tell us your favorite part of this episode at Warren Bostic. And you guys can we do a code? We can totally do a code.

Let's do two months free. Wow. For your audience. We don't do that ever. So this is a moment. And then the code is skinny number two. So S-K-I-N-N-Y number two. I love that. Skinny two, all you have to go do to get two months free of exercise, meditation, express workouts. That is generous, you guys. Skinny too. Yeah. And it's oba-fitness.com. Or hit us up iOS or Android. Our apps are really great. And we're about to launch a handful of apps on smart TVs as well. So it makes that experience great on the big screen. Listen, we're not in the fitness business. We're in the best life business. And we want to deliver that to as many people as possible. So come join us. What if people want to stock you guys? Do you guys have a public Instagram? If you make fun of my Instagram handle Ashley,

taking these headphones off. Okay. So, Mark's for life. Mark's Instagram is at the Mark Millett. Ooh. He's very fancy. And then mine is at Ashley D. Mills. You guys, I'm so excited to see you continue to evolve. This is really exciting. You'll have to come back like in a couple years and tell us. We would love that. Yeah, your whole, you'll have a whole story, I'm sure. Thank you so much for coming on. You guys are adorable partners too. Like, I love the energy. Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us. Do you want to win a bookmark? It is the cutest bookmark. It says, get the fuck out of the sun for your copy of the book. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part, the most impactful part of this episode on my latest post at Lauren Bostic and we will

slide into your inbox and send a bunch of you bookmarks. So fun. With that, We'll see you next time. This episode was brought to by Obey Fitness.