Episode 192
January 9, 2024

Connection, Community and Conversation

with Julie Rice, Co-Founder and CEO of Peoplehood

About this episode

Today’s guest fell into entrepreneurship when she started to create experiences with her own needs in mind. Julie Rice is the Co-Founder and CEO of Peoplehood, where she facilitates deep conversation and connection to develop ‘relationship fitness’. During this episode, she shares her childhood passion for theatre, talks about the start of her career in talent management in New York, and tells the story of how she built and exited her first startup, SoulCycle. Tune in to hear all this and more!

This episode is sponsored by

Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:

AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high-touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats. 

 

In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

[02:16] How growing up as a theatre lover in small town New York started her off on a creative and collaborative path.

[06:24] Early leadership tendencies, working in the entertainment industry, and translating those skills to working in brand.

[12:44] The story of SoulCycle’s inception in New York in 200; starting with a business plan on the back of a napkin.

[17:11] Starting and growing SoulCycle and the premise that motivated Julie and her business partner to start Peoplehood.

[26:41] What Peoplehood is and how it is unfolding as a business.

[34:02] Tips for truly getting to know the people in your sphere.

[43:28] Communication insights from Peoplehood and advice for entrepreneurs.

 

To Find Out More:

Julie Rice on LinkedIn

Peoplehood

SoulCycle

Lee Greene Email

Lee Greene on LinkedIn

Stairway to CEO

Stairway to CEO on Instagram

 

Quotes:

“For me, the great fun in any business that I create is really about collaboration and the gifts that different people can bring to a project.” [0:06:34]

“Community and team activity is something that I’ve always loved participating in.” [0:07:04] 

“A lot of the things that I learned in the entertainment business absolutely affected the way that I thought about brand building.” [0:09:55]

“Brand is really about who you want to be in the world; what does it feel like, sound like,, what does it smell like, what does it look like?” [0:10:13]

“The funny thing is, I never set out to be an entrepreneur. I never actually thought of myself that way until people started to use the word retroactively.” [0:15:14]

“We created something that we wanted to use.” [0:15:31]

“As an entrepreneur, having a business partner, if you can find the right partner, is great.” [0:18:14]

“We began to think about what it would look like to create something that was relational fitness; a place where we could teach people how to listen to each other, how to talk to each other and build a different kind of muscle.” [0:23:13]

“When you look at all the information out there, what we know for sure is that we cannot lead physically or mentally healthy lives without being in productive relationships.” — Julie Rice [0:24:17]

“We spend so much of our lives and our time in relationships and we really don’t spend the intentional time figuring out how to be in these relationships.” — Julie Rice [0:24:49]

“What people really want from people they are in relationships with is to feel heard by them, to feel seen by them, and to feel like their opinions matter to somebody.” — Julie Rice [0:27:29]

“What we’re doing at Peoplehood is really giving somebody space to peel the layers of their own onion.” — Julie Rice [0:31:46]

“An underpracticed and underappreciated skill is listening.” — Julie Rice [0:33:28]

“There’s something about stepping back and letting someone finish that is very powerful.” — Julie Rice [0:42:00]

Read the transcript

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