Coaches say the darndest things for marketing

It’s easy to forget who your customer is and what they want from you. 

Especially when you are compelled to compete for attention. 

The easiest cop-out? Telling your client they are fine as they are and the route they take to become fitter does not matter. Or that you can be healthy at any body fat level. 

Details matter. It matters what exercises you pick. It matters how much of an exercise you do. It matters that your coach is willing to be honest with you and help you figure out how to sustain hard-to-acquire habits. Your coach should be willing to hang in there with you as you figure out the hard problems: be it pain, eating habits, moves you dislike, exercises that are hard to get better at. 

And if they tell you the tool is irrelevant and that all that matters is that you move. And if you are overweight, they are unwilling to tow the unpopular line that better body composition can really uplift quality of life. They’re either lying or telling you what you want to hear so you give them money. 

Takeaway 

Here’s my service: I think most of us are eating too much food and not enough fiber or protein. We forget to drink enough water. We have no understanding of how much energy we consume relative to our requirement. I think most of us move too little. And most of us lack physical strength that can make us independent in our day to day life. Learning to squat well, move your hips and learning to push, pull and carry objects is useful. And there is wide, varied and scalable world of exercises that is exciting and fun when delivered well. And we don’t fight hard enough for a good night’s sleep. 

My job is to tell you that these things matter even if you don’t want to hear it. Worse yet, when you are doing obviously counterproductive things, I should be the one holding up a mirror and telling you remember these priorities. Instead if I cheer you on as you behave poorly, the only masters I serve is your ego and my revenue stream.