Motivational coach and wellness guru Holly Rilinger is known for inspiring others to dig deep to make positive lifestyle changes. Nike Master Trainer, Red Bull athlete, former professional basketball player, author, founding Flywheel Instructor, star of Bravo’s Workout New York and Creator of LIFTED. Holly’s Signature LIFTED Method combines the power of movement with the peace of meditation to create a complete wellness experience. Holly is a leader and innovator in the wellness industry with over 20 years of experience. Holly uses her life experiences both as an elite athlete and coach coupled with her degree to help motivated individuals find balance and success in their lives. Her programs start with the body and mind but have a way of shaping your entire life.
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Scaling LIFTED Health & Wellness With Holly Rilinger
In this episode, I interviewed Holly Rilinger. Holly is the Founder of the LIFTED Health and Wellness Program. Holly’s career started as a professional basketball player. She went on to become a Nike master trainer, published a bestselling book, and is a national speaker sharing her true underdog story, helping companies build better leadership, overcome adversity and deliver results. I hope you enjoy the episode.
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Holly, I’m so glad you could be on the show. It’s great to talk to you.
I’m excited to be here. Thanks.
Holly is my coach. I was introduced to the LIFTED Program and I was inspired because what Holly is doing is incorporating meditation, strength, nutrition, wellness and yoga. It’s all delivered through video conference. My wife was introduced to Holly first through an old friend. I watched my wife’s fitness and overall state of mind get so much better. That’s the quick background. To start off, Holly, let’s learn about you and put it on a timeline. Where did you grow up? Tell us about your background.
It sounds great to hear you say I’m your coach too. Thanks for that. I’m a Midwestern girl. My parents grew up on farms in Kansas. I was born in a suburb of Kansas City and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. When I was thirteen, my parents moved us to Virginia. I’m very happy to have these Midwestern roots, but also very happy to have made it to the Coast. I get a little bit of the best of both worlds there.
Were your parents in the agriculture business or farming?
My grandparents were but my parents weren’t. We would still visit my grandparents’ farm. My grandparents had a dairy farm. They grew corn and wheat. My earliest childhood memories were riding around on tractors with my grandfather, feeding and milking the cows. My parents didn’t end up staying on the farm. They got out. My dad got into a telephone company called Centel which later merged with Sprint. That brought us to the big city of Lincoln, Nebraska.
When you moved to Virginia at thirteen, had you already started eighth grade?
Seventh grade. You have kids so you know that seventh grade is a terrible year, in general. For at least a year, it was a lot of transition. I was in three different schools in the seventh grade. That year is ultimately what drove me to basketball. I had a hard time and basketball was something that I started to become pretty good at. I hid there because it was the one place where I felt safe. Out of a lot of tragedy comes triumph. I’m now grateful for that seventh-grade year because it pushed me to become good and excel at something, and be something amongst a year of a lot of traumas and mean seventh graders.
What was so difficult about it for you?
We grew up in Nebraska. I went to a Catholic school. We had uniforms. There were four kids. We didn’t have a lot of money. I moved to a public school. Straight out of the gates, I didn’t have the same clothes that everyone else had. I remember people checking my labels to see if I was wearing Outback Red or Forenza, which were the labels back then. There was no way I could catch up or keep up. My parents didn’t have that money. Socially, I had a hard time. In general, I was a shy kid. You put those two things together and it was a tough year for me.
Had you played basketball or did you discover the sport when you moved to Virginia?
I had started in Nebraska and was pretty good at it. Basketball was one of the only things I could do alone. I was good at soccer, baseball, tennis and golf. I did it all, but my neighbor had a basketball hoop and it was the one thing I can go and practice on by myself. You don’t need anybody else. I excelled at it for that reason. I didn’t have to have anybody else around.
Birth order wise with three siblings, where do you stand?
I’m the oldest.
It's an interesting paradigm being so driven and where it gets you versus what it might take away from you as well. Click To TweetDo your brothers or sisters like basketball?
Ask them that and they will say I ruined basketball for the family. I remember people comparing my sister to me, and it was very traumatic for her. She then owned soccer. I remember her saying, “You can’t play soccer. That’s my sport. This is what I’m going to be good at.” My brothers all got into soccer too. Soccer wasn’t as big of a deal when I was growing up like basketball and baseball were pretty big deals. For my younger siblings, soccer started to gain a little bit in their age group. No other basketball players in the family.
When you started playing basketball in Virginia, at what age did coaches and teams see your potential and say, “We got to get Holly into the most competitive arenas?”
Eighth grade was a turning point for me. I had changed schools again. I was in my third school in seventh grade. The coach at that school asked me if I want to do a basketball camp. I went to NBP Basketball Camp in Pennsylvania. It was the first camp I went to. I still remember the t-shirt. There was a point guard there. She was 5’2” and played in the Olympics. I remember listening to her story and connecting it to the belief that anything is possible if this short little girl can play basketball. It was me and some twins. We were the prominent eighth graders on a team. We’re all about 5’3”. I went head-to-head directly with these twins.
Talk about sometimes the thing that feels the worst is the best thing for you. I was always challenged to be as good as they were because they were a dynamic duo, plus they were twins. Everybody wants a good story that they were twins. I had to outshine them year in and year out. In ninth grade, we all made varsity. In tenth grade, we were all starting and won the state championship. In eleventh grade, we won the runners-up. In twelfth grade, we won the state championship.
In tenth grade, I started getting letters from colleges. I feel bad for kids now that might get emails. It was so exciting to go to the mailbox every day and see what college had written to me and open the letters. By my senior year, I had boxes of letters. I was recruited by maybe 150 different schools around the country. It was like a dream and a fairy tale for my high school years because I set my goal of becoming something. I was an underdog. I had a terrible entry into 7th and 8th grade. I listened to this underdog talk at a camp and went on to become the state player of the year, beating up the twins in my senior year, and going on to play on a college scholarship.
That’s an amazing story. With these twins, it’s always difficult to compete with your teammates. When you’re competing with your friends to start or get accolades like state player of the year, did you become friends with them? Did you find your tribe on that team?
Yeah, we were. It was an interesting friendship because we knew we were vying for everything. We were vying for the picture in the paper the next day to be this top scorer and assist. We’re vying for everything. Somehow, we managed to work as a team and put the goals of the team above everything else. That is something to be proud of. It could always work in the opposite direction when everybody gets a little bit too selfish and doesn’t have the ability to work as a team. I’m not friends with them anymore, but only because we’ve moved on. I’m sure if we saw each other, it would be all good vibes.
When you started getting these boxes of letters and being the oldest, what did your parents think? Were they recruited athletes as well?
No. My mom didn’t go to college. My dad went to a community college. My dad was an athlete in high school. He was the quarterback on the football team and the captain of the basketball team, but in a small town and farming community in Kansas. It was outrageously exciting to have Geno Auriemma come and sit in your living room the year after they lost in the final four, and to be crying almost as he was recruiting you, and to have the UVA coach come and sit in your living room. It’s hard to express how exciting it was. It was next level.
I can imagine. Have you seen the Michael Jordan documentary?
You’re the third person that asked me that. I haven’t finished it yet. I’m hoping to finish it, but that was my era. I didn’t have any female role models to look up to. They weren’t visible. We didn’t know who they were so much. Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, that was my genre. To watch that documentary and see all that, I remember those games.
It was an amazing time in basketball. I bring it up and I don’t mean to be the third person to talk about this, but I was moved by the drive. Something that I’ve been exploring is driven behavior. It’s when you do something almost unconsciously, and the way Michael Jordan’s motivation to always win at any cost. The documentary is about somebody we grew up with who’s a larger-than-life figure. Understanding the amount of energy and competitive spirit that he had to put into that, in some ways, was almost pathologic and it hurt him. Anytime I talked to somebody as successful as you, I’m always interested in where your drive comes from. What do you think of the idea of driven behavior?
It’s so interesting that this is coming out now because I’ve had this conversation with Jen, my fiancé. Sometimes I’ve had this feeling over the years where people look up to me because I’m so driven. Sometimes I’ve had this urge to say, “You should look up to people who live a balanced life.” We put people like myself or pro athletes on a pedestal. In all honesty, there was so much of life I missed out on. I missed out on pop culture, dating, and all these things that make somebody a truly developed person.
Without a doubt, I had arrested development. It wasn’t probably until I was 29 or 30 that I paid my own rent or had my own credit card, or I didn’t know how to put a resume together. I had reached the top of my field and knew everything about being dedicated, disciplined and coachable. I knew about leadership and failure. I was fully equipped, but using the word pathological is spot on. It’s so overboard. I’m not saying that’s bad.
It’s definitely what it takes to be at the top of anything. It takes countless hours, not missing a day, and grinding and grinding to where nothing else exists. It takes your parents almost not having a life because they’re driving and buying for you, and taking and doing. Your siblings hate you to some degree because it’s the Holly show. It’s an interesting balance to look at. It’s not until now in my 40s that I’ve started to live a balanced life because that doesn’t just fade away. It’s not like one day, “I’m balanced now. I’m not playing basketball anymore.” It trickles into every part of your life.
It can also be about being extremely critical of yourself for your physical body. You’re not able to rest or take a break. Being a workaholic was something I dealt with. When the boutique fitness scene exploded in New York City, doing 2, 3 or 4 classes a day is not unusual, and feeling guilty about taking a day off. I’m proud of the coach that I am now because I can look back and say that I’ve seen this path. I can see what that did to my body for better or for worse. A lot of times, for worse.
I can see what it did for any relationships I had in my life. I’m so grateful that I have a partner now that opened up my eyes to putting it down, taking two days off, not worrying about it so much, or eating a doughnut for breakfast. It’s an interesting paradigm being so driven and where it gets you versus what it might take away from you as well.
You mentioned that has something to do with maybe your age and getting some experience. Was there any specific catalyst where you said, “I need to look at this achievement-driven behavior differently?”
It took me putting the ball down to look at it. When I was in it, I saw nothing but the top. I made it to the WNBA as a free agent. I didn’t get drafted. I made it in the preseason for a couple of games and got cut. For me, that was such a massive failure in my life and my many years of absolute dedication. In a lot of ways, I dismissed that I made it to France and two years in Germany. I led the country in scoring in New Zealand and took them to the championship. All of that I dismissed and could only look at my career as a failure.
What a travesty to measure it on one thing and discount all the years of drive, dedication, relentless pursuit, passion, and everything that comes from being that way, the upsides of learning how to operate at a different standard in life. When I stopped and realized, and I could look back on that, I didn’t realize all the tools I had gained to make myself employable and an interesting person, and the struggles to find you as a human being. Looking back, it took me putting the ball down to understand that it was super unhealthy.
What I think is amazing about professional athletes is if they can make it to the collegiate level and even consider being a professional, what is the average age that people put the ball down?
It’s 30s.
If you’re a biochemist, an astrophysicist or an investor, that’s the point where your career is starting to blossom. I can’t imagine what it’s like to put all that time and energy, achieve and have all these milestones, and reinvent yourself at such a young age. How did you approach that transition?
It’s something that I don’t think is talked about enough. It’s mourning or death of a part of you. I was depressed. I didn’t have an identity. I had wrapped up my entire identity into Holly being a basketball player. I remember for probably a good two years after my career ended, people would ask, “What do you do?” My first thing would be, “I’m a former professional basketball player.” That was the only way I could feel value in what I was offering as a person. It took a long time. I wasn’t one of the people that wanted to continue in the field. I didn’t want to coach. For me, I was a player. That’s all I wanted to do. If I couldn’t lace up my shoes beyond the court, I didn’t want to do it.
If you ask most athletes how they feel, it’s the death of something. It’s a mourning period of who am I now. Take some time to figure out how you’re going to transition all this stuff that you learned, and that’s the key. How do you take that and find something to apply it to that you’re so passionate about? Here’s the other thing. You may never be that passionate about something again. I was fully ready to live the rest of my life without that much passion anymore. How could I expect to wake up every day with that much passion again if it wasn’t basketball? I didn’t understand how it could happen. It took a while. I’m so thankful to say that I am now. I wake up every day excited about growing this business and helping people.
One of my mentors was my strength and conditioning coach in college. His name is Greg Warner. He said to me, “Everything comes full circle when you take everything that you’ve done and you give it back. You take everything you’ve learned and find a way to then share it.” I found out how to do that. I would almost say it’s more rewarding. There are days when it feels better than winning a big game. It feels better than being the top scorer because I get to see somebody’s life change because of what I’m helping them do.
Doing it at scale as well. That’s what I think is so amazing about the LIFTED Program. Being a coach of a college basketball team is amazing. It sounds like you’ve had coaches that have had a huge impact. Sometimes 50 to 75 people are starting their day, having an hour that is going to include two meditations. I see what you did, it’s ten minutes in combination.
Also, making the connection that after your heart rate is at 160 beats per minute, being able to go from chaos to calm. For me, that’s how I can apply meditation and be present when being nervous about a big presentation or upset about something that my kids are going through. It all happens while you’re sweating and not even thinking about it, which is amazing. What was the first fitness project that you thought you could throw yourself into?
“Everything comes full circle when you take everything that you've done and you give it back. You take everything you've learned and find a way to then share it.” Click To TweetI got my personal training certification and started working at a gym as a personal trainer. I couldn’t connect with people that couldn’t operate on my level. I distinctly remember this guy I was training and he couldn’t bench press this amount of weight. He said, “I can’t,” and put the weight down there. I was like, “What?” I couldn’t make the connection. I couldn’t connect with anybody that wasn’t all in and willing to go. What that told me was I was good at being a player but I wasn’t good at being a coach. I needed to find a way to meet him where he was, inspire him and motivate him in ways that connected to him, not me.
It was a short-lived personal training career. My partner at the time was selling real estate and she had convinced me that this was a great way to make money. I started selling real estate. I always say the greatest part about that was that I got to learn what it’s like to do something that I have no interest or passion for doing. I can say 100% for certain that I don’t want to do that. I would rather make less money doing something that I’m super passionate about. Not to say that I’m making less money.
If I had to choose after living such a life filled with passion, showing up and doing an open house about something you couldn’t care less about wasn’t for me. I had to go through that. I moved to New York and that’s where I found exactly what I wanted to be doing within the fitness space. Enough time had passed and I was ready to be a coach.
How does one become a Nike master trainer?
This was maybe my fifth year into being in the fitness world in New York City. I was teaching spin for a company called Flywheel. I was one of their founding instructors. The reason that I chose that is I got to feel like a point guard again. I was in front of a room with 50 people, leading them through an hour of our game or our championship. It felt right. I was in my zone. Ironically, at the time, I was dating this beautiful model. Her name was Paula. We were sitting and having lunch. She was like, “I’m so tired of my agent asking me to go to these castings for things that have no relevance to me.” I was like, “What is it?” She goes, “You should go to this. It’s to be a Nike master trainer.”
She’s like, “He wants me to go and pretend like I’m a trainer.” I was like, “Give me that.” I looked to see where it was and got my stuff together. I basically crashed the casting call. I got super prepared. I took all these pictures. I walked in there and said, “I was born for this position. Let me tell you why.” Lexi Shoemaker was leading that at the time. She said that she’ll never forget the moment I walked in. I own the room and I was sure. I was like, “This is what I’ve been waiting for. Are you kidding me? Let’s do this.”
They were just starting the program. They had no idea what it was either. There were two of us in New York. We were sprinkled around the US. There were a couple of different countries. They brought the trainers in the world together to headquarters in Portland. I felt like I was representing the fitness community in the Olympics. When they sat us down, they were like, “Congratulations, you’ve been chosen to represent your country as a Nike master trainer.”
Every failure I thought I had in basketball was redeemed. I was recognized by Nike. Michael Jordan was my idol. I was going to wear the swoosh. It was a very redemptive moment for me on so many levels. I went on to do all these exciting projects. I went to Moscow and led out a workout in Gorky Park in front of 1,500 women. I traveled to Sweden doing all these different installations, promoting new shoes or gear or women in training. It was like being a Nike Charlie’s Angel. They would call you up and be like, “Can you go to Moscow tomorrow for a week?” I would be like, “Yes.”
In many ways, they recruit these premier athletes who are going to represent the brand. It sounds like being an ambassador of the Nike brand. How did you get the idea? I know you wrote your book which is titled Lifted, which is also the title of the program that you’ve created that I’m a proud member of. When did you start putting the pieces together to create LIFTED?
The boutique fitness industry started booming in New York in 2011. All these little boutique companies were popping up. There is Bootcamp, Flywheel, SoulCycle, Fhitting Room and all these places. What was great about it is people were very committed to their brand. They wear their sweatshirts and were part of it. I started doing my own camp. At the time, I called it Training Camp. I was starting to bring back everything I learned as an athlete, that whole team mentality, working as a team, leaning on your team, and thinking like an athlete mentally.
The more I was in the community and the more I was in the industry, people would say, “What do I do about nutrition? There wouldn’t be enough time afterward.” I would be like, “You should have more protein in this. Why don’t you just call me?” They would be like, “I’m hurt. What should I do?” I was like, “You probably could have prevented that. You should probably have fallen and rolled, but I don’t have enough time. Maybe we should do a one-on-one.”
It was always trying to give somebody a little bit more and still have this group atmosphere. I can do it with my one-on-one clients, which I wasn’t as passionate about. I love working with a couple of people one-on-one because I can give them my attention, but I love the group. I love the dynamic and working in a team. What the unmet need that I saw was people are going to a nutritionist over here and they have that. They’re thinking that is a whole separate category. They have their crew that they’re working out and that’s totally separate.
They’re asking their peers, “Should I get a massage? What should I do? How do I set goals?” I was like, “Somebody needs to put all this together.” Why are we separating all of this? Our wellness should be about our wellness. We shouldn’t think about it independently. In fact, we should think about it almost being like the tires of a car or the wheels on a centipede. They’re all holding us up and we should focus on them equally. I got to get people to understand that meditating is as important as going for your 45-minute run or lifting your weights. What you’re eating is as important as taking a day off or getting a massage.
I said, “Why don’t I do this? Why don’t I try this? Why don’t I try doing an online program?” Before I created LIFTED, the one that you’re in now, I did a different program where we met once a week and talked about stuff. I had my live program in New York City, which was about 15 to 20 women who became diehards. They were totally into it. We would spend 15 to 20 minutes on Tuesdays about nutrition and recovery.
I went for a little vacation in March down to the Dominican Republic, thinking I was going to take a couple of days off and the pandemic hit. Everybody was like, “What are we going to do now? What are we going to do without you?” I created LIFTED as you know it now, which are live workouts where we workout together. We have a hub where we keep all of our information. We have recovery videos there. I have suggested equipment there. They get the links to all their workouts there. They can communicate as a community together there.
On Monday nights, we have our huddles, which are always a topic and education for people about recovery, goal setting, nutrition, meditation and mindset. I feel like I did exactly what was missing. I’m bringing together all the parts of wellness and giving people not only the tools, but a community to talk to others about it and surround themselves with like-minded people.
That’s such a great story. When the pandemic hit, everyone was scared. It’s still very scary. We’re sheltering in place. We don’t have a community and we’re out of our routines. We don’t have the same environment. Right around that time, I was exploring behavioral change. The genesis was with leadership coaching. I’m working with a coach to a better leader at work as a medical device executive. It was centered around different types of behaviors.
If you can identify behavior patterns, and then understand whatever fear or connection to identity or worth that behavior could be anchored in, it’s very practical. It’s different from psychoanalysis or psychotherapy where it’s like, “Why did I need to achieve? Why am I so driven for success?” It’s very different. What I started becoming worried about from a macro public health matter is depression, anxiety, nutrition and sleep. It’s what a lot of us would combine as wellness.
In the medical device, med-tech and biopharma space, so much of what we develop is treating a patient and helping clinicians treat patients when their disease has progressed. If you’re going to get a knee replacement, something happened leading up to that, or if you’re going to take medication for brain health, or you need a stent because your coronary arteries are clogged.
For every surgical device that I’ve ever seen or been aware of, its FDA indication is you have to first fail conservative care. I interpret conservative care as lifestyle modifications and behavioral change. When I went from being a spectator to drop-in on the LIFTED program, the timing was unbelievable because it was a connection of what I think is missing and it’s coupled with this idea of a community.
In the huddle concept, I was talking to someone familiar with the addiction and recovery space. There are similarities to the fellowship underpinning of twelve-step programs. There’s accountability. It also can scale. Many of the people on our team could do a class in a pinch if they were in their community without the internet. I look at all this and it’s why I was so excited to invite you. I’m thrilled that you agreed to be on this episode because there is a missing link here.
I want to talk about your app with the time we have left, but what you’re doing to leverage technology so that you can deliver at scale is a very powerful combination. You’re bringing people who right now may be isolated, but maybe isolated after this pandemic. Not everybody has access to the people that have the same ideas. You incorporate all these areas of wellness that you described. In the healthcare space, clinicians are able to combine that offering. With mobile devices and subscription models, it’s making it accessible. I think it’s going to be transformative. What are the future plans for LIFTED? Where do you see this going in the next five years?
I’m so happy with the program as it is. We’ve had so much growth over the last few months. It has been constant behind-the-scenes work. For example, when we grew to over 50 members, some of the original members said, “We’re starting to lose the intimacy or the feel.” They were spoiled. They had to live with us. I was like, “Let’s calm down a little bit here.” What we started doing is we started having squad leaders. We call them Gem Squad Leaders.
Where gem comes from is each day I encourage my members to list their gems, which are their gratitude, their exercise for the day, how much meditation they got for the day, and how much sleep. These things are the foundation of the other 23 hours of your day. Our Gem Squad Leaders have a group of people. As much as I scale, I still want you to feel like you can intimately connect with a group. In that way, it’s not a Peloton. You’re not riding with 10,000 other people in a class.
You have 10 or 15 people who are in your squad. At any point, you can lean on them and talk to them. You have a leader that’s going to connect you to me. I’m super happy with that. We also got off of Facebook where we originally posted. We have our own little hub now. I know one of your questions was what technology we are using right now that is interesting to us. We’re using Kajabi, which is more of course production. We used it as a meeting place for everybody to be there, post what they’re doing, and be able to house our different workouts.
It has become more brick-and-mortar for us. My hope is to double, triple or quadruple my members over the next few months. When summer ends, people are going to be looking for solutions. I also think everybody thought it was going to be over. People are going to be looking for some more long-term solutions. Outside of that, I’m creating an app. It’s going to launch. This is going to give you on-demand LIFTED classes in a short format.
I know a lot of people are challenged with time. You’re getting anywhere from 10-minute focused workouts to 20-minute or 30-minute yoga, which is taught by my partner, Jennifer. She’s the yin to my yang. She’s in Reiki, essential oils and yoga. I’m the hardcore athlete who’s going to give you the HIIT, the weights and the aggression. Together, we’re excited to launch this app. We’re going to be running a special $99 for a year or $9.99 a month when we launch it. I’m excited for the reach that we’ll have in addition to what we’re offering with our more high-touch program of LIFTED that you’re involved with.
The offering there is the LIFTED program and an app is coming soon. For people that are interested, where’s the best place to find the Lifted book?
What you're eating is as important as taking a day off or getting a massage. Click To TweetYou can find the book on Amazon. That will give you a lot about my background and where the program came from, a lot of the reasons why I incorporate meditation and goal setting. There are a ton of recipes in there, my pillars on nutrition, and why I feel the way I do about the nutritional plan I’ve chosen. You have a program in there as well. It’s 28 days, a little bit clearer, stronger and happier than you can. You can follow along there to get a little taste of what you might get in two of my other programs.
You’ve been doing so much. You’re extremely busy. For the audience, Holly’s website is Holly.life. If you want to follow all the progress, and learn more about the LIFTED program, links to the book, and the coming soon LIFTED app that will be a subscription, please check her out at Holly.life. Which social is the best way to reach you?
It’s Instagram, which is my name, @HollyRilinger.
Holly, we’re going to wrap up the interview. I wish we could talk about some other things. One of the things I do know is that there are a number of men in your crew. I did notice it’s predominantly women. You’ve been coaching women and that’s excellent. For a reader that is a man and is interested in joining the program, do you expect the male audience to grow? How would that affect the program?
The group fitness is predominantly women. It is live, so a lot of guys like to do it on their own. You can attest to this. It’s a challenging workout. The biggest thing I see is that people’s husbands jump in and they’re like, “That’s tough.” We’re not doing a barre class here or a cardio dance workout. This program is built on good old-fashioned weight training arranged in a variety of different programs. It’s never the same. It’s always different. I hope to see more of a male demographic in our groups too. It’s always nice to have a mixture. I enjoyed having you there. Charles was there sometimes as well and a couple of other guys. For the male readers who are there, we are offering you 50% off of a drop-in class. Use it, come visit, and see what it’s about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the intensity of the workout.
I can attest to that and the incorporation of the stretching. I’m looking at heart rate throughout the workout and the meditation where you’re able to control your breathing. I got stuck in the weight training part because I used to always workout by myself and do the same exercises and same muscle groups. If I’m honest, not enough legs. I don’t want to sound like too much of an infomercial. It is the hardest workout I’ve done. It makes me feel like I’m in college again, which is fun.
The promotion code word is UNMETNEED for anyone who wants to try our first session. To wrap up, Holly, we’ll do a lightning round. We call it Go Into The Vault. I’m going to ask you four questions and you can go quick. The first one is in the last year, is there a book, piece of art, podcast, movie or song that you experienced and had an impact on you and that you’re thinking about?
It’s a documentary, Generation Wealth.
Other than your parents, who is someone that saw your potential early in your career and your life, acted as a mentor for you, and had a big impact?
My strength and conditioning coach in college, Greg Warner.
What is one technology or a tool, that could be software or app, that you started using in the last few months that has had a profound impact on your ability to reach people and run your business?
It’s Kajabi.
The last question, in your pursuit of helping so many people and building the LIFTED empire, what is your biggest unmet need for your business?
All you VCs out there, a platform that’s not Zoom that caters more to the fitness community because it’s a meeting place. There’s no software meant for that. You could have a microphone, integrate music, have a timer, break out into groups and the music still goes into the groups. It’s something that would create a virtual studio as a coach and as an instructor. I don’t have that right now. I’ve looked for it and it’s not there.
Could you ever envision yourself raising capital to build out LIFTED faster?
Absolutely.
Holly, thanks so much for Going to the Vault. It has been great having you as a guest. Thanks for being on the show.
This was so much fun. Thank you so much, Jeff.
Important Links
- Holly Rilinger
- Flywheel
- Lifted
- Kajabi
- @HollyRilinger – Instagram
- https://www.Holly.life/virtual-studio-single-classes
About Holly Rilinger
Holly is a leader and innovator in the wellness industry with over 20 years of experience creating exciting programs designed to improve health, achieve fitness goals and establish positive lifestyle changes.