Nicole Huesman: Iwalani, it is such a pleasure to talk to you today. And you know, one of my, one of the things that I'm discovering is my love of Pilates. And so, yeah, yeah, it's, it has been so wonderful. I'm just absolutely thrilled, um, to have you on She Lights The Way.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Great. Great. I'm so happy to be invited. Thank you, Nicole.

Nicole Huesman: Can you introduce yourself and talk about where you are today and where you are, in your journey, uh, as, as we talk today?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Sure. Sure. Well, um, my name is Iwalani Kaluhiokalani and, um, I am an American businesswoman and an American painter. Um, where I find myself in my life right now is that I am running a Pilates and GYROTONIC® wellness business in Brookline, Massachusetts. And I am also managing an artistic career where I make paintings and, um, interdisciplinary paintings, uh, sorry, interdisciplinary installations in both Europe and, um, the US.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: So I live between Boston and Marseille, France, because my husband is French and Belgian. And, we've been together six years. Um, and it has taken me to a place where I've had to really be super organized about my time here in Boston. And, and then also go to France, which, which we do it every month. We do it every month.

Nicole Huesman: Oh my gosh. Wow. Wow.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: when, but when I'm in Marseille, um, mostly Marseille, um, I focus on the clients that I teach virtually, my admin work and my painting practice. And I have a bit more time to work on my art practice there.

Nicole Huesman: And how amazing, Oh, wow. Can you talk about some of the pivotal experiences and moments that got you to where you are today?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, I can tell you a story that goes very, very far back. Um, it actually goes back to, to my childhood and, um, I had a love for my swing set. It was, it was an intense love for my swing set and I loved to be on it and I made drawings of it and things like that. And we still have a book today that I made from in kindergarten dedicating the, um, dedicating, uh, the book itself to my love of the swing set and my best friend at the time.

So, uh, I find that very funny as an adult now, because anyone who knows me and comes and visits my studio and sees all the GYROTONIC® and Pilates equipment, um, things that you can lie on, hang off of, stretch over, climb up, um, they, they know it looks like an adult jungle gym. And it is. So, uh, I find that kind of a funny coincidence.

Um, also the whole rocking right now that I'm so deeply involved in this body work and core strengthening and balancing really, um, really what I think is most important is is being able to find your balance through these methods and the rocking and swinging is an element that you, that you also use in some of these techniques. You have to understand how that's transferring through your body to find your center.

So, um, maybe I was always interested in this and the path isn't really so unusual.

Um, there were definitely some pivotal moments, um, that have happened to me during this. this journey. Um, one of them, I think, was finding Pilates and GYROTONIC®. I had heard about it for many, many years. Um, I was going to college in New York at the time, and it was definitely a little bit more famous over there. Um, and I, I was really interested by the idea of it being this stretching technique. I was always very physically active and I had spent many, many years complaining to my parents about being sore and tight after practices or after dance class. So, um, I thought that this sounded like. like a remedy for me. Um, but little did I know that once I started taking the lessons that it would, it would kind of take me on a whole other journey of, um, of centering my mind too.

But, but anyway, when I found Pilates at the beginning, I just thought it was really cool because it's a lot about body alignment. And my training as an artist where I was always drawing the figure was, you know, Drawing something in space and aligning the body in that frame, almost, almost in the style. I liked to be in the style of Giacometti at the time when I was younger and really kind of searching through space to find the alignment of the body. And you can see that so strongly in my, my paintings and drawings from when I was 18 years old.

So anyway, when I learned the Pilates itself, it made sense to me that you had to be on these pieces of equipment and arrange your, your frame in your box within the, within the box of the, of the equipment and, um, work against this resistance.

What happened even later after, you know, after six months of the practice was that I started to integrate more and I started to realize the value of, of, um, of all this movement actually being a meditation.

Nicole Huesman: One of the other things that occurred to me when we were talking earlier, um, was you talked about being surprised that people saw you as a leader. And you yourself weren't even really there yet, that you were surprised and you didn't see yourself that way. Um, and I just thought how wonderful that other people saw that in you. Can you talk about that experience of embracing, you know, your leadership qualities and, and, and, you know, kind of just breathing life into that?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yeah, sure. There were a few moments, um, in my life where I would come across other artist friends and they would commend me for being a woman, a women's business owner, for being one of their friends who's been teaching Pilates and having my own studio. And, and, um, I had somebody even invite me to teach an entrepreneurial musicianship class to present, present, um, body work training to a group and, and, and talk about why it's an important practice to involve yourself in.

And in each of these three different moments, I had a pause. I was like, Oh, I, I guess, I guess I am suited for towards whatever they're saying and I guess I, I, I am ahead of the game in some ways, but I just never thought of it because I was used to just kind of following my intuition and my rutter and guide and, and, and just, um, trying to learn from the best people in the field. Um, and, and as a young, um, as a young student, because I was involved in all of this in my 20s. As a young student, I had more freedom to, to go and study with some of the, the top people in these fields. Um, it, it took a moment for me to embrace what they were saying too, and actually reflect back and see myself objectively as well. um, I, and I do think, I do think that a lot of that is, um, just based on who I am. I, I'm just very, very independent. And um, I, I think from that point of view first.

Nicole Huesman: You’re saying that that's who you are. Do you think your early years influenced that?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: One hundred percent. One thing that I've been thinking about since our last conversation was how does my identity fit into some of this, and into this, where I am right now? And, um, As, as someone of, of a biracial identity, um, of a different I, you know, from, from parents that are Dutch Indonesian, and a, and a dad that's Scottish Hawaiian, um, and with a name that I have, like Iwalani Kaluhiokalani. From a, from a young age, I've always been in certain situations where it's just not a, it, it, it, well, there's always been these situations where I have to explain myself a bit more.

For example, in, in the classroom, names get called out. Usually there's always a pause. And I knew this at, at the age of five or six or seven, if there was a pause before the teacher said my name, I was going to have to be doing some explaining, whether it is like to tell them how to pronounce my name or, or, you know, have to having to then later after saying how my name was pronounced, explain what the origin of the name was, or sometimes listening to, um, a myriad of other questions. So I've always been used to, um, being in situations where it's not so seamless and I have to stand up for myself and do a little explaining. And then, you know, the rest of the relationship ends up unfolding from there.

Nicole Huesman: Do you have any insights around how to, how to embrace, um, who, who you are, um, and, and the gifts that you, your unique gifts that you have to share with the world?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: I think conversations are so important, conversations with others, and always honing in on your communication skills. I think that is what brought me so far with my career in both Pilates, GYROTONIC®, as a teacher, as a businesswoman, as an artist, as a painter. Conversations are everything because you think you have an idea of what's going on, but when you talk to someone else and you exchange about what that experience is in the present moment, it changes where you may want to steer things.

Nicole Huesman: And those connections, those human connections, it, it may steer you in a direction that is serendipitous that you maybe hadn't thought of. Certainly that's happened in my own, uh, in my own journey where I, I moved into things that maybe I didn't anticipate that, but that were authentic to, to me, my passion and what I wanted to do, uh, and how I wanted to give to others.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Totally. And that that constant curiosity about other people, like, it’s the thing that I can get lost in with the Pilates and GYROTONIC® stuff. I can just keep going deeper and deeper with, with learning more about another person and understanding what they need and helping them with it.

Then, you know, and on the flip side with my art, it's, it's more about me. It's my dream space. It's my imagination space. I can go deeper and deeper in that with, with investigating myself and, and asking questions about my physical process and, and pushing those things further.

But, but this inquisitiveness, this constant exchange, going deeper with the exchange. It is so, so awesome. It brings me, it brings me such happiness and such, such. I don't know. I feel like it grounds me to this earth. It's it's, it's. I don't know. It's just endlessly inspiring.

Nicole Huesman: So you, um, introduced yourself as a business woman. I would love to dive into how, how that evolved, how, how you became a business woman, what got you to where you are today, and some of that. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Absolutely. I was in university taking Pilates lessons and my teacher at the time was so incredibly busy, busy, busy, busy with teaching and didn't have enough time for all the people that were calling her. So one day, um, after my lesson, she said, Iwalani, um, you really understand the work and you memorize the orders very well, you understand the rhythm and that. I I think, you know, I think you should think of becoming a teacher, like, would you go through the teacher training and things like that? And I I just kind of stopped there and I was like, I couldn't believe that she was saying that, and I hadn't imagined that for myself, but then she explained to me that it would be a great teaching gig for me. And I said to myself, wow, well, that sounds amazing. And I think that would be a heck of a lot better than these work study work study jobs I've been doing.

So from there, I taught Pilates for about five years. Um, moved up to, during that time, moved up to Boston and, um, had to find someone else to work for. And, um, I, I met this woman, um, Debbie Salkoff, who just worked by herself teaching Pilates and she, she took me in and, and told me right from the start, um, that, I wouldn't be learning traditional Pilates like what I was certified in and what I practiced. She told me that she wanted to teach me how to work with people who were injured. And was I up to that? And I said, sure, absolutely. And I did that and I worked with her. And it was a wonderful experience of working with bodies that weren't athletic like mine, but teaching them very small, integrated movements, movements that were really, really essential to them to be able to move and feel healthy in their bodies.

So I feel like that that was, that was a learning experience that kind of shifted and really, really changed my thinking about what I was doing with, with the Pilates. It wasn't just something to, to keep fit with. It was something that went way beyond that.

Um, and then at a certain point, Debbie told me that she was moving to Australia and she actually told me that in my junior year of college. Um, and, uh, she said she was moving to Australia and that she thought I should take over the business. And then she said that you have a year to think about it. And we talked about, you know, what I was doing in my life, how it was going out to Western Mass a lot. So we decided that I would think about it for a year and maybe check out some other studios, see if there were other people that I wanted to work for, or did I want to move out to Western Mass where I could work with this woman who was kind of a, an amazing guru in the Pilates world.

And, um, I took the time and after a year, I realized I didn't want to go out to Western Mass only because I thought I needed the city, although everything else in that mix was perfect, but, um, and I didn't want to work for anybody else in Boston because I realized very quickly that the experience I had wasn't anything like what I had just gone through with Debbie. So, um, I decided to take the risk and, um, take $10,000 that I had saved up and buy myself some Pilates equipment, and try to have a go at it without her. And I did it.

Nicole Huesman: So, you know, when we talk about what has inspired your journey, I'd love to hear about how you are creating spaces for others to be their best selves. What's important to you in, in being a, a manager or boss for others, for other women?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Right, right. Well, I think one thing that's super important to me and running my business, which is called Smartbody Movement is to implement a team, um, a team kind of philosophy to everything that, that we work with each other in this space where we have to share equipment and that we also work with each other in that, um, there are certain times during the week that we see our clients mostly on a routine basis, but if we, if we cannot do that, can we ask another team member to cover for us? Like having this kind of exchange of, you know, all right, we're all showing up to get our work done and let's respect the space, but let's also respect the fact that we're trying to teach people to have routines. So, if we can't keep the routine, can someone else maybe, you know, help us out with that? And I think in essence, that has been really interesting, particularly because Pilates, um, and GYROTONIC® used to be an independent contractor kind of work where you just kind of show up for your gig, right?

And so what I found over the evolution of this profession, because I've been doing it most of my life now, I've been doing it 25 years of my life now. Um, so what I've seen is that there has been a big industry shift, but it also it also is a big psychic shift to have people in the space and not think that everything is just about them, right? So that has been really important.

And also having conversations, well, and also just looking at the studio itself where I have to be more of a visionary, you know, know what the big picture of the studio is, know that it's a place that I want to show up for myself to work out and find a little sanctuary and make it a space for the clients, but, but also, um, that with the team, you know, understanding that each of us came to that profession with a different journey. Each of my staff came there because they loved it for a certain reason. And I try to honor that with how I coach them and help them build their, their, their hours up too. Always centering what brought them to it and why and what their, their talents are.

Nicole Huesman: Oh, how wonderful. I mean, the, just the respecting and appreciating each of the different people in the studio for who they are and creating a space where all of you are, are honored to bring all of what you have to give to the profession.

Nicole Huesman: It must feel incredible to be in a position where you are truly helping other people and, and through your work, that's what you're focused on is really being a guide and a mentor to other women and helping them along on their path to wellness.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Absolutely. And the working with Debbie was very, very pivotal for me because of, you know, realizing, really realizing that, but at the magnitude of helping people who really couldn't walk very well or really couldn't move very well.

And I had even said to her once, I was like, why, why do you want to work with people like this? Like you were, you know, you used to dance for the Danish ballet and things like that. And she's like, well, yeah, I, I want to help people who can't move. She's like, I'm not interested in working with these people that can. And I was like, wow, okay. You know, I was just always kind of learning from her and her thinking.

Nicole Huesman: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so in your, in your years of, of helping other people, other women, what have you discovered holds women back most predominantly? Or, or are there, yeah, are there some common threads that, you know, sort of weave themselves throughout?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: So, so, you know, I, I, actually when you say that to me, I think of two different things. Like I think of, do you want me to talk about, about what I've seen with, with people that have passed through the studio or do you want to, want me to talk about people who, who've talked to me so many times but never began Pilates?

Nicole Huesman: Oh wow, that, that's, that's interesting, right? I mean, that's insightful. Oh my goodness. Okay. So let's dig into that a little bit more.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: when people know what I do, they, they want to talk about that. And I find that most of the people that, that never end up signing up for the lessons, they can't make that commitment to time. Or, or they do, they can't, um, what they value, What they value personally is more than, than what they value, uh, you know, than, than how they perceive and value the lessons.

For example, to be a little more clear, from, from when I was younger as in my twenties to now, consistently when talking about the value issue, there are so many people that say, Oh, that's way too expensive for me. And I just can't do that. And there are so many different ways that you can learn Pilates, especially in this day and age. There are very, very democratic spaces where it's not expensive at all, where you can learn this online, where you can do groups. And then there are, there are ways to do group classes. There are ways to do private lessons.

And it's interesting, with some of these people, of course I do, I have more of an in-depth conversation because we're in a one-on-one. And I can say that in many of the situations, I've said, well, you don't value the cost of a Pilates lesson, but you do value going out to dinner and you do value going out, you know, spending your money on X, Y, or Z instead. So what if you had a little bit more of a perspective change on that and, and, and figured out how you could invest in yourself?

Nicole Huesman: Right, right. And, and where are the, I guess it comes down to priority, doesn't it?

Nicole Huesman: You know, to some degree, I feel like we get to a point where sometimes we put these things off and then we get to a point where we're either we've developed a medical condition or we're in some sort of pain. We have back pain or hip pain or what have you. And so now we've gotten ourselves into a position where, wow, maybe I should have prioritized that a bit more earlier on.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yes.

Nicole Huesman: Yeah.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: That used to be more of the clientele that came to Pilates. I see a change now where people are more invested in seeking out wellness, seeking out time to, um, seeking out time to just dedicate to themselves. But often, you know, 10, 15 years ago, even I was seeing more people asking about Pilates because they were injured and they wanted to get back in shape.

Nicole Huesman: Do you feel like our global pandemic has influenced what is what you're seeing, uh, in, in the practice of Pilates?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, I, I was one of those people that was very, very skeptical of going to Zoom at first, but I actually did it two weeks before Massachusetts closed all the shops in town. Um, I, because I thought it was taking the agency of the body away. Right. I was like, how am I, how am I going to do my work now with the, with, without being able to give someone handholds and things like that and be in the same space with them, um, help them on the equipment.

But what ended up happening was that it became a space that, so that someone could still show up, someone could still keep a routine in their life at this time where, where we didn't really know what end was up with time. When was this going to end? When did this, when did this begin? Are we ever going to be able to leave our houses?

So, so it gave in, in midst of that emotional chaos and physical chaos, um, a place to keep some continuity.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Back to your earlier question about what do, what, what happens and hold that holds people back. So, so let's go get back to that, but with the people who show up to the studio.

Nicole Huesman: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Well, first of all, I do have to stay on the positive with that. I think everybody shows up really happy and excited to be told what to do because they actually feel better after that. And, and, you know, science also says that endorphins are produced and a lot of feel good chemicals too, to make people feel happier after they leave.

But, um, one thing that does stand in some people's way is, um, if they cannot create continuity for themselves, if they cannot come up with, um, you know, a weekly routine of it and a routine that they can maintain. And that's the biggest, I think that's usually the biggest setback for people. You gotta plan, you gotta create a routine, and if you cannot, it's not going to make change.

Nicole Huesman: Yeah. It's not going to be the lifestyle change you want it to be.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yeah.

Nicole Huesman: It really feels like your journey has been one of self-discovery, uh, self-awareness. What are some of the lessons that you've learned, and how can we instill that in our own lives?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: That's, that's an interesting question. Well, you know, speaking for myself, I feel like my process is so rooted in the body and, and really listening to, to what I needed for my own body, than what I need when I'm working with someone else and staying in communication with them. Um, I think even in my artwork, there's that, you know, the, the, my paintings and, um, my, my installations, they're really rooted in a body experience, but it's more of the implied body, but having conversations with that, um, staying curious about those things. Keep, keep, keep in both, keep asking questions and keep trying to go a little, a little further in a conversation.

Nicole Huesman: Yeah, I, I love that. We often look for validation outside of ourselves, but I, I love the whole notion around really knowing yourself, listening to yourself, right? And, and having the worth and the value in yourself, the confidence in yourself that that external validation becomes less important.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yeah. I mean, you, you are your center.

Nicole Huesman: Right, right. Yeah, yeah.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: You know, the other day I even had a conversation with a colleague about that and, and they were talking about my background too, and they were interested in, in some of my heritage and, and how I, how I'm interested in the body that the way I am with work and with art. And, um, we exchanged a bit on, um, some Hawaiian words, which, which I, I, I didn't go into a lot of different studies in that area, but my sister did. She, she danced the hula and learned the chants. And you have to really be up on, um, your knowledge of that culture. And there's an element in Hawaiian culture where, where your body is your land. Your body is your territory. And, and there are sayings too that if you leave the islands, it's okay because your body is your center and, and where whatever other spaces around you becomes part of where you belong.

Nicole Huesman: So Iwalani, can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges you've experienced along your, your own path and how you persevered through them?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yeah, yeah, so one of the biggest, um, challenges I had early on, you know, as I mentioned, I got into this while I was in university, um, was the realization that my education was very, very expensive for my parents and that that was, that was hard on them. And by way of teaching Pilates, I was able to support myself a bit more and get through school more easily. And simultaneously I ended up getting some, some pretty serious scholarships where I didn't really even have to pay for my junior and senior year of college. So those were some big adversities that I first kind of butted up against, but figured out how to take care of myself and kind of carry on.

Some other challenges were actually when I started the business. Um, I didn't, you know, here I am straight out of art school, but with a job, which is not what I expected, really. I figured I was going to have to figure out something with the painting. And, um, I, I came out with a job, but then I realized how much time I needed to put into that studio and how much training I still wanted to go through with movement, um, you know, on my own level and for myself. And, um, it did get a bit in the way of me making as much artwork as I wanted to. There were moments where I would have to put that practice aside and not really dedicate to it as much as I wanted to, even though I knew that art was really my passion. But with later understanding, I realized that I, there was also an art in what I did and how I was able to really see people's bodies well and guide them and coach them, too.

And when I finally got to the point where I could build a big enough team so that I didn't have to be doing everything, which we know is a bad, is the fastest way to just burn out and fail in something. When I finally got to that point where I had more of a team where we could each take on more of the work, I could dedicate myself more to my painting practice, but I had to be as regimented about it as, as, um, as I am about telling people how many, that they should come into the studio two to three times a week.

Nicole Huesman: This is a great segue into the advice that you would have for others. Um, you know, I often think, gosh, if I had known when I was first coming into, uh, the professional world, um, and the, and just personally the adult world, right, Uh, what I know now, wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing? Um, yeah. What, uh, what advice would you have for others?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: I, I actually had a bit of a conversation about this earlier today when I was talking to someone who's going into the apprenticeship program with, with Pilates. We were talking about how she's taking this deep dive into this and she understands the time commitment. She understands the financial investment. But, but, you know, if you, if you know, that's what you really want, be committed to it, be committed to it and, and go in. Don't let that year, year-long apprenticeship period hold you back. Just keep looking at how it's going to make you. Go into an area that might be uncomfortable. Learn more, like build, build yourself, have an experience that, that you really, you really want to go through.

Nicole Huesman: So Iwalani, what does, what does success, how do you define success for yourself? And has that evolved over time?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and, uh, when I was younger, success to me was, was kind of like, I don't know, like a Prince song, like pop life or something like that. Like, like, can you,

Nicole Huesman: Yeah.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: can you, can you, okay. Yeah. You want to do this? You want to do that? Like, try to make it happen. Um, and, and I was, I was really excited when I would set certain goals for myself and I could achieve it and achieve it and achieve it.

But, but there definitely came a point where it wasn't about that. It was, it was really about how, how can I be happy? And, and, that was answered in me really going deeper with the relationships that were a part of what I liked to do. That is happiness for me. These relationships, developing communication, and, and that actually helped me transition even deeper into this idea of wellness. How do you, how do you create this space where you're really, really, seeing someone else as they are and expressing yourself as you are and, and, and feeling like that's a safe space.

Nicole Huesman: So if, if we then turn and look at what's next, Iwalani, for you, um, yeah, what do you, what are you most excited about in the future? What are you looking forward to?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Well, well, things that I'm looking forward into the, in the future is, um, you know, some of the programming we've been doing at Smartbody and, and, um, there are many ideas to create more experiences for clients. Um, and we've already begun that, but, but I want to see, I, you know, I'm curious as to where this is going to go a year from now or, or three years from now.

And, and with my art practice, um, I'm really excited because I, I'm showing in Europe now.

Nicole Huesman: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So as we wrap up today, what does She Lights The Way mean to you?

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: It is, it means so many good things. Well, it, it, I, I feel like you are creating a space, Nicole, to illuminate other people and let them, um, let them talk about their stories and, and feel okay about it. Um, and, and we don't have to be a celebrity or somebody like that to share an important story. We're very normal people, but we may be doing extraordinary things that have very, very big impacts into the community around us.

Nicole Huesman: Oh, Iwalani, I can't tell you how wonderful it … I feel like it's truly been a gift that, that Deb introduced the two of us.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Oh, that’s so sweet.

Nicole Huesman: I really do. I take so much inspiration from your story and what you're working on and your, whether it's the, your art or you're working on wellness in Pilates through Pilates. Um, but I, I really take so much from just our getting to know each other, and I just thank you so much.

Iwalani Kaluhiokalani: Oh, that’s great. Keep, keep sticking with your vision. It’s great, Nicole!