Have a Business Idea? STOP Overthinking It & Do This Instead | Amy Jordan

Some people will tell me they wanna do an event and I'm like, well, you need to go to 10 or 20 events.

Yes.

You wanna be a speaker, you need to go see speakers. You wanna write a book, you need to go like immerse yourself into that. And I know there are so many people who wanna skip that part.

You've got to get into that world in order to truly understand it and really see like, how could I improve something? How could I make money in this industry? How could I truly make the purpose that I feel drawn to from your inner knowing? But how could I make this my path forward?

Amy, welcome to the podcast.

Hey, Lori, I'm so happy to see you.

I'm so excited to see you too. We just got to hang out for a little bit in Canada. at Renee Warren's Pink Skirt Project, which was so fun to be able to meet you. And it's, it's so fun to meet in person because I get to actually get a feel for people's energy. And I always like to tell people that when I get to meet people in person, you were amazing. Truly, you had such like warm, welcoming energy. And I just kind of felt like we could sit and chill and talk if we wanted or not talk if we wanted, which I think is a pretty magical thing. I think too. So thanks for being awesome.

Happy to be here. And my theory on it is that in life, while there might be soulmates, I think even more impactfully are a soul tribe. And it's people that you just connect with in that instant moment and you just know, oh, we could sit and chat or just hang and be silent together and be comfortable. And it's the people that really fill my cup and fill my life are people who I consider to be in that, in that tribe. And you are one of them.

Thank you. When did you figure that out for yourself? Was it always easy for you to make friends? Or did you kind of struggle with that ever?

Well, I was voted most friendliest my senior year of high school for the year.

Wow. Okay. Okay. Well, this is all making sense.

Yeah, definitely a part of my, you know, inner being. But I think I figured out the whole concept of soul tribe versus soulmate in my 20s when it was you know, important and everyone was pairing up. I think it was an important part of my experience and my evolution of how I thought about the world and how, how deep of a value I place on friendships as well as romantic relationships.

Okay, so question for you before we get into all of the things that you have done in your life and all of the cool things that we're going to chat about. What has relationships done for you as far as being an entrepreneur and how you've been able to do all that you have, which we'll get to, but what role would you say that It's absolutely everything because those relationships are what connect you to the next step, the next level.

They're relationships that are inspiring and get you on track when you're standing and, you know, building relationships with people who have done things you've already done or who are cheering you along the way. It's absolutely everything. And I believe in that deeply, and I believe in the idea of community over competition. Even in the Pilates world, I have dear, dear, dear girlfriends that are, you know, megastars in the Pilates world. And the way that we see it is that it's really this sense of community, and we're all doing wonderful things with the intention of healing and helping others. But we don't have to compete with another because there's room for everyone. That's, that's really the way I see it.

Oh my God, that's, that's been such an incredible lesson for me. Because I really feel like when you're consistently looking at what other people are doing and comparing yourself and thinking that that you're almost like against them, it— you won't get far. You won't be—

No.

It will cut off all creative energy. So going into my next question, because you do so many different things, but I want to know which one you would rank first for yourself. Or maybe this will be a tough one. Do you identify more with inventor, entrepreneur, or with a Pilates Guru, instructor. We can take out— you know what I mean. Pilates queen. Yes.

I really think I would say the one that encapsulates it all is entrepreneur, because every business I've built is based on an invention, and every invention I've made is built on being a master Pilates educator. So I think that they all roll up into entrepreneur, and I think entrepreneur is really about building that freedom for your life, and that's the journey I've had to take from teaching every day in my first studio to stepping back, letting others who are, you know, equally or better skilled at things that I was doing, and evolving into the real sense of an entrepreneur that allows for freedom, allows me to be creative, come up with new inventions, serve people in a different way. That's really where I see it going. So I would definitely pick entrepreneur as the— Top identifier that I look at.

Okay, that was quick. I love how you had that. You literally just knew yourself that well. Okay, so let's go back. I want to go back to the Amy that started with thinking she wanted to do Pilates. But where did that come from? Even in your childhood, like, what part of you knew that you wanted to teach but also knew you really loved movement? What was the story around all of that?

I really didn't know as a child because my family are all teachers and I was like, I will never teach. And I had been teaching Pilates for a few years before I realized, gosh darn it, I'm a teacher after all.

Were they school teachers?

School teachers.

Okay, interesting.

And so I, you know, I guess it's deeply in the blood. And I've always been a creative person. And I really view teaching Pilates when you're a master of it as a creative process, almost as an art versus as a science. And so that definitely tied in from the time I was a child and always an artist. You know, in my home, there's art that I've done. There's, you know, the inventions require art and creativity. And so that definitely is something I knew from a very young age. And then innately in my own skin, I knew that movement is a way that I healed.

Mm-hmm.

And so that's healing trauma, that's healing stuck emotions, that's healing physical pain, that movement is the path for me to heal. And I was in a creative role before. I was leading marketing at companies like Marvel and Universal Studios, had this fabulous job, but it didn't feel like I was giving back in a way I wanted to. And that's how I veered off into movement because that was something I did as a hobby. And then I thought, wait a second, I think I could do this little side hustle.

Hmm. Okay, so tell me about that. When you were working at Marvel, you would— like, when I think of that, I think Creative. Like, you get to be fairly creative. Tell me why it didn't feel creative, and then tell me why you were more pulled toward the other and how you started looking at that.

It felt creative in a very kind of manufactured way, right? I mean, we knew how to design a movie poster. It's, it's pretty, you know, it's pretty straightforward how you're designing things like DVD packaging, you know, the t-shirts that have Spider-Man on them. You know what sells. over and over and over again because you're selling to a 4-year-old, right? You're selling to— or you're selling to an adult who's a collector depending on the item, or just even the movie audience with the trailers. You know what works, you know, you know how to cut in the joke. It just becomes almost rote after a while, um, doing that work. And it was also very transactional, you know.

Yeah.

It was, it was really based on the sale, closing the sale, getting the person to buy the ticket or the t-shirt or the DVD, whatever it might be. And I just felt like as a marketer, I wasn't the one doing the storytelling, the emotional kind of ethos of it.

Yeah.

That was— that wasn't my part of the experience. So it felt, like I said, very transactional as a marketer. And I loved— I loved the people I worked with. I loved that it was in the creative field. I loved being on movie sets. It was all very fun and, you know, a great experience. But once I actually started Doing Pilates while I worked at Marvel, and then started doing and started teaching Pilates and opened my first store, really, truly as a side hustle. Nothing filled me up the way that watching people walk in like this and leave like this.

Mm. Well, I did a Pilates class this morning, so I fully resonate with it.

Excellent.

It was Lagree. Don't know how you feel about that, but I love it.

All movement is good movement. That's how I feel about it. All movement is good movement.

I love it. So one last question about Marvel because I loved it. I literally was so obsessed. What was one of the most interesting experiences that happened there or maybe something surprising that you didn't expect?

So I did not come into Marvel as a comic book expert in any way. And I remember at one of our first big meetings where we're laying out the next 2 years of all the tentpole films coming out. And I'm basically kind of blank because I don't know which character is a Marvel character versus a DC character. I did not know Superman, Spider-Man. I had no idea at that moment. I was brand new.

Yeah.

And one of the execs saw the blank look on my face. And here's the surprising bit. He pulled me into his office after and he's like, I know you're new to this. He said, heroes with a cape are DC. Heroes without a cape are Marvel.

Oh my God. I didn't even realize that at all.

Right? And it served me so well for the rest of the time that I worked at Marvel because it helped me to very quickly know, is this our character or not?

How do we miss this, right?

I mean, it makes you—

that really just made me go, how much of my life am I missing detail in? That is absolutely insane. OK, I love that. OK, thanks for— we're going to be like— The cool— to the 14-year-old boys out there, we're gonna be so cool when we tell them this.

Okay. You know, I mean, my son's 15 and he thinks I'm really cool.

Okay. Right. No, but just, yeah, you're like, no, he does that.

No.

Okay. Maybe it's these, the 11-year-old boys. We'll go a little lower.

All right.

Perfect. Cool.

Okay.

Perfect. Um, all right. So tell me that first, where did that first idea come from? Because to me, when I look at a woman like you, I'm like, you are an idea machine, which means you either are naturally that way or you really nurture it. You nurture your creativity, which I'm feeling like you also do that. But where did this first idea of, okay, I want a Pilates studio, because that's very different from I'm really enjoying teaching Pilates to thinking that now you want to do the business. I mean, 2 totally different people.

It all starts at home and it all starts in my hometown. So I opened my first studio in Montrose where I now live again, but that was my hometown and it's a very tight-knit community. And I thought, I'll open this studio and serve the people in my community that I love. I wasn't living here at the time. I was living in the Hollywood Hills, but it was like, I want to serve this community of the people I love. And that's why I opened a studio here. I truly thought it was a side hustle. Within 6 months, never looked back. Like, never ever looked back and just dove super deep into it. And it was a Legree studio, which is kind of surprising usually when people hear that.

Wow.

Because I didn't know— I was a total outsider. I didn't know anything about it. But I started working with a world master, and that's NJ Blum. And she and I trained together once a week, if not more, for over 5 years. And she was teaching me on a Wunda Chair. She was teaching me at a ballet barre. She was teaching me on a jump board and a reformer. And my little studio here is less than 1,000 square feet. And I was like, I don't physically have space to bring in 10 Wunda Chairs, To bring in a ballet bar on the mirror, to bring in a jump board. The machine doesn't even accept one. A Lagree machine doesn't accept a jump board that's normally a big piece of wood to slide in and screw into place.

Okay.

So just, you know, ignorance being bliss, I sketched it on an airplane, just like you hear all of these inventions happening at random times. I sketched it on an airplane and I was like, I really want to have a Wunda Chair and a reformer combined.

Interesting.

And barre was really hot at the time. And I was like, wow, I could actually add a ballet barre. What if there was a jump board that just kind of flipped up and just started ideating? Got a couple, you know, engineered drawings done and relationship-based. My accountant at the time, he knew a manufacturer out in Santa Clarita. So these were all made in Southern California.

Wow.

And we started prototyping. The week that my son was born was the week the first prototype came off the factory floor. Didn't work. Ugly as sin. It was so bad, like, and you just have to keep going, right? So we just kept reiterating. And then a little less than a year later, we opened the first studio with 10 Wundaformers in it that are a machine that have a reformer at the heart of it, a jump board that slides up like a cutting board and down like—

Yeah.

Has a ballet bar at the top of that jump board, and then at the back of it, it has a chair that flips up. So it's a rear platform. Like many machines have, but then it pivots up and it becomes a fully functioning wounded chair. So that's where that process started and why I wanted it, because I wanted to share the beautiful movement I was getting with my mentor with my community. And so we just then evolved from there. And now we have studios nationwide. And as you know, they're evolving again.

That's so exciting. So what I love about that is you took All of your favorite pieces of different workouts, workout styles, and you put them together. And I know that some people in the Pilates world, because I've, I've chatted with a few people, interviewed a few different people, and there is this very strict idea of like, you gotta do it like this or that's not real Pilates. And they are vocal and loud. Not necessarily the people I interviewed at all, but they tell me about it.

The internet is Extremely loud about it.

Extremely loud. So I wanna talk about this according to everyone who has an idea who is afraid to put it out there, because honestly, I've talked to vegans who are like, oh my God, when I decided to start like my vegan cookbook, I didn't realize what a nightmare that was gonna be, 'cause that community is very loud about certain things. Pilates can be very loud, workout people. I mean, it's all loud. Who are we kidding?

Right.

But you did choose something that You know, going off plan of things can be a little bit— it can be critiqued by quite a few people.

Absolutely.

And it was blinders on for that.

And it was as an outsider, right? It's not like I even came up as this classically trained, you know, Pilates educator from the time I was, you know, 20 years old. No, I was in my 30s. Yeah, I started this. And so I really just— I heard a quote from Oprah once, or it might not have been a quote directly from Oprah. I think it was a documentary where her team would worry about all of these other talk shows at the time, the Donahues, you know, the Ricki Lake, you know, all these other shows that were fighting for this, like, sensationalism and these, you know, Jerry Springer, all these crazy shows. And her response to her team every time was, stay in our lane. We don't care what anyone else does. Stay in our lane. Do what we do best. And that's when she really veered away from any of that sensationalism and into, obviously, her mega successful lane. of doing what she knew resonated with her and with her audience.

Mm-hmm.

And that's really the way I see it, is that what everyone else is doing is irrelevant to me. In the past, my team would come to me and say like, oh my God, there's a studio opening across the street or 2 doors down. And I'm like, great. What they're doing is not what we're doing. Obviously we have patented, you know, exclusive equipment. So for sure no one can do what we're doing. But that really is the way I see it, is it It's irrelevant what anyone else does because what we do is going to attract the people that are our people and our community anyway.

Mm-hmm.

And that's been a very successful approach and a lot less stressful approach for me to not literally just not worry about anyone else because there is, there is an experience where people want to freeze Joseph Pilates in time and they want to freeze Pilates in time. And I see Joseph Pilates as a super talented, super inspiring inventor. He wouldn't have frozen anything in time. He would've continued to evolve and innovate. And that's where I see myself standing on his shoulders rather than, I like to say, rather than bowing at his feet.

I love that. Let's talk about innovation because you, it sounds like you believe that's very important. I wanna know what kind of your, your theory on that, even for yourself, is after, you know, inventing what you've invented, how do you kind of stay on top of that for yourself?

I think it's so important to listen to your inner voice, and that's really what I tend to do when I'm coming up with ideas. If I keep having this recurring thought or desire— because when you're creating a new invention, it's a desire that's not yet fulfillable— that I listen to that and like, hmm, how could I solve that problem? Because it's absolutely everything. I mean, right now Pilates is a $14 billion business. I mean, it's—

Crazy.

It's massive. You have to differentiate. So you better be differentiating in your program— programming, in your branding, or, you know, to the ultimate level, in my opinion, with your equipment. Because I started with the machines, and then in 2022 we launched WundaCore. And so now it's also the tools and the props, and it allows other studios to innovate themselves. By using these tools and props that aren't in every single store, you know? So it's a, it's an important differentiator for the health and success of your business.

I'm actually wearing one of my newest Quince finds right now as I'm recording this. So if you're watching on YouTube, you can actually see what I'm talking about. It's their cotton cashmere fitted ribbed cardigan, and it is so freaking cute. I style it with a couple buttons undone at the top and at the bottom, so it's really fitted through the middle. And then I stack all my jewelry because obviously you guys know I love my jewelry and I need to be able to see See it when I'm wearing my tops. The quality feels amazing and it was less than $50. I also ordered their organic cotton micro rib Henley, which was less than $25, and I love that one for the exact same reason. I can unbutton it at the top, layer all my jewelry, and it makes a really simple, chic, basic look completely pulled together. That's what I love about Quince. They make those elevated everyday pieces you actually wanna wear over and over again using premium materials like Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and premium stretch denim. Without the crazy luxury markup. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $50, and everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman. And it, it's not just clothes. They have hotel-quality bedding and bath, kitchen essentials, furniture, and even beautiful 14-karat gold jewelry. I have some of their sheets and I love them. Find the fall pieces you'll reach out for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Earn Your Happy. It's the best way to support the show. One thing I've learned from building a business is that most entrepreneurs love starting the business. That's usually the exciting part. It's everything that comes after where you suddenly realize, wait a minute, I need an operating agreement, a business address, a website, a separate phone number, and now I have 6 different companies trying to sell me something. That's why I think Northwest Registered Agent is such a great resource for entrepreneurs. They've been helping small business owners launch and grow for nearly 30 years, and they have over 1,500 corporate guides, real people who understand local law and can actually help you along the way. When you form your business with Northwest, you get a complete business identity, including things like a business address, operating agreement, domain, website, professional email, and a phone number with built-in privacy. You don't have to put your personal information everywhere. And even if you're not ready to form yet, you can create a free account and get access to lawyer-drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, and other resources to help you actually run your business. No selling your data, no unnecessary upsells, just tools entrepreneurs actually need. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/earnfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/earnfree. Okay, so what's so cool about you being an inventor? for so many different things with Pilates, which we'll kind of talk about each one in a little bit. But what's interesting is you being in the studio gives you so much data. And I wanna talk about this according to, you know, entrepreneurs out in the world who are trying to come up with new ideas and new products, but we're not necessarily putting ourselves in the spaces where we can actually see what people need.

Mm-hmm.

Like, you know, some people will tell me they wanna do an event and I'm like, well, you need to go to, 10 or 20 events.

Yes.

You want to be a speaker, you need to go see speakers. You want to write a book, you need to go like immerse yourself into that. And I know there are so many people who want to skip that part. Tell me about how you start seeing needs of different things and what your brain starts doing. What's that creative process for you, and what's the importance of really being in the data?

It's incredibly important, and I think that's also great a great path forward for your purpose.

Mm-hmm.

So say you're working a job and you're an accountant and you used to love it and now you don't love it anymore and you wanna do something else. You wanna work with butterflies, then you better get out there and start going to butterfly exhibits and you better start talking to people who are in this world, right? It— you've got to get into that world in order to truly understand it and really see like, how could I improve something? How could I make money in this industry? How could I truly make the purpose that I feel drawn to? From your inner knowing, trust that, but how could I make this my path forward? And with the data I have in studios, I didn't invent anything at first. I used someone else's invention, right? And I started with someone else's experience and built upon that by coming up against these problems and banging my head against these problems over and over again. Like, Gosh, I don't have the training to help you with your torn rotator cuff. I don't have the information to feel like I can safely guide a pregnant woman through a workout. I wish I had a jump board, and I don't have a machine that will accept one. So it was these problems that I was coming up against, how I wanted to better serve my community, and the experience and the know-how and the training to get me to a place where It's pretty hard to stump me now with a physical ailment that I can't support you with. You know, twice this week I've, you know, gotten people to heal their frozen shoulder because movement heals. So it's just now it's something that's become part of my practice, but it took the work.

Mm-hmm.

It took investing in weekly sessions with a world Pilates master. That was not inexpensive, right? I mean, that was time intensive, and I was pregnant and had 2 children during that time. It was time intensive, it was financially expensive, and it is the best money I've ever, ever spent because it immersed me in the world of that beautiful biomechanics. Because biomechanics apply whether you're in, you know, uh, CrossFit or where you're— whether you're in a Pilates studio, it doesn't matter. Biomechanics are what they are.

Mm-hmm.

But learning that path so that I could then provide the tools to get the best out of every single exercise, with of course a focus on the core coming from the Pilates world.

You can't— you cannot beat data. You cannot beat hands-on seeing it over and over, because all of a sudden there are clear patterns everywhere. You cannot unsee it. But it takes a while to be in that, to understand it.

Hundreds of thousands of clients. that I've personally worked with, personally seen, personally listened to what their complaints are, and what their areas of concern are, and what they wish they had. And I'll tell you what, they wish they had one of my machines. That's what they wish they had.

Yeah, exactly. That's why so many of these amazing products that are now coming out are from women who wanted to solve their own problem. Maybe it's, you know, a beauty product that you're like, oh my God, Where has this foundation been my whole life? And you look and they're like, I was struggling with my skin and I wanted to solve this problem. So you had so many problems that you wanted to solve because you saw this with, you know, hundreds of thousands of clients.

Yes. And not only just the physical, the physicality of what I do for movement and exercise, but also watching the confidence, the empowerment, and the internal healing that goes on when you put yourself in a place where you can heal with movement.

You know, I'm a huge advocate of movement. It's, it's like been my everything. I don't know how— I don't even know if I'd be here without it because it's just been like how I manage stress and everything that I do. So you already have so many patents. How many patents do you have?

I have 2 official patents and 3 are pending, and we expect, we expect them to all be completed within the next year.

Okay, can you tell us a little bit about those and what, what is driving you to keep Keep doing them.

Absolutely. So the first one is the Wundaformer machine that was in Wunderbar Studios.

Yep.

Those are now called the Aurum Reformer, and those are going to be in over 100 studios by the end of 2026.

Amazing.

For the Pilates Addiction brand. So that IP has now been set out with my partners, and we're expanding rapidly with franchises. So that was the first one. My second one is the Wundacore resistance rings. So this is basically my answer to the old nasty Pilates circle that doesn't align anything, doesn't connect anything. And it was developed during COVID when I was doing workouts in my living room with all my clients, and I wanted to get my hands on them to get their core connection, to get their form right, to get their knees aligned properly. And the ring doesn't do it. This does it because it's obviously far more intuitive for the curves of your body.

More sturdy.

The other ones have the foam pads that just disintegrate and they're pretty gross. This you can throw in the dishwasher if you want to.

So for anybody who can't see it on YouTube, it's kind of, it's almost like a peanut shaped with, if a peanut had a flat top and a flat bottom, but it still had the center waist.

Yes. And it has a little flexibility there. So I have a bunch of colors of those. That was the second invention. It's my second patent. So we launched those because People can't find their core. It's really hard for people to really access your core. And these influencers are out here saying, engage your core. It's like useless information.

Mm-hmm.

And so not only can we cue through the exercise, but this replaces a trainer's hands, whether you're in a gym, whether you're doing an at-home workout, whether you're doing yoga, it replaces a trainer's hands to keep your body organized so that a squat feels like a core move suddenly, right? Pushups and planks feel even more intensely for core moves, and it just, Takes neck tension, you could put it behind your head, it just, it solves a lot of problems that I was seeing over and over and over again. The other—

For example, you had, when I was with you, you had some people do squats with it. So like you would be doing, you know, for someone who does at-home workouts, or even if they go to, you know, different mat classes or whatever, they would take that with them or do it at home, put it in between their knees. Or you showed me like when doing abs, which by the way, I cannot, I don't like doing abs at all without something behind my head if I'm doing A lot of them, because I get too much tension in my jaw.

Yeah, it's like gripping. Yeah, for sure. And it just goes here and suddenly your head is held by your belly and by your middle back. Like, zero neck tension.

Yeah, it's amazing. It has so many different things that it can do. So that is such a cool invention. I know you were telling me right before this that you were like, because I was like, what? So many people have these ideas and they're like, that would have been a million-dollar idea. That was my idea. Million-dollar. That's— what is that now? $100 million idea. But you just went for it. Tell me about that moment when you were like, okay, you didn't overthink it, you just started to figure it out.

I was showing, I was showing you the original sculpture, which is literally made out of clay from CVS. Like, this is, there is nothing fancy about this. And I sized it to my daughter's Barbie doll to make sure I understood the proportions correctly. Wow. Like how it would fit between the ankles, how it would fit around the legs. How it would be held in, in our hands. And it literally was the first iteration. The second iteration was made out of duct tape and aluminum foil and binder clips. Wow. That is the one I gave to my manufacturer.

Wow.

So it does not have to be super, super fancy, right? And that's— you just have to start. The Wundaformer was a silly drawing on an airplane. You just have to start and utilize your relationships and trust yourself and your idea and believe in it so wholeheartedly that there's no option but to do it. There's no option but to execute. So when you get a prototype that comes off the factory floor and it's not working, yeah, there's probably a tear or two shed, but you just keep going and you look for problems to solve. The amount of times people in the studios complained about an old Pilates circle, I hate this thing. It's not that it's hard. It doesn't fit. fit. It doesn't stay. I don't like these nasty, you know, foam handles. I heard it over and over again. The next invention, the third one, are our blocks, the WundaCore blocks. So it's a curved surface in a foam yoga block. And again, I have a couple drawings like that show the— or not drawings, rather sculptures— that show like the clay of, you know, when we were ideating about it.

Oh, yeah.

And literally, carved a yoga block with a bread knife, an old yoga block, and again, clay. And my daughter painted it because she thought it was cute. And she was probably 6 years old at the time, you know?

Yeah.

It does not have— you don't have to overthink it. And then eventually you're going to come to a product. And what this one solved, it has a million other solutions, which I'm so excited about. But the first point of solving it was pain during planks. So every single day, oh, I can do the planks, but my wrist hurts. My core's strong enough, but my wrist hurts. Well, that's a teeny tiny joint with your whole body weight on it. Of course it hurts. So you share the work across this surface. You're like a starfish on a rock, and you no longer have wrist pain. Now, I also use it, and we use it tons for standing on with our feet, and it opens up all the nonsense we do in our beautiful shoes.

Mm-hmm.

And we also use it for balance challenges because it's sturdy enough to have the curved side down. So we use it in all, all of the ways. So this is This is the third one that's a patent pending. And then I have one that I don't have a physical product here to show you that is a top half of a barrel. If you know what a barrel is from Pilates, it's usually called a ladder barrel, and that's basically replacing a tool in the studio. And then the most exciting one is my home machine because I have been begged for this for probably 15 years, maybe longer.

Wow.

begged for this. I mean, celebrities emailing me, clients emailing me like, please, can I buy one of your machines? I'll pay whatever it is. And it's like, no, they're only in the studios and they're huge. The ones in studios are huge. No one wants it in their home. And that was the problem that no one is solving.

Hmm.

No one's solving that problem. So if you look right now for a home Pilates machine, you have a couple of options. You have some that designers have done. So Chloe did like this beautiful She's beautiful, reformer, but it's still a big-ass reformer in your house.

Mm-hmm.

You have versions where they're teeny tiny, and they're low to the ground, and they're, you know, this big, and you slide 'em under your bed, right? Or you fold it and you stuff it in your closet, all things that no one wants in their house. Or you have a dedicated room for a real reformer. You have a dedicated room, a dedicated space, and that's just not something that I care to do in my house. I do this for a job, and I don't want it in my home. I have a studio outside. And I want— but sometimes I really want one in this living room, but under no circumstances will I put a reformer in. I don't care how pretty.

No, right? I'm the same, right? It needs to look good.

It needs to look good. And so that's why I continued on the path of inventing. So I now am launching in November the Helena Home Machine. And what it is, it's a whole new category. It's not just a machine, because what I've done Is taking an accent chair, a chair that you would have in your living room, a beautiful chair, you know, beautiful upholstered, you know, no ugly seams, all this, that just sits there beautifully. And one of the reasons the name is Helena is like Helen of Troy, right?

Mm-hmm.

And where the Trojan horse had a big surprise inside, so does this beautiful accent chair. So it's just sitting there hiding in plain sight. And just like my machine in the studio, you flip the seat up and suddenly it's a wounded chair.

Hmm.

But I didn't wanna stop there. So it's the same idea. It's just a pivot, you know, in the front of the chair exposes the springs and the pedal for your wounded chair work. The risers will come out of the inside of the chair. So you have your stability risers, and then you can think of it like a suitcase handle on the front of the chair. You're gonna drag out the rail, the rails of a reformer. The foot bar's gonna pop up and the carriage glides out with it. been hiding under this chair. So the carriage you glide on for your reformer work is there, and inside the carriage, you pull out basically a sleeve that is the jump board. So it's, it's a pretty epic Pilates system that can literally hide in your living room, and you're no longer constrained by aesthetics. You're no longer constrained by time to get to a studio. You're no longer constrained by anything. It's really about closing that distance between you and your movement.

I love this. I know when we were in Canada, you were talking about it.

Exciting.

That is so genius. You know, I live— I lived in LA area for a little while, and now I'm in Orange County. And I remember even when we were kind of looking at homes here, there were quite a few homes I looked at that some people had like a reformer either in their garage or in like a guest room.

And it—

in order to have a reformer in your home, it like takes up the room. Like, not a lot of people have a specific room that this could ever even fit in, even if you have kind of a bigger house, because it's such a clunky machine.

It's, it's like, even if you have the room, is that what you want to dedicate that space to? Not necessarily.

Yeah.

You know, not, not necessarily. And it's just something, like I said, it's a category that just isn't— doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a piece of furniture that converts into a Pilates machine. And so I'm really excited about this launch because I know it is a problem that thousands and thousands of people have approached me about solving just in my own universe, you know, so I'm really excited to share it with the world and bring beautiful design, bringing in my creative and artistic background and merging that into movement. So it's an exciting moment for me where I have learned to create space in my life to continue innovating. Instead of worrying about just staying in the weeds and all the studio schedules and, you know, teaching all these classes like I used to do. It was my journey as an entrepreneur and growing and delegating and learning what to let go of that opened me back up for freedom to release the innovations that come, that come to me.

What have been some big challenges in this that have— have you had those moments where you just thought it was the end?

Hmm, I don't think so. I just don't look at life that way. I really am committed to executing. I'm really committed to taking it across the finish line, and what the market does with it at that point is what the market is going to do with it. But I feel like I owe it to myself and to the community I serve with Movement that I'm going to do my very best to take it across the finish line and deliver what I believe will help them feel amazing. And when I come up against a, you know, a wall or a roadblock or a bump in the road, I really do, you know, I take the time to acknowledge it. Like I said, tears might be shed, and then just get back at it because none of these are impossible problems to solve. Like, look at the things that we as, you know, a species develop and create. You know, if you really think about all of the incredible things that have happened just in the last few hundred years, our ideas are pretty solvable if we just stay at it one step in front of the other. Focus on, okay, what is my biggest constraint right now? What is my biggest problem? And that becomes the first few hours of your day until you resolve it.

Okay, let me tell you about one of my sponsors, Indeed. When I first started Glossy, I was elbow deep in everything, whether it was customer service emails or design or figuring out fulfillment. I didn't have systems yet. I didn't have a very big team. I just had me and way too many late nights. And I remember thinking, I don't need another generalist or someone that I have to train on everything that I don't fully understand yet. I need someone who's actually been running e-commerce or fulfillment, and I need someone who understands Shopify, who can catch this stuff before it's keeping me up until 11 PM at night. And That's a job for sponsored jobs. Here's the stat that really gets me. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute that I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. 27 hires while you've been listening to me talk. That's sponsored jobs getting your posts seen instead of buried. Listeners of this podcast get a $75 sponsored job credit for premium status at indeed.com. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and say you heard about Indeed on this podcast. indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need the right hire fast? Then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. I don't have kids myself, but I'm surrounded by people that I love who do. Suddenly it's not just, am I gonna be okay? But I watch them say, are they going to be okay if something happens to me? And as an entrepreneur, that really hits home because we are planners. We'll spend hours thinking about how to protect the business, grow our revenue, build the savings, and prepare for every possible scenario at work. But some of the most important planning you'll ever do has nothing to do with your business. It's making sure the people who depend on you aren't left scrambling financially if the unexpected happens. That's why I think Fabric by Gerber Life is such an important resource to know about, especially if you have kids or anyone who depends on your income. Fabric by Gerber Life offers term life insurance you can get done today, made for busy parents like you, all online on your schedule, right from your couch. You can be covered in under 10 minutes, often with no health exam required. If you've got kids, especially if you're young and healthy, the time to lock in low rates is right now. If you have life insurance through work, that's a good start, but it may be less than what your family needs and could disappear if your job changes. Term life from Fabric stays with you. Flexible policies built to fit your family and your budget. And as long as premiums are paid, coverage follows you wherever you go. There's no risk, 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel at any time. Plus free digital walls and tools to help invest in your kid's future, all right from your phone. Fabric has partnered with Gerber Life Insurance Company, who is trusted by millions of families for over 50 years and rated excellent on Trustpilot with over 2,000 5-star reviews. Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes. At meetfabric.com/earn. That's meetfabric.com/earn and use my link so they know I sent you. meetfabric.com/earn. Policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, which operates in DC and all states except New York and distributed by Gerber Life Agency, LLC using Fabric Technologies. See meetfabric.com for additional disclosures. This is a paid ad. What has movement like really done for your life specifically? What are the stories that, you know, make you so incredibly passionate about it?

So if, if you're okay with us going into this territory, but about what we spoke about, or what I spoke about in the Pink Skirt Project. So as a child, I suffered many years of severe sexual abuse from a neighbor. And It took me a long time to understand. I just thought I really loved Pilates, and I thought, oh no, it's just really great, I love it. And, uh, my very gifted therapist walked me through it one day and she said, why do you think you care about inside-out movement so much? Why do you think you've refused to market with any bikini body language or anything of this sort? Why do you think that is? And I'm like, oh, it's just so important that we move well. And, you know, she's like, okay, let's go a little deeper. And we really talked through that process that through the therapy journey, I never liked journaling, you know, writing things down and trying to get my thoughts out. I never really liked any other format than art, drawing, or movement. And her prep, you know, what she proposed to me, and I think it's absolutely spot on, she said, you were physically abused.

Hmm.

And your movement is a physical way to heal. So it truly has been such an incredible part of my journey and of that healing from old trauma, old wounds that I had just kind of brushed aside for the majority of my life. I didn't think it affected me, which is insane to say now, but I really didn't believe it affected me because I was a high-performing human being. When come to find out, I really did need to do so much healing around that. And moving my body and also moving my body in a community of like-minded, wonderful human beings has been an incredible part of my healing journey to take me into that next chapter of my life.

For anyone listening in there, you know, they're interested in getting started in Pilates, but also learning about maybe some other healing things you did through that. Because, I mean, we know the numbers are staggering of people who've gone through Similar situation. So thank you for sharing that. And I think we can all find ourselves going to things like movement and, you know, trying to work those things out, which I really believe it does. But sometimes it can also unearth a lot. What were some other things that you did? Sounds like you did therapy. What else do you like to kind of rely on?

I— well, in that Pink Skirt, right, we did the breathwork with Samantha, and that was Unreal. I actually had to leave the room and vomit because there is definitely stuck, just stuck things in my body. And I've worked also with a movement healer, Dr. Gina Calderon. And so she is incredible. And I did a workshop with her. And it was recent, it was recent to when I had gone through my cancer journey. So I always forget to say it, I'm cancer-free now.

Wow. Yeah.

The time it was It was recent to it. And I had had a radical hysterectomy. So when we started doing movements surrounding the pelvis and the hips, again, I felt like my intestines like drop into a place they hadn't been since the surgery. And since all of that was going on in my body, and I felt it drop, I immediately had like massive waves of nausea and have to— had to leave that session to vomit. I feel like looking for ways that you haven't tried to approach your healing, you know, the breathwork, the looking for a movement healer, even looking for a different type of movement. So I also did some time in heated yoga, which I felt helped move me in a different way. Yeah. And bring just a different approach instead of like, oh, I'm stuck, I'm not healing through this. Well, what are you doing that's different? What are you doing that's a new way to approach that? I've done EMDR therapy as well, which is the, you know, either the buzzers or the light bar across the left and right brain. So I've looked into, looked into and done several different types of healing work on top of the Pilates that are really valuable as a way of moving, you know, stuck emotions and stuck traumas that I believe are held on a cellular level.

Oh my gosh, yes.

When you—

so what kind of cancer did you have?

It was cervical cancer. So I had a super rare cervical cancer, like very low, very low survival statistics. But I just wouldn't even look at it. I refused to look at it online. So if anyone's up against a diagnosis right now, please don't go to Dr. Google. There's no point. And the statistics aren't you. And that's the way I looked at it the whole journey. I had one moment in that journey when I decided to give up. It was after the hysterectomy. It was after, at that time, about 45 hours of chemo. And I was like, I'm done. I've done my part. I'm done. I'm done. And this is an incredible gift my best friend gave me. She said, okay, like, I'll stand beside you with— this is your decision. And my children were very young at the time. They were 6 and 9. And, you know, within short order, I decided to complete the treatment. And it was, you know, 90 hours of chemo total and 25 days of radiation and endless hospital stays.

Hmm.

But going through that, it required me to not lean into the statistics and what other people's experience with this particular cancer were, and also to take it one breath at a time so that I could get through it because That's how I got through, you know, just unspeakable days of pain and suffering by stacking that one breath. But having that one moment to say, I give up, and not having everyone around you— I would have expected her to be like, no, honey, you have to keep going. And having someone who just like met you exactly where you're at and said, I'll stand with you, was huge.

Wow. I can't even imagine. And, you know, you think about all of the things going on in your life too, and to have that. And also, there must have— was there some element— I, I had some, um, just recently, 2 different lumps found in my breast that were benign, but the emotion that I went through in the waiting, in the waiting period, in the removal, I remember as a fitness person going, no, I did it right.

Yes.

This can't be right. Like, what are you talking about? I did this all the way I was supposed to do it. I would have went back and drank a lot more and ate a lot worse, you know? Like, what the hell? Did you have any emotions around that?

Absolutely. I really felt like it was a reckoning of my identity and a reckoning of, you know, who— how I want to show up in this world. Because it was during COVID when I had cancer, so we were doing all of these Zoom workouts and I was diagnosed and I really had this pause where I didn't want to tell anyone. And of course, they were seeing me every day at this point on Zoom, literally 7 days a week.

Wow.

I was just going to disappear overnight. And I had this reckoning where I was talking to my therapist and my close friends and family, like, I feel like such a fraud. How could I possibly get sick if I don't drink heavily, if I eat the foods that I eat, if I move my body all the time? If I, you know, even to, you know, no fragrance in my home and all the, you know, and the compostable bags, I felt like I was doing all the things right. And the fact of the matter is, we just never know what's going to come, you know, out of left field. And to me, I really wanted to share what a crisis, a healing crisis looks like with my community because it ended up resonating and inspiring and helping so many people through really difficult times that—

Mm-hmm.

Yes, this is approximately the worst thing that could happen. You know, at least it's probably top 5, if not the number 1 worst thing that can happen.

Mm-hmm.

And how did I move through that physically and, you know, emotionally? How did I move through that and share that journey? And literally filmed workouts with not one hair on my head on the days that I could. It wasn't every day. It was not every day by a mile, but I knew, you know, the chemo leading up to the next chemo. I knew those last few days I would be able to shoot a workout, maybe two, and I would shoot workouts and really try to show even in a health crisis you can still show up for yourself. You can still— in my own body, I felt like it was one thing I could control. Everything was so out of control. All my studios are closed because it's COVID and where they were operating. My children's school was closed. I couldn't change that. And I was Being a terrible homeschool teacher. And the one thing that I could control was on the days I felt up to it, I could serve my community by teaching a workout, I could serve myself by moving. And it was one way that I felt a little bit better through a really, really awful time.

Something that you said is so interesting, because in my, in my tiny little bit of sharing an experience that wasn't remotely like yours, but I was— what I was shocked by, um, was— number one, I wasn't gonna share it at all because I was like, I feel like people are gonna think I'm trying to get attention or that it's like, oh, feel bad for me. And so like, it was actually quite challenging what I was going through all at the time. And I was like, I think this is important to share simply for the fact that I have now had so many checkups that they're like, you know, good thing you got this removed, or you should do this, or you—

Yes.

You know, you need to make sure you're whatever. Just all of these different things that I'm like, oh my gosh! We really have to make sure we're checking our skin, checking our breasts, checking all of these things because you can prevent a lot of things. And when I was sharing it, I had so many women say, oh my gosh! Same exact thing happened to me, and it's the waiting period. And I didn't share it at all. I carried it all by myself the whole time without knowing. Is did you hear that over and over? From people that you would share.

And when you have a platform to share information on, it also inspires others to go get checked so that they don't have a major crisis or worse in the future. So what I also received was a lot of messages like, thank you so much, I haven't had a pap smear in 3 years and I just booked my pap smear.

Yes.

With this sort of thing, I had a clear pap smear in January of 2020. And by June of 2020, I had a tumor that was so large it was inoperable as a healthy human being. Like it was. So anytime you see anything, something I would love you and your audience to hear is that anytime anything is out of the ordinary, get it checked. Because I easily could have said I was fine in January, a little bleeding, whatever, it's fine. And thank God that I did, you know, acted when I did because I barely even got to see my doctor because everything was shut. But he took it seriously, and we were able to start treatment 6 days later.

Yeah, make the appointment.

Make the appointment and take good care of yourself for yourself and for the people in your life who love you.

Yes, I'm so grateful that you shared that story. And, you know, just looking at just everything you shared around really looking at the things that have happened to you in your life and how you're managing them and coping with them and dealing with them, and just how important it is to take care of yourself and go get things checked on. But I really want to end on your super exciting products that you have for people because they are awesome. And you have so many different things coming out for people, especially if you love Pilates or if you haven't tried it. You guys, like, I was such a workout girl. I was like, I lift and that's pretty— I lift and I run and I walk and this is what I'm doing. And I'm really not into the other stuff and this works for me. And I think one of the coolest things also that I hope people get from this is go try some new things. Because you're going to learn so much about yourself and your body. And it's so eye-opening and fun and also challenging. I brought a friend to Pilates for the first time this morning, my friend Lindsay, for her first time ever. And she was just like, I just want to learn new things. So it was just a great experience. But tell me where they can get all of your amazing inventions because you guys can do these at home. You can try this at home or you can take it to some of your classes.

Absolutely. And I have hundreds of YouTube videos for free. @AmyJordanOfficial. That's also how you can find me on Instagram or TikTok. But you can get these tools, they're in a bunch of different colors at wundacore.com. So it's W-U-N-D-A-C-O-R-E.com. And if you use the code LORI10, then you will get $10 off your ring or your blocks. They come in a set of 2 because you have 2 hands and 2 feet.

I love that. And yay, thank you for giving our amazing people a discount too. That is awesome. I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so grateful for you. I will link everything in the show notes, you guys. So all you have to do is scroll down and you can click the link and you'll see the coupon code there as well. And Amy, I'm so grateful we got to drop in. This was so beautiful, so fun. And I'm grateful for you.

Thank you for being amazing you. I appreciate you, Lori.

Bye-bye, everyone.