My Experience Auditioning For SoulCycle

Yesterday I auditioned to be an instructor at SoulCycle.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t make it past the first round. Which I’m not totally surprised about. But it was a great experience and I’m glad I decided to go for it.

Why I Decided To Audition In the First Place

Because I’ve auditioned for almost every other fitness studio in NYC except SoulCycle? I’m half kidding, but six years ago when I first decided I wanted to be in fitness it sure felt like I was auditioning for every single studio in this city.

For some reason I never auditioned at SoulCycle, though. Partially because I didn’t think I was “cool” enough. I don’t have any tattoos or funky piercings.

I honestly also thought I’d never teach at Y7 because of my lack of “cool” vibes. I def still don’t give off cool vibes, but I guess that didn’t stop me from getting hired by Y7.

I’ve never been a Soul “regular” because money but it’s always been my favorite of the spin options in NYC. One night I was perusing around the SoulCycle website, as one does, and I realized instructor auditions were coming up.

In many ways being a SoulCycle instructor would be a dream come true. I love the class. I love teaching. I’ve been told I’m really loud as a yoga teacher. And it would mean having a full-time gig with benefits in the fitness industry. That’s basically unheard of.

So I decided to audition because WHY NOT. What’s the worst that can happen?

 

The audition.

I’ve always been curious what goes down at a SoulCycle audition. I only got to see a snippet of it because I didn’t make it past the first round, but guys it was INSANITY. I felt like I was in A Chorus Line. At least 150 people auditioned yesterday. THAT IS A LOT OF PEOPLE! Before going into the room to ride it was real loud in the studio. Like apparently everyone was auditioning with friends and seemed to know each other? I kind of felt like I was on some bizarre fitness instructor reality TV show in which everyone showed up with fancy blowouts and in their best Lululemon. Okay, I was guilty of the latter but def put zero effort into my hair.

The first part was riding as a pack. For 15 minutes we were given different tempos, moves and paces to follow. While all this was going on veteran SoulCycle instructors walked around the room to make notes about us and if we were riding on the beat. I’ll be honest, I’m not the most seasoned Soul rider so was definitely a little worried about nailing all the bike choreography.

The most powerful part was riding in a crowded room with everyone working their ass off to be on tempo, despite all the nervous energy buzzing around.

Afterwards bike numbers were called out of people moving onto the next round which would have involved teaching on the podium.

 

I’m not heartbroken I didn’t get past the first round

Yes becoming an instructor would be “lifechanging” but I also wasn’t banking on it happening. I joked with my mom beforehand that I was going in with low expectations, an open heart and my loud mouth.

 

i’m glad I did it, though

It’s easy to call yourself out before you even do the thing. I was pretty close to not applying to teach at Y7 because I thought they would laugh in my face. And full transparency: I didn’t get the gig the first time I auditioned. I got to the final round of auditions and received amazing and super helpful feedback. But I wasn’t ready.

A year later I decided to audition again, and here I am — I taught my first class there last Saturday.

If it’s meant to be, it will be

Let me get woo-woo on you for a second. I’ve become a huge believer that things will happen when they are supposed to.

For example: Not getting hired at Y7 last summer ended up being a blessing in disguise. The timing would’ve been awful. I was still in grad school and had just started teaching sculpt at CorePower Yoga. Yes, I would have made it work, but I’m happy I instead got to focus on really getting confident as a sculpt teacher.

Now, a year later, I have the capacity to really dive in as a Y7 instructor and master their class style.

If I’m meant to be a SoulCycle instructor, it will happen later. Will I audition again? Maybe. Depending on what’s going on in my life during the next round of auditions.

Instead I’m taking it as a woo-woo sign from the universe that this right now was not the opportunity for me. And I’m fine with that.

✨

Your Turn: When’s the last time you put yourself out there for your career aspirations?