Erica Hood  00:00

You’re never going to know anything right away when you do something. You have to like, take that first jump. And then as you go, you start to put the pieces together because there’s just an abundance of things for you to have to figure out and pieces to put to…It’s like building a puzzle. You don’t just have a complete puzzle, you have to go piece by piece, right? But you have to start with one piece.

Lesley Logan  00:28

Hey you, how are ya? Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It Podcast. I am so excited. I think I say that every episode, and I’m gonna keep saying it. Because, first of all, this podcast is still very new for me. So it’s freaking exciting that we get to do this and that you are joining us and I get to introduce you to some of my favorite people on this planet, including today’s guest, Erica Hood, the founder of HoodFit. I cannot even wait for you to listen to this. So what I’m gonna say is, please check out all of her goodness in the show notes below. She has an incredible fitness company – it’s dance cardio, it’s so fun. I don’t even like to dance, and I take her classes. And also check out on the Gram, you will love her and be inspired by her. She’s one of the sweetest people, she just got a puppy. So I’m all about checking out her puppy pics. If you need a puppy fix, that’s what you should do. Anyways, what I can’t wait for you to hear in this podcast is really how she went from being someone who worked for other people to working for herself. And I think a lot of times we get scared about, how do we do that? And we probably wonder, how do you do that? And you’re going to hear how she did it. And I think you’re gonna hear a lot about a lot of something that feels familiar to you. So what I want you to do is make sure you’re being present, listen to this. And then afterwards let me know how you liked it because Erica and I, we just really want you to hear this information, hear her story. You’re gonna hear the interview right after this brief message. 

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It Podcast, where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I’m Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I’ve trained thousands of people around the world. And the number one thing I see stopping people from

Lesley Logan  02:15

achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity. And it’s the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It’s a practice, not a perfect. Let’s get started.

Lesley Logan  02:43

Hello, everyone. I can’t wait for our next guest just to start talking. She is one of my favorite women on this planet. And I have to say this: you’re someone who I was so intimidated to meet. And when you all hear her voice and start getting to know her there’s like nothing intimidating about her. But Erica has this like elegance and grace and just an ability and she’s beautiful. And we both were, we both are ambassadors for this one fitness business Carbon38. And, you would just take pictures and be so beautiful. And they’re like, okay, and they had to tell me how to pose everything like, Now put your shoulder here, do this. And then Erica, you come up and like, just do all the right things. And I’m like, This girl is so beautiful. And then you start talking and you’re also so freakin nice. And so what I can’t wait to chat about is the many adventures we’ve had together. And one of the reasons why I brought you on here. But first will you introduce yourself, tell everyone who you are?

Erica Hood  03:42

Thank you for that lovely introduction. You’re so sweet. Hi, everyone. My name is Erica Hood. I’m the creator and founder of HoodFit, which is a women’s based fitness company. We focus on moving to the rhythm connecting to our mind, body and soul by moving to the music and to the beat. You can expect to get in my classes, kind of that dance, Pilates Barre vibe throughout the class, you’re going to sweat, move to feel good. It’s just all about programming my workouts to deliver to women to connect to themselves on a deeper level. So like yes, the workouts are gonna be intense, and it’s gonna be sweaty, but it’s gonna have you feeling so good from the inside out – that energized movement where you just kind of allow yourself to tap into that place where you have that moment of freedom. And I think that’s where I come from in that place. When you say oh, you would just jump up and do things is like, I would just move and open up and not think about things. I would just express myself through movement. So I love sharing that gift with people and that’s kind of what HoodFit is all about that I built.

Lesley Logan  04:54

Yeah, I love that and it’s so true because when I have taken Dance during your dance classes with you those cardio dance classes, once I get over the fact that like, I can’t dance and I just try to keep up, it is so much fun and you catch yourself smiling and sweating. And I think that it’s a permission that a lot of women have a hard time giving. So I really love that you are on a mission to do that. We both recently moved to the desert where queens have desert life now. We’re making desert life look a little different. Um, and I remember it because you live in Palm Springs now. And I’m in Las Vegas, we moved about a month apart from LA. And it was a couple years ago that you and I were on a drive to Palm Springs together to go on a retreat, we had the top down on the Jeep, maybe this is three years…this is before I got rid of my car. And you had just launched your company. And you know, I want to talk about the story. Because I think it’s really interesting. A lot of people think they have to know all the things that they…all the parts of what they want to do. But when we did that drive you didn’t, I’m just gonna blow it. You didn’t know anything about what HoodFit would be. You’re just like, I’m like, I’m launching HoodFit! So can you share a little bit about like, what it felt like and what that was like, a couple years ago, when you didn’t know all the parts?

Erica Hood  06:22

This, this really is one of my favorite things because now seeing how far we’ve come and like what we’ve built. Now I have moments where I reflect back, and I’ll never forget the drive in the Jeep with you. Because I literally was like, I think I’m just gonna push live and we’re gonna go live on the phone, right that like, I’m gonna launch my socials, everything’s gonna be live like and out to the world. And I was asking you all these questions like, Well, wait, how do I do this? And you were telling me all these fundamental business things that you were implementing. And I was like, I don’t even know how to do that. Well, what is that, and I’m and there was this moment that like rushed over me of like, I don’t know what I’m doing. But you know, what I’m going to do and commit to is that I’ve worked my way up in all the years of experience that I’ve had in my fitness professional field, which was already, you know, eight plus years of working for other people and gaining that experience, you know, being the head trainer and other places, but it’s different when you finally go off on your own. And when you’re building something from the ground up. I think that you just have to take that leap of faith and just dive in again, without overthinking it. And you were the best person that could have been in the car with me at the moment. Because as much as I felt like there was that part of me going, she’s talking all these things in these words and I don’t know this fancy business lingo and like what she’s saying. And then there was this part of me that says, I just have to do this. And then once I put it out there, I’m going to continue to like I’m not, you’re never going to know anything right away. When you do something, you have to like, take that first jump. And then as you go, you start to put the pieces together because there’s just an abundance of things for you to have to figure out and pieces to put to..it’s like building a puzzle. You don’t just like you don’t just have a complete puzzle, you have to go piece by piece. Right? But you have to start with one piece.

Lesley Logan  08:26

Oh, absolutely. And you know, I think there’s like a curse of too much knowledge and, and you had like gone live. And then we were talking about it. And I was like, Oh, thanks. So glad she posted before we started talking about all these things. Because if I think some people are like, no, I need to know all the information. I think of like, if you ever read the book by Gretchen Rubin, about four tendencies, like the questioners. They have to ask all the questions, and I feel for them because like, having all the information doesn’t actually make it easier for you to like, take that first step. And in fact, puzzles like you brought up puzzles, those 1000 piece puzzles, I don’t even buy them. Like you couldn’t ever even get me…I’m like, that’s, that’s, I don’t know. And I have the picture and the steps and you can do the frame really quickly. And I’m like, No, this is too much. I definitely love a messy action kind of taking. And so since then, you’ve been really working hard and growing this and you have a following and so many people, you know, right before COVID we were at this amazing event, where you had like rep your womanhood and I just I love how you bring women together and how you really encourage them. But I want to go back like pre HoodFit, pre you being a trainer. Tell us a little bit about like when you were growing up, how you kind of like maybe what there was signs of like you were destined to do this.

Erica Hood  09:48

Oh, well, I can think back to you know, it was like middle school days. Where I started off as a dancer at the age of three. And my mom, she tried to put me in sports. And she, you know, she was like, because I always asked her I’m like, Did I just always dance like, Did I not ever want to do? And she’s like, I would try to enroll you in soccer and you would say, well, am I gonna wear a pink uniform? And my mom would say, Well, I can’t promise you anything, you know? And I’d say, well, then I don’t want to play. So I mean, I kind of always have this thing for wanting to wear fun things and move my body to the music. And I would rush home to catch…Do you remember that show TRL?

Lesley Logan  10:34

I do remember it. But my parents wouldn’t buy cable so I could only watch it at my grandparents house.

Erica Hood  10:41

Oh, I tell you, I would rush home to watch TRL. I mean, this was when music videos were like the thing. And you would watch all of your favorite artists. I mean, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, I would learn the dances, the back like I would like learn the dances on the thing and like be dancing around in the living room. And like my brothers…

Lesley Logan  11:00

This is before YouTube. Before you could even rewind and like do it again. You had to like learn it on the fly,

Erica Hood  11:06

Yes. You had to learn it on the fly. Or if you were lucky, you could get your VCR and record it. Like sometimes I would record an episode of TRL on the VCR. And I would play it back to learn the steps. And I was so…Like, I just love the performance aspect. I love seeing the artists, the music moved me and I was like I want to know those steps. And it was true. There wasn’t a way to connect like we can on our phones to find something so quickly, and to pause and stop. And so I was learning the dances and I wanted to be that backup dancer so badly. I wanted to be that. I saw that. And I was so cool because it came so full circle for me, like many years later, after I had gone to college, and I got my dance degree and I focused on that. Then I moved to Los Angeles, and I pursued my dance career. As a dancer I got signed with an agent. And I actually got to perform in music videos. And it was just this like,

Lesley Logan  12:05

Oh, we have to go into which music videos. I mean, people are gonna wanna know.

Erica Hood  12:11

I mean, I did some random music videos. Like so, for an artist, she’s not random, Luciana, she’s kind of a techno, deep house kind of artist. And I did a ton of music videos for her like we were doing Pointe work where you’re like in your pointe shoes on the wooden box on concrete for eight hours until my toes were bleeding. I mean, but I was like, as much as it was painful I was like in this state of bliss. Just being..like so amazed that like that little girl. That little girl that would dance in her living room was now dancing in the music videos with artists. That’s another…

Lesley Logan  12:56

Like watching and like on their toes trying to be because you know that.. the music videos haven’t stopped. They’re still going. People are now watching TikTok videos.

Erica Hood  13:09

I can’t imagine what it would be like if we had TikTok when we were little.

Lesley Logan  13:13

You know, um, your whole story made me think of…Did you ever watch the movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun? Yes. Oh, I mean, when they’re like changing their clothes on the bus, and then they’re like, going and like watching. I love that. I love everything about that movie.

Erica Hood  13:31

It’s so good.

Lesley Logan  13:33

Yeah. So Erica, um, I think there’s a lot of fear in taking that leap. And like, what if this doesn’t work? So what did you have to tell yourself back when you, back when you launched and you really didn’t know all the steps? And then even even recently, because now you’ve launched your app, and it’s not like, you know, if you build it, they will come…that is not how it works, y’all, it doesn’t work like that.

Erica Hood  14:02

No, no, I wish.

Lesley Logan  14:05

I wish. I mean, I wish. Remember, like, probably in the 90s when everything was new? People would develop something and everyone would come and get it. But now there’s just so many things and so many distractions that you have to really like, like it’s a risk every time you do something and it’s a real one. And so the fear is real. Yes, but what isn’t? What did you tell yourself every time you’ve taken a leap when you don’t know how it’s gonna turn out?

Erica Hood  14:29

Well, you know what, the fear is so real and I have to say like, I am one that kind of struggles with that because as much as I am free spirited and will go in when something feels right to me and like it. You know? I felt like when I was younger, and I didn’t overthink things as much, I was more daring and I did…like fear wasn’t a thing. Like as you gain more responsibilities when you’re older. I feel like everything becomes more real and you’re like, oh, if this doesn’t go right like..That fear creeps in and then you feel super responsible for messing something up. But for me, I had to have a little bit of encouragement from my partner. So, Mr. Jordan Hood, my husband, just like the best, most supportive husband, ride or die best friend that I’ve ever had. I remember before we launched HoodFit, and like before I went with you on the trip in the jeep, like officially, like put everything up. So I love that. I just love that I did that in the car, like top down, I’m like, here we go. We’re watching.

Lesley Logan  15:37

We had our very expensive lattes, and we were driving to Palm Springs letting the sun just really beat on our faces.

Erica Hood  15:46

We really baked. I was able to do that, because I had this encouragement from him. And I, you know, I have to talk things through. A lot of times I like to keep them inside and all it does is just mull around in my head. And then I go into this spiral where it’s like negativity and fear. So I started telling Jordan all these things and it became this like, well, what if it doesn’t succeed? And what if people don’t like it? And what if nobody actually signs up? Or like, does my workouts or does my classes, and he stopped me. And he goes, you’re already doing it. And I was like, What do you mean? He’s like, you already have a client base, you’re already doing sessions, you’re already teaching people and you’ve been doing this for like, literally half your life when you started teaching dance at the age of 15. And like, you’re just making it official and calling it your business. And like doing that. And he goes, and even if you fail, you have me, you have our familys’ support. So like, nothing can really go wrong. It’s not like you’re gonna hit rock bottom, we’re not gonna let you do that. Like, you have to take this and just try. And I’ll be here right here with you through it all. And I’m like, okay, like I needed that pep talk. Because then I was able to let go of all those spiraling what ifs, and you know, fear in my head, I…

Lesley Logan  17:21

I love that you shared the story. I didn’t know that you had this conversation with him. But I think it’s really important. When we play things out in our head it..for most people, I am one of the most positive people anyone would ever meet. And if I told you the story that I tell myself, the things, you’d be like, you think that? And I think, yea I’m a human being. We’re human beings. And especially, you said it. Like, the more responsibility you get, the more those fears can take hold, like, every time we take another leap and another level, the responsibility of what we could lose,if it doesn’t go well. It’s a bigger risk, right? And so your story reminded me of this time I was in this place. This is three years ago now. It’s probably about when you were in my jeep. We were in Denver. And it was one of the first events that I’ve been to where I was brought in for the energy and the community and something I totally aligned with and I had 85 people in my class 85. Now, I had not..I’ve never taught 85 people at once, right? And in the front row are people who like, had been teaching as long if not longer than me. Right? And it wasn’t like they’re there to be like my front row like, no, like, they were there to support me, but like, my brain was like, Oh, my God, these people are so, they’re like so known. They’re so huge. And then next to them was a bunch of our friends from Carbon, who had never done Pilates before. So now I’ve got people who have no idea what they’re doing. I’ve got people who know, way too much, and 85 people. And Brad was there. He was doing the filming. But he was there to help mic me up and I said, is this thing on? He goes no. And I said, I’m really nervous. And he’s like, why? And he’s like, how is this different than anything you’re already doing? And I was like, Well, when you put it like that. It’s, Yeah. But it’s so funny, because if I hadn’t said anything to him, I would have just been nervous. It would have in my head like, Oh my god, all this stuff. And it’s like, hey, so important. I hope anyone listening…it’s like, whatever you’re afraid of whatever’s going on in your head. You have to have someone, if it’s not your partner, you need to find a friend. If you don’t have a friend, well, tell me on Instagram and I’ll help you find a friend like. Like that is something that I really love about like, even the communities I created. Like, I really want to make sure that there’s a space where people know it’s okay to say I’m afraid I can’t do x. Like because then when you get it out, first of all, it takes a lot of its power away because nothing that we’re creating…It’s like, it’s we’re not afraid….We’re not brain surgeons. Right? Like, the reality of it going wrong is like, you know, we’re not saving the world or making a decision about other people’s lives. Like it’s really all coming from a good spot. So thank you for sharing the story. It’s so, it took me back. And it’s something I have to remind myself and I try to do it more often. I try to tell even my team like, Hey, I’m really worried that we’re not doing x. And then they’re like, Well, here’s all the ways that we are. And sometimes you just, you are too close to something to actually see that what you’re fearing isn’t real. So yeah,

Erica Hood  20:39

I love that. I mean, I think, too, because I mean, I’m the same as you, I’m a super positive person. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the doubts, the fear, all of that, that goes into when you’re stepping into your bigger and higher self. When you’re evolving as a person there’s always going to be those moments where you’re having to change, and there’s gonna be things that are emotionally going on inside you, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have your shit together, like you’re still on top of your work. And you’re still going to show up in the way that you know, to show up. But it doesn’t mean that on the back end, that you’re still having those feelings just like everyone else. So it’s important for it to be talked about and shared more often.

Lesley Logan  21:22

I agree, I really agree. And I also think, like, the only way you can get to being the person that you like, maybe are thinking is enough, even though you already are enough, is to get out there and do it. Like you can’t do it in your head. Like you can’t become a better version of yourself just in your brain.

Erica Hood  21:40

No. You have to do the actions and you have to have good people around you.

Lesley Logan  21:46

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I think we are lucky, we have husbands who are very, very supportive and very involved.

Erica Hood  21:54

Yeah, it’s so true.

Lesley Logan  21:58

Um, what would you say? Do you have any advice or tips for people who maybe, maybe they’re single, maybe they’re alone? Maybe their family isn’t..Super, like, my family wasn’t super entrepreneurial. So I had to surround myself with entrepreneurs, because they’re like, What are you? Why can’t you just take time off? You just work for yourself. And it’s like, I don’t think you know what that means. So, like, do you have any tips or advice for people who maybe don’t have a partner who can actually, like, calm the fears?

Erica Hood  22:27

Yeah, I would say, you know, try to start thinking about the circles of people that you’re surrounding yourself with. And there was something…I’ll bring up Lori Harder, because she had, she’s such the most, I can’t say, I almost can’t even speak about her, because I think I just like… we went to her…

Lesley Logan  22:50

Oh, talk about that. That was so huge for us. Yeah,

Erica Hood  22:53

I was. Oh, my God. Oh,

Lesley Logan  22:57

That was okay. So this is probably when we really actually became friends. Because there was that modeling thing we were both at together where we talked. And then it was probably a month later, maybe a month and a half later that we were both, we won tickets to go to Lori Harder’s bliss project. And oh, my god, that was, that was a whirlwind. And so you and I were there, we’d won the ticket, we got to do this event. And what, we’ll have to go back and tell more about this. But I remember looking at you at the end of it going, Oh my god, we’ve already done this together. Like we’ve already been here before. And you and I had never hung out. So why I had this vision of us already being in that space in that room. And then you looked at me like and said I think you’re gonna win another ticket. And I did! But anyways, that was a trip down memory lane. So explain to everyone how that helped you.

Erica Hood  23:52

Okay, so she does such a good job at putting things together and she’s built businesses, she’s come such a long way, from like, a place when you’re talking about like, Oh, my family doesn’t really understand it, or maybe support it, like she will openly talk about that with her upbringing, right? And like, my family supports me, but maybe they just don’t quite understand, like this new space that I’m navigating and like, the business that I’m trying to build, you know, in a different way. So like kind of taking from stuff that I learned from her too, is she’ll say, you have to think about the circles of people that you’re surrounding yourself with, you get to choose that, like that’s your choice. You know, if you’re a shy person or not as an outgoing person, you may have to put yourself out there to open yourself up to meet people, you kind of have to step outside of your comfort zone to invest in yourself. If you want to really take it to that next level. And that can mean a lot of things when you invest in yourself. That can mean signing up for, you know, a weekend event like that, that we went to where you walk away with tools and encouragement, and you meet people there and you network, you know, it can be, you know, meeting people online, joining different communities like and groups on these social channels that, you know, there’s there’s so many out there, I mean, you can literally find someone that has a group that has an interest towards yours or something like…

Lesley Logan  25:25

And that’s the thing. Imagine back in the 90s. If you and I were trying to do this back then there would be like, there was nothing. But now, it’s just a symbol of like, you can look online and find other people that are doing something that you’re interested in doing. And yes, it does mean like, saying, Hi, it’s me, can I be your friend? But that’s how we became friends. It’s like being in this environment. I’m like, Oh, my God, look at all these women who are basically trying to do what we’re doing. And, that’s been like, if we hadn’t done that, who knows? So it’s like, that’s it. I love that piece of advice. It’s like, you can do a little research, you can find people but it’s so true. Who we surround ourselves with really does make a massive difference and things and so if you don’t have those people like naturally, because of the way you, the family you have, like you have to seek it out. So you can have those people around you to go to.

Erica Hood  26:21

Yeah, yeah. Okay,

Lesley Logan  26:24

So, before we go into some tips that I know people are going to love because they’re so useful. Where can everyone follow you find you get to know more of you?

Erica Hood  26:34

So you can find me on Instagram, Erica, HoodFit. And then my company you’ll see through there as well, at HoodFit. We have a YouTube channel that’s accessible, we wanted to put workouts for people to do free at any time, you can find workouts there and on Instagram. And then we also have our app, which is just like an even deeper dive into connecting with our sweat-sisterhood community. And you can find that on our website, which is just at HoodFitLife.com.

Lesley Logan  27:03

Amazing. We will put all these in the show notes. So definitely, if you’re out on a run, don’t worry. I’m on it. Right. So I believe that Being It Till You See It is the way things actually get done. And the way we actually can have all that we want to have. And I think that you know Being It is like being bold, it’s finding ways to be more executable, it’s finding that intrinsic drive and you know, something is more targeted. So, do you have tips on how to be any of those things, or how to even just prioritize being it till you see it?

Erica Hood  27:40

I think you know, you have to get right with yourself. I think a lot of times we look externally for different things. And I love the whole be till you see it because to me, all I hear and see in that is action, taking actionable steps, like you’re saying, be bold and be all these things. And that, to me is taking action. I think a lot of times, we can kind of like sit back, and maybe even like journaling and writing things down. Those are great things. It’s so great to like manifest things, but to actually put into action to make those things a reality is what I feel like a lot of times people are sometimes missing. And you know, if I really kind of like gotta go back and deeper into that, I feel like it’s it’s knowing who you are, getting right with yourself, knowing what your what your mission is, what your values are, what your passion is, that drives you to then be able to open yourself up to take action to get to where you want to be. Like, I feel like it has to start in a deep rooted place.

Lesley Logan  28:48

Yea, I think I think that’s so true. I think it gets um, you know, as you were saying that one thing that I don’t know, that I knew on a conscious level, but subconsciously is like you to be it to use it. You have to be yourself and the place that you want to be, right? And so you have to like it. The only way to be yourself is to really take some time to get to know who you are. And like what that drive is. It’s out there for you. And I think that it’s easy to look externally at others to figure that out and really going inward and getting clear on that so that you can take that action. I love that so much. I love you so much. I’m so happy for you. Oh, I love that we are still like four hours away. And that we get to you to have another summer where we go okay, How hot is it where you live? I know. Erica Hood, you are amazing. You’re my most favorite people on this planet. So thank you for taking time to share your journey and your wonderful wisdom with everyone listening, everyone. Until next time, please be it till you see it. 

That’s all I’ve got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It podcast!

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Lesley Logan  30:13

Help us help others to BE IT TILL YOU SEE IT. Have an awesome day!

—

Lesley Logan

‘Be It Till You See It’ is a production of ‘As The Crows Fly Media’.

Brad Crowell

It’s written, produced, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan

Kevin and Bel at Disenyo handle all of our audio editing and some social media content.

Brad Crowell

Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan

Special thanks to our designer Jaira Mandal for creating all of our visuals (which you can’t see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all the video each week so you can.

Brad Crowell

And to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.