What would you do if faced with a life-or-death hostage situation? For Robin Arzón, that traumatic experience ignited an unrelenting fire to pursue the extraordinary. In this riveting conversation, the boundary-breaking Peloton VP and author of “Shut Up and Run” shares her inspirational journey from lawyer to global fitness phenomenon.
Prepare to be empowered as Robin pulls back the curtain on her fierce commitment to choosing the harder path. Discover how she summoned the courage to pivot from a high-powered legal career to chasing her true passion. Robin’s raw vulnerability reminds us that trauma can be transformed into triumph through the medicine of movement.
You’ll gain profound insights into the resilience that fueled Robin’s quest to conquer ultramarathons while managing Type 1 diabetes. Her unapologetic authenticity and “sweat with swagger” philosophy will inspire you to embrace your unique identity without apology.
But Robin’s impact transcends physical feats. As a proud Latina defying cultural norms, she’s blazing trails for representation and empowerment. You’ll be captivated by her mission to remind every person: “Why not me? Why can’t I be the one I admire?”
Whether you’re striving to rewrite your story, ignite personal reinvention, or simply live more boldly, this conversation will leave you with a renewed sense of possibility. Robin’s contagious energy and hard-won wisdom will propel you to shatter self-imposed limits and create the uncommon life you crave.
You can find Robin at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript
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photo credit: Ruben Elstner
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Episode Transcript:
Robin Arzon BO 2025 ACAST.mp3
Robin Arzón: [00:00:00] A man walks in with a gun and proceeds to hold the entire bar hostage, and he said, people are going to be leaving in body bags.
Jonathan Fields: [00:00:09] So how do you emerge out of that? Like physically unharmed, but psychologically and emotionally?
Robin Arzón: [00:00:14] I remember just needing to like, choose fear or a greater faith.
Jonathan Fields: [00:00:21] So what does it really take to rewrite your story and turn ambition into unstoppable action and incredible outcomes? Today we’re joined by Robin Arzon, former lawyer, Ultramarathoner best selling author and Peloton’s VP of Fitness Programming, to unlock the secrets of resilience and radical self-belief.
Robin Arzón: [00:00:41] I really do fear mediocrity. Like I think about my legacy, like, what do I want to be talking about when I’m 90?
Jonathan Fields: [00:00:47] I think a lot of people don’t look at life that way. They’re constantly like, what’s the fastest, easiest path to get there?
Robin Arzón: [00:00:53] I firmly believe the jewels of my crown are made of grit and hustle and sweat. And that is because I know that journey. I know that path. It will always be worthwhile to me.
Jonathan Fields: [00:01:08] Were you the type of kid where I was like, you kind of saw parents as a doctor and a lawyer, you kind of, like, always assumed that was part of your path or not so much.
Robin Arzón: [00:01:16] Well, it’s interesting because I view kind of the classic American dream through their work ethic and their narrative. So they my mother is from Cuba, my father is from Puerto Rico. And so I literally saw them rebuild themselves. My mother tells the story about how she taught herself English, watching PBS and Sesame Street, you know, at the age of 14. So witnessing that and then seeing them succeed, it was like I understood the narrative of the hard work and creating yourself from a really young age. And then I just assumed, like, if they can do that, I can do that too. And I have I have to, you know, I felt, um, not pressure. Pressure is the wrong word, but, uh, a sense of honoring where you came from.
Jonathan Fields: [00:01:56] Were they both first generation here?
Robin Arzón: [00:01:58] Yes. Both. First generation here.
Jonathan Fields: [00:02:01] Got it. Have they shared a lot of the stories a lot of sort of like their early days with you.
Robin Arzón: [00:02:06] Yes. And it’s fascinating because you know when I look at these old pictures especially my, my father grew up in poverty, but my mother actually in Cuba was they were wealthy. They grew, they grew up with in a way that I can’t even imagine with, with servants and farmhands and, you know, just really like elaborate birthdays and all these things. And then they come to Philadelphia, starting from nothing, you know, getting winter coats from the Salvation Army and, you know, a true evolution of, like, you have everything you could ever want, then you have nothing, and then you’re grateful for what you, the little you do have and you build from there. Yeah. So that perspective, I think, has been always been part of my mother’s story. Um, and it’s something I very much admire.
Jonathan Fields: [00:02:46] Yeah. I mean, it’s so interesting to me also that you, you said you didn’t feel a sense of pressure, but like, more of an internal sense of honoring. Yeah. So the choices that you made. It wasn’t like you were being forced or like I have to live up to their expectations. It’s not obligation, but it’s sort of like it seems like there was something wired in you that just says, like, they’ve worked so hard to be here. Like something inside has to sort of honor that.
Robin Arzón: [00:03:07] Yeah. I feel like there’s something really powerful. I mean, I was it’s funny that I’m in fitness now because I used to be allergic to exercise, so I was the arts and crafts. Straight-a kid, right? So they really never. And I don’t think they even would have had I not been a straight-A student. But I really always had that in me and my sister as well. We were always, you know, just the academic children. Um, but there is an understanding of, like, honoring your ancestors. Like, I saw something, a meme or something on Instagram. And the spirit of it was like, I’m going to make my grandmother’s grandmother proud. And I was like, whoa. Like it stopped me in my tracks. It gives me full body chills right now because I think, like, legacy is so powerful. And I think about that all the time. Like, I believe that our legacy is really just comprised of a lot of small decisions. And when I’m trying to make small pivots in my life, I think like, how will this contribute to my legacy even in even in a 0.1 percent way? And I really I take that really seriously.
Jonathan Fields: [00:04:07] Yeah, it’s amazing too, because I think legacy a lot of times it’s like it can be a sword and a shield, right? So on the one hand, you can feel a sense of like, I have to do certain things because the expectation is like, that’s the appropriate way to honor my legacy. Yeah. And but on the flip side, it can also be like, the appropriate way to honor my legacy is people who’ve come before me have worked so hard to create a level of agency and freedom. Yeah. That who am I not to step into my own sense of agency and do like the thing that I’m here to do?
Robin Arzón: [00:04:35] Well, both offer perspective, right? Because it’s like I would never, you know, what is it? It was just in the Beyonce Homecoming documentary. I think she quoted Maya Angelou like, you can’t be what you can’t see. Yeah. Like, I am so grateful that I was able to see strong characters in my life who were like, you just got to figure it out and do it. You know, had I had a different understanding of agency, I might not be sitting here.
Jonathan Fields: [00:04:59] Yeah. So you end up then. So you’re you’re the kid who’s arts and crafts and also academics. Where’d you go to undergrad?
Robin Arzón: [00:05:05] So I went to NYU undergrad. And where were you? Villanova law school. I was I was in Gallatin. So it’s a school. You make up your own major. And it was the most amazing, intellectual, creative freedom I’ve ever had. Yeah. You really, you’re able to take classes from all different realms of the university, and, um.
Jonathan Fields: [00:05:22] So what did you make up?
Robin Arzón: [00:05:24] I studied the social construction of reality. That was my senior thesis. So I took classes in politics in English. I took classes in the business school. I took classes, you know, I knew I was going to be going to law school. And the greatest advice my father gave me at that time was study what you’re interested in, because you’re going to learn how to be a lawyer when you’re a lawyer, and they’re going to teach you things in law school that are relevant to that canon. Right. So do things that you’re interested in. And I didn’t want to be just a strict English major or econ major or politics major. I was like, shoot, if NYU has this offering, I’m going to take advantage and I’m just going to like, let my creativity fly. Um, and thankfully, that that’s exactly what I was. I was supported in that pursuit.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:04] That’s amazing. So you kind of knew going into that, though, that you were tracking to law school?
Robin Arzón: [00:06:07] No, I knew since I was ten years old that I wanted to go to law school.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:10] What happened at ten?
Robin Arzón: [00:06:12] I think so, honestly. I remember watching my dad grade. He was a part time professor at Temple University Law School at the time, um, teaching real estate. And I remember this is back when law students still had exams in blue books.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:25] I’m raising my hand, I wrote so many blue books.
Robin Arzón: [00:06:28] So he um, he I remember him grading exams in blue books. And I remember being fascinated by, like, how do you fill all those pages with a thought, you know? And at ten, I was like, am I ever going to have that many thoughts? You know, so I think it was just this understanding of like, that’s a challenge. I think I could be up for that challenge. And I just always had it in my head that I would be a lawyer.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:49] Yeah. That’s amazing. So you end up going to NYU. But before you head to Nova, I guess it was your senior year at NYU. Where?
Robin Arzón: [00:06:56] Yes. Approaching my senior year?
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:58] Yeah. Where you got involved in something that was pretty horrifying in these. Yeah.
Robin Arzón: [00:07:03] Yeah, I was I was out with friends and in walks into the wine bar we were at, it was like a amazing Friday night in New York City. The weather is is good. Like, people got out of work early. Like, there’s just such a vibe in New York City in the summer. Um, and then unexpectedly, a man walks in with a gun and proceeds to hold the entire bar hostage. I mean, it really was like, as many times as I’ve told this story, when I look at the mental movie in my head, it’s it’s in slow motion. So when I replay this, it’s in slow motion, and I can literally see him walking in and brandishing the gun and grabbing me by my hair. I mean, I had clumps of hair ripped out from my head because he grabbed me so forcefully. And it was in this two hour period that I had an acute understanding of my own, um, like the inner transcript of my own inner monologue or the transcript of my inner monologue, as well as, again, agency.
Jonathan Fields: [00:08:05] Yeah. What? So he comes in, he’s brandishing a gun. He grabs you.
Robin Arzón: [00:08:10] I was happened to be sitting at the stool closest to the entrance, and it’s it’s still there in the East Village. And he he grabbed me and he said, people are going to be leaving in body bags. That I mean, I was like, okay, this is I always refer to it as time slowing down. Like, really like I think, um, oftentimes when we experience trauma, we remember it in a myriad of ways. But, um, for me, it’s almost like, well, when you’re in a car and you have a fender bender. Like, even those things I remember in slow motion. And this is, like, obviously one of the most transformative, if not the most transformative things in my life. So, um, yeah. So he, he, he basically people who were at the bar when one of two ways, they either went straight back, which is a dead end kitchen, which is basically a wash basin in a closet. Or they went right and they were able to exit out of a window in the bathroom. And I had nowhere to go because I was with him. But my friends who were with me made it out of the bathroom. And then about 20 of us who were dead were in a dead end in this, in this wash basin, basin, kitchen area.
Jonathan Fields: [00:09:23] So what’s going through your mind? I mean, things are happening in slow motion there. You’re in a dead end area with this guy.
Robin Arzón: [00:09:28] So he hands me garbage. He shoves me to the ground and hands me garbage bag ties and and tells me to tie people up. They were the kind of sliding garbage bag ties. And, um, I remember thinking, I need to do what he’s saying. So I don’t die. But I also want us to be able to get out of these hand ties. So I remember doing them just loose enough. I don’t even know how I was, like, physically able to do it, because I’m sure I was trembling or shaking. But, um, yeah. So I did what he said, and then he proceeded to spray us with a flammable liquid. It smelled like kerosene or gasoline. And I remember the cut in my head burning so much, and I was just like, oh, wow. This is like, he really wants us to die because he started flicking a barbecue lighter above our heads. Then he grabs me and says, you’re coming with me. And I was his human shield. He literally just held me in front of his body and then kind of showed me to the NYPD, who are now outside of the bar. And so there was probably like, I don’t know, a corridor length, um, between the front door at Second or Third Avenue, I’m forgetting exactly where the front facing face of the bar is, and then where we were in the kitchen, and it was like he would show me to the NYPD, and then he would close the swinging doors into the kitchen area.
Robin Arzón: [00:10:53] And that was it. Like, I was just like, okay, do, is this really like the last chapter? Like, I don’t believe this is the last chapter of my life. And for some reason, in that moment, I realized I have to humanize the situation because he was spewing all kinds of vitriol and he was a lot of times unintelligible and definitely angry. But it was also then he started talking about his children and, and and I was like, okay, like, let’s talk about the family angle. Like, maybe there’s something and I mentioned, like, there are people in here. They have families too. Like, what is it that you want? What is it that you want to get out of this? And I became this, like, pseudo negotiator at 20, um, having no idea what I was doing. But I was like, he needs to know that these people are humans, too. And somehow that let the conversation go on long enough for him? Um, I don’t know. I just wanted to, like, keep the clock going. Like, how long can I keep the clock going until this ends?
Jonathan Fields: [00:11:47] Yeah. How do you get out of it? How does it end?
Robin Arzón: [00:11:50] So it ends. Um, thankfully, it ends with nobody dying, so that’s. That’s a huge plus. Um, so really, really brave woman named Ann Margaret Gidley. Um, she was sitting kind of in elevated in one of the washbasins. A lot of folks were on the floor, but she happened to be seated, seated in a wash basin, and she saw that the perpetrator was struggling with holding me, holding the gun, holding a barbecue lighter, holding my cell phone, which he which he asked to use. And we were on the phone with 911. It was like just really kind of chaotic. But she noticed when he would hold holster the gun in his, um, in his jeans. And at one moment when she saw him holster the gun in his jeans, um, she leapt and leapt him from behind. And then I think a few folks I my back was turned so I didn’t see this, but I felt the sensation of falling. And then the NYPD entered and that’s that’s when it was over. So, um, yeah, I have. It’s crazy because it happened so long ago, but it really does feel like it happened yesterday.
Jonathan Fields: [00:12:53] Yeah, I think when something like that happens, I mean, it’s like I think it’s always just beneath the surface. This was also you were talking in New York City. This was 2002, 2003.
Robin Arzón: [00:13:02] This would have been 2002 because it was the summer before my senior year, and I graduated in 2003 that May.
Jonathan Fields: [00:13:10] Okay. So then it was your with that timing, you would have been in New York the year before for nine over 11 also.
Robin Arzón: [00:13:16] Mhm.
Jonathan Fields: [00:13:18] Oh yeah. So this is I mean this alone is like seriously traumatic. I’m assuming being in college downtown on nine over 11 for you. Yeah was pretty traumatic as well.
Robin Arzón: [00:13:29] Yeah it was and I it and I worked downtown at a law firm. I was serving as like a legal assistant, and I lived just below, like after nine over 11 below 14th Street. It was like it was totally. I mean, nobody could even walk. It was like a war zone. And they had it blocked off. And you could only go down there if you showed proof of your address. I remember like the local like Union Square movie theaters were like playing free movies and people were just walking around, like, looking for any kind of connection, like anything.
Jonathan Fields: [00:13:56] Anything.
Robin Arzón: [00:13:57] Just any kind of connection. Um, and. Yeah, so I don’t have I have never even made that. I haven’t even put two and two together that like, as a young person, that’s kind of a lot to go through within, you know, a span of 18 months.
Jonathan Fields: [00:14:12] Yeah. I mean, it’s like these two life altering traumas, sort of like stacking one on top of each other. So how do you emerge out of that, like physically unharmed, but psychologically and emotionally?
Robin Arzón: [00:14:23] Yeah, it’s it’s interesting. Like you wake up the next day and you look down and you’re like, well, I’ve got all my limbs, I’m good. And, um, NYU was really supportive. They immediately offered anything I needed free therapy, whatever it is. And I went to talk therapy and I just I talked it out and I had no issue talking it out, but, um, and I knew I wanted to finish school and I wanted to stay in New York. And I remember just needing to, like, choose fear or like a greater faith. And I’m like, I have faith that I’m supposed to be here for a reason. Like, I’m just going to keep doing what I do every day. But it wasn’t really until I was in, and I was so in the throes of, like getting ready for law school and, you know, I was busy, right? So it’s easy to kind of compartmentalize it. And it wasn’t until I was really dealing with the stress of law school that I was like, oh, like I’m just beaten down. And I knew it wasn’t just because of law school. And I looked at a pair of shoes. I don’t even know if they were running shoes in my closet. And I just said, like, maybe I’m just going to jog to campus today, and I’ve never had the impulse to jog.
Robin Arzón: [00:15:30] I literally my mom. I think my mom hates when I tell this story, but as a physician, I used to like, sneak off and take a script from her pad and write notes to get out of gym class. Like totally illegal. But I was that I had such a fear of physical activity because I told myself, you’re not an athlete, you’re going to be picked last. You can’t run. I got made fun of. It was ironic. I got made fun of by a kid when I was like ten in gym class, um, for the way I ran. So I always told myself, like, don’t embarrass yourself. Like, just don’t even show up. So that was a very odd thought for me to think. Let me just put these shoes on and run to class. But I did, and I just kept doing it and I felt like, oh, I’m physically running it out. Like the stronger I physically feel, I’m gaining a little bit of my power back. And I never before equated power, feeling powerful with a physical understanding of like, space and movement. And that was a really big light bulb moment for me.
Jonathan Fields: [00:16:32] Yeah. I mean, and it’s also because you’re essentially it’s like you’re running the trauma out of your body at the same time. I mean, on the one hand, you’re running into like a place of power.
Robin Arzón: [00:16:41] Oh, I was running it out.
Jonathan Fields: [00:16:42] Right. You’re processing it out of your body. And it’s like when you look at all the latest research that I’ve seen on PTSD, like so much of the the therapeutic world around that is coming around to the idea that, like, we can’t actually just treat the mind alone like the body. It becomes trauma. It becomes so physically embodied. Yes. That like, you’ve got to actually add some level of physicality to it if you really want to process it.
Robin Arzón: [00:17:05] Oh yeah, I’m a firm believer of that. And I don’t think one, I could have done one without the other. Like I think it was the right path. I think for a year I just like I was like, how many more times can I talk about this story? And then finally I was like, well, I clearly I’m like, I’ve got a heavy physical internal weight that I just need to start to like, chip away at. And that’s what the runs did for me.
Jonathan Fields: [00:17:25] And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. So the first time you lace up your shoes. Yeah. Having, like, really basically never moved your body. Yeah. Like. Yeah. And then also like, I’ve been through law school. I know what happens in law school. Like, you’re just nonstop heads down. Like, basically everything gets shut down. You put on your shoes and you run, like, what’s the physical sensation for you the first time? You’re actually like, I’m going to go and just run.
Robin Arzón: [00:17:51] Um, I’m pretty sure it was like, horrible, right? I think it was probably.
Jonathan Fields: [00:17:57] You know, that’s hard.
Robin Arzón: [00:17:58] But, you know, it was out of necessity. And I think that’s why, first of all, in terms of time management, I’m like, well, I could drive two miles or I could just try to jog it, right. And so for me, it was like, okay, well, this is practical because I’ll still get there and I’ll get my exercise and I’ll have to carve out another 30 minutes of my day to, to work out. Not that I really was doing that anyway. At the time it was out of necessity because I was like, all right, well, I don’t have a car. And this is like really before, like apps and Ubers and you could just like, you know, I was this was in the suburbs I grew up, I went to Villanova. So this was Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Like you, you don’t. There’s trains and stuff, but like, it wasn’t really that easy to get around if you didn’t have a car. And, um, so yeah, there was a practical element like, well, I’ve made it halfway. I better, I better get to class.
Jonathan Fields: [00:18:40] That’s too funny. Did you have books like In the Bag with you?
Robin Arzón: [00:18:43] I would leave my books. Um, so I would either, uh, leave my books in the locker or have a friend take them.
Jonathan Fields: [00:18:50] Yeah. So you start doing this? I mean, after the first time. Did you know after that very first time that something had switched for you? Or was it just like you did it once? Whatever. And then for some reason, you kept going back to it?
Robin Arzón: [00:19:03] I think it was, um, I remember depositing a check at the bank and seeing a flyer for a 10-K that happened to be the next morning. I didn’t know what, how far 10-K was. And again, I didn’t have a smartphone, so I wasn’t like I was like 10-K. I don’t know, whatever that is, I’ll do it. Um, so I didn’t look up the distance and mileage and not I don’t even think I would have understood mileage like what that even feels like, because you don’t know what it feels like to run 6.1 miles until you do it. And I did it, and it was really tough, and I vowed that it would never be that tough again. So that was a kind of then I had a goal anchored to the to the experience. Then I was like, okay, now I know I can physically do this. There’s a distance and a time element. How can I play with that to make it? Maintain this momentum.
Jonathan Fields: [00:19:50] So you made the vow. It’s never going to be this hard again. A lot of people will do that, and they make the vow. I’m never going to do this again.
Robin Arzón: [00:19:59] Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:19:59] So my curiosity is like, what happens in your mind that’s so different than other people’s minds that makes you say, huh, that was really hard. It didn’t feel good, but it’s going to happen again and it can’t feel the same way. Instead of, okay, check that box. That was brutal. Never again.
Robin Arzón: [00:20:14] Yeah, that’s so interesting. I think, um, I really associate discomfort with pride.
Jonathan Fields: [00:20:21] Huh? Um, what’s that from?
Robin Arzón: [00:20:23] I don’t know, I just, I really feel, I think, like, I loved law school, like, I loved just being like. Okay, you have, like, 500 pages to read tonight. Like, like, not from a place of suffering or this kind of like martyrdom, but it’s like how I love that sense of being gritty and feeling like, how are you going to rise above this? And how are you going to rise above this? And how are you going to rise above this? Um, and it was a unique experience because I actually hadn’t had like, I knew how to I knew how to be academic. I knew how to go and read and study for a test and write a paper. And this was really brand new. I’m like, I don’t know how to do this. Like, and not necessarily in a learned skill. Like, of course, if you don’t learn how to play the violin, you’re not going to play the violin. But this was like something really innate, like you put one foot in front of the other. And the simplicity of it was actually fascinating because I’m like, I can’t do this well, but it’s also something I’ve been doing walking around the world my whole life. So that kind. I think the simplicity of of running allowed me to enter it in a way that was like, I’m just going to own this in my way.
Jonathan Fields: [00:21:30] So what was that way? I mean.
Robin Arzón: [00:21:31] I mean, I needed so I felt still intimidated by the running community. I wasn’t a track star. And I, you know, I saw people at these races with all the all fancy stuff and kitted out and, and, and I like the idea of representing, you know, I wanted to show up with, like, wearing gold rings and black eyeliner and, like, wearing what I wanted to wear, like, representing what I wanted to represent or how I thought I was having a visual conversation with the world. And thankfully, throughout my running journey, I was really welcomed. When I came back to New York and I started practicing law, I was welcomed by, you know, a running group called the New York City Bridge Runners, and they are a really amazing, cobbled together group of like deejays and artists and people who never went to college, and people who are lawyers like me and doctors and like it was a mixed bag of of mayhem. And I was like, I can get down with this because we can show up to races like whoever we want to be, and so can the person who, you know, is wearing the same kit from their high school track meet. Like, cool. Live your life. That’s awesome. But I hadn’t really seen a lot of that. So the so running is a lifestyle. Running as kind of an expression of a lifestyle really came into vogue when I started falling in love with running. And then I happened to meet people, others who were willing to express running as a lifestyle. And we would go on on runs at 9:10 p.m. and then go out to gallery openings and clubs and dinners. And it was just like we were a crew, you know, and that that really emboldened me to be like, I have a voice in this space. And that was powerful.
Jonathan Fields: [00:23:13] Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you hadn’t somehow stumbled upon bridge runners? Do you think you would still have, like would would this entire journey have been just radically different had that that discovery never happened?
Robin Arzón: [00:23:26] I think the path would have been really different, right? So I think if I would have joined maybe a more traditional running group, I don’t know if I would have truly fallen in love with running the way I did, because I happened to sign up for a half marathon, sign up for a marathon, simultaneously start to run with bridge runners. Really feel like I could get into my own with using running not only as a tool, but also as potentially a profession. Um, so I know that I would have been in fitness anyway, but I don’t know what. I’m certain that the path would not have been what it has been, which is primarily running, then writing a book and then, you know, ending up with cycling and peloton.
Jonathan Fields: [00:24:04] Yeah. I mean, because you like the phrase running as a lifestyle is is really interesting because that’s been around in a lot of different ways for a long time. But it’s like, I think I often wonder that if you don’t find like part of the lifestyle is the culture of like that, you share with other people who are doing the similar thing. And if the huge part of the existing culture, when you step into something new like that, isn’t something that vibes with you? Yeah. It’s like you have two choices. Well, three choices. You either quit or just do it solo, assimilate into that culture, or find or create your own group where. So it’s not just you always running in isolation, it’s it’s you. Like, okay, so there are people like me in this space who we can actually create like a family around. And we can yeah, we can share the love of running and also all the other, you know, sort of like cultural identifiers and things that are meaningful to us about the way we want to live in the context of running and also like broader life. And it’s like the I feel like a lot of times it’s that is as important as the actual exercise modality in what keeps you in it.
Robin Arzón: [00:25:07] Oh yeah. The like I mean, I think I know community is the linchpin to most movements. Um, and certainly like, no pun intended, actual movement. Like if you can find a community you feel proud of, you’re much more likely to keep coming back.
Jonathan Fields: [00:25:23] Yeah. So you end up, um, coming back to New York. You discover at the same time you’re starting your law career. Mhm. Right. New York City, not the easiest place in the world to practice law. I practiced here also. Um, and you end up in a giant firm also, which, you know, the reputation for a lot of big firms in New York is essentially. Okay. Welcome to the firm. Here’s a giant paycheck. We’ll take your life. Mhm.
Robin Arzón: [00:25:50] Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:25:50] What was your experience working?
Robin Arzón: [00:25:52] I worked my ass off. But you know I knew that going into it I didn’t. And thankfully like I was a young person I didn’t have kids. Still don’t have kids. You know I was single. Like I, I was like, I’m going all in. And I actually have extremely there were lots of tough moments, but I the when I look at when I look back at that part of my story arc, I actually have really fond memories of the law firm. It wasn’t my passion, and I know that now, but it felt good to be challenged in that way. Like, I like I liked the challenge of needing to suss out, like, even at a junior level as a junior associate, you know, these day to day problems. And it was during subprime, and I was working on a lot of SEC cases. And like, I mean, it’s just like it’s so hysterical because I went to law school, so I didn’t have to do math. And every day I was speaking with like, forensic accountants. I’m like, what is happening? But, um, yeah, I mean, I left as a rising, I think a rising seventh year. So and I was a summer associate also at the same law firm, Paul Hastings and, you know, so that’s a big chunk of your 20s to give to a place. And I really had a lot of admiration for the people I worked with, but there was no way I was going to continue counting down the hours until I could have like my 30 minute run or my loop around the park or my meet up with bridge runners. I was like, this is nonsense. Like, I am literally at the office all day counting down to when I can. When I could feel like I’m putting on my superhero cape to like, do the thing I was meant to do. It was definitely a two year slow process of my departure because, like, I like running. Okay, lots of people like running. How the heck am I going to monetize this if I’m not going to be an actual competitive, professional athlete? You know? So that was the conundrum.
Jonathan Fields: [00:27:36] Yeah. I mean, and it’s so it’s funny. There’s so many parallels. I started at the SEC in New York.
Robin Arzón: [00:27:43] I know about your days. Gosh.
Jonathan Fields: [00:27:45] Which was interesting. I was like on the other side of like the emails that you’d be sending and stuff like that, and we were enforcement division in New York. So we were like constantly investigating people, like in cinderblock rooms and under secrecy. And then I went to a large firm in midtown doing securities work and had a similar Jones. I realized that I was physically kind of dying inside and I, for me like the wake up call was I ended up emergency surgery when my immune system shut down and oh my gosh, things weren’t good. And thankfully everything was fine. So I had a faster transition after that because my body was literally rejecting my career. But for me also, I was a kid who was deeply fascinated with movement, and I was a gymnast for the first half of my life. So one of the things that I and this is my curiosity with you, I kind of knew, like once I decided, okay, so I’m out. I also knew, okay, I’ve invested a lot of money, a lot of time in this. I have this powerful, prestigious job, an insane paycheck, you know, for somebody that was my age back then and stepping away from that, you know, there was a lot of internal judgment. And I knew I was about to get hit with a lot of external judgment to especially to step into the world of, quote, fitness, where I think a lot of people in the professional world, they’re like, you’re gonna do like your. You have what everyone wants. Why would you ever do that? Did you have those sort of like inner dialogues, like when you were during that two year window? Or were you just like, nah, this is going to happen.
Robin Arzón: [00:29:14] You know, it’s interesting. Um, and I get that question a lot. And I think I just had myopic vision for figuring it out. So there were practical elements. Right? So like, I lived in a walkup my entire law career. I lived below my means. I didn’t want anything fancy. I didn’t want to be saddled with a mortgage I couldn’t afford. I didn’t. I was just like, I’m going to save, you know, live. I traveled a lot, you know, I lived, but I was like, I’m going to make sure that I don’t have to be at this job, um, without having to ask for any support from my parents, which I never did. Um, and so there was a practical element of like, how are you gonna pay your bills? How are you going to pay your rent? How are you going to live? Cool. So once I felt like I had that sorted in in a little bit of runway, I took a leave of absence and I kind of started dabbling. But the the external pressures. I think thankfully I was surrounded by people who were doing really unconventional things, like when you’re going on runs with graffiti artists and, you know, occasional drug dealers and you know what I mean? Like, these are people who are just, like living on their terms and good people, kind people, but like, they’re doing their thing.
Robin Arzón: [00:30:22] And when you see that, it’s almost like you can’t be what you can’t see when you see somebody running literally to the beat of their own drum, you’re like, how can I pay my own way? And thankfully, my family was really supportive. They always first of all, like, you can’t really. I’m not really one to receive a no very well, so I’m just going to keep doing it. You know? Um, and my family really trusted my instincts and my preparedness. But the, um, yeah, there was definitely a question mark of, like, you’re doing what you’re going to go do. Like, I don’t get it. Are you a blogger? Like, what do you do? You know, and a lot of those people aren’t in my life anymore. And some of them now are on the other side of the screen when I’m teaching at peloton and I’m just like, hey, nice to see you again.
Jonathan Fields: [00:31:10] Right, right. No. That’s awesome. Um, my first at bat was as a personal trainer.
Robin Arzón: [00:31:15] Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:31:16] Learning the fitness industry. Because I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted I wanted to know the the the industry and find out what was broke and how to fix it. And the big concern for me was like, I remember literally like running around Central Park with clients. And I’m like, what if one of my old, you know, like Zillionaire clients from the law firm sees me in tights and ripped up old t shirt, like stretching a client on the grass in Central Park, and I was like, okay. So there was like, there was just an ego thing that I had to kind of work through. But what’s fascinating about you is like, it seems like you constantly put yourself in scenarios where you are presented with the hard path and the easy path.
Robin Arzón: [00:31:53] Mhm.
Jonathan Fields: [00:31:54] And whereas a lot of people would be like ah, I’m okay with the easy path. You look at the hard path and you’re like, oh, I like hard. Like, I like, I can like, this is it’s an invitation to you rather than something that says, you know, like, now go the other way.
Robin Arzón: [00:32:10] I feel I find the difficult path. It beckons. It really just beckons. And I’ve always understood that you have to make it matter in order to make it happen. And I think I make the difficulty matter to me. So whether it’s a tough training run or a tough business meeting or, you know, just even days where you’re just like, oh, what is the point of this? You know, you have to kind of remember. And for me, you know, I have I really do fear mediocrity. Like I think about my legacy, like, what do I want to be talking about when I’m 90? Like, I hope I have really amazing stories to tell and kids and grandkids to make proud. And, you know, you know, my mother to honor and my father to honor. I mean, that stuff like matters to me in a very, very palpable way. So I’ve just made that part of my story matter, and it is such an overarching thing that sometimes that can be a little bit like vague and overwhelming. But for me, in my micro decisions, I really do think about that. And then sometimes it’s a practical element of like, listen, I have this race to run, just go and do it right. So it’s like it’s like I think it’s layered motivation and layered, kind of a layered approach to constantly reigniting that fire and constantly flexing that willpower muscle. And then I have my priorities. I say no to a lot of stuff, just so I can have bandwidth and energy and dedication to the difficult path, because you can’t be everything to everyone. And I’m okay with not being everything to everyone.
Jonathan Fields: [00:33:34] Yeah. Do you feel like that? The fact that it’s hard is a big part of what makes it worth it?
Robin Arzón: [00:33:39] Oh my God, yes. I mean, if things were handed out, if running a marathon were truly, truly easy and you polled people and were like, yeah, 26.2 miles, no biggie. And you get the metal. Do you feel as proud or do you treat it like a precious? You know, diamonds are on every block on the street in New York City. Would they be as valuable? No. It’s like you got to. You have to earn your value. And I think that there is some kind of the currency of, like, energy and hustle and sweat and grit. Like, I talk about being kings and queens, you know, and this kind of regal narrative of like, stepping into your power and like, not letting your crown slip. I firmly believe the jewels of my crown are made of grit and hustle and sweat. And that is because I know that journey. I know that path. It will always be worthwhile to me. Um, and even the missteps and even the failures are just feedback.
Jonathan Fields: [00:34:37] Yeah. I mean, it’s like the power of the long cut, you know, I think so many people just.
Robin Arzón: [00:34:41] Oh, the long.
Jonathan Fields: [00:34:41] Game in the morning and they’re like, what’s the shortcut that gets me from here to there, you know? And even if you find it like some a lot of times you don’t. But sometimes you do. And, but then you get there and you’re like, oh, well that doesn’t actually feel the way I thought it would feel. It’s like it’s the long cut. It’s like the doing the hard work. It’s the putting your head down when it really sucks and staying in it, you know, not to the point where it becomes destructive, but it’s the fact that you endured that, you know, and then you rose through it that like, to me, that’s always that’s what makes the outcome worth it at the end. So it’s like if somebody just showed up one day and said, okay, so here it is, like, here’s the answer, or here’s the end, you know, you can check that box and move on. It’s kind of like, okay, then it just doesn’t matter anymore, you know? But it’s interesting because I don’t I think a lot of people don’t look at life that way. They’re constantly like, what’s the fastest, easiest path to get there? Not realizing that there ain’t going to feel the way you think it’s going to feel unless you’ve earned your way there.
Robin Arzón: [00:35:40] And it’s. Yeah, and it’s so ephemeral. Right? So like, I think we look at life as being punctuated by these big achievements. So it’s like I’m getting this degree or I’m are marrying this partner and having this whatever. And it’s like those maybe moments fueled with pride and joy, but that is so fleeting when you can start to find those little moments in the glimmers of all the everyday, mundane stuff in the process. That’s when you truly will achieve that. Oh, that that frequency. Like, I just look at it like a like a radio frequency. Like, how can you tune into that a little bit every day? Because it’s really like you get your degree. How many people are still riding high from their college graduation day? Like, no, you don’t even think about it anymore. You know what I mean? So these are just moments.
Jonathan Fields: [00:36:27] Well, I got to say, in the law.
Robin Arzón: [00:36:30] Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:36:30] Like, like so many people point back to, like, whether they made law review, oh, 20 years ago. It’s like top thing on their resume. It’s a very, very strange, odd, weird thing. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. So you get to a point where you’re like, okay, I’m at the end of my two years, I’m done. I’m out. Movement. Exercise, fitness. Seven years, seven years. Right. But then there’s like the two year.
Robin Arzón: [00:36:57] Oh, right.
Jonathan Fields: [00:36:57] Two years. Kind of thinking, okay, so how do I how do I make this transition? What’s the first step out for you? What do you actually do.
Robin Arzón: [00:37:03] So I, I kind of put one toe out or one foot out. I took a three month leave of absence, um, unpaid, but I was still kind of on, on the books, and I still had my health insurance, which is a big deal at the time. And, um, I, I traveled, I did a bunch of races, and I kind of put my name out there. I was like, I want to be able to get paid to, like, do social media storytelling about running. I want to, you know, I would just talk to anyone who listened. Um, and at the time, the running group, Bridge Runners, was doing a lot of work with Nike. So I had a lot of contacts there. And then it was I was back at that law firm for a few months, and it was just coming up on the eve of the, um, 2012 London Olympic Games and I had started previously, maybe a year or two prior, a blog, a Tumblr to document my first marathon training, and it kind of got a little bit of traction. The name of the blog was Shut Up and Run, and I was like, maybe I should just go to the games and like, quote unquote report from the games. Um, and the law firm was like, we’re not giving you another, you know, leave of absence. Either you’re in or you’re out. So I was like, gosh, I guess I’m out. And that was when I was truly like, I ripped off the band aid. No more income. You’re living on your savings.
Robin Arzón: [00:38:17] You know the big deal. And I bought a plane ticket that cost more than my rent at the time. For my one bedroom walkup cost more than my rent. And I just hustled. I hustled to get interviews, I, I hustled to get tickets. I just reported in my way in my kind of, like, on the ground way when Instagram was just really getting kind of, I guess, big. That was my point of view. It was like, this is, this is the, the, hustlers point of view of the London Olympic Games as a non as a non-professional athlete. Um, and that gave me a little bit of visibility into like just unchecking the boxes and perhaps creating my own way to do things. And I, I also look at it as an example of doing your homework and being prepared for the phone call. Like I often say, a lot of people like to talk about Oprah or the Beyonce’s or these iconic people that they would love to like, just like meet or work with. And my follow up question is, would you be prepared if Oprah called tomorrow? Like, are you ready? Are you ready to like, do the work and have the conversation and like, are you ready to meet that greatness with your version of greatness? And I had read a lot about Mark Parker, the Nike CEO, and I happened to see him in London in a shoe store. And the only reason I recognized him or knew anything about him was because I had done my research and we just got to talking and he was like, wow, you have.
Robin Arzón: [00:39:47] He just approached me. He’s like, you have a great sense of style. You should have a blog. And I was like, funny you ask, I do. And I gave him, like this cobbled together business card. I don’t even know what it was, you know, but it was just like a reminder of, like, you got to be prepared for the greatness that you’re asking for. And then I just so happened that same in the London Olympic Games trip. I, um, met someone who was working on the agency side where Nike Women was their client. And then I basically left London with a job to work for Nike women on their social media campaigns. So I left London. I came home with a job, I came to New York City, and I was like, wow, I’m working at this agency. We’re doing all this creative work. And it was at the agency about six months in that I realized, oh gosh, I still don’t like this. I want to tell my own story. I want to be able to monetize that. So that second leap was actually much, much scarier because I thought I had my dream job and I didn’t. And, um, even working with one of the best brands in the world, I didn’t want to be behind the scenes. I didn’t want to be that, you know, behind the cloak of the great and powerful Oz. I wanted to be, like, out there doing the thing, like building. Building the yellow brick road.
Jonathan Fields: [00:40:57] You wanted to be Oz.
Robin Arzón: [00:40:59] Well, no, because Oz was an illusion, right? So like. But me using that same analogy, I wanted to be like building the road to the Emerald City of Real Emerald. Emerald city, not just this illusion of like, oh, you’re writing tweets and it seems you are writing about female empowerment, but like, you don’t actually feel empowered because it’s still behind the scenes.
Jonathan Fields: [00:41:25] Which is kind of interesting how it comes full circle to the major you created as an undergrad. Literally, literally building the yellow brick road. Yeah, sort of like you were doing. You spent four years fundamentally studying. How do you do that? Like, what are all the universes like? What are all the different domains? And how do they come together to help, like somebody actually do that, to create that reality?
Robin Arzón: [00:41:46] Well, when I was in school, I loved studying, like the different ways the medium contributes to the message. I mean, the classic, classic McLuhan, Marshall McLuhan stuff. But, you know, it’s like with the printed page, we had linear thoughts, right? You know, with the bards, they were oral conversations. The stories were circular. So I really do think about that stuff. And I’m like, what’s contributing to how I’m perceiving this story right now? Like, I really I get meta and I get meta often. And at that point in my life, I’m like telling the story, like I’m writing copy, like I’m actually telling the story, but I’m the freaking story. Like a light bulb went off and I’m like, I could literally charge for my opinions as a consultant and be making more money, and it would feel more true to who I am. And that’s when things changed. I stopped accepting free shoes, and I started charging an hourly rate for my ideas, and I had no idea what I was doing and I had no idea what to charge. But I had to just like, take that second leap because that felt more true to the course I needed to take. And thankfully, social media actually had like and still has like a currency, you know, of relevance. So without that, I would have been I would have been in bad shape. But thankfully it was. It was part of the time when, when Facebook and Twitter and Instagram were becoming like relevant marketing decks.
Jonathan Fields: [00:43:06] Yeah. I mean, it’s also you, you saw that, you know, like you actually had your finger on the pulse of the fact that these things were allowing you to be an entity unto yourself, to have direct access, you know, like both to the people who might pay you as a consultant for your ideas, for your thoughts, for your voice, and also directly to the people who you might go out and say, like, come along with me. Like, let’s build this yellow brick road together.
Robin Arzón: [00:43:30] Yeah, I mean, that that thing.
Jonathan Fields: [00:43:31] Like, it didn’t just drop into your lap. You Cultivated, sort of like the fierce sense of observation, to just constantly see what’s coming. It’s like you said when you were in at the Olympics and you bumped into the person from Nike, you used the phrase, um, just so happened. Yeah, it didn’t just so happen.
Robin Arzón: [00:43:49] True.
Jonathan Fields: [00:43:50] You know, like, I gotta believe in in your reality, in the life that you create. Like, there’s very little that just so happens it’s like you’re constantly out there making it happen. And I think that’s a that’s a huge difference. When you said, you know, like when Oprah calls, when whoever that person is, you want to call, like, are you going to be ready? Yeah. You know, that’s not about waiting for the phone to ring.
Robin Arzón: [00:44:13] Oh, no, for sure.
Jonathan Fields: [00:44:14] That’s about what you do. That’s about stepping out and saying, I am going to constantly be out there making things happen. It may not be the ultimate thing that I want to happen, right? But anything that I can grasp, I’m going to push and make it happen. So when you finally step out completely on your own at this point, how does the world respond to that?
Robin Arzón: [00:44:34] Like, oh gosh, you know, on the creative side, you know, related to kind of being consultants on photo shoots and things like that, that worked pretty well. And I was sometimes, you know, casted in campaigns. But from the writing side, I also fashioned myself like this burgeoning journalist and I, and I was like, oh, I’m just going to like, write for magazines who were having. Obviously, we all know that industry has had a lot of pressure in the last 20 years, ten years especially. So I would pitch these articles to editors who may or may not know who I am. Definitely, probably didn’t know who I was and, you know, get quoted rates and stuff and be like, my jaw was just on the floor. I was like, oh, so this isn’t like, you know, that was a that was a rude awakening, um, a necessary awakening. And but I just kept writing and I just kept writing, and I just kept focusing on the ways that things that I, I always say this in training, focus on what you can control. I was like, I can focus, I can write at a laptop, I can keep pitching and that process of writing and pitching and keep creating and writing and pitching, even though a lot of times I was told no, and it never actually got to an engagement with the with the magazine, at least. I was like, constantly trying to understand the pulse of the industry and what people wanted to talk about. And then I would use my own blog and social media to engage in those conversations. Then my following grew and then my presence grew. And so it was like I channeled the no’s into the only things I can control, which were like my own platforms, my own yeses.
Robin Arzón: [00:46:01] And then finally things people started piping up and paying attention. And then out of really kind of boredom, I decided, I just want to start teaching at my local spin studio because I love spin, and I had already my certification from when I was a lawyer because I just wanted to geek out on, like, the science of, you know, the conditioning of it, the science of conditioning. And that just really started because I was like, I have gaps in my day. This doesn’t make sense. Like, let me just keep doing it because it wasn’t necessarily that. It was very lucrative. I just wanted to do it, and thankfully that the people there I didn’t know how to teach, I couldn’t read, I couldn’t listen to beats like there were when people understood, like my friends remind me of that time in my life when I was trying to learn how to be a spin instructor, and they were like, oh my gosh, you would come home just like drained and frustrated and not understanding how you passed the bar exam, but couldn’t do this, you know, and I’m sure you have times when you were a personal trainer. You’re like, how was I like a high flying attorney? And now I can’t teach somebody how to do a push up. You know, it’s very humbling because a very different skill set, and it requires precision and it requires hard work. So thankfully, the folks at that studio really, really took the time to teach me how to be a teacher and how would I be an instructor. And I’m incredibly grateful for that time. And that is what then teed up. You know, me reading about John Foley and Peloton and reaching out directly and saying, I’m ready for this.
Jonathan Fields: [00:47:29] And actually, I want to talk more. I want to dive into peloton as well. But along the way, you know, sort of like one of the things we haven’t really shared is like, you’re deepening into your own fitness. You’re running more and more and more. You’re starting to run longer and longer races and ultramarathons, but at the same time, you also end up getting diagnosed with type one diabetes.
Robin Arzón: [00:47:46] Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I kind of I literally not that I forget, I never forget, but yes, that’s a very integral parts of the story. Um, I came home from India after a trip with my mother and my sister, and I was just so dehydrated, and I thought it was jet lag. I’m like, this is weird. Of course, my mother as a physician was like, we got to get you bloodwork. This doesn’t make sense. And I was diagnosed as a type one diabetic. My my pancreas produces little to no insulin. So I’m insulin dependent. And I have technology now thankfully that that helps me with that. But that I was already running ultra marathons at the time. I was running already running 50 milers or more, and I think I already, I think I had like a few races like in the next month after my diagnosis. And you know, the the doctor pulls out this. I’m a plant based athlete and this doctor pulls out this like food chart with like, this is how many ounces are in a glass of milk and stuff. And I was like that, I couldn’t I was like both like horrified and incensed. I’m like, this is not the conversation we’re having. How am I going to run a 50 mile marathon, ultra marathon in six weeks with diabetes?
Jonathan Fields: [00:48:55] One plant based?
Robin Arzón: [00:48:56] Yeah, yeah, all of it. And I’m like, I’m not changing course. We’re just gonna have to figure out how this adapts to me. Uh, thankfully, I think if I hadn’t already been an athlete, it would have been a lot tougher, because, you know, I wasn’t I didn’t I’m not type one because I wasn’t healthy, you know what I mean? Like, it was it’s it’s an autoimmune condition. So that was and I was already very self-aware of like when I eat something, how do I feel? What are my energy levels like? Truly, like any biohacking, I was kind of already on that trend. So now I just like have to do it as part of my day to day self-care. But, um, yeah, that was really tough. And it was tough because a lot of folks in the medical community, at least the ones I had access to at the time, they like, didn’t really get it. They’re like, oh, yeah, I had a patient once who ran a half marathon. I’m like looking at them like, you don’t. This is my freaking life. And and I’m way more intense than one half marathon. You know, I’m going to keep doing this and do it aggressively. So it’s like I work so hard to create myself into an athlete. I wasn’t going to let this derail me. So, um.
Jonathan Fields: [00:50:00] So how do you.
Robin Arzón: [00:50:00] Find the team from.
Jonathan Fields: [00:50:01] There? Right. Like, because so you go to somebody like, you know, your person who’s normally they’re great, they’re smart, they’re skilled, they’re accomplished, they’re great physician or team for sure. Right. But at the same time you’re not the average patient. Correct. And they admitted that you are on the extreme of what anybody with even the best training in the world is used to dealing with and used to advising and being in partnership with. As a health care provider. So it’s like, how do you then assemble a person or a team who is down with taking this journey with you and capable of just adapting on the fly and being gritty on the level that you are?
Robin Arzón: [00:50:37] You know, it’s still it’s still a work in progress, right? So I obviously I have like baseline medical care that I get and blood work and you check your a-1c and all that kind of stuff. But a lot of it was like taking it into my own hands and trial and error. And, and people ask me all the time like, I don’t get it. Like I can barely go on a 30 minute run. Like, how do you do five hours? I’m like, I take big risks. Like, I’m not saying people should do what I do, but I was willing to take big risks because it mattered so much to me that it was like, okay, do I, like, totally suspend my insulin? Do I not, you know, do I need how much do I need to eat? Like you just figure it out. I needed to do it on my own terms and take risks. And I haven’t been, you know, I haven’t had any serious medical scares.
Jonathan Fields: [00:51:21] Yeah. What’s on the other side of that risk for you, though? Because for you to say, okay, so I take big risks, I’m going to do this. I’m going to go out and go run five hours. What’s in the name of like what in your mind? What are you going to get? What are you going to feel. What are you going to experience that in your mind is like, oh hell yeah, it’s worth it.
Robin Arzón: [00:51:37] Um, I don’t want to be defined by a medical condition. I don’t want to be defined by, for the same reason that I don’t want to be only understood as a Latina or a vegan athlete or, you know, my title at peloton or a global ambassador for Adidas. Like, I don’t want to be known by any one of those things. I decide who I am and when I can own my my own agency and and reaction to to some of these risks that maybe sometimes they don’t always go so well when I can at least own that, I feel like I’m at least dictating the story and it’s not being dictated to me. And that’s always going to be important to me because I don’t need to live for somebody else’s title. I create my own titles.
Jonathan Fields: [00:52:26] Yeah. So, peloton. Yeah. Um, you’re managing all this, and this is just managing. Feels like it’s it’s like actually not even doing what you’re doing. Service. Like that word. That word isn’t right. Like you are embracing it. You’re just sort of, like, fiercely immersed in this process. Um, and from your experience, first, as you know, with indoor cycling, how does Peloton happen?
Robin Arzón: [00:52:54] So I read about Peloton. Well, I read about Peloton’s CEO.
Jonathan Fields: [00:52:57] First. We should probably explain what peloton is.
Robin Arzón: [00:52:59] Yeah. So peloton is a is a company that offers fitness products, a bike, a tread and a digital app that offers content. Married with the hardware where you have live cycling, tread or strength classes, yoga classes, meditation that you can access right from the comfort of your living room or at the at the reach of your phone.
Jonathan Fields: [00:53:23] Yeah, or if you are lucky to be in New York.
Robin Arzón: [00:53:26] Or if you’re lucky, you can come. Come down. Come on down to the New York City Peloton Studios.
Jonathan Fields: [00:53:30] Um, so how do you get involved in that?
Robin Arzón: [00:53:32] I read about the company and I thought, this is genius. This is this is you want to talk about story arc. This is like scaling fitness and entertainment and technology in a way that’s never been done before. Obviously, there’s lots of or even at the time there were a lot of digital plays for fitness and YouTube. It was like a black hole of fitness, but this was modern and sophisticated, and I had at the time a vision board of brands that I like, admired and respected and I wanted to work with. And Apple was on there, and I remember reading about peloton and thinking, and then even I think the moniker at the time was like Apple of Fitness or Netflix of Fitness. Um, and we’ve well exceeded that in terms of a definition. That’s kind of one note, but at the time it was pretty accurate. And I thought, oh, maybe there’s synergy here. So I at the we weren’t this is before the studios were even built. We were filming the the first bikes weren’t even in homes yet. Like this was really nascent.
Jonathan Fields: [00:54:31] So when was this then.
Robin Arzón: [00:54:32] So this.
Jonathan Fields: [00:54:32] Would have.
Robin Arzón: [00:54:33] Been five years ago. Yeah, just over five and a half years ago. So I started the company five, five years ago. February.
Jonathan Fields: [00:54:39] Right. So you were there like in the really, really early days then?
Robin Arzón: [00:54:42] Yeah. I mean, not as early, not as early as the co-founders, but like. Yes. Like this is after like the after they got some money. Right. The bikes are being built and now it’s the time to, to hire the talent. So I was I think that’s third instructor hired at the company and we were cutting shows, you know, literally from a closet. We refer to it affectionately as the closet. And this was there were 30 people in a room. It was the co-founders. I mean, the CTO, like our former chief information officer, Yoni Fang, used to cut my shows. I mean, now we hire folks, much more junior folks to do that. So it was just like an all hands on deck, like we’re just going to get this off the ground. Um, so it was really cool. It was a really cool time. And I remember it fondly because we were and were and still are, like incredibly scrappy.
Jonathan Fields: [00:55:27] Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting also because if you zoom the lens out, what they’re doing as a company, as a brand fits your mentality about doing the hard thing. Oh yeah, because they like the fitness space has been really interesting for a really long time and brutally hard. But there have been so many people who have come and tried to figure out, and for those who’ve never tried it, also like there’s this fantastic programming and you can do it in your own home, but they’ve also produced a bike, you know, like their version of an indoor cycling bike that you get at home, which is I’ve ridden pretty much every bike on the planet. This thing just destroys them. It is gorgeous.
Robin Arzón: [00:56:00] Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:56:00] Thank you. Smooth.
Robin Arzón: [00:56:01] It is the.
Jonathan Fields: [00:56:02] Best. So but what they did was they’re like people for years in the fitness world have been trying to figure out how do we how do we create a modality where people can do it at home? It accommodates everybody. It’s actually fun, engaging, interactive, reinforcing. And there’s a piece of equipment that is, you know, like a real investment also that goes along with it. People have been trying to figure out how to crack that nut for a long time, and nobody’s been able to. And it’s always been considered in the industry super hard. And then peloton comes along and they’re like, we’re going to crack that nut, you know? And it’s almost like knowing that nobody’s been able to do it yet. People have been trying for years. But if you can, you know, like this is like the definition of blue ocean, right? You’ll own that for a window of time. And it’s interesting to me that you were attracted to that brand because.
Robin Arzón: [00:56:53] It.
Jonathan Fields: [00:56:53] Just so goes along with who you are.
Robin Arzón: [00:56:56] It definitely does. And I’m glad they also saw, um, saw the synergy because, um, they really accepted me with open arms. Yeah.
Jonathan Fields: [00:57:05] Yeah. So you’ve been, um, rolling with them for five and a half years. Now, you wrote a book also.
Robin Arzón: [00:57:11] I did, yeah. During this time I wrote a book. Right.
Jonathan Fields: [00:57:13] Just just because, you know, sometime I got like three times just hanging out, totally bored, nothing else going on. I think I’ll write about, because how hard could that be, right? Um, which also takes the name of, I guess, the original blog, right? Yes, it does run right. So why this, like with everything else that you have going on, right, with your fierce commitment also to movement, to being out there, to being super active and especially like so I’m a writer, I’m a couple of books in also. It is a notoriously. Oh yeah. You know, like sedentary pursuit for a fixed window of time. Why that? Like, where does that fold into your master plan?
Robin Arzón: [00:57:51] Well, you know, when I left law, I did an honest assessment of my skill sets, and I’m like, I know how to write. I know how to speak. I know how to engage people, I know how to lead. And I always wanted to find ways to still honor that, because that was one of the those were the things I loved about being a lawyer was where I actually loved writing briefs and stuff, even if the topic was a little mundane. So when I was approached, I was approached by an agent like, hey, would you consider putting together a book proposal? Maybe. Let’s see if anybody bites. And it was a crazy summer because I was already teaching at peloton full time. I was approached by this book publisher, put together a very traditional book proposal, but also with more imagery, because I knew that my book would kind of be part training manual, part my own story, mini memoir. And then, um, you know, a visual representation of, like how I pursue sport, which I think is a very central element to my brand. Sweating with swagger, I think, is not only the visual conversation you’re having with the world, but like how you step into power in your own way. And for me, that’s always been there’s a stylistic element to that. And um, so anyway, put together the book proposal and then National Geographic contacted me to go on this trek through the Serengeti in Tanzania.
Robin Arzón: [00:59:07] And this was literally all happening, like my book proposal was due. And then I was leaving in two weeks, and this was the exact time. And thankfully, like we had some, some folks who some publishers who were interested in the book and my agent was like, I’m just going to have to, like, suss this out while you’re gone, because I was going to be completely offline, like living in Tanzania for six weeks. And I was like, okay, I trust you. And then I got back from the Serengeti and I had a book deal, and they were like, you have until this day to da. It was like, ta da! Welcome home. You have four months to do this. And I’m like, wait. Oh, okay. Like, watch what you ask for. You better be ready. So, yeah, I had to just do it. You know? I had a deadline. I treated it like a finish line. It was like every day you just chip away and you do it, and you do it and you do it. That was a fascinating experience, but a necessary one, because I was stretched and I, you know, I look forward to being stretched more.
Jonathan Fields: [00:59:57] Well, I mean, the book itself is gorgeous and it’s so interesting because and actually, to know that you did that in four months is kind of mind blowing, because the average person takes a lot longer to write a book. Just the words, just the manuscript. And what you’ve created is this like, is this like it is so you it’s gritty, it’s alive. It’s like energetic, it’s beautiful, it’s filled with emotion and images and it’s almost like like it represents your entire ethos, which kind of like takes it all the way back to when you started with Bridgewater and you’re like, you know what? The universe of of running has a culture which is pretty well defined, right? But that’s not you. Yeah. And it almost feels like this is a flag in the sand that says, like, you can be like this, you can like this, this can be your aesthetic, and this can still be for you. And everyone’s invited to this party, right?
Robin Arzón: [01:00:46] And or not, you know what I mean? Like, I think it’s a statement of saying, do you want to show up to that marathon rocking a red lip or not do it, you know, and I and that was very important. And it was kind of a line in the sand. And it’s it’s essential for us to show the ways we can show up. And I’ve always felt incredibly proud of knowing runners who were willing to kind of be the kooky ones, be the unconventional ones, sometimes the fastest, oftentimes not the fastest. And guess what? We’re still doing the damn thing, and we’ll see you at the finish line. Um, and that emboldened, I think, an entire pedigree, I guess, if you want to call it, of runner, who is just like, I’m still going to own this part of my journey, even if I’m this minute mile or this minute mile, or wearing this or owning that or wearing, you know, I often show up to races in, like, crazy gold jewelry, and that just became like my thing, like I had this insane panther ring that I brought with me on the Serengeti, and that each person could bring one thing. Mine was the most impractical, but I had to. That was like my power source. So, um, I wanted to unpack and demystify running. It can be. It’s only as complicated as you make it. And, um. I want people to. I want to meet people where they are and welcome them in. And so that was incredibly central to my mission with the book.
Jonathan Fields: [01:02:13] Yeah. It’s funny, one of the questions that popped into my mind was when, you know, when people think of you, what what do you want them to think of? But immediately I’m like, when I think of you, it’s like there’s no one thing. It’s almost like, it’s like there’s a fierce rebel in there that says, I am like, I don’t want them to think of like, like, how do you even process that question?
Robin Arzón: [01:02:40] Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, I do think about it in terms of like I often think about, like what are my values, which then then goes into what are my brand values and how do you post responsibly and speak responsibly. Right. So like once you get a certain amount of shine, like you got to take responsibility for that shine and ooh, like I, I know I live by a hustler’s ethos. And like that word hustle means a lot to me. And it means that you’re going to continue choosing the sometimes oftentimes harder, more difficult, uncomfortable path. I also want to be in a lot, in a lot of senses, unapologetic about who I am, because that doesn’t come, you know, sometimes that might come from a place of ego, but really, I feel like I’m blazing sometimes a path for others to be like, you know what? Like she did that and she asked for a raise. I’m gonna do that too. Like, yes, let’s talk about it more. Let’s talk about more about knowing our value and adding tax and illuminating each other’s amazingness. Because I don’t think we do it enough because I think, you know, the most simple example I use is if you see someone wearing, like, a wild outfit and you’re like, oh, I can never wear that. And then you look at him or her and you think, oh, that’s other like, why not you? That is the that is the central question to my entire life is like, why not me? Why not me? Um, and that is what I propose to people like, why not you to be that person that you are admiring and maybe even a little jealous of? Because that means you care. Um.
Jonathan Fields: [01:04:18] It feels like a good place for us to start full circle, too. It’s like we’re getting right into the philosophy. So we’re hanging out here in this container in the studio. Good Life Project.. So if I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up?
Robin Arzón: [01:04:31] Ooh, to live a good life is to tell stories in your final years that you’re incredibly proud of.
Jonathan Fields: [01:04:43] Thank you. If you love this episode, safe bet, you’ll also love the conversation that we had with Rich Roll about making the journey from practicing law and dealing with addiction to becoming a sober, ultramarathoner, entrepreneur and successful creator. You can find a link to that episode in the show notes. This episode of Good Life Project was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and me, Jonathan Fields. Editing help by Troy Young. Kristoffer Carter crafted our theme music, and of course, if you haven’t already done so, please go ahead and follow Good Life Project in your favorite listening app or on YouTube too. If you found this conversation interesting or valuable and inspiring, chances are you did, because you’re still listening here. Do me a personal favor. A seven-second favor and share it with just one person. I mean, if you want to share it with more, that’s awesome too. But just one person even. Then invite them to talk with you about what you’ve both discovered to reconnect and explore ideas that really matter, because that’s how we all come alive together. Until next time, I’m Jonathan Fields signing off for Good Life project.