Category: MyBodyTutor

1 huge annoucment and 2 small ones (The all new MyBodyTutor is coming soon)

We’ll start with the huge announcement first:

My sister is having a boy!!! Early May can’t come soon enough. (I’m sure she feels the same way.) I figure we’ll start training when he’s 3 months old and we’ll add weights to the mix once he’s 2 years old.

The first small announcement is:

I joined Twitter. A few of my clients strongly encouraged me to join. I’m doing this more of an experiment because I really don’t understand the purpose of Twitter (the way most people use it). So I’m going to try to make all of my ‘tweets’ as they call it, have some sorts of value…

Follow me! My thingy is twitter.com/MyBodyTutor

(I’m going to do an entire post on my thoughts on Twitter.)

The second small announcement is:

The all new MyBodyTutor is coming soon. I keep saying that but it really is. We’re testing and debugging and tweaking and doing all the final (and necessary) things before launch.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. I am a perfectionist when it comes to certain things. (I always knew being a perfectionist was a good thing!) I’ve put my blood, sweat, and sleepless nights into this and I want it to be as great as it can be. Actually, I want it to be flawless.

When you have the luxury and ability to self-fund your company you don’t have to answer to anyone. If I want to wait until I feel everything is perfect I can! I don’t have deadlines. The only deadlines I have are self imposed ones.

Even if it’s not ‘smart’ for the business; whatever that means. A VC-funded company would say get it done – no matter what – and your clients will deal with it. They’ll get over the imperfections.

My clients, I think, would be even more than forgiving! That’s not the point. I think it’s the attitude of: Grow! Grow! Grow! At all costs. Worry about the business first then worry about your clients.

But my clients deserve my best attempt at perfect. Why? They allow me to do what I love doing!

I want it to be perfect for my clients because they are my business! The notion of ‘losing 1 customer to get 10’ is not my style. You can never, ever, forget the person that brought you to the dance.

I’m not even close to the dance yet. I’m not even close! But we’re getting there. We’re headed in the right direction and that’s what counts. Step by step.

The new website is truly how I think of my company. It accurately reflects my vision for MBT. Everything from the colors to the logo to the wording to the pictures on the sides to the case studies to the emails to the application to everything I’ve obsessed over!

We’re not just building a front-end site. That’s been done for a little while already.

We built a custom application from the ground up because there is nothing out there like this. This is the main reason why redoing our website took so long. I refused to compromise on one single thing.

The application is incredible. It’s truly first class. The functionality is amazing. The intuitiveness built into it is something we worked very hard on too. And I can’t wait to show it off to my clients. I know they’re going to love it!

What the application allows me to do is to take this tiny little company and turn it into an organization and most importantly it makes the client experience 100% better than it is now and allows me to better serve them.

(I’m going to write a post that details exactly what the new website has once it’s up.)

In the mean time, I’d like to thank my amazing web team, TerraFrame, for working so hard! We’re getting there…

Stay tuned…

5 easy and fun to use MyBodyTutor tricks for you on this Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Nothing like a good meal, great company and some football!

It’s impossible to be thankful and unhappy at the same time. The two emotions cannot coexist. Thankfulness magically gets rid of every other non-happy emotion there is.

Of course, celebrate the great holiday, but let’s try to mindlessly eat a little less than we otherwise would.

Here’s five ideas for you to use this Thursday:

Wear Your Best Belt and your tightest pants! It’s a lot easier to stop eating when you know you’re full. One great clue is when your clothes and belt starts telling you. Sounds obvious, but stopping when you’re full is probably one of the harder things to do at the Thanksgiving table when everyone else is helping themselves to seconds.

It will be easier to stop if you wear very tight pants because then you’ll have to push away from the table when you’re stuffed. You’ll just be too uncomfortable otherwise.

Save your Calories for Dinner. If you want to be a great guest and enjoy the meal the most, skip the hors d’oeuvres. A great basic rule-of-thumb is don’t eat anything that doesn’t require a knife and fork.

Focus on the Special Stuff. Don’t waste your calories on large portions of food you can eat everyday. Limit the variety you have. Let’s make a rule. Only two items on your plate at any one time. Having a lot of different items on your plate at once stimulates your appetite so therefore don’t have 20 different things on your plate.

Small seconds are better than Big Firsts. Some people show their love through food. Research on memory shows that your Aunt Grace won’t remember how much you take, BUT she will remember if you liked it enough to take seconds. Especially, if you announce it. Take two small helpings of key foods over one medium/large portion.

So here’s the play: Take a little bit of Aunt Grace’s ‘famous’ mashed potatoes. Tell her how great they are. Then go back for seconds and say something like, “Aunt Grace, your mashies are so good I’m taking seconds!” She’ll be really happy because your making her feel good…and your body will be really happy, too because you’ll actually be eating less of them even though you’re going in for round 2.

Forget the Post Dinner Snacks. We won’t starve if we skip the late night turkey sandwich. This is a great time to focus on the family and not on the food.

Most importantly, and this is somewhat counterintuitive, don’t sweat it if you make a dietary mistake or two or three. We all will. And we’ll have the other 364 days to do it right!

Bonus! Want to make everyone laugh at the table? Cut out aluminum foil in the desired shape. Wrap the turkey and cook normally. And when it’s done and ready to be served it’ll look like the picture above. Not only will everyone laugh, a lot, but it’ll also remind you that, before we know it, bathing suit season will be here!

Also, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank all of my amazing clients for allowing me to do what I love doing. I don’t take it for granted, for even a second, that without them I wouldn’t have a business! I also want to thank you, my loyal reader, for reading my blog!

Enjoy your family and friends and, of course, happy Thanksgiving!

[Some really nice comments over at BrazenCareerist.com!]

If you care more than a lot, MyBodyTutor is the place for you!

Dear potential Body Tutor,

Several months ago I started training two people who were going to start handling their own clients.

Unfortunately, I had to let them go because I didn’t feel the passion from them. If you don’t sincerely love helping people no hard feelings at all. You just won’t be a good fit for us. You’ll save yourself (and us) a lot of time by not moving forward with the process.

I don’t say this lightly either. I don’t intend on building a company with mediocre people. I intend on building a memorable company. To build a memorable company I have to fill my company with memorable people.

This isn’t going to be my company for much longer. Everything right now is ‘me’, ‘my’, and ‘I’ but once you join and once I start to fill this company with memorable people it will be our company. In fact, I can’t wait for that!

But, I refuse to compromise on the caliber of people I hire as Body Tutors. I am very fortunate to be in a spot where I can be extremely picky. (By the way, you’re going to want me to be just as picky if you’re a part of the team because we’re only as good as our coaches.)

The success of MBT depends solely on finding amazingly caring people who are reliable and dedicated to reaching our vision. The more successful MBT is…the more successful you will be.

Why? Because small companies that hire incorrectly fail! They don’t probably fail, or maybe fail. They just plain fail. I must hire the right people. In particular, the early Body Tutors must be exceptional.

The most important part of hiring correctly is to not hire the wrong people. The second most important part of hiring correctly is to hire the right people. What that means is that it is better for me to not hire anyone at all if I can’t find the right person.

It’s not that hard to tell. The right people are the ones that really, really want to work with me. I can tell they’re excited to be a part of the team. They understand and believe in the mission. They get it. They see the vision. They want to (have to!) be a part of it.

If you care about status, symbols like titles, and resent the success of others no hard feelings. You’re just not a good fit for us. Again, you’ll save yourself a lot of time by not moving forward with the process.

I am obsessed with helping as many people as I can because I know what we created works. Just wait until you see the capabilities of the MBT application from a client side and the tutor’s perspective! It was built from the ground up with every feature, detail and tool absolutely obsessed over.

Are you extremely passionate about helping people reach their health and fitness goals? Do you eat, sleep and breathe the health and fitness lifestyle? I want to work with you!

THE FIRST 50 TUTORS!

As I said, I must be insanely picky for every tutor but especially the first 50.

Together, we are going to build an incredible company. A company that will change the lives of many. But we must be in this together. The first 50 are going to lay the foundation and pave the road.

I need you to be loyal and dedicated. I need you (no, I want you) to be really excited. I promise I will be just as loyal to you, if not more, when we do make this the company I envision.

Before you get in touch with me, please read the following blog posts:

1. The post you just read was inspired by this post. (Again, it’s really important to get the right people on the bus!)

2. This is a post on why I care so much about my clients. (If this makes no sense to you – then it won’t make any sense for you to join MBT.)

3. This is a post where I talk about the two greatest days of my life. (In case, you’re wondering why I eat, sleep and breathe MyBodyTutor.)

4. And finally I ask you the question, will you be missed? (That’s what it’s all about for me. That’s how you can judge if you’re having an impact on people or not! If you join MBT there is no doubt that you will be missed!)

You ready?

Thanks for reading either way!

-Adam

If you had the choice to buy a brand new car or a brand new website which would you choose?

(By the way, the ALL NEW MyBodyTutor website is launching soon…)

I’m going to try to explain why I bought a website.

It’s kind of weird when I think about it in those terms. But it’s something I had to do. Well, I don’t have to do anything. It’s something I need (must!) do. I could have kept my website the way it is and done well. But I’m not interested in doing well.

I’m interested in doing insanely well.

Last week the President of my old fraternity asked me to do an interview for an Entrepreneurship Class he is taking. One of the questions he asked me was ‘How do you define success? What is success to you? Are you successful?’

Without getting all philosophical and telling him my true definition of success I told him success for me entrepreneurially consists of two things:

One: Impact. How many people am I helping? Am I doing something worth doing? Does it matter? If my business went out of business would it be missed? Do my clients appreciate, love and respect my work?

Two: Profitable. Is this making money? After all expenses (insurance, phone, webhosting, advertising, taxes and on and on) is there anything left? (Notice I didn’t include time. I enJOY (actually love) spending time on my business. It is fun for me. It’s thrilling.

So how much do you believe in what you’re doing? The more ‘successful’ I am the more I believe in what I’m doing.

Wrong! No! Not at all! Not even close!

I believed in what I was doing from day one. I believed in what I was doing when I was sitting in my apartment all alone without anyone to help at 4:40 AM. I believed in what I was doing (or going to do) when I was sitting with the HR Lady at Ernst & Young telling her my plans after I gave my two week notice.

And the ultimate belief test came from my mom. “Are you prepared to not have an income?” “Do you understand you will not have insurance after 6 months?” “Do you realize that going out with your friends might not be possible?” “Do you know how many people would kill to have the job you have?” “Why can’t you just appreciate what you have?”

“Do you know and realize and on and on and on and on and on…” (If it were a movie or a TV show it would have been one of those scenes where the questions get faster and faster and the fear builds and builds.)

My mom was relentless, for a long time, but there was nothing she could do. I have been and am fully self-sufficient for a long time.

I asked her why she was so inspirational to her students yet when it came to me she was the complete opposite. “Why did you inspire Terry to go after his dreams but you don’t with me?”

Read this article! (According to Terry, my mom is the one who inspired him to go after his dreams!)

What finally made my mom stop was when I said something like, “Listen, I know you want the best for me and I know you love me to death but I think everything you worry about and fear for me are things you worry about and fear for yourself. I need to do this, I want to do this and I’m going to do this. And I have to do this!”

If you don’t believe in what you’re doing before anyone has any clue about what you do, you’ll never get anyone to believe in you.

If it’s going to take selling products or positive feedback in whatever it is you want to do to reassure yourself of what you’re doing then you don’t truly believe in what you’re doing.

(Sure, it can make you believe a little more but you have to believe a lot from the start! Before anyone else is on board!)

Or else do not bother starting! Because you will never, ever, finish what you started. And you’re better off using your time finding something that you do believe in with every molecule of your body.

And if you don’t believe in what you’re doing when you’re all alone, when your mind tries to demolish your idea and if you don’t WANT to work on your idea, product, business, dream career, dream job and if you aren’t sincerely obsessed with what you’re doing whether you’re making no money at all and getting no positive feedback or making a billion dollars or have million and millions of people pulling for you, you’d never, ever, pick the website over the car.

PickOnTheFatKid.com and why I care so much

Bear with me but I’d like to share with you why I care so much about my clients.

Back in early January of 2007, while running on the treadmill at 5:30 AM and while feeling amazing and on top of the world like usual (not a coincidence – exercising has that affect on you. So does eating right.) I kept thinking to myself, “This is the best feeling in the entire world. Everyone should experience this feeling! This is just too good not to spread.”

The fire for MyBodyTutor was ignited. (The idea was already born.)

I quit my full time job 3 weeks later. I had to do it. I just cared too much. And once you care about something it’s hard to ignore it.

My core purpose and mission with my clients is to help them stay consistent. Above everything that I provide like an easy to follow customized diet and exercise program.

When you stay consistent with your diet and exercise…you will feel amazing. There are no ifs, ands or buts. All things being equal when you workout and eat right you will feel so much better than if you didn’t workout and eat healthy.

And when you do that consistently…you will feel amazing consistently (and, of course, see results!). And that’s really the business I’m in.

You can say I’m in the amazing business and I can’t think of a more rewarding, thrilling and fun business to be in.

After reading this particular client’s blog post today (it’s 10/22/08 as I write this) it really made me smile. Reading how great he is doing and how great he is feeling and how is attitude at work is even changing is what it’s all about for me. That is what makes me jump out of bed every morning.

I’ve helped (and help) countless clients in all shapes and sizes with different goals every day ranging in age from 15 to 77 years old stay consistent.

I have hundreds of thank you emails and testimonials that I read for inspiration. (I wish I could have them all on my new website but my web developer told me no. “People aren’t going to read them all,” he said. He’s probably right. The secret is they are more for me.)

But this particular client really inspires me. This guy is 460 pounds (as of 10/22/08) and he had enough courage to start. But where most of us falter whether we’re trying to lose 260 pounds or 10 is keeping on going.

And already he’s feeling amazing. Already he feels in control.

A lot of people want to know why I ‘care’ so much about people’s success. I care so much because it’s hard not to.

It’s hard not to care when you know the possibilities. It’s hard not to want to spread the goodness that being healthy and fit brings. There is no better feeling than running along the FDR (in New York City) with cars buzzing along one side and the East River on the other while the sun is shining down on you.

There is no better feeling than listening to your favorite songs while exercising.

Exercising is truly a celebration of life. It’s hard not to want to spread that. It’s hard not to want to help people who want to change. Who want to improve. Who want to grow. Who want to evolve. Who aren’t all talk!

It’s easy to not care about people who are stuck. Who settle for mediocrity. And complain month after month and New Year after New Year about how they’re going to change but never take action. I have no patience for people who hope and wish.

I have all of the patience in the world for people who are willing to try.

Wes is already inspiring me and the rest of the MyBodyTutor family and I’m sure anyone who follows his journey and story will be inspired too.

Wes has A LOT of courage and what I love so much about Wes is he understands this isn’t a 3 week thing here. He understands it’s going to take meal after meal. Workout after workout. No matter what the goal is! (And there’s where I come in. Because it’s really easy to give up and lose motivation. It’s really easy to rationalize poor eating and a lack of exercise. It’s really hard to stay consistent meal after meal. Workout after workout.)

He has A LOT of work left. His goal is to lose 260 pounds. And there is not a doubt in my mind…We will get there!

I will NOT let him not get there.

Check out his courageous blog at: www.pickonthefatkid.com

I keep telling Wes this is going to be an incredible journey.

It’s going to be a long journey but certainly a worthwhile one.

And I think he is starting to believe that too!

Sometimes I hate Adam Gilbert (a magical interview and some hateful press)

Dorie, writes a very thoughtful, interesting and pretty hilarious take on her experience with MyBodyTutor on her blog here.

Thankfully, my mom (a very wise woman) always told me that hate is the closest thing to love so I’m not offended.

Greg, asks me some great questions for an interview I did to celebrate the launch of Lee Cockerell’s wonderful new book Creating Magic. We cover all sorts of interesting topics from why I believe belief is so important to why I believe the media doesn’t over react when it comes to steroids in sports to why my Auntie Anne rocks.

Kate, on Twitter (a micro-blogging platform) writes that she’s in love with me until…

And thanks to Sara for taking a bunch of pictures of me on her roof the other night for the Creating Magic interview!

How to feel like a rock star!

Below is my Daily Inspiration that I wrote for my clients yesterday morning. I write a Daily Inspiration every single morning for my clients. This just happens to be one of them…

One of my idols growing up was Michael Jordan. He says, “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

Indeed.

If you don’t expect yourself to stay consistent with your diet and exercise then you won’t. If you don’t expect yourself to get that promotion or to land that new client then you won’t.

If you don’t expect things of yourself before you can do them, then you will never, ever, do them.

In my opinion, expecting things of yourself comes from self confidence. And I believe the best way to gain self confidence is to actually do the things you really want to do.

All of those little promises that you make to yourself (and me). When you really make good on your own word, it feels incredible. And you start to really believe in yourself. You start to really trust yourself.

The feeling of having been lied to by yourself (which we all do) is not a good one. You start thinking you’re a fraud. And that your own word means nothing.

You don’t believe yourself anymore. You don’t trust yourself anymore and you don’t take yourself seriously anymore.

Some people will promise anything to other people and never break their word because they want other people to think they are full of integrity.

Some of those people will never keep their own promises though. How about some personal integrity folks?

Here’s a thought:

Imagine if you kept every promise you made to yourself. Imagine how you’d feel and look.

Imagine where’d you’d be.

So that means…

Really working your butt off at the gym. Not just going through the motions. (If you’re going to spend your precious time there then you might as well get the most out of it!)

Stop snacking on those treats (we both know they aren’t good for you) and you’re only fooling yourself.

Waking up a little earlier.

Eating a little healthier.

And countless other promises we all make to ourselves.

Imagine. Do.

Repeat.

You = feeling like a rockstar.

-A

I’ve been writing a Daily Inspiration every morning for my clients since March of 2007. I wake up and whatever comes to mind I write it. My clients love it. Thankfully!

My program is based on 4 key quotes. I’m a big fan of quotes if you haven’t realized. The idea of having a Daily Inspiration was inspired by this quote. (Actually to be honest, I found this quote way after I started writing the Daily Inspirations but it’s precisely the reason why I write a Daily Inspiration!)

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

The other 3 quotes that my program is based on or I should say that go hand in hand with my program follow:

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard P. Feynman, Nobel Prize – winning physicist

“In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.” – Tom Seaver

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein

[Some really nice comments over at BrazenCareerist.com!]

Would you die for it?

As you know, I was away for the last week. For part of my trip I was in Reno, Nevada at the National Championship Air Races. (Picture Nascar in the sky. Truly unreal.)

Before I arrived there were 3 fatal accidents.

These people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing their airplanes to make them racing machines. And then risk their life actually racing them.

Clearly, when a car has problems it can stop driving. When a plane has a problem it’s a much bigger deal.

I heard at least 5 ‘Mayday’ calls while watching the races.

I wrote an email to my clients as part of my Daily Inspirations to them saying how amazing it was how passionate these people are to obviously risk their life (and give up their life) for something they love and live for.

One of my clients hilariously writes me back, “They are morons!”

Agreed. Albeit passionate morons.

I’m not saying you should die for something. But I do believe living for something is so important.

Whether it’s a charity, a business, a cause, a passion, a movement, a job; something.

I find I am the happiest when I have a mission. Growing up my mission was to excel in school and to make the NBA.

In fact, one of the reasons why I started working out in 5th grade was because I wanted to look more intimidating on the basketball court. Clearly, at 5’ 8” I needed every edge I could get.

(Coincidentally, I also fell in love with working out and being as healthy and fit as I could be. This became one of my missions in life.)

I’ve had many missions. And so have you. Looking back, my most happy and engaging times were when I was pursuing something.

When I was at Ernst & Young, I just felt like I was letting time pass by. I had nothing to struggle for. I had no business at the time. Nada. I was existing as opposed to living.

My mission now (to create the World’s #1 company for helping people stay consistent with their health and fitness goals) is worthwhile in my opinion.

I believe (and know) that when you eat right and exercise consistently you’ll feel incredible. I also believe life is too short to not feel incredible as often as possible.

But as long as it’s worthwhile in my eyes is all that counts. That’s what gets me out of bed every morning.

“What a man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal.” – Victor E. Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning.

[Some nice comments over at Brazen Careerist.com!]

Update on MyBodyTutor and some lessons in business for ya

MyBodyTutor, my company that I designed to help people stop making excuses will be re-launching in the next month or so.

For the last 6 months, after some minor bumps in the road, my team of developers and designers has been working really hard on making MBT something really special and we’re almost ready!

See, I’m sort of a hypocrite.

On one hand, I’m a very strong advocate of design and beauty and elegance. Perception is reality. Right now, my website looks like an amateur made it. Because I made it. I’m certainly not a professional when it comes to web design.

I know exactly what I like and exactly what I want and am extremely particular (you can ask Adam and Mike over at PureAdapt who helped design this blog). As someone who used to run a small web development business – dealing with people who know what they want is a gift compared to people who have no idea.

On the other hand, I am very much an advocate of starting small. Very small. (Note – this concept later turned into a magazine column which you can read here.) I don’t like to invest a lot of money upfront without a proven concept. If you can make your business work when your website is a piece of crap like this and people are willing to pay you, then and only then, do you have something you should invest in.

How heavily you invest in your business is only a matter of belief. How much do you believe in what you offer? Money talks.

Like I did here and am doing for MBT. (Although, I didn’t spend nearly as much money on the Ultimate Discount Card website as I am on MyBodyTutor.)

And that’s what I’m doing. I’m spending a fortune on my new website. And I don’t say that word [fortune] lightly. I say it because I believe in what I’m doing 1000%. There is not a doubt in my mind that I can help people reach their health and fitness goals.

So what the hell are we doing?

Well, as Warren Buffet says, we’re building a ‘moat’ around our business and creating a ‘durable competitive advantage’ so when I go up, inevitably, which won’t be for years, against the big guys, I’ll be able to do so.

This custom application that we’re building from the ground up, is going to allow me to scale this business. Meaning it will allow me to take my single health food store and replicate it over and over if you will so we can help more people.

But the key is to not lose what has made MBT so successful. And that’s what we’re working really hard to ensure. That is mission critical.

Don’t get me wrong, MBT is still a tiny, tiny company. But we’re getting there. Slowly but surely. Day in and day out. But consistently. Even if we just accomplish one small thing every day – we’re headed in the right direction and that’s all that counts. (Kind of like my philosophy with MBT!)

And as little patience as I have – I have a lot of patience when it comes to this. MBT is my baby.

To say I’m extremely excited is an extreme understatement.

Stay tuned.

Meeting with the CEO of The Pump Energy Food

Right now Adam Eskin – the CEO of Pump Energy Food – is the CEO of a restaurant with 6 locations and a colt following.

I am a colt member.

The Pump Energy Food has a simple philosophy. They only cook and serve clean and healthy food. They don’t even serve soda.

Enough said.

The authenticity reeks. I met with Adam last week after emailing back and forth with him.

I wasn’t surprised that we hit it off. After all, we have a lot in common. I was telling him how I started working out when I was in 5th grade and how health and fitness has always been a huge part of my life.

He was laughing and said that he too always loved working out and eating healthy. He said his friends used to kid around with him after learning about his involvement with The Pump and would say things like, “Wow, you really love protein that much huh? Of course you would do this!”

I know what he means.

Adam, a laser focused guy and a graduate from Brown University was an associate at a private equity shop. He said he used to eat the Pump at least once a day and his PE firm was looking to invest in interesting restaurant concepts so they contacted them.

Long story short he is now the CEO with big ambitions.

His goal is to have 200-300 locations throughout the country and I think they can do it.

As we both finished up our grilled chicken and brown rice and our meeting that lasted over an hour – he was telling me that he recently met with Howard Schultz (Starbucks founder). Howard told him that he’s not even in the first meter of a marathon with regards to how much work he has left.

He knows it. And so do I.

I always enjoy seeing waiters or cooks eating the food they serve. Even more so, I enjoy meeting people who practice (and ideally, live) what they preach.

Well, Adam now eats his own food 6 times a day.

The golden nuggets that you might be interested in are nothing new:

Systematize, systematize, systematize.

And as Howard believes (and knows): work, work, work!

Enough said.