elitefts™ Sunday Edition
Times have changed since I started on message boards where anonymity was prevalent and it was a constant pissing match between who was smarter, who should be respected and who was bigger, more ripped, or the better trainer.
These days with social media, people are much, much tamer because they know that when they say something, their friends and family just might see it and that could be, well, embarrassing. It might still get nasty sometimes when egos clash, but anyone who was around when message boards were in their infancy knows that it's quite mellow now compared to back then.
Because of social media, the industry is jam-packed with people who think that they're qualified to be paid to train and advise people on training, nutrition, or supplementation. So much so that there are quite a few of you reading this right now who might smirk and agree with me. Yet some of you are exactly the type of person I'm talking about. Not all of you but certainly more than would admit it. In our own minds, we're all super geniuses and hey, why not? I mean some of us have done one or two shows and even placed. Of course, there are those who haven’t even done that.
With the saturation of the self-appointed gurus, it's hard to get noticed these days if you're new to the industry. In a sea of shit, most times one turd can be missed quite easily, even if it's a beautiful turd that smells of roses and one of the better turds in the bowl. To get noticed, you have to have something that no one else has or offer something that no one else offers. You can be a great trainer, but if no one knows about you, it won’t matter how good you are.
I'll offer my expertise and give five tips that are used almost every day by many to get noticed in this industry. They work very well.
Social media
Use social media to your advantage. Some people like to post information about nutrition and allow others to evaluate whether or not they think it's solid information. Videos are a great idea for training information to emphasize proper form, rep speed, exercise selection, and other factors. However, I'm not talking about posting this kind of information. I'm talking about making derogatory posts on Facebook and Twitter about the stupidity of other trainers.
When you do this though, don’t have the balls to openly call someone out. Be vague and unclear, instead, so that you appear like you're respectful (maybe even say something like “out of respect for this person, I won’t mention his name”). Laugh out loud (lol) about the advice he gives on training and nutrition as if this information isn’t even subpar but ridiculous and absurd. This should really rally the troops. After your friends and workout buddies start retweeting and liking your posts, you'll get more attention. Attention is good.
Training
Whatever the latest trend is with training, you should do completely the opposite. Your training plan should be so radical that it flies in the face of what is being done so that people look at it and think, “Yeah, that’s crazy. I haven’t done that before so that just might work! This guy is a pioneer!”
Keep in mind that no one will notice your training concepts or ideology if they're only slightly different from everyone else’s. People want different because what they're doing just isn’t working as well as it could. Your radical approach is exactly what they've been waiting for because they want to be bigger and more ripped than they are. You're holding the answer.
Nutrition
The nutrition component is a little more complicated, but it is a solid system that can sometimes work better than you think. First, there is the option of working with a top trainer. Then imitate exactly what he does and pretend that his ideas are yours. This is also called stealing but, of course, not by the guy doing it. When confronted in the future by the trainer you learned so much from, just lie and deny. He and you will both know that you're a liar, but…everyone else won’t know for sure who to believe.
If you aren’t into stealing someone’s experience and ideas, the other option is to completely fabricate the most off the wall idea for dieting that you can think of. Remember, radical ideas are remembered, and boring shit is easily forgotten. You would be wise to go with what people like so that they hear your dieting idea and think of how awesome it sounds because it fits what they want to do. For example, some people are lazy and find it too hard to eat every two or three hours. They prefer to just eat once or twice a day.
You could theoretically come up with something where they only had to eat once or twice a day in between, say, something like four to six hours out of the day and that's it. This is just one example off the top of my head. There are many, many other things you could make up. Just make sure that when you do come up with your idea, you label it with an acronym. Acronyms are huge. They're easy to remember, and abbreviations are huge with lazy people.
Supplements
It's always a good idea to come up with a supplement that has your name on it. Now, this one is a little different because this one doesn’t usually happen right at the start of making a name for yourself. You have to start to be a regular on social media and maybe even get a nutritional sponsor before this one can happen. Still, the idea here is to come up with something that was used twenty years ago and has been forgotten, but you are so well read, have been doing research for years, and want to bring this supplement back. If the timing is right before or after your workout, this supplement will dramatically increase muscle mass and get you ripped at the same time.
If you don’t want to go back in time to formulate a supplement, simply find something obscure that is current but that no one is using in their supplementation right now, some kind of super awesome amino thingy with a catchy name. It doesn’t have to work. You just have to convince people that it will work. Abbreviations are always good in this case, too, because they're less specific. If you can feel it—like it flushes your skin—that's even more convincing. Whether or not it builds muscle and whether or not you get ripped doesn’t matter. People who use it will feel it and swear that it's working. You keep your super genius status.
Honesty and sincerity
This will shock a lot of people—you could actually break your ass putting out honest, experienced, tried and true knowledge. People crave honest information. Whether they're opinions that aren’t popular or even things that some people will say are absurd, you could be sincere and positive by putting your opinions out there for critique and judgment. People tend to respect opinions when they can be backed up logically and not entirely supported by some study in a foreign country. People like different, but it has to be logical. It has to make sense, and you need to be able to explain to people why it works the way that it does.
Do that for an entire year. After that, do it for ten years. After ten years, continue doing it and you'll build a reputation that is respected. It's one thing to be respected by clients and people who you've worked with, but when you're respected by the people who do what you do, you’re on to something.
Social media hasn’t turned people into turds, liars, and thieves. Social media just provides an opportunity and puts them under the microscope for all to see. Shitty people will be shitty people with or without the Internet, but with the Internet comes opportunity for people to do things the wrong way and sometimes even make money at it. You essentially have two ways of approaching how you'll get noticed in this industry—either be honest and have your own ideas or imitate others and pretend the ideas are your own. The thing is most people won’t know the difference. You need to decide if your moral integrity is worth anything to you. The Internet is full of pieces of shit like turds floating in a giant toilet. Don’t be just another turd in the Internet shit bowl.