You guys get that the free program is a screening process for potential clients, right?

It's interesting because I've had advice from some people telling me I shouldn't give so much away for free, and to be honest that's how I felt for a long time as well - if people want something they have to pay for it, it's valuable information and I have bills of my own that I need to pay. On the other hand I've had people tell me they've recommended my free program to people, who've told them "if it was any good it wouldn't be free" and gone off and wasted their money on some other crap like fkn Ashy Bines or something.

First up though let's talk about training in real life. Training with me is not cheap. I mean, for what you get I actually think it is incredibly good value... but it's a substantial investment. That's a screening process too because I'm charging for sessions with me, instructions via email for training on days without me, nutritional guidelines and me checking that you've been logging your meals... all that stuff. And you pay for the lot, by the month... so... this is exclusively for people who are serious about getting results, right? People who don't want to train often enough to get results, don't want to fix their nutrition, don't want to commit to the program... they're filtered out right away.

NOW Online PT is similar. You gotta be serious, you gotta listen to my advice, and do what it takes to get results. And it doesn't really require anything extravagant, difficult or unreasonable. Just eat the right amount, and hit the gym for an hour most days.

There's not much that's more rewarding to me than giving someone some advice or a program and having them come back a few weeks later reporting amazing results. Unfortunately though... a lot of people will need your advice, want your advice, ASK for your advice... but they're not really to TAKE or ACT on your advice. And that shit gets FRUSTRATING.

The program actually has a lot built in to try to combat this, to make people realise that there is no reason why they should not be successful, and to spell out in a very simple and straight forward manner how to ensure success. Do the maths to estimate your calorific requirements, and hit the gym with a full body resistance program, plus interval training once or twice a week. SIMPLE.

So the situation was... concerned with how many people were picking up & following bad advice from other sources, and as for being asked for advice myself... generally speaking, people from tumblr take it, act on it and get results, people from facebook take it, don't act on it, come back for more advice a month or two later, don't act on that either. In either case my advice is always the same, so why not just write it all up in one place and if it available to anyone who needs it?

So NOW, I get more messages along the lines of "hey I've been following your free program and I love it, it all makes such good sense and it's working out perfectly... where do I sign up for the Coaching Via Email program?" and when I get asked for advice from new people I can just tell them "everything you need to know is in the free program, study up on that". If they're ready for it... they'll go study up, start getting results on their own, and come back ready for the Online Personal Training program.

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I fkn hate marketing, man

I mean... I love training, being a trainer, coaching people via internet technologies, blogging, writing articles, inspiring, motivating and encouraging people. I love scam busting too. I even like coming up with different business systems and packages and pricing options and stuff like that.

Marketing though? I'm shit at it and I hate it.

My marketing such as it is is based on writing up a heap of quality free information, helping some people get results / overcome their problems, and eventually word gets out that you're the man to listen to if you want to know what's what. And the people you've helped appreciate you and want to support you.

It's a bit like my favourite bands. Sure, it's easy to illegally download the music... but screw that. I love these guys, I want to buy the extra expensive limited edition double CD, the tshirt, the dvd, concert tickets, you name it if it says "iron maiden" on it I'll probably go buy it.

So... that's why I'm not shy about putting out free programs like on my Lose Weight No Bullshit site. People love the results, appreciate it, tell their friends and ASK to sign up for the paid services. So that's what I do and it has taken a while but now there is momentum gathering like a snowball effect and word is out.

What you're supposed to do though? Like common practice marketing techniques? I just can't.

Advertising on facebook for example... you know those "sponsored posts" on your newsfeed? How annoying are those? Usually all the comments posted are complaints... so... it's one of those "annoy 10 people to attract 1 person" type strategies, I guess. Actually come to think of it... when I first got started I had a guy in a marketing advice / consultant type role who wanted me to put those annoying "give me your email address" pop up boxes all over my website. You know, you search for some info... click through to my page, read the first line and then BOOM there's a big popup over the top you need to deal with before you can read the article. Annoying as fuck, right? But I was told "if they're annoyed that's good, it means you have gotten their attention".

Fuck that shit though man. I just seems bass ackwards to me. Give 'em the info. If they want to sign up they will, surely?

That's like legit marketing though without even going into into the other side that the scammers use. The stolen progress photos, spam bots and so on. Also the "just take this pill and eat whatever you want" scumbags.

The other stuff I learned (but won't do) from marketing courses is this sort of "whatever people want, tell them that's what you do" type approach. My issue with this is that... every 6 months there's a new fad, right? Especially relating to nutrition there's a new fad every 6 months and at the moment it's "clean eating". Jump on facebook and look at some PT groups and everyone is pushing their own clean eating plan. The next one already starting to come in is "intermittent fasting"... now... trainers shouldn't be chasing around trying to keep up with trends and fads.

Every single trainer should be saying the same thing "eat the right amount, train hard, you'll see results". On top of that there's plenty of room to have your own approach and your own style of training. There's room for different approaches to nutrition planning as well, but it should be in terms of "you'll find this approach convenient and easy", rather than "these foods are bad" or perpetuating any other urban myths.

Still, as I've posted about recently... I believe that we are entering a period where more and more people are fed up with all the fads and scams, and are looking for real answers and real results through legitimate programs.

Anyway enough about marketing. What you should take from all this is that if you're looking for a legit program that's sure to deliver results with a Personal Trainer In Brunswick give me a shout.

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The 5 rules of weight loss.

You've seen all those links on the web, right? 5 rules, 5 things never to eat, 5 things never to do. Whatever.

I thought I'd run through a list of the most often cited myths pushed by people who should know better, and my response. Here we go!

1. Don't eat carbs late at night.
   
   Actually it's 10pm here and I just had a bowl of weet bix + muesli.
   
2. Don't eat grains, breads and cereals.
   
   Actually, I just had a bowl of weet bix + muesli.
   And I'll have french toast for breakfast.
   
3. Don't eat carbs.
   
   Actually, I just had a bowl of weet bix + muesli.
   And I'll have french toast for breakfast.
   
4. Limit fruit, because of the sugars, which are carbs.
   
   Actually I kinda lied above. The french toast is SECOND breakfast.
   First breakfast is a massive bowl of fruits.
   
5. Only eat clean, the minute you touch processed foods it is all over.
   
   Yeah. See all of the above. Also I'm partial to those packaged indian style vegetable curries. Those are delish with a chickpea burger.

Actually there's big news today that they've now decided carbs are important after all, and low carb diets will shorten your life expectancy by 30%. It's just like I predicted, only I thought it would take another 5 or 10 years to happen. History repeats... first it was fats that were killing people, and then they decided fats were ok and carbs were bad. Then depending on who you talk to, they either softened on carbs except grains were bad, OR they got absolutely carb phobic and started telling people lettuce has too much sugar in it. I swear to god there are people out there telling each other carrots and lettuce have too much sugar. And a shitload say the same things about fruits. Morons.

People need to forget all this crap. Ignore it. People need a varied diet that includes carbs, protein, fats, fibre, vitamins and minerals. There was a few hundred thousand years of human evolution without trying to avoid one or the other, and obesity is only a recent problem. 

The right amount, not too much and not too little. That's the bottom line.

Did you guys see my Review of The Fast Diet, a few weeks back? I think it makes my views quite clear!

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