Who’s the Face of Your Brand
Are they drawing major interest to your products? People may forget a name, but they never forget a face…if it’s the right face. What can you do to identify a new fitness trainer who possesses that special magic that will help connect your brand to consumers in a more profound way. Who has the potential to be the next big celebrity trainer? Where can your company find them? There are no hard and fast rules, but here are some strategies that work.
TAKE CLASSES
Get out there and get into the fray. Read every industry review you can find like Shape’s “Best List”, tune your ears into the fitness buzz because 46 million Americans over the age of 12 are regular podcast listeners who may be hearing what you’re not,, and get your butt into the classes that people are beginning to talk about. Who is the hot new spin instructor? (Shh…we hear it’s Joann Veger in Miami) People are talking and they’re lining up for the best spots to get in in front of the most charismatic fitness experts. You should join them. When someone tweets, blogs, instagrams, Pins a great class they took last night, you take it tonight.
LOOK AT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU
What if you’ve exhausted every class you’ve heard about? You still go to the gym, but turn your attention to the regular people working out. Incredible trainers and athletes workout at gyms and you could be working out next to Ben Booker of Second Chance Fitness who is as homespun and humble as he can be, works out in regular gyms…oh and has perfected his own workout that can get a person ripped in a quarter of the time that some other extreme workouts require. Take notice of the people who know what they’re doing, introduce yourself and ask them to take you through their personal workout. Do they have star potential?
AUDITIONS
If taking classes isn’t feasible, then bring the talent to you. This can be frustrating because casting directors are tempted to send people with great bodies who aren’t trainers. You can spend time watching hot people with bad form and no expertise, so it’s a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor, but it’s that 0.5% that you’re looking for. And keep an open mind. Cody Storey of Storey Fitness in Los Angeles tells the surprising story that he auditioned for a fitness company years ago and didn’t get the job. He’s incredible and his TacFit training translates beautifully to video as is evident in his DailyBurn workout series. Why didn’t he get the gig? He explains that he was auditioning for a discipline that wasn’t in his wheelhouse. So the company he was auditioning for had the opportunity to make note of an incredible trainer to grow their brand. To use a fishing analogy, they were trying to catch a tuna and a marlin swam into their net. To that point, anything can happen in auditions so they’re worth the time and logistical effort.
In the end, there’s no magic formula that will make the next fitness icon appear in your office. You have to get out there and find them, and when you do, the magic happens.