Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Peloton VP, Robin Arzón: Surviving a Hostage Crisis and Building a Relentless Fitness Brand | E67
Thu, 02 Jan 2025
A former lawyer turned fitness powerhouse, Robin Arzón’s journey is one of resilience and inspiration. After surviving a traumatic hostage situation in college, she turned to running as a way to heal and challenge herself. She went from casual runs to completing marathons and ultra-marathons. Despite being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Robin refused to let it define her. She embraced the mantra, "Why not me?" and continued challenging herself to achieve more. In this episode, Robin shares with Ilana how she transformed a traumatic experience into a driving force for her life’s purpose, made a bold leap into the fitness world, and built a global brand that empowers millions. Robin Arzón is a renowned fitness expert, former lawyer, author, and motivational speaker. She is best known as the VP and Head Instructor at Peloton, where she inspires millions with her high-energy cycling and strength classes. In this episode, Ilana and Robin will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:24) Surviving a Hostage Situation and Finding Inner Strength (05:34) Discovering Running as a Healing Tool (08:38) From Casual Runs to Completing Ultra-Marathons (11:16) Transitioning from a Law Career to Fitness (13:06) How Robin Landed a Job at Peloton with a Cold Email (15:36) Living and Thriving with Type 1 Diabetes (18:21) Juggling a Career, Motherhood, and Life’s Demands (21:26) Pushing Past Her Limits at Richard Branson’s StriveX Challenge (24:41) Building a Global Brand Through Grit and Consistency (28:05) Launching Swagger Society, a Community for Growth (29:49) Upcoming Cookbook and Plant-Based Lifestyle (31:34) Learning to Trust Life’s Redirections (33:27) Robin’s Career Pivots and Life-Changing Lessons (36:46) How Everyday Actions Define Your Life and Career Robin Arzón is a renowned fitness expert, former lawyer, author, and motivational speaker. She is best known as the VP and Head Instructor at Peloton, where she inspires millions with her high-energy cycling and strength classes. After overcoming a life-changing traumatic event, she pivoted from a law career to focus on health and wellness. Robin is also a New York Times bestselling author of Shut Up and Run and Strong Mama, sharing her personal stories and fitness philosophies. She advocates for mental and physical strength, promoting the power of movement and mindset to achieve personal transformation. Connect with Robin: Robin’s Website: https://www.robinarzon.com/ Robin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinnyc Resources Mentioned: Robin’s Book, Shut Up and Run: How to Get Up, Lace Up, and Sweat with Swagger: https://www.amazon.com/Shut-Up-Run-Sweat-Swagger/dp/0062445685 Robin’s Journal, Welcome, Hustler: An Empowerment Journal: https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Hustler-Empowering-Motivational-Self-Care/dp/1454946342 Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training
Chapter 1: What traumatic experience shaped Robin's life?
And I grabbed onto it. And one of my mantras I developed, which I still use, is why not me? I'm in this for the infinite hustle. I don't want to do this and flame out. No, baby. I want to be one of the most badass 90-year-olds you know. You can't make decisions based on somebody else's doubt because they're not you.
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Robin Arzon, a global fitness leader, 27 marathons and ultra-marathons, two New York Times bestsellers. She's the vice president of fitness programming and head instructor at Peloton and the founder of Swagger Society Media Company. Robin, you discovered your passion for running after a very traumatic experience in New York. Can you take us back in time?
Yeah, I mean, it was decades ago now, but it does feel like it was just the other day. In fact, the other day I was walking by where the incident happened and I was just thrown. It's funny when you look back at your own history and you're like, wow, I was right there, but also I'm a totally different person now.
Chapter 2: How did running become a healing tool for Robin?
But to get your listeners in up to date or into the story, on a Friday afternoon, I was entering my senior year at NYU, so college age, and I had planned to go to law school the following year. And on the eve of graduation that year, so it was all very exciting times, I was meeting my girlfriends after work. I was paralegal at a law firm doing my corporate gig.
And a great day turned into a horror movie really within seconds. minutes. A man walked in saying that he'd been shot into the wine bar where we were sitting. Tiny little wine bar in the East Village. Basically, it was like there's a before and then an after. That was the inflection point that it became the after.
I was held hostage that night by the man who had shot the gentleman who had walked in. And so the perpetrator walks in, he grabs me, then it's chaos, expletives, guns flailing. I mean, it was truly like a horror movie.
And by the time the police were called, because bystanders had heard shots from outside, by the time the police arrived, there were probably 20 of us in this wine bar with this man who was spewing hate, wanting to kill everyone that was in there, including me. And I was the person he held onto throughout this incident, literally using me like a human shield.
I became basically the pseudo-negotiator between him and the NYPD who had gathered outside. The incident was a few hours long. And in that time, it was like... going from speaking to this man to speaking to the NYPD to almost having the silent conversation with myself that like, this was not gonna be the end to my story. That thankfully was not.
And a really brave woman named Anne Margaret basically jumped him from behind and that ended the takeover because they basically were able to get him on the ground. And that's when the NYPD were able to rush in. I was standing in front of him. So all of this action happened behind me. So I just felt the sensation falling. So that was it.
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Chapter 3: What inspired Robin to transition from law to fitness?
And that intensity and trauma brought me in a very meandering way to running, which ended up being a very healing journey for me.
So before we go to the running, this is a fascinating, and by the way, you talk about it in Shut Up and Run. So it's an incredible book. Like I laughed, I was frantic. All the emotions come in that book. And you are trying to actually talk to that person. And I think that's fascinating. Like you're trying to really understand him and engage with him.
Chapter 4: How did Robin land her job at Peloton?
Can you talk a little bit of what's going on in your head for a second?
Yeah, totally. I didn't realize I was doing this at the time, but I was trying to humanize the folks who were in the room and I guess humanize him. I didn't want to anger him further. And I thought, oh, well, if he understands that we're daughters and brothers and friends and, you know, the folks in here also have loved ones.
Chapter 5: What challenges did Robin face living with Type 1 diabetes?
And he was talking a lot about his loved ones and he was speaking in Spanish. So I started speaking to him in Spanish. I was just like, I just want him to be able to see us because there was just so much rage. And later, having spoken to real hostage negotiators, I realized that that is actually one of the tactics that they use.
I didn't even know that I was doing that, but that is what I did at the time.
And that's incredible because we actually had Chris Voss, who is a hostage negotiator from the FBI. Yeah, and he says exactly this. And then I'm reading it in your book. I'm like, how did Robin know? It's somehow your instincts. So you're getting over this. I don't even know if you ever really get over this experience, but that takes you to running. What happened? Why running?
Chapter 6: How does Robin balance motherhood and her career?
How did that even come about?
I don't know why running. I was not an athlete growing up, so it wasn't as if I was trying to relive high school glory days or something at a later point in my life. But I was in law school, and I don't know. I think the added acute stressors of law school plus the trauma, it was like something had to give. After this hostage incident, I went back to school.
I took like two days off, went back to school, was back in the grind. And I think ambitious folks get it. It's like, okay, well, I'm just going to focus on the to-do list and the calendar and the graduate, you know, it's like the next finish line, so to speak, figuratively. And a year later, when I was in law school, I was just feeling overwhelmed to say the least.
And that I just looked at dusty shoes in my closet one day and I was just like, what if I just wore them and And I literally put the keys down, you know, my car keys down. I was like, what if I just went on foot to campus? I have no idea why, but I think we all have those moments that start as a whisper, just like a little fleeting curiosity. And I grabbed onto it.
And it wasn't like, and then I was this marathoner and it was this Rocky montage. No, it was like these initial runs for a long time were horrendous. But in those runs, I realized I wasn't thinking about law school stress or almost dying or the trial. What drummed up a lot of emotion as well was this is when the criminal...
prosecution was happening and I was a witness, but I was also in law school. It was like a lot. I was unpacking a lot, but during the runs or walk jogs, whatever they were, I wasn't thinking about all that. And then I realized, oh gosh, I have a tool for my toolkit now that was pretty magnificent.
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Chapter 7: What does it take to build a global fitness brand?
And that's incredible, Robin, because if somebody has not been a runner, and even if somebody has been a runner, the first few miles are suffering. So what made you go again and again and again? Why not put the towel on this and say, screw this, let's take the car?
I guess it's this idea that we can choose our hard path. And it was two things. You can choose your hard. And the second is I liked myself better after a run. This was a totally selfish vehicle to befriending myself. And I just needed to like myself a little bit more. And that's what the run did. And then it was like,
Yes, when I was doing marathons and ultra marathons, and then I educated myself around it, I was like, oh my gosh, there are all these other benefits. But it really started with the conversation in between my ears.
And again, I love the choose R hard, but you choose hard in all directions now. We'll talk about this. I think you forgot the R, you know, like you just go... In all directions, we'll talk about it. But how from that moment you went into career in Peloton. And there's also a big difference, Robin, between I'm going to run three miles and I'm going to do ultra marathons. Take us there for a second.
I started learning about amazing endurance athletes like Rich Roll, who's now a friend of mine, or Scott Jurek and Alison Felix, Para Goucher, these athletes who are just incredible. And I got really inspired. I specifically got really interested in the ultra running world. And that is a world... If folks aren't part of that world, it's just really welcoming and warm and accepting.
And it's like, so what? You're not a five-minute mile. Like, let's just go out here on a trail or let's just do it. Let's just put one foot in front of the other. And that was amazing. And also, I liked that you can put training in a calendar and do the work and achieve something. That just felt really... gratifying to me. And it gave me an outlet.
At this time when I was doing ultra marathons, by this time I was practicing law in New York City. And it was obviously a lot to balance all of that, but it at least gave me something that wasn't work. The meta message was, you like yourself better. You like yourself more after you've done this. And yes, I definitely took it to some extremes, but that was also out of curiosity.
It was like, well, if my body can do this, why can't it do that? And one of my mantras I developed at the time, which I still use, is why not me? I, you know, read these magazines and read these memoirs of these runners. And I thought, oh, gosh, well, I don't know if I'll do that. But what if I do my version of that? Why not me?
For those who don't know what's an ultramarathon, tell us a little bit.
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Chapter 8: What are Robin's key lessons learned from her career pivots?
It's technically anything over 26.2 miles or like 40, 40 something kilometers, 44 maybe. That can go a lot of distances. You know, I have a friend, Bex Gentry. She ran seven marathons in seven days around the world. So there are obviously lots of ways to do it. My farthest distance has been 100 miles or five marathons in five days across Utah for charity, for MS research.
But very traditional distances are like 50K, which is around 31 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles. And then there are stage races, which you might do in two, three, four, five, seven days. A lot of miles. Yeah.
Crazy, crazy, crazy. And we actually had somebody that ran the Sahara, Charlie. Anyway, we had some crazy people.
Yes, Marathon de Saab is a great example. Yes. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
I guess there's never a limit to the amount of craziness. But tell me, Robin, you then decide to not go the law route and completely change. Can you take us there for a second? Why?
I was counting down the minutes, the hours. If there are any lawyers who are listening or watching, you know all about billable hours. So you're living in these increments of six minute increments. So I was very aware of time, hyper aware of time. And I would count down the hours until I could run, lift, go to spin class. And I thought, oh my gosh, if I'm working out on a good week, Four days.
Am I really living for like four hours a week? Three and a half hours a week? That felt wild. Especially having just had this experience in my early 20s. By my mid-late 20s, I was like, screw that. If I put all this work to befriend myself, then I should put myself in experiences that I feel excited about, or at the very least challenged by in a way that gets me excited.
And it's interesting because practicing law wasn't like, oh, I hate every day. It was just, I'm fine. And I believe that we deserve existences that are more than fine. And I think that is the distinction that we don't often talk about. It's like this malaise that is pervasive and is, what if you deserve better? We almost resign ourselves to this Oh, it's just okay. No, it's not.
So that was the impetus. And it was a really slow kind of burn. It was like a two-year slow burn that I thought, oh my gosh, well, how the heck am I going to pay my bills? And I'm living in New York City. And obviously, I'm super, super privileged to have this amazing gig, this corporate gig. And There wasn't a clear path because it wasn't like, okay, now I want to go to business school.
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