How Robin Arzón made a mid-career pivot from law to fitness
In just ten minutes a day, Robin Arzón completely changed her life. Here’s how.
Robin Arzón is the VP of fitness programming for Peleton. But in 2012, she walked away from (or marathoned away from, in her case) a law career to pursue her dreams of working in the fitness industry.
In a YouTube video on her channel, Arzón answered questions about how she made the pivot. Here are some paraphrased notes from what she had to say.
How to know if you’re in the wrong career
All jobs have bad days and some tedium. How do you know if you’re just in rut, or on the wrong path?
Zoom out and look at how you feel at the end of most days, most weeks.
Ask yourself: is the role negative and not nourishing. Is it leeching energy from your rather than giving it?
Arzón took an audit that allowed her to assess where she was, \where she wanted to be, and the resources and skills needed to make the change
The three pillars:
A spiritual audit — where was her energy and how was she feeling
Financial audit - how would her finances be affected by leaving?
Practical process audit - how was she spending her days, and could she optimize her time to do the exploration
You have to carve out perspective and distance to ask, “Is this a bad day or month, or did I make the wrong choice?”
From there, you dig deeper and ask:
Is this the wrong employer?
Is this the wrong industry?
Is this the wrong role?
Lots of ways to slice it.
A truly impassioned career has meaningful work most of the time. And when you’re in alignment, you feel good about what you’re doing.
How did she get over the fear of failure and change and the general unknown?
There is no right time to completely rearrange your life. There is never a good time to get uncomfortable.
There is never a good time to leave a relationship—and that’s what it is—a working relationship with an employer.
Arzón did not have one single “ah-ha” moment. It was a slow, two-year process and little by little it amounted to a lot.
Arzón was already running marathons and ultras when she decided to plot her departure from law.
The physicality of her races gave her confidence. She drew her power from overcoming fear and finishing those races — she rose above and leveled-up.
Give yourself runway, but not too much. Too much creates inertia where you won’t make change.
Movement is medicine. It’s fertilizer for the brain.
Get a fitness regimen! Use fear as fuel. Use moments of confidence to bolster yourself.
Small actions yield big results.
Devote ten minutes a day to exploration. In her ten minutes each day, Arzón took continuous small actions:
Reaching out to another person in the fitness space
Asking for another informational interview
Researching brands and companies she wanted to work with
She added things to her vision board
It all adds up to a lot.
How did she cope with haters, doubters, and friends and family who doubt you?
Arzón was fortunate—her family trusted her judgment.
Well-intentioned—but misaligned—advice comes at the precipice of big events. So you have to curate your scope of influence:
friends
family
podcasts
social media
movies and TV shows
All those things create a “diet” of input.
Listen to your “Trusted critics”
Was she worried about having a stable income?
Arzón lived below her means during her two-year run-up to leaving. She gave herself a six month deadline. If at your deadline, you don’t have any traction or leads, then it’s time to consider going back to previous work.
Arzón prioritized her future freedom, which allowed her to create a financial cushion, spend lean, and create a deadline.
Initially, she made less than as a lawyer, but little by little restored her income.
How can someone show they are qualified in a new field with lack of experience?
Arzón lead with passion and storytelling, and showed a willingness to start from zero and learn from the bottom.
Humility is important: be willing to be a lifetime learner, and be willing to be seen as a person who doesn’t know as much.
How did she make connections and network in an entirely new field?
By showing up where things are happening.
Digitally, access to people is much easier than ever before.
Networking is like gardening. Plant a lot of seeds, with intention, and share your new passion/hustle. As you build your own skill base, you build the number of folks who know about that skill base.
Don’t reach out to “pick someone’s brain.” Figure out how to be of service. Offer skills you already have.
Plant a lot of seeds and see what grows.
Did she ever experience imposter syndrome and how did she deal with it?
At a certain level of success, you have to be willing to let yourself win. Don’t start thinking “I don’t deserve this.” Remember the hours you put in to get there.
If you are at the table, you deserve to be there. So own it.
Finally: “lead with power.”
Arzón was willing to sacrifice to make her career pivot. That allowed to her focus, slowly make the changes, connections, and learning she needed to reach her goal, and eventually be successful.