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How Robin Arzón’s Newsletter Grew to 40k Subscribers in 2 Months
How The Pivot by Robin Arzón Achieved Rapid Growth on beehiiv
Elden Mirzoian
February 9th, 2024
If you don’t know Robin Arzón, boy do we have an intro.
She made Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list, as one of the most influential people.
She was named one of TIME Magazine's Latino Leaders.
And, she was the first-ever recipient of Glamour Magazine’s “Daring to Disrupt” Award.
Not only is she one of the most famous fitness professionals in the world.
But, Robin is also:
Peloton’s Vice President of Fitness Programming and Head Instructor
New York Times bestselling author of Shut Up and Run (2016) and Strong Mama (2022)
27x marathon runner
GMA Contributor
MasterClass Instructor
Former successful lawyer
And, her most recent accomplishment?
She’s created an insanely successful newsletter using beehiiv
The Pivot by Robin took off immediately.
Within just two months of launching The Pivot, Robin Arzón has grown it to over 40,000 subscribers. And, she sends just one issue per week.
We recently sat down with Robin to discuss how she went from a simple idea to rapid success with her beehiiv publication, despite being brand new to the newsletter world.
In the interview, Robin was happy to share how she found newsletter success quickly by:
Encouraging conversations with readers
Creating an action-oriented publication right away
Driving growth by promoting on multiple social platforms
Using her private community as leverage to fuel subscriber growth
The Pivot’s success demonstrates the importance and impact of implementing the right strategies from the start.
Want to watch the complete interview with Robin Arzón? Check out the video below.
Why “The Pivot”?
Robin’s newsletter is called The Pivot.
Why?
She’s experienced several major pivots throughout her life and career.
She shared how her life took a turn when she was held hostage alongside 40 other people at a bar in Manhattan.
Robin opened up, “I'm a trauma survivor. I was held at gunpoint when I was in my senior year at NYU and it was that experience and every day thereafter that I had a choice of who I was becoming.”
“The biggest inflection point in my life was deciding I was going to go from victim to victor.”
After this event, she turned to movement to heal from the trauma.
Another pivot in Robin’s life - from corporate litigator to fitness instructor
You see, Robin wasn’t always into fitness.
Long before she climbed her way to the top of the fitness world, she had a successful career as a litigator
But, what started as a way to cope from trauma quickly transformed into her passion.
Before she knew it, she had left the world of law for the world of fitness.
“One of my main pivots was not only in the career change, but I think in a mental shift. It’s knowing that we become the stories that we tell ourselves and I was in charge of the conversation in between my ears.”
It all started with Robin’s first 10-kilometer race which eventually turned into 27 marathons, several ultramarathons, and a NYT best-seller Shut Up and Run.
Now, she is Peloton’s Head Instructor and VP of Fitness Programming — and a global fitness leader.
(Robin released her first best-selling book: Shut Up and Run in 2016)
In November 2023, Robin pivoted once again. This time, she dove head first into the newsletter space, by launching a beehiiv newsletter.
The Pivot by Robin is her weekly newsletter that explores different areas of what she calls her “superhero toolkit” which includes everything from wellness tips to habit-building strategies, and even recipes from home. It features all the tools she’s leveraged on her journey up and the new ones she’s finding success with right now.
In Robin’s own words, “It's a weekly discussion point in which we can cover everything from fashion to growth mindset. I love the idea that we can be both. A natural pivot, of course, is a career change. But I think that we have thousands of pivots throughout our day, throughout our week, and throughout different seasons of our lives.”
“And the through line in those pivots is how we look at the world and insert ourselves into that story as the author, architect, and change maker.”
The question is, why a newsletter? And, why now?
Even with millions of fans worldwide — and millions of followers across different social platforms — Robin wanted a channel where she could have a direct communication with her audience rather than be at the mercy of changing algorithms).
She explained, “The Pivot is a conversation with my audience and where I can share everything in one place.”
Robin proceeded to sum up the benefits and connection between social media and a newsletter perfectly.
She shared, “I think that the beauty of social media is that It casts a wide net, but I think the benefit of a newsletter is not only the written word, but it's the engagement with corralling all of those different topics into one place.”
“Social media casts a wide net, but newsletters go deeper in the conversation.”
She continued, “The newsletter is where my followers, future followers, and beyond can meet in one place, and have that conversation about movement, fashion, growth, mindset, and those thousands of inflection points.”
Engagement Multiplied: Reaching Fans on a New Level
For Robin, a newsletter has given her a chance to engage on a deeper level with her audience.
She shared, “I believe that I'm a fire starter. I want folks to wake up to the power and agency they have in their own lives through whatever entry point.”
Robin continued, “I like engaging with hustlers and I think that hustle kind of gets a bad rap in this day and age. The idea behind my newsletter, The Pivot is going from point A to point B and loving yourself along the way. And the thousands of inflection points that we have, the thousands of ways that were intended to pivot in this life is really what it’s about.”
Why listen to me?
I've been busy growing blogs and social media accounts for the last 10 years. I've grown a network of accounts from 0 to over 20M followers. Now I use everything I've learned to help creators build world-class newsletters, using the most powerful newsletter platform ever, beehiiv.
One reason Robin has found quick success with her newsletter is simple: she’s built up a whole library of tools, strategies, resources, and tactics over the years for her audience.
In other words, she’s already got an incredible content vault — an incredible asset that she’s invested in for years (and knows her audience finds valuable).
She recalled, “I started crafting what I call a superhero toolkit. I believe superheroes are real. That's something that my mom instilled in me back in the eighties when I was watching shows like He-Man and She-Ra (shout out to my eighties babies).”
Robin’s major shift in her life started with writing and journaling. She explained how her newsletter is kind of like a weekly journal she gets to write to her audience.
She shared, “I started to craft my new narrative through the written word. Then through movement, vision boards, and journals. Now The Pivot is kind of my weekly journal entry to the world and my readers’ journal entries back to me just happen to be in an email inbox.”
Robin explained how the moment she began running to deal with trauma, she started to transform from “powerless to powerful.”
She shared, “Now, I think my life mission is not only to light fires but also to provide people with those tools. And The Pivot allows me to share weekly the tools in my toolkit. It highlights everything from what I'm cooking in the kitchen to answering questions that folks have, because of course people can reply to the newsletter and ask questions to me.”
Robin doesn’t just reply to people’s questions. She encourages them to reach out and ask them. Then, she includes a featured question and answer in her newsletter every week.
She explained, “Every single week I answer someone's question [and share the answer in the newsletter].”
Right below the Q&A for the week, she has a call to action, “Got a question for me? Share it here!” which encourages her readers to participate, get engaged, and ask her questions.
Enjoying this Creator Spotlight? Don’t forget to check out our Spotlight on Saeed Ezzatti, who grew his daily AI newsletter to $150,000 in annual revenue in only 5 months.
Robin has seen some impressive results already, only two months into the newsletter game.
She’s grown super fast – accumulating over 40,000 subscribers.
Back in November, she took the first week to do beehiiv onboarding and complete her newsletter design.
In week two, she crafted her vision, the landing page, home page, and created the welcome email.
In the third week, she sent her first newsletter (just in time for her upcoming Thanksgiving Cycle where she broke the Guinness World Record). And, this was right before her Good Morning America appearance.
During that launch week, she grew from zero to 10,0000 subscribers.
And, it worked well for her.
When she posted on Instagram that she was starting a beehiiv newsletter, it was an immediate hit.
In the fourth week, her newsletter grew to 30,000 subscribers.
By week six, she hit just under 40,000. We have no doubt she’ll soon hit 50,000 subscribers at the rate she’s growing.
But, one thing that makes Robin’s growth even more incredible is how engaged those subscribers are.
Take a look at that last image of her beehiiv analytics. Look to the right of her subscriber count.
Robin’s getting over 70% open rates and nearly 10% click-through rates on her newsletter, which is incredible.
While it’s one thing to grow fast, it’s a whole new level of difficulty to maintain engagement with a list of that size.
It just goes to show how much her subscribers enjoy reading her publication…
Swagger Society: “Newsletter Within a Social Media Platform”
In addition to launching her newsletter, Robin also recently created her own lifestyle membership club called Swagger Society. In it, Robin’s audience can get access to her via her private app by joining her inner circle, grow alongside like-minded people looking to level up, get VIP tickets to meetups and events, and more.
And, it’s all done through a simple app.
In her own words, Robin explained, “Swagger Society is a membership club where we have a private app that is only accessible to Swagger Society members. I have gated content that is really built based on that growth mindset and that mental battle that we have with ourselves. And, I’ve kind of infused that with more of my vulnerable posts.”
She explained, “So you're there, alongside me, on the journey as we're architecting our next level.
Robin explained how the app is an extension of her newsletter that allows her to offer more of her superhero toolkit to her community.
She shared, “Swagger Society is really someone's accountability partner. And it's a group of folks who believe that more is possible. So we're kind of doing the work alongside each other and where I post challenges.”
Robin summed it up like this, “Swagger Society is if you took the newsletter (and that long-form content) and put it within a social media platform.”
She explained how a part of it is also going to include apparel, where she grants Swagger Society first access to her product drops.
“I think that rocking something that says “Swagger Society” is just going to fill you with confidence. And I think that when you feel good, you look good. When you look good, you are going to slay whatever it is that you have on your to-do list. Or, at least attempt it. And that's half the battle.”
One smart way she’s driving newsletter growth is by leveraging her community.
Robin does this by posting challenges to her audience.
One recent example is the #3for31 challenge.
But, it’s not just a challenge. It’s also a giveaway. Anyone who completes the challenge will be entered to win free access to Swagger Society.
She first promotes the challenge to her social media followers to get them interested.
Then, upon joining her newsletter, Robin immediately asked new subscribers to join in on the #3for31 challenge.
It’s a challenge for her readers to walk, jog, or run for 3 miles every day for the month of December.
The challenge doesn’t just fuel growth.
It immediately sets the tone for The Pivot and leaves a great first impression on the experience her audience is going to have by continuing to open her emails.
Her newsletter isn’t just a nice read.
It’s action-oriented. And it sets her publication apart from the others.
While many newsletters are simply informational-based, hers gets the reader involved.
Her newsletter allows her to create an immersive experience for her audience…
To finish the challenge, she gets her audience to go from her newsletter and back over to social media to engage and share their results.
She’s doing a brilliant job of building an omnichannel brand, with her newsletter as the core.
Future Pivot: The Fashion Game
We asked Robin what arenas she’s got her eyes on for another future pivot.
She shared, “There's a lot. I'm actually taking this season — the current time, and the new year — to creatively plot and plan. But I think it's definitely the fashion game. There's stuff with the visual ways in which we can look good for victory that I want to disrupt and rock.”
She explained how she just launched a varsity jacket in partnership with GSTQ.
Robin shared, “It stands for God Save the Queen. So there's a Swagger Society — GSTQ varsity jacket, the super limited edition jacket that we just released. And I'm excited to build on that and then create a lot more cool apparel.”
Two Success Tips for Creators
If you’re a creator looking to grow your brand to the next level in 2024 (and start off the year right), then Robin has two pieces of advice for you…
One: You need to start saying ‘No.’
She shared, “Say ‘no’ more. Create a ‘stop-doing’ list. Stop saying yes to stuff that you hate. That is what will revolutionize your life.”
Robin continued, “I think the more we practice the ‘no,’ the ‘hell yeses’ become more evident. The key to the exercise is having the conversation with ourselves and trusting that we know what a ‘hell yes’ actually feels like.”
She explained how part of ‘saying no’ more is about knowing what you want and saying yes to those things. But, we often need to start saying no to things to help us understand what a ‘yes’ looks like.
Two: You need to be willing to be bad.
Too many creators get caught up in perfectionism which either delays their ability to ship their newsletter to their audience (or stops them entirely).
Robin’s advice?
You need “an appetite for greatness, but a willingness to be bad at something.”
She shared, “I think that you have to maintain that scrappiness. You're going to do better in the long run if you're willing to be bad. I love being good at something, but I'm willing to be bad like I'm willing to humble myself with a barbell, with a sprint — like I'm willing to say ‘This is going to feel awful and I'm going to be bad.’”
Bring Your Audience Closer in 2024
Robin is a great example of a top creator who’s found quick success with her newsletter.
She’s successfully maintained high engagement rates (70% open rates and 10% click-through-rates) which is incredibly difficult with a list of that size.
If you want to make your newsletter a success in 2024, then follow these key takeaways:
Key Takeaways
Leverage your social following to drive early newsletter growth
Implement a lead magnet (like a challenge) to fuel sign-ups
Encourage your readers to reply to your newsletter and ask questions
Don’t just let your subscribers read your newsletter. Create an immersive experience. Get them to take action.
Offer your subscribers a chance to get even closer to you (and generate newsletter revenue) with a paid newsletter or paid community
Finally, we asked Robin to share the best ways to find her and follow along with her journey.
She shared, “The Pivot — you can access it by signing up on my website, robinarzon.com. And that's how you can also access me. I’m RobinNYC on all social media platforms. Or you can go to swaggersociety.io and find access to The Pivot there.”
If you want to dive into Robin Arzón’s newsletter and read some recent newsletters, check out 👑 How to make your vision board or 👑 Hustle? We do that all year long.
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