This is an open note to anybody who actually wants to elicit change through their work in the fitness industry.

I have seen a trend and believe you’re focusing on the wrong thing. I do not believe the solution lies in education. Telling people they shouldn’t eat sugar for the 1000th time or that they should exercise or “get after it” is not working. The disturbing increase in obesity is proof enough. I cannot walk by a fast food joint at lunch without seeing a line up out the door of teenage kids knocking back pizza or a hamburger. Parents still feed their kids shit and I still get told daily by people that they wish they could eat better or exercise more or hurt less. So why aren’t they?

Do you really think pumping them with your opinion on the latest diet or bouncing back and forth on negligible details like whether eggs are good or bad for you are helping? In the great scheme of things eggs are good. There, now don’t ever talk about it again. Focus on what matters. If you don’t eat a heaping plate of veggies and exercise daily don’t worry about both the physical and metaphorical egg.

So to all fitness professionals I ask you what happens when you interact with the outside world? Can you have a conversation without somebody asking your advice on diet X or Y or workout plan Z?

Am I wrong in saying that the majority of people already know what they should do to get healthy. It’s not rocket science:

1. Eat vegetables (a lot of them)

2. Exercise (you don’t have to kill yourself, just make a couple minutes each day to keep active. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU DO. JUST MOVE)

3.Keep starchy carbs to a minimum.

4. The more nutrient dense foods the better.

5. Whole foods before supplements. ALWAYS. Supplements are just that, a supplement.

Is there a better way to do things? Probably but who gives a shit. You are paralyzing people by over-analyzing and getting over excited at every trend. Fitness professionals are at fault here, not the other way around. Over the past 2 years I have been to 20+ conferences, seminars, and workshops. The trend is always the same. The empirical and research-based information gets pushed to the side as fitness professionals play with the new toys or debate whether paleo, intermittent fasting, carb backloading or whatever trend is in vogue at the time is better.

Whoever yells the loudest gets heard. Facts are not checked. Research is cherry-picked. And false conclusions are reached. None of these things are bad but who needs them? Get people to move and eat a decent diet first.

Who are you debating with? Who are you helping? If somebody cares enough to debate over the internet on any of these subjects they have already made up their mind. Even if you prove them wrong they won’t admit it. They have had results with whatever their debating and it’s become a part of them. The minute you try to open their minds they experience cognitive dissonance and become more pushed to protect whatever they believe in.

In actuality what you’re doing is confusing the people who really need help. So do what you do and research what you research but please recognize that most people don’t need a fraction of what you know.

So what’s the solution?

The solution is to figure out what’s stopping the majority of people from healthy choices. I believe the biggest barrier is confusion. That confusion stems from too much shouting and proverbial beating of the chest by fitness pros whose egos take over. The result is a healthy lifestyle which should be easy to follow becomes a daunting task. A task where the person is constantly second guessing themselves and doesn’t know who to believe. So they relapse and go back to their old ways. Every time that happens long-lasting change becomes harder and harder to ascertain.

So make it easy and make it comfortable.

Stop giving people complicated recommendations. Meal plans do not work for most clients. The adherence is embarrassingly low. Have them write on a piece of paper what they eat for 3 days. Then ask them one thing they want to change for the week. Smile, nod your head, and say that you agree. The next week take out the same sheet and congratulate them on their positive behavior and ask them what they want to change next.

Stop posting Photoshopped images of sweaty models on your Facebook account with motivational quotes said by somebody you’ve never met. You are widening the gap. These images make for an elitist industry. We should be approachable and invite people of any size and experience to join our programs and start their journey. Whenever I get told that people have to “work their way to the gym” I want to throw up.

Smile. Hard. Always. At every person you see. Fitness professionals should not be scary. We should be ambassadors who stand at the front line for preventative medicine.

Stop counting reps and speaking in absolutes. 8 reps might be better than 10 which might be worse than 4 depending on somebodies goals. I get it. So few exercisers are anywhere close to that stage in their training where they need to concern themselves with this. Focus on movement quality and strengthening the mind. Think of numbers as a range that will change daily based on everything from sleep quality, food, stress, and even who else is in the gym.

This will be my last post on fitness. In a couple days this webpage will be shut down and replaced with a landing page. I don’t think there’s a need for it. There’s too much noise in the fitness world already and I don’t feel the need to add any more. My focus is on giving the right people the tools to get their word out. Nothing more.

Soon I will be launching www.viralnomics.com where I’m going to be writing my next book online, for free. It’s about identifying an audience and creating messages to go viral contained within that audience. If you wish to be notified when the site launches or keep up with updates you can sign up below with your email. Those that are already on the email list for this site are welcome to unsubscribe if they were only interested in fitness related posts. Thank you for all of your continued support. Note that if you want to be kept up to date and see what’s going on with Viralnomics I’ve set up the Facebook page already. Feel free to checkwww.facebook.com/viralnomics out.

photo credit: Marshall Astor – Food Fetishist

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The following post is by Nia Shanks. It frustrates me every time I walk into a gym and see most women making these mistakes so I was happy to share them with you.

[Enter Nia]

Overcomplicating and overanalyzing

Paralysis by analysis, as I like to call it. Oftentimes women are paralyzed from taking action because they take in too much information. As a result they end up dazed and confused and have no idea what to do because some of the information they read was contradicting.

But this coach says to follow this training program, and that coach says to follow that training program. This coach recommends total body workouts, but that one suggests upper/lower splits. What’s the best option?

It’s easy for someone to get overwhelmed with the surplus of information available at the click of a mouse or slide of the finger on a tablet or phone. In the end, the individual is left asking, “Who is right and what method is the best?”

It’s a valid question for sure, but you must understand something very important – there are numerous excellent training programs and methods that will allow you to be successful. The most important thing is that you pick one, work hard, and do so consistently. Don’t waste your time searching for a “holy grail” workout, because it doesn’t exist.

Sure, there are good and bad training methods, but as long as you follow a sound training program that fits into your lifestyle, and you work hard consistently, you’re going to get results.

Not following a program that’s appropriate for their experience level

Everyone wants results now. Actually, we wanted them yesterday, but that’s beside the point. Some people assume, incorrectly I might add, that if they follow a more advanced training program that they’ll get quicker results.

This just isn’t the case, and oftentimes it can do more harm than good.

You absolutely must follow a training program that’s tailored to your training level and unique history. If you’re a beginner, you need to follow a beginner program. If you have mobility issues or an injury that prevents you from doing a certain exercise, you need a suitable alternative.

I example and demonstrate all of this and more in the Lift Like a Girl Guide.

Not mastering the basics first

It’s no secret that you’ve got to crawl before you can walk, and so you must adhere to that philosophy when it comes to resistance training if you want to get the best results possible in the least amount of time, and abstain from injury as well.

The basic exercises you utilize depend on the equipment you have and any physical limitations you may be dealing with. But I prefer to include one of each type of movement: squat, deadlift, horizontal push (I really like push-ups), vertical push (if shoulder health allows), row, and chin-up. Again, the variation you choose can vary.

Overdoing cardio

When a woman wants to lose body fat and improve her physique, what’s the first thing she does, or plans to do?

Cardio.

Usually lots and lots of cardio. And maybe even a little more cardio, just because she’s super ambitious.

The biggest mistake too many women make in the gym is too much cardio and not enough weights. – Click to tweet.

When it comes to transforming your body, cardio is the least important factor. Nutrition and strength training are the most essential components. Now I’m not one to apply a percentage to each element; for example, some people say it’s “80% nutrition” or something like that.

If you want great results, then focus on your quality of nutrition and following eating patterns that work for YOU. In addition, follow a solid strength training program. As long as you’re consistent, that’s where the majority of your results will come from. Yes, some type of cardio can be beneficial, but it most certainly won’t involve spinning your wheels (pardon the pun) for hours and hours on a bike, treadmill, or other cardio machine.

Not using a challenging load

More women are squatting, deadlifting, and performing other compound exercises with their bodyweight, barbells, and kettlebells than ever before. However, many are still using dinky baby weights.

I’m not being cruel here; I applaud the effort of everyone who gets off the couch and becomes physically active. Whether that means participating in recreational activities like snowboarding or pick-up basketball, or getting serious about strength training, I’m happy to know people are doing something.

My main priority is helping people achieve their goals, and when it comes to resistance training, I want to make sure you get the maximum results possible with your efforts.

Back to the point at hand, that means using a challenging load with your strength training workouts. How do you define a challenging load? Easy, you should really have to focus and work have within a given rep range. For example, if you’re doing sets of eight to 10 reps, you should use a load you could perform perfectly for one or two more reps. Continuing with this example, if you’re doing to perform eight reps, use a weight that allows you to complete nine or 10 perfect reps, but no more. Any less than that and you’re not working hard enough.

Being intimidated

This isn’t necessarily a programming error; however, it’s something that can hold a woman back from reaching her true potential and achieving her physique goals. Because of that, this topic must be addressed.

Yes, I know it can be daunting to enter the weight lifting area of the gym. It’s full of high school boys screaming, “It’s all you bro!” and sweaty men who like to grunt and flex in the mirror. How do you combat this? How do you handle this intimidation?

I prefer the tough love approach – get over it and just get in there!

Not what you wanted to hear? Well I can’t hold your hand and be your personal cheerleader, but I can encourage you to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone. Just get in the weight room, pop in some ear buds and listen to your favorite tunes. Focus on why you’re in there and nothing else.

Stake your claim and be proud to Lift Like a Girl!

If you’re interested in learning more My Lift Like a Girl Guide was just released and is on sale for 40% off. Check it out because it’s time more of us lifted like girls.

You can get it here.

photo credit: Benicio Murray Benicio Murray

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“It’s on.” I think to myself as I make my move. Like something out of a Bond movie I approach her at the requisite 45 degree angle. “Hello”, I say. She responds, “hey”.

You could hear the ice shatter from a mile away.

We go for coffee the following week, I pay and we have a great conversation. I’m falling for the girl. 3hrs later we part ways making plans to have dinner the following week. She tells me in passing that she’s a carnivore. I trip over a step on the way out.

After a healthy dinner conversation and lots of getting lost in each others eyes we split the bill. I respect women too much to pay for the whole thing. Again, we say goodnight with a peck on the cheek.

The next date was over lunch. I took her to my secret spot. It’s only reserved for carnivorous girls who do their squats. We both leave to get to work. She gives me a quick kiss and a hug. Not a regular hug, one of those hugs where she hangs on for an extra second. My head falls over my heels.

At the bar 2 days later drinks are flowing and we’re having a good time. The chunk of bills in my wallet has been reduced to a pile of change in my pocket. When it’s time to go I tell her, “my place is closer. Why don’t you come and, you know, hang?” She thinks for a second and tells me that she wants to take it slow.

Upset and tipsy I gently remind her that I have invested a lot financially into this budding relationship. For a fraction of the cost I could have bought sex weeks ago.

“The most expensive sex is free sex” – Woody Allen. G’damn that’s an awesome quote. Click to Tweet it

Yeah so… uhh… That was apparently the wrong thing to say. But why? It’s pretty simple:

I mixed social and market norms

As Dan Ariely explains in his must-read book Predictably Irrational social norms are wrapped up in our social nature and our need for community. Market norms are exchanges.

You don’t help your friend move because they offer you $20. In fact that would deter you. The minute money is introduced a social norm becomes a market exchange. You start to value your time and surely it’s worth more than $20. It’s insulting. Even though rationally $20 is better than nothing.

Another example: You and your roommate split groceries. When you go shopping you expect them to pay you for half of the food. One night you decide to do something nice and make them dinner. Here you don’t expect anything. Shopping is economic whereas the nice favor you offered is social. (Note: if anybody wants to make me dinner as a social norm I make great company.)

In my fictitious case above (sorry to disappoint) I took a social relationship and tried to introduce economics. If this had actually happened it would have taken a lot to rebuild the relationship.

Ariely pointed this out in an experiment with a daycare. They were having a problem with parents showing up late to pick up their kids so instituted a fine. What they found was that more parents showed up late than before. The introduction of an economic exchange made it socially acceptable to be inconsiderate of the daycare workers time. What was worse was that when the daycare took away the fine the parents still showed up late more often than before. The damage had already been done.

So what do you do to encourage good behavior?

Tokens of our appreciation are different. They can be in the form of a gift  or a heartfelt thank you.

You wouldn’t go to a friends house for dinner and give them a $20 bill. That’s a market exchange. You would however bring a $20 bottle of wine even though the non-alcoholic homeowner would probably have preferred the $20.

The line can get blurred. It depends on how you package your message.

For example I like giving my books away as gifts. They are my livelihood and very much an economical initiative. They also represent my heart and soul and I can’t think of a better way to say thank you. So when I give the gift I don’t mention economics. If I did my gift would be worth the $15-20 cover price. Instead the book becomes invaluable because of the way it is packaged.

I write a letter or personal note speaking to how much the receiver has helped me or influenced me. I thank them and tell them I want them to have a copy of my book. I don’t ask for anything and don’t expect anything. It is a social exchange.

Get Awesome Stuff for Less

Free social exchanges are what we base our economy on now. Think open source software, Wikipedia, internet forums. The list goes on.

Experts who charge lots of money for their expertise are giving it away in a social exchanges over the net. They don’t expect any reciprocation. Instead it is an opportunity for them to share what they are passionate about.

I suggest you do the same.

Give what you love without any thought of what you will get in return. Don’t message somebody asking them to “like” your page or buy your shit. They won’t and they will ignore or block you. Instead offer them value. Find groups that share information you are passionate about and share. Figure out what you can gift as a social exchange.

Just be careful not to blur the lines. Always keep social and economic exchanges separate even if you do think free sex is starting to get pretty expensive.

Photo Credits: derpunk jewdini

Reference: Much of the concept of this article stems from Dan Ariely’s work. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of

These are my musings and I’m happy to share them. If you dislike the way I think. Well then we probably aren’t going to get along and you can leave the page. If you do like the way my mind works then I encourage you to put your email in the little box below. I’ll send you an email whenever a new article comes out.

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I then sat at a table by myself and looked around at the collection of silver Macbook’s. Wondering how I stepped into this cult I took my hp laptop out of my bag. As I waited the 5 minutes for it to boot up I made sure to click away all of the error messages so nobody would notice. I sensed some condescending looks and people started to whisper. It was clear I was not one of them. Tuesday at 11am was a time for bloggers and coffee shop millionaires and they wondered what this innocent looking jewish guy was doing with his ancient computer.

Well today I purchased a Macbook Pro.

Next week I will confidently strut into Starbucks and order a grande mocha frappuchino with light milk medium hot from the barista. I will pay more money than my lunch cost for the day and receive exactly the drink I desire. Giving a head nod to the cute blond studying for her organic chemistry midterm I’ll then offer a condescending glare at the dude reading a book.. like on paper (seriously, they still make them). Haha, maybe the dude got it from the library. What a neanderthal. I bet he’s never even heard of Angry Birds.

I’ll sit at the long table with all of the other bloggers. Slowly I’ll take the lid off of my lavish drink and blow on it, ever so slightly. First I’ll take my iPad out and set it on the table. Just then I’ll shock them and pull out my membership card — my brand new MacBook pro. I’ll only have time to take one sip before both beautifully crafted machines are booted up and ready to go. I’ll now be accepted into the group. Nods of approval will be in my peripheral vision on both my left and right side. Soon the barista will know me by name and have my $7 drink made to my exact specifications exactly at 11:03am every morning. That’s how I know I’ve made it.

Yep, I did it. I bought a Mac. Joined the cult. I never thought it would happen. Wish me luck as I venture deeper and deeper into the blogosphere rabbit hole. There’s no turning back.

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I know all of these things because it’s all I see in my Facebook feed. Browsing my feed right now I see one person who bought lunch for a homeless person, another seems to make the most scrumptious meals, another posted a video of African children, and of course the endless streams of beautiful people with motivational words that don’t actually motivate written across their sweaty bodies.

I’m not stupid. This isn’t reality. These people have problems. They aren’t perfect and I’ve met a lot of them in real like and can attest that they look very different from every picture they post online. There’s obviously something else at play here. But what if I were to tell you that this is nothing new? I’ll even go so far as to tell you that this was going on far before Tim Berners-Lee started the World’s first website.

Transmission of messages have been feared ever since Guglielmo Marconi first demonstrated the radio to the British. Custom officials promptly smashed his prototype radio “fearing that it would inspire violence and revolution”¹

Negative feelings are abound when it comes to social media. Fear that it’s ruining our generation and wreaking havoc on our ability to communicate and have meaningful relationships are abound:

“Several scholars have contended that Internet communication is an impoverished and sterile form of social exchange compared to traditional face-to-face interactions, and will therefore product negative outcomes (loneliness and depression) for its users as well as weaken neighbourhood and community ties”²

Enter Facebook Narcissism

Facebook allows people to self-represent. They decide what goes online and when. Our friend groups are usually the people who we not only care about most but also care what they think about us most.

Imagine a dinner party with 500 of your closest friends. Look in the corner, there’s Jennifer, the beautiful blonde you’ve secretly been in love with since high school. Oh and would you look at that… She now travels to exotic places, cooks amazing meals, wears exclusively skimpy clothing in model shoots, thrives on motivating others and lives a life rife with witty anecdotes. On the other side of the table is Jeff. That snake. Don’t you just hate him with his greasy hair and boyish good looks. You can tell he works out a lot because he’s always sweating when he takes photos of himself with his cell phone in the mirror.

The dinner party is full of characters that you desperately want to impress or make feel bad. Unfortunately it’s socially unacceptable to call up Jennifer and tell her you love her half-naked pictures and want to show her how awesome you are. It’s also probably not a good idea to figure out what gym Jeff works out at and smack the phone out of his hand because his shirtless photos are interrupting your Facebook creeping of Jennifer.

So you do what’s acceptable. You over-represent yourself and add to the self-perpetuating endless cycle of over-representation. You hide what sucks about your life and you show off to the faceless Facebook world what you think is awesome about you. Then you wait and revel in the “likes” that follow.

There’s something entirely different going on here. Something you have probably never thought about…

Why Are People Facebook Narcissists?

The first research to show that people act differently online than in real life was done by Kiesler et al. 1984. Before the invention of the internet this study showed that employees were more hostile towards their superiors in email communication than they were willing to be in real life.³

You should agree with me that your Facebook feed does not accurately depict the people you know and love in all aspects of their lives, good and bad. What’s interesting to note is that that narcissists tend to have more social contacts on Facebook than nonnarcissists.⁴ From what we know of relevance on Facebook its algorithm painstakingly attempts to figure out who and what you want to listen to. The ways it does this is by monitoring clicks, likes, and views. So I’ll take you back to a quote from my book Race to the Top: How to Take Over the Social Media Feed:

“A man’s worth is solely determined by the number of likes his Facebook posts get“⁵

So point number one is that narcissists are over-represented for two reasons. The first is that they seem to collect more friends online. The second is that the algorithm tends to choose for them in the feed thinking that you actually want to hear from them.

Social Media Feeds Narcissistic Tendencies

What Facebook does do is provide a platform for narcissists to maintain their inflated perception of themselves. It consistently satiates their craving for attention and promotes shallow relationships. A narcissist and a narcissist walk into the bar….

Regret

What needs to be considered is the effect of posting while aroused. In a fascinating study by Jonah Berger he had participants either sit still or jog on the spot for 60s. They were then presented an unrelated news article with the choice to email or not email. The group who jogged shared the information more often.⁶ What he showed was that physiological arousal of the autonomic nervous system will increase peoples propensity to share even if the material is unrelated.

So maybe people don’t know why they are sharing material. What can be viewed as narcissistic may be caused by a heightened arousal state stemming from something completely unrelated. In fact in another study participants that regretted making posts cited reasons such as “it’s cool”, “it’s funny”, “venting frustration”, “good intentions”, or “I didn’t think about it”. The author also noted that many of the users who regretted making posts did so in highly emotional states or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.⁷

Facebook Therapy

It’s also possible that Facebook has become the source of therapy for the person you used to believe was a narcissist. Low emotionally stable people sometimes have a difficult time sharing with people offline because they are socially apprehensive.² It’s even been suggested that sharing can boost well-being short term by increasing perceived social support⁸ which is a stronger predictor of well-being than received social support. ⁹

In a number of studies also done by Jonah Berger he showed that low emotionally stable people microblogged more frequently and shared their emotions more often than others. He concluded that self-disclosure on online social networks is easier and less threatening than offline disclosure.¹⁰

Oh and by the way. Microblogging has also been shown to offer a less costly alternative to regulatory behaviors. This includes indulgent eating¹¹, nicotine, and alcohol consumption.¹²

So the next time you look up and down your feed don’t do so condescendingly. Maybe Jennifer is posting pictures because it curbs her indulgent eating habits and it’s not to tease you. And as for Jim. Maybe he’s taking pictures of himself shirtless because he isn’t emotionally stable and is socially apprehensive.

Below I’ve included all the references for those who want more on these subjects. Make sure to add me to Facebook and comment below and please share. 

References:

¹Spar DL. 2001. Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet. New York: Harcourt.
²Bargh J and McKenna Y.A., 2004. The Internet and Social Life. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004. 55:573-90
³Kiesler S, Siegel J, McGuire T. 1984. Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communcation. Am. Psychol. 39:1129-34
⁴Buffardi E, Campbell K. 2008. Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2008 34:1303
⁵Goodman J. 2012. Race to the Top: How to Take Over the Social Media Feed. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
⁶Berger J. 2011. Arousal Increases Social Transmission of Information. Psychological Science 2011 22:891.
⁷Wang Y., Norcie G., Komanduri S., Acquisti A., Giovanni Leon P., Cranor L. 2011. I regretted the minute I pressed share’: A qualitative Study of Regrets on Facebook. Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). July 20-22.
⁸Barrera, M. 1986. Distinctions Between Social Support Concepts, Measures, and Models. American Journal of Community Psychology. 14 (August) 416-15.
⁹Wethington, E. and Kessler C. 1986. Perceived Support, Received Support, and Adjustment to Stressful Life Events. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour. 27 (March) 78-89.
¹⁰Buechel E.,Berger J., (Under Review). Facebook Therapy? Why Do People Share Self-Relevant Content Online?
¹¹Andrade E. 2005. Behavioural Consequences of Affect: Combining Evaluative and Regulatory Mechanisms. Journal of Consumer Research. 32 (December), 355-62.
¹²Gross J. and Thompson R. 2007. Emotional Regulation: Conceptual Foundations. Handbook of Emotion Regulation. Guilford Press, 3-26.

I also want to thank my friend Jen Comas Keck for the impetus to write this article with her piece called Social Media: Friend of Foe to Our Self-Image?

Photo Credits: whatleydude

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$50 to write out 6 ab exercises with no right or wrong answer? Hmm, let me see. Side plank, push up plank, leg raise, low to high chop, high to low chop, and a med ball thruster (insert 3-4 lines on why each exercise is awesome that I arbitrarily made up here…) I’ll wait for my cheque in the mail.

Why Do You Write?

I do it to find my voice and explore my thoughts. You (the reader) are my focus group. I take meticulous notes as to how my writing is received and get better with each blog post.

I do it because of the introspection it gives me into my own thoughts. Take an hour and attempt to systemize a piece of your practice onto paper. You’ll be surprised at how much you know and disturbed at how many places you find that need improvement.

I’ve been writing for free for over 10 years. This is my 4th blog and I have piles of notebooks filled with my musings that will never be published. So I guess you could say I’ve been writing for free for a long time. 

Here’s some of the free writing I did and continue to do:

Interpersonal relationships – Since high school I’ve taken notes on interactions with family members, friends, colleagues, and strangers. I try to track the conversation and figure out how it got from point A to B to C to Z. The goal is to figure out how effective I felt I was in the conversation. If I don’t conclude that I got my point across or offered sufficient value to the other person I write down how I could have done it better. (Note: For anybody who wants to know more about offering value to another person you must read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Actually, you must read it if you’re a human being for more points than I can mention.)

Client Relationships – Almost every one of the concepts from “Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to a Successful Personal Training Career” came from my own practice. Since client one I took notes after every session. Sometimes it was a couple points and others it was pages. If the client adhered to my programming I wrote why I thought it happened. If they didn’t I wrote ideas to try and get a better outcome. When researching for “Ignite the Fire” I discovered that much of what had been found in conventional research supported my systems. Years of introspection and writing for free allowed me to come to the same conclusions as expensive and time-consuming research.

Reading – In my previous post, “The Artist as a Reader“, I wrote that people read too much. I still believe that. As I grow older (and hopefully wiser) I read less but focus more. I skim through the 200 pages of “supporting materials” (or as I like to call it, fluff) and find the 20 pages of value. I’ll read over the value-dense sections multiple times and again, write for free, taking notes on the concept and how I might be able to apply it. (Note that this is what lead me to make “Race to the Top: How to Take Over the Social Media Feed” 98 pages. I could have easily stretched it to 200+ but focused on information and left out the fluff.)

Management – Every interaction I had with my various managers or bosses I documented in a similar fashion. Here I wrote whether I thought it was a positive or negative experience and how I might have preferred them to handle the issue. Quickly I realized that my inability to take others direction doesn’t mesh well with working for a gym.

Your Blog

The blogosphere is a third-world economy. Few are very very rich, almost nobody exists in the middle, and everybody else is making pennies if that. Opportunities exist via promoting various products or creating your own. Unfortunately few have the combined skill and determination to make a go of it. You must put 100% of your focus into your blog if you want to follow this path. If it’s a secondary or even tertiary venture in an attempt to supplement your income I suggest you look elsewhere.

You should blog and write for free. The number one way to fail is to write what you think others want to see and not what you want to write. Stop caring if anybody else reads your work and use it as a tool for introspection into your own business. Try to put your methods into writing and watch as it magically organizes your thoughts.

What it Takes to Make Money Writing

Pundits will scream from the rooftops telling me that writers are being abused and they should demand to be paid for their work. In a recent conversation with my good friend Lou Schuler we agreed that most writers aren’t good enough to be paid yet. Writing is a skill that needs to be learned.

What would you say if a writer decided to spend a weekend and get certified as a trainer? Worse yet, what if they then proceed to teach the client to rep out sets of sissy squats on a smith machine? Would they deserve to be paid as a trainer?

Hell no, you’d scream foul.

I’ve got bad news for you. It’s the same shit. You’re stepping into the writer’s gym and metaphorically asking to be paid for repping out sets of sissy squats. It takes practice to get good. At the bottom of this post I’ve laid out some of my favourite resources if you want to improve but know it takes time and a lot of deliberate practice. (It also helps if you have somebody like Lou to bug and give you feedback. Thanks and sorry Lou.)

So Should You Write For Free?

Yes and you should do it as often as you can. Not because you aim to be paid for your writing. I’ve got bad news for you. Even if you do get paid it won’t make you rich and you will probably make more doing something else with the hours it takes to compose a decent article.

You should write for free because of the introspection it gives you. It will make you look deeper into what you do and give you the ability to verbalize your thoughts through conversation better.

So stop crying foul that writers are being taken advantage of. The reality is that it’s become a game of quantity over quality for online publishers and most of their content isn’t worth the computer ink it’s printed on. Stop pushing to get your work published and focus on what your writing is teaching you. Use that you make yourself better. Take it from me, you’ll be blown away by how far that will take you.

Oh and in case you were wondering, I turned down the offer to write the article on the top 6 ab exercises and decided to write this for free instead because I felt like it.

Must-Have Resources For Anybody With the Slightest Interest in Writing (but only if you’re willing to do it for free)

On Writing Well - William Zinsser (Or as I like to call it — The most powerful weapon in a writers arsenal)

The Elements of Style – E.B. White and William Strunk (The ultimate reference guide to make sure you avoid embarrassing mistakes. There are grammar Nazi’s everywhere. Read this to put them in their place.)

The Aha! Moment: A Scientist’s Take on Creativity – David Jones (I’m going to do a whole blog post on this book later but I loved it. The guy did a full scientific breakdown on creativity — where it comes from and how to use it — and it’s brilliant. I learned a lot about myself from this read.

BONUS from Lou Schuler

When I wrote this article last week I sent it to Lou to ask his thoughts. Not surprisingly they were brilliant so I wanted to also share them with you. Enjoy,

[Lou enters]

As you can imagine, my own view of writing is more nuanced. I think there’s a process, which I compare to learning a sport like basketball.

Writing a blog about whatever is the equivalent of practicing shots in your driveway. You spend some time on free throws, and you also screw around with trick shots that you’d never use in a game. But if you want to get good, at some point you have to play with others. Writing for pay is the equivalent of joining a team. You have someone else calling the plays, and if you want to stay on the team you have to run those plays.

I think both have value. You won’t learn the sport if you don’t practice on your own. You won’t enjoy the sport if you don’t allow yourself the freedom to throw up some crazy shots in your driveway, just to see if one of them goes in. But you won’t progress if you don’t learn the rules of the game, whether it’s basketball or publishing.

The analogy falls apart if you look at it closely. It’s entirely possible to have a successful writing career without ever playing on someone else’s team. But I still think most writers should at least try it, if for no other reason to conclude they aren’t interested in playing by those rules.

To use yet another analogy, it’s similar to trainers telling novice lifters that they should at least know what rules they’re breaking when they decide to create their own training systems rather than using proven ones.

[Lou exits stage left]

[Jon again]

Hope you enjoyed Lou’s two cents here. If you don’t know Lou. He’s pretty much the man when it comes to writing for fitness and is the author of the incredibly successful New Rules series.

Lou Schuler is also the author of How to Get Published: Writing Domination in the Fitness Industry. I love this book and encourage you to check it out and buy a copy. There’s a 60 day money-back guarantee which you won’t use but it gives you some security.

You’ve seen 2 sides of the coin. What do you think? Should you write for free? Comment below and, as always, please share.

Photo creditsOlivander Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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You could argue that Hornsby did more to win ball games than Ruth did. We’ve all seen Moneyball. Base runners win ball games. But Ruth sure did hit a lot of dingers. And isn’t that what matters? Dingers. When I go to the ball park I want to see a guy hit dingers, not singles. (In the following article you’ll be exposed to a wide variety of uses for the word “dinger”. It just… has this ring to it. A certain je nu sais quoi. Say it a couple times and tell me if you don’t smile. Dinger DINger DINGER.)

Moving on…

So one of the players has had pigs and candy bars become synonymous with him (apparently the candy bar wasn’t actually named after him but people think it was). One of the players was voted, along with Muhammid Ali as being the most recognized athlete in America in 1993. And one of the players has a museam named after them. The other? Baseball aficionados know of him but other than that he’s been forgotten in the ethos of history. Nobody takes their picture beside him at the baseball hall of fame.

A couple things are funny here. 1) My brothers insanely large smile. 2) My haircut. 3) My swagger. 4) The fact that we both decided to wear our house league softball jerseys the day we visited the hall of fame.

Who would you rather be? The guy who gets on base a lot or the one who has two kids who would be better off winning a cute pageant pose in front of your picture years after your death?

Better get out start dinging

This article came about, as many do, from a question that was sent to me:

You and I are a little like Steve Stoute in that we just find observation of things really stimulating, and somehow learn to make serious cash off of that. (me too) I can relate to that sense that you feel so wise that you feel invincible, that nothing will ever goes wrong. Do you ever think how you will handle it mentally/physically/financially if one day everything decides to not work out at the same time? – N

It got me thinking just how many times I’ve screwed up and how few dingers I’ve hit. It also got me thinking how petrified I used to be to fail — now I don’t give a shit. I love to fail. It means I tried. Stick your head out of a window and 9 times out of 10 you get smoked by a road sign. That 10th time just happened to be the day when the Hawaiian Tropic bus rolls through your town. Guess what, they like your gusto and free-living attitude.

Next thing you know you’re at a roadside stop filling your pockets with phone numbers. Hey, it could happen. Just think of all the free sunscreen you would get. After all, they’re just a bunch of girls concerned about sun safety.

The Babe Ruth Rule 

“Nobody remembers how many times you strike out. They only remember the dingers (home runs)”

This is another one of those shoot for the moon articles. Because if you miss you’ll end up in the stars (or at least smash the ball into them… Dingers!)

Everything I’ve done has been shrouded with doubt. At every step of the way there were forces telling me to stop and take the safe route. My life was comfortable. I worked with amazing people and made enough money. At any point I can go back into my old life and get a job at a gym training my clients not worrying about the outside world. I’d be hitting singles. I’d be Roger Hornsby. Instead I keep going deeper down the rabbit hole because a life without dingers isn’t a life worth living.

And in order to hit dingers (big towering dingers. Those dingers where all the fans win a free slice of pizza) you gotta strike out.

So let me tell you a couple places where I struck out:

• Failing in my first 2 blogs and no, I will not share them with you.
• Getting a frivolous lawsuit pushed against me that lasted 2.5 years. It was nonsense and went away but wasted a lot of my time.
• Damaged a facet joint in my low back trying to impress a girl with a heavy deadlift. I later realized that girls don’t care how much I deadlift, it’s the other way around.
• Being ignore by the first 10 publishers I approached with Ignite the Fire.
• Being ignored by all but one publishing agent I approached. That one who didn’t ignore me told me there was no market.
• Hiring an editor who did a shitty job and tried to cheat me out of money for Ignite the fire.
• 6 months of lying to myself that people were actually going to thePTDC.com where the reality was we were getting about 50 hits a day.
• Performing a site redesign and hiring a web designer who forgot to build a functioning site. What followed was a stressful period ending in threats of lawsuits.
• Being hated on. It makes me laugh now but when the first anonymous source sent me a message telling me they didn’t like my face it cut me deep.
• Despite the success of Ignite the Fire being told by literary agents that they were not interested in Race to the Top (at least more than one answered).
• Having to cash my only investment to follow through on the websites and books. Yes, it did flatten my savings but was worth every penny.
• I can go on and on and on…

Now let me tell you about a couple dingers I hit.

• Finding my editor Kelly James Enger through a referral from my good friend Brad Schoenfeld. I still don’t know how she did what she did.
• Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career. This was the dinger that started it all. The first time a college decided to include it in their circulum was a dinger. Todaywhen I heard it is going to be translated to German I ran onto my balcony and yelled DINGER. (That’s what happens when you hit a dinger that you don’t expect. It’s almost better that way. Kind of like hitting a 300ft dinger in Fenway along the right field long that curves around the foul pole).
• When my friend Nick Tumminello asked me to speak at his first ever Strength Cruise. Dingers in barbados! You better believe we were fist pumping and drinking dingers all night
• Having a full house at the first ever PTDC seminar.

So I struck out a lot but did you know of any of my failures until 30s ago? No. People remember the dingers.

So get out there and smack the tar off the ball

Strike outs come and go. Nobody cares. Stop allowing doubt to shroud your mind and focus on your dingers. They won’t happen without an insatiable desire to succeed.

Ignore the naysayers, haters, and the soothsayers. Your intuition is your compass. The world is trying to make you bat for average because it’s safer. Screw average. I want to see some dingers.

Write the word “DINGER” in the comment box below either using the Facebeook widget or comments. I want you to yell it with me. Everybody. Just write dinger. I want 30+ dinger comments here, not on my Facebook wall. Here. DINGERS DINGERS DINGERS.

photo credit: niallkennedy

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This past week I had two very popular articles. One was a controversial piece concerning Lance Armstrong’s decision to stop his fight (read the Lance Armstrong article here) and the other was one of my most popular articles from the archives that had a resurgence called “Why You’re Failing to Make a Difference” (read it here).

The result was an influx of Facebook friend requests, which I welcome. I add everybody that requests me unless they fall under the following 3 categories:

1. Robots. They’re generally easy to pinpoint. They take on the persona of A) A picture of a women who physically could not look the way she does. I picture a lonely man getting his jollies by tweaking a pic in photoshop of a model.  If I feel she’s more than a 42-18-42 I tend to ignore the request. or B) The wall’s an advertisement for iPads.

2. The Diamond. Ah the multi-tier marketer reached diamond status. Congratulations on your BMW. Hope you enjoy the rigid suspension. What somebody has to do to reach diamond status is beyond me. What I do know is that they can’t wait to tell me about an amazing opportunity to make $5,000 a day from home with no work.

So yeah, for those of you who call me every day because of the power of thePTDC‘s mailing list. I’ll say this once and for all, “I know that I could make a lot of money by putting myself at the top of the pyramid. I just flat out don’t like what you’re doing and wish no part in it. No hard feelings. I’ll try my luck getting rich my own way. I’d appreciate if you stop sending me a Facebook message, email, tweet, linkedin(apparently people still use that), and phone call on the same day.”

3. The Sex Me Up. If the person has a foreign name and less than 100 friends they inevitably fall into this category. I’ve nothing against foreign people but it seems to be common practice for me to get messages saying “I like to sex you” whenever I accept these friendships. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against being sexed. You’re just too far away. It’s at least a 14hr flight to get to me where you are. If I really wanted to get sexed in a day and half I’d probably go to a bar or club and try my luck.

So I add you

I love meeting fitness pros and anybody interested in social media around the world. So — nice to meet you. To consummate our new friendship I will post on your wall with a simple “thanks for connecting” and personalize it with your name. It’s rare that I know who you are but presumably you know me through a mutual friend or my blog. That’s cool. This is my invitation to say hello. Make your move. Tell me where you know me from.

1 of 3 things usually happens here:

1. Nothing. Blank. Zip. Zippo. Why’d ya add me? I just wanna chat. I’m harmless. Well, not quite. I’m going to try and sell you stuff eventually. But only good stuff and it will be cheap and value-packed. If you read it I promise it will make you a lot more than you spent. so come on…. talk to me. No? Ok. baiii. #bigwave

2. You “like” my message. Ok. Subtle but I know what you mean. You’re sneaky. Trying to play it cool and shit. But I’m on to you.

3. You respond back saying something like, “hey man. I read your article on ____ and enjoyed it. I wanted to connect. Great to meet you”. Wow. Cool. That’s an honor that you took the time to read my stuff and reach out. Great to meet you. I feel as if we’re on our way to a mutually beneficial relationship. I will now take a look on my own accord into what you do as you’ve proven to me that you’re not failing at Facebook.

But sometimes you cup a feel on the dance floor

Yeah I made the first move. I said hi. Gave you a smile. Maybe even a head nod. I start my approach. Subtle and slow or else I may trip. This strobe light is tripping me out. But you take my initiative to mean something more. I’m not fancy but I liked to be wined and dine a bit.

So this is when you say, “great to connect. Look at my shit”. Or worse yet, “hi, please like my page because I’m so desperate for social proof that I am willing to beg”. (Ok, I made that last part up.)

Do you really want a stranger who doesn’t care about you to “like” your page. This is the worse kept secret on the internet. You can buy 1000s of “likes” for $40. So go ahead and get fake people to like your page. That way you can show off to the anonymous trolls how popular you are. You are missing one point though…

The goal is to get people to buy your stuff

As I explain in the Amazon bio for my book Race to the Top: How to Take Over the Social Media Feed it doesn’t matter how many “likes” you have or twitter followers you boast. What matters is whether they buy your stuff.

I’m going to paraphrase my friend John Romaniello here, “People don’t buy coaching they buy coaches”. Well want to know what else? People don’t buy products, they buy companies.

Here’s a dose of reality. What you are doing has been done before and is being done by others, probably better than you. People will buy from you because they like you. So build and foster relationships. If somebody has been supporting me by “liking” my posts, commenting, sending me constructive feedback, or referring my stuff to others I will check them out. I will “like” their page. And I will support them if they ever sell anything. I do this because we have built a relationship.

Perfect timing

Guess what popped in my Facebook inbox as I was typing this? You guessed it. More nonsense. Enjoy:

By the way, want to understand why your seemingly unpopular friend has 20,000 followers on twitter? Here’s how.

So please add me on Facebook. Just don’t try to sell me on your program, supplement, website, or eBook until we’ve had at least 3 dates.

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Note: I sat down and wrote this immediately after arriving home from training my final client. After 8 years in the fitness industry I have switched to full-fledged internet entrepreneurship. This was not something I expected or planned for. It just happened and wasn’t fair to me or my clients to fight it. That night I got home I couldn’t move. I sat and composed this letter still in my sweaty training gear for 3 hours — then stared at the screen.

I’ve always been better at expressing my thoughts through writing. Considering the circumstances I thought this was the most appropriate medium to express my gratitude. Here’s the letter:

—————————————————

In the past 3 years alone I have trained 140 people and enjoyed 4,316 client hours. Since 2^nd year University I have worked in a gym a minimum of 25hrs a week. I have trained 1 on 1, group, indoor, outdoor, and in-home. I have also managed trainers and presented workshops nationally and internationally.

It’s been an amazing run but the journey has come to an end. For 2.5 years I juggled writing a book and training full time. I was able to maintain personal training for another 2 years while starting up a blog, then a website, then another book, then another website. The long hours weren’t what forced me to stop. I loved both jobs and being around my amazing clients energized me.

I always promised myself that the minute I felt like somebody else could do a better job than I, I would quit. This is what forced me to make the decision to stop personal training. It pains me to admit that I didn’t do a good job for the past 6 months. I’m sorry and you deserve better than that. My focus was elsewhere. When I was training you I did not give you 100% of my attention, I did not think about you in between workouts, and I didn’t plan your workouts in advance as well as I should of. This bothered me day and night and led to a number of breaking points. I no longer felt pride in my work.

That’s why I had to quit.

I want to thank you for everything you have given me. You have been my source of strength and inspiration, not just my income. Being a part of many of your transformations has given me more joy than I could have ever hoped to give you. On days where I felt worn down you always gave me the energy to pick myself back up. We had serious conversations, joked around (a lot), danced (badly), and you taught me how to count (at least you tried). Heck, we even debated religion.

Some of you have become dear friends, some mentors, and others business partners. You have taught me more than I could ever dream of teaching you. You have referred me to the best doctors, lawyers, and accountants in the city. You have provided me a sounding board to bounce all of my crazy ideas off of. You always listened and helped me make sense of whatever I was plotting up next.

It was my job to support and guide you. Yet you were the ones who convinced me to write a book. You were the ones who convinced me to abandon my plan of formal schooling. You were the ones who taught me how to manage my time and money. You were the ones who helped me through some difficult break-ups.

These past 8 years have been incredible and I owe it all to you. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey,

-Jon

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I don’t care

You may not agree with me and you might get downright pissed off with what I’m about to say. I don’t care that Lance Armstrong and these other men took steroids. I don’t watch sport for the beauty of the endeavor. The amateur ideals since day 1 of the modern Olympics held in Greece was a crock of shit. The fact that the Olympics are still hailed for the beauty of sport is inane. In Canada at least these are athletes who are ignored by their country for 4 years. Many of their families are bankrupted by their sport in their attempt to succeed.

Yet, when Canada wins a bronze medal in 3 meter synchronized diving I’m supposed to have Canadian pride despite the fact that I didn’t know the sport existed until 5 minutes after they won? I have been friends with numerous great Olympians. None of them won a medal. The one commonality is that all of them struggled financially up to and after the Olympics. Have a read through my good friend Alexandra Orlando’s awesome book Breaking Through My Limits: An Olympian Uncovered to see what Olympians actually go through (she also set the record for gold medals on the Commonwealth Games). Sport is not beautiful in its ideals people so let’s stop being tricked into thinking it is.

Sport is beautiful in its accomplishment. The joy of being a spectator is seeing what these superhuman’s can achieve. I don’t care what country they are from. My national pride isn’t garnered by a diver, long jumper, or even a hockey team. My national pride comes from low crime rates, free health care, and a beautiful landscape (among other things).

Sport Sociology Time

Want a different view? Think about this. Sport is used by the Governments of the world to control the masses. If we’re concerned whether a Nascar driver can race around the track 500 times fast we stop caring about the inadequacies of the Governments that are spiraling the world economies into deeper and deeper holes.

While I admit that I enjoy sports (baseball mostly) I’ve thought long and hard and beg you to do the same. Why do you watch football on Sunday? And why do you care that somebody who you never met took steroids?

Read into a sport sociologist named Jean-Marie Brohm. Much of his work is in French but you can get some good translations. He’s taken marxist theories and applied them to sport.

Here are 3 of his main thoughts straight from the Wikipedia page:

1) Sport is not simply sport but a means of government, a means of pressure on public opinion and a mode of ideological framing of the populations and of parts of the youth, and this in all countries of the world, in totalitarian countries as well as in so called democratic countries. This was noticeable during the big political events which were the Olympic Games in Moscow, the soccer championship in Argentina and, more recently, in France.

2) Sport has become a sector of accumulation of wealth, money, and therefore also of capital. It attracts considerable amounts of money; I would even say today it is the most spectacular showcase of the globalized society of commodities. Sport has become a key commodity of this society.

3) The last point, the ideological aspect properly speaking. Sport constitutes a political body, a space of ideological investment in gestures and movements. You can see this for example with Combat sports. It’s also an ideological valorisation of efforts via asceticism, training, self-sacrifice; sport is presented as an ideological model. Sport institutes a bodily order founded on the management of sexual drives and aggressive impulses; insofar as it seems that sport is a form of social appeasement, social integration, reducing violence, allowing fraternity; this type of discourse to me is a load of muddled illusions and mystifications. We have therefore scrutinized sport starting from these three viewpoints: political, economical, and ideological.”

Back to Steroids

Another statement by Brohm which I agree with  is that when an athlete becomes a professional he no longer has ownership of his body. Similar to Karl Marx theory of the Bourgeois being the controlling society the athletes body is now owned by their coaches, team owners / managers, and the fans who pay to see them perform.

When I watch sports I want to see an athlete jump higher, bike faster, and hit baseballs farther. I don’t care how they do it. Back in 1998 I was mesmerized by the home run battle between Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Ken Griffey Jr. Although my boy Griffey ended up losing out it was an epic battle. I don’t care (and neither did the rest of the world) that they took steroids. I wanted to see these guys smash home runs, and smash they did. It was years later that the world decided to care during the first baseball inquest. Now it’s an all-out witch hunt ruing careers at every turn.

For all those who believe that these great men (and sometimes women’s) achievements are due to steroids I’ll give you a dose. See if you can accomplish a fraction of what they did. So what if Barry Bonds head has grown 8 hat sizes since his rookie year?

He’s still an incredible athlete. The roids gave him an edge. He wasn’t the only one taking them at the time yet still become arguably the best home run hitter in baseball history.

When I go to a ball game or watch sports on tv (which happens less and less these days) I want to see the extremes. I don’t care about the beauty of sport I want to see dingers. I want to see bigger, faster and stronger — no matter how it’s achieved.

For everybody who is going to comment and hate on me in this post I have two questions for you:

1. How much do you care about the athletes you gain national pride watching them synchronize dive in the Olympics as little as a month after competition? Do you even remember their names?

2. How much do you care about the long-term health of the athletes you watch on tv. Let’s assume that steroids cause long-term negative effects? After you see a guy hit a home run or set a record and post about it on Facebook do you think about it 2 weeks later. Do you ever stop to think about what these athletes are doing in their old age or how they may be suffering? I’ve got bad news for you. Most professional football players are so beat up after their careers they can hardly walk. Given that the average football career is 2 years and most don’t have educations (even those that played in the NCAA has lacklustre degrees) their lives are tarnished by sport. Do you care or even think about them?

What about the kids?

I agree it’s a problem for the kids coming up in the ranks thinking that they have to take steroids to compete. Knowing a lot of young athletes I’ve got bad news for you. It’s rampant and not going to change anytime soon. There is no solution for it. Vilifying great athletes and taking away their achievements because they were the unlucky ones who got caught isn’t going to change anything.

Here’s my solution. How about parents around the world start teaching the love of movement instead of the never ending search for accolades and trophy’s?

Exercise is a beautiful thing and I believe that the love of movement is the most important thing we can instill in future generations. Sport is always going to a means of controlling the masses. At the top tiers there will always be efforts to cheat and gain a competitive edge. Caffeine was once made illegal in some sports. How stupid is that? It cannot be controlled. There will always be more money and motivations in cheating the systems than in controlling it.

It’s not up to WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) or anybody else to control steroids in sport. They will never be able to do it anyway. It’s up to the parents of kids to recognize what’s more important. So I ask you what’s more important? A trophy or a lifetime of movement, proper education, and a healthy appetite for independent thought.

So about Lance Armstrong

Let’s assume Armstrong took steroids (although nothing has actually been proven). Who cares? Let’s celebrate the achievements of this great athlete. What he accomplished in his career was unparalleled. The same goes for Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens, and any other athlete who has been vilified for their use of PED’s (Performance Enahancing Drugs). They are illegal because some overarching agency decided that they shouldn’t be allowed. If creatine were discovered today I’m willing to bet it would be called performance enhancing and made illegal by some organisations because of the unfair advantage it gives. Gaming the system isn’t going anywhere. It’s just being forced to morph.

So let’s throw out the ideals of sport and call it what it really is — Bigger, Faster and Stronger.

A note for comments. Share your thoughts. I encourage them but please keep it productive. Those that aren’t productive will not be published. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Photo credit: Vélocia

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