Ally Love
Appearances
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
If you feel like you're in the dark because of those things, all I want you to imagine is that if you turned on the light in this dark room that you're in, the reality of the situation is that there will be people standing shoulder to shoulder with you because you're not alone in this discomfort. You're not alone in your uncertainty.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Absolutely. I will preempt this by saying social media is a really tiny aperture to what real life looks like, right? It's a curated space. So is anything that's usually on TV. You have makeup on, you have your best outfit. All of these things are curated opportunities. And not to say that they're not important because they are. We use these platforms to share stories, to share information.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
But sometimes what ends up happening is that the story gets dismissed a bit and it's more of the optics. And so I just wanted to preempt that preempt what my story I'm about to share with that, because I think it's really important, again, this concept of being approachable and relatable is really true to who I am. At nine years old, I got hit by a car.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I was at a family gathering and, you know, as a family, we usually on the weekends do family barbecues and celebrate and just enjoy each other's time. And so I was at a family gathering. I went to the ice cream truck to get some ice cream like any fun, ready to eat ice cream nine-year-old is. And then I was walking across the street and a car which was parked on the side drove around and hit me.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I ended up flying up in the air, landing on the hood of the car, rolling to the side. I broke my left femur. I cracked a lot of my front teeth and I skinned my body up. I was in the hospital for seven days.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Five of those seven days, I had a weight tied to my ankle to keep the bone, my femur bone separated because at the age of nine, there was no plate for my hip because your femur is basically your hip. It's the largest bone in your body. And most times people who break their hips, they're a little older.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So it was very rare that a nine-year-old would come into the hospital in an emergency with a broken hip. And so that was the case. And I had to wait for five days to until they created a plate and then shipped it from China so that I could have surgery.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And now during this time, I can tell you it wasn't easy, and I could not imagine what my family was going through because as an adult now, while I don't have kids, I do have nieces and nephews, I can only imagine how challenging, how heart-wrenching, and how emotional that could be for any parent. What ended up happening was that experience
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
however traumatic it was, was a turning point in my life, even at nine years old. And I will be transparent, Heather, and say I haven't actually shared this story quite a bit. I only recently started talking about it since we've been in this pandemic, so for the past two and a half months.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And it's been coming up because while you are in your home and you're thinking about life or death because we're hit with COVID-19, a lot of self-awareness started to really play a role in the work that I was doing for myself. And And so this story started to really manifest.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And, you know, I've talked about it with my mom quite a bit, but it was this moment where she was standing next to me and she had just finished talking to the doctor and she said, you know, she was honest. She said, it's not looking good and you have a decision to make.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Now, the question that she asked me at that time, I don't know if I'd have the courage to ask a nine-year-old, let alone a nine-year-old that was my daughter. But she asked me, she said, you have a choice and you can either choose to live And if you choose to live, you have to fight. You have to fight relentlessly. You have to fight hard. Or you can choose to die.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And if you choose to die, we support you. We know that it's not easy. And she was like, if you choose life, you have to pray to God and you have to fight. You make that decision and you let us know. And it was one of those things, again, that was odd as I think about it in the past. She gave me some time in the hospital.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
She went down, took a walk, came back, and we kind of picked up on the conversation. And after me praying, I grew up very religious. My family's religious. After praying, I... Let her know. I was like, you know what? I want to live. I want to fight. And it was that opportunity that my mom afforded me the responsibility to decide about my own life. That was the turning point for me.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And I started fighting. And I keep saying this often. It's like in that moment of choosing to fight for my life, I've never stopped. And it's not like a woe is me story, but it was that turning point that said, you know what? I understand what close to death feels like.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I know what it feels like to be in a hospital room for a very long time, not sure when you would get out in a sense, because we weren't sure when the plate was going to be finished. And I know what it feels like to make a decision about yourself. And so ever since that moment, I sincerely have always decided to decide.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I've never just idly said, you know, I'm not going to make a decision because not making a decision is making a decision. And so I've been decisive in where I go, knowing that there are consequences on both sides, but that has played a big role in what my life has ended, the path into which I taken over the years.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Yeah. Not at all. I mean, at that point I had a cast that covered my entire stomach all the way down to my foot. So it was a half of a body cast and I had a hospital bed in my living room. So we had to read, you know, with any child that's injured, you usually have to make some adjustments to how you're living. And so we had to make some major adjustments. I was homeschooled.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I had physical therapy. Once the cast, the cast had to come off in parts. That's how big it was. So You know, it was like having this part, the entire cast on for six weeks and then having a quarter of it removed around the ankle and then at the knee and then at the waist. And so it was one of those things where I probably had a cast for about five months on, but it was removed in parts.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And during that time, I can say that it definitely tested my relationship with my mom because I was going through a lot of pain and she was there with me while I was homeschooled and going to physical therapy. But it was one of those times where...
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
it really was, again, not only a turning point in me deciding around my life, but it was a turning point in solidifying a solid foundation between my mother and I. And it's not easy, as you say, you have a 13-year-old. When you get to pre-teens, it gets even harder emotionally, and then teens.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I think we went through all of the pre-teen, teen emotions when I was nine years old, because I was in the house with her. She would take me outside to get some sun. We lived in Miami, so we'd go in our backyard. And it was awful, because She'd have me laying out there and my cast was sweating and I would be annoyed by her.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so we had a lot of the tough conversations early on and it really put us in a great place to become close friends. Obviously, she's my mom and we're family, but it's put us in a position even to this day to become the closest of friends.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
It was almost as if you're acknowledging, you're witnessing everyone move about and you're static and you feel like you're not doing enough. Even as a young kid, you're not playing enough. You're not going to school. You know, you're just not doing enough. It put me in a position where I started feeling like, yeah, I had FOMO, fear of missing out. I was missing out on so much.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
But it did help put in perspective, don't take things for granted. And the same thing with quarantine. Often enough, and interesting that you bring this up, we had a big, in our foyer, we had a big window that looked out, yes, into our front yard. And in our front yard, it was as far away, it was like a sidewalk.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I'd see everyone going to school in the morning and I'd stand there in that window. And it just reminded me never to take anything for granted. And that was one of the reasons why I ended up becoming a dancer because the doctor after physical therapy let my mom know, you know, manage your expectations. She may walk with a limp.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
She probably will have arthritis when she's in high school and she'll probably never become a runner or be very athletic. So manage your expectations. And so knowing this information and actually going through
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
this everyday why it's same in front of this window and see life happening before me I decided I wasn't gonna take anything for granted and I didn't want anyone to decide who and what I could do but me but me and God and so I decided yeah I'm gonna start running I'm gonna start walking I'm gonna start dancing so I started doing these things and really learning how to do them and eventually I became a dancer that's why I moved to New York City is to pursue dance and
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And when I came to New York City, I got a scholarship to go to Fordham University and get a bachelor's in fine arts through the Alvin Ailey program, a minor in theology. And still during that time in college, we used to have Florida ceiling windows. I would stand in my dorm room and look outside and watch how busy New York was. And it would be a moment of nostalgia.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And of course, like a moment of being grateful and pretty cathartic in a way of acknowledging that I wouldn't take this for granted. I wouldn't take the fact that I was able to move away from home, go to school, use my body at that point to really convey messages in a big city that I always loved. As I'm talking to you right now, exactly what we're talking about is what I'm doing.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I literally sit in front of the windows of my apartment while we have been in pandemic, and I have calls, I have meetings, and I look out of the window at everything that's going on. It's just a great reminder, again, not to take things for granted.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
You're not alone in this turmoil that you're going through, in this emotional space that you're in. And while our emotions and our stories may be different and uniquely ours, You are not alone in the fact that you still have to confront those things and deal with those things.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Short answer, no. But longer answer, it ended up unfolding in one specific way. I always say that you find your career one of two ways. Either you've known since you were a kid that you were going to do this and nothing has deterred you from that path, or you lean into people telling you what you're good at. And so I knew that I could do a lot more than dance.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And the reality, to be completely candid with everyone who's listening, many of us know what it means to either graduate high school or college or just venture out into adulthood. And you have to make a decision. You have to either follow a love, a pursuit, or a passion, or you got to make money to survive. At the point of my senior years, I started working with companies.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I got afforded the opportunity to go to San Francisco and Canada and work with these professional companies. What I realized is that I wouldn't be able to sustain or afford living in New York once I graduated. And I didn't want to, quote unquote, become a starving artist. And the reason is because, honestly, my family wouldn't be able to bail me out or help me. So I didn't have any cushion.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so what ended up happening was... Around my senior year, I decided to go in to become a model. I was like, what are my other assets that I could use? And for lack of a better word, exploit in a way to make sure that I am using every talent God has given me. I remember my mom telling me this story and I'm going to butcher it in the Bible of just like, you know,
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
This man was given one talent, he buried it. This man was given two talents, he used it, it multiplies. This man was given, you know, whatever talents. And it's like the more of that story of being given talents is that if you hide your talents, then they die, they fall away. But if you utilize them, they grow, they multiply.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I knew that that was a possibility if I could defy almost dying and coming out to be a dancer and move to the best city in, I would say this is a personal opinion, the best city in the world, one of the best cities in the world, New York. And pursue that passion. I knew that I could use and leverage other skill sets. There was more that I could offer.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I started modeling, which put me in a position financially to be able to afford a house with an apartment with one roommate instead of three. And then from modeling, I knew I saw that there were girls that were a little older than me, but similar hosting. They were doing, you know, New York one and the taxi cabs and all of these things. And I was like, wait a minute. How did she get there?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And I started doing research. And I have always been curious around how did someone get to the place that they are, not to say I should have everything, but also to identify what are my strong points. And at a young age, I knew in college what my strengths were. I knew that I was a good dancer. I knew that I was a great performer.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And most importantly, one of the things that I knew I was great at, most importantly, and that I loved doing was talking to people. I I could talk all day to everybody. I loved it. In New York, everyone has so many interesting stories. And so that's when I started taking classes. I leaned into, even with anything, I always say lean into resources to figure out what you don't know.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So that's what I did. I started taking hosting classes and I started going on, I started, you know, Googling New York hosting auditions. anything until I got an agent and I was signed with Wilhelmina Modeling and then I started doing hosting.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I really, really, for the lack of a better word, or maybe more, not a lack of a better word, but for the word we're commonly hearing these days, I hustled hard, right? I was, it was my, and in my own words, I bossed up. It was me just, again, leveraging those skill sets and those passions to put me in a position where I could afford living in New York. I was safe.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I was in a position where I wanted more and I could figure out how to do that. And I think that that's what my family wanted as well. My mom was like, you can stay there, but we got to make sure you're okay. And so that was the agreement that we had and it ended up working out.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So it's actually the story of LoveSquad. It's Of all of this, and I know those of you that are listening, this sounds so, it might sound so good to you, but it comes with a lot of no's. It came with a lot of no's. And it definitely came with a lot of heartache and quote unquote failure, right? These things, these lessons, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
But it was one of the reasons why I bossed up or hustle hard or any tagline or any quotable message you want to put in front of that is because it was basically out of frustration and a lack of resources. As a young woman, as a young mixed woman, as a young Black woman in New York City, it's not easy.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
You know, it's not easy wanting to make more of yourself, especially when you don't have a clear path. I think I look at my life kind of like how Sheryl Sandberg talks about moving...
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
around in a company in her book lean in it's a jungle gym it's not just vertical you know it's a jungle gym that you're moving and that's kind of how I look at my career being a part of this slash generation people are dynamic women are dynamic we are dynamic and we're multi-dimensional multifaceted and it's one of those things to say you have more than one passion most times you have more than one skill set you can offer and so
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I wanted to make sure that I was going down the right path. And the only way to do that was to pursue these areas that I was curious about.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so in those moments of hard times, in this concept of an unconventional career path, this frustration and lack of resources didn't always afford me the opportunity to be in rooms where decisions were being made or to be in places where I could network and find my fairy godfather. mentor mother or whatever, like I wasn't able to do those things.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so what I decided to do once I got a little older, past 21, was offer the information back. I know, and I come back to what I said to you, Heather, when we first started talking is there's no difference between me and anyone that's listening. No matter how old you are, how young you are, where you live, in terms of what we desire for ourselves and for our family. We are all uniquely different.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I do identify that. I would be remiss if we didn't say that, but we are all uniquely the same in wanting to be a better versions of ourselves or be our best selves or continue to help be a citizen of our community and continue to do things fairly and just and equally. And those are all of our desires for the most part.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so knowing that I didn't want any, if I got to, you know, from point A to point B and it took me three hours and I can offer insight to someone who is either curious to get from point A to point B, I can offer them insight that will shorten that time and they get there in 90 minutes. Why wouldn't I do that? And so that's when I created Love Squad.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I was like, you know, all the information that I, it may not be much, but But everything that I know right now or have learned, I'd love to share with someone so they don't have to get frustrated or they don't have to pay for it. Knowledge is very expensive. Information is expensive.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I created Love Squad out of, again, a shared frustration and lack of resources to say, hey, everyone come out. It started out as a website. Adidas found the website. It was a really crappy website, to be completely transparent.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
adidas found it asked if i would create some content for their site i was definitely emailed back like i think you got the wrong person because this is not good stuff and they were like no we want you to create some some content and from there i decided to continue pursuing this quote-unquote blog that i had and it was about the time i was talking to a friend and she's like you need to invite people out and at this time i only had about
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
3,000 followers on my Instagram. And I had, and not to say that wasn't a lot. I mean, that's still a lot of people following you. So I was very grateful, but I'm not sure all those people were interested in meeting me. At this point, I think I was hosting for the Brooklyn Nets and I decided to do a little event, partner with a space in New York City and invite anyone who wanted to come out.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
It was going to be a free event, 50 spots, because you know, New York, we don't have that much space, 50 spots. And what ended up happening, which was the aha moment around Love Squad was is what ended up happening was I opened the Evite and within 15 seconds, 50 spots were taken and 75 people were on the wait list.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And now this event was going to encompass a workout and then a panel discussion between me and one of my friends. I invited my friend, I was like, girl, can you work for me for free? And she said, yes, she's great. And so it was basically the conversation part that people started sticking around for.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I just shared information on how I built a website, how I started building a brand, where Love Squad came from, how I auditioned, just offering some simple tricks and tips to help the community. And from there, I just decided to continue to pursue that. So I guess, again, long answer to your question is unconventional, absolutely.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
But frustration and lack of resources really were my driving points to say, I think I'm worth it. And I think I can do it. And I want to do this for my family. And so that's what I'm doing.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I think that what ended up happening is like you kind of make those tough decisions that you do have to leave. So I remember being a Nick City dancer, and I had been a Nick City dancer for three seasons. And I had a conversation with my boyfriend, Andrew, who's still my boyfriend now. And we were talking about, should I stay a fourth season?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So if I stay being a, Nick City Dancer was affording me that visibility. I love being a part of the team. This was my entry point to the NBA because right after this, I started hosting for the Nets. And so we talked about progress. Identifying what progress looks like to you as an individual is really what drives this decision of leaving or moving on or making a change.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so he asked me what progress looked like. And I told him and he said, do you think that that can happen where you are in terms of being on the team? And I said it was highly unlikely. And so he said, well, that drives your decision. It seems like you should leave. And it was very uncomfortable because I was like, OK, this makes sense, but it just doesn't feel good. Like no one wants to leave.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And at that time, I didn't have anything lined up. Right. Like I was like, oh, OK, I'm just going to leave this job. And so I ended up really trusting him and in terms of like his feedback and I left. And what ended up happening was it actually shaped my adult career in a sense. I spent three months at home quite a bit.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And instead of, I realized that it was a difference between being busy and being productive in this three months. Being busy is like, yeah, my Instagram story's lit, but I haven't done anything to add value to my long-term goal or even to figure out what that long-term goal was or even short-term goal. And so it's, I had a lot of, again, that self-awareness, that self-discovery started to happen.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I ended up started hosting. That's when I started taking hosting classes. That was the time I said, you know what? Let me explore this. I started by doing on-camera work. I was like, let me just go take a class to see how to get better on camera because I'm going on castings with my modeling agency that were for commercials. And I had no clue.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And again, all this may sound glamorous, but when you're getting a no, every time you go to a commercial casting, you're like, yeah, well, maybe this is telling me I don't got it. I don't have it. But the reality was, it's not that I wasn't good enough. It's just, I wasn't prepared. I wasn't at that point. And so using those three months, I started taking classes, really going in for it and
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Honestly, what ended up happening, I sent an email out to all the people that were in my Gmail account at that time. And I said, I am a host. I called myself a host. No one did, but I did after taking like, you know, three months of classes. And I will host your kid's baby birthday party, your baby shower, your charity event. I will host for free for experience.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And it was literally at this point, Heather, that one of my friends who worked for the Brooklyn Nets, they had just moved to Brooklyn. She was like, hey, you've been a part of the NBA. Maybe you could be our host. And I came in for an interview and I was super honest. I was like, hey, no skills here. I do know how the NBA works. I know the game. I know basketball.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And it ended up happening where they offered me the job. And if I hadn't had that conversation with my boyfriend, Andrew, at the time of making the decision, it wasn't me just on a whim saying, I'm done with this or it doesn't make me feel good. No, it was literally like, what does progress, identify what progress looks like for you
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Is that allowed in the space that you're in, at the company that you're in? Is it an opportunity? If it's not, then that kind of answers your question. And it makes you make those tough decisions. So that was a story that highlights, I had to make that decision. It was uncomfortable for
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Probably felt like I wasn't ready, but I did it and it led me to, now I've been a host of the Brooklynettes for seven seasons. It's one of the best jobs that I have ever had. It's an organization that I love. I've grown there. I mean, I have learned things that I don't think I could ever learn because in hosting, you got to do it in real time.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I actually never put too much pressure on myself to figure that out or have that answer right away. Like many of us, we're in a position where we try to map out what the...
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
next 10 years looks like we'd probably fail because we never know we'd be here what we had mapped out for 2020 did not look like this that is probably a unanimous quote for everyone where you're just like I didn't expect it to look like this so for me what I end up doing is a short-term goal I want to continue on the paths that I'm in I love being a Peloton instructor I love our community
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
i love being able and that also too didn't come that wasn't something that i thought i'd be either i never wanted to be an instructor because i didn't think that i was going to ever be good at that or that i had anything to offer in that area so that's what i mean is that even becoming a peloton instructor if i had put myself in a position when i became the host of the brooklynettes to look at five years set a five-year goal and a 10-year goal i would have i would have sold myself short because one of the best things that ever happened to me was becoming a peloton instructor
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So for me right now, I stay true to that. I think I do want to stay in the lane of live on camera, scripted, unscripted TV. I love motivational positivity. I love how to's because again, if I can get you from point A to point B, it took me three hours, but it only takes you 90 minutes. I want to be able to offer that or at least connect the dots to someone who can get you that information.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
So be a conduit through the conversation for that. I know that again, these are the things that I love to do, what they will look like in the next few Five years, 10 years, I don't know because technology is moving faster than my mind. And so I want to be as I always say, don't be flexible, be fluid because flexibility has a breaking point.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I want to be as fluid and my abilities to think beyond what is right now. But also I want to be pretty diligent in what I have going on. So I'm dedicated to Love Squad. to hosting for the Brooklynettes, Adidas Global Ambassador, being a Peloton instructor.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
As I continue to pursue those fields because I can identify progress in all of those areas, I just know it'll lead me to that point of, okay, if there is a next move that I need to make in the next couple years, it will come through my curiosity and diligence for working really hard in those areas because they have great, again, great exposure, great platforms, and I can identify progress.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Well, first I want to say thank you so much to your friend for suggesting me. I appreciate it. It never gets old. And thank you. I mean, on behalf of my colleagues, we have definitely the best instructors in the world. And I always say it's because of their level of humanity that just sets them apart. I love, love, love my fellow instructors. But in terms of now being at home, what ended up
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
happening was with the pandemic and everything happening with COVID, we end up teaching from home. Many of us, Peloton, I will say our production techs have some magic in their fingertips, where as to quote Jen Sherman, I like opened my door and there was a production studio in front of my door.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
They packaged everything up, sent it to some of our homes who had the space, and we were able to set up a studio and be able to stream content live from home. And I think one of the one of our members made a really good statement. They're like, are you really social distancing? And if so, how are you doing it? Because you usually have 25,000 people live in your living room.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And I thought that was so funny. And I thought it was a clear, clear kind of like a picture of what's going on. But Peloton is uniquely positioned in the intersectionality of media, of technology, of fitness and The real, I say, engine for us is our community, is our humanity, is the fact that we understand that while we didn't know, I mean, I didn't know exactly what a pandemic felt like.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
This is the first of my lifetime. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to do and do it correctly. But I did the best that I could. And with that being said, it's like to continue to stay connected on social, on Facebook, taking rides, swarming, being able to.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I also just like you, Heather, I end up getting a bike right at the top of pandemic so that I could engage with our community so I can hop on in my living room and take a ride. And many of you are like, Ali, why didn't you have a bike already? Aren't you an instructor? Let me put it this way. I was very close. I am very close to the studio. So if I wanted to ride, it's I can do that.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I'm also not always like if once I bring work home, I'm on it all the time, which was my fear. But it's a reality now, which I love because I'm not in the studio as much. So, no, I didn't have a bike because there were bikes at our studio in our locker rooms that we could, you know, we could utilize. So I got my riding in. But becoming a home rider at the top of the pandemic. I was able to swarm.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I still ride at 6 a.m. with my 6 a.m. hitters on a Tabata ride. We pick a ride. I post it on my stories. I get about 200 people that'll swarm in the mornings Tuesday at 6 a.m. Even though there's nothing on the schedule, I will take the same ride from five months ago.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I will say like, it has been a life changer for me, not only just as an instructor, but recently as a home rider, being able to transition and offer new content to our members because they are handling life just as much as we are. You know, you know how it feels to hop on that bike and say, all right, I kind of, you know, I'm frustrated today. I'm confused. There's a level of uncertainty.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I'm anxious. And while Peloton is not a cure by any means, it is definitely been an outlet for me and many of my family. to handle what's going on, to get on and brighten up your day.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
If you get on a Cody ride or an Alex ride, or you get one of my feel good rides or any instructor, really, it's a way to just not only get your workout in, but to add some levity to maybe what you're going through, give you an extra boost. And so. I'm always shocked when I tell the story of how there is a production studio in my living room and it magically streams to people globally.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Like across the world, people will be in my living room Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And I'm like, this is incredible. That is just to tell the incredible people that we work with at Peloton. Like it's not just one instructor. It's not just six instructors. It's not all 33. It's our organization. It's our company. It's real.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
This is a turning point for Black Lives Matter in terms of it's been around for seven years. And this is not the first time this situation has happened. But when you talk about this racial unrest that's accelerated, I think it's just more of it being, again, I kind of always use the word a turning point. It's been recognized largely.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And I can't speak in terms of for my other instructors or fellow instructors. But what I can say is that for me, I talk about bringing your whole self to the bike. I talk about bringing your whole self to work. It's something that our company is really has really encouraged. You know, it is one of the best companies, if not the best company that I've ever worked for.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And in any place that we talk about it in Love Squad, at any place you go, you want to feel like you belong there and you want to feel like you can bring your whole self there and that you can be your authentic self. And so I don't think that the expectation was set that anything otherwise was going to happen at any point, no matter what's going on when we get on the bike or on the mat.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so in terms of how I handled it, I know for me, it was it still is an emotional process. But most importantly, it is a learning experience in the sense of leaning into resources, really leaning into listening and learning, even as a black woman. of what is going on, what's the history? How do we speak about this? What are people going through?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And again, the upside of our community is that we are in contact. People will hop on when I'm on Instagram Live and ask questions or slide in my DMs. And now with that being said, not every question is gonna feel good. And that is okay. That's what creates dialogue.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And not to say I engage with every single DM or every single question, but I'm aware, my ears to the street because my community is a part of me. And in order to cultivate and really truly be a part of a community, we have to listen to each other. We have to know, we have to at least have a pulse of what's going on.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so, again, I took the opportunity to download Audible books and I started doing it. I do endurance training on the bike. So on my Saturdays when I'm riding for two hours doing endurance training, I put on my Audible book and I listen. I listen to those that are experts in anti-racism, understanding what keywords means when we're talking about racism in general.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
How is it different from discrimination and prejudice? Being able to articulate how I feel because as much as I've gone through personal circumstances, there are many times I didn't have the right words to express what happened to me or how I felt about those things. And so, again, I had leaned into resources.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I continue to do so right now, reading, audible books, podcasts, and then open up dialogue with my family, with my fellow instructors, with my friends. They're my friends as well. And I think that that was the way that it has helped me and continues to help me to understand what is my message when I get on that bike.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Because I don't want to ever go anywhere and speak and not be aware or intentionally pretend I'm unaware what the emotions of the people around me are going through. And so when I do my Sundays with love and we talk about a virtue of courage or we talk about temperance or we talk about friendship, I don't talk about all the positive things because we can identify the positive things.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
The things that we're going through are the not so positive things. The things that we have this unrest with are the not so positive things. And it's the things that we want to learn how to work through. And we want to learn that we're not alone. And we want to learn that we aren't in the dark.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so it's this concept of even right now, as we're in this turning point, and I get on a bike, and whether it's a pop ride, or intervals and arms ride, or Sundays with Love, or feel good ride,
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
It's me recognizing and highlighting that while we may feel a certain high level of uncertainty, while we may feel anxious, while we may feel overwhelmed, while we may feel that we don't know what to say or that we don't want to say the wrong things, but we don't want to be silent.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I always talk about leaning into the resources and the voices that are in the know, but also this concept of if you feel like you're in the dark because of those things.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
All I want you to imagine is that if you turned on the light in this dark room that you're in, the reality of the situation is that there will be people standing shoulder to shoulder with you because you're not alone in this discomfort. You're not alone in your uncertainty. You're not alone in this turmoil that you're going through, in this emotional space that you're in.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And while our emotions and our stories may be different and uniquely ours, you are not alone in the fact that you still have to confront those things and deal with those things. And so to get to, to get all that wrapped up in a nice bow is that at any time you get me on the bike, the point is for me to be a real person.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
I'm going to give you a great workout and I'm going to motivate you, but I'm also a real person. And not that I say I'm going to be the most preachy person all the time and give you a sermon on the bike, but it's just an understanding, like bringing my whole self to that bike and to the mat is really important. And I want to be my true self. I want to be, I want to be me in any space.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so that was the decision that I made for many years is that what makes me feel good is when I'm myself and I'm my most kind self and my most, you know, honest self, transparent self. And that's what I remind myself about before I get on that bike and clip in.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Oh, thank you. If you would like to follow me, I'm Allie Miss Love on Instagram, AllieLove.com on my website. And then I would encourage any of you that are looking for what we've been doing. We've been a conduit for resources around Black Lives Matter, around COVID, around business, well-being of women. But Love Squad, Love Squad on Instagram is at Love Squad. And then sign up for the newsletter.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Those are always really educational and informative and leading you to resources that could potentially be catalysts for change for you. But that's LoveSquad.com.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Thank you, Heather. This was incredible. Thank you to everyone who took the time to listen to the end. I'm sending you all love and light. Thank you again, Heather.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
Oh, thank you. I tend to get that question interesting enough. It's like, how are you the most positive person? And a short answer, I'm not. I'm just like everyone else. And that level of inclusivity is all encompassing and understanding that we are all maybe different in regards, but all uniquely the same. We all want to be better and be better versions of ourselves.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: The Power To Decide and Build a Life You Love with Ally Love
And so I think for me, it's as much as possible, evening the playing fields and letting everyone know that you're always invited and you always have a seat at the table I'm sitting at.