| Focus November 1, 2002
The Business of Being Fit
There seems to be a common thread through every "how
to promote yourself as a fitness competitor" article and that is the advice to spend
at least half the amount of time each week in promoting yourself as you spend in training.
When you consider that advice, it makes logical sense. After all, let’s assume the
novice competitor spends four hours a week at the gym, one hour at a dance class and one
hour at gymnastics. That’s a total of six hours. Now, if you apply the theory about
spending half of that training time promoting yourself, it would give you three hours of
self-promotion per week. Although it doesn’t seem like much, as with your fitness
training schedule, every little bit counts. And now that most of us are in the off-season,
it’s all the more reason to commit some extra time to marketing yourself.
Let’s face it: Today’s fitness competition is
hot. It takes more than just a pretty face, a hard physique, and a good routine to stand
out. It takes a distinguishable trait or flair that other competitors, judges, and the
general fitness world recognize as uniquely your own. That’s where promotion and a
good business sense come in.
Some Canadian competitors are recognizing the need to stand
out and have found creative ways to do this. Sandra Wickham (Medium class winner of the
2002 CBBF Canadian Fitness Championships) built her own self-promotional website and advertised the fact
by sending a media release to a well-known fitness magazine. Sandra also has a regular
self-promotional newsletter which she e-mails to a mailing list. The newsletter includes
updates on her training, future competition plans, etc. What better way to reach out to
the mass media, other competitors, sponsors, and potential sponsors without even having to
leave your house or pick up the phone?
Another prime example of effective self-marketing is IFBB
Pro Kary Odiatu. Kary is known as the fitness queen in the Winnipeg media scene because of
her consistent influence and involvement in the local health and fitness industry. When
Kary started out, she would approach media with interesting health- and fitness-related
story ideas that they would regularly follow up. Now, the local media approach her. This
has helped her career tenfold as a fitness competitor, author, motivational speaker, and
consultant. How do you think she landed her invite to the Arnold Classic during her first
year as a pro? She made regular contact with the promoters of the show and let them know
about updates in her training, media appearances, etc. Her marketing skills and fitness
experience have earned her appearances on Canada AM, several national and
international magazines and an upcoming appearance on TSN’s SCORE.
Even at novice shows, the business side of the sport is
evolving. Doug Schneider attended a competition in Ontario earlier this year and noted
some competitors came equipped with business cards, promoting themselves as fitness
competitors and models. Some competitors bring complete sponsorship packages to
competitions. Shows are a great way to network with the business community and an
excellent way to check out what there is in terms of potential sponsorship. It only makes
sense to go prepared.
The best thing about self-promotion is that there are no
limits to what you can do. There are many ways to reach mass audiences and it doesn’t
have to cost a fortune. The biggest expense is your time, which, as competitors, you know
is already very scarce. But, when you consider the benefits, can you really afford not to
spend the time to get your name out there?
...Denyse Johnson
denyse@seriousaboutfitness.com |
