Maria Costello was already a pro at pivoting when the pandemic hit. As the founding instructor at 3 studios on Long Island all while maintaining her full-time position in a corporate company, she knows a thing or two about staying balanced when things get hectic…oh and did I mention she just had a baby in June?
When Maria transitioned into working from Long Island a few years ago, she looked forward to having a better work life balance but what she didn’t expect was just how much she’d feel the loss of the fitness community after leaving the city. What she found in the big box gyms on Long Island left her feeling unfulfilled. One day while ranting to her husband about it he finally asked her, “Why don’t you just teach?”
So that’s what she did.
After receiving her necessary certifications Maria was well on her way to fully achieving her teaching dreams when the global pandemic hit. As she described it she had this “beautifully laid out plan” where she had auditioned and secured jobs for coming back from maternity leave around June but everything came to a halt in March.
“At the end of the day, I’m just not the type of person to really let things like that hold me back. I take the time to process it, sit with it and then I figure out how to pivot and move forward”
While we know the story of what happened to many studio businesses during this time, Maria and her team decided to pivot and offer outdoor cycling classes in a large parking lot of their Long Island studio.
There’s a lot to learn in this episode about making the time for what you deem valuable and important. Not everyone is going to understand the “why”. In fact as Maria remarks, many of her family members questioned why she would want to fill her time with teaching classes as a part-time instructor when she has a full time job and a newborn. The answer is surprisingly simple: she loves doing it. It’s meaningful to her.
I love the mentality that Maria brings to her classes and life in general, “you can’t go there and preach to people that they can do anything if you don’t feel that in yourself”. If you take one thing away from this episode, I hope it’s that it’s never too late to find a new dream, learn a new skill or do the thing you’ve always wanted to.
You can catch Maria’s classes at Revolve Indoor Cycling, Syosset and Garden City Lifetime Locations, and CITYROW in Plainview.
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