IT JUST HAPPENED

The health and fitness industry is niching down in a big way. The market is beginning to refuse the one-size fits all approach. Within each niche small sub-cultures emerge; the sports models don’t hang out with the CrossFit athletes and each has developed their own language and tribe.

But, with experience as diverse as mine, I really struggled to work out what niche to belong to.

I had tried it all. Elite sport, the uber-wealthy, kids, post-surgery rehab, pregnant mums, models, females that wanted to look like models and workplace accident victims. Each experience was significantly different from the last.

I believe that growth happens in short but intense spurts rather than a constant rate over time. In our development, the important variable is not time, but key moments that shape our future.

Each niche provided an intense learning period. The contrast of the skills that I developed to be successful makes me a great all-rounder. I can hold my own in any niche.

But, similar to when an athlete can play any position, they become a specialist at none. They are always picked in the team but often left on the bench.

That is what has happened to my career. I had hit a flat spot. Success and exciting opportunities arrived quickly, but I had become frustrated as my upward trajectory began to level out.

Disillusioned with my lack of progress I hired a coach. That key moment that would shape my future would soon follow. My coach welcomed me with a simple question:

“Who benefits the most from your skills and expertise?”

What is your niche? A keen student of marketing, I had heard this question before. What I didn’t have was a concrete answer. I knew I didn’t want to work with the sporting elite. I told him that improving a person’s bench press by 20% doesn’t excite me. I am looking for a greater challenge.

I want to work with the people who are lost. To help them become the person they have stopped believing can still exist. The ones who had gone so far down a path of ill-health that they didn’t know how to retrace their steps to a life of health and happiness.

This lesson in niching isn’t revolutionary or something new. But, it was something I needed. After each previous attempt, it had become the kind of advice you know you need to take but are yet to act on.

The answer to his question was simple. The person who benefits the most from my skills and expertise is the overweight male executive. For a multitude of reasons, I had been most successful with overweight males in their forties.

They had successful careers and were married with kids. But, their weight made it hard to keep up and it was the focus of constant nagging from their family.

Getting people to lose weight was the best way I knew how to help those who were lost. To allow them to believe the person they wanted to become can still exist. But, when uncovering this I hesitated.

I didn’t want to be part of the weight loss industry. I don’t need to tell you why. You know. The industry is full of sharks and scams. I just didn’t want to be a part of it. I hate programs that sell you the world and then hedge their bets with the disclaimer ‘individual results may vary’.

It just isn’t me.

If I were going to be a part of the weight loss industry I would have to do it my way. The only way I could be happy doing this is to guarantee the result. So I made a decision that:

1. Everyone that does the Executive Athlete program must lose 20kg.
2. But it’s bigger than that, once they lose the 20kg, they must keep it off for life.

A lot of people I have mentioned this to tell me that I am setting myself up for failure. They tell me that people will let you down. That may be true, only time will tell.

But if this is not the first thought when designing this program. If this isn’t the guiding principle, I can’t be in this industry. I can’t stand back and say that I am proud of this program. That is what is most important to me.

That is how the Executive Athlete program was born. I am so glad I have found my niche. It wasn’t what I ever intended.

It just happened.