It's early January, 2022, and employees are making their way back into their area offices

in New York City's Flatiron District after the winter holidays.

It's a weird time of year, isn't it?

Reentering the world after two weeks of vacation-induced indulgence.

Winter, having lost the allure of the holiday season, is now just really damn cold.

Peloton is dealing with a bit of a business hangover.

From mid-2020 to mid-2021, Peloton was flying high.

Once wasted off consumer and investor hype, executives were finding reality to be much more sobering.

In fact, their world is imploding and fast. Holiday sales came in well under expectations.

Fewer customers were using the Peloton app. The river of cash that was flowing during the

pandemic is quickly drying up. As people go back to the gyms, who would have thought that would happen?

Certainly not done fully.

The steady income stream of dedicated pedal pushers suddenly feels dehydrated.

Peloton stock after reaching the stratosphere in a pandemic-influenced mania for at-home exercise equipment is down more than 80%.

And panic is setting in.

In a frenzied attempt to save face, executives are in an emergency meeting at the Peloton HQ.

Their objective, avoid unembarrassing, told you so, from all the people

who saw this coming from miles away. The executives in the room agreed. There was a lot of ground to cover.

Our app is terrible, said one exact. We have a lot of unforced errors, another chimed in.

Unbeknownst to those gathered on the call, one participant records the discussion and leaks

the recording to Business Insider.

The recording gives a glimpse into the groundbreaking strategy Peloton was about to deploy to reverse its declining

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