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Welcome back to the DL.

I'm Jason Kelly, I'm Alex Rodriguez.

All right, today we've got a banger of an episode, Robin Arson.

She is not only a top Peloton instructor, she's a top executive at the company.

Plus she's building this whole empire outside of Peloton.

Jason, She's a force of nature.

I mean, she went from being a corporate litigator to being one of the top influencers in the country.

And I'm really interested to know how she's transferred some of those skills from being a corporate litigator to being one of the most influential people in sports.

Absolutely, she's talking about investing in teams.

There is nothing she can't do, and she is full of energy.

Coming up, Robin Arson, robinar Zone, we are so happy to you.

Welcome to the deal.

I mean, I've known you a little bit.

I feel like I know you really well, which is part of the reason that we're going to get into this amazing brand you built and this connection you have with people.

But I have to say, Alex, we've been talking about the fact our phones have been blowing up, about the fact.

That we're sitting here with yes, yes, Well, first of all, no one's more excited than Jason, And as a result, I'm also very excited because my phone's been blowing up, my girlfriend Jack, my daughters who love Peloton, but they love you.

But like I thought, we were interviewing like Taylor Swift.

Today, I mean it's really exciting.

Yeah, but you also a corporate lawyer.

First of all, I do want to know, like, how'd you go from being a lawyer to where you are now?

Well, I was a corporate litigator and my dad was a lawyer growing up, and I used to sit on his blue books.

He was also a law professor, a real estate law professor in Philadelphia.

He taught a Temple, went to and taught at Temple, and so I kind of grew.

Up with the law.

When I was ten years old, you asked me back to school, what am I going to be?

It was I was a lawyer.

So I did practice law for eight years.

I was a corporate litigator, and I was underwhelmed.

If you asked me if I hated it, I wouldn't.

I didn't hate it.

I actually it was a malaise that I think is pretty pervasive, frankly in a lot of industries, but especially law, and I fell in love with running.

So I started running when I was in law school.

I really started running to run through a really traumatic incident that happened when I was in college, and I wrote about that in my first book, shut Up and Run, and that actually used to be my mantra.

It was like, stop the chatter, let's shut it up, let's lace up and run.

And I started doing marathons and ultra marathons while I was still practicing law, and I had this moment where I thought, I can't count down to only like twenty minutes in Central Park that were my release throughout the week.

And I had such admiration for athletes who made this their lives, and I thought, how can I pay my rent with something that I love.

I quit law two weeks before the London Olympic Games, and with a cracked iPhone, I went and slept on my friend's couch and just quote reported from the games.

And so this is kind of an influencer.

Marketing was like just becoming a thing, and I kind of hit lightning in a bottle like at that time, really recording and documenting my athletic experience as an as a person who's not a professional ated I.

Have a quick follow up on that because you worked at one of the most respected law firms.

So explain to me, like, when is the moment that you look in the mirror and say, I'm at a great law firm, I have a great career, great trajectory.

Young lawyer doing well.

I want to go do something else.

Yes, most people would think that's crazy.

Well, especially like I don't know.

I come from a refugee immigrant family.

My dad, you know, grew up in the Bronx and was born in Puerto Rico.

My mom is a Cuban refugee.

And to think that I would leave something that was so secure to.

Do question mark, question mark question.

I didn't even know.

I was like building the rocket ship as it was leaving the station.

The fact that they supported me was amazing, not supporting me financially but emotionally.

Right.

I told my mom and my dad, you are never going to have to pay a time.

I'm going to figure this out myself.

And I lived below, well below my means when I was a lawyer, and it just saved, safe, safe, safe, saved, and it was actually at a crossroads of buying an apartment or leaving law.

It was like am I going to be all in or am I going to give myself like financial freedom?

And thank goodness that I did, because I was able.

To take really big bets on myself that if I were tethered to, you know, a mortgage, trying to aspire to, you know, live like the Jones Is in New York City, Like that's a pretty high bar.

Do you remember the moment you've made the decision, when you're like this is happening.

I think it's iterative right that there are lots of different inflection points.

So it was probably a two year slow burn where I was like I really love this other thing, this.

Thing is just okay, and it would come home.

I was still working like eighty hour weeks, you know, I still had billable hour requirements and partners that I that I really respected actually and learned a lot from.

But it was this malaise that I mentioned.

So would I remember coming home one night from the office seamless it was called seamless web at the time, was like my best friend or or whatever on the client's time, but like still working right through dinner and I got home at eleven nineteen and I opened up the notes app on my phone and I just made a list of the things that I thought I was good at and that I wanted to be able to showcase in the world.

There was no wrong answer, and it was literally be able to show my tattoos, be able to use my oral advocacy skills on a wider scale, be able to you know, talk about sports as somebody who was not an athlete historically, and you know, literally it was like be able to run, be able to sweat, and it's what my job is now at Peloton and beyond to the letter, Yeah, you could call it business planning, manifestation mumbo jumbo.

It worked because I was able to clarify with with specificity, how I wanted to feel in this new life.

And then it was like, Okay, I got a marry skill set with opportunity and now I at least know what to look for.

And that was probably six months before I quit.

And then two weeks before the London Olympic Games, I just pulled off the band aid and I was like, I just need to be around these athletes.

I need to be around the people who are talking about sport and living it, and I just wanted to be in their orbit, like breathe the same air, not obviously as a fan, but as somebody who could like engage in conversation with these people.

And that was the objective.

And I remember going to one of the track practices and talking to the USATF, the USATF PR person, and like I was like, I just want to ask the Felix one question and you know, now you know we're you know, she's my friends, your girl.

Yeah.

So it's just amazing how you know, you peel the layers of the onion and like there's always more there.

I think about being a Yankee for a long time and playing baseball for over twenty five years, some of the virtues and characteristics that I've taken from sports to bring to the boardroom.

I'm curious talk about lawyer.

You have to be buttoned up, you can't show your tattoos, you can't really show any motion opposite of what you're doing now.

But it was there anything you took that you learned in law that's helped you be such an a great communicator and connected to people.

For sure.

As a storyteller, I think if you can make a legal brief interesting, you can do a lot with more interesting topics.

But the billable hours model that I lifted from my law career directly impacted my ability to see movement and my ideas around storytelling within the Walldless umbrella as a business because during these the beginning of these influencer marketing days, it was a lot of gifted products and like pr packages, which are still obviously relevant now, but back then it wasn't really you pay an influencer for a campaign.

It was like, I'm going to give you shoes, and you're just going to be so grateful that I gave you shoes that you're not really going to know the value the marketing dollars of what you just gave me.

And obviously we're so deeply grateful to receive product.

I still am, but that's not going to pay my rent, Like my landlord was not gonna be like thanks for these nikes, you know.

And so I adopted a billable hours model and I just said no, you can't pick my brain.

I'm a consultant.

And some brand said no, but enough said yes, And then I was being booked not only as talent but also as a consultant for these marketing agencies.

How do you discover Peloton?

So twenty twelve, you're talking about Peloton is what Pelton was.

Probably it's like co founders plus a few initial leadership folks.

They hadn't opened the studio yet, and I read about Peloton in an article and then I reached out to the company.

Cold cold email.

Yeah.

So during this time I was I was teaching cycling at a local SPIN studio, I was working on my first book, and I was.

About to publish my first book.

When I started a Pelton, I was one of the first instructors hired, and we had our original studio on twenty third Street.

So, Robin, one of the great advantages to being a lawyer is being a supreme great writer like this guy, Jason.

What did that emao say?

Well, I wanted to sell the vision, the passion, and a little bit of the skill set.

And I was a new or Spin instructor, right, so I couldn't say like, I've been in this industry X amount of years.

But I told them that I saw how disrupted this technology could be, and I wanted to light fires like I want to light fires in people's lives and that is still one of my core mandates for all of my businesses.

It's got to light fires.

Yeah, and they kind of believed the passion of the email, and then it was followed up two days later with an audition and then you're seeing like can you walk the walk?

And thankfully they accepted.

And so how do you prepare for an audition?

Like you're teaching classes, so you know what you're doing, but I assume you know you have to get used as someone who taken a lot of peloton class.

You're speaking to a camera.

I mean you're speaking to me, but I'm in my basement, Like, how do you like lock in to communicate like that?

How do you develop that skill?

Well, for me, it definitely started as a lawyer, Like I used to walk around my apartment and pretend that I was speaking to you know.

Really it was more it was less courtroom stuff, a lot of deposition stuff, and I would practice that Q and A and kind of the mental gymnasis of like if they say this, I'm going to say this.

And obviously when you're presenting a class or a speech or something, it's different.

It's not usually like a volley back and forth.

I almost visualize it like I'm writing it on a board, And those are the things that end up coming into my notes really.

Yeah, like when you're on the bike.

No before oh, always prepping my class plan at my playlist beforehand, right, and then I'm usually listening to the playlist as I'm going into the studio, okay, And the things that I want to say in class are kind of embedded, like I visually see it.

Wow.

Yeah, and it's sometimes it's for myself talk and then sometimes it's imagining Jason, you know across who is.

That red light?

Yeah, there's enough of a feedback loop with our members you'd be a social media sometimes.

Obviously if they're in the studio, then I kind of have a.

Sense of what the conversation is around certain types of movements, certain types of classes and Robin.

When you get off I mean, obviously in baseball when you have a good game, the score, but it will tell you if you have a good game or not, right, So it's very easy when you get off that bike.

Do you know was this a ten?

Was it a nine?

Was it a five?

Do you know if you had a great class and if you hit all your points?

I mean, energy is currency, right, Like there's just a moment where you're you know, whether you hit it and whether you were in a flow state.

Right Like if I'm in a flow state in most of my classes.

When I'm not, it's just life.

It's distraction, it's my kid, it's whatever.

It's life.

And my job is to refocus myself.

And I have tools and tactics to do that like any athlete would.

But that is the interesting thing is that we're maybe more like a TV network and that I might get I'll get like the numbers and things like that with my producers later and I'd be like, oh, this class was Gangbusters, And I'm like, really that twenty.

Minutes to bottle class was like this, right?

But I really And then this is what I say to the other instructors, Like we have the responsibility to walk into every class like it is an audition to be there.

And if you do not.

Have the appetite to treat every class like it's an audition to be there, then you don't belong on the team anymore.

Wow.

And that's truly the standard that I try to hold to myself, not saying every class is a ten out of ten but I do approach the work ethic with that respect.

Well.

And it's interesting too, because you know, pretty quickly you get to a point because you know, you and I first met when I was anchoring the Bloomberg Business Week show.

We came out to a homecoming event.

Homecoming is that?

Yes?

Well it was homecoming okay, maybe.

Back in the day, right back in the day.

And I mean at that point, you know, this is ten years ago, probably eighteen years ago.

You know, you were already in a position where you were the lead instructor.

So how does it get to the point where you're not just an instructor, but you know, John Foley, co founder and then CEO like gives you the responsibility to, like essentially to your point, sort of run the network in terms of the talent side.

Yeah, well, our chief Content officer has the C level role of like quote, running the network, and I report to them.

You know, our current c CEO is Jen Cotter, and I've worked with her for a number of years.

But when I was promoted, it was you know, earlier or pretty early days in Peloton.

I do think that my law degree helped.

I was able to uniquely sit in meetings and kind of understand like business KPIs and also understand the talent needs.

Sometimes I'm wearing talent hat, sometimes I'm wearing like an executive hat.

Yeah, and it could be one meeting.

I might swap those hats many many times.

But it's you know, championing the instructor's points of view, because I mean it didn't always Pelton didn't go into the talent business.

But it's now out in the talent business.

Oh yeah, but that wasn't initially.

That perspective wasn't always appreciated, especially when group fitness was a lot more common back in those days.

With other competitors, it was like, yeah, I'm here to teach a cycling class, but I'm a business right, And it took some iterating on that concept.

So Broban, when you think about wearing different hats when you look at talent, what are the first two or three things you look I mean, obviously, when I look at a baseball player, I'm looking for speed, I'm looking for a great arm, I'm looking for a great body.

Someone's going to age.

Well, what are the things that you look for in a great talent?

I think at this point we're really proud of the diversity and the breath that we have in with our instructor team, and we scale obviously, right, so we don't need five of the same exact type of instructor or musicality.

I want a point of view, right, so it's there is a physicality obviously to what we do.

Like you have to be an athlete, clearly, you have to have certifications, you need to be a subject matter expert.

But that's like dime a dozen.

I want somebody who has a point of view that can translate that to after thousands of hours of doing it, because somebody can audition and bs something for twenty minutes.

Yeah, you can't really do that when you're sprinting, when you're on your you know, thousandth class.

Like there is just something that is very raw and real, and that is where you get to the kernel of somebody's point of view.

Well because you also, i mean, what's also clear and you know, you have an incredible following.

We want to talk about sort of how you build your brant.

But like as you look at you know, who's resonating numbers don't lie, you know, and like you see the views and you also see the you know, to use a marketing term.

You know, those classes or those instructors who have a long tail.

So how do you think about, you know, growing your own community but also sort of growing these complementary communities as you again create that right mix of instructors.

Right, I mean we want to we've always to members first organization, So we want to meet our members where they are in their various life stages, right, And so from a content perspective, we're considering, you know, what are people doing, how are they moving, and how can we meet them there or even widen the aperture of like what it means to be have wellness offerings including non class content.

So we introduced nutrition content with some of our instructors.

I'm coming up with a cookbook next year based on my plant based philosophy and point of view on eating and those recipes.

So it's important to meet members where they are, but also honor the life stage and the evolution, like I am not the same person that I was, you know, twelve thirteen years ago when I joined the company, And so it included creating prenatal content.

You know, it's obviously.

Entering the longevity conversation with something that is purposeful and having content that pairs with it, but also having a roster like we do want younger instructors, yeah, you do.

We want instructors that are going to meet growing demos as well as honoring our core.

And then we do look at demos for certain instructors and you know, it's where's their crossover, where's their expansion opportunity, where is their business as usual?

Where we just know it's working, and we don't want to you know, mix the drinks too much.

It's like some folks kind of have their core, yeah, and then some folks are more expansive to demos that we do want to explore.

It is funny, I mean to think about it.

And Carolyn Tish Watchet, who you worked with obviously back in the day, she was on the show as well, and you know, obviously was a key voice and sort of a lot of the branding and sort of growing you guys as brands.

You know, one of the deals that you did early on is Adidas.

You know, you established a relationship.

How does that come about?

I mean, clearly you had your eye on the prize of like building your own brand.

Tell us about Adidas.

So I started to understand that there were marketing dollars in these deals.

From initially working on the agency side and Nike Women was my client, so I was doing their social media and I started to get a little bit of visibility into like how these campaigns are kind of run and funded.

You were consulting.

I was consulting.

So I was on the agency side with the agency called Team Epiphany, and Nike Women was their client.

And this was literally three weeks after the London Olympic Games.

It was like my first job out of law.

I was like, heck, yeah, I want to do this, and then I realized six months later, oh, like I want to be the talent that they're booking.

And it was kind of the wild West too, like where marketing dollars was like, oh, maybe we don't need a million dollar commercial, We're gonna splice it.

Up this other way.

That became my first foray into even the terminology, like I didn't know that world at all.

And then in the early days of joining Peloton, my first book came out and that book got me on the radar of an agent, so I joined WME.

I was with WM for a number of years.

I'm now with more recently with U but then I was like, oh, I have an agent, this is a business like this, There are ways for me to structure these conversations.

And of course lean on folks who know this stuff, and they were used to endorsement deals with you know, the.

A Rods of the world.

And I was one of the first brand sponsored deals with Adidas for somebody who's not a professional athlete.

Wow.

And it was pretty purely based on like brand recognition of the regular person and social media KPIs and then of course you know the services that were built in there.

It was you know, event appearances and photo shoots.

And I remember I had done some modeling before my Adidas steal, but I remember being on set for my very first, huge, massive Adidas campaign and they had like a body double for me and they were like asking me if is this okay?

Would you wear this?

And I'm like, oh, like you, my opinion is relevant here.

And then I realized, right, I'm representing myself as well as the brand and in the marketplace.

And that was when I was like that synergy has to exist, and whenever there isn't that synergy, then I know that it's probably not the right place for you.

Yeah, so then the light goes up.

Then you go, oh my gosh, so I'm a brand.

Yeah, I also represent Peloton and Adidas things.

I'm pretty cool.

How do you think about scaling that opportunity?

Well, I was with Adidas for I think almost five years, and then I started thinking, like, what do I already use and consume and experience that makes sense?

You know.

I think I've worked with over forty brands in like the twelve years since I've had these deals, and now I'm definitely at the place where it's like I want to go deeper with fewer brands.

You know, back then, I think it was very common for like I'm just going to post this one social media thing and it's a lot of like a lot of little smaller stuff, and that was very much part of the game back then.

But I think it's now more curated for sure, at least from my perspective, it's much more curated.

And I don't really do social media only deals ever anymore.

It's usually a hybrid ownership stake or some kind of advisory thing that is more than just you know, a brand deal.

It really opened my eyes to different categories, different verticals, so it wasn't just things that were adjacent to movement and athletics.

It was, for example, when I had my first child, it was a toy line.

And then that was you know, a royalty deal that was a toy line, babe, that was based on ip from my children's books.

That were, you know, in walmarts all across the country.

These are things I could not even have imagined, but my life stage and the opportunities met.

Yeah.

So as you're speaking, I'm thinking about the NBA and the WNBA, and I'm involved with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Lynx, and I'm very passionate about this.

And my background is baseball, so come from a little bit different world, but some things crossover.

And what I'm thinking about is the culture you've created inside the four Walls.

I'm thinking to myself as you're speaking, how do we create that culture and energy and light the fire inside the four walls or Targets Center where both teams play.

I know you're a consultant, but it's free advice.

I can pay you later.

What kind of things will you be thinking about?

You know, when you have twenty thousand people, there's a lot of heat in the room.

Teams are doing well, how would you think about it?

High level?

I mean, I think it's storytelling and ritual.

I think that's what's ritual ritual.

I think that's what's so cool about fandom.

What do you mean by that?

So there's the story that we all understand, and is that like what the media is capturing conversations like this?

I think, especially with social media, it's like user generated content of the fandom.

That is what I think is so interesting about seeing what members post because there's like things that you can't plan, like curiosity is around yellow for example, Like yellow became a thing because I was just yellow is kind of my power color, and I would naturally wear that for tough classes like to botom classes, interval sprints, race day, and now that's a thing, like people wear yellow for these classes and it is associated and now it's going to be incorporated into some products that I have coming out athletic products because there's a thing about that.

So that's what I mean about what's the story and then what's the ritual?

And can you kind of pair those things?

You know, from a product perspective or even a storytelling perspective.

You know, before the games after the game.

Yah.

And then of course there's like the adjacent things like fashion and stuff where there's just little hooks that you kind of have to marry like the details with the larger story, and it's finding the right people who can like notice the details, like, oh, fans are kind of doing this weird thing, whether they spot it in the venue or on social media, and then you make it a thing and then that becomes a snowball kind of.

In the dots kind of thought.

The ritual point is really interesting too, because the ritual of classes, I mean that met Calotop for eight years.

It is ritual based, you know, it is like it's a routine in the same way that like showing you know, showing up to a game or watching a game being connected.

I mean, you know better than anyone the rituals of baseball, Oh.

Yeah, and as superstition, like right, fans were the same colors.

If you win, if your fair player Anthony Edward scores forty to post about it and like do something weird about it or they drank a certain thing, right, And the idea is how do we guess connect those dots?

Yeah, and spotting what's already naturally happening and then communicating what the players and what the teams are doing, because people just love understanding, like what's the morning routine, what's the ritual?

What what do you do pre show?

Like and unpacking that and like telling that story in a way that is appropriate for the brand.

So I'm really curious, alex As, how do you choose the teams?

You know you entered sports teams ownership group troops that are not baseball, So how did you do that?

Because I just recently invested in a football club, women's football club in Europe.

I can't announce the name, the team name yet, but I was a little trepidacious because it's I'm not like a soccer expert, but I'm so passionate in this opportunity to come across my desk, and it's like, how do you toe that line of like I can offer something here?

Because for me, it's not just the dollars, it's like I also want to be able to sit and see it's like this and be like this, I.

Believe in this.

So Rob, that's a great question.

So for me, Magic Johnson was kind of like my north star.

He was one of my heroes, someone that I just loved so much going back to the Laker days.

I showtime with pat Riley, and it's interesting he went from the hardwood to the boardroom.

He also went from the court to baseball ownership with the Dodgers, and I've gone from baseball to basketball.

And with Magic and I talk.

We often are advising each other, him on the Timberwolves and the Links, and me for the Dodgers.

But in a weird way, I think sixty percent you have a crossover.

You still want great character, well conditioned athletes, create a great culture, create heat inside those four walls we spoke about.

And I'm a firm believer of just go out and hire the best people in the world and get the hell out of the way.

Yep.

And I think not everyone does that.

And because I don't know, I'm not an expert in basketball, I actually think that works in my favor.

I don't know if I would be such a great baseball owner, to be honest with you, because I maybe know too much and I will probably get more frustrated.

But with basketball, I'm in all of all our players, the man and the women, and they're incredible, and they're young, and I get to talk to them about all the mistakes that I've made and hopefully they can avoid those mistakes.

And I have a great partner, Mark Glory.

So I actually love it, and I love learning.

I love planting seeds.

Every day.

I study five or six hours every day about basketball, whether I'm asking Jason questions or I'm reading or I'm listening to podcasts.

So I've enjoyed it.

And I wish you the best of luck.

And they're very lucky to have you because you bring something that I wish we had from a partner's point of view, because you see the world from a different less than all of us do.

So yellow's the color.

Well, I appreciate that.

I'm inspired.

I'm really inspired, and so help us understand.

And and I know Alex has you know, sort of done this same balancing act.

You run a team, you work for a company, you run a team, and yet you're a brand in your own right, You're you're you know, you're doing your own deals.

How do you how do you balance that?

How does it work?

How do you approach it?

It seems like this was the plan from the beginning, but how has it evolved?

So it used to be there, used to be one off conversations.

It was just like hey, I'm hey, I'm publishing a book next week.

Oh okay, great, Now there's a pro an internal process, right.

We have fifty plus instructors globally and you know, there are there are lots of conversations that are happening within the walls of Poloton and outside of it, but they have to run in parallel tracks, you know.

It like whether I'm whether the p on my chest is outside of my clothing or underneath my clothing.

It's always there, just like the players are always you know, part of the organization.

You know you're you're part of that organization, and so they there are things that are wellness adjacent that are obviously much more We talk about that with much more specificity, and there's stuff, you know, like my children's book or like, you know, things that kind of were outside of the scope that I would never do within the Peloton walls anyway, and so usually that's a green light.

But they are conversations, for sure, and it's with our leadership team, you know, and obviously our marketing team you know, has has points of view on it, but our CEO is really integral to that.

Conversation.

And now we're at the place where our agents and our managers and our external teams have a relationship with the stakeholders at Peloton, right, So it's really like one big conversation.

So following up right on that, I mean kind of wearing two hats again, right, Like you're the team player for Peloton, one of the great leaders, and you're also running your own kind of family off Yeah, so when you think about your family office, how does your team look, and how do you kind of vet deals and where do you see yourself in three to five years.

I mean, hiring the team is the most crucial thing in the world, especially because I want I'm really at the juncture where I need to understand what scales beyond my physical presence, and now it's thinking of, for example, my Well, the short answer is I work with my husband, who serves as my manager and he's also my business partner.

He has a history in business, so it's really he's a subject matter expert in a lot of this stuff.

And then we in the deal details, we obviously lean on, you know, my agent and our legal legal team.

We have a PR team, you know, so there's lots of spokes to the wheel, but the core of the strategy is my internal team, right, So like you know, we have you know, a chief strategy officer, and it's important that we all align and.

They keep me kind of.

I know, I'm and very I think one of my superpowers is being incredibly decisive.

So I know whether I want to do something, but ninety percent of the time the answer is no, and the no's usually come from leaning on you know, business advice from people who actually understand trends and.

Dollars.

Right, So that's that's what we consider three to five years.

You know, I want to continue to build in the lifestyle space, so whether that's food or beauty or fashion, I personally am still going to be continuing to compete and get strong.

You know.

I want to continue to be strong and be an athlete and model that for women and girls especially, So on a personal level, like I will continue to be moving my body, but on a professional level, I want to widen the apture of how I'm seen.

Right, So it's not just Robin who teaches peloton classes.

I also you know, on the speaker circuit.

I also you know, I published five books and now I want to get into beauty and fashion as well.

Right, And so it feels like, you know, you look at IP very closely and in the deals that you're doing.

And I mean it's interesting.

You know, we started off talking about your your history as a as a lawyer.

You're still a lawyer.

I mean it feels like that still plays a really big part in sort of how you do your deal making.

Is that fair every day?

Yeah?

Yeah, there's a strategy, there's a I think as a lawyer there are puzzle pieces that you're always trying to fit and the overarching thing is you're, at least as a litigator, I think even as a corporate attorney, you're understanding narrative.

And that was when I understood narrative a little bit more specifically, and narrative as a tool.

And obviously now as a creator on social media, that's deeply relevant.

But in creating Swagger Society with my husband, we initially co found I initially co found it Swag Society in the web three days as a membership club and then we were like, okay, well, clearly the landscape is changing there and it migrated into a media company.

So under that under the Swagger Society umbrella.

We have a holy owned podcast that will launch a newsletter and a production company that and these are conversations that were like seeds, and I was like, oh, let's pull on that thread a little bit.

Let's look at titans in the industry like g Reece and Eva and Shonda and just learn from them.

And they are my Greese Weatherspild, Eva Angoria, Shonda Rhimes, Yes, just like you.

And they are obviously I mean, iconic.

And I'm just learning and watching and understanding and then unders and then trying to see, like, Okay, if I took a literal, not even a page, I just took a paragraph out of that book, what would it look like for me?

And what would infuse joy?

And that is a threshold that I'm not willing to sacrifice on, Like if I'm not filled with joy, and I get joy from hard work, by the way, so it's not like it's all right walking through lily pads, but if there's not joy in it for me, it's just a no.

Right.

I really like how you articulated earlier ninety percent no and being super disciplined about what you say yes too, I call it.

I used to go wide and shallow and now I go narrow and deep and it's been a lot more productive for me.

When it comes to deal flow, does your team go out and try to find deal flow or if you like a company that identifies to your soul, do you kind of cold call and say, hey, can we take a meeting?

Or are you just inbounding?

And whatever comes in you get the best of what's coming in.

It's both.

I think now I'm at the point where I could be a little I want to be more strategic, Like I want to say, like I love this product or I love this vertical and let's go for it.

That involves, you know, strategic conversations like who do we know at this place, in this place, what are the top three?

What would be the dream collab or licensing deal or whatever it is, or what would the deal look like?

Right?

So, like I think before I was so stuck in how many social posts, how many appearances, how many photo shoots?

And now it's like, no, no, no, let's play the long are we talking about?

Is this a board seat?

Is it?

You know what I mean?

Like?

These are different conversations now, Yeah, and that's exciting, but it's also really daunting.

Because it's like it could be anything.

Yeah, and it's not just about a liquid dollar amount.

It's different now.

Yeah, we'd be remiss we didn't talk a little bit about Peloton speaking of narratives.

If we were sitting here in front of our respective Bloomberg terminals, we'd look and we'd be like, WHOA, that was a big high and now it is not where it was.

It has been quite a journey, to say the least, you're still there, like you have stuck through it.

Why, oh gosh.

I have always believed.

I still believe.

I think that I have the unique privilege of seeing I'm not exaggerating millions of comments over the years of people whose life are changed.

And if you don't know, you don't know.

And it's our job to widen the group of people who know how special the fitness experiences, the wellness experiences.

And when that light bulb goes off and somebody understands the quality of fitness content that they have at their fingertips, there is nothing.

It is unparalleled.

And you know, we continue building, we continue iterating, and I'm willing to ride the wave because I.

Look at my core.

You know, I mentioned that in recruiting instructors, they have to have a point of view.

My point of view is that I will light fires globally in the tens of millions, and Peloton will be a key to doing that because we are going to move the needle and make people healthier.

I want to add years to people's lives, but I also want to add life to their years, and we're doing that at Pelton every day to millions of folks.

I mean, you know, you're a leader inside the company.

How do you how do you sort of galvanize the troops?

Because I have to think, you know, in in the four walls as of your company, people are looking to you for belief, for you know, for that sort of thing, and and you laid out a very good case for for what it's doing.

How hard has it been at times though, to be like listen, guys, we're doing this like it's happening.

Like I know, we had this high high but now we're you know, like we're grinding it out, We're doing the work.

What how do you how do you keep people motivated?

I mean, we're all in a position where we have to motivate people who work with us, right.

I mean, leaders do that every day, Right.

It's interesting to be on a team where lots of I mean, there's lots of public figures that you're dealing with, right, Yeah, and so and they're they have their ear to the ground too, right, Like it's not just what the street is saying, it's like, what what are you seeing in your inbox, in your comments on social media?

What conversations are you having in the marketplace?

I think, I don't know.

I don't I don't ride really high highs or let the low lows, Like I just have to have a really even keeled mentality.

And it does come back to that, like was the class I just filmed my audition tape?

Like what if it all boiled down to that one class?

Would I be proud of it?

And I think keeping it that granular and keeping myself that like checked and then communicating that obviously to the team.

And it's interesting because I am, yes, I have like executive function, but I'm also the rules apply to me.

I'm still doing the same job they're doing.

So I think that there's a credibility there because it's like we're just truly in this together and we have successfully created camaraderie in a bubble amongst our team globally that it's like like I will rep my people and they will rep me.

And that's how I think the team really.

I think the team really respects that.

I feel like you need to bring her in for a motivational idea.

This thing you're upping me on, reving you world.

I feel that way about the deal.

I mean like we should say that we're in it.

I learned it exactly.

I'm repping you, You're repping me, bro.

So you know, Alex talked about the the next three to five years.

You know, I guess what I would love to ask is like the right now and sort of as you assess and look around, you're clearly at I mean, maybe you've had multiple catalytic points in your career.

This feels like what I mean, it feels like you are in in a mode where you are leveling up.

You're talking about ownership, you're talking about you know, all these you know kind of I think Alex would agree, sort of next level athlete things.

Does it feel like that to you?

Does it feel like this is this is another one of those like leaps forward.

It definitely does strategically and financially, I understand that, like I'm having conversations that I would have only dreamed about.

But also I have such a day one mentality that it's hard for me to sometimes like.

Make those things match right, Like you know, it's like have you made it?

What's your most No, of course I haven't made it, like none of us have if you really think about it, Like we're out here like grinding and that I love that.

So I'm having different conversations now, and the stakes have changed, especially.

When my own money is involved.

But it also I'm a student, and so it's just finding the places where I am confident and leaning into that and then admitting when I don't know something and that being okay too.

And sometimes I'm in these conversations where I am known, but around the table, I'm.

Like, what are they talking about?

Like I don't need this deal like this these financial terms are like beyond me, and I'm okay asking questions.

I think the three as I listened to you, I'm so inspired, Robin, because I think the three of us, well, we've done a few things in our lives.

I think all of us feel like we're in the super early endings of our career.

Yeah.

I mean many days I feel like I'm in the bottom of the first thing in business, especially because you know, I had I was busy playing baseball for a long time, and now I'm in my pivot right, which is business, and you're the same thing.

And you know, Jason's made some wild pivots too.

I think it's exciting.

I think having that thirst and curiosity is the one common theme.

I mean, we're all very curious.

And some of the great mentors that I've had, they all have that same characteristics.

They want to ask questions and they listen more than they talk.

You know, well, and I am sitting here, you know, thinking about where you are in this stage, and I'll ask a question.

You know, this is a guy, you know, my partner here, who you know, was a standout athlete from an early age and was getting a lot of attention.

You know, goes to the mid to the major leagues right out of high school.

You had a different journey and so basically people knew who he was.

He's on the cover of Sports Illustrated with Derek you know, like we all know that story.

For you, it was a very different journey.

What was it like and what is it like where you can't walk down the street without people, I mean people must shout at you across the street.

Like, what is that like for someone who you know when to NYU, you know, corporate litigator with Paul Hastings, Like you're doing your thing.

It's a different world you live in.

Now, what does that feel like?

I mean, it's an honor.

It is an honor, Like that's beyond and usually the interactions, Yeah, it'll be like, oh, Robin whatever, you know.

At the US Open it was like literally it was such a it's so charming and exciting still when somebody's.

Like, oh, hey, I know you just took your whatever class.

Yeah, but what's overwhelming sometimes are the moments when I have a few more minutes or I'm stopped, and it's like this intense outpouring of like you changed my life.

The breast cancer, the divorce is the and it's not always like a SOB story, but they're intense and I'm in somebody's living room and like over hundreds of thousands of classes like early mornings, late nights, like there's a parasocial relationship that is.

Super legit, that's very intimate.

Very and I am being myself, right, So I have a class plan, I have notes, but I'm me, and every instructor is that that's who That's who they are, truly, and that's I think the special sauce.

And that's why it's replicable over thousands of classes, because it's not an act and it's not a script and we're not wearing any ears of somebody saying, hey, next up, say da da da da.

We're not scripted, I understand, just different production environments.

And I have so such deep respect for the authenticity of peloton.

I mean, I do think that it's easy to take for granted how how intimate an interaction it really is and how you And we talked with Carolyn Tish Bladgwin, who she was here about.

You know, it's a it's almost like a Worshach test of like a right, who's your instruction?

You know, like when you're in you know, like and it says something about sort of your personality or even like the mood that you're in on adecubately and.

We all do that.

It's like what mood am I in today's.

I mean, I will tell you I only take your classes when I'm like ready to get my ass kicked.

So when I needed this would be.

A good one.

There's a lot of that.

All right, we're gonna do a rapid fire.

So it's ten questions, just the first thing that pops to your mind.

Don't need to think about it too hard.

All right, I'll start, and then now it's.

So pick up ready.

What's one word to describe your deal making style?

Decisive?

What's more important to you?

Gut or data?

Gut?

Who's your dream deal making partner?

Oh gosh, there's so many.

I would love to work with Dwayne Johnson.

I think what he's done at seven Bucks is genius.

And of course, what's the best piece of advice you ever received on deal making or business?

The best advice, it's either yes or no, thank you.

What's the worst advice you've been given?

Stay in your lane?

What's a deal you wish you had done?

Oh?

I don't regret it.

But after I left Adidas, I was negotiating with another athletic brand.

And the reason I left Adidas is because the like.

I really wanted to do a capsule collection or something that had you know, it was a creative, something that was creatively inspired by myself and the brand, and we were really really close to signing a deal that would have involved that, but I still felt like the financials weren't there.

It was kind of like, I will throw you a bone, you'll have a capsule collection, but it felt I felt undervalued.

And it went a few years without an athletic partner, and then you know, now having conversations with Noble, it feels like, oh right, that door closed because it created this one.

What's harder running an ultra marathon or writing a book?

I think writing a book because there's so many other players in that process.

This one is going to be a tough one.

What is your hype song before you go into a big meeting or negotiation?

I mean, listen, MP Annie Up was on my labor playlist for the hospital, so clearly I have play for everything if I'm really trying to get into a groove.

Beyonce's homecoming live performance like Front to Back really inspires me.

It's obviously the music is dope, but the symbolism of it, you know, a PERBT, a black woman headlining Coachella just really inspires me.

And then keeping it in the family.

Jay Z's my first song.

It goes to that day one mentality.

Yeah, and it both pumps me up but also keeps me round it because it's like it's day one.

We're still hustling, hustling.

This maybe the first time you said hustle.

I was expecting, like hustle throughout this whole thing.

You can only watch one sport for the rest of your life.

Which one is it?

Watch one?

I think it might be track and field.

Actually, I like love track and field.

If one team can win a championship, which one would that be?

I think my husband might be very upset if I don't say the Jets, because good God they need it.

Well, oh, that's the saddest answer we've had to that question.

I was.

I was not expecting that one at all.

Robin, you continue to surprise on so many levels.

What a pleasure.

Thank you so much for being here.

To be here, Thank you for having me.

The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.

The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.

This show was produced by Anamazarakis, Stacey Wong, Lizzie Phillip, and Eden Martinez.

Original music and engineering by Blake Maples.

Matt Medulla was our sound operator.

Our booker is Paige Keffer.

David E.

Ravella is our managing editor.

Our executive producers are Jason Kelly, Amy Keene, Jordan Opplinger, Trey Shahrn, Regina Delia, Kelly Laferrier, and Ashley Hoenig.

Sage Bauman is our head of podcasts special thanks to Rachel Carnivale, Elena Los Angeles and Nick Silva.

Joshua Devaux is our director of photography.

Rubob Shakir is our creative director.

Art direction is from Jacqueline Kessler.

Camera operation by Suma Hussein, Ryan Cavtero and Holly Fisher.

Our gaffer is Julia Geweski, and our grip is Emily Wolowski.

Taja Smith is our video editor.

You can listen to The Deal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also tune into The video Companion on Bloomberg Originals and on Bloomberg TV.

Thanks for listening.