The Rich Roll Podcast - Robin Arzón On Turning Doubt Into Determination & Plateaus Into Launching Pads

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Robin Arzón -- the inspiring and highly energetic self-proclaimed ambassador of sweat and swagger is back for her fourth appearance on the podcast. A former corporate lawyer with degrees from NYU and Villanova Law, Robin transformed herself into a global fitness icon and everybody’s favorite Peloton instructor—the company where she also holds the title of Vice President of Fitness Programming and Head Instructor. In 2020 Robin was named one of the most influential people on Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list. Robin is also a two-time New York Times bestseller of Shut Up And Run, and her latest book, Strong Mama. Finally, she recently launched a Master Class on all things mental strength. Today’s episode is also viewable on YouTube. More about Robin + show notes: https://bit.ly/richroll691 I adore Robin. She never fails to ignite the best in us all. If this conversation leaves you inspired, there is more where that came from in RRP #99, RRP #137 & RRP #230. Peace + Plants, Rich

I do love hustling. I define hustle as grit and work ethic meeting your definition of success and purpose. And I think those two combined create a beautiful momentum. But I don't believe in redlining, obviously, and that no pain, no gain mentality is harmful. But we do have to have an element of grit and work ethic still. Listen, you got to start with one. If you don't like something, change it. I think that excuses

are lies that we tell ourselves convincingly. So start with one, literally start with one, like lace up, do one block, do one Peloton workout, like do one. And that's why I say that confidence is a side effect of hustle. Because when you take those little nibbles of hustle, you discover that you really have the power all along. And then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And when you realize that you are a self-generated factory of power, yeah, your life changes. When you develop an appetite for your own power, mediocrity doesn't taste so good anymore. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. This is Rich Roll. I am your host and you are in for a treat today

because Robin Arzon herself, the inspiring and highly energetic, self-proclaimed ambassador of sweat and swagger is back, back for her fourth appearance on the podcast to drop truth bombs and deliver the goods on time. For those newer to the show, Robin is a former lawyer with degrees from NYU and Villanova Law, turned global fitness icon,

marathoner and ultra marathoner. She was named one of the most influential people on Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 list in 2020 and is currently the vice president of fitness programming and head instructor at Peloton, everybody's favorite home fitness obsession. In addition, Robin is a two-time New York Times bestseller. Her books include Shut Up and Run

and her latest children's book, Strong Mama. And she also has a masterclass on mental strength. A few more things to add before we get into it, but first. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find

treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because, unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem. who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide.

Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com

and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety.

And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem. A problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs.

They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you.

I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful. And recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Okay, Robin, so we cover a lot of ground on this one, in addition to simply just catching up on her life since we last sat down six years ago.

I can't believe it was that long ago. We discuss the hows and whys of developing mental strength, the importance of unapologetically owning your story. We discuss pre and postnatal fitness. We talk about how to say no and own your yeses. We cover life pivots, how to begin a fitness journey and many other topics. I absolutely adore Robin.

She never fails to ignite. And I should mention that if this conversation leaves you inspired, as I suspect it will, there's much more where that came from. You can check out RRP99, RRP137, and RRP230, links to which you can find in the show notes on the episode page at richroll.com. Okay, let's do the thing.

This is me and Robin Arzon. Robin Arzon, it has been many years. You've been on the show three times. We were just chatting before the podcast, but all of those episodes were in New York City and generally under super cramped conditions from one tiny hotel room to your tiny apartment back in the day.

So it's good to actually have you here in the studio in Los Angeles. Welcome, I can't wait to catch up with you. It feels good. Congrats on this space. It's stunning. Yeah, thank you. We love it.

And it's just allowed us to grow and do all the things that we're gonna talk about today. Yeah, thank you. We love it. And it's just allowed us to grow and do all the things that we're gonna talk about today. Yeah. I was reflecting back on when we first met. You remember that, right? Yeah, yeah, it was in Vegas. In Las Vegas for that Tony Shay Zappos weekend. I'm not sure exactly what that was, but it was super fun.

Amanda Slavin put that whole thing together. I remember. We connected and we each got up and gave little talks and we got to spend a bunch of time touring that area of downtown Las Vegas and kind of what that Zappos community had created. And I just remember we were both very early in our journeys but I remember like thinking this girl's a star,

like she's gonna be huge. And it's been so fun to watch you blossom over the years into what can be characterized as only like legitimate celebrity. Like you're on the Today Show all the time. You're in People Magazine, like it's crazy. Things have- You know, like do you have perspective on that?

Like it's wild to have watched your arc. I guess I have perspective, but then also not. I'm just in my- Doing your thing. In my flow. I'm super in alignment and that feels, yeah, I try to zoom out. I find that ambitious folks

are always onto the next thing without really having that moment of awe, which is really rewarding. So I try to press the pause button, but I'm not very good at that. I'm always onto the next. Yeah, it's important though. Let me reflect it back to you

because I do remember early on and you had game. It's not like nothing was going on back then, but the difference between then and now is pretty significant and you deserve it. Like you owned it. And I just remember back then, but the difference between then and now is pretty significant and you deserve it. Like you owned it. And I just remember back then this sense of you standing in your strength and having a certain knowingness about like where you were headed with a vision

and you executed on that vision. Thanks man. Which is cool. It feels really, it does feel good. And I remember meeting you after your keynote at the Vegas thing and being like, just being so in awe of like, because I had already read your book

and I already knew about you in the ultra world. So it's fun to see my friends win, you know? And you're definitely, you're slaying it. Well, you're somebody who's always been really good about cheering for other successes. And, you know, it's easy to fall prey to competitiveness or pettiness. Like, why is that person getting that? And why am I not getting this? But I've just found that when I'm in gratitude and I am cheering for my friends to win, like I've just found that when I'm in gratitude and I am cheering for my friends to win,

like the pie just expands. Definitely. It's like getting over that idea of a zero sum game, I think is really important in terms of just not only feeling good about yourself, but being in that expansive growth mindset. Definitely, I mean, for sure. Yeah, I subscribe to a growth mindset,

but I also just wanna feel feelings that are good for my immune system. And when I'm in that like place, if I'm in an envious place, I either use the envy as a clue or I keep it moving. Like if it's not helping me and it's not strengthening my spirit, I just, I can't. Well, one of the things you have said,

which is interesting is you have this sort of countertake on jealousy, right? Like how to use, like if you're feeling jealous, that's an indication of what you want. Like pay attention to that. Like perhaps don't descend into envy, but figure out what it is about that other person that's making you jealous and fix that within yourself.

Yeah, I've used that. I mean, that was one of the biggest clues when I was a lawyer, that was one of the biggest clues that I should no longer be practicing law. Cause I was looking at my friends who had for your schedules or more creative pursuits or were athletes. And I thought I was so envious of that.

And that was a huge clue. Well, maybe let's back it up a little bit. You've been on the show three times. So longtime listeners know your backstory, but the show's a lot larger now. And I think it would be helpful to just recap some of that backstory to contextualize what we're gonna talk about.

Sure. So go for it, wherever you wanna start. I don't know, you probably get asked this a lot, but I think it's important. Like you were a corporate lawyer, you had this traumatic event occur and it kind of set in motion, you thinking more deeply about who you wanted to be

and what you wanted to do with your life. Yeah, that's right. And I used, so I was held up at gunpoint in New York City when I was in my early twenties. And I used, having never been an athlete, never run a single mile before this incident. And then during law school, I used movement to heal. And I really healed myself through the runs.

And I did talk therapy and the stuff that trauma survivors are quote unquote supposed to do. But I found that the runs were the most healing for me. And I started running a ton of marathons, some ultra marathons, and then ultimately left law. And I am found my way into wellness. I'm a leader in wellness. I'm vice president of fitness programming at Peloton, head instructor, an author, a mother, a, I mean, I'm like a classic multi-hyphenate. So wear a bunch of hats, but yeah,

that's kind of my game now. You hit yourself up to the right horse with Peloton because you were at the very, very beginning of that. And it must be equally gratifying to see how Peloton has exploded and become this thing. Because I don't know that early on there was indications that it would be as successful as it has become. Yeah, I mean, I really did see the vision

and I continue to see the vision. It's, I mean, the plan is global domination. And I think that's Peloton's plan and that's my personal plan. Right, so walk me through the evolution of Peloton from the beginning of getting involved to how it's matured into what it is today. Well, initially it was a bike company.

It was a spin studio in Chelsea and there was always a connected hardware and software component to it. But I was the second or third instructor hired and very much in the nascency of this company. And it was very interesting pivoting during the pandemic because we had already been accustomed to teaching, you know, to a little red dot, you know, when that camera goes on. So the cameras were part of it from the get-go.

From the beginning. And people forget that at that time, SoulCycle dominated everything. And there was this notion of like, well, who's Peloton? Like, why would you go there? There's SoulCycle. Yeah, I mean, the industry was really running

as a studio business with a real estate model. Like if you didn't have X amount of footprints in however many cities, you were irrelevant. And Peloton really changed that paradigm. Right, so was there an inflection point where it tipped over where, I don't know, suddenly you get recognized on the street or something like that?

Like how was it, you know, what was the evolution of that where you realize like, oh, this is like way bigger than perhaps, you know, I thought it might be when I first got involved. The leaderboard started growing. I remember I had a moment, one of my Thanksgiving classes, maybe in 2016 or 2017,

had like more members on live than Madison Square Garden. Wow. That felt like, oh snap, that's kind of wild. Yeah. And it's been growing ever since. Now we've got like a million, over six million members. And the pandemic just accelerated the whole thing, of course, yeah.

And so what is it like now? We have a new studio called Peloton Studios New York. So we have Peloton Studios New York, and then we have PSL, which is in London. So two flagships. So it's not in Chelsea anymore in that same place that I went to? No, we have a beautiful new facility in Hudson Yards.

Oh, wow. And yeah, we film yoga out of there, we film strength, we film tread, we film cycling. We even have it like an audio only kind of set up. We're all run on a tread and just record the audio for our app. So it's a full blown, I mean, we have all run on a tread and just record the audio for our app. So it's a full blown, I mean, we have, I can't even, I don't even know how many hours of live tape we have.

I mean, we're essentially a network. Right, yeah, there's must be thousands and thousands of hours of archived classes, right? And so in addition to being, you know, head instructor, what is the role that you play as VP within the company? Like, what does that look like? Well, my executive function is within the content department.

So the chief content officer is my boss and I am an advocate, I guess, for the talent and as well as an intermediary, whether it's with marketing, whether it's with our engineering folks, our product team, you know, if a fitness expertise is required, I'm usually the voice in that meeting in that room. And are you helpful with like finding the other experts out there to

hire for these, you know, particular specific roles? I don't, as it relates to instructors, yes. I mean, I'm usually one of the last interviews for blessing somebody to come onto the team. What's the question you ask these people? I'm kind of a hard. I know, like, yeah. I'm a tough interviewer. If the buck stops with you, if you're the last stop on the train,

like what does that look like? Young person comes in, you know, with ideas of grandeur, like I'm going to be a Peloton instructor. And then you drop the gauntlet on them. It's not so much a gauntlet as it is listening to my gut instinct because there's always a little bit of artifice, right? In an interview, because you're putting your best foot forward, but it can't be like, I'm auditioning for a role in a movie, right? Because after thousands of hours of teaching a class, that's gonna erode.

You're gonna see what's the kernel really there. And there needs to be a point of view. Of course, there's an expertise. I mean, that's like, you wouldn't even audition unless you have a pedigree of athleticism and expertise. But you need that authentic charisma. You have to be able to host a television show unscripted while sprinting.

Right. That's a very specific skillset. Yes. When I see you doing your thing, like it does look so natural. It is who you are. It's an extrapolation of your personality, but it's so high energy.

And me being much more of an introvert, I think there's gotta be days where she wakes up and she's like, I really don't, I'm not up for it today. And you gotta go and do the thing, right? You gotta do the thing. I definitely have days, but I love it. I am so charged by what I get to do every day. It's insane. Like sometimes I'm like, wait,

so they're just giving me a microphone. It's now that the scale is growing to what it is and it really is like a network. I'm like, wait, we're still doing this thing. Like you're gonna wake me up and the red light goes on and we're just off. And that is really thrilling. How much prep do you put into what you're gonna say,

the playlist, like all that kind of stuff that goes into the classes? The playlist and the class plan are locked. So I will know exactly what I'm doing, especially in a class that is more fitness focused. If it's a HIIT class, if it's a Tabata class, I've been very prescriptive with that game plan. In terms of messaging and talking points,

that's always like 99% extemporaneous. I might have like bullets, like I wanna talk about mental focus or I wanna talk about grit or I'll mention like, remember this story about X moment, but that's it. That's as detailed as it gets for me. So just get a little elevated heart rate and it just, you're in the flow.

Flow, flow state. I mean, the definition of flow state is what I'm teaching. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever had a moment though, where you just blanked? No, not really. No. No, I'm so focused. I'm so hyper aware of everything that's going on.

It's crazy how personal the relationship is between the participant and the instructor. Like every, I'm sure you've heard these stories a million times, like, oh, you're my friend or you're the per like I have, you know, my deepest relationship is with my Peloton instructor. Everybody has their favorite, you know, it's this weird, it is very much like a cultish thing.

It is. And now that the world is opening up again, you know, Peloton instructors had lots of interactions with folks publicly pre-pandemic, but now that the world is opening up again, it's almost like people have this pent up emotion globally. And then when you see someone who you did have like intimate workout experiences with,

in your home when we were all collectively grieving and going through a lot, the outpouring of emotion that happens nearly on a daily basis is pretty intense. Like many, many tears, many tears. Yeah, how does that make you feel? There's a vulnerability that is like kind of jarring in a way to be like in front of that kind of emotion

is pretty intense, but also I totally get it because I have used the bike and used my teammates classes truly to deal with a lot of heavy stuff. So I do, so I understand. Yeah, it's like you're the face, but it represents something bigger, which is that was a really hard year, two years. And this person helped me get through it

by leading me through this routine that was so instrumental and kind of kept me grounded. And that is very emotional. So there's an intimacy to it, right? It's not like, it's different from a movie star. Like, oh wow, I've seen that person on a huge screen and they're very good looking and charismatic versus like this person actually helped me.

So I would suspect like it removes the creepy aspect of it. Maybe it's a little encroaching and boundary pushing a little bit, but at the same time, there's something so beautiful about it. It's largely beautiful. I mean, sometimes there's a little bit of like boundary-less interaction for sure.

But for the most part, it's really stunning to witness. Well, you're good with boundaries though. You're the queen of no. Let's talk about no a little bit. Like I'm still working on my nos. I love no, no is my favorite word. Yeah. Yeah. I use my no to protect my yes.

I say no to most things. And I am pretty famous for slashing. Like somebody tried to put a 90 minute calendar appointment on my calendar next week. And I was like, that's literally not gonna happen ever. Like I may be giving you 25 minutes and I really own my no to protect the yes. How do you know when it's a yes?

What's the rule? It's a hell yes or it's a no thanks. If it doesn't feel like a hell yes, especially since becoming a mother, if something doesn't feel like it's lighting me up, then it's a no. Yeah. And of course there's the stuff like you pay your taxes,

you do, you know, there's stuff that doesn't feel great to do, but it's moving the needle. You're talking about like opportunities that come your way and the bigger that you get, the cooler the opportunities are and the more tempting they are. And that hell yes, it can be a hell yes,

but also like this is a distraction from actually trying to do, or it's gonna take me away from being a mother or those other things. That's when it gets really hard and confusing. Like, hey, do you want a first class ticket to go to Dubai and do this cool, you know, like you're like, yeah, I'd like to do that.

But then you're like, yeah, that's really gonna screw my stuff up. Like I probably shouldn't do that. Agree. It's hard. This is, these are problems of abundance. You know, these are problems of privilege, of course, but I've experienced it and I'm not as great with the no. It's hard because I wanna do all the cool stuff.

Yeah, but you gotta exercise. And then I spread myself thin and then I like burn out and I have all these other problems. Oh my God, but that's so not worth it. I think about the version of myself at the end of that journey, as much as I, to the extent that I can contemplate things that I haven't experienced yet.

And I think about the burnout version of myself that I have so much grace and compassion for that version of myself. Largely when I was doing like the 80 hour lawyer weeks, any element of that like threatens who I, like it just shakes me to my core to even go back there. And I love- Meaning like when you were doing the 80 hour weeks

and not having agency over your time. Yeah, there was a powerlessness as well as just true fatigue, you know? And I love, I do love hustling. There is, I feel like the pendulum has swung that now like hustle is a dirty word and people are like, and I'm like, where's your work ethic?

Like, give me a frigging break, you know? So you just have to be, and I define hustle as grit and work ethic meeting your definition of success and purpose. And I think those two combined create a beautiful momentum. But I don't believe in red lining obviously, and that no pain, no gain mentality is harmful, but we do have to have an element

of grit and work ethic still. A hundred percent. So it's finding the balance. I think that pendulum has swung a little bit too far where it's like, don't hustle, make sure that you're resting. It's like, look, sleep's important, recovery, all these things are important.

But a lot of the people that are over-indexing on that don't have any of the hustle to begin with and could use a little bit of that. Yeah, I don't, the listlessness, the like- It's sort of rubber stamping or permitting you to kind of be the lazy person that you have been historically. Yeah. If it's misused.

It like makes me break out into hives. Like I actually cannot, I can't, I can't, I can't. So what is the, you know, I know you hate this word balance, but like what is the fulcrum point on that for you? Like it's changed, I wanna talk about you being a mother, but obviously, you know, being a mother to an infant, you know, changes that equation quite a bit.

I just, I don't believe in balance. I don't believe that, okay, I think balance is a harmful concept when we perceive it to be an even Steven, that like everything gets the same percentage of your 24 hour day or whatever that a hundred percent of you is in the world. There isn't going to be balance. I mean, there are some days where I'm feeling like, you know, I'm giving 20% to my marriage and my husband's giving the 80%. And then there are some days where it feels more 50, 50. And

then there are some days, you know, you have to show up in alignment with what's important to you. And I guess that is a more palatable definition of balance to me is what is my short list of values and what's important. And so that goes back to like the hell yes or the no thank you is that if a business opportunity is coming my way or a philanthropic thing that's pulling at my heartstrings,

like if it's really not moving the needle on the short list of things that's important to me and the top of that is certainly my family and my daughter, you know, protecting that time, the stuff that I am devoted to professionally has got to light me up and make me feel like a superhero. Yeah. The balance thing is tough

because I think it ends up shaming people because everybody's walking around measuring themselves against some idealized notion of how everything should fit on the daily. And I just don't believe anybody, particularly people who excel in their lives are living up to that themselves. So I like to think of it as being completely present

for whatever it is that you're doing and giving it your all and then toggling out of it and making sure that all of those buckets over an extended period of time are being filled, but understanding and being okay with them not being on an equal level of waterline on a daily basis or even a weekly basis or even a monthly basis sometimes, depending upon how immersive a certain project or kind of thing that you're pushing forward involves.

I don't think people understand energy to be currency. Like if we had currency meters of our energetic exchanges, whether it's the person in your family that you're like, oh gosh, so-and-so is really just like an energy vampire. Think what is that expenditure costing you? And what value are you putting on your own vibrancy and buoyancy?

And how are you centering experiences that reward and really allow you to increase that energetic currency, that bank account. Right, like there should be an app with a thing on your like that, that measures that, right? And then there's like graphs, you know, it's like, you devoted this much energy to your in-laws, this, you devoted this much energy to Netflix, you know,

and color code them based upon your values. Like, so red would be bad, you know. I wish. And then you could be like, wow, what am I doing with how I'm expending my energy? But we have that, right? When we listen to our intuition and when we listen to, like we have that innately, but we're very distracted.

And we sometimes we don't like the answer to that intuition. Right. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard, you have to really be calibrated internally to have that level of self-awareness. Cause I think we all just kind of do it and we don't concentrate enough on what that actually looks like. So yeah, that's a cool idea.

Well, let's talk about being a mom. I mean, this is the big thing that's happened to you over the last year. Congratulations. Thank you. I've yet to meet her. She is true, dropped you off, right? He's coming back. Is this is our first trip.

Or you're away, wow. This is our first trip away together. What are you doing in LA by the way? I'm going to Coachella and I had meetings. Yeah, so I had some night meetings in LA business stuff. And then Coachella, mom and dad are gonna be out in the streets. Yeah.

It's great. I love being a mom. Athena is a cool human. Like she's just exudes a level of cool that is really humbling. I mean, she's just a cool human. I love being her mom. It's all, it's felt very intuitive to be honest. I want to say that it's been, I mean, honestly, it's been kind of easy.

Like I guess I shouldn't say easy, simple, straightforward. Like it's like, that's my kid and that's my husband and that's my family and it feels good. And how do you think about, like have you developed an evolving philosophy of motherhood and on that subject of balance or anti-balance, how do you think about continuing to pursue your dreams and your goals while also, you know,

being the mother that you wanna be and making all of that work? I am more ambitious now as a mom, I think. And I was pretty ambitious before Athena. This really, I mean, it goes back to some of the things we already talked about. Like I am unapologetic with my no, and I have boundaries that like, I will not do

meetings, executive meetings or otherwise with my agents after five o'clock. Like I won't, I put my phone, like, I don't have notifications on my phone. I don't like the thing I use as best I can, you know, the tools in my toolkit as tools, not as tethers. So, and I've gotten even more intentional about that stuff since becoming a mom. I also refuse to be a martyr to an antiquated idea of motherhood. Explain that. That I need to be all things to all people,

that I need to wear every hat all at once. I choose in any given moment what my primary identity is. And that's not always Athena's mom. It's not always Drew's wife. It's not always an executive at Peloton. It's not always an author, right? I'm gonna choose what piece of myself I'm utilizing and presenting to the world.

And yeah, a lot of times, especially in the last year, it's been Athena's mom and that's amazing, but I'm choosing when that is. Yeah, how does it work? Like speaking strictly about fitness, like walk me through the prenatal phase and how you thought about your fitness and now postnatal, like how you've approached it,

whether it's different or has changed based upon pre-mama, pre-strong mama, Robin. Prenatal, okay, so I trained and I taught five days a week live throughout my entire pregnancy. And then everyone like fell in love with you because you were like, this is like, oh, she's pregnant. Like there was a emotional bond, I think, that you created with the people that care about you.

Well, I announced the pregnancy on the bike. So that, it was like a very major, you know, pregnancy announcement. But that was, that felt very logical to me because I have shared, you have shared parts of my life, whether it's my romantic journey or my, of course as an athlete and as a woman, as a Latina, like there are aspects of myself

that I infuse into my training and my workouts. And so announcing the pregnancy felt logical, especially because I knew I was gonna teach, hoped to teach throughout my pregnancy and I had a great pregnancy, so that was possible. And I continued to run, strength train and cycle throughout. I got my prenatal certification, so I did prenatal classes as well for Peloton.

And that felt, I was like, oh, I got this. Postpartum however, that piece of the journey was daunting. It felt like putting myself back together again. I just wasn't used to slowing down to that extent and being that vulnerable and having no control. I mean, just there were so many days that the fatigue was crushing. I was recovering from a C-section.

So major abdominal surgery. And there were, I mean, for probably the first six weeks, I was like, oh my God, am I ever gonna be moved the way I'm used to moving? And the pressure of being this celebrity fitness personality and what if I can't do that again, or be that person that I wanna be or know how to be? I had real moments of imposter syndrome,

especially when we're run like a network. So I took five months of maternity leave, but when we were planning for me to come back, production's like, what do you wanna teach? We have to put something on the live schedule for X day. And I'm like, I don't even physically know what I'm gonna be able to do. You know, that felt really intense.

And I developed a mantra then during that postpartum period of consistency over intensity, because I knew I couldn't go hard in the paint, which is I'm apt to do. Like that is much more my flavor of intensity. And I thought just do something every day. And in the beginning, it was literally breath work, like literally feeding my daughter

and doing 360 diaphragmatic breathing. Cause I knew that was gonna repair my core. That was weeks of that. And then it was walks and little by little amounting to a lot, but it was frustratingly slow. And now I'm stronger than I ever have been, a year later. Right.

And how much of that did you share transparently in the Peloton classes? Because I feel like that on some level is much more relatable to the typical Peloton person than all the talk about polishing your crowns and, you know, all of that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Like, hey, I don't feel like, you know, most of the time I feel like I can barely do anything. And now Robin can speak my language or I can find a relatability there that perhaps even strengthened your connection with

your community. Definitely. I was super honest, especially in those first few classes. In that six month period, my first six months back on the bike and back in strength classes, I'd already been doing my own training during my maternity leave, but it's different. It's different doing in front of the camera.

Those first few sprints feel like, am I ever gonna get it back? But your body does remember. And I think being honest about that journey, especially as a woman in very anti-snapback culture. Yeah, I wanna talk about that because there is all this pressure, like how quickly can you get back to where you were before?

And your whole thing is about letting go of what was before and let's focus on moving forward. Yeah, and I really, my refrain was, what if a plateau is a launching pad? What if a plateau is a launching pad? And for a really long time, I still wasn't fitting into, you know, like I'm supposed to wear the new Peloton collection and I'd have to go back

and be like, I actually still need this other size, you know, and I had to tell my, reframe the story around that and focus on what my body could do rather than, you know, what size the tag set. Sure. And it's all good now though. Feel strong. I'm stronger than ever.

Yeah. And I, but it was little by little amounting to a lot. I mean, it was truly like the smallest steps. I remember runs on the West side highway, just I trained for the, I ran the New York city marathon, but I think Athena was nine months. And I didn't, when I tell you that I didn't look at a watch,

I would old school, like map the distance from my runs and not run with a single stitch of like pacing. Because I couldn't even take that information. I couldn't be like, oh, but your pace was this and that. No way. I showed up to the New York City Marathon actually having zero idea how long it was gonna take me. Like I was just like, I'm gonna go.

But it's liberating that way. It was so liberating. And it was a refreshing back to basics. Like it was like, I'm doing this because I love it. And because I feel better doing it rather than any external gaze. Yeah, I shared a little thing about this on Instagram the other day.

My version of that is just getting older and dealing with injuries. It's a limited version of what you experienced on an extreme level. But at some point the GPS watches and all the stuff are no longer tools, but they're vehicles to shame yourself, right? And at that point they're counterproductive.

And I've been spending more time like letting go of all of that stuff. And what it does is it does exactly what you said, which is it reminds you why you're doing it, which is that it brings yourself joy, you know? And that's really the most important thing. So rather than like looking, you know, where am I at? It's impossible to look at that

and not immediately measure yourself against the fittest version of yourself, which is a really unkind, unfair thing to do to yourself. I mean, I noticed myself doing that and I did do runs on the Peloton tread and it was, thank God I had it because I literally during that time, I like, I cobble, I don't even know how I did cross that finish line, but I cobbled together. Like I'm talking like 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon. And that

would be my run, you know, when I was supposed to run five miles that day, like it was not as I would had done it in past marathon training cycles. But the most important catalyst was not crossing that finish line. It was how I was talking to myself along the way. Talk more about that. It was, okay, so pre-run, putting on a pair of pants that were bigger than I have ever trained in before, right?

Go out, lace up, finish that 10 mile run, finish that 13 mile run, come back kinder to myself because I completed what I said I was gonna do even if it took me however much longer than previous versions. And it actually brought me back. So when I started running after I was held hostage and I started running during law school,

it was the first time I was made aware of my internal conversation of like the actual thoughts, whether it was like in first person or third person, they were going on in between my ears. And I was brought back to that in that training cycle postpartum as my ability to either use the words to cat, what kind of spell am I gonna cast

with the words that are going on internally? And it was either gonna be, I had a choice. Like, are you gonna berate yourself for the size of these pants? Or are you gonna tell yourself, Oh my God, like you are outside. Your husband's able to watch the baby, she's healthy. Like you're healed enough from this post C-section

to even lace up, you know, you were craving to even get outdoors, you know? So there was an element of gratitude and kindness that I had to incorporate into that training cycle and it ended up being the best four months of training of my life. Yeah, it's a choice, right? But sometimes it's hard to make that choice.

Like, is there a mental trick or tactic that you would deploy to get out of that negative headspace and inhabit that more positive, gratitude-oriented perspective? Yeah, I would often ask myself, what do you have right now that you used to dream about or pray for? And in the like specifics, it was like just last week,

you couldn't even go three miles. So you would have been grateful that you can even run an hour today, you know? And yeah, that actually is my like internal, asking myself that question is like an internal reset. Like I remember the beginning of the pandemic during quarantine, I was pregnant during the pandemic and it felt, the walls felt like they were closing in

at some points, you know, for all of us. And I started that as a journaling practice, but I would force myself to answer, you know, what is it that you used to dream about or wish for that you have right now, but like within these four walls. And then I noticed like, oh, there's that painting that I got at whatever trip, or there's, you know, the couch that I bought with my husband, you know,

little things that I was able to kind of put that gratitude filter on that it really helped. I mean, there were, of course, there were some days that I was like, God, this feels cheesy, but the practice of it really helped ground me and anchor me. And was that journaling practice part of what birthed the children's book?

No, so I've been journaling for years and that is my, whether it's processing training or whether it's listing gratitude stuff or whether it's just a brain dump, journaling really helps is like, keeps me like, definitely it's like a brain dump, journaling really helps is like, keeps me like, definitely it's like a processing thing, like an emotional processing thing. The children's book, Strong Mama,

I was on my baby moon and I just finished a- What does that mean? Your baby moon? Baby moon. So it's like a little mini vacation that folks take during pregnancy. Oh, okay. I never heard that term.

Yeah, baby moon. So instead of a honeymoon, it's a baby moon. And so we were on our- Before the baby comes. Before the baby comes, it's like a couple's weekend or whatever. And so that's exactly what it was. We went on a long weekend to Connecticut

and rented a cabin. And the place where we were staying had like a hotel gym. And I had taken a bootcamp class with my where we were staying had like a hotel gym. And I had taken a bootcamp class with my girl, Jess Sims on the Peloton app. And I had gotten back to the cabin and I was like hormonal, filled with endorphins, feeling all kinds of feelings. And that's when the book poured out of me.

And it was really like a love letter to the baby, which we called Pequeño at the time, little one in Spanish. And that's how Strong Mama came to be. And did you know it to be a children's book while you were kind of channeling this? I did, yeah. And you thought you were gonna write a children's book?

Well, this had already been, so we had had discussions with my agent of like, would you consider this? Would you write a children's book? And I was like, yeah, maybe. And then we went on the baby moon and I was like, well, actually, yeah, sure. Yeah, maybe turned into yes, because here it is.

But we didn't have an illustrator at the time. I had no idea what, I mean, these were just the words and that became the framework. Yeah, and then it became a New York Times bestseller. It's like so crazy. It is crazy. Two times New York Times bestseller, right? It's like so crazy. It is crazy. Two times New York Times bestseller. I just submitted the manuscript for children's book number two.

Oh, wow. Yeah. What's that one called? Strong Baby. Strong Baby. Strong Baby. Of course, it's called. Come on.

So Strong Baby will come out in 2023. That's so cool. Let's talk about the masterclass that you did. This is like so perfectly suited for you. Like just watching the trailer, you're so relaxed and you're so in your dharma doing this. Like it's such a natural fit and a great kind of like context for you to share

all this wisdom that you share, you know, on the daily, on the bike, that kind of just spontaneously comes out of you and all of these pithy, you know, on the daily, on the bike that kind of just spontaneously comes out of you and all of these pithy, you know, quotes that end up, you know, all over the internet. Well, it was cool to, you know, I'm a student of Masterclass. I've taken a bunch of Masterclass. They're all so excellently rendered. They're super well done. They're very well curated. So excellently rendered. They're super well done. They're very well curated.

The team is incredible to work with. Yeah, so when Masterclass approached me, I was like, it was no brainer, of course. And- How does it work? Like I've watched a bunch of them. They're also well done. And clearly they try to get, I'm sure they have different directors for these,

but they get the protagonist like very relaxed and it feels very natural and spontaneous. Like how much of it is really scripted? I'm sure you put a ton of work into, you know, figuring out what it is that you wanted to say in the order in which you wanted to say it. Well, when we filmed it, all of the work was already done. So it's a lot of interviews before you're even on set,

it's interviews kind of developing the table of contents and figuring out like, if you were to create chapters of your body of work, what would that look like? So it was almost like creating a book proposal, right? And like creating sections within like a table of contents of a hefty book proposal. But because I knew it was going to be in a Q and A format, they're really just creating that framework in the initial

conversations of like, oh, okay, this will be a chapter on your story. And then this will be a chapter on how you have developed confidence and how you've developed, you know, mental resilience in like these different areas. And then when you're on set, it's just a conversation with the director. So they actually make it very fluid. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, it definitely comes across. Well, it's wonderful.

What are some of the core concepts that are shared in the class? Well, it is a lot about my story. So there's a lot that lives in my book, Shut Up and Run, that is then in this kind of conversation that a masterclass student gets to witness. And it's everything from my journaling practice. So basically it's, I reveal my superhero toolkit.

And in that toolkit, of course, is movement, journaling, visualization practice, vision boarding, everything from kind of identifying your superheroes and with specificity, as well as owning your no to protect your yes, using your words as a wand to cast a magic spell. The framework with which I applied not only my career transition,

but conquering marathons and ultra marathons. And it's like, if you unzipped my head and tried to unpack mental resiliency, that's what I infused into my masterclass. What is the thing that's challenging you the most right now or really putting those tools to the test? For me personally? Yeah.

Probably my web three strategy. Like right now- Hold on a second. First of all, I'm just like, wait, you have a web three strategy? Like I'm immediately like, should I have a web three strategy? What is a web three strategy? Exactly, that is my question. No, I mean, I guess right now I'm immediately like, should I have a web three strategy? What is a web three strategy? Exactly, that is my question.

No, I mean, I guess right now I'm in a season of asking myself like, do I have the same values as pre Athena? Like what is on your short list of important business opportunities? Like who or what is on your wishlist of what you wanna work on next? Like I am now, I have realized a number of the things that were dreams of mine. And now I'm in a

different stage of my career, a different stage of like a lot of the seeds that I planted are, have germinated, you know? So now it's like, I'm having those introspective conversations, you know, for the, I feel like for the last few years, it was just get the work done. And now I'm in a place where I'm in a more creative place again. And that actually is harder for me than just like hustling and getting the work done.

Because you've arrived at this place that you aspire to inhabit. Right. So what does that mean in terms of what's next? Exactly. And I don't do as well having achieved the thing. I'd rather be in the process to achieving the thing. Yeah.

So. And does there have to be a next thing? Great question. I want to say that there doesn't have to be a next thing, but I'd be completely full of shit. Yeah, you're too ambitious for that. I mean, one of the things that I found is, I'm further along, I'm older than you, my kids are older.

People ask me like, what's the big vision? Like, what are you working towards? And sometimes I feel guilty because I don't have a good answer for that. But the truth is like, I'm good. Like I have ambitions and I have projects that I wanna see realized and things that I'm working on, but I'm actually really happy doing what I'm doing right now.

Like I feel very fulfilled and in a healthy way, I don't need my life to be any different than it is right now. And sometimes I judge myself for that because I too am an ambitious competitive person. But I think there's something healthy about that. Like I'm not doing this to get to somewhere else. I'm doing this much like leaving the GPS watch at home.

Like I'm doing this for the joy of doing it. And ultimately if this is all that it is, like it's pretty fucking great. And I worked really hard to get here. I'm very grateful to have this platform and the opportunity to talk to people like you. And it's okay if it's never anything bigger or more grand than what it is right now,

because it's pretty fucking awesome as it is. I can relate to that. I feel that way about Peloton. When I'm on that bike, I'm like, I don't need this to be different. Like I love this piece of how I serve the world. But then I also think what are other ways that I can be expanding into who I am

and whether that's licensing and product iterations, whether that's different platforms that I'm gonna partner iterations, whether that's different platforms that I'm gonna partner with, different brands, different investments. Now, Web3 is an example of like, just my brain melting into different ideas. So it's both exciting and also terrifying. Yeah, because the thing is,

those opportunities are there and you could immerse yourself or run down a bunch of different alleyways towards those things. But ultimately they end up draining your energy, right? So it has to be worth it because otherwise it is taking time away from those other values that you cherish. And what do you want your life to look like

on a daily basis? Like how manageable or how much agency do you wanna have over your time? And if you get involved with too many things, they might all be individually very cool and reward you financially, et cetera. But ultimately, if you're just spread so thin in the pursuit of those things,

you're losing sight of the most important thing, which is the quality time with the people that you care about and making sure that you have the energy for the things that are most important to you. Yeah, and I think, you know, the analysis, sometimes, you know, it is like paralysis by analysis. Sometimes that it's, I'm like, what is the risk? What's the reward?

But if it's a totally new venture and I have no, you know, the newness is what's exciting, but then the newness is also where I get completely paralyzed because I don't actually know whether that venture is worth it, both financially, energetically or otherwise. Right.

So the Web3 thing, I mean, what does that mean? Like NFTs of Robin? Like, I don't even understand. Well, it's what, you know, we're still, I'm still developing the strategy around it, but I, you know, it, but I'm a digital creator and it's how will I create digitally in web three? I wanna stay away from anything that feels gimmicky

where it's just like a piece of art that I sell on OpenSea just to say I did that. I really wanna create community and think about what is an inspired engagement with Web3. I also feel really strongly about having a female presence in Web3. It's very male dominated, especially it's pretty much white male dominated.

And as I'm educating myself, I'm thinking how can I create, build bridges? So folks that follow me, especially women and people of color can also feel like they're being educated. So, it goes back to that toolkit. I'm developing my own toolkit. I'm educating myself around basic terminology.

Like what is crypto? What is a non-fungible token? And along that process, I'm really trying to consider who are the right partners in this space and how am I gonna build community in this new land grab? Yeah, that's fascinating. I feel like now I should be thinking more about this. Like, what are your sources of information on this? Like, who are you going to, to learn about this?

Well, Drew is very, pretty well versed. He has been involved in crypto and Bitcoin for a few years. And so he's, it's actually really neat because for the first time we're working together in ways that it now feel faded, but like didn't feel, didn't feel timely before. And now it's the time. Yeah.

Let's talk about life pivots. We're both recovering corporate lawyers. I think you have a greater fondness for your legal career than perhaps I did. But people look at you as this inspiration for changing your life and constantly iterating on your path. And I'm sure people come to you all the time and say,

I'm unhappy in my chosen career, or I'm looking for a change. Like, how did you do it? I really did a three-part, I only now understand this as a three-part audit, but I did a three-part audit when I was a lawyer. So I realized that I was falling in love, I had fallen in love with running and movement.

And it was a two-year journey from that ideation phase to the departure phase. And I did in those two years, I did a three part audit. I would say one was a physical audit of like, how am I feeling in my physical body? Like energy is currency. Like how can I capitalize on the energy that I'm feeling?

And what are the avenues and the tools that I am feeling more filled with energy. Then the second was a more existential question of like, and I had a lot of this, especially in my twenties after the hostage situation of like, what am I doing? Why am I here? Why did I survive? Who am I? And then the third was a very brass tacks, like financial audit of how the hell am I gonna pay my rent in New York City? And how can I continue to, how can I not move in with my parents and still be financially stable?

And what skillset am I gonna leverage in order to make sure that I'm still employable when I'm not doing what my degree says I should be doing. On the second prong of that audit, the whole like who am I? Like how. On the second prong of that audit, the whole like, who am I? Like how do you begin to unpack and answer that? That's where journaling really came into the picture and journaling, vision boards,

and honestly, social media, like the storytelling and the scrapbook nature that I approach social media with, even during like Tumblr days and gosh, I don't even know what other platforms. MySpace. I did have a MySpace. I had a Friendster.

Yeah, that was, gosh. But I think it's important to point that out because people have, through the rear view mirror, people have a very condensed idea of what the timeline look like, right? Like you were well along this journey when I met you. And that was like, was that like, I don't know, eight years ago or something like that, nine years ago?

Yeah, eight or nine. And you had already been at it for quite a number of years. For a few years. This is something I'm always reminding people about my own story. Like these things don't happen. I mean, overnight is an absurd notion. It's, you know, decades for me of constantly growing and trying to figure this out

and doing it imperfectly and incorrectly and inelegantly. And your initial move out of the law was really as a journalist. Yes, I thought I was gonna, well, cause I think it's human nature to go to the frameworks that are already existing. And I thought, okay, if I know how to write and I love sports,

then obviously I'm just gonna go write for a sports magazine. Yeah, that's your strength. As a lawyer, you know how to write. You have this love for running. It's not immediately apparent how that's gonna translate into anything that's gonna pay your rent.

Right. You know? Right. You're not gonna win the New York marathon. And even if you did, that would probably barely pay your rent. Exactly, there is no longevity in that. How does this whole thing scale?

And that was the question of asking myself, how does this scale? I put on my vision board disruptive technology. And then I read about Peloton, a blurb about Peloton and Fast Company. And it was not even like a 200 word blurb. It was like on the sidebar. And I thought, oh, and that for me was the,

how the vision boards help is that they enable you to name it and claim it. And I think I would have glossed right by that blurb if I hadn't planted the seed that I wanted some type of disruptive technology to partner with. Yeah, that's interesting. And so did you just cold call? Like how did that relationship develop?

I sent an email to like info at. Wow. And I had been teaching cycling at a local spin studio in New York city. And then I read about Peloton and I just looked it up on the internet and I info at, there were like 20 employees at the time. And I was like, let's do this.

Like I am your chick. And they said, yes. and they said yes. Wow. So when people come to you and say, I'm looking at trying to make some version of your life pivot journaling, what else do you tell them? I think the three most relevant questions

that I asked myself during that transition period and still continue to ask myself, why not me? You know, like we tend to other people's greatness instead of understanding that in the kaleidoscope of how we see things, what if that greatness is being refracted as potential? Like now I see somebody else's greatness as a potential of my own, not in a apples to apples comparison, of course, necessarily, but as potential. So I ask folks,

ask yourself, why not me? And the second question that I've asked myself, And the second question that I've asked myself, which we talked about a little was like, what is my why? I do believe like identifying that with as much specificity as possible and acknowledging that sometimes that's gonna change in different seasons is freeing. I give myself permission to change my mind as a stubborn individual,

as a stubborn Virgo former lawyer that is incredibly freeing to give myself permission to change my mind. as a stubborn individual, as a stubborn Virgo former lawyer that is incredibly freeing to give myself permission to change my mind. And the third most exciting question is what decision would I make if I were twice as confident and twice as strong? And that's a good one.

That when I asked myself a lot, especially postpartum, it was like, what decision would I make if I were twice as confident? And that actually is a nice tool against imposter syndrome too. It's kind of an alter ego exercise. Yes, and I love, I love like the lore around superheroes and stuff like that.

And I think it's, and actually this is related to web three is like what that's, that level of enchantment, I think is really exciting of like, I do talk a lot about royalty and polishing crowns. And I think, there's a level of like self-determination and imbuing respect when you call someone a king or queen or non-binary royalty. And there is like an other version of myself

that I try to honor, whether you call it an avatar, you know, alter ego. And what is it, when you conjure that, what does that look like in your mind? Like she is regal. She has earned jewels in her crown through grit. And yeah, I mean, it's like a version of myself that is other worldly, but like she's on a throne, honey,

and don't play with her. And I really think about that version of myself or that imagined version of myself often. And I'm creating a kingdom with my husband and Athena is gonna be a part of that. But I also want her to like- Appropriately named in the goddess vernacular. Yeah, but I also want her to be able to earn

and define her own way. So that's an interesting thing that I'll navigate as she gets older, but yeah. Another big piece of that that you talk about is being unapologetic. But that is befitting of a queen, right? Or of royalty. Yeah, well, I've learned to use my voice, even when it's shaky, like use it

and you'll find your people. And you know, that paired with having enough confidence to know when you should have done better. You know, I think using your voice, even when it shakes and having an ability to admit when you're wrong and change your mind are lethal combinations. And then not fearing other people's success, which we talked about earlier.

I find it totally intoxicating and palpable when somebody is like step into your power, like polish your crown baby. Like that just means that I am surrounded by royalty. That excites me. Let's talk about the T1. That's another big piece in your story being type one diabetic.

You're healthy, everything's good, right? Yeah, thank goodness. With your health and stuff. Yeah. As regards to that. I've been playing around with a CGM. Oh, cool. Through levels and it's been really interesting.

And I've thought of you often as I'm like checking my blood glucose, cause I know we go to dinner and you're kind of, I'm like, why is she so distracted? And it's like, no, as you're doing right now, like you're checking your, I like how it's on the Apple watch, but it's been really interesting to see that relationship

between the foods that I'm eating and how it's impacting that graph of blood glucose going up, going down, when is it plateau, what really spikes it, what doesn't, how does sleep, rest, recovery, training, all these other lifestyle habits impact that, which that's probably been the most revelatory. It's like, obviously if you eat something that's high in simple carbohydrates carbohydrates it's gonna do this.

I've also noticed that foods that are higher in fat will do the same thing. Like all these, and I think the danger with this is that people who aren't steeped in the science can make very binary reductive conclusions from that data. I think the truth is probably much more complex, but as somebody who's been dealing with this condition that you have for a very long time and is very schooled on, you know,

how these CGMs work and all of that, like what have you learned about yourself and how do you think like this kind of technology could be helpful for somebody who doesn't suffer from type one? Oh, that's interesting. I mean, yeah, body awareness is key. I'm very grateful that I was already plant-based

and I was already an athlete when I was diagnosed. So there's a level of self-awareness that I already had going into my type one diagnosis. And then I just told myself, I'm gonna continue to cross these finish lines. I'm gonna continue to lift weights. I'm gonna continue to teach a Peloton. Like actually I was just on the eve of teaching a Peloton

when I was diagnosed. And the time is different now because now there's an acceptance of this. But when you were starting, I know that people thought that that was inadvisable or perhaps even very dangerous. Oh, I was told you're not gonna run ultras anymore. Like how are you gonna be able to teach

in front of a camera and not having to go, like the doctors couldn't even contemplate me teaching in front of millions of people and not having to like pause the class to leave and do whatever, which knock on wood has never happened. Yeah, I mean, the technology helps a lot. So I have a Dexcom G6 and I loop that. Basically you create like a bridge through an app

and through this Bluetooth device that links the blood sugar device with an insulin distribution system. Right, and you can just refresh it every couple minutes or whatever, and you can kind of see pretty much in real time what's happening. You're seeing the numbers in real time,

but I'm also administering like the device, the algorithm is administering the insulin based on the settings that I give it. Right, so it's reading it and deciding how much, if and when the insulin gets right from the device on your arm. Right. Right. Yeah, and that helps hugely.

And I approach my care like a, like I was like, I can either resist and get frustrated or I can get curious. And I just got really freaking curious about everything from like, if I work out at this time and I eat this portion of my smoothie before this type of workout. And now I kind of, I know how to like move the needle.

You know, all those little nuances matter so much. Yeah, and they're gonna be very specific to you as an individual and also very differentiated because you have type one. What's interesting now is that there's adoption of, you know, a version of this device, obviously it's not injecting you with insulin, but with mainstream people.

And I think there's a portion of society that is frowning upon this. Like this thing is intended for people with diabetes, right? Like this shouldn't be being used by mainstream people. And then the counterpoint being like, hey, all information is good. This is gonna help us make better decisions. We're gonna get these massive data sets.

We're gonna better understand how foods and lifestyle habits are impacting blood glucose, which is really important in helping people prevent themselves from getting type two or other lifestyle illnesses. For sure, it's a massive biomarker. I mean, I don't, unless the former criticism is presuming

that having that type of technology widely available somehow inhibits or prevents type ones from having access to it, I don't see the issue. It's like- Right, unless there's a supply chain problem. I think part of the criticism also is what I referenced earlier, that people who don't really understand

will make really reductive conclusions about sort of A plus B equals C when that's probably not really the case. And then sort of saying, well, this is the case, so here's how I need to eat, or here's what this is happening because of this, where it's probably a much more complex physiological mechanism than what is revealed

by a simple graph. Sure, but you could say that about anything. Sure. You could say that about the sleep trackers, you could say, I mean, literally any of this biometric data, you could be making reductive decisions that aren't nuanced. But I think that we can use this data.

I would love for people to be more intentional about their food choices and see how their bodies are reacting. Most people don't understand that you shouldn't feel like you were hit by a truck and you're so lethargic and fatigued every day at three o'clock after you've had lunch. And it's like, if that data point helps people

understand that, then great. Yeah, and being able to see like, oh man, like I feel that way because here's this and like, oh, it's taking me a long time to get back up here. The other day I ate this and I bounced back more quickly. Like all of these are really helpful, I think. I think it's potentially transformative technology when it's sort of adopted at scale,

which I think will happen at some point. Definitely, and I mean, listen, diabetes, especially type two is an epidemic. If we can prevent folks from reaching that point of crisis. 50% of Americans are gonna be diabetic or pre-diabetic by like 2050, it's insane. It's pretty terrifying. So we need to do something

and we can start with that education tool. I agree. Yeah. What else do we wanna talk about? Let's talk about a day in the life. What's the day in the life look like for you now? It's a little bit different than last time we talked. It's a little more complicated.

Yeah, I wake up. I got four, so, you know, but they're older now, it's easy. Four, it's incredible. Day in the life, so I wake up, I used to wake up and meditate. Now I wake up and feed Athena. You gotta wake up in the night too, right? I used to. So now she sleeps through the night

and I don't need to pump during the night, but I'll wake up. She sleeps through the night. She sleeps through the night. Put her down at 6.30, she wakes up at 6.30. Wow. It's pretty remarkable. I'm very grateful. That's like you won the lottery.

I know I did. I know I won the lottery there. So wake up, feed Athena. Mornings in our house are really sacred. So it's like we play music. It's family time for 90 minutes. And then my husband will take the baby, feed her. She has a plant-based smoothie in the morning for breakfast.

So do I, actually the whole family has the same plant-based smoothie. And you're still on the plant-based diet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's working for you. Love it. Good. Like most of my family members are now plant-based. So it's cool to see.

That's good. It's spread a little bit. Did people tell you that you should modify that when you were pregnant? And how was the experience of being plant-based through pregnancy? Cause I think that's something a lot of plant curious or even plant-based people think about women when they get pregnant,

like, hey, maybe I need more iron or I need more of this. And obviously everybody, nobody wants to do anything that would be harmful to their baby. Yeah, of course. Well, I think because I was already a plant-based athlete, it answered a lot of those questions. So I already had blood work to understand like, what are my vitamin D, B12 and iron levels?

So, and I do supplement all three. And you know, the protein question that is like the classic plant-based protein question, I already had an understanding of what, how much protein I was getting to sustain, you know, very, very two, three hours of training a day, most days. And so going into pregnancy, I kind of knew what my baseline was

and that it was actually well above and beyond what they recommend for a pregnant human, let alone a pregnant plant-based athlete. So yeah, I felt really confident. And to add to it, the fact that it was a type one pregnancy and you wanna keep your blood sugar within non-diabetic ranges, I wasn't gonna upset the apple cart too much.

It was like, if I know if I can eat this, this and that, and this is what works before and after training and different parts of my day, the nuances that we just discussed as someone living with type one, I was just gonna keep rocking with that. And it worked well for me. Good, all right.

So plant-based smoothie in the morning. Plant-based smoothie in the morning. And then I'll do my first training session. So usually in the morning. Plant-based smoothie in the morning. And then I'll do my first training session. So usually in the morning, I have a lifting session, barbell work, everything from- Just at home. I'll go to a private training facility to do that. And then three or four days a week, I'll do a run.

So 45 minutes to an hour of running. And then I'll normally teach mid morning to afternoon at Peloton. So I'll teach a handful of classes four days a week. And do you bank those in a row or how does that work? Usually, so a few days a week, I teach live classes where it'll be like a 30 minute and a 20 minute or a 45. Usually it's an under an hour of content live.

And then sometimes I'm teaching up to two hours of content banked. So it might be like a bunch of, might be as many as five classes, but like about two hours of content total. Yeah. So then it's meetings. It's either meetings with my agent,

with Drew on some of the projects that we're working on. Afternoons are usually like meetings or any kind of written or like mind solitary, like computer work that I have to do. And do you have an assistant? Like how do you do? Oh my gosh, yeah. I would not function without my assistant, Corinne.

For sure. And then early to bed. Early to bed, yeah. Then it's like make dinner, wrap up the day, hop on. After we put Athena to bed, it's usually back on the computer for a little bit for like more emails and stuff. And then I go to bed pretty early, yeah.

By eight, nine o'clock, it's a wrap. Yeah, that's pretty manageable. Yes, it really is. I've created a life that aligns with how I wanna present in the world and I'm grateful as hell that I get to honestly see my daughter as much as I do. Like I remember my mom who's a practicing physician still. So there were some days she would leave at seven

in the morning and get back at seven at night. And at least now, even though I'm busy and my daughter is with our nanny who we love and I'm very grateful for, I can dip in and out and at least see her for 15, 20 minutes throughout the day and still feel like I'm honoring my work life and being productive. And how does it work with social media?

I mean, you have almost like a million people that are following you on Instagram. Do you feel pressure to be posting and sharing insights or how do you kind of calibrate how you interact with that to maintain some level of privacy and groundedness? Because that's a lot of people, right? I suspect there's some probably, you probably feel some pressure to be servicing that.

Yeah, I mean, the storytelling around that is very organic. So, you know, we kind of have, I've developed a social media strategy and I kind of know what's gonna live in different verticals of that. So like, there's like the Peloton stuff, there's motivation, there's the mom stuff, you know? And then there's stuff like this week

where I'm just posting organically, you know, when I feel like it. I had to decide a long time ago to take the pressure off of that, you know, so it's- You don't have like rules, like every day I do this. Absolutely not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely not. That's the only way that I can stay sane

with the whole thing. Like my role is like, I only post when I feel like it. And I just don't, if I don't feel like it, like you just can't be held hostage by it. Like it's just not healthy. I agree. Do you have notifications on your phone from all these things?

No, no, no, no, no. I don't have any notifications for anything. Me neither. So then like in the household though, like one of my kids is texting me and I don't get, you know, it's like, if I'm not checking my phone, they're like, yeah, I texted you and I'm saying, sorry. Well, this perception that of immediacy

in response to anything. I mean, I remember, when you practice law, people probably still sent written letters. Yeah, of course. So there was like at least- Which was an art form, especially like the demand letter, like how snarky can I be in this letter? You know, you pour over it for hours.

Yeah, I mean, and I'm prey to, just like anybody else, you know, the distractions and this perception that time is, that we need to be as immediate with our response as it was in the sender's perception. And I just don't, I really try to release myself from those expectations. Yeah, yeah, that's healthy. And go to Coachella without your baby.

Exactly. What else do I wanna talk to you about? I mean, I think it's really cool what you've built and what you stand for and what you've done and to like own your strength, I think is really, not just powerful, but like infectious. And I think part of your appeal, if I had to guess is that everyone wants to feel

a little bit more empowered. Like they see you talking about crowns and like owning your space and all of that. And I think to some degree, we all self flagellate and we all have insecurities and to see you like as this ballast going, no, do this instead. Like, I need a little bit more of that in my life. Like, I want that.

Like, so for people that are feeling that urge or that pull or that yearning for a little bit more self-efficacy and agency in their life, like maybe it would be helpful to just kind of share spontaneously a little bit of that wisdom. Sure. I mean, I do think a lot of your listeners have some type of movement practice. I think that movement has changed my life. I didn't know, I wasn't an

athlete as a kid. I was completely terrified of gym class. I told myself, I was like, I used to get made fun of for the way I ran when I was in recess or whatever. So I told myself the story at a really young age that I was the straight A student arts and crafts kid. And that's who I was. And I am introverted by nature.

So those, being good at school and doing arts and crafts really suited my nature. And movement has unlocked a wellspring of confidence. And I do believe that confidence is a side effect of hustle. I think that you have to really drill down on what form of hustle feels rewarding and is getting you closer

to the finish line of your own definition. And a regular movement practice is crucial no matter what that looks like. For me, another tool in the toolkit is storytelling. Like I think when we have a, when we're brave enough to tell our stories, it frees up like the, it frees up our ability to imagine our,

the answers to those questions, right? It's like, what is my why? What decision would I make if I were twice as confident? You know, those existential, who am I moments? Why not me? You know, those things are always kind of percolating in my head, but it's really crucial to me that folks give themselves permission to win where sometimes success feels as uncomfortable as the work that it took to get there. And I want folks to give themselves permission

to like step into the light. Like I wanna see, stand closer to the folks who illuminate you and even pay attention to who and what that is. Like who, most people would have to think long and hard of about the experiences that even bring them the most joy or the people that they're with when they experience joy or what joy even feels like recently.

We should be centering those conversations more. Yeah, I think that's powerful. That goes to that second tier that we were talking about, the who am I thing. And I think it is true that most people are so sufficiently disconnected that they aren't aware of what brings them joy or what is driving their decisions

or the activities that would gird their life with more purpose and fulfillment and meaning and the like. And I think a process of starting to better understand yourself and what makes you tick is yes, in the journaling, but also, as you mentioned, having the courage to share your story. We all have a story, right? And that courage is born out of a choice to be vulnerable.

Like the vulnerability is strength because it takes bravery and courage to share something and allow yourself to be vulnerable and judged for that. But my experience and the experience of many others that I've borne witness to and yourself as well, is that when you can summon that and engage with that, like grapple with that, there is a level of self-efficacy and self-esteem

that derives from that, that allows you to be more self-integrated and self-actualized to stand in that power, to adorn that crown and like claim your truth and your path. Well, speaking your story, speaking your truth is gonna magnetize your people. Like I think about that's what I've done. You know, of course it's on a very public platform, be it social media or Peloton,

but speaking my truth has magnetized people who that truth resonates with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the lighthouse thing. That's the yeah, yeah. That's the lighthouse thing. That's the light, exactly. It's the lighthouse thing. It's like, how are your people gonna find you if you're confused, misaligned and obfuscating who you are?

And then, part of movement and our movement practices are an ability to like discover who that person even is. Something that I asked myself as a touch point pretty frequently are like, what are my recent moments of flow? Am I still finding moments of flow where I'm losing track of time? Not because I'm scrolling on social media, but because I'm so immersed with focus and alignment, feelings of alignment and fulfillment, am I centering those experiences throughout my workday?

And I definitely go through periods where that isn't as much the case. It takes more discipline to do that now than it ever has before. But I would say most people don't ask themselves that question of, am I experiencing moments of flow? Yeah. It's so easy and reflexive to just grab the phone.

My eldest stepson, Tyler, just got the light phone, which is, you know, has nothing on it except for like texting. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, in the first week, I read two books, you know, and he's like, I'm doing all these things that I'd never done before. And he has his other iPhone. He just has it in a drawer, you know, and he's like, I'm doing all these things that I'd never done before. And he has his other iPhone.

He just has it in a drawer, you know, and checks it once in a while or whatever. But when he's out in the world, he's like, yeah, I was standing in a line the other day and there was nothing for me to do except be with myself. And it was like a revelation, you know? And you know, I'm as guilty as anyone of that to exercise as a disciplined person.

I find myself powerless at times to exercise the discipline required to carve out the quiet time, to do the deep work, to accomplish the more important things. Just to even be bored. I actually, on that note, I made a rule this year to not grab my phone when I'm in elevators. And even when I'm like just on the cusp of sending an email,

when I get into the elevator to force myself to like even just be aware and have a human interaction. But then you're like, it's creepy. I force myself in that. And I am very allergic to like, I don't allergic to like, I don't like small talk, but I find that it's like, just let your mind,

when's the last time that I let my mind wander? I'm always just, again, grabbing my phone, refreshing the email, like checking Instagram. And the wandering mind is the bread and butter of any creative inspiration. And if you deprive yourself of that, it's a form of self-harm. Yeah, well, that's where I, you know,

journaling also helps, because there are some days where I don't feel like I have anything to journal, but I'll just set five minutes, a five minute timer on my phone and something always pours out. So what is the structure to the journaling? Is it like morning pages

where it's just sort of a vomitous thing or do you approach it with a certain intention? Usually it's in the evening actually, before I go to bed. I find that my mornings are a little bit very, very, or a lot focused on Athena. So it's evening focused. And sometimes it's, there's an emotionality to it where it's just like, I'm frustrated about this or that.

And it's more of like a dear diary moment. But the days where I don't feel like I have anything to write, I will literally just set a timer and dream, you know, whether it's like what, I'll ask myself questions like, who is a dream partnership? Or like, what would success look like in Q1? How are you defining that for yourself?

So sometimes it's like business ideations and sometimes it's more personal. And then it's that gratitude thing. I still, I ask myself that pretty frequently. Like, what do you have right now that you used to dream about or pray for? And I also find that with a gratitude practice, there's a recency that helps,

like saying like three things that you're grateful for. Like I'm always gonna say Athena, Drew, my family, and then that kind of takes away from the special feeling. But being very specific and temporal. Yeah, temporal, like it'll be like in the last 12 hours, what's something that you're grateful for that occurred or that you witnessed in that recent time period. And that helps too.

And what goes into the morning smoothie? Oh gosh, my husband is actually the smoothie king. So I use AG1. And he's jacked. He is jacked. Is he plant-based too? Plant-based. Yeah, he's completely ripped.

He's a strong individual. He's very strong young man. So yeah, we use AG1, plant protein. We mix up what kind of protein we use all the time. Magnesium, vitamin D, greens, like spinach, kale, whatever we have in the fridge. Yeah, there's like 17 ingredients. And how has your marriage evolved from being,

just the two of you to being three? Like what are the things that you've learned about being in partnership? And also now like this web three thing, like you're kind of commingled a little bit professionally in a way that you weren't previously. Like, what are the challenges that you faced? And what are some of the lessons that you learned

about what's required to stay together? Wasn't until we had Athena that I understood, you know, that it was like, I have my life, Drew has his life, and then our marriage is like another life that we both pour into. Whereas it all felt very like, yeah, okay, yeah, that's my husband, of course, I love him. Like we do our thing.

Now it's the date nights and making sure that we have time for each other, which all just, it was like all the time was time with each other before Athena. And now, you know, as life busies, it's that has now risen to the top of the list of making sure that I'm prioritizing my time with him. And we've done a great job, you know,

travel and adventure is part of who is in the DNA of our relationship. We actually got engaged 72 hours after meeting each other and then got married to Burning Man three months later. I didn't know that I knew that. So we believe we're like multiple lifetimes in and we have a very cosmic connection. So you have Burning Man marriage,

but then you got married in Tulum, right? Yeah, so we had a Burning Man ceremony. So you have Burning Man marriage, but then you got married in Tulum, right? Yeah, so we had a Burning Man ceremony three months after meeting each other. And then we had a public ceremony in Tulum a few years later. But making sure that we're planning trips, whether it's this, we're going to a friend's wedding in Ireland, we're going back to Burning Man.

And of course we have trips planned with Athena as well. And we're making sure that we're adventuring as a family, but also as a couple and individually. We've both with each taken trips alone since having Athena. And we're kind of trying to find the right balance, intentional balance and alignment with our values of individual time and then as a family and then as a couple.

Anything unforeseen or a challenge that you didn't expect? We communicate, like I'm very clear with what I need, whether I think that- That's important. I think that helps a lot, right? I don't expect him to be a mind reader and likewise. Cause for a lot of partnerships, it's sort of like you have to do a little bit

of mind reading or anticipation and the more clear that you can be, I think everybody benefits from that. Even if it's an uncomfortable truth. Yeah, I'm pretty clear. I mean, I remember Drew was really, it was incredibly an incredible partner when Athena was first home. I mean, he's an incredible partner. You know, when Athena was first home,

I mean, he's an incredible partner always, but especially as it involved caring for a small human, our new roommate. And I would, you know, wake up at two in the morning or however many times at night to feed. And we set up like a breastfeeding station with like snacks and whatever. And one time he ate the almond butter sandwich

that I had waiting for, he had prepared, but he ate like half and whatever. And one time he ate the almond butter sandwich that I had waiting for, he had prepared, but he ate like half of it. And it's like a very clear boundary. Like you cannot eat my snacks when I'm breastfeeding at two in the morning. So little things like that are actually big things. It's like, we're trying to set each other up for success. So no one person needs to feel like a mind reader.

Yeah, well, the complexity of the child really ups the exigency of that communication and the planning and all of that, because it's so easy to default to a routine. And before you know it, you're leading separate lives and you haven't really talked. Like I see it all the time. And it really requires a level of like conscious awareness

to say, hey, oh, we need to like stop. We need, here's, we gotta like get in sync here because otherwise we're like, you know, extrapolate that little tiny diversion. And suddenly we're, you know, in very different places and not too long. Yeah, well, I'm trying to be aware of the marriage as an organism, as well as, you know,

drew as a, you know, sentient being and myself, right? So it's actually three entities or humans kind of that we're curating and we're nurturing, not just, and I mean three as in the marriage and then the two of us individually. And then of course our family is an organism, but that's the more obvious one. Yeah, I like the idea of the separate trips thing.

I mean, that's something that Julie and I have done as well. It's sort of like, you're your own human. I don't need you to complete me. We're awesome together, but I don't wanna stand in the way of you having the experiences in your life that you wanna have. Like you have to have that green light

for that type of thing. And obviously it has to work within the construct of the family, but I found that to be going both ways in our marriage to be really beneficial. Yeah, and then you have interesting things to talk about. Like I want him to feel fulfilled and it's an opportunity to miss each other.

I think that that's a very good thing. Yeah. Is New York still your boyfriend? New York. New York is still my boyfriend. Are you cheating on your husband with New York? Well, thankfully Drew also is, you know, in love with New York. So I would say New York is probably just an element of our marriage at this point. It's a threesome. Yeah, exactly. That's the other piece that has to get attended to in the, you know, the other individual in the relationship, right? Yeah, yeah, no, New York is home-based for sure. We bought a home in New York.

We're gonna be applying to schools in New York for Athena, whatever that looks like, that's a whole thing. Yeah, is New York coming back? Like New York's had a roller coaster ride, but I was back there last spring and I was like, this is off the hook. Like, I don't know what everyone's talking about. It's buzzing.

I mean, Midtown, maybe not so much, but- Yeah, there's a lot of boarded up stuff or whatever, but when the weather got nice, like everyone was out and it seemed like there was a lot of energy. People are out and about. People are craving interactions. And you know, I don't go out like to nightclubs or anything really anymore,

but that like my friends who do are like, it is back in a way that unprecedented numbers. Of course it is, because New York City is undefeated. Yeah. Right. And resilient as hell. Like we're always gonna find a way, find a way to maintain the swagger. Yeah, I miss it.

You're a plane ride away. I know, I gotta come back this spring at some point. Well, let's round this out with maybe a final few thoughts for the person who is struggling to get off the couch, who's contemplating that movement practice, who's looking for a little bit of direction and maybe purpose in their life. Like get them off the couch.

Oh my God. Come on. This is what you do. Listen, you gotta start with one. If you don't like something, change it. I think that excuses are lies that we tell ourselves convincingly. And how many episodes of the RRP

are you gonna listen to before you get off your butt? I mean, come on, right? But it really starts with one. It can be really intimidating to look at the social media feed and think that everybody ran a marathon before 6 a.m. and they all are a five minute mile. You know what I mean?

Like there is the other side to that aspirational, you know, the inspiration business is feeling like, that just made me feel paralyzed with what I'm capable of. So start with one, literally start with one, like lace up, do one block, do one Peloton workout, like do one. And then that's why I say that confidence is a side effect of hustle. Because when you take those little nibbles of hustle, you discover that you really have the

power all along. And then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And when you realize that you are a self-generated factory of power, yeah, your life changes. When you develop an appetite for your own power, mediocrity doesn't taste so good anymore. Polish your crown. That's right. Always a pleasure, Robin, thank you so much. You are an inspiration, I love you dearly.

I think it's so cool what you're doing in the world. I love you too. Thanks for having me. This is so nice to see you, friend. Yeah, I know. We did it in LA. We did it. We'll do it again in New York at some point.

I'm sure you're always welcome here. It's been too long. So thank you for sharing your wisdom. Everybody should check out Robin's Masterclass. Where did they find that? Is it masterclass.com? Yeah, masterclass.com. The app, right, of course.

And Strong Mama, the new book. Strong Mama is my children's book. And of course you can find me at Peloton and robinadison.com. There you go, all the stuff. Yeah. All right. All right, love you, Robin, thank you. Love you too, thanks for having me.

Peace, plants. That's it for today thank you for listening I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation to learn more about today's guest including links and resources related to everything discussed today visit the episode page at richroll.com

where you can find the entire podcast archive as well as podcast merch, my books, Finding Ultra, Voicing Change in the Plant Power Way, as well as the Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do

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Peace. Plants. Namaste. Thank you.