Robin Arzón launches the Web3 Community

As the crypto winter shows mild signs of thawing, those building communities on blockchain are betting that despite the tumultuous market, the technology is here to stay. Hints of mass adoption are already emerging, with California’s DMV using blockchain for vehicle registration to drivers stamping their termination letters as NFTs.

The space also sees more influencers finding new ways to engage their communities via blockchain. For example, wellness icon Robin Arzón is preparing to launch a community called Swagger Society, which seeks to be “the first lifestyle membership club in the Web3.” With it, she aims to bridge the inclusion gap she noticed when her husband, another Web3 pioneer, posted a selfie from a crypto conference showing him smiling with several other white men. Arzón, whose initial reaction was, “oh no, we’re not doing this again,” aims to elevate the voices of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC creators and digital art collectors with his new platform.

Best known for her work in the fitness industry with best-selling books such as Shut Up and Run and Strong Mama, respectively, Arzón rose to cultural prominence through her role as Peloton’s VP of Fitness Programming and Lead Instructor. Arzón’s foray into crypto was through her desire to create a virtual accountability group, but she’s quick to clarify that the goals her community members set in Web3 don’t always have to be exercise-related. I spoke with Arzón to hear more about her new initiative just before Swagger Society’s launch.

Amy Shoenthal: Can you tell me why you decided to create the Swagger Society in addition to everything else you have going on in your empire?

Robin Arzon: Swagger Society is really the natural evolution of the value system and community that I’ve been building for over 10 years on Web2 and through traditional social media platforms. It can be intimidating at first. I remember watching a YouTube video trying to set up my crypto wallet and thinking I’d rather take the bar exam again. (Arzón was a corporate lawyer before his career as a fitness instructor.)

I found that experience so overwhelming, so then my biggest fear was that a significant part of my community might feel like they shouldn’t even try, like they don’t even have a seat at the table.

My husband (investor Drew Butler) has actually worked in this area for quite some time, and he helped me see what the contours of the ever-evolving landscape looked like. This is one of the first times his business world and my business world have intersected. He helps me run the Swagger Society as CEO. He understands me, he understands my brand, but he has experience in impact investing, Web3 business consulting, and brokering connections in space.

When I set it up, I thought, what community would I want to be a part of and what are the tools we can build now with decentralized organization, greater ownership and greater ability to support artists in the creative economy?

Swagger Society is a lifestyle membership club, and really the focus is on the lifestyle. It is an accountability group. It’s very much meant for people who want to get shit done in their life.

Shoenthal: What does it really mean to be the first Web3 lifestyle membership club? What concrete benefits will you offer?

Arzon: I’ve always built communities centered around self-realization and helping people get to the next level. But all my followers were in separate places and it felt very fragmented. My highly engaged followers can be buried in the comments section, and I struggled to have two-way conversations. Now I use the tool of Web3 to give my followers more unique access to me.

The central part of it is the lifestyle part. NFT holders will unlock membership privileges, a leaderboard, events, rewards and more. I want Swagger Society to be someone’s accountability partner. The reward system is built around adding jewels to your crown.

The value system is the same, but this goes beyond fitness. Peloton is the training part of my brand. Here we are pulling in the same threads. We ask, how well can it end? How strong can we be? I like the idea that swagger is intoxicating.

Molly Dickson is the artist we recently announced Swagger Society will be working with, given her incredible talents as both an artist and advocate. She is an amazing photographer, but has a very cool augmented reality, hybrid approach to art. I want our art to be a walking exclamation point. It’s a fun PFP (profile picture) but also something you can print out and put up in your house. I like that flow.

Swagger Society really relies on micro-communities. Find the one that works for you. You’re not too old, it’s not too late, it’s not too cold outside. Stop making excuses. My mom always said, “be weird, no one remembers normalcy.” So I’ve made it my life’s mission to find my weirdos.

Shoenthal: I’m mostly with you, but sometimes it’s really too cold outside. There’s a lot of talk about making Web3 more inclusive, and as you know, it’s still largely a boys’ club. Lately some of these boys have been behaving very badly. Any thoughts on how that might change as the space is still so nascent?

Arzón: My husband went to a crypto conference in Miami last year. He sent me a selfie from one of the events and it was just a sea of ​​white men. I thought, oh no, we’re not doing this again. We’ve done this for thousands of years, we’re not doing it again.

I’m used to squeezing into rooms that weren’t built for me. So I decided to educate myself publicly. I realized I had to be willing to join podcasts and ask all the questions on Twitter spaces and Discord, even though I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I was determined to show my followers that it’s okay to ask questions and it’s okay to speak your truth even when your voice shakes.

Swagger suggests you march to the beat of your own drum. No matter how it represents in your life visually and physically, you are welcome to the party. When you build teams, and when you build businesses, you have the responsibility to look around the room and say, what are we talking about, who is not represented and why are they not here?

I want people to identify their own finish line. It could be a marathon. It could be writing that book, asking for a salary, the student getting their first job, CEOs answering difficult questions in everyday life. Find your people. I’m already seeing links being created in our Discord. We are here to fight for each other.

Shoenthal: You mentioned in a recent BFF space that “It’s important not to give up. Resilience is such a beautiful quality of the human spirit.” You referred to the act of setting up your crypto wallet for the first time, but can you expand that based on what happens with current market conditions, but also how you draw on that robustness through the other areas of your life.

Arzón: We just have to believe we’ve been through 100% of the bullshit. You have to be a critical consumer, especially on anything you spend money on. But self-pity is poison, so be careful of that path. We can use the things that make us afraid and nervous for fuel. Use that fuel to ask questions, to be curious. All the little bend points rise up to resilience.

Shoenthal: The last time we spoke, you had just returned from being the first Peloton instructor to take maternity leave. Now you are not only pregnant with your second child, you are publishing a second children’s book. Tell us about Strong Baby.

Arzon: My second children’s book is available for pre-order now, and it’s a celebration of the innate athletes starting to form in our young ones. Falling down is life, but getting back up helps with the resilience we just discussed. You can start to incorporate this ethos into everyday conversations with little ones.

Shoenthal: Can you talk about how people can embody the concept of multi-hyphenation?

Arzon: I just show up as myself, as Robin, as a Latina, as a mom, as a 40-year-old pregnant person. I bust boxes. What if you get too big for the box they put you in? What happens when you realize you’ve outgrown the box that makes others comfortable? You need to get a hammer and smash it. I live for those moments.

Someone asked me about geriatric pregnancies the other day. I was like, no. I am an athlete who happens to be pregnant. But the assumptions that people make, even in the medical community, are astounding. Many of the studies on pregnancy are from the 1980s, and that’s what medical professionals use to make recommendations.

People live in a fear-based paradigm because it’s safer, and maybe we’re biologically wired that way. But when you have an appetite for hustle, you generally have an appetite for more risk.

Recently, a PA on set asked a woman who had just returned from parental leave if she took up any hobbies. I was like ok let’s stop there she kept a little human alive and that deserves a medal. We always have opportunities to politely call someone in on little moments like that. It can be intimidating when the person across the table is the expert, is the boss, or when there is a power dynamic. Voice your truth even when that voice shakes. Willpower is a muscle worth flexing.

I have a small group of trusted critics and I build my life on a value system that makes me proud. My dreams wake me up before an alarm clock every morning, and if that resonates with you, you’re welcome to join me.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.