Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle: “Chief Weed Officer” -- on her bad habits. Not the kind you’re thinking, promise.

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

theSkimm

Entrepreneurship, Careers, Business

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melanie has a personal rule for herself: if she hears about something three times, from three different people, she has to try it. That rule has led her to new books, restaurants, and… SoulCycle. Which she did while she was a VP at Equinox. Melanie eventually came on as Soul’s COO, and helped grow the biz from a few NYC studios...to more than 80 around the world. Now, she’s the company’s CEO. And yes, she taps it back multiple times every week. On the couch, she talks to us about taking over a community she didn’t create, managing instructors’ brands within SoulCycle’s, and having a millennial mentor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Carly Zakin.
0:03.4	And I'm Danielle Weisberg, and we're the co-founder of The Skim.
0:07.0	Welcome to our podcast, Skims from the Couch.
0:10.0	On every episode we invite smart, inspiring successful women to chat candidly about what it takes to get to the top and then what it's like when you actually get there.
0:18.8	So this is a podcast about the real stuff, the crappy days, the bad advice, the first big career win, and the people
0:24.6	who are there for the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
0:28.2	We started the skim from a couch, and we have only one rule on this one, no B.F.
0:34.0	Melanie Wielin is the CEO of Soul Cycle.
0:38.0	She originally joined as the company C.O. in 2012
0:41.0	and has helped grow the fitness empire from 8 NYC studios to more than 80
0:46.0	across the world and yes she takes class multiple times a week
0:50.0	although I'm gonna ask her more about that.
0:52.0	Before Soul Melanie was the VP of Although I'm going to ask her more about that.
0:53.0	Before Soul, Melanie was the VP of business development for Equinox.
0:56.5	Helped Richard Branson's team launch Virgin America and worked in Corp Dev
1:00.7	for Starwood Hotels. Her dad was actually an entrepreneur so
1:04.5	hustle is in the blood. Welcome to the couch Melanie. Thank you for having me.
1:09.0	We're really excited to have you here. I feel like there should been a tap it back pun in the in the
1:16.3	intro but I'm not witty this that wouldy this morning. But we are really
1:21.6	really excited.
1:23.3	I feel like out of all of the companies
1:27.4	that we think about and look at and study
	...

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