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If there’s one thing that makes Tracy Anderson’s workout routines stand out, it’s the iteration. Joseph Pilates “stopped at 350 moves,” Anderson said on the Glossy Beauty Podcast. “And I’ve got thousands upon thousands of sequences.”
That extends to live workouts, which Anderson favors over a rote streaming approach. “I’m not nervous to put the pressure on me. Every week, no matter what’s going on in my life, I have to show up for everybody.”
This includes running the business side of her eponymous company, which she previously parsed out to other people. Despite having high-profile clientele like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, Anderson has preferred the slow and steady approach to growth versus rapidly scaling.
“I’m the CEO now because other CEOs did not share my vision, and they felt really uncomfortable to me,” she said. “At the end of the day, when you want to own a business, or if you’re a founder, it’s like parenting, in a sense. You might wish that the nanny can teach your kid all the lessons or parent them, but that’s not parenting at all. That’s giving away all of your power. That’s not going to inject your child with all of your magic and all you have to offer…. There have been chapters of owning this business that I’m definitely not proud of. So me being in the CEO position is the moment for me to say, ‘OK, you can’t let somebody else change all the diapers.'”
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Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.
Doing the work
“It can feel quite lonely at home to take an exercise class that you don’t really connect to. And this community that we have created that is global, digitally — they don’t feel lonely. And that’s something that’s really special about the method, and I think it’s because, to show up for it every week, you can’t be someone that shows up halfway. You’ve got to really show up. So it kind of is a testament to so many people’s character and what they stand for, and how strong they are to be able to show up. It’s hard to show up.”
The limits of social media videos
“It’s not a place to teach. I think that there’s a lot of people that do cute little dances and things like that, that’s fun. But to me, that’s like showing up for a party and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at this.’ It’s not a place for an academic conversation. You don’t have enough time for a curriculum. You can’t get deep with someone on Instagram. At least I don’t think it’s the place to do it. I do think it is a necessary touchpoint for businesses, because it houses so many eyeballs. It’s definitely a place to raise awareness. What it does do is it allows everyone to have the opportunity and the authorship to be whatever they want to be.”
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Omni-channel doesn’t mean jumping onto all the latest platforms
“One of the things Steve Jobs was so brilliant at was knowing what the customer needed before they knew what they needed. I still don’t even have an app. I had so many people that wanted our brand to stream. They wanted streaming when I was still making DVDs, and I waited and waited, and I was like, ‘Why do I want to film content and have it banked, and just roll it out streaming?’ That seems like such a poor use of the technology. So I was the first person to say, ‘Why not use it to be live?’ Because I have been doing this long enough to where I’m not nervous to go live. I’m not nervous to put the pressure on me. Every week, no matter what’s going on in my life, I have to show up for everyone.”
Stepping into the role she was made for
“I’m the CEO now because other CEOs did not share my vision, and they felt really uncomfortable to me. I was in toxic relationships, and that’s not a good feeling. At the end of the day, when you want to own a business, or if you’re a founder, it’s like parenting, in a sense. You might wish that the nanny can teach your kid all the lessons or parent them, but that’s not parenting at all. That’s giving away all of your power. That’s not going to inject your child with all of your magic and all you have to offer. It’s just bowing out. We’re improving things. There have been chapters of owning this business that I’m definitely not proud of. So me being in the CEO position is the moment for me to say, ‘OK, you can’t let somebody else change all the diapers.’ It doesn’t work like that, and you can’t just do the part that you like. I can’t just create the content, which is the part that I love. I have to create the content and be a part of everything that’s going on.”
