Friendships Forged in Chrome - Elisa Part 2

In part 2 of this episode with Elisa, co-owner of United Pole Artists, Andrea and Elisa discuss goal setting for the year, how friendships in pole are made, enjoying the journey, and they decide to up their pole friendships through the exchange of phone numbers.  

In this Moms Who Pole podcast, Andrea talks with other badass mothers in the aerial arts, fitness, and pole community about health and fitness, body image, and celebrating their passions while balancing motherhood, family obligations, and career life. We discuss the joy and challenges of balancing the busy lives moms lead with a love for dance, fitness, and aerial arts such as pole, lyra, acrobatic chair, and flexibility training.  

This most average mom-who-poles is fueled by copious amounts of afternoon coffee and a passion for supporting other women throughout their movement journeys.  Help me keep our space for busy moms and dance lovers alive through a small contribution here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MomsWhoPole

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Keep on dancing, my friends, and remember: There's enough spotlight for all of us to shine!

Transcript

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Hello, my dears and welcome to this episode of Moms Who Poll. My name is Andrea and I am your most average mom who poll. Hello, my dears and welcome to this episode of Moms Who Poll. My name is Andrea and I am your most average mom who polls. This is part two of my chat with Elisa. We just get to talking and the fun doesn't stop. So we had to divvy this up into two episodes for you. We've got lots of great stuff that we're going to talk about here today, including setting some goals and looking at what's next on the horizon. And hey, you know, I really enjoy talking with Elisa. It looks like we might be taking our friendship to the next level. So let's listen in my friends. I love that part about poll that you can take someone who's in their twenties and they're. Music. Going to be in the same class or the same studio or the same show as someone that could be like in their 60s. And it, you know, they could come from completely different backgrounds, but they have this common interest here that is just about movement. It's about self expression and that there's kind of a place to support that and to support other people in that process. And I find that incredibly alluring about pole in general, that it can bring people together that way. That's probably why you and I vibe so much because there's that, I think we both are drawn to that community aspect. The whole thing and you know, that's what kind of brings you back to it, which has been so hard because I'm not near a studio here. So I don't get to have that. I don't get to have that community aspect in person anymore. I miss it. I was in San Diego and I got to teach some in-person classes in November. I was like, wow, I forgot how much I missed this. That's really cool and I love that. Tell me a little bit though. The AcroStrip show, it's in Long Beach if people are interested, right? And how often do you guys have that? It's in Long Beach the second Saturday of every month, so tomorrow night in Long Beach. However, she's the producer, ace exotic. She's expanding it, you know, and so now for the last few months it's been like two or three shows a month. She, you know, she's trying to get more to to the LA area. So tonight the show is in LA, tomorrow it's in Long Beach. So it's starting to expand. It's now coming into LA, which is very exciting. But yeah, it's been around for a couple of years, I believe. It was previously owned and acquired down the line. But yeah, it's like such a great experience. And there's a lot of shows popping up like that now. I think that are not just necessarily tied to a studio or tied to like a club. So that it's opening a lot of opportunities for people to perform and to experience that, you know? And you are 1000% correct about like, what keeps me whole is the community. That's my favorite thing. I've always said that. It's the people, it's the people, it's the people. Because like for me, performing, whether it's with Acro or other shows, but definitely with Acro because she does a really good job about this. It's like, you know, we get put in a group chat and throughout the month, you know, as you're getting ready for the show, there's all this stuff going. And she has this, instead of saying like, send me your song here, we share it publicly in this chat. So we're all seeing what people are choosing to dance to. And when she asked for photos for promotion, we send it in the group chat and I'll post a picture of what photo I want to use that month. And within five minutes, I'm like, I have all these likes of all my fellow performers who have liked the picture, or I can see which one everybody likes because this picture has five little hearts and this one only has two. And I'm like, okay, I hope she goes for that one. It's just such a beautiful experience that we are there part of each other's like creative process too. In the group chat, somebody has said, hey, can I borrow this from someone? Does somebody have this? Whether it's a prop or a costume piece, or somebody needs an idea for something. It becomes a conversation. And so it's like that sense of community. By the time we get to the show, it feels like family. We all go there to support each other. you know, like, you know, we're cheering, you know, taking pictures, taking video, tipping each other, all that stuff. And I did have a friend of mine who came, asked them, the audience member come to the show. And it was, it was a guy and he said, you know, he noticed that the performers ourselves were there, like, are each other's number one fans, pretty much. Right. And he said that he goes, I love how you all tip each other, you know, And I was like, well, yeah, because we love each other. You know, like, yes, I'm here to perform, but I'm also here to enjoy them, you know, and support them. Right, that experience and broadening your horizons. And again, it speaks to that supporting other people, being their most vulnerable selves to express themselves through movement. And you're supporting someone in that process. and that bonds people in a way that you don't get elsewhere in your life. You certainly don't get that in the corporate world. I certainly don't make it rain on my coworkers. No, definitely not. Going back to the age thing too, I think I mentioned this last time, I have never walked into a studio and had people be like, Oh my god, you're too old to be here. You know, the whole you're too old to be doing this comes from outside It's never come from inside or i've never been like, oh you're a mom So we're not going to talk to you never ever ever if if anything like my son and I were talking about this how, you know just because of family dynamics and you know distance and all that like, He's had more of my pole friends come to different shows or even baseball games than even our own family, like blood family. Know, like, I have a couple of friends who have been... At least to one game at every level that he's played. And it's like, oh my God, that's beautiful. There's something about being in an environment where you may or may not see labial slippage that makes you extremely comfortable like family with another person. I remember years ago, I took a workshop. It was a butter and filth workshop and there was this other student, She and I had taken a couple classes together and we had signed up for this workshop and we didn't really know what to expect. And if you haven't taken one of their workshops, it's well, I know it's changed over the years, so now it's a studio. But at that time it was still in workshop form and it was not like anything I had ever taken before. And it was very much, you know, lots of prompts, lots of being vulnerable and slowing down and really showing who you are. And I just remember returning to the student, the other student that I was partnered with, and we both kind of looked at each other a little scared because we were both still kind of new in our poll journey and we just made this agreement. We were like, okay, we are bonded for life now. Through this workshop. And that's how it's going to be. And it really helped us like the icebreaker to go and be vulnerable and sexy with each other like early on in our poll journey. But just to have that, okay, we're bonded for life. And I think that's what creates that sense of family that you get in that community type of environment. I was talking with one of my students the other day. She's thinking about competing. And she was asking me, you know, pros and cons, what are some good competitions maybe if it's your first time. And she was looking at some virtual competitions and I said, you know, virtual is great if you just want to get out of the way. But if it's your first time and you want the full experience, do an in-person one, because there's so much more to competing than just, you know, working really hard and going up on stage. And we talked about this before. It is the process, the time commitment. That's that's a big one. But the experience of being with other polars and that cheering that happens, the noise, the vibe, it puts you on a high for days afterwards. It absolutely does. Oh my God. Yes. Absolutely. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. There's just that magic moment, you know, and competing or performing, you know, when you're introduced, when you're announced and you can hear your friends and you can hear your fellow pole dancers and and and the audience just cheering for you and that is an absolute high you know i guess is this like the same as runners high I would think, but I don't run, so I don't know. I don't run. I don't run either. I would assume that it's like a runner's high. Yeah, because I've heard that like runner's high. I'm like, well, is there a dancer's high or performer's high, a stage high? And I think there is. I mean, whether it's pole dance or whatever other type of dance, that's why we do it. Because there is that second when they call your name and people want you to succeed and you know they want you to succeed. And talk about being vulnerable. And there's also that little thing, like you want it to be flawless. Of course you want your performance to be great. But there's also that little safety that you know that if it's not flawless, people are, still going to love you. You know what I'm saying? Right. And that is the hardest part for me that's actually kept me from continuing down the competition pathway. The experience of performing in front of a large group is amazing and I love it. And I would do it a thousand times over. Holds me back is my own inner critical self, that perfectionist in me, that if I mess up, I can see on the video afterwards that the crowd cheered for me. They loved me. They supported me. No matter what, you can do anything up there and they will love you. But I cannot hear the crowd cheer if I do something that probably no one saw was a mistake. That's my own problem, that my own little flaw that I need to work on. And I have to make peace with that in order to like, take the stage competitively in person again. I feel like for some reason, virtual competitions, it's not there as much. But it might be because you have that feeling of, oh, I can just run it again. Maybe you're more forgiving. That, you know, during COVID, I did do a couple of like, I've done virtual shows, you know? And I think depending on the setup, like you can hear it, you know, like you can still get a little bit of the sense, but you can't hear the audience. And that was always like the hardest part for me, you know, like I can't think of a virtual show where the audience wasn't muted so that, you know, not to interrupt the dancer, which is great, Because you don't want somebody to be on mute and accidentally, like their roommate walks in asking about like, do we have any more toilet paper in the middle of somebody's performance? of course, you know. But on the other hand it's like you do this whole performance and you don't know how people are reacting and they and you know like there is a little less of that magic of like you know that that's the difference between running something and practicing at the studio even although sometimes we cheer for each other there and that just changes that whole vibe you know saying like, actually that's a perfect example like when you're there and you're doing your own thing versus when you're there doing your own thing and somebody sees it and goes like, whoa, or class or starts sharing or makes a comment. It's all of a sudden you're like, yes, look at me. Exactly. I had a performance in October and we did two shows and at the second show, everything was going so well. And then I messed up on this one little part. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was to me. And the audience saw it. It was visible. I had rocked back out of a split instead of forward to my belly. And I could see the audience go, and I pulled back forward and then continued on to the next move. And they were like, yeah. They cheer that much harder for you when they see you overcome something. Because they go from being a spectator that's receiving your your performance and enjoying it, to being an active participant in your performance and really cheering for you. No, you got this. We really want to see what you do next. Come on, you got this. You can feel them cheering for you instead of, I don't know, clapping for what they see passively. They talk about that a lot in you This is another lifetime ago, but in figure skating, when you interview the figure skaters after nationals or world championships or the Olympics, especially if they have a night where the performance starts off rocky and then finishes strong, more often than not, the skater will say, yeah, I was off to a rocky start, but the audience was cheering for me and I could feel everyone cheering me on and I didn't want to let them down. They talk about that. That relationship with the audience. And these are athletes, these are world-class performers. And during COVID, I think that was really hard for them. They talked about how hard it was to perform with no one in the stands. Like it's almost like it wasn't a fair competition anymore because they couldn't feed off of the audience the way they wanted to. Absolutely, and yes, you made that's a very good point because yes, that happened in baseball. Like a huge baseball fan and even professional baseball players that you're like, wait, you know, you have your team. All the, you know, you heard so many baseball players mention how, there was a difference going and playing the game to an empty, you know, stadium versus having the fans there. You know, it just isn't the same. And I think like sports performances, all that, It you know, it goes back to you will be said it's about community and relations. It's a relationship, You know, it's, Everything is relationship, you know, Yeah, even performance like you said receiving them and giving you know, um, I. Don't I wouldn't drop names anyway, but I remember a while ago there was a conversation conversation either on Instagram or Facebook or something about like a performer had mentioned how sometimes people, were screaming so loud or you couldn't edit out the clapping and all that that it kind of like took away from the performance because you couldn't hear the music as well or something right and it became a discussion and I Guess I could see that, but I, I don't know, like for me, I will always want to hear the audience. Even if I mess up and like you said, you hear the, because then you hear them cheering for you. I, it's that give and take, you know, saying like, you know, performers, obviously we want the attention, but as much as we're giving, we're also receiving, because we're receiving that attention. Here, I'm giving you this dance, you're giving me attention. You're giving me energy because I'm giving you art. You know what I'm saying? You need both. Absolutely. If anyone's listening and thinking about competing, do it for all the fun things that we mentioned. It's 100 percent worth it. Any downside to it really comes from whatever personal self-critical feelings you might have because you're not going to find that level of criticism, at least not now, now that we have, a lot of different types of competitions and a lot of different categories that you can compete in. It's definitely more inclusive than it's ever been before. So speaking of which, so this year, we're still in the early part of 2023. What's your plan for this year? Do you have any plans to compete? Are you performing? I'm like, no. After all that being said about competing, I did it. I don't see myself competing again, just because it was like, I already took away the experience from it. You know what I'm saying? And you know, for people who are like, I want to be on stage or a big stage, but I don't want to compete because I know I'll be too hard on myself or the idea of, you. Know, being judged. I don't like it. Then perform. You know what I'm saying? Like, perform. Like I mentioned before, there's so many opportunities, at least in LA. I sometimes take that for granted. You know, there are so many different opportunities in LA, big and small, you know. So take those opportunities and get yourself on the stage, you know. So being that being said, I don't have any intention of. Competing, but I definitely love to perform. I'm hoping to do a couple of Acro shows this year. You know, I don't really have like a schedule or anything, but and I'm also going to be in a Poll Presentationals Elements Show. And if you're not familiar with Poll Presentationals, would make it is a virtual show. So I mean, after saying all that thing about virtual shows and stuff, right? What I love about what they do is, you know, like, when they do premier virtually, you know, they have a chat. So even though like it's all pre recorded to you, so that already changes a little bit, you know, like, yeah, I wouldn't be hearing the audience as it is. But, you know, like the chat, people like, get on Oh my god, like the comments like so love so much love so much support like I loved it but what they've done recently which is very exciting is now they'll premiere the shows in person at a movie theater I love that I go I know I'm like oh my god imagine me dancing on the big screen that sounds amazing doesn't it so. Speaking with Kimmy the other day because she and I are good friends like we were talking talking talking I was like oh my god I have to do this because I want to walk a red carpet and watch myself perform on a big screen. Yes! So when she puts it up on a big screen, is it like a touring around the country sort of big screen or is it like a one time big screen event? The premiere, yeah, she's like, it's in California. So it's been up in Northern California. This summer, their show themed elements is actually going to be down in Southern California. I don't think she has. Oh, she does have an exact date. Sometime in July. So there's a date, you know, and yeah, they rent out a movie theater and it's a movie premiere. Just like, I don't know, like whatever big movies are like Avatar, you know, like, yeah. That's so cool. That's like, it's like a sexy Rocky Horror Picture Show kind of thing. I mean, yes, exactly. Exactly. So I am so excited. And like I said, they set up a red carpet. So you walk down the red carpet, you get your picture taken, you go to the movie theater, inside the theater, you can buy your snacks if you want, and then you watch this amazing show of all these dancers putting on like a pool show. That's so cool. I love that. Yeah, I, you know, I remember when this was, okay, this is a long time ago, but they used to have the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Yeah. And then for a while Disney owned, I think, the Queen Mary or something like that. So they had to put up notices that guests that were going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show were not allowed to come in just pasties and G-strings anymore. And they had to put that all over the ship. I feel like that happens at PollCon in the old Poll Expo too. Please cover up before you leave. I have a funny story about Poll Expo. We went in, I think it was 2019, that must have been the last one. And my husband does not know poll names that well, but he knows a couple, He knows Marlo. He talks about Marlo all the time because he thinks it's hilarious that there's someone so famous that we all just know Marlo that that's everyone knows who we're talking about. Right. And so he's just he's just teasing me walking around. He's like, but but what does Marlo think about this? Well, is Marlo going to be there? And saying this as we walk by Marlo at Poll Expo and I'm like... Did you just see who we walked past? And he didn't believe me for the longest time, but it was the funniest thing in the world. And I mean, luckily, it didn't turn into a thing, but I was like, sweetheart, like, shut up, please. Well, another thing I wanted to ask you about, so it sounds like you definitely have plans to perform this year. I know last time we talked, And I don't think it must have been after, it must have been offline. It must have been outside of one of these recorded chats. But you had mentioned to me that, you know, in a way this year is a bit of a, or maybe late last year is a bit of a return to poll for you. And so with that, you know, for me, when the new year starts, you know, I kind of, or actually at the end of the previous year, I start looking at, you know, what did I do this year? Did I do what I wanted to do? Do? What am I looking at for the next year? Do you do that not just with your life, but with Paul? And what does that look like for you this year? Yes, I definitely do. I personally love time. I love marking time, you know, because time is cyclical, you know what I'm saying? And so I celebrate the seasons. I celebrate, you know, the year I celebrate my birthday, you know, like, I'm not one of those like, Oh, I'm so over you yours resolutions. I love that make your resolutions set your your your sights on the new year I love that. So yeah, I'm definitely big on that. Which it's funny because like This year and the year before I purposely have tried to keep my I'm just gonna be in a state of open with full, You know, I don't want to set myself with like these high goals of like, you know, I will get this move, like very specific, like I'm staying more open with Poe, but I do definitely have an idea more of like maybe where I want to go with Poe, you know, at the same time, like I said, having this attitude of being open, because I think like, going back to what we were saying about like, well, I want to be who I was two, three, four four years ago now, oh my God, 2019, four years ago. But we don't have a time machine. We can't necessarily go back to that. So I think like, okay, I don't wanna tie myself to an idea. I don't wanna tie myself to what I wanna do. But I know in my heart right now, what I really enjoy with full is performing. So for 2023, my goal really is just like perform. And to be honest, like I have this idea of helping others perform. You know, once again, I don't wanna be an instructor. That's not my goal, but like, you know, as people come up with, you know, like they want to perform here or there, whether it's through ACRO, or I just hear that they wanna perform, like, you know, if they come to me for advice or help or whatever, I love doing that. And so like that idea, I would love to be somehow, and again, it's not monetizing something, it's just something that I enjoy to do would be like to coach people, performance coaching, and not for competing, because that's its own thing. Again, I'm not gonna teach you how to do tricks, but I probably can help you with a little bit of stage presence, because I love that stuff. And costuming, I love costuming. That's where I'm at. Like, what do I want to do? What do I want to? Where is my? Heart and pull and it's definitely in performance and being on stage. So whether that's for myself or maybe helping others, like that's where I'm at, if that makes any sense. It really does. Now I can tell why after only two recorded conversations and one phone call in we're friends because that's totally my vibe. I'm the same way. Actually, Colleen and I coined at one time uh, because I was talking through a performance piece with her and she's calling, she's got plenty of tricks, she does not need my help for any of that, but it was just talking through like concepts and performance and you know a little bit of that and so she called it, she said I was a, performance conciliary. Oh I love that, I love that. Take it. Yes, so if anyone ever has any ideas with costuming or they want to run ideas, please DM me. I'd love to chat with stuff. You can find Alisa on Instagram at at yummy stardust. Yes, yes, come find me. I'm like so excited. But yes, like, you know, like, and you know, that's funny that you say you're right. There are a lot of dancers who have amazing tricks. But to me, like, I really do think that there's a difference between performing and dancing, or doing tricks to music. You know what I'm saying? And there's a way, absolutely, there's a way that you can mix it. I'm never going to be a person who has all these amazing tricks, you know. I'm okay with that, you know. But I have been told by other people like, hey, you know, you're really good at bringing out a character. You're really good at bringing out a song. You're really good at, using costume to tell a story maybe, or, you know, bring a vision to what you're doing. And that to me is like just as a great compliment as being told wow I cannot believe you did blah blah, blah, blah, you know, like I don't even have a list of tricks that I, want to aspire to. At this point, I'm like, if I get my Superman back, I'm going to be the baddest bitch ever. You know? Absolutely. I think so for me for this year, I am making a conscious effort not to focus on, performing or competing. And in previous years, it would like I specifically remember one year I put I am going to perform five times this year, and I ended up performing six times. And I was like, yes, I did it. And this year year specifically, I'm like, I'm not going to do that. Now, if the opportunity arises for me to perform, I will absolutely take it because I love to perform. So, you know, if anything comes up, you put in a good word for me because I do love performing. I think I'm a good performer, but my focus this year is to focus more on more on my own personal journey as it relates to pole. A lot of what I loved about pole definitely was the community. Also unlocking what my body could do. I found that to be such an amazing process. It's one of the things that I loved. I never imagined that my sweaty hands could hold onto a pole and allow me to be anywhere up in the air. And each time I found a new trick, it was unlocking things for me. And last year, probably why Paul and I had a bit of a falling out in that seven year itch. It was that poll became, like you said, not experiencing the moment. It became focused more on the performative aspect of it. Filming something, creating a class plan or creating something for a performance. And there just wasn't as much of that personal joy that was coming out of it, despite the fact that I am completely addicted to poll. And I love it, but for some reason I couldn't be in love with Paul. And so I ended up stepping out and hanging out in the world of contortion, which has benefited my life immensely. And I'm not going to give that up, but I am ready to come home. And so I think part of that means focusing on my own personal relationship with the sport itself and taking a step back from focusing on performing for others. I want to focus on creating for myself. So that's yeah, that's my plan for this year. A random, random story here. So we have to share. So the other the other week, you and I were messaging each other, and then you called me and you apologized for calling me. But I have to tell you, because this speaks to our age. I think we're outing ourselves a little bit. We're old enough that. A phone call like that for me, I was like, Oh, she's calling me that we have, we have transcended to new levels of friendship because he called me and I got all excited to pick up an answer. And the first thing you did was apologize for calling me. I did, I did. And you're right. You're right. I think I even said, I know it's not cool to just call people out of the blue anymore, you know, but I'm like, and I think I did say that too, but I'm old and I need to talk instead of just messaging all this. Right. And I'm old enough to completely appreciate that and love it, but we're young enough to know that it's not cool to call people anymore, but we still love phone calls. Yes. Yes. Yes. I love phone calls. I do. I do. I love phone chats. I love video chats. Yes. It's a good connection. It's a way of leveraging technology while still maintaining a connection to humanity. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But you're right. That day we had to be like, okay, well, we got to put a limit to it because we could talk forever. We could. Yes. True to form as suspected, we've chatted for a long period of time. Which is great though because I think open chats like this, and even bringing it back to to pull for the community. I think this is great. I think, you know, we think of even like podcasts, like, oh, I'm gonna learn something. No, not, maybe you're not gonna learn something from these chats, but it's nice to have these chats. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, hopefully we inspire other people to have these chats with their own friends, you know, and, you know, we will say something that will get people thinking or like maybe see it a different way. And like I said, I will create more chats in our community. Exactly. And I mean, that goes back to the first time that we talked. And I asked you about how we can support other moms. And the Poole community is very open. Absolutely, the Poole community is incredibly inclusive. There is no one that says that we're not supposed to be there. That's not what this is about. This is about that internal voice in your head that says, your child was crying before you left the house. What are you thinking? It's a way to create a soft landing pad for other moms moms that might be experiencing that inner voice of. Guilt or shame or worry or stress and to let them know that there are other people out there that have these internal voices like you're not alone it's totally normal and it is okay. Absolutely, absolutely 100% 1000% I love 1000% even more than 100% because it's like it's that much bigger you know um but yes I I everything you said and we mentioned it like you said last time like, you know, I've never felt excluded from pole because I'm a mom, which would make no sense anyway, you know, and any time you have a lot of women, you're gonna have moms in that mix. And even before there were pole studios at the strip clubs, you had moms, you know what I'm saying? Like it's always been there. So yeah, pole is already a good, you know, community, a good support system for moms or for women or for anybody that comes into it. But also just knowing that, okay, so somebody else has already been through this or somebody else knows what I'm talking about. That just makes it even that much cozier, I guess. Exactly. You don't need to be a scientist to know that everyone needs support and community. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. And like you said, that is definitely my favorite part of Poll. Like anytime that I can chat with someone, connect with someone, whether it's in person at the studio for the first time, you know, I mean, even just the other day, I was dropping something off at one of those studios here. Which was like where I started, it was Luscious Maven in North Hollywood. That's where I started. That was the first Poll studio. I got hooked in at, you know, all that stuff. And I walked in to drop something off for someone And in the lobby, we're all like first time students. This one class is for people who have never touched a pole before. It is specifically for them, right? And so I walked in and I started chatting with Jen Piper there and the CDO manager. And then. I think she got off to do something. I was like, wait, is this like, I realized, oh wait, this is that time. I was like, you guys are all brand new. And they're like, yeah. And I was like, well, it's going to change your life. You know, and I started telling them and all I saw was all these smiles, all this excitement. And I was like, you know, like, I felt like, welcome, I am your greeter. I am your MC before you go on to class. Let me introduce you to this amazing world. And I don't know, it just made my day, you know, just like, so I love connecting. I love connecting to new people. I love connecting to people who have been doing this longer than I have and bringing a different perspective or, you know, show me something, you know, like our community is just, you know, I don't want to be sound so rah rah rah because yes, there are little things that we also have to work on and there's been, you know, we've had learning lessons, you know, we're human, we're gonna have our little cliques, we're gonna have our preferences, we're gonna have our differences, we're gonna have our pettiness, you know, we're gonna have our falling outs. Like if I sat here and told you that I am best friends with everyone that I've ever been friends with through poll, I would be lying. You know, I've had some friendships fade away, you know, and interestingly, I had friendships fade away and I realized that the the core of the friendship was poll. I saw them. I was like, I see them all the time. I saw them at the studio all the time. Once I didn't see them at the studio all the time, I realized it's almost like a work friend. They're not part of your life. Right. They're only part of that part of your life. But once you take that away, we didn't have anything outside of that. And there's nothing wrong with that either. You know what I'm saying? Just like I said, like your work friends, That's your best friend. You see them every day. We know everything about you. The minute one of you goes to a different office or gets a different job, you never talk to that person again. And so I've had friendships like that. And even before COVID, somebody would move and you're like, I wanna keep in touch with you. No, you don't. And it's okay. I've also had the very real, cause it's life, like I said, I've had falling outs with some very good friends that I met through poll and I was like, well, we like almost like you said, we have this lifelong connection because we were vulnerable with each other. How can I ever not have this person as my best friend? Life happens, you know? And so, you know, like... I guess it goes back to the beginning. It's all relationships. Exactly. And like you said, we go through seasons and sometimes you're up in a relationship, sometimes you're down, time is cyclical. It all comes back full circle there. That is very interesting. So I got to ask too, have you or can you share with me anything big coming up for UPA this year? Anything you can share? Or is it still too early? We're brewing things. We have ideas. There's things brewing. You know. Stay tuned. Yes, stay tuned. We're, like I said, we are really trying to refocus on, you know, being a community platform. You know, we were trying like, for a while, we were trying to have at least one post a day, one post a day, one post a day. We've actually kind of slowed down on our posting. So if people DM us and share stuff with us, please be patient. We also get a ridiculous amount of DMs, which is very flattering and we appreciate you all, but sometimes, you know, we both have full-time jobs, full-time families. We don't always get to go through everybody's DM like that day. So, but yeah, we want to continue to highlight different dancers, you know, new dancers, beginner dancers. We wanna celebrate the first, you know, invert as much as we wanna celebrate the most amazing full trick from 14 feet up that we can find, you know. We do plan on being at PolCon as always, you know, that's we're trying to figure out the logistics. Both of us might not be there again this year, but we will figure that out. And we, like we really have this idea of having like community almost like town halls or community like you know open chats, you know, on our page and that's something we're focusing on. We have a couple of ideas for topics that and one is with you if I can show that. Yeah, yes, I'm really excited for that. Yes, so once we get things figured out, I would love to have like, like I said, community chats that I think will, you know, maybe not necessarily teach someone something, but get the conversation going and hopefully people will take that out into the bigger communities, into their studios, into their friend groups, into their, you know, their own video chats, their podcasts, and just to keep making this community continue to make it, because it already is just this fun, inclusive place. Absolutely. Well, that's really exciting. We'll have to stay tuned and see what the specifics are of that. I know I'm really excited to continue to chat with you guys on other platforms. I'm looking forward to that as well. I really appreciate all the support that you've shown me. Even before this podcast started, you showed me a lot of support. I really appreciate that. I know we're vibing because we can take those phone calls with Joy and also apologize at the same time. I know. The next step I thought about it this morning when I was running late. I was not like, man, I wish I had her number. Well, I'm asking her for her number next. Yeah. That's so funny because I was thinking that right beforehand too. I'll message you my number so you have it. So then, yeah, we can take our relationship to the next level and text. Look at this. See, it goes back to your relationship. Well, thank you so much, Alyssa. I really appreciate you talking with me again. Thank you for everything you do for the poll community. I love the way you show up for your fellow pollers and just show support for everyone as a whole. So thank you so much. Thank you for your kind words. And thank you for your support. And thank you for inviting me again. I'm like, I didn't know I was this interesting, but thank you. Absolutely we're vibing. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode, my friends. If you enjoyed today's episode, please feel free to give us a big thumbs up, five star like, subscribe, depending on what modality you happen to be listening in on. Check out the show notes below for ways that you can support this podcast, which is currently fueled by copious amounts of afternoon coffee by yours truly and a passion for supporting women in their pull and movement journeys. Until next time, my friends, keep on dancing and remember there's enough spotlight for all of us to shine. Music.