The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - 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 you 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 along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Aha. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. 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 out 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 Obey Fitness, keeping up the wellness, fitness, health theme that we just had last week, just did 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. I haven't seen that show.

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 am so about clueless. My next launch of product is so clueless vibes. So I'll take that. Yep. I'm really into Paris moment back in the day.

We called you Laris. I had a Paris moment. They called, I was called Laris in high school. That's 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. 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. Your life has never been the same. It's been down this.

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 pinup 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? They should have been friends with me.

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? 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 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 moms on the circuit now too. The mom's popping puss. 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. It's the china. It's like white china in your house. It's like chinwosri. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a little chin. Oh yeah, yeah, 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 that goes under it, with everything. And she's like, it's just like a casual coffee situation. And then at night, she's drinking out of these Baccarat $5,000 glasses, eating caviar as like an appetizer. I just, it's just-

But it's casual. It comes so natural. But then she has the TV tray dinner with her husband and her. They eat off a TV dinner tray. Yeah. The juxtaposition of it all is incredible. It's amazing. 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 it. Kathy Hilton opened invite to come on. Yeah. Okay. Let's go way back. I love it. I love Kathy Hilton. Kathy Hilton opened invite to come on. Okay, let's go way back.

I want to talk about both of your childhoods. 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, 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 express 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, you know, obviously a very difficult experience.

And my family just had a lot of challenges. There was a single mom. It was obviously a very difficult experience. And my family just had a lot of challenges. There was a lot of addiction. There was 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, 14 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 a gift. Yeah. What about you? Tell your childhood sounds like interesting. Yeah. I mean, other than, you know, obsessing 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 local clothing store, like the local men's shop called Charney's.

And I remember walking in with my dad and the clerk saying, oh, he's Husky. Take him over to this section, the Husky set. Like, I remember it. Like I wouldn't fly in 2002. No, it wouldn't fly. 20, 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.. I remember moments relating to fitness, body image issues. 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, I was like, wait a minute, I can make a change here. I can

work out. I can 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 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 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, you know, making cabbage 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 Lay's chips with olein in it, which caused anal leakage.

When I look back at growing up, I look back with the most fond memories of family, 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? 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 Syracuse 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 now, nowadays, it's like whatever. Like, you know. Yeah, no, now it's whatever. In the 80s and the 90s, it was a different conversation.

Totally. And frankly, 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 take bags of chips and those sorts of high calorie snack foods 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-Hos 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 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 in my mid twenties, I'm grateful. And I realize it's not like that for a lot of people out there. You know, 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 in hell. Yeah, it's like, oh shit, 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 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 were at. It just wasn't the time. And it wouldn't have fallen. 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 like moved right in. I like this apartment. And I moved right in.

And 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 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 rollercoaster. Oh my God, how did I not know this? Do I even know my son? Am I going to have grandkids?

Like this back to the white picket fence land, like what you picture your life to be and sort of the generations and 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,

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 alpha guy on the planet was quivering. He couldn't even get it. I goes, Mark, I'm like, yeah. And he's like, I had a conversation with your 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'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 or 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 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 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. 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 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 a way. 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 to, I'm not crying about it, but it was just this weird period of time. Thanks for the Twinkies, mom. 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 your twenties when you come out. Are you and Ashley friends at this point at CAA and WMA? Not yet at that point. And again, just to, I want to book in that. I am so grateful to be surrounded by people who have supported me. And I really kick myself for not having that conversation with them earlier. And life unfolds in various ways and it was what it was, but

my parents have been incredible. And I'm really, I feel fortunate too because it opened up other conversations in other areas of my family, cousins who came out or in years to follow, you know, their 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. And it was okay. Like nowadays too, like coming out, it sounds so, so 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 not a non-event for everybody, you know, depending on the family dynamic and whatever else layers in. And that's, that's, that's a, 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, yeah. Literally, if we were in a time machine, hell yeah. But I was an agent at 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 one. I ask 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 fucked? It's all fucked. It's all hard. It's all hard. And I think you have to be really- A lot of ego.

A lot of ego. And I think, you know, one of the things that I learned early on in 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, as Mark was? Yes. So super interesting. My mom and I used to watch Oprah every day when I was growing up at like three o'clock, it was like the thing that we did. And it was 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 LA. My dad lives in LA 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 Ms. 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, 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 shows for HGTV and Bravo and the Food Network and, you know, obviously selling stuff to big panel shows.

Give us a name. Give us a name. Give us a little juice. Yeah. I mean, so like the Bethany Frankels 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 we're 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 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 William Morris. 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 William Morris. He came to CAA 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 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 du 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. 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, I'm, 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, I'm, 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 liked to dish. Not like nothing salacious, but here's the lay of the land here. And here's sort of the celeb in and out here and all that stuff. And you, you had the 411. 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 four in the morning in New York, you know, and, you know, and 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 four in the morning. We get up at four in the morning, but that was sort of our instant bond because you, 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. Yeah'm not sure. 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 agents 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, call 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, 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 camar 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, 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. Which 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 WME is going to lag in the fight, right?

But you work with UTA. I don't really see any, of course, UTA is 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 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, just thinking of- Check, check, cross, cross. 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 wanted. 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. And not like in an unbalanced way, but like in a way where 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. And 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. And so I can imagine if you're a new agent at a highly competitive place, I got to get a deal done. Any deal, any reason,

doesn't matter with the long-term expenses because you 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, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's really important. And that's the long-term game. You know what I mean?

Like 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, 10 years out and the consistency and the evolution they're in, you're still looking out for sort of those short-term, you know, 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. It's people who are scrappy. They're 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 what it's like for a young agent, Michael, 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, and, and help them grow. And you really, you kind of all boats rise that way. Give us some truth bombs, like, like some behind the scenes, truth bombs, like maybe clients that you had to deal with. Like there's this book. Okay. It's called waiter. If you guys haven't read it, everyone should read it. It's by an anonymous source. And it's, I w 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. Cause 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. That's a great question. You know, I just, you know, back to the waiter of it all. And 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 me. Yeah, that's true. And they have the least airs about them. And they probably are 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 in and succeed. I feel like those people also could like sniff out the bullshit. Like 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 CAA 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, while 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 let's hear your tips.

You can't even keep a straight face. 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 gotta come naturally. Yeah, I think it's gotta come natural. Yeah. I think you've got to come natural. And I think it means you have to like people and you have to like, you know, the game of, of, of ping pong, like any, you, you guys play ping pong, you know, on the other side of this

desk every week. And if somebody is not hitting the ball back, it kind of sucks for everyone. And so you've got to, but, 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.

And- That is a fucking great tip. But I do that. Like if I enter 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 mints and heat. We just had Dr. Phil on and it was a total disaster. We all sweated the guy out of the fucking room.

Literally, I said to your co-workers I was like, we got to figure this out. Michael just tried to tell you a story because you just told him that he needs a story and so he tried to tell you a story. I was like, oh, we got to figure this out. Michael just tried to tell you a story because you just told him that he needs a story. And so he tried to tell you a story. No, I just told you. I was like, oh, sure. He's telling you the story about Dr. Phil.

No, no, I'm now insecure about the heat of the 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 sneakers, jeans and a t-shirt. Oh, 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, if I were to guess, I'm not this guy. Yeah, you don't want to sweat him out. No, because that could end in disaster. So you always come into everything. 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 did something interesting happen on the way? Did something weird happen with the elevator? Did something, you know, did something interesting happen on the way? Did something weird happen 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. I hate that.

Throw in a little exaggerative. What do you mean? Like throw in 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, the 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 Seinfeld-y, I guess.

But 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's 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. 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've turned rude. Actually. I'm like, it's like, we know. I turn into a pumpkin. 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. I turn into a pumpkin. 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. Cause if it turns to small talk,

I'm like, let's end it on a high note. Let's not, let's not digress. First of all, just a side note. I'm done with dinners. I like a leisurely lunch. Ooh, 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. Couple glasses of wine. Literal the move. Yeah. Yeah. Not right now. No, a a couple of glasses. You know, like rosé, a little cheese. You're in bed by seven. I'm into a leisurely lunch. Okay. Back to the dinner. Also, don't be the last one to leave. Ever. Ew. Ever. Ever. Non-negotiable. That is, that's a good tip. Can we, can we go off on that for a minute? That's a party thing too. Never be the last.

Oh my God. Do not be the first. 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 seven. I'm making sure the powder room's set up. I'm lighting the kitchen.

She's so right. So do not come directly at seven. I'm judging the house. I'm judging. I'm sure it kitchen. She's so right. So do not come directly at seven. If it's a business one, be there on time. I'm judging. I'm ju- it's last minute. But what time? What time should you arrive? You should.

710 to 720. A 710 is like, a 710 to 720 is like the sweet spot, in my opinion. People are gonna 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. FYI. You know what? That would have been a risky, coughing like that would have been risky about four months ago.

Yeah, seriously. People are moved on. Yeah, now it's like we don't even flinch. But if it's business on time, but leaving, you've got, 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 to 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. And, but they're hoping you say, no, let's have another drink. And you're like, yeah, we want to go to bed. 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 do the Irish goodbye.

The Irish goodbye. Let's end this podcast. Let's walk out. If you just walked out right now, I think it was the coolest thing we ever did on the show. Grab a handful of mints on the way out. If you just literally just walked out like, holy shit, we just had the coolest fucking guest

we ever had. No, the Irish goodbye. You don't even say anything. You just literally just walk up like, holy shit, we just had the coolest fucking guest. We have no, the Irish goodbye. You don't even say, you don't even say anything. You just leave. Michael does that all the time. I mean, 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 goodbyeing. 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? Like, were you both like, okay. No, but like, I don't remember. We don't always talk about the timeline, but no, it was five years ago. No, it was, it was. 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.

No, that was it. 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, um, thanks for telling us the weather. You don't want those kinds 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, we had had this

like 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, JC, 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 supportive. 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 year is this? Just so I just contextualize. This is 2014. 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 onto some of your income before you make the leap or like-

Give us the nitty gritty. I think a lot of people think like they're in a job or in a role, like 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 Rupp at the time. And so we, 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, what did this,

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 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 we had the respect for our current jobs to not do too much until we were out. Right. Like we, we are. So what we were doing was we were still working our normal 60 hour work week or

whatever it was at, at the, 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,

and working on, on decks that we called PowerPoints back then and things like that. But 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 great question. 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 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 had, 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 no's. And those no's 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. Pheromony.

Pheromony. Pregnancy. And I'm sitting in front of my friend and Asha's like looking at me and it was pouring. I had a little paper towel that I grabbed and it was starting to ball up and crumble up all over my scrub. It was nasty. But that's how nerve wracking it is because 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 and the 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 to a little bit to a New York hustle. An agency hustle.

There's a little bit of a New York hustle. 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, Michael's 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 in 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. In 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 cap. I mean, totally. No, but I remember looking at that deck and I was like, how are we going to, how are we going to

create this? Like we don't know how to do this anyway. But that, but, 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, 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 call it 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 gonna 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. We had, 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 and circumstance. We didn't have a party.

We didn't do any of that stuff. And, 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 the 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 friendly 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 with what you're looking for. But it's really about that variety in that community. Our instructors 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 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. Anywhere.

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. But like everyone is home. I mean, was there an aha moment or was it just slow? Oh no, 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 I remember it was, yeah, it was like, I want to say it was March 14th.

And all of a sudden, like we sent 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. I have to be honest, I didn't do the toilet paper thing. I'm not going to get, you didn't do it either.

I stopped acting like that. No, no, no, but I'm saying, why did the,, why I didn't, I didn't do this. I was like, we need other things to survive. Yeah. Well, I think in New York, cause 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 ambulances would go up and down and up and down the street all day. And it was so terrible. Cause they were taking people to Lenox Hill where they had like, you know, this giant truck that they were using, to Lenox 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 like, our dashboards were like wild. And we were like, is this really happening? Is there a data issue? Like 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 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 actually did a partnership with KidsBop. 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. Cause 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 a successful day? They moved a lot. 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 were like, this is fucked and then you perform better in your business and people were like this is fucked up. You perform better in the bedroom too. No but everywhere. Like look at those muscles. Things are great. Well not I mean I could be in a better position.

But I was probably guilty of having all of those parties backwards right? Like I would too. Everything was backwards first I put the fitness last and so what I was trying to point out to people is like, cause people wrote in, so they, Hey, how could you put this before family or this or that? It's not attainable. And 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, a big difference. You guys go from, from people who 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, right? So on the business side, we were, 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 realized that there's tremendous value there.

They realized 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. We can't underscore that piece of it enough. Community for us is paramount. And I think that a lot of companies out there, 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 a product that we ended up creating called Workout Parties, which is basically 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 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, 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, putz around, judge my house, light my goddamn candle, write my to-do list for 45 minutes. 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. Can't recommend this enough. That's great. We cannot recommend it. But you know what? I actually do get six to seven too because I'm sleeping. Half the hour while I'm sleeping.

I need you to talk to my husband. I think I got shortchanged because everyone's still asleep when I'm like, if I get up at five, 536, like I'm like, I got my hour, but they're all still 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 730.

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 7.30? What's daylight savings though? No, Michael, it's 9.30 the night before. Michael, you're gonna 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 six 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, he, my husband like 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 8.30, he's asking me a million things. Mommy, I need water. Mommy, I need this. Mommy, I need this. Mommy, I need this. And it's like, that doesn't help me wind down. Our daughter learned about the rice maker

and it's just, she literally demands rice. Rice means hungry. So at three in the morning, rice! Imagine you're dead asleep with five to eight Hertz music playing, sound bowls. Everyone's asleep. It's pitch black. There's a salt rock lamp, maybe. You have cold water by 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 God. That's great. One crunchy, spicy tuna roll coming right up.

I know. I'm like, I started keeping rice by the bed. People are going to 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 for anymore. So we're in a hotel and she'll just like stand up and be like rice, rice, rice. Oh my God.

I love this child. Oh my God. That's amazing. She needs some Obey Easter eggs. I'm going to get her on. You should do that. And then the meditation is great too.

Okay. So seven, teaching your kids And then the meditation is great too. Okay, so seven, teaching your kids to manage their emotions is super important. Here's my only question about 7.30, little tangent. Yeah. If I want her to sleep

until seven or 7.30, I don't want her to wake up at six. So 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 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, as soon as it turns green. So if like you want your kid to stay up until seven 30 or to sleep until seven 30, like you just set it so that it doesn't turn. And they, kids like routine. They like, they like a regimented schedule. So get that clock. Does it come're going to get the clock. Does it come in pink? I don't know. I'd love nude. You can create it.

That can be one of your next products. Okay. And what are your wellness-y 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 the, 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'm pretty routine driven. And so for me, it's about getting up between six 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, 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. I 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, but,

you know, when you're running a business, it's always on. And so I think to balance work and, 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. Why? When I go to New York because of 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. But you got to ice roll in New York City.

Yep. Okay. You can't not ice roll in the morning. Like we got to make that part of our routine. Is that like the jade roller that you keep in the fridge? It's better. This is hers. Yeah.

She has an amazing ice roller. Yeah. I got to do it. Like you need to be meditating. Let me tell you about marketing here. We just literally nagged the entire city of New York. No, I gotta do it. You need to be meditating. Let me tell you about marketing here. We just literally nagged the entire city of New York. No, I'm not. This isn't marketing.

This is true. I'm sorry. I'm ready. Give me 30 of them. The entire city needs this. 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' 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 into the first time. Pilates, I've already tried it. Because the Pilates is really good. Because there's so many things. And I think people get overwhelmed. Myself, like 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, what 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 school 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, is those endorphins start and you start feeling really good about yourself. And it's what you were 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 like, 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 because 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. I already do that enough in the morning too. Telling me that butterflies are going to

sprout from the earth and wrap their wings around me. I can't do it. I need to do it alone. Also, what's cool about your platform, and I 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 and, but I can see the workout in front of me. Yeah. I've done it where it's not on YouTube. 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 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 LA 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 Dorian. And so I think that that part is really important and really a part of our secret sauce as a company as well. Yeah, you can curate it 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. Really No, and I love that you're giving people and professions that didn't necessarily have the scalability before scalability. Really cool. 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 a 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 connected 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 like 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 obeyfitness.com and send all of their materials. The things that we look for in instructors are the given is that they can program a great workout. So they need, you know, 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 out 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 Lauren 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 obeyfitness.com. Obeyfitness.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 stalk you guys? Do you guys have a public Instagram? If you make fun of my Instagram handle, Ashley,

I'm taking these headphones off. Okay, so 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, 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 you by Obey Fitness.