A Machine That Pulls You In

Michael Mendenhall: I am extremely excited that we have with us a national athlete, hopefully an Olympic champion at some point, who is a rower, but has an amazing story with a great product that you can see on the floor up. Go one floor up Hydrow. And we're going to get into a great conversation with her. She's a national athlete still on the national team and I really welcome you, Dani. Come on up here. This will be some fun. We're going to have some fun. How many of you know Hydrow? Awesome. Well, if not, we're going to show a picture hopefully of it here. Do we have a photo? There we go. Here I'll step aside so you can at least see this is what we're talking about. It actually folds up. It's a community-based subscription model, but the rowing machine is actually awesome.

Dani forced me. You did, yesterday. She forced me into getting on the machine in my clothes and she said, let's just do a one-minute workout. You have to go as fast as you can. And I realized how badly out of shape I was due to COVID in one minute. But anyhow, I want to talk about you very specifically and personally.

Dani Hansen: Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Michael: Now you have to hold these up really close for whatever weird reason.

Dani: Got it.

Michael: Yeah, we're like Christina Aguilera singing. So, talk to us how you got into this. So, it's a sport that you've been with for many, many years and how you got into it and some of the barriers you had, whether they're physical, mental, et cetera.

Dani: Sure, yeah. So, my name's Dani Hansen and I've been on the U.S. National Rowing Team since 2014. I actually started rowing in 2012 at the University of Washington. I was recruited actually as a walk-on, so I had never rowed before and they accepted me into their D1 program, which was a huge opportunity for me of course. So I definitely took that up. I am a Paralympian, I just got back from Tokyo. We won a silver medal, which is really awesome.

Michael: Oh wow. Congratulations.

Dani: Thank you.

Michael: Yeah.

Dani: I also went to Rio for the Paralympics there and also got a silver medal.

Michael: But why don't we talk about Paralympics?

Dani: Yeah, sure.

Michael: People are like, what do you mean? You seem pretty fit?

Dani: Yeah. So I actually was born... I had a injury at birth, it's called Erb's palsy. So my nerves and my brachial plexus, which is a branch of nerves, comes out of your C5-C6 and your spine, was damaged at birth and I had a paralyzed left arm. Luckily my mom actually studied kinesiology in school, so kind of figured out ways to help me mobilize as a baby and just manually manipulating my arm on her own, which actually saved me a lot to be honest. So, I owe a lot to my mom. Yeah.

Michael: Now do you have a whole family that's supported you through this whole thing?

Dani: Yeah, of course. So, my four sisters, I'm the middle child and I've never treated me any differently or anything. And I think people do call it a disability, but I like to call it an adaptation because I feel like if you have to do something just a little bit differently because you're different, there's always a way to do that. So…

Michael:
I spoke to Andre Iguodala, the NBA All-Star player on the Warriors now. And we talk about people matter and in business it's your managers, your leadership, your colleagues that build the culture, but that are the people that supported you. So, to Andre was how did you get here? And so when you think about the people that mattered, certainly your mom and your family, who else was your support infrastructure were the people that mattered to you that helped you get to where you are?

Dani: So for me, definitely my family. That's a huge part of it. My boyfriend Chris is amazing and very supportive and helpful. And then also when it comes to Hydrow, I mean I was a 24-year-old and I have this condition with my left arm and I talked to the CEO, Bruce, and I was like, “Hey, I have these issues.” And he's like, “Well that's okay. I know you'll be able to figure it out.” And to me that mattered a lot. And the culture of Hydrow has been super supportive and very familial. And I feel like, especially when I left for Tokyo, having worked at Hydrow for a few years, it was unreal the support that I got from Hydrow and from the members as well. So, I feel like when you talk about that people matter, you're so right about that.

Michael: Yeah. So, it's the culture that was built at Hydrow.

Dani: Yeah.

Michael: Talk a little bit about that and the culture that exists in what is becoming a very successful company.

Dani: I mean for us it's... Working out can be such a stressful thing for people and for people like us, we've rowed at a very high level and we know that it's not always about that. It's not always about what the result is, it's about how you're getting there and what you're going through on the way. And so I think that's a mentality that everyone at Hydrow has is how do we just move forward a little bit? How do you have 1% progression every day? And whether it's mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, whatever, if you have a little bit of progression in one of those categories, you're growing, you're getting better.

Michael: Yeah. Well that's awesome. I want to come back to that, but I want to talk a little bit about what you said about Hydrow and its offerings. Because what I thought was really unique was you can actually have a coach.

Dani: Yes.

Michael: Come on to whether it would be Zoom or Microsoft Teams, some telepresence and actually watch you and give you coaching, which is so unusual on a platform that's subscription and digital-based that there's also a human interface, a potential human interface with somebody in person.

Dani: So we do offer one-on-one coaching. We're trying to make it more accessible. You don't need to have a boat to row now. And so if you have the Hydrow and you go onto the website, you can opt in and sign up for one-on-one coaching. So if you're trying to learn how to row, there's an option for you and there's an option for you to do it correctly and have someone who is a professional athlete teach you how to do it correctly and ensure that for you.

Michael: So now COVID hit, everybody's staying at home, and all of these people came out with all kind of physical and fitness capabilities where there's subscription based or not that you could participate in. What happened with Hydrow during COVID? And what was one of the more important things you saw come from your platform?

Dani: Yeah, I feel like during COVID, people became a lot more sedentary than they had anticipated. And so finding a way to work out in the most efficient way possible and to work out as many muscles as you can possible, so is going to become very important in a situation like that. So with COVID, it's like people are looking for, okay, what's the best workout I can get in 20 minutes and work out my whole body? And rowing is really amazing in that way that you can actually burn so many calories in such a short amount of time and you're actually working out 86% of your muscles, which is twice as many as you would if you're running or you're cycling or something like that. It also helps improve your bone density and there's many different types of workouts you can do. So there's really something there for everybody.

Michael: But you build a community, right?

Dani: Yeah.

Michael: You build a really great community.

Dani: Yeah, I mean I'm one of seven and I am a huge... I've been on teams my whole life and I feel like... That's the thing, especially in a time of COVID, when you might be feeling a little bit more alone or you might be feeling like you need someone to lean on, that's definitely... Having a team is a huge deal and having a group of people that you have something in common with and something so positive, health and trying your best and sweating together and losing and failing and winning and figuring that all out together is very powerful, for sure.

Michael: Well you guys certainly encouraged me yesterday because I'm like, okay, I'm going to buy one of these things.

Dani: You did great.

Michael: Yeah. I think you sold three, one to our CEO, one to our chairman, and one to me. But it is pretty amazing. And the idea that you did all this and did it very successfully, it was a great, probably jumpstart that everyone was at home and looking for something to improve themselves in a better way.

Dani: Yeah, of course.

Michael: Do your employees at Hydrow, as you build this culture, do they all have to row?

Dani: No. No. And it's fun because we have a big mix of people. We have people who've been on the national team for many years and we have people who've never seen rowing before. And it's cool because I like to talk about walking to the boathouse and how everyone comes from all different places. We wake up on different pillows, we have different breakfasts and then we all take different paths to the boathouse. But then once you get into a boat together, you're the same, everything's equal. And there's just one moment, these moments of unity that you can feel very connected together.

Michael: Well, in rowing, if you aren't a team and you can't fake a team, because you'll fail.

Dani: You'll lose every time if you don't work as a team.

Michael: Yeah, because you all have a role.

Dani: That’s right.

Michael: Very specific.

Dani: Very specific.

Michael: What was your role?

Dani: I actually was a stroke seat for the U.S. team, which means I would be in the front and I would set the rhythm. I also got to sit in lots of other seats. I've sat in the bow seat, which is the first one across the finish line, which is obviously exhilarating. But my first seat that I ever sat in is the two seat.

Michael: How important is the coxswain? How important?

Dani: Oh, very important. I think there's three types of coxswains. One that can make a boat faster, one that make a boat slower and the one that doesn't affect boat speed at all. And so being coxswain is very difficult and mad respect for everyone who's capable of doing that. Yeah.

Michael: Oh, that's awesome. And so not everyone then that works at Hydrow has to row.

Dani: No, of course not.

Michael: You're looking what? For the best people.

Dani: We're looking for the best teammates.

Michael: Yeah.

Dani: You know what I mean?

Michael: Yeah.

Dani: And everyone has that in them.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. When's your next event?

Dani: When is our next event?

Michael: No, I meant event as in...

Dani: Oh, for rowing?

Michael: For you?

Dani: I thought for Hydrow. Yeah, so selection camp is going to be next year. I just got back from Tokyo, so I'm kind of in a little bit of a hiatus. Taking some time off. I've been going hard for about nine years.

Michael: I can appreciate that. Congratulations though on all of this.

Dani: Thank you so much.

Michael: That’s great.

Dani: Thank you.

Michael: So, you all should really go up. Take a look at Hydrow. I will say, and I'll do the plug because you can't do the plug. By, what is it? January, what day?

Dani: January 9th.

Michael: January 9th. You get $300 off of this product.

Dani: Before January 9th.

Michael: Oh, before.

Dani: It ends in January.

Michael: Oh, it ends. So you can't purchase on that day. Listen Dani, this was awesome.

Dani: Thank you.

Michael: It's really great to have you down here. We appreciate it. We wish you guys the best of luck and it really is a great product, a great platform, and you should all give it a try. Thank you again.

Dani: Thank you so much. Thank you.