Hello Sunshine, What up Busties? Today? On the bright Side, Superstar Peloton instructor and CEO of the Love Squad, Ali Love is here telling us how she practices positivity on the daily.
It's Thursday, May ninth.
I'm Simone Boyce, I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine. Mother's Day is this weekend, and Drew Barrymore is making news because she was telling everybody that her favorite gift was actually this questionnaire that her kids put together about all of her favorite things, and she felt so seen.
And I was.
Thinking about the weirdest gifts.
I gave my mom. What was it?
I think I made her duct tape slippers one year, like when I was little, and she ended up falling down the stairs because they were slippery, and she wanted to show me she was wearing them, which is awful. I was thinking about you, because like Mother's Day is coming up, do you know what your kids are going to give you? Are you in cahoots with Michael about it?
First of all, I'm still not over the duct tape slippers. I mean the ingenuity, like the engineer's mind that it took to come up with that idea. But this Mother's Day, I am that walking cliche mom. That's like, sweetie, if you just make me anything, I'll love it.
That's me now.
And I never thought I would reach to that point, but Michael did ask me what I wanted for Mother's Day, and then he went on to tell me that he had an idea, and he was like, but I don't know if you're gonna like it, so maybe I should just tell you.
I love that he ran it by you.
He's probably he's well gonna kill me for talking about this right now, but he prefaced it by saying it was really practical and not exactly like a classic Mother's Day gift. It was like a telescope close. It was a light for our office that I could like use in my studio.
So, oh my god, that's worse than a vacuum clean I mean, but it.
Is really sweet and thoughtful because he's trying to think of like how to make my day easier and how to make it easier.
But I told him, I was like, no, that's okay, I'll just take a spa day. That's fine.
You can just give me a gift certificate to Burke Williams please.
So he was like, Okay, fine, that's really sweet.
Do you prefer a practical gift or a frivolous gift.
I'm not really a frivolous person, so I probably would have to choose a practical gift.
But I also loved taking a lap of luxury every now and then.
One of the best practical gifts that my husband got me was this thing called a Remarkable and it's perfect for creatives because you can write on it and then you can digitize the notes that you take on there and then email it to yourself.
It's like been a game changer for my creative process.
But how about you practical or frivolous somewhere in between.
I actually have this new thing that I'm trying to do with people that are really close to me, because when I was going through a hard time, I had a girlfriend from colle send me an email out of the blue, and she wrote me all of the things that she loved most about me or noticed that I did well. And I was sobbing reading the email because I needed to hear it so badly, and I realized, like, this is the most thoughtful gift that anybody has given me,
and so for Mother's Day, for Father's Day, for birthdays. Now, I try and sit down and write like a full page of what that person means to me and what I see them do and all of the things that go unnoticed during the year that I love and I really feel like it's meaningful. If I was really trying to be a great daughter, I would handwrite it. But I think I'm just doing an email, Danielle.
I think that is one of the best gifts that you can give someone is actually articulating your thoughts about them, your feelings about them, because we don't do it often enough, and as I get older, I'm like, I don't really want.
Gifts, Like around Christmas time.
I would love for my family to just move away from from gifts and like, let's put all our money into an experience together that is so much more meaningful to me at this point in my life.
Yeah, that means gifts are not your love language either.
I love gifts, I do, but you can only collect so much stuff, you know what I mean, And I just I'm all about reducing the clutter. But your letter idea made me think about this Reese's book Club pick that I read. Maybe next Time. It's a novel about this husband and wife and there's like time travel involved.
But they have this tradition of every anniversary they write each other one of those really beautiful long letters, just expressing their love for one another and walking back through time down memory lane.
And so I did that.
For Michael's birthday last year, and I was like, this is a really great tradition.
I need to do this every year.
That's really sweet. I think it's so meaningful. And then you have them forever and you look back on where you were at and what you were thinking about.
Do you journal? Do you write life down?
No?
But I think that my notepads are full of gems, like all my best ideas and most inner thoughts are there. If my phone ever gets stolen, I'm really screwed.
Same.
I sort of have this theory that some of our best company ideas, like our best moments are just sitting in our notepads.
Well, this is the new restaurant napkin.
You know those stories of entrepreneurs who went to dinners and they jotted down their business plan on a napkin. The iPhone notes app, that's the new napkin. After the break, we're getting pumped up by Peloton's resident pep Talk Queen, Ali Love.
That's coming up next.
Don't miss it.
We're back and we're here with Ali Love. She's a Peloton instructor, Today's Show on Air contributor, and the CEO of the Love Squad.
Ali's here talking resilience, building a brand, and the power of pep Talks.
Ali, Welcome to the bright Side.
Welcome, Thank you for having me.
Hello, Hello, Hello, you brought your good energy here.
I am ready to rock and roll baby. Oh we'd love to hear that.
Well.
Listen, you've built quite the community. So many of our listeners know you from Peloton, but I think a lot of people are less familiar with how you got there. So how did you get started in this whole movement world?
Absolutely so. I was a dancer for many years. I went to Fordham a Ley, graduated with the bachelors and fine Arts, and moving to New York as a young woman, I got really curious around my career. It led me into hosting, and it led me into commercial work and modeling and all these things in the entertainment world. And it was through that curiosity that landed me more so at the Brooklyn Nets, And it was that exposure where when Peloton was looking for instructors, they had about ten instructors.
They were looking to expand they reached out and so I'd host for the Brooklyn Nets up until eleven C this past season. But they reached out because I saw the work that I did between hosting and the fact that I was an athlete as a form of dancer, and they invited me to have a fifteen minute audition.
I want to know about this whole process, Like do you have to go through this rigorous training certification program or like how does it all work? Yeah, so eight years ago when I was hired, I had a fifteen minute audition and I became one of the founding eleven instructors.
I was there for a while.
Then once we started to expand and look for instructors, what happened was we established kind of what a standard is around what makes a Pelton instructor a Pelton instructor. We're fifty eight instructors now. It's a process. It takes months in terms of interviews, in terms of coming in for an on camera test, and then it's like taping yourself and then meeting with quite a few people.
Has Peloton shifted your lifestyle or you were always pretty active?
You said you danced.
Yes, I was always pretty active. When I was nine years old, I got hit by a car.
I'm from Miami, Florida. Get out. You're from Miami. Three or five all day that I am too. I still have a three or five number. Will never change it.
Oh my god, Allie, Wait, where did you grow up in Miami?
So north Miami. I went to New World School the Arts?
What about you?
My mom was a teacher at New World for a minute. No, but in the acting cart really yes, Yes, she's iconic.
It's a great school. It's New World.
Is this incredible conservatory for the arts in Miami? But I was down I was further down south.
Wait, I want to hear about I want to go back because you were in a serious accident.
I actually didn't know this about you. Yeah, at nine years old. So every weekend, my family would have cookouts and they still do this to this day. My mom's one of ten kids, and so we would all get together at one aunt's house or our house, and somebody cook and everybody plays cards and stuff like that. And so it was this particular weekend where you hear the magic noise the ice cream truck, you run outside, you
go to the ice cream truck. And I was buying ice cream and I came around from the ice cream truck. I looked both ways, as you're taught as a nine year old, and I go across the street, and fortunate timing, the car was parked behind the ice cream truck zoomed out.
It hit me.
I broke my left femur, start up my entire body, broke my teeth. I was in the hospital for seven days in traction, waiting for a pen because I broke my hip, and so they only had machinery for adult I had to wait till something was made for a smaller kid body. And from that moment it was like basically very pivotal in my personal life and also in my relationship with my parents, in that trauma that we
suffered together. And I remember having a conversation with my mom and she was just like, listen, you have two options. She was like, you can you know, it's really hard. Me and your dad would trade places with even a heartbeat, but we can't. Like She's like, it's really hard, and you're in a lot of pain. So if you want to let go, that's fine. She's like, but if you want to live, you have to fight and pray for
your life. And I just remember her saying that, and I was like, okay, And I remember looking out of the window and I was like, I'm gonna fight and I'm gonna pray. And those are two things that I still do to this day, and I think many of us do. I'm unbeknownst and maybe you didn't have an anchoring traumatic incident that happened to you as a kid, but we decide how we're going to deal with making
decision in life. And I remember that at nine years old, and I've never stopped doing those two things, and so kind of like that all led itself into dance and into the art and into movement and not necessarily falling in love with fitness, but just always in love with movement.
Okay, you had to learn to walk all over again.
Yeah, So I can't imagine how hard that is, how grueling that is, both on a physical level as well as an emotional and mental level. How did you find the resilience to just keep going day after day.
I think it's something special about being a kid. I'm not sure that if I was forced to face that challenge again as an adult, I would have done it with such resiliency. I think the curiosity as a kid, like kids are so powerful in the fact that they don't know a lot, but they know so much about themselves and their curiosity or their ability to.
Want to do more. And so I think it.
Was like the fact that I was nine years old and I knew I wanted to play.
I wanted to go outside.
That was the motivation of well, I want to walk versus I want to be resilient or I want to overcome something. I didn't have the capacity for those big words, and I just knew that I wanted to play again. And I remember the doctor telling my mom, you know, she'll never probably be an athlete. She might have arthritis by the time she's a teenager in her hip, so just be prepared that she won't be able to live
that full life. And I just knew when the doctor was like, she can't play forever, I was like, I'm playing forever.
I'm a kid.
So I just it was one of those things where I didn't accept no, because on the other side of it was play instead of real adulting life. I don't think it was enjoyable because there was times that I got into fights with my mom and my dad because I was so depressed because I wasn't playing, or I wasn't able to do things that kids were doing my age, or my sister. I'd see her go play with her friends, and so it was a tough time mentally where I didn't know what I was feeling.
I just knew that I wanted to go outside.
Hearing this story makes me understand your rides more. Actually, I feel like you're really trying to get other people that grit and resilience that you had to build. What do you want people to take away when they're in class with you?
Yeah, I think my mission is like to empower folks, especially women, to be able to articulate what they feel and what they think right, to give them space to do that. I think being empowered is being able to understand or operate, or have capacity to process and then share with folks what you think and why you think things,
or what you feel and why you feel. But when it comes to peloton classes, I think a lot of the foundation is rooted in the fact that I know what it feels like for in one second your life to be gone, and how we can get caught up. And I still get caught up in the little things. But it's just I'm always reminding ourselves or reminding the community,
including myself, that not every day is promised. To make the most of it, to continue to find that fun and yes there is like let's keep moving forward, and I don't think we can get caught up in so I'm not at the top or I'm not at the best. We all think these things, but let's not get caught up in the words of USh. Lets I get caught up in those things.
I feel that. I also think there's an optimism that you share and like our show is really about optimism too, not toxic positivity, right, Like there is a difference.
Yet when did this start? Like people are like toxic positivity? I think, so, here's my point of view on that.
Right.
Folks will always ask me, how are you so positive? And I always say I'm not. I'm negative just like the next person. I wake up with the negative thoughts about myself, about the world, about the future, all those things. But what I do know about myself is that I'm committed to practicing positivity, and I don't think that any way, shape or form, is that toxic if you walk into space and you're practicing being positive instead of leading with
the negativity. So I think we just have to be mindful, Like, yes, it does exist toxic positivity, but I think I'm practicing positivity always.
I don't always get it right, but I try. Well.
We always say it's a muscle, not a mindset, so that practicing idea really fits in there.
Yeah. I also talked about stress languages on this show. Have you heard of these?
No, tell me more your response to the five love languages, But it's how you handle stress.
I think she sounds like a denier, like me, what do you think? Okay? Okay, so okay.
So there's the denier, and this is the person who always finds the silver lining and kind of like minimizes their problems pushes them down. I'm always very positive too, so that's kind of how I lean. There's the imploder, which is Danielle and someone who internalizes all of their stress and they just kind of like spiral down into it.
Okay, there's the exploder. The exploter does the opposite.
They just like take all their rage out, get it over with and move on.
The fixer is always looking for solutions. And then there's the number who those are the people who use alcohol and drugs to self medicate.
Which one are you?
Yeah?
Which one are you?
A little bit of everything? Yeah, that's p Yeah. No, I think that I don't know if I'm the denier because I would say my friends would say that I'm a little bit more blunt, like when I'm in public, I'm not sitting here like trying to tell hard facts. So I think my close friends would say, like, I'm definitely not a denier because I don't just I don't tend to find the silver lining.
I don't. That's I say.
I'm practicing because I don't see it, so I have to try to see it. Yeah, because like it's like you said, it's like a muscle.
There we go.
Yes, clearly, I'm like for every issue that I have, I've either looked up what's the source of it and do I have a condition, and then do what are some great practicing habits that I can embody or you know, try out. I think I'm the fixer when it comes to things I do like to try to finish and fix things.
We're taking a quick break, but when we come back, we're talking to Ali about navigating life's transitions and finding joy through it all. We're back on the bright side.
Ali.
I want to hear more about the Brooklyn Nets because you say you were there for eleven years. That's a huge chunk of your career and your life. How did you know it was time to move on?
I knew quite a few years ago. Probably.
I feel like COVID, just like most things, through a wrench in the plans because.
It took two seasons out of.
Hosting, and I felt like I was like a little bit more obligated once we got back into season to continue and meet the ten year anniversary to be there. But it was time to go because number one, I didn't desire to be on the court. Like there was a moment where I was like, well, if I'm not there, who's going to be on the court? And then there was a shift in me internally where I was like, whoever that is, I hope they enjoy it, or I hope they do well. I hope the fans are excited
about them. So I think that shift of being concerned about, well, who's going to take my place, and how would that look versus Oh, whoever takes my place. I hope they have a good time. I hope they can entertain the fans and keep that energy. And I think that mindset was an indicator for me where I was like, this is my time, this is time to go.
I think that's really interesting because we often don't not we but like everyone doesn't know when it's time. You go with your gut. Do you make a pro com list. So I think that's an interesting thing to note that that was your indicator.
Yeah, the indicator was whoever is next, I'm happy for them, that feeling of whoever dates you, this person next, I'm happy for them. That's like when you know you're.
Good, you know, you know what I mean?
Right?
Wait, did I just hit up? You might have unlocked something for me.
Yeah, when you're like I just want that person to be happy genuinely, you know, like I've gotten over that breakup or that separation, or like I have a you know, we've all had friendships, Like I can assess the relationships, but friendships where they haven't last forever, especially girlfriendships, and you have some.
Good girlfriendss and then they.
Kind of like naturally.
Part ways.
What I've learned now is that there are certain girlfriends that I genuinely love them. We do not talk anymore, but I hope that they're so happy, and I you know, even follow them still on social media, and I'm just like, good for you. That's how I know. It's not a bad.
Thing that we're not friends. It's just it was time friends from as far are sometimes.
Yes, you're really thoughtful about your transitions in life. Where does that come from?
I don't know.
I never thought about that, So I'm going to take that compliment. I'm going to think about it. But I try to be thoughtful around everything. Preparedness and thoughtfulness are my love languages. I think when people show up at a table like we're sitting at now, and they are prepared with information or thoughts that they want to share in any capacity with the person that's across from them,
it respects their time. It respects how valuable they are in their time is, and it respects the boundaries of the relationship, whether it's a personal relationship or work relations You notice when someone comes in a meeting and they're not prepared, they have no questions, they have no idea what the meeting is about.
You're like, this is not nice?
Oh by yeah, facts, okay, girly pop come correct, you got to come prepared exactly, you know, yes, Okay, so Danielle knows this about me. I have a secret dream of becoming a personal trainer. Really yeah, yeah, I talk about it all the time. Actually, wait, why she loves protein? I eat a lot of protein. I mean I left. I just love fitness. I'm a I'm a big fitness shocky. You know why I wanna Yeah.
Don't leave with that. Okay, it's true.
You eat every two hours, like you're in here with sacks with protein.
Where does this come from?
I like strength? I like strength. I like muscle.
Probably if I'm going to dig like deep into some like capital T trauma, it's strength helps me feel safe as a woman, And so I really like feeling strong, you know, like I also like looking strong. I'm gonna be honest, but anyways, I don't want to digress too much. But as one of the most popular coaches fitness coaches in the world, I want to learn from you, Like, how do I bring that like hype girl fitness trainer energies to my everyday life.
How do give me some lessons?
Well, I think it's like, yes, you have to be your own personal hype woman. Absolutely, But I always go back to something that maybe sounds so boring. Is a morning routine and you have to figure out and we talk about it like playlists and all these things. Music and movement works all of the senses, right, It's like it works all your synapses. So I think it's like figuring out that morning routine and when you get up and you're trying.
To get hype for the day.
I don't necessarily encourage you to drink coffee right away. I'm not saying don't drink coffee or caffeine, but it's just like you let your natural energy take hold first. Say it some I didn't want to as I look at it across the table. I didn't want to like shame you. But I do think it comes down to your morning routine. It's like get up and one get your mind right before you get your body right.
I pray in the morning.
I listen to this prayer app where it allows like meditation and prayer. I ask myself this two part question, this one question every day, what or how do I want to feel today, and I let that anchor me. So you maybe today you want to feel safe, maybe you want to feel quiet, maybe you want to feel productive. Maybe today you just want to knock heads. And you're coming out and you're like, I'm coming out hot because I need answers from everyone in my life, Like we're
closing chapters today. And the reason that that's important and so powerful is like that small change creates such a big shift in your day is because you're controlling the fact that you are not reactive to people. You're not at the mercy of someone triggering you. You're owing your feelings. And so that morning routine is your personal hype station.
And if you're looking to like, yeah, we want to amp it up, then you go ahead and start moving your body with good music, whatever music you like, you put that on, you move your body. Yeah, I do want us to move away from like this idea of being strong or working out has to be like an hour or thirty minutes or ten minutes right structured, Like you can just put on music and literally be like I'm going to a five minute song. I'm gonna dance and not stop moving my feet. What's that song?
For you. Like recently, I've been listening to Florence in the Machine. The last song on the Sex and the City soundtrack is like you Got the Love.
You Got the level.
Yes, yes, that's a good song that makes so I'm happy if I'm dancing, I'm dancing to Beyonce like I'm dancing to Beance.
I don't need.
I genuinely am so energetic that I don't need hot music. All of my playlists when I run outside are calming playlists. There's slow songs because if I put on a B song, my heart rate goes too high. I go too fast, and then I need to walk it. It's a hot girl rock for the rest of the run. So I've learned from myself is that I have to I have to manage my energy, like bursts of energies are great
and controlled environments. As I say, five minute dance track, yeah sure, and then after that just like ease into it.
One last question about morning routines. Do you make your bed every morning?
I do not. I do not make This is so refreshing my husband. I knew that I that I I don't make it. I do I was like trying to get away with it because I feel like a messy bed made me sound cooler. Because sometimes I don't want to sound too righteous or too square, because I do have my things. But I get up way earlier than he does. I get up at four thirty in the morning. He doesn't have to be up at that time, and so he does make the bed. So when I go to bed, the bed is made, you know.
That's the rule. That's the rule, though the last person out of bed has to make it.
Yes, it is nice. It is nice to come in the room in the bed is you know.
Someone once said to me that life is just a series of pep talks, and it always stayed with me as somebody who other people go to for those pep talks? Who do you go to?
Who do I go to? Probably my husband? Oh my god, I'm talking about him way too much. He's all right, y'all. No, he's a vibe.
You know.
Growing up, when I started having those thoughts of what my future home would look like, I just wanted my home to have great conversation. I always say conversation is a catalyst for change, and so, which is like a core value of mine. And I know that it's true because We've never made any big decision in our life without conversation. So a lot of my conversations about life
happens in my house. I talk to my husband and he checks me too, like there are times I can get in the lifestyle, Oh my god, this happened, and he's like, yeah, that's that's not who you are, Like, that's not who you want to be, and I'm like, dang, okay, but it's necessary. And in that way too, builds me up, where he's just like, the world is not nice, and that's okay.
You still have to be yourself. You still have to do the things that make you happy.
So I think when it comes to the pep talks, I think it's it happens in my home and it happens with my husband because that was that was top line priority in a partner for me, and I need a person who can word for word me because Honey, I can talk talk talk talk cop.
I love that.
I think our husbands would have a lot to talk about because I had talk talk talk talk talk too.
Ali.
We have a lot of listeners who are interested in entrepreneurship, and that's a big tenet of what Hello Sunshine does. As well is valuing female authors and entrepreneurs. So, looking back on how you built a passion into a brand, what's one takeaway that you'd like to leave with our audience.
I think the one takeaway is, and this is something that I recognize, especially when I started at Peloton, it's just because someone does something first doesn't mean that they're going to win that category or that that space is already occupied. It's the person that can do it consistently. Consistency equals success, and so you can find people that have done you know, when we talk about podcasts, it's the folks that have consistently done it. It's the folks
that are on their two hundred three hundredth episode. And it's recognizing that that consistency and whatever your goal is, and hopefully it's a single goal, because if there are too many, you know, then we don't master anything or we don't become the expert of anything. And so with entrepreneurship, a good idea, and there are a lot of them out there, isn't a good idea without consistent work. And consistent isn't six months, it isn't a year, It's probably like five years.
You know, in like exercise or fitness. They call it time under tension, right.
Ynger, Have you been taking my classes like intervals and arms?
Time undertention?
Honey? But that's what you're talking about it. It's really I think it's undervalued. I really like that you said that.
No, it's true.
I think that we live in a culture and we all want it where it's like, well, that one video that's gonna get the most engagement that the right person is going to see. It used to be called the New York dream before social media, where you like, I'm gonna move to New York, move to LA and I'm gonna walk around that one corner and that one producer is gonna see my face in this random coffee shop and give me my break. That's what going viral we used to be.
But the reality is most of those stories don't exist.
Is with our search no exactly, it said, I was just working really hard at this and finally, after so many hours and being so consistent, someone saw it.
I also know a lot of people who go viral who aren't happy. So I think it's also about just realizing that we romanticize achievement a lot in the society or a certain level of achievement or exposure, and you check in with a lot of these people offline that hasn't actually made them happier because it doesn't stop when we exactly the thing is like where what is the what's the end game?
Where is like where's the finish line? The goalpost keeps moving, it's moving. You get you know, you two are hosts of an amazing podcast. I mean like plugged into some of the best women in this industry that are making great change. If I ask you right now, you can probably confirm for the folks that are listening, there's a desire for more, there's a desire for next. And it's not necessarily bad or I'm shaming that. It's just recognizing that.
And so when people ask me, and I always get this question, it's just like, so, what's next for you? You know, you're a pelts On instructor, you're on the Today Show. Now, what's next? And I'm like, actually, I'm in a season of my life in the last year and a half where there's no next. There's now, like I'm doing right now and I'm digging in it deep into the things I want, the things that I'm doing to work so deeply and so richly and get so innovative in what I have versus what's next.
I think that's what we should be aiming for as the contentment, to say I am happy with where I'm at, like I'm taking stock of where I am, and I know that the me from ten years ago would be so proud of where I am right now. Because if we don't stop and do that, the goalpost just keep moving.
Oh it does, and all you have is now, All you have is now, And I will say, like like deep joy for me, I'm very very very joyful right now in my life. I want to have this conversation with you too, right now.
Thank you, Alie, true so sweet.
Thank you for your gratitude, and thank you for blessing us on the bright side today.
Thank you so much for having me.
Ali Love is a Peloton instructor and Today's show on air contributor. You can follow her on Instagram and TikTok at Ali Misslove. That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we have writer, mentor and advocate for teenage girls, Chelsea Goodin. Chelsea will be talking about her new book, Underestimated the Wisdom and Power of teenage girls.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Simone Voice you can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O b A. Y See you tomorrow, Brightsiders