About 3 years ago I got a call on my voice mail while I was training a client. It was from some guy in Toronto who was starting a website for trainers to teach business practices to other trainers or something like that (it was the PTDC.com. Check it out when you get a chance). I was busy, and I think I left it on my voice mail for a day or so before I gave him a call back.
This didn’t stop him from calling, emailing, calling reception at my club, or probably Google Mapping my coordinates with some sort of new-fangled technology I didn’t even know existed. I made up the last part, but only part of the other parts.
When we finally connected, he introduced himself as Jon Goodman (not the actor from Roseanne), and said he was looking to have me contribute some articles to a website he was just starting up, and that he wasn’t able to pay, but it could lead to bigger things down the road.
It was essentially like having Bagger Vance appear out of no where with nothing to offer and saying he could help you win the golf tournament and the hand of the damsel. I already had a damsel, but the offer was both minimal and disappointing, and somehow intriguing.
I gave him a shot and wrote a few articles for the site. At that point I was just beginning this little blog, and having someone who wanted me to write for them to increase my digital foot print was like a massive gift, even if it didn’t provide any kind of compensation.
In the coming months, Jon became a one-man networking machine, recruiting some of the top trainers in the industry to write small articles (and sometimes epic ones) for the PTDC. He quickly built it into a site that generated a ton of buzz across the industry, and became sort of like a trainers version of T-Nation for the business development side of things.
He quickly amassed a massive social networking following and email list of people looking to get more information, then started to give away compilation pieces for free to those who signed up for his email member list, and provided more free content than anyone ever should. Within a short period of about a year, he had enough of a network to launch his first book, Ignite the Fire: The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career (the link takes you to a Kindle book that can be instantly downloaded, and if you’re not using a Kindle there’s a simple program that will let you read Kindle ready books on any device, and it’s free to download HERE).
He even asked me to contribute a little story, so there’s some good content on at least one page.
This book took off, with trainers and hopeful trainers picking up a copy all over the world. My bosses boss even came in for meetings and was just shooting the breeze with me saying he was reading the great new book called Ignite the Fire, at which point I went and grabbed my signed copy off my bookshelf, and flipped to my story inside it, which pretty much put his jaw on the floor.
Jon then went on to write a tome about how to improve your ability to be a force to reckon with on social media with Race to The Top: How to Take Over the Social Media Feed.
With 2 big selling books in print, Jon was officially kind of a big deal. All 5’5″, 155 lbs of him. We became good friends and he’s one of the most influential people in my career outside of the in-person training world. His success has lead to me being able to write for sites like T-Nation, Schwarzenegger.com, and helped me land speaking gigs across North America. I owe the dude a lot.
He started hosting seminars with some big names coming into his gym to speak on different things relating to fitness, training, business, etc. Last October he even invited me to come and speak. I should say, I emailed him and said “I’m coming to this, so make some room for me where ever you can.” This turned into the PTDC Becoming the Expert Seminar featuring him, me, and recent New York Times best-selling author John Romaniello. Some other luminaries speaking at the event include Lou Schuler (of “New Rules of Lifting” fame), Neghar Fonooni, Rog Law, Elsbeth Vaino, and Mark Young.
In real life, I’m very large and menacing.
When I got into Toronto for the seminar, Jon texted me and said to meet him on a specific street corner at 4pm with less than 30 minutes notice from the time I checked into the hotel. Not knowing the city well, I ventured out to see if this was going to be something cool like the first meeting in Oceans 11, or something incredibly horrific like the pledge kidnapping in Old School.
Standing on the corner of Yonge Street and Eglinton in downtown Torontoon a Friday afternoon, not knowing where I was or better, where the hell he was (he was now 25 minutes late for the 30 minute timeline), and pretty much fearing for my life (I live in Edmonton. If you’ve been here, you know what it could mean to stand on a street corner too long), Jon finally comes sauntering down the street to meet up with me.
We then walked back to his parents (I assumed) place where he was staying for a couple weeks while between residences. We chatted business, life, his attempts to date members of the opposite sex (I assumed), injuries, hockey, and pretty much anything else that comes up in the stream of conversation when two trainers with ADD start a talk. From there we went back to his gym to get in a lift before dinner. I was in a fasted state as I was trying something out to see how I traveled with minimal food (not well), and we proceeded to deadlift.
It was glorious.
From there we went on with a few other exercises, switching back and forth between different things. He had an obsession with arm exercises. I had an obsession with getting stronger. I had him do kneeling lat pulldowns which caused him to feel parts of his lats he didn’t know attached to other parts of his body.
After the workout the entire group was to meet for dinner at a Brazilian steak house. I’ll paint a picture for you: 15 fitness professionals, all big carnivores and protein connoisseurs, crushing various dead animals roasted to perfection served on freakin swords with copious amounts of salsa music playing in the back ground.
It was glorious.
The downside was that it was a Friday night and Jon conveniently forgot to make a reservation for a large group of hungry fitness professionals. Fail, Jon. Fail.
We showed up at 7:00, they couldn’t seat us until 9:30. Coming from a time zone 2 hours west, I was cool with that. We did eventually all get food and filled out tummies with succulent meats and grilled pineapple, all while Rog Law eyed up who he was going to front squat, or try to front squat, the next night.
After the seminar was over, Jon did what any sane businessman would do following the release of two successful books, hosting successful seminars, being asked to speak around the country, and running a consulting business in place of his personal training career.
He moved to Hawaii for 6 months to avoid the Canadian winter.
While many would view this giant departure as a big risk, stepping away from success to simplify life, Jon took it as an opportunity to focus his energy on producing content, setting up business interests and layers to his websites, and write like a demon. He set up the PTDC Inner Circle, which I was the first presenter to put together a webinar for, organized another PTDC seminar, this one on fat loss, and wrote another book.
His latest offering, The Online Personal TrainerBlueprint: Have More Freedom, Make More Money, Help More People, has shot to the Amazon top 1000 in less than one day, and as a digital download for the Kindle.
If you’re a trainer wondering how to get a foothold in developing an online business, this is required reading. If this was around when I started my website and online business, it would have saved a lot of lost time, headaches, late nights, and failed attempts to get systems developed that I could manage with minimal input.
He could have easily charged a lot more for this as an e-book through his own site and made a killing on it, but by putting it on Amazon as a digital download he can offer it for a significantly low price (less than 5 bucks right now), which means if you’re looking to get started, there’s no better time.
Let’s say you’re not even a trainer, but work in an industry where your services could potentially be delivered in a virtual manner. Nutritionists, life coaches, business coaches, consultants, and any number of professions could benefit from simple stategies to help them automate many aspects of their job, free up more time, and generate more leads to make more profits, which means the cross over to a book like this through different industries is incredibly invaluable.
I said it before when I reviewed Race to the Top on Amazon, but Jon is the Tim Ferriss of the fitness world. The way the 4 Hour Workweek became a dreamers escape from the 9-5, this will be the way anyone who is tired of chasing leads, working from dawn to dusk and barely scraping by will gravitate towards The Online Personal Trainer Blueprint.
I took a chance on Jon back in the day, and I’m glad I did. He’s one of the most humble, genuine and open individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, and also one of the hardest working guys who can churn out content like no other. If you don’t buy any of the products I’ve listed here, at least do yourself a favour and get to know Jon through Twitter or Facebook, especially if you’re a trainer or interested in developing a brand for yourself and your company.
You owe me one, Jon 😉
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