Special Guest: Sean Vigue
Matt: Welcome everybody to Write Out Loud, the podcast about writing, storytelling. And all of the creative arts that we love so, so dearly, just like I love the buoyant, the blissful, the animated, the bouncy, the glimmering, and the enthralling Christina.
Christina: I'm, I'm going to run out of say, things to say back. I mean, I can only say I'm going to throw him a thesaurus so many times. Thank you.
Matt: Of course, of course, and we are joined by a very, very special guest this week. It is. Somebody that I think you're really going to enjoy. This is a little bit of a different approach when it comes to writing that you might not be expecting. And I think you're going to love it. Our very special guest is none other than Sean Vigueue. One of the most followed yoga, Pilates, power yoga, flexibility training and performance enhancing instructors in the world. He has millions of followers. He's a best selling author as well. So he's written lots of books like Pilates for Athletes, Power Yoga for Athletes, Pilates for Men, and just really enjoys creating books that are accessible to everyone, regardless of where they may be in their, fitness journey. As it were
welcome, Sean.
Sean Vigue: very much, guys. Very excited to be here. to be here
Matt: Absolutely. Sean's got a list of really big named clients that he's worked with Walt Disney world, Florida hospital, uh, anytime fitness, orange Lake resorts. So champions gate, artisan park, or so many list goes on and on and on. That's awesome. So tell us a little bit
more about yourself. What else should we
Sean Vigue: Well, I grew up with your co anchor, Christina. We are both from Southwestern Wisconsin , my favorite place in the world that I've been to so far, other than Vienna and Montana, I think, we were talking about this before Actually, the first musical I did was with you, Christina, I think, in high school. We did South Um,
Christina: South
Sean Vigue: Pacific and, the old high school gym. Now they have an auditorium, but that's pretty much where I started this journey into what I do now with the fitness, the books, the writing, the books and the videos and the DVDs and the classes and everything I started there doing musicals, I started one acts, uh, went to the local university, Viterbo university as an undeclared, I was going to be a history major.
And, um, actually decided against that and auditioned for a show called the miser at Viterbo and got cast in
a small part. And, uh, I got bit, I was bit in high school by the theater bug and I was bit in college by that too. I started taking voice lessons, started singing.
I never thought about being a singer before. I have to give a shout out to Daniel Wilmot Johnson, the head of the music at Viterbo, who really took me under his wing, who's heard something in my voice one day in chapel when he had me sing a C, he had never heard me sing before and I sang it and he said, wow, what resonance, took me under his wing.
Long story short, started, um, doing a lot more shows and operas in college, started auditioning once I graduated and spent about 13 or 14 years as a professional singer actor, uh, long before I started becoming a fitness author and teacher. Theater was my life for many years.
That's all I did. I traveled around the country, brought me to Florida. I went to New Jersey, went to Kansas. Doing music theater And opera.
And, uh, as we were talking before we started so many of the lessons that I've learned about life in general, about relationships, about working with people, about enunciating, about how to project, how to impart information and teach was all.
learned in doing professional theater.
Matt: That's awesome.
Christina: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because of course I, that's where I know you. I know you best from those musicals that we did, each summer while we were in high school, the one act plays, the what did they call it back
then? Star search?
Sean Vigue: Yes.
Christina: you'd be with the other guys doing the, the
stars.
Sean Vigue: I have them on tape. I, I have them in my phone, all those videos because they're, so I think about that stuff all the time.
Christina: yeah, yeah. So it, it really made sense to me that years later when we reconnected once you were, fully into the Sean Vigueue fitness era and doing the books and all that kind of stuff that when I went back to your videos, you had like a, Le Miserable, workout and, you were very engaging and very much the Sean that, I remembered from high school.
So it makes absolute sense to me that this was a natural progression that you, had learned all these things. For that. Can you talk a little bit about. Your transition from from the, the theater to, fitness, fitness instructor, then making the leap again to books. Then we'll get a little bit more into the, the,
writing of the books.
Sean Vigue: Well, I always liked, uh, lifting weights. I started actually started lifting weights between my junior and senior year. I did a video about this. Do you know, uh, I started lifting weights for a girl, uh, that was in your class. I think, can I say her name? Cause I mentioned her in the video. I haven't talked to her probably since high school.
Becky Milky, remember Becky Milky?
Christina: Oh
Sean Vigue: and Renee, they were twins and I,
Christina: another Ridge
Sean Vigue: yeah, I, I,
um, I had a big crush on her and it, it got me into lifting weights. I started lifting weights over the summer in my room. I had two dumbbells and a barbell and I would lift weights every night, like at midnight. I go to bed at four in the morning.
I would eat Chef Boyardee ravioli all the time because I wanted to gain weight. I was very skinny. Ate that crap. I can't eat it now. I had it a few years ago. It made me gag, I think, because I ate it so much. But I would work out every day. I
But I started doing that and I was so validated because I was probably not, I wasn't doing it great. You shouldn't work out every day like that, barbell curls and all that stuff. But I went to band camp and everyone noticed I had started working out. That was very validating to me.
I always worked out in the high school gym, did stuff like that. wasn't, um, you know, I started doing theater and once you start doing a lot of West side stories, you do a lot of really physically active shows. You got to sing, you got to dance, you got to act and you're going to do it.
Eight, nine times a week, at least.
And a lot of times when you're doing those shows, you're also rehearsing other shows. If you're doing a rep, a repertory, which I did lot, uh, you'll, you'll, by the end of the summer, you're doing four shows in rep, big musicals.
Matt: Mm,
Sean Vigue: taking dance classes because that was kind of my weakness. I was a park and bark guy. They call you park and uh, and you sing, uh, or act.
I was, I had really heavy feet. A girlfriend of mine at the time always said, you just have heavy feet . So I started taking dance at Broadway Dance Company with Sue Samuels. I always like to mention her because she would teach dance, but she also would sprinkle in some yoga stretching and a little Pilates.
I had never heard of Pilates before and yoga I'd heard of, but we started doing some of that and I really liked it. It was great. It definitely stuck with me so that the more theater I was doing, I started doing more of that body weight kind of fitness, which I'm known for. Now. I, I don't, I do a lot of strength training.
I film it sometimes, but my niche is. Body weight, calisthenics, yoga, Pilates, stuff like that. We would go to the gym. I would show them weights. I would also show them core work. show them, uh, stretching. And then I was doing a production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida.
In 2004, I was Fieka, the Russian guy. I always play the Russian guy cause I'm blonde. He has a big solo. He romances the third daughter and we were doing the Russian dance and rehearsals where you'd go down and up, down and up. I'm sure you guys do that all the time. Who doesn't?
Matt: ha.
Christina: Oh,
wow.
Sean Vigue: and something happened in my lower back, something popped and I was out, I was out for like a week.
I was just laying on the ground. I was 29 at the time and it really, it really messed me up. They really didn't help me out
Matt: Hm,
Sean Vigue: just laying around. They took out the jump off the table so I didn't have to do that anymore. I didn't have to do the dance, but in a long story short, that's what got me into Pilates big time.
It got me into that core strengthening because up to then you're going off. The power of youth, the elasticity of that, and it just weaved into doing Pilates. I moved to central Florida. I took a, I was still doing theater. I started teaching classes. My last book I wrote, the whole intro is about how I got into Pilates because it's Pilates for athletes and details how I injured myself in doing that damn fiddler on the roof.
Christina: yeah. Yeah. Well, it's it. is such a natural progression hearing you talk about it. It's almost like everything up until that point that you got injured was all, learning. to be who you were going to be, all up until that point. And then, it kind of shifts. So, at what point do you say to yourself, okay, I teach all this fitness.
I teach the Pilates, the yoga, the, this, the, that I've got all these, I've got millions of followers.
Now I'm going to write a
Sean Vigue: Mhm.
Christina: How does writing a book for athletes look like? Like, what is your process? I can imagine it's
than novel writing, Uh huh. but how different? What is it like? What
is, What is your
Sean Vigue: you something. Um, I was, I taught for Disney for about nine and a half years. They're yoga and Pilates guy went with cast members, taught all over team Disney feature. I pulled into Disney university cause I did about four classes a week. They're pulled in the parking lot there. I was getting out Fairwinds press.
Asking if I'd be interested in talking to them about writing a book about yoga for athletes. I had never thought about writing a book. I was doing the videos at that time. The videos were really successful. I was still doing some theater. I was working with Orlando opera doing stuff and I was teaching, I was teaching like crazy.
It just went nuts. That's how I was with theater. I started, I just went nuts for years. I don't like, I get a downtime here and there a week or two, but teaching, I was. I was doing 25, 26 classes a week, throw spinning in there, personal training, Pilates, yoga. And I got the email and I spoke to her, Jessica, that was her name.
She And, uh, she talked me into doing the book. I, again, I never thought about doing a book like that before. The thing was, they got this idea for a yoga for athletes book. But they needed an author. So this was so great with me with my videos. I was out there so much. They did all these searches on YouTube and Google.
My name kept coming up to the top as far as yoga, yoga for men, yoga for athletes, power yoga. So I had that going for me. They never would have found me if I wasn't doing the videos. YouTube is the nucleus of I've done, up to this point, uh, not theater, of course, but everything else I've done in fitness and all the little surprises that come along is all thanks to YouTube because it's always spinning.
Matt: Mm,
Sean Vigue: there's always all these people with eyeballs, even while we're sleeping, they're still watching them over in over in Asia, wherever. That was my, My first major book was Power Yoga for Athletes. That was a great learning experience. A fitness book, I've written a lot of zany short story fiction.
It's because, uh, fitness and fiction are very I weave a lot of, you know, Fun pros into what I write. I like to write the way I speak, the way I speak in my videos. I want to keep it entertaining. It's very movement based. My books are designed for people to get inspired, to get up, to move.
They're filled with exercises, with sequences, with descriptions, photos, anecdotes, links to workouts. So it's all about movement. It's definitely a different animal. I do a lot of book signings at Barnes and Nobles and books of millions and other and, um, But it's, it's tough because I don't meet a lot of employees that push the fitness books that much, it's definitely a different animal, fitness books, I've been very, I've been very successful at selling books and also getting a lot of goodwill with bookstores and managers.
That's who you want. You want to, you know, chat with the managers. Yeah. one, the Books a Million and Dr. Phillips in Orlando, I go there a lot. She was a runner. I think she did my, she knew who I was. A lot of them know who I am. Like they, they've done my workouts before. So that helps if they know who you are.
So with her there, I was very successful in getting new books and when they'd sell out and doing signings, I think she left to go to a different job with the company and the new guy was a little different. He, that wasn't his forte. So you just have to kind of read the room.
Matt: That's awesome.
Christina: you were talking a little bit about how you write little anecdotes and, things to engage the people. So when you sat down to write, did you actually think to yourself, okay, how am I going to be different from other fitness writers, fitness books? Give us a little insight into like putting together the book itself.
Do you think of
the workouts first?
Sean Vigue: Yeah.
Christina: of like, how do I get people interested
in how to do, go into that part
Sean Vigue: When I first started teaching live classes, I had a moment where like, how do I talk?
Cause I came from a theater background where there's always a script and there's a character and there's a description of that character. So, okay, this character has to be this kind of way. So maybe I'll talk this way. I'll sing this way. It's very specific. So when you're out there just teaching classes, I thought for a little bit, how do I, How do I talk?
How do I impart knowledge? And then I just thought, well, I love this stuff. So when I teach it, that's going to show. And I never look back after that. So, you know, I write, I, I know I have editors, so that's good. So I write in my own voice. I write exactly how I would tell you guys. This stuff. I like to write anecdotes.
I'm a rather random person, too. I like, I, I see things so much in, in songs and movies and film. Those would inspire me a lot. So I like to, and the publishers let me do it because it's unique. I like to put that in there and engages people. A lot of people might have misconceptions. I know a lot of people are afraid of me when they find out you teach yoga and Pilates.
If they don't do it every day or they're not that aware of it, like, Oh, I don't do that. I need to work on my posture and work on this. So I like to break it down and make it very accessible for everybody.
Matt: Mm, Mm
Sean Vigue: So, I um, I actually write the exercises, the workouts, I write those out first. If there's specific exercises, that's what I work on first, and then everything goes around those exercises. Because in fitness, it's the workouts.
A lot of people will say, I can't work out with a book. And I said, well, I hope you can work out with mine because it's all about action. It's
Christina: Yeah, yeah,
Matt: That's awesome. Yeah, I think it's interesting because like hearing your story and hearing how it all comes together. I think there's another of vein to this, right? Which I think from a writer's perspective, you think about all of the different hobbies or activities, things that you didn't anticipate might actually benefit you. As a writer, right? So, as you kind of got in from theater, and you picked up a lot of the, the things that make you really engaging and the things that help you kind of give presentation that comes with the fitness side of things, right? So that makes your videos more engaging. It makes the makes people want to follow along with you.
Like, thinking about that from a writer's perspective. There may be some other activities that you didn't think might benefit you as a writer. example, theater could actually, getting into acting could be very beneficial to a writer because you start to study how people. Behave and how they interact with each other and, the ways that they kind of feed off of each other that can inform your writing music, the way that things flow and kind of, weave together.
So I just think it's interesting that I see that kind of vein run through your story. And that's, I think a good thing for our, writers to think
about.
Sean Vigue: Yeah, I visualize every workout, no matter I teach it, film it, it's structured like a show. You have a warmup, which is the overture. Then you have the rising action, warmups, exercises. You have the peak, then you have the cool down, the falling action, and then the resolvement, the denouement. I
Matt: hmm.
Sean Vigue: that's my theater background.
I did thousands of shows, so it has to resolve itself. I see that all the time in my own, it's in my head. I've been working on a memoir about. Uh, Fitness, teaching fitness and everything. And I, I wrote a little bit because it's a lot of instinct for me, but you know, uh, a chapter on teaching how I teach. I do it all the time.
Over 10,000 classes, thousands of videos. So it's, it's second nature. But to actually break it down, uh, that's why these podcasts are great 'cause you actually get to talk about the craft and go behind the scenes of how all of us are thinking and how we all impart knowledge and how we see things visually, whether we know it or not.
Isn't that fascinating? ? Mm-Hmm.
Matt: Yeah.
Christina: And it's, and it's really interesting too. We spoke to an author whose life, At all similar to yours, except for one fact that after hearing your story, you go, of course, this is where you ended up like everything prior to this. You know what I'm talking about?
Don't you met? we had a gentleman on who wrote a political thriller
Sean Vigue: Mm-Hmm.
Christina: Prior to that, he, he was an English teacher. He was, all these different things, but every single step along the way, you could see informed him on how he was going to be. a political thriller writer, even ended up going into politics after, being an English teacher, teaching storytelling, teaching, writing, all that kind of stuff.
. You mentioned a little bit ago that you're writing a memoir. So you know, let's talk a little bit about that. You don't have to give anything away or where you are in the process, but what, what, made you go?
Okay. I've done the fitness books. Now I'm going to write
a memoir.
Sean Vigue: I don't know if you've noticed this, if you go to Barnes Noble, Books a Million, wherever, uh, there's so many memoirs out now.
That's big time. You have all these people writing memoirs. I don't know if they write to themselves. They probably have ghostwriters, however it is.,
so, uh, it was a side project. It's definitely going to be a fun exercise because it's going to force me to remember a lot of things in those almost 20 years.
I've done so many things with freestyle fitness, traveled around the world, worked with so many people, taught at so many places, seen a lot of interesting things. It is kind of an interesting field. You meet so many people and some of them are very interesting in what they do in class. What they do outside of of class, uh, being, going to fitness conferences, um, meeting random people, you know, that do my workouts that, that I meet quite a bit.
Um, So I think there's something there with my voice. I think it'd be very entertaining. I don't, as far as I know, I don't think it's ever been done before. I don't think any fitness people have written about their, experience. I think I could make it, uh, very interesting. In the process, it'd be very rewarding for myself.
To put pen to paper with all these memories swimming around in my head, unearthing them, bringing them out, just making certain reels sometimes as an exercise. If I'm going back, like when I taught at Lululemon or taught over here or did this, there's so many interesting things in there. So I'm going to keep plugging away at it.
I mean, you gave me a nice boost when we talked about it because I'm kind of self employed. So I, I'm on my own a lot for these things and some days like, I just don't want to write it, you know, but I, if I could get a contract, a publishing deal, that's all the motivation I need. So
Christina: That would motivate
Sean Vigue: if I, I, I, what I need to do is get a few chapters together, you know, really cohesive, interesting, fun.
Matt: Nice.
Yeah,
Christina: Right.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Matt: Been the hardest part about writing for you? Like the most challenging
piece, do you think?
Sean Vigue: I'm a content guy. My hardest part in writing and in everything I do with the fitness, I do too much. I have hundreds or even maybe thousands of videos I've shot that are still sitting on drives and stuff. I write too much in the books, which isn't bad. The last book, the Pilates book, they had to, we had to trim about 34 exercises out here.
I just, I, I, I'm like, this is a book, it's going to be around a long time, it's a, it's an object and I want to cram it. So that's, that's an issue I have. It's easy to pull back. You just take exercises out. I hate doing it.
Uh, Pilates is very difficult to write about or photograph because it's, they're exercises, they're moving parts.
The Pilates, the last book, the photo shoot took hours, uh, because there's so many exercises and yoga, you can usually do one photo. This is something that would go in the book you know, the, uh, the, the trials and tribulations of doing fitness books like this. Pilates is moving parts. So for one exercise, you can maybe have seven or eight exercises.
Trying to connect all those together with the right descriptions be just, uh, a miserable experience, especially when you're going back and editing and realizing, wait a minute, this doesn't match. So you could really get into some hot water. You might have to go out and shoot some photos again. There's so many photos in these books.
We, we took thousands of photos. So, you, you gotta know your sequences. You have to know what you're doing.
Christina: Wow.
Sean Vigue: And your descriptions have to be spot on because you're doing right, left, right, left, right, left, left. There's just so many things. You're trying to impart in a written word.
Matt: Yeah.
Christina: So, I'm, I'm trying to picture this happening. So, you go on a photo shoot. And you explain to the people what movements to do because you know what's been happening. Are these professional athletes that are, know how to do this stuff or are they, I mean,
obviously they're not going to
Sean Vigue: Oh, the models. You mean the models? Ha, ha, ha.
Christina: a lot.
Yeah. Yeah. The, the people in the photos doing
the, photo shoots.
Sean Vigue: Uh, The first paperback I did power yoga for athletes. I wanted to be the main model and the publisher said no, it wasn't my contact. It was whoever else the suits. him. But, uh, I'm in the book in the chapter headings, but I recruited there a couple of people. I knew they worked really hard. And they did a very nice job, but it was very difficult for me to sit there during that photo shoot and not do it myself, because of course I can do that better. Let me do that. I know how to do that one. And they, they did very well. There was a couple, they were, it's just tough.
These are tough poses. I do them for a living. I can, I can do thousands of different exercises, you know, that's just, that's my job. So that was difficult.
Next major book was the Pilates for athletes. That was me and my wife. So that was great. She did the warm up and the cool down ones
Christina: Oh,
Sean Vigue: and I did the rest, but even she said her part took four hours.
She goes, That's really tough because you gotta get angles just right. You have to get lying just right. And one little thing, little finger. You can't do that with your finger. You have to put your finger down. You know, All these little things that in a video, you don't think about you're constantly moving.
People can get a general idea pretty easily, but you got a shot, you got a photo and that's it. And they have to be cohesive and they have to look good. You got to look good. She didn't fence. She was amazing, but she was exhausted. It's four hours of holding these poses and stuff and then redoing them and redoing them.
And you, you want to get your face. You know, It was my book, so I smiled a lot, but you know, what do I do with my face? What do I do with my hand? You become so acutely aware of everything. My photographers have been great. My last photographer, she actually, I worked at a theater in New Jersey and she remembered me from that.
Her and her friends followed me online. I actually reached out to her because she was a photographer and she said I'll come to Colorado, I have friends there. She flew into Colorado, that's where we did it, from New Jersey and did the photo shoot. She was fantastic.
Matt: That's amazing.
Christina: Nice.
Matt: talking about having to kind of cut out parts, right? Because you're like, I want to get it done. chock full as possible. So there's that, that really
value in the
Sean Vigue: Mhm.
Matt: People are going to have it for a long time. They can use it. But having to cut those things out.
And I think it aligns, as you're listening to this show now, you're thinking about all of the scenes you might have had to cut out because it was just too long for your, for your novel, right? So it's the exact same process. It's just different for me. Medium. It's just different materials, right?
But it is literally the exact same process. So, there's there, there's a lot of folks probably out there thinking, oh
yeah, I know what that's like,
Sean Vigue: It's not about me as the author. It's always about the reader in theater. It was never about me as a performer. It's always about the audience. Some people lose sight of that. They want to make about themselves and everything suffers whether it's the show or the book. Well, I'm gonna write this because I really like this and that may work but It's all about reaching the viewer, making it as smooth and enjoyable for them as possible.
Because you want them to like it, you want them to tell people, you want to sell books, you want to do more books. That's how I've always thought. I don't just, oh, I just want to do one and done. I want to keep working, I want to keep doing that. You want to, uh, keep doing that. Keep them, keep bringing them back.
All the great writers keep bringing people back. They have a definite style that people adhere to. Oh,
Matt: Absolutely. Mm-Hmm?
Christina: Well, speaking of writers, the majority of our audience are readers and writers, writers are at their desk umpteen hours a day. So, Sean Vigue. What are some great, like, five minute stretches that authors can do that, you can get up from the computer? What I'd like to do is, I know you've got workout videos and stuff like that. What I would love to do is let's link up some of those so that we can reference them on our , podcast page. But do you have some great like either stretches or yoga is like five minutes or 10 minutes?
Sean Vigue: Absolutely. Well, I, my, um, bread and butter is mobility, flexibility, yoga stretches. So yeah, we can. I've been doing a lot of 10 minute videos lately on YouTube. Those definitely, uh, ring a bell with people. That's a, that's a good amount of time, minutes.
We can put a lot of stretches in there. There's things you can do right at your desk. But I taught noontime classes at Disney for a while, noontime, and those people loved it. They always told me they went back to work and everyone says, What? What happened to you? Everyone went back with so much more energy and focus.
Just doing, I think they were half hour classes, going back to their desks and whatnot. And it made them so much aware of their posture, of their breathing, of the need to take breaks. Resting and writing, resting in theater, resting in fitness is So, so, so important rest gets left out of the equation a lot and just going for a little walk.
I love walking. I started walking when I was in college. I'd walk in West Salem because my mom always walked and I just that sold me on it. I walk at night. It's one of the most inspiring things I could ever do is go for a walk. So if you're a writer, that's gold. Get outside and look around and breathe some fresh air.
Christina: Yeah. Yep. And then I'll go and then I'll let the characters start coming in
and talking to you while you're on your
Sean Vigue: Yeah, it's, that's the goal, right? That the characters are constantly talking to each other in your head, and you don't even know what they're going to do sometime in your story. Lee Child talks about that. He really doesn't know. He just starts writing. He doesn't know where Reacher's going to go.
Christina: Yeah.
Sean Vigue: idea.
And he just follows
Christina: Oh,
Sean Vigue: him, follows him.
Christina: Yeah, he's, he's a pantser for sure. Yeah. One of the romance writers that I've met Susan Elizabeth Phillips, she actually said she doesn't even know the names
of the characters when she sits
Sean Vigue: That's so neat.
Christina: I am simply amazed at that. On the other hand an author that I worked for Early on in my career, Suzanne Brockman would write 50 page outlines
Sean Vigue: Yeah.
Christina: sat down to write word one.
She'd, do these massive outlines, but she knew every nuance of every character, going right in.
So everybody's got their process.
Sean Vigue: I watch author interviews all the time. We're talking about how things speak to you. Matt was talking about that. And I I, I mean, uh, several times a week, I love watching author interviews.
It's so, I get so inspired. I love looking at Authors workspaces.
I find that so fascinating how they can create so I, I watch, I watch, I could talk about all the authors because I watch all their videos
Christina: yeah, yeah. So you mentioned earlier, that you had written short stories. Before, do you have an interest in writing
something fiction?
Sean Vigue: would, I, I, I doodled, I wrote a one about a Pilates superhero because I like comic books.
Matt: Oh,
Sean Vigue: But then again, I have a problem with starting something and then just, eh.
You know, going on somewhere else.
Christina: Yeah,
Sean Vigue: I always enjoyed writing short stories in high school for Mrs. Patsa. I, I, I liked historical fiction a lot.
I always, because I liked history. I like fiction. I like combining the two, working that in. I was an English minor or English major for many years and I had to drop it, but did a lot of writing. The more I read, the more I want to write, you know, stimulates the brain.
It's like listening to Mozart, you want to, like, you get all these ideas. When I get a new book deal, I start reading a lot more than I normally do because it gets everything moving. But my problem was I would get great ideas and I, I'm just in awe of authors who can write complete novels and have it all tied together.
I'm in awe of that. Cause I, I don't see myself doing that. Maybe I could, but that's a, that's a different brain type than I have.
Christina: Yeah. Well, of course I never say never for that. So keep that in your pocket. But I think, it's, it's interesting to hear you say that too, because also think that feeds your creativity for your other stuff. So it, it actually does, I mean, it's a little sad to hear that maybe we won't ever get a
complete Sean Veague
Sean Vigue: I don't know if you'd want that.
Christina: I really, but I think It feeds your creativity in
Sean Vigue: It does.
Christina: So for me, writing is my
Sean Vigue: Mm hmm.
Christina: theater and fitness, is your thing, but I have a lot of other, things that I dabble in, painting and, other creative things that will never see the light of day. But they feed into my other creativity. So I think, I think creative people are way, they have, they, they dabble in some things that feed into, their real
passion and
Sean Vigue: That's so spot. I love that. Thanks for saying that, Christina. That's something I feel all the time, but I don't know if I put it into words, but I'm always gathering whether they're quotes. I have quotation books, quotes from movies, songs. I'm I gather things all the time that have a trigger with me that make me.
So happy or so. And I want to carry that with me.
Christina: Yeah. Yeah. But it really is that creativity. And sometimes, if I'm having trouble with, an editing project, like, okay, what do I need to suggest here? Or if I'm in one of my writing projects. And I'm stumped. I do. I go to something else creative. You mentioned the musicals and stuff like that.
I'll, I try to stay away from the reading aspect because I don't want that to filter in because that's what I'm doing. So I need to do something else. Like I said, painting or, I do a lot of like, creative kind of, things together, but it's, it's that creativeness that you're feeding it, you're feeding it.
And so then when you walk away to do something else or go back to your project, you're full again, the
fountain is full.
Sean Vigue: It's so true.
Christina: yeah.
Sean Vigue: to keep turning. And I know right away when it's not, and like, I, I feel, I just feel blah and dumb and unfocused. I'm not reading, not listening to wonderful music. I'm not going, I'm not exercising. Things like that. I'm not being thankful for things are grateful. You just kind of get in these moods and stuff and it happens.
It's part of the journey a lot. You have to have those valleys to have the peaks. very, uh, I I like to be creative and I, I get very excited, which is a great thing, but I have to temper that because you can't be excited all the time. You're gonna run into walls and the more excited you are when you run into those walls, they're going to hurt more, so you got to balance it.
Uh, As an instructor, I'm very good at telling everyone to do that, but I don't do it all the time. I don't do it all the time. I, I get off. I get moody. I get upset. I get unfocused. Uh, But thank God for my fitness stuff, for what I do. I, I come back to it and that's definitely my passion. And it's so great to be able to write within that, within that scope also, to write books, include that
Christina: Yeah.
Matt: mean, you were mentioning to like just being able to go out and take a walk, right. It's kind of, again, frees you up a little bit, maybe knocks the cobwebs out. If you've been kind of focused. To hardcore on your project for a while.
Have you ever used they're called a time to walk in
Apple fitness plus.
Sean Vigue: I have not. I've heard of it.
Matt: Yeah, they're actually really, really cool. I think you'd like them for that purpose because it is times that you go on a walk and you are actually going on a walk with a celebrity who's telling you
about their life or their
Sean Vigue: Really?
Matt: or what have you. And there's just a whole bunch of them. Yeah.
It's really cool to listen to them. Just kind of talk and it sounds, you hear the sound as they're walking with you. a
really kind of neat, neat
Sean Vigue: That's neat. I think we just need someone to listen to or talk to,
to blow away the cobwebs.
Matt: Yeah, get that fresh air and then keep you, a little bit off topic for a bit.
So that way
you kind of come back refreshed.
Sean Vigue: Yeah, it's amazing how the author lifestyle, we connect so well with the fitness instructor's lifestyle. ever believe that. But they do, because movement is involved. Focus is involved. Breath, longevity, endurance, uh, long term focus. And to see a big picture, you have to, when you're writing a book, or you're doing videos, or teaching class, you have to see a big picture of the whole thing that you're doing.
Teaching any kind of class, it's not just a one thing and done. It's something that's always moving and, and
Matt: Absolutely. Well, awesome. it has been an absolute pleasure having you join us today and sharing a little bit of your life and your, your writing journey. Is there anything else that you'd like to just, draw attention
to here as we kind of Of
wrap things up?
Sean Vigue: Um, Oh, I submitted my latest book to my my publisher, I've been working an idea for fitness for kids. I have a five and a half year old, so it's, it's so much based on my observation. The whole intro I wrote is all about being at the playground with Dane and watching him how quickly.
He adapts physically and mentally to everything on the playground. It was such a fun chapter
I've done some yoga for kids videos. I've done very well so hopefully that will happen And, uh, I have some other ideas for books. I'm constantly creating new videos. I don't have a huge bucket list, but, I, I love creating content. I'm gonna keep doing that and especially doing reels around movies that I love and TV shows that I love is something new I've started doing and tying it into fitness instructors.
I never thought I'd say that sentence before. It doesn't make any sense, but it does to me now.
Christina: Yeah. Yeah.
Matt: fantastic though.
Christina: Yeah.
Matt: Well, where, where can they find you? If somebody is looking to
find more of, of Sean
Sean Vigue: The quickest route is my YouTube channel, @seanviguefitness. Think of Vogue, but with an I, seanviguefitness. And if you're wondering about, you know, what I have, just type my name in the search bar, Sean Vigue, and whatever you're looking for, beginner, advanced power yoga, and it'll come up. I have over a thousand videos on YouTube.
As I said, it's my, it's my nucleus. So I, I, I have a new video coming out tomorrow morning, a restorative yoga that I filmed up on in our backyard yesterday. So I can just do it like that. I film outside 99 percent of the time. I love to be outside. I don't like being inside. I like the wind. I like, I like the potential of being attacked by wild animals.
I, I've been around elk and bear and gators in Florida.
Christina: I was going to say alligators
Sean Vigue: They're, they're all around me in Florida.
Matt: Well, that's awesome.
Christina: we'll link up on our web webpage where your episode will live. We'll link up to your YouTube and We'll put some links in there for those 10 minute
workouts for writers.
Sean Vigue: Great.
Matt: Absolutely.
Sean Vigue: it. I, I, thanks so much for having me on. I've been looking forward to this. I love that you guys talk about the writing process, which I never thought I, I, I kind of stumbled into it, but it's so interesting. I find it so fascinating. And thanks for letting me talk about it a little
Matt: absolutely.
Christina: Well, thanks for coming on. I mean, this was fun for me just to, reminisce a little bit about the past and, and all the musicals and search and all that kind of
Sean Vigue: we did the kids in the hall sketches at Star Search. That's what we did.
Christina: Yes.
Sean Vigue: Oh,
Christina: Yep.
Matt: perfect. Perfect. thanks again, Sean, for joining us. We absolute pleasure having you here and, listen, Thanks for listening to Write Out Loud. Keep writing, keep sharing your voice, and keep creating.