July 6, 2026 • 45 mins
“You should be rattling the age cage. What decision would you make if you were twice as bold and twice as confident? Because it's like that version of yourself is just waiting to be let out of a cage.”
-Robin Arzon
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
So today I have something on my mind because I've
been feeling that there's tons and tons of kindness that
I'm noticing. And you know what's weird about kindness. Once
you notice it, you see it everywhere. It's one of
those things and you don't forget it. So this happened
to me a while ago, and it stuck with me,
(00:31):
and it's one of those stories that I think to
myself like it was a small thing, but it changed
how I viewed things. So I was coming into my
Upper West Side apartment one day and I it was
like one of those long days, and I hopped in
the elevator and this girl hops in the elevator with me,
and she's wearing like an oscar the grouch hat like
pulled down with like two eyes on top, and she
(00:52):
was holding a box and kind of looking at the
ground and I go, oh, I go god, that smells good.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I said, what is that?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And she goes, oh, their donuts there, they're salted caramel.
I was like, oh, my god, salted caramel. Like there's
nothing better than salted caramel donuts. And I'm just making conversation.
She kind of keeps her head down mutters a couple
of words and then hops out on her floor, and
then I hop out on my floor. So I forgot
about it, because you know, it was a ten second conversation.
(01:20):
So the next day I come back to my apartment
building and the door man says, oh, you have a box,
and I was like, oh, okay. And I see the
box and I recognize it. It's the same one that
the girl had. And there was a note attached and
it said, Hi, I was the one wearing the oscar
the grouch hat in the elevator. You are admiring the
(01:41):
donuts the salted caramel, and the ones I had were
already spoken for. So I went to Brooklyn and bought
these for you. Okay, She went to Brooklyn and bought
some salted caramel donuts for me, someone who she never met.
And I thought to myself, being on the receiving end
(02:02):
of an act of kindness and also one that someone's
not waiting to see your reaction to was amazing and
it changed me. My best friend's name is Karen Swinson,
and she I think she's part saint personally, but she
does things like that all the time. I remember we
were eating dinner together and she got up to go
to the restroom, and I watched her walk over to
(02:24):
the waitress past a table full of it looked like
people who were in the arm services, and they were
wearing their uniforms. And she walked by, whispered something to
the waitress, and came back and sat down.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And then I.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
See the waitress walk over to that table say something
to them. The guys look around and say thank you
and walk out smiling. And I said, did you did
you pay for that table?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And she said, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Like she'll never admit that she's done something like that
because she thinks if you say it, then it sort
of takes away the yabe.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Part of it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So one of the things I started trying to do
with my kids was when we go out somewhere a
diner or whatever, spot somebody at a table, or preferably
someone who's sitting alone, but spot somebody, and go to
the waitress, pick up her tab, and don't say a word.
And my kids were like, why can't we tell her?
It's like, because sometimes you do things just because, not
(03:22):
because of what someone's going to say or what someone's
going to think, just because, So sometimes it's good to
do things just because. So that's what I'm going to
try to continue with my kids. Don't wait for the a,
don't wait for the ADA girl, the ADA boy, or wow, you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Did that for us? Who cares? Do the thing?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Walk away and you'll someone will have the story like
I have about those salted caramel donuts. Someone's going to
have that story that they're going to tell over and
over again because you did them a solid and didn't
wait around to see what the thank you was. So
I think life is pretty cool when we.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Live that way. My guest today lives that way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Her name is Robin Arzon, and she is I know
her as a Peloton instructor.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
But let me tell you something that isn't.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Even one one hundredth of what Robin does and what
Robin is about. Robin has led this life that is
so fascinating, that is filled with determination and the kind
of person who doesn't quit, the kind of person who
sees joy around every corner. I mean, you're not gonna
(04:32):
believe what I'm going to tell you right now, but
this is something that happened in Robin's life and changed it.
Robin was enjoying a night out with friends at a
wine bar, A guy with a gun walks in and
uses Robin as a human shield. Okay, she has this
guy with a gun holding her hostage. What follows from
(04:55):
that moment, which I mean she obviously survived, and it
was a terrifying thing. And many people would have reverted
into themselves and had that would be their defining story
of their life. That's that's not Robin's defining story. That's
when her life changed. That's when she took a step
outside of herself. That's when she made different choices. When
you know your life has margins, you make different choices.
(05:18):
You don't stay on the same old, tired path. You
say to yourself, wait, I have limited time here. What
am I going to do with my time? Well, Robin
has taken that time and turned it into something magical.
I cannot wait for you to hear my conversation with
Robin ours on. First of all, can we just say,
(05:40):
because the timing of this podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Go New York, Go, New York Go.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Have you ever ever felt the electricity in this city
like you feel right now?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
The collective effervescence? I mean, it's so appropriate to be,
you know, on a podcast that centers joy because you
walk around the streets of New York and I don't
know what it's like to live in a small town
in like Middle America, but I think if you put
a little bit of that kindness and that, you know,
I say that the city is we're giving each other
the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and I think that
(06:13):
that's something that we've lost that again, Yeah, let's talk
about that, right. So it's like, you know, the person
in front of you is rushing, like you give them
the benefit of what They're probably trying to get home
to their kids, they have an important meeting. You hold
the elevator door a little bit longer, you you know,
And I think that that little bit of you know,
the city is steeped in friction, like that's just kind
(06:33):
of what we do. But I believe that like that
friction is needed for the expansion when we later on
collective efforescence and a little bit more belief in each other. Yeah,
it's like there's no more perfect place, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
When I moved to New York, I remembered thinking to myself,
We're in a one mile swath of land, and in
this tiny mile sits people from every country, every background,
every religion.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Every everything. To myself, if New York City can work,
then the world can work. Absolutely everything can work.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And watching us now is beyond all of the things.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I love.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Seeing a Wall Street dude in a Patagonia vest high
fiving a guy on a truck who's high fiving someone
who they would never have interaction with.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I mean, that's what joy is.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Absolutely all right, let's talk about you because I selected
you for this podcast for a reason. So I've watched you,
I've watched you on the peloton bike, I've listened to
you speak, and I thought to myself, this girl. At first,
I said, this girl must have had this charmed life,
nothing ever happened. She's so care free, and it's the
(07:47):
opposite of that. Actually, So I want to talk about
you as a little girl for starters. Tell me, did
you come into the world optimistic? Did you come into
the world with belief that, yeah, I can do I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Can do things. I mean, my mom really modeled it.
I think maybe it's partially genetic. We are a little
bit wired to see things through rose tinted glasses. My
dad actually isn't like that at all. And then I
think I have a little bit of you know, his
sass and my mom's optimism. And I was deeply, deeply
(08:22):
shy as a kid, like I wanted to just be
as beige as possible and like blend into the wallpaper.
And it was my mom actually, you know they I
was in a montessory, uh, you know, preschool, and the instructor,
the teacher came over to my mom after school one
day and was like, hey, you know, she doesn't speak
(08:44):
to anyone, like we think you might have to get
her tested or something. And you know, this is before,
this is the eighties, this is kind of before we
really had an awareness of people being on their spectrum
and things like that. And my mom was like, you know,
I just trust my kid to follow her path and
I'm not gonna then now over And she's a doctor, right,
so she's like, I'm not going to over diagnose this.
(09:05):
Let's just like let her rocket her cook. And when
I was a preteen, I remember, and I really followed
that trend all through elementary school, super super shy. And
when I was a preteen, you don't want nothing more
than to fit in. And my mom told me the
best advice I've ever received, which is stay weird. Because
otherwise your people won't know how to find you. And
I was like, okay, so I actually started incorporating color,
(09:28):
and I wear yellow in my toughest peloton rides, and
that like yellow fixation really started as a teen when
I was started being like okay, like maybe the world
can see me. So who did you turn to when
you were because kids have funky things going on? Who
was your person? I think my person really lived in
my cousins, right, So I grew up in a Puerto
(09:50):
Rican and Cuban household, multi generations all in one house.
I mean it was the kind of like open door
policy where you might have somebody who's just like visiting
from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panya, Like you didn't know who
I was, Like, I don't they my brother, my cousin,
my aunt, like I true half my childhood. I didn't
even know my true connection with half the people in
my house. I just knew like they were the people.
(10:12):
So my cousins. I grew up with a whole crew
of cousins all within like five years up or five
years down from me, and they became.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's your world. Yeah, I mean when you're you're you're
super smart. Obviously you went to n YU, you graduated
top of your class or.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, magna you know whatever that is and things magna
kom something. So what was the goal here? What was
the goal? What do you want to do with all that?
So I knew I wanted to I wanted to practice
law since I was a kid. My father was an
attorney when I was growing up, and he was a
law professor, and I remember him grading law exams in
blue books. And it's interesting now with AI that they're
(10:51):
going back to blue books. I'm like, oh, this is
a remix. But yeah, I always was fascinated by I'm
a virgo. I like a rule, I like a less
I like to know what is right and what is wrong.
And I think in law school it was very revelatory
to me to wrestle with that and be like, actually,
there's a lot of ways to tell a story and
(11:11):
that it was in law school that I started becoming
fascinated with narrative and storytelling. Ah, and so that kind
of informs a lot of what I've done since practicing law.
But the you know, in college, the goal was definitely
like slay a law firm job.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Was it more your dad was that more the reason
or did you really love all of that stuff you
were soaking in?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I just loved wrestling with it. I remember being on
the debate team in high school and just having a
stack of facts and being like, how can I make
this make sense? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
So were you when you talk about being painfully shy?
Were you happy when you had to go to school?
Did you want to go?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I loved school, like I love books, I love syllabus.
I love I mean honestly, Like my husband makes fun
of me because I was kid who get their syllabus
in July for school and like start reading the books
before Labor Day, Like who does that? I was so
into that. I loved school. So being in the classroom
(12:11):
I adored. But it was like the small moments of
oh I remember, like like like the moment carrying your
tray to a cafeteria table and not no, no, I
hated you because it was the moment where you had
to like insert yourself into a social situation, like those
moments like walking into the playground and being like am
I gonna go here? Am I going to go here?
(12:33):
And I wasn't you know, I have to say, like
it wasn't like I had some torture childhood, what I
was made fun of all the time. But I create
in my own head. I created these tensions.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
By the way, I think this is so interesting because
if someone's listening and has a kid, who is that kid?
Sometimes you think, well, is this child going to go
down this path and be this way? Well, clearly something
happened to you because you went from that girl to
this girl. Was there a moment in high school in
(13:01):
college where you just cracked out and said, you know what,
I don't you know, I'm going to be I'm going
to be who I am, weird, all the things your
mom suggested.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I remember, you know, there was a pivotal moment, and
it kind of feels like a nineties romcom or something.
But I was super unexpectedly nominated for Homecoming Queen were
high school, and I was like homecoming Queen. Like I
wasn't like I didn't you know, I had friends, but
I wasn't like the most that one, you know, beloved
girl in school and I was like And then I
(13:31):
realized is because I had so many different groups of friends,
because I was truly friends with like the sporty kid
and the nerdy kid, and the yearbook kid, and the
and I was the after school participant, like I wanted
to sign up for everything, and I was like, oh,
I have a lot of different groups of friends. I'm
like a bridge builder. And I ended up winning Home
Queen and havington Senior high School and that really was
(13:52):
a turning point for me because I was like, I
didn't see myself that way at all.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So when it was that there's probably what three of
you waiting when they call out the person? Did you
think when they when they said your name?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It was like the first time I had won anything.
It was the first time I had been seen for anything.
I mean truly, like I I'm such a I really
am an introverted, like energetic energetically and but it was
that point that was at in that moment that I
was like, oh, it's both hand, Like I can I
can step on a stage and learn to be literate in.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That boy and to be somebody who doesn't expect it,
who finds yourself there. Okay, So did being in the
spotlight make you feel good? Did it make you feel weird?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think especially then it was both yeah, But also
I was able to see myself through the community's eyes
a little bit. I was like, Oh, there's so and so,
and there's so and so, and the reason you know
it's you know, those voting things are really just like
a numbers game. And I was like, Oh, the reason
I won this wasn't because I'm so grand or special,
is because I cast a wide net. And that was
interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
To You're like, oh, this is part of my thing.
I'm going to tell you something super weird. So in
high school, I was very similar to you, and it
was homecoming and they nominated Cameron Domain gorgeous, Margie I
Annie gorgeous, somebody else gorgeous and me I.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Was like, I was like. My brother was like, what
why I go? I actually don't know. I don't know.
And then they said my brother. I still remember. My
brother was there.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
My dad was working, My brother was there with me,
and he goes, where do we go?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And we lose?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I go, I think we go left. I think because
that's what I was thinking, because he was always worried
about like where do we go? How do we get
out of here? And literally they called my name. There
was a picture of my brother looked at me like
shock her and me too, like me, and you realize
because true, when you are in sports with the popular kids,
(15:47):
with the after school kids.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I wonder how many people have something similar who wound
up in this way, because you can't just be in
a narrow lane. You've got you got a broad Now,
O correct one of the things about your story. Sorry,
I didn't know this. Maybe I'm the only one, and
I want our listeners to know this story too. You're
in a wine bar. Please tell me the story, because
(16:13):
I feel like in everyone's life there is a singular moment,
and we all have many of them, but this one
in particular that could either break you as a human
being or transform you into something else. Either you're going
to go down a road that's going to be dark
and terrible, or you're going to take this and turn
it into something. Tell me about what happened in the line.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So I was in with at NYU. I was entering
my senior year at NYU, meeting girlfriends after my internship.
I was working at a law firm at the time.
It's Friday afternoon or Friday early evening, and I go
to meet them at this wine bar in the East Village.
It's still there, it's called Barbeloche, very cute Italian wine bar.
They sort of sort of like top or like pizza
(16:59):
or whatever. And I was I was sitting in the
first stool closest to the entryway, and I hear gunshots.
A man walks in saying that he'd been shot, and
I'm looking at him like is this because this is
kind of when those prank shows were very popular, and
like reality TV was kind of very pervasive, and I
were starting to become very pervasive, and I thought, is
(17:20):
this like a TV show or something like? This feels
so bizarre. But then the man walked in. The perpetrator
walked in with the gun, say, you know, saying that
people were going to leave in body bags. That was
the first sentence that he uttered when we walked in there.
And I was like, Okay, this is not a joke.
And time slows down when you're in those kind of traumas,
like if you know, hopefully nobody's ever been through that,
but you know, a car accident, something like somebody's in
(17:42):
a hospital, like you start, you your body is the
processing speed is literally different, chemically different. And I it
was the first time that I was confronted with self
talk like we've had we all have self talk, you know,
where I've sixty to one hundred thousand thoughts a day.
But in that moment, I was I was my only companion,
(18:03):
and I remember talking myself through like he basically snatched
me from the stool into this back dishwashing area where
he took you. He grabbed me. Yeah, so I was
like his maid. There were probably like fifteen seventeen people
in the bar, and it was a narrow walkway, so
the entryway was the only way out and the only
(18:25):
way in, only way out of this you know, establishment,
And so he grabbed everybody ran back into that kitchen,
which was a dead end, you know, except for like
a tiny little window, and he grabs me, and I
remember speaking to myself thinking, just saying, like my first
refrain was this is really happening. This is really happening,
(18:49):
Like this is really happening right now. And then time
slowed down even more, and I mean I remember having
super panic breath. But at some point you just deal
with what's in front of you, like it's not just
some heroic thing, right, It's not like and all of
a sudden, I you know, it was ten feet tall,
and I was super brave. I wasn't. I was just
(19:10):
dealing what was directly in front of me. And what
was directly in front of me was this man holding
a gun, a sword, kerosene covered us in kerosene, had me,
had had me tie people up with zip ties. Yeah,
and then I'm then he basically grabs me again. By
this point, the NYPDR outside, and it becomes a full,
(19:32):
you know, hour plus long hostage negotiation between my utilizing
my cell phone to the NYPD outside and then he
and I having side conversations basically this four years saying, well,
he started speaking to being Spanish, and I replied in Spanish,
and it turns out that he was black and either
(19:52):
Dominican in Puerto Rican or Puerto Rican, and his wife
had just died. We're talking about his family. He was
a father, and so I remember very intentionally trying to
humanize the situation and being like, my name's Robin, like
there are people here who also have families, like you know,
and and the people behind me started to settle a
(20:14):
little bit, like they weren't wailing and screaming anymore. Once
he and I were talking, and it was still obviously
like very heavily charged, but it was it had like
more of a hum to it. And it was in
that moment that a woman and Margaret, who was sitting
in the wash basin slightly elevated from us, jumped him
(20:35):
from behind the NYPD Russian. Oh my gosh, that is
how that's how it ends for people were shop but
nobody died. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Okay, so you leave that horrible setting. Yeah, and that's
PTSD right there. Yeah, that's a lifetime of I almost died.
That's a lifetime of here they come again, someone's coming
for me. It's a lifetime of that. Yeah, you did
something you could have become You could have become her
that person. Then you'd be telling me that story right
(21:04):
now in a way that that was different.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
What did you do? How did you kind of turn
the beat around? Well? I was like I want to
whatever I gotta do, I'm gonna heal from this. Like
it was like project healing, which obviously comes on its
own timeline. But NYU was super supportive. I went to therapy.
I was back at school the next semester, and that
structure really helped me, you know, trying to get back
(21:27):
into routine, but living in New York City. I remember
I was living in the village at the time, and
the first time I was going to get back on
the at the train at the west Ford Street station,
like not being able to walk downstairs because I was like, oh,
I'm going to be down underground and like what if
I can't get out? And there was this fee you know,
I still have, like I will know an exit in
every single room that I'm in today I die, like
(21:49):
that's just now how I'm wired. But it really so
that that was that probably was a band aid, you know,
therapy and kind of routine and a lot longer to
do list as a distraction as a band aid for
like eighteen months, and then I was in law school,
you know, the following year, and with the acute stresses
of law school, it was like, yeah, it was just
(22:11):
too much. It was just going to break. And that's
when I started incorporating running and movement became enough of
a pressure release for me to start to process it.
And I remember just having flashes of the experience like
I'd be you know, running and I started very slowly
running during law school, but I would be on these
runs and I would just have flashes of the experience
(22:32):
and like, wow, I didn't even remember that, and I
just had to befriend myself. And I was really aware
that I didn't something wrong happened to me. But I
didn't want to become this my primary identity as a victim.
Like I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, so you ran. Now, you weren't an athlete, so
running wasn't your bag, but you started.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You ran what a little bit? And then I ran
to school, you know, my apartment to the law school campus,
and then I did a ten k and almost didn't finish,
and I was wearing like kids. I mean, it was
all just storious. The fact that I do this for
a living is a joke. Like I didn't know what
I was doing at the end. You ran what twenty
plus marathons? Yes, twenty seven marathons twenty twenty seven November
(23:17):
New York City. Will be running another one not even
done my day ninth New York City Marathon.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Girl, I thought that was a chapter in the past.
You're still running marathons.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, I mean I haven't done it in five years.
I haven't done it since my daughter was nine months old.
And I kind of you know, I don't believe. I
think that we can evolve into all different chapters. Right.
It wasn't like I have to run a marathon every
year to prove anything. But I started to crave it again.
Yeah you did. Yeah, So tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Once you've accomplished and accomplished it again and again and again,
what gives you that itch to do it?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Like, what's the motivation? I think that there is specifically
with endurance marathons ultra marathons, and I'm sure any endurance
athlete of any kind, well, we'll understand what I'm saying.
There's like a there's like a I mean, this might
be this does gonna sound really intense. There's kind of
like a spiritual reckoning that happens when you're in that
(24:13):
and you just have to face yourself and for better
or for worse. Usually for better those experiences heal me,
push me, heal me. Yeah. So I'm going back into
the ring. By the way, that's pretty beautiful. Tell me
about the spiritual piece of it, because that's huge. You
(24:36):
don't run from yourself talk Yeah, and then usually I
have this this the arc is like I'm feeling so good,
I'm feeling so good, and then physically it's like I'm
feeling so bad. And then you start thinking, you know,
then you start tuning, you know, trying to distract and
whether it's a song or whether it's a mantra, and
that only goes so far, and then you get into
your self talk. And then then for me, I've done
(24:57):
it enough times where I start to unpack myself talk
and sometimes like this persistent inner critic comes up and
usually my catharsis through that becomes some kind of like
spiritual like then it's like my self talk isn't to me,
it's kind of like to this broader spiritual conversation. And
(25:17):
you know, I'm not saying every ten mile run ends
with this like, but you know, but when you're a
lot of times it does. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
It's not physical anymore, it's not emotional anymore. It's more
it's more than all.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It's like a metaphysical thing for me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So corporate law, yay, look at you. You did all
the things, and you're like, you know what, I don't think. So,
I mean, we talk.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
About repotting here a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's like you your roots are in deep and all
of a sudden you're going to yank yourself up. Your
roots are up in the air going, oh crap, man,
I need am I going to die up here? And
then you get put in this mineral rich soil, which is.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Where you landed. Why did you pull yourself out of
corporate law? And tell me about how you landed? Oh,
my beautiful analogy. I called networking planning seeds because that
felt better than like going to a happy hour and
like pestering people and telling them about business. But yes,
during that period, I was slowly but consistently getting uncomfortable
(26:17):
in these races and falling in love with running. And
I was also part of a community where I call
them like they were called. They were called the New
York City Bridge Runners. They still gather in downtown New
York and it was just a group of misfits, right
like DJs and artists and graffiti artists and folks who
(26:39):
are just maybe not considered your typical athlete, and they were.
They really introduced me to the running world in a
way that was unconventional, and I was like, oh, I
can do this. I can do unconventional And that allowed
me to start to write a story that was so
unexpected even to me, and I thought, okay. I was
(27:00):
noticing that brands like Nike and Adidas were you know,
working with a lot of the New York City Bridge
runners and a lot of these athletes for campaigns, and
I was like, oh, there's a story here. Not only
is there a story here, there's a commercial appetite for
this point of view in movement. So I started. I
had a tumbler initially, and then you know, it was
(27:22):
blogging and doing like you know, freelance, little articles and
things for whatever publication would take me. And then it
started becoming branded work. And that was when influencer marketing
was kind of starting to become a thing within the
marketing canon. And I was very grateful to be a
part of it because once I started being able to
(27:43):
pay my rent with things that I loved, namely running
and talking about running and taking photos running, it became
an entry point into a brand new life. And it
wasn't scary to leave law behind. Terrifying, Yeah, it was terrifying,
and coming from a what are we going to keep
in background, coming from an immigrant background my mother is
a Cuban refugee, they were both super supportive and also
(28:07):
like are you insane, like, do you know what our
family has given up for you to have a steady anything?
And I promised them I've never asked them for a dime.
And I made good on that promise, and it was
there were a lot of leaps of faith though. Like
I remember two weeks before the London Olympic Games in
twenty twelve, I had quit my law job and I
(28:28):
made these little, tiny, these little tiny cards with my
one of my Instagram photos, my Instagram handle, my phone number,
and my email. And I thought, I don't even know
who I'm gonna give these two, but these little business
cards I'm just gonna put in my back pocket. And
I was in a Nike store and Mark Parker, former
CEO of Nike, walks in and said, hey, you have
great style. You should you should do something with that.
(28:50):
And I was like, funny, you ask wait, what are
you talking about? And then I gave my business card
and then and then a few weeks later, I got
a call from an agency running Nike women, like like
the naked women was their client, right, And I got
a job from the marketing agency to work with nake women.
So you went to the Olympics, I went, I slept
(29:11):
on my friend's couch for three weeks. You went, and
I went, and I talked to athletes who now you know,
I know and are my friends. But it was like
I was just thirsty to be around it. I would
just want I just knew I had to be there the.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Way, just that showing up, Like showing up is half
of everything. The fact that you had little business cards
in your pocket you went to the Nike store. I mean,
nothing's going to happen in your apartment. You know you
nothing is going to happen, So you knew that you
were on the right path. So Peloton comes from where
in this equation.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Read about Peloton? And I had done a vision board
earlier that year. So I basically I left the agency
job because I realized, Oh, after about six months, I
realized I love storytelling around movement, especially like a female
in an urban environment's point of view. But I wasn't
(30:05):
seeing myself in that story. It's like, this still feels
divorce from what I'm experiencing. And I knew that I
wanted to be the one participating in the storytelling directly,
not like through somebody else's Twitter account or whatever. And
even if it's an established brand, so I had more
time in my hands. I quit the agency job, which
actually was scarier than quitting the law job because I
(30:28):
thought I found my perfect job and then now realizing
that it's quick succession that it's not the perfect job,
I was like, oh my god, am I just going
to be this listless like person who can't keep a career.
And it was interesting because there was no It wasn't
like I had this lockstep vision, like I just had
to get into this sexne wrong of the ladder, like
I didn't even see the ladder. You're just creating it
(30:50):
out of thin air based on values and gut instinct
like put and gut instinct at like twenty eight years old,
like in the world. So that felt very untethered, and
I read about I had done a vision board, which
is part of one of the things that I do
when I'm feeling untethered. It's just like, let's try to
grab on to a word, a feeling, a noun, a herb,
(31:13):
something that will help me feel like I'm crystallizing the vision.
And in the business quadrant of the vision board, I
had a picture of a little Apple computer and I
put disruptive storytelling, and I didn't know, like really what
that even meant. But then I read the article about
Peloton and it was like, this is going to be
Connected Bike and they were going to try to be
global based in New York City. And I was like,
(31:36):
this sounds like nan because I had been teaching at
a local spin studio simply because I was bored, Like
I was like, I don't have too much time in
my day. I just need to do something with this.
So I was teaching at a local spin studio called
Revolving Union Square, which is still there, so darling. But
I sent a cold email to the company and to Peloton,
I sent it was info at Peloton cycle dot com
(31:58):
and I sent a cold email, and I was I
was brought in for an audition and I had a
contract by that Friday.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
By the way, your whole just your path. If anyone's
listening and thinking I don't know what to do, and
you just start to do things, it doesn't the visions
bloring just show up. Try I mean sending a cold
email without having any connection and winding up where you are,
so you you hit all these notes, you wind up
at this place, so you are in so many places.
(32:28):
I see you on Good Morning America, I see you here,
I see you there. So when were you or when
are when are you the most joyful? Like, because sometimes
some of the most successful people I know are the
least joyful. They're like, you know, they're always mad about something,
something happened to their million dollar mansion.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
They're mad. Everybody's mad. It's like when for you was
that or is that time? Okay? It's probably I can
think of two examples from justice morning, and they're very different.
The first being in a what I call like the
bubble of my apartment with my kids and my family,
like having little moments where you know, they're a little
(33:07):
too quiet. I have a five year old and a
three year old. There were when kids are When young
kids are quiet, it's probably bad, Okay, they're probably like
writing with marker on your wall.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So I walk into the room and they're reading, They're
like pouring over a book together. They're literally my daughter
is reading and I say that in the air quotes which
is just starting to read to my son, And I
was like, and I like just back pedaled out of there,
like do you that's amazing? So glimmers like that, like
just joy, like wow. And then the other side of
it is it a sixty minute hit run with Bex
(33:37):
on the Peloton tread and you know, for the first
time in a long time, was able to max out
the speed on the tread for a rent, which is
super super fast for me. And I thought, oh my gosh,
like that's joy, Like my body can do that, Like
there were so many moments in my life when I
never thought that was even physically possible, possible. And so
there's the joy that is through discomfort, and then there's
(34:02):
the joy that I try to be super present as
it relates to my family.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Can we talk about just quickly your husband and kids?
You met your husband? How many days did you, guys
know when days? And then that was it?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Was? It? Come on, how I met ten years ago
this past May?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
But how did you, like tell me what happened in
those three days that you had the certainty? Because now
they say you got to find out about this, you
got to find out there's like a million things. Some
a friend once told me you have to go through
four seasons so you can see what they're like and stress.
How come three days was enough?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I was probably older by the standard of most dating.
I was in my mid thirties and I had gone
through this period where I was finally feeling some flow,
you know, on the professional end. I felt like I
had landed at Peloton, written my first book, you know,
New York Times bestseller all that, and I was just
like praying when I say, like on my knees, praying
(34:54):
like where is he? And then I had to like
loosen the reins on that, and I was like, fine,
I was going to try to become who I would
date and try to become I'm going to try to
become who I would date, like just fall in love,
romanticize the little things, right like the cup of tea,
the you know, you just have to like romanticize your life.
I'm so into that. And the accidental meeting of my husband,
(35:18):
you know, my girlfriend Lynette was like, hey, let's go out,
and I don't drink. I don't even want to be
out past nine pm, so much rather be in bed.
But I was like, okay, girl, fine, I'll maybe even
these village and so we go out. My husband walks
into the bar and he's he said, everybody else looked
like they were in black and white, and I was
in technicolor, and it was just truly like this lightning feeling, like,
oh my gosh, that's him. Like I my pupils were
(35:40):
just focused on this man. And we had a date
the following day, and then he takes me on Saturday
to Proposal Bridge in Central Park. He's like, you know,
people get engaged in and I was like ha ha ha okay.
And then the next morning he woke up when he
got a ring. Are you kidding me right now? No? No,
that was ten years ago. Were you when he proposed?
(36:03):
Was it an easy yes? Yes? I said yes. Immediately
I was like, yeah, let's do this, let's go, let's
rock okay, because I was so certain. We were both
so certain, and I we are both very spiritual people.
We believe that we had past lives together. And then
we realized all these connections, all these things and all
these beliefs that like you know, he was sharing and
I was sharing that we had never really uttered to
(36:24):
other people, and we were like, wow, we're really I mean,
the synergy just like beyond magic, yeah, you know. And
then of course there's tons of practical elements. I totally
get like four seasons with someone that's very practical. We
were kind of just like, we're all in and then
we're going to build on top of that.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well, you don't live your life in a practical way,
which is why you are where you are in terms
of the success your kids having children. Was that something
you had dreamt of? Was that something you struggled to do?
Did it come easy? Tell me it was a dream.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah. I had Drew and I had frozen embryos. You know,
we met and I was already in my late thirties
when we really were like, okay, this is you know,
we met and had we had this whirlwind romance and
then like two years later we had a wedding in
front of my family and so then things kind of
took a more traditional timeline. So we froze embryos, and
(37:15):
it was during the pandemic that I was like, all right,
let's just do this, let's let's just try. Yeah, and thankfully,
you know, Athena was able to come to the world
super healthy. She was born three weeks early, and so
that was that was scary. I actually just told her,
I just shared with her the story. So Beyonce's song
(37:36):
Love on Top was the song that I would play
with her, play for her while she was in utero
with the little headphones that you put on somebody's belly,
and she didn't move one morning, like she didn't respond,
and it was immediately to the doctor and they did
an ultrasound there like yeah, she's she looks like she's okay,
but you're actually contracting and she's not doing well with
(37:59):
the contraction. I was like, I'm acting like all first
time pregnanty. I didn't know what I was doing. And
the doctor looks at my husband and he said, today
seems like a good day to have a baby, and
he looked like the road Runner, you know those old
school cartoons where the eyeballs roll onto the floor. That
was my husband. So we had a baby that day.
We didn't even have his wallet. So we were going
to like brunch like we didn't know what nothing. God
(38:20):
Beyonce love on top and for the perception, yeah yeah.
And then the testing that they did later, they were like, no,
that was probably had like a twelve hours to like
make that trust.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, God, it was very serious. Okay, So
Athena came did you want another child? Quickly after?
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I did. I wanted them to be within a
few years apart. My sister and I are five years
apart and we're very very close now, but our childhoods
were a little disparate. And yeah, and now they're my
My son and daughter are really best friends, little best friends.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So so what what motivates you these days to write
the next books? Is local saying every time you do
write a book, I was like, when's your next one?
And like I'm doing this on Dance one stars, when's
the next girl?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Stop? Like I'm here right now? But what is on
your list?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
And does having that list bring you some kind of
of joy?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You know? What's like that? It's actually a conversation that
I have with Ali Love, whom you're close with, you know.
She asked me once, how do you want to spend
every day for the next two years? And it just
floored me because it wasn't like in fifteen years. It
was like no, like the mundane right, how do you
want to spend the ordery day moments? And that really
(39:31):
helped ground me because I am an ambitious person and
I owe and I do have that ambitious flaw I
guess of being onto the not even celebrating the win, right,
and they're already onto the next thing. And I recently
released a cookbook in March of twenty twenty six, and
so that was a New York Times bestseller. I was
so grateful for that. And I kind of have let
(39:52):
things breathe. And by breathing, I mean, you know, still
a very robust daily schedule, but in terms of like
a creative process, I'm kind of letting it breathe. Good
for you, focusing on my podcast, Project Swagger, my peloton work.
I've got some branded partnerships. Of course, I've got racing.
But I'm not feeling the pressure to like check the
next thing off the box because I never want to
(40:14):
resent the time away from my family. Yeah, and when
I know I'm working on a project that is super hard,
work requires grit, but I'm proud of the output, I
can justify that time away. And when I see the friction, yeah,
or I feel like, oh, I don't want to do it,
and it's coming from a place of resentment, I know
(40:37):
that the intention might be misaligned in terms of the
choice to do that project.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Tell me about Project Swagger, because you only take things
you love. Something you tell me about this.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So Project Swagger is my weekly podcast and it's thirty
minutes or less of mindset tips, hot takes on wellness,
like just kind of trying to cut through the noise
for the busy person often a woman, yeah, you know,
in her thirties, forties, fifties and beyond who wants to
who already knows like to drink the water and have
(41:06):
the greens and go to bed. But it's like, how
do we then truly optimize our lives with intention rather
than getting wrapped up in optimization culture?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
What are some good I mean, as we're kind of
wrapping up, what are some good takeaways from that? Because
I think that's so important. People listening to this are
hungry for that too, And you're right, they're getting their sleep,
they're eating their greens. And sometimes I still feel kind
of mad. It's like I'm doing the things I don't
feel great.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah. Well, two things buff the bat lift heavy, heavy, heavy,
three times a week, no negotiable and heavy meaning that
last one or two reps should feel disrespectful. And I
am a firm proponent of twenty grams of creatine a day,
creating across but twenty grams superduced.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
How much is in a one of those gum life Oh, okay,
I do the guy.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, so I will superduce my creatine across the almost
three or four Stanley cups. So two lots of water.
You know, you definitely don't want to increase your water intake.
And I think the self talk, I'm all about rattling
the age cage. And I see a lot on social
media or you know, I'll meet you know, members in
the Pelton studio and I'll hear an offside comment of like, oh,
(42:18):
I'm to old for that now, and that person will
be like thirty five, you know, Like what So I
think I think that we just have to And I
think the narrative is shifting for sure, And we have
a ton of examples now of folks who are just
doing iconic things and every decade off. But it's important
to watch how you can observe it right. You can see,
you can like a TikTok or like an Instagram story
(42:39):
and be like, yeah, that person's awesome. But then when
you're in the throes of it, you're making a choice
that you feel is bold. It's like, oh, is this
pushing the boundaries of who I am at forty or
fifty or sixty, And it's like, yes, it should. You
should be rattling the age cage, Like what decision? And
this is a question that I would relate it to
the self talk that I would ask your listeners, what
decision would you make if you were twice as bold
(43:01):
and twice as confident, Because it's like that version of
yourself is just waiting to be let out of a cage. Girl.
Let's end there, love you Robin, let us out of
our cage girl.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
So don't you love Robin ars On? I mean, just
I think about all of the hurdles that she's overcome,
and how she liked leads with such sort of optimism, ambition,
all the things. I still can't get over the fact
that she was grabbed in a New York wine bar
(43:38):
and held hostage for hours and somehow at the end
of it turned that horrific experience into a life changing
moment that would propel her. Also, you know what else
I love about her. She's very disciplined. Yet she met
her husband in three days later they were engaged. Okay,
so you like, you gotta love a girl with whimsy,
(43:58):
You gotta love a girl who works hard, and there's
discipline in there, and it's all beautiful. And I think
for Robin, you know, I love a poem, And for Robin,
I think it's Mary Oliver for her. So this is
the one I feel like fits Robin. It's called the
Summer Day. Who made the world, who made the swan?
(44:21):
And the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper,
I mean, the one who's flung herself out of the grass,
the one who's eating sugar out of my hand, who's
moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who's gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now
she shifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
(44:41):
And now she snaps her wings open and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do
know how to pay attention, how to fall down into
the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how
to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I've been doing all day.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
So here's the best part of this poem.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
You ready tell me what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last?
Speaker 2 (45:10):
And too soon.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Tell me what is it you plan to do with
your one wild and precious life. I'm want to read
that last line again. Tell me what is it you
plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Mary Oliver.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
We all get one wild and precious life, all right,
Let's live it.
So today I have something on my mind because I've
been feeling that there's tons and tons of kindness that
I'm noticing. And you know what's weird about kindness. Once
you notice it, you see it everywhere. It's one of
those things and you don't forget it. So this happened
to me a while ago, and it stuck with me,
(00:31):
and it's one of those stories that I think to
myself like it was a small thing, but it changed
how I viewed things. So I was coming into my
Upper West Side apartment one day and I it was
like one of those long days, and I hopped in
the elevator and this girl hops in the elevator with me,
and she's wearing like an oscar the grouch hat like
pulled down with like two eyes on top, and she
(00:52):
was holding a box and kind of looking at the
ground and I go, oh, I go god, that smells good.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I said, what is that?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And she goes, oh, their donuts there, they're salted caramel.
I was like, oh, my god, salted caramel. Like there's
nothing better than salted caramel donuts. And I'm just making conversation.
She kind of keeps her head down mutters a couple
of words and then hops out on her floor, and
then I hop out on my floor. So I forgot
about it, because you know, it was a ten second conversation.
(01:20):
So the next day I come back to my apartment
building and the door man says, oh, you have a box,
and I was like, oh, okay. And I see the
box and I recognize it. It's the same one that
the girl had. And there was a note attached and
it said, Hi, I was the one wearing the oscar
the grouch hat in the elevator. You are admiring the
(01:41):
donuts the salted caramel, and the ones I had were
already spoken for. So I went to Brooklyn and bought
these for you. Okay, She went to Brooklyn and bought
some salted caramel donuts for me, someone who she never met.
And I thought to myself, being on the receiving end
(02:02):
of an act of kindness and also one that someone's
not waiting to see your reaction to was amazing and
it changed me. My best friend's name is Karen Swinson,
and she I think she's part saint personally, but she
does things like that all the time. I remember we
were eating dinner together and she got up to go
to the restroom, and I watched her walk over to
(02:24):
the waitress past a table full of it looked like
people who were in the arm services, and they were
wearing their uniforms. And she walked by, whispered something to
the waitress, and came back and sat down.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And then I.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
See the waitress walk over to that table say something
to them. The guys look around and say thank you
and walk out smiling. And I said, did you did
you pay for that table?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And she said, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Like she'll never admit that she's done something like that
because she thinks if you say it, then it sort
of takes away the yabe.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Part of it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So one of the things I started trying to do
with my kids was when we go out somewhere a
diner or whatever, spot somebody at a table, or preferably
someone who's sitting alone, but spot somebody, and go to
the waitress, pick up her tab, and don't say a word.
And my kids were like, why can't we tell her?
It's like, because sometimes you do things just because, not
(03:22):
because of what someone's going to say or what someone's
going to think, just because, So sometimes it's good to
do things just because. So that's what I'm going to
try to continue with my kids. Don't wait for the a,
don't wait for the ADA girl, the ADA boy, or wow, you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Did that for us? Who cares? Do the thing?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Walk away and you'll someone will have the story like
I have about those salted caramel donuts. Someone's going to
have that story that they're going to tell over and
over again because you did them a solid and didn't
wait around to see what the thank you was. So
I think life is pretty cool when we.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Live that way. My guest today lives that way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Her name is Robin Arzon, and she is I know
her as a Peloton instructor.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
But let me tell you something that isn't.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Even one one hundredth of what Robin does and what
Robin is about. Robin has led this life that is
so fascinating, that is filled with determination and the kind
of person who doesn't quit, the kind of person who
sees joy around every corner. I mean, you're not gonna
(04:32):
believe what I'm going to tell you right now, but
this is something that happened in Robin's life and changed it.
Robin was enjoying a night out with friends at a
wine bar, A guy with a gun walks in and
uses Robin as a human shield. Okay, she has this
guy with a gun holding her hostage. What follows from
(04:55):
that moment, which I mean she obviously survived, and it
was a terrifying thing. And many people would have reverted
into themselves and had that would be their defining story
of their life. That's that's not Robin's defining story. That's
when her life changed. That's when she took a step
outside of herself. That's when she made different choices. When
you know your life has margins, you make different choices.
(05:18):
You don't stay on the same old, tired path. You
say to yourself, wait, I have limited time here. What
am I going to do with my time? Well, Robin
has taken that time and turned it into something magical.
I cannot wait for you to hear my conversation with
Robin ours on. First of all, can we just say,
(05:40):
because the timing of this podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Go New York, Go, New York Go.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Have you ever ever felt the electricity in this city
like you feel right now?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
The collective effervescence? I mean, it's so appropriate to be,
you know, on a podcast that centers joy because you
walk around the streets of New York and I don't
know what it's like to live in a small town
in like Middle America, but I think if you put
a little bit of that kindness and that, you know,
I say that the city is we're giving each other
the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and I think that
(06:13):
that's something that we've lost that again, Yeah, let's talk
about that, right. So it's like, you know, the person
in front of you is rushing, like you give them
the benefit of what They're probably trying to get home
to their kids, they have an important meeting. You hold
the elevator door a little bit longer, you you know,
And I think that that little bit of you know,
the city is steeped in friction, like that's just kind
(06:33):
of what we do. But I believe that like that
friction is needed for the expansion when we later on
collective efforescence and a little bit more belief in each other. Yeah,
it's like there's no more perfect place, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
When I moved to New York, I remembered thinking to myself,
We're in a one mile swath of land, and in
this tiny mile sits people from every country, every background,
every religion.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Every everything. To myself, if New York City can work,
then the world can work. Absolutely everything can work.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And watching us now is beyond all of the things.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I love.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Seeing a Wall Street dude in a Patagonia vest high
fiving a guy on a truck who's high fiving someone
who they would never have interaction with.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I mean, that's what joy is.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Absolutely all right, let's talk about you because I selected
you for this podcast for a reason. So I've watched you,
I've watched you on the peloton bike, I've listened to
you speak, and I thought to myself, this girl. At first,
I said, this girl must have had this charmed life,
nothing ever happened. She's so care free, and it's the
(07:47):
opposite of that. Actually, So I want to talk about
you as a little girl for starters. Tell me, did
you come into the world optimistic? Did you come into
the world with belief that, yeah, I can do I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Can do things. I mean, my mom really modeled it.
I think maybe it's partially genetic. We are a little
bit wired to see things through rose tinted glasses. My
dad actually isn't like that at all. And then I
think I have a little bit of you know, his
sass and my mom's optimism. And I was deeply, deeply
(08:22):
shy as a kid, like I wanted to just be
as beige as possible and like blend into the wallpaper.
And it was my mom actually, you know they I
was in a montessory, uh, you know, preschool, and the instructor,
the teacher came over to my mom after school one
day and was like, hey, you know, she doesn't speak
(08:44):
to anyone, like we think you might have to get
her tested or something. And you know, this is before,
this is the eighties, this is kind of before we
really had an awareness of people being on their spectrum
and things like that. And my mom was like, you know,
I just trust my kid to follow her path and
I'm not gonna then now over And she's a doctor, right,
so she's like, I'm not going to over diagnose this.
(09:05):
Let's just like let her rocket her cook. And when
I was a preteen, I remember, and I really followed
that trend all through elementary school, super super shy. And
when I was a preteen, you don't want nothing more
than to fit in. And my mom told me the
best advice I've ever received, which is stay weird. Because
otherwise your people won't know how to find you. And
I was like, okay, so I actually started incorporating color,
(09:28):
and I wear yellow in my toughest peloton rides, and
that like yellow fixation really started as a teen when
I was started being like okay, like maybe the world
can see me. So who did you turn to when
you were because kids have funky things going on? Who
was your person? I think my person really lived in
my cousins, right, So I grew up in a Puerto
(09:50):
Rican and Cuban household, multi generations all in one house.
I mean it was the kind of like open door
policy where you might have somebody who's just like visiting
from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panya, Like you didn't know who
I was, Like, I don't they my brother, my cousin,
my aunt, like I true half my childhood. I didn't
even know my true connection with half the people in
my house. I just knew like they were the people.
(10:12):
So my cousins. I grew up with a whole crew
of cousins all within like five years up or five
years down from me, and they became.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
That's your world. Yeah, I mean when you're you're you're
super smart. Obviously you went to n YU, you graduated
top of your class or.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, magna you know whatever that is and things magna
kom something. So what was the goal here? What was
the goal? What do you want to do with all that?
So I knew I wanted to I wanted to practice
law since I was a kid. My father was an
attorney when I was growing up, and he was a
law professor, and I remember him grading law exams in
blue books. And it's interesting now with AI that they're
(10:51):
going back to blue books. I'm like, oh, this is
a remix. But yeah, I always was fascinated by I'm
a virgo. I like a rule, I like a less
I like to know what is right and what is wrong.
And I think in law school it was very revelatory
to me to wrestle with that and be like, actually,
there's a lot of ways to tell a story and
(11:11):
that it was in law school that I started becoming
fascinated with narrative and storytelling. Ah, and so that kind
of informs a lot of what I've done since practicing law.
But the you know, in college, the goal was definitely
like slay a law firm job.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Was it more your dad was that more the reason
or did you really love all of that stuff you
were soaking in?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I just loved wrestling with it. I remember being on
the debate team in high school and just having a
stack of facts and being like, how can I make
this make sense? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
So were you when you talk about being painfully shy?
Were you happy when you had to go to school?
Did you want to go?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I loved school, like I love books, I love syllabus.
I love I mean honestly, Like my husband makes fun
of me because I was kid who get their syllabus
in July for school and like start reading the books
before Labor Day, Like who does that? I was so
into that. I loved school. So being in the classroom
(12:11):
I adored. But it was like the small moments of
oh I remember, like like like the moment carrying your
tray to a cafeteria table and not no, no, I
hated you because it was the moment where you had
to like insert yourself into a social situation, like those
moments like walking into the playground and being like am
I gonna go here? Am I going to go here?
(12:33):
And I wasn't you know, I have to say, like
it wasn't like I had some torture childhood, what I
was made fun of all the time. But I create
in my own head. I created these tensions.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
By the way, I think this is so interesting because
if someone's listening and has a kid, who is that kid?
Sometimes you think, well, is this child going to go
down this path and be this way? Well, clearly something
happened to you because you went from that girl to
this girl. Was there a moment in high school in
(13:01):
college where you just cracked out and said, you know what,
I don't you know, I'm going to be I'm going
to be who I am, weird, all the things your
mom suggested.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I remember, you know, there was a pivotal moment, and
it kind of feels like a nineties romcom or something.
But I was super unexpectedly nominated for Homecoming Queen were
high school, and I was like homecoming Queen. Like I
wasn't like I didn't you know, I had friends, but
I wasn't like the most that one, you know, beloved
girl in school and I was like And then I
(13:31):
realized is because I had so many different groups of friends,
because I was truly friends with like the sporty kid
and the nerdy kid, and the yearbook kid, and the
and I was the after school participant, like I wanted
to sign up for everything, and I was like, oh,
I have a lot of different groups of friends. I'm
like a bridge builder. And I ended up winning Home
Queen and havington Senior high School and that really was
(13:52):
a turning point for me because I was like, I
didn't see myself that way at all.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So when it was that there's probably what three of
you waiting when they call out the person? Did you
think when they when they said your name?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It was like the first time I had won anything.
It was the first time I had been seen for anything.
I mean truly, like I I'm such a I really
am an introverted, like energetic energetically and but it was
that point that was at in that moment that I
was like, oh, it's both hand, Like I can I
can step on a stage and learn to be literate in.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That boy and to be somebody who doesn't expect it,
who finds yourself there. Okay, So did being in the
spotlight make you feel good? Did it make you feel weird?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think especially then it was both yeah, But also
I was able to see myself through the community's eyes
a little bit. I was like, Oh, there's so and so,
and there's so and so, and the reason you know
it's you know, those voting things are really just like
a numbers game. And I was like, Oh, the reason
I won this wasn't because I'm so grand or special,
is because I cast a wide net. And that was
interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
To You're like, oh, this is part of my thing.
I'm going to tell you something super weird. So in
high school, I was very similar to you, and it
was homecoming and they nominated Cameron Domain gorgeous, Margie I
Annie gorgeous, somebody else gorgeous and me I.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Was like, I was like. My brother was like, what
why I go? I actually don't know. I don't know.
And then they said my brother. I still remember. My
brother was there.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
My dad was working, My brother was there with me,
and he goes, where do we go?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And we lose?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I go, I think we go left. I think because
that's what I was thinking, because he was always worried
about like where do we go? How do we get
out of here? And literally they called my name. There
was a picture of my brother looked at me like
shock her and me too, like me, and you realize
because true, when you are in sports with the popular kids,
(15:47):
with the after school kids.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I wonder how many people have something similar who wound
up in this way, because you can't just be in
a narrow lane. You've got you got a broad Now,
O correct one of the things about your story. Sorry,
I didn't know this. Maybe I'm the only one, and
I want our listeners to know this story too. You're
in a wine bar. Please tell me the story, because
(16:13):
I feel like in everyone's life there is a singular moment,
and we all have many of them, but this one
in particular that could either break you as a human
being or transform you into something else. Either you're going
to go down a road that's going to be dark
and terrible, or you're going to take this and turn
it into something. Tell me about what happened in the line.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So I was in with at NYU. I was entering
my senior year at NYU, meeting girlfriends after my internship.
I was working at a law firm at the time.
It's Friday afternoon or Friday early evening, and I go
to meet them at this wine bar in the East Village.
It's still there, it's called Barbeloche, very cute Italian wine bar.
They sort of sort of like top or like pizza
(16:59):
or whatever. And I was I was sitting in the
first stool closest to the entryway, and I hear gunshots.
A man walks in saying that he'd been shot, and
I'm looking at him like is this because this is
kind of when those prank shows were very popular, and
like reality TV was kind of very pervasive, and I
were starting to become very pervasive, and I thought, is
(17:20):
this like a TV show or something like? This feels
so bizarre. But then the man walked in. The perpetrator
walked in with the gun, say, you know, saying that
people were going to leave in body bags. That was
the first sentence that he uttered when we walked in there.
And I was like, Okay, this is not a joke.
And time slows down when you're in those kind of traumas,
like if you know, hopefully nobody's ever been through that,
but you know, a car accident, something like somebody's in
(17:42):
a hospital, like you start, you your body is the
processing speed is literally different, chemically different. And I it
was the first time that I was confronted with self
talk like we've had we all have self talk, you know,
where I've sixty to one hundred thousand thoughts a day.
But in that moment, I was I was my only companion,
(18:03):
and I remember talking myself through like he basically snatched
me from the stool into this back dishwashing area where
he took you. He grabbed me. Yeah, so I was
like his maid. There were probably like fifteen seventeen people
in the bar, and it was a narrow walkway, so
the entryway was the only way out and the only
(18:25):
way in, only way out of this you know, establishment,
And so he grabbed everybody ran back into that kitchen,
which was a dead end, you know, except for like
a tiny little window, and he grabs me, and I
remember speaking to myself thinking, just saying, like my first
refrain was this is really happening. This is really happening,
(18:49):
Like this is really happening right now. And then time
slowed down even more, and I mean I remember having
super panic breath. But at some point you just deal
with what's in front of you, like it's not just
some heroic thing, right, It's not like and all of
a sudden, I you know, it was ten feet tall,
and I was super brave. I wasn't. I was just
(19:10):
dealing what was directly in front of me. And what
was directly in front of me was this man holding
a gun, a sword, kerosene covered us in kerosene, had me,
had had me tie people up with zip ties. Yeah,
and then I'm then he basically grabs me again. By
this point, the NYPDR outside, and it becomes a full,
(19:32):
you know, hour plus long hostage negotiation between my utilizing
my cell phone to the NYPD outside and then he
and I having side conversations basically this four years saying, well,
he started speaking to being Spanish, and I replied in Spanish,
and it turns out that he was black and either
(19:52):
Dominican in Puerto Rican or Puerto Rican, and his wife
had just died. We're talking about his family. He was
a father, and so I remember very intentionally trying to
humanize the situation and being like, my name's Robin, like
there are people here who also have families, like you know,
and and the people behind me started to settle a
(20:14):
little bit, like they weren't wailing and screaming anymore. Once
he and I were talking, and it was still obviously
like very heavily charged, but it was it had like
more of a hum to it. And it was in
that moment that a woman and Margaret, who was sitting
in the wash basin slightly elevated from us, jumped him
(20:35):
from behind the NYPD Russian. Oh my gosh, that is
how that's how it ends for people were shop but
nobody died. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Okay, so you leave that horrible setting. Yeah, and that's
PTSD right there. Yeah, that's a lifetime of I almost died.
That's a lifetime of here they come again, someone's coming
for me. It's a lifetime of that. Yeah, you did
something you could have become You could have become her
that person. Then you'd be telling me that story right
(21:04):
now in a way that that was different.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
What did you do? How did you kind of turn
the beat around? Well? I was like I want to
whatever I gotta do, I'm gonna heal from this. Like
it was like project healing, which obviously comes on its
own timeline. But NYU was super supportive. I went to therapy.
I was back at school the next semester, and that
structure really helped me, you know, trying to get back
(21:27):
into routine, but living in New York City. I remember
I was living in the village at the time, and
the first time I was going to get back on
the at the train at the west Ford Street station,
like not being able to walk downstairs because I was like, oh,
I'm going to be down underground and like what if
I can't get out? And there was this fee you know,
I still have, like I will know an exit in
every single room that I'm in today I die, like
(21:49):
that's just now how I'm wired. But it really so
that that was that probably was a band aid, you know,
therapy and kind of routine and a lot longer to
do list as a distraction as a band aid for
like eighteen months, and then I was in law school,
you know, the following year, and with the acute stresses
of law school, it was like, yeah, it was just
(22:11):
too much. It was just going to break. And that's
when I started incorporating running and movement became enough of
a pressure release for me to start to process it.
And I remember just having flashes of the experience like
I'd be you know, running and I started very slowly
running during law school, but I would be on these
runs and I would just have flashes of the experience
(22:32):
and like, wow, I didn't even remember that, and I
just had to befriend myself. And I was really aware
that I didn't something wrong happened to me. But I
didn't want to become this my primary identity as a victim.
Like I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, so you ran. Now, you weren't an athlete, so
running wasn't your bag, but you started.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You ran what a little bit? And then I ran
to school, you know, my apartment to the law school campus,
and then I did a ten k and almost didn't finish,
and I was wearing like kids. I mean, it was
all just storious. The fact that I do this for
a living is a joke. Like I didn't know what
I was doing at the end. You ran what twenty
plus marathons? Yes, twenty seven marathons twenty twenty seven November
(23:17):
New York City. Will be running another one not even
done my day ninth New York City Marathon.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Girl, I thought that was a chapter in the past.
You're still running marathons.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, I mean I haven't done it in five years.
I haven't done it since my daughter was nine months old.
And I kind of you know, I don't believe. I
think that we can evolve into all different chapters. Right.
It wasn't like I have to run a marathon every
year to prove anything. But I started to crave it again.
Yeah you did. Yeah, So tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Once you've accomplished and accomplished it again and again and again,
what gives you that itch to do it?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Like, what's the motivation? I think that there is specifically
with endurance marathons ultra marathons, and I'm sure any endurance
athlete of any kind, well, we'll understand what I'm saying.
There's like a there's like a I mean, this might
be this does gonna sound really intense. There's kind of
like a spiritual reckoning that happens when you're in that
(24:13):
and you just have to face yourself and for better
or for worse. Usually for better those experiences heal me,
push me, heal me. Yeah. So I'm going back into
the ring. By the way, that's pretty beautiful. Tell me
about the spiritual piece of it, because that's huge. You
(24:36):
don't run from yourself talk Yeah, and then usually I
have this this the arc is like I'm feeling so good,
I'm feeling so good, and then physically it's like I'm
feeling so bad. And then you start thinking, you know,
then you start tuning, you know, trying to distract and
whether it's a song or whether it's a mantra, and
that only goes so far, and then you get into
your self talk. And then then for me, I've done
(24:57):
it enough times where I start to unpack myself talk
and sometimes like this persistent inner critic comes up and
usually my catharsis through that becomes some kind of like
spiritual like then it's like my self talk isn't to me,
it's kind of like to this broader spiritual conversation. And
(25:17):
you know, I'm not saying every ten mile run ends
with this like, but you know, but when you're a
lot of times it does. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
It's not physical anymore, it's not emotional anymore. It's more
it's more than all.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
It's like a metaphysical thing for me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So corporate law, yay, look at you. You did all
the things, and you're like, you know what, I don't think. So,
I mean, we talk.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
About repotting here a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's like you your roots are in deep and all
of a sudden you're going to yank yourself up. Your
roots are up in the air going, oh crap, man,
I need am I going to die up here? And
then you get put in this mineral rich soil, which is.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Where you landed. Why did you pull yourself out of
corporate law? And tell me about how you landed? Oh,
my beautiful analogy. I called networking planning seeds because that
felt better than like going to a happy hour and
like pestering people and telling them about business. But yes,
during that period, I was slowly but consistently getting uncomfortable
(26:17):
in these races and falling in love with running. And
I was also part of a community where I call
them like they were called. They were called the New
York City Bridge Runners. They still gather in downtown New
York and it was just a group of misfits, right
like DJs and artists and graffiti artists and folks who
(26:39):
are just maybe not considered your typical athlete, and they were.
They really introduced me to the running world in a
way that was unconventional, and I was like, oh, I
can do this. I can do unconventional And that allowed
me to start to write a story that was so
unexpected even to me, and I thought, okay. I was
(27:00):
noticing that brands like Nike and Adidas were you know,
working with a lot of the New York City Bridge
runners and a lot of these athletes for campaigns, and
I was like, oh, there's a story here. Not only
is there a story here, there's a commercial appetite for
this point of view in movement. So I started. I
had a tumbler initially, and then you know, it was
(27:22):
blogging and doing like you know, freelance, little articles and
things for whatever publication would take me. And then it
started becoming branded work. And that was when influencer marketing
was kind of starting to become a thing within the
marketing canon. And I was very grateful to be a
part of it because once I started being able to
(27:43):
pay my rent with things that I loved, namely running
and talking about running and taking photos running, it became
an entry point into a brand new life. And it
wasn't scary to leave law behind. Terrifying, Yeah, it was terrifying,
and coming from a what are we going to keep
in background, coming from an immigrant background my mother is
a Cuban refugee, they were both super supportive and also
(28:07):
like are you insane, like, do you know what our
family has given up for you to have a steady anything?
And I promised them I've never asked them for a dime.
And I made good on that promise, and it was
there were a lot of leaps of faith though. Like
I remember two weeks before the London Olympic Games in
twenty twelve, I had quit my law job and I
(28:28):
made these little, tiny, these little tiny cards with my
one of my Instagram photos, my Instagram handle, my phone number,
and my email. And I thought, I don't even know
who I'm gonna give these two, but these little business
cards I'm just gonna put in my back pocket. And
I was in a Nike store and Mark Parker, former
CEO of Nike, walks in and said, hey, you have
great style. You should you should do something with that.
(28:50):
And I was like, funny, you ask wait, what are
you talking about? And then I gave my business card
and then and then a few weeks later, I got
a call from an agency running Nike women, like like
the naked women was their client, right, And I got
a job from the marketing agency to work with nake women.
So you went to the Olympics, I went, I slept
(29:11):
on my friend's couch for three weeks. You went, and
I went, and I talked to athletes who now you know,
I know and are my friends. But it was like
I was just thirsty to be around it. I would
just want I just knew I had to be there the.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Way, just that showing up, Like showing up is half
of everything. The fact that you had little business cards
in your pocket you went to the Nike store. I mean,
nothing's going to happen in your apartment. You know you
nothing is going to happen, So you knew that you
were on the right path. So Peloton comes from where
in this equation.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Read about Peloton? And I had done a vision board
earlier that year. So I basically I left the agency
job because I realized, Oh, after about six months, I
realized I love storytelling around movement, especially like a female
in an urban environment's point of view. But I wasn't
(30:05):
seeing myself in that story. It's like, this still feels
divorce from what I'm experiencing. And I knew that I
wanted to be the one participating in the storytelling directly,
not like through somebody else's Twitter account or whatever. And
even if it's an established brand, so I had more
time in my hands. I quit the agency job, which
actually was scarier than quitting the law job because I
(30:28):
thought I found my perfect job and then now realizing
that it's quick succession that it's not the perfect job,
I was like, oh my god, am I just going
to be this listless like person who can't keep a career.
And it was interesting because there was no It wasn't
like I had this lockstep vision, like I just had
to get into this sexne wrong of the ladder, like
I didn't even see the ladder. You're just creating it
(30:50):
out of thin air based on values and gut instinct
like put and gut instinct at like twenty eight years old,
like in the world. So that felt very untethered, and
I read about I had done a vision board, which
is part of one of the things that I do
when I'm feeling untethered. It's just like, let's try to
grab on to a word, a feeling, a noun, a herb,
(31:13):
something that will help me feel like I'm crystallizing the vision.
And in the business quadrant of the vision board, I
had a picture of a little Apple computer and I
put disruptive storytelling, and I didn't know, like really what
that even meant. But then I read the article about
Peloton and it was like, this is going to be
Connected Bike and they were going to try to be
global based in New York City. And I was like,
(31:36):
this sounds like nan because I had been teaching at
a local spin studio simply because I was bored, Like
I was like, I don't have too much time in
my day. I just need to do something with this.
So I was teaching at a local spin studio called
Revolving Union Square, which is still there, so darling. But
I sent a cold email to the company and to Peloton,
I sent it was info at Peloton cycle dot com
(31:58):
and I sent a cold email, and I was I
was brought in for an audition and I had a
contract by that Friday.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
By the way, your whole just your path. If anyone's
listening and thinking I don't know what to do, and
you just start to do things, it doesn't the visions
bloring just show up. Try I mean sending a cold
email without having any connection and winding up where you are,
so you you hit all these notes, you wind up
at this place, so you are in so many places.
(32:28):
I see you on Good Morning America, I see you here,
I see you there. So when were you or when
are when are you the most joyful? Like, because sometimes
some of the most successful people I know are the
least joyful. They're like, you know, they're always mad about something,
something happened to their million dollar mansion.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
They're mad. Everybody's mad. It's like when for you was
that or is that time? Okay? It's probably I can
think of two examples from justice morning, and they're very different.
The first being in a what I call like the
bubble of my apartment with my kids and my family,
like having little moments where you know, they're a little
(33:07):
too quiet. I have a five year old and a
three year old. There were when kids are When young
kids are quiet, it's probably bad, Okay, they're probably like
writing with marker on your wall.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
So I walk into the room and they're reading, They're
like pouring over a book together. They're literally my daughter
is reading and I say that in the air quotes which
is just starting to read to my son, And I
was like, and I like just back pedaled out of there,
like do you that's amazing? So glimmers like that, like
just joy, like wow. And then the other side of
it is it a sixty minute hit run with Bex
(33:37):
on the Peloton tread and you know, for the first
time in a long time, was able to max out
the speed on the tread for a rent, which is
super super fast for me. And I thought, oh my gosh,
like that's joy, Like my body can do that, Like
there were so many moments in my life when I
never thought that was even physically possible, possible. And so
there's the joy that is through discomfort, and then there's
(34:02):
the joy that I try to be super present as
it relates to my family.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Can we talk about just quickly your husband and kids?
You met your husband? How many days did you, guys
know when days? And then that was it?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Was? It? Come on, how I met ten years ago
this past May?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
But how did you, like tell me what happened in
those three days that you had the certainty? Because now
they say you got to find out about this, you
got to find out there's like a million things. Some
a friend once told me you have to go through
four seasons so you can see what they're like and stress.
How come three days was enough?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I was probably older by the standard of most dating.
I was in my mid thirties and I had gone
through this period where I was finally feeling some flow,
you know, on the professional end. I felt like I
had landed at Peloton, written my first book, you know,
New York Times bestseller all that, and I was just
like praying when I say, like on my knees, praying
(34:54):
like where is he? And then I had to like
loosen the reins on that, and I was like, fine,
I was going to try to become who I would
date and try to become I'm going to try to
become who I would date, like just fall in love,
romanticize the little things, right like the cup of tea,
the you know, you just have to like romanticize your life.
I'm so into that. And the accidental meeting of my husband,
(35:18):
you know, my girlfriend Lynette was like, hey, let's go out,
and I don't drink. I don't even want to be
out past nine pm, so much rather be in bed.
But I was like, okay, girl, fine, I'll maybe even
these village and so we go out. My husband walks
into the bar and he's he said, everybody else looked
like they were in black and white, and I was
in technicolor, and it was just truly like this lightning feeling, like,
oh my gosh, that's him. Like I my pupils were
(35:40):
just focused on this man. And we had a date
the following day, and then he takes me on Saturday
to Proposal Bridge in Central Park. He's like, you know,
people get engaged in and I was like ha ha ha okay.
And then the next morning he woke up when he
got a ring. Are you kidding me right now? No? No,
that was ten years ago. Were you when he proposed?
(36:03):
Was it an easy yes? Yes? I said yes. Immediately
I was like, yeah, let's do this, let's go, let's
rock okay, because I was so certain. We were both
so certain, and I we are both very spiritual people.
We believe that we had past lives together. And then
we realized all these connections, all these things and all
these beliefs that like you know, he was sharing and
I was sharing that we had never really uttered to
(36:24):
other people, and we were like, wow, we're really I mean,
the synergy just like beyond magic, yeah, you know. And
then of course there's tons of practical elements. I totally
get like four seasons with someone that's very practical. We
were kind of just like, we're all in and then
we're going to build on top of that.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well, you don't live your life in a practical way,
which is why you are where you are in terms
of the success your kids having children. Was that something
you had dreamt of? Was that something you struggled to do?
Did it come easy? Tell me it was a dream.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah. I had Drew and I had frozen embryos. You know,
we met and I was already in my late thirties
when we really were like, okay, this is you know,
we met and had we had this whirlwind romance and
then like two years later we had a wedding in
front of my family and so then things kind of
took a more traditional timeline. So we froze embryos, and
(37:15):
it was during the pandemic that I was like, all right,
let's just do this, let's let's just try. Yeah, and thankfully,
you know, Athena was able to come to the world
super healthy. She was born three weeks early, and so
that was that was scary. I actually just told her,
I just shared with her the story. So Beyonce's song
(37:36):
Love on Top was the song that I would play
with her, play for her while she was in utero
with the little headphones that you put on somebody's belly,
and she didn't move one morning, like she didn't respond,
and it was immediately to the doctor and they did
an ultrasound there like yeah, she's she looks like she's okay,
but you're actually contracting and she's not doing well with
(37:59):
the contraction. I was like, I'm acting like all first
time pregnanty. I didn't know what I was doing. And
the doctor looks at my husband and he said, today
seems like a good day to have a baby, and
he looked like the road Runner, you know those old
school cartoons where the eyeballs roll onto the floor. That
was my husband. So we had a baby that day.
We didn't even have his wallet. So we were going
to like brunch like we didn't know what nothing. God
(38:20):
Beyonce love on top and for the perception, yeah yeah.
And then the testing that they did later, they were like, no,
that was probably had like a twelve hours to like
make that trust.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, God, it was very serious. Okay, So
Athena came did you want another child? Quickly after?
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I did. I wanted them to be within a
few years apart. My sister and I are five years
apart and we're very very close now, but our childhoods
were a little disparate. And yeah, and now they're my
My son and daughter are really best friends, little best friends.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So so what what motivates you these days to write
the next books? Is local saying every time you do
write a book, I was like, when's your next one?
And like I'm doing this on Dance one stars, when's
the next girl?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Stop? Like I'm here right now? But what is on
your list?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
And does having that list bring you some kind of
of joy?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You know? What's like that? It's actually a conversation that
I have with Ali Love, whom you're close with, you know.
She asked me once, how do you want to spend
every day for the next two years? And it just
floored me because it wasn't like in fifteen years. It
was like no, like the mundane right, how do you
want to spend the ordery day moments? And that really
(39:31):
helped ground me because I am an ambitious person and
I owe and I do have that ambitious flaw I
guess of being onto the not even celebrating the win, right,
and they're already onto the next thing. And I recently
released a cookbook in March of twenty twenty six, and
so that was a New York Times bestseller. I was
so grateful for that. And I kind of have let
(39:52):
things breathe. And by breathing, I mean, you know, still
a very robust daily schedule, but in terms of like
a creative process, I'm kind of letting it breathe. Good
for you, focusing on my podcast, Project Swagger, my peloton work.
I've got some branded partnerships. Of course, I've got racing.
But I'm not feeling the pressure to like check the
next thing off the box because I never want to
(40:14):
resent the time away from my family. Yeah, and when
I know I'm working on a project that is super hard,
work requires grit, but I'm proud of the output, I
can justify that time away. And when I see the friction, yeah,
or I feel like, oh, I don't want to do it,
and it's coming from a place of resentment, I know
(40:37):
that the intention might be misaligned in terms of the
choice to do that project.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Tell me about Project Swagger, because you only take things
you love. Something you tell me about this.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So Project Swagger is my weekly podcast and it's thirty
minutes or less of mindset tips, hot takes on wellness,
like just kind of trying to cut through the noise
for the busy person often a woman, yeah, you know,
in her thirties, forties, fifties and beyond who wants to
who already knows like to drink the water and have
(41:06):
the greens and go to bed. But it's like, how
do we then truly optimize our lives with intention rather
than getting wrapped up in optimization culture?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
What are some good I mean, as we're kind of
wrapping up, what are some good takeaways from that? Because
I think that's so important. People listening to this are
hungry for that too, And you're right, they're getting their sleep,
they're eating their greens. And sometimes I still feel kind
of mad. It's like I'm doing the things I don't
feel great.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah. Well, two things buff the bat lift heavy, heavy, heavy,
three times a week, no negotiable and heavy meaning that
last one or two reps should feel disrespectful. And I
am a firm proponent of twenty grams of creatine a day,
creating across but twenty grams superduced.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
How much is in a one of those gum life Oh, okay,
I do the guy.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, so I will superduce my creatine across the almost
three or four Stanley cups. So two lots of water.
You know, you definitely don't want to increase your water intake.
And I think the self talk, I'm all about rattling
the age cage. And I see a lot on social
media or you know, I'll meet you know, members in
the Pelton studio and I'll hear an offside comment of like, oh,
(42:18):
I'm to old for that now, and that person will
be like thirty five, you know, Like what So I
think I think that we just have to And I
think the narrative is shifting for sure, And we have
a ton of examples now of folks who are just
doing iconic things and every decade off. But it's important
to watch how you can observe it right. You can see,
you can like a TikTok or like an Instagram story
(42:39):
and be like, yeah, that person's awesome. But then when
you're in the throes of it, you're making a choice
that you feel is bold. It's like, oh, is this
pushing the boundaries of who I am at forty or
fifty or sixty, And it's like, yes, it should. You
should be rattling the age cage, Like what decision? And
this is a question that I would relate it to
the self talk that I would ask your listeners, what
decision would you make if you were twice as bold
(43:01):
and twice as confident, Because it's like that version of
yourself is just waiting to be let out of a cage. Girl.
Let's end there, love you Robin, let us out of
our cage girl.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
So don't you love Robin ars On? I mean, just
I think about all of the hurdles that she's overcome,
and how she liked leads with such sort of optimism, ambition,
all the things. I still can't get over the fact
that she was grabbed in a New York wine bar
(43:38):
and held hostage for hours and somehow at the end
of it turned that horrific experience into a life changing
moment that would propel her. Also, you know what else
I love about her. She's very disciplined. Yet she met
her husband in three days later they were engaged. Okay,
so you like, you gotta love a girl with whimsy,
(43:58):
You gotta love a girl who works hard, and there's
discipline in there, and it's all beautiful. And I think
for Robin, you know, I love a poem, And for Robin,
I think it's Mary Oliver for her. So this is
the one I feel like fits Robin. It's called the
Summer Day. Who made the world, who made the swan?
(44:21):
And the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper,
I mean, the one who's flung herself out of the grass,
the one who's eating sugar out of my hand, who's
moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who's gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now
she shifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
(44:41):
And now she snaps her wings open and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do
know how to pay attention, how to fall down into
the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how
to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I've been doing all day.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
So here's the best part of this poem.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
You ready tell me what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last?
Speaker 2 (45:10):
And too soon.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Tell me what is it you plan to do with
your one wild and precious life. I'm want to read
that last line again. Tell me what is it you
plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Mary Oliver.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
We all get one wild and precious life, all right,
Let's live it.
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