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We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
Johnson City LIving (00:00.366)
and pushing buttons and recording and doing all the fun stuff he does there. we just pray that your words would be ours and that we honor you. And somewhere down the airways, maybe somebody will learn who you are. Lord, we love you, we thank you, we trust you, and we thank you for just a beautiful day. We ask this in your holy name, amen. All right. I'll read a little intro and then we'll get going. How many times have you listened to the podcast?
I've listened to a couple episodes. What I was gonna ask is if I totally fumble and answer really bad, can I take it, do a take two and say back it up? Just go, cut! Frowned upon. Get it right the first time. Okay. That would be a first. I mean, don't think we've ever had anybody screw up too bad.
Johnson City LIving (00:47.47)
It would be the first. I'm sensing a little sarcasm in the room, just a hint. Just a little bit. We've had a few people say, hey, let's do it over. So yeah, you can just go, I don't know what I'm talking about. Or I lost my train of thought, or let's start over. fine. He said to have me redo some stuff, so it's just part of it. All the time. Am I just supposed to look at you? I'm not supposed to? We're not ever talking to Mitch?
I like to talk to Mitch, he however does not want to get a microphone and get into the combo for some weird reason. He likes to be the background guy. he's been on the podcast himself. Oh, so you have not heard that episode? It's about buying a house. Oh, yeah.
Yep, that's right. They've been on the podcast, yeah. that's cool. Probably time to redo one.
So you've got this camera you can look at. I typically don't. I just kind of try and focus on like we're having a conversation where, you know, we're having coffee and we're walking.
Johnson City LIving (02:00.983)
Okay, cool.
Cool.
That's why I didn't know, is if you ever chime in and we talk to Mitch behind the camera, but we don't. What do you think about that Mitch? No. We don't do that.
Johnson City LIving (02:17.792)
Okay. He takes a nap over there. doesn't do all that. Yeah, toss something at you. Yeah, check that water bottle. Yeah. Alright, so what I do is I get in my space by reading the intro. And then Mitchell just cut it out and do his own thing. So okay, but it helps me. And it's Mallory Hansen with kind body Pilates rhymes. I like it.
All right, here we go. Hey friends, welcome to the Johnson City Living Podcast where we learn about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City a lovely place to live. Actually, I'm gonna cut and grab a bottle of water because my mouth is already dry. Look at that, see Mallory started it up.
I love it, leading by example. What we can do, we can cut if we need to. That's right, it's our podcast, we can do whatever we want. great model, I love that. I mean you're thousands of dollars for it, you can do whatever you want. All right, you ready Mitch? Ready. Hey friends, welcome to the Johnson City Living Podcast where we learn about the people, places, and events, and flavors that make Johnson City a lovely place to live.
I'm your host, Collin Johnson with the Collin and Carly group in Keller Williams Realty. It is a beautiful April day here in Johnson City. It's a little chillier than it was last week. It was like 80 degrees last week. I was just so stoked that summer had come early and yet here comes the cold. It's gonna be 29 degrees tonight. So it's kinda like, hey, you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit in the spring of East Tennessee. I am excited for the weather. I'm also excited for you guys to meet my new friend, Mallory Hanson.
Welcome to the podcast, Mallory. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Well, we've I think we tried to get you on here a few weeks ago and we're just trying to reconnect and get you but we gotcha. I I'm excited about it. So Johnson City Living podcast. First things first. What do you love most about Johnson City? Okay, so I've been thinking about this because I listened to your podcast. Thank you for being the people. One of the five that listen. I honestly thank you all for listening.
Johnson City LIving (04:23.054)
I felt like I needed to maybe change my answer, but I'll tell you the truth. What I love about Johnson City, I really love the animal shelter. Oh, that's a new one. I multiple times a week with my son. He loves dogs and cats. Yeah. And it is that they're the nicest people that work there. They're so lovely. And we go multiple times a week. So do you go and volunteer? You just go walk through and honestly, my son loves animals and we don't really have friends that have like
dogs that he can interact with. So we go to let him see the woof woofs and see the cats. And one day I'm sure we're gonna crack and take one home with us. I was gonna say, if you go every week, you could be bringing one home a week and you might have like a need for a farm. I know. We don't have a fenced yard yet. I think once we have a fenced yard, we're gonna be in that territory of we're in trouble. We'll probably be bringing an animal home. But that's what saved us so far. I like it.
They're lovely, loveliest people who work there. It is a great spot and it's a great facility. just built it probably six years ago maybe. like that. Yeah. Sweetest animals that are there. It's just it's so fun. So go to the animal shelter and pick up a dog or a cat or whatever else they might have. That's right. Probably not rabid raccoon. Don't get that. All right. So you are the proprietor of a business called Kind Body.
Pilates I love the rhyming. Thank you And are you a poet person by nature? Did you just come up with the kind body Pilates and it rhymed by accident? Honestly, it was the Instagram handle that was still available Okay, so I wanted to have a business that kind of blended Pilates and body kindness of the therapist So I was playing around with different word order and that one Instagram wasn't taken yet. And so that's my
handle that's how we were born. What was still available with our word combo that we've tried. All right, well, let's go back to where you were born since you started the business born. We'll go. just jump back. Tell us the Mallory story. Where from day one, where'd you grow up? Oh boy. Okay. So I, I was raised in American Fork, Utah. Okay. Fun little small town. How big is American Fork? I've never heard of it.
Johnson City LIving (06:41.478)
I wouldn't expect you to. He's from Utah. I actually don't even know how big it is right now. It's huge now. Utah's booming. We've just got, everyone's moving into Utah. There's homes going up everywhere. But it was a smaller community when I grew up and so fun, beautiful big mountains, tons of national parks, camping with my family, going hiking, lots of good hikes with the mountains close by.
It's just a beautiful place to grow up and get outdoors and yeah, really good group of friends. So was cool. It was fun. I had a fun upbringing and then my parents really, especially my mom really encouraged me to go have whatever adventures I wanted to have. She got married pretty young and she said, you know, whatever you want to do before you get married, go do it. And I took that serious. Yeah.
You're I'm gonna do it. Yeah, so I've moved to a couple different countries. Where'd you move to first? Oh boy, so I did a study abroad in Paris when I was 20 and it was life-changing. just loved it. I finished my degree, I moved to Italy for a year and a half with my church and then I came home and what did I do then? Oh, I finished my degree after Italy.
And then I went to Africa to do a humanitarian trip in Uganda. Oh, wow. And then I ended up moving to DC for a little bit. I got my master's degree in New York. So I just, feel like I've then the obvious move after that is Johnson City. Right, well, yeah.
Why would you do that first? know. But you know, that was to get all those other little places and then come to Johnson City. right. Yeah, that was the main error to my plan is that Johnson City didn't happen earlier. That was the main issue. Well, you are who you are because of all those experiences now and then you get to bring them to Johnson City and help people here. Totally. Where did you get your degree? I went to NYU and I got my master's in social work. Okay. And wanted to go like a therapy route with it. So
Johnson City LIving (08:45.578)
One of my internships there, I think for me the highlight of getting my degree in New York were the internship opportunities were just unreal. Like I wouldn't be able to have the same opportunity in Utah, for example. So I interned at a place called Program for Survivors of Torture and I worked with people who were coming to the US seeking asylum.
and would sit with them for three to five hours, hear their stories. I had to get all of the information we needed for legal documents to see if they'd meet criteria to get asylum in this country. And that internship was just life-changing for me. So it's been steered me towards working with survivors of trauma since then because I just found it so fulfilling and meaningful. So. How do you sit and listen to three to five hours of torture stories and not
take that home with you. Right? That's what I was worried about. When I found out I got the internship, I was so excited because it felt like such an opportunity. And I also thought, what if I go home and cry every day? Yeah, that was my first thought. I'd just be like, I'm sorry. And I would love to get you into America. it's not up to me. I know. You know what it is. One of my professors said to me, not just me, our class, our first year of grad school, she said,
If you're not in therapy yet, you will be by the end of the year. And I initially was like, are you kidding? What am I doing here? This sounds terrifying. But I think going to internships like that and being present with human suffering and hearing what people have been going through, you do take it home with you if you don't have a place to unload it healthily, right? So I definitely got into therapy. She was right. I got into therapy and I just got like.
hobbies that felt nice. So I'd go home from working my internship and I really got into fixing up furniture. So I'd find some old furniture from Craigslist. I'd bring it up to my fifth floor apartment and I just painted in my bedroom and have, I just needed an outlet to do something fun or creative. So just out of necessity, it was that or it was just binging new girl on Netflix, something funny. I have to remember that there were things funny after going through days like that.
Johnson City LIving (11:03.214)
you know, calling a funny friend, watching a show that made me laugh. That's how I got through it without crying all the time. think that's pretty special that you did that for those people for sure. Talk to us a little bit about therapy, because we may have some people listening who need to unload stuff and they're like, where do I go do that? And how does that help me? Because I've heard therapy and it's got a stigma around it little bit maybe or you're to go.
Yeah, well, I think one of the easiest places to find a therapist, there's a website called psychologytoday.com. You literally just type in your zip code and it will auto-populate therapists in your area. And you can click box if you want a male therapist or a female therapist or what you want treatment for, if it's substance use or trauma. You just click box what you want and it auto-populates the therapist that meet that criteria. So it's really cool to be able to pick.
what you want, what you need, and it just shows up for you. So that's a huge resource I usually recommend to people. In terms of like, if people are nervous about going to therapy or, I just, hear that. Cause even going to grad school for social work and being told by my professor, you're all gonna have a therapist by the end of the year, I definitely had my own resistance to.
No, I'm gonna become a therapist. I'm okay. I'm fine, right? So even with that background and even valuing therapy, I have had my own resistance to it as well. So I see that and I understand that for sure. I think it's just a matter of like what you go through and how it's impacted you comes out in your life. It comes out in the way you react to people.
It's in all the relationships that you have. It shows up, right? What happened in your childhood, what happened in your last relationship, what happened with your friend who you had a falling out with. You carry all of that with you and it spills out throughout your life. It spills out on your kids, it spills out on your spouse. And so I just think it's the kind way to tidy yourself up for you to feel well about your life.
Johnson City LIving (13:25.344)
And also it's just the kind thing to do for the people in your life that you don't have to spill over your issues onto other people. You can take it to a therapist, process what happened and how it impacted you, repackage it in a way that's going to be kinder. And you can hopefully just have less to carry throughout your life that feels heavy and is going to spill over onto people that didn't do anything to you, right? Yeah, I think that's well said.
Thank you for sharing that and encouraging someone maybe to just let it go. know, like what you gotta do. You need help sometimes to get rid of it for sure. I always say, and I know that I am a therapist, so I'm biased, but I always say if everyone had a therapist and would really go and be self-aware and open up about what's going on, I just think we'd have a healthier world if we could go and have a place to be real about what our life really looks like, what we're actually struggling with, and we're there to do the work.
Like I just think we'd have a way healthier world. Probably, like people wouldn't be out killing each other and being super angry and going nuts on Facebook with hate stuff. boy. Just being crazy. That's their therapy there. think they're trying to get it out. Yeah, but in a way that's spilling out onto other people. Yes, Mallory, it's spilling out onto people. Directly impacting people. Yeah, it's not really spilling out. They're shooting it out. Yes.
Okay, so you are a specialized trauma therapist, right? Yeah, well that's kind of what I've done with therapy over the years is met with trauma survivors. were your best equipped and you chose that path, which seems very tough at times, I'm sure. Yeah. Thanks for doing that. Thanks. I mean, it's honestly really fulfilling for me. So I don't think I need a gold star or anything. I just feel like it's...
it's been really meaningful for me. me more about that gold star. I polish it every night before I go to bed. Yeah, yeah. No, think, know, it's it's one of those it's, yeah, I think you probably are serving a lot of people and I don't know if you get a lot of thank yous for so I think that's huge to help people. So let's talk about kind body Pilates. Where did you go from trauma therapy to kind body Pilates?
Johnson City LIving (15:46.776)
That seems a little polar maybe or somehow interactive, probably tied together. I'm looking forward to putting all the pieces together. Yes, so the answer is at the time that I found Pilates, I was working at a retreat that worked with adult female survivors of childhood sexual abuse. So we were at this retreat up the canyon in this beautiful mansion treating women who've been survivors of this type of abuse.
And it was a week long of therapy, like psychoeducational classes, and then body movement classes. So they took Muay Thai classes, yoga, Tai Chi. There's just a lot to try to attack kind of what they've been through from multiple lenses and try to help them heal, right? And it was really cool to work there and, you know, be at a Muay Thai class. I'd be there as a clinician.
And you know, these women would be doing some punches or some kicks with a coach and would break down crying, right? And have like a breakthrough or they'd be holding a pose in yoga and would have a breakdown crying, right? Like there's some link to we're carrying a lot of stuff in our bodies and we need different outlets talking about it, movement. And so that's kind of the environment I was in.
what I was doing and then I was going home from work and like you say, needing an outlet. I had seen an Instagram video of a celebrity working out on a reformer and I remember watching this video and thinking what she's doing looks beautiful and it looks so hard. What's a reformer? So this is the machine that I teach on. Okay. It's a huge piece of equipment.
And the weights are kind of like different springs you on it to make it heavier or lighter. And it's like this piece of equipment that slides in and out. It's on like a system that rolls. And so it's kind of soothing. You're like lying down, pushing in and out. It's like swaying. You'd almost think it was like a soothing thing if it wasn't actually a workout. It's really hard. it's so cool. It's such an amazing piece of equipment. It's so cool what you can do with it.
Johnson City LIving (18:02.478)
But I watched this video of her on Instagram and I just thought, that looks beautiful and it looks so hard, I wanna try it. So I found a studio that was close by and went and took a class and I just loved it. So. Do we have those locally? Do we have what? Do we have like a studio that people can? We sure don't at the moment. We sure don't. Yeah, so well, yes, we'll get there. But yeah.
I like this. I just fell in love with how it felt and I discovered it right during 2020, which if you recall was like the Wild West. I just feel like that was such an insane time to exist and people were at each other. Like it just felt like we were such a polarized country and.
It was wild. It was crazy. was a wild time. And I just remember I would get, I would just felt so anxious and worried and stressed about so many things going on. And I have this membership to a Pilate studio and I would go every day. It was a membership that was pretty expensive. And so I was like, I'm gonna get my money's worth. I'm going every day. And it was the one hour a day that I didn't feel.
worried or anxious or like ruminating about stuff that was going on in my life. It was the one hour a day that I was just completely present and it was such a gift for me mentally to have a break from everything that was going on. It was so great for me physically to like move through some of the stress of my day. And so it just was healing for me. I just became addicted to it. I just loved it. And so it's kind of
spiraled from that into me wanting to be an instructor and I've just kept taking different courses and it spiraled from there, but that's kind of how I got started was just recognizing there's something to the right type of movement and being able to really move through and release tension and there's something about the mental health component for me of feeling like what a gift it was to have a break.
Johnson City LIving (20:10.904)
from feeling anxious or worried or whatever's going on in my world, I could put it down for an hour. And it wasn't hard because it was what I was doing required me to be so focused that I just got a break. It was so nice. So I just felt like, how do I bottle that up and- And share it with the world. Share that, yeah. That's cool. So then you went and bought a reformer or what was step two? You're like, I've got this idea. I want to start my-
in Pilates studio, what do I do now? Well, at the time in Utah. Where were you? I was in Utah. Okay. Yeah, at the time. And I didn't have any intention of starting a studio. just, the owner had mentioned to me that they were gonna do a teacher training. She asked if I, I talked to her about it. She asked if I'd be interested. And initially, my husband and I sat down and had a chat, because it's an expensive training.
It's an equipment. So it's like an investment. And he was a little bit like, you're a therapist. What are we doing here? And fairly like rightfully so it's a fair question. And so I just remember feeling like, you know what? It's, it's important to me. I just feel like there are going to be opportunities with this. And so I just wanted to teach initially. I just wanted to go teach at a studio and have that as an option to do in the mornings or evenings. And so yeah, that's kind of how.
I got into it was just wanting to do a teacher training and then pretty soon after I got trained in reformer we moved to England for my husband to get his master's degree. that's cool. And when I was there you had to you can't teach reformer unless you're also trained in mat Pilates.
So I had to go get trained in mat-pilates down in London and I did that and took this exam that's insane. Like to get certified is insane. It's harder than my master's degree to get certified. It's ridiculous. But I got certified in mat and reformer and I taught, thank you, and I taught at this little country studio in England. How cool was that? And it was a bunch of like retired farmers that needed to like repair their backs from how hard all of their work was on their body and.
Johnson City LIving (22:23.926)
It was awesome. That's super cool. So yeah, the main reason I started a studio here is when we learned we were going to move here, I was Googling where the nearest reformer studio would be where I could just go teach. That's what I've always done. And there's nothing. There's nothing here. We don't even know what you're talking about. Right. I know. Even Matt Pilates, there really wasn't a Matt studio to teach Pilates. So thankfully, that's kind of.
lit a fire under me that if I'm gonna help people and introduce them to this thing that I love, I've gotta be the one that does it. So I just teach out of my house now, have a little So you did buy the reformer? yeah. yeah. Got a reformer, I've got a Cadillac, got a ladder barrel. There's so much equipment, we don't even need to get into it right now, but it's a thing. There's like a world of Pilates Yeah, my brain's just like, tell me more about the Cadillac. I know.
like a car you're running? No affiliation with the car. Got all the equipment. So you're talking about moving and it helps people just feel better overall, And it hits some trauma points potentially to where you can release some tension. Tell us about that process if someone is wanting to engage with you in that. What does that look like?
contact with Or like, what engages you as a trauma therapist or a therapist slash Pilates? I mean, like, what am I say I was gonna sign up? Yeah, what would that look like? Yeah, what are we gonna do? I just I misunderstood my question. I'll ask somebody. I just don't know that can handle all your stuff. No.
Well, the good news is I am not going to be your therapist while we're working out. Right? That's not looking for therapy. we're not working out and I'm asking you what your childhood was like. That's not what's happening. But I do feel like my background in therapy really shapes the way that I teach. I teach Pilates. So I'm definitely a mindful of how I'm queuing of what I'm encouraging.
Johnson City LIving (24:41.046)
because I'm just aware of there's so many barriers people have even showing up to my studio. Maybe issues they're working with with their own body, out of their comfort zone to even show up to my house. So I just, I think I'm aware of how many barriers people might be coming with that I think it shapes the way that I talk to people and teach and cue. I try to be very trauma informed in that way.
But yeah, if you came to my studio and wanted to start working, I would have you fill out a form of any injuries that you've got going on, what your goals are, what you're wanting to get out of working together. And then I write a lesson plan tailored for your body and your goals. So every time you come to my studio, I've spent some time looking at what we've done so far together, what exercises we've done.
And how can we build on that? How can we challenge you a little bit more? How can we work on coordination or flexibility a little more and tailor it all to your goals in your body? So it's a lot of homework for me outside of session to make sure I remember everything we've done together so far and that I'm making sure to cue your body in a way that's going to help you get the most out of it. Do you do dieticiany stuff too? Like, I think you're eating too much sugar and that's causing you
just feel tired all the time and so you don't have enough energy to hit your goals on your workout stuff. Yeah, I don't but I think it's because I think there's so many factors of what's impacting someone's body. Sure. Like I think the heavy hitters which we know are exercise and nutrition are huge and there's so many schools of thought of exercise and there's so many schools of thought of nutrition, right? There's so many diets out there.
But I just think there's so many other things that are impacting your body. It's how much sleep you're getting. It's if you have a history of trauma. It's if your hormones are balanced. There's just so many things, slices in this pie, of what's bringing you and your body to where it's at right now. So I don't specialize in that. think I kind of stick to my slice. But I think because of that, I don't.
Johnson City LIving (26:54.262)
I don't put out the type of content that's like, if you do Pilates, it's gonna cure all of your problems. And you'll have high energy levels and you'll be a size this because there's so many other factors that are contributing to that. But for sure, looking at what you're eating, you know, can make a huge difference for sure. Yeah. What are some of the goals you work with for people like to help them get to a different space? Like, what are some of the goals like you would set? That they'll set?
Yeah, so I mean, have clients come that talk to me about having back pain, right? Like they sit a lot for work and their back and their hips are really sore. So we'll we'll plan different exercises to make sure we're mobilizing their spine, make sure that we're really giving them a good stretch, really strengthening their core so that their backs in less pain. So I always say like the life that you lead, you can tell in your body.
Someone that sits all day, I'll see that when we're working out. You're gonna probably have some tight hip flexors. You're probably gonna have some tight hamstrings. So the life that you lead, your body wears that story and you bring that in the studio when we kind of work on it from there, right? So a lot of our like modern people that are sitting hunched over with their phones, we do a lot of posture exercises. Yeah, know. I feel like I've got two as I'm talking about posture too.
So it's stuff like that. It's what's going on in your day and where are you feeling pain? Where do you feel like we need to kind of work on core? Do we need to work on, you know, upper body strength? Is that something that you're not getting enough of? And can we incorporate that in? So it's things like that that we would tailor it to. How young or old can you be and come to you? I don't teach anyone younger than 18 and there's really no
There's really no each I was working with a couple this afternoon or earlier this morning. We were looking at houses and I just felt bad because the gentleman's older and he said I've lost a lot of muscle and he's just really kind of like I'm helping him into the house and into his car and just you know like yeah and I'm like I wonder if he could get on a plane and get strength back you know. For sure and I think that's one of the great things about it and why you can do it at
Johnson City LIving (29:17.108)
and older age as well as it's really low impact, right? So we're still using, you know, heavy springs that make it a lot of work, but it's low impact. So it's not, you're not going to be jamming your knees. You're not going to be, you know, it's just lighter on your body in that way. So yeah. Yeah. think if you prepare for aging by working, know, keeping your muscles strong and your body flexible and it's going to make
old age a lot better. Yeah. There's a quote from Joseph Pilates. I'm such a dork that I'm going to tell you this right now. this a gentleman's name is Joseph Pilates? Yes. He came up with Pilates. I had no idea. I thought it was like some sort of, yeah, had no idea where the name came And you don't have to. That's okay. Well, we're stuff. I told a friend the other day, was today years old when I learned that. Yes, exactly. Joseph Pilates quote. Joseph Pilates said, you're only as young as your spine.
And I say it all the time. I like to do it to my husband on purpose to kind of be annoying. But it's so true. Like as you get older, we just carry so much tension in our spine, especially if we're losing our posture. So it doesn't matter how much weight you can lift. It doesn't matter if you can't move your body comfortably, right? So it's a lot of.
It's a lot of that. We want you to age well. We want you to have mobility and be able to move as pain free as possible. So maybe give the listeners a few tips and tricks around maybe helping their spines like and strengthening their core around like tell me, tell us a little bit about what Pilates does for the body. Well, one of the huge things they focus on is there's so much core work, right? So we do a lot of core lying down and it's not like
just crunches, I feel like that's the traditional core work. But we do a lot of stuff with your legs up in the air. You do lift your upper body up in a crunch format, but it's all choreographed. So Joseph Pallotti's exercises all have names that are done in a certain order. And so I'll say to my Matt Pallotti's class, we're gonna do the hundred, and they moan, because they know what it is. Sounds like a hundred of something. Yes, it is.
Johnson City LIving (31:37.23)
See you look, you're already, you should come do Pilates, you know. So yeah, it's a lot of core work. There's definitely a good chunk of core in my classes. And then a lot of it is making sure that you're in proper alignment, right? So I'll explain how to do each exercise, where your shoulders should be, where your spine should be, where your pelvis should be. And it's about holding proper form with your core and your spine as we're working your arms, as we're working your legs. So.
a lot of core emphasis and a lot of form, right? So a lot of, you can find tons of YouTube videos on Pilates. My favorite, if I could punch one out as a plug, Real Good Pilates on YouTube. I really like her because she's legit, like she's actually a really good Pilates instructor. passed the test in London. Yeah, she did, and then some. She's really good. Real Good Pilates. Real Good Pilates.
I would trust anyone to do her video and she will keep your body safe. She's going to talk to you about form. She's going to talk to you about your breathing. you don't have to have a reformer to do the Pilates. You can do it on a mat. You can do it in anywhere. Yeah, definitely. You can do it from home with a mat. Yeah, you don't all have to go to a studio for a reformer, but Matt Pilates you can do anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they're good. I've done some over. Yeah. Have you?
I don't know if I did fancy Pilates, but yeah, like we've lifted have said this in the intro. We did crunches, we did, know, we kind of, Carly and I used to do this one. This is the hundred. Are you pumping your arms for the hundred? Oh goodness. You know the hundred. Carly taught me that when my wife, she's a Pilates person back in the day. Oh really? Okay, you didn't say you've done Pilates. Well. Before we got started, I feel misled.
Yes, I'll let you down a path. Yes, actually I never passed the test though, so you are the expert. All I did is, and I think we did some on P90X back in
Johnson City LIving (33:38.38)
I remember that actually. Yeah, that dude was legit. So, you know, we were talking too about body image, I think is something you're really conscious of and you want people to just enjoy who they are, where they are and not feel bad, right? And not to miss life because they don't think they look the way they should. Talk to us a little bit about that and maybe talk to our listeners who are maybe thinking I don't.
love the way I look. Yeah. Well, I'll share a little story to answer where I'm coming from because I am really passionate about that. So as I fell in love with Pilates, I'd bring some friends to the studio to just let them try it. And I brought someone I really care about to a class with me. It was a studio of six reformers. So she and I were two of them. were four other strangers in class.
And we went through this class and I just the whole time was dying to hear about what she thought of the class, if she thought it was fun. And we got out of the class, we got in the car and I turned to her and said, how was it? What'd you think? And she said, well, I was the biggest person in the room. My heart just sank because she missed out on this opportunity to feel good because the whole time she was there, she felt like,
Everybody's judging her. Yeah, I'm bigger than the other women here. I don't move as well as they do. There's mirrors in front of her, so she's probably feeling really self-critical during class. I just, it made me feel really sad. And I also feel like it's really relatable that it can be really hard to work out in front of mirrors if you're self-conscious of your body. It can be really hard to show up to a fitness class if you feel like...
you're not where you want to be with your body. If you're, if you're feeling like, I had not at a weight that feels good for me. I don't feel like I'm moving in a way that I'm proud of. It's hard for me to move. Um, that can just get in your way, right? Like that can get in your way of having a good experience. And so I think because I'm aware of that, have lived my own body issues throughout my life and I have a lot of loved ones who've struggled with this. I think it's just really important to me.
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I realized that you showing up to my studio could be like a personal Mount Everest. Like that's out of your comfort zone. You're nervous about if I'm going to be on you or making you feel bad. And so my goal when you're at my studio is I want you to have the type of experience that I had that you have an hour that you just get to turn off.
what your worries are, you can turn off whatever you're feeling insecure about. I want you to have an hour that you can just feel good in your body. And you know, I've got you, I'm gonna keep you safe. I want your body to feel better leaving than you did coming in. And so I just wanna do what I can to be aware that it's hard. It can be hard to work out in front of a mirror. It can be hard to come try a workout regime that's out of your comfort zone. And so I think I just...
try to hold that awareness and create a space that that is not my focus. I'm not going to talk to you about what size jeans you are. I'm going to talk to you about any of that. don't care. I want you to feel good. So that's kind of my goal is recognizing it could be someone's Mount Everest to just show up to a class. And I want to do anything that I can to kind of, you know, water the concepts that they're
they should be proud of themselves and that I'm proud that they showed up and I want to help kind of help build that in them as much as I can so they don't leave feeling like well whatever I'm the biggest one in class I don't want you feeling leaving my class feeling that way. Yeah you want them to feel loved and cared for and enjoy the experience which is what it's all about. I want it to be an hour that feels like a gift for you you know. You feel like it's just
the media that we see all the time and like, cause I think, I don't know, I would think almost everyone has some sort of issue with their body, right? Like they don't, it's hard to accept who we are or what we've got to deal with, right? And it's hard to change it a lot of times too. So talk to us about how you can maybe shape and change your body image. Yeah. I mean, realistically, I think it's a lot of work depending on how much you've been told growing up, right? It's what,
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how your mom or dad spoke about their bodies, that's how your mom or dad spoke about your body. And the media is huge, right? There's so much about Hollywood and- Everybody on Instagram looks perfect. No, all the filters and no one has wrinkles and everyone's body's perfect. It's so damaging to not be able to see someone that looks like you in the media. feels like it's hard to find, right? So I think there's a lot of-
places where we're getting that from that's shaping why we don't look the way we should, right? And it feels like a social currency to look amazing, you know? Like you'll be more popular, you'll, I don't know, marry a brain surgeon. You have this perfect body, I don't know, but it does. It just feels like this is something you have to have and we see it. People go to all kinds of lengths to have.
a body that looks a certain way but might not necessarily be healthy. No. Right? mean, you could be starving yourself. You could be on some medications that are trying to, you know, yeah, just a lot of bad stuff going on deep in your body that long-term is not going to be good. Totally. And I think, yeah, so I just, think making sure you're hiring a trainer or going somewhere for a studio that
That's not their focus is what do you look like? Can I post a picture of what your body looks like? The success stories I share from my clients, is not my client got a snatched waist in two weeks, because that's just not true. No, they didn't. You can't do it in two weeks. I think I want to share stories that are more related to how my clients coping better because they use Pilates breathing when they're having a hard time.
or they're able to, you I had a client tell me she, I don't even know how old she is, so I'm not even gonna guess, because I don't wanna get it wrong. But she told me that when she gets dressed in the morning, normally she has to like lasso one of her legs to put on her pants. And she came one day and she said, Mallory, I just picked up my leg, I balanced on one leg and I put my pants on and I haven't been able to do that in years. I've had to lasso my pants on. She's like, I can just.
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lift my leg, bend over, balance perfectly, and I'm so happy for her that she can put on her pants without having to less of them, right? Like it's just little wins. If you've been injured, putting on socks can be difficult. And you're like, hey, look, I picked my foot up and put my sock on. Yes, I understand it. But I'd rather post those types of wins than whatever so and so has this percent body fat. You know, that's not.
inspiring to me in a way of someone whose quality of life is different because of how they're treating their body, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's super cool that you're doing it. Do you teach classes like mat classes as well? I do. So is that at your home or do you do that in a studio somewhere? I currently teach at the YMCA in Kingsport. OK. So I do some math classes up there. I teach mat and bar and then I teach private Palladi studio.
Private Pilate is out of my studio, so I have reformer and catalog classes that I teach out of my home, but otherwise, just as of now, just at Kingsport at the YMCA classes. How do our listeners connect with you to get involved in your classes maybe, or come do one-on-one training? Yeah, probably the best way to get in contact with me, my Instagram handle, KindBodyPilates. You can send me a message on there. That's usually how I get in touch with people.
But even if you just want to follow along, I try to be really conscious about putting out content on the internet that's, you know. But you can just do it at home on your own. Yeah, and it's also like body kindness content. So I try to also put out the type of messaging that we're talking about. Those are the type of posts that I have is how to work through whatever issues you're having with your body through fitness. And so that's the type of content I put out if people just want to even follow along to have that showing up on their feed.
That's super cool. Okay, let's talk about East Tennessee unless you want to get anything else on the kind body Pilates. you're good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you and your husband, what do you guys like to do for fun in our area? Do you live in Johnson City? You live in Kingsport? We do. We're in Johnson City. Nice. What do you love to do in Johnson City? That's fun. boy. I'm facing the name. What's that cool antique mall? That's like a over by
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Kroger kind of near the red pig. yes. I don't know, but we have been in there. Carly and I went there. Oh, we love to go there. It's so fun. Maybe antique village or something like that. Yes, I'm spacing the name, but we do go You like to go wander around and see It's so fun to cruise. Yeah, just think it's so fun to find like cool little treasures. And the main thing that's horrible about it actually is when there's toys from my childhood.
that are in an antique store now, that makes you feel. bad when it's not like your grandma's toys, it's your toys in an antique store now. But yeah. But just think of the other kids that get to buy them and enjoy them and just reframe that. Thank makes you feel bad about it. Look at you. We had a guy on the podcast probably two months ago, he's got one of these right downtown, right over here. cool. On Main Street.
Mitchell probably put that in the show notes. Maybe we can figure out. I can't remember a link to that one, because that was a good spot to go. We'll send that one to you. Yeah, I know. Yeah, what was your, let's talk about your first job ever. I forgot to ask you that question. My first job ever. First job ever. boy. Did you mow a yard? Did you scoop ice cream somewhere? Were you on the fries? Would you like fries with that? I didn't, that wasn't my first job.
I mean, I'll try to describe it to you. So we had a close family friend that had a ceiling tile business. And there was something that we could do. We had a little separate garage and they called it tying wires. We had to put this little piece of a little metal piece on a wire and fold it over. And you looped it on a drill and you press this button and it would spin and like tie it together. You do?
So we would do those, you'd do a bundle of them and we got $5 per hundred that we did. And we'd bring a little TV over and I'd watch, you know, NSYNC in concert and what, tie wires. What are you doing? I'm going to tie wires and watch NSYNC. That's right. best night ever. That's right. I love me five bucks. I love it. Yeah. That's awesome. What are some people along the way that have gotten you, you may want to give a little shout out.
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that have helped you get to where you are today. Some influencers in your life. Yeah. I mean, I'm really lucky. think, I feel like I'm very aware that specifically my friend group, I've always been fortunate to have solid friend group. Obviously my family is lovely as well. There's nothing against my family. But I just know so many people, it is impactful to have either no friends or just crap friends.
It is huge. we told our boys early on, like, you are who you choose, you know, who your friends are. So choose wisely. And we even kind of tried to help steer a little bit of that. You know, like these kids are great, so let's invite them over more. The other kids are really... So yeah, it's huge. And you see it over and over and over the cycle just, yeah, so choose your friends wisely. And yeah, I've just hung out with some friends last weekend that I've, one of them I've been friends with since first grade.
wow. tell people, know, I think because I had just a great group of friends that kept me out of trouble. Yep. It's huge. Now we got into silly trouble some. Yeah, just nonsense. Yeah, we're not in the post office with our pictures on the wall. Yeah. And what's something in your life or your business maybe starting it that was kind of difficult that you had to overcome that?
Yeah, honestly, probably some imposter syndrome, if we're being real. I think I really held a stereotype that to be a Pilates instructor, you need to be, you know, itsy bitsy and so flexible and previous professional ballerina. just felt like, I don't even know if I should be allowed to teach. Like, I'm just a person that likes Pilates. I don't know. Yeah.
So I think it was a lot of overcoming my own stereotypes that was huge for me because I just felt like I was disqualifying myself from this industry. And I know it's not just me because as I went to these trainings, I told you I was trained in reformer in Utah and trained in Matt in London. And both times I was in trained with a group of about 10 women.
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And both times we would eat lunch together, those of us in the class, and someone would inevitably say, I've really gotta lose weight before I can start teaching. I really need to get in shape before I can start teaching. And I was always like, blah, I hate these conversations, because what are we promoting if that's the energy we're bringing into the room? Like, how is that going about for our clients?
I'm so grateful there was one instructor, one of the ones that taught us and trained us in Pilates. She heard one of the girls say this. She said, yeah, I really need to lose weight and get in shape before I teach. And the instructor said, you need to be able to do the exercises. That's what you need to be able to do. There's no studio that's going to say you need to be a size this, you need to be this flexible. And if the studio is saying that, don't work there because they're terrible.
Well, and yeah, I mean, you're not going to appeal to the masses. The masses aren't teeny tiny and already in shape. Yeah. So I think that was a huge barrier for me and something to work through was just to continually remind myself my body is not the product. My body needs to be able to do what I'm teaching them to do. I to be able to model it.
But hopefully what is the product is I want you to feel better. I want you to have a better relationship with your body. But I don't I don't need to have a perfect body to teach Pilates. And that was a huge thing for me to overcome in order to feel like I could put out there what I wanted to share. Yeah. Yeah. What's what's on the horizon for you? What's the goal of your business coming up? boy. I'd love to actually be able to open a reformer studio in the community with.
with more reformers and be able to help more people at a time. Because yeah, just because of what I have felt and how much I love it, it's such a joy for me to share. I love having clients come and tell me afterwards how good they feel or how much fun they had and it is just, it's a joy for me. I want to share that with more people. So if you could do more than one on one, you could do 10 on one, that'd be awesome. More joy.
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Help more people at a time. joy. That'll be our goal for the year. That's right. I love it. love it. Speed around real quick. Oh boy. Alright, where are you guys? What's your husband's name? Carson. Carson. Where are you and Carson? Love to go to dinner. Oh boy. We love Label. Yeah, that's a good one. I I feel like everyone does. I've never had fried pickles until Label. And I don't know what that sauce is, but it's delightful. Yeah, some kind
It's great. Mayonnaise, the sriracha thing is delicious. Yes. So good. All right. Where do you guys like to go for a cup of coffee? Oh, boy. You know what? I'm not well versed in coffee shops. I don't know if we've even been to one. Am I missing out? Do you guys have a good coffee shop scene here? We got a lot of good coffee shops. What have I been doing? You can almost throw a rock from where we're sitting and hit three really good ones. Really? Wow. It'd a long rock to hit open doors, but that'd be my favorite.
And you've got the moon right up the road here and you've got Dos Skados right there. And yeah, and then you've got Blue's Brews just across the train tracks by Southern Craft. There's a lot of great coffee. I'm missing out. I wasn't informed that I need to check out the coffee shops. maybe you're not a coffee person. don't know. I love a good hot chocolate. they've got hot chocolate. I'm down. Okay. How about desserts? Where do you go for dessert? boy.
Honestly, my house. Yeah, make some good desserts. I love desserts so much. Me too. So yeah, probably my own house. I know that's the wrong answer. Maybe crumble. I like a good crumble cookie. Yeah. Something warm and gooey out of the oven. And those things are like a pound cookie. Yeah. Like you're getting your money's worth. Absolutely. Like if we're gonna do it, let's do it. They're not skimping. I love it. Crumble cookies are delicious. They're so good. And date night. Where do you and Carson like to go? Oh boy, where do we like to go?
Honestly, escape rooms. We did an escape room in Bristol that was so fun. We just love it. It feels like you're in a little action packed, I don't know, not a movie because obviously no one's filming you, no one cares But you feel like you're in Mission Impossible and we gotta get out of here. yeah, you get in like spy mode, you just need to like pick up clues and you feel like.
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a genius if you figure one out, you just think you're so cool. Or you feel really bad. I've been in, and Carly's great about it. She's like, she can find things. And then I'm like, I don't, I'm looking around and going, I don't know. I'm like pulling on books and doors trying to get the secret passage to open. And I'm terrible at them. No, I hear you. I feel like it's cool to go with people and see what, clues they're good at and then which clues you're good at.
how your brains can kind of get it together. It is interesting how it applies to different fields of your brain and your talent. So it's pretty cool. What was something I should have asked you that I didn't? boy, do you ask this every time or just me? That was a good one. Is that the question? Yes, I do ask a lot this question a lot because I sometimes forget, you know, like, well, I wanted to talk about my caterpillar collection and you didn't ask me about that.
I don't know. I don't know where that came from.
What question should you have asked me that you didn't? Anything come into mind? not, then that. it's not a big deal.
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I don't know why that was so hard for me. Yeah, I think you did great. All right, what gets you just fired up? Like you're just like, you've got the most energy you've ever had. you're just like, let's go. Oh, a good concert. Oh, yeah. Going to James Arthur this summer. And usually when if it's someone I'm really excited about when they come out on stage.
I don't know what's going to happen. don't know what sounds are going to come out. It's just persons like who is this lady? Yeah, I mean I have a great time, but I have no control. Are you like a mosh pit person? You get down there and go crazy in the mosh pit. I mean I'm dancing. I'm like all up on other people, I'm definitely dancing. You haven't been to a mosh pit then. I guess not. You're like you're on people, but you're like kind of like just slamming into each other and like what's up? Yeah, no I haven't been in the mosh pit in.
I was say, are you a mosh pit person? Is that your Friday night? is over here, I think he's a mosh pit person. No, I'm not a mosh pit person. Yeah, I was gonna say. I can see it being kind of fun, but those are more of those yelly music artists that I don't enjoy so much. No, I want a seat, but it's mostly so that people are not gonna be in my space. I wanna stand up and dance, but I just want people a little bit corralled
Yeah, or it'd be nice to have like, go to a concert with buffer seats, you know, like everybody has a buffer seat on each other, cause you can turn, cause sometimes, you know, there's not a lot of room to groove. I know. Yeah. Actually, fun fact, I got in trouble at a Josh Groban concert cause I was dancing too much. So a buffer seat would have been great for me at a Josh Yeah, like the neighbor said, hey,
They're like, you need to settle down. You're stealing my joy, my We just thought it would be hilarious to really break it down to Josh Groban, and apparently not everyone appreciated it. So buffer seats, we should implement that, right? Maybe you pay a little extra money for a little buffer. can get your group on. master's going to be like, yeah, you can have some buffer seats. They're the same price as your seat.
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Yeah, no need to get my groove on that much. Yeah, there's gotta be some other incentive. So I don't think people are going to pay extra to stop no one. Yeah, probably. They will. don't know. It be an experience. Yeah. Yeah. Buffer seat experience. Yeah. Look at that. We came up with a whole new thing. Got a little side hustle after this. Yes. Yeah. So once again, kind body Pilates on Instagram. Yep. And connect with Mallory. She seems like a lovely soul. And so I think you're Yeah.
It's cool that you're helping people with body image, with health and strength, with posture, with movement, with putting on your pants, socks without hurting. I think it's really something good and start early because age stops for no man, right? It's coming down the pipeline. And if you can be 90 and still flexible and strong, I think life's gonna be a whole lot better.
Yeah, just it's about your quality of life, right? Spine age. So it's right. Youngest your spine. Only as young as your spine. That's right. Which is with me my past 51 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks for our conversation. I enjoyed it. Thanks for what you do. So next time I'm Colin Johnson with the Colin and Karlie group and Keller Williams realty. If you want to move here and take classes from Mallory, we'd love to help you do that. If you want to invest in real estate.
It is just a great way to build wealth. I can't tell you enough, it's huge, huge wealth builder. And so we'd love to help people just buy a house. That's a huge wealth builder too. The difference between a homeowner and a renter's net worth is almost 10x, it's crazy. so, yeah, buy a house, it's a great way to build wealth. And yeah, I look forward to talking to you next time. So thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a
It's probably gonna come out right around then, so thank you.