Three years after co-founding Fitocracy, we launched a new online coaching service to start bringing in money.
We needed a way to hook people in, but no one seemed interested.
It didnt make sense.
Well, let me take a look at the email youre sending to your users, he offered.
I forwardedwhat I then thoughtwas a good sales email.
I would soon learn that it wasnt.
Theres no deadline for the user to purchase.
Limit the group to 10 spots left and say that it ends in 24 hours.
Oh, also qualify everyone by saying that youre only looking for people who wantseriousresults.
His instructions seemed arbitrary and unnecessary.
Surely nobody would be gullible enough to be lured by a false impression of scarcity.
But I did what I was told, tweaking the email to talk about the groups limited nature.
I fired them off into the ether, not particularly convinced that anything would improve.
Within ten minutes of sending the new email, there was a sale.
A cascade of registrations flooded in.
We eventually had to turn down clients and started a waiting list.
It was a self-fulfilling prophecy; by faking scarcity, we had actuallycreatedit.
A simple tweet-sized change was enough to resurrect our marketing efforts.
Unfortunately fitness is one industry where its easier to make it as the latter.
In Fitness, Marketing Is Everything
Marketing in and of itself isnt necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately, marketing is everything for those out to make a name for themselves.
But this is the nature of the industry.
Expertise and experience are by no means correlated with success.
To the unsuspecting mainstream, theres an inherent assumption that popularity stems from ones knowledge and experience.
That assumption is completely wrong.
In fact, the only unanimous consensus among them is that celebrity personalities likeDr.
Oz,Tracy Anderson, andFood Babeare full of shit.
If you hear about a person or a product, it wasnt necessarily because their methods work.
Its because they marketed their ass off.
Most companies would employ run-of-the-mill SEO consultants or a social media manager thats barely out of college.
In fact, youve probably seen their ads before.
But lying to make a quick buck is neither new nor particular to fitness.
In fact, research shows that snake oil salesmen have been around since homo sapiens discovered snakes.
[Citation needed.]
The difference in the fitness world is that the gullible pay with their walletandtheir health.
In other industries, the potential irreparable damage to ones reputation might deter would-be snake oil salesmen.
But not in fitness, performers of these charades are rewarded by being perceived as gurus in their field.
Never trust a salesman without doing your due diligence.
Some will do anything for a quick buck.
They may be handsomely rewarded for it, too.
Dont Trust Your Eyes
One of the most common marketing scams is the before-and-after transformation picture.
Put those pictures side-by-side and you cant deny the results…right?
In reality, creating that six pack is ironically unsexy.
This may take years, or even decades.
Find a spokesperson thats already in great shape to promote it and claim that it was the products doing.
At first glance, Hydroxycut looks like quite the panacea for fat loss.
But in reality, this spokesperson is using a bodybuilding trick that the average Joes doesnt know about.
In bodybuilding, theres a concept called the cutting and bulking cycle.
The second picture is him on a cutting phase (weight loss phase focusing on losing fat).
In fact, many bodybuilders go through extreme physical changes fairly regularly.
In the industry, if your job is to look ripped, its common to take steroids.
But taking steroids for a bodybuilding contest is very different than taking it for the Tour de France.
(For context, the average male produces about three to sevenmilligramsper day.)
Legality aside, I see nothing wrong with others using steroids to further their physique.
Just like smoking or drinking, they should have the freedom to take that health risk.
Hell, I have many friends that are drug-assisted, and these substances actually allow them to work harder.
But the problem is that in fitness, steroids arent just used for personal reasons or bodybuilding shows.
Theyre used to lie to the unsuspecting mainstream.
Industry insiders sometimes play a game called natty or not?
Its because many who benefit from chemical assistance are discreet about it.
Their secrecy is no accident.
They are discreet because they then go on to promote a product.
The takeaway: Always look at transformations with skepticism.
But I dont actually fault them.
Theyre simplythe product of a broken industry.
In fact, by mid-October 2012, some consumers began to wisen up.
Communities like Reddits/r/fitnessbegan toscrutinize and refute a lot of industry garbagethrough the use of science.
It was the first time that the science of health and fitness was this easily consumable by normal people.
To some, this science was an incredibly powerfulalmost magicaltool.
It was evidence-based and objective, innocent and pure, only existing to inform and help you improve.
After all, how could science be anything else?
I first noticed a new punch in of science-based marketing after purchasing the diet bookCarb Backloadingby D.H. Kiefer.
Youd be an idiot to not want that.
These references were hidde…errr…neatly filed away at the end.
(As to not interrupt the readers experience, of course.)
This would eventually become hismajor M.O.
(You cant argue with science.
What are you, an anti-vaxxer?)
In Kiefers case, this method was rewarded.
A close source told me that the book netted somewhere in the six figures.
For a fitness e-book, this was a resounding success.
In December 2010, Dave Asprey, better known as The Bulletproof Executive,started following me on Twitter.
He had a total of 15 followers, and I had never heard of him before.
In fact, he just launchedFATwaterTM, backed by the the Venture Capital firm Trinity Ventures.
While Aspreys products are based on lies, his story is compelling.
But dont just take his word for it.
His site is littered with testimonials of people who have found similar success using his methods.
So whats the secret behind these methods?
Armi is an interesting guy.
One such product was Bulletproof Whey.
It doesnt have to be related to our claim…No ones going to read the study anyway.
In another example from Armi, he was named chief researcher for Aspreys The Better Baby book.
Dave: You dont have to take too much time.
Just check that you find 10-15 studies per chapter that look like they should be in there.
For Armi, this was the last straw.
In fact, he chose not to fully complete this task.
But Armi didnt need to fill in all of the research, because Dave did that for him.
Armi cant remember the exact names, but they were something along the lines of makeyourbabybetter.com.
I was told to ignore these people.
Eat more butter to lose weight, you say?
To be clear theres nothing inherently bad about butter…but simply consuming it wont make you lose weight.
It simply makes no sense.
Compared to other foods, butter isnt particularly satiating, either.
Theres certainly no shortage of individuals who are obese that consume butter daily.
As for the legitimacy of Aspreys own transformation, it’s possible for you to decide for yourself.
But then again Asprey makes a lot of claims.
Ask yourself Is this person trying to sell me something?
For example, Examine.com doesnt sell any of the products it reviews.
Its main business model is in selling an evidence-based digest to health professionals.
Using this model, Examine probably only succeeds when it provides objective quality evidence.
He has incentive to promote products with enthusiasm and excite people by magic pills.
He also has to come up with new content for every episode.
A quick search on some of the products he promotes shows that they dont work.
Take a look at the evidence used to promote the product.
Ask if the Seller Cares About Your Long-Term Results
Consider your goals against the incentives of the salesperson.
If theres a misalignment of incentives, do your homework.
ensure that any review is from a third party website, and not directly from the source.
If a testimonial seems too good to be true, it probably is.
But in a world of endless information, you have to trustsomething.
The health and fitness industry will treat you like its your first time at the Cheers barDr.
Take it at face value, and youll end up mysteriously missing your wallet.
The worst part is that youll still want to come back and hang with your new friends.
(I mean they were just so damn nice to you!)
Instead, treat the industry like youre walking alone at night in a dangerous neighborhood.
Stay cautious, avoid sketchy-looking alleys, and only walk along brightly-lit areas.
Lastly, Ill leave you with this: use common sense.
When this happens, catch yourself.
Illustration by Sam Woolley.
