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When Kendall Toole clipped into her first Peloton ride, she had no idea she was pedaling toward global recognition, or an eventual crossroads that would change everything. I first discovered Kendall in the spring of 2020 when my world felt like it had come to a full stop.
I had just lost my father, we were in lockdown, and I was dealing with a hip injury that kept me from doing the one thing that had always been my anchor: exercise. Movement has always been my number one mental health tool — my form of joy, my way to process. But suddenly, even that outlet was gone.
Through Kendall’s rides, I found a sense of comfort, escape and accomplishment. Her classes weren’t just workouts; they were therapy in motion. She didn’t just talk about strength, she embodied it, weaving raw honesty into every ride.
Her energy was contagious, her playlists electric and her openness about mental health made you feel seen, not sold to. Over time, Kendall became one of Peloton’s most beloved instructors and a powerful voice for mental health advocacy, inspiring millions to seek help, speak openly and remove the stigma around it.
For years, millions rode along as she shouted words of encouragement through screens, helping people push past limits on their bikes and in their minds. But behind the energy, Toole was quietly confronting her own.
“I started wearing a mask,” she told me. “I’ve worn a mask before, and I’m great at performing. But I couldn’t keep doing that and stay healthy.”
Today, Toole is trading in the spotlight of one of fitness’s most recognizable brands for something far more personal: The Never Knocked Out™ Club, branded as NKO Club, a new wellness platform that merges movement, mindfulness and authenticity, without the filters. Her mission is not about performance anymore. It’s about presence.
‘Big dreams don’t fit in small containers’
Before Peloton, Kendall Toole built an unconventional résumé. A USC graduate with degrees in film and business, she landed in global content strategy at Snapchat, where she helped shape storytelling in the early days of mobile media.
Yet she longed to combine creativity with physicality. “I wanted to marry my love of storytelling with movement,” she said. “I’ve always been fascinated by the mind-body connection and how one affects the other.”
That fascination took her from film sets to boxing gyms. She later joined Peloton, where she brought her signature mix of sweat, honesty and soundtracks that hit deep. Her classes were not just about cadence, they were about catharsis. With success came self-awareness. The more she inspired others to push past limits, the more she recognized her own. The platform had given her purpose, but also revealed boundaries she could no longer ignore.
“Big dreams don’t fit in small containers,” Kendall said to me.
That realization became the turning point. Despite being one of Peloton’s most beloved instructors, she began to feel confined by the structure. “My ability to grow and expand was limited. I wasn’t in the room for a lot of decisions,” she explains. “You get told who you are supposed to be, and who you are not.”
As someone who has lived through the depths of depression and a suicide attempt 11 years ago, she recognized the danger signs.
“I was preaching about mental health and authenticity, but I wasn’t able to live them myself.” That near-death experience reshaped her outlook on life, and later, on business.
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“That night was horrifying, but also a rebirth,” she says. “There was nothing left to extract from life then, but now, I want to extract as much as possible.”
In what she calls one of the hardest yet most freeing decisions of her life, she walked away. I felt her certainty through the screen when she said, “You have to lose that battle to win the fight. It was time to bet on myself.”
That decision came with risk. A one-year non-compete clause meant she couldn’t create or coach anything fitness-related. For someone used to connecting daily with a global audience, the silence was jarring. She used that time to put her head down, rebuild her foundation and quietly work toward the life and business she wanted next.
During that quiet year, Kendall did something she had been ignoring for months. She listened to herself, and she doubled down on therapy.
“Every entrepreneur should have a therapist on call,” she laughs.
She kicked off a newsletter to stay connected to her fans and began mapping out a business rooted in what she wished existed: a wellness space that’s real, unfiltered and self-directed.
Related: Stop Optimizing for Exhaustion. Start Using These 5 Endurance Practices Instead.
NKO Club officially launches today
Officially launched today on November 19, 2025, NKO Club is a digital platform that brings together an initial 50 classes across boxing, Pilates sculpt, strength training, mindfulness and, crucially, a mental-health component.
“I wanted to create a space that doesn’t have a performative social component,” she says. “So much of wellness has become about optics and algorithms. NKO Club is about you. No filters, no masks, no quick validation loops. Just doing the work to understand yourself.”
She’s building the company alongside her partner and Head of Brand, who complements her creative energy with analytical structure.
“My parents are thrilled I’m finally using my film degree,” she jokes. “I’m doing everything myself – and loving it.”
Toole references Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech: You can’t connect the dots looking forward, only backward.
“I had offers from other platforms,” she says. “I could have taken the easy money, but if I really believe in what I’m building, I need to do it my way.”
As she transitions from instructor to entrepreneur, Toole’s days look less like a production schedule and more like an experiment in balance. Her mornings are intentionally quiet without email or scrolling for the first 90 minutes after waking.
She then writes three things that she is grateful for, visualizes her day and asks herself: Who do I want to be today? Then it’s a walk around the block with her dog, a podcast or chill music and nasal breathing exercises before grabbing her go-to cold brew. Her workdays are filled with creative sessions, recording, filming and programming classes for NKO Club.
Image Credit: NKO Club
By afternoon, she fits in a workout, usually boxing or Pilates sculpt, and uses a social media blocker to protect her focus. Evenings are for decompression: a walk, a jacuzzi bath with candles and her Kindle, and she admits, “no self-help books — just fun stuff that lets my brain wander.”
Sleep, she says, is non-negotiable.
And on tough days? She writes down: This will all work out. She trains her brain to believe what she feels is possible.
“You have to be a little delusional in your belief as a founder,” she says.
Building a brand from scratch after leaving one of the world’s biggest fitness companies isn’t for the faint of heart. Kendall compares entrepreneurship to “human alchemy” by taking an idea and turning it into something real.
Related: 8 New Health and Wellness Books That Entrepreneurs Should Read for Sustainable Success
“It’s scary and beautiful,” she says. “Everything becomes more precious – your time, your energy, even how you speak to yourself.”
Her advice for entrepreneurs is clear: “If you feel limited, build your own container. The power of betting on yourself isn’t a straight line; it’s moving an inch or a centimeter every day. But if you feel that pull, that spark of passion, it’s there for a reason. If you don’t create it, someone else will.”
As she launches NKO Club, Toole says she’s the healthiest she’s been mentally, physically, and spiritually since that dark night over a decade ago.
For entrepreneurs and creators alike, Toole’s story is a reminder that sometimes the bravest thing you can do isn’t to keep going — it’s to pause, remove the mask and start again on your own terms.
When Kendall Toole clipped into her first Peloton ride, she had no idea she was pedaling toward global recognition, or an eventual crossroads that would change everything. I first discovered Kendall in the spring of 2020 when my world felt like it had come to a full stop.
I had just lost my father, we were in lockdown, and I was dealing with a hip injury that kept me from doing the one thing that had always been my anchor: exercise. Movement has always been my number one mental health tool — my form of joy, my way to process. But suddenly, even that outlet was gone.
Through Kendall’s rides, I found a sense of comfort, escape and accomplishment. Her classes weren’t just workouts; they were therapy in motion. She didn’t just talk about strength, she embodied it, weaving raw honesty into every ride.
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